How and Where Canadians May Invest in Florida with Ryan Poole

How and where Canadians may invest in Florida real estate, how short term rentals earn double that of long-term rentals, not just for ROI but ROL: return on life and more on this week’s episode of the Truth About Real Estate Investing.

My name is Erwin Szeto, 4X realtor of the year to investors, proud Canadian but you the listener, at least the half of you who responded to my survey on if you’d like to learn more about how a Canadian may invest in the USA, 91% of you wanted a webinar or workshop and 50% of you mentioned you’d like to learn more about Florida and why not since there’s no state tax, it’s the home to Mickey Mouse, and the sun is always shining there.   Except when it hurricanes but don’t worry, I’ll be asking our guest expert, Ryan Poole with 20 years experience in FLA about hurricanes and insurance too.

Before we get to learning about Florida, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who’s come by to say hi when you see me in public. I ran into one of my 17 listeners at Costco and we were discussing how he’s getting his butt kicked in Sudbury and I told him the numbers are better in the sunbelt states of the USA, no snow, no frozen pipes, no rent control or LTB he booked a call with me 🙂. I’m always happy to book a call with one of our 17 listeners and 350+ past clients.

Others I ran into at the Ontario Landlord Watch Conference and thanked me for being a source of news entirely relevant to the Canadian real estate investor.  I was just speaking to another investor who’s owed $175,000 in private lending to the wrong investor who’s the leader of the wrong networking group.

I told her I literally knew they were trouble for years and had one of their earlier victims, Tom Sullivan, detail his experience on my podcast back in 2019.

Due diligence so often would have saved many investors a lot of money and stress. I’m no different, I have PTSD from con artists which has simply fueled my analysis paralysis and forever search for the truth.  For example, the YouTube algorithm suggested for me a video fact checking Geopolitics analyst Peter Zeihan and Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio.  The Channel is called Money and Macro and I’ve binged it already and it’s been awesome.

I do luv staying informed and learning about economics, austerity, why rich countries are not having enough babies, Japan’s rocky economic history, so I may leverage the lessons from the history to make investment decisions accordingly.

Based on my research showing the USA will remain the top super power in the world combined with my experience of being a landlord in Ontario, I’ve decided to invest south of the border as the US government is investing heavily in bringing manufacturing back to the USA and I too will benefit by investing near the future locations of those thousands of six figure paying jobs so they may rent from me.  Them or the tens of thousands of spin off jobs.

For example, did you know the world’s biggest contract chipmaker based in Taiwan, TSMC, is investing in a $40 billion chip manufacturing facility in Phoenix Arizona?  That comes with 4,500 manufacturing jobs and you want to know why governments of all levels want to attract manufacturing jobs?  Because each of those jobs creates 4-5 spinoff jobs so conservatively that’s another 16,000 jobs.

While back in Canada, Toyota was looking for funds to build EV batteries or cars in Cambridge, ON but unfortunately Cambridge average real estate is $800k per home, our governments are out of funds, hence Toyota will be looking to Michigan, North Carolina or Texas.

Follow the money, where there are thousands upon thousands of high paying manufacturing jobs as humans will move to where they make more money, for lifestyle and affordable housing costs. I can buy a suburban 3 bedroom, 2 full bath, 2 car garage in most top towns for the same as a house in Edmonton, AB or the same in Phoenix, AZ for the same price as a house in Calgary.  But when you research the job and income growth from the thousands of manufacturing jobs coming, I’m earning US dollars vs Canadian dollars. Plus it’s buyers markets right now for most of the top towns in the sunbelt states with way larger populations, more diversified economies, the investment decision is pretty easy.  

FYI: The entire province of Alberta is 4.4 million vs the greater Dallas area is 7.6 million.

From my research, the top, landlord friendly sunbelt cities in the States combined with commercial style mortgage financing which is way easier to get than what we’re used to in Canada on small residential properties. It makes too much sense to not at least get educated on US investing before buying your next investment property.

We here at theTruth About Real Estate will be offering deeper dives at our month iWIN Meetings.  You’ll notice we are trending away from long-term rentals in Ontario as our topic at the upcoming November iWIN meeting is about vacation rentals by Darvin Zurfluh or Pinnacle Wealth Brokers, and my friend Andrew from Share Single Family Rentals will be sharing how he invests in Florida, Texas, Atlanta and upstate New York!  Andrew owns 20 income properties he’s never seen before.  How does he do it?

We have Victoria Cluney coming up on this show sharing how she grosses six figures per month on her short term rental motel in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Owning real estate is still a must for anyone who wants to defend and grow their wealth but ideally, avoid investments with rent control and dysfunctional landlord, tenant boards where not receiving rent for months to a well over a year are a risk.

How and Where Canadians May Invest in Florida with Ryan Poole

On to this week’s show!

Our guest is basically a Canadian as he grew up in Minnesota near the border. Ryan grew up further north that the vast majority of Ontarians so he knows snow, hockey, black flies and cold winters.

Then he smartened up and moved to Florida and participated in some roller coaster markets including the financial crisis and housing market crash of 2007-2009.  Ryan will share his experience on how they made a killing back then.

Ryan is well beyond just being a Realtor, he’s the founder and CEO of RealTrade Inc. which is like the Facebook Marketplace for real estate professionals and real estate listings, a smart diversification play for Realtors to keep control of their listings vs the Zillows and Redfin.

On the Florida real estate side, Ryan recounts how he made money buying bad mortgages from the banks in 2009, the current market inventory and demand, short term or hybrid rentals which is a split between mid-term and short term rental, hurricane insurance and changes to construction, the landlord, tenant laws and tax benefits, what to do for fun the south Florida.

50% of survey respondents wanted to hear more about Florida so here you go! I give you Ryan Poole, please enjoy the show!!

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-Generated**

Unknown Speaker 0:00
How work can easily invest in Florida real estate? How short term rentals earn double that of long term rentals not just for ROI but our O L or turn on life and more on this in this week’s episode of The Truth about real estate investing show for Canadians. My name is Erwin Seto full time realtor of the year to investors proud Canadian but but no. For you the listener, at least half of you who responded to our survey, you’d like to learn more about how Canadians may invest in the USA 91 91% of you wanted a webinar workshop 50% of you mentioned specifically you want to learn more about Florida, which is why

Unknown Speaker 0:38
and why not since there’s no state tax. It’s the home of Mickey Mouse and the sun is always shining there. I’m joking.

Unknown Speaker 0:46
Except when the hurricanes but don’t worry. I’m asking today’s guest expert and Ryan pool with over 20 years experience living in investing in Florida. asked me about hurricanes and insurance to before we get to learning about Florida. I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has come by and said hi, when you see me in public, I ran into one of our 17 listeners at Costco and we were discussing sadly how he’s getting his butt kicked in Sudbury, hence the selling and I told him the numbers look much better and the sunbelt states of the USA, no snow, no frozen pipes

Unknown Speaker 1:16
and whatever Sunbury so I can’t even imagine how cold things get to the plug in their cars there. I’m sorry, I’m so ignorant. There’s no rent control and Sunbelt stays nor LTB Hinze. Hence he booked a call with me. I’m always happy to book a call with any one of our 17 listeners and 350 past clients.

Unknown Speaker 1:36
Others are and to run into we’re at the Ontario landlord wash conference in Cambridge hosted by the lovely Kaley Andrea Taylor and rod.

Unknown Speaker 1:45
People came up to me and thanked me for being a source of news entirely revelant Rev. revelant. Relevant relevant to the Canadian real estate investor. I was speaking to one another investor who’s owed 175,000 in one private mortgage gone wrong. Unfortunately, they invested in the wrong investor who is the leader and host of the wrong networking group.

Unknown Speaker 2:08
You can probably see read between the lines if you know who I’m talking about. I told her literally I knew they were they were trouble. He was trouble. They were trouble. Because I personally knew one of the earlier victims, Tom Sullivan, who detailed his experience of loss on my podcast back in 2019. Tom Sullivan, Google, it shows my real estate investing show, it’ll tell you exactly what happened without naming names. Because nobody here wants to get sued, especially me. Due Diligence. So often would have saved so many investors a lot of money and stress. I just got off the phone with a client who’s in the middle of suing another person. Someone completely unrelated.

Unknown Speaker 2:46
From a very large key real estate network. Yeah, so yeah, so someone else is suing someone else over private money that’s not being paid. I know different. I have PTSD from cars come from con artists, which has simply fueled my analysis paralysis, and my forever search for the truth. For example, the YouTube algorithm suggested for me a video fact checking my favorite geopolitics analyst Peters I hand and one of my favorite gurus, Bridgewater founder, Ray Dalio.

Unknown Speaker 3:20
The channel is called money and macro. And I’ve been

Unknown Speaker 3:25
sorry, I’ve been watched it already. And it’s been awesome. I do love staying informed and learning about economics, austerity, why rich countries are not having enough babies. Japan’s rocky economic history. Remember, Japan was expected to surpass the US and Stearns up economy, but it didn’t. They’ve actually done quite poorly.

Unknown Speaker 3:45
Not that bad. I still think they’re what the fourth largest economy in the world. Point is I’m looking to learn. So I may leverage the lessons from history to make better investment decisions going forward into the future. Based on my research, it’s showing that the US will remain a top superpower in the world, if not the number one top hyper super mega power in the world. The US dollar is going nowhere, in like my lifetime, probably my kids lifetime as well as the world reserve currency. And combined with my experience of being on a landlord in Ontario, I’ve decided to deploy my capital south of the border, as the US government is investing heavily heavily in bringing manufacturing back to the USA. Some some stats are saying that the USA will double their manufacturing and within five years, even if it’s within 10 years, you know, their economy is gonna grow. There’s gonna cause more inflation and then and then of course their their dollar will appreciate. I think most Canadians I think most people in the world can appreciate. But you need more US dollars. You shouldn’t worry everyone should diversify at least a little bit to US dollars over their home currency because I don’t know of anyone outside of North America who would prefer to be paid in Canadian dollars over US dollars. Anyways, so yeah, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 5:01
We’re talking about in, we’re talking about 1000s and 1000s of jobs being being created in the USA, for manufacturing.

Unknown Speaker 5:10
And in a lot of these jobs or six figure jobs, and then also appreciate that a lot of these jobs will create four to five spin off jobs, you know, plumbers, dentists, waitresses, all the spin off businesses that go to support these 1000s and 1000s of new jobs. So we’re talking about 10s of 1000s of new jobs with each of these new manufacturing plants opening up in the States. For example, did you know that the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer chip maker, which is based in Taiwan TSMC. So Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing home is investing $40 billion in a chip manufacturing facility in Phoenix, Arizona. Doesn’t that sound lovely? Guess what? The price of a house and the average price of a home in Phoenix Arizona is the same as Calgary, Ontario. I love Calgary I love Albertans are such lovely people. But honestly, I’d rather visit Phoenix, Arizona then go to Calgary, and, and TSMC is they will be creating, creating 4500 manufacturing jobs 4500. And this is why all governments want manufacturing in their backyard. Because again, it brings off those additional four to five spin off jobs. So that could be another 16,000 jobs on the conservative side, talking 20,000 new jobs, just from one just from one employer. And this is Phoenix, Arizona, we’re talking about this is one of the fastest growing cities in the world already gives. It’s the it’s the recreational area, recreational property area for California. Right. So again, you know, anyways, whatever. So let’s flip back to Canada. Toyota, the world’s largest car manufacturer is looking for funds to build an Eevee batteries or car manufacturing in Cambridge, Ontario. But unfortunately, Cambridge average real estate is $800,000 per home, that’s Canadian dollars. So that’s a lot more, that’s probably about a third more than a house in Phoenix.

Unknown Speaker 7:09
Unfortunately, the arguments are out of funds, the Americans can simply just hit hit harder, they have much deeper pockets than Canada. Hence Toyota will be looking to Michigan, North Carolina or Texas. Follow the money my 17 listeners where there are 1000s upon 1000s of high paying manufacturing jobs, humans will move there to make more money for lifestyle and affordable and affordable housing costs.

Unknown Speaker 7:33
For example, I can buy a suburban three bedroom, two full bath, two car garage and most top towns

Unknown Speaker 7:39
and most top towns and sunbelt states in the suburbs, top 10 towns for about the same price that we pay for a home in Edmonton, Alberta. Again, I love Albertans I think you’re all lovely people.

Unknown Speaker 7:52
But I’d much rather visit the Sunbelt of the USA including Texas. You know, Alberta friends say Alberta is the Texas of Canada.

Unknown Speaker 8:02
I’m just gonna go to Texas. And of course, yes, the taxes and the rules are all much better in Alberta and Ontario BC this goes without saying. But again, if I’m going to fly, brother fly, so

Unknown Speaker 8:17
yeah, straight up. For me to fly to Calgary is the same it takes me to fly to Dallas. So

Unknown Speaker 8:22
I’ll choose I’ll choose warmer weather. Anyways, I also appreciate that it’s a it’s a buyers market right now and most of the top 10 towns in in sunbelt states. Also they have way larger populations with more diversified economies, and the vet. So to me the investment decision is pretty easy. The entire province of Alberta, the entire province of Alberta is 4.4 million. Right? I know that that number is a few years old, but just to be fair, the same The same year, good or Dallas eight area, so just one city, Greater Dallas area 7.6 million. So one city is bigger than the entire province of Alberta, right from from my research, the top landlord friendly sunbelt states and cities in the States.

Unknown Speaker 9:08
And then when you combine the fact that we can get commercial style mortgage financing, which is way easier than I’m used to getting, I know I’m often having to cough up financial reports for four or five, six different corporations when I get a mortgage, mortgage people hate me. Versus I just need to come up with a down payment. I rents need to cover my expenses and I can get a mortgage in the States. To me it just makes way so much more sense. And then for the listener, I’m not telling you what to do. But I do believe it’s in your best interest to at least get educated on what options are available in the USA before buying your next investment property. Especially if you’re considering buying in BC Ontario. We here at The Truth about real estate investing and we’ll be offering deeper dives. And we’re doing more so at our I O and meetings we’ll be discussing. By the time this comes out well November November meeting will pass

Unknown Speaker 10:00
asked where we’re gonna be talking about investing in long term rentals in Florida, Texas, Atlanta, upstate New York.

Unknown Speaker 10:08
And we’re talking and then we have Darwin zero flew, who is the owner, founder of Pinnacle wealth brokers, and he’s invested in hundreds of acres and recreational property in Canada. So there’s still lots of great opportunity in Canada. But you’ll notice that we’re, we’re talking less about long term rentals in Ontario or BC. And also in January, we’re talking about January, we’ll have a wonderful meeting as a friend of mine who has has been who’s part of starlight investments in the underwrote. And he may part of the team that managed 20,000 units. So he’ll be sharing how he analyzes markets and properties, and they’ll be in January. Understand we regionally kind of shut down in December. It seems everyone has better things to do to celebrate the holidays and, and talking about real estate. We also have Victoria Clooney coming up on this show, she’ll be sharing how she grosses six figures she generates over $600,000 per month in short term rental money from her motel in Nova Scotia, Canada. So that is real estate, but it’s short term. There’s the long term tenants see a theme here. owning real estate is absolutely still a must for anyone who wants to defend or grow their wealth. But ideally, again, avoid those investments where rent control or a dysfunctional landlord tenant board is involved. Right. You know, there’s there’s many people in Ontario BC who have not received rent for months or well over a year. So always consider that that baby at risk, worst case scenario, so try to avoid that if possible. onto this week’s show. Our guest is basically a Canadian as he grew up in Minnesota, near the border with with Manitoba. Ryan grew up north. And he actually were so where he lived was actually north of the vast majority of where I’ve Ontarians I believe he’s actually in line with basically Thunder Bay, which is in like north of over 90% of Ontarians so he knows hockey he knows snow he knows blackflies and cold winters that he smartened up he moved to Florida, and participated in some roller coaster markets, including the financial crisis and the housing market crash of 2007 2009. Around we’ll share his experience and how he made a killing back then. Ryan is well beyond just being a realtor. He is the founder and CEO of real trade Inc, which is like a Facebook marketplace for real estate professionals. And so anyone anyone around real estate, so it can be trades people Hey new people, fence people, home inspectors, appraisers, real estate lawyers, realtors, of course. They also house host real estate listings, which is a smart diversification of play for any American realtor who wants to keep control of the listings versus the Zillow and Redfin that just rebrand all listings with their own agents. Anyways, on the Florida real estate side, Ryan recounts how he made money buying bad mortgages from the banks for pennies on the dollar back in 2009. And beyond. He talks about the current market inventory and demand situation, short term or hybrid rentals. Hybrid rental being a split between mid term and short term rental for example, rent midterm will be like a six month and then the rest of the time can be short term rental. This is a this is a new term for me. So Ryan explains what hybrid rentals are sounds fantastic. We talked about hurricane insurance and the changes to construction based on hurricanes based on changes to the code building code. So you want to make sure you pay attention to what year where things really improved, to make property safer for hurricanes. And we talked about landlord tenant laws and tax benefits. And we spend quite a bit of time on what’s fun to do in South Florida. Again, 30% of survey survey respondents asked specifically specifically for Florida, I think you know, we’re here for the people. And I give you Brian Poole. Please enjoy the show.

Unknown Speaker 13:48
Hi, Ryan, what’s keeping you busy these days? Hey, everyone, thanks for having me on. Man is here in the trenches with real estate. You know, I have my own clients, obviously, that I’ve been servicing. You know, for years, a lot of investors and obviously staying busy with real trade we’ve now launched we’ve been a little over two years, and we’re growing every single day of 1000s of users, not only agents but other service providers like lenders, title companies, attorneys and a lot of buyers and sellers using the platform so it’s it’s full on in the trenches, real estate 24/7 for this guy. And so you’re a realtor and an investor but obviously we’re other other hats you have your own real estate tech startup as well. Yep, that’s in the your dad.

Unknown Speaker 14:30
But

Unknown Speaker 14:31
I want to mention that I have a seven year old son and I’m actually coaching him in baseball. So six, seven and eight year olds is my weekends right with them. So but it’s so fulfilling. You know, I enjoy it. I know you have children too, and it’s very rewarding. If you’re selling yourself short, such as baseball, I see scuba diving, deep sea fishing and all these other. Yeah, and now he enjoys the outdoors like his dad. Ironically right now you spend a lot of time in the boat

Unknown Speaker 15:00
As you know, I’m a big sportsman. So I love you know, fishing. I’m a big free diver and spear fisherman and we do a lot of hunting here in South Florida too. You know, we got some actually a lot of public land here in Florida to do hunting. So turkeys, deer, wild hogs, we do all that fun stuff too. So

Unknown Speaker 15:18
telling us spearfishing, that sounds hard.

Unknown Speaker 15:22
Get stuck. That spirit goes that far. Yeah, the cost range. And you’re sneaky. You’re sneaking up on fish. Yeah. And I do a free diving too, because it’s actually

Unknown Speaker 15:32
the best day. You don’t have an air supply. Yeah, so you’re holding your breath. Right. And, you know, it’s actually one of the best things that I did is I took a free diving class about Gosh, it must have been about 15 years ago now and really teaches the techniques of breathing, getting your heart rate down, you’re kicking the right, you know, masks and fins to use. And that’s amazing, you know, once you learn it, and I used to scuba dive before it was like, wow, why was I having these big scuba tanks and having to fill them up and spend all this money in production? Yeah, yeah, it’s a big production and freediving you just jump in and you’re out there enjoying the ocean. And then spearfishing, which you have a spear gun, so it’s it’s you actually use big rubber bands that actually propel the actual spirit forward. And yeah, you have to get pretty close, you know, you can’t shoot really far underwater. But one thing about Florida is, you know, we’re very lucky here and so far, because we have really clear water. So it’s, it’s, you know, it’s it’s very rewarding to be able to see the, the fish that like from the top when you’re like 80 feet of water and dive down and haunt him as you’re going down. And then you’re getting great exercise, right? And then you get to come home with dinner. I mean, how much fun. But if you can see them, they can see you these really fish.

Unknown Speaker 16:43
Some of them are there. I mean, some of the fish obviously are smarter than the others. But yeah, you have some techniques where you try come right directly right on top of them, you know, and they have camo wetsuits or when so if you didn’t have camo wetsuit so that they break up your outline so they don’t see you is is is easily and then you use what are called flashers, which are actually like distractors were kind of their seeming shiny things in the water that are floating along with you. And they come and check them out. So it distracts a little bit so you can dive down and get a shot at them.

Unknown Speaker 17:16
It’s one of my biggest passions. And I mean, that’s one thing about Florida. There’s just so many cool things to do here and enjoy. And you know, it’s a great lifestyle. So I said before we’re recording the viewers degrees this morning. That’s 32 Fahrenheit. Is that right? Yeah, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. And I was out biking this morning. So I was up at 430 I had my bike on the road at 530. Yeah, it was beautiful. was like 72 degrees this morning.

Unknown Speaker 17:44
Right that 2020? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And little Christmas in the air, which is perfect. So just got it’s so nice to ride around, rode about 30 miles this morning. Just beautiful. We’re very lucky. Like literally like, in the next couple of weeks that the full humidity will break and it’s just like someone turned a light on and it’s just beautiful weather now then until like almost through June.

Unknown Speaker 18:09
So this is why so

Unknown Speaker 18:12
listeners benefit. We sent out a survey what people want to know more about but us investing. Half respondents said they want specifically named Florida. So I immediately reached out to you, Ryan, because you’ve been in Florida for how long? You’ve been doing what I’ve been doing Florida real estate how long?

Unknown Speaker 18:29
2025 years, 25 years. Okay, I’ve had been active full time in real estate for 25 years, activist Natalie an agent partners in a brokerage owned a real estate asset management company. My own investment properties. Yeah, I’ve been living that for 25 years, I was way ahead of the curve. You know, obviously, we had this big migration after COVID. And during COVID It’s just I mean, it’s been phenomenal Florida, especially the last three years, you know, of the quality of people moving down the reasons people are moving down. I used to be for a lot of people were retirement right looking for second homes, or retiring. But now you know, you have a big migration of I mean, we’re getting people from California, New York that are actually moving here to headquarter, their business and actually raise families and all those good things. So they’re bringing a lot of that culture and you know, that expertise right from their different industries here and this is incredibly now West Palm now, you know, we’re becoming known as The Wall Street of the South. I’m actually looking, I’m looking at my office of my office window here are when looking at this big office building. And Goldman Sachs just took a whole floor out of that. So there, they have a big headquarters here. Ken Griffin, I don’t know if you heard about that. One of the biggest real estate plays in the world. He’s building huge estate here in Palm Beach, big hedge fund, you know, guy there estimating by the time he’s done $1 billion piece of real estate residential scuze me What is it a baseball park? What is

Unknown Speaker 19:59
it

Unknown Speaker 20:00
actually a big ocean fronts like he actually took about five different properties or wind and bottom over the last about 10 to 12 years and he’s combined them now to one huge oceanfront estate

Unknown Speaker 20:13
and then you’re gonna be estimate what his plans once these done right building is his home there it’s going to be worth close to a billion billion dollars

Unknown Speaker 20:22
you know

Unknown Speaker 20:28
do you say no to another a friend of mine, you know, you know, you know,

Unknown Speaker 20:33
have just listed a property to he took it off and then he’s probably gonna be putting it back on but a $250 million home on Palm Beach

Unknown Speaker 20:40
$250 million company golf course. It’s

Unknown Speaker 20:45
like its own little island. Even though it’s connected to Palm Beach Island with a bridge they said, you know, it’s its own island but yeah, yeah, there’s right down here. The Thick of It Real Estate. You know, luckily I moved right here in Palm Beach County, as we know, where Donald Trump has his Mar Lago

Unknown Speaker 21:03
are right here in Palm Beach actually by by his place this morning. You ever golf there?

Unknown Speaker 21:10
Well, he doesn’t have any golf course there at Mar a Lago, but he has, he owns you know, he owns like four different courses here in South Florida. Oh, I’m sorry. What is Mar a Lago? I thought there was a golf course there it actually Mar a Lago is like a beach club. So it’s actually on the ocean right Mar a Lago was on the ocean and it goes from the owning the ocean to the intercoastal you gotta come down here and I’ll bring you by that we can not only good drive by it, but the cool thing is, is see it from the boat because it goes to the intercoastal and then we can go around and see it from the ocean side and see as beach clubs so interesting, because I’m confused because like the news was always saying, Trump’s at Mar a Lago when I was they showed footage of him golfing.

Unknown Speaker 21:46
He’s got his golf club here in West Palm Beach, too, right? The Trump International Golf Club right here, which is just back over the bridge and then on the mainland, but you know, Mar Lago itself is on Palm Beach Island. Fascinating. Is that whether you hosted a live tour event, we’re getting we’re getting really sad.

Unknown Speaker 22:03
Anyways, another golf course down in Miami, right? He has a has a golf course turned. I think it’s Turnberry that he owns down in Miami

Unknown Speaker 22:11
that they had the big live tournament, which was a big shake up here because you know, I don’t know if you knew this, but there’s tons of pro golfers. golfers. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean, you know, Jack has his home right here in Palm Beach Gardens North palm area. I mean, Greg Well, the young guys like no yeah, like Justin Thomas and his good buddy. Get names right now.

Unknown Speaker 22:34
Yeah, yeah. Jordan speed. Yeah, they all have homes here. You know, Tiger Woods just built his big expensive course their private course up there and hope sound and a lot of them you know, golf there. I mean,

Unknown Speaker 22:46
I used to golfer or you know what I mean? And I got out of it. Now. Now golf stands for Game over. Let’s fish.

Unknown Speaker 22:55
You know, I joke that my golf game and my bowling score. We’re about the same about 100. And I just couldn’t take it anymore.

Unknown Speaker 23:08
Oh, so let’s talk about give us a market overview are things now so for? For anyone who’s new to meeting Brian reading around for the first time? I think we might have picked up a listener to be on 17 listeners now. So this is your third time back on the show? I think it is. Yes. And last time you were telling me because that we’ve focused a lot on how now is different than back in. Oh 7209 during the financial crisis. Let’s touch on that. Like let’s touch on that like rootlets Can you like you lived through it? You were you were doing everything you were an asset manager you were an investor you were real. You weren’t sure you had ownership in a brokerage? Like through a period that wasn’t the world that it was ended and you were like Ground Zero pretty much for like real estate devastation. What was it like then what’s it like now?

Unknown Speaker 23:58
Yeah, well then you know obviously you know there was a big reasons for the crisis back in oh eight right it was the mortgages you know there was they had a point where I remember in oh eight you know right at the peak right before the crash end of oh seven beginning of oh eight I remember you know there were teachers buying second homes within 10 miles of their own home with no money down on a you know, a negative am loan where they were cash flowing from the start because it was a negative am and I was like wow, how could this last this much longer and it wasn’t too much longer after that you know, the things crash because you know everybody had was highly leveraged right with their loans and you know all of a sudden the prices you know sudden started to fall you know, especially right what’s what’s negative and is that where you you get paid money when you close? No the negative and means that you’re not paying anything towards the principal so it’s actually adds on to the principal every single month. Oh, interest only Yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay, negative amortization. So actually, you’re

Unknown Speaker 25:00
It goes higher every year your balance every every, every single month, you know, and I was alone, no money down. No money down. You know?

Unknown Speaker 25:12
I know it was, it was incredible. And there was, you know, obviously these lenders got creative at the peak with that product when the prices got so high, and they were created that product. And that’s when I kind of knew, you know, things weren’t, you know, myself looking that great. And, yeah, and then we obviously had the crisis. And, you know, everybody overnight, you know, sudden their homes were worth half of what they paid for or less, you know, and it just happened so fast. And I remember sitting there in real estate, and I was stressed out about bout it, I had a lot of clients, I’m like, man, what are we going to do? And one of my good friends bill, by now you’re at very forward thinking real estate guy said, you know, this thing’s has to shake out some way, like you’re gonna have all these foreclosures, you know, how’s this gonna work out? And we’re sitting there, then one day, you know how to how to listen, I had a basically hedge fund Call, call me and say, Hey, can you do a BPO for this property we have, and you might get the listing, and I just, you know, my sense to start speaking to him, and I asked him, like, what are you doing? He’s like, Oh, we’re a hedge fund, and we’re buying non performing loans, you know, and we just need to know what this property be worth, if we got it back and start with a BPO. A broker price opinion,

Unknown Speaker 26:21
comparative market analysis, I guess? Yeah, yeah, we called CMAs, comparative market, that’s when all of a sudden, like a light went off, I was like, wow, this is how it’s gonna work out is these big hedge funds are going to go and buy these loans. From all these banks, these regional banks, and they’re going to buy them at big discounts are going to, you know, get them back. And then they’re going to, you know, do whatever, whether they rent them, or they sell them, well, they’re all wanting to sell them. So they would go to the borrower’s, they bought these notes, let’s say to us, for instance, like a note for, you know, $300,000, the house, you know, the mortgage was, well, the house now is worth, let’s say, a buck 50 or less, maybe 100,000. Well, they were buying the notes for like 10 cents to 15 cents on the dollar. So they were buying the loans for like 30 to 40 grand, you know, and then they would go to the borrower and go, Hey, you know, we’re the new mortgage holder, you can either a make your payments of 300 to 300,000, on the loan at this interest rate. Or if you want, you haven’t paid in six months, we could make this whole thing go away, you could sign the property to his deed in lieu of foreclosure, will give you a full forgiveness of debt, no deficiency, and just like the walkway, like this thing never happened. And that’s what they did, or when they did that. And a lot of times, they would give them cash for keys. So they even give them five grand to buy a new plate, you know, to go rent a new place. So they’re forgiving the entire mortgage and giving them money. gave him money, or one. Because you gotta remember, they got the notes at like, 3040 grand, and the house is, you know, somewhere between 100 and 150,000. Right. And the note is the mortgage like they are now. They’re now the lender. There the lender? Yeah, yeah. So they were like either a, okay, bring current, you have all these, you know, late fees, and your house is worth, you know, X amount half of what you paid for it. And they couldn’t do that, which almost no one could write. But I was wondering, like, how is this thing gonna shake out? Like, how is it like, you have all these people that are going to be in foreclosure, and no one wants to pay on their house? Right? Because there’s worth half of what they paid for it? Well, that’s how it worked out. And, yeah, so I got relationships with these hedge funds that were buying these loans. And then it just grew into that. And the one one time, or when I had 250 million under management, just myself, you know, that I was helping these banks, you know, through that hole for these hedge funds through that whole process? And sorry, the 250 million is that the value of the properties is that yeah, well, that was the value to buy the notes. Yeah, that they were buying notes under under management, you know, that they were buying the notes, and then seeing them through foreclosure than liquidating the disposing of the assets. Right, right. Yeah. Do you still do this? Now? So that’s that dried up, unfortunately, which does not mean it’s a good thing. It was a sign the economy, you know, was progressing, right. And it just got way more competitive. The hedge funds got out. And now loans, you know, the way the market is right now they’re trading at like, you know, face value, right.

Unknown Speaker 29:18
Okay, so not any yeah, there’s not much money to be made in the note, but you can get you can, I mean, don’t get me wrong, you can hunt and find some good deals, but like, huge, like bulk deals, which those, you know, hedge funds needed to make the returns thereafter. Yeah, that doesn’t exist. Like, you see, when you say bulk deals, how many markets? That’s the thing. It was an interesting business or when because, you know, basically, these hedge funds were were bidding on these big portfolios of loans. So they were, you know, buying 100 200 loans at a time. So, yeah, and the average investor right, like let’s see, if you were a note investor at that time, like, even bid on those those those loans would be very difficult because they were only traded in a couple of different trading.

Unknown Speaker 30:00
rooms on Wall Street that have access to them, right? Ironically, it was some of it like, you know, Bear Stearns, guys that started these funds buying the notes. Guys that had run up on the other side got it coming back on that side was Wall Street guys are pretty sharp, you know? And so yeah, so it was like, you know, it was kind of a, you know, say like an old boys network, but there was only just a few people that were bidding on those loans. And, yeah, there was all these regional banks, right, that were just like, hey, we can’t even we don’t even have the manpower to see these foreclosures through, you know, we can’t spend this much money on an attorney’s to go through the foreclosure. So they just wanted to get those loans off their books.

Unknown Speaker 30:39
No wonder everyone hates Wall Street.

Unknown Speaker 30:42
It is It was incredible. But anyway, so that worked through right, I did that. And we service these these funds. And not only were they buying loans, and then they started buying other distressed assets, like short sales and foreclosures as well. Right. And but yeah, that just got competitive. And then I, you know, obviously got back into general real estate, and did that and worked for some developers selling some new construction on that came back. And then, but then I saw the writing on the wall with tech, right? I’m like, Man, I have to get into tech. That’s where the industry is going. And then, like I said a little over two years ago started real trade. Tell us tell us, what was the cause? It’s not just by doing this hack, you’re trying to solve a problem? What is the problem you’re trying to solve with real trade? Yeah, so the big problem is, you know, as an industry insider, right as an agent, you know, the way that Zillow basically these large portals like Zillow, realtor.com Trulia, I’m not exactly sure how it all works in Canada, but they here in the States, you know, us agents work really hard to get our listings for properties for sale. It’s usually personal relationships, right? Usually you have to meet your client on the golf courses, take him out to dinner, which is fun, which I enjoy, but a lot of work and time and money and effort. And then you have to pay money. So you get the property ready for sale, you sign a listing agreement, and then you have to pay money to your local MLS boards, just for the right to offer that property for sale. It’s not cheap, it’s expensive, okay, then you upload that data, the photos that the properties for sale, you offer the cooperating agreement to the other broker, the buyer’s broker and you put a property on the market, right? Well, the crazy thing is the MLS boards, then take that data, and then they sell it or give it to these online portals, like Zillow realtor.com. But here’s the crazy thing is they actually covered the listing agent. They don’t let the public know who they are, right. And then they make the agents now bid against ourselves, for the right to talk to buyers and sellers offer own data. So

Unknown Speaker 32:37
that was a huge problem. Because number one, the agents aren’t getting the best data, right? They’re not getting the best information. And it’s in basically agents, it’s almost impossible to build an online presence of anything lasting, because you can’t through these online marketplace where everybody’s going something like well, what if there was a different way to do this? You know what?

Unknown Speaker 32:55
Exactly that they can protect their brand and build an online business. And then the the buyers and sellers can go directly to the agents that they want, whether they want to go direct listing agent or find their own buyer’s agent. Right. So that’s pretty much the impetus, the problem we wanted to solve. In the public Joey my experience is public generally doesn’t know when they’ve been does that happens here to not know they’re sold as I need. It’s like a piece of red meat or when you know, they’re sold as lead in Zillow, everything gets baked in the price, right? Because think about it like the ages now we’re spending more money to talk to more buyers and sellers to Zillow, so they gotta charge more commissions. You know, it’s, it’s all gets passed on at the end of the day to the end consumer. So yeah, I wanted to solve that and then not to save all the other periphery businesses, right that you need in a real estate transaction. You’re gonna need lenders you’re gonna need inspectors, appraisers, contractors, like there was nowhere dangerous, you know, all those great business refers. I was like, wow, there’s no place for the public or the agents to network with these service providers. Right real estate, it’s just so fractured. And I said, you know, what if there was a way for everybody getting connected, so that’s what we did is we created an online marketplace, a different model than Zillow. And we merge it with a social media component. So I tell everybody, Zillow, different ways. LinkedIn for everybody looking with real estate. Yeah, yeah. So we got lenders there. I mean, you know, we got Scott Dillingham with with Glen city just signed up which he’s helps a lot of foreign buyers especially Canadians down here in the US, he’s on there and then like I said, we got great attorneys that you’re gonna need right title companies that can handle foreign transactions we have out on there and then of course agents like myself is on there obviously our way that specializes in helping with foreign investors. So yeah, it’s it’s pretty exciting. And you know, we want went from zero to now we got 1000s of users, you know, from all over the world using the platform and you know, 1000s of agents and other service providers on there, too. That’s amazing. Like your you got a business that supports your community. Yeah, yeah, I’m pretty good. As you know, real estate. At the end of the day, it’s still like

Unknown Speaker 35:00
Yeah, relationship business, right. So you make those little tweaks online, right? You make those little connections online. And then you get to know that person in real life right and speak on the phone. So to remember, kind of like the kindling on real trade is you can find those connections, and then build those relationships on your own later on. Yeah, I always tell people in real estate,

Unknown Speaker 35:20
or what brokers they work with, I’m like, I don’t even know. I’m working with this individual.

Unknown Speaker 35:26
You know, at the end of the day, I tell them, Don’t get hung up on brokerages. It really comes to that personal agent. Yeah. Same with the lenders, you know, same thing, right? It’s it’s that personal, you know, service that they’re gonna give to you and then expertise, right, that they know that market, they know what’s happening and can put you in some areas, right, that have some growth potential.

Unknown Speaker 35:47
And now, how is the Florida market today? So we’re recording this on Halloween? I know I love it. You want to get it? For Atlanta, I should have dressed up. And then we have cultural distance differences between Canada the US? Yes. Do Halloween, trick or treat and all that? Oh, yeah. I got my son or what I’m bringing them trick or treating tonight. He’s actually going to be a dinosaur with a cowboy riding them. They’re crazy. They have like this blow of dinosaur and then he.

Unknown Speaker 36:12
Yeah, I’ll post the pictures on social media. Oh, definitely. You’ll see that. I love Halloween. I love people posting pictures of the kids in their Halloween costume.

Unknown Speaker 36:22
Celebrate there too, right.

Unknown Speaker 36:25
My son My son is Pikachu. My daughter some sort of which.

Unknown Speaker 36:30
I love it. Yeah, they look really ridiculous standing next to each other. Because my daughter is more like a not nice looking like a mean looking witch not like a Yeah, like a cartoon, which

Unknown Speaker 36:42
is cool. She said lady devil. I don’t know. Whatever.

Unknown Speaker 36:48
The kids love it. I mean, you know what? Truth be told I eat some of that Halloween candy myself. So

Unknown Speaker 36:53
my son brings I might take some away when he’s not looking for the stash it to the side.

Unknown Speaker 36:59
So

Unknown Speaker 37:01
it is Halloween? What’s What’s the state of the market in in Florida right now. Specifically West Palm. So ya know, I can I can speak to all of Florida plastic, fantastic food, and then also West Palm in particular areas, you know, South Florida, right. So right now the home prices here, I’m actually looking right now from September of last year are up 3% over last year, up over last year, which is one of the you know, a great indicator of South Florida. And yeah, at the same time, the number of homes, you know, Rose that’s overall condos and in homes, homes, Rose 4.1. And then the number of homes sale Rose 3.2%. So, I think that’s one thing that here, you know, Irwin, that I want to speak to that, and I’m sure it’s similar probably in your market, too. But um, you know, our inventory, right still remains low. And there’s, I think a couple of indicators to on that, which makes it challenging, right? Because there’s a lot of buyers out there going to cost the markets gonna crash, you know, the prices are going to come down and things are gonna happen because the interest rates are higher. But the reality is, you know, there’s a lot of a lot of owners in our homes right now, that locked in low interest rates. Right, especially COVID explain that, because I didn’t even understand that either, like mortgages in the US are locked for locked in for 30 years, as in the rate is locked for 30 years. Yeah, yeah. So because it’s, you know, it’s, it’s completely different here about 30% of danger. So do variable. So floating debt 70% A lot of investors during COVID. I said, Listen, the interest rates were got down in the twos, like leverage that for 30 years, lock it in for 30 years, you know, if the interest rates go up, and he’s price go up, you guys are gonna be golden. Right? And, you know, some did took advantage. Some didn’t like, Oh, we’re gonna wait, we don’t know what’s gonna happen with COVID. Right? And obviously, we had a huge spike from COVID. But like, yeah, so what happens is it those buyers, and the people that refinance, so the cool thing here, the states that we have here, when it is like you can refinance out of that loan anytime you want. Right, most of them don’t have a prepayment penalty. So, you know, there was people sitting on probably like 6% loans, you know, maybe six and a half before COVID. And then once COVID happened and the prices just when the loan, you know, rates went way down down into the twos. He said, Hey, why don’t I reply, like this, that makes total sense, no penalty,

Unknown Speaker 39:26
no penalty, I can pull out some equity. You know, what we’ve been talking about doing a pool in the backyard, I can pull out some equity and you know, my, my mortgage payments gonna be less and I got a new pool, right? So that’s what everybody did or like, like in the stats are about 75 80% of home owners did that here in Florida that had mortgages, right? They refinance them. So you’re at a point now where all these people did that, right. They believe they’re sitting on these low interest rates. So they’re sitting there in the Feds thinking, Oh, we’re gonna sit on the market by putting up these higher interest rates, but it’s actually here in Florida. It’s kept

Unknown Speaker 40:00
It’s kind of had the opposite effect, because now no one wants to no one wants to sell because, hey, they’re gonna have to go buy a home at a 7% interest rate, you know, they’re gonna have to pay higher property tax, right? Because the property values went up. So there’s a bunch of underlying currents there of why the the market is still increasing in Florida, and I think will continue to as well. Yeah, I wish we had that here. I

Unknown Speaker 40:24
wish more people took that one, too. It’s like rental rates are so great to see like, even like, wow, I am stuck in this low interest rate, rather than then selling that I could rent this home out, which are rental rates, whether it’s, you know, long term or short term right now, or are really well, too. So like the returns are just incredible for a lot of those people that purchased. Tell me about telling me what do you think is an ideal investment property? And then give me give me the numbers on it?

Unknown Speaker 40:51
Yeah, so I just, you know, I did a webinar on this.

Unknown Speaker 40:54
You know, what, two weeks ago, I think this is a big thing, right? Like, we all love ROI, right? Return on Investment. But like, you know, one thing I think for Canadian investors, where I’ve been speaking to a lot of them is they have what’s called ROI well, which is the return on life. So I think it’s something that you can that you get a great return on that you can get investment property, start building equity and get a return on your rental. But you can also use, right that you can come down here and use yourself. And while it would solve that problem, you know, in the advantageous would be, you know, like a short term rental property, like an Airbnb type property, right, that you can rent out, and you could come and use for a couple of weeks a year and have a good return. So that’s what I’ve been seeing investors doing here. And I know there’s a lot of things out there that you know, short term rentals aren’t what they were, you know, a couple years ago, but here’s what we have here in South Florida, particular in Palm Beach County. Okay, is we have a, we have a very, you know, low hotel,

Unknown Speaker 41:50
basically supply, right, like here in West Palm, I’m looking here in downtown, there’s just a handful of hotels downtown, you know, people can come here and rent a hotel. So where are they gonna go? Well, they still want to come down here and vacation. And that’s why the short term rental market here is still very hot, still some great vacancy rates, right? That they’re getting. So like, you know, let’s say, You’re, we’re in West Palm Beach, okay, and everybody has Palm Beach islands, right across the way, and we’re Donald Trump players, and we’re talking multi multimillion dollar homes, well, you can still purchase a single family home here, near downtown West Palm Beach, in that three to $400,000 range, right? So let’s see the first three to $4,000 range. And you could have an average, right, have a short term rental, you know, rate of, you know, five to $6,000 a month that you would have on that home. Now, you’d have you’re caring. So that’s a short term rental money, especially long term rent, not long term, long term rental rate, it’s going to be your short term rental rate is going to be about double right of what your long term rental rate. So you’re probably looking on long term rate probably around, you know, 2500 to 3000, maybe $3,500 a month, if you really make the property really nice on a rehab. But yeah, so you’re talking considerable. So think about that, those numbers for a second, right? So you have that, then you have your real estate tax, which are usually going to be you know, around 2% of the, you know, assessed value. Now, the assessed value isn’t exactly the same as the sales price, which I want people to understand they take the whole neighborhood, they back out your closing cost and real estate commissions and stuff from the, from the sale, because they’re not going to tax you on that number, right. So it’s not exactly the same as the sales price. So you have about, you know, I would say about 70% of your sales price. And then at 2% is kind of a good, a good equation to use. And then you have your, your, your insurance, right that you have on home. Now, it depends on the home, your insurance, or when I want to people know, like different homes have different insurance, whether they’re into like a higher risk flood area, the type of construction, the type of the roof, you know, what kind of plumbing it has, you know, those those insurance underwriters look at a number of factors when they insure but I would typically I would say like on a, you know, on a, let’s say, like a three to $400,000 purchase, you’re probably talking anywhere like you know, 3000 You know, maybe $4,000 a year, you would factor in that. Has it gone up? Does that and we talked about before like is west palm is generally spared from hurricanes.

Unknown Speaker 44:30
How

Unknown Speaker 44:32
we haven’t had a major hurricane hit here since like, you know, the early 1900s. Right, knock on wood, you know, but um, you know, as far as the West Coast, obviously, they’ve they’ve gotten a little bit more, you know, Hurricane action there too, but ironically, when I did the webinar, right with this insurance, big insurance

Unknown Speaker 44:51
broker, you know, one reason for the high cost and insurance here that affects like everywhere, I’m sure different places in the country is like the inch

Unknown Speaker 45:00
You’re right. So you have like different insurers here for home insurance here in Florida. Well, they actually buy insurance too. So they’ll actually go get reinsured by another larger company. Now it’s these larger companies now, like the Lloyd’s of London’s of the world, large global insurance companies, where these regional insurers are getting their insurance. Well, their prices have gone up too. And they’re looking at the forest fires in Canada, they’re looking at the flooding in Europe, like they’re looking at all these different factors, right? When they’re doing that, so it’s not all just localized as well. So it’s there’s a bunch of moving parts that go into it, but it has gone up, you know, the insurance here in South Florida has gone up anywhere from you know, 40 to 60%. You know, what period of time over the last year.

Unknown Speaker 45:47
Last year, I know, but I will say this, like, you can’t just you know, keep going up at that number, right, there’s going to be a market and they’ll just be more people moving the market. Now we do have what’s called Citizens insurance, which is kind of like a cooperative, that a lot of people buy into where they get a more purchasing power on their insurance. A lot a lot of people use for that as well. And so there’s going to be different options. And I spoke to the insurance agent, and he predicted that the insurance prices will come down, you know, back down over time. But he said it probably stay flat here for the next couple years. And he could see things coming back down. That’s good to hear. Because now I know a lot of people still like Florida. Yeah, 50% of our survey respondents wanted to hear about Florida. I mean, want to have insurance right now, if you’re looking at a condo, you know, white knight, one nice thing about condos, right? Is they have they have their own insurance that the whole building basically chips into so it’s a little cheaper. And it’s in your it’s in your HOA fees, right? Your structural insurance, which is your homeowners association fees, which you pay every month to maintain the property and buy insurance. And usually they include, you know, different things like

Unknown Speaker 46:57
you know, cable and stuff with that as well, because they get a like a group rate on cable and internet and things like that. For listeners. For the listeners benefit Hoa is a homeowner association fees, we call them condominium views here. Yes. I think it’s exactly the same. Is there? Is there a particular age of building that you’re kind of looking for? Because I understand codes change have changed through time and codes have changed to you know, so. So the buildings are built appropriate for hurricanes? Yep, yep. So a lot of things changed in Hurricane Andrew 1990 to kind of keep that in mind is a lot of the codes in Florida changed at that time. Right. So that was the one that hit, you know, south in the upper keys down by homestead. That was a 1992. And a lot of things changed with that. So I would say you know, if you’re looking for like quality construction after that time, they changed a lot. And now, you know, the quality construction even since the 2000s had been really, really great, early 2000s When you started getting a 70s and 80s. Kind of I mean, everybody remember what happened with Surfside, you know, that condo that collapsed in Miami? I was big tragedy. That was a few years ago now. You know, 100 people died. Turns out like they were saying like, you know, there was a defect in the quality construction of why that building failed. You know, the way they they built the pool and the underlying foundation of the condos why that fell.

Unknown Speaker 48:24
It was specific to that builder wasn’t not because I don’t believe the other area condos had that same issues. It was that one builder, you know, they had issues. Now they know that the local in the state government did pass a regulation called regulation for D, where they’re now if any condos are 25 years or older. If there’s closer the coast for 30 years and older, they have to go through what’s called a structural integrity test. So you know, it’s actually needs to be done by certified Florida engineer architect, and it’s basically a study now that all condos have to go through to make sure that this doesn’t happen again.

Unknown Speaker 49:01
You know, and if there is issues, then they’re going to have to address them. Right. I mean, so. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 49:08
So Brian, what what areas do you like for investment? We’ve mentioned West Palm several times. Can Can you listen to know where it is in relation to like the, you know, we’re all Canadians go like Orlando, Fort Lauderdale. Where is it in relation to this?

Unknown Speaker 49:25
I really like West Palm Beach, you know, in relation to other areas in Florida is okay, we’re about a little over an hour car ride north of Miami. So I’d say we’re about you know, you know, 45 to 50 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale, right is West Palm Beach. And the thing is, here’s just a less population density, but we have the same exact weather as Miami Fort Lauderdale, which is a beautiful South Florida weather. Now if you go just north of here, Erwin, let’s say up to like, you know, Stuart, a little north of there. It’s a different wetter weather pattern. We’ll get a little bit cooler in the winter and the

Unknown Speaker 50:00
The ocean water isn’t quite as nice. One thing that’s really advantageous here, which I love is the big outdoorsman. And fisherman is the Gulf Stream, which is like a warm river current, the ocean follows the east coast of Florida. And this is actually where the closest that comes to shore is right here, West Palm Beach. That’s where we get those beautiful, like I was mentioning, like 100 foot visibility days, and then it kind of bounces off West Palm and starts to go off shore. So that affects the weather, right? You have that warmer water where that air is coming over. And that’s what’s bringing that South Florida, you know, temperatures, right. So I’m saying you’re getting all the benefits of Florida, all the great weather, but without the big population density and craziness, which is Miami in Fort Lauderdale, which I love going down there. Right, we have the bright line, high speed train now, which we spoke about in the last podcast, which, you know, I can be down to downtown Miami Brickell in an hour and a high speed train and have a beer or cocktail and food while I’m going down there. Right. So and then come up here to beautiful West Palm, which is, you know, like I said, that now is becoming known as like, you know, the billionaires and millionaires, you know, here that are moving here, and just have a really nice quality of life. They all want to play with the prices here like West Palm compared to like, in Miami, or like, you know, considerably less right because you just have a higher density density down in Miami than you do, you know, in in West Palm, right? So, so you mentioned like a single family home near downtown’s. Like three to 400,000 How much would that be?

Unknown Speaker 51:33
Most be closer to Miami. Yeah, so that would be like, you know, probably six to 700,000 Maybe more. Maybe 800,000.

Unknown Speaker 51:43
If you want to be like near downtown Miami, you know, Miami area.

Unknown Speaker 51:48
Obviously too loud for me. Yeah, I mean, mine is fun, like for a day or two. But to live there, the traffic’s tough. That’s another thing in West Palm two that we’re getting here. You know, like, remember, we’re getting a lot of northeast, you know, people moving here, California and we’re getting foreign, some foreign, you know, buyers that are buying to move here too, as well. But we have a lot of people from South Florida that want to come up here, right escape the craziness. So we’re getting to kind of from different directions. So that’s why I’m saying you know, as far as on the equity side of why I’m more bullish on West Palm and I am in Fort Lauderdale Miami is because of that because we have more room for growth. Last time I stayed in Miami is where they’re over the weekend. And the noise was from like, you know, like 2am people revving their Lamborghinis and other supercars

Unknown Speaker 52:38
you know, you’re in some kind of conference going on like the Bitcoin conference or something like that. No, I wasn’t that wasn’t on that at that time. But yeah, just just the flex cars that you see there. It’s not like like in big cities where I’m used to like in Toronto for example, I’m used to hearing sirens in Miami it’s $300,000 cars

Unknown Speaker 53:00
like I said, I mean I like Miami like I said but in small doses so it’s just nice to be able to go down there and experience it and and come up with this beautiful you know relaxing area which is you know, West Palm Beach area Palm Beach County. I want to speak to to like there’s different areas Palm Beach County so you have like you know, West Palm which is like our metropolitan area right where we have all these you know, the great culture we have, you know, great museums here like we would have in any metropolitan area, but then we have a lot of outline smaller cities, like Palm Beach Gardens, Jupiter you know Boca Raton Delray Beach which are you know, it’s kind of neat each each city Each area has its like little flavor right of what they kind of, you know, like Jupiter’s more known as more of like a fishing area right in a watersports area. Yep. And like golf courses are to believe it’s sort of in Jupiter, Florida. A lot of them a lot of golf court actually, all Palm Beach County is one of the highest density golf courses, you know, in the United States are on like, per area of number of golf courses. It’s, it’s a lot. You know, it’s a lot. And then, you know, like Delray Beach is this very kind of hip, like, art, kind of, you know, a lot of art festivals, a lot of artists in the area, kind of like bohemian style. So you have all these different kind of cultures and all these little cities that are very close together. And then you have downtown West Palm Beach, that’s anchoring them right. But then I want to speak to this as he’s crossed the bridge, and then you come to Palm Beach Island. Well, that is its own entity. That is like, you know, you’re stepping back in time to some kind of European, you know, very wealthy area, where we have these beautiful estate homes and bowtique shopping and all these great, you know, world class restaurants.

Unknown Speaker 54:49
And that’s all right here. It’s not like you’re like you have to drive some you know, some far destination to get to Palm Beach Island. You know, it’s literally across the bridge.

Unknown Speaker 55:00
So so for Kenyans coming down to visit you how many are? How many are buying purely for investment? Are they? Are they doing mixed use, like return on life? Like you’re saying?

Unknown Speaker 55:09
I would say I would say about 70 80% of them are doing the return of life type investment that I’ve that I’ve been working with. Yep. I have I sell a lot to just strictly investors. I mean, I’ve closed or within the last two months about about four different multifamily projects, right, that have investors that have closed, you know, multifamily properties, which, you know, that market has continued to be, you know, you know, I’m still bullish on the multifamily, you know, multifamily market down here, but the rents that that my clients are getting are just incredible on an annual basis, and, you know, to become popular here to like six month rentals as well. So it’s kind of like a hybrid in between short term and long term, your six month rentals, you know, you can kind of thread the needle in between the short term rental price and in a yearly yearly lease. Interesting people. Yeah, doing six month rentals. And then another big rental option here, because you have all these corporations now, right, that are moving here, headquartered in like Goldman Sachs and Citadel and these other large funds, well, they need corporate housing. Right, so there’s just this big need for corporate housing, you know, down here, where you have a corporation that will show rent a unit out, right, and they just want to be able to sublease it to their other corporate, you know, their, their clients, right, that need that need space? furnished? Yeah, they need to furnish. Yeah, so I have clients that are doing that. Another great rental option two is, you know, renting to the health, health industry, healthcare industry, nurses, there’s actually platforms, now I just spoke to them and have that they just made a profile on real trade called Red Door, where they specialize in just getting traveling nurses and nursing staff into, you know, into properties, and you could list your property on with them. And then, you know, the professional nursing staff, you know, that’s going to be rented and their numbers are higher than you could get on a, you know, on a on a yearly lease kind of in between like a, you know, a short term, you know, rental or, you know, a long term rental. So, there’s a lot of options, you know, that, you know, that people can use as far as rental strategies, you know, that, that the big thing is the exit strategy, you know, we’re still projected here, you know, anywhere from I mean, just very conservative in a run, like, you know, five, you know, 5% growth, like, like, set even last this since September. We’ve been at like, 4%, you know, which is incredible, which is bonkers. Because like here, most of Canada, things are slowed down significantly, unless you’re in Calgary.

Unknown Speaker 57:41
Because, yeah, because their housing is much more affordable compared to Ontario or BC. Like I mentioned before, before, you know, a sub a townhouse in the suburbs is 800 grand in the Greater Toronto Area, versus like, it’s a pretty big house in Calgary. Yep. So things a little bit nutty here. Yeah, we talked about like, yeah, you know, to help me understand a little bit the Toronto market. I know you obviously you have the lake, right, that’s pinning you in a green area, right, that comes kind of comes over the top of you from urban sprawl. Yeah. Urban sprawl. So, which, ironically, you know, kind of what we have here, we obviously have the ocean right here in West Palm. But then if we go just further west, and we get into

Unknown Speaker 58:23
Everglades, I mean, you’re not gonna be draining that, you know, I mean, there’s big environmental thing. You know, Everglades is great. I mean, it is, if you ever been there visited the amount of wildlife and seen it in person is incredible. It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful, right? So they’re not going to so we’re kind of like same similar swap, it’s probably hard to develop,

Unknown Speaker 58:42
or develop well, they drained, they did drain some of it, they at one time tried to now they’re turning it back into more wetlands. So there’s like big huge, you know, projects that are going on for that actually. Super cool. And then I think, I don’t know how much you’re familiar with, with the the headwinds we have here and can’t nontariff specifically, like we have about eight months data hearing for non payment of rent, for example.

Unknown Speaker 59:08
Yeah, we have rent control, we can only raise our rents.

Unknown Speaker 59:12
I was speaking to a couple of investors that I had, and they said Ryan like, yeah, we can only raise our rental a certain percent percent, three and a half percent apiece. Does that make sense? Yeah, I said to people all the time, like, you know, Ryan, you’re a smart guy, but Max salary increase is two and a half percent. Yeah. Here’s the contract Sign up now.

Unknown Speaker 59:32
That doesn’t keep up with inflation.

Unknown Speaker 59:36
Which is why we’re losing money. We are losing money. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, yeah, we don’t have that there. I mean, that’s one beautiful thing is like, you know, we saw rental increases and we’re still seeing them, you know, rental increases, you know, especially the last you know, obviously, since COVID. But even now, like, I’m seeing me get ready or when we’re seeing here not like, like in super high end areas, but I’m

Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
Scenes studios like, like Lake Worth Beach, which I have a lot of investors by now, which just south of west palm right? Studios going for, like, you know, 2020 $200 a month on an annual lease, and then you know those things furnished, right during the season, you’re looking at, you know, four to 5000, you know, dollars a month for, you know, seasonal rentals. So,

Unknown Speaker 1:00:22
you know, little studios or small, you know, this one that I just did that just, you know, my client is rented out, we’re talking like four or 500 square feet. Oh, okay, a little bachelor, we come back to our apartments here. But, and that’s the thing is like, you know, they’re just not, you know, the rent rental inventories is really low here as well. So, you know, people want to be down here for the season, or just need just a place and you’re young professional. That’s kind of what the market is now, right now. Big news up here as well. For example, British Columbia just came out with an Airbnb ban, basically outside your own home, or municipalities under 10,000. Population. I know New York City did something similar. I use New York City in New York State. I’m not American, and I don’t follow it that closely. Yeah, I heard New York City, New York City, and then anything on the horizon for Florida. last poem. We I mean, me, they tried to ban short term rentals here, like in this market, especially in West Palm. I mean, there might be a few areas in Miami, like, you know, I know in South Beach, like you know, the homes there. They, they’ve never been able to do short term rental there. That’s kind of, but it’s like an art car and just although it’s an HOA or is that the government? No, that’s the local minimums municipality, they’re in that area, in South Beach, but like, here in West Palm, they’d be shooting themselves in the foot because there’s just not enough hotels for the people to stay. So like all the commerce of all the people here on vacation, spending money here. It just wouldn’t make sense. I know, you know, like, I know, the mayor here in West Palm. Personally, you know, he’s, he works a lot with this, you know, accelerator that I’m involved with the real trade went through called 1909. And yeah, they they’re very pro development and no real estate restrictions. So say,

Unknown Speaker 1:02:06
as I mentioned, to just get a hearing, to dispute a non payment of rent is eight months. And hear up here in Ontario. What if I say I’m your tenant, I stopped paying rent.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:17
What’s what’s what’s next? And I refuse to pay rent. So if your legal plans to catch up? Yeah, so if you’re late, you know, if you’re, let’s say you’re late two weeks, you can put a notice, okay, on their door, right to vacate in 30 days, right? And then if they do nothing, right, they sit there and then you have to evict them. So another 30 days, so it’s 60 days, 60 days to evict, and there are like the sheriff shown up at the door, Tino? Yeah, we don’t we definitely in Florida, we’re very pro business. Right here in Florida, obviously, a lot of great things want to say about DeSantis. You know, he’s made a lot of, you know, a lot of pass a lot of laws and done a lot of things for business. And especially when it comes to real estate, we have no rent controls. You know, if you have to evict someone, it’s a pretty easy process. Difficult.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:07
Yeah, we have a lot of things in place for that.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:11
And the sheriff that’s, that’s less law enforcement. It’s not a specific. Okay. Yeah, cuz we have, we have, we have sheriffs here. But that’s not law enforcement there. This is specific. I don’t even know why. I don’t know why we need to have different levels of law enforcement. Yeah, we have property rights here and an Ontario and Canada.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:31
Very pro property rights, especially here in Florida. I mean, you know, we have a great, you know, I don’t know how it works in Canada, but we have, you know, homestead laws here in Florida, right, where you can homestead your home as your primary residence. Right. And your tat, your real estate taxes can only increase 3% a year. That’s it, right? And then also, you know, if you ever get sued, like, that’s your homestead, right, and they can’t go after your own personal asset. So that’s why you see a lot of celebrities, right, that come to Florida, and they’ll put a bunch of money into real estate, and then they’ll homestead it, right? Because, you know, everybody’s going after them to get sued. So and then there’s obviously other tax advantages as well of, you know, investing in real estate here, especially the depreciation side of it, you can depreciate the asset, and you can wait it on the first two years. So, basically, you’re paying no, no taxes on your rental income, especially for the first couple. Right? So you’re able to use the depreciation which is a paper loss paper expense to deduct against your income in the first two years. Do you know how much it’s like 50% or like or what is it?

