Sarah Warren

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BUSINESS BASICS

Started as a Realtor in: Spring of 2010

Specialization: Vancouver West Side, but is happy to work all over the lower mainland. Working with single family homes is also an area of expertise.

One-piece of advice for your clients: Choose your realtor based on best personal fit, not necessarily on resume and credentials. Be clear on what you want and expect.

Why Sutton West Coast? Sutton West Coast is the #1 brokerage in the lower mainland with 20 offices. There is an extensive team working in tandem to deal with all aspects of a transaction.

Q & A

1. What differentiates you from the 11,000 licensed real estate agents in the Greater Vancouver area? The little things; I pride myself on personal, detailed-orientated service to clients, always going a step beyond.

2. What was your favorite success story? A young family was surprised with a new addition to their family and they were in immediate need of finding a bigger home. They were nervous and consumed with the changes going on with their life. It was a gratifying experience to guide them through the process of purchasing the home in which they would raise their new family.

3. Who has been your most interesting client? Helping a gentleman from Korea relocate to Vancouver. He did not speak English well. It was interesting to learn more about other cultures and customs and to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak the same language.

4. What inspired you to be a Realtor? My experience as a first-time homebuyer was nerve racking and I had a lot of questions and concerns. I didn’t feel like I was given the time and attention that I needed to feel comfortable with the process. I was young and felt undervalued as a client. I wanted to be a realtor that made the experience fun and exciting for that first time client and would deliver the same service weither they were purchasing a studio apartment or a 5 bedroom home.

PERSONAL SNAP SHOT

About: Sarah is a new mom to a baby girl born in late September. She lives in Kerrisdale with her husband, baby and dog. She loves her neighborhood and community and enjoys being involved with it. She enjoys the arts, music, and theatre and prides herself as a foodie and wine lover!

Likes (If you had more time, what would you do more of): Spending more time outside and being active; that always gets pushed aside when busy. The schedule always gets booked so fast that fitting more time with friends would be wonderful.

Loves (can’t live without): The love of food of wine, and of course, family!

THE EXTRAS

To Sarah every client is different when it comes to what they want out of a Realtor, that’s why it’s important to listen well and understand a client’s needs. One of Sarah’s best features is her intuition. She has always had a talent in interpreting and identifying with people. She can work well with a variety of people and can anticipate their needs.

There are challenging aspects to the job, but Sarah thinks the challenges pale in comparison to what she loves most, which is helping to find the perfect house that her clients can will call their home.

Contact Sarah

TED: The Young, The Wise, The Undiscovered

I had an opportunity over the past 6 months to work with a local event company out of North Vancouver, Procreation Design Works Inc., who manages and produces the operations and logistics for TED and their annual conferences. Although TED has grown and transformed into one of the most anticipated conferences of our modern day history, I have found that many are still not aware of the organization and it’s achievements. First, when I refer to TED, it is not a person, nor is it the bear from the movie.  TED, as it is described at TED.com is:

…a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference on the West Coast each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.

With TED’s recent announcement to move the conference to Vancouver/Whistler next year for it’s 30th anniversary, our local community will soon see first-hand the capacity and calibre of this event.

The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered was the theme for the 2013 TED Conference held in Long Beach and TEDActive Conference in Palm Springs.  It featured over 60 world-class speakers including new and undiscovered voices along side some of the wisest from the TED community.

If you have never watched a TED Talk before, I encourage you to take 18 minutes and get intimate with at least one speaker.  You will feel enlightened, empowered, regenerated and inspired.  Usually, you’re enticed to watch more.  Talks range from 3-minute mini sessions to 20-minute full length sessions; specifically designed to address key points without boring the audience in length.

