Character Properties – As a life long artist, good design lights me up. Researching the history of a home or community with heritage is a real passion of mine. I currently own two character properties that I renovate, maintain, manage tenancies in & love with all my heart. They take a certain finesse.
Co-Housing & Co-Investment Real Estate Partnerships – My parents live on a cooperative farm and show me the value of the sharing economy every day. I have been in 5 different real estate partnerships myself now over the years and I could talk your ear off about the costs & benefits of this emerging strategy to get a better home for less money in Vancouver.
DIY Renovation – I am an enthusiastic content creator when it comes to making instructional videos about gardening, maintaining a home, or adding value via sweat equity. I love to teach my clients, neighbors & friends all about the home renovation hacks I have learned over the years in my operations as a Realtor, landlord & home owner in Vancouver.
Airbnb – I operate a beautiful woodsy vacation rental cabin property on the Sunshine Coast that is primarily available for my network to use. I Airbnb my home in Vancouver when I travel. Operating two Airbnb character properties has prepared me well as an agent in this specialty.
Home Staging – Due to my background in arts & farming, I actually love doing the work moving furniture & accessorizing to style a home up perfectly for a sale. I have been building my own staging collection for over a decade and I am proud to offer a unique touch for eclectic properties. I will come in and work with the things you already have so that your home is showing it’s best. You get to see me work up a sweat and really earn my keep!
East Vancouver – While I spent time living in the West End & Kitsilano after moving into the city from a childhood in Chilliwack, the East side has been my beloved community and home for 11 years now. I have been happily settled in Hastings Sunrise for 5 years after spending a beautiful chapter right on Trout Lake, near Commercial Drive in Grandview Woodland. Hastings Sunrise is my ideal community and I don’t plan on going anywhere ever.
North Vancouver – I have been hiking and enjoying the natural playgrounds in North Van my whole life. I really enjoy working in the community because the landscape and architecture offer a nice contrast to Vancouver. You can find me there weekly with my dog 🙂
Call me if you need help with anything above! I love this stuff 🙂
Q: As Vancouver gets a little colder, what activity can you be found doing?
A: Wherever possible, I recommend people have a covered deck with a propane fire pit. I love to sit and relax by the fire with a hot drink on cold nights. I love to do this in the rain. Very cozy! 🌧
Q: What’s one kitchen gadget or appliance you couldn’t live without?
A: My air fryer is the best invention I ever met. How does it cook so perfectly EVERY TIME?
Q: If someone had never visited Vancouver, where’s the first place you’d bring them?
A: Walk the trails in the forests of Stanley Park and pop out at 3rd beach, then take the seawall back home. A perfect loop to take in the trees, ocean, city and mountain views. You can have a snack after on Denman near English Bay. Then go on a brewery bike tour through East Van, hit the shopping on Commercial drive or take your dog to New Brighton in Hastings-Sunrise.
Q: What’s one fun fact about you?
A: I live for bad karaoke. I bought a concrete house so I could have big karaoke parties with my friends. Karaoke is not about sounding good, it’s about feeling like a pop star! GO GET IT KIDS! 🎤
Q: What encouraged you to choose a career in real estate/what do you love about your job?
A: My mother convinced me to get my real estate license at 21 because I was always a social butterfly with a knack for home design. While growing up in our big farmhouse, I moved around into each bedroom, completely redesigning it from top to bottom. She would catch me at 10 years old trying to move big furniture around by myself in the middle of the night, completely obsessed with staging the perfect room.
Q: What’s one tip you can give to someone who is selling their home?
A: Detailed cleaning and good lighting goes a long way! Detail each room and wash your baseboards. It gives an overall feel of good maintenance. Change your light bulbs to match in a soft bright light and stage with stylish lamps in every dark corner.
If you’re looking to buy or sell a home, feel free to reach out!
What if you could set up a thoughtful, functional partnership where you live in part of a home and pay for part of a home? What if you could share in the costs, maintenance and equity growth of detached housing and land, therefore avoiding the limitations associated with condo investment.
Experienced in these types of transactions, I want to show people this can be a happy, mutually beneficial arrangement for many types of home owners.