Unknown Speaker 1:04:33
That’s what I think 50 percents like what do you do for like laptop piece technology house is a little bit different.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:39
I think it’s like almost all of it, like, you know, like

Unknown Speaker 1:04:45
all of it. Yeah, there’s another reason to that actually, in each asset class has its different formula of like, you know, like there’s one big reason a lot of investors they buy these like self storage. You know, facilities is like they have

Unknown Speaker 1:05:00
Huge like, right off that they could have depreciation because the way they’re built, you know, the corrugated metal and they need replacement and so many years. So you see all these investors that do these storage facilities, fill them up, keep them for like two or three years, right, and then sell them and then go to the next one. And they just keep doing that. Right? Flow. I know it. And we have this too. And I don’t know if they have this in Canada. But one thing that we did do well here, which a lot of investors are talking about, the advantage of is, we have

Unknown Speaker 1:05:33
what are called opportunity zones. So these are areas that have been designated, okay to invest in real estates, that if you buy real estate, they’re right, in these different designated areas, the kind of like up and coming transition areas or lower income areas.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:49
You keep it for 10 years, or when you don’t pay any, any capital gains tax.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:55
So, yeah, so we’ll have a lot of investors now that are like, you know, they have these big, you know, like, they might have these, this, this delayed taxes, where they’ve been 1030, wanting these properties for years, or one, and they’ll then 1031, finally into an opportunity zone where they found an asset they really wanted, now they’re keeping that asset, and then they won’t won’t, you know, won’t realize any taxes at the end of 10 years, at least section in the these these areas. And they’re they’re not all section eight, you know, there’s definitely some section area areas in them. But yeah, I’m a very aware of opportunity zones. There’s a big area just north of West Palm here called Northwood, there’s some different areas down so wonderful. Yeah, it’s great. And it really revitalizes areas. I see it happening. You want to bring money in in an area. Yeah, development, like new development, like they’re building multifamily new development, you build a rentiers is a pretty hot market right now to you know, where they’re, you know, build the rent, you know, where they’re building, you know, properties just to rent out. So, yeah, they’re going to enter these areas in gentrifying ruin. Can I get your opinion on Section Eight? Do you like it? dislike it? It’s okay. Well, I’ve had, I’ve had clients Oh, yeah, no, I’ve had clients over the years that have had section eight rentals. I mean, the nice thing is, obviously, you get your rent every month. But one thing that, you know, because it’s subsidized, right, that you’re going to do it, but one thing that they do sexually does do is they go in on their own and check on the tenants, right? To make sure that they’re, you know, keeping the properties up into a certain standard. And it’s not, you know, turning it into, you know, something that’s unhealthy, right. So they have own people checking on the property to make sure that they’re taking care of of your asset, which is one nice thing of Section eight. And then they have a model right of every service what size you know, home or condo or apartment that you own if what you can rent it for so

Unknown Speaker 1:07:44
no sexually rentals, I actually from the clients that I’ve had over the years, they were fine with them. They said, You know, they weren’t saying super positive things about it. But they weren’t saying too many negative things about it. Interesting. It’s usually like what qualifies for like single mothers, single mothers in section A,

Unknown Speaker 1:08:01
for the listeners benefit, can you can you share our section eight is like we don’t have, which is funny, because we’re supposed to be the socialist country. But we have nothing like this. As far as I know. It’s it’s actually I mean, it makes it affordable, especially manage if you’re single mother and you’re trying to pay rent right now, you know, it can be super expensive, because the rent prices are higher. So basically what it is it’s yeah, it’s government subsidized housing, you know, where any investor can go in and offer their property into this marketplace that section eight, right? And then section eight goes out, okay, and has these tenants that they have to qualify in a certain income? Like I said, usually single mothers making X amount of money usually up to under a certain amount of money. Yeah, well, below the average. Yeah, yeah. Well below the average. And then section eight goes, you know, the book, okay. We will pay the rents, okay, on your home, at this rate that we’ve said, this tenant is going to move in here, okay, they’re gonna sign they’re gonna sign a lease, they have to, you know, keep it up to a certain standard matter of fact, we’re going to check to make sure that they’re keeping up to a certain standard. And usually what they do, ironically, is they do have sometimes depends on you know, the tenant where the tenant might pay like 100 or 200 a month on their own to sometimes to to just help them kind of start to pay rent and get used to that so

Unknown Speaker 1:09:18
yeah, and just for listeners benefit the government subsidizing the rent they don’t it’s not their property, it’s the investors property. Investors property. Yeah, you’re guaranteed to read I mean, the US government’s gonna be paying

Unknown Speaker 1:09:31
that not the tenant

Unknown Speaker 1:09:33
again,

Unknown Speaker 1:09:35
if listening list any listeners out there and knows the program that somewhere here, like, please let me know. But as far as I know, there isn’t. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean, it’s like, you know, obviously it’s lower, you know, it’s, you know, lower income, you know, candidates right. And usually the properties that kind of make sense for these for that type of investment are usually like you know, your, your, you know, more transition areas like you’re getting

Unknown Speaker 1:10:00
these zones, right? That those deals make sense. It’s gotta be with the rents affordable. This is reality.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:06
It’s, it’s pretty, you know, like I said, I’ve had invested I haven’t heard anything like bad about them that they’ve been happy with him. There’s some that that’s all they do. You know, there’s investors that that’s all they do is sectioning. Rentals. I’ve spoken to some investors, some investment advice is to light up when you talk about Section Eight. It’s, especially if you’re going into an opportunity zone or when, like, if you’re going into an opportunity zone, right, and you’d have a section eight property and like I said, in 10 years, and you decide to exit that, if you’ve had a great return all those 10 years now, you don’t have to pay any kind of capital gains tax.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:40
It’s pretty advantageous. Yeah. This is why people want to jump their citizenship and

Unknown Speaker 1:10:48
invest in American real estate. Now we’re, we got a lot of great things to like I said, as far as on the state level as well, right. As far as like headquarter, your business here, we have no state income tax, you know, in Florida. So like, you’re thinking like, wow, like you have no state income tax, which is benefit for you. But what of all the other people in the United States that want to take advantage of that, too. And that’s why we’re seeing this big influx, like I said, have a have a net migration to Florida when versus all these other states that we’re seeing here in South Florida?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:18
Amazing, Ryan? Yeah, I had another question. But I figured it was. But so I’ll just flip back to Airbnb.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:25
When you’re when you’re networking with a new investor, like setting expectations around an entry level investment property, what do they need to know? What do they need to know if they’re going to buy a $300,000 house? Or an Airbnb? Like, do they have to go buy the towels and like, be on call to get ready to, you know, change bedsheets? Like, what? what’s the, what’s the expectation for a new investor? So the nice thing is, which I have in my network, and we have some real treat, we have, you know, the short term property rental management companies, right, that can handle everything, you know, they can handle the booking the property maintenance, the towels, the toothbrushes, you know, all those types of things, you know, as far as that and they’re gonna normally charge, you know, anywhere from 15 to 25%, I’d say the average is probably about 20%, you know, that they’re going to charge. Now, if you do like a kind of a hybrid model, right, which we discussed, obviously, wouldn’t have to pay those large, you know, those large fees, there’s other property management companies, if you did like a, you know, six month rental or maybe like a four month or whatever, they’re going to charge a lot less like 10% or less. So, you know, there’s different you know, there’s different options, depending on what what your goals are, right? If what your returns, you know, what they want to be? Ever since the pandemic, I never had spoken to so many people that are interested in spending the winters in Florida, and it’s usually Florida to talk about, I can’t I’m actually stretching my head to think about when I want to have a named another state. I mean, you don’t name like Texas, right? Like, oh, I want to go to Texas and spend the winter there. You know, it can get cold in Texas, right. And they, you know, the quality, like I said of life here as far as like your outdoor activities on the ocean, right? The golfing like it’s perfect.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:07
To say, you know, remember I grew up in northern Minnesota. It’s like it’s perfect. Yeah, northern Minnesota. So help. Sorry. I wanted to touch on this earlier. How far to drive to get the Winnipeg from where you were living? Yeah, it was only like an hour. So I was right up at the border. Yeah. Went to the northern border of Minnesota is where I grew up.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:26
What’s the name of the city?

Unknown Speaker 1:13:30
Thief River Falls, the falls. They spelled pH i e. F River Falls, Minnesota

Unknown Speaker 1:13:41
Northwest like yeah, one of the most desolate areas. Well, you everybody knows that movie Fargo right. Hey, Fargo was like an hour away right? So it was like Winnipeg or Fargo we go to Winnipeg up there because that’s where the party was. Not Fargo is Yeah, no, not Fargo.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:00
ROA. That’s hilarious. Okay, so for example, okay, I might again I’m very Wow, wow, you’re really north. By up there. You’re already down. Thunder Bay. Yeah, we’re way up there. Yeah, we’re like if you look at where it’s at, you’re a big hockey town. I grew up playing hockey all that good. So that’s why I get with Canadian so well or when you know I know the culture very well. You know

Unknown Speaker 1:14:25
that’s that’s crazy. You’re uh yeah, I never looked at the map Yeah, the border the southern border from Manitoba is north of with Thunder Bay. So your your very north you know cold I definitely know like I said that’s why you know, I was way ahead of the curve like I said, I’ve been here 25 years right so

Unknown Speaker 1:14:43
yeah, and I mean Florida to like it’s just you know, West Palm I we speak into that because I’m in real estate here but you know, I spend time down the Florida Keys and you know, you can drive down to Key West and everybody knows Jimmy Buffett right? And in Margaritaville and all that cool lifestyle and the keys we got that whole area of South Florida. It’s not that far.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:00
Here, I can drive down to Key West, I can be dominant, like a little over four hours down and enjoy that beautiful drive all the way down and being like, like you’re in the Caribbean. So there’s just so many great things that are happening here. Of course, you have the huge Miami scene. Now to I don’t know if I tell you this, because this is new since last time was on the podcast, the high speed train runs to Orlando. So you can take how new is that? How old? Is that? Something really new. That’s really new. Yeah, no, that’s within the last like, few months that they finished that leg. I know. We were speaking last time that they were building it. So now we want to go to Disney World, right? Two hours. Two hours? Yes. Like, how long is the drive? Like two hours? You can train it instead? Just relax. Do the high speed train right and just relax the whole way there. Bro. How much is it? How much is the how much is a train?

Unknown Speaker 1:15:51
Yeah, for Miami, it can be as little as 20 bucks. That’s it. When he box. Like you can’t even park your car or wind down there for that. The same scene like by the headache, it just doesn’t make sense. For me. I haven’t drove to Miami and in three years, like, I’ll just go down there to go right down to Brickell downtown, and then just take an Uber, you know, anywhere else I want to go for fun, you can go over to, you know, over to South Beach for like an $8 Uber ride. Like it just doesn’t. Doesn’t make sense. Right? So it’s infrastructure improvement, that sort of be there’s big infrastructure improvements here, you know, that we’re having having here too, you know, and obviously, we got like, you know, everybody knows we got cruise ships, like, you know, we got like a little short cruise out of West Palm, actually is called Margaritaville cruise line. Jimmy Buffett was invested in that hack of an entrepreneur, if you ever want to read a cool history about entrepreneurs, because I know a lot of entrepreneurs, Jimmy Buffett, man, he took literally that one song Margaritaville and turned it into a billion dollar empire. Yeah, it was at Margaritaville. And every like carnival ship is a carnival I forget what ship it is. Which cruise? Yeah, and this was actually zone it’s called the Margaritaville cruise ship. And you can check at least out of your West Palm, but it’s just a fun short trip brings you the Bahamas, right? It’s just a couple nights that you go over there, which is a cool little cruise because right from the port of Palm Beach, which is my point is like you have all these things to do around here. You know, you have so much so many activities and fun stuff to do that you need lots of activities. He’s you’re not locked up for half the year, because you’re trying to avoid the winter. Because I’m just trying to kill you

Unknown Speaker 1:17:24
know it. I know everyone so yeah, so it’s, ya know, it’s the quality of life. Like I said, ROI. Well, everybody talks, you know, ROI, which is great. But the return on life, that lifestyle? Yes. At the end of the day, you know, at the end of the day, it’s just so rewarding. So many, you know, you know, great things, enjoying, I call it r o g return on grief. I need a lot of return for my grief. And my grief is too high these days.

Unknown Speaker 1:17:52
With Frank control and landlord tenant board and yeah, so I

Unknown Speaker 1:17:58
think that why did they make it harder to like invest in real estate that does I mean, if you want to, like, you know, grow an economy right to to to create wealth for your basically, you know, your constituents, right, your voters, real estate’s like one of the best ways to do it, you know, you think you want people to have access to that you think sorry, but

Unknown Speaker 1:18:17
yeah, we don’t, we don’t like to do things for the rich people here. That’s why we don’t have any rich people, and they just keep leaving.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:28
I don’t understand that capital is mobile.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:31
We have so many we have that’s what I could say about here. Like we have the rich people that are moving here. Yeah, expertise, right. They’re bringing their connections, they’re bringing their network, right. So it’s just Florida in general, especially south Florida on this side. That’s why I’m so bullish on it. Like it’s like, have some of the highest quality, smartest minds, you know, in the United States that are moving here. You know, these big, big entrepreneurs, you know.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:59
Right, any final thoughts? We’re running out of time?

Unknown Speaker 1:19:02
Yeah. No, I mean, I would just say this, you know, I want to kind of get this out there. Because, you know, I’ve worked with Canadian investors, you know, over the years, obviously, had some great success. Some have had, you know, is you know, real estate’s when these things is like, you got to take some risk, you know, and I’ve seen a lot of some Canadian investors I’ve worked with that have sat on the sidelines, maybe looking for the perfect time, right to do it, or, you know, looking for like, the perfect deal. And, you know, there’s never like a perfect deal, right or perfect time, you’re going to have to take some risk, but I will tell you this Irwin, for any investor that I’ve seen, that’s bought and held a property for over five to six years, I haven’t had one that say, Wow, I regretted doing that, you know, some, you know, all of that I’ve had, you know, had been you know, very happy with their their real estate investment, especially, you know, in the last 15 years, you know, it’s um,

Unknown Speaker 1:19:55
any like what would have to change in Florida that’s gonna like totally, drastically do that. I mean, we’re gonna have

Unknown Speaker 1:20:00
Like a big of a sudden, you know, Florida is it like a great area to be because it’s, you know, tools down or something like that. I mean, I can’t imagine that it’s it’s still, you know, people are coming down here to enjoy, you know, everything we spoke about about the weather and the lifestyle and all the activities, I mean, that’s always going to be here. Same with all that, like, we’re not going to switch up all these tax advantages, these pro business things that have worked for Florida, like that’s not going to get switched up. So

Unknown Speaker 1:20:30
it’s worked out patricians are still in human capital from California and New York. My point about capital being being mobile, it is, like, it’s a real thing, or when, like, we’re bringing all this talent here, you know, and it’s just going to become more and more valuable, right? And it’s gonna they’re gonna tell more and more people and that’s, that’s what’s happening love, just, you know, see you down here when, you know, I’ll make it eventually, I need to sell some houses first. Socialist control me.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:56
And that’s my point is I feel like very much I’ve lost control, which is like the last thing any entrepreneur wants. Right? Well, let me tell you a funny story. And this is a fellow entrepreneur that I met here when building real trade and, you know, successful entrepreneur, but he was down in, in South America, down in Brazil, right. And he was an entrepreneur worked super, super hard building his business. And all of a sudden, the currency went down to nothing, right. And the sudden the government changed his rules. Like, literally overnight, they got a new government in there. He’s like, Ryan, I had to literally start over 35 years old, with all the wealth that I had created in 25. Because the first thing I did is I got out of there, I gotta move to the United States. And he goes, I had to start over. But here then I was seeing him 15 years later, you know, he was like, 50 years old, and he built another awesome business. And he sold is doing well.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:52
Ryan, it was a question I’ve had to ask around legal structure. How are how are Canadians buying properties in Florida? destroyed a credit card? Come with a personal check? No, no lending? No, you know, a lot of some of the VA and in fact, a lot of the investors I have speaking with lenders, right, some of some paid cash, right, some of them have paid cash.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:13
I will say this, like, you know, we have a network, some great lenders, you know, Scott Dillingham with Len City, it was awesome. You know, he’s on real trade now. So obviously, they can reach out to him they’re right.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:25
You know, the rates are, you know, the rates obviously fluctuate with the market, but he has a number of products that he can offer them. And then as far as the MCN legal structure, that’s something that he can help with, right, that’s going to because there’s different ways to structure it based on you know, the tax advantages, right. So he can have different ways that they can speak to that, and then obviously, that the, the lending institutions would want to see right that they can. So definitely like, what Scott, is that lens city will handhold you through this? Yeah, they can definitely handhold you through that. Right. So I mean, the investor, I had a lot of cash buyers that have purchased, you know, they purchased under LLCs. And different things to

Unknown Speaker 1:23:02
you know, which are,

Unknown Speaker 1:23:04
basically create LLC is here, I’m sure it’s similar in the United States in Canada, right. So each state, you can register your LLC in that state, and that becomes an entity that you can then purchase assets through right and protect, you know, through the LLC. And there’s different ways you can do it, though you can set up a trust, then and then put the LLC in a trust. And, you know, there’s a bunch of different ways that you can do it. Definitely speak to your wife. Yeah, yeah, it’s something to your wife, right? She can, she can practice this here in Canada.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:35
ever wants to speak to an accountant, it’s, it’s, we have some great as everyone’s situation is different, right? Because I don’t have cash. So I’m going to tell you to talk to the accountant lawyer that doesn’t deal with just cash buying.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:48
We got some great attorneys on real trade, too, that can help in some great title companies that we have to make sure, you know, all the I’s and dots are, you know, across data. And so, all that good stuff. Fantastic. Where can people find real real trade? Yeah, I can go to you can just Google real trade, it’s gonna be the first one that shows up, but the URL is actually real trade.io. So you can find it there, I would implore you to check it out. You know, as far as like, you can look for properties for sale, right? Or rent, you could look for property for sale or rent, get a good idea in the market. And the cool thing is you can connect with real estate professionals. I’m on there every single day. So you’ll definitely see me and connect with me on there. But you’ll see Scott Scott with Glen city on there.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:29
You know, you see a lot of other real estate professionals on there as well, whether an inspectors, appraisers, contractors, any of those types other real estate agents on there, too, as well.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:40
You can always get a hold of me, you know,

Unknown Speaker 1:24:43
I’m wondering now I’m like, oh, there’s a listing here. 17 says, l left st one. That’s one of my listings.

Unknown Speaker 1:24:54
Because I see your picture on it now. Of course got

Unknown Speaker 1:24:59
it

Unknown Speaker 1:25:00
But yeah, one bit like 680 square foot. 2007 50. American. That’s about what we get for 680 square feet in Toronto. Yeah, they’re getting that that’s I’m saying like,

Unknown Speaker 1:25:12
this is like this real That’s it. That’s a multifamily investor bought. I just put that on the market. I’m actually got a lease.

Unknown Speaker 1:25:19
I know it’s acute. That cool. That’s in Lake Worth beach Irwin. That’s just south of downtown West Palm. Super cool. House. Yeah, back in the 20s. Yeah, you got a great deal on that was so just kind of highlight that ones. That was four units, right that he got for 800,000. It’s one bedroom, and then three studios. And yeah, he’s gonna get about $2,000 a month annual for the studios. And then for the one bedroom, he’ll probably get about 2700 for the one bedroom on an annual basis. So that would be 246

Unknown Speaker 1:25:55
That’s pretty good. Yeah, most loving 11,000 You know, almost 11,000 a month. You know, which is a, you know, an $800,000 purchase. Didn’t get much renovation? Nothing. He bought it just like that with fully furnished and everything. I got a good deal on that one. He’s super, super happy with that asset. This is a ground floor unit. You’re all grounded? Yeah, they’re all Yeah. So you have kind of like a single family. home up in the front one bedroom then you have a studio and then two more studios and another building the back. And a nice patio in the back. Yeah, the colors are the colors or Florida.

Unknown Speaker 1:26:33
light blues. I’m always doing deals like that, like on a personal level obviously to you know, working with investors that I’ve had over the years and you know, happy helping your, your, you know, your friends or your clients or when let’s build wealth in America. You know, say what you want, you know, 75% of us millionaires are when made in real estate. Still the best wealth generate I know we love you know, in America stocks and crypto and all these other alternative investments. But real estate’s been one of the best. Yeah, it’s part of a diversified portfolio. Yeah, I’m working people get a hold of you. So yeah, you can go and register on real trade. I’ll see you there. And then also, you can just email me at Ryan pool at real trade.io More than happy there. You could connect with me on Facebook. We’re friends or one and I get to see all his cool posts with I love your grilling out, by the way in your bar.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:27
I mean, I look at your posts, and I’m like, Man, I’m hungry. It’s good. You’re you’re grilling and barbecue game is top notch. Yeah, but I feel like I have like a week or two left to

Unknown Speaker 1:27:38
stop.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:40
Something to eat the barbecue your round.

Unknown Speaker 1:27:44
To the theater gets you. No, I’m kidding. I’m gonna come back for you. Ryan, thanks so much for doing this happy Halloween. You too. You too are one it’s been great. Thanks, man. Thank you for watching. If you want to learn how to invest in real estate from scratch, my team teaches beginners how to use the number one investment strategy that I personally use in a virtual free training class every month. Go to investor training.ca/youtube To register for our next class. Then links also in the description as well. I publish at least two to three videos a week here. So subscribe if you want to keep learning from seasoned investors like myself and my guests. And if you’re just starting out, feel free to ask questions and comment below. And I do the best to answer each of those comments and questions myself. Again, if you’re ready to learn the nitty gritty about real estate investing from a professional investor register for our next virtual class. That’s at Investor training.ca/youtube. Thanks again for watching. See you in the next video.

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Ryanpoole@realtrade.io

 

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UPCOMING EVENTS

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with! Build connections with empire builders and trailblazers at our iWIN events.
 
CLICK HERE to check out what’s coming up next.

 

BEFORE YOU GO…

If you’re interested in being a successful real estate investor like those who have been featured on this podcast and our hundreds of successful clients please let us know.

It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

If you didn’t know already, we pride ourselves on being the best of the best real estate coaches, having the best property managers, contractors, handy people, cleaners, lawyers, accountants, everyone you need on your power team and we’re happy to share them with our clients to ensure your success. 

New investor or seasoned veteran investor, we can help anyone by providing our award winning coaching services and this isn’t all talk.

We have been awarded Realtor of the Year to Investors in 2015 by the Real Estate Investment Network, 2016 by the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and again in 2017 because no one told the judges no one is supposed to win the award twice but on merit, our peers deemed us as the best.  In 2018, we again won the same award by the Real Estate Investment Network.

Hopefully being the most decorated team of Realtors in Ontario will make you consider us for your first or next real estate investment.  Even if you don’t invest in our areas, there’s a good chance I know who would be ideal for you. 

I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

Sponsored by:

Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year.

Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

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Why I’m Investing In US Real Estate

Investing for positive cash flow, areas of job growth and warm weather, regaining control of the retirement investment plan and legacy portfolio; all this and more on today’s episode of the Truth About Real Estate Investing Show for Canadians.

I’m your host Erwin Szeto, landlord since 2005, Realtor and Coach to investors since 2010, 4X Realtor of the year, $400,000,000+ in client transactions, and host of this little podcast that could that is ranked #81 Business podcasts per Apple iTunes.

We have a different podcast for you today as I am the one being interviewed by today’s guest of the show Andrew Kim, CEO of Share, a technology based asset manager of single family rental properties in the USA with focus on the landlord friendly states of the southern USA.

After months of research and due diligence on both investing in the US and on Share, I’ve convinced my wife Cherry the risks we bear with the Landlord Tenant Board with an eight month backlog just for a hearing, rent control that makes inflation our expense to bear and with better, simpler investment opportunities in the USA it make sense to sell some, if not all our rental properties here in Ontario.

On today’s episode, the tables are turned: Andrew asks me all about the decision to invest in the USA via direct ownership of real estate. Direct ownership, unlike what others out there in doing in raising capital or OPM is I own the property with full title. I have complete control over the house and do not share ownership with others like joint venture, or shares in a company.  It’s just me, the bank, and my wife Cherry.

As always in how our nearly two decades of investing has been, direct ownership, if done correctly, means higher returns to get ahead in life.  I bear all the risk and keep all the upside.  Worst case, I own a quality house in a quality location that I can renovate, move into, or sell.  That’s how I’ve always invested.  

My wife and I don’t take on partners, you don’t need us as joint venture partners, I can show anyone how to invest just like my 45+ millionaire and multimillionaire real estate investors in the most efficient path, with the least stress as possible via direct ownership.

Let’s never take our eye off the goal of every real estate investor: a comfortable, maybe earlier retirement.  With easy financing in the US available for unlimited properties, the tax part I’m not worried about as the worst case scenario if done correctly is one pays the same amount of total tax but split between US and Canada, the biggest risks to the real estate investor are removed when investing in the southern, landlord friendly markets… there are risks like there always are but I’m choosing to invest my hard earned money where there are a lot fewer risks and more potential for cash flow.

Everyone has to do their own research and due diligence. I’ve done mine including a site tour around Atlanta, Georgia and I’ve grilled Andrew probably more than anyone ever has.  Poor guy was seated next to me on the flight home from Atlanta and there was no inflight entertainment on our ghetto Air Canada plane.  Just 2+ hours of me asking questions :))) 

Have a listen to Andrew asking me the most common questions Canadians are asking about investing in the United States.  Please enjoy the show.

For more information on SHARE and investing in the US:

Web: www.iwin.sharesfr.com mention Erwin or iWIN or you’re in pursuit of the truth about real estate investing and they’ll take good care of you.

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-Generated**

Erwin 0:00
Investing where positive cash flow areas of job growth and warm weather, we’re getting control of the retirement investment plan and legacy portfolio. All of this and more on today’s episode of The Truth about real estate investing show for Canadians. I’m your host Erwin Seino. Landlord since 2005. Realtor and coach to investors since 2010. Full time realtor of the year 400 million. That’s 400 million plus in client transactions and host of this little podcast that could. It’s currently ranked number 81 Business podcasts per iTunes. And that’s all over the world. Thank you to my 17 listeners, thank you for all the likes and subscribes and positive reviews. Five stars reviews please on Apple or Spotify. We have a different podcast for you today as I am be the one being interviewed by today’s guests of the show. Andrew kin CEO of share a technology based asset manager of single family rental properties in the USA, a focus on landlord friendly states of the southern USA. After months of research and due diligence on both investing in the US and on Share. I’ve conveyed to my wife cherried the risks here that we bear with the landlord tenant board with an eight month backlog just to get a hearing. Even if it’s something as little as not a little but non payment of rent, rent control. We’re only allowed to raise our rents two and a half percent here in Ontario three and a half percent in BC. That means that inflation is the risk for us to bear as landlords. So and then you combine that with the fact that our better simpler investments in the opportunities in the USA, it makes sense for us to sell some if not all of our rental properties here in Ontario, actually have three listings coming up in the next week or two for my student rental properties. On today’s episode, the tables have turned Andrew asked me all the all about the decision to invest in the USA via direct ownership of real estate. So direct ownership deserves some attention and definition. Unlike what others out there doing a lot of influencers and real estate gurus they are raising capital or OPM other people’s money, which is fine. This is a capitalist society, I’m a part capitalist as well. But this is different. A direct ownership means I own the property with full title, I have complete control over the house and do not share the ownership with anyone via joint venture or shares in a company. It’s just me, the bank and my wife Jerry, as always in how our nearly two decades of investing has been direct ownership, if done correctly, means higher returns. And that means getting ahead in life. I bear all the risk. And I keep and more importantly, what really happens, at least over the last 20 years or so is it to keep all the upside worst case I only quality house and a quality location that I can renovate move into or sell. That’s you can’t see the same for many real estate investments out there. This is how I’ve always invested. My wife and I don’t take on partners, you won’t see us asking asking people to raise capital or private lending or any borrowing or anything like that. It’s my belief you don’t need joint venture partners is I can show anyone how to invest just like my 45 Plus millionaire multimillionaire real estate investors. Using in the very efficient path with the least stress is possible via direct ownership. I can’t say it’s been not stressful last few years as an Ontario landlord. But let’s not take our eye off the goal, which is of every real estate investor, a comfortable maybe even early retirement, that is typically the primary goal of pretty much every investor that I meet. With easy financing in the US available for unlimited properties. The tax part I’m not worried about my accountant. So talk to your own accountant. The worst case is if you don’t if you do your taxes correctly, your corporate structure correctly, one will only pay the same total amount of taxes but it’s the split between how much you pay, you’d pay someone to the US and you pay someone to Canada. That’s the worst case I’m not paying more tax. The biggest risks to the real estate investor are removed. That’s for the interior. That’s for the Ontario investor. There’s a whole lot less risks when investing in the southern landlord friendly markets of the USA. There are risks but there always are. But I’m choosing to invest where my hard earned money will work harder for me, again with a lot fewer risks and greater potential for cash flow. Everyone has to do their own research and due diligence. I’ve done mine I’ve done mine including I did a site tour around Atlanta, Georgia. I think I looked at eight or nine properties from the inside I knew so I was inside of them myself. And I’ve grilled Andrew CEO share probably more than anyone else has. Poor guy was sitting next to me on that flight home from Atlanta and there are no there was no inflight entertainment for him to get to hide hide from before from Yeah, we had we were on like getaway or putting on a plane in economy class, just two plus hours of me asking questions. Have a listen to Andrew asking me the most common questions Canadians are asking about investing in the USA. Please enjoy the show. Oh, yes. And for more information on share investing in investing in the US, the website is www dot iWin dot share sfr.com. I think that’s WWW dot iWin dot share sfr.com mentioned Erwin or Iwan or that you’re in the pursuit of the truth about real estate investing in they’ll take good care of you. Please enjoy the show.

All right, Erwin. So what’s keeping you busy these days? Listing I’m currently listing three my properties. There’s no market for student rentals right now for duplexes. So I’m focusing on my student rentals, which have higher demand. So thank God, I had a diversified portfolio. So again, my plan is to sell the timing, the seasonality is correct to be selling a student rental. So that’s I’m prepping to sell all my student rentals. So that’s keeping me busy. And yet having to talk to my clients through these difficult times of being a landlord with elevated interest rates. landlord tenant boards backed up eight months just to get a hearing. And that’s just to get a hearing doesn’t mean you get a decision. So having to support clients through that, you know, having to support clients through challenging renovations, or unfortunately, defective renovations, like at this one client, who bought a turnkey property, but he’s got water coming into the basement. Right, bought a turnkey, from the from the builder, from sorry, a builder, a small, very small builder, and then his other property, then he has renovation, as base basement suite at the basement, the tenant moved out because the floor was put down on level floor. So the floors popping up in in the sharp edges on on flooring, so their child who’s still crawling around this too unsafe. So how to do cost to the client through yikes dealing with the manufacturer and the general contractor on Yeah, you’re like a real estate investment shrink or therapist. You know, the funny thing is like when I when I actually touched BTT asset manager is as like, this is what I always tried to do. Right, right. But we can never get to that scale that sort of we can never have all all great vendors and each of the positions. Like for example, property managers, I’ve personally fired five property managers. I just fired one earlier this year for my St Catharines properties. It’s just and then the tenant things is harder, right with you know, I have properties that are under rented by like $1,400. Right, because, and then for all the landlords listening, like we are subsidizing our clients lifestyles, and we’re backstopping their housing inflation. So everyone feels the same like I do. And, yeah, firstly, I’m tired of it. Yeah. So, you know, it says the right season to get rid of your real estate, why are you offloading? Why is it just because of the negative cash flows I had the headache or what’s the driving force. So, couple things, I want cash so that I can move that money around to better assets. One pay down some debts and take some profits when there were some headaches because again, like to these properties, that property manager are fired and so it’s been a bit of a headache to deal with that. This is not why I got into real estate, I didn’t get into real estate to be a landlord to like, deal with the stresses of being a landlord. And then, you know, found opportunity in the states awesome, where I can find better honestly better numbers on a single family home than a student rental. And then student rentals for anyone on a student rentals are difficult to finance. Versus I can buy properties in the States with debt service ratio mortgages, which is just a commercial commercial apartment buildings which is what the dream for every investor is to not have to self qualify for property for mortgages and I’m difficult to self qualify because I’m self employed and I have like seven corporations so mortgage people hate me Yeah, because the review like seven corporations to qualify me and then if they can’t qualify me there’s did all this work for nothing. Yeah, it’s a manual process. There’s no system for that. Oh, it’s brutal. Yeah. And then like, we my wife, usually my wife has explained to the mortgage company like what’s going on? Because that’s not easy to to interpret all this. So yeah, looking for it easier. Looking for opportunity. Yeah, I like I’ve been public about it. I believe that the markets gonna bounce back once we see Some, what’s the rhetoric? Like once the rhetoric changes for the Bank of Canada, the interest rates that they’re at least pausing, which they’ve already started to allude to, then we’ll see property prices go back up. And, and then my, my belief is that the Americans will cut after me after we do. So it’s ideal timing, I think, to be getting into, like the US market, or Canadian market, if that’s your choice, it’s not mine. But yeah, I see other opportunities. Did you start looking down sales before we met, or was that like, we saw you were actively kind of looking not actively, like, I’ve had, like, I’ve been around real estate investing since like, I’ve been a landlord since 2005. I started getting really educated in 2008. And even back then, like, there was some good content around how it’s easier. It’s more favorable for landlords, the rules and regulations in the States. But the entire time finding financing readily easily. Scalable financing was not available. Up until, like all the people I knew who were buying in the states were either doing cash like hard to cash, or they’re using all HELOC money off of their home. And these are Canadians. So they’re buying up to $200,000 house in Florida. All that money came from their HELOC. That’s hardly scalable or good use of capital, in my opinion, for investment purposes. So I’ve ignored the US market. I’ve always been a fan of America, like the American economy. And, you know, I drive a Tesla, and never thought I never thought I don’t want an American car. Never. Like my family had terrible experience with like Pontiacs and GM products. So never like we swore as a family we’d never own another American product and car. Now I drive a Tesla. Anyway, USA jersey. Yeah, and we’re in need USA jersey. Maybe it’s made in America to know it’s made in China. But no, I never considered the US never took the CEUs seriously until until just the last few months. Okay, so I know you’ve been diving deep. We’ve been spending a lot of time together. You’ve officially joined our advisory board we trip to down south like as one by the way. Yeah, yeah, that was definitely a good trip having dinner before dinner. That was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So you know what was? What was the biggest eye opener for you like coming in and going down sell speaking to some property management companies like what were the biggest takeaways of that trip? So even before that, first of all, was the financing piece opened up? So our now mutual friend Scott dealing them? Because he thought he because he focuses on investors and because he’s dual citizen, he was able to open up shop in the States. At last check. He probably has more now at last check. But he had nine lenders ready to lend. I think he’s got Yes, but onboard another one today. Fantastic. But and every time we onboard another lender, like the term seemed to get better. Are you searching more aggressively? Yeah. Well, yeah, through I’m sure you’ve helped guide him into as well which lenders are more favorable, really great job. Like, I’m constantly pinging him like, like, I just messaged him again, got this one scenario, how can we help this one place and then go with their Canadian let me look on this side, as well as sat down south Mike perfect. So Scott’s coming on the show as well. So our listeners will understand better his background, but this high level, like he was the number one person at a Bay Street bank 400 units in one year, which is absolutely incredible. 400 mortgages. And he did, yeah, he got me several mortgages, tough mortgages, to student rental mortgages, which are tough mortgages, and I’m tough to lend to. So he’s always been great to me and my clients. And now he is the only Canadian broker I know of who can offer investment mortgages for Canadians on us properties. And from what he tells me, each lender can do like 10 to 15 properties. So now I have a year. Okay, so no one’s gonna get to that point, everyone’s gonna run out of capital way before they get to their mortgage limit. Just my experience, most people run out of capital before they run and mortgage the room. So now, so now I can do leveraged asset buying housing buying. So that’s that was the first thing that otherwise, if that wasn’t available, then I wouldn’t have gotten to Atlanta with you. Right, right. Because there’s no point in doing due diligence and American Properties and Property managers and share your in yourself that without knowing that I could scale a portfolio. I can get to like a 1020 30 property portfolio. Right. Right. Like that’s your experience too. Right? Exactly. You’re on 20 yourself. No one you can’t do that cash all cash? No, no, no cash, definitely not cash. So So then when we went to Atlanta, first off, one of the one of the REITs invest and they just bought a building. They don’t normally buy buildings. They used to do land developments, but they just bought a building in Atlanta. Oh, yeah. Like Atlanta is good. So so they sent me their pitch deck. So I’m reading through and like, this all makes sense. Like I went to business school. I’m old school and a real estate investor. I don’t this is not an emotional for me at all decision. I grew up I go based on job growth, economic fundamentals is the population growing. populations tend to grow when jobs are growing and incomes are growing. And Atlanta just tick so many boxes, right? Head Office to seven team fortune 500 companies 31 head offices for Fortune 1000 I went I took a selfie in front of the coat Museum, coke, Coca Cola had offices in Atlanta.

So just it’s check so many things. population is growing way faster than the national average. It’s a tech hub. The airport’s like, the one of the biggest in the world. It’s not Yeah, so it’s just jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Huge, huge population. I didn’t know all these things like area populations, greater Atlanta is like 6.2 million. So that’s for anyone who’s falling. That’s like 50% bigger than, than all of Alberta. And this is one city in America. Right. So, so going in, I was impressed. And then also the deals the past deals you guys have done. I was impressed by the numbers. You know, it seems like the ref ratio was if a property was 300,000. They were in for $2,000 a month plus utilities, single family. And then as someone who’s done a lot of renovations I’ve owned over 40 houses personally, almost all of them are very invasive mortgages. I’ve done top ups where I’ve added second stories. I’ve done lots of basements I’ve done additions I’ve done full gets guts where like, like the house is stripped down to just a brick wall. Even the windows no roof even I’ve taken a roof off of a property as well. Wow. Oh, yeah. Hardcore. Hardcore. And then versus I looked at your like the shares business model. Like your you got your econ major renovations. 50 grand, like an extreme major renovation? 50 grand like, Oh, yeah. 50 grand, you might see a stud 50 grands a joke. Right? Yeah. Like our average or our for basement apartment retail is 160,000. Canadian. Right, which is standard practice for us for renovation. And we’re and we’re looking at a hold of being vacant for like 612 months. Oh, yeah. Right. Like, how long does it take you to do a $50,000 renovation? Yeah, well, I think they quoted, you know, we tried to deploy depends on which property manager will you know, they internally target $1,000 a day, but probably closer to 750 to 800. A Day a day is their target. So we’re talking about some two months. Yeah. That’s your that’s your major. Gotta get Yeah, we we put that into the performance. So we got to get a hold ourselves to that sort of velocity. Right. All right. But yeah, 50,000? No, I mean, in proportion to the house price, I get a $200,000. House. It’s 25%. But I guess what’s 162? The price of one of those houses? It’s a lot. Yeah. But in this principle, simply 160 Canadian is more than enough downpayment. Yes. To get a whole house in the States. Yeah, yeah, it’d be all cash. Pretty close. Yeah. And the objective, the objective of a real estate investor is usually the one hard assets. And there’s nothing harder than land. My basement apartment doesn’t come with a new land, right? If I buy a garden suite doesn’t come with any land. Right? I buy a house that comes with land. So everything that seems fun, feels fundamentally fundamentally correct about owning a property in and around Atlanta. And then this meeting was meeting with the property managers how they went out when I’m telling them my story. Properties are 600 grand. It’s like, What world do you live in? Oh, yeah, what world you live in? Because, you know, we as Canadians joked How ignorant Americans are to us. I’m just equally ignorant to them. So, so remember to hear about like us having like million dollar duplexes or triplexes. And then for for us to tell them like eight months in the landlord tenant board, to for non payment of rent. Yeah, just to get a hearing. Like this is all foreign to them. The price points, the amount of capital at the shell out the tenant rights. We have rent control, which they don’t have. Right, right. Every law this was foreign to them. Yeah. So to them, this is like the worst this this investment makes no sense. Right? My investments make no sense. Yeah, right. What I currently hold. So then what do you what do you say to like other Canadians and like the, oftentimes when we speak to Canadians, there’s so many looming questions in so many gray spaces, they’re like, Well, I can’t physically go and touch and see my property or you know, what are the tax implications? So what do you say firstly, to, you know, the proximity question, not being able to kind of touch feel, see, put eyes on their property. Well, that was pointed my window Atlanta, I need to get a taste to feel like I get to see some properties. Thanks to you setting up those meetings with the property manager showed us around different properties. That was hilarious. That was a really, really nice properties first. That’s classic realtor, show them the nice properties first. And then like, let us like we always, we were constantly asked like, you’ll want to go see what a bad property to you is or a bad day. Yeah. And that’s like, we walked in the neighborhood like this isn’t a bad neighborhood. Walk here freely. So sorry. Like 3000 square foot brand new house has never been lived in three to 90 grand. Humongous lot. Yeah. Right. Like, these 3000 square foot brand new and like, you know, stone countertops and stainless steel. Yeah. That one was a bit of much though. They, but they’re so cheap. Yeah. And they it was funny, because we’re telling the Americans this would be 1.5. Back home. Yeah. If we listed for this price, we’d have 30 offers in like two hours. Pristine house. That was a bit overkill. But yeah, I hear you. But so yeah, proximity, I think to his throne. I’ve seen people proximity invest. And I’ve studied, I’ve, like I live in breathe real estate. So anytime there’s been like a massive failure in something, I study it. Because that’s where we did business school, we learned how to be a case study. Right? Right. So I kind of like each massive failure to me as a case study what went wrong where they do. So for example, in the case of like, epic Alliance, really not familiar with him, but that was a that was, I think that was like over 200 properties and more largely in Saskatoon. Right? So what went wrong? So small town? And then just a simple Google Streetview? Does one stop walking around the virtually walking around the neighborhood? You see, like cars were not nice, like windows were boarded up? This is not a good area. Right. Right. But that was enough for me to say this is not good. And what else did they do wrong? They used the same appraiser. The vendor chose they chose the same appraiser to appraise all the houses, right, a bank would never let you do that. Right has to be third party, you can’t be can’t be influenced. Gotcha, right. You need a third party your own inspection. So I have clients that do that allow us to write offers. And then they come for the home inspection. So I’m down with that. Right. And then I’ve been around long enough that I can run my own comparables, both for price of property and rents. Right. I’ve already been back check fact checking you guys on your, on your prices and rents. Right. And so I can do it. I would know I’ve had enough comfort now that I would do. I wouldn’t have to see the property. cheering, maybe we fly down, maybe fly down before the closing, at least for the first or second property. But that’d be sufficient. Because again, I look at I’ve been around a long time, you know, we’ve done over 350 transactions, I forget what the number is 400 million worth of real estate we’ve transacted in just in book value. So I have a lot of experience. So when I talk to clients, like I always tell them, your number one risk is the tenant in Ontario, number one risk of the tenant. And when I look at property, when I go see a property, the first thing I do is I don’t do what Realtors DO I DO what investors do. I go straight to the basement, because that’s where all the problems are. Right? You can see the if the electrical is any good. You see the foundation is broken or water damage. Right. And then I literally have had, how many? I might have had two houses with frozen pipes personally. And that’s the massive damage. Yeah. So now but we’re buying in sunbelt states, right? So temperatures don’t get below zero. So frozen pipes is removed as a risk. There’s no basements in sunbelt states. So I’ve removed that risk. Bad 10 Some teen toll from from the property manager. So I’ve spoken to the property manager myself. They’re gone in 3060 days. At worse. Yep. Right. So I’ve removed some risks already. Right, and there’s no rent control. So I removed another risk. I removed inflation risk. Right now I just benefit from inflation by holding on asset. So then I can do it. Yeah, I don’t think everyone can, which is why people still buy local, which I appreciate. Right. But everything you’ll get more comfortable as things go. As literally telling you a hands on investor yesterday. You know, he’s saying how I don’t feel comfortable right away, like buying a property right. Like, which is funny because he was just complaining to me how he had a sewer backup and need to rip up the floors himself. And take off the trim take off doors, right? He’s just telling me like, how much a headache you want. He doesn’t want that headache anymore. Like, you know, there is an answer. Yeah, yeah. And then also appreciate that that problem was in the basement of a duplex. Right. And that duplex is built in 1950s. So the drainage systems are failing. Our sewer systems are clay. So they’re failing they need to be replaced. First, and also you’ve doubled the occupancy of a property. So that’s another risk. Yeah. It’s also 90 for this property versus, like the Atlanta property I keep talking about as an example, that was built in 1988. And again, it has no basement. So it’s way less risk. Yeah. So again, holistically, everything just seems easier, right? So I understand that people think it’s a risk not to be able to see and touch it and do the drive to it. But then you will stack it up against all the other risks, all the things that you’ve de risked?

I think it makes sense. Yeah. And then like, um, so the proximity part, like, you know, having a good property manager, and then a great asset manager, like how how would you film your interactions that your minimal interactions with one of our preferred property management partners is, like, do you see a difference in sort of approach strategy protocol, the methodologies that they use with any sort of equivalent here. But first off is like, because when I talk to you, it’s hilarious, because your context of here is we’re very different contexts, like, you know, what your How long have you been property in the States? Over 10? years? Okay, so you’ve been over 10 year investor currently hold 20 properties in the States. All right. You know, I’ve been a landlord, almost 20 years. So our contexts are very different, right. And it’s hilarious when we talk to each other because we’re everyone’s talking different languages. Because I remember when I told you how property managers will still charge you rent if no rents coming in. I still don’t get that I still okay. That’s interesting. Okay. That’s that was that was that was a big tidbit for me, right? That’s a big tidbit. Yeah. Because in the States, that’s the market as in default, if there’s no rent coming in, the property manager is not charging you fees. Now they’re losing money. They’re feeling the same pain you are, right. So they’re intrinsically motivated to know that’s extra intrinsically, or extrinsically motivated, financially motivated to keep your place rented? Right. And also, they’re doing your renovations so that they’re motivated and financially motivated to get their renovation done, get a tentative, right so that they can collect PMPs, no monthly fees, which is what they want. Yeah. Versus here in Ontario, if a pm didn’t collect fees, when you weren’t rented, they go bankrupt, right? And many have, right, they can’t assume all the financial risks, the same risks that we assume as landlords. PMS here often, like, do the project management component of any sort of rentals and contractions. Yes and no. Like, the challenge I’ve seen with many property managers here is that generally they’re small. They’re mom and pop shops. And I’ve seen in, and many of them are new entrants as well, right? Like they’re. So the challenge I’ve always seen is people who get into construction who’ve never been in construction, like say, you went from working from a corporate job, to now you’re now in construction. Like the communication between people in a corporate environment is very different than tradespeople. Right. It couldn’t be more different, right? Because I remember back when I was in corporate, you read an email. If you don’t get the response. You see see their boss. Right. And you see your boss. Yeah. And then things just start moving better. And then if things are really bad, see, see the next person’s boss. Yeah. Right. And then you always get action. You don’t get that with tradespeople. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then and then the situation is worse, right? Like, like the labor issues, worsening as in people retiring, there’s, it’s hard to find good trades, right? So it’s a tough, tough business. So you’re combining people that aren’t used to working in construction, working with trades, and the labor pool of trades is just thinning, right? So it’s not easy. So and what I’m trying to get to is that I’ve seen PMS fail quite poorly at delivering renovation renovations, but also consider the fact that our renovations are much larger in scale. Right, right. Because we’re usually doing we’re often doing a full cosmetic on the upstairs above grade. And often we’re doing we’re finishing a basement, the basement. So that can be putting a bathroom. So that means putting in new plumbing, you have to put a new Ruffins if we’re putting the kitchen more Ruffins. Right. So again, we’re talking about basement apartments under 60,000. Versus your major renovations. 50,000. American, right. We’re talking about our projects are 12 months, versus you’re talking about two months, right? There’s a very different capital outlay and risk comparison, right? Right. Because people need to never forget your biggest risk as a landlord is they can see like negative cash flow, right? So if I’m only holding a property two months for renovation, but I’m probably getting good equity left, then I can live with that. Right versus a year. Yeah, if things go smoothly, the Assuming that you don’t have assuming the contractor doesn’t walk away, which does happen, right? Or they have staffing issues or it goes off premises, they all go over budget or overtime over budget. So very different risk profiles. Interesting. Okay. Now sort of switching gears the next biggest sort of question and big black box we get a lot from Canadians or that have are considering going south is the taxes, right? Like, yeah, it’s complicated here. It’s high here. And now you’ve got state and federal tax down south, how do you how do you kind of walk them off the ledge, or at least guide them through a dark forest? i This is a regular piece of advice I give on the show, one of the best wealth hacks in the world is to marry your accountant. Right. So I did that. But that was I love ya love for what? I make holistic decisions. So efficient, efficient. So unfortunately, because I married my accountant, my mind has a shut off anything when anytime accounting comes up. And, again, I have the team that can handle it. I’m not worried about it. Like the absolute worst case, is that my taxes no different. Right? Obviously, there’s more fees. But that’s okay. Because I plan I plan on building a 1020 property portfolio that will positive cash flow and pay for my fees. Right. Yeah. So I think that’s the biggest thing that you’ll need to consider is that you need to know if you’re buying for investment, like I am either on a couple properties to make this make sense. Yeah. Right. And then my corporation, that’s because this is I think it’s important, like my corporation, like I already have wills written for my corporations. So one of my corporations will own the US entity. So that my my my estate planning is still consistent. Right. So I’m not too worried about it again, the worst case is I I pay the same amount of taxes? Nobody would. Right, right. So I think people need to consider that. Worst case, you’re paying the same amount of tax. Right? It just may be split between two different governments. Right? Right. Yeah. So like, you know, your once your liquid, what is your sort of deployment strategy? What kind of house you’re going to look for, or kind of regions? Are you gonna look forward? Do you have a preference or strategy in mind, read sunbelt states, again, based on my due diligence of yourself, and Dimitri, like Dimitri is a wizard. Right? So I’m largely gonna defer. I’m at this point, now, I’m ready to defer. Right. So like my criteria is largely I’m good for renovation. I like equity up lifts. And also, my plan is to diversify. I want some higher cash flow properties, and I want some higher equity plays. Right, right. Like, I’ve already planned a trip to Austin, Texas, for example, for my research, Dallas and Austin, for example, are probably two of the best places for investment in the world. Right. So I probably want a play one, one each. Yep. But they’ll have different return profiles, which I understand I’m sure. I’ve plenty entropy Memphis. Yeah, we gotta get down there. Because someone tells me seven caps grow on trees. Yeah. We’ve got to get them there. But we can find them there for sure. And actually, I think that that deserves spending some time on the Memphis refresher where I’m allowed to share. I just had too much good too many people recommend Memphis to me. Interesting. All right. And then like you’ve shared that it’s a good really, really good casual play. Yeah. But because we’re talking about a price point under 200,000. American, I can easily afford a property there and afford properties elsewhere. Right. So I play one one around Atlanta. I don’t know. I feel like my Tandy shirt store. Yeah, I probably want one in Phoenix. Yeah. Okay, all right. Taiwan, semiconductors building a $40 billion microchip processing plant in Phoenix, Arizona. And I can already envision, yeah, taking some trips to the states paid from our properties. What’s your sort of counter argument to investing in neighborhoods that are kind of potentially bordering, you know, dangerous neighborhoods or, you know, crime ridden neighborhoods, but are showing early signs of good economic fundamentals? Like, that’s gotta be a common question. Right? I invest in Hamilton bands. And this is like, yeah, Hamilton, like 15 years ago, right? Oh, yeah. Looking at it now. I’ve invested we’ve, I’ve helped clients invest in areas where these steps streetwalkers, right, right. So, and also those hundreds were like 100 years old, right? Like, we’re not talking about that here now. And also my plan is to do

permits almost never see my properties. So as long as, as long as there’s several property managers who are willing to work with it, and happy to work with it, I’ll do it. Right. Because for example, in Hamilton, I’ll speak to my property managers, will you manage this? If they say no, it’s no. Yeah. Right. It’s not just know for me, like, I need like, three property managers. Because I need that level of redundancy. Right. All right. So if they tell me no, that’s a red flag, you probably shouldn’t have a property. Yeah, I think that’s a pretty good proxy, right? Like if there’s a number of property management companies in an area saying willing to say yes, to manage a property, because they’re often local. They know their local area. There. They are locals. So that’s, yeah, that’s often a good proxy. So we’re saying we’ve got redundancy, then that should show some signals that also that there’s a lot of investment dollars. Like one of my property managers in Hamilton is an ex BEAT COP. Wow. Okay. So he knows buildings very well. Yeah. Got a friend with a challenging building 30 unit on Main on the main street, one of the main streets in Hampton, it’s a trying to refer you some business? Yeah, he’s like, I’ve been through that many building many times. I don’t want it. Oh, really? That’s like absolute red flag. Yeah, that is this is level of diligence. I do. Yeah. Right. Like, versus my friend who bought the building probably didn’t, right. Yeah, it’s always good to do that. Like as much as we thrive to be a technology company, we still have boots on the ground that we got checked ourselves with. So we get our local PML agent to kind of say, Oh, you’re not up for lunch? Yeah, this is a good area. I think that’s this is great. We’ve done so many clients doing leasing here and selling investment properties. So yeah, that’s a good area. Yeah. So yeah, to us highlighting the PMS or proxies is a good is a good way of looking at it. Because I think people generally, people generally understand, based on we’ve already removed so many risks. Now, now to me that I’ve drilled you on this, after all those other risks that we’ve that we’ve talked, we’ve already girIs to now, the next biggest risk is the property manager. Right? Right. What if they fail? Again, I fired these five, maybe six now. All right. So what what, these guys are big. Yeah, they’re big. So we, you know, that’s the beauty of kind of the way our model works is we sign master policy, so they just service share, and we’re one line, but we bring a portfolio. So they don’t want to screw up the portfolios, we pull the whole portfolio from them and bring it to another big pm company. So there, that’s the threat and sort of surface level that we get as an institution. And then we kind of dissect that all into individual retail investors on our back end. So and all of our contracts are non sticky. So we can do 3060 Day termination notice in the pm and bring in a redundant or a backup. So that’s in every area, we’ve got at least two or three large players ready to go. And large players like they have hundreds of doors in the area A Yeah, if not 1000s of across the nation, probably like 20 to 40 50,000 plus, that are large institutions. Right. Yeah. Which is weird for Canadian because they don’t exist for us. Unless it’s commercial, right? Like, oh, yeah, so actually talking to investors, like, that’s telling, like, we’re, it’s funny, because he’s a he’s a builder. He’s building apartment buildings for rent, which is wonderful. And we’re talking about institutional property manager. And I said, you know, there’s none here unless it’s they only exist to manage their own portfolios. And all I got one is this, like, okay, Googling? Oh, that’s fantastic. Because, oh, you need to have 100 doors, but also they won’t work with me like, Okay. Mom and Pop don’t have 100 doors. Yeah. So what, what I want us to appreciate is, is that large, scalable property managers exist in the States? Yeah. It’s beyond our context. We’ve never seen them before. Yeah. All right. And then then bring it down to like the micro level, like meeting Tim, who is showing us around? Yeah. Tim is the boots on the ground property manager, your traditional property manager that we know of, and as Canadians like, he is well dressed, well groomed. He’s walked around with an iPad, as like he had everything on his fingertips. Yeah. Via the iPad. What are the rents? You’ve just wiped, touched on bugs on his phone on his iPad? And it was this what was the renovation? Yes. It was really, it was this was quoted this and then we ended up this and we’re in like, like we’re doing the floor touching up the paint. Like five $6,000. It’ll be done two weeks. Yeah. Oh, great. And then like, That was hilarious. Was but we the stone guy was late. They didn’t have they didn’t have the stone for the countertop for the bathroom. So we took the five extra days. Yeah. Okay. And by the Senate, the Senate disappointed Yeah. Because, you know, they haven’t been we haven’t pulled a metric, right like we want they have to be able to deploy their teams To do so much certain amount of dollars a day, and then that backlogs, everything right. And it’s like medical office where one person’s late and it has a ripple effect. But yeah, he’s in charge of all the construction team. So we those are hiccups. And he’s got to redeploy the team to a different project might work. Yeah. Yeah, that’s all custom software that they’re doing all these logistical planning. It’s it’s quite the operation, versus almost all my projects, and you need at home need a bylaw inspector. Right. So you’re, they always find something interesting, either live by their schedule, and they always, they seem to like to make our lives difficult. Right, I had literally had a home bylaw inspector. So first off, I appreciate that they didn’t have a third party, evaluate Maris stuff. But then when they throw in stuff that you don’t need, like, for example, you need a you need people on the apartment door, like we’re in the building code says I need that. I just think you need it. I think you should have it. He’s like, he wanted like this hot water from a hot water tank. A hot water regulator. So it doesn’t go over certain temperatures like we’re in the building codes exist? Oh, I think just think you should have it. Modern code has it? But yeah, I don’t want you to have it too. Basically, they didn’t really know the codes. Right. But they’re just being a pain mass. Right. And then when they’re biased, it’s even worse, like, oh, no, like they live in the area and like this area doesn’t mean more rentals, and then just make your life. Oh, gosh, right. So this is what I think investors need to appreciate is that when you have complicated renovations that require inspect city inspections, there’s more risk, right? I mean, more delays, more delays me more costs, right? If the real Pricks than this, taking one more, click Continue once more. Yikes. Right versus we’re talking like, you’re like if your shares renovation your strategies. All cosmetic. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. What do we have to do to get to the highest rents? Essentially, is the math basic math. Yeah. It’s all cosmetic. Maybe you need an electrical permit? Yeah. But those are the easiest permits. You don’t have to go through the city for them. That’s my experience. Yeah. So we we try not to do some anything like massively invasive. Like, ideally, the scenario is that it’s still livable prior to our renovation. So that’s, and if it’s not, then we’ve kind of got to go a special financing route. But that’s for another day. And then the funny thing about the show is I’ve had, you know, I don’t even know what episode we’re on. And we’re playing around with 350. So I’ve had many investors on the show. And but I’ve noticed a trend, especially for Ontario investors is, if they’ve been around for a while, they may venture off into something really aggressive, like development or something, a whole bunch of them regressed to something much simpler. Like I literally have one friend who wants to only buy pre construction and not rent it out. It’d be heavy cash, but he doesn’t want to tenants. Okay, his plan will be like the exit like a year or two afterwards, because he’ll have a unique property. Because none of the property none of that no other unit in the building has never been lived in. Right. But point is he does not want the risk or the grief and long term tenant dies. It’s that’s that’s an extreme case. But also, I know plenty of people who’ve done who were like my path and very aggressive integrative patients. And now we’re simplifying like, my next property will be single family home. Right. So I’m kind of at that point, right is next investment with a single family home. Right, right. And actually, this is one of the questions that came up. I posed the question I asked, I posted on my Instagram, if you want to ask me questions, ask me questions. So it’s actually good question for yourself as well. Why not multifamily? Why not apartment buildings. Why single family home? Yeah. I mean, that’s the, you know, long ongoing, ongoing debate between single family and multifamily. You know, for one multifamily is at a much higher price point to get into. We’re talking like, let’s go say four, four units onward. It’s a higher price point to get into and often requires different financing strategies. I’m not a guru in sort of the retail investment of multifamily. But I know there’s a lot of strategies with jayvees and syndicating deals and having to kind of raise your financing to get into the house. So you know, we leave single families that easier entry point, and it’s, it’s a safer one, because now you can just kind of save for your investments and get into it and then but yes, but a multifamily on a per unit basis might be cheaper. But you don’t get the diversification you could get on a single family. So as you kind of deploy beyond more than one region, so that one multifamily still, although you have multiple doors and you’re hedging against other tenants, you’re still beholden to those local micro economic

