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What do you learn about condos when you're the realtor behind the most expensive condos in the city? Turns out, almost everything. In this episode of The Real Estate of Things, Scott and Colin sit down with Brian Higgins to unpack his journey from a real-estate-obsessed kid in North Vancouver to one of the go-to agents for luxury condos and complex deals.
Brian shares how he built his business, the discipline behind his daily routine, and what he’s learned about scaling a team, setting boundaries, and staying in the game for the long haul. They dig into how foreign buyer taxes and bans have reshaped the condo market, what really makes a good building versus a risky one, why strata rules and depreciation reports matter, and the hidden costs behind flashy amenities and presales.
Honest, practical, and full of wild stories from the field, this episode is a must-listen for anyone buying, selling, or trying to understand how Vancouver’s condo market really works.
Talk with Scott Dempster anytime about all things real estate.
Direct Phone: 604-808-6050
Email: scott@scottdempster.com
Website
Instagram
Chapters:
Talk with Scott Dempster anytime about all things real estate.
Direct Phone: 604-808-6050
Email: scott@scottdempster.com
Website
Chapters:
- (00:00) - Introduction
- (01:07) - How Brian Got Into Real Estate
- (07:51) - Daily Routine, OrangeTheory & Discipline
- (10:00) - Work-Life Balance, Family & Setting Boundaries
- (13:36) - Becoming the “Yaletown Guy” & Market Authority
- (15:10) - How the Foreign Buyer Tax and Ban Changed the Condo Market
- (21:17) - How to Evaluate a Good Building vs a Bad One
- (23:09) - Why Strata Rules, Pets & Bylaws Matter
- (26:07) - Airbnb Rules, Short-Term Rentals & Vancouver Policy
- (28:08) - Amenities, Developers & What Actually Adds Value
- (31:01) - Wild Luxury Stories & Crazy Custom Builds
- (37:38) - Presales vs Buying Resale
- (40:44) - Red Flags in Buildings: Depreciation, Membranes & Elevators
- (44:20) - Where to Find Brian
- (44:55) - Conclusion
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] Brian Higgins: We've definitely worked hard. I think anyone that wants to be a realtor, you know, it's not about a a relaxed schedule if you actually want to make it.
[00:00:08] Scott Dempster: Everyone's got a real estate story, summer 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. Alright, uh, our guest today, another real estate agent, as if Vancouver doesn't have enough of them. But, uh, our guest today, friend of ours, Mr. Brian Higgins, and, uh, thanks for coming on the program.
[00:00:45] Brian Higgins: Thanks for having me, gentlemen. Yeah.
[00:00:50] Colin Cuthbert: I will say from personal experience, um, Brian is the hardest worker in the room and he's got the sweatshirt to prove it.
[00:01:00] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:01:00] Colin Cuthbert: Coming from Orange Theory and, uh, in the office, so from the gym to the office. He's the hardest working guy I know.
[00:01:07] Scott Dempster: Yeah. And, uh, always the kind of opening thing is how'd you get into real estate?
[00:01:11] Brian Higgins: Born and raised in North Van and kind of grew up near Edgemont Village. And I remember from a young, young age, I would be excited for Thursdays 'cause the North Shore news would come and there'd be a home section in the North Shore News, literally probably from the age of six years old.
[00:01:25] So I'd wait for the Thursday edition and see the featured home. And on the way to a sport that I was playing, I would make my dad drive me by that house. So it was, uh, something inside me from a, from a really young age that just drew me to it. My father was in sales and sporting good sales, and I remember kind of like towards teenage years reading the Rich Dad Poor Dad books and all of that.
[00:01:45] And, you know, predominantly one of the sort of statistics that always stood out was, well, nine out of 10 millionaires made their money in real estate.
[00:01:53] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:01:53] Brian Higgins: So I was like, well that sounds pretty good. Maybe I should go towards there. Yeah, I studied urban geography at UBC and wanted to go towards real estate, not as a realtor initially, more as a a, a real estate investor. I always viewed real estate as an asset, um, and I would look at it in different ways than many. So I think, uh, as the city was moving, I wanted to move with it and kind of got in that way.
[00:02:15] When I was 24, I went back to my father and I said, I wanna buy my first house, gimme some money. And he said, I didn't do that for your siblings. So I didn't like that. A couple months later, I was able to buy my first place, it was $214,500. I didn't have money for a one bedroom, so I bought a studio in Coal Harbor and I'd signed up for the real estate course, literally the month that I did that purchase.
[00:02:34] But at 24 years old, I didn't feel confident enough to write the final exam 'cause I thought no one was gonna believe this 24-year-old kid that happened to like real estate a lot. So went and got some life experience, did some construction work. Uh, met one of my life mentors, Tony McGill, the co-founder of ITC.
[00:02:50] And walked on literally hundreds of construction sites that he was building throughout the Greater Vancouver Regional District. And then in 2011, I was 31 years old and I said to my wife, then I said, I think it's time for me to jump into the career and yeah, go from there.
[00:03:04] Scott Dempster: But you gotta think, I mean, like you said earlier on, uh, when you were a kid and driving around with your dad and seeing these houses and things like that, like, I would say that you were, like you say, built for this and it's, it's truly your passion and you enjoy it.
[00:03:16] And like I know myself in the evening sometimes I'm just on paragon, IE, MLS, things like that. Just looking at listings, even if we don't have a client for specific product, just looking at what's out there and things like that. Right.
[00:03:28] Brian Higgins: For for sure. Yeah. I mean, I, I even, when I started in 2012, I started as YVR for sale 'cause I didn't want to be a realtor@arealtorsname.com. I thought that there was kind of a, a, a ceiling in doing that. So I, I started YVR for sale and my tagline then was, your address, my passion.
[00:03:43] Scott Dempster: Right. How many years did you work on your own? Because we know you have a team. But how many years did you go at it alone, and then how did your team kind of evolve and build, and?
[00:03:53] Brian Higgins: So yeah, 2012 sort of midway through was at my first entry into being a realtor. I did six deals that fall. Uh, I was solo and just kind of, you know, hustled and did a lot of open houses. I think open houses for any realtor that's listening is the, the best way to meet new people for business.
[00:04:11] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:04:11] Brian Higgins: there's no doubt I didn't want to use my network. I felt that I wanted to kind of go at it alone and be able to show people that, you know, I'm not just a, a flash in the pan and actually work for it. Um, 2013, pretty active. I think I did 14 or 15 deals that year. Come 2012, we started to get a lot of foreign capital into the city.
[00:04:28] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:04:28] Brian Higgins: And so that started the wave of what I always term as the new market. And, uh, 2014 market was running pretty hot. One of my clients wanted me to meet her niece that was working for a marketing company. And, uh, I met Amy Leong and we ran basically from the tail end of 2014, and the market really moved a lot. So I mean, we were doing fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, a hundred and seventeen deals in 2017.
[00:04:53] Scott Dempster: Holy Moly.
[00:04:54] Brian Higgins: Just her and I. So yeah, we, we, we definitely worked hard. I think anyone that wants to be a realtor, you know, it's not about a, a relaxed schedule if you actually wanna make it. And in business in general, anyone that's built a proper business that has been truly successful, it doesn't come without grit and determination.
