- 02:27 – Adam Lesperance introduces himself as co-owner and team lead of the Terry Hastings Group.
- 05:04 – Insights into the diverse desires of waterfront property buyers, from water activities to sunrise or sunset preferences.
- 08:44 – Adam details the wide range of clients, from city dwellers seeking weekend getaways to locals investing in the community.
- 12:46 – Adam shares the challenges of rural properties, growth potential in small towns, and the impact of regulations on US investors.
- 21:40 – Valuable advice from Adam on taking steps sooner in the real estate career, focusing on goals, and adapting to market shifts.
- Website: https://www.adamlesperance.ca/
- Website: https://www.terrihastings.ca/
- Contact Number: 519-3787171
- Contact Number: 843-619-3005
- Email: corwyn@corwynmelette.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exitstrategiesradioshow/
- FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/exitstrategiessc/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxoSuynJd5c4qQ_eDXLJaZA
- Website: https://www.exitstrategiesradioshow.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmelette/
Transcript
SPEAKER:
Do you want something more? More meaningful moments, opportunities, deeper relationships, and memorable experiences? Do you want to make a difference? If you said yes, a career in real estate could be the opportunity you’re looking for. Guiding people through one of the most important decisions they ever made, the purchase or sale of their home can be both rewarding and lucrative. Exit Realty’s revolutionary compensation model, training, and technology that provides you with the tools you need to start and build your successful real estate career. Call me today, Me Me You Bank at 843-730-3327, that’s 843-730-3327 or visit exitlowcountry.com/joinexit and make your exit today.
CORWYN:
Good morning. Good morning and good morning guys. Welcome to another fabulous episode of Exit Strategies Radio Show. Hey, I am your host. Yeah, that’s me. Corwyn J Melette. Broker and owner of Exit Realty Lowcountry group in beautiful North Charleston, South Carolina guys. Hey, love the place, love the space. That’s what we do. Hey, is this your first time listening to this show you sir or ma’am are in for a treat, because I mentioned here is very simple. That is to empower our community through financial literacy and real estate education. We legacy bill, that is what we do here. So as I say all the time when you’re doing the things that are making a difference, when you’re setting yourself up, not just for now, but the family for the future. We always want to put a hashtag on that thing that says that you are legacy building, too. Ya’ll have been with us. We’ve been having an amazing ride. We’ve been getting the best guests. We’ve been getting them from all over. Not only just the country, but we’ve been going around the world. We’ve been on different continents. But most importantly, we have been in different countries. We are all over the place and I’m superduper excited today to have with us. None other than Adam Lesperance with Keller Williams Realty Center. He is a team leader guys, team leader. Yes. With a Terri Hastings group. Adam, how’re you doing today?
ADAM:
Good. Good. Thank you.
CORWYN:
So, Adam, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. Hey, look, you probably got a list of things that you do on a day in and day out. But I know that you and I kinda in some areas are like kindred spirits were very big on legacy about educating people and walking people through that process not only just of homeownership, but understanding how they can leverage that and build and create wealth going forward. So out if you don’t mind, give our listeners like a real high overview of who you are, what it is that you do. And then let’s carry a conversation from there.
ADAM:
Okay, so I am Adam Lesperance. I’m a co-owner and the team lead of the Terri Hastings group. And we’re located on the Bruce Peninsula about two and a half hours north of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. We deal specifically mainly with cottage markets. We have lake here on one side of the peninsula, Georgian Bay on the other side. And then we have four offices in Tober Mori Wiarton, Port Elgin and Owen Sound.
CORWYN:
Okay, so that is a lot of real estate, a lot of ground you cover so you guys what I just heard in that is that your waterfront primarily because you kind of tuck them in and cover ground that is between, if you will two different bodies of water? Is that correct?
ADAM:
Yeah, that’s right. And we have a lot of inland lakes too. We don’t have a high population density. But most of the houses the properties are dents along the lakes because everyone wants to live along the water. So our drive time to a typical appointment, we’re probably in the car for a good half an hour between spots. So it’s a lot of driving and not a lot of people but it’s neat that way. It’s very diverse.
