Real Talk | The Real Estate Podcast
Real Talk | The Real Estate Podcast
Max Merchasin on Architectural Innovation in Real Estate
Diana Victoria Quinn and Max Merchasin of Acadia Design Consultants Inc. explore the significance of building permits and the growing trend of garden suites as urban housing solutions. Max shares his journey from contractor to educator, highlighting how homeowners can optimize their properties for income and enhance the housing landscape.
If you want to know more about TFN Realty Inc, please visit us:
TFN Realty
www.tfnrealty.com
If you are interested in being part of our amazing team of realtors, visit:
https://tfnrealty.com/agents
Join us in:
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/tfnrealtyinc/
TikTok
https://www.tiktok.com/@tfnrealty
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/tfnrealtyinc
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/@tfnrealty
Credits:
The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Energetic Upbeat by WinnieTheMoog
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/6033-energetic-upbeat
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
...
Hey everybody, this is Diana Victoria Quinn from TFN Realty and you're listening to the Real Talk Real Estate Podcast, the uncensored show that keeps it real for people who love real estate. We'll have some of the best interviews with some of our industry's most exciting people right now on a variety of different topics. We promise not to bore you.
Speaker 2:We have Max Merchason from Acadia Design Consultants, and we had you in for a session with our team not too long ago, so thank you for coming back to do this podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me back.
Speaker 2:But you had a lot of really interesting and we'll get into it, but really interesting things to talk about newer concepts in the industry right now. But before we go into all that fun stuff, we'd like to get to know our guests. So if you can tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey and how Acadia came to be and the story behind that, Okay, so that's a very interesting story.
Speaker 3:In my background, I'm a contractor for many, many years and then one day, unfortunately, an accident happened where I had to change my life a little bit. I was thinking what to do, where can I actually use my skills and yet again thrive without physically being a contractor? And then I decided that architecture is a pretty great field where I kind of through construction, had a lot of knowledge about and I decided to go for it. So I studied architectural studies. So I studied architectural studies and during my schooling, you know, and again with my experience, I realized that I can do something with it. And I just started a business while still being in school, a business where I started doing building permits for clients Small building permits, residential and of course, with the years it just expanded and the knowledge, of course, grew, experience grew and Acadia came to what it is today, which is a firm that designs, manages constructions and pretty much does everything that has to do with construction.
Speaker 2:Very cool. Now, before we went live, you were talking a bit about another hat that you wore, which is a teacher. Can you talk a little bit about that and that part of your journey?
Speaker 3:Yes. So after a certain amount of time where I, you know, I was working in Acadia for and owning Acadia for five years by then I decided to pursue something new, and this was to kind of try and make the industry better, because, hiring people to your company and seeing their skills after going through schooling yourself, you wanted to show those kids, those students, what the industry is actually about.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Meaning. It's not like architecture 101, what it's actually about, which is a little bit different, clearly. So I pursued teaching in a college, in George Brown College. I did that for quite a few semesters four or five semesters. I think that was awesome, yeah. But then Acadia grew and life changed and I had to give a little bit more time. I had to quit, but overall I love that experience. I love, uh I love when people are not only interested but surprised by some things that they should have known but they're, but they don't. That makes me feel that I did my job, yeah. So teaching in a college, it was great because it's kind of you see those faces that actually want to learn of course not 100, but you know most of the kids they do want to know and I was thriving of that thought that I'm actually making a change in people's life, just like I had a change in my life going through the schooling, uh, realizing that this is awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, teaching them probably components of the industry and of the course that you would have wanted to learn and know and understand as a student.
Speaker 3:You can now give that to them Exactly, For an example, when they teach them to use softwares. When I was teaching to use softwares, I was actually teaching through real projects that we've done in Acadia, meaning they actually didn't just learn how to use randomly the software to do designs. They actually did a real project that we in our company went through in order to make sure that they actually understand the industry more, and I feel that that helped them Well not only I feel, I know, because some of them are giving me feedbacks yeah, because I know them in industry. Some of them worked in Acadia as well but overall I feel that they're more prepared for what's real life. I don't even know if to call it architecture or building design is all about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very true. I think that can be applied to many different industries and many different courses. Right, bringing those real life scenarios and situations into the classroom versus these sort of test concepts Hypothetically if this were the situation they feel more connected. Versus these sort of test concepts Hypothetically if this were the situation they feel more connected.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and this was my way to try and teach them. Yes, of course, many of them thought that it was difficult, but most of them were thinking, maybe at the end of the semester.