issues, whether that’s, you know, the job growth population growth or lack thereof, any bylaws that might be passed, you know, like, is a multifamily within Ontario better than, you know, three single families across the country of Canada? You know, I don’t, I would say that you don’t really get the same diversification, you would in that single in the multifamily in Ontario that you would if you said I want to go Alberta, East Coast, whatever it might be. So we do think that there’s a way more of a hedge. And as we kind of build out the single family rental market, the margins are actually turning out to be better. With a lot of these new property management companies coming up, these institutional players that we’re helping unlock is turning out to be better. And Dimitri is probably the best person to talk about this. But their property management fees structure is a bit different. And then this is talking to us now. They don’t their cap rates and pm fees are a bit separated, the PMs fees are responsible for a little different scope, and you still have to pay additional fees. Like I think you have to pay a salary at the pay, marketing and so forth and so on. So that really chews at your noi. So over time, your SFR NOI is a lot better single family rental so far. Yes. Sorry. Single Family rentals. better over time. So let’s that’s a wonderful way to explain it. Yeah. Because I think we’re all in it for all i Yeah. So better than I usually want to start my that’s where I start my investigation. Yeah. Now now for myself. I’ve been around a long time. I have a lot of friends who do apartment buildings who are really successful doing so. It’s a lot of work to be good at it. Back to my friend who bought the apartment building that my property management will manage. He was buying retail, he was buying off MLS off realtor.ca. Right. Because he wasn’t in the community. He didn’t he wasn’t playing the long game. Right? He just raised some money. bought off realtor.ca. So he was overpaying? Yeah. Right? And also, this was a deal that was picked over by everybody as in like nobody else took it. Right? Because that’s the reality of apartment buildings, in my experience, is that the realtor, the listing agent for the prop firm, sorry, first of all, the owner of the building has likely shopped it to all their friends. And then if that doesn’t work, now, they bring it to a realtor and the realtor has shopped it to their other private clients. Because they wanted to London. Yeah, pocket deal. Right? That fails. Now it goes now it gets public listed. Right? Right. So all these people already said no to the deal. And now Now retail investor thinks you can make a deal. You can make a run out of this. Right? Right. You’re already you’re you’re already you’re paying more than anyone else’s was willing to pay. So already your risk is higher. Yeah. And on a building that when nobody else wanted, so there’s something wrong with it. Yeah. Versus like my friends who are successful doing this, you know, they’re there. They’re at the golf course, that the high end golf course is there at the community meetings for that that are meant for those the like the Hamilton disc department sociation, for example, old boys club, right there at the those dinners at those dinner tables. Right long game? Right. That’s the path to being? From what I observed. That’s the path to being assistant, departmental investor. Right. I don’t have that kind of time. Yeah, yeah. Right. And then even still, like you’re still retail investor, do you still need to build it your team? Realtors, engineers, property managers. And if you screw it up, you are ruined. Right, right. So like, there’s literally a story in the front page of health and spectator. Gentlemen. It’s public information. His name is Dylan Souter. Like he had a building with a pipe froze. And flooded part of that private property is now 90%. vacant. Right? So the pipe freeze is no fault. I don’t know. Yeah. These properties are old. Yeah, well, these buildings are 100 years old. Right? So how do you recover your 90%? vacant? Right? Maybe insurance pays for it, but again, like to play massive deductible. Anyway, the point is that I’m very risk averse. I’ve always invested in small residential, because it’s very, it’s a very liquid piece of real estate. Right. Right. Because of a single family home that will sell faster than an apartment building. Yeah, I to reduce risk, you want to liquid asset. So that’s why I’ve stuck with this path. And also, it takes it to me, it’s just so much time and effort to build a solid team. Yeah, right. I’m just so anal. I have Asian parents. That whole philosophy that says there’s always someone better. So when you have that philosophy, like you’re always trying to find a better realtor, always a better property manager. Like, that’s exhausting. Yeah, right. No different than being a child of an Asian parent. Yeah, so So getting started, you know, like a lot of, again, the Canadian. I’m gonna just hit you with all the Canadian hurdles? Sure. You know, there’s the tax piece which we covered the proximity piece we covered. Now, what do you say about the forex and the exchange rate with Canadians? You know, with Canadian dollar US dollar? How do you address that? Like, well, I’m buying this house at this price, but with this exchange rate, how do I, how do I dress that is now problem tomorrow problem? How do you how do you look at that? The way I look at it is, I find the first challenges that people need to understand study more of what the US economy is like. So some high level statistics you and I were discussing for before we’re recording, Canadian household debt is about a third larger than Americans household debt. Our productivity, a Canadian, is only 70% as productive as, as an American. Right? The Americans are investing trillions into bringing manufacturing back to the States. So the way I see it from a macro level is that we’re gonna be buying more and more products directly from the Americans, the value added products. So if you’re for all buy, if the whole world, not just us Canadians are buying more American products, that means their currency is gonna get more expensive. Yeah. So to meet today, so that means today, I’m, I should anticipate the currencies the US dollar should appreciate over time against the Canadian dollar. And if anyone who looks back 10 years, the American dollar is kicking the crap out of almost every currency. Yeah. Right. Like Japanese yen, Euro, Chinese Wan, like what other currencies won’t people like? British pound. So that’s the trend already. And again, we’re gonna be buying more American going forward. So more, Tesla’s are Tesla’s Yeah. Right? And there’s still, there’s still the country, the world currency, they’re still way ahead of everybody else. And again, I’m essentially going to be dollar cost averaging when I’m buying houses. So I’m not converting everything now. Right. But no one can predict anything. So dollar cost averaging has always seemed to be wildly advised. advisable to do by over time. Yeah. What’s your perspective on timing? You know, like, everyone’s like holiday interest, high interest rate environment, where’s the economy going? What do you say to that? I guess, both sides of the border? Does it change for you? Now that you are pretty well versed on the US side? Is it the same narrative that or same response you’d give to someone locally versus the US? Like, say they had two deals that they could both pencil? Today? They can pencil Canadian deal? I want to see it? Maybe maybe somehow creatively, if compensable in year one, I want to see it. Yeah, I want to see it because I was tripping a really close friend of mine. So I’m about to turn him has a four Plex in Hamilton and go What’s the cap? It’s 8.2. I mean, that’s amazing. What do you got for vacancy? He said 2%. Now for now, for I personally when I when I see vacancy, I lump in bad debt. Okay, right. Or non payment of rent? Okay. He’s a 2% a 2%. A. And a 10. Doesn’t pay you? Yes. Yeah. No, probably the pay like 10 25,000. Believe, right. So that number that not that potential expenses in the pro forma, right. And then the next question is, what is look like 10 years from now? Because we have rent control. So my challenge is, can anyone really pencil a deal here? Right? They may pencil it for in the context of an Ontario deal. But like literally, I was at a conference where someone was pitching in Florida properties. And when I rented one of my friends with like, he’s got like, his fund has like 1215 apartment buildings. I go, how’d you like those numbers? On a Florida property? Right? Because they’re like five caps. Right? You can’t find out Park building five cap you get when you buy it. And and I know what they do. It’s like a 510 year strategic whatever they call it, to get that property to a seven cap. Right. Versus I can immediately I can be in a five, seven cap within a few months in single family home estates in an area with strong fundamentals. Yeah, arguably better than better fundamentals than most stuff here in Canada. Right. Right. Especially in terms of job growth. You can’t even it’s not incomparable. Right because those drop ghost stories, that property for the same job ghost story, it has to be in either Woodstock. Woodstock. Not Woodstock. Woodstock,

let’s say Windsor Windsor for sure because they’re getting an Eevee battery plant. Right. So we have so few options here. But it’s even still a single family home in Windsor probably starts at $400,000 Yeah, it’s expensive, right and you still have the duplexes, so another 160,000 So then just again, side by side, it’s it’s pretty easy decision for me. Now your question was around economy. Again, people need to go dig into what the US economy is doing. And it’s phenomenal. Yeah. All right. But again, already I mentioned like the American is more productive than we are. Yeah, by quite a bit. So just if you look at the two economies, it’s because the Americans already had their financial crisis. They already had their massive housing correction. They’ve already learned their lessons. Mortgages, their 30 year fixed. Right, which is hilarious because people don’t really understand that means here. I did reread that, I think a chat TPT it like they’ve signed there. They’ve locked in their rate for 30 years. Yeah. And that’s the norm. I remember I was asking Scott dueling, I’m like, can you get a variable? Yes. I’ll try find one. To try find a lender that will do it. Yeah. Right. versus us. Canadians. We’ve we’ve actually, we’ve taken a lot of risk. Yeah. By doing five year mortgages and variable mortgages. Yeah. And then we may get spanked for it here. Yeah. So again, for economy. Again, I take a long term view. There’s no way that we the Canada, Ontario, BC, any of it, there’s an economic story beat a top 10 town in the States. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah, I often, you know, to kind of add on that, it’s, you know, like, if you look at the average home price in the US, like 2006, we’re talking pre Bubble Pop, right, and then you take it, hold it for 10 years, 2016, that average price almost doubled. Right. So like, and I know, that’s a very macro lens, but it bounces back. And this is a long term hold is not a short term play, you will get your appreciation if you hold at the right time. But in terms of the download, and I’m always of mind where look, this is some of the highest interest rate environments we’ve seen in a very long time. And if a deal pencils today, it will definitely be lucrative in a few years, three 510 years time. So if you can lock it in, just because inventory is still scarce, they’re not producing enough of the rate of rental demand and growth is in the US. So lock it in today, get your 30 year fixed, so we can do the math on the tenure. And also, you know, the resiliency of the rental product is you know, this is where it plays strong in the down market. You know, in a down market rental demand picks up everyone needs to place to live. So at least we’re signing long term leases, 1224 months, you can ride that cash flow, if you need to, right, raise it, you can raise it, and then in a good market, then the house price just goes up, you know, so you have that resiliency and that liquidity options. So yeah, I have the mind worth like, yeah, if you real estate is your play, and you want to get in, you can’t time the bottom. And if you do time, the bottom and everyone else is coming in at the same like, you know, institutions have war chests, they’re ready to come in. But if you miss that down the bottom and interest rates start dipping and interest starts coming back in, you’re gonna miss out, you know, you’re gonna miss your opportunity to get some good A B C Class product. And you’re gonna have to pay a premium on it. Yeah, I don’t like doing that. Yeah, I like buying things on sale. Yeah. So it’s like, you know, it’s, it’s funny because we look at these performers. And we will present them it’s a year one two kind of looks a little flat. But then it gets positive. Yeah, it’s positive. And then in 10 years, it gets really positive. Right. So it’s positive and an eight, nine interest rate environment. Yeah. And then, you know, we’ll drop in and refinancing and, you know, accelerate that cash flow and expand your portfolio. So, but yeah, it’s, um, it’s often a big question, you know, for Canadians. I feel like the Canadians are way more conservative than a lot of Americans, which is why we always say that this single family asset in the US is actually a very Canadian investment. Yeah. So where Canadians are funny, though, because I, I’ve always hesitant to say it, because I fear what the response is always say I buy in red states. Yeah. Are you? Like, you know what? Like, we even though we’re conservative, technically, in Ontario, like, on American spectrum is not conservative, right? My point is, like, do you really, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a real estate investor. Do you really want me investing somewhere where there’s rent control? Right, right. So I don’t care about political spectrum. This is or at least our investment decisions. Yep. All right. And then back to the economics point, like my theory is that even Bank of Canada is saying, as soon as they cut rates, you’re gonna see housing prices go up. So they’ll be true here in Canada. They’ll be true in the States. Yep. Barbara Corcoran has been saying it as well. The Fed just paused raising rates for two consecutive sessions now. Yeah, the stock markets rallying and the bond markets tanking. Yeah. So again, no one knows for sure. but actually think last week may have been the bottom of the market. The interesting, like the five year fixed rates in Canada are coming down. So they’re doing they’re, they’re gonna stimulate the real estate economy. Sorry, the real estate market. My point is, is that interest rates are high now. It’s a buyers market many markets, I can lock in my price now or the next six months and also locked in my rate, my interest rate, but I can renegotiate my rate in a few years, when they bought them out. I can’t really negotiate my purchase price, right? Which am I which my estimation will be higher? So that’s how I operate. Yeah, buy low, sell high. Yeah. All right. So what do you tell somebody who’s like, I’m ready to kind of deploy in us or at least entertain the US? Is there? Like, how would you have done it? If prior to us meeting like how would you have gone? Oh, god, it’s so painful. Ask for a referral. Find out find out who’s a final who’s bought I I’m a little bit different cuz I have a large network.

So I asked her like for referrals. What I find challenging those many, many people’s biases, Florida, right? My own due diligence, nothing against Florida. This is my own due diligence. I’ve read too many. I have friends who got whacked in Cape Coral and Fort Myers. So another bad calling properties. It’s really sad. And unfortunately, people are saying like, hurricanes never come here. Famous last words, right? It’s like it’s worse things always happen when you when you say stuff like that. And then yeah, then they got trashed by hurricanes. Right. So that to me, that’s too much risk for my for my profile, and also what I’ve read up on insurance, it’s just not a fan of whatever add up. How insurance rates are going up. So then, and then what I find is the other bias, though, is that people are buying cross border. So they’re going to Columbus going to Detroit. Right? You’re choosing based on geography close to you. Yeah, it’s not the it’s not necessarily the right thing to do. So I’m really I don’t really even have a great answer. Yeah. Yeah, what I would do, it’s hard. Yeah. I always find that the common path is what happened to know an agent in this state that does rentals and right, there’s always somebody who specialized in their specific region. And you can get diversification, again, within same state. But I always try to convince them like, Look, you need to look at the country as a whole. It’s a massive country. It’s not just like one agent knows the whole country, they specialize in their specific region, but why not weigh the regions against each other. And even again, within Atlanta, or even Georgia, there are many awesome pockets to invest in. It’s not just Atlanta. So take a sort of grander, broader look at things. Because there’s still risk. Yes, you could drive there. But our goal is, so you don’t have to drive there. I mean, you could fly into one day and take off the next and then set it and forget it. So then when so what’s your I guess your next steps now that you’ve kind of discovered us? What how would you direct your clients and your network? If they’re saying, Hey, I’m ready to go. I’ve been telling them to go to go to our landing page. They’ve w.io and dot share sfr.com So they can see what properties are doing. Like you can see past deals. And all the numbers are there. Yeah, as a friend of mine, a friend of mine who’s already met with you and Dimitri, he’s like, I like the pro forma, because they have all the line items. Yeah, they don’t leave things out that other people leave out. Yeah, he’s an engineer. So he likes numbers. So yeah, all the numbers are there you can play with the downpayment, what the size downpayment what the interest rates are so for those who need to play the interest rates rates are like over eight Yeah, so that’s that’s why my plan is to do like 40 50% down right? Yeah. With cash not debt bearing money. So that’d be first thing to do. And just to book a call with either myself or yourself and they can do that from from that site for if they want book a call with me, they know how to reach me. And then just like go gangbusters on researching real estate and us Yeah, right. I’ve done a lot at CBT. You know, I literally just like these are the economic fundamentals and looking for give me give me 10 towns. Yeah. And it’s the same names keep coming up. North Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina, Denver, Colorado, Atlanta, Georgia, Texas, Dallas, Texas. Austin, Austin, Texas. Right now the markets come up as well have been a night the night like gold digger. I go deeper like Houston came up for example, then I’m gonna dug further like, they have like, doubled the flood risk doubled. Their insurance is double the national average. Like remove that. Or like, oh, this this area gets hurricane tornadoes or move that. Alright. So did you get a lot of questions from the Tonys team? Do we address most of them? Hopefully. Yeah. Hopefully, but yeah, there’s always tons of questions. I saw voice questions, but I would just share so far.com answer your questions. Yeah. Oh, we hosted a workshop. Yeah, that we sold way more than we ever thought that was amazing. It was fun. And a lot of great people a lot of horror stories. It pains me when I hear that. So you’re doing them a service or when you’re here, like the real estate, Robin Hood. You know, it’s been a lot of fun. Just seeing people’s eyes open. Because that’s how I felt that the joke I’ve been sharing with you is like I felt I feel like I’ve been in the matrix. Right? This is the best that we can do. Because we can’t define anything outside of outside of Canada. So with make the best of what we the situation, was the best thing we can do. Yeah, buy a house. Buy a bungalow from 1950s. Sweet, the basement. If you have the money, put on a garden suite for $300,000 that will make a cash flow. Yeah, right now I’m into a million dollar property that won’t even appraised properly. Right. Because garden suites don’t appraise. Right? That’s, that’s a ton. Yeah, that’s a lot. There’s a lot. Not now. Like, man, I see these opportunities in the US and like, there’s so much easier. No rent control. No. LTB the numbers are better. And a scalable? Yeah. Great financial products. Yeah, the financing is easier. Yeah. So the the only downside is it’s further away. Yeah. All right, which again, isn’t the worst thing. Yeah. Typically in hot areas. So you know, take a trip. You know, try the neighborhood if you’d like a friend of mine was getting married in just outside Calgary in February. And like, dude, like, you know, I don’t want to buy anything Alberta. Can we just meet in Vegas? Because no one has a planned trip to Vegas? Because I can look at properties in Vegas. I don’t have any interest in looking at properties in Alberta. Well, what do you say to those? You know? Because Alberta is a you know, it’s a pretty landlord friendly state. I mean, province, so could American. But yeah, why not? Why not go there? Because aren’t the price points aligned with a lot of the US real estate? Oh, calories. Average Price is 600,000. Oh, wow. Okay, I’m out of touch. You’re out of touch, bro. Wow. You’re Hi level answer. My Alberta boyfriend’s always told me Alberta is the Texas of Canada. I say that to Americans? Yeah. Like, why don’t we just go to Texas? Yeah. And I can get it for cheaper and better numbers. And then a little more detail side like Calgary is on is a complete seller’s market. Now. It’s on our Bull Run. It probably it’ll probably be around to like $800,000 house. Oh, yeah. Which is fine. Yeah. I can’t wait to go to the buyers market. Yeah, and get something for value. Right. And again, based on my footnotes, one of my my study of the US economy. Here’s another here’s another way. I mentioned a question with a question. If you left North American as 100 people, can I pay you in Canadian dollars or US dollars? We’re going to take right US dollars? Would you find one person who say I’ll take Canadian dollars over US dollars? Right? What do you mean find a Canadian, the Olympic team has asked him at a very good number of associates like American dollars. Yeah. So the answer right there tells you you need to be earning something in American dollars. Yeah. Right. And then on the on the on the on the bigger on the bigger, longer term. Planning is, I want options in life. And I want options for my kids. So my plan would be to figure out how to get an E two visa. So that myself my family can live in the States as long as we want. Should my kids ever want the option? Should I ever want the option to live in the States? Right? Should my kids ever want the option to pursue their career, pursue careers in the states and get paid 30 to 100% more for the same job they do in Canada? And their housing would be a third of the cost? Yeah. All right. So I’m just letting people know I’m a hyper overprotective parent. So I think all parents want want to have options for the kids. So I’m no different. Yeah. And so that’s the path investing in Edmonton. Calgary doesn’t get me on that path. Right, right. Yeah. And it’s already snowing in Calgary. So I’m about Canadian, I can’t handle the cold. And that’s another thing that you mentioned before, as well as like demographically the states generally Americans are moving south. Yeah. So that’s why I was playing a road trip to Columbus, Ohio for Exam. Pull. So I’ve shelved that. Because if the demographic trend is that people are moving south for better weather, and no state taxes, then that’s where I want to be. Yeah. Right. I want all I want many things as possible to align in my favor for successful investment. Yeah, right. Yeah, it migrations of more common theme in the US people moving from state to state, not necessarily just staying in their home province and hometown. Yeah, because there’s so much job creation opportunities elsewhere. Yeah. It’s always from time to time. It’s so crazy when I used to live in the States that I would get, when I get phone calls from my friends who are living in the same city as me, I get a million different area codes, because they just didn’t change your phone numbers. So be looking like Wisconsin, pick up phones and go, Hey, are you coming upstairs? Or what? And I’m like, Oh, I didn’t realize you’re from Wisconsin. But yeah, that’s how it’s pretty crazy. Like most people are not from where they’re, they’re living in places where they’re not originally from. So you get, you get a lot of movement to go where the jobs go. Right. And a lot of the moves. So anything we left out? I feel like we pretty much covered a little bit.

Yeah, again, my diligence shows everything. I think the only thing one thing that that the only other risk factor that’s higher in the States is vacancies higher, yes, vacancy is higher. Because Americans can actually build housing. It’s still behind schedule is still slower, but you know, rent, but compared to here, yeah, there’s a stat though. Don’t remember right now, but rent rental demand or growth is gonna still outpace construction. So there’s still that and even with a new build for rent, they’re still leaving out a massive part of the market. I feel like those build friends are very good for people who are just getting priced out of the market. So yeah, there’s still going to be rental demand, still gonna still tick upwards. And stats are showing that, you know, new supply is not coming in fast enough. Maybe not as aggressively as in Toronto, but definitely still a national problem. So another thing, another thing that someone could do for to start out is I just went on realtor.com. I chose an area that I was looking for, I was actually looking for comparables to properties, the sheriff’s done. And started like in just researching rents and prices. Yeah. And then just to get familiarized with yourself with the area, because it’s just so different. Yeah. Like, like housing prices are coming down pretty fast, compared to what I’m used to. Right. So it’s much more of a buyers market, and even strong economic areas. Yeah, it’s just so but again, like you guys have probably accounted for vacancy allowance. Yes. Yeah. Well, by zip code by region, typically dial it up or down, depending on that particular neighborhood, because we look at, like over 300 data points per region we go into per city per zip code, then we take those into consideration of for both repair, maintenance, Age of home vacancy, all that. And the fear of the unknown, you don’t like the analogy, analogy for sure, that I always uses as a client of share, which I which is where I have, I’m gonna be acquiring my properties, as I’m gonna be doing through you guys. Is unlike a Costco member, I get to benefit from from your institutional buying power. Yeah, both insurance rates, your ability to get property, property managers will talk to you with it, whereas they won’t talk to me, right. And I negotiate my rates now, so I get better rates. Yeah. Now, can you do as can you get better investments? If you did everything by yourself? You wanted to be a retail investor? You want to be hardcore? And we are very active? Yes, yeah. Six to nine months, six to nine months. I have a friend who’s coming on the show. Like he’s looking for like a 30% return cash on cash on his us investments, but it’s highly active. He’s buying like pre tax pre tax sales. Yeah. And these are in towns you’ve probably never heard of, and he’s got to find the local team to execute it. Right to renovate it, hire find a realtor, all sorts of things. All doing it remotely for looking for a 30% return. Versus I’m looking for a leveraged 20% return. Yeah. All right. Well, I could sit on my ass and just Yeah, I look forward to meeting him after his first couple. No, no, no, he’s been doing for years. For years. Okay, so here’s a playbook Yeah, here’s a playbook okay. But also like the things that people don’t appreciate is like when people like there’s there’s court now someone there’s someone in my feed now selling doing a tax lien course. So my friend has shared with me like the first three years were terrible, right? Like, that’s beyond my appetite. Yeah. All right. I’m down for like two months vacancy. Two months carrying costs while it’s being renovated. I’m down for that. Right. And you get the equity lift sale. So you’re not buying turnkey, you’re getting older, you’re getting all the bonus parts. And I don’t believe that too much. Yeah. It’s all factored in the pro forma. Yeah. So I’m expecting all these things. It’s great. Anyone else moving out? I don’t think so I find, because we still need to have you back on part two for part two, your show because there’s so many things we didn’t cover, okay. Like, for example, that the, how tech has enabled you to make this business available to mom and pop investors. Because I think people need to understand that is a lot of investment companies. If they want retail investors, they generally want higher net worth. And they’re taking a percentage of the business. Yeah. Right. Which is one thing, which is one thing I like about share is I have direct ownership to the property. I want 100% between me and the bank and my wife. And I can you only charge me a fee? Yeah. I actually gave this presentation to a roomful of entrepreneurs. And real estate investors to understand this as well. Like, if you don’t have to give up equity, like you don’t, you keep the pioneers 100% of the pie to yourself. You do bear all the risks, but also you you keep all the upside. I get to pay a fee for someone else to do all the heavy lifting. To me, that’s a win. Right? I know, some people don’t like it. I just manage it myself. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, try it. Yeah, I tell people, like we get a lot of clients to like, Oh, you don’t wanna retire? These fees are high. Like, look, we’re still cashflow positive on this site. Like, are you still working? Yes, when you retire in 10 years. So let us 10x Your portfolio and those 10 years. And then when you’re ready to retire, if you want to self manage fire us, but then when you realize you want don’t want to do the work, you can bring it back to us. So, you know, you could do the math on that you can see what kind of savings you get from firing us. But you know, by all means, go for it. But let us build your portfolio in the meantime, guarantee we want to retire you’re probably gonna say just keep going. And I think it’s an important point is the investor owns the asset. At worst case, is because I mean, people always ask me the worst case is worst case. I have fire you guys a higher realtor and sell the property. Yep, that’s my worst case. Right. So it’s the same worst case with any property I’ve ever experienced. Yeah. Except in you know, my poor friends who’ve invested in epic lines in Saskatoon, there’s no market for sale. There’s no market for resale. they overpaid for property. They can’t recover. Yeah. Versus I’m buying based on economic fundamentals. In an area I’d want to invest in strong job growth, growing incomes growing in migration, right. A maybe takes longer to solve in a property and around the Golden Horseshoe. Right. But although everything else is better, yeah. All right. Anything else? That’s it for now. It’s funny because I use I structured this podcast to have guests on because I always thought I have nothing to say. I have nothing of value to contribute. That’s why I always have guests. No, it’s good. I enjoyed it. Thank you for watching. If you want to learn how to invest in real estate from scratch, my team teaches beginners how to use the number one investment strategy that I personally use in a virtual free training class every month. Go to investor training.ca/youtube. To register for next class. That link is also in the description as well. I publish at least two to three videos a week here. So subscribe if you want to keep learning from seasoned investors like myself and my guess. And if you’re just starting out, feel free to ask questions in comment below. And I’ll do my best to answer each of those comments and questions myself. Again, if you’re ready to learn the nitty gritty about real estate investing from a professional investor register for our next virtual class at that investor training.ca/youtube Thanks again for watching. See you in the next video.

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It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

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I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

Sponsored by:

Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year.

Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

W: erwinszeto.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/erwin.szeto
IG: https://www.instagram.com/erwinszeto/

Major Announcement. How We are Making Real Estate Great Again

Hello and welcome to the Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians, my name is Erwin Szeto, residential real estate investor since 2005, and in my experience, the investment that has gotten my over 350 clients ahead in life is direct ownership of real estate as they own the property, manage it themselves or hire a property manager, and grow their portfolios by borrowing cheap mortgage money. My team here at iWIN real estate has been coaching clients to do so since 2010 and it’s been a great run.

Yesterday, I was supporting one of my clients who I’ve helped acquire several properties whose tenant has not paid rent in 13 months even though they won at the Landlord Tenant Board five months ago.  He also shared with me how his rental portfolio was the highest source of stress in his life.

Another client, a real estate mortgage professional, he’s had minor basement leakage in one property in a brand new renovation and in his other brand new renovation, the tenant move out because the floors are out of whack having been installed onto of an uneven floor.  The tenant said the flooring edges are sharp and too dangerous for their baby to be crawling around on. My client is back and forth with the flooring manufacturer and the general contractor and it’s been months.

The truth about real estate investing is it can be stressful and there are challenges.  I have my own stories too for another day but this is not why I first got into real estate.  I started investing for an alternate source of income. I would side hustle as a real estate investor for a return of more freedom, more control over my finances and bring my clients along for the same journey.

It’s always my job as chief investment officer of my household and for my clients to find ways to optimize their portfolios including reducing risk.

In the current environment with inflation, rent control, dysfunctional Landlord Tenant Board, and elevated interest rates.  Add to that how anti landlord the politicians and media are, I don’t feel I’m in control anymore hence I see the writing on the wall.  Cherry and I are selling several if not all of our rental properties in Ontario to take profits, pay off debts, raise cash to take advantage of other opportunities mostly in landlord friendly locations in and around the top 10 cities for investment in the USA.

Both Americans from California and New York along with Canadians are making the move to red, sunbelt states.

The business environment in certain states where I will be targeting offers better numbers and less risk. No question.  At my stage of investing career, I’ve invested in over 40 houses, done many advanced BRRRRs but because I can cash flow better on single family houses in the US, 5-7 cap rates, the same cap rates past guest of this show do with apartment buildings after 5-10 years of renovating, turning over apartments.

I see no reason to take on so much risk when there’s an easier way.

I finally have easy financing, it’s actually easier to get a Mortgage in the US than in Canada. Scott Dillingham of LendCity, who I’ve been working for years to get me mortgage brokers on income properties shared with me in the summer he would soon be able to offer easy, commercial style mortgages for Canadians to invest in an unlimited number of American income properties.  No credit needed.

Investing in real estate without mortgages makes little sense hence I’d never taken US investing seriously but Scott opened the door, I walked through it and went all in on my due diligence.

I’ve never been so frustrated as an Ontario landlord.  For example, did you know tenanted properties for sale are getting next to no showings?  In my nearly two decades, I have never seen showings volume so bad for turnkey income properties at the same time the LTB is so broken, the allowable rent increase so far below inflation, the government anti landlord rhetoric so bad.  I just witnessed a turnkey duplex in Hamilton, ON sell for almost 30% off from peak this past weekend.

But that’s OK, I’m going to pivot to investing the the USA but big but, I’m risk adverse and I’ve seen so many deals go sideways when remote investing.  Plus I don’t like sharing my investments, I prefer to keep all of the equity and all of the upside returns to myself.

Then by fate, a past client of mine, Brent introduced me to his friend Andrew and it was as if the universe was telling me something.

Andrew Kim, I read about his start up, a tech, Ai, enabled asset management company in the Toronto Star and Brent out of the blue introduces me to Andrew. 

First off, what’s an asset manager? Let’s first start with explaining what a property manager is as we’re most familiar with that. Per ChatGPT a property manager handles daily operations, tenant relations, maintenance, and rent collection to ensure the property runs smoothly.

An asset manager manages the property manager, focuses on maximizing the property’s value and investment returns, dealing with acquisitions, dispositions, and strategic financial planning like when to refinance.  That’s what Andrew’s company SHARE does specializing in single family rentals.

I’ve invested the last three months conducting due diligence on investing in the US, on Andrew’s Share, Scott’s Lendcity (I’ve researched their competition, checked references), and we delivered our first ever US investing workshop to much success. Feedback rating was 9.5/10, we’ll announce our next one mid January and we raised $5,400 for charity.  Win-win-win-win, the way I like it. A win for Andrew, Scott; a win for my business iWIN, the attendees loved it, and $5,400 goes a long way at my charity the Hamilton Basket Brigade.

My trip to Atlanta, Georgia was hosted by Share, I invited along another real estate investor friend of mine, we got to hang out with both Andrew and Chief Investment Officer Dmitri who is a real estate investing wizard having experienced acquiring and managing 20,000 apartment units or $7 billion as an Executive Director of Investments at Starlight. Dmitri easily has the most institutional experience of anyone I know personally and for someone who has a million questions like I do, I was super excited. 

Our tour of investment properties in the suburbs of Atlanta was led by a nationwide, institutional, top tier property management company who manages 2,800 single family houses in America with 800 alone in the Atlanta area.  I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw: well oiled systems, reasonable renovation budgets and turnaround times, no rent control.

I had a deadline to complete my due diligence by the end of the Atlanta trip, to understand the asset I was investing in plus the operations and just as importantly the leadership.

As we were exiting the baggage area of Pearson Airport, we’re walking out together and we see a family with small kids.  Mom and dad are pushing three, fully loaded luggage carts, mom is trying to push two carts while herding her four year old.  I take a step in their direction to help out, Andrew, CEO of Share who’s been struggling with pain the whole trip due to a partially herniated disk in his back beats me to it and pushes one of the mom’s carts.

What a Boy Scout like I was growing up.

As my due diligence is complete, I have some exciting news to share effective immediately:

iWIN Real Estate is proud to announce its strategic partnership with SHARE, a Canadian real estate asset management company specializing in streamlining the end-to-end process of vetting, buying, and managing high-return single-family rental homes in the USA for investors. Using IWIN’s influence in the Canadian real estate investor community, more frustrated, everyday investors will have the opportunity to improve cash flow, diversify, and make real estate investing great again!

By combining SHARE’s U.S. investment expertise and IWIN’s commitment to delivering exceptional results and pioneering investment solutions, investors of all levels can access a wealth of benefits, from streamlined investment process, quality education, and coaching.

“Frustrated Canadian investors, especially in Ontario and BC are looking for diversification in a more landlord-friendly environment and modern solutions, including supercharged systems where everything an investor needs exists under one roof,” said Erwin Szeto, Founder of IWIN. “Together with SHARE, we aim to make direct ownership of income properties more affordable, profitable, less risk, and rewarding for the everyday mom and pop investors.”

SHARE offers investors a comprehensive suite of services for Canadians, including sourcing and acquiring high-quality single-family rental homes in prime locations, professional property management, financing options, legal structuring, and investment portfolio diversification.

“With SHARE’s diversified inventory and proven track record of generating high returns, investors can access even more lucrative opportunities with reduced risk,” said Andrew Kim, CEO and Co-Founder of SHARE. “Partnering with IWIN allows SHARE investors to tap into that passive income element and portfolio expansion all while knowing their assets are protected.” 

Partner With SHARE

SHARE offers real estate service providers with existing customer bases or audiences like iWIN Real Estate the opportunity to expand their investment offerings for a mutually beneficial relationship and provide clients with a comprehensive and seamless real estate investment experience in the USA.  Book a call with Erwin  to learn how partnering with SHARE can add value to your investment offerings.

End of press release.

My plan is to continue operating iWIN Real Estate as we are carrying more properties for sale than we ever had in my 13 year career as we continue to help our clients with their real estate needs.  Our offerings of real estate investments have simply expanded and when new investors come to me and ask what they should invest in, I simply present, side by side an $800,000 duplex or $1.2 million triplex here in Ontario vs. a single family for $100,000-300,000 in the US that cash flows better along with all the reasons a US investment is easier and they can decide for themselves.  

Officially, I’ve joined Share’s advisory board to guide the growth of the Canadian market as a part time role as part of my full time role as chief investment advisor for my family, to our hundreds of mom and pop investor clients, and my favourite people, our 17 listeners of the podcast.

The truth about real estate is, I haven’t been this excited about real estate investing since legal duplexes in 2015 and now with US investment properties on the table, I see the path to no longer have to subsidize the out of control housing inflation for my current tenants and make real estate investing great again.

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-Generated**

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UPCOMING EVENTS

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with! Build connections with empire builders and trailblazers at our iWIN events.
 
CLICK HERE to check out what’s coming up next.

 

BEFORE YOU GO…

If you’re interested in being a successful real estate investor like those who have been featured on this podcast and our hundreds of successful clients please let us know.

It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

If you didn’t know already, we pride ourselves on being the best of the best real estate coaches, having the best property managers, contractors, handy people, cleaners, lawyers, accountants, everyone you need on your power team and we’re happy to share them with our clients to ensure your success. 

New investor or seasoned veteran investor, we can help anyone by providing our award winning coaching services and this isn’t all talk.

We have been awarded Realtor of the Year to Investors in 2015 by the Real Estate Investment Network, 2016 by the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and again in 2017 because no one told the judges no one is supposed to win the award twice but on merit, our peers deemed us as the best.  In 2018, we again won the same award by the Real Estate Investment Network.

Hopefully being the most decorated team of Realtors in Ontario will make you consider us for your first or next real estate investment.  Even if you don’t invest in our areas, there’s a good chance I know who would be ideal for you. 

I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

Sponsored by:

Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year.

Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

W: erwinszeto.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/erwin.szeto
IG: https://www.instagram.com/erwinszeto/

Global Real Estate Maverick: How Francois Lanthier Is Redefining Investment Norms from Costa Rica

Welcome to the Truth About Real Estate Investing Show. My name is Erwin Szeto. Today’s guest loves to travel and invest in properties in several countries. He’s originally from our nation’s capital but has now put down roots in Costa Rica but before we get to Francois Lanthier…

I’m still buzzing after returning from Atlanta, Georgia for meetings and checking out properties that are under management by a large property management company. How large? They manage 2,000 single family homes for their institutional clients who invest in landlord friendly states.  I’ve been told by insiders that institutions are rebalancing their portfolios away from commercial office, retail, even multi-family as cap rates are being squeezed.  

Institutional demand is so big, the property manager just signed a new investor client with 800 single family rentals to add to their 2,000 properties under management.

The PM already has 800 single family rental properties in and around Atlanta, Georgia so who better to show us around investment properties at different stages: We visited a bank foreclosure sale, and a couple properties currently vacant, before renovation and after renovation.  I was like a kid in a candy store. I would love to own the houses we saw. Each house had a gross rent yield close to 8%. That’s annual rent divided by the cost of the house.  For example one house would rent for $25,000 per year and was worth $320,000 located in the suburbs of Atlanta who’s great area is 6.2 million population

Tim, a member of the PM team showed us a few of their properties under management currently in between tenants, he shared with us how he inspects properties and coordinates renovations when tenants turnover.  The timelines were pretty quick and the budgets seemed reasonable in my experience.  

No basement suite conversions or garden suites needed sense houses can cash flow as is. No renovictions or cash for keys since there is no rent control and landlords have rights.  

I shared my experience as a landlord in Ontario with our new American friends and they stared at me with wide eyes like I was an alien.

Needless to say I’m excited to exit some of my real estate here and add some in Atlanta, Georgia.  I’m also planning site visits to Memphis and Texas as I will want properties there as well.

If you’re looking to learn more about investing away from long-term rentals, our next iWIN Meeting is Wednesday night, November 15th, 7:30pm EST.  We will have the CEO of Share Andrew Kim talking about investing in Florida, Texas, Georgia etc… and the CEO of Pinnacle Wealth Brokers sharing about his massive, 400 acres in vacation/recreation properties.

Link in the show notes and in your email for our newsletter subscribers!

https://www.infinitywealth.ca/iwin-meeting-website

Global Real Estate Maverick: How Francois Lanthier Is Redefining Investment Norms from Costa Rica

On to this week’s guest Francois Lanthier has already exited his long-term rentals in Ontario a while ago and now lives in Costa Rica with his wife and teenage kids.

Francois has investments in New Brunswick, Alberta, Michigan, Florida, Dominican Republic, Dubai, with plans to find more investments in Eastern Europe and Panama. It’s like he trying to buy up all the spaces on a Monopoly board!

On this show Francois details what he thinks is an ideal investment in Costa Rica and a three day real estate investing conference that Cherry my wife is speaking at in Costa Rica.  You can learn more at www.investinpuravida.com

Francois shares a bunch of his research on where he invests and why and his path to leaving his Canadian tax residency.  His non-negotiables for choosing where to live. Also interesting is what his kids are doing for school since they’ve moved from Ottawa to Costa Rica.

I’m sure many will find this to be a fascinating episode.

Please enjoy the show!

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-Generated**

Erwin 0:00
Welcome to the truth about real estate investing show. My name is Robin Seto, today’s guest loves to travel and invest in properties in several countries. He’s originally from our nation’s capital, but he’s put down roots in Costa Rica. But before we get difference, while NTA I’m still buzzing after my recent return from Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States for meetings and taking up properties that are that are under management that front by a very large property management company, how large they currently manage 2000 single family homes across America for their institutional clients who invest in, of course landlord friendly states, so no New York, no California, I’ve been told by insiders that institutions are rebalancing their portfolios away from commercial way from commercial office and retail, even multifamily as cap rates are being squeezed. And appreciate that. If you have a pension or you’re investing in a REIT, there’s a good chance that you also are invested in these properties. Because if they because again, even Canadian REITs are buying down in the States, institutional demand is so big, that the property manager that we’re just that we’re meeting with, they just signed a new investor client, a single investor client, also an institutional investor, with 800, single family rentals to add their already $2,000 properties under, under under management. The this now we’re again, we’re in Atlanta, Georgia, and the pm already has 800 single family properties in and around Atlanta, Georgia. So who better to show us around investment properties at different stages? We visit we visited a bank foreclosure sale, we’ve been visited a host they’ve been renovated post post major fire, a couple of properties that are currently vacant. So they’re in between tenant turnover. So they’re in between tenants. So we saw before them renovated and after innovation. These are no these were major renovations. I think they range from like 6000 to like 19,000. So again, not major renovations. But that’s, that’s that’s what they’re doing between tenant turnover. I honestly was like a kid in the candy store, I was so excited to see properties. And, and I would especially in the properties of the property manager already manages, I’d love to own each of the houses that we saw. Each house, each house had gross rent yield of close to 8%. gross rent yield is the annual rent divided by the cost of the house. For example, one of the houses that we saw, we ran for over $25,000 per year, which is about 21,000 per month, but for the math 25,000 per year, and it was worth about 320,000 located in the suburbs of Atlanta. In Atlanta is greater metropolitan area is about 6.2 million people. That’s that’s actually about the same thing, Toronto, so it’s a little bit smaller than Toronto, but that’s okay. Tim, who is member of the pm team, he’s like their boots on ground, he lives locally. He works locally, other members from the pm company flew in from other parts of the country anyways, so Tim was showing us he was one that was able actually gets access to the properties because he you know, has the keys, or actually not only keys that everything’s using electronic keypads, but anyways, he shared with us how he inspects properties, and he coordinates renovations. When there’s tenant turnover. He shares what the timelines for for for these were generally I think the longest renovation between tenants, it was going to be like two weeks. And that already gone over. But again, it’s under two weeks. isn’t that big a deal. The budgets again, seem reasonable in my experience, no basement suite, none of these properties or no basement suite conversions because none of these properties have basements. They’re all built on a concrete pad. No garden suites needed since single family homes cashflow as is. So because there’s already cash flow, there’s no renovations or Tashlich keys needed. Since there’s no rent control and the landlords honestly have rights. I shared my experiences landed on in Ontario with our new American friends over dinner and drinks. And they stared at me with wide eyes like I was an alien. Needless to say, I’m excited to exit some of my real estate here and add some in Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m also planning site visits to Memphis and Texas as I will want properties there as well. Again, it’s just diversification, economic fundamentals are there. If anyone’s interested, I’m happy to share my research. I mean, especially thinking about putting together a report to share all my research. You know, because I’m looking for a gold real estate Goldmine just like everybody else is. If you’re looking to learn more about investing away from long term rentals in Ontario, our next IOM meeting is Wednesday night November 15 7:30pm. Eastern Standard Time, we will have the CEO of shear enter Chem talking about missing in Florida, Texas and Georgia. I’ll share some sample properties as well. And the CEO of Pinnacle wealth brokers who dive in deserve flu who will be Sheeran he’s been both of them on my podcast. So check them out if you haven’t already. The point of the the Ireland meeting is they will expand and go into more detail and get into some numbers about these properties and these deals. So back to back to Darwin of Pinnacle wealth brokers, he’ll be specifically, I was looking for someone to speak on the subject of vacation properties, and short term rentals. So Darren owns over 400 acres across, I think, three or four properties. So he’ll be sharing about how the how the numbers break down on those. For those interested in joining, I have a link in the show notes. And also there’ll be an for you who are on our email newsletter, you’ll receive invites or straight to your inbox. on to this week’s show. We have friend Sal NTA, who has already exited his long term rentals in Ontario A while ago, and now lives in Costa Rica with his wife and teenage kids. Francoise has investments in New Brunswick, Alberta, Michigan, Florida Dominican Republic, Dubai, I think yeah, some of the Eastern Europe as well. Or he’s going there and looking to add some, and he’s also on his way to Panama. It’s like he’s trying to buy up all the spaces, monopoly on the Monopoly board, and he’s not gonna leave any properties for a little while for the rest of us. On this week’s show, he details what he thinks his ideal investment property is in Costa Rica. And also he’s offering a three day real estate investing conference that cherry my wife is speaking at in Costa Rica. So my family and I will be attending in person and that’s less in late January. You can get more information there at WWW dot invest in Pura vida.com. If you’re not familiar, Pura Vida means like Purelife it’s, it is the catchphrase for all Costa Ricans, again, invest in pura vida.com link is shown in the show notes or in your email inbox. If you’re on our newsletter, Francois shares a bunch of his research on where he invests and why and his path to leaving Canadian tax residency. We do pay a lot of taxes here and he’s not wanting to pay anymore. He shares his non negotiables are on wanting to live also I find as a parent myself, I find it interesting to hear about what the French wants kids are doing. They’re teenagers, so they’re in high school. I should know sorry. One is one is out of high school. Anyways, but the point is that they’ve left Ottawa and they’re the kids are with them in Costa Rica, but they still are continuing in their education. I think you’ll find it fascinating what he has to share but that these near the show

Hi, friends follow what’s keeping you busy these days.

Speaker 2 7:34
Right now is that making sure my bananas are ripe and looking at coconuts, things like that. So very different lifestyle. Just enjoying the beach and Pura Vida life right now.

Erwin 7:46
And you’re enjoying this in, in southwestern Ontario. Where do you find bananas around here?

Speaker 2 7:52
Yeah, so not not in Canada? Obviously. It’s in Costa Rica right now. So yeah, I’m actually even trimming my my cacti heads or cactus heads. stuff I’ve never done before.

Erwin 8:09
Okay. Is that naturally forming? Or did so put that there like hedges or cacti?

Speaker 2 8:18
Naturally forming but of course you can plant them and cultivate them, like cedar hedge where you can have huge hedges of cactuses, or cacti. But they grow like crazy. So you have to trim them. Which I didn’t know I thought these things didn’t grow very much.

Erwin 8:36
Yeah, I didn’t know you trim them. Yeah, because they’re not really like, like, they’re not really like branches, like our leaves. I know the needles of the leaves, but stop them.

Speaker 2 8:47
And yeah, it’s very, very messy. Very juicy.

Erwin 8:51
You have to send me a picture. But take your picture on your Instagram.

Speaker 2 8:54
I will for sure. Wait, hang on, you have bananas and coconuts on your property? Not me. No, but I it’s just keeping an eye on the neighbors. They have big plantations. So it’s very nice.

Erwin 9:08
How big? How big is the plantation?

Speaker 2 9:11
Some have a few 100 acres of bananas and different fruit and vegetables. So

Erwin 9:18
anybody want to just you’re allowed to help yourself?

Speaker 2 9:21
Well, if they fall over the fence, yeah, you can so too bad.

Erwin 9:27
So don’t trim those branches.

Unknown Speaker 9:29
No, those I want to keep Yes.

Erwin 9:33
Okay, are we gonna get pictures? Or do you post these pictures?

Speaker 2 9:38
Probably on my Instagram. I haven’t posted enough of that. I’ve shown mostly the beach but I need to show more the fruit and the wildlife here.

Erwin 9:47
Alright, let’s promote your Instagram because you’re about to post these pictures. Where can people find your Instagram?

Speaker 2 9:53
Yes, so it’s at Wine underscore and underscore real underscore est So wine in real estate, and yeah, right now it’s mostly beaches and stuff like that. But yeah, I’m gonna start showing that I didn’t think about it.

Erwin 10:10
Everyone’s got beach pictures in Ontario. No kidding.

Speaker 2 10:13
I know. Beach is more normal. But yeah, I’ll show that unusual stuff.

Erwin 10:21
So how long have you been living? How long have you been living in Costa Rica?

Speaker 2 10:25
So it’s been three weeks at the time of this recording. So not very long.

Erwin 10:31
Well, that’s more than most people take a vacation. So

Unknown Speaker 10:33
yes, that’s it. Yeah. Now we’re just testing everybody.

Erwin 10:40
And then how long you’re staying there? Sorry. You said eight months?

Speaker 2 10:43
Yes. Yeah, eight months. I am traveling during that time, but not back to Canada like Panama. I’m going to possibly Dubai. Places like that. Really? Didn’t

Erwin 10:55
you just get back from Dubai?

Speaker 2 10:57
I did. But I need to go back because it’s too amazing. Not not to go back. So it’s in the plans.

Erwin 11:05
Okay, we’ll get to all these. Okay, so hang on. First. Let’s just before we move on to from Costa Rica, what brings you to Costa Rica.

Speaker 2 11:13
Various things. So lifestyle number one, it’s the country of Pura Vida, which means pure life. And it is so true. And everything like the food is delicious. The weather is very pleasant right now. It’s rainy season. And it’s beautiful in the morning until about one or 2pm. And then it rains for a little bit. And it’s so lush and green. And it’s just amazing. And then for real estate. And investment opportunities are enormous here. There’s all kinds of construction and projects. And I sell real estate here. So why not mix my love of real estate nature. I’ve always liked gardening. So that’s kind of why I mentioned all the plants and just nice weather you’re around them. The water is filled with minerals. It’s just a nice calming atmosphere, you come back refreshed.

Erwin 12:07
And then where do you like where do you recommend for living in investing in Costa Rica. So really, pretty big country, isn’t it?

Speaker 2 12:17
It’s about the size of New Brunswick. So it’s not that big, actually. But it’s very mountainous. So there’s huge mountains and volcanoes. So if you want to get around, it takes quite a bit of time to drive across the country. It’s not like the province of New Brunswick with a big highway. You can’t really go that quick, maybe walk from one end to the other. Maybe it’s a 10 hour drive, while New Brunswick would be two, three hours so not as modern and of course with the big hills and 5.5 million people so it’s a bigger population than New Brunswick. But it varies a lot. There’s 21 microclimates. So if you live in the mountains, it’s cooler, it’s spraying year round, it’s always around 25 degrees, and that’s where they grow coffee. Where I am, I chose the warmer parts. So the northern part, which, as a Canadian, the further north, usually the colder it gets here, it’s the opposite. The more North you are, the hotter it is, and the more dry as well. So anything south has a lot more rain, longer, rainy season more lush, I chose a drier area just I just feel safer. I don’t know this country very well yet. So there’s less flooding and just less rain. So even rainy season. I mean, it’s a few hours here and there, not even every day. So it’s amazing. And it’s close to all the conveniences like International Airport, we have price smart, which is like Costco, but it’s owned by Costco, and Walmart and highways and paved roads, which is not everywhere in Costa Rica. And there’s many areas where it’s all dirt roads, so I would not want to be there right now. If you’re more adventurous if you’re on a holiday, yes, but living here every single day on that dirt road for a month. That like gets tiring. So here it’s more kind of modern, but we have all the nature and all that as well.

Erwin 14:24
And then so how well do you know the area then? Like, are you there for eight, eight months to experiment? Are you planning on bouncing around? Or yeah, no,

Speaker 2 14:34
I plan on my I know that province where I am going to Costa so there’s seven provinces in the country. And going across the is the more most northern province. So the hottest and driest one like when it comes to annual fairly well now. What I want to get to know eventually is explore the other provinces when it’s appropriate, but I also like to travel so this is a nice home base. I get to fly out Like I was saying to Panama in December, and maybe in March Dubai and other things, so I chose it as a home base. I do want to explore but I’m going to live in Guanacaste state where I’m where I’m staying right now.

Erwin 15:14
So where are you staying right now? Do you own the property or you’re just renting?

Speaker 2 15:17
Yeah, it’s my house. I’ve owned it for a few years. It’s in Playa del Coco. So if anybody knows Tamarindo, we’re about about an hour north of Tamarindo. So we’re closer again to the airport, about 30 minute drive at the most. And there’s no traffic here, which is amazing. Ottawa, I’m from Ottawa, so I can’t complain compared to Toronto and GTA. But the traffic was getting heavy. I mean, the light rail train and all that that didn’t really work very well. So I feared that worst is a cow crossing or big one as or something like that. So it’s actually fun. You’re like, Oh, something you crossing the road. And there’s never any rash here.

Erwin 16:03
Amazing. So you mentioned you sell real estate. So what do you recommend for like, prestigious questions? And what do you recommend for investment? What do you recommend for a living? Yes, the same?

Speaker 2 16:16
That depends like for me, I moved into an investment property, it was a short term rental. And my wife and I and the kids, we weren’t ready to commit to a bigger house and more money and do something else. So we just moved in. Now, but for investments, it’s best if you do, there’s a few opportunities, but number one, I’d say is construction. There’s a big shortage of properties. There’s lots but like well thought out properties, there’s a lot of little condos that’s that exists. It’s more villas, like a detached house with what we would call a tiny house in Canada or here they call it a casita or a cabana. So if you buy land and build those people snap those up like crazy, they don’t stay on the market. There’s never enough. So there’s huge opportunities for development for investors, and you have two incomes, you got the main house, and then the small house, and even the main house, you can design yet that it’s a locks off, you can have like two units. And if you build somebody builds that they’re gonna do very well, I’m working on a development here, probably 60 units, just like that, and I think that’s gonna be a great product.

Erwin 17:35
So the units, they’re gonna be essentially like tiny homes. Each unit is a tiny No,

Speaker 2 17:39
no. So there’s a main house like three bedrooms, two bathrooms, three bathrooms, whatever, you want carport, swimming pool, then usually in the back or front yard, depending on the layout, then there’s a tiny house. But that tiny house is usually one or even sometimes two bedrooms. And this came about because a lot of rich locals, the T codes, as they call themselves have staff so they could have been caretakers. But Canadians Americans are actually flipping that model around and they rent it out. And they don’t have live in staff. They just get people to come and make money out of their house. So they get to enjoy their house, relax and get a rental income. And then when they leave, they can rent the whole place out the two units or three depending.

Erwin 18:30
So sorry, you mentioned 60 units, or units

Speaker 2 18:34
60 houses. So there’s a large, like little subdivision that I’m working on right now. And there could be up to 60 houses, plus the Casitas and all the stuff that comes with it could be like a gated community of 60 homes.

Erwin 18:55
Fanta fantastic. And then how does financing work? And like land title and all sorts of things like here, we take it for granted in Canada, in Canada and North America. Well, I can’t save her for Mexico, but at least here in Canada, like our land title systems pretty tight. And what can be outdated technologically technologically wise, but otherwise? It’s pretty straightforward. Yes, like in Costa Rica.

Speaker 2 19:19
Very similar here. Because I’m I speak French I have invested in Quebec. I think you’ve had guests from Quebec as well or invest in

Erwin 19:26
many you don’t really

Speaker 2 19:27
know. Yeah, no, not many. Canada, most people know the common law, which applies to all of Canada except for Quebec. Quebec has the Civil Code. And the Civil Code is very much like the Napoleonic Code, which is what we have here in Costa Rica. And if you’re buying in California, they have the Civil Code and in Ireland as well. So, I mean, there’s many countries that have that. The differences are instead of a lawyer, you’re dealing with a notary and a notary is a lawyer. You’re really, it’s a lawyer that specializes in real estate. And then you do get a deeded title. So it’s yours. And it’s very clear, they call it planyo cadastro, which is like a survey just like in Canada. And there’s a number like a property identification number. In due form. The only place where it differs is if you want to be waterfront, the first 50 meters is public land, no one can own that piece of land. Except for old concessions, like if you own before the laws came about in the late 70s. The first 50 meters is for everyone, all beaches are public here, which is amazing. And then the first 150 meters, so from 50 to 200. That’s what’s called concession land. So you rent it from the government. So there you would not get an actual deeded lot. So that’s why most people buy about 200 meters and beyond from the water, which is great anyway, because on the water friends, you’ve got the salt and stuff eating away the house. So you want to be a bit further anyway and go enjoy the beach when you want to.

Erwin 21:15
And sorry. And then with the the 16th or subdivision. Is it like on the water? Does it have a view of the water? does these things matter?

Speaker 2 21:23
Yeah, they do. But I mean, here, it’s different. Most people want water views, because it’s very hilly. So a lot of people want to be in the hills looking at the water, but not near the water. Because as I said, it’s public land. So there could be a party at 8pm. And you have no control. So really, if you want a nice lifestyle, you want to be a little bit further from the water, maybe a five minute walk not far but just not right I did. And then there you can more your boat, do whatever you want as well. So that development will be a bit further maybe a 10 minute walk from the beach, which is great. Or you can rent a golf cart. A lot of people have golf carts everywhere. The

Erwin 22:10
golf car traffic jams.

Speaker 2 22:12
Yeah, it happens. People lining up and they’re going to get a coffee and there’s all golf carts everywhere and very different life or four by fours like little ATVs and things so

Erwin 22:24
awesome. Do you have a golf cart or an ATV? Because I do I’ve been HAKO and like I’ve been on the ATV tours and it’s lovely. Okay, let it go to the rain forest on an ATV. Yes. So with these, okay, so with with the subdivision, for example, let’s use as an example, like what is it cost?

Speaker 2 22:46
Yeah, so the the piece of land is actually not that expensive. So it’s about $2 million US to buy. And then each property, once they’re done really depends, like we’re so early, but I think they’re gonna go for around half a million US dollars each. So they’re not going to be huge. As I mentioned earlier, they’re probably three bedrooms, two bathrooms, plus a casita in the backyard. But once they’re done, they’re going to be worth a lot more. So I bought one last year for 375. And my neighbor just sold for 650. So there are some huge construction projects here in cocoa where I live plaster cocoa, and it’s causing some massive appreciation. Of course, don’t bank on it. It’s never the thing to do. But I mean, it’s a nice cherry on the cake here. So

Erwin 23:46
okay, let’s continue with it with the $500,000 House example. So that comes let’s cancel the three bedroom two bath and plus a tiny home. Yes, it’s

Speaker 2 23:56
a little pool. It’s very small pool like a diving pool or something. Nothing huge, but most people want that just to stay fresh. And then they actually go to the ocean nearby

Erwin 24:12
grandfer house and you get a separate tiny home. Because you’re like 250 300 grand to make. Well, that’s no garage like.

Speaker 2 24:21
Yeah, it’s not that it would be in a gated community. So there’s a gate. This will not be an HOA so not a homeowner’s association. It’s more up like a common feed just for the electric gate. And that’s it everything else is public. So there’s garbage service, city water, or town Water Town. Electricity as well. Okay, so fiber optics, the internet is great.

Erwin 24:51
You get fiber optic in Costa Rica. I don’t get fiber optic here in Oakville.

Speaker 2 24:57
It’s everywhere here. It’s crazy. So And you’re most reception is quite good pretty much everywhere even in the jungle, you’re like, oh, yeah, I’m, I’m streaming live on Instagram from the jungle

Erwin 25:10
and then how much would the house in the in the casita run for?

Speaker 2 25:14
So it really depends, again, high season low season, high season, I’d say, probably 250 US per night for the main house, the Casita, you’re gonna get less because it’s probably more like a studio, so maybe 125 A night.

Erwin 25:32
What about like, okay, and then what about like an annual number? I don’t do short term rentals myself personally. So Oh, yeah, the annual number even?

Speaker 2 25:42
Well, let me let me do some quick math that 250. But

Erwin 25:47
that’s because it’s not going to be rented up to 50 a night. 125 a night for three?

Speaker 2 25:51
No, that’s it. So you’re probably going to bring in about 80,000 US dollars per year, I would say, with the house. And then of course, you’ve got to remove all your expenses and stuff. And then you could provide extra services like a golf cart, eight or $10,000. You park one in the driveway, and you rent it for more. You can charge other services like airport pickup, drop off the transfers. There’s many ways to maximize your investment there.

Erwin 26:28
And then what are your expenses, then? What are your what’s the cost of operating this house?