CORWYN:
Well, 30 minutes in the car a much for most people, you know, here either that’s normal, it takes that much to get sometimes from one industry to the other, sometimes here so for the time, but I can imagine the distance that you guys carry. So give me kind of what is it? How do you approach like what you guys do as far as educating consumers and stuff. And then I’m definitely interested because I’m getting this, I’m developing, if you will add them this fascination with lakes, I don’t think I want to work anything oceanfront. But I’m developing this fascination with properties around bodies of water like lakes and things of that nature. These coals is neat as all get out have spent some time on on a couple of lakes recently with some people and I really enjoyed the scenery in the area. So I also want to know about your area specifically with that but let’s start with that first piece, which is what is your process for educating your consumers about the areas that you guys primarily serve.
ADAM:
Yeah, so I guess like specifically to waterfront, you want to find out what they’re going to be doing with the water because it’s very diverse or waterfront here. So do you like canoeing kayaking? Do you want to put a big boat there with a dock? Do you want to sand beach, we have all those things. But we don’t have all those things typically on one property. So your sort of your price points may be less if you don’t have to, if you can’t put like a large boat or something there to shower entry, maybe on the wavy days, if it’s not sheltered, then it’s too wavy to use the water but good on those calm days. Right? And so you really want to find out from the people, what do they want? Do they want a sunrise or a sunset? Because we have the peninsula, and there’s the East and the west side as well.
CORWYN:
That’s interesting. So if you don’t mind, if you know this, let’s say for you said one of the places is a bay? How wide is it? How much of shoreline? Do you have usable shoreline? if you will? Do you have any of that information?
ADAM:
Yeah, so specific to like a particular property. Traditionally, when these were developed, a developer would want to make several small lots on the water. So we do find like I have a 40 acre property listed on a lake right now. But typically, you’re looking at like a half acre, one acre property on a lake where you’re going to end up with maybe 75 to 250 feet of usable waterfront. And then, if you’re talking about a base, specifically, where on the bay, are you, because you can be further maybe on the deep side or in on the side with the sand and the shower entry and different things.
CORWYN:
that’s interesting, interesting. So the process is you kind of get people looking at these type of properties to kind of educate again, get information, glean information, because you want to understand what it is they’re looking to do with the property so that you can better advise them on which property may be most suitable. Because obviously, if someone, again, they want to have a dock, and let’s say, for example, they have a large boat that they intend to keep in the water, it needs to be in a place where they can get into the water. So that makes perfect sense. So Adam, your client base kind of looks like who the people that want to be somewhere waterfront, but what is your client base typically look like if you don’t mind?
ADAM:
Yeah, so our client base for waterfront are typically people from city centers, and they’re buying a waterfront property as a cottage, you are getting some people now that have the ability to work from home and different things. And then you have all the properties around that are non waterfront too. And some people are buying those as cottages because they’re better value if they’re a walk to the water. And then you have the local people that are working within the community and stuff that Samoan waterfront, but a lot of them would not they just don’t places in the small towns and different things around. So we’re really working with a very diverse group of people, the small towns we have here, we do have some growth potential in different things. So we’re having different investors move in housing, of course, likely where you are to, it’s always a challenge. There’s never enough places for people to live, right. There’s slowly more and more being built. But it’s challenging, because there’s only a couple of towns that actually have water and sewer. Most of these places are rural. So they’re on septic and their own well, right.
CORWYN:
So what I just heard you say was that most of your people, this is a weekend home.
ADAM:
Yeah. For the waterfronts for sure. Yeah.