Speaker 2:Cool For the approach. So that was a great chapter. Yeah, good chapter in your life, yep.
Speaker 3:And so let's talk about I actually come back. So yeah, Because I loved it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, it's rewarding, especially, like you said, when you get that feedback from your students and you know you've.
Speaker 3:When they're not students anymore. Yeah, that's amazing. Have you hired any of your and they actually moved on to work in municipalities? I have our employees working all over the Horseshoe area in different municipalities, which is great. It just means that they're knowledgeable. I'm always, you know, when I started hiring people, I was upset when the municipalities hired my people, you know well, and then I realized that I'm doing something right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're doing something right, I'm doing something right.
Speaker 3:That means that they I'm doing something right. That means that they're knowledgeable, they know what they're doing and, yeah, having this, you know relationships overall, that's amazing and so now let's go into what exactly you do.
Speaker 2:Um, so you talked a little bit about permits, but what does that mean?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so pretty much my job is and clearly I will expand on it but my job is to hold my client's hand all the way from I want to do any kind of construction in my house all the way to either now I need a contractor because we got the permits and we can expand on it, or manage their project, meaning to help them out with the trades and actually get that realized in real life. So it depends. Really we have different approaches, different ways we approach the construction industry.
Speaker 2:And so these are clients that are building brand new homes. These are clients that are building what we spoke about, what you came in to speak to our team about, which is garden suites. Garden suites, land use, land use housing and then also renovating as well.
Speaker 3:So all different types of needs well, so it's all different types of needs. So it's funny because if I I I meet people all the time when I come, when I come to help them with their permits and and they're always surprised. They're like max, why would I need a permit for that? What people don't understand you need a permit for everything. I always explain people. You do not really own the house. You buy everything or the land. Everything belongs to the municipality. At the end of the day, you have to do permits for. You have to have a permit for everything you're proposing or renovating. You know many people would like to remove load-bearing walls, right, so you want to make sure that Anything structural, structural Well, I actually approach it Anything that has a system.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:What the system is architectural system that has to do with fire safety, that has to do with building codes. Mechanical system that has to do with plumbing, hvac systems, everything that has been actually somehow touched or moved.
Speaker 2:Electrical included in that.
Speaker 3:So electrical is a little bit different, which I can expand on that as well. But that includes also insulation, because that changes DR value on your house Meaning. In theory, if you remove the drywall from your exterior wall, you should not be touching the insulation behind it. If you do, problem, but I'm not going to go into that. So everything that has to do everything that kind of involves a certain system should not be touched without a permit. You can replace your tiles, you can repaint the walls, cabinetry, cabinetry, of course, kitchen if the plumbing is not being moved, if it's in place, yeah. Otherwise well, you can replace your windows as well. But everything that has to do with changing a certain system, that has to do with heat gain and loss calculations, plumbing, hvac, structural, architectural, has to have a permit.
Speaker 2:And what are the repercussions if you don't get a permit?
Speaker 3:What could be Pretty much. The repercussions are you would get a letter that's called an order to comply and this order gives you 30 days, usually to bring everything back to the position it was previously. If you cannot apply to it, you gotta go and get a permit. It's still due to the fact that you already have an order to comply. It would still give you penalties, which means the payments would be double and that kind of stuff Also. You know, when people do construction without permits, they take chance, correct?
Speaker 2:You know you build something, you take it fundamentally.
Speaker 3:Exactly so. And I find in I find in my, in my profession, that mostly the problems come when people do something without permits and there is nothing in the building code that supports the kind of construction renovation that they did. And this is the worst, when you have to tell your client well, listen, that's not going to work the way you did it. So I'll give you an example actually Removing a load, a load bearing wall. A lot of people do that, a lot of contractors do that. They would remove the wall, they would install a new beam, new columns, everything perfectly fine. All of a sudden you got cracks in your ceiling a year later.
Speaker 3:You know it's not that your floor is falling down or something you start seeing cracks.
