What does it take to transform a neighbourhood into a vibrant, thriving community? In this series, we uncover the vision, strategy, and innovation behind Andmar, drawing inspiration from Yaletown’s evolution. Join experts, local leaders, and residents as we explore smart urban planning, sustainability, and the future of community living in Chilliwack.
Welcome to Behind the Design
from Yaletown to Andmar.
This new podcast is gonna
follow the journey of the new
development Andmar inspired by
Vancouver's, Yaletown's history,
Andmar blends sustainability,
innovation, and luxury.
We have so many conversations about how a
development like Andmar gets built, what
is lease land and what is it gonna be
like to live in this thriving community?
So let's get started.
I am Jennifer-Lee and welcome back to
behind the Design from Yaletown to Andmar.
I have a father son duo, which
I'm really excited about.
Greg Nord-Leth and Jake
Nord-Leth, welcome.
I know Jake was kinda like putting his
hands over his eyes for the people in
audio when it was like father son duo,
but you guys are super, super cute.
Just to clear it up.
I'm the dad.
Just in
case for people that aren't
watching the video version, the more
deeper voice is Greg.
We'll
leave it up to the viewers
or the listeners imagination.
Maybe they'll have to come and check
out the YouTube version to see who is,
but I'm really excited because you guys
are also long time Chilliwack resident.
Greg, you've been doing real
estate in Chilliwack forever.
21 years.
21 years.
So,
so you just gave away
Jake's age to me because,
Not quite.
He was around a little bit when I
started.
Yeah.
Tack two on more
then, and that's how long
I've been in Chilliwack for.
23 years.
Oh.
I've been in Chilliwack for
35 years, but realtor for 21.
There you go.
I know right before the call you're
like, I started after Jake was
born, so I was like, there we go.
We got Intel right away.
Greg, what is it about Chilliwack
to you because you've lived
there for over 30 years?
Well, honestly, when I first
came here I was in broadcasting
and I was actually attracted to
Chilliwack because of its proximity
to Vancouver and its house prices.
Kind of a big part of why
I still do what I do now.
Benefits of the city itself, I've
lived all over BC in virtually
every kind of iteration, and I can
really speak highly of big cities
and very highly of small towns.
And Chilliwack, especially when
I moved here 30 years ago, was
kind of a little bit of both.
It was more small town than it is now.
Now I would categorize
Chilliwack as a small city.
Which is really good for me.
I really like way more to do, even
though when we live here, we think
we do, but we don't have the traffic.
Yeah, you don't have the traffic.
I am a traffic broadcaster.
I've been one for a long time.
Sometimes you'll still catch me
flying around in the helicopter, so
I understand that Chilliwack does not
have as much traffic, but to get to you
guys sometimes a little bit difficult
due to that highway one construction,
but that's a whole other topic.
Well, I used to live on an island for
a short period of time, and I'll take
highway construction over a ferry anytime.
Fair, really easy.
And I also started in broadcasting,
but started up in a smaller
town up north in Fort St. John.
So I totally understand the small town
feel and then kind of a smaller city feel
because I lived in Prince George after.
Chilliwack is thriving.
Not just this Andmar development,
but I know so many people
have moved out that way.
And they just said it is a great place
to live, a great place to raise a family.
Like you did with Jake.
And Jake, you aren't
going anywhere because you
bought in Andmar.
You're not
like a lot of us where I couldn't wait to
get out of the town that I was raised in.
What is it about Chilliwack for
you that makes you wanna stay?
Well, I, I get what you're saying, but
Chilliwack not nearly the same place
like when I was a kid growing up.
It feels like I live in a different place.
For staying here, I mean, I grew up here.
I, I know everyone here.
It's awesome here.
It's so much hiking,
so much stuff outside.
And then also I can go to Vancouver,
but I don't have to live in
Vancouver, which is a positive too.
I, I don't even call it a town anymore.
Well, generally what I
tell people, two things.