CORWYN:
I mean, obviously, you have some residents and longterm. This is where they’ve been for a while they make the drive in and drive out every day. Oh, they’re now working from home. And that kind of reminds me. So my imagination says that you have some multimillion dollar properties around those bodies of water, correct? Yeah,
ADAM:
That’s right. So at the higher end, we’ll see properties sell. There’s always an exception, but an expensive waterfront here would probably be in the 2$ – $3 million range, entry level waterfront properties, you can still pick them up for 6 – 7 – 8 – 100,000 They’re probably going to need a bit of work around that million dollar work Mark, you’re getting something fairly nice, that’s turnkey, but maybe not the square footage and different things as the million dollar ones plus would have right.
CORWYN:
Yeah, interesting. Our recently was on a lake up in the upstate shout out to the leadership team finaid. I’m listening to this. But we spent some time out on a lake actually two days in a row. First day kind of a little bit private, a small group and next day was a larger group on a dinner cruise but one of the houses that we pass by the owner of that home, they commute in to the house by helicopter. So I don’t know exactly what they do whatever but you know, it’s a very nice house kind of sits at the entry to a cove with this amazing view. Most of the lake I mean, they can see nearly everything and basketball court outside all that kind of stuff. But then have a helicopter parent his helicopter was actually there that may and getting to the lake was a lot of back roads and But it took 20, 30, 40 minutes to get out there, if you will to get to the marina to get out onto the lake. I imagine you guys kind of have some of the same thing where some of your owners may commute in by helicopter, take a flight into town from wherever they might have been all week, get on a helicopter at the airport, Municipal Airport, a small airport, and then fly home for the weekend. Do you guys have that kind of stuff as well?
ADAM:
Yeah, we do. Like personally, our family we have like an island property. So it’s an island, we have to take a boat to get there. And then there’s an example of a very large island called Griffis island that fly in and helicopter in and you can take a barge over, but it’s for very affluent people that pay to go hunting there and stay at the camp. And it’s all guided tours. And they have their own designation for a wildlife preserve and have different seasons for hunting, pheasants, and deer and all these different things. It’s definitely there’s some unique places around you see a few of the people that have float planes and different things as well.
CORWYN:
Wow, that is interesting. So you just kind of gave me a visual, there’s an area here at Charleston that at some point in time, forever go this was well, before my time, you only got to it, those islands, you only got to it from either North Charleston and Mount Pleasant or what have you only got to it by a ferry that went across or either came from downtown. So that’s how you got on got there. Even though you could take the long way around. And it take you all the way around. So most people obviously we’re very in and out that area now has seen massive development. And I mean, it is amazing. And I think now a house in almost you can find a condo for maybe several $100,000. But any site built home over there now was several 100 million plus easily into the getting close to around 5, 6 million in particular areas and neighborhoods. So I imagined that’s kind of the growth and development that you guys will see as you guys make processing progress in the future. So Adam, you’ve been doing this, how long?
ADAM:
So I started in 2020. In January. Yeah, so I haven’t been doing it a long, long time. I had a tree removal business for 14 years before that my wife and I had a couple other businesses as well, we were running, we sold those and just went straight into real estate like 100% in and the first year was good, the second year was better and just keeps getting better in the sense that you learn more about it in at the end of the day, as long as you put the clients that you’re working with if you put their goals first and help them reach what they want. So help them visualize where they want to get to and help them get there, you’ll get yourself wherever you want to be, but you always have with them first, right?
CORWYN:
That is so true. So continuing along that vein, as you guys offer service interaction, what I know, you spent a lot of time again, working to educate your consumers and talking to them about what the next steps and things are, but also how to leverage for the future. So if you could kind of talk us through, walk us through that. And feel free to give us any examples. But I would imagine that a lot of these properties in the area that you serve, while they do change hands, they don’t change hands a lot, if that makes any sense that most times families kind of keep them. Do you guys have like short term rentals and other things like that?