So whom would I recommend you watch?  This year was full of incredible choices and has compounded to the over 1000 talks shared on TED.com.  Perhaps start off with a local Canadian?  From Penticton, BC, Shane Koyczan, shared his spoken-word poem addressing bullying.  You might recognize his style and voice from the 2010 Winter Olympic Opening Ceremonies spoken-word poem “We Are More.”

http://www.ted.com/talks/shane_koyczan_to_this_day_for_the_bullied_and_beautiful

Amanda Palmer and Sugata Mitra have strong parallels with their underlying message, even though their topics were not at all connected.  One spoke to the experiences in music and art, the other on education, but both concluded that it’s no longer how we “make” people buy music or learn, it’s how we “let” them.   They noted the need to dismantle fear and threats from our interactions so that developments can happen naturally, with trust and encouragement.  By also including the simple act of “asking” (a question or for help), the results can be quite overwhelmingly positive.

http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html

Dan Pallotta gives a powerful speech on social innovation and the need to change the way we want to change the world.  He believes the way we think about charity is dead wrong and that we work from a rule book that discriminates against non-profits from making necessary profits.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_way_we_think_about_charity_is_dead_wrong.html

Lastly, I would be amiss if I didn’t feature one of my great idols, Bono.  He spoke to the progress made on poverty and how we need to continue to demand for transparency as it is the vaccination for greed.  Working together, the power of people is so much stronger than the people in power.

http://www.ted.com/talks/bono_the_good_news_on_poverty_yes_there_s_good_news.html

 Find more talks at TED.com/talks

Central Townhouse

Wishing Tree 53, 9566 Tomicki Avenue, Richmond MLS: V995985

List Price: $589,000 Floor Area: 1,309 Unit: 3 Beds: 3 Bath Maintenance Fee: $176.14 Taxes: $2,332

PROS

• 1/2 bath located on the main living floor
• Additional room developed in the garage
• Club house facility within steps
• Location – close to shopping, parks and schools
• Visitor parking close by
• Newer complex

CONS

• Similar layout to all new townhouse designs, not original
• Balcony facing north
• Complex feels a bit crowed for driving/parking
• Not many areas for storage
• Bedrooms are not overly spacious

COMPARABLES

Wishing Tree at 9566 Tomicki

MORTGAGE DETAILS

Interest Rate: 2.89% Purchase Price: $589,000

High Ratio Loan (less than 20% down payment); 25-year amortization Down Payment (5%): $29,450 CMCH fees: $15,387.62 Total loan: $574,937.62 Amortization: 25 years Payment: $2,688.52

Approximate income required: $118,500

Conventional Loan (20% or more down payment); 30-year amortization Down Payment (20%): $117,800 Total Loan: $471,200 Amortization: 30 years Payment: $1,958.32

Approximate income required: $91,000

From my home to yours - Irene

Set for Spring Cleaning – Think Repurpose

The sun has finally come to Vancouver and spring cleaning is in the air.  With this years cleaning, consider repurposing items or designing new concepts for your home, garden, workshop and gifting.  Check out some great ideas below.  Click each picture for more details...

Immigration and Employment to hold housing steady

Overall Market

• In a report released this month, the federal agency said 62 per cent of households owned a home in 1981 and by 2006 this proportion had risen to 69 per cent.
• Over the past few months most markets have started to cool with sales down 17% nationally, following moves by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and the banking regulator to tighten mortgage lending rules.
• One of the world’s leading debt rating agencies, Moody, downgraded five of Canada’s big banks due to exposure to over-leveraged consumers. Stock markets were not affected with shares continued on a winning streak that’s been going on more than six months.
• According to Boston Consulting, in China, the number of millionaires hit 1.4-million in 2011 from 1.2-million the year before. That number is expected to keep growing “strongly” in the coming years. Investors from mainland China tend to see Canada as one of the top destinations for real-estate investment, according to real estate services provider Colliers International.
• Canadian building permits fell 11.2% in December after a 14.5% decline in November. The biggest two-month drop fall since the data series started in 1989, and left the value of building permits 16.2% lower than a year earlier.
• Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp showed the housing market was even weaker than expected, there were 9,904 actual starts last month, compared with 13,038 in January 2012.
• Sales were up 1.3% in January from December, the Canadian Real Estate Association. The trade group for the country’s real estate agents said that compared with a year earlier actual sales for January, not seasonally adjusted, were down 5.2%.
• The number of newly listed homes rose 1.6% month over month in January, the first monthly increase since last September
• The International Monetary Fund, in its annual report on Canada, also said the country’s currency was between 5 and 15% higher than warranted by long-term economic fundamentals and estimated that Canadian home prices are overvalued by an average of 10 per cent and predicted an “adjustment” over the next five years
• CMHC forecasts the number of housing starts to range between 178,600 and 202,000 units in 2013, with a point forecast of 190,300 units. In 2014, there will between 171,200 and 217,000 units of housing started, with a point forecast of 194,100 units. The average MLS price is forecast to be between $356,500 and $378,500 in 2013 and between $363,800 and $390,800 in 2014. Housing construction activity will trend lower in the first half of 2013, before gaining more momentum by the end of the year as economic and employment growth remain supportive of the Canadian housing market.