Better together?! My Story of Co-Housing & Investment Partnerships
Ruth, my formidable mentor, had owned several investments in partnership with others for decades. Her seamless approach to sharing risk and reward with a trusted friend, colleague or family member was inspiring to me, to say the least. At a time when I was shopping for a condo that I wanted the flexibility to live in or rent out, this concept was especially attractive because it meant I could pool my money to get a safer investment. With the ability to renovate freely and tend a garden, a detached property just felt like a better fit for my goals. The limitations of strata bylaws meant I may not have the freedom to renovate or rent out the unit when I’d like to, and the risk of older rental buildings needing massive capital re-investment into upgrades had me feeling a bit nervous about leveraging myself.
Enter my new friend Drew the carpenter. He was also shopping for a condo around the same time and we had a similar amount to spend. He shared my renovation dreams and we enjoyed musing on the gardens and decks we’d one day build. After watching my mentors handle successful co-ownership for years, it felt fairly natural to bring it up with Drew. We decided, with cautious excitement, to pool our resources and engage in a partnership to buy a house with some land instead. Something we could work on and invest not just money, but time into as well. We could use our dovetailing skills for the benefit of a renovation, and either one or both of us could live in the 2 level home if need be.
So we cautiously (but excitedly) spoke with a lawyer and mortgage broker about pursuing this idea. Drew and I discussed our needs and dreams for the venture as we sent each other listings; noticing how good it felt to work as a team on the idea. I learned I could be braver while sharing in the risks and rewards with someone else. We took the steps to purchase a home together & draft a custom legal partnership agreement, in case one of us had to exit.
10 years & 3 personal co housing partnerships later
I have learned a lot and am happy to share the costs and benefits of doing this with friends, colleagues, parents, or strangers. It is my passion to share this with my clients.
The Steps to Partnership
TRUST FIRST as Ruthie said to me – “You have to start with a foundation of trust, after that it’s pretty easy”
GET PREAPPROVED – All partners will need to engage with a mortgage broker together to secure the necessary financing for the property. The amount of mortgage the parties will be qualified for depends on their total combined income, liabilities, and down payment. Seeking a mortgage with your bank or broker comes at no cost to the buyer and should be one of the first steps towards any housing purchase. It’s not as simple as adding everyone’s budgets up. Get financial advice well in advance of shopping.
A LAWYER-MADE PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT in place is the next step to a safe co-housing situation. It generally costs $1500 – $2000 in addition to your property closing costs of approximately $1000. A lawyer will take about a week to prepare it. You and all partners should convene with a lawyer and discuss your needs. The agreement is then made custom for you depending on the shared arrangements. Ideally, you would start creating the agreement with a legal professional prior to house shopping; then customize and finish signing it during your subject-condition period – so that the agreement is specific to the type of property you choose. The initial lawyer meeting will draw out many of the complicated discussions you and your potential partner will need to address prior to engaging in a purchase together.
EXIT STRATEGY is the most important thing to agree to in your partnership agreement. What happens when one partner must move on? Can just their share be sold? Who can they sell it to and when? Other things outlined in the agreement will be surrounding access, administration and maintenance of the property.
Once you have thoroughly discussed all of the possible outcomes of this partnership with a legal professional, and you have been pre-approved by a mortgagor; you can start shopping for a property with a real estate agent.
WRITE A PURCHASE CONTRACT with all partners on title. Upon completion of the transaction you can arrange the ownership into a custom ownership structure. 50/50 is easiest for everyone, but fractional ownership can work too. You may want to do this if people have differing incomes or living space needs. A home may have a lovely 2 level upper suite and a small basement suite. The upstairs owner could pay for 70% of the home, while the basement dweller pays for 30%. It’s simple enough to arrange a partnership in the way that suits you best.
During the subject-condition period of the offer – you and all partners will solidify the partnership agreement customized to the house you have offered on and secure an adequate mortgage.
HOUSE RULES can be made to live by. This can be something akin to a strata where you construct your own bylaws and land use plan. EX: Who uses what yard space? Who maintains whose yard? Who pays for which renovations? Are sublets allowed?