[00:05:11] Scott Dempster: And then fast forwarding a bit and how did it kind of evolve and?
[00:05:14] Brian Higgins: Yeah, let's see. One of my really good clients we came, uh, you know, it's fun 'cause you real estate, you meet a lot of cool people
[00:05:20] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:05:20] Brian Higgins: Of all different backgrounds.
[00:05:21] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:05:22] Brian Higgins: Right. And like one of my clients was doing like paintball and we had met and he knew lots of realtors, but he is like I wanna hire you because you're different. And you know, you, you just make really cool, like friendships and relationships in, in real estate. It's, I I find that fascinating still to this day. Amy and I had parted and, uh, Jackie had, uh, I, I'd been encouraging her for years. I'm like, dude, you're perfect for real estate.
[00:05:45] Like
[00:05:45] Scott Dempster: mm-hmm.
[00:05:46] Brian Higgins: I don't know that you're gonna, you know, be as successful in paintball sales globally as you could be in real estate locally. So then we kind of merged and he was running a Van Global group and I was running YVR for sale. So then YVR Global was born and that ran well for a couple years and then he got headhunted by a group out of Ontario to do presale.
[00:06:04] Didn't really like that concept for me. I just felt that my knowledge in the resale market was tried, tested and true.
[00:06:11] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:06:12] Brian Higgins: So I wanted to stay that way and so we, we separated from there. And yeah, I mean, teams in real estate are tough 'cause in a busy market, you need people that wanna work.
[00:06:22] Scott Dempster: Sure.
[00:06:22] Brian Higgins: In a soft market, people don't wanna work, but they wanna make money.
[00:06:25] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:06:26] Brian Higgins: And so, you know, again, so you're, it's never, I think, something static. I think it's always evolving at the end of the day. So right now we've got a, a, a crew of six and yeah. I mean it's, it's a tougher market the last three years though, than we for sure we've come out of. So I think, you will see people fall off and you'll see other people come in and it's just, it's just part of the, the natural progression at the end of the day.
[00:06:45] When I first started, I mean, I remember selling condos at 66 West Cordova for $335,000.
[00:06:51] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:06:51] Brian Higgins: And then all of a sudden you get a call and in 2024, I sold the most expensive condo in all the city.
[00:06:56] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:06:56] Brian Higgins: In 2023, I sold the second most expensive condo in the entire city.
[00:07:00] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Brian Higgins: So it's, it's, it's fun how business can grow. You know, I'm, I'm very much in a growth mindset. Uh, I don't like to turn down opportunities. I like to see doors open and see where that can go. At the end of the day, I think it's easy to close off, but those are your only barriers that you're closing off for yourself.
[00:07:16] Colin Cuthbert: The fact that you are now marketing the most expensive condo in the city, that didn't happen by mistake, and anybody who spends five minutes in a conversation with you and hears your product knowledge and your passion for it quickly learns to respect and admire the way you are and what you've done.
[00:07:35] Or anybody who spends five minutes on a treadmill trying to keep up with you
[00:07:39] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:07:40] Colin Cuthbert: quickly learns the same lesson. So it is really cool, and I feel like every time I have the pleasure of hanging out with you, that I should bring a notepad and kind of soak up some of this knowledge that's inspiring, so.
[00:07:51] Scott Dempster: Yeah, what is, uh, kind of spinning into what Colin was saying. I've heard that you, you love your orange theory and your morning workouts and stuff like that. So what, when are you going, how often are you going and what's the routine for you? What, what's a daily routine?
[00:08:05] Brian Higgins: Yeah.
[00:08:06] Scott Dempster: As a whole kind of thing.
[00:08:07] Brian Higgins: Totally.
[00:08:07] Scott Dempster: What is, what the day of Brian look like?
[00:08:09] Brian Higgins: Um, mean, we've got little, we've got a, a crazy 4-year-old and a pretty awesome 8-year-old, so life is busy Monday to Friday. My alarm goes off at 4:56.
[00:08:16] Scott Dempster: Okay,
[00:08:17] Brian Higgins: so I
[00:08:18] Scott Dempster: 4:56, not 4:55
[00:08:19] Colin Cuthbert: in the AM
[00:08:20] Scott Dempster: so you just get that one extra minute kind of thing.
[00:08:23] Brian Higgins: That's my first buzz 4:56. 4:57 is the second one by then I gotta get up.
[00:08:28] Scott Dempster: Okay.
[00:08:28] Brian Higgins: I have my phone alarm set on our en suite vanity for 5:00 AM and I don't wanna wake the family up. My nephew got me into Orange Theory back in 2017 when we were living downtown. It's just kind of stuck. At first I was like, group fitness, that's not for dudes. He's like, bro, if you like running, you like this. And I went and yeah, I think I've done over 1,250 classes since, so,
[00:08:47] Scott Dempster: holy shit.
[00:08:49] Colin Cuthbert: Last year I saw a record. You did 250?
[00:08:53] Brian Higgins: Yeah. I'm, I'm not at those numbers this year. I'm closing in on 150 for the year right now. But yeah, it's, it's just good functional fitness. And I think for men, I think for women, I think it's, you know, once you become a parent. It's life is busy.
[00:09:05] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:09:05] Brian Higgins: And if I want to get some sort of fitness in, and to me, I think it's a mental cleanse. If anything too.
[00:09:11] Colin Cuthbert: A hundred percent.
[00:09:11] Brian Higgins: Start the day with something hard, no matter what the day throws at you, it's probably not gonna be that hard.
[00:09:15] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:09:15] Brian Higgins: So everyone can handle different levels of load.
[00:09:18] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:09:18] Brian Higgins: In theory. And so I kind of view myself as a warrior, like I'll just strap everything on my back and keep going. I remember pre foreign buyer tax, my wife was looking at me, she's like, I am I gonna see you. Like my call volume in the spring of 2016 was probably north of 230 calls a day.
[00:09:32] Scott Dempster: Holy shit.
[00:09:33] Brian Higgins: So 2017, I mean, we did 117 deals in 2017.
[00:09:37] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:09:37] Brian Higgins: So you do that, I mean, you're basically doing it two deals a week every single week for the year. More than actually, yeah. Right. So it's, yeah. So I mean, you're, you're moving, moving, moving, moving. But, um. It's right now, obviously with the, with the kids where they are, I, I do want to be present as well.
[00:09:52] I, I take the choice to not have dad just be the provider at the end of the day. I don't do open houses. Open houses. Yes, they're great in hot markets to showcase the home, and it's gonna be sold in a week.
[00:10:03] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:10:04] Brian Higgins: I mean, I remember in 2022 we had one on Grand Boulevard where we had 187 showings. We sectioned the showing just into specific times so buyers could see other times. And we had 29 offers and the property sold 33% over the asking price.
[00:10:16] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:16] Brian Higgins: Um, but opens are efficient when it comes to hot markets. In slower markets open are for realtors to make business.
