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What does it really take to build a sustainable career in real estate today? Scott sits down with his business partner and friend, Colin Cuthbert, to unpack how he went from hospitality and luxury auto sales to launching his real estate career just days before COVID hit.
Colin shares the lessons he carried over from past jobs, the realities of building confidence as a new agent, and the unforgettable first-year stories — including the now-legendary one-eyed cat incident. He and Scott dive into reputation, relationships, taking the high road, and what the current market signals for the year ahead. Honest, relatable, and filled with hard-earned wisdom, this episode offers a real look at the surprisingly inspiring journey of building a career in real estate.
Talk with Scott Dempster anytime about all things real estate.
Direct Phone: 604-808-6050
Email: scott@scottdempster.com
Website
Instagram
Talk with Scott Dempster anytime about all things real estate.
Direct Phone: 604-808-6050
Email: scott@scottdempster.com
Website
Creators and Guests
What is The Real Estate of Things: Vancouver real estate, real stories, real insight?
The go-to listen for anyone passionate about buying, building, or investing in Vancouver’s housing market.
Whether you’re a first-time buyer trying to decode what a teardown is really worth, planning your first laneway build, or chasing an investment property in a city where prices never sit still, this podcast unpacks the real costs, curveballs, and call-it-like-it-is advice you won’t get at an open house. From hidden costs to hyper-local strategies, every episode helps you navigate Vancouver real estate with your eyes wide open.
Hosted by Vancouver realtor Scott Dempster, this podcast gives you the keys to the truth about Vancouver real estate; sharing insider stories, lessons, and laughs from builders, designers, and industry pros who know what it really takes to make it here.
Blending insight, humor, and hard-earned local experience, The Real Estate of Things is your trusted guide to one of North America’s most dynamic (and most misunderstood) housing markets.
From East Van character homes to West Vancouver luxury builds, The Real Estate of Things dives into every corner of Vancouver’s housing market. Expect conversations about rezoning, permits, strata living, laneway houses, condo flipping, market trends, and more—plus tips for navigating real estate in neighbourhoods like Kitsilano, Mount Pleasant, the North Shore, the Fraser Valley and beyond.
New episodes drop the first Tuesday and second-to-last Tuesday of each month, brought to you by The OWL Group, a Vancouver-based real estate team known for their expertise, integrity, and dedication to keeping the process fun, informative, and professional.
Talk with Scott Dempster anytime about all things real estate.
Direct: 604-808-6050
Email: scott@scottdempster.com
Web: owlgroup.ca
[00:00:00] Colin Cuthbert: You're sitting at brunch having a rose, and the phone rings. You put it on speaker phone. It's like they offer this, well, my client says that, okay, deal done. Send the paperwork over. Cheers with the wine glass, and you're back to socializing, thinking, you know what? I want that life. I want to be able to balance and keep my sanity and show up for the people that matter the most and make a living.
[00:00:23] Scott Dempster: Everyone's got a real estate story. Some are wins, and some are total nightmares. We are here to give you the keys to what's really going on in Vancouver Real estate from what it actually takes to become a real estate agent. To what it really costs to build a home and all the stories in between. This is The Real Estate of Things where nothing is off the table, and everything is negotiable.
[00:00:46] My guest today is a real estate agent, a good friend, family man, neighbor, and all-around good person. It is Mr. Colin Cuthbert and my founding partner here at Owl Group Real Estate. Welcome to the Real Estate of Things.
[00:01:06] Colin Cuthbert: Good afternoon, Scott. How's the day going? Good. I'm just fascinated that you had to read that script of my name and my role in your life.
[00:01:13] Scott Dempster: So, Colin known you for a really long time, obviously. Been business partners since, you know, I started in the industry and then you started in the industry. How many years have you been an agent for now?
[00:01:24] Colin Cuthbert: Got licensed in the beginning of 2020, like a hot second before COVID hit.
[00:01:31] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Okay. What made you think you wanted to be a realtor?
[00:01:34] Did you always wanna be a realtor? And I think I already know the answer to that, but you tell me.
[00:01:38] Colin Cuthbert: I'd like to preface everything by saying I get really long-winded. I can't tell a short story of a version. I always like to set the table and whatnot, but I've always been, I even struggle to say it 'cause it's like that cliche, like, I've always been passionate about real estate.