If you have done all of this due diligence in addition to your other required subject conditions, and still feel trusting of your potential co-housing partner, then this is something that could be really functional and meaningful for you.
Vancouver Specials work particularly well when considering samples for this concept. They are generally:
* 2 equal levels of square box, easily found above-grade with no basementy feel. The lower level is often bright and comfortable with direct access to the yard and possible a crawl space. They are simple to renovate and modify to your space needs.
* Each unit can have a private yard, patio, or deck. Or you can choose to share in the tending of both back & front yard spaces together. Let the pets or kids play together or use fencing & landscape design to keep things more private.
* Split a garage down the middle with some drywall or enjoy the building / renting potential of a laneway house. Garages can easily be converted into rec rooms, offices, work shops, yoga gyms etc, so that you can add even more private or common space depending on how you’d like to use it.
* In East Vancouver you can find plenty of supply of these homes and sexy, modern renovations apply well to their original construction. Think metal siding, timber details, a fun color palette, glass decks, new roof lines, skylights! So much is possible with these basic boxy frames.
Why pay $1000+ per sqft for a condo, when you could buy half a Vancouver Special with a yard & garage for less?
Vancouver Co-Ownership Specialist
I think this is the way forward Vancouver. Call me if you want to exchange ideas on this topic or if have any questions about residential housing partnerships, I am passionate about seeing this trend rise in our city.
* ASK ME ABOUT MY CHEAT SHEET TO START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT THIS WITH POTENTIAL PARTNERS!
Purchasing a home is one of the biggest things one will do in life. Once you begin the search for your dream home, considering your needs and price range, exploring different neighbourhoods for livability is of paramount importance. Have you ever been driving from Fraser Street to Main Street and noticed that some blocks look to be straight out of a Dr. Seuss tale? These sinking sidewalks, swampy yards and crooked structures are located on softer soil areas now known as The Peat Bog. These areas were formerly swamps and riverbeds that were drained and built upon quickly during the mid-century era. If you’re looking to buy a home in Vancouver, there are many properties located on The Peat Bog to be aware of when shopping. Compromised framing, sinking foundations, crooked fence lines and muddy yards are the least of your worries in these areas. Purchasing a home or lot located on the Peat Bog can add significant risks in the livability / maintenance and often changes the overall value of a property. New builds have many extra city requirements (soil samples, safety reports) which add paperwork, time and money to your project. The Peat Bog is just one more important reason to hire an experienced local Realtor to help you in your search. In most cases a Buyer’s Agent is completely free to the Buyer. It’s important to hire one you trust to be educated by about the factors that effect the areas you are interested in.
Always check The Peat Bog map
It is important to always check on a peat bog map and understand that it is not a perfect resource. The borders of the map are not proven without site testing. You will not know if a property is truly affected without professional soil testing. Be sure to do a thorough visual investigation of the foundation, framing, and drainage for any property located near a Peat Bog area on the map, AND ANY OTHER PROPERTY FOR THAT MATTER! The map above shows bog areas in green. Areas to be wary of are those surrounding Trout Lake, Prince Edward Street and Inverness Street; pockets from 16th Avenue to 24th Avenue and many blocks near Kingsway.
What can be done to help these boggy areas?
To straighten up and add support to a structure on the bog, many will use SCREW PILES. These long steel posts are drilled down until they hit hard surface material to rest the structure upon. In addition to using Screw Piles, which can be very expensive and arduous to install depending on how far down the soft soil goes, added efforts in landscape planning and drainage are also required to create a functional, dry and stable property throughout. The City of Vancouver is doing its part today by testing rubber sidewalks to expand the usable life of these shifting surfaces.
Sometimes, you’ll find a listing asking an unbelievable asking price. Well… let’s just say there’s always a reason for it!
