builder market issues in calgary

Builder Market Issues

Rob (00:00):

Hey, Rob here, Rob Johnstone again with Remax this week, I thought I’d take it into our actual weekly sales meeting. It’s kind of interesting this week. That’s why I wanted to do it. Kevin hatch. He’s a sales manager for homes by Avie and he’s talking about some of the problems, pitfalls and opportunities working with builders in this, uh, crazy high pace calgary housing market that we find ourselves in. So, uh, stay tuned once we’re done. I’ll I’ll touch base with you at the end five or now

Lum (00:30):

This morning, we, of course, we’re pleased to have, um, Kevin hatch on who, uh, some of you might know, Kevin used to work for us at one time and, uh, not totally a strange face to us at all. And, uh, he’s gonna give us a bit of a idea as to what challenges the builders are dealing with right now.

Kevin (00:51):

Yeah, sure. Thanks L um, I’ve been in the calgary home building industry since 99, I think as a general sales manager at Trico homes. And I’m the, our sales manager at homes by a, like probably our number one thing that we’re dealing with right now is land availability. So, uh, due to COVID, the developers didn’t have a chance to really, uh, develop all the land that they needed or else they were holding back. Cuz let’s be honest, nobody expected this kind of, uh, a calgary housing market here in the last year and a half even support rising COVID did not affect sales on the new calgary mls listings so much. And in the last three months has been ridiculous. So, and a lot of that’s coming from the outside pressure of Toronto. As we know, um, as a builder ourselves, we probably had 50% of our calgary home sales on the single family and probably 70% on the multi-family go directly to Toronto buyers here in the last three months.

Kevin (01:44):

So it’s, it’s the good and bad of that. The bad is for Calgary new listings. It’s, it’s tough for Calgary realtors and their calgary home buyers, um, trying to buy in our own calgary housing market right now, cuz you’re competing against Toronto and uh, they see a price tag and it’s for them, it looks free and, and for us we’re stretching to and make that work for our local families here. So that’s a, that’s a challenge, but again, all the home builders are businesses. So we’re trying to maximize our profit right now. Cause the last four or five years, as you know, I’ve been, uh, I’ve been a challenge for sure. It’s this is maybe the first year and four years that we’re gonna hit a, a positive number. So it’s been real struggle. Um, and part of that struggle is labor costs. So I’ll just give you some examples here, just in case you, you guys wanted to have some information when you’re talking to your customers, if you’re trying to justify why the calgary house prices have gone up so much on new home construction.

Kevin (02:41):

So framers is I’ll just go over lumber and framers. That’s probably the easies. So lumber, we measured by a board foot. So it’s a, it’s a, it’s a only a construction term. Um, and uh, the board foot kind of just, it relays all the different types of materials, lumber materials that go into a house, not just two by four S and two by six S but all your Joyce truses and everything else like that. So we just quantify it as a calgary real estate board foot. And that number last year at this time was about $650 a board foot. Right now we’re at over $1,300 a board foot. Um, in the last month and a half, two months, it’s gone up over $350 a board foot. So it’s, and that’s, uh, you know, lumbers surprisingly not the biggest cost in the calgary house, but it, it it’s one of the biggest ones.

Kevin (03:32):

So, um, and then the framers themselves framers went from like on our multi-site about six $57 a square foot. And now they’re pushing 12, 13. Some builders are paying up to 14 or 15, if they’re a smaller builder and they’re unable to, um, give steady work to their framing crews, then they’re, they’re paying a little bit more than what we are, but that’s, uh, a significant change as you can, as you can hear. And then, um, you know, I just product availability, not so much right now, it’s, it’s still a little bit of an issue, but the, uh, in the fall, October, November, just getting, I mean, most calgary home builders were handing over homes without mirrors in them. Um, even one toilet for the whole house, uh, at possession wasn’t a and common. Um, we just, as a builder group in industry just had no calgary new listings coming from the us and, uh, it was a real challenge.