ADAM:
Yeah, we sure do. So we’re really heavy on short term rentals in our area. And it can be very, very good income. And I think one thing like that you mentioned you’ll have a cottage or something in a family, maybe it’s the third generation and then the kids are looking to, they want to keep it but maybe they can’t afford to keep it. So if you go in there and can approach them with ideas of have you thought about renting this, try to help them to be able to afford to keep it. If they can’t at the end of the day. I mean, you’ll help them sell it, you’ll help them move on from it. But if you can help them which their actual goal would be to keep the property and help make the relationships with different rental companies that can help manage it and different things. You’ll get a lot further ahead than just putting the for sale sign up and it’s gone. Because rarely attached to these and you’re right, like a lot of properties. They don’t come on the market. They’ll just change hands within the family for sure. Yeah.
CORWYN:
So you guys have and I can imagine this a probably a fairly robust short term rental market.
ADAM:
Yeah, we do. We’re one of the– I was just talking to a client the other day and he has a friend there that’s researched all over the world, the best spots for short term accommodations, and she moved to this area to set up shop. So it was quite interesting. She went to university and has all these degrees and stuff, and this is what she wanted to do. And she picked our specific areas. So it’s just I found that quite interesting when he was telling me this
CORWYN:
so I can see it because I mean it’s kind of the best of almost all things. It’s like how it’s almost I mean, technically some of the properties from what you described. You basically got a beach but it’s private. Yeah,
ADAM:
yeah, there’s all of those different things that you can find, right. And then there’s public beaches and stuff, too, that are all within a drive to them. And yeah, we have the Georgian Bay side, which is very deep water where you can go fishing for salmon and trout and different things. And then the here on side has more sand. It’s a shallow entry and warmer for swimming and different things are so yeah
CORWYN:
Really? Okay. That’s interesting. So again, you kind of got the best of both. I mean, even though you’re not ocean, coastal, you still have a coastal market, waterfront market. That’s awesome. Yeah.
ADAM:
And then all the inland lakes. So if you think about, I mean, we have the winters here, but then it turns into this ice fishing snowmobiling, all these different winter activities, all the ski trails that are mountain bike trails in the summer. So it’s all we get extreme seasons here as you’re aware. Right.
CORWYN:
yeah, so you have a lot of people to come in for that. Like you said, ice fishing, I would imagine. And then so you guys snowmobile across the lakes?
ADAM:
Yeah, the ones that freeze not too far out on the big lakes. Right. So yeah.
CORWYN:
Gotta be priceless. So if you don’t mind, are you born and raised in that particular area?
ADAM:
Yeah, that’s right. So I was born just near Saville beach on a farm. Actually, my parents still have the farm. Grew up in the area.
CORWYN:
So you have the inside know, you’ve been there long enough to know, to see most of the things happen to understand what’s going on where everything is going. was well, is what? That’s cool. That’s awesome. So, Adam, if you could for our listeners, tell us about and I don’t want to call it pitfalls. Every market differs in economies change, they ebb, they flow, have been in a tremendous amount of conversations, we’re not seeing a real slowdown at all, even though interest rates have went up. What most people realize is that the rate is temporary. And in turn, they can always modify that, but they’re not going to be able to buy the property again. So they buy it at when they can buy it and then go from there. But if you could what are you guys seeing, you know, you’re across the border, and not a state line. But you’re across a border. So I know that things may look a little bit different for you. So a market like yours, for let’s say an investor coming in from the US or coming in from another part of the world? What should they be mindful of? And what should they expect? Yeah,
ADAM:
so a couple of things. Like one thing, there is a recent law, I guess, they brought in where US investors can’t buy specific properties here. It has to do with population and different things in single family homes as their main thing they’re trying to stop because they’re trying to keep those prices lower. Right. So there is some regulations that they brought in as far as that there’s different areas in different commercial properties and stuff that people from the states can still invest in, in our area. As far as what we’re seeing is a general thing. Toronto, the city centers in different things are still very good markets with low inventories, we’re in a decent market up here, but we have a lot more on the market for sale. So we’re seeing in the towns around us 7, 8, 9 months of inventory. So if nothing else is sold, it’s going to take that long to clear the inventory if that the current rate of sales, right. So it’s a lot for sale. And then with the interest rates, we’re just seeing that affordability is affecting the price points. So to sell something right now, you have to be strategically priced. Whereas before with the COVID market and everything, you just sort of set the price there, and the market is going to eventually catch up. It’s changed a lot in that regard. So it’s challenging, because you have to have the really honest conversations with sellers when they know what their neighbor got a year, two years ago, right?