One, I describe Chilliwack
as Langley 15 years ago.
I think that will always
kind of be our progression.
I used to say, as an example, when I
first got here, we were super excited
when the White Spot came to town.
People who come from Vancouver
might still think that we're pretty
small, but from anywhere else in the
province, we're doing pretty well.
It's a real thing though, because when
I was living up in Fort St. John, I
was doing radio, the next town over,
which was only 45 minute drive, got
a Browns and we thought we made it.
And so everyone was super
excited to go to the Browns.
So I get that.
When you start to get chain
restaurants, you're like, yes,
I lived on Main Island and we
envied what Fort St. John had.
Oh.
This is what I love about Chilliwack
doing a lot of these small towns
is they're thriving, they have
new developments like Andmar.
Jake, especially for you, you work
and live in Chilliwack as well.
Correct.
Yes.
Yeah, no, I'm an, I'm an
accountant, uh, here in Chilliwack.
Uh, for the past three years I went
to school at UFV for accounting.
I'm just finishing that now.
So yeah, Chilliwack has just always, it's
always been everything in Chilliwack.
Hockey in Chilliwack,
basketball in Chilliwack.
Work in Chilliwack, school in Chilliwack.
I just, yeah.
And do you work from
home or are you hybrid?
No, I'm always here.
This is my office behind me
and it's tax season right now.
So I live here.
My point is maybe when you move into
Andmar, you will start doing a hybrid
because it will be a great place.
It is true.
I don't have the space right
now living with four people,
so it's not really an option.
I think that's, that was the
big reason I got an apartment
with a den so I could do that.
But yeah, that is a positive for sure.
And I know that's Mark's vision and I
think he even wants to get a coworking
space in there as well as he really wants
people to live, work, and play at Andmar,
which I think a lot of cities are doing.
Even here in Vancouver, I'm finding a lot
of our cities or a number of cities, a lot
of our areas are getting smaller, smaller
and more people are walking around.
I'm starting to notice more of
the same people, and I like that's
what they're doing in Chilliwack.
This topic for today, which I'm
always fascinated by because my
family is also, not in real estate
but in home building, is presales.
I always hear so much, presales
versus already existing property.
What one to buy.
An old apartment, new apartment.
I hear so many things.
And right now too, especially
from Vancouver, all the way
to Chilliwack, we see a lot of
cranes, a lot of fancy brochures.
How do we know which one to choose?
Greg, first off, because
you sell them all.
You sell homes, you sell
apartments, you sell presales.
What is a presale?
Just for anyone that wants a clear.
But a presale basically means whenever
you're buying is not completed yet.
It could be bare land and they're
gonna start from the ground up.
It could be an apartment building where
you are choosing which unit you wanna
go, but the building's not there yet.
It could be almost finished.
For the most part, I, for the
last 10 years, I've been selling a
development where we're selling houses.
We're, we're almost done and we
changed various ways the way we did it.
When it first started, we would allow
people to custom build their house
from the start, but that's a very
difficult situation for builders.
So then it progressed to, we got to
the point where we would be about
three months away from completion.
So the purchasers could choose
some things, but not all things.
Now with an apartment, like Jake,
quite often the way it works
is you can choose your style.
Sometimes you can actually choose
the style and the place, and
they'll, they'll build to suit.
In the case of Andmar, which is also quite
common, is that if you want this color,
you have to go to this unit or this unit.
So you can choose your color, but you
cannot choose your color and your unit.
It's one or the other.
I think in the boys' cases, location
was far, far more important in the
building than the color of the cabinets.
For other people it's not that way.
There's a lot of benefits to
buying pre completion presale.
One of the huge ones is kind of
going away, what people used to do
was buy something that was gonna
be built in two years and then try
to resell it before they built.
That's not really a thing anymore.
You can still do it, but generally
builders frown upon it because then they
end up in competition with themselves.
We're not in a crazy,
crazy market right now.