Kevin (04:31):

So, um, I’m sure a bunch of you have realized that with your customers when you were moving in. Um, but you know, we worked through that. I think there’s a better new calgary listings coming our way, but the problem with it now is that it’s definitely increased like drywalls increased 36% since October. Um, yeah, so it’s, it’s, uh, you know, the caalgary housing markets, I think they said has gone up 33%, that’s a pretty broad number over, um, but it’s, you know, our multi sites have gone up not to that extent. Um, apartments are still nowhere close to that for us on the builder side. Um, so there’s, there’s some definitely challenges with that, but we have seen the apartment side of things, uh, start to increase, but again, that’s the majority of our apartments are selling Toronto investors, um, or Toronto purchasers that say they’re moving here and you know, it’s great.

Kevin (05:29):

But, uh, so we’re, we’re dealing with that a lot. It has given us the opportunity to, to, um, go ahead with some projects in Calgary housing market, but we’re, uh, requiring 15, 20% down, um, as well as a mortgage approval letter. So that way, if it, it secures us a little bit more than five or 10% down, um, that’s us personally, as homes by Abby. I know some calgary house builders are doing five and 10%. Um, just when I’m looking at it, that’s on our big projects, that’s too much of a risk for us to take and I’d rather slow it down a little bit and, and be able to, uh, still get the number of sales, but have a, a healthier deposit kind of secures us a little bit better as a company. So, um, right from the ground up has been a, an issue for the land side.

Kevin (06:22):

So land side here is I was talking about earlier, um, the developers couldn’t get on, so that creates an issue trying to get a development permit, uh, and then building permits after that. And then so not sure, uh, some, some realtors are, are very good at understanding construction process and some aren’t just because it’s not their field, right? So it’s, um, there’s a lot of aspects that need to happen before you get into the ground. And the city to deal with is, um, a challenge and, uh, and is a major challenge. They went from 11 crews down to two during the pandemic. Now they’re up to seven again. Um, so even if we get development permit in a community, uh, by the time we get building permit, it could be seven months after that for or six months after that for. So, um, that we have power to the site that we can actually build the home without using generators.

Kevin (07:27):

And a lot of the cases we are using generators and that causes about $3,000 a month. Um, you know, and that’s a, a, about a point for us, uh, on margins. So it, it, uh, makes a big impact not having entered. And of course we can’t give occupancy without, and, and we’ve literally in a couple of our calgary communities been down to one or two days prior to homeowners moving in before that calgary community got. So it’s, uh, it’s been a challenge, but, you know, it’s, we’ve had good working relationships, especially with, with Remax, uh, and mountain view in particular. Um, I would love to say that all brokerages are as professional coming into our show homes, um, introducing people on the first visit and, um, not ghosting as soon as they got that first visit and never seeing their customer or the home builder again, tell possession.

Kevin (08:24):

So, um, I do appreciate the work that, uh, you guys do, and I know that comes from the top down. So, um, commissions, I know some of your are obviously wanting to know about commission structure, um, in the building industry, you know, it’s, it’s sad, but it’s the way it is, is, uh, we we’ve dropped our emission structure, uh, to a flat fee. And I know the majority of builders have too, and some builders aren’t even working with realtors right now, but we still are. Um, just to let you know, our, our priority is typically, um, and this is, uh, the best way for us to work is to try and maximize profit obviously is to work without a realtor first. Uh, they work in our, with our sales teams. Um, I don’t have pretty much all my team is to, uh, a licensed realtor.

Kevin (09:18):

Um, and I know a lot of realtors have a problem with that, that calgary home sales people are selling in show homes without a license. Um, that’s a pretty easy turnaround for me because they are, uh, professional trained on new home construction. And like I said before, there’s a lot of realtors that wouldn’t know the difference for between a, a trust and a choice. So it’s, uh, makes it makes our, our staff very important in the show. ’em to be able to explain with confidence to a customer and give them that security, that they have the knowledge of what goes into a construction of a new home. And then our build times on top of that have, uh, gone from six, seven months to 1112, if we can get that energization. So I know I’ve just been rattling on here a bit. So I’ll, I’ll, uh, if anybody has any questions in individually, um, just go ahead and shoot ’em out and I’ll answer what I can, and I hope I didn’t, uh, for y’all too much have at her.

