10/29/2026
In Half-Empty Rooms
There's a little brick building, quite unassuming, just down 104th Avenue in Surrey. If you're a Realtor in the Fraser Valley, then you probably know what I'm talking about.
The building has a long history, and it's been many things to a lot of people, but for me, it's always been a warm and welcoming place.
It's where I first attended a new member orientation seminar after getting my real estate licence. I remember signing up for the wrong day and how kind Jeanette in Education was when I asked her to change the course date. I remember taking my first listing and screwing up the paperwork, and having Cheryl in MLS walk me through how to correct it. I can recall listing a property for sale and putting the wrong price on it, and having Sonia from MLS call me to fix it. And I can even remember rushing into the Real Estate Board and having Louis walk me through how to fix my lockbox.
I remember the old-fashioned lunch-and-learns that cost $10 and came with a free lunch, where we would gather to learn about some new technology or another.
And through all of those experiences, I remember it being a warm and inviting place. These are the moments that matter because they involve extrodinary acts by people whose genuine warth and kindness I am grateful for.
I recall when I graduated with my BBA, I became excited about teaching, and I was hired by the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board to do just that. I had the extraordinary privilege of writing three courses and co-authoring a fourth, and I even got to teach those classes for a time, which was incredibly fun.
If you haven't been to the Fraser Valley Board, there is a teaching theatre. It is a beautifully appointed room that is in pristine condition, despite having been constructed decades ago. It's always three degrees too cold, but the coffee is always warm and the company is grand.
For a short time, too short by half, I got to teach the Realtors there. And what an amazing privilege that was, because the Realtors of the Fraser Valley are smart. Damn smart. And I'm pretty sure that during my time teaching, I learned more from them than they learned from me.
Standing at the front of that room, talking with the Realtors, we conversed, we questioned, we debated, and more than anything, we created new ideas. And as those ideas emerged, they expanded over time. I took them home with me, thought about them, researched them, and eventually wrote them into a textbook.
I presented that textbook to Taylor & Francis, one of the world's leading academic publishers. They took my work and sent it for peer review. It was reviewed by an instructional designer at BCIT, a psychologist at SFU, and a senior academic leader at NYU. The book was approved as a textbook considered suitable for graduate-level study.
And that information and those ideas, were born out of conversations that happened in a half empty rooms in little basement at the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board. It happened with Realtors who had taken time out of their busy schedules to attend a class. I find that extraordinary.
And now that book comes out in just three weeks. As I reflect on that book, and my first one, I find myself feeling incredibly grateful for those conversations and the time we spent together.
And now that I've gotten that out of the way, if you're still reading, my time teaching at the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board has come to a close.
I'm enormously grateful to the Board, and I loved my time teaching there.
But at the moment, the Fraser Valley Board is embroiled in legal challenges and disagreements, and a great deal of its attention seems to be directed toward settling those disagreements. And to a certain extent, the people involved in those disputes deserve to have their concerns heard and their disagreements properly managed.
I don't begrudge them that.
But to write is a reckless act of laying oneself bare on paper. Writing a book isn't a conversation, it is a statement. And once made you can't go back and explain yourself or clarify what you meant. Once written a book is endlessly open to scrutiny, criticism, and rebuke.
And if I were being honest, writing terrifies me. I feel nervous with every word and statement. To do this has taken courage and strength that I barely have. It has been hard enough to do this without encouragement, and even harder to do it under the weight of doubt.
And the world is large, and life is short, and I need to be somewhere, and with people, who actually believe in me. And dear FVREB, you seem awfully busy sorting out disagreements.
So for now I walk the long winding road of life. I wish you well on your journey. But mind leads in a different path.