For Jake and his friends timing is a real
factor of whether a presale works for you.
If you're buying something that's
gonna be a year and a half out
that doesn't work for a lot of
people, but for him it was perfect.
But it does allow you to buy something
at today's prices, and then when you
move in, which is when you pay for it,
you'll be paying in two years prices.
Where prices will be is always
a gamble to some degree, but
essentially prices tend to go up.
I don't know if I'm the only one
who's ever noticed that, but real
estate prices do tend to go up.
And that, that's something I wanna
ask you before I jump over to Jake,
is you mentioned it, a lot of people
used to use them as investment.
Now there's obviously all these different
rules and regulations like capital gains.
I think you also have to live, and
correct me if I'm wrong, don't you have
to live in the apartment at least one
year before you can get rid of it now.
They're putting all these stipulations in.
You can actually ask Jake.
He's the accountant.
Yeah.
He bought it at these.
I was gonna say, if you want
your principle, I recommend
you gotta live there.
I will tell you there is, for every
rule, there's always 18 exceptions.
And if there's a person, like if you
bought it to live in it and your situation
changed, like your job changed and you
can make a legitimate case, you won't
have to then pay that capital gains.
But especially in right now, in that
market the way it is right now, there's
not gonna be a huge amount of capital
gains in that first year probably.
Four years ago, it was $5,000 a month
or $10,000 actually, at one point it
was in my development, was $5,000 a week
that the house prices were going up.
And that lasted for
extended period of time.
It was a bit crazy.
Obviously that can't continue, but now
things have pretty much settled out so.
And Jake, why a presale for you?
Because you're also in Chilliwack.
You could maybe get somebody
that's a little bit older,
that had more square footage.
Why a presale for you?
Yeah, so I mean, there's
multiple reasons for that.
One, the first reason is personal.
Like I live with my three friends right
now and it a lot of fun and I, we're not,
I'm not quite ready to live on my own yet.
Like I, I do want to keep
enjoying living with my friends.
The first part is it's nice
to have something brand new.
I'm not gonna have to worry about
maintenance and stuff like that or, and
if it's an older place, this sounds like
it's in an upcoming place in town, like
a really nice place in town as opposed
to, yeah, I might be able to afford
other square footage, but it might not
be like where I necessarily wanna live
in town, especially living here 23 years.
Also too, for the timing thing, when
it comes to the market, it's really
nice like being young, knowing like,
hey, I don't want a place right now.
I know I want a place in two years.
That's when I put the deposit down, why
not fix myself in the market at this
price instead of taking a coin flip
and potentially, I know what if it goes
again, $5,000 a week for two months.
That might not be the case for apartments.
But I, I didn't wanna take
that risk necessarily.
And pricing yourself in
like, I'm building equity.
Like I couldn't necessarily like be
building equity right now without a
mortgage, without having the house.
Like by the time I get it could have
built, I don't know, couple tens of
thousands of dollars in equity hopefully.
From an economic standpoint,
it seems like, like kind of
a no brainer in that sense.
The impetus of this was
Jake had just moved into his
house with his three friends
Frat house.
It just so happened at that point, we
got this demonstration from Tracey.
She came over and showed us
Andmar for the first time.
And there were some perks.
There were some special offers.
And as I was listening, 'cause
I don't think Jake was really
thinking about that time, I know
Jake was saving up for an apartment.
For him the year and a half, I said,
that's perfect because in a year
and a half, you're gonna wanna live
with the three guys for a couple of
years and then it's gonna be enough.
Again, like that is a part of it too.
But like the other part of it too is
like, year and a half, like it's hard
to get into the market right now.
And I mean, it's already like affordable.
And then on top of it, it's like, oh,
you're also gonna have another year and
a half to save more, to put more on it.
And you know, the price is fixed.
And at the time I put the deposit down,
um, interest rate was at least 50 points
higher I, I think, than it is today.