[00:01:52] I'm not a big risk, stock market, gambling kind of guy. And so, my retirement planning was try and buy as many investment properties as I can throughout my life and hold onto them and rent them out. So, I started doing that 20 years ago before I chose this as a career. So, it's kind of been part of my life, but not as a profession.
[00:02:17] I would say that the serious thought of this kind of took shape with you, one of those late nights after we got the kids to bed and we're sitting around the kitchen island finishing the bottle of wine that we started at dinner and brainstorming of how to take over the world probably 10 years ago.
[00:02:36] Scott Dempster: So, talking about kind of, uh, pre real estate. What were your careers, and you know, what kind of springboarded you into real estate with those past careers?
[00:02:45] Colin Cuthbert: I went to college so that I wouldn't spend my life working in a bar. I worked in a bar to put myself through college and so spent some time in hospitality and that was really good character building and really good networking. But also seeing the best and the worst of people throughout that industry and managing people and all that kind of stuff. So that really helped build a certain set of skills for me.
[00:03:09] Scott Dempster: Yep.
[00:03:09] Colin Cuthbert: And then had an epiphany one day at a management meeting where I realized that there was no white picket fence and 1.5 children working in that career. So, I just abruptly stood up and said, I don't know what I'm gonna do, folks, but I can't do this and left.
[00:03:23] And then I got, I've always been passionate about cars, like I just love cars. Some people like to golf and do other things, but I just loved cars growing up. So, I got into cars and, uh, tried a couple things out and ended up partnering in with a really cool guy to build out a little luxury car boutique and art gallery.
[00:03:43] And we worked really closely with a lot of professionals, lawyers, doctors, white collar, kind of book a client, and a lot of young entrepreneurs and really cool stories of young folks building out companies and finding some crazy success. So, it was really inspiring to see people act on impulses with things and build out creative brands and be in that space. It was really cool.
[00:04:08] So I would say that all those different experiences, a lot of hard lessons, a lot of failures and things that created some lessons, but a lot of success too, really helped shape, I feel like, my sense of learning how to collaborate with people on both sides of negotiations and deals and spot when things are maybe not as they seem.
[00:04:34] Scott Dempster: Yeah, no, it's, it is just interesting to hear I think with everyone how they got into real estate obviously and why they got into real estate. And um, I still remember I had had my license a little before you obviously, I think, but one, maybe two years, I think.
[00:04:49] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. You know, it was us sitting around saying, let's do this together. I remember we started the course together. We'd study.
[00:04:55] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:04:56] Colin Cuthbert: At each other's houses.
[00:04:57] Scott Dempster: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:04:58] Colin Cuthbert: We made those stamps and
[00:04:59] Scott Dempster: yeah,
[00:05:00] Colin Cuthbert: all those things. We did the courses together and then right when it was time to take the exam, son Chip was born and I just had to take a pause and say, hey Scott, I've got an opportunity to grow out another little division in my business. And also, I'm a little overwhelmed with Chip being born, so you go. And I'm just gonna need a hot minute to, you know, set up this last chapter of my business and exit and then catch up with you.
[00:05:27] Scott Dempster: Yeah, it was interesting because I remember, you know, uh, like you say, the, the downfall in the economy and your business pivoted when you were in the auto sales.
[00:05:34] And I still remember, uh, we were having. Dinner together and, and you were hammering on the, on the phone having some pretty, you know, tough conversations with people and, and repossessions and these kinds of things. And I remember you and I having a conversation shortly after you came off the phone and I said, you know, that's a hard part of the business that you have to deal with and there's hard parts of every business. But I said, you know, the interesting and kind of nice thing about being a real estate agent is we get paid by lawyers on the completion and, and if it doesn't happen, oh man, is there gonna be trouble? Right.
[00:06:08] Colin Cuthbert: That was all part of it at that time. Like my business stopped being fun.
[00:06:12] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:06:12] Colin Cuthbert: It took over my life. The whole point of this conversation about switching careers to real estate was like, look, I'm burning out before I'm even 40. And I'm not the husband I wanna be. I'm not the father I want to be. I need to balance and get some mental health back and all of that stuff.