You may have heard the term Rainscreen, especially while shopping for apartments in Vancouver or the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Realtors are quick to use the term as a sales feature on the listing, but why? We know we get a lot of rain in the area, but what does it mean to screen it? A rainscreen is a method of exterior envelope design on buildings, that allows water or vapor to safely pass through a cavity between the layers of envelope material and drain away without damaging the components beneath it. The insulation and wood framing beneath the exterior siding are susceptible to rot and mold if exposed to water penetration that cannot dry out. If an area is left leaky long enough, the wood structure beneath will weaken, eventually causing serious harm to the integrity of the building infrastructure as well as potential health and safety risks to strata residents. The longer the leak persists, the more exorbitant the cost to fix it. It is not uncommon for each unit owner in a condo building to be out of pocket by $50,000 – $100,000 when their strata assesses a special levy to pay for a full envelope rainscreen project.
The “Leaky Condo Crisis” in Vancouver
Prior to the proliferation of the rainscreen design in the early 2000’s, exterior envelopes were thought to be best built with tight fitting layers of material, preventing water penetration. We have since learned that NOTHING can prevent water penetration when you live in a rain forest, so we must allow for water to enter, drain away and dry out inside the envelope system, leaving the wood framing and insulation materials intact. In the early 2000’s, buildings built in the construction boom of 1985-2000 began to suffer from widespread leaks and decay. Water entered, mold grew and buildings became unsafe for habitation. Strata owners were unprepared to deal with the construction process and financial implications of rebuilding their exteriors. In B.C. alone an estimated $4 billion in damage occurred to over 900 buildings and 31,000 individual housing units, establishing it as the most extensive and costly reconstruction of housing stock in Canadian history. Most of the buildings effected are low-rise, 3-4 story buildings constructed of wood-frame construction, as well as some with steel, concrete, and metal stud construction types, including highrises – most notably, those sided with an exterior material called EIFS.
How Does a Strata Go About Adding A Rainscreen?
Let’s say the building is leaking on 3 out of 4 corners – the balconies are showing signs of obvious rot and getting bouncy – and the windows have black mold stains around them inside and out. At first, the strata is likely to repair the issues with a targeted approach, fixing what is most pertinent first, so that owners can save up cash to pay for the major upgrade projects on the horizon that need to be tackled. The strata will start to discuss options for exploring, funding and fixing the issues. They will typically hire an engineering firm to do a Building Envelope Condition Assessment, where core samples and surveys of residents are taken. The strata is provided with moisture readings and repair recommendations. In many cases, a targeted renewal approach costs less up front for the owners, but more money in the long run. The building can end up looking like a patch work of old and new materials, sometimes devaluing the market prices of resales. If the engineering reports detail that the structure is being weakened in a widespread fashion and the council opts to renew the envelope, they will put the project out for tender to different contracting firms to offer quotes. Several, sometimes tense, strata meetings later, a contracting firm will be chosen to do the work and a Special General Meeting or Annual General Meeting will be called, so that all owners can vote on the best strategy to fund the quoted project. Eventually, after many months of meetings and fund collection, the project will ensue. Tarps will be wrapped around the building for approximately 3-9 months and residents will be living in a construction site for nearly a year.
How Does A Strata Fund A Rainscreen Project?
The strata will call an Special General Meeting or Annual General Meeting to vote on funding strategies. They may opt to take some money from the Contingency Reserve Fund (the strata’s savings account), but these accounts are most often drastically under-equipped, typically to keep monthly strata fees low for owners. The strata may then opt to raise strata fees to boost funds, borrow the amount from a bank with interest on a payment plan and/or put owners on a special levy payment schedule. It is not uncommon to see rainscreen levies of $50,000+ per unit. We often see this split into equal payments spread out over a year or two. I recommend understanding your mortgage and the ability to refinance for anyone buying an older condo that carries this significant risk. In many cases it can be wise to refinance the cost, to keep your asset operating itself. The way I see it – you can either buy something new, and have the total operating costs inside your mortgage, or you can buy something old and continue funding its maintenance outside of your original debt. Real estate values are quite relative in this way.
* It’s important to keep in mind that many lenders will not fund a traditional mortgage on a building that needs to be imminently rainscreened. Lenders apply a risk quotient to your purchase file and often ask to read the strata documents. If the leaky building is risky in their eyes, then you as a buyer will need to have extra down payment funds, or very low-risk income levels, to accomplish obtaining a mortgage. Some risky buildings are flagged by CMHC and Genworth and cannot be insured at all, so no one with less than 20% down payment can buy a property there. For this reason, it can be a challenge to sell homes in a building that holds this kind of risk, especially in the entry level market. One bedroom condos in Mount Pleasant, for example, have lost market value with the decreased demand until the project is complete, which can take years.