Lum (10:20):

Well, first of all, Kevin, I really appreciate you going over some of these numbers with us, because I think a lot of us, I didn’t have any idea. I knew that calgary house prices were up and, and, uh, this, that, and the next thing, but I had no idea that, um, that they were up as much as what you said they were, uh, one of the things that I found interesting was, um, uh, NMAC, you said that the city has, you know, right back. And I guess that was just due to the fact there was not a lot of, they were suspecting, not a lot of building happening, uh, and then suddenly it took off and now they don’t have the staff, you, right.

Kevin (10:51):

Yeah. And a big part of what the city, they, they would not employ anybody that didn’t have their double shots and a lot that got rid of honesty, probably half their crew. Um, as soon as they passed that down, they lost half their cruise. So that, that made a big impact. It, you know, it was usually a four or five month turnaround time. And now I, I know some developments that are booking, um, like we’re selling us land builders land, and they won’t get new listings calgary until next June. Um, so that, for our, that doesn’t work, we, we might have access to the land, but we won’t actively sell it without knowing that in 10 months we can give a possession because we, uh, can’t control our costs. Um, cuz who knows what’s coming down. Right. So just even on that lumber market. So in the average calgary house, 2000 square foot, um, if we raised it $87,000 probably here since November and our margin is actually a five less than it was in November, just cuz our costs have gone up so much. So, uh, customers look at it like, oh you raised 87,000. You guys are gouging, but um, we’re actually making half a point or, or even depending on the product and what goes into the house, but it’s uh, yeah, it’s, it’s definitely cost has ma had a major impact. Yeah.

Lum (12:12):

Now you had mentioned some of trades, uh, during that, uh, five year recession we had here, uh, a lot of the, uh, skilled trades people were looking elsewhere at that time. So we may have lost a lot.

Kevin (12:23):

Yeah. Like framers are probably our biggest one right now. I, I know in Livingston, so Livingston’s up in the north central there, um, us as a builder at the, but while we’re there in semis, but uh, all the single family homes up there, so there’s Excel Morrison, Brookfield. They have 61 foundations right now, uh, that I counted last week with my construction manager and without framers. So 61 foundations that are in the ground ready to start framing and there’s no framers available and that’s why framers can basically charge what they want. Right. Six 50, a square foot to up to 14 in some instances, which is in less than a year, that’s, uh, a massive change. So, and the skilled part of it is, uh, some of those framing crews are, um, definitely not, uh, the cream of the crop and a lot of ones have left and gone to BC and or Ontario or back out east like really far east. So it’s, uh, framing is probably our number one challenge trying to get framers right now for all builders.

Lum (13:27):

One of the question just came up here on the screen from Danny way. He says, um, commission is flat rate, um, what is the flat rate to realtors? Um, and then he, he goes on to say here, if your, if your company will increase the building costs in the middle of the bill due to increase uncontrollable longer and other building materials. Okay. What to do with the commission there. Yeah.

Kevin (13:52):

Um, so for the commission, it depends on the product line. Um, typically what we’re doing right now is any street towns or semi attach our 5,000 flat and then our higher end stuff, uh, would be around 7,500. So anything basically over $750,000, uh, in those communities. And right now in those communities, I don’t even have anything to sell right now. So we we’re in 1817 communities. And right now I have no land in 12 of them. So just to let you know, the land shortage,

Lum (14:25):

Soen just asked a question here. I heard that builders are possibly going to add a clause and the calgary new listings agreement, uh, that there will be a price adjustment 60 days due to, uh, prior to, is this true or how true is this?

Kevin (14:37):

Some, some bill have put that clause in. Um, we haven’t, um, unfortunately there, there is a clause in all and home warranty contracts, um, that show 60 days, if you can’t start construction that you can ask for more, but the person can say no, or else as a builder, we can cancel the deal, which has happened on instance. And, uh, typically the only time that happens is if we cannot achieve a development permit, um, within five months or four months. And then, um, then our costs have all gone outta whack and we’d be losing money on those to build them. So, but that’s obviously, uh, the most, um, an ideal thing for a builder, cuz it it’s, it’s a, it’s a hard thing to do for families that have purchased. And it’s also, um, not very good for your rep for people to get out there. Um, the word get out there that you cancel deals, but uh, in this and everybody thinks it’s you’re counseling to maintain or to get more margin and, and some builders have done that. Um, we’ve canceled them. I think we’ve only canceled six all year and that’s just due to the inability to get, uh, development permit. So

Speaker 4 (15:51):

Anybody else,

Speaker 5 (15:52):

Sorry, little Kevin, I have a question for you. Um, when you were talking about cost per board foot, and I understand that a lot of it is due to, um, supply chain issues, uh, availability, et cetera, but being in the industry that you’re in and what you do, what do you foresee potentially over the next 12 to 18 months in terms of your cost per board foot?