[00:06:31] Scott Dempster: That's really what kind of, you know, started the, the motion and you said, you know what, maybe real estate is a good change, is a, is my next career, my next move.
[00:06:39] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. That was the thought. I had thought about doing, like I had done the real estate course three prior times in my life. 20 years ago. So, 2005, I took the course and then again in 2007 and then another time later, but just never did the exam and went to the next step. It was just with you on like the fourth time. I was like, okay, that's it. I'm serious this time. Wanted to do it 25 years ago.
[00:07:02] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:07:02] Colin Cuthbert: But every one of my friends that I grew up with was a realtor or developer, and I was like, well, I just don't wanna fight over the same social circles of clients these people are doing, so I'll go left when they go right.
[00:07:14] Scott Dempster: But don't you think that you know your past careers, whether it was in auto sales or working in the bars, in hospitality and things like that. Don't you think that it's shaped you to be a better realtor today, that you likely would not have been in your mid twenties? Because there's a lot of people that go into this industry, I think, at a very young age and can be very successful at it, but at the same time they don't have past careers. They don't know how to pivot, they don't how to think on their feet. They don't know how to do these things. And I think that for you and I in our collective backgrounds, I think that's what shaped us to be more well-rounded and you know, have some success in the business as well, right.
[00:07:47] Colin Cuthbert: A hundred percent. A lot of the lessons I learned serve me today.
[00:07:50] Scott Dempster: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:07:51] Yeah, so fast forwarding a bit. So, you did the real estate course, you got your license, and then you and I obviously. You know, joined at the hip from, from day one. What was kind of your, your introduction day one, jumping in the pool with both feet and what was kinda like your first year like in real estate, really? I mean, what were your, what were the emotions? What were the trials and tribulations? What, what went down?
[00:08:13] Colin Cuthbert: Uh, day one was actually like that, that TV show that you think this is how real estate is done.
[00:08:20] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:08:21] Colin Cuthbert: like that vision of it. We flew down to Palm Springs for my 40th birthday to go ride that 165km Fondo down in Palm Springs.
[00:08:29] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:08:30] Colin Cuthbert: And, sure enough, we ride all morning for that big event and then set out for my big birthday dinner on the town. And literally as we are jumping in the Uber, my phone rings and it's an old friend.
[00:08:44] Scott Dempster: Yeah, that's right.
[00:08:45] Colin Cuthbert: From a long time ago. And he says, hey, I went to an open house today and we wanna write an offer. Can you do it right now?
[00:08:51] And I had a drink in each hand. My phone pinched on my shoulder and my ear, and I'm looking at you with the eyes bugging outta my head going, I'd love to help you. So we're in the Uber on the way to the restaurant and I'm calling another realtor who then tells me, oh, well we've set a date for offers, so you can't even offer tonight anyways, and that was a massive sigh of relief.
[00:09:12] We got home from that trip a few days later and competed in multiple offers and won the deal, and
[00:09:19] Scott Dempster: That's right, yeah,
[00:09:19] Colin Cuthbert: I just remember doing the first deal. Then just my eyes buttoning outta my head going, this is wild. I can do this for the rest of my life and be very happy. I've got a lot to learn and a lot of value to bring to the table, but man, why didn't I do this 25 years ago?
[00:09:39] Scott Dempster: Yeah, it's, it's a common misconception, right, with some realtors and they think that, you know, everyone's on their own. And you eat what you kill, which you obviously do, but at the same right, there's always two sides to every single transaction, right? And there's gonna be a buyer's realtor, and there's gonna be a seller's realtor.
[00:09:56] And I think the longer you go in this business, the more seasoned you get with it, and you think, you know what? Let's not burn bridges, let's make them here. And working with another agent, whether they're new or they've been in the business 50 years, things like that. It's great. We're all theoretically on the same team and representing our buyers and sellers.
[00:10:14] Creating these relationships that can last a long time because some realtors are in this business 30, 40, 50 years, right? Which is, uh, pretty wild. So, you just wanna make sure that you're, um, you know, working as a larger team, I guess you could say, but as, as an individual and representing your clients.
[00:10:30] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. And I remember when you had got the head start and you were in the trenches working, I remember something you said to me very early on and to our whole social group here where we live, is that it is way more work than you ever thought it would be.