[00:10:23] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:10:23] Brian Higgins: At the end, you meet other owners in the neighborhood, you meet potential people looking at homes. Those for you're front of people.
[00:10:29] Colin Cuthbert: Right.
[00:10:29] Brian Higgins: So I mean, at at the point that I am right now, personally and for my family, you know, I choose to be at my son's soccer game.
[00:10:37] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:10:37] Brian Higgins: I want to take my daughter to dance. I want to take my daughter to soccer in the afternoons on Sunday.
[00:10:41] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:10:41] Brian Higgins: So I consciously make the decision that if a client says that you have to be at the open house, I'll be like, I'm sorry I'm not your guy. You get me, but you get me with my team. Right?
[00:10:51] Scott Dempster: Right.
[00:10:51] Brian Higgins: If you have a problem with that, there's 14,000 other people that would love the opportunity.
[00:10:56] Colin Cuthbert: So that's, that's awesome that you've earned that. You know, in a previous career I had worked to, to free up my weekends, got there and then with this career, um, still in the growth period, still running opens. But, um, it's the goal and this whole career was kind of, uh, a choice to try and balance my life out from where it was before and be a lot more present as a partner and a parent. But that's kind of the goal. Hearing you say that is like, ah, that's on my vision board is to not work the weekends.
[00:11:27] Brian Higgins: There's a big hustle culture in our business, right? And, and we see that in social media and the rest, and people can show that they're working all the time and that's great, but like we're also human. Right, and we're also parents to children. We're partners to wives, like it's, it's one of those businesses. I mean, the divorce rate in real estate is very high,
[00:11:45] Colin Cuthbert: very high.
[00:11:45] Brian Higgins: You know, you can take that aspect and go, okay, yeah, go work all the time, be a provider. But at the same time, I mean, we don't know how long we're here on this earth. I lost my mom when I was 17. I want to be able to have special times. I want to be able to go on vacation. It takes a while to get comfortable setting boundaries.
[00:12:02] And I'm not, I by no means am I perfect at it, right? Like I did do one showing last weekend.
[00:12:06] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:12:06] Brian Higgins: So I did drive downtown for, I, I picked up a key set and it did one showing, but we, I did a showing and got an accepted offer and multiple offers that night, and I just picked up a deposit check today. So, yeah.
[00:12:15] Colin Cuthbert: Nice.
[00:12:16] Scott Dempster: There you go.
[00:12:16] Brian Higgins: Right. So realistically you gotta pick and choose where you know, where, where to go. But yeah, I mean, I, I think open houses are, are great, but clients that expect open houses upon open houses upon open houses in markets like we've been in for the last three years, that needs to be discussed prior so that they don't chain you to something.
[00:12:36] Colin Cuthbert: Well, it's all about the whole strategy. Yeah. Managing expectations of the whole strategy, the growth and evolution of your personal into team business. You're now at six. Your office is downtown. We know you as the authority on luxury condos. All things stratified in condo development. We know you do a lot of detached homes and things like that. But you guys are in Coal Harbor?
[00:13:04] Brian Higgins: Down on Marina side, so we've got an office beside Davie at 135 Davie Street. But uh, yeah, I mean, we're outta proton. It's fun though. I get realtors call me all the time, Hey, can I ask you a question? And like, I had a one, a really good top producing realtor last week asking me a question about uh, one of her clients had put a pretty significant property in Yaletown under contract.
[00:13:23] And I said, let me get you this full story. I went back through my contacts and I said, okay, what's the deal? Why, what's going on here? Because she's like, this is what the realtor's saying to me. I'm like, I'll get you the, the real deal.
[00:13:32] So 44 hours later I came back to her. I'm like, this is why they're selling. This is what happened and that's it. And she's like, oh my God, thank you. She's like, that's why you're the Yaletown guy.
[00:13:41] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:41] Brian Higgins: At the end of the day. So, I dunno, it's kind of fun. Like lots of, I mean, in the younger years we used to go party in Yaletown, and then I look at Yaletown, I'm like, wow, you can make millions of dollars in Yaletown.
[00:13:49] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:13:49] Brian Higgins: So, yeah, from drinking your faces off at nights at Bar None to be like, Hey you, you know, you get to walk into some of these penthouses where you're just like, how did I get here? You know, once you get really knowledgeable on product. It's nice to be able to share that knowledge with others. Yeah, because you know, IIII kind of view life like more in abundance than what one can rake at the end of the day.
[00:14:09] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:14:09] Brian Higgins: You know, to see a lot of people that it's all about themselves and it's all about themselves. I think helping other people, like we're in a service based business, but also helping other realtors. Like if, if, if she called me last week and said, Hey, can you find out the details? I'm like, oh yeah, my dad's got a good friend in the building. Lemme give him a call. And he put me in touch with somebody on Strata and they're like, this is exactly what happened. So I could come back to her and be like, Hey, this is the real deal.
[00:14:28] Colin Cuthbert: Absolutely.
[00:14:28] Brian Higgins: Right. Because there's unfortunately, there's stuff that sometimes gets said that it's like, well, does that have weight? Or is that real?
[00:14:34] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:14:34] Brian Higgins: Right. And so it's one of those things. I think if anything, you know, the more people that you can help out, likely there's gonna be good aura around that. And life can be, you know, beautiful from that.
[00:14:45] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. It pays dividends too. Like the next time you come across that realtor in a transaction, she's gonna remember the favor. And it'll help ease up a transaction that you
[00:14:54] Brian Higgins: a hundred percent.
[00:14:55] Scott Dempster: Question for you, just kinda switching gears a bit. Foreign buyers tax, we talked about that a little bit earlier, and, uh, now the ban with, with foreign buyers, how, how has the market shifted specifically in condos? How would you say the market's really shifted from?
[00:15:10] When foreigners were allowed to buy condos to present day where we have this ban. And who are you seeing is a pretty general question, but who are, who are the kind of bread and butter condo buyers today?
[00:15:22] Brian Higgins: Yeah, I mean it's, it's fun 'cause you can go, I, I mean, again, I've been at this since 2012, so now I've got sort of some years of history to be able to look back on Yeah.
[00:15:30] In, in theory, um, you know, 2016 pre foreign buyer tax, that was a market that we will never see again.
[00:15:37] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:15:37] Brian Higgins: Okay. That was probably the boom of the condo market in all honesty. A lot of mon foreign money that was coming into the west side and it created a massive flow through in the marketplace. And then people even went into West Van 'cause they're like, oh, Vancouver's too hard to build. Let's go to West Van. We can build there a lot faster.
[00:15:52] So yeah, it's, it was interesting the, the condo market really started to move as of what was the fall of 2014. A lot of that was just more money that was coming into our city. Those boomers were selling those houses, so they were buying condos for their kids, or they were buying condos for themselves.
[00:16:08] The foreign buyer tax stalled our market. And the condo market, it took about four months for the market to absorb that. So by November we were back to business. So it really wasn't that dramatic. It was a, whoa, what's gonna happen to my money? Okay, we're back to business.
[00:16:22] Scott Dempster: But did you see, uh, foreigners still buying and just accepting that tax or what was the kind of the landscape of that?