Kevin (16:18):

Well, we’re, we’re booking $1,300 a board foot now in our, and when we’re doing our estimate estimation, um, we don’t see it going much higher. Not it should come down. That’s a thing with lumber it last year, it such a, well, it went from six 50 to 14, 50 to eight 50, and now we’re back up to 1300. Um, and then lumber, doesn’t give you a like for a home builder, we need 90 days from a pre-sale to get into the ground. And our lumber companies will only give us 30 or 60 day guarantee on lumber price. Uh, so it doesn’t really help us much, especially when it jumps that quick. Um, but it’s, it’s, it’s hard to calgary housing forecast. It’s it’s been the most unique two years that I’ve ever been in the business for trying to find out what our calgary home costs are coming down. States is on fire still, especially Southern states, Austin, and, and they’ve taken such a majority of our lumber. We try and buy it back. It’s uh, you it’s been a real challenge for sure.

Speaker 5 (17:23):

So do you, would you, would you, would this be, um, an accurate statement now that your cost per board foot is sitting at over 1200 bucks? Chances are it’s just going to stay there regardless of what the cost of lumber does. Let’s say two years down, it drops down to, I don’t know, 900 bucks. Um, I guess in my head I’m asking myself what’s the incentive for any new home builder to bring the prices down. If the new norm is sitting at over 1200 bucks aboard foot.

Kevin (17:56):

Yeah. I, I see what you mean. So the, the Le will come down again, uh, and we adjust the calgary housing market. Um, so that’s, that’s the biggest driving factor. So, uh, if we are paying eight 50, if you’re, um, saying that, you know, why would we, we just have our calgary home price in there at $1,200 a board foot and then reap the benefits of that extra $400 a square foot, which honestly we will, as long as we can, if the market will, uh, allow it. But as we’ve seen in the last few years, the market has been pretty, uh, and we go, they use market. So typically our new calgary homes are a little bit more than they used. Um, but not a lot. Right. So if the used gets to a point where it’s like it was two years ago where it keeps dropping in price, we can’t have a significant Delta between a new home and a used home. Otherwise we just won’t sell anything. And that Delta is about 3%. And if we get much more than that, then all of a sudden the use is too attractive where people won’t bite the bullet to buy new.

Lum (19:06):

Yeah. Good. Anybody else have any questions for, uh, Kevin here?

Speaker 5 (19:10):

Yeah. I actually have another question. Kevin, earlier, you mentioned that the salespeople that you have in your showrooms and I’ll, I know you’re talking homes by Abby here, um, are very well trained and they understand the whole construction process, et cetera. It’s really interesting that, you know, I’ve been into show homes just here in the last couple of months, uh, your competition where the sales people, haven’t a clue of the, the construction it’s, you know, we, I’m gonna have to defer this question. I’ll get back to you tomorrow. It, I, I find it very frustrating. Number one, number two, I have also found the other thing being very frustrating is for lack of better words, the arrogance of some of the salespeople sitting in show homes, cuz as soon as the realtor walks in, it’s like a complete change of demeanor to me that’s really unprofessional, but what are you seeing and hearing out there? Yeah. So as far as your competition is concerned.

Kevin (20:06):

Yeah. Well, I mean I, we homes by is I perfect either and my sales team isn’t perfect either. So we, uh, you know, we do the best we can to train our sales team, to work with realtor and also understand the construction process, obviously new hires. Um, if you’re in on a Thursday, I guarantee you you’re likely meeting an associate a brand new person. That’s basically just got the door open. Um, cuz our area managers have Thursday Fridays off typically for all builders. Um, so Thursday’s probably the day that you’re gonna run into a person with the least amount of experience in the, in construction. Um, there are typically new people that have just started that can work on the week that day to give our regular stop a day off. Right. Um, and the arrogance side of it. Yeah. You know, it depends on who you talk to.