CORWYN:
Yeah, that’s probably fairly consistent, if you will, in any given real estate market. Around the world, I would imagine where people are just there was this phase of, well, if it ain’t a day, it’ll be tomorrow, and we’ll get whatever we want. And now, I mean, the true professionals in this market out and like yourself are the ones who will continue to build and continue to grow and continue to serve people. Because one, they put the people first, but number two, they actually put the work in because a lot of agents don’t put the work in, they just don’t. So you have an understanding of what’s going on there. I asked that question, because obviously, periodically people kind of get this, I’m out of here, and I’m gonna move and I’m gonna go wherever and one of the running jokes south of the border for you has been, but always we’re gonna move to Canada. So hopefully, we can send you a bunch of people up there at some point in time, because every time they get mad about something, everybody’s going to leave the US and move away. And everybody’s going to Canada. So again, we’ll make sure we weren’t going sending you some more people for sure. So Adam, if you don’t mind, give our listeners our contact information where they can reach you with any questions or what have you. necause again, you have a beautiful market there, and how can people get in contact with you?
ADAM:
So probably the best way is our website, which is www.Terrihastings.ca and it’s Terri With an eye, and all my contact information is certainly on that I do have Facebook and Instagram, and all those different social media things as well as videos on YouTube and things like that as well. So yeah
CORWYN:
Awesome. And thank you for sharing that information with us and with our listeners. So, Adam, always, you’ve been doing this for a while and getting you getting your footing and your bearings. But you know, the market well, that you serve. So I always like to ask this question. And I call this our mic drop question. It is that the hindsight, question because everybody, if you had hindsight, you’d be doing a lot of other things. You might have been in real estate sooner, in hindsight, but the mic drop question for us is, what is it that you can share with someone that if you would have known this about your real estate career or about finance, or whatever it is, you know, that would have made a difference? Significant difference in catapulting you to further along your path? What would that one thing be? Yeah,
ADAM:
so I think it’s like, I always wanted to do real estate, but I’m like, oh, I need life experience, life experience, life experience, which I gained. And then I became a realtor, when I think looking back on it always having that, what’s the worst thing that could have happened. So if you take the steps sooner, well, you can always fall back to that job you have typically or the business or wherever you have, right. But I think just things can progress a lot quicker in time. As long as you take the steps and you do them. And you have to have the mindset there, you have to have the goals, but you have to get up each day and do it. And things will happen over time slowly, but you can really crank up the speed on stuff and watch some of the people around and how quick they move and the timelines of what they’ve done. Right.
CORWYN:
Okay. That is a very good one man. And I appreciate that. So Adam, we’ve quickly reached the end of today’s show. And first and foremost, I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be on with us today. You know, I want to express my gratitude, and thanks to you for being a part of the exit strategies radio show family, for being present and bringing that information. And I will keep that in my mind as I’m thinking because again, lake properties now are now more and more fascinating to me. And I can’t think of probably a better wilderness than than the market that you serve, where people can come relax, be away from home, but still be close enough to I can’t think of a better area than the area that you serve. So again, thank you so much about my heart for being on the show today.
ADAM:
Yeah, well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
CORWYN:
You’re quite welcome. So for our listeners, guys. Hey, look, it’s been a fabulous show. We’ve been having a good time. We’ve got some good information on deck. Y’all make sure y’all give Adam a call. When you’re looking for that get away. That plays to kind of separate for most, but not all, give out Adam a call so you can get connected to him and visit his piece of paradise. Right there on the bay. All right. So guys, for our listeners again, one final time, guys, you know how we feel you know what we say? You always put the two of those things together and we say it to the disco, which is I love you. I love you. I love and we gonna see you guys out there in those streets.