[00:16:30] Brian Higgins: I mean, I, at the end of the day, I think most people either had PR
[00:16:33] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:16:33] Brian Higgins: Or somebody in their family had PR. So whoever had the PR was the one buying the property. I think the more detrimental part of our market has been the civic taxes in Vancouver. Right, the empty homes tax, when it was first introduced was gonna be a small tax. It was gonna be 1% for foreigners and a half percent for British Colombians.
[00:16:50] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:16:51] Brian Higgins: I think is what it was. Um, or no, maybe that's the, the speculation vacancy tax. Um, but you know, the, the, the municipal tax was gonna be 1%. You were gonna pay 1% empty homes tax.
[00:17:00] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:17:01] Brian Higgins: Based on the tax assessed value of your property if you left it empty. The challenge with that is we went through a couple mayors in Vancouver, and one of the prior mayors wanted to move that to 5%. Anyone with global wealth that does global business and I've been able to walk into a lot of the big, big penthouses and we're currently marketing.
[00:17:18] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:17:18] Brian Higgins: The most expensive penthouse in Canada. The concept of putting a tax in front of them, predominantly, they'll just say, no thank you. Beautiful city. I don't want to be a landlord. I'd like to come here in the summertime. I worked for a German couple. He was a retired tax lawyer in Germany. Wonderful. And he had bought a pre-sale in 1999 and I got introduced to him from one of my, another clients that I had sold a big unit for. He was so upset. By then the province had announced the speculation tax and this fellow was like, look, I'm from Germany, I work in New York. My wife is Japanese, and Vancouver is our meeting spot.
[00:17:48] I'm not a speculator, but it makes most sense for me to fly to New York to Vancouver and her to fly from Japan to Vancouver. And this is where we spend our time together. And now your province is telling me that I have to pay, you know, $60,000 a year in additional taxes between empty homes tax and speculation tax.
[00:18:02] He's like, I have to sell my property. Right? So, and none of those taxes have solved any sort of affordability. It's difficult because you've got Canada's Underuse housing tax, you've got an increase in the foreign buyer tax, and then of course federally, they came out with a foreign buyer ban. Typically the governments on all levels react after the market is already pulling back
[00:18:23] Colin Cuthbert: Totally. By the time it gets pushed through legislation and everything, they've already missed the point.
[00:18:27] Scott Dempster: Yeah, I, I totally agree with that.
[00:18:29] Brian Higgins: You're collecting in a hot market, probably 10, $15 billion in the province, and it's going into general revenue and getting wasted. Why not take 30% of that money annually and be like, here, Kelowna, here's X dollars.
[00:18:42] And you, and then they would be able to borrow from it and be like, Hey, we've got this amount coming for the next number of years we could borrow and we could build, and then you could actually do social housing.
[00:18:51] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:18:51] Brian Higgins: And you could actually provide housing for those that can't afford housing.
[00:18:54] Scott Dempster: Yeah, right.
[00:18:54] Brian Higgins: Like it's, it's crazy.
[00:18:56] Scott Dempster: But do you see the, the landscape of, again, specifically the condo market in Vancouver, do you see that it was better market for kind of everyone, pre foreign buyers tax, pre foreign buyers ban? Or do you think that there is some good that's come outta this? Like what's,
[00:19:13] Brian Higgins: I think it's tough 'cause you look at how the developer is built, right? So I mean, typically you'd have more units on the lower floors and less units on the higher floors. And you know, in certain towers it was sold at a time where you had none of these taxes. So it was nice to have a 2,400 square foot unit that you could come to with your family.
[00:19:29] Scott Dempster: Right.
[00:19:30] Brian Higgins: Yeah. I mean, I've seen a lot of multi-generational families that would keep a property in Vancouver, but that's not allowed now.
[00:19:35] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:19:36] Brian Higgins: Right. And then it's tough because now you've told them to go become a landlord. And they rent a property at $7,000 a month that's worth $4 million. And they pay maintenance fees and taxes and they get no draw on their money. So eventually they just get tired of it and sell it. Some of them have paid it, some of them have paid. I'm, I'm working for clients right now that they have paid the empty homes tax and the speculation tax ever since they came out.
[00:19:57] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:19:57] Brian Higgins: And they finally came to me this year and they're like, this is enough. We've gotta sell.
[00:20:00] Scott Dempster: Right,
[00:20:01] Brian Higgins: right. So it's, it's tough because you're forcing people to say, only locals can buy and locals too. Like what happens when you get to your retirement age and you're like, Hey, you know what? I've been so diligent my whole life. I saved my 18% a year from my, my RSPs, and I want to go travel the world for a year. Sorry, sir. We're gonna tax your house here in Vancouver. Because you're not gonna be in it for more than six months this year.
[00:20:24] Like explain that one to me.
[00:20:25] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. And then protect the people that rent it from 'em.
[00:20:28] Brian Higgins: Right.
[00:20:28] Colin Cuthbert: Residential landlord.
[00:20:29] Brian Higgins: And then it's tough too. 'cause when the NDP were elected, Spencer Herbert, who was a West end MLA, redid the whole residential tenancy Act. It's not called the Residential Landlord Act, and it's there to protect the tenants.
[00:20:39] But when they first floated the idea of four calendar months notice, you know, until the banking regular state stood up and said, well, the mortgages aren't good for that long.
[00:20:47] Colin Cuthbert: No, exactly. The rate holds for 90 days. How can we How? Yeah. No, I remember that whole pushback that. Went off. It was nuts. It was a half-baked idea.
[00:20:55] Brian Higgins: Yeah. I mean, the, the, the ban is a tough one. I've had a lot of Americans come up when Trump was elected. I mean, our office is right near the Yaletown Roundhouse.
[00:21:02] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:21:02] Brian Higgins: Yeah. And they're like, oh, we'd love to buy. And I'm like, are you Canadian?
[00:21:06] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:21:06] Brian Higgins: They're like, Nope. I'm like, can't buy. Yeah.
[00:21:09] Colin Cuthbert: Conversation over.
[00:21:10] Brian Higgins: Yeah. See, have a nice vacation. Yeah.
[00:21:12] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Fairmont's down the road.
[00:21:13] Brian Higgins: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Your dollar's pretty strong. But you can't use, you can't use it up here.
[00:21:16] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:21:16] Brian Higgins: Right.
[00:21:17] Scott Dempster: Like we were chatting earlier and, and whether it's us calling you or other agents or you know, some of your buyers looking for the advice, the professional opinion, things like that on condos, what determines for you in the condo market, you know, what is a good building, what is not a good building?
[00:21:34] What are things, what are kind of the key factors that you're paying attention towards? When a buyer says, okay, I have $1 million dollars. I wanna buy a, let's say, two bed, two bath condo with with a view, things like that. What's your strategy and how you're kind of going about that?
[00:21:47] Brian Higgins: If a client's looking, you know, I'm always cognizant of like view scape because you have to look at what can be developed around you. Mm-hmm. At the end of the day. Absolutely. Um, and you know, I hear a lot of Rios walking in, oh, this view's amazing. Oh, it's here forever. And it's like. Buddy, unless you're looking at park, come on man. Like the, the, the city's gonna grow by a million people. You don't think there's gonna be more amalgamation and more towers done and more density done over time?