Kevin (20:54):

It’s the same as it, that goes just for realtors as well. Some walk in the same kind of arrogance that uh, unfortunately some of our sales team have and when the markets like this it’s uh, I’ll give you an example. On the weekend I have one sales team that received 187 phone calls from realtors, 187. Um, now 150, those were probably from Toronto, but by the time the hundred and 87 person phone, I’m sure my sales person wasn’t overly excited to talk to ’em on the phone, unfortunately. Um, so in this kind of calgary housing market, it, it brings out the worst and best in people. Um, and it’s uh, yeah, I we’re working on new calgary mls listings. That’s one thing, uh, our team tries to do a little better job cuz I am a realtor have been a realtor for a long time. Um, I do have a realtors that work with me in our show calgary homes. Um, but yeah, they’re not perfect. And uh, and a lot of the times they react on the way they are approached to. Right. So it’s, it’s um, it can be different. We, we have fabulous working relationships with a lot of realtors and we have some terrible relationships where with a lot of Rogers, so I’m sure it goes both ways.

Speaker 6 (22:17):

Hi Kevin, I don’t know if you can hear me there calling on your here. I just got a couple general questions. Sure. Um, I’m fairly green on the, um, new home building side. So can you gimme a sense on when these builders might first be caught up? I mean there’s a huge pipeline there where lots are sold very quickly. Um, that would be one question. Um, what is a sense of timing on services, water, sewer, when that gets kind of, um, put into operation, uh, also when you’re developing these new communities, um, N she wanted densification, so what type of percentages on multifamily to detached? So just some things like that, if you could speak to it.

Kevin (23:01):

Sure. You bet. Um, so the first one was, uh, what was the very first part of that question? I’ll go in. What

Lum (23:13):

Was I thinked, uh, caught up what

Kevin (23:17):

We get caught up. That’s a, that’s a really good question. We’ve got, um, uh, that could be a few years, honestly, with the amount of land that’s coming on. Um, if the demand stays at all, like it is even if it slows down by 50%, it’ll be a while till we get caught up. We’re getting a lot of builders are getting, uh, land coming here in may. I’m sure it’s uh, you guys have been out in the SCHs you hear may, may, may, may. Um, and that’s a lot just because we live in this country and it grounds frozen. It can’t get services until may, uh, until October pretty much is when servicing gets done. So that’s the other part of your question. So servicing typically happens between may and October, uh, where your deeps and shallows get in. Um, but even the land that’s coming on in may.

Kevin (24:03):

I know a lot of my, the developers are, they used to give us 20 or 30 lots at a time. Now they’re gonna give us eight or 10 or 15. And the reason why they’re doing that is cuz then they can increase the, if the demands still there, they’ll give us 10 lots at this price. And then we’ll give us another 10 at another price. So as in a development last week with apex, and they’re going up $500 a front foot, so on your typical lot, you know, that’s another $17,000 that’s we don’t make a dime on, um, cuz we buy the land directly and we don’t add any money to the land, to the land, uh, cuz we sell house and land together. So it’s uh, that’s a big part of the as well. It’s been affecting home builders as the all the old land is pretty much chewed up now. And new land coming on is gonna be significantly more, $500 a front foot, times 34 feet. You can see that’s a, that’s a pretty big, um, number.

Speaker 7 (25:05):

Okay. Thank you.

Lum (25:07):

I see Kevin Clark as a question here too.

Speaker 8 (25:11):

Yeah. Morning Kevin, thanks for the presentation.

Kevin (25:16):

Well, I think I lost you Kevin.

Lum (25:19):

Well, I think you, uh, you shut your, your mic off. Uh, Kevin,

Speaker 8 (25:27):

Sorry. Hello Kevin. Thanks for the presentation. Um, I didn’t hear, at least you may have said it, but the calgary houses price range that you’re, you’re having to pay right now for single family, lots, just the range.