Speaker 2 26:31
Yeah, so operating is not that expensive. Property taxes are? This one’s over 375. So it’s zero point 25% of the property value up to 375. And then it’s 0.55. So it’s a low, low property taxes, maybe, maybe 700 a year. That’s it? Yes. Very cheap, as I mean, there’s no snow removal. There’s really not much going on, they do garbage. And then water. So you gotta pay your water bill. For a house like that. You’ll probably pay around $40 a month. Water is very cheap here. Really, really cheap.

Erwin 27:15
But taxes are so cheap. That no hospital. Far difference, please.

Speaker 2 27:19
Yes, yeah, there’s there’s a fire hydrants, fire departments, police, hospital, hospitals, hospitals. Here, it’s like a two tier system. So there’s private and public. And yeah, you got pretty much everything. I mean, you are in a developing country. So it’s not the same. But there’s a lot of medical tourism. So a lot of people come for the services very modern, on the private side, public depends. And then internet, you’ll pay around $65 a month for quite a good internet. It’s all US dollars again. So not sure the exchange and then electricity, that’s where that is expensive electricity. Maybe $300. A month three or 400, depending on the season.

Erwin 28:15
Is that because you’re running Water Conditioning or just because rates are high?

Speaker 2 28:18
Air conditioning and rates are high 99% of the electricity here is renewable. So it’s solar, wind power, all kinds of things. So it’s very green. And yeah, they charge a charge accordingly.

Erwin 28:35
Right, because log green tech isn’t very efficient. No rain. It’s not efficient in terms of cost. But

Speaker 2 28:41
exactly. So it’s not cheap. But I mean, you may feel good about it. And yeah, so there’s that property insurance, you probably pay around. It’s very cheap here. Maybe 800 a year.

Erwin 28:58
Really natural. Like is it because there’s like no natural, limited natural disasters.

Speaker 2 29:03
Very limited, especially where I’m buying very, like I said, very little flooding a very, like earthquakes are very minor. There’s no hurricanes. You’re not like in Florida and Florida, you pay a fortune because of hurricanes and stuff. And Tornado Alley in the US. And that’s it here. There’s none of that because of the mountains. The volcanoes are very far so they’re not affecting you. So super cheap. Most people actually don’t even get insurance here. I would recommend to get hits. But it’s not a thing locally. Most people don’t insure things, even cars. They only insure them one way like if somebody dies or something. So very different culture. That’s probably why it’s

Erwin 29:48
cheap to people that have mortgages. That’s why they don’t have my house mortgage and they don’t have house insurance.

Speaker 2 29:53
Well, yeah, most of the market is not mortgaged. It’s a cash market for the most part.

Erwin 29:58
Okay, so sorry. This, are people buying these houses then cash 500 on us

Speaker 2 30:05
that I’m talking about, but the locals Yes. So it’s a very stable economy because very few people have mortgages, foreigners do locals don’t as much anyway. Okay. Which is great. So there’s not much like variation. It’s cash so people don’t speculation Well, that is not the same.

Erwin 30:26
Okay, so most investors I know have mortgages?

Speaker 2 30:30
Yes. Available. They are Yes. So that’s why new build is very interesting. Usually the builder will offer financing. So this project when it goes ahead, I will offer and my partner’s 50%. So it’s a low LTV 50% loan to value, usually around 8.5% interest, so it’s not cheap. And it’s five years, after five years, you got to pay it off or get a more local mortgage.

Erwin 31:02
No, no, no option to renew just five years it’s over. That’s because it’s

Speaker 2 31:05
builder financing, but then you can go I know quite a few lenders, and then they can offer you a mortgage on the new value. So as I mentioned earlier, let’s say you buy buy it for half a million, and at the end, it’s worth 650, let’s just say at 650, the new lender will offer you 6070, maybe I’ve had up to 80% of the new value. So it’s not a burr, but you’re pulling some money out and you’re getting a new mortgage on the property. Our flowers planned for 5050 to 60. Beyond that it depends

Erwin 31:44
are Kenyans able to build up credit in order to get to get like a better mortgage schedule a mortgage.

Speaker 2 31:51
No, because that’s not that’s not really a thing here. So most mortgages are more like commercial. So it’s the building that qualifies, not you. So they actually send an appraiser. And that’s what qualifies. You don’t need to have an income or anything left the check yet. But that’s not what makes you qualify. Interesting. That’s why the loan to value is lower.

Erwin 32:16
And then we’ll be direct. So say someone wants to exit in five years after the after the builder financing is over. You have an idea what the property’s worth.

Speaker 2 32:24
Yeah, so as I said, I think those that 500 will be worth at least six 650, if not more, because there’s right now, there’s the QSC K Peninsula. So it’s the cocoa players a cocoa, it’s like crescent shaped Beach, in that one. And there’s a long Peninsula that was bought by the owner of AOL. So I know that’s dating. That’s really old America Online, but it still exists. So the owner bought the whole peninsula and is by building a Waldorf Astoria resort, and houses their start at $5 million. us like that rock bottom pricing. And we’re a five minute drive from there. So we’re already seeing an influx like there’s new stores opening there’s a marina that’s been announced there’s all kinds of things happening here that will boost the values of these properties. So in five years, I think prices will be insane because we saw the same in a town about 100 kilometers from here, and everything doubled and tripled in value once they built all that

Erwin 33:33
so I felt bad about asking all these investor questions because my question my next question was going to be who should be buying these properties? Are these for self use? Are they for investment they for both? I’d say

Speaker 2 33:47
more investment so more investors people that may want to flee winter for a month or two and then rent for the rest of the year. Maybe come during the summer it’s actually quite nice during summer here it’s very quiet and very green and lots to do still and activities are less expensive offseason if you come during high season it’s not a cheap country here. So I’d say yeah investors for sure.

Erwin 34:14
So what what’s the temperature like what’s what’s what’s the what’s living like in the summer because you know, many people think to go that far. So for the wind, I know economies are expensive.

Speaker 2 34:26
Well that’s it summer is actually cooler here. So summer is more 28 to 34 degrees plus humidity so that’s cool for here. While if you come during March like March Break, it’s more 35 to 45 plus humidity so summer is quite nice. evenings are like 24 So it’s quite pleasant. A little bit of rain once in a while. But the rain here is warm so you’re never cold. I mean, actually stepped in in the street the other day was a bit flooded and it was like stepping in Hot Tub. It’s crazy.

Erwin 35:02
Alright, so first question. When Jerry and I are supposed to be there in January, what’s the weather like,

Speaker 2 35:08
though it’s the best time of the year in the 30s, the low 30s and drier. So because there’s no rains, it’s going to be a lot drier. Just really a good time to be here, kind of like Florida and it doesn’t rain for about six or seven months. So

Erwin 35:25
interesting, because I just for example, a lot of our friends who moved to Florida, a lot of them come back in the summer because they say it’s too hot. Ontario. Yeah, Lira when it tells me because what you’re saying last four seasons sounds like a four season destination. There’s not really many four season destinations out there.

Speaker 2 35:46
No, the only time I would say is normally September and October is extremely rainy. But I’m here right now it’s this is mid October. So far. I mean, like I said a few hours here and there not even every day. And we’ve had one day where it really poured but otherwise it’s very pleasant. So depends. I mean, if you got more time if you’re planning outdoor stuff, you got to be flexible, early. Everything starts very early. Like school starts at 7am people are out at 5am 530 It’s very different.

Erwin 36:22
I didn’t expect that for a Caribbean country.

Speaker 2 36:26
Yeah, it’s it’s slow, but they’re early. I don’t know how quickly to get things done. But it’s it starts very early. Very interesting. Very interesting. Because it’s it said the near the equator where eight degrees on the planet like to the equator, so the sunset and sunrise are almost always the same. It’s around like Sunrise around 5:15pm Sunset around 530. And then winter 6pm 6am. That’s about it. 12 hour days.

Erwin 36:56
That’s not so bad. This is predictable. Yeah. Oh, it’s

Speaker 2 36:58
quite nice. I find it relaxing. You know, your day, and it’s the same almost every day. There is no daylight savings, none of that stuff.

Erwin 37:07
Fascinating. How are you liking it?

Unknown Speaker 37:12
I love it so far.

Erwin 37:15
How long are you staying?

Speaker 2 37:17
So eight months. And if as a Canadian, if you come here you have 180 days on your, your passport, so Visa free entry. And then you can leave for a day and then get 180 days again. But if you want to drive you need to exit every 90 days. So right now I’m exiting every 90 days for it to drive. So now we’re about an hour and 40 minutes to Nicaragua. You could just go there. There’s buses that do that. But personally, I chose to actually fly out. I’m going to Panama. It’s another one of my markets I’m interested in so I want to go see it. And then just plan trips around it. And then when you get residency, you don’t have to but anyway, that’s about a year a year to two years process.

Erwin 38:10
So where else do you have properties?

Speaker 2 38:12
Yes, so well in Canada. So in New Brunswick, Alberta. They have properties in Michigan, in Florida, in Dominican Republic, Dubai, and here in Costa Rica, and then I’m looking at Eastern Europe and South like Sorry, South America as well.

Erwin 38:36
Eastern Europe like Ukraine.

Speaker 2 38:39
Yeah, well, not Ukraine, but I guess you could get some good deals right now. But no, bad joke. But I would say more like Albania, Bulgaria. There’s some great properties there Romania. Georgia. Everything that’s Ay ay ay ay.

Erwin 38:57
None of those are RNA on the euro. Animals. European Union.

Speaker 2 39:02
Yeah, summer and we’re using the euro, summer Euro zone, some are nine. It varies. Personally, I don’t really care about that. It’s actually maybe an advantage to not be in the Euro because then you’re not tied to that and the Schengen area as well, you’re not. If you go there, like Georgia, as a Canadian, you can stay there 365 days, and then you leave for one day or two days. If it’s a year with more days. And then you’re back and you get stamped again. You don’t need to emigrate, you could live there as a perpetual traveler if you wanted to.

Erwin 39:40
So just spend your life trying to collect places and different places.

Speaker 2 39:43
Yeah, well, because there’s advantages for business. Like some bank accounts in Georgia, you put your money in and you can earn 12% interest on just that checking account. So there’s there’s opportunities a lot of people don’t in there Local currency, the Georgian Lari. So it’s been quite stable. It’s about half an American dollar. 52 cents. That’s crazy.

Erwin 40:12
Yeah, just a second mortgage money to operate is. Yeah. And you’re going to do this?

Speaker 2 40:22
Yes. All right. And if you have a company there you pay 1% income tax. So it kids a very alluring country. And if they’ve pretty much invented wine about 1000 years ago, so sounds like a nice place to me.

Erwin 40:43
Why security wise, why, why? Why be in so many different places in terms of your password? And clarify your investments as well? Like, do you own a property like, like, it’s all yours like thing or like your shares in something like a REIT? Or how is your ownership?

Speaker 2 41:00
Yeah, usually it’s about 50%. I do a lot of joint ventures. So I find other investors that are like minded and want to partner to invest in these properties. And so it varies some I own myself with my wife, some summit partnerships. So why so much diversity? Oh, look at the world we’re living in. So if you put all your eggs in one basket, what happens if Canada gets attacked for some reason? It’s gone. No. I mean, we are very big sticks. Yes, we are very close to Russia. And I mean, there is internal, like fighting, I was in Ottawa with the trucker convoy and stuff. And it almost felt like the beginning of a civil war. So you never know. I mean, I hope none of that happens again. But whether you’re for or against, there’s some scary stuff and currencies as well. So I don’t want all my money in Canadian dollars, or American dollars, or colonias in Costa Rica are pesos or I want, I want them all. So if one goes down, I just move on to the next. So that’s a personal decision, but I like more variety. And it’s more fun. Have like,

Erwin 42:21
I have trouble keeping track of you have like tough currencies.

Speaker 2 42:27
Yes. Oh, yeah, I have way more than five bank accounts. But anyway, that’s, that’s another story.

Erwin 42:35
But, but you do have your boots on ground partners. And yeah, and most of these properties?

Speaker 2 42:41
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you need to I mean, like Dubai is super far and where I am right now. It’s a 14 hour time difference. So when you call there I mean, the next day over and over, so it’s doesn’t make it easy.

Erwin 42:58
And then what is your message in Dubai? Because I hear Dubai come up often. That’s Yes. I often hear it’s one of the best places to be investing. It really is.

Speaker 2 43:08
world class city. I’ve never seen a place so clean in my life ever. Everybody said it was clean. And when I went I was I was shocked. It’s crazy. how clean it is.

Erwin 43:19
So invest to be caught littering?

Speaker 2 43:23
Yeah, no, they’re, they’re like, Yeah, but I guess they cut off your hand. But it might not be a bad idea elsewhere to apply that. So I’m a bit of an extremist. So, Dubai, what’s good and preconstruction. They call it Off Plan. So you can because of Islamic law. A lot of builders will offer payment plans without interest. So when Islam if, you know, really, it’s it’s hard to have interest free loans. Yeah, but I mean, you do very well there, you’re able to buy places. Sometimes they have like an eight year payment plan. So five years up to the construction, and then you get the keys. And then you have three more years to keep paying the property or sell it or do whatever you want rent it, something like that, which is great. And as a foreigner, you can get a mortgage at that point, because it’s now built. So you can get a 60% loan to value mortgage in Dubai. And that’s gonna be traditional look with interest and amortization, things like that development. A lot of people do assignments, they buy entire floors of buildings, and then sell off other units. There’s so many things you can do open a business. You pay no income tax as a person so it’s really great.

Erwin 44:44
How’s Dubai? Are they still keep growing country they’re still trying not to immigration investment.

Speaker 2 44:49
Yes, all the top talents you go there and it’s other people with PhDs and very educated population and extremely wealthy Like stuff you find in Canada, that’s a luxury There is basic amenities. All the bathrooms and shopping centers have Butler’s people constantly washing them. It’s not it’s not like Canada at all anymore. People have driver like chauffeur and they have maids and nannies and very different population. And

Erwin 45:25
they were able to get cheap labor there from from neighboring countries.

Speaker 2 45:28
Absolutely. Which in Canada, you can’t. So that’s why when I’m there, I’m like, well, there’s no way I could hire all those people. I’d pay more than one iron. So it’s crazy

Erwin 45:39
downside of having these big oceans to cross? Yes, that does mean no one attacks us. No. So, so how did how? So you visited all these places? What is it about Costa Rica that makes you stay there?

Speaker 2 45:54
Yeah, here. It’s the people that called the Latin culture, I just find it very nice and welcoming. And it’s just, it’s delicious. I’m very, I like food. So it’s a big thing. There’s great food and Dubai as well. I just like it. And I’ve always enjoyed Spanish. So I started learning it when I was 14. I speak French. So Spanish is very close. Just a nice culture, the beach, the relaxed atmosphere. Dubai is not relaxing. It’s like Toronto on speed. So it’s a lot busier and much bigger, like highways and just construction 24/7 Here, it’s super chill and just enjoy. You can watch a plant grow and don’t feel bad about it.

Erwin 46:44
Alright, so it’s just it just fits your pace. Your pace. Yes. Goodbye. It’s like the big brands, big vehicles. Louie Vuitton, Gucci everywhere. And consumerism.

Speaker 2 46:55
So I’m more of a minimalist so Costa Rica, you can’t get a lot of things. So with you have to be a minimalist no matter what. So it’s a lot harder to find certain things while Dubai as a consumer culture, so I don’t mind some consumerism a few months every year, but I do like the minimalist lifestyle. Alright,

Erwin 47:18
I maybe Oh, Phil’s not for you then because the cost goes just down the road. And that yes, the opposite of minimalist.

Speaker 2 47:24
I know which we have here too. But I mean, it’s a mini Costco you would laugh when you’d see it, but no lineups nothing. It’s just nice.

Erwin 47:33
Very cool. Very cool. Yeah, so you’ve covered so many things. Is Panama gonna be a big, big piece of your investment? Journey?

Speaker 2 47:45
I’m really hoping Yes, because it’s a tax haven. So another that’s that’s my thing. I love tax havens. Costa Rica, is not that high. It’s not a tax haven. It’s not a low tax country. But there’s many potential benefits. Panama. Yes, I think there’s some great affinities in Latin America, it’s the country with the most banks and all kinds of terms. It’s very consumer oriented. So very modern, they have, they have a huge mall, like almost like West Edmonton Mall. But you’d never know. In Latin America. It’s not a common thing. So I mean, lots of conveniences. It’s a great place to invest. It’s growing. And the canal makes it very stable economy as well. So we’ll see me because it’s more for my kids. I mean, the beach life is great. But I want them to also have City Living MOHAI like more connections and stuff. So Panama might be like our, a few months a year we go there and live in the city and then come back to our beach home and just enjoy life.

Erwin 48:53
I mean, sorry, your kids are there with you in Costa Rica right now?

Speaker 2 48:56
Yeah, they’re 17 and 19. So yeah, they’re they’re here and we brought our cat as well on the plane. And that’s it for suitcases, the cat and the kids. That’s all that’s left.

Erwin 49:06
So what did they do for school?

Speaker 2 49:10
So my son was done High School. He’s 19. So he’s studying online in it. So you can do it anywhere. As long as there’s internet, and our daughter is doing grade 12 online, and then she wants to do real estate with me. So she’s already helping me out. We’ve been to a few showings and listings and

Erwin 49:31
so your daughter grade 12 online. What is that through? Is that a Canadian program she’s taking or

Speaker 2 49:36
Yeah, yeah, she’s finishing grade 12 in Ontario. She’s actually heading back in early 2024. To graduate with her friends. That is her choice. She could finish it online completely. There’s local schools but high school ends at grade 11 here, which is again similar to the Quebec school and then you go to college and then University So, we didn’t want to do that. I mean, not at that age.

Erwin 50:05
How does? So for folks who missed that you are from originally from Ontario, or specifically Ottawa? How does a teenager How does a student in Ontario, take an online school,

Speaker 2 50:17
so you can choose to be homeschool, that’s what they call it. And then you go to the school board, and then they issue a letter saying you’re going to be homeschooled. And then you’re exiting the school board and the whole system, and then you can enter, there’s TVO, ILC. It’s an online high school, usually it’s more for adults going back to school, but the system’s there. So if your child is over 16, they can do that online and, and choose to be sort of emancipated in a way. And with COVID, I mean, our kids were on line for years. So like, what’s the difference here?

Erwin 50:58
Right. So for she’s great fall, so there was no option to do grade 12 in Costa Rica.

Speaker 2 51:06
No, because it doesn’t exist. Right. Right. So fascinating.

Erwin 51:09
And then your son he’s doing it is the it course? Is it like it was a Google? Was it Harvard? What is it?

Speaker 2 51:16
Yeah, with some with Google he’s doing he’s actually not doing like a bachelor’s degree or anything, it’s more courses, and apply them applying techniques and stuff. So yeah, it’s, we have a lot of friends in it. And most upset, it’s more experienced than education right now. A lot of people graduate from university, and they have trouble getting hired. So we told them, Well, get the experience, then just do it.

Erwin 51:43
Can you name it? I’m sure some people will be interested.

Speaker 2 51:47
That’s why I’d have to ask him. Sorry, I’m, he’s an adult. So I told him study, do well, good luck. So I’d have to look at what he’s doing. But it’s a lot of it’s actually free. And then you pay for certificates. And he’s got a lot of experience now with like full stack programming back end websites stuff. Ai pixelart. Other things I don’t understand. This is so

Erwin 52:12
cool. Yeah, we’ve Harvard, they I believe they made all of their online, specifically for something around computers, either coding or software engineering completely made it all online available for like, really, really cheap. And if you want, if you want the I’m calling it diploma, I don’t know if it’s the right word, but there’s only like three and $50. Official, if you want a document to see completed it is like very, very cheap.

Speaker 2 52:37
It really is. And that’s what he’s doing. He went to Ottawa EU last year, it didn’t go super well. So we told them, Well, let’s take this opportunity. Stop it, and try something else. And now he’s doing very well, so and what they were teaching was old code that’s not even being used anymore. And all kinds of things. I’m like, That’s That’s useless. So sorry, all the way you but now it’s not wasn’t great.

Erwin 53:02
That’s amazing. Yeah. So how is your daughter been doing her high school online?

Speaker 2 53:08
Just right now? Just yeah, just since September is a month and a month into recorders. And how’s it going? Great. Yes, going 1995. And it’s in French that’s available. A lot of people don’t know this. But in Ontario, there’s French school boards and all that. So the whole online school is available in French. So she’s taking her grade 12 in French to continue her French education.

Erwin 53:34
She can’t do it in Spanish.

Speaker 2 53:36
Now, she’s not that good. That was another issue here. She needs fluency test. I’m like, Yep, good luck with that one’s not gonna work.

Erwin 53:46
Or she need a fluency test to go to school.

Speaker 2 53:49
Local. Yes. So if you go to a local school, they’re bilingual, but you still need to be able to understand some Spanish and write some. And there’s private schools that are English only. But I mean, I personally am not for that. I’m more learned a local language, but she wasn’t ready. So

Erwin 54:10
that’s cool. Yeah. Because I’m sure many people are wondering how they have a slice of what you’re living, right. At least be away for the winter months. Ever since the pandemic, I think it’s two things because people were locked down and didn’t enjoy that. And the other thing is a lot of people made a lot of money through the pandemic. Yeah, and now they can afford it. You know, I mean, some might just be really equity rich, but still, they can always exit and take your profits and use that money to to move away. Yeah. Like we like like, you know, we all know Rob break is down there to know you’re

Unknown Speaker 54:42
about 100 kilometers from me, so very close.

Erwin 54:46
That’s super cool. And then I don’t know where to go because you name some of the countries. Where would you like to go next?

Speaker 2 54:56
Well, we can kind of probably end this with how can people do this well, the simplest thing is just do it. I’m sorry, but a lot of people ask how how do you do anything? You you inquire you booked flights you go you start doing things so if your dream is to be in Belize or Panama or Costa Rica or Mexico, wherever France, Italy, make some inquiries and make your dream happen like I’m more into doing and not like being like paralyzed by analysis. what’s the worst that’s gonna happen? Here worst case which we eat more mangoes there’s three mango seasons, we’ll just eat mangoes they’re free. So I mean, of course you need to plan but you also need to take action. A lot of people talk about things for years, and they never do it. So I’m more into just do it.

Erwin 55:53
Right Potter flight? Yeah, yes. Yeah, yes. Start by just trying to see if yes, the effort.

Speaker 2 56:01
Rent. Yeah, rent an Airbnb come and stay for two months, three months do slow travel. That’s my thing. Now I don’t like going to a place for a short time I want to go and spend a few months. See if I like it. Are people annoying? Is it noisy? What are your non negotiables? Can you can you live without Greek yogurt? I have trouble without it. So I had to find my source of Greek yogurt. And I mean, there’s things in your life, you don’t realize that you need your do you need your feather pillow? Do you need? I don’t know a certain type of car computer or something, a gym, whatever. So what are your non negotiables? And then what place fits that model? And then go and try it? Before you buy? Obviously don’t just buy a place and and then hope it works?

Erwin 56:54
That’s all interesting stuff. And then how are you? You’re you are offering courses, workshops. What is it?

Speaker 2 57:00
Yes, yeah. So I actually help people realize their dreams like that of investing internationally. So I call it offshore Rei, and you can offshore your life as well if you want or not. I mean, a lot of people want just a winter home, or a getaway of some kind. And also diverse diversification. So I offer a 12 week program where I work with people and I help them think about what are their non negotiables like the list I just mentioned. For me, I need potable water. So I don’t like countries where you can’t drink the tap water. I did mention one country in there. So personally, anyway, I prefer when you just turn the tap on and drink the water I find it’s very telling that’s one non negotiable for me. Banking, how are you welcomed as a foreigner? Some countries don’t like Canada or the US anymore as much as some countries actually ban Americans from opening bank accounts there. So you have to be ready for that. Who doesn’t like Canadians? So like Dubai, for example. It’s harder if you’re Canadian and American because of reporting laws. So reporting requirements as parts of Europe do not want American or Canadian money anymore. Those are things that are coming so I’m I’m helping people realize that North America is not the center of the universe anymore. It’s more Asia where I guess you’re you’re from where your ancestors are from. So you have to be ready

Erwin 58:36
to do communism.

Speaker 2 58:39
Yes, but many French teachers about this morning. No, yeah, well, that’s it’s but I mean, Latin America has the doors wide open. And they do very well in in Asia and they have passports that allowed him to go to countries that we can’t as Canadians or Americans

Erwin 59:00
you mentioned it earlier. What’s the currency of Costa Rica not

Speaker 2 59:05
know well, they use the US dollar for real estate and like big purchases, real estate and cars or you can pay using the local currency that column C O L O N or colonias plural. So it’s actually not a bad currency. It’s been quite stable and becoming stronger and stronger lately, it’s actually kind of hurting the American dollar buying power locally. So I mean, it’s something Okay, Panama. Their currency is pegged at half of an American dollar, which is nice. You always know what it’s worth. So it’s important to know those things when you’re investing internationally and that’s something else I cover in my course.

Erwin 59:50
Do you know why Costa Rica cult is a is a culturally that they do to currency is that there’s a government

Speaker 2 59:59
it’s because For probably 2030 years and their currency was way too volatile. So the colonists, the local currency went up and down, up and down. So locals and I’d say 75% of people that immigrate here are Americans. So they kind of in a way imposed the American dollar. It just became normal. Kind of like in Mexico, you go there and they take a lot of, of US dollars that American all those countries, it’s kind of a dual currency.

Erwin 1:00:35
That’s funny. You mentioned that because the current like Colin colonias was volatile. People didn’t want and chose the US dollar. Yes. My jab at my my cryptocurrency listeners.

Speaker 2 1:00:48
Yeah, well, that’s. But then there’s other countries that don’t want the American dollar. So there’s that like, it’s, it really depends where you are with the culture. So yeah,

Erwin 1:01:01
I’m a geek. So I just find these things interesting. Like, for example, like, I’ve had a, I’ve had a close personal friend lived through two currency collapses while I lived in Moscow. Wow. And so if you live in Moscow, would you like to be earning your wages in rubles? or US dollars? Yeah, I know. That’s what that and what the government wants to do, and that, but there’s like, what protects you and your family? Exactly. Maybe you don’t want maybe you prefer to eat? Maybe you prefer euros or Chinese won. But my point is, like, a lot of places don’t people don’t even want their own currency.

Speaker 2 1:01:38
Well, that’s it. So it’s actually kind of shameful sometimes. And, yeah, so some people don’t realize that like Argentina, I mean, their their money went up, down, up down Colombia. And so you got to watch out when, when you’re investing in those countries?

Erwin 1:01:53
Yeah. reminds us that we’re lucky here. Yes. Nobody wants our currency belly to stable.

Speaker 2 1:02:00
Yeah, it’s kind of compared to those. Absolutely. It’s very stable. I mean, there’s more stable than that. But absolutely. It’s one of the stable ones.

Erwin 1:02:09
Interesting. And then what about the the January event that you’re hosting?

Speaker 2 1:02:13
Yeah. For those that want to learn about how to invest in Costa Rica in January, the 22nd 23rd, and 24th. It’s called invest in pura vida. So if you look it up, invest in Pura vida.com. It’s a three day conference, where we’re talking about everything you need to invest here. We’re gonna have all the legal teams that counting in Costa Rica and in Canada as well, we have none other than cherry chan joining us. So let’s give you awesome. And we’re talking about like financing, how to make it happen. I touched on it very briefly. But there’s a million other ways you could use life insurance, you could use RSPs TFSA. Is the list is crypto, if you wanted to the list is endless. So yeah, it’s a three day event, a lot of fun. And last week, we hosted one in March 2023. And we had about 50 investors. So we’re expecting about the same it’s not a huge event. It’s more like a mastermind, kind of. And we do a lot of fun things. And we’re right on the beach. So we’re at a beach club. And then we do a bus tour and look at properties and lots of networking. We have people from all over Canada, so eastern Canada, Western Canada, central Canada, some Americans are joining us. And lots of international investors, a lot of people joining have properties in four or five, six countries already.

Erwin 1:03:45
Having challenges dealing with 5456 properties in Hamilton. Accounts and

Unknown Speaker 1:03:52
time zones. Yeah.

Erwin 1:03:56
That’s hilarious. Do people put their kids through these things?

Speaker 2 1:04:00
So they can absolutely there’s a few people bringing their kids so there’s a swimming pool right there, depending on the age of the children. Yeah, there’s two swimming pools right at the beach club. And we’re on the beach as well. So if you’re coming as a couple well, you can go to the beach and take turns. There’s there’s not activities planned specifically for kids. But yeah, kids can come absolutely

Erwin 1:04:25
awesome. Yeah, my kids are I’m a bigger swing liability than my kids.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:28
There you go.

Erwin 1:04:31
plans to go with Ark plans to bring the kids because we’re all working. We’re all working on location. We are not on vacation. Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:04:39
But you can a lot of people I mean, that’s what I do here. I’m not relaxing here for eight months. You can do a lot of business here and it’s in Central time. So it’s like Alberta if you got lots of clients during winter will be like Saskatchewan times a one hour time difference with Ontario.

Erwin 1:04:57
Oh question. Where do you pay tax? too Do you pay taxes anymore? Still?

Speaker 2 1:05:02
So right now I’m still Canadian. So I pay taxes to Canada. Yeah. So by when I leave the Canadian tax residency, not my citizenship, but the tax residency, then yeah, I’ll have to pick residency. For now, it would be Costa Rica, because I have the most time in the country. But eventually, I can shop for a different tax residency and choose what suits me best.

Erwin 1:05:27
Fascinating. Okay, so I know you’re not accountant. So let’s preface that with a public listener. So what what does that mean? What does leaving your tax residency mean? And then what are you looking for a new tax residency?

Speaker 2 1:05:38
Yeah, so leaving tax residency, there’s, well, if it’s from if you’re American, you can’t that’s tied to your citizenship. So Americans, they have to renounce their citizenship, which is a big deal. So that would be a tougher sell. I mean, some do it. There’s a few 1000 people each year. But if you’re Canadian, if your tax residency, where you pay your taxes is not tied to your citizenship, so a lot of people think, Oh, you’re going to lose your citizenship know what you’re going to let go of is the health care. So Oh, hip, or whatever province you’re coming from? Canada, Ontario was 212 days, you can be gone? Before you lose? Oh, hip. And then there’s different criteria. So where do you own your income? Is it mostly Canada, then? Yeah, you’re still you still have ties to Canada? Do you still have dependents in Canada? Like your kids? That are minors, then yeah, you still have ties to Canada, you have a car? Do you have a principal residence? Do you have bank accounts, and then the list goes down. So there’s many ways to do it. But it requires planning, you need a good accountant to do that. And if you’re an investor, it’s not an easy process. Like for me, it’s going to be probably three to five years. before it’s fully done.

Erwin 1:06:59
Would you have to sell off your dream remaining properties in Canada, or it’s okay, you

Speaker 2 1:07:03
know, you don’t, you could keep all your investments, the only big one is the principal residence, you can keep it, but you need to rent it out long term, or sell it. So I chose to sell it. And that’s it and no cars, you can’t own vehicles. So I still have a car in Ottawa for my daughter when she goes back with friends and stuff. So when I mean, when that’s done, then I’ve got less ties, but I still have my driver’s license, I need to get another one. There’s all kinds of things you need to work through. So the CRA does not let you go easily. But it is doable. If that’s that’s what you want to do.

Erwin 1:07:45
So why the why decision to give it up.

Speaker 2 1:07:49
You can save a fortune. So instead of paying like six figures and income tax, I could pay a lot less so I could choose pan, like I said Panama 510 15%, Costa Rica is a bit higher, I think 25 is the top income tax you can pay. So that’s still much lower than Canada Dubai’s 0%. So if I want to pay no taxes, I could live there. And I actually teach the center coaching. So yes, yeah, teach people how to do it if you want to, but it’s, that’s for a very niche market. Most people want to invest internationally. And then the rest is maybe more advanced. It’s for a smaller population.

Erwin 1:08:37
I don’t know man, I we sent out our survey on us investing like I think it was like 10% of respondents were talking about immigration.

Speaker 2 1:08:46
Well, it’s yeah, it’s bigger than what a lot of people think. Cuz in Costa Rica, whenever I go somewhere, they’re like, Oh, yeah. Is there anybody left in Canada? Everybody’s moving? I’m like, yeah, there’s still people. A lot more of us. Yeah. growing like crazy. That said, there’s people coming and then I think it’s more long term Canadians that are leaving the newcomers. Newcomers are some of them are not staying. I mean, it really depends what what you were sold on and expectations versus reality and opportunities. Things like that.

Erwin 1:09:22
Fascinating. Thought and Francoise, I prepared you for this question. I’m not journalist but I like to say I tried to uphold journalist journalist integrity. So so we don’t get sued by anyone. I can’t name names. How else do I put it? I think you kind of fell in with the wrong group. A term I don’t know what what do you want to say about it? You can even say nothing.

Speaker 2 1:09:58
Yes, no. Now I don’t want to talk about it. It’s, it’s in the past. It’s good luck for them. That’s all. Yes.

Erwin 1:10:08
Maybe, to what kind of due diligence you should do before joining any group mastermind. Membership, whatever you want to say,

Speaker 2 1:10:19
Oh, yes. Well, of course, I mean, do your due diligence, just like buying anything I’ve said now, like does not apply for everybody there. Like I said, if you’re American, a lot of this doesn’t even work for you. If you’re Canadian, too, might not be the best situation. Oh, we got thunder coming in.

Erwin 1:10:37
That’s funny. It’s so sunny behind you.

Speaker 2 1:10:40
Yes. Now, it’s super dark, actually. Yeah, weird lighting. So, yeah, I would say do your due diligence, make sure you do a bit of background check before signing up with a mentor. Ask for references. And ask around not just references because most people if they’re smart, they’re going to give you a good reference. So if I ask about Erwin, what are your references? Well, he’s going to give me names of good friends and people that will put in a good word. Ask around others. And then yeah, make an informed decision.

Erwin 1:11:17
Excellent answer. And I’ll just add listeners, if your listener does, you can feel free to reach out to me. I’m on social media. DM me, and I’ll gladly reference check people for you.

Speaker 2 1:11:29
Yeah, well, that’s it. Ask ask someone and I currently am starting a group with my friends in Ottawa. It’s called the capital connectors. And again, we have no agenda. It’s more just networking. There’s no teaching nothing like that. It’s just business networking, not even just real estate, but business networking.

Erwin 1:11:51
Wait, how you gonna do that? Over zoom? No.

Speaker 2 1:11:57
We’re hosting events everywhere. So we started in Ottawa, but now I have one in Costa Rica on November 6, and then Dubai, probably in March. So it’s kind of everywhere and capital as in money, or the National Capital, and then connectors, that working. That’s all. That’s all it is. So we’re keeping it very simple.

Erwin 1:12:16
And where can people get more information on?

Speaker 2 1:12:19
We have a Facebook group capital connectors, it’s like a pink logo. So it’s hard to like hot pink. It’s hard to miss. And we’re working on our websites. You can also find us on Instagram capital connectors.

Erwin 1:12:38
And then your own business working or more about investing, investing offshore real estate.

Speaker 2 1:12:44
Yes, wine and real estate.ca I kept the.ca

Erwin 1:12:50
You don’t want to give that up to give up your tax residency.

Speaker 2 1:12:53
That’s it. So for the next three years or whatever, I’m keeping it then I’ll have to switch. Probably don’t really are

Erwin 1:13:00
you willing to give up the seat.ca? Yeah. Go Daddy. Just keep clicking. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 2 1:13:08
If you have no, still have ties to Canada, but at some point that that CA is only for Canadians. So at some point, you can’t have it. So

Erwin 1:13:16
you could partner with Canadian then

Unknown Speaker 1:13:20
my corporation is Canadian, so I could keep it

Erwin 1:13:24
and you can keep your corporation if you if you leave your tax residency.

Speaker 2 1:13:28
Yeah, just that your corporate taxes go up. So you’re more at 25 Because you have no personal tax so they just capture the taxes in your corporation.

Erwin 1:13:38
So fascinating. Yeah. This has been enlightening for me.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:44
Yeah, a good

Erwin 1:13:46
listener finds this just as enlightening. First of all, thank you so much for doing this. Hope you enjoy Costa Rica. Hopefully it doesn’t rain. Too bad. Oh, I saw the lightning. Lightning flash.

Speaker 2 1:13:55
Yes. Yeah, it’s really getting scary, but there’s usually a few minutes and then it goes away.

Erwin 1:14:00
So okay. Yeah, but you’re scary is not hurricane scary. No, no, it’s

Unknown Speaker 1:14:05
just very loud. Thunder really loud.

Erwin 1:14:09
Yeah, better ever. It’s warm. It’s gonna snow here soon, so I have no problem for you. First of all, thank you again.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:19
Thank you have a good rest of your day.

Erwin 1:14:21
Thank you for watching. If you want to learn how to invest in real estate from scratch, my team teaches beginners how to use the number one investment strategy that I personally use in a virtual free training class every month, go to investor training.ca/youtube To register for our next class. Then links also in the description as well. I publish at least two to three videos a week here. So subscribe if you want to keep learning from seasoned investors, like myself, my guest and if you’re just starting out, feel free to ask questions and comment below. And I’ll do my best to answer each of those comments and questions myself. Again, if you’re ready to learn the nitty gritty about real estate investing from a professional investor register for our next virtual class. That’s at Investor training.ca/. Hey Youtube thanks again for watching see you in the next video

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UPCOMING EVENTS

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with! Build connections with empire builders and trailblazers at our iWIN events.
 
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BEFORE YOU GO…

If you’re interested in being a successful real estate investor like those who have been featured on this podcast and our hundreds of successful clients please let us know.

It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

If you didn’t know already, we pride ourselves on being the best of the best real estate coaches, having the best property managers, contractors, handy people, cleaners, lawyers, accountants, everyone you need on your power team and we’re happy to share them with our clients to ensure your success. 

New investor or seasoned veteran investor, we can help anyone by providing our award winning coaching services and this isn’t all talk.

We have been awarded Realtor of the Year to Investors in 2015 by the Real Estate Investment Network, 2016 by the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and again in 2017 because no one told the judges no one is supposed to win the award twice but on merit, our peers deemed us as the best.  In 2018, we again won the same award by the Real Estate Investment Network.

Hopefully being the most decorated team of Realtors in Ontario will make you consider us for your first or next real estate investment.  Even if you don’t invest in our areas, there’s a good chance I know who would be ideal for you. 

I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

Sponsored by:

Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year.

Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

W: erwinszeto.com
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Alternative Borrowing for Flippers and BRRR Investors with Calvert Home Mortgage Investment Corporation

Two weeks Cherry and I visited Ottawa. Cherry was interviewing Ottawa real estate investors and her clients from the Non-Profits space.  For me, I was invited as a guest speaker to OREIO which stands for Ottawa Real Estate Investors Organization.  Cherry was the other guest speaker and she shared her experience in buying the new Accounting practice we own called Otus Group.

With everyone looking to invest or improve their cash flow along with avoiding long-term rentals and all the challenges that come with long-term rentals, business buying has been a growing topic of interest in our community.

Elizabeth Kelly mentioned investing in motels as one possible strategy and it just so happens we have motel investor Victoria Cluney as an upcoming guest of the show! Make sure to like and subscribe on iTunes, Youtube and Spotify, my personal favourite platforms

Cherry’s talk explained the awkward dating-like dance she had to do to just be able to submit an offer.  She had to book a call with the broker and broker only, then a call with the owners of Otus, then an offer but we were one of five offers.

Business buying even in a recession can be competitive!!

My talk was on student rentals, a strategy I’ve helped clients transact on 100+ properties. The thing about the student rental strategy that makes it awesome is because university students turn over every 2-3 years, allowing investors to raise rents back to market so we’re not stuck back stopping a long-term tenant’s housing inflation.

We have parents sign guarantees for rent and damages and we’ve never had to take a university student tenant to the Landlord Tenant Board. Only a small number of college students were taken to the LTB. Unfortunately the worst student tenant experience was in my own property but we’ll save that story for another day.

There’s a strong investment case to avoid long term rentals hence so many in our community have pivoted to AirBnb, mid-term rentals, flips, development. 

Now BC is looking to ban AirBnb’s outside your own home. It’s only time until we see the same for Calgary, bans on mid-term rentals. I don’t blame the government since they answer to voters and voters are concerned about housing and maximising long-term rental supply . Stupid democracy.

Before the OREIO meeting, I had a blast hanging out with christian szpilfogel, the former Ottawa tech executive turned full time investor.  If you’re a real estate geek like me, you’ll love his projects.

Here is Christian’s standing inside the 2nd floor of the 7 plex he’s converting into a 12 plex. Notice there are no floors so we’re walking on floor joists. Not fun for those with a fear of heights like yours truly. From the third floor, one can stare straight down four storeys into the basement.  I don’t know if it’s a fear of heights thing but my imagination immediately visualised me falling through a hole in the floor, bouncing around on my way down and coming to a bloody rest on the concrete floor of the basement.  Is that just me?

Christian explained to me how the deal worked financially as a renovated seven plex.  Of note, he’s not the guy to pressure tenants to leave so he may renovate and jack up rents.  But by working with his architect they found a way to add five more units which includes building an addition at the back and extending the roof to the new addition which needs to be done before it starts snowing. Which I hear comes the first week of November in the frozen tundra of Ottawa.

Christian also took me for a tour of his commercial and mixed res/commercial properties in Almonte, a suburb of Ottawa and home of Canadian basketball legend James Naismith, the inventor of basketball.  Christian wass in the middle of a conditional purchase of a former post office that looks like a miniature parliamentary building, tall, narrow, solid brick with signature steep copper roof that’s stained green.

The building is designated heritage so there are rules and guidelines to maintain the exterior appearances in terms of the architecture. While heritage buildings look amazing, maintaining materials and workmanship from over a hundred years ago is both challenging and expensive.

So I tagged along with Christian and daughter Veronica to meet with the local planner.  Amonte is a small town mind you so the planner we met wears three hats: Heritage, Planning, and Engineering.  She is one of only two in the planning department.

The meeting was productive, the planner was helpful, she shared with us about the heritage grant programs and because Christian’s conditional purchase has a ton of exterior stone work, he asked where he could find a stone mason.

As usual, city staff don’t provide referrals due to potential conflict of interest and liability so she referred us to speak to the head of the non-government, not for profit heritage committee, and where to find him, at the local Textile Museum only 450 metres away. 

Christian only has a week and a half left on his conditional period so this is urgent.  We leave the meeting with the planner to walk to the edge of town to find the head of the heritage committee. We’re in luck as he just returned to the office. Consistent with my stereotyping of small towns, he’s helpful and refers us to the top mason in town used by the majority of owners in the heritage district.

In true small town fashion, Sean the mason lives eight doors down… that’s right. Eight houses away. Not even 150 metres and it’s on our way back to where we parked.

I’m laughing out loud as we walk and suggest to Christian we go knock on mason Sean’s door to see if he’s home.  Christian was thinking he’d call him the next day but the mason’s address is on our way anyways.

With google maps help, we arrive at what looks like a house and there’s what looks like a contractor’s pickup trucking in the driveway of a century home that’s been immaculately maintained.  Always a good sign when hiring a contractor.

We knock on the door, Sean’s wife answers the door and we’re in luck, Sean is home for lunch.  We exchange pleasantries, get Sean’s card, most importantly book an inspection for 8am Monday.

I know I do have the silliest sense of humour and social media has commented how I laugh at my own jokes here but please do understand where I’m coming from, we just completed three back to back to back meetings on foot within 90 minutes.  In a bigger city like Ottawa or Hamilton this would take days or weeks of email and phone tag.

Thank goodness for Sean the mason as his rough estimate thanks to his experience and localised knowledge working in town was 25X cheaper than the quote from the large, unionised company from Ottawa. There’s a difference in materials but we’re talking 25 times. Needless to say the latter’s quote would kill the deal but thanks to small town kindness and efficiency, the deal is still alive.

We’ll have Christian back on the show soon as I’ve been bugging him to build a course around commercial real estate investing, specifically around identifying high traffic areas because Christian makes commercial office, retail and restaurant landlording work.  It works because he has no vacancy.

By the way, my name is Erwin and this is the #81 Business podcast in the world per Apple iTunes which by magic we achieved with only 17 listeners. We’ve been here since 2016 with well over 300 episodes, over an hour each.  Thanks to the success of my clients not going unrecognised, my team and I at iWIN Real Estate have been honoured as the Realtor of the Year for Ontario or Eastern Canada for four consecutive years.

It’s been an amazing journey since 2010 and as the saying goes, the only thing consistent in life is change and I will do my best to stay ahead of trends and reading tea leaves.

This past iWIN Meeting I was sharing my research on the problems China faces: China is among the worst in the world for birth rate, well below the needed number of babies to maintain the country’s population. Pretty much all of the developed world has the same problem but at least in Canada, we’re able to draw young, international students from India who mostly want to stay in Canada and pay taxes.

Back to China though, their unemployment rate of young people aged 16-24 is over 21% and demographically, there are few of them. Housing costs are high like here in big city China so do you see the Chinese having more babies?  No. My point is relative to the rest of the world, the USA will dominate in terms of economic growth thanks to better affordability, they have their own oil, tons of excellent farmland vs we want to pave over ours in the Greenbelt, Mexico is a wonderful trade partner for them as a source of low to mid level manufacturing at cheaper labour rates than China.

The USA is near and re-shoring its manufacturing. If you’ve been following the microprocessor manufacturing story, critical hardware to the Ai revolution, the US Federal and State governments are investing hundreds of millions and billions in order to divest from chips made in Taiwan. 

Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC themselves are building a $17 billion plant in Texas hence I’ve booked a trip to look at real estate in Texas in January.

Next month I’m going to Columbus, Ohio where Intel is building a $6 billion plant with 3,000 net new jobs.  You better believe those are high paying jobs, the kind of people I’d want as tenants and buyers of my real estate investments.

Of course none of this is possible without a power team and financing which was only recently made available thanks to my friends at Share (www.iwin.sharesfr.com) and LendCity (iwin@lendcity.ca

Alternative Borrowing for Flippers and BRRR Investors with Calvert Home Mortgage Investment Corporation

Onto this week’s show!

We have Calvert Home Mortgage Investment Corporation in the house! OR Calvert for short. They specialise in short-term financing for flippers, BRRRR investors, even pre-construction investors who need short term financing to close a property so they may immediately sell said property.

As a real estate geek, I enjoy learning about what’s going on the in market, where investors are putting their money and borrowed money from Calvert to work. Where do they find deals? What cities, provinces, on or off market and I hope you the listener enjoy it too. 

I even turn the table on both Ryan and Garret who both live in Calgary and ask where they invest their own money.  For anyone who wants to lend their funds privately, I think it’s a good idea to listen to how professional lenders invest their money because if it’s good enough for an insider… well just have a listen.

For more information, their website is: www.chmic.ca and you can reach Ryan at ryan@chmic.ca.

Please like, subscribe, leave a 5 star review on iTunes or Spotify, funny enough our spotify rating is higher therefore Spotify is now my favourite podcast platform.  And please enjoy the show!

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-Generated**

Erwin 0:00
Two weeks ago Cerry and I visited Ottawa and chair was interviewing Ottawa real estate investors and her clients from the nonprofit space. For me, I was invited to as a guest speaker of Oreo, which stands for Ottawa real estate investors organization. It’s a wonderful organization. I remember too, in case you’re interested. chair was the other guest speaker, and she shared her experience about buying a new accounting practice, which we now own, which is called the oldest group we closed in August. It’s now October, with everyone looking to invest or improve their cash flow along with avoiding long term rentals. It’s a very popular theme these days, and all the challenges that come with long term rentals in Ontario, and BC, business buying has been a growing topic of interest in our community.

Erwin 0:46
Elizabeth Kelly, who is a guest for the show, she actually detailed how she has been telling her investment her client or coaching clients to be looking for more businesses that are in real estate.

Erwin 0:56
But our commercial, for example,

Erwin 1:00
she mentioned motels as being a potentially good strategy. And in Funny enough, we have one of our clients. Also Oreo member, Victoria Clooney, as an upcoming guest of the show. So make sure you like and subscribe on the iTunes, YouTube and Spotify, which are my personal favorite platforms. To see you don’t wanna miss that episode, cherries talk to explain the awkward dating like dance first dating like dance

Erwin 1:24
that she had to do in order to submit an offer. She had to go through, you know, a gatekeeper, which was the broker and the broker only. So she had to do an interview with just the broker. And then she was able to have get on a call with the owner so voters, and then only then was she able to offer like there are people were pre screened before they’re allowed to offer on and we were one of five offers. And if you can imagine that business buying even in a recession can be competitive. My talk was on student rentals strategy, which I’ve helped clients transact on over 100 properties 100 Plus properties in the strategy. The thing about student rental strategy is that what I shared in my presentation is it’s it’s awesome, because universities, university students, they typically turn over every two or three years, as soon as they finish their program, either masters or undergraduate usually that those programs are usually two, three or four years when they graduate. Now as they lead them, they go home they leave, allowing us for investors to raise rents back to market. So hence we’re not stuck. backstopping our long term tenants housing inflation, which is how I feel, but my several duplexes that I hold, we have parents that sign guarantees for rent and damages. And we’ve only taken a small number of actually even started, we’ve never taken the university student, university student to landlord tenant board about my clients experience, and only a small number of college students, again, were ever taken to the LTB. Unfortunately, the worst in rental experience was was a college student. And it happened to be my own property. But we’ll save that story for another day. There’s a strong investment case to avoid long term rentals. Hence, we’re seeing so many in our community, having pivoted to Airbnb, midterm rentals, flips, development, anything that avoids long term rentals. Now just recently, BC, is looking to ban Airbnb is outside your own home, you can do it so you’ll be able to still Airbnb, your basement or your garden suite. But otherwise, if it’s outside your own home, so people with multiple properties, they’re going to be having to look to pivot or face pretty severe fines. I think it’s only time until we see the same for Calgary, or even a continued ban on midterm rentals. I don’t blame the government, since they answer to voters and voters number one concern is about housing and maximizing long term rental supply. Stupid democracy. So back to the Oreo meeting before the Oreo meeting, I had a blast with hanging out with Christian skilful rule. If you don’t know Christian, I highly recommend the follow him on Facebook and Instagram and his company Olympus properties. He’s a former tech executive like pretty high, he made a pretty high. His boss was one of the richest people in Canada. He’s a sir. Anyways, if you’re a real estate geek like me, you’ll love his projects. Here I have a picture in the show notes of Christian standing inside the is on the second floor of his six or seven flags that he’s currently converting into a 12 Plex. So he’s adding five units from seven plus five equals 12 Plex. In the picture, you’ll notice there’s no floors.

Erwin 4:34
He’s removed all the floors and sub flooring. So we’re having to walk and stand on floor joists, which is not fun for anyone with fear of heights like they’re true. It was truly I don’t know why but I continued up the stairs to the third floor even and one can stare straight down for stories because from third floor I can stare into the basement directly. And I don’t know if it’s just a fear of heights thing. But for me

Erwin 5:00
My experience my imagine my imagination immediately visualized myself falling through the hole in the floor, bouncing around on my way down and coming to a bloody rest on the concrete floor of the basement. That’s just a me thing is that a fear of heights thing? Maybe Krishna explained to me how the deal penciled as and it worked financially as a renovated seven Plex. So as is so he just renovate it. And as as a simplex it’ll work of note, he’s not the kind of guy that pressures tends to leave, he lets tenants leave naturally, so so that so then he can renovate and then raise my rents to market. But again, no pressure on the tenants to do to move out. He’s not a cash Ricky’s kind of guy. But anyways, but by working with his architect with bikers and working with his architect, he found a way to add five more units, which includes building an addition on the back of the property and extending the roof over that new addition, which needs to be done before it starts snowing.

Erwin 5:56
FYI, there’s part of the roof is open. It’s a bit of a crazy project. If you love rental projects, you’ll you’ll love the look at this place. Anyways, I hear snows it starts snowing in snowing heavily in the frozen tundra of Ottawa and like the first week of November, so pretty soon, like a week away. Anyways, Christian took me also took me for a tour of his commercial and mixed residential commercial properties in Belmont, which is a suburb of Ottawa, home of Canadian basketball legend, James Naismith, who is known as the inventor of basketball, Christian was in the middle of a conditional purchase of a former post office. And it looks like a miniature parliamentary building. So it’s tall, narrow, solid, brick, solid red brick. And of course, like all of our parliamentary buildings, that signature steep roof that’s made of copper, and it’s stained green. So looks, looks amazing, has a clock tower as well, super cool. The building is designated heritage as you would expect. It’s you know, it’s from like, I think it was built in like 1900, like, like 19. So it’s like 120 years old. So there’s rules and guidelines to maintain the exterior appearances of said and inherited properties, because they’re, they’re turned to be significant.

Erwin 7:10
And I’m speaking in terms of architecture the way they look. So while heritage buildings look amazing, maintaining the materials that go into them, and the workmanship, for properties that was that were built over 100 years ago, is both challenging and expensive, especially at the Makey Makey. reuse the same materials that were used in the original bill. Can you imagine that? Anyways, so I take along with Christian and his daughter, Veronica to meet with the local planner, because again, he’s going through the, he’s going through the diligent can this conditional period, so he’s making sure he’s crossing his eyes and

Erwin 7:42
dotting his eyes and crossing his T’s.

Erwin 7:45
I understand that Elmont is a small town. So we met with the planner, who and she wears three hats. She’s one half of the planning department. So she’s a planner. She’s also responsible for territory, edge, and engineering.

Erwin 8:01
Again, she’s only one of two in the planning department. They do have engineering staff, but the other engineers, she’s one of the two planners, the meeting was productive, the planner was helpful. She shared with us about the heritage heritage grant programs, which helps pay for Christian to maintain this properties. And because the property in that we’re looking at is a conditional. He, as you can imagine, that has a property like that has a ton of exterior stone work. So he asked where he could find a Mason. As usual, city staff don’t provide referrals due to potential conflict of interest and liability. So she referred us to speak to the head of an engineer NGO, which means sorry, acronym, non government organization, as a not for profit Heritage Committee, also where to find him. And Mike is his name. And we could find him at the local Textile Museum, which is located only 450 meters away, she told us where to go.

Erwin 8:57
So again, appreciate that Christians only a week and a half away from a conditional period being over. So this is so time short. So we leave the meeting with the planner and walk and we walked to the edge of town to find the head of the heritage committee, Mike, we’re in luck. He just happened to have just returned to his office in the textile museum.

Erwin 9:16
And consistent with my stereotyping of small towns. He’s super helpful. He refers us to the top Mason in town. The guy that that almost everyone uses in town for Heritage properties.

Erwin 9:30
So in truth into small town fashion, Shawn the Mason lives just eight doors down from the Textile Museum.
Erwin 9:38
That’s right eight houses away, not even 150 meters away from where our current position. It’s also on the way way back to the car anyways.

Erwin 9:47
I’m laughing out loud as we walked out of the meeting, and I suggested Christian we go knock on the on Mason, Steve sorry Mason Sean’s door to see if he’s home. Christian was thinking he called the next day. But again, the Masons house is on our way home

Erwin 10:00
So we have his business address. We realized that when we get there it is actually his home. Because we come up to a residential home. We see in the driveway, there’s a contractor’s pickup truck in the driveway of a century home that’s been immaculately maintained. Always a good sign when hiring a contractor when their house looks amazing. We knocked on the door, Sean’s wife answers the door, and where luck Shawn is home for lunch. Just he was about to leave, we exchanged pleasantries.

Erwin 10:27
We get Shawn’s card. Most importantly, is that we book Shawn for an inspection Monday morning at 8am.

Erwin 10:35
I know I do the silly sense of humor. And social media has commented Yes, I’ve received feedback on the show that I often I laugh at my own jokes. But please do understand where I’m coming from. We just completed three back to back meetings within on foot within 90 minutes. And for the success, we got accomplished our objective, found a mason and we booked them for an appointment to go look at the property subject property to check it for the final condition, exterior maintenance. In a bigger city like Ottawa or Hamilton, this would take days or weeks of email and phone tag, it’d be very painful. Thank goodness for Shonda Mason. So he’s actually given Krishna an hour, a rough estimate, thanks to his experience, localized knowledge, he’s able to quote 25 times cheaper than a competitive quote from a large unionized company in Ottawa 25 times 25 times cheaper. There’s obviously different materials being used.

Unknown Speaker 11:38
Obviously, there’s difference in material labor costs when you’re talking about unionized versus nine. But again, 25 times cheaper. All it took us was like 90 minutes. Needless to say, the ladders, quote, the big corporate quote will kill the deal. But thanks to small town, kindness and efficiency, the deal is still alive. But actually no, sorry, Christian has since gone from another deal.

Unknown Speaker 12:01
We’ll have Christian back on the show to talk about this talk about his investing. And also this deal. I’ve been bugging him to build a course around commercial real estate investing, specifically around his specialty and where he’s been successful as identifying high traffic areas. Because Christian’s portfolio consists of commercial office, retail, and restaurants. So all generally considered the tougher parts of commercial real estate. He seems he made just to make it work. He’s got no vacancy, and he’s got a lineup of people who want to rent the spaces.

Unknown Speaker 12:33
Oh, by the way, my name is urban Seto. And this is the number one number 81 Business rank podcasts in the world prop of iTunes, which, by magic we achieved with only 17 listeners. We’ve been here since 2016, with over 300 episodes over an hour each. Thanks to the success of my clients not going. We’ve got not gone unrecognized. My team and I win real estate. I’ve been honored as the realtor of the year for Ontario, or eastern Canada for four consecutive years. It’s been an amazing journey since 2010. And as the saying goes, the only thing consistent in life is change. And I will do my best to stay ahead of the trends and reading the tea leaves. So this past I have a meeting, I was sharing my research on the problems that China’s faces. China is among the worst in the world for birth rate, well below the number of babies to maintain the country’s population. Pretty much all development of the developed world has the same problem. And Canada is not immune. But we are able to draw young international students mainly from India, who hopefully will want to stay in Canada so that they get jobs and pay taxes. Back to China though their unemployment rate of young young people aged 16 to 24 is over 21%. And demographically, there’s a lot fewer of them than any other age group, except for maybe people younger than them. housing costs are high, like here in the big city. No different than here versus the big cities of China and between unemployment and expensive housing. Do you really see China having more babies immune to catch up and fix this problem? No. My point is, relative to the rest of the world USA will dominate in terms of economic growth, thanks to better affordability. They have their own. They have their own oil, that tons of excellent farmland so they can grow their own food. Versus we pave over our farm and our farmland and the Greenbelt at least, that’s our plan to and the Americans benefit from Mexico as their biggest trade partner in the world.

Unknown Speaker 14:31
And a source of low to mid level manufacturing labor at cheaper rates than China.

Unknown Speaker 14:37
Point is USA is near and reshoring nearshoring and reshoring its manufacturing. If you’ve been following the microprocessor manufacturing story, critical which is critical hardware to the AI revolution. The US federal and state governments and local and municipal governments are investing hundreds of millions and billions in order to divest from chips made in Taiwan.

Unknown Speaker 15:01
Funny enough Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC is building their own plant, a $17 billion plant in Texas. And then oh, coincidentally enough, I’m booking myself for a trip to Texas in January. Next month remember the Ohio this week I’m going to Atlanta? Yes, I’m bullish on American real estate. I’ve kind of headed up to here with rent control real estate. And again, none of this is possible without without a proper power team, and financing. And from my experience, this was only made available. Just recently, my friends at lens city, I have their contact information in the show notes. My friends at Len city are the first and only Canadian brokerage I know of offering mortgages on US income properties in the US. And these are for again, these mortgages are strictly for income properties. That’s why they can lend on up to 10 to 15 properties. Anyways, informations on the show notes. As I mentioned, building up our Power team, and going to Atlanta Next this week. I can’t wait. As I haven’t been this excited about real estate investing in a really long time. We’re gonna make real estate investing great again. onto this week’s show. We have covered home mortgage investment corporation in the house, or Calvert for short.