Speaker 3:You know it's not that your floor is falling down or something you start seeing cracks and then you would call a professional like I am to check it and I would pretty much explain that the beam that is installed is not sufficient. And this is the worst part, because it's not about getting a permit. People will pay you to get a permit if necessary. People upset that they would need to redo their construction and that costs tons. And we had an administrator in our office once. She said it once and I always use that. She always told our clients if you think that it's expensive to do something with a permit, wait until you do without one.
Speaker 3:It can haunt you, it can get back to you.
Speaker 2:Very cool, so, permits, what about let's talk a bit about the laneway, because that was a hot topic and an interesting one. What are you seeing right now?
Speaker 3:Pretty much right now is not really right now we are looking at. Usually firms like ours are looking at the future plan of the cities. So in order to understand where trends are going and what's going to happen, we have to understand what is the future plan of the city. Those bylaws that just came out for Garden Suites and Laneways, they didn't just come out out of the blue, although that's what people think. They came out due to the city's future plan. So when we got the bylaw a couple of years ago, that already meant that the future plan of Ontario's municipalities were to expand living, so expand density. So those bylaws came out. They're great and they brought with them a lot of new technologies, a big market for laneways and garden suites. And, by the way, those bylaws are getting better and better, because the original bylaw wasn't really. It was funny you could.
Speaker 3:You could build a laneway or garden suite physically, theoretically, but physically the conditions were not there okay so now we nowadays, the government is pretty much every municipality is kind of already understanding where the issues are coming from. They're fixing those. It's getting easier and easier. City of Toronto is booming when it comes to a laneways, because there's a lot of laneways in the City of Toronto. Garden Suites also booming. We're doing a lot in North York. We're doing a lot all over, but especially in North York, because North York, as you know, north York properties are big. So it's funny, we have a garden suite ongoing and it's in the backyard of a bungalow house and the garden suite is bigger than the house. It's amazing. But it's amazing, you know it fits. You can do so many things. You can go. Well, I could go so far. So far I did a garden suite with six rooms. Wow, six rooms. Six bedrooms Wow, full-size bedrooms, few bathrooms, a kitchen, a bar, and are these?
Speaker 2:properties, typically closer to transit.
Speaker 3:They don't have to be but yeah they can be all over the city as long as like, for example, a laneway as long as there's a lane as long as there's access for the fire department, as long as zoning bylaws which, again, if you want to, we can go a little bit further into them, but as long as your zoning bylaws allow that you can have a lane where a garden is with.
Speaker 2:So this is a great opportunity, not only for homeowners to bring in additional income and revenue, but for Canadians for housing.
Speaker 3:For Canadians, for developers, it's kind of another opportunity to move the economy a little bit, move the economy a little bit. So real estate is starting to move again and which is great. With all the new rules that came out, which I'm not going to expand on, those, that's that's, that's your area mostly. But yes, with the help and the reduction of percentages, it helps developers that want to build laneways and garden suites, homeowners that want to have more units on the lot. We are dealing right now with lots where we can have up to four units in the main dwelling and a laneway.
Speaker 2:So municipalities are working with us. It sounds as though that they're really trying to promote this. Yes, yeah.
Speaker 3:They really try to expand on density, and this is something a couple of years ago, believe it or not. A couple of years ago, you could not go with more than one secondary dwelling.
Speaker 2:Was it because they didn't understand it?
Speaker 3:willing. Was it because they didn't understand it? It was because I think for a long time they did not especially Toronto did not really look into the required housing right and now, with you know, Toronto is expanding, people are coming in, housing is really necessary and there is an urge for it and it's something that requires a very quick fix. So, yeah, if you have a single family dwelling, that can become all of a sudden a fourplex with another garden suite. And, by the way, looking at the density, I'm explaining my client when we're building land with our garden suites If you have the opportunity, try to have a basement, Because the way I look at it right now.
Speaker 3:it's not allowed to have a basement. Because the way I look at it, right now it's not allowed. But looking at the future plan thinking for the future. I see how they will allow to divide laneways and garden suites also to a couple of apartments.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Because, based on the experience and the buildings that we work on right now, it can accommodate easy, easy four to six students. So even what we have right now, it's great.
Speaker 2:So anyone with a decent-sized lot close to a university or a college should be calling you.