I think it was two full percent,
I think it was two full.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
So, um, that's another thing, like I, I
don't even know if I would've qualified
for a mortgage at that time, but now
going forward, like building my income
higher, building my down payment higher.
It's just an advantage
for so many reasons.
And then on top of that, hopefully
your equity building as well.
And all of that without a mortgage
is like an easy decision compared
to like buying like maybe a little
bit of a bigger but older apartment.
And I'd have to go in right now, have
to get a mortgage right now, have to,
being an accountant, wanting no, no risk.
Probably fixing the mortgage for five
years made it seem like it was just a
better move than buying a place that's
already built and ready to go in.
Let's talk about this for a second.
But presales, I think, sometimes
people get a little confused of
how they work because you're not
getting a mortgage right away.
You're putting down deposit first.
Greg, because you're a realtor
extraordinaire, can you explain
to us a little bit of usually what
type of deposits you see and what
people need to do to take those steps
when they're purchasing presale.
Okay, so when you're purchasing a
presale, quite often early in the
procedure, if you're one of the first
people in auto development, your
deposit might be a little bit less.
In this case, they only requested 5%.
They do tie it up for a year and
a half, which is in a normal real
estate deal, your deposit would only
be in for maybe a month and a half.
So it's a year and a half that
they're holding onto that money.
So it's less money, longer time.
For the purposes of planning your
life out, works out way better.
Because now Jake and the other guys
all know exactly what they have to
do for a certain amount for, for that
year and a half to make sure that
they can qualify for their mortgage.
The, the risk that they would face if,
which is in their case, not that severe,
would be that suddenly, uh, after year and
a half, they don't qualify for a mortgage.
So now they've given their deposit, not
their down payment, but their deposit.
Um, and then, then that becomes
a, that becomes an issue.
So in, in Jake's case, we kind of knew
the market, the entry, everybody knew
that the interest rates were gonna drop.
So we're just hoping now that for the
last, the last year or so, that they
stay, stay kind of where they are.
Maybe even drop a little bit more.
The gamble you could have taken in
different market is that the, the interest
rates were to skyrocket after you put
your deposit, you no longer qualify.
In this case, Andmar made it
extremely, the terms of the deal were
really advantageous for the buyer.
I get it.
You can pay attention to the market,
but would there be anything else
that you would, would tell people
to maybe look out for or prepare
for before purchasing a presale?
Again, when you say presale, I'm assuming
you're talking into a project like this?
That's something similar?
Yeah, like a price power.
Like it's a different conversation
completely if you're talking about
a presale on a house from a builder
who's building like two houses.
There's nothing wrong with doing that, but
it's a whole different set of concerns.
But if we're talking condos, you wanna
make sure that the builder's reputable.
What, what can happen a lot of times is
that you get close to completion, then
they find out, oh, it's gonna be delayed.
Now if you're, you have
to be prepared for that.
Delays happen all the time.
If it's a 30 day delay or 60 days even,
it's irritating, but it's not impossible.
But there are stories of two year delays.
You wanna make sure that the,
the builders financially solvent,
that he's not going anywhere.
And if you can look at any
past projects and see what, see
what they built in the past.
And then it's all about
what's your budget?
What's your timing like?
Does this, does this coincide well?
Can you live with when
it's being completed?
And location.
Location is always one of the big ones,
and that can predetermine your budget
because the same unit in a different
place can be three times as expense.
That's great advice.
That's the one thing I really love
is with Andmar is, also, Mark and
his business partner have built in
Chilliwack for many, many years.
And there's,
Yeah, I sold into it, into another project
that Mark built that I was very impressed.
So that's helpful.
Oh, I forgot the number one piece of
advice to give, for anybody looking into
a pre-sale is get yourself a good realtor.
A lot of times you'll walk into
the project and they will, um, they
will sell it to you themselves,
but they're not working for you.
You really should make sure that
you're with somebody who knows
the area, who's working for you.