Unknown Speaker 16:22
I teased them about the they use an acronym as their website instead of Calvert, which everyone knows them by anyways. They specialize in short term financing for flippers, burn investors, even pre construction investors who need short term financing to close a property so that they may immediately sell that property. As a real estate geek. I enjoy learning about what’s going on in the market, where investors are putting their money and their borrowed money from places like Calvert where they’re putting into work. Where do we find deals what cities provinces on or off market, and I hope you the listener enjoy geeking out as much as I do. I even turn the table on both Ryan and Garrett who both live in Calgary and ask them where they invest their own money. For anyone who wants to lend their funds privately, which is a pretty common topic these days. I think it’s a good idea to listen to how professional lenders invest their own money, because if it’s good enough for an insider,

Unknown Speaker 17:13
just have a listen to the show. For more for more information, their website is www.chmc.ca or you can reach out to Ryan at Ryan at ch M IC dossier. Please like subscribe, leave a five star review on iTunes or Spotify or YouTube. Funnily enough, our Spotify ratings are higher than iTunes. Therefore, Spotify is now my favorite podcast platform. Please enjoy the show.

Unknown Speaker 17:43
Right, Garrett, what’s keeping us busy these days? For sure. So Ryan from Calvert home mortgage, Garrett and I just had him on a trade show right now visiting all of our clients in Ontario. It’s been extremely busy to say the least within the company. So obviously we weren’t recovered home mortgage. planning out next year’s volumes and targets we’re on a massive hiring spree right now. Just hired three Junior underwriters. So the team is growing exponentially, which is awesome to see. Managing our portfolio and just staying busy with what’s going on in the market trying to mitigate risk while aggressively growing the portfolio on good loans. Right? Yes, yeah. So sorry, is gonna ask you what is the portfolio? So what is what can you give me more specific? What is the portfolio for sure. It’s just full of like, you know, pet cemeteries like,

Unknown Speaker 18:32
what’s in this what’s in this portfolio definitely not be good, single family detached homes, primarily 97% of our portfolio is first mortgages, the other 3% Second mortgages, we focus on short term lending in major urban city centers. So primarily populations 100,000 And above, in Alberta and Ontario, and we really focus on 12 months and under loans primarily lend to flippers, but if any, just anyone requires a quick closing solution for a mortgage. It’s a single family detached home, or typically we’d like to be the first call to help out those clients. Most of our clients are real estate investors. We we love the real estate investing community really carved out our nation that aspect to help serve real estate investors in Alberta and Ontario. Excellent. So this is a real estate investing show. So let’s start there. What do you guys seeing among real estate investors? Where are they focusing their money? And where? Yeah, well, we were we were talking about before the show that we had 60% of our book in Ontario and 40% in Alberta, about a year and a half ago, I’d say. And then we had that big fall off at the start of 2022. And now we’ve shifted our book to 60%, Alberta 40, persona, Ontario. So we’ve seen the real estate investor community in Alberta a little more a little more bullish than than the Ontario market. But that’s not to say there’s not good deals in Ontario too, like a lot of our flippers are finding great deals good buys.

Unknown Speaker 20:01
and they have more time

Unknown Speaker 20:04
with your time.

Unknown Speaker 20:06
Like, like, there’s a difference now, right? Like you have more time to do your due diligence on these properties because they’re not selling right away. So you can do your inspection, you can do all your numbers and stuff without having to put in an offer with no conditions and really quickly close and make a decision. Yeah, so imagine the phone call sound different. Yeah. Now now we’re seeing it in Calgary, right? Like Calgary is now the one where I’m getting calls from some of my best real estate investor clients. And they’re saying, I don’t have time to do all my due diligence. Will you do this? For me? It’s like, well, we still need this, this and this word. Yes, we’re very quick. And we can find deals in 24 hours and in Alberta, but

Unknown Speaker 20:47
we still need to see that they have a budget renovations, what they’re going to do to the property, and so we can understand what we think the ARV is.

Unknown Speaker 20:57
Okay. So the it’s again, a bunch of for example, you need like a renovation. Cool, and they usually takes a bit of time. Yeah. But a lot of our clients are typically doing those themselves. And they can they roughly understand, like, if they’re experienced, they know, hey, like I seen this property, this is what I’m going to do. And we have a reno checklist that I think we have we sent it to you before, probably yes, yeah. Anyways, it just, it’s a really easy way to just fill out, Hey, I’m doing this, this and this, we have all the different checkbox. And you can give us all the details about it. So it’s it’s high level. And then if they have to get a full quote, they can do that after the fact. But if we understand what they’re doing to the property, makes it easier for us. So really, so these guys can really turn that turn around their own financing in 24 hours. Yeah. And Alberta. Yeah, cuz we can use one lawyer in Alberta. I mean, there’s only one. Yeah, there’s only one. So we have done up our own legal search. And there’s not just one way that does it is that you can you can vote? Exactly, yes. So we can use the same lawyer clients pick their own lawyer. And we have done our own instructions internally, and we send them to that lawyer to act for both Calvert and the client. So it saves costs and time. And sometimes when lawyers are dealing with other lawyers, it can, it can take a lot more time. So when we’re like home inspections, and appraisals, both appraisals for value and for rent, if you even require any of these things. Yeah, really good question. So what makes us really unique is we have four appraisers that we use in house that do remote valuations, as long as the value is under 1.5 million. And it’s four units and below them within 24 business hours. And I know that makes

Unknown Speaker 22:35
out of all the private lenders or even MCs out there, something really unique.

Unknown Speaker 22:39
A lot of our clients do tend to buy properties off market, so just not having to deal with those tenants. Or if there’s a seller in there, they just want to offload it quickly. So as long as they have property photos, we have that off to our appraiser. If they are flipping the property, and they have the renovation summary that Garrett mentioned, then we either value it as is or as if complete if they’re going to be doing renovations. And what we’re looking for there. It’s just like number one, the clients gonna make money, we’re doing everything very conservative, they have a reserve fund, if they take it’ll take five months, we’re forecasting six, seven months.

Unknown Speaker 23:12
Because from our experience, rarely are things ever done on time on budget.

Unknown Speaker 23:19
So we just really want to see our clients successful, even though we would make money off fees and interest. We don’t want to do one deal we really want to build a long term relationship with with our investor clients. Right. So you mentioned photos. So let’s see what we generate or what I’m trying to make your listener who’s gonna wants to bring your business? Yeah. What do they need to show up prepared with? You mentioned photos, a budget, but what else did you need? Yeah, so you actually needed an agreed accepted offer? Yeah, no, we actually don’t

Unknown Speaker 23:48
know.

Unknown Speaker 23:49
Right away. Right away, we pre approve on a personal basis. So what we like to do is we like to get their information upfront, which would be application, credit bureau and their most recent notice of assessment. The other thing we’re going to look into is if they have what sort of funds they have available for their downpayment and their rental costs. So if we get those four things upfront, we can pre approve people on a personal basis so that when they find a property that they like, we can act quick, and get a value completed. And what Ryan was saying, we have four appraisers on staff, Ryan and I are both realtors in Ontario, we’re never going to buy or sell a property, but we use it for data. So our appraisers can go online and check out the data internally and base it on your rental budget and rental details to be able to figure out what we think the as complete value is. And so our two biggest underwriting criterias are are they going to make money and do they have the money to do it? So your appraisers don’t drive into the property or simply because a drone out there? No, we do a drive by though like every single day that we do we do a drive by to make sure that the property is there for one and then that it’s in the shape that we think it is okay what is

Unknown Speaker 25:00
you guys live in Calgary lifted properties in Muskoka, Ontario. We don’t live near Muskoka.

Unknown Speaker 25:06
Within Yeah, within reason. Like we have this one fantastic company, I don’t remember their name off the top my head, but pay them per drive by X amount X amount of dollars, they complete them typically within 24 to 48 business hours. And then we do track all the properties that we land on as well to to understand what it sells for. And our appraisers have that as a KPI within their within our company to ensure that the appraisal that we actually the the value that we actually evaluated at is within reason of what the property actually sells for. Typically, we’re within two to three ish percent. Obviously, some crazy stuff has happened in Ontario over the past few years. So there are some outliers but Calgary Edmonton typically or within that 2% mark of what the property actually sells for versus what our appraiser valued at four. You mentioned crazy, it depends on your context. But crazy is

Unknown Speaker 25:59
will elaborate a little bit between like, you know, markets in Ontario versus like you haven’t in Calgary, because it’s all crazy.

Unknown Speaker 26:07
So again, let’s let’s go into the Mises elaborate bit on the more on the sandbox. So when your clients diplucate doing their buying, like, give me an example, like what’s, uh, what’s what kind of market are they in Edmonton or the suburb of Toronto? Like, what’s the property? Like? How bad is it? For sure, it is like, like Reno is these major Renault’s? Yeah, typical purchase that we see is probably around four ish three, like in Calgary.

Unknown Speaker 26:34
In around 30 minutes max from downtown core.

Unknown Speaker 26:38
They’re typically doing like cosmetic renovation, spending around $75,000 really depends on the client as well, too. But that’s average typically what we see they’re in and out and probably around six to nine ish months, really depends the

Unknown Speaker 26:51
the tradespeople that they use and how established the real estate investor is like, if they have a whole trades people that report into them, they work for that real estate investor, very different experience in terms of their the systems that they have in place. But it’s a very, it’s a very small number of yes to have trades on payroll, yes, most of our clients, our business for self as well, too. So on Grand they show that they’re making to be tax efficient, you know, 3040 grand, as long as the clients have the capital as of today, from start to finish for the project. That’s mainly what we’re looking at, if they’re flipping, so we don’t really take a look to too much on gdSt. Yes, it’s as long as they have a profitable deal. They’re going to be in and out in under 12 months, they have the capital, we have confidence in their business plan, but what they say they’re going to do that they’re going to actually do.

Unknown Speaker 27:38
And we looked at that all internally, typically within 24 business hours, but to your point, yeah, average pay was probably in around nine ish months on the long end, and then they’re selling the properties for depending on the location and property type. High sixes

Unknown Speaker 27:56
interesting.

Unknown Speaker 27:57
Like six to nine months. That’s a pretty long. To me that sounds like a pretty major renovation. Are these like these, like these houses? Like really ugly? Quarter houses? Like? Yeah, yeah. So you still want pictures? Yeah, on average, on average, it’s eight like eight months. But like, that’s, that’s long, it’s, ya

Unknown Speaker 28:19
know, HGTV 30 minutes. No, no, but like, the average rental is probably around 50 grand. So but then you have people doing the $10,000 rental, and then you have people doing $150,000 rental, and even higher sometimes, but on average, I’d say it’s about 50 grand. But like we have one client who just pulls out all the junk out of the property, maybe paints it and throws it back on the market. And that seems to be the easiest way for him to make money but that’s not everyone’s strategy. Like we want to say to every different real estate investor strategy to make them successful. Yeah, we want to vet them all right, like we don’t want to just limit to Hey, you can only do a 20 grand ran out different properties are going to need different upgrades depending on where they are. But our main markets are the are the secondary markets. So like London, Cambridge, St Catharines.

Unknown Speaker 29:20
Ottawa like we would go to all those markets we’re not really too focused on the GTA it’s usually we’re lending on properties that are

Unknown Speaker 29:30
around the

Unknown Speaker 29:32
450 500 range stuff the fine is fine so it’s got to be in those secondary markets. We’re not doing the GTA because things are we’re doing some in the GTA but yeah, exactly what’s wrong with it? If it’s, yeah, probably going a $1,600 condo fee at that price. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 29:52
But I mean, we do offer products for those too. It’s just we require more money down because our, our ranges you can

Unknown Speaker 30:00
put 25% down or more, or you can put as little as 20 grand down. If it’s a property worth 800,000 or less, a purchase price of 800,000 or less, and working the down come from is a cash is a home equity line is a second mortgage money. Yeah, and any of those sources, gifted funds as well too, as long as they have a gift letter. Cash, you can also be debt lines of credit. Similar to your point, we also do blanket mortgages. So if you have a property with equity value, it’s as long as you have property photos and property photos is essentially just like an MLS listing. So of all the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen accessories, just to get an understanding of what the condition of the property.

Unknown Speaker 30:39
Once we have that we do evaluation on the property. And yeah, as long as the clients making money, then we’d love to help supports, we do really focus on the lower end to mid price point of the market as well to typically from our history within the company, there’s

Unknown Speaker 30:56
a threshold to how low property prices can go. From our experience as well to typically we find that there’s the most demand for the lower end to mid market price point moves, the quickest.

Unknown Speaker 31:06
Where we’ve ran into struggles before in the past is lending on higher end luxury flips. When the market decreases, typically, obviously, those are most susceptible to larger price decreases, which in turn,

Unknown Speaker 31:20
could hurt or diminish our the quality of our loan.

Unknown Speaker 31:24
Fit decreases to three 400 grand in a short period of time. Very cool. Yeah. Like in Hamilton, for example. It’s under 600 grand I’ll go.

Unknown Speaker 31:35
So actually, you raised a couple of good points. Asheville, my some of the things you said just let do more questions, like you mentioned, like MLS pictures, which led me to the question, how many of these properties are on market versus off?

Unknown Speaker 31:50
Hobby? How the how your client acquires the property? Yeah, good question. I’d say most of our real estate investor clients are buying them through wholesalers, the majority 60 80%. Yeah, I’d say 60 Probably

Unknown Speaker 32:06
could be more in Ontario.

Unknown Speaker 32:09
Because we only have one main one and not in Alberta. But Ontario is quite a few.

Unknown Speaker 32:14
So a lot of our real estate investor clients go through them, they have good relationships with them. Otherwise, they’re going through a realtor that they trust. And maybe it’s an off market listing as well. But a lot of times, we need to ask for pitcher pictures, because they’re not on the MLS, but we can get them through the wholesalers. And we have good relationships with them as well. Yeah, because I’m sure you’re gonna see some crazy stuff. Oh, yeah, or even just like fake pictures.

Unknown Speaker 32:40
Just from a different, some of these properties are nasty. And it’s kind of actually this leads me into the other side of our lending that we do, which we kind of talked about, but like, we focus a lot on just short term, Like Ryan said, short term, but it’s not necessarily all flips and birds, we also do what we call an interim purchase. And sometimes these properties are just not in good enough shape for the banks to consider, right? Like, it doesn’t say much so no, totally, it doesn’t make much. So like, if the bank appraisal comes back, and it says it’s in fair or poor condition, they’re gonna say no, like, almost all the time. I gotta know for because my shrubbery was overgrown, but it’s really

Unknown Speaker 33:23
an exception.

Unknown Speaker 33:29
Anyways, and usually they get that appraisal back like a week within funding, right? And then they’re stuck. And they’re like, Well, I gotta find someone because I can make this fix in like two seconds on this property. So they’re like, Okay, Calvert, can you fund this, we’ll fund it short term. And then they do whatever they need to do to the property, and then refinance with the bank. So we want to be that short term option to get people in those properties.

Unknown Speaker 33:55
And before we’re recording, we’re talking about interim also for like pre construction folks. DQ share care share what kind of pre constructions you’ve seen. Yeah, so we’ve, we’ve done a lot of those lately, like a lot of people have either one, they bought it three years ago, and the property has gone up in value.

Unknown Speaker 34:15
Or four years ago, five years ago, however long these condos are taking to get built. You never know.

Unknown Speaker 34:22
They always say an estimated closing date, and it’s never close to that before after usually after. But anyways, so they they go into these contracts and then it comes up and usually the builders and developers won’t give them much time. They’ll be like Okay, your closing is coming up. Now you got to have your financing in place. And people who don’t will often come to us and say hey, I’ve got this now and maybe the property has gone up in value. And we can land on that as is value and a lot of them just want to sell it right after they’re like okay, I’ve made my I have 40 grand equity 50 grand equity, sometimes more like this

Unknown Speaker 35:00
You know that bridge? So they’re like closing? They’re like, Can I Can I just go to you close it will offer a fully open mortgage so you can pay it off the next day if you want. And they they’re good with that right like, like the bank’s a prepayment penalty. Like we we like the banks, what they do for the industry is it’s good for everyone. But for the maths, further maths, but like they do not like the short term stuff and the prepayment penalties can be huge. So they’re enormous. Yeah, yeah. So we love those kinds of deals. And then same with the, if it’s gone down in value, we’ll still consider those but we are going to consider them on the as is value compared to the purchase price. So if it’s less than the purchase price, we consider up to usually 70, maybe 75, if their exits really strong on those types of properties. And so when you’re trying to recruit construction of these these houses, these apartment condos, what is either or, either either we’re well consider both townhouses, condos, single family detached homes. Yeah, like we’re seeing a lot of people now unfortunately, not qualify. So if they bought it, you know, two, three years ago, and the interest rates are at historical lows,

Unknown Speaker 36:07
rates have gone up, they can’t qualify anymore. It’s essentially just a solution for someone to offload that asset

Unknown Speaker 36:14
in a timely manner. So even like a condo where like when there’s like the interim position, time, you know, occupancy, yeah, the occupancy period. Yeah. You can still finance some financing for the occupancy period.

Unknown Speaker 36:27
Before the occupancy period, meaning you would need title. Yeah, like they have to have their own title they have to take, they still have to live through like the occupancy period, then.

Unknown Speaker 36:38
Yeah, it would, yeah, you’re right. So it would depend on the contract what it states and we would want to make sure that their exit is

Unknown Speaker 36:48
it’s what is based on the contract, like if the contract has stipulations that they have to live there for a certain amount of time, their exit would have to abide by that. So when you live there, but you have to hold it. Yeah, sure. They can live there rented, leave it vacant, kinda like theirs, but it’s not.

Unknown Speaker 37:05
All those contracts are like, like 60 pages, like they are their extensive sticking through TPT. And

Unknown Speaker 37:14
it’s getting easier. What do I need to know? That’s my prompt.

Unknown Speaker 37:19
So you can literally ask your questions, but yeah, so sorry. So So So can someone. So it kind of sounds like it’s kind of case by case it is. So in your emails, we’ve filled with 60 page PDFs by Monday.

Unknown Speaker 37:32
Yeah, we’d love to review that. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, I know toxic air is favorite to reveal.

Unknown Speaker 37:38
Quickly, how can people? How can we get get their information to you? or what have you worked with us throughout the process? Yeah, probably just our website is easiest. And you’ll find both of our contacts on there. But website C hmic.ca.

Unknown Speaker 37:52
I can. I can just be covered on ca. We’ll have to report that to Dean as we need it. Mm hmm. I see. I know. But so let’s do that. That’s true. I know. Yeah. Everett, the founder, he wanted to be close to CMHC.

Unknown Speaker 38:11
Like whenever you punch it into Google, so it comes up I believe, with with SEO and stuff like that. So see hmic.ca Because everyone calls you guys Calvin. I know the community. Everyone calls your caliber. Like, try to like find for your website, or your emails. Over time. Ch M A c.ca. Or if you have any live deals, I’ll take them on. It’s just Ryan at ch M ic.ca. Is the email or you did that you gave your email. Yeah. Hopefully I don’t regret that. Yeah. It’s hilarious. It’s like I have guessed that like, yeah, I still get emails from like that. No.

Unknown Speaker 38:49
Actually, no, if you’re still there, then that’s okay. Yeah, but if you’re gone and Yeah, remember that Calgary daily? Superfriends. We’re gonna find like 10 years from now.

Unknown Speaker 39:00
To funny. Oh, so how do you guys invest your own money? Do you guys do fix and flips yourselves in London or Calgary? Or what are you guys doing? Yeah, I just have a few buy and hold right now currently in Calgary.

Unknown Speaker 39:13
Just long term tenants currently in there the bulk of my net worth sin in the fund within Calvert No kidding. Are your net worth is in the MC and the MC he has more in the company than your own your own portfolio correct and real estate. Okay, interesting. Correct? Yeah, yeah, I think you’re in the minority of this show.

Unknown Speaker 39:32
Because most most to have much larger

Unknown Speaker 39:35
portfolios. I’m actively looking right now for more properties within within Calgary just haven’t found the one that where the numbers make sense. I know. It’s a crazy market out there and things don’t make sense already.

Unknown Speaker 39:47
You have to get creative. Yeah, like anything. 600 grand and lower is just moving. Like it’s like Ontario was like we’re now in the same situation of I gotta put an offer right away or else I have no chance

Unknown Speaker 40:00
So for the listeners benefit, like Calgary’s, like most of the country is down in transactions and prices. That’s not the opposite truth. The opposite is true of Calgary. Calgary seems to be the one market that has, it’s definitely in a seller’s market still. Yeah, like last I checked last month, it was 1.3 months of inventory. Really low, insanely low. I believe we actually are the hottest market in Canada. Currently right now, if not, to your point when we were chatting earlier, earlier and Dorthea North America or the world at least for for a developed country. But yeah, who else would be growing this quickly? Yeah, we have like 30 to 50,000 people moving for the last three quarters just to Alberta. So immigration is really, really strong. It’s wild. How busy it’s gotten over the past past few months here. Fascinating. Because I wonder when and when that stops? Because it ain’t good. Because again, like for example, I told you guys, I’m looking at US markets. Yeah. And they’re all the good US markets are also have experiencing pullback in prices. So that’s usually a sign that, you know, immigration and stuff like that. But like Calgary is like the lower 80s. Yeah, I know. We did a lot of marketing in Ontario to move to Alberta. Very affordable no land transfer tax. For me the mountains. I was the reason why I moved out there. Beautiful scenery, even 45 minutes an hour drive, no land transfer tax, no land transfer tax in Alberta. And I know do in Toronto, I know. I couldn’t believe it. Like we’re running numbers from deals that we get people flipping in Toronto, and it’s insane how significantly you need to buy below market value just for the numbers to make sense. Because you could be looking at like 3070 grand and land transfer tax alone. It’s just people’s renovation by state and seriously, you’re buying for over a million bucks. Like,

Unknown Speaker 41:48
yes, we haven’t done too many deals in, in Toronto, just short term purchases. For people who are not flipping they just need a bridge mortgage, like the the sale date and the purchase date don’t line up from the house that they’re selling and purchasing for their primary residence.

Unknown Speaker 42:01
It’s rare that we find people flipping in. Yeah, we’ve done a bit though, like as long as our loan of our max loan amount right now is 1.5 million. So there are opportunities there. It’s just they have to make sense with the numbers for how common is that? It’s not uncommon, rare. Pretty rare. Yeah. What is that? What is that then? Like? It’s not for Plexus? triplex. Like, what? Like, 1.5? Yeah, yeah. It’s just single family, right. In Toronto. Or like a row house? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Tough to make the numbers work. Nowadays, it’s a lot more risks than than than most people undertake. Yeah. Because they’re the holding costs. What if something goes wrong, and you’re holding this property for a lot longer than you expected? But you’ve got to have a huge contingency, when when it’s that much of a purchase price. I found that a friend of the one that weekend with Rockstar event. They’ve been holding something for well over 12 months. Oh, my word 1000 to fourplex conversion. I think they’re saying 4000 a month. Just to carry it. Check. Not including like the renovation budget. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 43:06
That will cripple some people. Definitely not cheap, average clean, does not make 4000 does not take home. 4000 a month. Right. So yeah, really tough. So the sexy real estate stuff, like a lot of it cripples people. It does. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t don’t have all your eggs in one basket. Yeah. And that’s a challenge was that Ontario property is, you know,

Unknown Speaker 43:27
any property really, if it’s over 400, grand, 100 grand like that. It’s all expensive.

Unknown Speaker 43:33
Especially when, like some people get experienced, but you know, I had an episode on the show, I think we had like, they have like, five or eight flips, going at the same time. All of like, none of their own money. And it was all interest bearing tough to manage. Yeah, I know, historically, from us, that’s where we typically see the most issues. Clients buying multiple properties at once they try and manage too many projects at once. They’re too optimistic with how long things will take. Think it’ll take seven months to complete. It actually takes nine to 12 ish months. When you have those many projects, just managing the trades on on multiple properties. It’s

Unknown Speaker 44:11
it’s very challenging to build the systems or processes to get things listed on time if the market drops, whatever X amounts.

Unknown Speaker 44:20
And then to your point, having having a contingency budget, it’s yeah, that was like mainly the end of 2021 When everyone was like, oh, everything’s great. Everything’s going up. Everything’s going up. 30

Unknown Speaker 44:32
So it was like, let’s just buy everything and it’s gonna go up and yeah, the plan wasn’t there. It was all anticipatory numbers. I was here but like assignment, like wholesale fees, like 70 grand Yeah. Yeah. See few six figures. Quite a few insects figures from Yeah, so like, How good was the deal that you had to pay that much? And then like, we’re generation budget money gonna come from like how you make these numbers. We’re gonna get paid right now.

Unknown Speaker 45:00
I’d sell to have meat on the bone for, for the client purchasing the flip, unfortunately. So the question, do you guys register your mortgages? On title? Yep, every single one. Have you ever run into folks? Where does it for example, if someone gets a promissory note, for example, how would you know? Yeah, so typically, they would register behind us, and they would inform us. But otherwise, we can always find it on title too, if we pull them, but we’re not regularly going to pull them. But upfront, if we, just like any other lender, they expect you to tell them and be upfront and say, Hey, we’re gonna do this, because for the most part, we’re usually okay if they do a second behind us. But we want to see the terms of that mortgage and make sure you can hold that and numbers still make sense if you’re doing that.

Unknown Speaker 45:49
But yeah, it’s so important to be upfront with your lender, if we find out later, we’re not as inclined to be friends. Yeah. Good. Well, I understand what they what they were doing and why they did it. I bring it up, because I knew you guys were gonna say, but there’s a certain wrong club out there, where the owners are all being accused of not disclosing all their mortgages on properties. They’re being accused of raising second, secondary funds, and secondary mortgages, promissory notes on properties that were already 100% loan to value. And but you guys are proper organization versus these are individuals. Yeah, yeah, the individual said, we’re doing your due diligence. And like, we’ve we’ve had times, and especially when, like I was talking about into 2021, everything’s going up. There were a lot of seconds behind us that we didn’t know about. And so they would call us and say, Hey, like, what do I do? It’s like, well, you should know that we’re in first, FR is, is in trouble, you’re in big trouble, because you’re behind our security. So it’s just, if you’re doing private lending on your own, you really need to understand the due diligence that goes into these projects, or these mortgages that we do and understand the risks, and how much management it is to handle these foreclosures or empower sales. Even on that knowing from the borrower’s point of view as well to like, if you’re in a position where you need to take out a second mortgage.

Unknown Speaker 47:21
Like, the one thing that we can highly recommend is reach out to the lender as soon as possible, whoever’s in first position, try and find a solution. Just be upfront, be honest, yeah, hey, this is how the projects going. I think it’s going to take three more months longer. This is my financial situation, if you just honest, direct and upfront, it’s can significantly help just both parties be more collaborative and find a solution that works for everyone, as opposed to calling a week before your next mortgage payments coming out. And it’s kind of asked me before Yeah, asking for forgiveness. Yeah, it’s a good point. Because we’re a super relationship based lender, we do a borrower interview on every single deal that we do. So we call the clients, make sure they understand the terms of the mortgage, make sure we’re okay with their ability to service this mortgage and go through with the project. So we want to hear from our clients and, and want to understand what they’re doing what they’re up to, and make sure they’re okay. Especially in difficult times, like we want to work with them. Our last resort is power of sale.

Unknown Speaker 48:24
As I speak to another investor just last week, like talking about the explaining the situation where like, they were the second. So just hypothetically, say you the second say the first is to schedule a bank, and you find that there’s problems. Now you’re calling the schedule a bank, they don’t know who you are, know, we’ll even talk to you.

Unknown Speaker 48:45
Now, it’d be a good question. Yeah, typically, I mean, I don’t know the bank side that I don’t know. My point is, I’m guessing there’s going to be some documents signed, talked like they will want to hear from us. Because what will happen is if we have troubles in a second mortgage, buying a bank, we’re going to be making the bank’s payments, to keep them up to date and figure out this solution in the meantime. So it’s a call talk to each other.

Unknown Speaker 49:11
From me,

Unknown Speaker 49:14
gladly.

Unknown Speaker 49:16
Someone’s making their payments. That’s different from from you guys. Because you guys how big your book 600 million or two or 300 millions or under million button. Yeah, versus individual whose book is 120 grand. Yeah. And talk to you and 90 90% of our book is first mortgages. So yeah, so you’re in the driver’s seat. Yeah. So people have to pay you in the second. So So let’s let the listener understand what that means. So say so,

Unknown Speaker 49:46
say the investor, the owner doesn’t have to be investor. The borrower isn’t paying either the first or second.

Unknown Speaker 49:54
Second position, whoever is the lowest on the line, they’re the most risk. What there should they be doing now?

Unknown Speaker 50:00
Yeah, like they should understand Understand upfront this could happen. First step, yeah. Because I think most people if they understood, they would not lend to an individual on one property. Yeah, when there’s much better options available. And we’ll get into that in a moment. Yeah, it depends like, like, if we’re looking at a second mortgage, we’re typically lowering our loan to value. So like our typical loan to value highest loan values, 80%, go to 85 on bridge deals.

Unknown Speaker 50:28
But other than that, when we’re doing second 75 is for sure the max, right, and we might scale it back to 70, depending on the situation, so let’s meet on the buffer there. But if if the market turned like it did at the start of 2020, you, then you run into issues and you have to realize, hey, I can lose all my money. In this second, I can make the payments on the first take over the property, and I could rent it out.

Unknown Speaker 50:55
If that’s the case, and it’s different. The rules in Alberta and Ontario are different. But it’s, it’s quite risky. Like you want to get all the information upfront. And obviously, the property value is the most important thing, because that’s what you’re registering your mortgage on. So let’s get into some numbers, then, like, what is your typical first payment? If someone has to start taking over your they’re taking over the payments of the first mortgage? How much 500 bucks? Well, our average or average interest rate right now was around 11%.

Unknown Speaker 51:25
That’s our average.

Unknown Speaker 51:28
I don’t know I don’t know the math.

Unknown Speaker 51:31
But 11% on, on average art, or mortgages around 404 50. So

Unknown Speaker 51:39
certainly, about 44,000 a year. Yeah. So almost two grand a month. Yeah. So that’s sort of my point is I’m speaking to the listener who might want to do a second mortgage, you could have to be paying your $2,000 a month, you could be you got into this because you want a passive easy investment that earns you cash to keep that updated. They might not make those payments, and they might like that, but they what they have to understand is that that mortgage is going to accrue interest until it is paid out. So like that 2000 a month. It’s gonna keep accruing accruing eating into your equity while it’s not paid out. So yeah, my math is terrible. Yeah, I needed that 10 The Chinese person that doesn’t do math. So this is 240 4000 divided by 12. That’s almost 3006 66. Right? So you know, again, for the listener who wants to do a secondary second mortgage, and these are not that big compared to

Unknown Speaker 52:33
you, you were you got into this to collect cash flow every month, and now you’re shelling out almost $3,700 a month. Yeah, it’s not coming out of your pocket, it’s coming out of your equity.

Unknown Speaker 52:44
Equity in the property. So if it’s not, if you’re not paying the first mortgage, then

Unknown Speaker 52:50
I saw Gary like, Yo, can I pay on the

Unknown Speaker 52:52
mortgage is accruing. And the interest is accruing all the way until it’s paid out. So the mortgage is increasing eating into your equity in second position. At least it sounds better than paying out $37. That’s right. Yeah, it sounds a little better. But at least we have to talk. So I can just control the property. Yep. Like, trying to sell it make us all whole. Yep, make all of our lives easier. You just gotta let you know that there’s no public money, you can pay out the first mortgage, which is even more, or $400,000 mortgage, if you have that in your in your bank account. My point, though, is that people who get into private lending the means to be passive. And now you’re like, if you lend to someone across the country? Yeah. All of a sudden, your account, you’re very active.

Unknown Speaker 53:36
To finish the run? Oh, yeah, I think we talked about it last time where Jesse and I both came from the same syndicated lender. So in the syndicated lender platform, it’s you underwrite one deal, and you send out that one deal to everyone on your list of investors that are out there. And those investors will invest either a chunk of it or they will invest

Unknown Speaker 54:02
the whole thing, but it’s against one mortgage, right. And it’s the same thing with private lending, where it’s against one mortgage, but you’re doing all your own management and stuff. And then as is where Calvert is we have 820 mortgages on our book. And the money is diversified across all those. So if you have issues on one, it’s not going to impact you as much as it would by just having money in one mortgage.

Unknown Speaker 54:27
And that led diversified and because I told you guys before, a lot of people asked me about private lending, right? I don’t I don’t do it myself. So then I naturally asked you, Ryan and Jesse like you guys, can people lend to start can people invest in your stuff? And that’s what you were mentioning that most of your net worth is in in caliber. Yeah. So can you explain it that means that most your investment in Calvert Yeah, for sure. So you essentially purchased preferred shares within the company. We pay distributions on an annual basis on May 10 of every year. If you invest in our fund, it’s similar to purchasing stock

Unknown Speaker 55:00
From the public market, we do it through a company called Olympia Trust. So everything goes through a company called Olympia Trust.

Unknown Speaker 55:06
Your capital is quote, unquote, with us for one year. So we are a very illiquid investment. It’s not like you can liquidate your stocks on the public market at any given time for us. It’s your private mortgages, but yeah, exactly. Exactly. So you’re with us for a year at a time. Currently, right now, our show, I don’t know if I’ll be able to share the share price. They can reach out yeah, they want to get into like the numbers, details. But I mean, we can just say like over the last 10 years, we were 10%, on average. But yeah, we don’t, we don’t really get into it too much. Because most of the shareholders that we have are through our network, and our network will tell other people and we’ve been in business for 40, over 40 years or so.

Unknown Speaker 55:53
And then the funny thing is that I asked Yeah, because it just because, again, why would someone lend to an individual on one property, when you can essentially own shares of Calvert? Yeah, to be diversified across your entire portfolio? So if you are looking to do it on yourself, you could get higher returns? If you’re doing it individually, assume you’re fully invested all the time. Exactly. Assuming you don’t lose your shirt. Exactly. So that can be you know, the grass is greener, kind of on the other side, why would I give someone my money, when I can just do it and make you know, one to three ish percent higher. But there’s lots of stuff that can go wrong, very time consuming. If you ever have to deal with anyone in arrears, that can be a full time job just trying to collect.

Unknown Speaker 56:38
Yeah, the main thing we have to say is like our, our returns are not,

Unknown Speaker 56:42
they’re not flat, like we’re not doing the same thing. We’re not promising anything like our returns vary on a yearly basis that tempers and I said is just on average over the last 10 years, but it can change. And we’re deemed a high risk investment.

Unknown Speaker 57:00
And we’re exempt market dealer. So we have to say this stuff, even though like our average loan to value on our book is 59%.

Unknown Speaker 57:09
And you guys do advertise this, you only talk about? Yeah, we don’t, we don’t do it anything like if you go on our website, you won’t see anything, you have to reach out to us. And then we’ll we’ll have a discussion and talk about it. Because like a big part of it is you have to be accredited to invest with us. So you have to either either make 200,000 as an individual 300 as a household or have a million in net financial assets. So it’s a it’s a wealthier class to be able to invest with us. So I think it’s interesting just to raise the point is you guys offer no commissions, nothing. You guys aren’t paying me for saying this. You’re not sponsored? No, no. You guys, we want the money, really? Not financial advice? No, it’s not for sure. We have we have a lot of capital, like available to our clients. So we don’t necessarily need the money right now. And we just want it to be an option for people out there to be in real estate investing, but very passive. I just think it’s funny because like, you know, most of what’s out there, like people who asked to come on the show, people have ads and whatnot, they’re all trying to raise money versus you guys are

Unknown Speaker 58:12
not

Unknown Speaker 58:16
interested in lending.

Unknown Speaker 58:18
And it’s not like it’s not that we’re like, we’re very transparent. When you get to know us. Like if you contact us, we could send you everything if we get to know you, but we just don’t want it out there on something we want out there. We’re We’re regulated by the ASC. And, and we just don’t want it to be a public matter, right. But like I’ve told you guys, like I believe people need to know their options, for sure. Because like, again, you can be diversified across the portfolio, and is regulated under Securities Commission versus a one to one relationship, one person one property. Like, what if the person gets hit by a bus? Or the bus hits the property? And exactly that may screw up your timelines. Yeah. And turn your passive investment into something incredibly difficult. Yeah, it’s a full time job.

Unknown Speaker 59:05
People don’t understand that too. Like all these like quit your job strategies. Yeah, like you. It’s that you guys see. You see your clients a lot. How it’s similar. What is the truth? What is the truth? And what is when I’m not using it? Yeah. But like, what is what are these folks doing? Like in terms of like, their their work life balance? You mean, like their client list investors, your real estate investors? Yeah. Like, it depends on how experienced they are and what knowledge they have in the industry. But

Unknown Speaker 59:34
I’d say the majority of ours are keeping a full time job while doing this. And they have a plan in place like, yeah, they come into this, like I have my realtor said, I have my trades. I have a mortgage broker, I have whoever and they’re like, I have this planned out and this is how I’m gonna do it. This I’m gonna execute, and they’re ready to go like we don’t. We don’t want to see if I ask questions.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:00
I was on the phone, like, who’s going to do your electrical or whatever it’s like, well, I might find someone at Home Depot and just, whatever, like just something random, it’s like, well, that’s, that’s not gonna work out. So essentially pitching your business plan, like come prepared, come with all of your ducks in a row, have a plan, show us that you have a contingency, contingency fund. And just outline essentially your business proposal, like you’re pitching to

Unknown Speaker 1:00:26
a joint venture partner or another lenders just come prepared most have a plan or a coach or something that they can rely on if if stuff goes wrong. Like I think some of the biggest issues we’ve seen, there are people that have no plan, no plan in place, or very basic one and then getting into the cost later on, and realizing oh my god, like, I just put this on a paper, this is what I thought it’s gonna cost. And now it’s costing me 60. grand more. It’s like, Well, gotta get into due diligence, especially if it’s not your full time job. Like, you don’t want it to be your full time job. Like if you have to take over this project, it will be a full time job. Yeah, it might be different I mentioned that I spoke to on the weekend, who’s whose four Plex is just taking it forever. Their original budget was the record original budget renovation budget quote, was 250. And then when it came down to start, it went up 50 grand. And so then they put a pause on that and went shopping. And they found out that other contractors are quoting like four or 500. All right. Did you know you know why it went up? I don’t know why. But what I do know is that that contractors, they’re generally always the cheapest, they’ll get it done won’t be on time. Right. So you know how it is like, you can’t get it all? Out? Can’t be on time can’t be on budget? I can’t have quality all the same time. Yeah. To give somebody has to give. Right? Yeah. So that contract originally called it was still the my first choice. I just know that. I just know it’s going to take longer. But if you don’t know these things, yeah, now they just spun their wheels. Now they’re delayed more. Yeah. Right. I think the most important thing is just to be conservative when you’re budgeting things, like so many people will come and yeah, that helps like at least at least a good contingency.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:10
But a lot of people come in and say hey, I’m gonna, I’m gonna renovate in two months sell it at one, like, like, let’s budget for renovating three sellin, three, maybe. Yeah. And like, and like blitzkrieg, 6090 days. Let’s base it on that. And then if it’s still profitable at that point, then we know, okay, this is a good project to take on. But let’s let’s be, let’s be conservative at the front. And then if things change, we can we can adjust. Yeah, I think novices especially with understand that the more cash you invest the lower risk it is. Yeah. Versus planning to use, like your personal line of credit to fund your renovations. For sure. I think everyone can appreciate which one is lower risk, I think I hope. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:52
Do you want to confirm that?

Unknown Speaker 1:02:55
Like what’s, what’s personal line of credit money these days? 9%. Probably in and around there. Yeah. Eight 9%. Give or take it’s You mean like, like a home equity line? Oh, just purchased a personal line. I bet it’s even on it. Could it be? I think it’s higher isn’t it? Could be could be? depends on us, too. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:13
Yeah. But even the HELOC money is expensive.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:17
It’s around seven.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:20
So yeah, a personal loan can be personal money can be nine or more. Not cheap nowadays. No, not at all. Because I feel the fatigue. I told you guys for example, my next down payments will be cash. Yeah, right. I’m tired of borrowing for my down payments.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:35
So you guys both live in Calgary. Yep. That’s the best time to a little bit. Yeah, like I I’m similar to Ryan, I don’t get into the rental side. I bought a house

Unknown Speaker 1:03:47
in December of last year.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:50
But I hold most of my financial assets in Calvert

Unknown Speaker 1:03:55
ch MICU.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:03
And then just stocks and whatnot, but I don’t get into the

Unknown Speaker 1:04:09
buy and hold stuff. Actually. My wife and I had a rental property.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:14
A we sold it in June. Really recent. And we turned it was very good timing in June to sell it but

Unknown Speaker 1:04:25
we just got sick of it. I was like I can I can put it in Calvert to have this passive income instead of

Unknown Speaker 1:04:32
having to deal with tenants who are like and they were great tenants. They were really good. But still, there were issues. The fridge broke, furnace broke, washer broke, I think all in one year. And I was like, Okay, well, I’d rather get the money out especially now the markets been so good. And just invest passively. I think everyone needs to appreciate like that understand their own values and make their own decisions. Like for example, Elon sold all of his real estate at one point. None of those he had no tenant

Unknown Speaker 1:05:00
All right. He just didn’t want any distractions in his life when you’re trying to be like, asset free minimalist. Yeah, we do.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:11
We do have people in our office field that do real estate investing at least two or three. So they’re doing it and they do a great job of it. I’m not saying it’s not a bad investment. It’s just not my strategy. Yeah, but for example, my next My next investments will be single family homes, because I want to simplify, right? And the people that don’t do an apartment building are like, you know, are like an infill or like, Yeah, I’ve been at this for a while. Yeah, I’ve seen it all understand what to do. And you tell us about that. Like why you’ve chosen to simplify on that side. It’s just like my mind just Yeah. And also, you know, I don’t like negative cashflow. Like my friends are spending 4000 a month in carrying costs. I don’t want that. I’m down for like a 3050. Grand Rando for labor. Yeah. And I can get like a six seven cap on single family home in the States. So what I need to be so aggressive, because like, You guys seem like people kill themselves here. It seems like multifamily is a big thing. No, it’s all multifamily. But that’s how you that’s how that’s how scale you need to do to get like a six, seven. Yeah, but I can get that in the states in the single family home. So why would it be so aggressive and kill myself? Especially in Ontario? Yeah, like have a 30 unit building and try to turn it on. Turn that three cap into a seven. Yeah. How much turnover renovations you have to do? Insane? Yeah, too much. How many people hate your guts for it? And how many tenants you have to the Oh, yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:32
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:34
Yeah. That’s true.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:39
But, yeah, but that’s that’s another episode. No. So

Unknown Speaker 1:06:44
again, I know a lot of people on social media or Edmonton bowls, which is why I always ask is always ask Ryan and Jesse now yourself, Garrett as well. Like, what are the differences between Edmonton and Calgary? I know you don’t live in Edmonton, but you made the distinct decision to live in Calgary. Because

Unknown Speaker 1:07:00
I’ve never been to Edmonton. So I’ll say, alright. But I’ve gone three hours north of Toronto. And it is small town. It is cheap. But it’s like a totally different climate.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:13
And I say three are specifically is Edmonton about three hours north of Calgary. Exactly. And, and so I’m just trying to understand what who would move who would move to Edmonton. I’ve been to Calgary in Calgary is lovely. I’ve been to Banff and Jasper. Edmonton, very multicultural.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:31
Again, it’s three hours south of Edmonton. The weather’s better. I’m assuming.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:35
It’s awesome. Yeah. So my point is I always I would do due diligence we always talk about so I asked people on the on the street. What’s the case for Edmonton? So I can’t speak to it as well as Ryan and Jesse can because they came from Ontario and made that decision, but I was born and raised Calgary. I’ve never really

Unknown Speaker 1:07:54
never really chosen but I’ve chosen to stay because you couldn’t go live for cheaper and I chose to stay. I bought a place I have a seven minute drive to work in the morning. Can I can walk in 40 minutes. I’ve got a 900 square foot lot. Or sorry, square. Square meter lot. Yeah, sorry. square meter.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:19
Sorry. What’s that in feet?

Unknown Speaker 1:08:21
series? It’s I can’t remember feet.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:24
Is that 4000 3000? No, it’s higher. Yeah, it’s a larger lot. So you have all this space and it’s a good spot to grow up with the family like variable neighborhood. It’s wide open and right by the river. So it’s just an enjoyable lifestyle. Yeah, for me why I moved to Calgary vers Edmonton. You primarily have the mountains. I’m a big outdoors guy. I’m in the mountains pretty much every other weekend for skiing and snowboarding.

Unknown Speaker 1:08:53
Edmonton certainly is cheaper. I’ve done a few work trips over to Edmonton. Personal preference. I just like Calgary I thought it was I don’t want to say nicer. But I’ll use nicer for an easier way to easier way to explain it.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:08
And then I guess there’s my relationship with Calgary like went out there when I was a young kid. First trip out to Lake Louise and just always told myself I live out here one day me and a bunch of the guys that I grew up with. But a big reason why people do moves admitted is it is a bit quite a bit cheaper as opposed to Calgary.

Unknown Speaker 1:09:25
So just your living costs would be a little bit a little bit cheaper verse. Verse Calgary, we’re trying to get after is I’m trying to understand people’s investment business case for investing in Edmonton. Because I feel like for the longest time, people always talking about Edmonton, Calgary seem to be like very distant second. Versus to me like again, just a bias is if I was going to live somewhere else. If I was gonna live in Alberta, it would be Calgary. Yep. And so again, I’m just gonna search for like other people’s opinions. And I know Gary, I think you mentioned it earlier as well too is it is a little bit easier in order to legally suite from like an investor point of

Unknown Speaker 1:10:00
Have you? Basement suites there verse verse Calgary. So that would be suites in Calgary isn’t that hard to do? It’s just a longer process.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:09
Two weeks, six months? No, no.

Unknown Speaker 1:10:14
Yeah, it’s just it’s just easier to do in Edmonton based on what they’ve provided for their, their housing market up there and their rules and regulations around that. But overall, it’s just Calgary has provided more opportunities to and it’s higher salaries than than Edmonton. But there are pluses and minuses to both. It’s just Calgary right now. Is the hotter market. Has no supply, Like Ryan said. And yeah, it’s just it isn’t a nice place to live, or desire. Yeah, I think he’s a development actually makes prices typically cheaper. Yeah. Which is one of the reasons why a lot of US markets housing is a lot more affordable. Yeah, they have a lot of land. Again, there’s less red tape, versus here in Ontario have tons of red tape. Which forces values up? Yeah, supply. So if it’s so easy to develop in Edmonton, it is easier than that. Yeah, he’s gonna be prices down. Yep. He’s both rents and housing prices down. Yeah. So again, I’m trying to understand the investment case, you guys aren’t helping.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:18
I’ll speak to some real estate investors that we have.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:21
I’m sure people are hitting my derogate

Unknown Speaker 1:11:25
I really think it’s just that it is the cheaper it’s just cheaper. Yeah, that’s it. It’s cheaper in Sudbury and North Bay. But it is a major city as well to like, I think it’s a major city. 1.2 million population for everyone. Up at Edmonton. So major city obviously has all the amenities.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:44
I don’t think traffic’s too, too bad there. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t go. I rarely go to Edmonton. Yeah. I don’t know. Nothing against Edmonton. But in Calgary. Yes. I think it’s the place to be so sorry. I’m a tourist Dublin. No, no, there isn’t much to do that. Unless you’re a sports fan. Like I know the Oilers. Thanks for coming, guys. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:05
I got like David there shouldn’t ask your opinion on their sports team.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:11
All right. Anything else that we haven’t covered?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:15
I don’t think so. Did I get you guys on everything?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:19
Yeah, we had a list of stuff. But no, I’m out of question. Because you guys are in the community. You must be on the other end of all these OPM courses and coaches have that experience like?

Unknown Speaker 1:12:33
Yeah, I think the one thing that we would kind of preach is just be careful. Make sure that you’re not to over leverage. A huge issue that we have found is just boring all of your funds, borrowing downpayment, boring renovations, when you’re that leverage, and the market does turn and things take longer than anticipated, and you have a low reserve fund. I know the numbers can seem very alluring. But if it’s all borrower,

Unknown Speaker 1:13:00
even though the returns are very attractive, there’s even obviously more risk and more issues that could be uncovered. If if things go wrong. People have obviously been successful doing it not nothing until negative against it. But there’s always a time. And a place where things unfortunately do go wrong. And

Unknown Speaker 1:13:20
rates were at all time lows. So it was it was a lot easier to say, hey, I can borrow this money. Cheaper than any other money out there. I’m just going to keep borrowing and buying properties properties are going up. But now the mindset has changed a lot. And using debt is a lot more risky today than it was two years ago.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:42
A lot of there’s a lot of coaches and gurus and investors who weren’t around in 2000 2007 Eight, because history doesn’t repeat itself. But it rhymes. The crazy thing is that the people who’ve gone under these days are way bigger than the folks who went back went under back in oh seven.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:00
So I’ve so I saw who went under back in oh seven and they studied, studied what happened like I knew who their coaches were. So I asked them I talked to their ambassadors and whatnot. So I understood when went wrong. And then I see people who do like 10 Exercise business models here during during the period we just went through and I was like, Oh, I’m staying away. I don’t want a mission. I wish no ill will on anyone. Yeah, right. I felt horrible for Alex. For example. I feel horrible for his investors. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:30
his in laws. He owes like 130,000 promissory note money, and he lives in their basement now. These are your grandma’s stuff. Right? I wish not I do not wish that upon anyone. But these are the truths about real estate investing. Hey, yeah, yeah, that’s having your eggs in one basket. Like let’s diversify. But I know you guys all the lending

Unknown Speaker 1:14:51
investors some cash. Yeah, totally.

Unknown Speaker 1:14:55
What’s your take on the Ontario market right now?

Unknown Speaker 1:14:59
Everyone I speak to

Unknown Speaker 1:15:00
Who is trying to stay away from from exposure to the Residential Tenancy Act landlord tenant. So a lot of people are looking at commercial however possible, right Airbnb, hospitality, however possible.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:12
Industrial, but the problem is like industrial, for example, like that ship was a long time ago like that that market was crazy on fire during the pandemic. So what he saw and a lot of those people, like were bigger players and has the industrial market not seeing the decrease that the residential did. I don’t really watch it. So I can’t really say, but if you bought right, you should be good. Like I freaked I have a friend who has a manufacturing.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:39
So I’ll say this about industrial. Seems everyone’s rents are going up.

Unknown Speaker 1:15:43
And, and from the people I hear from the tenants, and they all resign, because there’s nowhere to go. There’s nothing to buy. Yeah. Right. So it still sounds like whoever owns industrial is in the position of strength tends in a position of weakness. Versus in residential. And residential, the tenant has the position of strength. Yeah, not equity side, obviously. But in terms of the short term, control the property, the tenant has control. And the same with commercial commercial office, who has who has negotiating power, and they’re like, I don’t remember what Toronto’s vacancy rate now is things like 20% or something for the office vacancy. And at the same time, we had Greg capture on the show was a friend of Jesse, Jesse knows Yeah, he’s fully occupied now on his on his Calgary office spaces. Yeah. For like, a decade. It was like, I think it was like maybe 60% occupied. Yeah. And even still, some of that was like what they call it.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:40
Like, people were paying rent, but they weren’t occupying the space. Yeah. Right. So like phantom vacancy. Right, right. And now Now the pendulum swung. So yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:16:50
So yeah, it’ll be interesting to see, these are interesting times. It is very interesting. Do you see actually the question? Did you guys see any deals around commercial office around conversion? Yeah, we don’t we don’t do that sort of stuff really? Like we’ll do some. But it’s never, it’s never commercial conversion. Conversions. Do you see them?

Unknown Speaker 1:17:11
Just from like, some of the student housing, they can be converted into some of the multifamily stuff or, or the other way around. So that sort of stuff. But we don’t see a lot of that, like adding suites, those, I guess you could consider convergent. And we won’t consider like anything that involves a large, like a permit for a large garden suite, or addition or that sort of stuff. It’s just, it’s just more risk. Yes, there’s good opportunity there. But it’s just more risk. When you get into the permitting side and having to get all the different inspections to make sure everything’s up to code. It could easily be a year

Unknown Speaker 1:17:53
for us, and it seems this seems like the permits take forever, a year or two. So everyone’s Bill 20.

Unknown Speaker 1:18:00
Like that’s every time I hear someone they’re like, oh, it’s taking me forever to get the permit. So Hamilton is example like bailout for Plexus. I’m doing air quotes for the real estate bailout for plexes. The development charge difference between 30 triplex and fourplex just the development charge difference is $90,000. So how long barley or border you really for for plexes? Right? And also the,

Unknown Speaker 1:18:24
the, the the, the requirements for the property are way different, but you need way you need like an extra like three inches in the basement for ceiling height, for example. So don’t quote me anyone. But I think he needs something like six nine in the basement. For four four Plex our triplex versus four basement apartment, it’s usually just like 667. Right. So again, this they even though they’re open for business for plexes, they make it way harder. And then from our experience with garden with the so we’ve done garage suite and conversions. We lump that in with garden suites. I call it a garage suite. And then if I really want to be a jerk, I’ll say we rented a garage for $2,200. Yeah, but that $2,200 garage is a two bedroom, one bath that cost my client 121 30 to do and that seems to be much bigger budget than you guys have seen for your run hours. Yeah, and what those garden suites we’ve never seen the appreciation or increase they want to praise, right? Don’t want to praise it won’t. It’s too new. And that’s it. Sorry. Just to clarify, that’s a garage conversion. So there was already a gorgeous, yep, detached two car garage on a concrete pad that that already had much of the utility has already picked up. You go from scratch. Yeah, like you dropped like basically pour pad drop a tiny home on it. You’re talking 250 300 Right. And I want to praise no until maybe two years from now. Yeah, yeah, you need me you need comparables you need you need other sales in that market to be able to understand what the value of that is.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:00
Alright, so So you guys will because there is no exit. It’s not something you guys will be looking at. Right? Not not no short answer.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:10
But like if it’s a rental of a garage, maybe. But it’s nothing to do with permits, if there’s permits involved, we’re not getting into it. Because of how long do they take too long they take the extra risk. We just don’t understand the construction side of the market in Ontario. We do a tiny bit of construction in Alberta. But it’s not our focus. We’re focused on the short term rentals in and out, refinance or sell.

Unknown Speaker 1:20:38
And typical refinance or going to a schedule a bank. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Yeah, actually, good question. How many people are hanging on to the property after how many of them are going for a refinance and for long term rental or versus selling? I think, right now it’s more towards flips. So I’d say if 6040. Around, flips tubers, you know, I bet you any money. If it’s Ontario, it’ll be leaning towards selling. If it’s in Calgary, I’m actually more than more than where it’s holding. No, our bigger clients are selling in, in Calgary.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:13
They’re flipping I’m still

Unknown Speaker 1:21:16
trying to think of all them, but uh, yeah, I think the majority would be flipping in Alberta, too. So in my experience, generally, it’s easier to find a flip project than something you want to renovate and hold. Yeah. Because especially if you’re good at it, you’re usually really picky on wanting to hold. Right, right. You’re looking for like a like a gorgeous, something you can turn to like a gorgeous fourplex for example, and then it’s gonna grow on trees. Yeah. Versus versus this for 600,000 or single family home. You find a lot more of those. Yeah. generally don’t want to hold those because they won’t cashflow. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:47
So yeah, sorry, I just put a whole lot of words in your mouth.

Unknown Speaker 1:21:53
So final words, anything else you want to share?

Unknown Speaker 1:21:57
I think I’ve covered everything on my end. If you have any questions, comments, if you’re even thinking about private lending, you just want a second set of eyes before you lend out your capital. If you’re a real estate investor, you want someone to re review your deal. We’re more than happy we do those all day long.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:13
My emails Ryan ry n at ch M ic.ca. More than happy to reach out I’d love to jump on calls and just help the real estate investor community and private lending community

Unknown Speaker 1:22:25
either become more financially literate or help them mitigate and reduce bad deals, sharing all the insights that the company has learned over the 45 years being in business.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:36
Calvert’s all about education so whether it be us helping you with your projects, or you have another project you want advice on, or you want to talk about our fund, we’re happy to talk about it. So reach out with any questions.

Unknown Speaker 1:22:53
contacts on the on the website. It’s funny with Calvert because I have numerous people say I should have you on the show. And again, you don’t pay anyone to do any promotional for it, you guys.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:06
We don’t do a lot and but we enjoy coming out here and talking to you guys. And just being out in Ontario. I think the face to face stuff is a lot more valuable than our zoom stuff that we were doing in COVID. So we try and get out here at least once every quarter relief game

Unknown Speaker 1:23:25
last night. Yeah. Bad luck, I guess. Yeah. Are you a leaf fan?

Unknown Speaker 1:23:32
So

Unknown Speaker 1:23:35
that was a log in as a big pause. That’s pretty much every leaf fan. Yeah, because you’re you know, it’s it’s kind of like those like like marathon runners, you’re just a sadist for pain.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:50
Alright, we’ll leave it there. Thank you guys for coming on the show. Thank you really appreciate it

Unknown Speaker 1:23:55
wants to shoot.

Unknown Speaker 1:23:58
Thank you for watching. If you want to learn how to invest in real estate from scratch, my team teaches beginners how to use the number one investment strategy that I personally use in a virtual free training class every month. Go to investor training.ca/youtube To register for our next class. send links also in the description as well. I publish at least two to three videos a week here. So subscribe if you want to keep learning from seasoned investors like myself, my guess? And if you’re just starting out, feel free to ask questions in comment below. And I do the best to answer each other’s comments and questions myself. Again, if you’re ready to learn the nitty gritty about real estate investing from a professional investor register for our next virtual class at that investor training.ca/youtube Thanks again for watching. See you in the next video.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

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BEFORE YOU GO…

If you’re interested in being a successful real estate investor like those who have been featured on this podcast and our hundreds of successful clients please let us know.

It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

If you didn’t know already, we pride ourselves on being the best of the best real estate coaches, having the best property managers, contractors, handy people, cleaners, lawyers, accountants, everyone you need on your power team and we’re happy to share them with our clients to ensure your success. 

New investor or seasoned veteran investor, we can help anyone by providing our award winning coaching services and this isn’t all talk.

We have been awarded Realtor of the Year to Investors in 2015 by the Real Estate Investment Network, 2016 by the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and again in 2017 because no one told the judges no one is supposed to win the award twice but on merit, our peers deemed us as the best.  In 2018, we again won the same award by the Real Estate Investment Network.

Hopefully being the most decorated team of Realtors in Ontario will make you consider us for your first or next real estate investment.  Even if you don’t invest in our areas, there’s a good chance I know who would be ideal for you. 

I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

Sponsored by:

Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year.

Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

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Systemized Management of 168 Units All Over Ontario and Cleveland with Lena Gurgis

We’re finally here! This week is an exciting one for us here at iWIN Real Estate as I’m a big fan of sharing investment strategies that I believe will help people and I’ve done a ton of research which all points to financing and investing in specific markets in the USA makes a lot of sense.  I just got off the phone with our lone JV partner I want to sell because our insurance went up $500, our property tax will probably go up the same next year and who knows how much more after that, and move the capital to the States.

She agrees and will speak to her Accountant: Cherry, my wife on how she may do the same.  Houses are so affordable in the States too that we don’t need to partner going forward since we’ll be buying houses that cash flow in the one hundred to three hundred thousand dollars range.

Good bye rent control, socialist business environment, Landlord Tenant Board and Residential Tenancy Act.

Back to the happenings of this week, on Saturday morning, Oct 21st I will be hosting our first ever US Investing Workshop in partnership with my friends Andrew Kim and SHARE (www.iwin.sharesfr.com), a tech based, US real estate Asset Manager and the only Canadian lender I know in Scott Dillingham of LendCity (iwin@lendcity.ca)  who announced last month at our September iWIN Meeting that his Mortgage Brokerage can now offer mortgages on US investment properties.

The stars are aligning for, my 17 listeners for more options for investment not under a socialist government, without rent control, and I can diversify earning income in US dollars in sunny destinations.  I know, I know, Alberta is all the rage, as my Alberta bull friends tell me, Alberta is the Texas of Canada BUT, getting mortgages for me is easier in the US than here and why not invest directly into Texas.

On a personal investing front, Cherry and I are starting to sell some of our portfolio here, specifically our student rentals to take profits, pay down some debts, and raise capital for our planned investments in the US.  This is the slowest Fall market I can remember and I’ve been a Realtor since 2010… but thankfully student rentals are still in massive demand.  I’ll keep you all posted in my journey including my research findings from my visits to Atlanta, Georgia, Ohio, and Texas over the next three months.