Kevin (25:42):

Um, so front foot so I can, I can go off front foot for you. So there’s 0 25. Um, so that’s a, a rear detached home. So that’s a, a garage in the back. Uh, 0 25 lot means that we have four foot on one side and one foot on the other. Um, those typically are 58, 50 to 6,000 a front foot. Um, if you go into the higher end stuff up in Aspen and stuff, you’re 10,000 a front foot and those are 38 foot wide lots. Um, so typically on semi-detached or uh, anything attached, you’re looking around that 6,000 a front foot on the lot. Um, and then on single family homes that are, you know, that 30, 30 foot wide lot or 26 to 30, you’re at about 62 50, uh, front foot right now. Um, I’m expecting probably 300 to $500 front foot increase come may when we get the land from the developer. Um, some of it’s cuz they wanna make more profit, but a lot of it is cuz the servicing and the city permits are, have really increased in price. So thanks.

Speaker 9 (27:00):

I’ve got a question. Um, what’s the average weight time right now. So if I walk in with a client and we’re looking at some property, could you maybe break it down by quadrant? I know it’s kind of hard to do an overall one, but, but what’s the average wait time, say if we walk in with somebody till they take possession,

Kevin (27:22):

Um, so if, if they are able to actually purchase a, a unit, is that what you mean? Or, or to wait to have the ability to purchase and end the build or um, so let’s just say I’ll, I’ll break it out two different ways. So if, if your customer has purchased the home with us or any builder right now, uh, any of the bigger builders like, um, you’re probably from the time you written the contract till you move in would be 11, 12 months, um, which is about three months longer than it used to be. Just cuz the construction time. Um, that would be on a, on a front drive home, uh, probably 10 months on a, on a semi or street town would be about 10 months as well. Um, if you’re looking to have a cus walk into a show home, uh, it almost doesn’t matter what quarter of the city cuz uh, the developers are all coming on basically in may and then again in September.

Kevin (28:18):

So if they don’t get a, a lot or get into the, um, released land in may, the next one typically will, would be September, I think would be our next servicing agreement for most of calgary new listings. Um, it’s, it’s really tough to tell you, cuz right now we got such a list for people that are wanting to, uh, purchase. Um, but I don’t know it’s yeah, I, I, I don’t know the amount of land that I have coming on. I I’m expecting about 300 lots coming on here in the next six months. Um, so there should be a fairly good opportunity. Depend as long as people aren’t stuck, if they’re stuck in a certain community, um, then it, it will take longer like in the Northeast here, uh, the land shortage, there is a little bit more than in the south west Southwest. There is still some land availability from some of the builders in Walden, Belmont sold out pretty much right now. Um, but Wolf Creek, any anywhere in that south Southeast, there’s probably the most, if you’re looking with clients with any builder, I think that’s probably your best bet is in the south Southeast right now, um, Northwest is sold out and they won’t get service land and energized land probably till November. Um, so yeah, I don’t know if that answered your question or not, but

Speaker 9 (29:44):

Yeah, thank you. Mostly does. Thanks. Thanks Kevin. Appreciate it.

Speaker 5 (29:49):

Kevin, I have a question for you. Um, zero lot lines. Is that mandated by community by the city planning and development or is that being driven more by the developer to, to, to basically, uh, for lack of better words, put more home, more homes per acre.

Kevin (30:10):

Yeah, you’re right. So it’s basically the city tells the developer what they need for density and the develop developer comes up with the, uh, plan. So it’s typically depending on what part of the city, it could be 11 units per AC. Um, so anytime you do the, the front attached homes, um, that takes that density way down, then you have to make up for it with the zero 20 fives or zero 20 nines. Um, and then mal

Speaker 5 (30:37):

So, so does that stand true for every single community or is it community specific now are I’ll elaborate a little bit. So you give an example of Landco in Livingston versus Aspen as an example. So would the same criteria from the city hold true for Aspen as it would for Livingston,

Kevin (31:01):

It would. Um, now it could be seven developments in an new listings calgary. Um, so it depends what part of the development. So if there’s a, if there’s say there’s 15 acres there and somebody does an apartment block in there, then all of a sudden that releases that drives your density up. And the next two projects, regardless of who the developer or the builders are, can go on a lesser density because they’ve had the advantage of let’s say us or Truman or somebody putting in 600 units in a, in a acre and a half. So,

Speaker 5 (31:37):

And the last question I have when it comes to development green space, what is the current criteria? Uh, and I don’t know how they do it. Is it per development per acre, per a hundred? How, how does the city come back to say a developer and say, we want to see X percent of your development to be green space?