[00:22:10] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:22:10] Brian Higgins: so I, I, I, I, I don't like it when people try and make claim on something that they can't truly back up for eternity. In theory, right? Code Year of build, usually kind of stayed newer than the two thousands. Aquarius is one building that I, I'm fine with in 99, but typically, you know, two thousands and, and newer is safer. I view my job as an asset manager. The vehicle is real estate and I want to mitigate risk for the client. And I say that to them often.
[00:22:38] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:22:38] Brian Higgins: So the fund is real estate. The vehicle is real estate and I'm an asset manager.
[00:22:44] Colin Cuthbert: Yep.
[00:22:44] Brian Higgins: And how we look at this is how it's gonna perform. And I wanna see the client win long term because they're gonna come back and say, Hey, you know what? You were great. Hey, you were great. Here's a referral, here's a referral, here's a referral. 'cause you actually care.
[00:22:55] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:22:56] Brian Higgins: Right. And that's better than open house pickup.
[00:22:58] Scott Dempster: Dovetailing what you just said, as an asset manager in the, and the portfolio is real estate. You know, there's a million different strata companies, there's a million different stratas, right, depending on what building you buy in and things like that.
[00:23:09] How important is strata management to these buildings and how much value do you put on that? Where you, you walk into the building and say you're a buyer's agent at the time and you're in the elevator with the listing agent, you're gonna the elevator. Oh, who's the strata manager? It's X, Y, z Property management.
[00:23:24] Brian Higgins: Yeah.
[00:23:24] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm. And you go, Ooh. Or it's ABC property and you go, yay. Kind of thing.
[00:23:29] Brian Higgins: At least you'll get a response from them. I mean, yeah, it's,
[00:23:32] Scott Dempster: yeah.
[00:23:32] Brian Higgins: Strata managers love realtors 'cause we ask questions and they, some will take their time and some, some will give you immediate response. It's tough because I think the strata manager is there as more of a clerk for the strata in theory.
[00:23:44] Colin Cuthbert: Right?
[00:23:44] Brian Higgins: Yeah. They don't really provide that much value. Sorry. But they don't. But I've seen Stratas make some really bad decisions. There's one in Yaletown
[00:23:52] Scott Dempster: Strata Councils.
[00:23:52] Brian Higgins: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. There's one in Yaletown where they have a height restriction on a dog, 16 inches at shoulder.
[00:23:58] I had a client in there that went to sell his property and sold for $45,000 less because that first purchaser had a dog that was one inch too tall, and the strata would not make an exception. So I had an offer that was $45,000 higher, but that purchaser was not allowed to buy because his dog was one inch too tall.
[00:24:15] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah.
[00:24:15] Brian Higgins: Now 45,000 times 400 units. Think of the math in value that the strata lost by putting a restriction on a height of a pet, right? Like that sort of stuff you look at are ones where they're like, no pets. And you're like, well, okay, so everyone's sneaking cats in the back door anyways, but you're gonna have no pets and you're gonna lose buyers.
[00:24:38] Right? I always look at it like, if you're going to buy an asset in a property, in residential, when you go to sell, how is that gonna perform?
[00:24:45] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:24:45] Brian Higgins: Right? Not what it's gonna sell like in a current market. How's that gonna perform in any market? Hot market, soft market, what have you. If you go to sell, you want the biggest funnel of buyers, right? It's that simple.
[00:24:55] Scott Dempster: But it's also a fine line you walk, right? Because you want to put some of the boundaries in it, I think with your bylaws for a building, right? It's you wanna preserve the building, the integrity.
[00:25:05] Brian Higgins: Mm-hmm.
[00:25:06] Scott Dempster: All these things. But like you say, you don't want to make a outlandish kind of demand that dogs can't be more than 18 inches tall, that kind of thing, right?
[00:25:14] Colin Cuthbert: You know, reading through strata docs, you get to learn the personality of the strata. One of my other favorite things to do when touring with buyers is going up the elevator. I take pictures of all the notices up on the elevator wall, all the little white paper on the corkboard. You know, people complaining about theft or are they having a community barbecue or things, and you get to learn this is, uh, a pretty spicy place or.
[00:25:38] You know, people complaining, you know, somebody's let their dog pee in here for the 15th time in a row. You get to learn some pretty stuff.
[00:25:45] Brian Higgins: You can see it pretty quickly in the, in, in, in the elevator or, or in the lobbies for sure.
[00:25:49] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:25:49] Brian Higgins: By the mail rooms.
[00:25:50] Yeah.
[00:25:50] Scott Dempster: Yeah. Talking about, um, preservation of these buildings and bylaws and all these sorts of things. Um, city of Vancouver, love 'em, hate 'em or indifferent, we now have the rule for no Airbnbs. What's your take on that? With condos downtown, like we got FIFA coming and I'm sure everyone in their, in
[00:26:07] Brian Higgins: their, I, I just rent, rented my house to a family from Ireland for FIFA for three weeks, and we're gonna Europe as of middle of June.
[00:26:12] So
[00:26:13] Colin Cuthbert: there you go.
[00:26:13] Brian Higgins: Yeah.
[00:26:13] Colin Cuthbert: We're doing the same thing.
[00:26:14] Brian Higgins: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we just signed the lease last night.
[00:26:16] Scott Dempster: Nice. So what do you, what do you make of that from the condo perspective? Say downtown, do you, are you, it's obviously affected the real estate market a bit. What's your kind of view on it or where, where do you see the pros and cons of it?
[00:26:30] Brian Higgins: The reality is, and this is where love it or hate it, this is the, the black and white. City of Vancouver was always a 30 day minimum term in residential zoning.
[00:26:40] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:26:41] Brian Higgins: Okay. So Airbnb was technically never legal, right? Right. There was, everyone was operating in this gray area and there were lots of people saying, Hey, that building's Airbnb friendly, let's buy there.
[00:26:52] So there were certain buildings, because the councils typically were younger owners.
[00:26:56] Scott Dempster: Like the the towers above T&T there.
[00:26:59] Brian Higgins: Yeah. I own, I own. I own, I own in there. We didn't Airbnb, our unit. It's tough because Airbnb, when you look at it. And for big events like FIFA, right?
[00:27:07] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:27:07] Brian Higgins: For the Olympics and the rest, like we rented our place in, actually in Espania. Well, yeah. We rented our place during the Olympics to one of the presidents of Molson. Okay. And so I was like, cool, that's a good amount of money. We're, we're out. We'll, we'll go live with grandma. But yeah, it was, it was one that, the rental on Airbnb, the short term rental, if it's principal residence, I got no issue with it.
[00:27:29] If somebody wants to say, Hey, you know what, I'm going outta town and I wouldn't mind making a few bucks to pay for my vacation. But the challenge was the City of Vancouver bylaws was always a 30 day minimum term. So anyone that was operating in there thinking that they were some Ace super host and they were doing this, they were operating in space that was never legal to begin with.