It’s a lot of work and travel, thankfully I’ll be with fellow real estate entrepreneur friends so we’ll try to have so fun on this journey and I can’t wait because I love to learn, share my findings and help more people along their journey towards financial peace.

There are tons of inflationary pressures on the way, hard assets and cash flow are one’s main defence hence I’ll always be on the hunt for the Truth About the best real estate investing for my fellow Canadians and you my loyal 17 listeners.

Systemized Management of 168 Units All Over Ontario and Cleveland with Lena Gurgis

On to this week’s show!

We have the lovely Lena Guirguis on the show!

Her Asset Management company NV Property Management since 2005 manages 168 units including 32 of her own. Her portfolio is incredibly diversified from owning a commercial flex space in Richmond, residential properties around the GTA and apartment buildings in Cleveland, Ohio.

Lena is the founder of Stilettos and Hammers, a networking and educational real estate investment network for investors at every stage. They’re evening hosting a Hallowe’en social on October 26th at night in Etobicoke, ON. Link in the show notes https://stilettosandhammers.com/event/halloween-social-networking-event/ or you can find details on https://stilettosandhammers.com/

On today’s show, Lena shares her journey of strategic growth of her business and portfolio in partnership with her commercial contractor husband.  We discuss the state of today’s market and how she as a professional investor with established power team will invest going forward.

Lena came to Canada as an Iranian immigrant so be prepared for an inspiring example of what dedication, knowledge, talent and hard work can achieve.

I give you Lena Guirguis

Please enjoy the show!

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-Generated**

Erwin 0:00
Hello, welcome to the truth about real estate investing show. My name is Erwin Seto, this is the number 81 ranked podcast in the world in the business category per iTunes. No idea how that happened, some dumb luck. And we’ve been going since 2016. So anyways, we’re finally here, this week’s an exciting one for for us here at my business, I’m in real estate, as I am a big fan of sharing investment strategies that I believe will help people and I’ve done a lot of research, in all points to the fact that financing and investing in specific markets in the USA make a whole lot of sense. I actually just got off the phone with my with our loan, JV partner that I want to sell the property that we call them together. Because our insurance is up $500, our property tax will go up somewhere near the same amount next year. In who knows, after that, where that goes in that a move of our capital to the States makes a whole lot of sense. She agrees and will speak to her accountant, which happens to be cheering my wife on how she may do the same in following us to invest in the States. Houses are honestly just so affordable in the US that we actually do not plan to partner going forward, I actually encourage her to not partner with us because she doesn’t need us. And it’s actually quite easy if you know what you’re doing in order to buy houses that cash flow. In the end, we’re talking about the 100 to $300,000 range, so we don’t necessarily need each other in order to capitalize a 100 to $300,000 property. Yeah, it’s just that affordable. So goodbye to rent control, socialist business environment, here in Canada, the landlord tenant board, which is pretty much broken. And of course, the Residential Tenancy Act. Back to the happenings of this week and what’s going on. On Saturday morning, October 21. I will be hosting our first ever us investing workshop in partnership with my friends Andrew Kim and share his company share which is a tech based us real estate asset manager and the only Canadian lender that I know and Scott Gilliam of lens city, who announced just last month for the first time ever at our September meeting that his mortgage broker brokerage can now called lens city can now offer mortgages on US investment properties. This, yeah, that’s big news. Because again, I’ve been at this for a while. And this hasn’t been available as far as I’ve known. And also on scale. Scott’s talking about one can have like 1015 properties as long as, as long as the rents make sense. Yeah, 10 to 15 properties. Here is we’re gonna talk we will be talking about that more about that in detail at our us investing workshop. Again, the stars are aligning, especially with the way things are going here in Ontario, in Canada and obese or my PC friends are having not as bad issues as us in Ontario, but pretty bad still between affordability and tenant rights. Alright, so for you my 17 listeners, there’s gonna be more options for investment. And again, it’s not under a socialist government without rent control, and I can diversify my earning income into US dollars and sunny destinations. Yes, I know, I know some of your listeners are interested in Alberta investing. I know Alberta is all the rage Calgary is a lovely city. And as my Alberta friends tell me, Alberta is the Texas of Canada. But getting mortgages for me is easier in the US and likely for most people will be easier to get mortgages in the US than here in Canada. So why not just invest directly into the Texas of the world, no need to settle for second best on a personal messing front cherry and Irish trying to sell some of our portfolio here. We’ll have listings going up this month. And next. Specifically, these are our student rentals that are selling in Hamilton in St. Catharines. In order to take profits, pay down some debts and raise capital for our planned investments in the US. This is the slowest fall market. I can recall in my experience since being a realtor since 2010. But thankfully, our student rentals are in massive demand still, the there’s just so little supply. I think you’ve we’ve all seen the demand coming from international students. And there’s gonna be there’s gonna be rich parents out there that want that home for their kid. Because I know I do the same for my kid. I’ll keep you all posted on my journey, including my research findings from my visits I’ll be on I’ll be in Atlanta sometime soon. And I’d like to get specific dates for personal security reasons. But I’ll be Atlanta, Georgia, Ohio and Texas over the next three months. It’s a lot of work and travel. Thankfully, I’ll be with my fellow real estate entrepreneur friends. So we’re gonna have a lot of fun on this journey. And I can’t wait to love that I can’t wait to learn more because I love to learn, share my findings and help more people along their journey towards financial Pease, there are tons of inflationary pressures on the way if you don’t, if you attend any Mario when meetings, you know exactly why, because we share, I share my research they’re hard assets and cash flow are ones main defense against all this inflation that’s coming. And I’ll always be on the hunt for the truth about real estate investing for my fellow Canadians and you my loyal 17 listeners. on to this week’s show, we have the lovely Lana Gorjuss on the show, her asset management company and V Property Management since 2005. They’ve grown credit, they actually manage 168 units, including 32 of her own units. Her portfolio is incredibly diversified, including across the property management company from Ottawa to way up north like Innisfil and beyond what’s North Simcoe County to to Campbellton in Branford her portfolio is also diversified as she owns a commercial flex space, which is more recent, although remember her more recent acquisitions in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and also she has residential property, specifically apartment buildings in Cleveland, Ohio. So, again, I always love to learn for people with a lot of experience. I particularly enjoyed our conversation around investing in around in and around Cleveland, Ohio. Peters is the founder of stilettos and hammers a networking education Real Estate Investment Network for investors at every stage any and every stage. They even have the the host social events as well. So actually they have an upcoming event, a Halloween social on October 26. At night in a topical Ontario, I’ve got link in the show notes. Or you can go to our website, stilettos and hammers.com. So that’s all spelled out stilettos and Andy hammers plural.com. So you can go there go into her events and you’ll see where you can get more details and buy a ticket for her Halloween social. My plans to be there. I haven’t settled on a Halloween costume. But I’ll figure something out. So again, back to this show. Lana shares her journey on a strategic growth of her business, slowing strategic growth. And so there’s no get rich quick stuff here. How she built her portfolio in partnership with her commercial contractor husband, we discussed the state of today’s market now she she as a professional real estate investor is with along with her established Power team. Hello, she will invest going forward, also where she recommends to more beginners as well. When I came to Canada as an Iranian immigrant at a very young age, so be prepared for what I consider an very inspiring example of what dedication, knowledge, talent and hard work can achieve. I give you the Nick Lana Gorjuss

Hi, Linda, what’s keeping you busy these days?

Speaker 2 7:51
Oh, geez. I don’t know where to start. Property Management. Slips and hammers flex space crew

Erwin 7:58
already know when to start your kids too. I do I have one daughter, just one in a hyperactive husband.

Speaker 2 8:05
Yes. Husband, who has many great ideas and likes to create things. Help me keep them alive.

Erwin 8:12
So I’d like I mentioned before we’re recording, I just finished Elon busca book. So I’m very formal of not being an engineer is like planting seeds with the kids like you know, you know, Elon, engineer, right?

Speaker 2 8:24
That’s so funny. My daughter has been identifying as an engineer since she was two. What did you do? Tell me the secret. My husband’s an engineer. And she loves the idea of building things. So from two she’s been telling Mama, I’m an engineer and daddy’s an engineer. And you’ll say okay, honey. So what does mommy do? Mommy’s the cooker. Okay, that’s, that’s what I do. I cook and then she says, and sometimes you helping you clean. I know. It’s okay. It’s all she sees. Right? I pick her up, I drop her off. She doesn’t see me actually working. But she sees her dad always working reading the drawings doing what it is. You don’t take her on site. We take her on site, but they’re usually daddy’s construction sites. I run the property management company. I run you know, all the other stuff. So she knows mommy does events. So she has really fun parties. And then she cooks and she cleans and that’s it. And every so often crazy tenants call her. That’s what she knows. That’s what she knows. But she doesn’t understand what that means.

Erwin 9:23
You’re taking her on for property management? No, no, it’s a dangerous one.

Speaker 2 9:29
Part of it is also just I don’t want her I don’t want my child exposed to unpredictable tenants. Okay, we can read into your hands on the area that you’re in. Some of my tenants are wonderful. And then some of my tenants are not. So generally speaking, I won’t take her with me when I’m on like, I’ll take her to the vacant units. I won’t take her when there’s actual tenants. I take her with me to showings. Yeah, so that she’s experienced so she knows when we’re going to show units and she knows people are coming and they want so then show me Corona assessments every so often if Oh, you know me, that person didn’t smile, and that person didn’t look at me and that person didn’t say hi. So she has her own little radar, but I’ll never take her when it’s an occupied home. And you also don’t know what they have animals

Erwin 10:14
and bugs reached. rethinking my parents. I’ll take my kids for signings. Oh, yeah. And it’s like, always on their best behavior.

Unknown Speaker 10:26
Yeah. Oh, yeah. See, we do that all electronically.

Erwin 10:29
We still want to meet. Because because I don’t do the showings. Okay, that’s my last my last chance to fail.

Speaker 2 10:37
Yeah, no, Fair enough. Fair enough. Absolutely. No, absolutely. You need to have a feel and a sense for who they are. That’s 100%.

Erwin 10:44
Yeah. Enlightened. Like, I’m there for the like, I looked at the single queue report, I would get, you know, I need the whole story and everything. Yeah, yeah. Before I go. Yes. I don’t want to make the trip out either.

Unknown Speaker 10:55
No. It’s not worth it. So

Erwin 10:59
property management, yes. Is the how many? How many of the units are for clients? And how many of your own and then how many? Oh, Jesus.

Speaker 2 11:05
There’s 168 units? 168? Yeah. Okay. I think I think we’re at 168 Ah, trouble.

Erwin 11:13
Keep counting mine. And I’m just barely double digits.

Speaker 2 11:19
And then I’m trying to I have to go and do my math backwards. So 3030 32 I think it is our RS and then the rest are for other clients.

Erwin 11:30
And uncommon is for property managers to manage multiple cities. Yes. Because like you’re in the end is probably like four hours. Maybe less than that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:41
So I’m central I’m in the GTA. So going out to Niagara Falls is about two hours Ottawa is for Cornwallis for Barry, depending on the traffic will be an hour and a half from where I am. Brantford is about an hour and a half.

Erwin 11:54
So you have boots on ground and all these cities.

Speaker 2 11:56
So the way that we work, so we’re very automated, which is why it works. So my husband is he’s an engineer. He’s a very technical individual. And he’s all about systems. So he designed system. So everybody uses an online portal. I’ve got a service manager in each location boots on ground, and he has a team of trades, handyman and whatnot. So I only deal with my service manager, I don’t deal with all the little traits. And then we’ve got leasing agents in each of the cities. So they deal with the showings and things like that. But I do all the tenant screenings. So all the applications come into the office. So because of that I’m only ever really dealing with two, maybe three people in each location, tenants have to submit everything through an online portal, if there isn’t a work order that’s been created work doesn’t get done unless it’s an emergency. And then the emergency calls also are designated to the area that they’re in. So when the tenants call into the line, they choose the city that they’re in, and then they can, and everything kind of goes up that way. So it helps a lot. It alleviates a lot of the manual processes. And then because of that, and because everybody knows, right, my trades all know you have to submit pictures before and after no pictures, no payment. And then the work orders because it’s all kind of logged, if you close a work order, the tenants actually will come back and say, you know, wasn’t done or the work is incomplete. And they’ll send pictures. So we always ask for tenants to submit their pictures, the trades to submit their pictures. And because of that, we end up with a lot of accountability on both sides. So we have a lot less situations where people are being dishonest.

Erwin 13:30
Yeah, cuz yeah, because I do the same thing with my tenants. I’ll pick I’ll ping them once in a while. Like, hey, the bathroom was done. How did it look? Yeah. All right. Funnily enough how often they don’t reply.

Speaker 2 13:41
It really is unless there’s a problem, right? Problem. It’s never ending we just we’re have we have a property currently being read down, renovated, the tenants were there eight years, I think. And the painters sent all of their pictures. And then my service manager went in last night to look at that. And he was like, Are you okay, with the way that they painted? I’m like, Well, you know, physically, I haven’t been there wine. He sent me 21 photos of like, just horrible work. And I sent them to my I said, Do your painters really good at taking photos? He’s like, alright, and he sent them all to him and today to clean it up. So if you’re not on top of it, and you don’t have those systems, it will be very difficult to manage very difficult.

Erwin 14:18
Because there’s gonna systems are like literally as good as the people at the team. Oh, I agree. Yeah, I actually just heard that was a Steve Jobs, quote, his greatest achievement is not any product. It was the team that built those products.

Speaker 2 14:30
I can completely understand that. It’s very hard. It’s very hard. If you don’t have good people,

Erwin 14:35
where do you find the good people?

Speaker 2 14:37
Like God? Interestingly enough, a few of our service managers used to be our tenants, many, many, many, many moons ago. So and it’s funny because there are a couple of my trades like plumbers and electricians who are also my tenants when they were in school and doing their apprenticeships and things like that and we gave them an opportunity to work and now that they’re like Master electricians or you know, certified plumbers and they’ve got their companies they still work for us. Yeah, I’ve got a few tenants i, so someone researched them and they approached you or so what would happen. So in the beginning, when it was just us and just our portfolio in our properties, right, sometimes it was easier for me to just pay my tenant to go and do the work, because I knew that they could. And then my tenants would outgrow their spaces or whatever else. And then they would ask if we needed any extra help, you know, because they want to make an extra couple dollars here and there. And as you grow together and you realize that you work well, they understand your ways. It just it became kind of an okay, so now let’s give you another level of responsibility. Okay. Are you willing to now do this because they’re already locally there? They know the market people know them? We trust them. It just worked out really well that way for us.

Erwin 15:47
It sounds like almost a strategy. So one should intentionally do rent to trades. Students. So

Speaker 2 15:53
the students Yeah, absolutely. And it helps, right? Because they have a certain like, I had a tenant in one of our triplexes. Just Sunday, would they study? Yeah. So Sunday, they sent me a photo, there’s a huge bubble of water coming through the paint in their bathroom. And they messaged me at eight o’clock in the morning, by 11 o’clock, everything had been resolved. So the guy upstairs, something was wrong with the speedway on the toilet, he shut off the water, he went to Home Depot, he got a new Speedway, he connected everything, the tenant downstairs, opened up the walls to let everything dry out, everything’s good to go. And I was like, Okay, well, you know, send me the cost of the materials for the drywall on the paint, and we’ll reimburse you. And that’s it. So it helps to have people who know because then it alleviates a lot of the phone calls. But you can’t always you know, control that. And right now, we’re very fortunate my husband runs a commercial construction company. So we have a lot of trades who apply for work there. But they’re not certified. They don’t have to write tickets or things like that, but we can use them in the management company. So we are able to that and take them and place them in certain areas because he does quite a bit of projects in the regions that we manage as well.

Erwin 16:58
But it’s because your husband is because your business, your husband’s business. I imagine they go well. They’re they do large projects, generally go pretty much almost anywhere they do and is that why your portfolio is like,

Speaker 2 17:10
No, my portfolio is spread out because my clients as they were growing their portfolios. So when we were in Ottawa, so Ottawa, Ottawa Valley, Cornwall, that’s where our entire portfolio is, which is why we started out that way. And then we started managing property for other clients that were in the area. And then, you know, 2008, Hamilton became really sexy. So I had a lot of clients who were going out to Hamilton, and they would ask, you know, do you offer service in Hamilton? And it was like, Well, sure, but I need about 10 units minimum to be able to set up a team and this and that, and they just grew that way. So we ended up with, you know, clients expanding to Hamilton to Brantford and then I had a real estate agent friend of mine who had access to pre construction in Niagara Falls. And I ended up with clients who purchased like 10 townhouses out there one afternoon. So because of this at all, kind of we expanded with our clientele. And it’s just and then once you’re in the area, you know, people get to know you and then you expand and you grow. And it’s just all organic that way. It’s just been fun.

Erwin 18:20
Loaded question. What do you think your focus is these days? Crew stiletto in,

Speaker 2 18:25
so my focus folio? I know. So our portfolio to be completely honest, our portfolio kind of runs on autopilot. I’ve got long term tenants. I love them. I love the fact that they’re long term tenants. So nothing,

Erwin 18:36
nothing crazy. Not crazy, but nothing more hands on like, no MB or midterm. And we don’t cottage rentals?

Speaker 2 18:44
No. So we do do short term, but in the US. So we do have a portfolio out in Cleveland, and we do do short term out near the Cleveland Clinic. It’s like for traveling nurses. So at the Cleveland Clinic, they have a lot of very specialized health care programs and whatnot in the US, right. And they’re one of the best,

Erwin 19:03
like the biggest name they are. And I think health care. Yeah, I hear people fly in from all over the world for health care treatment there.

Speaker 2 19:11
And so doctors and nurses, right, so depending on the complexity of what it is that they’re doing, they might be there. They do a lot of training there. So if you’ve got specialized like, or nurses, things like that, they’ll come out to the clinic to get trained. So these individuals will look for short term ish rentals, right? So three midterm, I should say, three months, six months, whatever. So we do cater to that but on that side of the border, not over here.

Erwin 19:38
That’s the only thing you’re doing in stateside now.

Speaker 2 19:40
Stateside, we flipped. We buy multifamily. And we also have single family long term rentals. We’re staying away from the single family just because the market is at a point now where it makes more sense to buy the multifamily from a cash flow perspective and then we flip the singles because there’s still quite a high yield on I’m out that way.

Erwin 20:04
So we’re gonna grow your portfolio.

Speaker 2 20:05
Probably in the US right now. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I’ve we probably would. We’ll develop out this way. So we’ve got quite a few properties that we’ve owned for going on to like 18 years that have development potential. So we’ll focus on that.

Erwin 20:22
What are the acreage is are they trying to like garden suites? Were you talking?

Speaker 2 20:24
No. So we’ve got like, let’s say triplex is on very, very large, deep lots that we can tear down and put up six, eight units. Oh, we’re

Erwin 20:32
gonna tear it down. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So

Speaker 2 20:35
one thing we’ve learned, it’s so much easier to start from scratch than to try and rebuild from the inside or extend or expand to existing when it’s older. These are older, older homes, some of them were conversions. They weren’t built for purpose. So we have a few of those opportunities. And then we’ve got partners with land and you know, commercial spaces that have developmental opportunities here in the GTA as well. So that’s our focus on this side of the border. And then that side is where we’re flipping and looking at multifamily.

Erwin 21:09
So I need to I need to back this up because we do have many novices that listen to the show. Would you take on such a project triplex tear down to put up a eight nine Plex if you’re if you weren’t in the business of commercial construction?

Speaker 2 21:21
No. Like not, if I’m starting out today, short, 20 years later, even if we didn’t have the commercial construction company, we have the contacts that we would be able to do it. But if you asked me like 15 years ago, if I was willing to tear down my triplex to build an eight Plex, knowing a little bit too much for me, unless you have the right team there who can do it for you, you know, I probably prefer I mean, in my world, if you asked me right now, I’d much rather find ways to, you know, not actively invest in real estate, I’d rather just, you know, be the bank and find other ways to just not have to do as much work as you need to in the beginning. But definitely, if you have the right team, sure, why not. But not as a first I wouldn’t.

Erwin 22:05
Do you take out say I had a host on a lot. Yeah, I don’t. Because I think I find generally investors, the vast majority don’t want to do heavy lifting. I don’t blame them. And there’s many there’s many parts of heavy lifting that require a lot of skill. Just the financing piece. Yeah, there’s a lot of financing skill. Yep. And then not many people have had to wear that hat. And then the construction side is another hole at no time even before that, yeah, getting your

Speaker 2 22:34
permits permitting the drawing years. And it depends on who you have. So we had a illegal basement unit in Hamilton in the area that is now up for licensing that my client bought and we needed to legalize the suite. Unfortunately, the agent that represented her was not yet aware of the licensing program because it was very new at the time that she purchased a duplex or triplex it’s a bungalow with a basement. I think

Erwin 22:59
I know who it is. Guess who told her what she told her was a problem.

Speaker 2 23:04
I told my glide do but it’s all good. So interestingly, when we came time to legalize that sweet Dee draft or architectural firm, whoever it was that my client brought in was like, Oh, my God, we need to redirect the stairs. And we need to put in a window here. And we need to do this and we need to

Erwin 23:23
move stairs. That’s usually that’s usually big money. It was like

Speaker 2 23:27
it was going to be almost 100,000 We had to bring in a steel beam because the ceiling height wasn’t there. And we didn’t want to do this. And we didn’t want to do that. And they’re going holy moly, like what the heck is going on? And it just turned out that she’s not aware of you know, we’ve got Bill 23 We have changes. This isn’t a five year new home. It’s an old home, like we don’t have the same restrictions. Bring in another team, from permitting attainment to closing the permits, it was like 12 weeks as fast. Yeah, because you could take advantage of the fact that it was already existing. There were minimal things that need to get done right now. So your team is very important. Very underwater. 100 Yo, your realtor is probably one of your most important because

Erwin 24:14
it’s the person I think it is. I was embarrassed because she said like, Oh, my realtor owns a property in a neighborhood either. She still didn’t know about licensing was coming.

Speaker 2 24:22
That’s terrible. It’s hard. If it’s your team is gold, like your team is gold. They can really put you in trouble or they can really really have you propelling ahead.

Erwin 24:37
Financially thank you for sharing because about the you want things to be more passive. Yes. Because I think that gets away from some people. I think so. I find some people are just like, wait. Me Maybe it’s part I don’t know what it is. I think some some people just think the harder I work, the more returns it’ll be.

Speaker 2 24:55
And it’s not a sexy to say, you know, I’m passively invested in 10 million dollars worth versus I owner and portfolio of, I think but it’s what we do. I talk about it at stilettos and hammers all the time. I’m like, ladies, the goal, the end game is to be the bank by now but your goal when you retire is to be the bank you want stable, predictable. You don’t need fluctuation, unpredictable maintenance and unpredictable tenants and

Erwin 25:20
I just lose money. Yeah, it’s not

Speaker 2 25:23
a it’s not an easy game, right? It’s not an easy game. And depending on your risk tolerance and where you are in life, the I personally think that the passive route with the right people is much more beneficial,

Erwin 25:37
right? So again, like, oh, I guess no one gets your questions in advance, who’s the person who should be developing property tearing down a house and Bill putting up into multifamily?

Speaker 2 25:49
Who, um, it depends on who it is that you’re dealing with. So I would say somebody who is able to manage and handle surprises with ease. Somebody who doesn’t get easily stressed out doesn’t suffer from you know, major types of anxiety because it’s unpredictable. Obviously, you’re tearing down. So you get rid of a few of the unpredictable kind of aspects of it. But it’s still you don’t know, right? When sometimes the inspector doesn’t show up, and you’re waiting for an inspection before you can move over to next phase. And like, all of a sudden, boom, sorry, two weeks too late. So I think that personality wise, you need to be able to kind of go with the flow. It needs to be in my opinion, somebody who has a cushion enough, where if the money isn’t cashed out, let’s say it was an 18 month estimate for project completion, if 18 months hit, and now you’re freaking out, I don’t think this is the right thing for you. Because there will be delays. Yeah, and then there will

Erwin 26:52
always be delays. And you’re always over budget.

Speaker 2 26:55
Yeah. Always, always, it doesn’t matter how good you are, there’s always some sort of surprise. And then you need to have a team, you need to either yourself have the technical know how to be able to manage the team. Right? Or you need to have the right people in there who can successfully complete and if you don’t, it’s not worth it. Like don’t, don’t do it, because learning as you go is very, very expensive in this type of situation. Very expensive.

Erwin 27:22
The term due diligence used a lot, but I think people need to expand on it when defined due diligence. So for example, I had a client who’s looking at doing a build, like, it’s like, it’s over 30 units, they’re gonna build they’re trying to build, and they refer to builder. I said, Okay, what do you know about them? How’d you find them? What kind of reference checks? Are you done? Like, oh, I started speak at stage. And they were referred to me, like, great. What else? What’s it? What else do I need to do? I said, go speak to 10 other past clients,

Speaker 2 27:49
or check, Terry on how many reconciliation files have gone in there. How many times have you know, clients had to go in and bring Terry on in just to get warranty work done? It’s important.

Erwin 28:00
But again, like, I think that just because you see someone speak on stage is not enough due diligence.

Speaker 2 28:05
No, definitely not at all. And we’re in an environment right now. We’re speaking to people and you know, putting yourself out there as an expert is so easy saris, like, you know, that you have to be extra diligent, you have to be and you know, the last I don’t know, I don’t know about you. But from my view, the last maybe five or six years, it’s been very easy to make money in real estate. We’ve been in this uptick. So anybody, and their brother could buy a property and sell it a year later and make 2030 40% depending on where they were buying. So there are a lot of people who rode that wave, and they come in to be experts and to show you how to do things. But they themselves don’t have the systems in play, because they didn’t have the same challenges to kind of get into the game and it can become dangerous, right? The blind leading the blind, because this

Erwin 28:53
market that we’re in right now, I’m already talking to a friend of mine, Aurora comparing this to like, 1990. Wow. So almost none of us invested through it. And then people need to at least start looking back at what happened back in 1990. Yeah, right. That was like, it’s not the same. It’s not the same, because there was massive oversupply. Right. Crazy speculation. Houses and condos are built been paid for by investors. No one was moving in the wind enough to meet tenant demand. Yeah, not like today where? How was tenant demand?

Speaker 2 29:25
Oh, it depends on where you are. Interestingly, to met tenant demand is huge quality of tenant is not. So you know, I’ll get just even on a basement apartment, I’ll get maybe 30 to 40 inquiries a day. And out of that, maybe one would actually be qualified to view the unit forget, like going through an applicant just

Erwin 29:47
what city what city? What was it? What’s the rent?

Speaker 2 29:50
So right now, as an example, I have a unit in Hamilton, right? Yeah. The mountain. Yeah, it’s a really nice part of the city. Little bit day It it’s an older home good quality well maintained, but it’s older, massive lawn main floor three bedrooms single bathroom at 2495. tenant pays all the utilities.

Erwin 30:11
Yeah, so speak was top market.

Speaker 2 30:13
Yeah, it’s not. It’s not the cheapest house, but I mean, what you’re getting with it, obviously, you’ve got a huge space, you’re in a really nice spot. You know, it’s still very accessible. But it’s like, what I’m getting from tenants is, oh, it’s me and my brother and his wife and our two cousins, and we’re all going to move in and split the rent. It’s like, wow, six, three bedroom into three, six adults, two children,

Erwin 30:37
you know, the basic tenets of love all those footfalls? Right.

Speaker 2 30:39
So we’re getting a lot of a lot of that. And I understand it. Affordability is challenging. So people, good tenants who have a house to themselves, like good tenants with affordable units. They’re not moving, because what am I crazy. And then you’ve got people who have to leave because the landlords have to sell or whatever it is, it’s going on, like even Metrolinx is buying all this property. And they’re trying to place tenants and yeah. Oh, and it’s funny, because they will guide the tenants to withhold certain pieces of information. And it’s terrible, because they need those tenants out of those properties in order to be able to continue down their path. So it’s it’s challenging, the demand is there. But there’s also quite a bit out there as well. Like, there’s a lot of units coming to completion, a lot of conversions that have been happening garden suites that are getting added in that city that make it very competitive. So it’s not as easy as people would think. Or it’s not as easy as it was last year.

Erwin 31:36
Because on the flip side, so how many showings do you think you’d have in a week?

Speaker 2 31:40
Oh, goodness. Okay. So I’m very particular about how we do it, because you don’t want to bother people. So we do three days a week, and then we’ll do I’ve had, I’ve had personally, I’ve gone into Hamilton on a Saturday, and I’ve had 32 showings in a one and a half hour period

Erwin 31:56
in one house in one house. Okay. So I want to I want to I want to share with you what we’re seeing on the resale side. Yeah. So a friend of mine has a property $1.5 million in Burlington, your classic starter home? Yeah. Only 70 showings in the weekend. No offers. Right. So this is normally like any other time. Anytime last, like five years. Probably were sold already. Yeah. So that’s how slow this market is for resale right now.

Speaker 2 32:26
Wow. So that was Hamilton, like the unit that I’m telling you I had rented last year. And we would do maybe four or five showings in a day, last year. And now

Erwin 32:37
with rates high tenant demands is massive.

Speaker 2 32:39
It’s crazy. And it’s quite actually quite a few people who have come in who have sold their house looking to rent. So go, I don’t have a rental history. But I just sold my house and I got all this cash.

Erwin 32:49
Like it sounds okay. I’ll take you. That’s okay.

Speaker 2 32:52
Don’t pull my credit. And I’m like, You mean, don’t pull my well don’t pull it? Yeah. I was like, but don’t pull my credit. Because you know, I have plans in the next three to five years. I’m like, Listen two months and the 10 points that you’re going to lose. You’re good to go. But I can’t not pull your credit. I can bring you a copy of my report. No, thank you. It’s a strange market. It’s a very strange market.

Erwin 33:12
So Hamilton is just one example. Because we talking about it. Yes. They’re expecting to raise property tax next year by 14%. So the math on I own duplexes to in Hamilton so that math works at about $500 a year, per property. Yeah, it’s a lot. What do you tell your clients?

Speaker 2 33:30
So some of my clients, unfortunately, aren’t in a position where they can I have, I have a lot of clients who bought at the top of the market and Hamilton. There are some of them, where the only thing I can tell them is you need to find your reserves, because you’ve got to ride this wave. they’ve purchased properties with existing tenants. So the tenants are paying low rents, and those rents are not going to they’re not gonna increase in attendance not going to leave. So what we have been doing what we have been doing as management company is on turnover, right? We’re no longer including parking. So parking is now an additional fee, even though it’s Driveway parking, the tenant pays for that privilege. Nice. Well, you have to find ways, right? You have to find creative ways to do this.

Erwin 34:17
commercial lease then. Yep. So now,

Speaker 2 34:19
I can raise my rent however I want. And it’s always a separate lease. We do the same thing with garages. And then units that actually have the space and allow it we’ve installed like storage sheds for each of the individual tenants, because you’ll see and I’m sure you’re aware of many, many places, Hamilton, you’ll see that now these homes are being converted to Uptown, right? Basement, apartment, upper, maybe second level as well. So there’s no storage anymore. So we’re putting storage on the property and we’re renting that out. So we’re finding creative ways to increase cash flow where we can we’re replacing, you know, laundry units with them. coin operated as we can, or we’re moving into, there’s quite a few units that we’ve actually done this with where you’ve got these new ventless, all in one washer dryer combo units. So instead of having common laundry in the building, we’re putting these units when we’re renovating kitchens, because the tenant pays for utilities, especially the electricity, sometimes gas and water are included, but the hydro is not, these are all electric units. So it just decreases expenses. And we’re looking at ways of increasing income to help, right so if I’m charging $50, just for the parking, that will help offset that raise property taxes, if I can add a $60 a month $75 A month storage unit, because I know my tenants are struggling with the space for tires and bicycles and things like that. It helps

Erwin 35:52
I’m gonna invest in the States. Because I’m gonna get I know I gonna get resistance to all these things with tenants, because it’s not like we do on turnover is even still, probably the first thing I ever heard of it.

Speaker 2 36:03
Sometimes, yes, some of them, some of them have interesting things to say I use it as a tenant screening tool. Okay, you’re gonna be mad at me about this. My goodness, what would you do if we lost power? If there was a leak, God help us. But it is what it is. Unfortunately, you know what I mean? And I find that we have many tenants who are okay with it. And we put it in the ads. Like it’s not a surprise. Right? Like it’s very, we’re very transparent, very black and white. All of the information is there. We give estimates for the cost for utilities, we let them know that this right does not include parking. It’s like the first section of our ad is the summary, right? This is your rent? This is how many units? Is it the entire property or not? Parking included not utilities included or not? And then the cost for each of those things. So generally speaking, the people responding have read the ad and they’ve made a decision.

Erwin 36:56
I need to figure out a way to charge for street parking to know God, could

Unknown Speaker 37:00
you imagine that’d be great. I’d be golden.

Erwin 37:07
So what’s next thing? You said? You want to be the bank?

Speaker 2 37:09
Yes, I very much. We are already doing that. But I’d like to doing or we do lending. We do private lending. It works. Sometimes we’ve been very, you know, aggressive. And we’ve done high risk that was high returns, but a lot of headaches. So I think I’m okay with like headaches,

Erwin 37:27
if you will need to understand that can be headaches, we’ve had snow share headaches.

Speaker 2 37:31
We’ve done all kinds of things, right. So sometimes you’ll hear, you know, one side of things, which is like, Oh, you’re gonna hold a second mortgage. And the second mortgage is fantastic, because you have security against the building. And this is that, oh, what else? Okay, great. But you know, we did that. And then our investor didn’t pay. Yeah. And thank God, my husband, my husband is very much into like due diligence and reading contracts. Like I’m like, whatever, let me just graze this over, my husband will peruse line by line, like, he’ll sit there and he’ll read it. Thank God for him. But first thing he did is he contacted the bank holding the first and was like, Okay, I need to take over payments. And in the process of putting together the second mortgage, he made the investor, you know, give him permission to talk to the lender in first position.

Erwin 38:20
Well, if you don’t have permission, right, I want to pay you can you talk to me, right?

Speaker 2 38:25
So, but they won’t, unless this direction was given to them to quit. So thankfully for us, he knew how to do this. And we were able to take over the first mortgage. And because of that, we were able to keep that current and we were able to go through power of sale and sell the house to recover. But they don’t tell you that. So they’ll tell you. How long did it take to sell so thankfully for us, they they like up and left and went to Africa. So we didn’t have to get investor.

Erwin 38:53
Yeah. Oh, that’s that’s Oh, that’s nice. Yeah.

Speaker 2 38:57
So they have been left behind. They left the property vacant and so funny because they took like this, they sold the appliances they sold anything they could in the property when I know it’s okay, whatever do

Erwin 39:11
the previous owners. What was this? No, no, no, if you’re with us in power sales,

Speaker 2 39:15
yeah, it’s okay. So they did this all knowing that they were like, gonna, and then they defaulted on us first, because and again, my husband, God bless him. He was like, Okay, first mortgage is paid on the first, we want payment on the 15th. So they defaulted on us on the 15th. And we knew they would have defaulted on the first for the first. So my husband called them before that could happen and took over the payments. So the power of sale process altogether from the time that we serve the notice and then legally we were allowed to go in and physically take over the property. It was like 90 days, and then it took another 90 days to sell and close and do all of that. So it worked out fine for us. But let’s say if there were tenants in that unit or let’s say

Erwin 40:00
You were to, or you weren’t on top of it, and you you didn’t know, you were 100%. And now you’re first. We don’t know that. You have to be watching your account, make sure that money comes in, because that’s your that’s your your sign. Yeah, if you’re not watching it, then what are you going to do? If you don’t take it? I know people. So this has happened to

Speaker 2 40:16
it’s happened to us, it’s happened to us with our rentals, right? Like, there have been situations when, like, my dad was ill. And I didn’t realize my tenant had stopped paying rent until like, I don’t know, three months in, when I finally looked in the when I finally logged on, and it was like, wait, what? Or before we had the systems, right? If we weren’t checking the bank accounts every week, you don’t know or if you have a lot coming in, but they don’t like it’s one of those things. But nobody told us that when you’re when you’re investing in a second position, find out how much the first mortgages? And can you carry that? Can you carry it, because it sounds

Erwin 40:52
just so it was spelled out for the listener, you have to make payments to the mortgage half to so if your lender was a cash flow investment is now you’re talking like at least double the money at the door now

Speaker 2 41:03
at least until you get it under control. So now imagine used you have to get under control. It’s not like you, it’s you paying your lawyers until it’s done. It’s you paying mortgage until it’s done. It’s you if you have to, you know, replace appliances with these things. It’s all you,

Erwin 41:18
it’s now become an incredibly active investment. Very, very active as active but like I call active being landlord, yeah, you’re like, now you’re just your data, you’re in a day to day to get this deal done. Yeah, in order to draw money out.

Speaker 2 41:31
Yeah. So you have to be ready. And you have to have something on the side for just in case now. Is that gonna be

Erwin 41:37
to become a flipper, now? You want to be on the beach? payments.

Speaker 2 41:42
So it, but they don’t tell you? Right? So it’s one of those things like you need to know. So don’t go and lend $100,000 on a $10 million property with you know, 20% Behind you. Because if they default, can you hold a $6 million mortgage? Can you pay that? Just to recover your 100,000? Right, because you’re gonna do some work. Ours was minimal. It was like a $300,000. Mortgage. I think our payments were like 800 bucks a month at the time. Right? Not a big deal. Is that for us? Not a big deal. Right. But for some, but like for somebody like my mom, 800 bucks a month will kill her. Yeah. It could wipe her out. And then there goes your savings, right? Some people do this with RSPs, and things like that. So just be

Erwin 42:26
mindful, because you basically exited purpose. Good as clean as you can. Oh, yeah. made, I was still six months,

Speaker 2 42:32
in less than six months, we recovered our investment, we actually recovered these professionals. Well, he definitely weren’t, we didn’t start doing those things until probably 10 years into our journey. Also, because we didn’t have cash to do that until about 10 years ago.

Erwin 42:46
So we’re running out of time. Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you, especially on short notice. My pleasure. What’s what’s like, What are you teaching your daughter? Because the question, let me back up. Because the question is often like, the question is often that’s asked is like, what if you could do it all over again? What would you do? Right? But but the other way of asking you that is what are you teaching your kid.

Speaker 2 43:06
So the first thing that we are very focused on is to teach our child to trust herself, trust herself, trust her decisions. And if something is telling her that this is right to trust it and explore it, because I’ve come to realize that our instincts are usually right. It might need a little bit of, you know, further investigating, but usually instinct is pretty bang on. That’s number one. The second thing that we’re teaching her is that we live in a world where exchange is how you get rewarded. So what you give, and what you put out, will determine what comes back to you. If you’re not putting anything out there, you’re not gonna get anything back. And even if you do that thing that comes back to you won’t be there long. So you need to first go out and you need to provide value and exchange these kinds of things to other people. And then in turn, they will want to give back to you. That’s the second thing. And the third thing that we’re teaching her is that, you know, people who are earning a good living, it’s because they’re solving problems. So the bigger the problem you solve, and the more people that you help by solving these problems, the more money you’re going to make if that is what’s important to you. So you want to live in a big fancy house and you want to drive she wants to drive a Maserati, my dad bought her a little one for her second birthday. So that’s it. She’s going to have a white Maserati, and it’s okay, well, you want a Maserati, you have to earn a very healthy income and to do that you need to do these things. But if you don’t bring value into the world, and if you’re not solving a problem that’s helping others, it’s not gonna happen. So that’s what we’re trying to do and we’re just trying to make her remember that she has to be a decent human and You know, empathy and compassion are very important in this world, even if other people aren’t nice to you, you still need to be nice to them. And the rest of it will sort itself out. Right? So hopefully it works. She’s only seven.

Erwin 45:12
I’ll just add that the real estate, to bring it back to real estate. Because if you’re a developer, you’re building housing and you’re creating housing. Yes, I do a lot of basement conversions like creating a small amount of housing. Yep. I’ve created and I’ve created a lot of value.

Speaker 2 45:26
It’s a big problem that you’re solving. Housing is a big problem that nobody expected

Erwin 45:31
best in the universe. The problem is so bad.

Speaker 2 45:33
Yeah, buy. Every house that we add in, there was one person who may not have an option right now who has an option, right? So we talked about that to her a lot. People need places to live. So it’s your responsibility to make sure that if you want to do what mommy and daddy do, that the places that they live are safe, that the places they live are clean, that they feel happy. And, you know, it’s not just about cashing in a check. You know, these are humans that you’re dealing with. And it’s hard

Erwin 46:04
not to thank you again for doing this. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for watching. If you want to learn how to invest in real estate from scratch, my team teaches beginners how to use the number one investment strategy that I personally use in a virtual free training class every month, go to investor training.ca/youtube To register for our next class. Then links also in the description as well. I publish at least two to three videos a week here. So subscribe if you want to keep learning from seasoned investors like myself, my guess? And if you’re just starting out, feel free to ask questions in comment below. And I’ll do my best to answer each of those comments and questions myself. Again, if you’re ready to learn the nitty gritty about real estate investing from a professional investor register for our next virtual class. That’s at Investor training.ca/youtube. Thanks again for watching. See you in the next video.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with! Build connections with empire builders and trailblazers at our iWIN events.
 
CLICK HERE to check out what’s coming up next.

 

BEFORE YOU GO…

If you’re interested in being a successful real estate investor like those who have been featured on this podcast and our hundreds of successful clients please let us know.

It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

If you didn’t know already, we pride ourselves on being the best of the best real estate coaches, having the best property managers, contractors, handy people, cleaners, lawyers, accountants, everyone you need on your power team and we’re happy to share them with our clients to ensure your success. 

New investor or seasoned veteran investor, we can help anyone by providing our award winning coaching services and this isn’t all talk.

We have been awarded Realtor of the Year to Investors in 2015 by the Real Estate Investment Network, 2016 by the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and again in 2017 because no one told the judges no one is supposed to win the award twice but on merit, our peers deemed us as the best.  In 2018, we again won the same award by the Real Estate Investment Network.

Hopefully being the most decorated team of Realtors in Ontario will make you consider us for your first or next real estate investment.  Even if you don’t invest in our areas, there’s a good chance I know who would be ideal for you. 

I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

Sponsored by:

Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year.

Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

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30 AirBnbs: Lessons as Full Time Managers With Mai and Jonathan

Are we in a buyer’s market? Why more landlords are converting units into short-term rental. CHMC is making apartment building buy, renovate, rent, refinance, repeat, aka the BRRRR strategy much harder, and lessons from managing 30 Airbnbs.

All this and more on the Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians!

I’m your host, Erwin Szeto of the #81 ranked Business Podcast on all of iTUNES globally. Somehow we cracked the algorithm and achieved a top 1% status.  This show is for open minded individuals who love to learn and open to questioning norms and authorities including what’s been sold by influencers in the investment community.

 I see emails or Facebook ads about courses on cottage rental investing or short-mid term rentals with promises of easy six figure cash, I put in a call to my clients who are full-time in the same space to ask their experience in my search for the Truth About Real Estate Investing hence we have my long-time friends Johnathan and Mai who manage 30 AirBnbs on today’s show.

Before we get to Mai and Jonathan, there’s a lot going on in the real estate market.  The City of Toronto has a $1.5 billion dollar short-fall and they’re not the only municipality with financial trouble, I’m seeing cities across the country with above inflation property tax increases with more on the way. The Town of Markham’s staff 2023 Budget Overview proposed a tax increase of 93.3% starting next year to 2026, a three year period and blaming Bill 23, the More Homes Build Faster Act.

The City of Hamilton is already considering a 14% property tax increase for next year which translates to around $500 per house that my clients and I own.

With cash flow already tight, many are negative with rates high and rent control… this is a tough business to be in.

Hence “More Landlords Converting Units Into Short-Term Rentals” is one of the latest articles on Bloomberg Canada and the reason our AirBnb expert guests are here today.

What’s a real estate entrepreneur to do with rising costs and long-term rents capped? Naturally they pivot towards AirBnb for usually higher income and avoidance of the Landlord Tenant Board which takes 7 months for hearings whom they don’t feel do enough to protect landlords.

In the same article, a McGill University Professor and chair in urban governance has research that shows short-term rentals increase housing costs and recommends cities with housing shortages ban short-term rentals except for the landlord’s own primary residence.

What’s not mentioned by the University Professor is the effect of the 500,000 or so international visa students that came to Canada last year, many of which attend post secondary schools like McGill U on their affect on housing costs.

In my experience, I have a couple international students in my houses and they’re from India, all working in the restaurant industry, mainly as cooks. Similar story to what’s in the media the tenant crisis is legit.

I’ve linked to the article in the show notes: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/more-landlords-converting-units-into-short-term-rentals-1.1978075

CMHC is making the BRRRR apartment strategy much more difficult. I can’t find anything online or in the news but I’ve spoken to three investor friends, each with millions upon millions invested in real estate.  Basically CMHC on refinance wants to see the funds going into buying more rental stock or improving existing buildings. They don’t allow just equity take out to repay shareholders. Add to that one must already be with an approved lender in order to refinance so private lending or vendor take back mortgages will need an approved bridge lender.

More hoops, more cost. This is a big deal to many small investors since cash flow is more limited than ever with low cap rates and high interest rates, many depend on the refinance monies for their daily expenses.

Apartment building investors, keep an eye on this space. It sounds like CMHC wants to focus more on developments that create more housing supply.

On a personal investing front, my flight to Atlanta is booked to tour some properties, meet with property managers, one of them manages 800 doors which is unheard of here in Ontario unless it’s an inhouse REIT PM. When the laws favour the landlord, more and more mom and pop investors own rental properties hence the need for large property management firms.

My due diligence on investing in the USA continues. I have printed off REIN Property Goldmine Scorecards to make sure I’m doing my diligence on investing in the best areas in the United States of America.  There’s no doubt in my mind that prices in the golden horseshoe  of Ontario will increase in price when interest rates are cut but the same will happen in the US too so Cherry and I are selling some of our houses here and I’ll reallocate some capital pay off debts AND buy some houses that cash flow in landlord friendly states, easy commercial style mortgages so qualification is way easier, institutional grade property management with no rent control.

I haven’t been this excited about real estate investing in a long-time. We’re going to #makerealestateinvestinggreatagain and I’ll bring you the listener along for the ride. 

If you would like to learn more on how other Canadians are diversifying their portfolios, our next online only, iWIN Meeting Tuesday, Oct 17th. We have US investing expert Andrew Kim back to share how to invest in sunbelt states like Florida, Texas, Georgia, etc… and my old friend Tim Collins who will be detailing how he cash flows over $10,000 per month with the proceeds of his real estate portfolio after he took profits in 2021 and how he earns passive income as a Realtor of the newest, tech based real estate brokerage.

That’s on Tuesday night, then the following Saturday morning Oct 21st, we are hosting our first ever investing in US real estate workshop! Our guest speakers from Share (https://iwin.sharesfr.com/) are all Canadian who have experience managing 20,000 units in the sunbelt states, one is a veteran Chartered Professional Accountant in both Canada and US, is Canadian but resides in the US, and good friend Scott Dillingham of LendCity who is dual citizen and can get us Canadians commercial style mortgages on income properties in the US. FYI it’s a lot easier for a Canadian Investor to get a mortgage in the US than in Canada.  It’s all about who you know!  

This workshop costs less than $40 as my friends from Share and Lendcity are donating their time to educate us all on how to make real estate great again, without rent control, without the Landlord Tenant Board.

Iwin Meeting link to register: https://www.infinitywealth.ca/iwin-meeting-mail

US Investing Workshop: https://iwinworkshop.eventbrite.ca/?aff=mail

You don’t want to miss it!

30 AirBnbs: Lessons as Full Time Managers With Mai and Jonathan

On to this week’s show we have my old friends Mai Nguyen and Jonathan Lim who’s travel agency business was hit hard by Covid but thanks to their experience as early adopter AirBnb hosts were able to successfully pivot into short term rentals, specifically AirBnb and now own a couple and manage a total of 30 Airbnb properties.

From Muskoka Cottages two hours north of Toronto, to downtown condominiums, to recreational properties in Niagara Falls they have quite a bit of experience on what works, what doesn’t work, the good, bad and the ugly. The truth about short term rentals is they are a hospitality business: that means lots of customer service, cleaners are critical to the business, location and amenities mean the difference between success and failure.  It’s totally doable and comes down to education and execution. 

Mai and Jonathan tell it like it is, including the mistakes they made when they first listed their home on AirBnb, to how it funded their travel, what types of properties to buy, red flags for potential guests, scams, and if you should be buying a property today to AirBnb.

Before buying a recreational property or course, I highly recommend giving this episode a listen

Please enjoy the show!

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-generated**

00:00:08 Erwin

Are we in a buyers?

00:00:09 Erwin

Market why more landlords are converting units into short term rentals, seeing as she’s making apartment building by buying harder, especially refinance part and lessons.

00:00:20 Erwin

From Engine 30, Airbnb.

00:00:22 Erwin

All this and more on the truth about real estate investment show for Canadians. I’m your host German sito of the number 81 ranked business podcast in all of iTunes Globally. Somehow we cracked algorithm and we achieved top top like .1% status. This show is for open minded individuals who love to learn and open to questioning norms and authorities including.

00:00:42 Erwin

Whatever has been sold by influencers in and those in the investment community.

00:00:46 Erwin

I see all those emails and Facebook ads about courses for college rental, investing or short term rental or mid term rental with promises of easy 6 figure cash flow. So when I read these things I put in calls to my friends including Jonathan and my who are full time in the same space and I asked them for their experience and my search for the truth about real estate.

00:01:08 Erwin

Hence mine. Jonathan, you’re here today on the show as they managed like. Like I said, repeat it a couple of times. They want a couple and they’re total portfolio management includes 30 air B.

00:01:19 Erwin

They’ll be on today’s show before we get to them. The City of Toronto has a $1.5 billion shortfall, and if you’ve been following the news, they’re not the only missing miscibility with financial trouble. I’m seeing news across the country with above inflation, property tax increases expected, with more on the way.

00:01:41 Erwin

Town of Markham. I’m not sure why only telling Markham is, uh, making the news. I think maybe because they’re the only ones who are projecting further ahead a little bit. But anyways. And the town markets staff 2023 budget.

00:01:53 Erwin

Overview They proposed an A tax increase of 93.3%. That’s right, 93. So it’s almost 100% starting next year to 2026, so about three-year period, the proposed tax increase is almost 100% and they’re blaming the Bill 23, the more homes.

00:02:13 Erwin

Little faster act.

00:02:15 Erwin

City of Hamilton is closer to home for me is already considering a 14% property tax increase next year, which translates to about $500 per house that my clients and I own. On top of that, my student rentals went up $500.00, so that’s an increase between tax and property, between tax and insurance is the increase of $1000 per year.

00:02:35 Erwin

But cash were already tight. Many properties out there, and many people are negative, with rates already out of rent control, so we can’t pass these costs on without a lot of pain. Above guideline increases often take a couple of years, sometimes around 3:00 to get done, and even then tenants and to fight them.

00:02:52 Erwin

Following the news through our red stripes all over Toronto for above time rental increases anyways, this is a tough business to be in, hence more landlords quote UN quote. More landlords are converting units into shorter rentals. End Quote is the latest article on Bloomberg Canada and the reason our guests our guests are here today.

00:03:12 Erwin

What’s real estate?

00:03:13 Erwin

Going to do with rising costs and long term tenants rents capped naturally, they’ll pick toward the RB for the usually higher income and avoidance of the landlord.

00:03:24 Erwin

Board where my experience it takes about seven months just to get a hearing. Real estate owners, they don’t feel they have enough control and they don’t feel protected by the laws in our systems and in the same article and they kill University professor who is a chair in urban governance has reached says shows that short term rentals increase.

00:03:44 Erwin

Housing costs and recommends that cities with housing charges and short term rentals, except for those in the islands, only primary residences. What’s not mentioned by the same university professor is the effect on the 500,000 or so new international students that came to Canada last year.

00:04:02 Erwin

This year we’re looking to get over well over 600,000 international visa students and many of them attend post secondary schools like McGill U, and you better believe they have an effect on housing costs as well. In my experience, I have a couple of national students myself in houses and they’re from minor. My students are from India and they all work in the restaurant.

00:04:22 Erwin

On the street, their job is actually as cooks, similar to so the story that I see with my smiling experience is very similar to what I’m reading.

00:04:31 Erwin

Media now the testament tenant crisis is legit again, article to the Bloomberg article in the short notes on to next is seeming she is making Burr apartment strategy is much more difficult that’s buy, renovate, refinance, rent out repeat. So I can’t find anything online on this news.

00:04:51 Erwin

I spoke to three investor friends, each of whom owned millions upon millions. Several of these folks, they buy apartment buildings, they own apartment buildings, but basically CMHC on refinance wants to see the funds going into buying more rental stock or improving existing rental buildings.

00:05:09 Erwin

They don’t just want to see equity takeouts to repair shareholders or repay the real estate master. Add that one must already be with an approved approved lender in order refinance. So private lending or render take back mortgages, those investors will need to will need to be with an approved bridge lender. Often they might.

00:05:29 Erwin

Or require you to be with that approved lender for two years before you able to refinance. So leading to that is meaning more hoops and more cost. This is a big deal to many small real estate masters since cash flow is extremely limited. Think there’s actually much at all in apartment building investing since.

00:05:47 Erwin

Cap rates are low and interest rates are already high. Small investment they tend to depend on the refinance money for their to cover their daily expenses in their living. So apartment building investors please keep an eye on the space. Uh, it sounds like CMHC wants to focus more on developments that creates more housing supply.

00:06:05 Erwin

On that personal investment fund, my flight to Atlanta.

00:06:07 Erwin

Booked to tour, some properties meet with property managers. One of them has 800 doors under management, which is unheard of here in Ontario. Probably BC two, unless it’s a institutional investor like elite and it’s an in house PR.

00:06:22 Erwin

Of course, like in Hamilton, Effort Trust has something like that has 800. I don’t know thousands of doors, but they only manage their own. I’m talking about property management companies that manage for other customers. So learning what the states has been very fascinating when the laws favor the landlord, more and more law and pop investors own rental properties. So.

00:06:42 Erwin

That’s about the.

00:06:43 Erwin

Investment is very common in those states for my for my research. Hence there’s need for a lot for large property management firms and these property management firms can actually make a living, can do good business because the laws.

00:06:57 Erwin

You are not in favor of the tenants. Clientele is not at risk of being uh without rent for months while they battle things out in the land at the landlord tenant board. I do. Don’t start investing in the USA continues. I’ve printed off my old friend friends. We’ll see. Vestment network friends. You’ll remember the property gold mine scorecard. So I printed.

00:07:17 Erwin

Well, goes off. I’m going to do my diligence. The old school way, and make sure I put I check.

00:07:22 Erwin

Off all the rights.

00:07:24 Erwin

Make sure I complete my diligence correctly in again to look for the best areas to invest in the United States of America. There’s no doubt in my mind, so I love Canada. I love being loving, loving here. It’s meant so much to me and my family to be, to be Canadians. It’s no doubt in my mind that the Golden Horseshoe of Ontario will increase in price when interest rates are cut.

00:07:45 Erwin

But the same will be happening as well and if you buy it correctly in the US, So Shane and I are selling some of our properties here in Canada here locally and we allocate some of that capital payoff.

00:07:55 Erwin

Let’s buy some and then buy some houses that cash flow and and landlord friendly states using easy commercial style mortgages. So this is something that’s new to me. I did not know that these that you could get commercial style mortgages in the states. So qualification is way easier than my experience here. Institutional grade property managers exist, they’ll manage my properties for me and there’s no right.

00:08:17 Erwin

I haven’t been into 600, but real estate investing in a really long time, way more excited about this than garden suites. To be honest, we’re going to make real estate vesting great again and I’ll bring you the listener along for our journey if you like to learn more, how can other Canadians are diversified with their portfolios online? Only Island meeting is Tuesday, October 17th.

00:08:37 Erwin

We have us invest in the expert, Andrew Kim, who will be on the show. He owns properties in Sunbelt states like Florida, Texas, Georgia, New York and we’ll also have my old friends and columns. So if you’re interested in.

00:08:51 Erwin

What’s the stock worth? Stocks? My old friends in cones will be detailing how he cashed those over $10,000 per month with the proceeds of his real estate portfolio after he took profits. Like we’re doing all of its real estate in 23 one, he now earns and passive income as both a realtor and also via state Stock ETF.

00:09:11 Erwin

And high yield ETFs. So he’s gonna get into more detail into that as well as sharing about how he’s going to save a lot of his costs by being at one of these newest tech based real estate brokerages. That’s all on the Tuesday nights then following. That’s all in October.

00:09:30 Erwin

17th Tuesday night and then immediately the following Saturday morning. We are hosting our first ever investing in US real estate workshop. Our guest speakers are from share who are Canadian, so we have their Chief Investment officer and to be true we have their CFO as well. Their CFO is a Sir Charter professional accountant in both Canada.

00:09:52 Erwin

Dimitri beside Chief Investment Officer, he has experience managed acquiring and managing over 20,000 units in Sunbelt states. So and also my good friend Scott billion Loveland City who’s a dual citizen and so he’s a guy who, yes, we’re us Canadians were some mortgages on income.

00:10:11 Erwin

Properties in the US.

00:10:12 Erwin

So the costs are nominal, it’s less than $40 because my friends from share immensity are donating their time to educate all of us on how we can make real estate investing great again without rent control without the landlord tenant board.

00:10:25 Erwin

We’re almost sold at the in person.

00:10:27 Erwin

Venue. I think we maybe have three tickets left. We have a capable 100 tickets in total, so.

00:10:32 Erwin

We’re getting close to that.

00:10:33 Erwin

Already, I think we’re getting close to. I think we have sold out about 80 tickets already. So do not wait. I have links in the show notes for both the island meeting and for the US Investing Workshop. You don’t want to miss it.

00:10:44 Erwin

On since we.

00:10:45 Erwin

Show we have my old friends, my mind, the Yuan and Jonathan Lim, whose travel agency business was hit pretty hard by COVID. But thanks to their experience as early adopter B host, they were successfully able to pivot into short term rental management and ownership. Specifically, B now the couple owns and manages.

00:11:05 Erwin

A total of 30 everyday properties from Muskoka colleges, two hours north of Toronto to downtown Toronto, condominiums to recreational properties in Niagara.

00:11:15 Erwin

They have quite a bit of experience on what works, what doesn’t work, the good, the bad and the ugly. The truth about short term rentals is that they are a hospitality business. That means a lot of customer service cleaners are absolutely critical to the business. Location and amenities mean the difference between success and failure. It’s totally doable. We’ve had several guests on the show.

00:11:35 Erwin

More success.

00:11:36 Erwin

Doing this but it does come down to education and execution. Hence my Jonathan are here to share how to do it, tell like it is including the mistakes we made when they first listened, their property, their own home. Sorry, their own home on air B. It’s actually a pretty funny story. Again, they were early adopters before. Before many of us knew what everybody was.

00:11:56 Erwin

So they’re going to share how they’ve used Airbnb to fund their travel, what types of properties to buy red flags of for potential guests and games, especially scams. I’m sure you’ve read about scams in the in the paper, they’re pretty awful. And then they answer the question, should you be buying a property today for the purposes of the air?

00:12:16 Erwin

So before buying a recreational property course or property, I highly recommend you giving this episode list. Please enjoy the show all the information on the show notes the company has told Short Stay International and that’s www.short stays IMTL, which is short for international.com you can find them on Instagram.

00:12:37 Erwin

And also if you could be so kind if you’re interested in becoming a host minded post her referral link for every B which gets you which saves you some money and and it’s all the short notes please enjoy the show. Hi my. Hi Jonathan. Thanks for coming in.

00:12:53 Erwin

How did you get started? In short term property management?

00:12:57 Speaker 3

The short story of it is we actually tested out managing our own property during Airbnb years back. I would say about 8-10 years back. One day I remember I’m in the travel business and I’m always online searching for different pool apps and one day I was doing a presentation on like the online world.

00:13:18 Speaker 3

And there is the Airbnb app and what it’s doing. I think a lot of people in Canada doesn’t even know about Airbnb.

00:13:24 Speaker 3

Then and when we talked about it, it was so interesting. However, we never experienced ebb ourselves, and then I remember one day we took a trip to Montreal and we were about to. It’s a last minute trip and we’re like, let’s look at a hotel. So we went on booking.com.