But most of the time, the realtor
can steer you through the purchasing
process, which can be long and
very confusing and difficult.
And if you don't have somebody
on your side, you're not
gonna get any kind of a deal.
Okay.
Jake, give me the honest answer.
I know he's your dad.
Did he make it easy for you to understand?
Give us the details.
Oh yeah, for sure.
I mean, like not really anybody
who knows more about me than him.
And I think that's a big part of it too.
Like, it's hard in a lot of businesses
if you don't know your client,
like know who you're dealing with.
The contracts are easy,
the words can be scary.
Like, but if like once you actually
like dig in and you're like, hey,
like let's learn what this is.
And like I'll listen to him explain
it, listen to Tracey explain it.
It's like, okay, the concept's
actually not like so complex.
Like it's not like something that
people can't understand, like it,
it's, it was pretty, it was pretty
simple once it was explained to
me by, uh, by my dad and Tracey.
So, um, yeah, like I, I think anybody
could learn like how this presale
development works pretty easily in
like 10, 20, 30 minutes if they had
the right person explain it to them.
Yeah, I think that's very important.
Have a great realtor, have great
salespeople at the development as well
to explain everything to you, because
there's a lot of pieces to this.
Like you get stacks of paper, you're
like, I don't know what to do with it.
So you wanna make sure that you're,
you're not just signing your life
away and that you're, you understand
what you're getting yourself into.
Because buying a piece of property, no
matter what, if it's presale, if it's
there already, it is a big commitment.
Yeah, and with presales, you do
have certain other things that come
up, like disclosure statements that
wouldn't be on a normal purchase, for
instance, because it's not there yet.
If during the course of construction
something changes and they can't
do what they said they were gonna
do, then there's another disclosure
statement that has to come up.
There's rescission rights that you need to
know whether they come into play or not.
Which means basically you're allowed
a certain amount of period to back
out of a deal and it's longer.
Now, there's a rescission period on
every property you buy in BC, but if
you're buying a used property, it's
only three days and you actually have
to pay to get out, and it's 0.25%.
It's not a huge amount,
but there is an amount.
In new construction, you have seven days
from the last disclosure statement or
from the accepted offer in which that
you're allowed to change your mind.
Now, normally, I don't really, I've
never really had anybody do that.
Um, but I know it does happen.
It could happen like in six months
they said, oh, we're adding six
more floors to the building.
That would be a disclosure
statement, and we're making it out
of styrofoam instead of concrete.
And we may decide, you
know, that's not for us.
This is all good learning for
anybody, no matter what stage
of their buying a journey.
Because again, I don't think
enough of us talk about it enough.
I think a lot of people sometimes,
we're scared to talk about, because
real estate is such in the limelight,
like people are like, it's so expensive.
It's this and it's that.
Which, you know, it's true, but also
it's like it's not as scary if you
have the right team behind you and
there are other options out there.
Just, you gotta be able to, to
look and weigh the pros and cons.
Jake, this is an important
part I wanna know.
Because you dad mentioned a
little bit earlier, you didn't
mind the color of the cabinets.
What was appealing to the layout?
Like did Tracey show you
some different units?
Were there any like little
mock-ups you gotta go to?
We had like all the plans
in front of us and stuff.
And like for me right now in my,
like there was no reason to get like
two or three bedroom for more than
just preference reasons actually.
Money reasons too, but the big thing
for me was like in the unit that I
picked, the den was slightly larger,
I think by like a total square footage
of like maybe like 20, 30 square feet,
which makes a big difference for me
because obviously like I have a job
where I can work remote if I choose to.
So that was a big decision for me.
And then, yeah, just like obviously I
already knew I was going in for the one
bedroom, so it was really the decision
between like if I wanted to add a
den or not and have that extra square
footage, which it just seemed like
something I was definitely going to want.
So that's pretty much like when
it comes to layout and stuff.
There's one that you forgot 'cause
we did very early on, because you
were looking at the two different
buildings and one, the square
footage of the apartment was a little
bigger, but it didn't have a balcony.