[00:10:44] Scott Dempster: Oh yeah.
[00:10:45] Colin Cuthbert: I can't believe how true that is.
[00:10:47] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:10:47] Colin Cuthbert: But I haven't had a salary in over 20 years, so I've always been out to, you know, build something for myself.
[00:10:55] Scott Dempster: So, you work for free?
[00:10:56] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah, the two kind of mottoes that I have and try to share with the team, and I think we all have, is never burn a bridge.
[00:11:04] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:11:05] Colin Cuthbert: And always take the high road.
[00:11:06] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:11:07] Colin Cuthbert: It is not the smooth, easy road.
[00:11:09] Scott Dempster: and it's hard to do sometimes.
[00:11:10] Colin Cuthbert: it's hard but always take the high road.
[00:11:13] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:11:14] Colin Cuthbert: Sometimes you get into these situations where one party is really bullying their way into a transaction thinking that if they could beat, you know, push the envelope on every single side of it, that they win. All along, you know, they're backing themselves into a pickle and you know that you know, most people would wanna react, get spicy and just remind that other group that, look, you're not being a gentleman, you're not acting very civilized. This could come back to bite you. Like it does.
[00:11:45] Scott Dempster: You know, I, I'm guilty of it earlier on in my career, and probably reacting in a way when I didn't get my way in a transaction. Right? Bouncing that off of you or you know, my wife and she's like, man, why'd you react that way? Or you, you're not gonna get ahead by doing that, right? And there's really no upside to it, right? Like you say, the longer you kind of go in this business and experience this kind of everything and knowledge, you just know and understand that, you know, how many real estate agents do we have in this province? What do we have? Like 30,000? Something like that, right?
[00:12:18] Colin Cuthbert: I don't know. If I said a number, I'd be making it up, but A lot.
[00:12:20] Scott Dempster: But a lot, right? But in your markets, your specific markets that we work in, you know, us being on predominantly the North Shore, downtown Vancouver, those sorts of things, you run into the same agents all the time on transactions all the time.
[00:12:35] You go and you give someone the bad end of, of your behavior and things like that, and then what do you know? Your client sends you a property and it's X, y, z listing agent again, and you go, oh, I gotta grovel back to this and dig myself out of a hole, as opposed to even just taking the, what you say is the high road of the situation.
[00:12:54] Yeah, it sucks in the moment. You’re having to deal with that. You're having to deliver bad news to your clients, your buyers or sellers, but you're gonna run into the same agents. And our reputation and our rapport that we talked about earlier is everything that we kind of have in this business, or at least a key component of it. And you go and burn bridges, and you do these sorts of things and not take the high road. It's not providing your clients any further value.
[00:13:18] Colin Cuthbert: And your reaction will always be the thing that gets you remembered. 'Cause people remember how they make you feel.
[00:13:24] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:13:25] Colin Cuthbert: And if you take the high road and bite your tongue, that other person on the other end of it knows that they stepped in shit and they'll know and they'll respect you for being able to keep your composure through it and get through it, it'll always serve you better.
[00:13:43] Scott Dempster: Now kind of building on that, what's probably the, the wildest tale or story or transaction that you think you had in your, in your first year in the business?
[00:13:52] Colin Cuthbert: So, like on tv it's really everybody's in these amazing designer outfits and everything's, restaurants and fashion and all of that. But that's not like there's gotta be a different show that comes out, that shows the other side of it. Because I remember we listed a house out in Port Moody for a friend.
[00:14:12] Scott Dempster: Okay, yeah, yeah.
[00:14:13] Colin Cuthbert: Who's a rental house and we had to get to know the tenants. They had a cat, a one-eyed cat.
[00:14:20] Scott Dempster: One eye
[00:14:21] Colin Cuthbert: and this cat ran away, and, uh, raccoon got after it and, it lost an eye. So, the tenants are like, by the way, we will leave for two hours.
