Marlee Tecks | RE/MAX West Coast

I am Matt Parker, your host of the House Rich Homeowner podcast. Managing your home finances is hard. After many years in the mortgage industry, I've decided to combine my knowledge, resources and connections and turn them over to you. Each week I'll be featuring different home finance experts or my own personal insight to help you achieve financial peace at home. Let's. Hey, Matt Parker here. Very grateful, very excited to be not sitting down quite, but video chatting here during our Covid situation with Marlee. Tex, thank you for being here, Marlee.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, a little bit about Marlee. So Marlee's been in the real estate industry for 28 plus years now. She's a life member medallion Club recipient with ReMax and has it has an abundance of knowledge that I'm super grateful that she's able to share with us today. So, Marlee, just to kick things off, fun question. What's one thing not many people know about you?

I know it doesn't sound like much. I love to read. I read every morning for an hour. It doesn't matter what I read. I read for an hour.

Interesting. An hour every morning. What a great habit.

Yep.

Do you like? Yeah. Do you prefer, like fiction, nonfiction, or is it just whichever you're curious in?

You know, I like it all. It depends. You know, I read probably one book a week on my iPad. Okay. Yeah.

Wow. Well, then I have to ask you. What, what are you reading right now?

I'm reading a murder mystery and I can't even think of the name right now. Okay. So. Yeah, Right.

Yeah, no worries. So it's suspenseful, I'm sure.

Yes, very, actually. Yeah.

Wonderful. So, yeah, in terms of real estate, you know, you've been doing this for many years now. What originally got you started in real estate as a career? What drove you to the industry?

I don't know what it was. I walked into an open house one day when I was like 21 years old and just went, wow, this is what I want to do.

And you just felt it?

I just felt it. And I moved across the country. When we moved across the country, I jumped into the real estate course.

Oh, cool. You just knew. I mean, that's.

Yeah.

That's amazing. Not many people have that gift, I think, of just knowing what they want to do right from an early age.

Well. And who knew? Who knew what was going to transpire? I didn't know anybody either.

Yeah. So I guess that segues well into my next question is what's kept you here? What do you love about what you do day in and day out to obviously achieve such a. Such a great career.

You know what? I think it's my passion. I don't know if it's my passion for looking at everybody's real estate so so much as my passion for people.

And just helping, serving and just providing.

Value and getting them to where they want to be in their lives. Right. There's a whole. It's a culture almost. Right. Real estate is a culture and it's moving them up the ladder, moving them back down the ladder. I just sold the third generation of one family their first house.

Yeah. Wow. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool to see that.

Really fun.

The growth of the family over the years.

Yep.

Yeah. Wonderful. If you weren't doing this, do you envision yourself doing anything? Is there anything else you're passionate about that you say, hey, I could have a career in that. I love it so much.

Yeah. I don't know how good I would be at, but I would, you know, over the years, I was an art major, it would be art. I would be in the art industry somehow.

Are you a painter? What kind of art are you most interested in?

Mostly photography, mostly. But I love collecting art. Right. There's a passion in the history of art and how artists work. And there's something very interesting about it.

Yeah. It takes a very special creative mind to be able to achieve those sorts of things. So I think that. That probably. I'd imagine that. Well, having that creative background can be very helpful.

Very much so, yes. It gives you a whole other avenue when you're looking at real estate.

Yeah, definitely. And also probably from a design team, decoration, that perspective as well.

For sure.

Interesting, interesting. Thanks for sharing. I know as we're Speaking, we're mid April 2020. It's a very unique time. It's, you know, we're living through history right now with COVID 19 and just everything that comes with that. Do you have. And then potentially maybe just historic advice in terms of just, you know, standard advice for anyone looking to buy or sell real estate or also, do you have any advice on currently what's happening or what anyone that's looking to buy or sell a property right now should be looking to do or anything that you want to touch on in terms of advice for anyone that's in the market for real estate?

Well, I think that. I think that it is a really good time. It's obviously the way we were doing business has changed over the last month completely. You know, we're still selling Real estate. And real estate is still selling. Is it moving as fast? No. There are people qualified. Just make sure you are pre approved and still pre approved with your mortgage broker. There is no stress test at this point. So that may increase the value of what you're looking for. They've dropped those requirements. But on the other hand, are things moving as quickly? Not really. Which is kind of nice. But there's not as much inventory on the market either. Right. So what's going to happen in the long run? Who knows? As always. But I foresee over the next six months, once this is over, like any other pandemic or anything else. We've been through recession of 2007-2009. Within six months our particular market has jumped back.

