I am Jenny Woon and I am a real estate agent with Oakland Realty Northwest.

Well, it goes back 22 years ago

and I

purchased my first place, believe it or not, in my late teens

with less than 5% down.

And at that time, I felt so great to purchase my own property.

I was renting a basement suite at that time.

And I was really excited and I wanted that same feeling

for my friends to have that too.

So it was a combination of that,

but just a really deep interest in architecture

and function and space.

Look at this.

This is gorgeous.

This is a beautiful view.

How did you get into the world of real estate?

I do have a really deep love for helping people

and helping them make memories.

And that's what it is for you.

It's memories.

finding people homes what are some of the questions that i should be asking if i want to move into this

community okay there is a typical baseline which is how many bedrooms what's your price point

but but more importantly is how do you want to feel building that rapport and really understanding

what do they do day to day and then looking for those opportunities basically find a solution

it's all about relationships so when you're guiding people you are helping people make really

difficult decisions that like one of the most difficult and challenging decisions in life and

it's one of the most important ones you're working you're dealing with a lot of money and money that

they've saved for a very long time for these families and being able to help them purchase a home

and make memories out of it,

and help them achieve their goals,

whether it be their first home, their forever home,

or an investment property to build a portfolio.

It's just a really rewarding experience.

The first day you turned the key

and walked into your brokerage,

what was that experience like?

Well it was a mess inside.

There were still a lot of renovations needed but the the moment that really caught me, okay I've always dreamed of cutting a big red ribbon in front of a store okay and I wanted big scissors okay just what you see in I don't know Hollywood movies and TV shows

And I got that.

I actually had the mayor come to my grand opening.

I think there was probably over 300 people.

That was it.

We were like we were on the streets, we were on on the sidewalk.

And it was we had a DJ playing music.

And my favorite moment, I actually cried.

My favorite moment was when I cut the ribbon with the mayor

and with the franchisors.

So I got my manager broker license in 2014

and it's only it was only because I just wanted to keep learning.

I am a real estate nerd, which is one of the core values at Oakland.

And I did not think I was going to actually open up my real estate brokerage.

But I was

I'm a hyperlocal agent in North Burnaby.

I was farming pretty much every corner, every building, sold a lot of the high rises for

developers.

The owner of Oakwyn Realty, he had promised me to open up a franchise, a branch in North

Burnaby.

I immediately said yes because I knew that it was going to be a challenging,

a new challenge for me and it gave me a new why as well.

It definitely is the best decision I've

ever made.

It is my calling to be a leader in my community and I would have to say that

I can see myself doing this for, you know, forever for the rest of my career.

You know, I grew up in a very middle class family and we didn't, you know, we worked hard, basically didn't really take advantage of a lot of the privileges that we were given as when my parents were immigrants into the States.

And when they walked through the door and they said that they were really proud of me, it, yeah, it really, it really hit me in the heart.

My dad has always been a hard worker

and he's owned his own like corner store.

He would work from 7 a.m., 6 a.m.

all the way to 6 p.m.

Just watching him work really hard, being self-employed,

definitely have established that like really hard work ethic

in me.

And then my mom, I have to thank her for always wanting

the strive for perfection and excellence.

And no matter what I did, I would have to finish it.

And for my parents to see that on their first visit,

and I walked them through the brokerage

to show them without telling them that I'm okay,

it melted my heart just to know

that they don't need to worry about me.

Let's take a little bit back, Jenny, to the brokerage, to Woo.

Oh yes.

What is Woo?

It's Women of Oakwyn and it is an amazing, amazing annual event that happens every year.

So Oakwyn actually puts together, well this year actually there's four workshops

which are intended to allow women to connect with each other

and you don't have to be at Oakwyn to attend these workshops.

And on top of that, every every year, you know, we celebrate International Women's Day.

But we want to do that daily.

We want to do that with other agents in the industry.

So it's really important for us to really emphasize the need to support,

empower and uplift every woman in this business.

What is the vibe of Burnaby?

Why are people coming out here?