00:13:39 Speaker 3

And then we’re like, you know what, what are we?

00:13:40 Speaker 4

Why don’t try?

00:13:41 Speaker 3

This Airbnb thing out every I think we should. And so we found a last minute Airbnb that was available.

00:13:47 Speaker 3

We went to.

00:13:48 Speaker 3

Montreal, we got in and the host was really nice. He owned the condo. He doesn’t live there and just throughout the whole process.

00:13:56 Speaker 3

We’re like, oh.

00:13:56 Speaker 3

This is cool. We should.

00:13:57 Speaker 3

Test it out. When we come back home.

00:13:59 Speaker 3

So but we set that, but we never thought about it. I guess a couple of years later, one day we looking to make some extra cash or we were traveling anyways, we weren’t gonna be around and then we.

00:14:11 Speaker 2

We we were traveling like every other month. We take a trip for a long weekend or we take a week. You know, we take off for a week and we only had one kid at the time, so it.

00:14:22 Speaker 2

Was a lot easier to travel and I guess.

00:14:23 Erwin

Yeah, I remember. I remember the emails like you guys are.

00:14:25 Erwin

Doing some pretty skiing and surfing with Mike Major, yeah.

00:14:28 Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re doing snowboarding, skiing trips. And we, we would go on all.

00:14:34 Speaker 3

These trips and.

00:14:35 Speaker 3

We’re always looking to be out and about anyways and we thought about it and we’re all about multiple streams of.

00:14:41 Speaker 3

Income. So we’re like, hey.

00:14:42 Speaker 3

There’s people renting out their.

00:14:43 Speaker 3

Own home? I was hesitant at first, right?

00:14:47 Speaker 3

But I was.

00:14:47 Speaker 3

Like let’s test it out. You know, let’s make sure our place we had an apartment in.

00:14:52 Speaker 3

Toronto let’s just clean it up and.

00:14:54 Speaker 3

I remember I put it online while we were still living there because our plan is as soon as someone booked, we’re flexible. We’ll just travel somewhere.

00:15:03 Speaker 4

Whenever it’s someone booked again, we’ll.

00:15:05 Speaker 4

Just go somewhere.

00:15:06 Speaker 4

And that’s our.

00:15:09 Speaker 2

Life I usually find, like really good deals like last minute.

00:15:10 Speaker 2

You can.

00:15:14 Speaker 2

Deals on on flights and.

00:15:15 Speaker 3

Because we didn’t have nine to five jobs, I guess we were flexible in a way where we’re like, you know what if someone booked it then that means time for us to find some place and go. And I remember I would put it on, but back then I was not very familiar with the app. So what happened was.

00:15:31 Speaker 3

I got the listing up and then I swear to you I guess I left it there. It would be like four months gone by and I was telling John, hey, I wonder what happened to you that are listing. I should check cuz I didn’t see any notifications. I guess I had it off. I went in. There’s like 10 different inquiries about my place that I never responded to. So they end up looking somewhere else.

00:15:51

That did not. Oh my God this.

00:15:52 Speaker 3

Thing actually worked. There are lots of people seeing our listing and our inquiry.

00:15:57 Speaker 3

And obviously my response rate tanked so low and I was rated terrible because.

00:16:03 Erwin

You’re not responsive.

00:16:04 Speaker 2

I think some people had even booked and then they’re not getting any check in info and they’re like following up with these Airbnb is like they have cancelled over and and rebooked them in other properties.

00:16:09 Erwin

Right, you.

00:16:10 Speaker 3

Have to cancel them.

00:16:14 Speaker 4

So we we start off as terrible hosts.

00:16:16 Speaker 4

Right. That was like that accent, like.

00:16:18 Speaker 3

Put this listing on.

00:16:19 Speaker 3

And back then, I guess the FBI didn’t have a lot of the same regulations. Now, if things are really easy.

00:16:25 Speaker 3

And anyways, I learned so I.

00:16:26 Speaker 3

Told John all this work.

00:16:27 Speaker 3

So when we’re ready to have our placement it out, we better be like you know on the ball. Like if we’re gonna turn it back on, we have to unlist our property.

00:16:35 Speaker 3

And when we’re ready to have someone to come in, then we turn it on. And then as soon as we turned it on, we had lots of inquiries and people were coming and we were able to accept a few bookings and then basically that’s how we experience Airbnb as a.

00:16:50 Speaker 3

Host for the.

00:16:51 Speaker 3

First time and we continue to do that every time we wanted to travel.

00:16:55 Speaker 3

And then Fast forward to COVID. So right in the beginning of COVID, we had a travel business. And then as COVID.

00:17:04 Speaker 3

Everything was cancelled. Basically. Yeah, we had.

00:17:05 Erwin

Right, you have to.

00:17:06 Speaker 2

Pivot well, imagine March and April of 2020, yeah.

00:17:07 Speaker 3

Zero business.

00:17:11 Erwin

Scary telling.

00:17:13 Speaker 2

Yeah, we we were dealing. We were the people that every angry, angry traveler, you know, that lost their flight or couldn’t book.

00:17:20 Speaker 2

Or cause nobody.

00:17:22 Speaker 2

Was was paying for insurance like, you know, cancellation insurance at that time either. So everybody was calling, our phones were going off the hooks with people just yelling at us because.

00:17:26 Speaker 3

Yeah, I remember.

00:17:31 Speaker 2

You know, where’s our money?

00:17:32 Speaker 2

And you know, we can’t get this flight and we don’t want to travel and you know.

00:17:36 Speaker 3

We don’t wanna get COVID and we had a huge like anniversary group and.

00:17:40 Speaker 3

A wedding group.

00:17:41 Speaker 3

It was like imagine spending tons of time working on these groups already.

00:17:46 Speaker 3

And as soon as.

00:17:47 Erwin

It’s no money’s gonna come in.

00:17:48 Speaker 3

Right, yeah, because the way it works in the travel industry is the money is with the supplier. So back then with with Sunwing. So some wing had it and they get future travel credit. But in terms of our work, we don’t get compensated until someone travel that’s a different industry anyway.

00:18:01 Speaker 2

We were. We were we.

00:18:02 Speaker 2

Were doing destination weddings, so this is not just a family of four, this is. This is.

00:18:08 Speaker 3

100.

00:18:09 Speaker 2

A group of 100 people.

00:18:12 Erwin

Yeah. OK. OK.

00:18:12 Speaker 3

There’s no wrong. You know there’s more.

00:18:14 Speaker 3

To bankruptcy or they’re selling off, but.

00:18:16 Speaker 3

They’re still around.

00:18:17 Speaker 3

And so I remember looking at John and say, well, you know what? I guess we have to figure, what else are we going to do? Right. The travel came to a halt. And I remember I was invited to a cottage up.

00:18:30 Speaker 3

In Blue Mountain.

00:18:32 Speaker 3

A friend of mine that got a new cottage and she’s like, oh, would you be interested in managing this? It’s a bit kind of like it’s.

00:18:39 Speaker 3

An hour. So it’s not too.

00:18:41 Speaker 3

Farber is not close either. And then at that gathering, she had a friend who was a wheelchair that was around as well, too, and the realtor and I met, and the realtor said, you know what?

00:18:53 Speaker 3

We have a bunch of properties to and one of them we want to do Airbnb, but we have no time for Airbnb. We’re so busy. Right? Would you be open to taking it on? I know you share cause they were asking us what we did in the past and we share. We had experience doing Airbnb and we’re like, sure, we actually never thought about it.

00:19:10 Speaker 3

But we’re like, OK, we’ve been able to manage ours. So let’s see how this would work. So we then took on that first property in port credit and that was quite the experience actually, right. We learned quite a bit. It’s one thing to manage your own property cuz you get a say in everything, but it’s another to manage someone else, making sure they get their bottom line.

00:19:30 Speaker 3

Trigger, but there’s limitations that you can.

00:19:32

Right. Well, the.

00:19:33 Speaker 3

Do. Yeah, of course, yeah.

00:19:33 Speaker 2

Learning curve too, right?

00:19:36 Speaker 3

And now you’re trying to figure.

00:19:37 Speaker 3

A team cause you don’t want to be the one doing.

00:19:39 Speaker 3

Everything cause you wanna be.

00:19:40 Speaker 3

Able to add on more properties.

00:19:42 Speaker 3

And then from that one property, things were done very well and I guess she started referring us to other clients and then those clients started referring us. And then before you know it, I think we had about 30 properties, wow listing within like a span of a year.

00:19:58 Speaker 3

And 1/2.

00:19:59 Speaker 3

You were just calling us. They’re like, you know what?

00:20:01 Erwin

Well, that’s explosive growth.

00:20:03 Speaker 3

Yeah, that’s crazy. So there’s a lot of up and down. We kind of took on a lot of different properties, but we also learned which properties.

00:20:11 Speaker 3

Work well which?

00:20:12 Speaker 3

Doesn’t work well. What we want to do as a company, and we did some rebranding. We started off with basically at first it’s just kind of like you know, self-employed. Then we’re like, oh, we should put this under an incorporation. We should run it as.

00:20:24 Speaker 3

A property management.

00:20:25 Speaker 2

Well, we learned we learned how to be interior designers, really bad ones. We learned how to be landscapers. We learned how to be handy men and women, and we kind of wore a lot of.

00:20:36 Speaker 2

Different hats in in.

00:20:37 Speaker 3

And and cleaners. So we learned how to clean properly as well.

00:20:37 Speaker 2

That yeah, right.

00:20:41 Speaker 3

Because there’s different aspect to cleaning and air BBB versus cleaning.

00:20:45 Speaker 3

Regular house.

00:20:47 Speaker 3

Because no matter, like even we hire on other people, I feel we need to kind of know it as well too. And and here we are. So we continue with the business and it’s been interesting.

00:20:57 Erwin

I imagine you should pile it on the kilometers on your cars as.

00:21:00 Erwin

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:21:02 Speaker 2

Well, that time when we started, we were living downtown and you know, initially we started driving back and forth to Muskoka Blue Mountain. We were cleaning properties up there.

00:21:12 Speaker 2

We would just take the kids with us and we would just, you know, we’d hang out there for a few nights and and clean and then.

00:21:18 Speaker 2

From Mississauga, when?

00:21:19 Speaker 3

Yeah, a lot of.

00:21:19 Speaker 2

We we started in.

00:21:20 Speaker 2

Mississauga we go back and forth all the time.

00:21:22 Speaker 2

To Mississauga, there a lot. Everybody’s in Mississauga, a lot of.

00:21:24 Speaker 3

Oh yeah, and Toronto downtown too. So the interesting thing was, before we managed the port credit, we weren’t sure like how it would be in Mississauga until we start managing that, we realized that we got a lot of inquiries of people that are just moving around. They just sold their house. It’s not even travelers because you think they’re being.

00:21:24 Erwin

Demand in Mississauga, yeah.

00:21:45 Speaker 3

Then usually for people who travel into the city exactly.

00:21:47 Erwin

Yeah, I’m still on vacation. Yeah.

00:21:50 Speaker 3

But no, these are people where, like my house got burned and, you know, unfortunately, I need a place or I just sold my house and we’re not gonna move into our new house until another two months.

00:21:53 Erwin

Ohh great.

00:22:00 Erwin

Right.

00:22:01 Erwin

Which is your classic midterm rental? Yeah, a new.

00:22:03 Speaker 3

Profile. Yeah. Or they’re fixing their house and they can be in their house or we had people who were. Yeah, we were working.

00:22:03 Speaker 2

Yeah, once. Yeah.

00:22:09 Speaker 2

Contractors who, you know they’re they’re been brought in from a, you know, another city.

00:22:14 Speaker 2

And they’re there for a month or two months, setting up the new gym or school or building building.

00:22:22 Speaker 3

Building because they have exactly. I remember we had one guest who were such great guests and they stay. They’re they’re a company from Germany and their technician has to be flown in from Germany in Canada. They don’t have the same engineers. And so they have to. So it’s interesting.

00:22:36 Speaker 2

Top notch yes.

00:22:41 Erwin

Yeah. Interesting. So you you mentioned you learned quickly what you wanted to manage and what you did.

00:22:46 Erwin

What’s the property?

00:22:47 Erwin

You don’t want to manage and why?

00:22:49 Speaker 3

Yeah. So behold, our experience, there are properties and I say properties, but it comes as a package, it’s also the home owner or the investor, right? So there are properties where it’s kind of like the owner just bought it as is and just don’t want to have long term renters and but they’re not ready.

00:23:09 Erwin

So I have no idea why, but OK continue.

00:23:11 Speaker 4

Right. And don’t.

00:23:13 Speaker 3

Want to have to deal with?

00:23:14 Speaker 3

That all these aspects of being in the hospitality business, because everybody is still hospitality. It’s not just about investing. Yeah. And so they would just throw the house out there and say, hey, you get it fully booked and.

00:23:28 Speaker 3

We found it’s not the case. There’s things you have to do to upgrade the.

00:23:32 Speaker 3

House for a certain experience, for certain.

00:23:34 Speaker 3

Look right and there’s so many other houses that are empty, so why should a guest choose your house versus someone else? And so for us, we know that we have to look for the right type of client with the right mindset. They want to be good hosts. They want to invest into the experience for their guests.

00:23:50 Erwin

Right, right.

00:23:52

And their.

00:23:54 Speaker 3

No, it’s not like.

00:23:54

You know.

00:23:55 Speaker 4

That, yeah, maybe back in the days.

00:23:57 Speaker 4

When it was new and.

00:23:58 Speaker 3

You throw whatever property on Airbnb and.

00:24:01 Erwin

There still need to.

00:24:01 Speaker 4

You just get.

00:24:01 Erwin

Be furniture and.

00:24:02 Erwin

They’re not like you didn’t destroy anything.

00:24:05 Erwin

It has to be. It’s better or an.

00:24:07 Erwin

Air mattress or something? Yeah.

00:24:07 Speaker 2

At least I sailed. Oh yeah.

00:24:08 Speaker 4

Yeah, at least something. But now get.

00:24:10 Speaker 4

Some more picky.

00:24:11 Speaker 3

They want the mattress to feel a certain way. It’s no longer. I just.

00:24:14 Speaker 4

Have a bed. Ohh your.

00:24:16 Speaker 3

Mattress doesn’t feel good.

00:24:18 Speaker 3

OK, you know.

00:24:19 Speaker 3

Those are the.

00:24:19

Things that.

00:24:20 Erwin

I want a coffee maker. I want coffee. I want a wine opener, alright.

00:24:24 Speaker 2

Ohh, you gotta drink coffee.

00:24:25 Speaker 2

Machine while we want Keurig want we want pod.

00:24:27 Speaker 4

Yeah, exactly.

00:24:29 Erwin

Or whatever. No. People go to accident. You really.

00:24:30 Speaker 2

Off they thought they go. Yeah, we get everything.

00:24:31

Get that kind.

00:24:31 Erwin

Of feedback. Yeah, yeah.

00:24:34 Speaker 3

Yeah, for sure. And we get people to tell you and you know we appreciate the feedback, but it doesn’t mean you have to follow all the feedback. It has to make sense either, but they’re.

00:24:43 Erwin

I can’t believe someone.

00:24:44 Erwin

Go to the extent to say I.

00:24:44 Erwin

Need a Courier like? Well, they would.

00:24:46 Speaker 3

Prefer that or they said, you know, so you’re.

00:24:47 Speaker 2

Yeah, because that’s what they have at home or.

00:24:49 Speaker 2

Or you know, that’s what they’re used to.

00:24:51 Speaker 2

Like I don’t know how to use a.

00:24:52 Speaker 2

Filter you know like.

00:24:54 Speaker 2

It’s it’s.

00:24:55 Speaker 2

You get some interesting.

00:24:57 Erwin

Because I don’t.

00:24:58 Erwin

Know how to use a filter, right? OK, yeah.

00:25:00 Speaker 4

Yeah. Also, it’s the guests, right?

00:25:02 Speaker 3

So the more you can accommodate to all the range of guests, yeah, without going too crazy, then you know, the more.

00:25:09 Speaker 3

Chance you have.

00:25:10 Speaker 2

Right. Yeah. But we we learned that. I mean, for me at least.

00:25:13 Speaker 2

In in my.

00:25:14 Speaker 2

I don’t like working with. I would prefer not to work with an owner or an investor who likes mixed-use.

00:25:21 Speaker 2

So for example, they want long term tenants upstairs and then it’s a duplex and then they you know they want Airbnb, the basement or or vice versa a lot of times I’ve seen that when you’re trying to mix the two it they don’t tend to blend very well long.

00:25:36 Erwin

We have challenges.

00:25:37 Speaker 2

Well, the long term tenant is not used to and they don’t like that there’s always.

00:25:41 Speaker 2

People coming in and out and then a lot of times, if people are coming in and out, if they’re there for the weekend, they’re there to enjoy, you know, noise tends to be a problem.

00:25:49 Erwin

Yeah, yeah.

00:25:51 Speaker 2

And yeah.

00:25:52 Speaker 2

So I think that parking garbage, you know, a lot of those things become.

00:25:56 Erwin

Challenges because even when I have my own, but it’s my apartment. When I rented it in my home.

00:25:56 Speaker 3

And they’re not.

00:26:00 Erwin

I would deliver it, rent it to a single.

00:26:01 Erwin

Person. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

00:26:03 Erwin

Because then they’re not talking to somebody all the time. Yeah. Because you went to a couple or a family. Just even a couple. They’re gonna talk. Yeah. And once in a while, they gonna argue. Yeah. And then you hear it all. Yeah. Versus rent to an.

00:26:13 Erwin

Individual I’ll take.

00:26:14 Erwin

Less rent. You have less noise. Yeah. Now imagine your you have Airbnb folks.

00:26:19 Speaker 4

Yeah, like they.

00:26:20 Erwin

My family, like we’re all talking this.

00:26:22 Erwin

Four of us.

00:26:23 Erwin

Yeah, I’m sure would be disturbing to the long.

00:26:25 Erwin

Term tenants.

00:26:25 Speaker 3

And it’s different if you’re the homeowner.

00:26:27 Speaker 3

That you live up.

00:26:28 Speaker 3

There or you live in the basement.

00:26:29 Erwin

I still wouldn’t like that.

00:26:29 Speaker 3

Because you wouldn’t, but.

00:26:31 Speaker 4

There’s a lot.

00:26:31 Speaker 3

Of people who are willing to let that go because they needed the money or, you know, it helps to have that in. But because you’re the homeowner, it’s fine. But for someone else who’s renting your house long term and they’re staying there.

00:26:44 Speaker 3

They don’t care. At the end of the day they pay their.

00:26:46 Speaker 3

Rent they want.

00:26:47 Speaker 3

Their business exactly. They want their quietness.

00:26:47 Erwin

Also doing. Yeah. Yeah and.

00:26:50 Erwin

Often it’s great, I.

00:26:51 Erwin

Have five friends who that Airbnb pays their mortgage the basement.

00:26:54 Erwin

Pays for their.

00:26:54 Erwin

Mortgage, which would be a lot of money these.

00:26:56 Erwin

Days, yeah.

00:26:58 Erwin

Yeah, windy day. But these days especially.

00:27:01 Speaker 3

So because John mentioned that.

00:27:04 Speaker 3

Tend to not like where they mix it because we would get calls from both like we’re not.

00:27:08 Speaker 3

The manager for the.

00:27:08 Speaker 3

Long term rentals.

00:27:09 Speaker 3

But we get calls from the long term tenants.

00:27:12 Erwin

Saying you’re getting complaints from a non client well.

00:27:14 Speaker 2

What tends to happen is these long term tenants because we’re managing the short.

00:27:19 Speaker 2

Term, we end up managing the long term tenant.

00:27:21 Speaker 2

As well, but.

00:27:22 Speaker 2

We don’t get paid for managing the long term.

00:27:24 Speaker 2

Tenant, you know, so then you start to deal with and then the long term tenant becomes your sort of eyes.

00:27:28 Speaker 2

And ears, which is it comes in handy sometimes, but it also tends to.

00:27:29

Which is nice.

00:27:32 Speaker 2

Be like you know, they comes and complain to.

00:27:34 Speaker 3

You about everything.

00:27:35 Speaker 3

Oh, I don’t like that that new group that.

00:27:37 Speaker 3

Just came in this and that, and so we are.

00:27:39 Speaker 3

Yeah, managing everybody or.

00:27:41 Speaker 2

Because we’re so hands on the long term, 10 will be like, hey, listen, you know, I haven’t been able.

00:27:45 Speaker 2

To get in touch with such and such owner.

00:27:47 Speaker 2

Sir, can you guys, do you have anybody can you fix that? You know the toilet or can you you know can you call somebody to fix this and that?

00:27:54

Yeah, right. And.

00:27:55 Speaker 3

I think we’re just nice and we’re we’ve always been the type who’s like, you know, since we’re around anyways. Well, well.

00:28:01 Speaker 2

Well, we want to, we want.

00:28:02 Speaker 2

To keep the peace too, you know it.

00:28:04 Speaker 2

Helps our business.

00:28:06 Speaker 2

If you have a long term.

00:28:07 Speaker 2

And that that’s friendly to the, you know the.

00:28:10 Speaker 2

Short term guests.

00:28:11 Erwin

So let’s start with the say someone brings you a property. Well, how often do they bring you a vacant property versus a property that’s already furnished?

00:28:19 Speaker 3

A lot of the client come to us because I would say they either just bought a house and they just decided not to rent it out long term and so it’s not furnished.

00:28:29 Speaker 2

Right.

00:28:32 Erwin

Right.

00:28:32 Speaker 3

But they know they would have to furnish it, so we advise them we give them a checklist what to do.

00:28:38 Erwin

And so there’s homework upfront and investment, of course, yeah.

00:28:38 Speaker 4

I like that, of course.

00:28:41 Speaker 3

There’s homework and investment.

00:28:43 Speaker 3

The ones who already have fully furnished and everything I feel they’ve already done their homework and so usually most of our clients, they haven’t furnished anything. They just come to us with an idea like they have a space or a property or they’re actually thinking of buying a property and they wanted our advice.

00:28:57 Speaker 2

Right. Yeah and.

00:28:58 Speaker 2

Typically outside of the, you know the cottage vacation rentals. You won’t see anything in the in the city that’s.

00:29:04 Speaker 2

Furnished expecting to convert from long term to short term. So if somebody is renting a like if they own a property and and and it’s an investment.

00:29:12 Speaker 2

They’re not going to be prepared to do short term. It’s usually a blank canvas that we have to.

00:29:17 Erwin

Start with and then. So what’s the? What’s the capital outlay like if I if I bring you a vacant house? Well, how much should I expect to have done best in order to get it ready?

00:29:25 Erwin

Sure, it’s not easy either it’s not.

00:29:27 Erwin

Like this? Just like go on Amazon, click, click and deliver me TV to couch.

00:29:29 Speaker 3

Yeah, no.

00:29:32 Erwin

And bed and all that.

00:29:33 Speaker 3

Because we furnish a full house like on.

00:29:36 Speaker 3

Our own so.

00:29:36 Speaker 2

Five bedroom.

00:29:37 Speaker 3

Five bedroom. And so we kind of have a ballpark budget and because we also have looked into so many different type of furniture from so many different store, so.

00:29:46 Speaker 3

Do have a budget sheet that we give our client. We said look like if you’re looking to buy just all IKEA, this is the.

00:29:53 Speaker 3

So you can look between and. Usually it depends how many bedrooms you have, right? And you multiply it by the beds, the side tables and so for us I have seen where you can furnish A2 to 3 bedroom, place about 10 grand. I would say yeah. But if you want quality you can go up to 20 grand.

00:30:00 Erwin

That’s just the.

00:30:08 Erwin

Oh that’s it, eh?

00:30:13 Speaker 3

So pretty great. Yeah, right.

00:30:15 Speaker 3

So it depends, but I know.

00:30:16 Speaker 3

For us, for a.

00:30:17 Speaker 3

Five bedroom house. It was almost. Yeah. About 3030 Grand, Right, so.

00:30:19 Speaker 2

It’s about 30.

00:30:23 Erwin

So at what point did it can can you take over the proper?

00:30:26 Erwin

Like I’ve ordered all the IKEA go assemble it. I’ll see you next week.

00:30:32 Speaker 3

Most of the time.

00:30:33 Erwin

Like you know, I mean like it’s all.

00:30:34 Speaker 2

It’s all packaging we’ve done.

00:30:36 Speaker 2

It before where we’ve, you know, we’ve come in with the two of us and we’ll, you know, we’ll hire one or two other people and we’ll assemble furniture and things like that. But now we kind of realize that unless the owner is willing to pay another.

00:30:50 Speaker 2

5 grand for our time. Yeah, you know, let’s say I’m just the ballpark figure, but.

00:30:55 Erwin

That you know, that’s something that they would have to range on their own very, very yeah. Cause they can buy because IKEA will they believe they offer that as an.

00:30:58 Speaker 4

And a lot of them.

00:31:02 Speaker 3

Yeah, but I find a lot of a lot of our clients. You know, they’re very aware of their budget and they want to keep it low. So.

00:31:10 Speaker 4

They do a.

00:31:11 Speaker 3

Lot of it themselves. So what they do is they have to assemble the furniture, they put everything. And so normally what we do is we do an initial site inspection, so we come.

00:31:12 Erwin

Oh God.

00:31:20 Speaker 3

And we visit.

00:31:21 Speaker 3

The property and we give them idea.

00:31:23 Speaker 3

This then we learned from the past because we used to have to come back four or five times. I had a property where they said it’s ready when we come back. It’s not ready because they’re expectation. What ready is is not the.

00:31:34 Speaker 3

Same as ours.

00:31:35 Speaker 3

Based on our.

00:31:35 Speaker 3

Experience. So now we have a full checklist. We said you have to follow the checklist. Once it’s fully 98% complete.

00:31:43 Speaker 3

Sure, we’ll come. And if there’s any little we don’t need everything to be complete because the main important thing is we just need like the things that you can’t see, for example, like all the bats, the couch, the table.

00:31:54 Speaker 3

Because for pictures very important so that we send in a professional photographer, they take the photo. We can then create it and put it on Airbnb or whichever other sites being used. And so we can actually list the property a month to two months before it’s fully finished too. Like if it takes some of that long.

00:32:14 Speaker 3

Because it takes some time for people to start looking.

00:32:17 Speaker 3

On you know, Airbnb to start booking. And by throughout that period of time they can continue to get it ready. They don’t have to have it 100% ready, right? Just the main thing we actually have listed houses where I don’t know if this is a good practice, but we’ve done it before where we said they just bought over.

00:32:20

OK.

00:32:35 Speaker 3

Our house and.

00:32:36 Speaker 2

We’ll talk to the seller.

00:32:38 Speaker 4

We talked to the seller.

00:32:39 Speaker 3

And they give us the photo of.

00:32:40 Speaker 2

Use stock photos.

00:32:40 Speaker 4

How the house used to look.

00:32:42 Speaker 3

And we put it.

00:32:42 Erwin

So the client doesn’t own the house yet.

00:32:46 Speaker 2

You know.

00:32:47 Speaker 2

They it’s like.

00:32:47 Speaker 4

They’re gonna close in a.

00:32:48 Erwin

Couple yeah, yeah.

00:32:50 Speaker 3

Yeah, but you’re right.

00:32:51 Speaker 3

So I’m not sure how legitimate.

00:32:53 Speaker 2

The lines been you know, it’s been signed and everything, but.

00:32:53 Speaker 3

It is.

00:32:55 Erwin

We we do the same for long term rentals like.

00:32:58 Speaker 4

If they did, let’s say if they.

00:32:59 Speaker 4

Took it over today.

00:33:00 Speaker 3

Even it’s not like they’re going to.

00:33:02 Speaker 3

Have all the furniture in by next week they might, right? But we said do you have any photos? But we would have to spend time really like explicitly, right?

00:33:05

Right.

00:33:12 Speaker 3

On the description this is not how the furniture will look.

00:33:16 Speaker 3

House the frame.

00:33:18 Speaker 3

Once you know the House will be available, let’s say two months from now, it will be fully new furniture and we will update the photo for you and we will show you how it looks like. We’ve done that with one of our property and we flipped like the House looks completely different than how the House was when we bought it and we got.

00:33:38 Speaker 3

Our first two months.

00:33:39 Speaker 4

Fully booked.

00:33:40 Speaker 2

Doing great.

00:33:40 Speaker 3

Yeah, and they’re they’re ages, though, as the time come, they’re like, can you show me photos of how?

00:33:45 Speaker 3

This how it.

00:33:45 Speaker 3

Actually will look and we send it because we’re confident it will look just as nice if not better. But if you don’t plan, that’s why we’re like, we’re hesitant. Like if.

00:33:46 Erwin

OK.

00:33:54 Speaker 3

You don’t.

00:33:54 Speaker 3

And to furnitures as similar are just as Nice and I have to really spell it out. I don’t want the guests to.

00:34:01 Speaker 3

Be booking something.

00:34:02 Speaker 3

And they’re not getting what they pay for.

00:34:04 Erwin

Yeah. And another conversation we had when we weren’t recording was you’re you’re mentioning how people would disclose on something. They bought pre construction. Yeah. And now they’re they’re asking you to take it over. Is that common?

00:34:16 Speaker 3

We had a few, yeah.

00:34:16 Speaker 2

The last 12 months has been quite a few of investors who they’re just stuck. They can’t assign, you know, reassign the the title. They’re not able to sell their property. And so they’re looking for any.

00:34:29 Erwin

They play a.

00:34:29 Erwin

Lot. That’s probably gone down, I’m guessing.

00:34:30 Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah, I mean, because we don’t know all the terms now, we don’t know if they’re supposed to do that, cause usually I think with a lot of preconstruction, don’t they have to stay and live in that house for at least one year.

00:34:31 Speaker 2

So locked in and.

00:34:43 Speaker 3

Before they can rent a house.

00:34:44 Erwin

I’m not a lawyer.

00:34:46 Speaker 4

So I told him I’m not a lawyer either either. Yeah, so I can list it for you. But you have to figure if that’s something.

00:34:48 Erwin

Yeah, there’s SSD implications, yes, yeah.

00:34:54

You’re allowed.

00:34:55 Erwin

To get there are interesting implications, yeah.

00:34:57 Speaker 2

There, there are certain regions where we manage certain properties that it’s you know it’s on them. It’s we can do all the everything you ask us.

00:35:06 Speaker 2

To do.

00:35:06 Erwin

It’s on the, it’s on you shins.

00:35:07 Speaker 2

But if if something if there are implications.

00:35:10 Speaker 2

That’s, you know, we.

00:35:11 Speaker 2

That’s where we have.

00:35:12 Speaker 2

To bow out.

00:35:12 Speaker 3

Yeah, we advice everyone to look at.

00:35:16 Speaker 3

Legality side of things, right? Does it allow you to have a permit? Do you require a permit? And what is yeah.

00:35:22 Erwin

Alright, but you know that site already? You know if there’s one for.

00:35:23 Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah.

00:35:24 Erwin

You know you need a permit. Yeah, yeah.

00:35:25 Speaker 3

Exactly. And usually there’s townhouses or condos that they have to ask for permission, even in the city that allows you to get a permit.

00:35:34 Speaker 3

But if that townhouse association doesn’t like, for example, in Mississauga, we had a property where they got a permit from the city, but the townhouse contact them and say you’re not allowed to rent anything out less than.

00:35:48 Speaker 3

Six months even.

00:35:49 Speaker 3

Though the city approved.

00:35:51 Speaker 3

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yes.

00:35:51 Erwin

Because the Donald Trump’s yeah, yeah.

00:35:54 Erwin

His condos have like rules on, like, no.

00:35:56 Erwin

Children, for example. No pets. Yeah, yeah.

00:35:59 Erwin

My dad’s condo.

00:36:00

No children.

00:36:00 Erwin

Was nice today.

00:36:02 Speaker 3

Wow. Ohh seniors, then seniors condo. You mean retirement? Condo. Wow.

00:36:03 Speaker 2

Have a family friend or adults?

00:36:07 Erwin

It’s an adults only condo.

00:36:09 Erwin

No, no child’s allowed to live there.

00:36:11 Erwin

Wow. Yeah. Is that rare? Maybe it is rare, I’ve heard.

00:36:14 Speaker 3

It seems fair.

00:36:15 Speaker 4

To me it seems fair.

00:36:16 Speaker 2

That before no children. Yeah, it doesn’t surprise me.

00:36:20 Speaker 3

Yeah, there’s also lots of different.

00:36:21 Speaker 4

Like like like.

00:36:21 Erwin

Rules in Mexico, there’s.

00:36:22 Erwin

There’s lots of resorts are absolutely.

00:36:23 Speaker 2

Ohh yeah.

00:36:24 Erwin

Can understand they.

00:36:26 Erwin

Don’t want, yeah.

00:36:27 Speaker 3

Yeah, I can understand the need for.

00:36:28 Erwin

That anyone who’s heard a baby crying on an airplane understands the need for, yeah, people. Some people want their space. It’s it’s even. It’s in legislation like RTA, like quiet enjoyment of your property. Yeah.

00:36:34

Yeah, for sure.

00:36:40 Speaker 4

So we hope.

00:36:41 Speaker 3

You we answer the questions about pre construction.

00:36:44 Erwin

Because what? What caught my attention was.

00:36:47 Erwin

How many of them are there? Not a question for you, but my first immediate, my immediate thought is it could get start getting saturated in terms of the availability of that number of Airbnbs. Like for example, when I did my first Airbnb in Hamilton Mountain.

00:36:54 Speaker 3

Ohh yeah.

00:36:59 Erwin

There was like I had, like maybe 4 direct competitors for that entire neighborhood. Wow. And that was years ago. I don’t remember the year now I think like 2018 ISH 2018 I think was and now there’s tons. Yeah, right. For example, one of my clients she used to dominate the ARBO. She had two of the five top properties on VRBO in terms of performance in Hamilton.

00:37:02

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:37:19 Erwin

So she was doing midterm rentals before anybody else. This is she had one house that was hilarious. She had one house that was like, not touched.

00:37:25 Erwin

Since the 80s.

00:37:27 Erwin

Right and.

00:37:27 Speaker 2

But people love that.

00:37:29 Erwin

Movies and TV studios rented it for that reason.

00:37:31 Erwin

Yes. Yeah. They wanted to shoot it. They had seen from the 80s. Yeah, because the house was basically frozen in time. Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah. Hilarious. And she got tons of money for it. Yeah. Anyways, my point being is that she, she told me too the last few years.

00:37:31

Ohh yeah.

00:37:34 Speaker 4

That’s great.

00:37:37 Speaker 3

Yeah, that’s right. That’s crazy.

00:37:43 Erwin

Have been never been so hard.

00:37:45 Erwin

To keep it full right? That’s kind of partly why I have. Why do you have you here? And part of the point of the show is that.

00:37:51 Erwin

Share the realities.

00:37:52 Erwin

Of real estate investing? That’s right. Like so, for example, if my client who dominates normally and she hustles to be in contact with like, insurance companies, local major employers to make sure that if they need her place.

00:38:05 Erwin

Elbow and she’s telling me she’s having hustle. My point is, though, is that this isn’t easy money, no stuffs, not just falling on people.

00:38:12 Erwin

‘S laps no.

00:38:13

Right. Well, my.

00:38:13 Speaker 2

My knee jerk reaction to a lot of these investors who are trying to, you know, they they don’t have any other option to to flip their house or they’re by pre construction is I tend to.

00:38:25 Speaker 2

To try to discourage them from.

00:38:28 Speaker 2

Doing Airbnb because the first thing is you.

00:38:31 Speaker 2

Notice is that.

00:38:32 Speaker 2

If they’re just doing it for a short period of time because they’re just trying to, you know, by the time that one year, for example, that they need to put in or or it’s supposed to be owner occupied, they’re going to try to do the things like very.

00:38:45 Erwin

Cheap. That’s not your client.

00:38:47 Speaker 2

That’s not who we want to work with because we’re not. We’re not looking to.

00:38:50 Speaker 2

Do business for the next just 12 months like.

00:38:51 Erwin

OK.

00:38:52 Speaker 2

It’s the full time.

00:38:52 Speaker 2

Business for us.

00:38:54 Erwin

Well, people, people plan for short term trendy spend 1020 thousand on furniture, right. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

00:38:54 Speaker 2

And then.

00:39:00 Speaker 2

Exactly. And then to to put in that that you know that financial investment of twenty $30,000, are you really prepared to do that for only a year and then you you have all this furniture now?

00:39:12 Speaker 2

You need to, you know, to offload. So I I tried to discourage them at first because if.

00:39:16 Speaker 2

That’s not something that they really want to do then.

00:39:18 Speaker 2

And that’s technically not really the the client we want to work with.

00:39:20 Erwin

Yeah, alright, I I got lucky with mine with Irving because when I when I sold it, I didn’t want.

00:39:25 Erwin

The furniture, right?

00:39:27 Erwin

So I just said they wanted to. Yeah, they wanted it cause a doctor was moving in from out of town. Yeah. And his mother was buying him the house. Wow. Yeah. And they wanted all the furniture because it looked great. Yeah. So they walked into a fully furnished house. I’m not suggesting that’s a good exit for.

00:39:34 Speaker 3

So you’ll find.

00:39:34 Speaker 4

The brain.

00:39:42 Speaker 3

Anyone. No, because you’re selective.

00:39:43 Erwin

Yeah. Lucky. Yeah, I got lucky. Yeah.

00:39:45 Speaker 3

It’s among.

00:39:46 Speaker 3

Smaller pool of people. A lot of people.

00:39:48 Speaker 3

Want it empty?

00:39:49 Speaker 3

Yeah, you can just put in.

00:39:49

So they have their.

00:39:50

Own stuff.

00:39:51 Erwin

Exactly the client say to me looking for a home principal residence.

00:39:55 Erwin

It’s like I don’t like this house. Like, why? It’s gorgeous. Everything you want.

00:39:58 Erwin

Fits your budget. It’s beautiful.

00:40:00 Erwin

It’s like my dining room table won’t fit. Wow.

00:40:04 Erwin

OK, you see the big oversized dinner dining room table? Yeah.

00:40:10 Speaker 2

Yeah. And so it’s like.

00:40:12 Erwin

In hindsight, that house was like 8-9 hundred grand.

00:40:15 Erwin

She waited three years and then the pandemic happened. Now that house is like 1.4 so.

00:40:20 Erwin

So that dining.

00:40:21 Erwin

Room table was a $500,000 decision.

00:40:24 Speaker 3

But that’s how we make these personal decisions that you know.

00:40:29 Erwin

It is what it is, you know.

00:40:31 Erwin

I make my decisions large with the spreadsheet. You know, people make decisions with their dining room table.

00:40:36 Erwin

Not at their dining room.

00:40:37 Erwin

Table about their dining room table, yeah.

00:40:42 Erwin

So there’s so many questions to ask, how do different pricing of of of an Airbnb?

00:40:47 Speaker 3

Great question. So I mean there is different ways that you can go about it and you can spend a lot of time doing it or you can just quickly spend a couple hours. But the first thing is you want to to do it properly, which we tested.

00:41:02 Speaker 3

And we also took a course.

00:41:04 Speaker 3

On this request you to have an Excel sheet where you actually have.

00:41:08 Speaker 3

Unbiasedly rate your property against some of the top ones that you see in the neighborhood, so there’s a whole process you actually have to do some market research on there. You have to find the local competitors to yours.

00:41:20 Speaker 3

And we say local, it has to be exactly. For example, if your 3 bedroom you narrow down, what are some of the other three bedroom in the?

00:41:26 Speaker 3

Area and then you kind of rate them on how they’re designed, how their photo?

00:41:31 Speaker 3

Right. And then after that you kind of see the average. So there is a formula that we do, but if we’re just going to do this quick, what I would do is once again go on Airbnb. So I would look for a property that’s closed.

00:41:44 Speaker 3

In the region where.

00:41:45 Speaker 3

Our property will be.

00:41:47 Speaker 3

And I’ll look to see, OK, other three bedrooms. What are they charging for this time of year for various times of year? And then?

00:41:55 Speaker 3

If I notice.

00:41:57 Speaker 3

Also, if they’re charging really high, but their calendar is empty, so I have to take that into consideration and then another property is really low, but it’s fully booked. So what we normally do do is we take an average of that and we just kind of like play that out. I guess we put that pricing initially and then we monitor.

00:42:18 Speaker 3

So we monitor for the first week we see what’s the demand like. Is there a lot of inquiries and we have to constantly adjust the price. So that is I.

00:42:26 Speaker 4

Guess the quick way.

00:42:27 Speaker 3

Of setting up the price for me, do you?

00:42:30 Speaker 3

Have other ways that you do.

00:42:31 Speaker 2

Well, it’s based on a lot of it is based on supply and demand too. So depending on on how quickly things.

00:42:37 Speaker 2

Will get booked if it.

00:42:38 Speaker 2

Books quickly. Then we’ll raise the price a little bit.

00:42:42 Speaker 2

And then if?

00:42:43 Speaker 2

It’s slow. Then we’ll we’ll lower the price. So it’s always it’s hard to determine. There’s never one price. Yeah, just there’s a lot of factors that play into and we can.

00:42:52 Speaker 2

Go even as.

00:42:53 Speaker 2

Far as studying the hotels if they’re.

00:42:55 Speaker 2

Able to like a two-bedroom unit for example.

00:42:58 Erwin

Wherever you consider your competition, yeah.

00:43:00 Speaker 3

Exactly. Exactly. And so pricing is a great question because that is one of the biggest thing that you know when it comes to getting your place really full and you know increase your occupancy rate is really how flexible and how quick you can adjust your pricing.

00:43:15 Speaker 3

Basically, just because you’re place lower sometimes doesn’t mean it’s good, because if your price is lower and you get booked really quickly, there are people who will book at a higher price if the supply is really low. So you kind of missed out on those people. And when everything is booked then they have to.

00:43:33 Speaker 3

Basically, pick another property which might be a little higher. So I find like if you kind of have faith that you’re probably is nice and it’s the way that it should be where you want a certain type of clients and you’re willing to not have to get a fully booked like six months out. I guess it depends on how you are.

00:43:52 Speaker 4

As I guess as an investor.

00:43:53 Speaker 3

The host some people are in a rush to get everything booked so they will cut down. They slash down prices, right? But based on what we learned through different, I guess pricing so.

00:44:03 Speaker 3

Where is that? There’s a strategy that you don’t need to get book right away, but you want to get booked for the right price, so your revenue will be higher, so someone can have full occupancy, but the revenue will be lower than someone who’s book, let’s say at 80%, but at.

00:44:17 Speaker 3

A higher revenue.

00:44:19 Speaker 2

And ego start to play factors there’s some.

00:44:22 Speaker 2

Clients that will rent.

00:44:24 Speaker 2

You know, let’s just say we’ll throw a price of.

00:44:26 Speaker 2

$1000 a night.

00:44:28 Speaker 2

Let’s say it’s just an average Airbnb.

00:44:31 Speaker 2

People will book that because it’s at $1000 per night and they can say I’m renting an Airbnb at $1000 a night, but you can also rent that.

00:44:40 Speaker 2

Property for two.

00:44:41 Speaker 2

$100 a night. But then, now you’re attracting a different clientele. But this clientele will will, you know, they sort of value.

00:44:50 Speaker 2

Money different than somebody who’s willing to pay.

00:44:52 Speaker 2

Higher. Yeah. So, you know, there’s a lot.

00:44:54 Speaker 2

Of different factors that come.

00:44:56 Speaker 2

You know, yeah.

00:44:57 Speaker 3

It’s interesting because for the same problem we’ve seen where we increase the price and we get like gas that comes in and they’re amazing guests. And then the same you slash it off 50% and you get guests. So you figure they’re happy to be able to book a property that’s normally double in price, but they come in and they give.

00:45:13 Speaker 3

You the most problem.

00:45:14 Speaker 3

Because they’re normally the type who can afford.

00:45:17 Speaker 3

The other so see so.

00:45:21 Erwin

Because I that.

00:45:22 Erwin

That I always remind, like novice investors, I I call it.

00:45:25 Erwin

Return on grief.

00:45:26 Erwin

Like I need to be compensated for grief.

00:45:28 Erwin

Yeah, right. So if you’re a pain in my ****, the price.

00:45:31 Erwin

Needs to be higher. Yeah, right. Yeah.

00:45:33 Speaker 3

Yeah. Which we don’t mind, right? That’s why if you set the price at a certain level, you’re gonna get certain type of people, and if they?

00:45:40 Speaker 3

Demand a lot of.

00:45:41 Speaker 3

You that’s OK because you set the price to expect those demands. But the moment you start slashing.

00:45:44 Erwin

Right, right.

00:45:46 Erwin

They’re being compensated for it.

00:45:47 Speaker 3

Yeah, exactly. The moment you’re getting slashed, all these prices, they still want the same, I guess to treatment and they’re asking for a.

00:45:57 Speaker 3

Lot, now you’re just.

00:45:59 Speaker 3

The price is so low now I have to do all this too.

00:46:01 Speaker 2

Well, I mentioned it’s much like being a realtor where you know you have a client that comes in and their budget is, you know, X amount and then you have another client that comes in that their budget is twice that amount. The person whose budget if, if you’re like, right in the middle and you have the option of selling to somebody who.

00:46:20 Speaker 2

Has twice the budget. It’s a lot easier for them to make decisions versus somebody who’s.

00:46:25 Speaker 2

At the higher end.

00:46:25 Speaker 2

Of their budget. Then they start to nitpick quite a bit.

00:46:27 Speaker 2

Right.

00:46:28 Erwin

Yeah, no different than like a. Like someone who’s selling who doesn’t have much equity or their.

00:46:32 Erwin

Negative equity, right?

00:46:33 Erwin

That’s right. Decision making is very.

00:46:34 Erwin

Different. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:46:35

Right.

00:46:36 Erwin

It sounds like you have some some portfolio is suburban.

00:46:41 Erwin

And some is like traditional recreation. Cottage. Yeah, right. So let’s talk to the cottage market. The strictly recreational use properties. How has demand changed since since COVID mersus today, which is September 2023?

00:46:57 Erwin

The things fluctuated at.

00:46:58 Speaker 3

All. Yes. Well, we have a property in a couple of properties in Niagara and I think, yeah, in Crystal Beach, which is just the beach town, right, and so.

00:47:09 Erwin

Yeah, really quiet during the week.

00:47:11 Erwin

Yeah, and it’s, it’s.

00:47:12 Speaker 3

The winter months as well, right?

00:47:14 Erwin

Yeah, but come summer weekend car.

00:47:16 Speaker 3

There has been.

00:47:17 Speaker 3

A huge slowdown in since.

00:47:20 Speaker 3

I guess the peak of COVID I think during the peak of COVID, a lot of people.

00:47:24 Speaker 3

Traveling within Ontario within Canada, there’s nowhere else to go, so this was very well. It was good for a lot of people, not just us, but a lot of other people that own vacation rentals.

00:47:26 Erwin

Yeah, we’re stuck.

00:47:27 Speaker 2

Within driving distance, yeah.

00:47:36 Speaker 3

But I think the last.

00:47:37 Speaker 3

Year and going into this year, we have seen quite there’s not a lot of bookings and for the ones that do get booking, I feel like the pricing you have to really slash down prices compared to two years ago, right? So you’re kind of getting.

00:47:52 Speaker 3

Killed at both ends. Your voices are low, and then you’re booking. But if you don’t, everyone else around you, the prices.

00:47:53

And wife.

00:47:59 Speaker 3

Are low, so.

00:48:00 Speaker 3

If you keep it high and it’s hard, so we have seen a slowdown.

00:48:04 Erwin

Right. Yeah, I ask because I see all these people courses promoted for like college rentals or midterm rental from talking to people on the on the ground.

00:48:12 Erwin

Like yourselves it to me it didn’t sound. It didn’t seem to be a sound sound decision, but getting into it.

00:48:20 Erwin

As like as a pivot makes more sense. Yeah, like I have problems. I’m vacant. I don’t want long term tenants. I understand why.

00:48:27 Erwin

You want to.

00:48:27 Erwin

Pivot. Yes, I don’t think I’d want to go out there and.

00:48:30 Erwin

Buy cottage and jump into this at this time.

00:48:32 Speaker 2

Unless you can, unless you can afford to.

00:48:36 Speaker 2

Sit on the property without having tenants. I would strongly recommend against getting into recreational properties like for yeah, yeah.

00:48:38 Erwin

Right.

00:48:43 Erwin

Like acquiring a property for these trades because we’re what? What’s the entry point for a price point? What’s the entry price for for one of these?

00:48:51 Speaker 3

Well, it depends, but.

00:48:52 Erwin

3.7.

00:48:53 Speaker 4

Yeah, I mean.

00:48:55 Speaker 3

At Crystal Beach, you can still get in at I guess you.

00:48:59 Speaker 3

Million. Yeah, but the problem is those like, half a million properties don’t get a lot of crazy. It’s the one by.

00:49:05 Speaker 3

The water and.

00:49:06 Speaker 3

They’re over a million, right? Yeah. Now, if you’re going up to Muskoka or, you know, other regions you’re talking about.

00:49:12 Speaker 3

Past 1,000,000 for sure.

00:49:14 Erwin

Yeah, yeah, I seem to learn I.

00:49:14 Speaker 3

Like you know, 1-2 million.

00:49:16 Erwin

See lots of stuff. 2 million or.

00:49:18 Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, we have had friends who bought, you know, cottage, but they’re well to do and they just wanna enjoy. So then they’re gonna buy because they have the money too. That’s fine. But if you’re a client, just so that you can make money off Air BI, don’t feel like it would be a good time right now to do that because the rates are so high.

00:49:37 Speaker 3

Right. And cause you used.

00:49:39 Speaker 2

To be able to like like in Crystal Beach where it was close to us. So we we get a lot of we have a lot of conversations with investors there.

00:49:47 Speaker 2

If you had bought 4.

00:49:50 Speaker 2

Five years ago, you can afford to sit on it for the whole entire year and just make enough rental income, right? You know from the summer.

00:49:59 Erwin

Well, if you.

00:50:00 Erwin

If you were really kind of perfect, you bought during the crash of the pandemic or.

00:50:02 Speaker 2

If you bought during.

00:50:03 Speaker 2

The crash. Yeah, a large percentage.

00:50:05 Erwin

Of that community is American owned.

00:50:06 Erwin

Yes. So they couldn’t even come, so they sold.

00:50:10 Speaker 3

A lot of the properties they had to sell it because they weren’t planning on.

00:50:13 Speaker 3

Coming back anyway, right? Everyone was scared.

00:50:16 Erwin

Yeah, drink it over the.

00:50:16 Erwin

Border. Yeah, and I.

00:50:17 Speaker 2

Think they created a?

00:50:18 Speaker 2

New you know.

00:50:20 Speaker 2

What is that? It’s a tax for out of.

00:50:24 Erwin

Yeah, vacant home tax and yeah, foreign buyer tax, yeah.

00:50:28 Speaker 2

Foreign buyer taxes and things like that. So it makes it very in Crystal Beach, it’s very expensive.

00:50:35 Speaker 3

I mean, if you’ve always.

00:50:36 Speaker 3

A cottage and the price have gone down compared to the peak of let’s say COVID, and this is what you really want then? Yes, but not as an investment strategy.

00:50:46 Speaker 3

To be able.

00:50:47 Speaker 3

To rent it out and make it.

00:50:49 Speaker 3

Comfortable. No, it doesn’t. Yeah.

00:50:49 Erwin

Quit your job.

00:50:52 Erwin

Enjoy your college and live for free and.

00:50:54 Erwin

No, they’re crushing my dreams seriously.

00:50:57

It’s a lot of.

00:50:57

Work too. We just put it.

00:50:58

Even if you live.

00:50:59 Erwin

Together their course so we can.

00:51:00 Erwin

Promise people you can quit.

00:51:01 Erwin

Your job and live.

00:51:02 Speaker 2

In your country, but even even then, like even if you live in the city and you’re commuting an hour, like, yeah, prices too, a lot of.

00:51:10 Speaker 2

Those things.

00:51:11 Speaker 2

Unless you’re.

00:51:11 Speaker 3

You know we we we do.

00:51:12 Erwin

Driving life from the money, I can afford a.

00:51:14 Speaker 3

Helicopter. You know, we have friends where we told them to get into the air B, but they bought their cottage long ago and they were thinking of moving to another property and.

00:51:23 Speaker 3

They weren’t sure so.

00:51:25 Speaker 3

You know, they tried it and it worked for them. They were able to rent every saying like three years ago. They made a lot.

00:51:30 Speaker 3

Of money. But it’s a lot of work too.

00:51:33 Speaker 3

For them and now see and now they’re looking. So now they just got a long term tenant, even though the money is good. But at the end of the day, after they pay everything and all the work they put in.

00:51:34 Erwin

No, no, I don’t like a.

00:51:35 Erwin

Lot of work.

00:51:44 Speaker 3

In it’s not as easy as it used to be, right? Yeah.

00:51:47 Erwin

Yeah, yeah.

00:51:49 Erwin

You tell me your experience, but my college.

00:51:51 Erwin

Friends like they all complain about the amount of maintenance there.

00:51:54 Erwin

Is. Yeah, I can live with the maintenance.

00:51:55 Erwin

In my own home I live in.

00:51:57 Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah.

00:51:58 Erwin

I can’t imagine having.

00:51:59 Erwin

A second property to take care.

00:52:00 Speaker 3

Yeah, doesn’t.

00:52:01 Erwin

Of and then also I’m hearing like like my good friend with college is it’s challenging to find tradespeople.

00:52:06 Speaker 3

Yeah, for sure.

00:52:07 Speaker 2

It’s tough finding any any.

00:52:08 Speaker 4

Help I remember. Yeah, I.

00:52:09 Speaker 2

Dinners, tradespeople.

00:52:10 Speaker 3

Remember, we were managing a cottage and there was issue with the septic tank and you know the guests are there on the weekends. So you want to get.

00:52:17 Speaker 3

It done there.

00:52:18 Speaker 3

But no one’s available until let’s.

00:52:20 Speaker 3

Say a day after Monday.

00:52:21 Erwin

The city don’t don’t know how to take care.

00:52:22 Erwin

Of a septic tank.

00:52:24 Erwin

I am on the septic tank so I understand like there’s many things that can’t go in there.

00:52:28 Speaker 3

Yeah, exactly.

00:52:29 Speaker 2

And even even you have, you have.

00:52:31 Speaker 2

Cleaners that you know they don’t wanna work on the weekends, for example. They only wanna clean Monday to Friday. Yeah, and turnover days. Sunday. Usually in mess. Yeah. It’s like we have a fiber one we.

00:52:42 Erwin

Have the whole community, we have a.

00:52:44 Erwin

Time our window to clean everything.

00:52:47 Speaker 4

Yeah. And a lot of.

00:52:48 Speaker 3

These colleges are in smaller communities, so it’s not like you know, you’re able to find your cleaners. Your handyman like how you would in the City of Toronto. There’s so many, right? Yeah.

00:52:56 Erwin

Right, right. Yeah. Because you can probably if your.

00:53:00 Erwin

In days, you can probably find it cleaner within the same building. Yeah. Yeah. On the on the Facebook group for the building. Oh, yeah, they don’t know cleaner than five people. Yeah. And they’re in the same damn building. It’s so easy. Yeah. But and yeah, people forget, like, cottage country houses are like acres apart. So, yeah.

00:53:16 Erwin

We don’t have the same density. It’s not as easy, so this isn’t sound as rosy as definitely not.

00:53:23 Erwin

So what do you guys do it what do you?

00:53:25 Erwin

Guys do well.

00:53:27 Erwin

Because you have your own properties that you make that you rented a.

00:53:29 Erwin

Vacation as well.

00:53:31 Erwin

Yeah, because how you started hasn’t, like, hasn’t changed a whole lot. You still you still rent out your own properties for vacation purposes as well.

00:53:38 Speaker 3

Yeah, we you know.

00:53:39 Speaker 3

What the reason why we per se still do it for?

00:53:43 Speaker 3

That’s the one we have in Christ.

00:53:44 Speaker 3

Beach is for us. Unfortunately, we still don’t want to deal with long term renters in that in that space, right? Just the type of tenants that you would attract.

00:53:50 Erwin

I don’t know why.

00:53:56 Speaker 3

I mean we have other properties that we rent out to long term tenants, but there’s headaches with that too. And thank goodness. So far our tenants been great, but we had many friends who the tenants won’t leave like I’m sure you have many of those stories. Yeah. So you know, they’re out eight months.

00:54:11

For the next.

00:54:11 Erwin

Ago, all the tents that stay and my house is like $1200 under.

00:54:16 Erwin

Yeah, that, that’s that’s a problem too. But that too, it’s better than not paying rent so.

00:54:22 Speaker 3

Yeah, at least you changed some.

00:54:24 Speaker 3

Right. But however, we don’t know if we’re gonna keep it for long either, right? Because as a long term strategy, it’s not gonna work. Yeah.

00:54:30 Erwin

Right. So you can hedge this way, right?

00:54:33 Erwin

And and then what’s next for you? Actually, I have other questions as well around like around like qualifying good property like properties you want to manage. Are there any certain amenities or location, anything that like, what’s the secret sauce like, for example, a client of mine?

00:54:47 Erwin

I think you put it hot, hot tub. Almost every one of its properties. Of course that doesn’t work for every property.

00:54:52

OK.

00:54:54 Speaker 2

Water features are.

00:54:56 Speaker 2

Right are definitely a a big seller. So when it comes.

00:54:59 Speaker 2

Your renters.

00:54:59 Erwin

To like a lawn sprinkler.

00:55:01 Erwin

Slip, slip and slide carpet.

00:55:04 Speaker 4

If you if.

00:55:04 Speaker 3

The house already has a pool that’s great, like for the summer months, right? But hot tub? Yeah, definitely. Or if it’s near water.

00:55:10 Erwin

Hot tub.

00:55:14 Speaker 3

Like if it’s you have access to.

00:55:15 Speaker 3

Water or lake or river?

00:55:18 Speaker 3

Where they can do all sorts of water activities like we have a property in Mississauga that’s on like the. Yeah, the river. Yeah. Yeah. No, it is.

00:55:30 Erwin

Worth a fortune, then?

00:55:32 Speaker 2

Yes, I think it’s $3,000,000. House, it’s beautiful.

00:55:34 Speaker 3

Yeah, it’s a home.

00:55:36 Speaker 3

And I guess she.

00:55:37 Speaker 3

That is interested in doing Airbnb and trying it out, so we’re managing it for her and we have guests who would come in, they go fishing, they would take the kayak out and in the winter, they can go skating cuz.

00:55:46 Speaker 2

Yeah, there’s salmon in here.

00:55:51 Speaker 2

As long as.

00:55:51 Speaker 2

The temperature is cold enough, it freezes fully over.

00:55:54 Speaker 2

And they can just pave it and.

00:55:56 Speaker 2

He can go ice.

00:55:56 Speaker 2

Skating right in.

00:55:57 Speaker 2

The backyard? Yeah.

00:55:58 Erwin

And what is that place?

00:55:59 Erwin

Rent for so I believe it.

00:56:01 Speaker 3

Has right now we have just changed the price but it was minimal at least $1000 a night.

00:56:07 Erwin

And then is.

00:56:08 Speaker 2

There a minimum period that you have to have rent for minimum 3.

00:56:09 Speaker 3

Yeah, three nights.

00:56:11 Speaker 3

Night. Yeah, it was pretty booked in the summer.

00:56:15 Erwin

And then what do you expect for the winter?

00:56:17 Speaker 3

In the winter, currently for September, it’s at like 60%, right, but it still has. So we had to decrease the price down a little bit and we’re actually looking. So it’s a whole full whole house, but there’s different strategy. So in the winter, what we’re planning to do now is we’re splitting because they have actually two separate entrance. So we’re splitting the house out where we’re renting out.

00:56:39 Speaker 3

To smaller units because.

00:56:40 Speaker 3

Because people are not traveling as much in groups. So in the summer we notice people who are renting it out would be like either executives or like groups that are willing to stay in the whole house, and they’re willing to pay the price for the whole house. Yeah, but they’re they’re people that stay there for 3-4 nights and they’re paying $5000.

00:56:54 Erwin

That’s a lot of money.