[00:27:48] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:27:49] Brian Higgins: Um, so it's tough. I did not ever sell one purchaser into an Airbnb building. I was never a proponent of it 'cause I was like, guys, your underlined bylaw in City of Vancouver isn't allowable from the get go. So you're going to run out at some point and then what happens?
[00:28:08] Scott Dempster: You're a big believer in the larger strata and things like that 'cause it diminishes how much you owe in fees monthly and yearly and things like that when you go into, you know, same some of these newer developments in the Tri-Cities. And I know that's not your area of focus, it's not our area of focus primarily. But some of these developments in the Tri-Cities have like six bowling lanes and two pools and uh, a podcast studio.
[00:28:31] Brian Higgins: I hope they're a master plan community 'cause that sounds expensive.
[00:28:34] Scott Dempster: Well, all this stuff right. Do you see that? And, and downtown more it's, you know, a little bit more subtle with what the amenities are, especially in the new construction, things like that. How much does that pay dividends? Is that an asset to these stratas? Is that an asset for resale values?
[00:28:51] Brian Higgins: It's tough. Look at VancouverHaus. I mean, they took the gym out of the strata and the strata pays West Bank a quarter million bucks a year to use their own gym,
[00:28:58] Scott Dempster: right?
[00:28:58] Brian Higgins: So it, it depends how that disclosure statement's written too.
[00:29:01] Colin Cuthbert: Right.
[00:29:01] Brian Higgins: That's the thing. There's so much finite detail at the end of the day, in a strata. I view every strata as individual company. Okay. And how it's managed and how it's run. So I kind of look at the downtown as like, okay, these are all stocks.
[00:29:13] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:29:14] Brian Higgins: Who's a blue chip, who's a, you know, who's not performing, stay away from, and that sort of stuff.
[00:29:20] So yeah, it's, it's tough. 'cause I think amenities go back when Beach Crescent was being built out for example, in Yaletown. And people really love the idea of amenities. I wish more developers built guest suites. That's the one thing that they've all miffed on downtown.
[00:29:34] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah. And they used to have 'em, and Toronto has a lot of them,
[00:29:37] Brian Higgins: and Toronto's got garbage shoots. And then people are like, oh, well that building in Vancouver has a garbage shoot. Why don't we? And it's like, our building code didn't allow it then our fire safety code and all the rest. So yeah, it, it's one that I think, you know, the concept of like podcasts and you see these study rooms. I was just in a building in Burnaby and like they've got all these kind of like funky little music rooms and different things and it's like, okay, well wouldn't you have been better instead of doing a music room to actually make that a guest suite?
[00:30:01] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:30:02] Brian Higgins: Right. Like it, that, that to me makes way more sense to carve out 200 square feet with a bathroom and a little kitchenette. I, I don't understand why every Strata doesn't have a guest suite.
[00:30:11] Colin Cuthbert: You know, that's up to the strata later. But really what this is all about was attracting buyers
[00:30:19] Brian Higgins: a hundred percent.
[00:30:19] Colin Cuthbert: That was a developer, like in and out in a project. They wanna market a project, sell it out, move on to the next.
[00:30:25] Brian Higgins: Look how Concord built King's Landing. It was literally marketed for the downsizer. You had private garages, you had a whole health club attached to it.
[00:30:33] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:30:34] Brian Higgins: And so like, it was like, oh wow. Like I can leave my neighborhood because I have everything in my building.
[00:30:39] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:30:39] Brian Higgins: Um, it's just with the cost of land, you know, the parking relaxations, and the rest. You won't get that type of product built again
[00:30:46] Scott Dempster: And Kings Landing, that, that was Concord. Right?
[00:30:48] Brian Higgins: Yeah.
[00:30:48] Scott Dempster: And that was an interesting story about kind of the, the whole garage setup and the Terry Terry. Terry,
[00:30:54] Colin Cuthbert: I wanted to get that.
[00:30:54] Scott Dempster: He was the, the president of Concord had something kind of top secret back cave kind of going on in there.
[00:31:01] Brian Higgins: Yeah. I mean, I, I, my father was a, a, a presale purchaser in there, so it was funny 'cause the building had completed in 2005 and, uh. A whole bunch of the men got together 'cause people were complaining of noise and they couldn't figure out where it was coming from.
[00:31:15] So a group of them got together on a Friday night or so when they went down to the garages to figure out where this humming was. And, uh, they ended up walking around the garages with, you know, flashlights,
[00:31:24] Scott Dempster: Pitchforks and lanterns
[00:31:25] Brian Higgins: yeah, a hundred percent. And uh, they zeroed in on one garage and they knocked on the door 'cause they could hear sound. And there was the, the CEO of Concord Pacific ripping gas power go-karts at about midnight on a Friday night. Yeah. This one, I mean it may look like a two car garage, but inside was probably the cavity of a 36 car garage.
[00:31:43] Colin Cuthbert: We're not talking about a guy starting a go-kart and revving the engine in a garage.
[00:31:46] Brian Higgins: No, we're talking about racing go-karts,
[00:31:48] Colin Cuthbert: a garage door, opening up, doing laps, and being like, Hey, that's not a garage. That's a whole half acre of go-kart tracks sitting underground that nobody understood was even there 'cause the developer is, in my opinion, awesome, and I wanna be his friend. He built this secret go-kart track underground. And it was hidden behind his own personal garage door.
[00:32:09] Scott Dempster: What's kinda like the craziest things you've seen in a development or a condo or what, what's some wild stuff that you've seen?
[00:32:17] Brian Higgins: Yeah, I mean, you know, you get into the level of like the, I don't wanna say fu money, but fu money.
[00:32:22] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:32:22] Brian Higgins: And you just see stuff that people have endless budgets.
[00:32:25] Scott Dempster: Right?
[00:32:25] Brian Higgins: Right. And so, you know, there's ones where, you know, the developer, the contractor's got it so if the owner is on his boat, he can press a button and the tiki torches around his rooftop patio light up, you know? So there's like super fun, little fun little trinkets for sure.
[00:32:38] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:32:38] Brian Higgins: The bulletproof glass in Calvin Iris suite was pretty rad.
[00:32:42] Scott Dempster: Yeah,
[00:32:43] Brian Higgins: right. When you touch a old card on the floor and all of a sudden bulletproof glass comes across with dice, etched in the glass.
[00:32:50] Scott Dempster: What was the bulletproof glass for? Like, I'm trying to envision what this room was or what. Like, was it?
[00:32:54] Brian Higgins: Yeah. I mean he, you know, it was a full floor penthouse. He, he pissed the stra off and took about three years rebuilding it. But he had the endless money.
[00:33:01] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:33:01] Brian Higgins: And so on the west side of the unit, he had built a dance club.
[00:33:05] Oh.
[00:33:05] And so he had a DJ deck and you know, full bar set up like it was, this was gonna go all night long and all weekend long. Straddle outside and then, and then, yeah. But he is up on the top. So maybe he didn't get the noises.