[00:14:32] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:14:32] Colin Cuthbert: But our cat is gonna stay and you have to make sure the cat doesn't leave the house. and they tell the story about the eye and the raccoon and everything, and there was a lineup out the front yard. I'm by myself in the middle of summer in this house and there's 40 people lined up the front of this house, and I'm trying to manage showing people around the upstairs, the downstairs, but everybody keeps opening the front door, and I'm trying to watch this cat and I'm in a suit, sweaty, in the middle of summer and someone lets the cat out the front door and it goes. And I run, right through this crowd of people and dive like Superman onto the grass and tackle this cat in front of this whole crowd of people who are like, what is going on?
[00:15:15] And I'm like. It's fine, I’ve got one-eyed, Willie, can you please just not open the front door? I've got signs everywhere and I had to just hold this cat for half an hour and let people in through the door. That would get views on Netflix, like there's a show there.
[00:15:30] Scott Dempster: Oh yeah. You know, kind of jumping across, you know, there, there's a lot of things that we talked about, and we both love the industry for many, many reasons. What's the thing that makes you cringe or that, or the part of the job that you dislike doing?
[00:15:44] Colin Cuthbert: You really are serving your friends and your family. And so, it's hard in down markets when you're on the selling side and the listing side, these are hard conversations to have with people. To manage their expectations, meet their expectations, and you know, you want to knock it outta the park every single time, but there's not a lot of that happening,
[00:16:06] Scott Dempster: right.
[00:16:06] Colin Cuthbert: It, these are challenging transactions and whatnot. But I do thrive on that. I, I love to outperform the opportunity, but there is also in the challenging times, people's personalities come out. It can be disheartening.
[00:16:22] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:16:22] Colin Cuthbert: When you see how other people out there in the world are behaving and you lose faith in humanity. That makes me sad.
[00:16:31] Scott Dempster: You've been in this business six and I've been in this business, I guess going on 10, something like that anyways, or nine or 10. You know, one of the age old lines is always like, nothing seems to surprise me in this business. Right? There's always something new. There's always something that's gonna be like, well, never seen that one before.
[00:16:47] And that's kind of like, you say what, what we kind of pass on to, uh, the younger agents on the team that join us and just say like, Hey man, like this is a business of emotions and money and, and land. Right? That's what can definitely. Make things interesting for us, but yeah, nothing really surprises you in there, right?
[00:17:03] Colin Cuthbert: There's definitely surprises, but you'll never hear me say I've seen it all.
[00:17:08] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:17:08] Colin Cuthbert: not always in a good way.
[00:17:10] Scott Dempster: Yeah, exactly. Our working partnership is pretty interesting because as you know, I can barely operate a computer.
[00:17:17] Colin Cuthbert: I do know this,
[00:17:18] Scott Dempster: and you could probably build one, but I think I feel strongly that our partnership works well for a variety of different reasons and how we kind of ping pong off each other and, uh, you're definitely more of the um, organized guy when it comes to, you know, contracts and documents and all these sorts of things, um, but still remaining charismatic and things like that. And I really enjoy the sell part as much as you do too. But that's really where I think, you know, I, I can add some value to in, in our working relationship.
[00:17:47] But, uh, how do you feel about our working relationship and what do you see the benefits and you know, that kind of side of it?
[00:17:52] Colin Cuthbert: Oh, I love it. Yeah. I think we're the picture perfect ying and the yang.
[00:17:56] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:17:56] Colin Cuthbert: You know, you are my second wife.
[00:17:59] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:17:59] Colin Cuthbert: So, it is marriage, but I mean, we'll call each other throughout the day and be like, hey, how was your morning? And I'll be like, oh, it was pretty great. I was in deep in Excel spreadsheets and I figured it all out and I've been running data and I or doing geeky things like that. And how was yours?
[00:18:14] And you're like, you know what? Went for a run. And then I went and door knocked 16 houses and I'm like, oh, you just got up and did that Like,
[00:18:22] Scott Dempster: yeah.
[00:18:22] Colin Cuthbert: It terrifies me.
[00:18:24] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:18:24] Colin Cuthbert: It's like you do the things that I don't want to do, and I do the things that you don't wanna do, and we do them well. So, I think that was always an understanding from the hop.
[00:18:33] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:18:33] Colin Cuthbert: For both of us, we enjoy the same things outside of the office as well.
[00:18:39] Scott Dempster: Yeah. No, absolutely. How long did it take you rather to become confident kind of in your own skin as a realtor, would you say? Where you said, you know what, I got this, you feel confident on the phone calls? Like for me, that took some time.
