Our Big Purpose for 2020

North Vancouver is its own animal made up of many wonderful communities. I sit down with top agent Marco Pontillo to get his insight on the market and where it is headed on this episode of the House Rich Homeowner. 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 knowled resources and connections and turn them over to you. Each week I'll be featuring different home finance experts for my own personal insight to help you achieve financial peace at home. Let's go.

Hey there, Matt Parker here, sitting down with Marco Pontillo. Very excited to have him here in the office. Just to talk through a few things that I think you're going to find very valuable. Marco, a top real estate agent in North Vancouver doing a great job. I learned from him a lot week in and week out. Marco, thank you for being here.

Matt, thanks for having me today.

Marco, let's start out with one question I really wanted to ask you. What's something not many people know about you that you'd want to share with us?

That's a great question. I think it's being competitive. A lot of my close, close friends know how competitive I am, but growing sports, being very competitive throughout, I've naturally developed this competitive characteristic and I really do think it helps. In sales. I always strive to be better, I compete with myself. So it's, it's, I come across as a really nice guy and loving and high energy, but I really do compete all the time. So I think my close, close friends definitely know that. But a lot of people who first meet me may not know that. So cool.

Thanks for sharing. I think that, you know, for me, people that I look up to that, that I respect and that have, you know, achieved great things are people that have that competitive nature and also, you know, set a lot of goals for themselves. So I think that just transitions so well into not only the sales side of things, but also just the client facing service industries.

And that's what, that's what we're both in actually.

Yes.

Yes.

So I think that's so cool. I mean myself coming from a hockey background and just that competitive nature, I feel that exact same thing. So thanks for sharing that. I really appreciate it. So how did you get started in real estate? What drew you to the industry?

Well, after I completed my BBA at Capilano University, I decided that I wanted to get into sales and I didn't know exactly what that meant, but my family's Been in real estate. My dad was an excavator. He was working with large companies such as Boza and he's done a lot of Whistler and I really did like the whole real estate sector and I think I really decided that that's where I wanted to be. So you add real estate plus sales and here I am, I'm a broker 10 years later. I've sold quite a few properties on the North Shore and I'm loving it. It's a lot of fun meeting a lot of co with a lot of good people. We work with developers to all the way to first time home buyers. So it's a lot of fun.

Wonderful. No, I know that having worked with mutual clients in the past, everyone raves about your service and the properties that the developers you work with are beautiful and I think that they do a very good job. So I think that you're well positioned on both fronts.

Thank you. Yeah, that process is actually a lot of fun. You know, it could be anywhere from a one to three year project. So we start from the very start of planning and all the way up to the sale. So it's a lot of work, but a lot of fun on that front as well.

Cool.

Well, if not selling real estate or helping developers sell their product, what do you envision yourself doing?

If I wasn't a real estate agent, yes. Wow. Hockey player. I think growing up I always wanted to be an NHL star as any kid I think, who loves sports. But yeah, I guess that's, that's what I would want to be, especially this.

Time of year being that we're in playoff time. You could grow a beard actually. Still a Canucks fan. Still a Canucks fan, yeah.

Day one. From day one.

You know, it'll take, it'll be a couple years, but we'll get there. We'll get, we'll get there. We'll get back in. Any advice on the current market? Right now I'm not sure if you want to touch on North Vancouver specifically.

Yeah, I think that's what's so unique about our market is that you really have to dissect into the local market and let's call it North Vancouver and you dissect that into attached or detached two different markets. As a buyer, you could definitely become more selective, remain patient. As a seller, I think you want to be price sharp and have a good marketing platform for that home to sell in a timely manner. So it is a great time. There's some opportunity out there on both detached and detached. So despite the market conditions and everything else. You know, I do see an upward pricing pressure with job growth and population in the next two to five years. Real estate is definitely in Vancouver especially is going to have some upward pressure still.

Yeah, I'd have to agree. I mean being from North Vancouver as well originally, that market seems to be unique in a sense that it's not necessarily tied to Vancouver as a whole. It has a very localized feel. I think still a community feel in it.

Look at the geographic, you know, we have mountains up top and the water down below. We can't go out too much more. And that's what we're seeing especially in the district North Vancouver with their development slowdown on that. So there's naturally, I think there's going to be a progression of higher price points with lower inventory.

Yeah, no, I agree. And I know that one thing that we see on the mortgage side is with a lot of these new rules that have been implemented by the federal government, especially qualification challenges in terms of mortgage amounts, especially for those properties valued over the 1 million, 1.5 million has gotten very challenging. I see that there could be a potential downward pressure on rates coming into the end of the year. Also being an election year. I'm not sure what you think, but we could probably see a lot of people still be a little bit conservative in terms of their outlook. But as soon as we see the bank of Canada ease up on qualification rules, it's very hard to see that not help the market.

I can't agree with you more.

Yeah. So if anything, I agree with you that we're probably just in a normalized market trend and then we'll probably see upward pressure over the next two, three years. And if anything, that shortage of supply that we're, that were, that we're looking at going forward over the next few years with local developers potentially holding off on certain projects, we may have a shortage of supply and then also easier qualification abilities for mortgages, which then again could position us into a very active market.

Right. Yeah. And you look at that historical graph, Even going back 25, 30 years, you know, it, it does go up after that, you know, 30 year mark. But there is ups and downs and you know, we're definitely in the downturn of the market. So, you know, the next two or three years, is that going to come, come up in that curve? I definitely think so.

So, yes. And for myself personally, I've always looked at real estate as a long term investment. So for me, the value given any time throughout the having the property really is important. It is important, but it's not the overall end goal for me. It's the value of when I sell the property or when I try to mortgage and access funds out of the property as well as the two biggest times and you know, selling in a lower market, you're buying in a lower market. Selling in a higher market, you buy in a higher market relative. So. So for me I think that, you know, there's always opportunity and I agree with you 100%. So anyone actively thinking about either getting in or still being active from the sale and also purchase, I still think that there's a lot of potential to be had.

Yeah, I agree with you on that. You know, real estate is definitely a good way to accumulate wealth long term. And the short term game sometimes is fun to play but you know, you have to be. Well, you have to have some deep pockets sometimes just to make sure that that all goes as a long term play. I really do like it. I personally invest in real estate here in North Vancouver and Vancouver and I just continue. It's. I see it continuing in the next little bit.

Well, that's great. You know, given me a lot of optimism. Is there anything that we didn't touch on that you'd like to highlight in terms of, you know, just that you want to talk about?

I think it's important to get qualified to talk to your financial advisor, to talk to a mortgage representative such as Matt. You know, he does a great job. I really do think it's important to know where you're at. Things have changed especially we just chatted about the qualifications and everything else and it is important to see where you're at. Even your time is not today. It might be in the next one to three, six months. It's good to have that initial chat and talk to someone who understands a lot about the industry experience. I think makes a huge difference. So I definitely think that there are some things that you could do to start the process.

Awesome. Thank you, Marco. I'm so excited to have you here. I really appreciate it. I know that my clients will value your advice and your wisdom in terms of the market. So thank you again. Can't be more grateful. Thank you so much for being here.

You're very welcome. Thanks a lot. Matt.

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