Speaker 3:Yes, well, that's for garden suites. Yeah, yes, well, that's for garden suites. For laneways pretty much every lot that has a lane should be able to have a laneway, or at least reviewed whether it's possible or not. Okay, so aside from that, any other changes that you see, any requirements that the municipalities may be pushing down in the near future? Yeah, so, as I said, first of all, the fact that today you can have those laneways or garden suites as a single family dwelling.
Speaker 3:I definitely see how that will become more so the bylaw will allow in the future probably at least a duplex.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's probably going to come in in the next five to ten years.
Speaker 2:That's great.
Speaker 3:Yes, and then again for those who can afford having a basement in those suites a triplex is also possible.
Speaker 2:This is a real in those suites. A Traflex is also possible.
Speaker 3:This is a real game changer.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we're all becoming mini-developers.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes and funny enough, a lot of companies are trying. Our company is pretty much you know. We're doing a lot of residential and commercial design and of course I'm familiar with it from A to Z. I know exactly what land-based garden suites are all about. But we practice other stuff as well. We have companies in the market that pretty much all they do they deal with building land-based and garden, so it's an industry on its own and within the construction industry, which is awesome, that's very cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So many things we can do with this. What other areas do you guys specialize in?
Speaker 3:So other areas that well, we specialize with all areas. We do new builds, clearly custom homes all over the place. We do commercial projects as well. We work with municipal projects.
Speaker 2:And what's the timing? Like dealing with the municipalities? Has that improved?
Speaker 3:So it definitely improved. Actually, finding that you're asking, just a couple of days ago we went for the first time through an interesting process. They're definitely, first of all, they're working on it, especially in the city of Toronto. They're trying to get better. But, funny enough, I'm not sure if you heard about it, but there is the regular permit process. There is a process that's called Fast Track.
Speaker 2:I heard of it. I don't understand exactly what it is.
Speaker 3:So fast track process is pretty much when you're applying for any kind of renovation inside of the house without really doing anything outside, meaning you don't really need the input of zoning department, they don't need to check for setbacks, areas and all that height. So they call it a fast track and they try to get those very quickly out.
Speaker 2:What kind of timing are we talking about, so usually?
Speaker 3:you would see the projects. Of course they're advertising it as in within 10 business days. It never happens for many reasons. 10 business days, it never happens for many reasons. But usually within 15 days to one month you can get a fast track permit. Yes, we did get permits in within a couple of weeks as well for that kind of thing, but usually it's average of one month. But now there's a new process which we went through and we were very surprised is where the municipality is saying we applied for a permit for interior alteration and they said okay, we don't really need to check your drawings, we're going to give you, because you have engineered stamps and you guys are a professional firm, you're going to be responsible for it. We're just going to go through the permit process, kind of just to make sure that we're familiar with the projects.
Speaker 3:So they pretty much just registered but really the documents were not really reviewed. So that was first and I was surprised and I said I'm actually very happy about it, because at the end of the day, what's the point of an engineer stamp if you have an examiner in the municipality reviewing that again? So yeah, but that was surprising. That's a big, big change. So I'm sure that this change comes from few specific, for few specific reasons, probably liability, that usually when you're getting involved, then you're, did you have to sign off on anything that was different?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so pretty much the documents that we are usually applying with. We needed to explain what exactly is the renovation for and just sign off that we're responsible for the project, which theoretically, we are in the first place anyways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're just acknowledging it again. Yeah, that is going to be a big game changer. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I hope that stays.
Speaker 2:And I hope it stays too.
Speaker 3:I hope that those professional engineering stamps really hold up yeah because we had situations where those drawings are being reviewed and at the end of the day it's all a matter of opinion how you interpret the building code, how you interpret everything else. So when you have an approach with an engineer stamp, when you review something engineering wise, you have a certain interpretation and a certain approach. So when the municipality is getting into the process of checking those drawings, they might have a different way of viewing into it, even though it's not supposed to be this way. They give their opinion and when they do that, this bureaucracy extends the process more.
Speaker 2:Now do they come to check during this process, someone from the municipality to check on? You know you've given us the drawings. You said that you're going to do X, y and Z. Are you in fact actually building to X, y and Z?
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's interesting, usually they don't check until they're being called for inspection. So after you get your permit, you would start your construction. Of course your contractor should be a professional contractor who knows what they're doing. Not every case is like that, but if the case is like that theoretically, your contractor would need to call the municipality at the stage of framing, at the stage of roughing plumbing, at the stage of roughing HVAC and, yes, you would have an inspector coming into your home checks that everything is done properly as per drawings. Yes, we have situations where the inspector is not 100% on something, so for that reason they would ask us to show up to review and just give them a letter to explain if it's done correctly. Of course, if it's not correctly contract, I'm going to have to redo the work.