[00:18:51] I, I feel that when I get phone calls now, whether from a, a new client, existing client, someone from an area we farm, anything like that, I feel like 80 to 90% of the time. I, I have a good first answer for them anyway. I think when you're first starting off, it's kind of like, I'll check with my managing broker and, and things like that, right. But how long do you think that took you to become confident in the job?
[00:19:14] Colin Cuthbert: I think that has come and gone. This is a great question. I think that has come and gone for me a lot Over the years.
[00:19:20] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:19:21] Colin Cuthbert: Like right after my first transaction, I was like, I got this. This is cake.
[00:19:25] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:19:25] Colin Cuthbert: Like that went so well.
[00:19:27] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:19:27] Colin Cuthbert: And then the next one I got beat up and it was really challenging. And I was like, oh my gosh, now I don't have that confidence, so I'm gonna be a little more hesitant with my responses and really triple check my homework before I, I give a solid answer.
[00:19:44] And then you go on a run of, you know, knocking it out of the parking lot. You get really confident and so a lot of things will surprise you. I think markets change and shift, so I think now I can answer stuff that is in kind of like that bread-and-butter business that we do. I can answer right off the top of my head fairly confidently, but I'll always have a caveat or an answer saying, look, I, I don't want to give you hot air and blow smoke, let me send you data that you can cross reference with this, so I know I'm not talking out my ass.
[00:20:16] Scott Dempster: Oh man, that's great. Open houses are huge component of our business, obviously, and just want to kind of touch on it, you know, this. Most every listing presentation we go into, you sit there with the sellers of a home and they say, you know, open houses, whether they, some, some sellers we find, say we want to have them every weekend until the home sells.
[00:20:38] And then other sellers say we don't all wanna have any of them. And there's such a, you know, cloudy water situation when it comes to open houses and what the benefits and the drawbacks are. 'Cause everyone has an opinion on it right now. Now we know as agents that for the most part open houses are for listing agents, right? It's an opportunity to get as many people who have shown interest in that home into a window of time, whether it's Saturday or Sunday, 2-4 PM or 1-3, whatever it is, to get those people in.
[00:21:06] And it gives us opportunities, potential leads of people who are coming in who might have interest in buying the house. Maybe they have interest in selling their own house. They're coming into kind of interview us. And I think that the general consensus we say to a lot of our clients is, we are happy, able, and willing to hold the open houses. But at the end of the day, it's a, it's a you decision for the seller, right? And what they're comfortable with and, you know, getting the house ready and all these sorts of things.
[00:21:29] 'cause it can be inconvenient to go buy appointment only for all your showings and having to get the home ready and get the dog out and the kids and all this kind of stuff too, right? What's your take on open houses. Do you love 'em? Do you hate 'em? Do you, how do you see 'em?
[00:21:41] Colin Cuthbert: I like 'em.
[00:21:42] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:21:42] Colin Cuthbert: I do. I think it's all part of the big strategy.
[00:21:45] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:21:45] Colin Cuthbert: Depends on the product, the list price. Are the clients living in the home?
[00:21:50] Scott Dempster: Right.
[00:21:50] Colin Cuthbert: Do they have young kids who nap? Because usually if you got young, young kids, that's right around nap time.
[00:21:56] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:21:56] Colin Cuthbert: Do you have dogs? Is it, do you have to move mountains to get the house ready or is it an investment property that's staged? Nobody's living there. It's, it's no skin off the seller's back to have you go and open up the house and run it. I enjoy the open houses in our neighborhood because it's like a trailer park here.
[00:22:15] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:22:16] Colin Cuthbert: And we have so many close friends and clients that are considering something down the line. So, it's a good reconnaissance trip for them to come by and see, oh, this is what this house looks like, here's the pros and cons of this. How does it stack up to mine? You know, what's the price point like and what? What's the action in the room?
[00:22:33] Scott Dempster: Yeah, no, for sure. Real estate agents, you know, like you say, everyone's come through a past career and different backgrounds, and you know, a lot of people, like we said, were entrepreneurial. They want to get into this industry to control their own schedules, to, you know, kind of write their own ticket in terms of wealth, prosperity, all that kind of stuff. But a question I have and, and I do get it asked sometimes is do you think that you need to have bought or sold real estate in order to be a successful, or good real estate agent?
