Despite what his sharp, self-deprecating sense of humor will tell you, David Goodison is a clever, compassionate, and engaged individual. Although he might disagree. “I was once described as Melba Toast,” he quips at the beginning of our interview when asked to share a few words about himself, “I’m very vanilla.” Obviously humble, David’s career and financial success speaks for itself. Quite impressively.

Working in banks since he was just 18, David climbed up the corporate ladder over his 22 year career in banking and insurance. Moving from personal banking and client-side roles to upper-middle management at an internationally renowned Canadian bank, David developed his career into a role managing a 40-50 person team. Then he turned 40. 

“I went through this period of self-evaluation. I realized I was unhappy and that was impacting my personal life. I felt I was being a shitty friend, shitty husband, shitty dad. Well, I wasn’t terrible … but I certainly wasn’t my best and I knew I could and should be way better. Eventually I figured out that I was uninspired [and] I could trace [that] back to my career.”

Taking a Leap

Ultimately it was this period of reflection, and some advice from his entrepreneurial father-in-law and mentor, that lead him to take a leap. He started his own venture with a business partner and also decided to be more intentional about the most important things in his life, “I have these buckets I want to work on. Family, work, the environment, and getting more joy in my life.”

In addition to improving his life and the lives of those he loves, David’s compassion and drive are clear assets to his success as a mortgage broker.

“I love the first time buyers. And the second time buyers that bought a condo the first time and now need to upgrade for their growing family. I love that start to finish. That first call where they’re freaked out with a problem, like their place being  too small. [I love] spending the subsequent minutes, hours, weeks, months developing relationships with them and understanding their needs. It’s so satisfying getting them comfortable to the point where they can take action. When I [eventually] give them a call, and they’re lugging their boxes into their new home on a rainy November day, that gives me a certain amount of satisfaction.”

David’s commitment to providing optimal solutions for his clients clearly comes from a keen sense of empathy and a genuine passion for homeownership. 

 “I think everyone should invest in their primary residence. There’s a strong emotional connection and benefit to that side of things. In addition to capital gains, there’s also a sense of ‘where I dwell is where I live’ and the pride that accompanies that. Even in Vancouver where it’s still really expensive.” Although David is hopeful that everyone is at some point able to invest in their own residence, he’s not blind to the stark financial reality many Vancouverites buck up against.

People Love Vancouver, They Just Can’t Afford It

“One of the biggest challenges for people to participate [in real estate investment] is the cost of entry. It’s still out of reach for so many people even though [market costs] are coming down. As I said, I strongly believe everyone should own their primary residence, but the reality is that certainly not everyone can afford that. [Millennials] can rent in Vancouver but have to look out of town if they want to own. The whole idea of your priorities in life, of owning your home with the white picket fence is changing.” That said, David does see hope on the horizon of real estate investment thanks to concepts like addy.

“What addy does is make more space for people that want to be involved in Vancouver real estate[…]Loads of people are moving to the Island or Kelowna [because] Vancouver is just not attainable anymore. If you want to keep a toe hold in Vancouver real estate, addy is a great channel to do that. Low cost, lots of flexibility, low cost to enter, and no cost to exit. People love Vancouver, they just can’t afford it. addy changes that.”

If it’s not apparent already. David is a pretty big cheerleader for addy. He’s particularly impressed by how easy and stress-free addy makes investing in real estate. 

“ [From a] transactional perspective as well, [addy]  is very easy. That’s the whole point. Make it easy to [invest in real estate]. All I had to do was take a picture of my drivers license, fill out a form, and it was done! It’s harder to order checks now than [it was] to do this. All the information was presented up front, you can review and read while you’re having a cup of coffee and by the time [you’ve reached the bottom of your cup] you’re ready to go and do it!”

Be Comfortable With What You’re Doing

When it comes to investing in anything, but particularly real estate, David emphasizes the importance of being comfortable with what you’re doing. Just as he strives to reduce his clients stress as much as possible, he thinks it’s crucial to make any investment space approachable and easy to understand. “I think it’s really important to be comfortable with what you’re doing. That will make the process less stressful which will make it more enjoyable [especially for first time investors]. If I had a choice between a rate of return of 15% and being stressed out of my gord, or getting 7-8% and being calm the whole time, I’d obviously pick the latter latter[…] If you want to invest with me, you have to put $100,000.00 down for a $500,000.00 mortgage for 30 years. And that’s if you just want to ‘dip your toe in’ as a landlord. With addy for 5 bucks you can see how the whole process works.” 

After hearing so much from David about how he sees the addy platform improving the way anyone can invest in real estate, we were curious about how he sees this impacting his line of work.

“I mean. I’m always nervous that the robots will take over. Right? I think a lot of people are nervous about that…” he says, tongue-in-cheek. “But in all seriousness, I think you have to adopt the whole Tony Robbins mentality that if you’re not evolving, you’re dying. And addys platform is certainly a sign of [real estate investment] evolving.”

By removing costly barriers to entry addy makes investing in real estate, and learning about real estate, accessible to far more potential investors than any other platform. David appreciates this form of evolution that addy fosters.

“For the majority of people that don’t have the net worth or liquid assets to buy an apartment every year, this helps them.” David also appreciates that addy facilitates learning and trust within the investment community. Cornerstones to making any smart investment. “Figure out what you want to [invest] by asking and trusting experts in the field. You can do both with addy. You can learn about a particular investment, and move forward as an investor, all in less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee. And I think that’s pretty neat.”

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