Yeah, yeah. It's hard to see home values not strengthen when we're in a situation with low interest rates, low inventory. From a housing standpoint, I know that even developers and builders locally slowed down a lot of projects even over the last few years with uncertainty. So. So my concern there would be they. That's definitely going to impact them now too. So what happens in two, three, four years from now when those projects would have been completed? How many units less would there be now? But population is continuing to grow. Yeah, yeah. So I think I have to agree with, with your outlook on that. I mean, again, who knows? No one knows.

You know, the funny thing in real estate, you know, whenever it goes down, it comes up higher the next time. So we can always be self assured. Over the last almost 30 years that I've been in the business that whatever comes, goes down, always comes up higher the next time. It doesn't last that long. If you have an opportunity to buy it and you're actually in the position to buy it, why not?

Yeah. And it's long term. I mean, for the average person, it's a long term purchase. And I have to agree. And the value of the home, when I look at it really matters a very few times for the actual homeowner themselves. When you buy, when you sell, or when you want to restructure or access funds out of the home. From a mortgaging standpoint, whatever happens throughout the span of owning it, I mean, obviously emotionally might have an issue, it might be, it might be a concern, but the actual impact to you as a homeowner is not very significant. But you'll just grow with the market.

That's right. And people here are very in tune with what the market is doing. I've never seen another province where people are. So astute when it comes to real.

Estate, having been doing this for coming up on 30 years, or, you know, quite a few. Quite a few years now, is there a memorable transaction or a memorable property that you've been a part of that stands out as something that you just constantly look back on as a very. Either a special or a very, you know, interesting time?

You know, it's funny you asked that question because I actually spoke to that client yesterday and just because of COVID 19 and everything that's going on, I thought I'd touch base with her. And it's very interesting. It was a mom who ended up buying the property that she dreamed of owning. Single mom, and then she had to sell it because of her child, got into a bit of trouble. And then she ended up, we ended up finding two properties for her to buy and it was amazing. One we sold when the market came right back up and it was a rental. And then the next one, the year later. And now she's exactly where she wants to be and she's never going to have to worry about it again.

Oh, wonderful.

It's more that relationship and getting people to where they want to be.

Yeah, yeah. What is the goal? I like to talk and just, you know, when we talk about the next question of what house rich means to you, I mean, I like to talk to clients about what's the plan? Like, what are we trying to achieve long term so we can plan today to get us there in the future? I think too many people just jump in and, and don't really plan things out. We always like to say, I mean, we want to own a home, but we want to have, you know, we want to be able to live life, have fun, do the things that we love to do, not just have a home or not just have this. And then we talk about more re advanceable products in terms of further real estate investment or other investment. And using your home as a wealth creation tool for you when you think of that term. Cause I think in Vancouver especially, a lot of people think house poor or mortgages are very high. It's very unaffordable. But that is true to some degree. I mean, houses are not the most cost effective things in terms of other markets. But look where we live. It's a beautiful place. But then also the one thing is, most of my clients are not quote unquote, living paycheck to paycheck. They've figured out ways to position themselves very well. So what would house rich, when I say that, mean to you as just in terms of real estate.

Well, I think that people setting a goal and a plan with people so that everything is a stepping stone because you're not going to get to the top today. Right. Very few people get that option when they're living in bc, but I think making steps along the way so that when they have children and they change their job and they do all different things that and things change in their lives that they're capable of staying where they are.

Yes, yes, exactly.

And just like anybody else in real estate, the most important thing is that people can put food on the table, especially where we live and enjoy their life. Just like you said.

Yeah. There's so much to enjoy in this beautiful city. So. Yeah, no, I agree. Thank you. Grateful to have you here, Marlee. Thank you for sharing your advice and your wisdom. If anyone's interested in reaching out, looking, want to talk about the market, talk about their current situation, where would be the best place for them to connect with you?

Email is great to start so I can contact them any way they like@mtechsmax.net Perfect.

Perfect. Well, thank you again. I really appreciate it and you take care and stay safe.

You too. Nice talking to you. Matt.

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