[00:23:07] Colin Cuthbert: I can say from all of my experiences in real estate, not in the profession, has done nothing but help me.
[00:23:15] Scott Dempster: Right?
[00:23:16] Colin Cuthbert: Like, how many residential tenancies have I worked through and, and maintenance and repairs on various properties have I had to go through to, and like those lessons when you're writing cheques for all that, really teaches you about a roof.
[00:23:31] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:23:32] Colin Cuthbert: And vulnerabilities for water ingress and hot water like all the different systems in a home and you know, being so particular like I am with everything.
[00:23:43] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:23:43] Colin Cuthbert: Landscaping and finishing quality and homes and stuff. Yes. It helps me like when you are working with professionals who are building or renovating your home and you're, you're seeing their finishing levels of like paintbrush strokes on the mantles and things like that. Like you really develop an eye for those things.
[00:24:02] I remember my very, very first purchase. My dad was very conservative, did not want, he thought I was nuts getting a massive mortgage, buying a place. I thought I could do it on my own and I needed him to co-sign, and I thought I had saved up all the money and everything like this. And darn it all, I was really proud of myself. And there we are sitting in the notary office and we're signing all the paperwork. And she's like, okay, well you now need to write me a check for the GST and these other things. And I was like, no, I gave you my down payment and all these things. And I was like, what are you talking about? Nobody had prepared me.
[00:24:37] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:24:38] Colin Cuthbert: My dad, I can just see his face getting red and the steam coming out of his ears. He was just there to co-sign, and he's crossed his arms, and I look back at him and I mean, I had sold everything to my name just to come up with every last penny,
[00:24:50] Scott Dempster: right
[00:24:51] Colin Cuthbert: and I had to come, and I had to look at, she's like, yeah, you need like three or $4,000 more. And I just, I could feel the tears in my eyes and I'm looking at my dad and his arms crossed, and he looks like he's ready to storm out of there. And I'm begging him., I'm like, dad, I need to borrow this money like two months. I will do everything. I will work. I'll get another job. He did.
[00:25:12] He had to go and stroke a cheque for me and out of that, now I know when I'm talking to first time home buyers and things, I'm like, you know the difference between a down payment and then the total cost to close. And like you have to prepare people and manage their understanding of the transaction from start to finish. And that 99% of the time, like we don't do a lot of pre-sale, brand new condos or homes of warranties.
[00:25:35] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:25:35] Colin Cuthbert: So, you're buying a used car.
[00:25:37] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:25:37] Colin Cuthbert: And you have to understand that there's no warranty and that things break down. Home inspectors will inspect the home in a certain way, but they're not gonna test a dishwasher 16 times in a row to make sure that it's cleaning everything properly. And you have to manage their expectations and get them to understand that.
[00:25:55] I think that if you have never transacted in real estate personally, you have to do a lot more homework and really learn those processes more to help your clients than somebody who's done it 20 times.
[00:26:12] Scott Dempster: You know, it's something that you and I say to a lot of clients, especially we're in the negotiation process.
[00:26:16] Say we, our delta or the gap in price from a buyer to seller is 20 grand. You know, you and I collectively will never, never say to a seller, oh, it's just 20 grand. Right? Because you know, everything you talked about with your first experience buying your condo. You know, that's real money. And if, if we are talking about 20 grand, the way I look at it, the way you look at it, that's money sitting on the kitchen table theoretically.
[00:26:35] Of our sellers or of a buyer, you know, oh, just spend 20,000 more. It's never just 20,000. It's not even one, just 1000. I think that's real money, real transactions, and what you're talking about is the background that we have with being fortunate enough and working hard enough to, to be homeowners. It, it does it, it benefits greatly in the value that I think that we can bring to clients.
[00:26:56] And that's true of any agent too, right? Not just you and I, but to say, hey, you know, this is something to think about, or, hmm you know, you're gonna wanna address this. And these are real costs and, and things you need to know and understand going into a home purchase for any buyer or even for a seller to think about.