Speaker 2:And now, as you build and I'm not an expert in this field, I know very little, but I'm assuming that you know drawings in reality could be two different scenarios you could come across something that you need to change or modify slightly. Do you need to go back and reapply or advise, or is there a certain level that you can sort of use your own judgment?
Speaker 3:Great question. So yes and no. So, if you remember, I was telling you that you need a permit as soon as you change a certain system.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So when you're applying for permits, you're showing those changes of systems on your drawings. If your construction, that you're doing, involve some change to what you proposed from the perspective of systems, gotcha, yes, if you're just moving a wall by a foot or a couple of feet which, by the way, people are interested to know if you're moving a wall a foot away or a couple of feet away from the space originally was on the drawings, you don't really need to do anything and it's not going to change anything. If you are not building a wall. For an example, now the room is bigger, so instead of two rooms you have one room. It's bigger, so it kind of involves HVAC, circulation, other stuff. So, yeah, sometimes you would have to go back to the municipality and apply for another permit, not a permit for revision Makes sense If you're touching any fundamental mechanical systems.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay, interesting so many changes that are happening. It's great to see that the city is working with homeowners and contractors because for the longest time it was never like that that dynamic, that partnership, that relationship, and so future trends maybe let's talk about 10, 15 years out. What are you thinking?
Speaker 3:So a couple of future trends that we're seeing right now are well. First of all, as we discussed, density.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So it will go higher and higher. Second trend is that elimination of cars and private vehicles. This is something that also municipalities are striving for, the expansion of public transit. That's what's actually going on right now in the city of Toronto. Funny enough, another bylaw that people don't know or not familiar with if you are proposing a laneway instead of an existing garage on a lane, what's going to happen to the parking? So, believe it or not, city exempting you from parking requirement of parking if you are building a laneway. So meaning you're actually increasing density yet again, decreasing parking spaces in Toronto.
Speaker 3:Part of the future plan of the city of Toronto is to decrease cars. Probably the future of Toronto is to decrease cars. Probably the future of Toronto is I'm not sure if you've been well, you've probably been to New York and you know how you have to pay to cross in order to get into Manhattan and stuff like that. So we are going to experience the same kind of change probably in the city of Toronto, where people would have to. People that drive private cars to downtown toronto would have gardeners, would have to probably pay for entrance. The encouragement is to try and use as less private transit as possible.
Speaker 2:Those are the future trends I heard that they removed, though, some of the bike lanes downtown Toronto recently.
Speaker 3:They removed some of the bike lanes.
Speaker 2:They removed them, yeah, and replaced them back with the driving lanes, because they had done the reverse and there weren't enough cyclists on the bike lanes and because they had removed the driving lane, it was really causing a lot of the traffic.
Speaker 3:So, you see, this is one of those steps that they were trying to make in order to avoid.
Speaker 2:Which is a great. I love the idea of bike lanes and scooter lanes but we don't have the climate for it. We have it three months out of the year.
Speaker 3:Road density, road construction there's a lot of accommodation that need to come for that to happen. I clearly see the great trend. I think it's amazing. I agree with you 100%. It's just that just building those lanes is not really helping to reduce cars from the roads. And really this is the idea behind it to get more TTC, to get more of those bike lanes and to kind of make it difficult to get to downtown, to the point where you as a driver would think twice do I want to drive or should I take the TTC?
Speaker 3:So funny enough you know, we all are busy people in our lives and clearly I'm driving a lot. I have a lot of clients all over the city I'm dealing, by the way, with the transportation department. I'm doing projects for them as well and I find that I have much, much better time when I'm going downtown Toronto. I have much, much better time when I'm going downtown Toronto. I would leave my car on a subway station and I would just take the subway. I find that this one hour while I'm getting to downtown, it's the most peaceful time of my day, so that's awesome. Peaceful time of my day, so that's awesome. This is something that clearly, if downtown was not as busy or what I guess what I'm trying to say clearly they're doing something right yeah so I don't want to drive there.