The Good News!
If you can manage the costs and live through the mess, you can make great equity on your resale, once a strata is rainscreened. To maximize capitalization on your real estate investment, you can either renovate a unit’s interior, or you can pay your share to renovate the exterior. You might have to reinvest $50K+ into your asset, but you could easily make an additional $100K+ on your resale value. This is because the building looks brand new, the purchasers risk goes down measurably, and it will attract buyers with higher incomes than prior. I would go so far as to say it can be wise to invest in some leaky condos. If you rent it out while owning, perhaps for a decreased rent amount – your expenses can create a positive tax implication, and you can resell later for much more.
How Can You Tell If An Apartment Has A Rainscreened Exterior?
Well first off, you can ask the listing agent; however in many cases the building will be partially rainscreened, so it’s important to further verify where and when the work was done with documents from the strata.
Reading the strata documents is an important method of due diligence for any condo purchase, so be sure to read through them carefully with your real estate agent. If the information you need is not obvious, call the property manager or ask to speak with a council member.
Hanging around the front door and speaking with neighbors is some of the most thorough due diligence one could do prior to purchasing, and something I do for all my clients in their condo deals.
Walk around the building, doing a thorough visual review of the exterior components. Are the balconies sloping or suffering from rot? Can you see mold or staining on the siding? Around the windows/doors? In many cases, the wind driven rain comes from the east in Vancouver. This, coupled with the breakdown in sealant around windows at the south elevation of the building that comes from sunshine weathering, creates the weakness that allows water to penetrate. Check the southeast corner of the building most diligently.
Buildings that have been rainscreened have typically added flashing (metal detailing strips) to shed water from the tops of windows and to break up large wall faces often hit with sun and rain.
Check through old listing history with your agent to see how the exterior building photos have changed over the years and read the old listing comments for further evidence of renewal work.
If you have any questions about Rainscreen Systems in Vancouver, call me anytime 778-554-9557
If you’re considering purchasing a home with a wood-burning fireplace, there are some things you should know. While wood-burning fireplaces bring character and charm to a home, they are far from environmentally friendly. Wood-burning fireplaces are also a significant source of fine particulate matter, which poses risks to people with respiratory and heart issues. In fact, much like cigarette smoke, wood smoke can be toxic and carry carcinogens.
Although wood-burning fireplaces are quite rare these days, the government has placed restrictions on the use of wood-burning fireplaces in Metro Vancouver by implementing the GVRD Air Quality Management Bylaw. Before you decide to purchase a home with a wood-burning fireplace, it’s a good idea to understand what this entails. This Bylaw states: “No person may burn or allow to be burned in any residential fireplace or stove any fuel other than wood, paper or derivatives of wood and paper, or natural gas, and no person may operate a residential fireplace or stove other than in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommended operating procedures and in a manner which minimizes emissions.”
The Bylaw doesn’t stop here. Further restrictions are coming to Metro Vancouver, with a new law stating that as of 2021, it is illegal to use wood-burning fireplaces and stoves between May 15 and September 15 unless it is your primary source of heat. Then, in 2022, Metro Vancouver will require the registration of clean wood-burning appliances in designated urban areas. In 2025, unregistered appliances will no longer be allowed in urban areas, even outside the summer months. The restrictions around wood-burning fireplaces are put in place to protect the air quality in Metro Vancouver, encouraging homeowners to adopt cleaner forms of energy. Still, there’s no denying the magical smell and sounds of crackling wood logs on a crisp winter night.
If you’re considering purchasing a home with a wood-burning fireplace, it’s important to understand the rules and restrictions that you’ll need to abide by and ensure that your wood-burning fireplace is registered and upgraded to environmental standards if you intend to use it.
In the market for a new home? Let’s find one with a Pinterest-worthy fireplace.
