It's been a number of months since my last post, and for good reason!  It's been a summer of transition for the Hansen family as we have hit a huge milestone: we purchased our first single-family home in Metro Vancouver!

For the past 5 years we have been living in an amazing townhome community in Port Moody.  As the boys have grown and gotten bigger, and as we have been more comfortable with maintenance of our own space, we were ready to make the leap into formal home-ownership.  Additionally, we are renting out our townhome and as such are becoming landlords at the same time.  It's been a wild ride!

I wanted to do a quick write up on some of the tips that I have when trying to find the right home in the Vancouver area.  Granted, since our purchase earlier this year, the market has shifted dramatically (higher interest rates are definitely slowing things down).  But given the demand for property in the Vancouver area, finding the right home for you can still be a challenge.

Save, Save and Save Some More

It's a matter of fact in the Vancouver market - you gotta pay to play.  We were lucky in that we did a ton of saving over the COVID-19 pandemic and didn't travel a ton, which allowed us to build a pretty solid nest egg for a down payment for our house.  Practicing prudent budgeting and saving as you lead up to your purchase is key, particularly to have some extra buffer for the added fees (Property Transfer Tax, yikes!) and moving needs.  While you are saving, DON'T put your savings in the stock market!  We kept our nest egg in a high interest savings account, which didn't generate much interest, but was shielded from the market downturn in 2022.

Pick and Explore Your Neighbourhoods

Metro Vancouver continues to grow, with many lovely neighbourhoods across the region that are developing with that growth.  Casting a wide net to Vancouver is going to generate a ton of noise in your search.  Consider exploring neighbourhoods and finding where you may want to lay down roots.  We settled on staying in the Tri-Cities (Port Moody, Coquitlam & Port Coquitlam) area given it's proximity to public transit and outdoor amenities.  However, during our search we almost landed in New Westminster as well!

Lead Your Realtor

Having a realtor as a partner is an important part of the home buying process, but don't leave the discovery of new homes to them.  Realtors are often serving multiple clients at the same time, and in a hot market like Vancouver you need to act quick - particularly on a desirable home.  We utilized Zealty.ca and regular email notifications on new properties in the neighbourhoods that we were interested in living in.  We then would reach out to our realtor to schedule a viewing.  We had to move quick, listings that would come up mid-week would have weekend showings with offers expected by the following Monday.

Get Your Mortgage Pre-Approved

Before starting your search, be sure to find a qualified mortgage professional that can help you understand what mortgage product will work best for you, and what range you’d be able to be able to afford given your income and financial status. I find many folks tend to leave this to later in the process when they’re getting more serious about finding an actual home. Most mortgage pre-approvals last 3 months and allow you to lock in an interest rate (which is key given how much they have grown recently).

Our mortgage broker did a HUGE solid for us - we ere initially thinking a variable rate mortgage for our new property however as interest rates have quickly raised in 2022. As a safeguard, she got us pre-approved for a fixed-rate mortgage at the same time in early 2022 so we were able to lock into a reasonable rate. Find a broker you can trust!

Be Patient

Finding a home is going to take time.  We were passively looking for nearly a year at neighbourhoods and properties.  We put in and were beat out with multiple offers.  Buying a home in Metro Vancouver is going to take time, and don't be discouraged if it takes longer than expected!

Overall, while it was an extremely stressful process to find a new home in the Vancouver area, we're eternally grateful to have landed at a stable place we can call home for the foreseeable future!

This month I had the honour of returning to the Level Up Engineering Podcast, this time talking about the state of Engineering Management in 2022! The good folks at Coding Sans surveyed a number of engineering leaders and put together a compelling report of the state of engineering management.

In this podcast I provided my personal feedback on some of the results from the survey, and talked a bit about how we at Salesforce address and support some of the concepts mentioned. I got to speak about our approach to hybrid/remote working, hiring engineering managers, time management and much more!

Check out the blog post with all the details or catch the recording below!

Last year I went through an activity to revisit how I use my personal devices. I downsized to an iPhone Mini 12 (which I love) and decided to fundamentally change my approach to using my phone.

In the past, I had really enjoyed having “my whole life on my device” so I could access everything I needed, regardless where I was. This included email, social media and entertainment apps that would help pass the time. What I found is that when I was away from home I would mindlessly check these apps when I really should be enjoying time with my friends and family.

The updates to how I use my iPhone were done in two phases:

Audit Remove Unnecessary Apps

I went though and removed all apps that were basically unnecessary for me to use when I was out of the house or not on my laptop. This included removing:

• Gmail, Twitter and any other social media apps on my phone. I could login to the web version of these if I really needed them.

• No games or entertainment, which included any sports apps (except one, see below).

I kept any apps that I used for fitness (Strava, Apple Fitness, etc.) and also kept any apps related to utilities I would need while I’m out and about (Google Maps, etc.). I made sure to keep my devices that help with my mental health (Gratitude, Headspace, etc). This basically made my iPhone a dumb device that was mostly focused on utility, fitness and mindfulness.

Create a Custom Home Screen

Once I had audited all the apps I didn’t need, I really focused on building a one-page, clean iPhone home screen with a focus on apps and experiences that improve my mindfulness and mental health. This included:

• Adding banner widgets for photos as well as from the Gratitude app to remind me to be grateful each and every day.

• Making fitness, health and wellbeing apps have a prominent presence on my home screen.

• Creating a widget of notes to remind myself of which Values drive me every day.

I also appreciate that Apple released the App Library in iOS 14 which helped with this task. The utility apps that I need when I’m out of the house are still there but are hidden and only available as needed. For the most part, this has had me use my iPhone less which is one of my ongoing goals. At times, I have had to log into my Gmail using Safari just to access something while on the road but that’s a fairly rare occurrence.

I also found that I reinstalled one sports app, The Athletic, so I can keep tabs on scores of only my favourite teams. And from time to time I’ll check out one of their excellent articles!

I hope some of these tips help you revisit how you use your phone and perhaps give you some time back in your day!