Oh, that's true too.
Yeah.
I forget about that.
The balcony.
That's a good realtor.
He remembers.
Well that was more dad.
Why wasn't he being dad?
I said, I think you want a balcony kid.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That is true too.
I did want the balcony as well, especially
like, well, especially lately, even
like today, like it just gets nice
outside, a lot more in Chilliwack now.
It's just nice to have
a place to go out to.
And the balcony's a decent size too.
It'll definitely fit me.
Again, having a right realtor helps
you out and that's the fun part of
presales is that you get to choose
and kind of make it your own.
But yes, you can always
make any condo your own.
But this is kind of neat
because it's from scratch.
So one thing I wanna ask you,
Jake, if you could give any piece
of advice to someone your age
that's thinking of doing a presale?
One, I definitely look at like,
obviously you can't get qualified, but
I definitely like at least talk to a
mortgage person just to make sure that
like you're within the income range.
And then the second thing is I would
definitely make sure you know you're
gonna be here, like in this city.
Like don't buy the presale if you think
your life is like subject to radical
change in the short term future.
Like, I, I like, I think it's for
people who like wanna get into the
market and like are gonna be here
for, for at least a few years.
What is a misconception about presales?
You do not get to choose everything.
And I've also worked with custom people
who build, who do choose everything.
It's a nightmare.
You don't want that.
And it also depends on price point.
So there's a ton of things that can vary
from presale to presale, and I think
that's the biggest thing that you think
if you've seen one, you've seen them all.
That's absolutely not true.
Each one has its, has its own
personality, its own benefits,
really gotta find out what's right
for you, important factors to you.
I go back to price, location, and design.
Generally the three.
I get asked this a lot by people my
age, like when I tell them that I
did this, this big misconception that
you have to start paying right away.
Like do not have to start
paying right away until you
actually have the apartment.
But I know a lot of people
are like apprehensive presales
because they think you're paying
without having the asset ready.
That's just not true, at
least for this development.
Yeah, and I also piggyback on something
Jake said too about going to see the
mortgage broker and the importance
of that is to prevent disappointment.
Because the mortgage broker will
give you a pre-approval, which
is not the same as an approval.
They should name it something different,
'cause it's not really a pre-approval,
but it'll say you should be in this price
range if you do these certain things.
But at least it gives you an idea.
So you're not looking at, you
know, spending a whole bunch of
time looking at things you can't
afford or you're underselling
yourself and you could get better.
Generally after people come talk
to me first and we talk a little
bit about what they want, I will
send them to a mortgage broker.
They'll do a quick, uh, look at their
financial situation and then they'll
come back and say, okay, this is
what we're gonna look for, and that,
and that's what we start targeting.
So important, you guys both
mentioned it, and I'm glad you
did, is because a mortgage broker
is gonna give you a better idea.
Because people don't realize
when you start talking to one, it
doesn't even matter if you have a
lot of money for a down payment.
There's things that you don't know,
like when you're working for your family
company, can be harder to get a mortgage
even though you're a full-time employee.
There are certain times like jobs
you've had to have for at least a year.
Like people don't realize, like
you can't keep switching jobs.
And don't get a pre-approval
and then immediately go run
out and buy a big truck.
That does screw things up.
And also another misconception
is, as I said, not all presales
are created equal, but neither are
all mortgage brokers and bankers.
So just because one says one thing,
that doesn't mean another one won't.
It's important to shop that around.
That is great advice that anyone should
take because we don't want disappointment.
Because too, if you can't afford
your mortgage, when the presale
comes up, you lose your deposit.
It seems stressful and a lot
of work, but you'll, you'll be
happy like Jake when you do it.
And, uh, thank you guys so
much for coming on Behind the
Design from Yaletown to Andmar.
That was a really great discussion
about what is a presale.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you for joining us on Behind
the Design from Yaletown to Andmar.
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