[00:27:11] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. And having worked for so many years in lending before, like that really helps me too, because it helps with the empathy and to really relate to clients too, because some people brush it off and say, well, that's 20 grand, like a 20 grand reduction in your sale price if you concede to that. Oh, that's only like a hundred bucks a month on a mortgage or whatever it is.
[00:27:31] But the reality is like, every single penny that comes off the sale is, is actually real cash that you have to go find to complete on the next transaction.
[00:27:39] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:27:40] Colin Cuthbert: And it's not just x amount of dollars per month in every situation. It, it's just, it's real money. All of a sudden you thought you had 20 grand, you know, to cover all those costs. Now a 10 grand drop on your sale price, you gotta go to mom and dad or a, a different lifeline or investments and pull out money to cover them.
[00:27:57] Scott Dempster: Find the real money.
[00:27:58] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:27:58] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Yeah, no, that's a big thing now for sure. But I think what some people might want to hear is no massive, you know, crystal ball of real estate as we always talk about and wish we had.
[00:28:09] But where do you see the next 12 months going you know, in our industry that being, you know, we always get the question, how's the market? And right now, it's kind of, oh, challenge.
[00:28:18] Colin Cuthbert: It's hard to predict. You know, we've been able over the last 20 something years being able to look at the trends and say, you know, here's kind of how many years to this cycle. It usually teetertotters in each direction and we kind of predict. And we, we had expected it to start off again a few times, but here comes a, a war between Russia and Ukraine and stalls things out. Here comes a whole bunch of political chaos that throws a wrench to the plan. So, like, it's so hard to predict.
[00:28:49] Scott Dempster: I mean, I get the question too quite a bit. And, um, you know, how's the market and, and what I've said to a lot of people is, you know, money has become more affordable than it was obviously, you know, a year ago. But that hasn't caused a crazy influx of buyers and sellers and things like that.
[00:29:05] But it's more specific to each product and each buyer. Meaning square peg, square hole kind of thing. And if that fits, the transaction happens, right? Whether it's a, you know, $500,000 condo or a $10 million home, there's still money and transactions happening. They're just far less than in the marketplace right now too, right?
[00:29:23] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. I mean, the way that I'm looking at the cost of money right now is not so much that it's gotten more affordable, is that it's gotten less unaffordable.
[00:29:33] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:29:34] Colin Cuthbert: And that these reductions, I mean, make no mistake. When the government is working to lower an interest rate or their lending rate, that's not because they're optimistic in the future and they want to start a party. The government is saying, yikes.
[00:29:58] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:29:58] Colin Cuthbert: there's a world of pain out there and we need to ease up a little.
[00:30:02] Scott Dempster: For sure. Yeah.
[00:30:03] Colin Cuthbert: And that when everything ran nuts and got outta control, they were just trying to slow it all down and, and calm things down, and that's what they did. They're not trying to manipulate the housing market per se.
[00:30:16] And this is my opinion. I can't come out to the world and say, listen to me as gospel. My thought is that, you know, that's what the government pulled that lever to calm things down. All these consecutive rate drops that we've seen have not had a material effect in the market or a large one. I think there's different policies that have come out that have had a, a more amplified effect.
[00:30:40] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:30:41] Colin Cuthbert: But I think it's just gonna be supply and demand.
[00:30:44] Scott Dempster: Colin, um, this has been really fun to talk to a guy that I talked to 20 times a day already.
[00:30:49] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. which is primarily work stuff,
[00:30:51] Scott Dempster: Which is primarily work stuff, which is great. On other episodes you're gonna be joining me with some guests, things like that. Um, but where can the people find you online, social media, that kind of stuff.
[00:31:02] Colin Cuthbert: On the line?
[00:31:03] Scott Dempster: Yes. Uh, the internet.
[00:31:06] Colin Cuthbert: I think it's just Owl Realty. The Instagram. And that's it. I'll get goofy on Instagram for you.
[00:31:12] Scott Dempster: Perfect. Okay, well thanks for joining and, uh, look forward to chatting with you again soon.
[00:31:17] And, uh, thanks for coming.
[00:31:19] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah, my pleasure, treasure.
[00:31:22] Scott Dempster: Thanks for hanging out with us. And remember in Vancouver Real Estate, nothing's off the table and everything's negotiable. Subscribe now to The Real Estate of Things wherever you get your podcasts.