Vancouver

• Home sales are forecast to increase this year and next, with average prices dropping slightly in 2013 and crawling higher in 2014: the British Columbia Real Estate Association. This latest forecast calls for a 5.6-per-cent increase in the number of sales in 2013 and a further 6.1-per-cent increase in 2014, after the number of sales fell 11.8 per cent in 2012.
• In Metro Vancouver, the number of sales in Vancouver fell nearly 23 per cent in 2012, but the BCREA expects they will pick up over the next two years with growth in both employment and immigration and a hold on low interest rates. The forecast calls for 75,830 units to be sold in 2014 in B.C., while the five-year average is 74,600 and the 10-year average is 86,800 units, BCREA said. The average residential price is expected to drop one per cent in the province to $510,000 in 2013, and edge up 0.6 per cent in 2014 to $513,500. Housing starts in the province will fall 3.5 per cent to 26,500 units in 2013, and go up 1.5 per cent to 26,900 units in 2014, the forecast said. The transition from the harmonized sales tax to the provincial sales tax may add a short-term boost to new homes sales this spring, the forecast said.

Calgary

• Calgary’s resale housing market had its best January for sales since 2008 as average prices also climbed to their highest level ever for the month.
• According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, total MLS sales in the city in January were 1,230, up 15.17 per cent from a year ago while the average sale price rose by 12.34 per cent cent to $439,671. The previous record high for the average sale price in any January was in 2008 at $413,271.
• Factors that influence the Calgary housing sector include: The growth within the energy sector is significant along with consumer confidence in the marketplace as well as steady economic performance.
• CREB noted the single-family home benchmark price jumped by 9.01 per cent to $436,900. It rose by 7.49 per cent in the condo apartment category to $251,300 and it was up by 4.85 per cent in the condo townhouse category to $283,400.
• There were 34 MLS sales in Calgary of properties over $1 million in January — just shy of the January record of 36 luxury sales in 2007. Calgary finished 2012 with an all-time record of 544 luxury home sales, eclipsing the previous mark of 458 in 2007.
• Calgary census metropolitan area will grow by 1.37 per cent this year to 27,000 units followed by another 2.59 per cent growth in 2014 to 27,700 transactions.
• The average sale price is expected to rise by 2.59 per cent this year to $423,000 and by another 2.6 per cent in 2014 to $434,000.
• According to the Calgary Real Estate Board, year-to-date until February 21, total MLS sales in the city of 2,498 are up 11.57 per cent compared with the same period last year and the average sale price has risen by 10.63 per cent to $448,635.

Toronto

• Urbanation Inc., one of the leading research companies in the condo industry, said overall the Toronto census metropolitan area was 79% sold in the fourth quarter of 2012, down from 80% a quarter earlier and 82% a year earlier. It is above the 10-year average of 78%. Resale activity in the condo market was down 14% in the fourth quarter for the lowest quarterly level in a decade but Urbanation said it was due to a lack of listing.
• As of last September, net migration in Ontario had fallen by 20 per cent year-over-year to below 60,000 new residents, says a CMHC. That’s the lowest levels of net migration since the late 1990s and about 40 per cent less than the 110,000 or so people who migrated to the province annually.
• New condo sales in Toronto fell 47 per cent in the last quarter of 2012, even as the number of units under construction hit an all-time high, according to data from market research firm Urbanation.
• There were 3,841 new condos sold in Toronto in the last three months of 2012, compared with 7,226 sales in the same period a year earlier.
• At the same time, the number of total condo units under construction in Toronto hit a record high of 56,866 in 2012. The number of construction starts also hit an all-time high, at 24,388.
• Urbanation reports the average selling price in Toronto in 2013 was $536, up 5.2 per cent from the year before. That would suggest condo prices may be falling because developers are building smaller units.
• The Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB) is reporting a strong start to 2013. Home sales were down just 1.3 per cent in January over a year earlier, welcome news after six months of largely double-digit decreases.