[00:33:15] But then back on what would be the south west corner is where the primary bedroom was. And so the primary bedroom, the dressing area, the 10 person bathtub, right, the six person shower, I mean the parties that those walls could tell, yeah, you're right. Pam Anderson was in there and all the rest like insane.
[00:33:32] At the end of the day, he had it set up that he could lock off his bedroom was the purpose of that glass door. Oh, okay. So nobody, 'cause obviously he had fancy watches and probably tons of cash and Yeah, everything else under the sun, so.
[00:33:44] Scott Dempster: Got it.
[00:33:44] Brian Higgins: The idea was that if people were dancing in the club section of his penthouse that people wouldn't have access. Because on a Friday night in Yale, and I'm sure he made lots of friends, right. If he's gonna have 50 people back at his house for an all night dance party,
[00:33:58] Scott Dempster: does he still own it or did you sell it or
[00:34:00] Brian Higgins: No, I was never part of that. That was, that was before my time.
[00:34:03] Scott Dempster: Oh, okay.
[00:34:03] Brian Higgins: That was before my time. But yeah, he, uh, no, he, he, he, I mean he, he sold it for less than what he spent on the renovation. Right. But he, I think he just had to get outta country.
[00:34:12] Scott Dempster: When you go that crazy with custom finishing, let's call it, or renovating to a very, very specific level. You're never getting that money out
[00:34:22] Brian Higgins: and you're just doing it for yourself. Right, right. You know, this is, this, this, like you've got, you're making hundreds of millions of dollars a month. You're, you're doing it for what you want, or whatever the designer tells you, and you're like, yep, yep. Nope. Yep. Yeah. And so, yeah. Yeah. I mean, rooftop, hot tub, the outdoor showers, all that jazz, like Yeah. I mean, I'm sure the staircase alone cost 'em a half a million bucks.
[00:34:41] Scott Dempster: I look at a lot of this stuff, like you say, like we were kind of saying like the study rooms and a podcast studio and a a golf simulator and all that kind of stuff. And I go, yeah, day one, or when the building's brand new and there's the four putters and the golf club's all lined up and the screen's on just talking about kind a golf simulator.
[00:34:59] Fast forward three years, there's holes in it, the golf clubs are all broken. There's shit everywhere.
[00:35:05] Brian Higgins: The bowling alley's broken,
[00:35:06] Scott Dempster: the bowling alleys broken, things like that. And where I'm kind of going with this is vancouver doesn't have a lot of them, um, but the one building I think of is Jameson House. And they have, uh, the self parking garage like they have in Japan and stuff, right?
[00:35:21] I've never, Collin's never, um, sold a unit in there, but I have heard absolute horror stories outta that parking system. And we, and I had a client about two years ago who ended up buying a different unit in Coal Harbor. He was looking, I showed him two or three or, yeah, no, I did show 'em two or three units in Jameson and I just said this whole parking thing, we went and saw it and I just said, I'm not getting a good feeling.
[00:35:44] Brian Higgins: No.
[00:35:44] Scott Dempster: Same kind of thing as the golf simulator where I'm like, this shit's gonna go wrong,
[00:35:48] Brian Higgins: Dude. Tell me how Oak Ridge is gonna turn out when you've got 4,000 cars being self parked.
[00:35:52] Yeah,
[00:35:53] Colin Cuthbert: yeah. Well, I mean, I was there for the development of that and some of my really, really good friends, including the best man in my wedding were launching that project. And so I remember going through the display suites and learning all about it. Yeah, yeah. And watching the, the videos and renderings of how that, and I'm like, if you watch the security cameras at my house, when I come home or leave the house, I forget something in my car.
[00:36:19] Three times I, you usually see me running back and forth from the house to the garage to get something. But imagine you pull into this elevator, unload your groceries or whatever you want from your car, walk away into the other elevator, and then your car gets like a vending machine brought up, parked in a spot, and you're like, shit, I forgot something in the car.
[00:36:39] It's a whole process, but it, it was all for presale. Like the developer sells. Markets it, puts these flashy videos up and then they get their money and they're gone. Like I have one of those condos I bought 20 years ago out in Morgan Creek, and it's got an outdoor pool. It's got. All those amenities, and it was simply because downtown you just don't have the space.
[00:37:01] You can sell out units 'cause of the location. And when I'm watching $800,000 condos sell downtown with no amenities. And then I'm like, oh, look at Morgan Creek. I can for 350 grand, I can buy this place that's twice the size and I've got a whole Interwest resort in my complex. Yeah, I'll buy that. The commute makes sense.
[00:37:23] And that's all it was. And then the second we completed on that, I looked out the window and they were building the same thing across the street, but it had an underground hockey rink in it. In the building and I was like, man, I'm an idiot.
[00:37:38] Brian Higgins: It's tough, man. The developers always kind of one up to each other. And then the mar the, my, my worry with the, you know, this is interesting about pre-sale because there's a lot of people that are pre-sale experts, right? A lot of realtors that were pre-sale experts and like I can look, in the last five years I sold one pre-sale. That client is up 50% on his money. The concept of presale scares the bejesus outta me because
[00:38:02] Scott Dempster: just that you're buying off a sheet of paper?
[00:38:04] Brian Higgins: No, because you walk into a high expensive, tenanted place where the developers put $4 million in ti and everything looks bloody beautiful, and then fast forward six, seven years later, and you get property and you're like. Huh? If you wanna talk,
[00:38:19] Scott Dempster: that's what I'm, if you wanna talk off a sheet of paper,
[00:38:22] Brian Higgins: but, but you're, but you're buying off a sheet of paper with the best renderings in a develop, in, in, in a, in a space of a very nice luxury fashion store.
[00:38:31] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
[00:38:32] Brian Higgins: And you're very excited about it.
[00:38:34] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:38:34] Brian Higgins: And then you get it delivered to you years later and you're like, that photo, in this photo, like. This did not age well, honestly. So it's, it's nice for the purchaser to be able to walk through what they're buying.
[00:38:45] Scott Dempster: We sat in on a town hall for District North Vancouver a few months ago actually. And um, we were in support of it. Rashard Developments is doing the towers down by the Petro Canada here at, um, Kalan Marine, right?
[00:38:58] Colin Cuthbert: Mm-hmm.
[00:38:58] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm. And it was quite inspiring to hear the presentation on, because Shard is, they hold, they, they do rental. That's their kind of model that they've shifted to in the last 15 years or so.
[00:39:08] Right. And, uh, this project, um, they were speaking about was very heartfelt and it was very interesting because yes, the, you know, the cities or municipalities demanded it, but there's gonna be, I think, 40 units allocated to, um, abused women with children. And then there's a hotel component, and then there's just, just the demand, like you said, for the rental and who's, you know, working at Shell Gas Station or the Starbucks, or schools, doctors, nurses, all these people that.
[00:39:40] You know, our prices have gotten so crazy. In order for communities to be sustainable and have longevity and be successful, there needs to be that rental component to it as well. So I was, I was very much, you know, we buy and the three of us sitting here, we all buy and sell real estate. That's how we provide for our families and everything but the same.