Speaker 3:I just, you know, I would take the TTC, I would just sit in the train and just, you know, enjoy, kind of enjoy my life. And you know, remember that everything is not only work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a lot of our viewers are obviously realtors and buyers and sellers. So I'm just, you know, in speaking with our agents and our clients and I can relate to this too it's not an easy time for a lot of us right now, and so if we can do whatever we can to bring in some extra money, we'd love to do that. Some of us have the infrastructure and the homes to do that with basement apartments. What can our agents and our buyers and well, buyers and homeowners do or consider to bring in some extra money?
Speaker 3:So theoretically you can get a construction loan from the banks if you have an opportunity to get the building, the house.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So if you have the house bought, you can definitely get a construction loan. I would definitely suggest to go for a fourplex. Okay, so if you have the house bought, you can definitely get a construction loan.
Speaker 2:I would definitely suggest to go for a fourplex.
Speaker 3:Okay, a lot of developers right now. Some would even demolish the house and build a legit fourplex apartment building Not a must. You can divide the existing building to four apartments as well. You can divide the existing building to four apartments as well Definitely would look for. When it comes to real estate agents, definitely should look into proposing their clients and giving them. I would say let them imagine what a property can be if you are a can be if you want to be a developer. It's a small business theoretically. Imagine a homeowner who's looking for a house and want to have a secondary unit in the house in order to pay some of the bills. You can build a garden suite, live in the garden suite and then convert the house.
Speaker 3:That you're buying to four apartments, which raises your income by far. If you're looking at getting a house and renting a basement apartment, that can cost our days around, let's say, depending what apartment, of course, but let's assume $1,800, $1,900, maybe a little bit more, depending on what apartment. You can build a laneway or a garden suite, live in it. It's big and comfortable, instead of living in a house and having a secondary unit. Now you can live in this garden suite, which could be up to if everything is okay up to almost 2,000 square feet and get pretty much a four-plex town.
Speaker 3:That pretty much gets your revenue to eight, nine, depending which area and what kind of building, even to $10,000.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of options.
Speaker 3:Yes, especially for residential. I would say that the government is really trying to do as much as they can to encourage homeowners to become developers.
Speaker 2:What about banks? Are they also as supportive?
Speaker 3:with the construction loans. Yeah, so banks would support construction of anything, depending on the terms that you got the house, the property. So that's something that everybody should discuss in their branch. But yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2:Okay, wonderful, this was great. And then for those agents and homeowners and buyers that are considering some of these properties, how can they get a hold of you if they wanted to run some of these scenarios by you?
Speaker 3:So, first of all, I'm always there to help to agents, homeowners that specifically want to use, let's say, their down payment to become developers or that kind of business owners, meaning they want to do something like that. I'm always available to review the zoning balance for them to make sure that they're getting the right property yeah or that they're proposing the right property for uh for their clients.
Speaker 3:They can always get us uh, you know, uh get to talk to me calling the office, they will connect okay uh, they will connect anybody with me, uh, email us, uh, whenever they really are not a hundred whether the property would work, they can definitely connect with us. Let us know who they are and we will be happy to quickly review the bylaw and see what's allowed. So, by the way, a lot of agents are working with our office Pretty much. They would call us. They would tell us Max, we have a client that wants to get a house and get a landway or a garden suite. We have this property. Is that going to work? Pretty much, I would be able to give an answer up to almost what the square footage that this landway could be Okay.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's very specific.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think it's a great opportunity for them to connect with you. As an agent myself selling properties to my clients, especially those who plan on having this property for quite a while 10, 15, 20 years I want to be able to help them and tell them what they can or cannot do with the property Can they build an addition, can they build a garden suite. So understanding that upfront and giving that information to our clients is priceless.
Speaker 3:So that's great. Thank you, because I find a lot of people have specifically those issues I wanna buy, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to do that or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then if we typically we would say well, you need to contact the city for information like this, to try to get the right information and connect with the right person would be, and it takes time and they're not as responsive.
Speaker 3:unfortunately, yeah. But luckily I understand that not everybody's a you know professional architect out there, but the information is online. We are happy to help our clients, real estate agents, developers, homeowners that call us in and tell us okay, max, we want potentially to get this property for this and that reason. What do you think about it?
Speaker 2:Great Amazing.
Speaker 3:Perfect. Thank you very much.