What I love about it is that there's something for everyone to do and there's so many natural

parks and trails here but then you also throw in the annual events and activities that are happening.

If someone was to ask me how I would describe Burnaby, first I would love to tour them myself

but if I was to describe it, it would be a place that you would never leave.

I am very familiar with every street,

every building down to the property managers that are at each building.

Just a very comprehensive overview of the city and understanding what the goals are of

the city of Burnaby and how they want to make it car-free, how they want to improve on transportation,

how they want to provide more programs and community for all ages from infant to seniors.

What makes me a big difference is my contribution to understanding the needs of the residences in the resale market

and then also working with developers and marrying that message and the needs of both parties.

This is the North Shore Mountains.

That's the North Shore Mountains?

That's the North Shore Mountains.

Oh, that's gross right there.

Yeah.

Oh, damn.

That's cool.

We got Mount Seymour.

Grouse and this is all of North Burnaby.

This is Vancouver Heights.

I really love this particular neighborhood

just because everything is within walking distance.

I think it's the neighborhood.

I think it's still got an audience

that still exists today, much like Commercial Drive,

where the people and the shops

They all kind of come together and know each other.

Even though there's a lot of new development coming in the area around the mall,

there's still a lot of little places that historically are part of the past.

I think there's different scenarios where some home seekers will procrastinate

or they believe that it's too complicated or too complex to get into the market.

But if you speak with an advisor who can find solutions for you, like myself,

there are always ways to make it work.

And so I think sometimes you just have to be realistic

with what you can get.

And perhaps the start of it

is to learn how to budget and save.

And that means working with a professional like myself

and with a financial advisor,

which we typically partner up with.

In June, there's been a new policy change,

which is the small-scale multi-unit housing policy,

and it actually helps out the middle housing

that's been missing.

So there's large custom single-family homes being built.

Duplexes even are now well over 2 million.

And then there's the vertical, the condos,

one, two and three bedrooms.

But there's that gap of homes

where people aren't really necessarily ready

to move into a high rise or they're not,

they can't afford a big house.

So now they're allowing homes

that are on single-family lots to be built with units that are between two to six units,

just depending on how far you are from transit and how feasible that property is.

They're making it denser on the property so there's a better use of land and on top of that there's the affordability issue that they're trying to solve by having properties that are not too small but not too large but still yet affordable for couples or families to live in.

So the process of Joy selecting me as her real estate agent,

my understanding is that she interviewed a handful of other agents.

And I didn't come in at the highest price.

I didn't come in buying them Joy and her husband's cookies and donuts

from what they explained and coffee every week.

But I came in with a very transparent marketing strategy.

And my background is in marketing, and I felt like she understood what my strategy was and what the property needed to get the right eyes in front of it.

So I just felt it needed to be somebody who knew Burnaby, and when I was vetting realtors, that was the one thing that got me with Jenny.

I thought, she knows Burnaby.

And that's besides her fabulous marketing abilities,

her personality, her track record, everything.

Because again, it's a team and she knows the community.

She knows what's happening with Brentwood,

the proximity to SFU.

Burnaby North, I believe, is one school in Canada

that brings in the most scholarships.

So lots of things like that, the Heights.

So you have to sort of sell not just the home,

but the community well it's great because I actually feel like she's a friend like she's

very down to earth and I like the fact that um she's very honest and we can have like a dialogue

whatever we're discussing you know marketing pricing um so yeah she's really easy to work with

um and straightforward and I like that we've have guided so many families and individuals

into this area who were not familiar in the first place you know they were coming from

Vancouver West, or maybe the Tri-Cities, or even out of country.

And so for us to be able to connect and have a great understanding of what Burnaby has to offer,

it allows them to make a really informed decision.

And I like to personally share a lot of my experiences and all these years that I've been living here.

It just allows them to understand what the day-to-day life is like here.

It isn't about selling something, it's about helping someone and it's such a wonderfully

refreshing take that I hope catches fire.

That's always been my dream and it came true.

It's like Jenny is here and I'm here to stay.

Yep, can't get rid of me.