[00:40:00] Right. I was a believer and a supporter of it because people who can't afford should still. Be able to live in an area they, they want to live and give to the community a good benefit
[00:40:12] Brian Higgins: for sure. It's just, it's tough if the mandate is to have a certain percentage always done, and it's tough to have the private sector be responsible for building housing that maybe could be done by some of the public side. It will never be a, an easy jigsaw No. To solve at the end of the day. No.
[00:40:30] Colin Cuthbert: No.
[00:40:31] Brian Higgins: But there, you know, that's it. Like I think if you're doing a master plan site. There should be aspect, and, and by doing so, don't be naive to the fact that the developer is getting further density by doing this. So it's a bit of tit for tat, right?
[00:40:44] Scott Dempster: Whether a buyer uses you for a condo downtown or they use Colin or myself or, or anyone off the top of your head, uh, what are some key red flags in any building?
[00:40:56] Brian Higgins: I, I think what you've gotta look at is capital cost expenditures.
[00:40:59] Okay.
[00:40:59] And, and where buildings are life material cycle, if you would. Um, I, I think the BC government was very smart to have brought out depreciation reports when they did.
[00:41:08] People prior would ask for an engineer's report.
[00:41:11] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:41:11] Brian Higgins: And hope, you know, to get an understanding. The depreciation reports make good sense because it, it helps the uneducated consumer realize that every material has a, a lifespan. Now the depreciation board is not a hard line Bible of exact dates that that window is gonna go much like a car.
[00:41:27] Colin Cuthbert: No. It's like taking your car to a mechanic and having an inspection done.
[00:41:31] Brian Higgins: A hundred percent. So a window doesn't necessarily fail every 40 years. So it's like, okay, what are the costs that are gonna be concerning where they have to levy it to a point where these are gonna be larger out-of-pocket expenses.
[00:41:44] Scott Dempster: Much the same too in detached housing, right? You're looking at a house for a client and you're going, okay, that roof its cedar and it's near the end of its lifespan, and that's gonna be a capital expenditure that my clients, if they purchase this home, are gonna need to allocate funds towards
[00:42:01] Brian Higgins: Totally
[00:42:01] Scott Dempster: down the road.
[00:42:01] Brian Higgins: Yeah.
[00:42:02] Scott Dempster: It's just on a different scale, obviously,
[00:42:04] Brian Higgins: but I think the problem with the condo purchasers is that people assumed because there was a monthly maintenance fee. The maintenance was being done.
[00:42:12] Scott Dempster: Right.
[00:42:13] Brian Higgins: Right. Because it's like, well then what's this $700 a month maintenance fee, or $500 a month maintenance fee?
[00:42:17] Scott Dempster: Mm-hmm.
[00:42:18] Brian Higgins: Right. So I think when you look at the condo projects, like it's one thing we, when we bought our house, we put solar in a new roof on our house, and it cost me 70 grand.
[00:42:26] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:42:26] Brian Higgins: So, you know, and, and that was on the more expensive end
[00:42:28] Scott Dempster: Yeah.
[00:42:28] Brian Higgins: At the end of the day. But the, the challenge is when you look at a building, okay, if, if it's a tower and you're gonna paint it, your paint cost is gonna be probably a million and a half dollars.
[00:42:37] Right? Right. So the, the, the, the numbers are big when you're dealing with strata. Yeah. Um, the, you know, one of my major things in terms of red flags. I think membranes are a huge one. Mm-hmm. That people often overlook. Yeah. Because if you think of how we're built, okay, so you've got this podium to a high rise, but if there's roof deck membranes or membranes above the parkade, above concrete, you know, the building code requires the developer to do the building to the provincial building code.
[00:43:02] But when a strata has to redo a membrane, you're talking about pulling up like thousands of pounds of vegetation and dirt and exposing concrete and resealing concrete and the rest, like it's extremely laborous. And it, it's, it's extremely costly at the end of the day. So to me, like the big ones, roofs are pretty easy.
[00:43:21] You know, roofs on a high rise aren't that scary, that giant, it's an inverted roof system. You're gonna pull the p gravel, you're gonna pull the insulation and you're gonna, you know, redo it and, and put it back down. Um, but realistically, kind of once you hit that 20 year lifespan of a building, then it's like, okay, where are they on membranes? Are they doing spot repairs?
[00:43:37] Where are they on, you know, a painting project? 'cause realistically, you should be painting a building every 15 years. It's not for a look. It's to actually prevent spalling.
[00:43:45] Scott Dempster: Preserve it.
[00:43:45] Brian Higgins: Yeah. Right. Yeah. You know, you think of concrete, there's a ton of rebar in the concrete.
[00:43:49] Mm-hmm. And in our climate, being near the ocean, you wanna make sure that the spalling doesn't occur. Yeah. So you should be resealing that concrete. Yeah. At the end of the, and and, and a thick viscous paint. So it's painting projects, it's membranes. Um, elevators are costly. Yeah. At the end of the day. And elevators take a long time too.
[00:44:06] You know, if a building's redoing elevators, that can be up to a year if parts and all the rest, especially during COVID, like the supply chain issues. So elevators are a disaster. If you've got one elevator running, you're in a 30 story tower, well, you might as well get used to walking up and down stairs.
[00:44:20] Colin Cuthbert: Well, I've enjoyed hanging out with you and living.
[00:44:22] Scott Dempster: Yeah, man. This has been awesome
[00:44:24] Colin Cuthbert: getting to know you.
[00:44:24] Scott Dempster: Where can the people find you? How do they reach out if they got all things questions for your real estate portfolio?
[00:44:30] Colin Cuthbert: Yeah, a hundred percent.
[00:44:31] Brian Higgins: I mean, YVRglobal.com. So like the airport global.com.
[00:44:35] Yeah. And otherwise I'm at 135 Davy Street Monday to Friday. You won't find me there on weekends, but, uh, you can.
[00:44:41] Scott Dempster: And can they find you on the Instagram or they find you?
[00:44:43] Brian Higgins: Yeah, they, they can find me at, uh, @brianhiggins_prec okay. I, I don't know that that is allowed under the marketing act with the whole prec thing, but I still run.
[00:44:51] Scott Dempster: I'll ignore that.
[00:44:52] Brian Higgins: I'm not gonna change my handle. I've had a couple weird guys reach out to me and I'm like, yeah, no, not changing that, because it doesn't have little asterisk and personal.
[00:45:00] Colin Cuthbert: Well, the asterisk.
[00:45:01] Brian Higgins: Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, you're not allowed.
[00:45:02] Scott Dempster: I call it the star.
[00:45:03] Brian Higgins: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're not allowed to on Instagram rules for a handle. I'm like, I can't change that. I'm not changing that now. Yeah. But c'est la vie.
[00:45:11] Scott Dempster: Gotcha.
[00:45:12] Brian Higgins: All right.
[00:45:12] Scott Dempster: Okay, man. Cool. Been awesome. Appreciate it.
[00:45:15] Colin Cuthbert: Thanks guys for Yeah. Giving us your time.
[00:45:17] Brian Higgins: Caio, Caio
[00:45:18] 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.