Kevin (31:56):

Yeah, it depends on what the, that, uh, development’s zoned as. So if it’s, uh, zoned multifamily, the green space, uh, requirement is less, if it’s zoned front attached, it’s more. Um, but it, it varies like, uh, it varies on community. Um, if it’s onto, uh, ravine, um, and they count green space as there’s three different, uh, qualifications or green space, I sore more of a pond, uh, or retention pond can be counted as green space. Um, it doesn’t necessarily have to be parks or fields. Uh, and then part of the green space gets calculated by if there’s gonna be new schools. Um, so those playgrounds and those fields would, you know, be in the all allowable green space allotment for development. So

Lum (32:45):

There’s a question here from Danny way and to do with, uh, registering our clients, uh, should we register our clients and the first meeting, I, I would assume you, I think you’d said the first meeting, or even prior to that, if you could, right?

Kevin (32:57):

Yeah. A hundred percent, if you, if you can’t be there in your client. And now I understand I’m a, like I said, I’ve been a realtor for a long time too, and your clients decide one weekend. They want to go out and look at SCHs and don’t tell you. And, um, but if, if you know, they are going out and looking if a phone call, uh, you can register online with most builders as well, register your client’s name, uh, online, um, you know, and it takes some time it’s cuz there’s maybe four or five builders in a community, but if you know, your clients are working in a, with a, in a community, like say, uh, Walden and there’s eight builders, you’re probably better to go online and register with all eight builders, uh, your client’s name, or go in that weekend and just say, Hey, I have clients coming next week. I can’t be here, uh, register. And then make sure you register with your client’s name, um, specific name, not just register anybody that’s coming in.

Lum (33:57):

It’s been great, Kevin. I mean, I think you’ve answered a lot of questions that realtors have and understanding what goes on behind the scenes is, is pretty important.

Rob0 (34:04):

And I have quick question for you if I may, Jack Clark. Um, I frequently like to stay involved with my clients after we’ve written an offer on a, um, a new product and I get a mixed reaction from the salesperson. Um, what, um, from the perspective of, okay, you’ve done your sale now get the heck outta here or, uh, yeah. We’d like to encourage you to stay involved through the process and up to the, the walkthrough for possession. Can you give me your sense of that from a salesperson’s perspective in a show home, how much they appreciate or don’t appreciate the realtors involvement?

Kevin (34:42):

Yeah, I think that a lot of it that’s a good question cause it, it it’s, it varies by person, unfortunately. Um, and it also varies by the realtor and, and how they want to be involved. Um, if, uh, they’re challenging, um, costs on upgrades and stuff after the fact and um, that kind of stuff, then obviously the salesperson wants to work with them less. Um, but if they’re, they’ve been involved in a positive way, uh, finding out how construction’s going, um, most of the team’s pretty good at working with realtors that wanna stay involved, cuz they appreciate the fact that they haven’t just walked in the door, given a customer and then won’t even see them again ever. Um, and honestly that’s the majority of what happens. Um, so if, if you can stay, you know, once a month, once every two months, especially just for futures, uh, working with that salesperson, if you pop in and just say, Hey, how’s John and Jane DOE doing. And um, you know, every couple months pop in and talk to the salesperson and find out how they’re doing that goes a long way with them wanting to work with you in the future.

Rob0 (35:54):

Thank you

Lum (35:56):

Very good. Okay. And unless there’s some more, more questions, um, if there is by all means, uh, if, but if not, uh, uh, Kevin, again, I wanna thank you for spending, uh, flow to an hour with us here this morning. Uh, and certainly, uh, brought me up to speed on a few things here that I wasn’t aware of. So, uh, I really appreciate that. And uh, yeah. So thank,

Kevin (36:21):

Yeah. Thanks guys. Appreciate your time. We’ll talk to you later. Good luck.

Lum (36:25):

Um, thank you. Hi

Rob (36:26):

Again. Well, hope you enjoyed that. Kevin’s really informative and he’s just a wealth of knowledge. So stay tuned for the next one. I’m gonna do a few, uh, tales from the trenches kind of things, uh, stuff that’s happened to me that you need to watch out for in this crazy calgary housing market buy for now.