Right Sizing with Todd Talbot

Tell us about yourself?

Todd started his professional career as an actor. He has been working in front of live audiences for over 30 years. Around 7 years ago, he was cast as the co-host for the television show “Love It or List It Vancouver” on HGTV.

Todd’s passion for investing in real estate in Vancouver started around 15 years ago. He was involved in investing and renovating properties in Vancouver, including launching a real estate marketing company with some friends.

His goal in life was to retire at age 45 (this year!) and he felt that investing in real estate would provide the income to make early retirement possible, while still allowing him time to pursue his acting career. His first investment was a condo in Kitsilano in his early 20s and he has continued investing in real estate ever since.

You recently moved from Lion’s Bay to East Vancouver?

Todd was in Lion’s Bay for 7 years. He did an extensive renovation of his Lion’s Bay home to make it a “dream home”. Although the house was beautiful and had many of the features his family wanted in a home, he realized that something was wrong with this scenario. He started down a journey that resulted in moving to a much smaller house in East Vancouver.

Have you pinpointed what was wrong with your life in Lion’s Bay?

At Christmas time, while living in Lion’s Bay, Todd’s young son became overly concerned with how much he was getting for Christmas.  This suggested to Todd and his wife that something wasn’t right about the materialistic way they were living. They ultimately decided to return many of the gifts they had purchased for Christmas and celebrated Christmas with many fewer presents than they had originally intended. His children were still happy with their gifts, even if they did not receive everything they wanted.

This was the turning point that ultimately led to ‘right-sizing’.

Todd’s family agreed to not buy anything that was not a necessity for 5 months. This led to scrutinizing their possessions and getting rid of things they did not regularly use. After doing so, they realized they had much more space than they actually needed and decided to challenge themselves to ‘cut their life in half’. This eventually led to further decisions to decrease their possessions which lead to an increase their happiness as a family.

They decided to only have one car and made the move from Lion’s Bay to a much smaller house in East Vancouver.

They renovated the house in East Vancouver to ensure it suited their needs and used ‘smart design’ to create a small space that their family would not view as a sacrifice.

The thought at the time was that they would live in the East Vancouver house for awhile and determine what was working and what was not working. Eventually, their goal would be to move to a new house that they would ultimately build to best suit their needs.

Are you familiar with Adrian Crook, 5 kids 1 condo, who seems to be taking this idea to the extreme?

Todd doesn’t know Adrien personally, but he follows him on social media and credits him with being an important part of the overall right-sizing conversation. Todd considers the conversation around right-sizing to be nuanced and will result in different things for different people. There is no wrong way or right way to do it, but you must see what works for you.

For example, first time home buyers normally have very frank conversations with their realtors about what they can afford and what they can go without, but by the time they are ready to upgrade their home, they get lulled into buying as much space as they possibly can. Todd feels we are now seeing people push back against the idea that you should always purchase as much house as you can afford because they realize this might not be what they ultimately want.

Todd, you have now gone from one extreme to another, how has life changed?

There are some sacrifices, but both Todd and his wife would agree that they are way happier in their new home and that life is way smoother. They feel like their priorities and values and in line with where and how they are currently living. This is because of the choices the family has made.

Can you talk about the term ‘right-sizing’ and what that term means?

A friend of Todd’s coined the term. It can also be called smart-sizing.

The conversation is not focused on giving thing up, but it is about looking at your priorities and seeing ways that you can improve your life by right-sizing your home. With a smaller home, you can free up time that you would otherwise have spent cleaning. A smaller home also allows you to spend less money on heating costs. It sounds overly simplistic, but Todd knows it will have a huge effect on people if they try it.

It is different for everyone and has different requirements at different stages of life (single person, young family, retired). Todd believes you should have frank conversations about your home to determine what that space should look like to ultimately improve your well being.

As realtors, we hear from people all the time people that want to move out of a large home after retiring (downsizers). We also hear from people who live in small spaces that may dream of upgrading to more space (millennials). There is also this middle group that your family falls into that is not being talked about?

Todd feels that the middle group may want to change their living space, but do not have an example of who to look to for an idea of how to accomplish it. In the past, people with money in Vancouver would move out of the city to have more space. Currently, there has been a change in this way of thinking and people with smart money are now looking to be connected to community and move into more densely populated urban centres. People are realizing that community connection is important and contributes to their quality of life.

You may walk more and drive less in your new home. You may have more involvement in the community and greater access to amenities in your neighborhood. Has your quality of life improved after moving to East Vancouver?

One thing that has improved is that Todd can spend more time with his family. His commute time has been drastically reduced. He can be available to pick his kids up from school and this type of subtle change makes a big difference in his quality of life.

Having a large lot in the city for most people is not possible anymore due to affordability. Todd feels the city needs to smartly densify and make the city more walkable. Amenities need to be more robust. This will help cities moving forward. Young people are already moving in this direction. They want flexibility and they don’t want to be tied to a property.

We are now seeing younger people that could afford a family home, but they do not want it. They do not concern themselves with what might necessarily be the best investment, they are choosing lifestyle over the best return on investment.

Todd believes another benefit to a smaller space is that you can have higher design elements, better quality finishings, more technology, without spreading your budget too thin. This is what young people will be more interested in going forward.

You moved from a large space with two young kids and made a change. That seems scary. What were the hiccups and how did you make that change?

1200 square feet is probably not going to be perfect for Todd and his family in the long run because his kids will need more space as they get older. Right now his children are buddies and he young kids always want to be with parents. So, right now, if he and his wife are in the kitchen, they are in the kitchen, too. Do his kids say they could do other things if they had more space occasionally? Sure, but ultimately, they will never look back and think that they suffered because of the smaller space.

An interesting article came out the other day about allocating space to bedrooms. People have been building home offices; Todd had one and rarely used it. Where does he work? In bed! We need to start designing living spaces for how we actually live.

We understand you are using a new fitness app?

Todd is doing the Whole Life Challenge. It is tough to stay on top of your health and this is a wholistic look at how we live using 7 elements everyday. So, it is not just nutrition –  it looks at nutrition, hydration, sleep, exercise, stretching, and a rotating challenge. This week’s rotating goal is scheduling in having fun – a crazy concept!

The move to East Van seems aspirational, the app seems aspirational, as in you seem to always be looking for your better you. Is that part of your personality?

Yes, Todd’s challenge is always to look at how to be his best. The first lens is to look at family life. He is very proactive, and he and his wife go and see a therapist, he makes sure to spend time with his kids and work from there. He tries to view his goals through the eyes of his children and this is how he came up with right sizing and other goals – to be healthy for them, to raise them in an environment that gives them the best opportunity and stick to your values. This challenges him to always be evaluating what he is putting out in the world.