00:57:01 Speaker 3

And they were happy with that. But we know in the winter time they’re not going to get.

00:57:05 Speaker 3

As many of.

00:57:06 Speaker 3

People who traveling. So we are splitting the property in half. We’re upstairs 3 bedroom downstairs, 2 bedrooms. So a smaller family can still rent it out.

00:57:16 Speaker 3

Well, and we even have properties where we even consider right now to split into room in terms of room. We have friends in Toronto who’ve done that. The challenge with that is you do need to have a.

00:57:29 Speaker 3

Local person who’s available, it’s like running.

00:57:31 Speaker 3

A mini hotel.

00:57:32 Speaker 3

Right. Like it’s, you know, just the room.

00:57:34 Speaker 3

By room and companies.

00:57:36 Speaker 3

That do room.

00:57:37 Speaker 3

By room they have to charge management fee a lot higher. Yeah. For example, yeah, like 30% minimum, 30% yeah.

00:57:39 Speaker 2

They charge a much than the fee.

00:57:42 Erwin

Like 30. OK. Yeah. Yeah. Because I I’ve seen. I’ve seen, like, the top end I’ve seen.

00:57:49 Erwin

I’ve seen like high 30s. Yeah. Yeah. For like, like luxury management? Yeah. Not single properties luxury. It’s like they’re luxury.

00:57:51 Speaker 3

OK.

00:57:57 Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:57:58 Speaker 4

They give you.

00:57:58 Speaker 4

Everything right.

00:57:59 Erwin

I don’t know what they do.

00:58:00 Speaker 2

Luxurious for the investor.

00:58:02 Speaker 4

Yeah. So.

00:58:03 Speaker 3

We are actually looking to see.

00:58:05 Speaker 3

We’re testing different things where we can rent A room by room, like we have a friend who rents A room.

00:58:10 Speaker 3

Room and her guests don’t even have access to a kitchen. These are just like one or two.

00:58:15 Speaker 2

You’re just there from sleep. Yeah. Yeah. In the bathroom. Yeah.

00:58:15 Speaker 3

Nights guest. But she says it’s fully booked and she’s able to, like, the income is really good.

00:58:20 Speaker 3

Compared to when she was doing.

00:58:22 Speaker 3

It as a full unit so.

00:58:23 Speaker 3

It depends, but she’s in the.

00:58:24 Speaker 3

City of Toronto. So it makes sense.

00:58:25 Erwin

Very good.

00:58:26 Speaker 3

Yeah. Yeah, because.

00:58:27 Erwin

I have new research on like Tokyo Hotels and stuff and they do like.

00:58:30 Erwin

The pod.

00:58:31 Erwin

Maybe that’s your next step, where it’s just, you know, it’s really just a sleeping area.

00:58:36 Erwin

You know what I mean? Like.

00:58:37 Erwin

It’s like a tube.

00:58:37 Speaker 4

Yeah, because that’s all.

00:58:39 Speaker 3

They need, right?

00:58:39 Speaker 3

To sleep overnight and.

00:58:40 Speaker 3

Then they’re traveling out and about.

00:58:44 Erwin

Like $40 a night.

00:58:49

Much though that you.

00:58:50 Speaker 2

Know that’s great.

00:58:52 Speaker 3

Here we have to look into that.

00:58:55 Speaker 4

That’s going that.

00:58:55 Speaker 4

I wonder what the laws are.

00:58:57

It is.

00:58:57 Erwin

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw I.

00:59:01 Erwin

Saw the saddest thing, like a City Council on Twitter, posted a.

00:59:05 Erwin

Bad and it looked like the bedrooms were in a crawl space. Right? So it’s just a mattress on the floor. And then, like, really cheap wardrobe. Like, like, probably some sort of wire frame and cloth. You know, I mean, I think you can buy them. Probably.

00:59:19 Erwin

Like team or.

00:59:19 Erwin

Something like that. Yeah. But yeah, it was like.

00:59:21 Erwin

3 something a.

00:59:22 Erwin

Room a room. It wasn’t really a room. It’s like it’s like.

00:59:26 Erwin

The curtain wall and again it’s their crawl.

00:59:28 Speaker 3

Oh my goodness.

00:59:29 Erwin

Space. So like.

00:59:30 Erwin

This the their ceiling looked 4 feet in Windsor. Yeah, City Council.

00:59:34 Speaker 4

Posted it mine. That’s sad.

00:59:35 Speaker 2

Reminds me of college days. I I remember living in on campus at.

00:59:40 Speaker 2

Or Lou and two of my buddies were renting A2 bedroom apartment and I came in.

00:59:44 Speaker 2

There I walled off half of.

00:59:46 Speaker 2

The kitchen and the living room and.

00:59:49 Speaker 2

I created a little.

00:59:49 Speaker 2

Bedroom. There it was great. I woke up to them cooking breakfast every morning for you.

00:59:55 Speaker 2

No, they’re cooking for themselves. When I smelled everything.

00:59:56 Speaker 4

You know what?

00:59:59 Erwin

Need better roommates.

00:59:59 Speaker 4

I’ve never met.

01:00:00 Speaker 3

A student rental, but I’ve heard a lot of student rentals. I mean, there’s a great landlords and then there are also landlords who cram all those students into crazy spaces. So I can.

01:00:09 Speaker 3

Imagine you know.

01:00:11 Speaker 3

That would happen.

01:00:12 Erwin

Now, you may remember you talked about like your early property management experience of being RB host and things seem to have changed a lot like for example like my experience often when I make it send an inquiry like it’s really quick like there seems to be a lot of auto response tools or whatnot, yeah, to explain that like what is it like is it like this is like AI and these like built in chat?

01:00:33 Erwin

Do they give you or do you are you? Are you just sitting there waiting for our inquiries to come in with your phone?

01:00:39 Speaker 3

Yeah. No, I mean for no, for us. So as soon as you send an inquiry.

01:00:41 Speaker 2

I’m always on my phone waiting to reply.

01:00:46 Speaker 3

You can set up these automated messages where you’re like. Thank you for your inquiry. Someone will get back to you, but generally want someone on our team as soon as we see an inquiry that comes in, we will respond to the inquiry. So yes, so.

01:00:58 Erwin

You have like staff that are just.

01:01:00 Speaker 3

At the desk. Yeah. No, no, no. They’re work from home, so.

01:01:03 Speaker 3

We have, I.

01:01:04 Speaker 3

I wouldn’t say a staff, that partner, partner within our company that we took on to help us manage all the Mississauga.

01:01:12 Speaker 3

Properties, right? And so. But aside from the Mississauga properties, any other properties that we take on? Yeah, it’s me and John. Basically, we’re on the phone all the time. We’re responding to our clients, but we do plan to actually have staff that would be full time to be able to answer to everyone.

01:01:32 Speaker 3

Right now, we’re able to manage most of the responses ourselves because we find it’s how you respond.

01:01:37 Speaker 3

That’s well because the automated messages sound automated, so you can see that and.

01:01:42 Speaker 2

Yeah, you can get away with certain messages being automated, but there’s some that need the personal touch.

01:01:46 Speaker 3

Yeah. And most of the time they inquire by asking a very specific question. So you have to answer to that question before they’re continue to take the next step, right.

01:01:56 Speaker 2

Although thinking about it, I think you.

01:01:58 Speaker 2

Can use AI.

01:02:01 Speaker 3

We have to look into that one, we.

01:02:01 Speaker 2

To respond.

01:02:02 Speaker 3

Have it. Yeah, I.

01:02:03 Speaker 2

Know, but it’s like your platform.

01:02:04 Erwin

Is probably a little more difficult.

01:02:05

Yeah, I don’t know.

01:02:07 Erwin

And also at the same time, I’m sure they’re working on it just to make.

01:02:09

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:02:09 Erwin

It easier for you.

01:02:11 Speaker 3

Yeah, I’m.

01:02:12 Speaker 3

Everybody has changed so much in terms of the way that the app is and all their features. They’re constantly changing, they’re adding new features, new things, just the way it looks, the way it lays out. And so we’re.

01:02:23 Speaker 2

Just just like just like.

01:02:25 Speaker 2

You know with communicating through text a lot can get misinterpreted.

01:02:29 Speaker 2

Through text. So we’ve even used. We’ve actually I’ve used AI to reply to certain guests who, you know, maybe sometimes we’re not on the same page where they might be getting offended by the way we’re communicating and what have you. So I’ll you know, I’ll type into, you know.

01:02:45 Speaker 3

That TPT?

01:02:47

And I’ll be like, you know, like this.

01:02:49 Speaker 2

You know, we I need you to reply to this message and you know, have this set, you know, certain tone and you know, and that should be built in by.

01:02:57 Speaker 2

Now it should be it should.

01:02:58 Speaker 2

Be it should be.

01:02:59 Speaker 3

It’s not, it’s not, but yeah, it should.

01:03:01 Erwin

Me this for example I’ve I’ve communicated with people in different countries and it’s obvious don’t speak English. They’re probably using some sort of.

01:03:09 Erwin

Translate function that that.

01:03:10 Speaker 3

They do, yes. So they do have that because we have guests that are from other countries. And when they message us, it’s in English. But you can tell they don’t speak English, right? Just certain things and so.

01:03:22 Speaker 3

They message in their own language and it translates back to English to.

01:03:25 Erwin

Us. Yeah. So how about red flags? What? What are you, what are you looking for? Cause I’m sure you don’t like just let anybody run from you. I actually, I know you’ve you’ve.

01:03:34 Erwin

Had some nightmare.

01:03:34 Erwin

Stories we had to learn.

01:03:37 Speaker 3

Right. I’m the reflex for me is generally if it’s their first time on the site. So usually if someone inquires and I look and there’s no reviews and it says it’s their first trip, we always qualify the guest. And we said what brings you to the area we noticed. So you know we say it’s straight we notice it’s.

01:03:56 Speaker 3

Your first time.

01:03:57 Speaker 3

Using this platform, you’re familiar.

01:04:00 Speaker 3

You OK with all the House rules?

01:04:03 Speaker 3

And so I think those are some of the basic things that we.

01:04:06 Speaker 3

Do anything else? There’s.

01:04:08 Speaker 2

Timelines like a certain minimum amount of night.

01:04:12 Speaker 2

I think one of the big red flags is if somebody’s looking to book for one night, you know, tend to they.

01:04:17 Speaker 2

Tend to be parties.

01:04:18 Erwin

Yeah, but they’re asking, though, do you do?

01:04:20 Erwin

You allow what single night booking on.

01:04:22 Speaker 2

Your platform, we.

01:04:23 Speaker 3

Yeah, we don’t.

01:04:23 Speaker 2

Do a minimum of two nights.

01:04:25 Speaker 2

On all properties.

01:04:25 Speaker 3

But they still would they.

01:04:26 Speaker 3

Still would message and ask you like, hey, we noticed yours two nights. Minimum. Can we do it for one night and generally we say no right but.

01:04:27 Erwin

Yes, yes.

01:04:30

OK.

01:04:36 Speaker 3

So red flags for us is usually in their reviews, and if it’s their first time and I always if they have reviews, I always read through the reviews to see what the other hosts say about them, right?

01:04:46

Another thing.

01:04:47 Speaker 2

Would be their age.

01:04:48 Speaker 2

So, much like renting a car, you should be at least.

01:04:53 Speaker 2

Yeah, 25 I’ve you know.

01:04:54 Erwin

The maybe 25 are in.

01:04:55 Erwin

The car or used?

01:04:56 Speaker 3

To be, yeah.

01:04:57 Speaker 2

25 I think it is.

01:04:58 Speaker 2

So you know, I mean we’ve made exceptions because sometimes we don’t want to judge people and what have you. But for the most part, if it depends on how they reply and what have you, if they tend to be under 25, like we’ve said it as a as a a rule or what have you that when they’re booking, they have to be at least.

01:05:16 Speaker 3

25 depends on the.

01:05:18 Speaker 3

Client some of our clients.

01:05:19 Speaker 3

As they don’t care as they don’t care the age as long as you know they obey the house rules, but a lot of clients are strict on that, so we respect.

01:05:27 Speaker 3

That and so we said that.

01:05:29 Speaker 3

But yeah, we do make exceptions except when the exceptions kind of, you know, burn us and throw us back in the face. Like up we knew.

01:05:38 Speaker 3

It you know.

01:05:39 Speaker 2

And then there’s.

01:05:40 Speaker 2

Location. So if somebody lives in Mississauga and they’re renting a place in Mississauga, yeah.

01:05:47 Speaker 3

For one night.

01:05:48 Speaker 2

Well, yeah, for one or.

01:05:49 Speaker 3

Or two nights? Yeah.

01:05:50 Speaker 2

Two nights, sometimes a lot of times nowadays it’ll be just for, you know, their book.

01:05:54 Speaker 2

For, you know, they’ve started visiting.

01:05:56 Erwin

Yeah. Thanks for a wedding.

01:05:57 Speaker 3

Or nothing. Yeah, yeah, which is understandable. So I find as long as if they’re willing to communicate with you, not short answer.

01:06:04 Speaker 3

They they take their time and just have the conversation, then usually they’re pretty good guests because they want also good reviews for future bookings as well too, right?

01:06:15 Erwin

Because some places make your garbage with you.

01:06:20 Erwin

Yeah. So we didn’t have any room for garbage, so we.

01:06:23 Erwin

Said to the host, please.

01:06:24 Erwin

Charge us. We’re not taking the.

01:06:26 Erwin

Garbage, yeah.

01:06:27 Erwin

Like you, you save your $35 garbage fee. Just charge us.

01:06:30 Erwin

They didn’t charge us for us and they gave.

01:06:31 Erwin

Us a bad review.

01:06:34 Speaker 3

Let’s fix.

01:06:34 Erwin

That’s weird.

01:06:35 Speaker 3

You know there there’s.

01:06:36 Speaker 3

Both, right. There’s good hosts and bad hosts. And then there’s good guests and bad guests, right? But no, we would never do that for us. We take care of all the garbage.

01:06:42 Erwin

Which is also funny.

01:06:44 Erwin

They allow us to reboot as.

01:06:45 Erwin

Well over the next.

01:06:48 Erwin

Cancelling got something else, but it was our backup.

01:06:52 Erwin

And then on the other side, like I’m empathetic with with landlords, I don’t know why. No kidding.

01:06:57 Erwin

So actually when they actually in town for like, I’m here with like, we went to Ottawa for example, I’m here with allow know who’s coming? Yeah, they didn’t ask like I’ll be with my wife. Yeah. And my videographer, we are for work. We’re going to be doing some interviews, you know, feel free to Google my name. It’s very unique. You’ll find my LinkedIn and you’ll find out.

01:07:16 Erwin

Oh, that’s great. Great.

01:07:17 Erwin

Yeah. Again, I can. I can empathize with what you’re looking for. What you’re screaming for.

01:07:21 Speaker 3

Right, for sure. Ohh I do wanna add is if they wanna take it off of the app. Yeah, because.

01:07:28 Erwin

They explain why they want to.

01:07:29 Erwin

Take it off the app. Yeah, because.

01:07:30 Speaker 3

Back then there was a I think, last.

01:07:32 Speaker 4

Year I I don’t see.

01:07:33 Speaker 3

It as many anymore but.

01:07:35 Speaker 3

Last year I got the sleuth of just inquiries.

01:07:39 Speaker 3

It would be.

01:07:40 Speaker 3

Asian actually business owners from New York, they’re always in New York, and they’re coming to Toronto to research the market, and they are willing to pay $10,000 for a week at a property. But they need to talk to me on WhatsApp or phone first and then.

01:07:44 Speaker 2

It’s always, yeah.

01:07:58 Speaker 3

Instead of booking, they would just ask a bunch of questions and so that is also red flag for me is when.

01:08:04 Erwin

What is their objective of these serious or?

01:08:06 Speaker 2

We have no idea.

01:08:06 Erwin

Is a scam.

01:08:08 Speaker 2

We feel like it’s a scam.

01:08:08 Speaker 3

That is probably a scam. See, there are scams going on, but I.

01:08:11 Speaker 2

Well, anytime they anytime they’ve request to.

01:08:14 Speaker 2

Chat with you.

01:08:15 Speaker 2

On another platform, then, that’s all like.

01:08:17 Speaker 3

But yeah, but it’s just the way that they say it. They’re like, oh, I’m on business trip, but we have people who do want to take it off of the app to save on the fees. So you kind of have to gauge to and.

01:08:30 Speaker 3

If you’re willing.

01:08:31 Speaker 3

To take it off the app to save our.

01:08:34 Speaker 3

Fees, I mean, in the past we’ve done it.

01:08:36 Speaker 3

We’ve actually based on, I guess, our conversation. We felt like it was someone we can.

01:08:40 Speaker 3

Plus, we kind of figure a way to get on the phone and through e-mail and they pay us directly and thank goodness they left our place. Well, nothing happened, but that’s a risk you have to willing to take, right cause anything can happen.

01:08:51 Erwin

I heard this called it heard this comment in colleges cause because people are habitual, right? They want the same week. Yeah. Every summer. Yeah. Yeah. And so I just, you know.

01:09:00 Speaker 2

Repeat repeat customers is you.

01:09:02 Speaker 3

Know that that we don’t mind to do direct.

01:09:04 Speaker 2

It’s the first time we’ve.

01:09:04 Speaker 3

Like they can book directly.

01:09:05 Speaker 2

Said that.

01:09:06 Erwin

Immediately want to.

01:09:07 Erwin

Go off, OK.

01:09:07 Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We never talked to them before, right. And they just.

01:09:11 Erwin

Might take off, so explain your protections as being a, B Airbnb host on Airbnb. What are your protections? What’s the benefits staying on versus going off?

01:09:19 Speaker 4

So for.

01:09:20 Speaker 4

Us well, they.

01:09:21 Speaker 3

Have the $2,000,000 damage insurance. Yeah. Air cover. So anytime a guest damaged your property or break something, you make sure you get proof. You make sure you.

01:09:32 Speaker 3

Ask your cleaners for photos or videos.

01:09:35 Speaker 3

Then generally they make you put through a claim to the guest, and if the guest doesn’t is not willing to pay and I find usually if it’s a big amount the guest just not willing to.

01:09:46 Speaker 3

Pay their be be will pay it out for.

01:09:48 Speaker 3

Them, yeah.

01:09:50 Speaker 3

Like a few 1000.

01:09:51 Speaker 3

Dollars. They will deny it, you know? Yeah.

01:09:53 Speaker 2

Well, it depends on the.

01:09:54 Speaker 2

Damage, right? Like if if.

01:09:56 Speaker 4

Like it wasn’t us.

01:09:57 Speaker 2

Group comes in and they completely.

01:09:59 Speaker 2

Trashed the place they they would cover up to 2 million.

01:10:01 Speaker 3

Dollars. Yeah, we haven’t had that happening and I don’t.

01:10:04 Speaker 3

Want to try that? But apparently.

01:10:06 Speaker 3

Yeah, they will cover up.

01:10:08 Speaker 3

The amount, right?

01:10:09 Speaker 2

But Airbnb is, for the most part, as an owner and a host, they’re probably the most accommodating to to owners and hosts. Compared to the VRBO’s or in booking dot Coms, and what have you, they’ve.

01:10:20 Speaker 3

They’re pretty quick when it comes to damaged claims, right?

01:10:26 Speaker 2

Even had a a downtown property that, unfortunately.

01:10:29 Speaker 2

The guest came in, they.

01:10:30 Speaker 2

Got bedbugs. We don’t know if they brought the bedbugs or if they were there.

01:10:34 Speaker 2

But Airbnb?

01:10:38 Speaker 3

Pay for.

01:10:38 Speaker 2

It pay for everything you know.

01:10:39 Speaker 4

Yeah. Yeah, because I think.

01:10:41 Speaker 2

And it’s hard to prove who did it right.

01:10:42 Speaker 3

Yeah, because with the bed bugs, they know, I feel it’s because they know that once you become a host on air being you’re subject yourself. Yeah. So I think it’s a smart move on them that they cover it for.

01:10:48 Erwin

Yeah, we were much higher risk we were.

01:10:49 Erwin

Way higher risk.

01:10:52 Speaker 3

The inspection because it’s yeah.

01:10:54 Speaker 3

You don’t know who brought it. It could have been the.

01:10:56 Speaker 3

Past three guests, right. You just never know.

01:10:58 Erwin

Oh no. But like, you know, just putting my if I put my insurance hat on you, you blame. And when you owned it and it wasn’t an Airbnb, the bug bugs were there. So yeah, that should be your problem. You know what I mean? Because we experienced it as landlords.

01:11:13 Erwin

We we got.

01:11:14 Erwin

Churches never had cockroaches until you moved in. Did I put the the previous 10 foot in there? Or you been living there for three years and now you have?

01:11:17 Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah.

01:11:23 Erwin

Them I wonder, put them.

01:11:24 Speaker 3

There, the people would deny if they can, right?

01:11:24 Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah.

01:11:28 Erwin

Like I don’t know where they came from. You’ve been living there by yourself for three years.

01:11:34 Erwin

And this is the first time that, yeah.

01:11:36 Erwin

We’ve never seen. They were just. Well, that’s.

01:11:39 Speaker 3

This case, like our guest, came in for a week and it’s now like at the end of the week. And they said there’s bed bugs. So now we’re like, so when you first came.

01:11:47 Speaker 3

The first day, did you not experience to see like?

01:11:48 Erwin

Yeah, yeah.

01:11:50 Speaker 3

It’s hard, right?

01:11:50 Erwin

I know it’s hard.

01:11:51 Erwin

Is it cause if for?

01:11:52 Erwin

Example they came from some.

01:11:53 Erwin

Like my, my parents have picked up at bugs in like 5.

01:11:56 Erwin

Star hotels in Europe.

01:11:57 Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah.

01:11:57 Erwin

Right. And if you they, if you were the next stop, then they brought them with them. Yeah. They would have known they would know.

01:12:04 Erwin

Seems to be a higher concentration of bedbugs in.

01:12:06 Speaker 3

My luggage, but as a host, the first thing you do is you.

01:12:12 Speaker 3

Offer a full refund.

01:12:13 Speaker 3

I guess because they still can leave a review.

01:12:16 Speaker 3

Right. And it’s hard to argue.

01:12:18 Speaker 3

Even if they brought it.

01:12:18 Speaker 3

In what are you going to do?

01:12:19

But that’s where.

01:12:19 Speaker 2

You go you, you start.

01:12:20 Speaker 2

To as long as you’ve done your your homework.

01:12:22 Speaker 2

And you’ve read the reviews.

01:12:23 Speaker 2

From their previous hosts a lot of times if they’ve got a good reputation.

01:12:25 Speaker 3

And they.

01:12:28 Speaker 2

They’ve earned that for a.

01:12:29 Erwin

Right, hang on. If you give, if you return your money, are they still allowed to give a review?

01:12:29 Speaker 2

Reason, but that’s true.

01:12:34 Erwin

Yeah, yes. So I can still give you a bad review and because I see that on.

01:12:34 Speaker 4

They did, yes.

01:12:36 Speaker 3

That’s what we want, yes.

01:12:37 Erwin

Amazon, for example, yeah.

01:12:38 Erwin

This is a piece of crap I returned.

01:12:39 Erwin

To get all.

01:12:40 Erwin

My money? One star? Yes, that’s.

01:12:42 Speaker 2

Like that sounds like good customer service.

01:12:42 Speaker 3

Exactly what happens? Yeah, yeah. Yes, they can still give you review.

01:12:51 Speaker 4

I know, right?

01:12:51 Erwin

That should be qualified.

01:12:53

I know, right? I agree.

01:12:55 Erwin

That should be a qualified review like as in like when you asterisk like it cost you nothing. You stayed for free, you get your money.

01:13:01 Speaker 3

Back. Whatever. Yeah, exactly. I feel like if you get your money back.

01:13:04 Speaker 3

You’re not.

01:13:04 Speaker 3

Even right.

01:13:05

More like.

01:13:06 Erwin

So you were unresponsive. One star, your own responsive.

01:13:10 Erwin

You didn’t really lose anything. You didn’t really invest anything. You didn’t really lose anything. You get a give.

01:13:14 Erwin

A1 star review.

01:13:15 Speaker 3

Yeah. And a one star review can really impact a listing like everybody’s so strict now. They actually are spending a lot of listings that have three stars and below.

01:13:26 Speaker 4

Yeah. Wow, yeah.

01:13:27 Speaker 2

And just to give you perspective like.

01:13:29 Speaker 3

So it’s they hold so.

01:13:30 Speaker 2

Much power. The maximum you can get is five stars, and as soon as you lose or get rated, anything less than five stars, you can never have a 5 star.

01:13:41 Speaker 2

Record ever again.

01:13:42 Speaker 3

It takes a while.

01:13:43 Speaker 2

No, you can never go back to five. You can get to 499. You can never get.

01:13:47 Speaker 2

Back to five stars.

01:13:48 Speaker 4

So I guess now.

01:13:49 Speaker 3

That as a host we are very like aware of when we are traveling and booking as a guest of how the reviews really impact, OK.

01:13:57 Erwin

Post business, I think everyone asked for reviews is that things are the industry practice. How do you how do you ask for them? How do you maintain them?

01:14:04 Speaker 3

Ohh, usually in our checkout message we have an automated checkout message that says.

01:14:11 Speaker 3

You know what can we hope we’ve done everything to be able to get the five star we actually suggest to us for us to get a 5 star review. If there were anything we hope that we had it all resolved. And generally if you see if they had a great experience and nothing happened.

01:14:30 Speaker 3

That message is enough, but if there has been things that happened, then we would send out a custom message where we’re like, you know, we know this happened, but.

01:14:38 Speaker 3

We were able to solve it or resolved it for.

01:14:41 Speaker 3

You would you mind?

01:14:42 Speaker 3

So if there’s still feedback to give it to us personally, direct, but to leave a public review that you know it’s not damaging. So we would ask for that.

01:14:51 Speaker 3

And then a couple days.

01:14:52 Speaker 3

Later we send them a reminder for review, right?

01:14:55 Erwin

Yeah. When Adam, Cherry and I are being in Ottawa, the door locking system was just so difficult. Like, I understand, I’ve worked in computer industry in this my.

01:15:05 Erwin

Entire career.

01:15:06 Erwin

For previous to being full time real estate.

01:15:09 Erwin

And like it was, I couldn’t ship. No one else could have the app.

01:15:13 Erwin

But me. Mm-hmm. So the.

01:15:14 Erwin

Other guests didn’t had no access and then called me and get and get it in. And then like it was just so.

01:15:19 Speaker 2

Difficult and like the August smart lock.

01:15:22 Speaker 4

There’s some smart ones that are not.

01:15:23 Erwin

Great. Yes. And so I. And so it’s like otherwise.

01:15:27 Erwin

The place is gorgeous.

01:15:28 Erwin

Yeah, yeah. There’s no short on parking less.

01:15:30 Erwin

Than they said it was.

01:15:31 Erwin

So I chose not to leave a review.

01:15:33 Erwin

Because it wouldn’t.

01:15:33 Erwin

Been five stars, so I just chose.

01:15:35 Erwin

Not to leave.

01:15:35 Speaker 4

A review. You know what that actually is the preferred way. So for us, I’d rather.

01:15:40 Speaker 3

That the guests.

01:15:41 Speaker 3

Don’t leave a leave a review and just give us the.

01:15:44 Speaker 3

Feedback. Yeah, if they.

01:15:45 Speaker 3

Feel they can’t be honest, like in.

01:15:47 Speaker 3

A review you have.

01:15:48 Speaker 3

To you want to be able to.

01:15:50 Speaker 3

And if you can’t leave a good review, then don’t leave it at all. So that’s what we would do.

01:15:54 Erwin

Yeah. So yeah.

01:15:56 Speaker 3

So even for guests, I mean some guests I feel.

01:16:00 Speaker 3

Like if I leave a review it might hinder them from booking for other, but some of the things they did is not terrible.

01:16:07 Speaker 3

Like I so.

01:16:07 Speaker 3

I would still give them a feedback I say in the future if you’re looking to rent again, make sure you look out for these things because it would go a long way and would help the host. We’re just going to let you.

01:16:17 Speaker 3

Know but if?

01:16:18 Speaker 3

I put it in a review and give you like a.

01:16:20 Speaker 3

4 three star it might impact right? And so just communicating to each other like human beings, yeah.

01:16:22 Erwin

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:16:26 Erwin

Hmm, yeah, yeah, just fixing. Changing the lock is not hard.

01:16:29

It’s quite pretty expensive too.

01:16:30 Speaker 3

No, that, that that is not hard. Yeah. Did you tell him that?

01:16:34 Erwin

Ah, it’s too busy.

01:16:37 Erwin

They’ll figure it out when.

01:16:38 Erwin

Someone else will someone.

01:16:39 Speaker 4

And also.

01:16:39 Erwin

Else will give a bad review and.

01:16:40 Erwin

Let them know well.

01:16:42 Speaker 2

That’s the thing, right? We we’ve learned that.

01:16:44 Speaker 2

There’s no coaching on how to how.

01:16:46 Speaker 2

To review people.

01:16:47 Speaker 2

So some people.

01:16:48 Speaker 2

Will be, I think, sometimes a little too honest, yeah.

01:16:51 Erwin

Like one star and you have.

01:16:53 Erwin

Your money back. Like, wow. Like that’s that’s.

01:16:55 Erwin

Harsh. Yeah, you know like.

01:16:57 Erwin

You’ve lost. You’ve lost nothing financially.

01:16:59 Speaker 3

Yeah, right. Yeah.

01:17:01 Erwin

How else do you maintain guests experience then?

01:17:04 Erwin

Because it it’s it’s it’s.

01:17:05 Erwin

Critical like for example, I don’t I on when I when I’m on Google Maps for example and I’m trying to pick a restaurant, I immediately filter for four-star now. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like it’s it’s critical to.

01:17:16 Erwin

Have good reviews.

01:17:17 Speaker 3

Besides the review, it’s what you write in your.

01:17:20 Speaker 3

Bio as a host.

01:17:21 Speaker 3

Too, like you want to share a little.

01:17:23 Speaker 3

Bit about yourself and.

01:17:24 Speaker 3

Then all your Co hosts as well.

01:17:26 Speaker 3

Do, but yeah, I definitely say the reviews and in terms of your photos, you want to make sure.

01:17:33 Speaker 3

You updated it’s nice photo, so even in the review what I notice is that even if someone gives you a bad review, you can still respond to it and how you respond to that review. All the guests will be able to.

01:17:45 Speaker 3

Take a look so for.

01:17:46 Erwin

  1. So we can see it, yeah.

01:17:48 Speaker 3

Example, even if you know they weren’t happy with something.

01:17:51 Speaker 3

But we resolved it and we explained our side.

01:17:53 Speaker 3

So then the future guests can see the full picture. So always make sure you respond to all the reviews, especially if they’re negative reviews.

01:18:00 Erwin

Here, here’s

01:18:01 Speaker 2

Cleanliness cleaners.

01:18:03 Speaker 2

You know, happy cleaners and cleaners that do a really good job.

01:18:09 Speaker 2

I think a lot of.

01:18:09 Speaker 2

Times that can go a.

01:18:11 Speaker 2

Long way people that come in to to rent.

01:18:13 Speaker 2

Your property and what have you as they.

01:18:15 Speaker 2

If they come in and it’s.

01:18:17 Speaker 2

Less than perfect.

01:18:19 Speaker 2

It’s understandable to an extent, but for the most part, if, if, if they find anything that’s not clean, then it’s a big issue. So we make sure that their our cleaners get paid well and that they’re happy and you know we we have a a checklist of things that they need to, you know, to go through and what have you.

01:18:26 Speaker 3

Yeah, that’s a big issue.

01:18:36 Speaker 2

To make sure that.

01:18:38 Speaker 2

When there’s the turnover is done, the next guest comes in and they have.

01:18:42 Speaker 2

A good experience.

01:18:43 Erwin

If you’re buying a property today for Airbnb purposes, can you?

01:18:46 Erwin

Paint me a picture. What? What would what?

01:18:47 Erwin

Would it look?

01:18:48 Erwin

Like what would?

01:18:48 Speaker 3

It be sure I do have an ideal.

01:18:51 Speaker 3

Even a specific location for me, I would buy it in like I’d say, like Niagara on the lake for example, right where I know that a lot of these areas they are giving out a permit.

01:19:04 Speaker 3

And I would make it.

01:19:05 Erwin

Oh, you want to be?

01:19:06 Erwin

Legally. OK. Yeah, I.

01:19:07 Speaker 3

Want it to be legal?

01:19:08 Erwin

Oh wow, how do you what are you tweaking?

01:19:09 Speaker 3

And I would. I would have like a feat and I would have a pool. It’s either that or I would even get out of Canada and I would do something in the US like, I would go to the US and maybe not my if I’m doing Airbnb.

01:19:25 Speaker 3

I would arbitrage.

01:19:26 Speaker 3

So I might get into like a beautiful home that I can negotiate a lower lease with the landlord, and then I would furnish it. And we haven’t even looked into what area, but I would definitely.

01:19:39 Speaker 3

Want a water feature?

01:19:41

As well.

01:19:41 Speaker 2

It’s something that you can rent out all Four Seasons. You know, the challenging part of of Canadian real estate is that when winter hits January, February, unless you’re in a steel town, you know you’re not.

01:19:53 Erwin

Yeah, yeah.

01:19:54 Erwin

Yeah. Or snowballs. Snowballs. I heard. OK, maybe ice fishing. Yeah. Yeah, we’re getting a little.

01:19:55 Speaker 2

It’s it’s going to slow down.

01:19:59 Speaker 2

Maybe ice fishing? Snowmobiles.

01:20:02 Erwin

Bit more niche, but yeah.

01:20:03 Erwin

No, I don’t think no one, no one supplies snowmobiles.

01:20:06 Erwin

To do it, no.

01:20:07 Speaker 2

I don’t think so. I think that would.

01:20:07 Erwin

That’d be awesome.

01:20:09 Speaker 2

Be massive, that would.

01:20:10 Speaker 2

I think you know, you know.

01:20:11 Speaker 3

Or I would even get into tiny homes actually up in North Ontario. We have someone that was in a group, an Airbnb host group, and they had a huge cottage, was not $1,000,000 cottage and a tiny.

01:20:11 Speaker 2

That would be a cool experience.

01:20:25 Speaker 3

Home with like a spa and everything and their tiny home was booked the same amount, if not more, at the same price.

01:20:34 Speaker 3

And it costs them less because there’s just a demand for these unique tiny homes. Maybe it’s a trend, I don’t know, in a couple of years, if it still is a big deal, but people are looking for unique experiences right now. So yeah, if I have money, I would test it out and see.

01:20:50 Erwin

And then you say you mentioned rental arbitrage or rental arbitrage.

01:20:55 Erwin

Do you offer that as?

01:20:55 Speaker 3

Well, we actually don’t, but we can if someone wanted to, let’s say they or themselves, who wants to.

01:21:03 Speaker 3

Rent a property out and then get us to manage it. Then we would do it. But we’re not offering to. Currently we have I guess clients in Toronto who said can I just rent it out to you guys for a monthly fee and you guys do their B, but the pricing that they’re looking for doesn’t make sense for us.

01:21:20 Speaker 3

Right, because of the.

01:21:21 Speaker 3

Occupancy rate, when we crunch in the number.

01:21:23 Speaker 3

It’s not consistent enough for us.

01:21:25 Erwin

It’s probably a novice investor and this is a vacant home too, like not.

01:21:25 Speaker 3

To take it over.

01:21:28 Speaker 2

Unfurnished. That’s where it doesn’t really make sense in in Canada to do that where you’d have to go down to the.

01:21:33 Speaker 2

Less because it’s just too expensive to arbitrage here. There’s too much liability.

01:21:37 Speaker 3

Yeah, like if they want us to pay rent $4000 a month, right in Toronto, then you got to make sure you guarantee that every month.

01:21:46 Speaker 3

Which I guess.

01:21:47 Speaker 3

You can depend on the location, but we haven’t thought about that yet.

01:21:52 Erwin

Are you taking more clients still?

01:21:54 Speaker 3

We are currently taking clients because.

01:21:57 Speaker 3

We have to.

01:21:57 Speaker 3

Review some of the clients that we had in.

01:22:00 Speaker 3

The past I.

01:22:01 Speaker 3

Three years and we actually had to let go of some.

01:22:04 Speaker 3

Of the clients.

01:22:04 Speaker 3

Which, because it just didn’t make sense for us.

01:22:07 Erwin

Geography or just it wasn’t working or was a?

01:22:10 Erwin

Short term rental or.

01:22:10

Yeah, it’s just.

01:22:11 Speaker 3

It’s both, but it’s kind of like the caliber of the space is not really what we’re looking after. What we want to, we want to focus a lot more on kind of like a look.

01:22:22 Speaker 3

Serious feel or?

01:22:24 Erwin

Like mentioned tiny homes, just yes, luxury.

01:22:24

You mention.

01:22:31 Erwin

Nice fishing here.

01:22:32 Speaker 3

So some of the properties that we’ve done very well with are ones with the pool, with the hot top and we put a lot of time and effort into it. But the return is there. So it makes sense.

01:22:43 Speaker 2

Well, you have to identify as a as a host and as an owner. What kind of?

01:22:43 Speaker 3

For eyes.

01:22:47 Speaker 2

What kind of rental you wanna be? Do you wanna be budget friendly? Do you wanna be luxurious? Do you wanna be somewhere in the middle? Yeah, because for us, the the challenge is when we’re managing too many different styles of properties. It it’s there’s a lot of juggling, you know 11 owner will say OK. I want you to buy towels from you know.

01:23:07 Speaker 2

From Walmart or Dollarama.

01:23:10 Speaker 2

And then the other one is just like well, no, I want these, you know, I want Egyptian cotton sheets and you know, yeah.

01:23:15 Erwin

Already have that.

01:23:16 Speaker 2

That there’s some owners.

01:23:17 Speaker 2

That that want to provide that for their guests.

01:23:19 Erwin

As long as Costco sells it, I’m OK. Yeah, yeah.

01:23:22 Speaker 4

Actually, yeah. Also was great. They they.

01:23:24 Erwin

Probably do sell that.

01:23:25 Speaker 3

Yeah. Yeah, they do.

01:23:26 Erwin

I’m just surprised someone says that I will design.

01:23:28 Erwin

These are my materials.

01:23:29 Speaker 2

Well, but having to stalk both is, you know, if you’re, if you’re having to stalk towels from all your guests or for all your clients, right? You know, you’ve gotta run to Walmart to get, you know, or dollar store to get cheap towels for one client. Then you gotta go, you know, Costco. And you need a membership for Costco to go.

01:23:32 Erwin

Alright, you.

01:23:45 Erwin

Right versus cost only usually stocks 2 SKUs for each category. They would probably sell 2.

01:23:47

Yeah, right.

01:23:51 Erwin

Towels versus Walmart sells.

01:23:52 Speaker 3

But you.

01:23:53 Erwin

Like a lot of towels.

01:23:54 Speaker 3

Yes, sorry, but to continue that question, so we are accepting new clients and of course it depends on the like the location of.

01:24:03 Speaker 3

The property but.

01:24:04 Speaker 3

We what I’ve noticed in the past year that.

01:24:06 Speaker 3

I’m getting a lot.

01:24:07 Speaker 3

Is that there’s a lot of people that come.

01:24:09 Speaker 3

To us, that first.

01:24:10 Speaker 3

I guess they they wanted us to manage, but then eventually they’re like, they’re wondering if they can do this on themselves, like by themselves. And of course they can’t. If you have the time, it’s a lot of work.

01:24:20 Speaker 3

But let’s say if you’re working part time or you know you’re running a business and you have time or your stay at home mom or Dad, you can do this, right? But there was still asking a lot of questions. So then what I’ve decided to do was create. I ran a bunch of workshops all the time. We haven’t. I haven’t started yet for.

01:24:40 Speaker 3

But I probably will start in October or November where a lot of these homeowners would come and they would learn. And so I would teach them how to become a host. And I see that has.

01:24:50 Speaker 3

Been working though for them as.

01:24:52 Erwin

Well, too, yeah. Yeah. Cause when when I did.

01:24:55 Erwin

Not even that.

01:24:56 Erwin

Long ago 2018, there was like very little resources.

01:24:58 Speaker 3

But yeah, yeah, there’s not a lot of resource I’m considering like I’ve had. I think about four or five now. Who actually said besides like.

01:25:06 Speaker 3

They want to.

01:25:07 Speaker 3

Know everything.

01:25:08 Speaker 3

And I said over a phone call or three hour workshop, you can’t know everything.

01:25:12 Speaker 3

So I can.

01:25:13 Erwin

Well, you’re pretty. You’re probably pretty well equipped.

01:25:15 Erwin

To set that point.

01:25:16 Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah. So I’ve actually considered putting together something where it’s like over a course of eight weeks where I’m holding their hands and then I can show them what to do as well, too. So we’ve had.

01:25:27 Speaker 3

Been in talks. I’ve been in talks with a few homeowners who wanted to learn everything but do it themselves and because they don’t want to hire a property management company. I know there’s a lot of courses out there too, but the thing about courses, as someone who’s taken courses a lot.

01:25:41 Speaker 4

Of them are very expensive.

01:25:44 Speaker 3

And I find some of it you can find a lot of it.

01:25:48 Speaker 3

Online yourself as well too, so I wanted to help people, but I want to make it affordable, so we’ll see.

01:25:54 Speaker 3

For now, maybe the workshops will.

01:25:55 Erwin

Do so. Where can people learn more information on either the course or your?

01:25:59 Erwin

Business. Yeah, so we have.

01:26:01 Speaker 3

A website, it’s called short, stays with an SINTL so.

01:26:07 Speaker 3

Extend for a.

01:26:08 Speaker 3

Short stays international so short stays INT l.com.

01:26:14 Speaker 3

If you go on there, you can enter in your e-mail and it’ll send to us or you can e-mail us directly. It has all our contact information on the website as well too. Yeah, we’re pretty.

01:26:25 Speaker 2

You can find us on Facebook and Instagram on.

01:26:27 Speaker 3

This and we can share you.

01:26:28 Speaker 3

Our contact information, if you put on the podcast and people can just message and once again it doesn’t matter if you know you’re planning to be a client of ours.

01:26:37 Speaker 3

Or you just have.

01:26:37 Speaker 3

Questions. We love meeting new hosts and other.

01:26:40 Speaker 3

People that want.

01:26:40 Speaker 3

To get into the space and just want to.

01:26:42 Speaker 3

Kind of ask some questions and to see where.

01:26:45 Speaker 3

To start, yeah. So we love to be.

01:26:46 Speaker 3

Able to help.

01:26:47 Erwin

You are a host referral URL or.

01:26:50 Speaker 4

Something. Oh, that’s a great question actually there.

01:26:52 Speaker 3

Is an Airbnb host referral URL I will provide. I don’t remember it off.

01:26:58 Erwin

Is it a hard?

01:26:58 Erwin

One, it’s not like a custom. It’s not.

01:26:58

Of it.

01:27:00 Erwin

A vanity. Nothing. It’s like.

01:27:01 Speaker 2

I think we have to be the ones.

01:27:02 Speaker 2

To invite them.

01:27:03 Speaker 4

Though no it is. It’s like it’s.

01:27:05 Speaker 3

Airbnb something slash my 80 like it’s something like that.

01:27:10 Speaker 3

And you’re right, if you become a new host, they give you, I think, $34. But they also give us.

01:27:16 Speaker 3

A few 100.

01:27:17 Speaker 4

Dollars just for referring.

01:27:20 Speaker 3

Yeah. So they we do actually have that now that you mentioned it, I will send it to you. I don’t have it.

01:27:25 Speaker 3

Memorized any final thoughts?

01:27:27 Erwin

On investing in general short term rentals, we ARBO anything.

01:27:31 Speaker 2

I think for us, so we just want to be able to create a a community of hosts that are like minded that we can, you know, share ideas with that. We can work together with and that we can you.

01:27:43 Speaker 2

Create this movement of of short term rentals with to create a great experience for for guests. Well you just trade tips and you know do you like meet together? Talk to each other for your own market research as well.

01:27:55 Speaker 4

That’s right. Yeah, we.

01:27:57 Speaker 4

For us.

01:27:57 Speaker 3

Short term rental was just another means and then it became a business. But at the same time we pivot to also mid term rentals as well.

01:28:07 Speaker 3

Too, but you know.

01:28:08 Speaker 3

At the core of it, I feel were like real estate investor at heart. So we’re always looking for different ways and it doesn’t always mean short term is the right strategy for particular.

01:28:18 Speaker 3

Home, right. So for us, we believe in long term short term everything that has to do with real estate and we’re constantly looking to.

01:28:26 Speaker 3

Learn from people like.

01:28:27 Speaker 3

Yourself or when and other investors out there as well to about this this industry. I mean, there’s so much there’s so.

01:28:35 Speaker 3

Much to learn.

01:28:36 Erwin

Yeah, I should have asked this earlier. Is there a preference between short term versus midterm rental?

01:28:41 Speaker 3

You know I like.

01:28:42 Speaker 3

Mid term rentals. Now I find because people are in there, at least for a.

01:28:46 Speaker 3

Couple of months.

01:28:47 Speaker 3

And generally, they’re good guests and they’re not. And because when you’re manage a bunch of smaller short term rentals, there’s a lot more active work that you have to.

01:28:55 Speaker 3

Be involved, right?

01:28:55 Speaker 2

And they would they would detect cockroaches a lot sooner than long term.

01:29:00 Speaker 4

But the the good thing is.

01:29:02 Speaker 3

Though with the long term, with the midterm ones, then there’s less work.

01:29:06 Speaker 3

For our cleaners.

01:29:07 Speaker 3

Our cleaners are happy when there’s more short.

01:29:10 Speaker 3

Well, work for them, right? So there’s pros and cons. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

01:29:10 Erwin

Yeah. OK. OK.

01:29:12 Erwin

So he’s planning to make it, then it doesn’t need a mix. You’re not perfect.

01:29:16 Erwin

As long as it’s legally, yeah, you’re actually.

01:29:19 Erwin

Legally able to do.

01:29:19 Erwin

It. Yeah, right. I should know. That’s that’s just good question. What’s it take to get a permit and what are your what are your what are your?

01:29:25 Erwin

Government costs to to operate.

01:29:27 Speaker 3

So yeah, so it depends on where. But in the city of Toronto, I mean, I’ve seen apartment been given in like a couple of days to a month, right and it cost.

01:29:38 Speaker 3

Yeah, not so bad. It costs $50.00 to register for the City of Toronto. That’s the cheapest I’ve seen right. Mind you, a lot of people don’t know how it’s a you just Google Short term rental Toronto permit and it pops up and you can fill out. We serve a lot of.

01:29:52 Speaker 3

People in my own.

01:29:53 Speaker 3

Community which is feeding me, who they’re not very comfortable with online and.

01:29:57 Speaker 3

English language. Then they asked our company to maybe help them guide them through on how to fill that out, but it’s so simple it would take a couple of minutes and you can get your permit I know.

01:30:07 Speaker 3

In the city of Mississauga.

01:30:08 Speaker 3

Home or up in Vaughan? It’s a different place. It probably is a few $100 and I’ve seen it in Niagara. It’s a few 100 to maybe Max in.

01:30:18 Speaker 3

Four areas like.

01:30:19 Speaker 3

1200.

01:30:20 Speaker 3

Right. So it depends. Yeah, yeah.

01:30:22 Erwin

That’s significant.

01:30:23 Speaker 3

Yeah, it depends what your government want to make money.

01:30:26 Speaker 3

From so yeah.

01:30:28 Erwin

And then limitation.

01:30:29 Erwin

Like, here’s some places like you’re only allowed to rent for like, half a year. That’s your maximum.

01:30:33 Speaker 3

Yes. So in Toronto, you’re only allowed to if you ask for a permit for.

01:30:39 Speaker 3

A full unit then it’s only 180 days short term rental cause they assume you’re living there, right? Because in order to be qualified, it has to be your principal home. So you must be living there. So how can you be renting out the entire year? You can only rent out 100.

01:30:49 Erwin

Got it, got it.

01:30:55 Speaker 3

80 days now. If you apply for a permit to.

01:30:58 Speaker 3

Rent room by.

01:30:58 Speaker 3

Room. You can rent it out unlimited because technically you can still live there and rent out the other rooms so unlimited. So when you fill out that application, make sure you choose. Is it a full unit?

01:31:08 Speaker 3

Or is it room?

01:31:08 Speaker 3

By room, what is considered a full unit? You can’t say you live upstairs and you’re renting down the basement. If it has separate entrance.

01:31:15 Speaker 3

That separate kitchen because.

01:31:17 Speaker 3

Consider as its own unit, right? So every so you need a permit for the top floor and the permit for the basement. If you have separate units like that.

01:31:24 Speaker 4

Sucker things.

01:31:27 Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah, they do eventually.

01:31:28 Speaker 3

Not initially. When they give you the permit, but maybe a month later, two months later.

01:31:33 Speaker 3

Depends how busy they are.

01:31:33 Speaker 2

They’re using to send a city worker, or we’ve seen fire, fire, fire inspectors.

01:31:38 Speaker 3

Inspector. Yeah.

01:31:40 Speaker 2

And stuff like that.

01:31:41 Speaker 2

Depending on the region, is it you know what I actually like the fire inspectors coming out because they’ll check if to make sure that you’re, you know, the fire extinguishers are are up to date. Your smoke detectors. You’re it’s good.

01:31:52 Speaker 2

No2 sensors because all those things would, you know, the horror stories that you hear sometimes just because.

01:32:00 Speaker 2

Thank you.

01:32:00 Speaker 3

Yeah, like you see in the newspaper how this airbeam be broke down. Yeah. You know, things like that.

01:32:06 Erwin

In the context of Hamilton, I’ve been following the Hamilton story for forever and my anecdotal stat tracking 2/3 of who died in fires. It’s usually university students, right? So so I have no problem with fire inspections for students because.

01:32:16 Speaker 3

I know.

01:32:16 Speaker 3

That’s sad, right?

01:32:20 Erwin

You know, it’s almost 80, almost 80% of your problems here. Go ahead.

01:32:23 Erwin

And inspect them.

01:32:24 Speaker 4

For sure.

01:32:25 Speaker 3

Yeah, you want to make sure everyone is safe. Safe. Your place right at the end of.

01:32:30 Speaker 3

The day so.

01:32:30 Erwin

I know, but 8020.

01:32:31 Erwin

Like 80% of problems in.

01:32:33 Erwin

These neighborhoods, these houses, like, yeah, go after it.

01:32:38 Erwin

Yeah. Thank you so much for making the trip out. I know this is in the closest place, but.

01:32:42 Erwin

Thank you for coming in. Well, thanks for having.

01:32:44 Speaker 2

Us it’s been fun.

01:32:45 Speaker 3

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for giving us the space to share and yeah, and learn more from you.

01:32:58 Erwin

Before you go, if you’re interested in learning more about an alternative means of cash flowing like hundreds of other real estate investors have already then set up the my newsletter. Find out for yourself with so many real estate investors are doing to diversify and increase our cash flow. And if you can’t tell, I love teaching and.

01:33:13 Erwin

Sharing this stuff.

 

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UPCOMING EVENTS

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CLICK HERE to check out what’s coming up next.

 

BEFORE YOU GO…

If you’re interested in being a successful real estate investor like those who have been featured on this podcast and our hundreds of successful clients please let us know.

It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

If you didn’t know already, we pride ourselves on being the best of the best real estate coaches, having the best property managers, contractors, handy people, cleaners, lawyers, accountants, everyone you need on your power team and we’re happy to share them with our clients to ensure your success. 

New investor or seasoned veteran investor, we can help anyone by providing our award winning coaching services and this isn’t all talk.

We have been awarded Realtor of the Year to Investors in 2015 by the Real Estate Investment Network, 2016 by the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and again in 2017 because no one told the judges no one is supposed to win the award twice but on merit, our peers deemed us as the best.  In 2018, we again won the same award by the Real Estate Investment Network.

Hopefully being the most decorated team of Realtors in Ontario will make you consider us for your first or next real estate investment.  Even if you don’t invest in our areas, there’s a good chance I know who would be ideal for you. 

I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

Sponsored by:

Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year.

Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

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20 Houses in USA, Looking South For Affordability & Cash Flow With Andrew Kim

Welcome to the Truth About Real Estate Investing Show for Canadians, today’s guest Andrew is Canadian, he lives in the GTA but owns 20 income properties in the US, has never seen any of them and he is the CEO of a tech based, real estate investment company called Share (links in the show notes) that helps everyday investors build a portfolio of fully managed rental properties in landlord friend States in the USA.

I’m your host Erwin Szeto, four time Realtor of the year to investors with $400 million worth of real estate transactions, 350+ investor clients, executing on BRRRs, highest and best use, positive cash flow investing experience.  My focus has been on best practices ever since I started investing in 2005 and in my experience, value investing, renovating for value for the long-term has been the best investment strategy for most people, most of the time. 

The newer, fad strategies like mid-term rentals and cottages are great for those who want to be active business operators however most investors want as hands off as possible. One of my clients has been doing mid-term rentals for nearly a decade and she has business development work to do to make and maintain relationships with insurance companies and local employers.  

Cottage investing has its challenges too: reliable cleaners and contractors are hard to come by in big cities and it’s even harder in remote areas like cottages where properties are further apart making for longer commutes.  It’s all possible with skill and hustle, we’ve had plenty of guests on this show who have, just be true to yourself how much time and effort you want to invest.

My point is there’s no free lunch, do your research, understand your own values and seek out the truth about real estate investing and find what works for you.

For today’s guest, Andrew who’s from Brampton, Ontario has 20 properties south of the border and he’s never seen them before.  Andrew also shared with me how wonderful his experience has been investing in entry level income properties in the US for $100,000 or less via Section 8, a federal, low income housing assistance program that often covers around 70% of the rent, paid directly to the landlord for a more reliable income stream.

The cash flow from these types of investments are much better than anything I’ve seen in years. Cap rates are 7-11% which are better than any apartment building I’ve seen in BC or Ontario and the investment is much smaller, these are $60,000-110,000 properties afterall for a whole house. That’s less than many renovation budgets let alone a down payment on a duplex in Ontario, BC or Calgary.

I’ve written a blog post to share my research on the subject. I’m not an expert on the subject yet but when I see great opportunities, I want to learn everything about them. Links will be in the show notes and my email newsletter.

**Blog Post**

Maximise Your U.S. Property Cash Flow: The Canadian’s Guide to Section 8 Housing

We asked and you’ve spoken, over 100 of you responded to our survey asking about what you wanted to learn about investing in the US, 93% of survey respondents went as fas as to say they want to join a webinar or workshop on how to invest in the USA. 

As Canadians look southward to diversify their real estate portfolios, get away from rent control and dysfunctional LTB or Residential Tenancy Branch in BC, U.S. investment properties have become increasingly popular. One intriguing avenue is the Section 8 housing program for high yield, cash flow investing. This federal assistance initiative provides housing subsidies for low-income Americans and offers investors consistent rental income. But what exactly is Section 8, and is it a good fit for Canadian investors? Let’s delve in.

Understanding Section 8

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) administers the Section 8 program. Qualified recipients are provided vouchers, which can be used to rent properties in the private sector. A significant portion of the rent is then paid directly to landlords by local Public Housing Agencies (PHAs).

Why Section 8 Might Mean Higher Rents

Fair Market Rents (FMRs): HUD’s established FMRs may, in some areas, align closely with or even exceed local market rates.

Consistent Payments: Landlords often experience more consistent payments, with a substantial portion of the rent guaranteed by the PHA.

Longer Tenancies: Limited availability of Section 8 properties can result in longer tenures, decreasing turnover costs.

Economic Buffers: In economically strained areas, FMRs can offer an attractive alternative to declining local market rents.

Challenges and Considerations for Investors

While the allure of consistent rents is tempting, Canadian investors should be aware of the potential challenges:

Regular Inspections: Properties must meet and maintain HUD’s Housing Quality Standards.

Paperwork: There is an added administrative layer when dealing with PHAs.

Rent Variability: Tenants’ rent contributions can fluctuate based on their income, affecting the total rent amount.

Is Section 8 Right for Canadian Investors?

The appeal of Section 8 for Canadian investors lies in the potential for higher and more consistent rents, especially in certain U.S. markets. However, the program does come with its set of challenges. Thorough research, understanding local markets, and perhaps consultation with U.S.-based real estate professionals familiar with Section 8 can help Canadians make informed decisions.

Final Thoughts

For Canadians eager to diversify their portfolios, amplify their cash flow and tap into the U.S. real estate market, Section 8 housing offers an intriguing option. Like any investment, it requires due diligence, understanding of local nuances, and a bit of patience. But with the right approach, it can be a lucrative venture on the path to international real estate success.

20 Houses in USA, Looking South For Affordability & Cash Flow With Andrew Kim

Our guest today is Andrew Kim, with ten years of real estate experience starting in the GTA, before building a portfolio of 20, fully managed properties in the state of New York, Florida, Atlanta and Dallas.  He’s a serial tech entrepreneur who’s worked in Silicon Valley startups and is now combining his passion for real estate investing with his technology.  Andrew’s company combines the expertise to handpick quality investment properties for Canadians in the US., writing offers to arranging ownership structuring, taxes, property management, financing partners, renovations and setting lease rates, it doesn’t get any more passive.

To me this is the dream, as the investor I’d have direct ownership and control over the house but passive as the property generates enough rent to pay for top notch management.

[iWIN Hybrid Workshop] How to Invest in the US Real Estate Market https://iwinworkshop.eventbrite.ca

With inflation getting out of control, rent control, uncertainty of receiving rent here in Canada for mainly Ontario and BC investors, I think it’s advisable to give this episode a listen.To follow Andrew or interested in learning more about Share go to iwin.sharesfr.com. To view current and past US deals, you do need to sign up, let them know Erwin sent you and they’ll take good care of you.

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-generated**

Erwin 0:00
Welcome to the truth about real estate investing show for Canadians. Today, my guest is Andrew, he’s Canadian. He lives in the GTA, but he owns 20 income properties in the US. Funny enough, he’s never seen any of them. He is the CEO of a tech based real estate investment company called Share. I’ll have links in the show notes. They help everyday investors build a portfolio of fully managed rental properties in landlord friendly states in the USA.

Erwin 0:25
My name is Erwin Szeto. I am your host for time real truth of the year to investors with somewhere north of $400 million with real estate transactions under our belts 350 Plus investor clients who we help execute on burrs highest and best use positive cash flow investing. My focus has been on best practice investing ever since I started back in 2005. And in my experience, value investing, renovating for value. And investing for the long term has been the best strategy for my experience. And for most people most of the time. There are lots of newer strategies that are they do work. They obviously require a lot more effort such as like midterm rentals and cottage rentals. They’re great for people who want to be active business owners. Numbers are tougher than ever though.

Erwin 1:16
And my experience most investors want to be as hands off as possible.

Erwin 1:21
Why not? Why not earn money passively in one sleep, just like Warren Buffett preaches one of my clients who has been doing midterm rentals for nearly a decade. She’s extremely successful at it. For example, two of her properties are made the top five list for VRBO. In Hamilton for top grossing properties. She has to do business development work, she has to connect with and maintain relationships with local insurance companies and local employers in order to make sure that the flow of business continues to come in. She tells me it’s been tougher than ever. And that’s the truth about real estate investing. She is full. But again she hustles and she self manages and she meets tenants to him the keys for her for her Airbnb ease. Not everyone’s willing to do that. College investing no different has its challenges. Reliable cleaners and contractors are hard to come by in big cities, and they’re even harder to come by in remote areas.

Erwin 2:17
And so again, it is all possible within a skill and hustle.

Erwin 2:22
We’ve had plenty of guests on this show who have done just that. Just be true to yourself how much time and effort you’re willing to invest. My point is, there is no free lunch, do your own research, understand your own values and seek out the truth about real estate investing. Find out what works for you. For today’s guests, Andrew, he’s from Brampton. He has over 20 properties south of the border. And again, he’s never seen any of them. He also shared with me how wonderful his experience has been investing in entry level income properties in the US for as little as even under $100,000. For a whole house like a three bedroom one bath house via a program called Section eight, which assists low income housing. low income families afford housing. For example, rough the government roughly pays for 70% of the rate rent and is paid directly to the landlord, which provides the landlord and the real estate investor like you and I are more reliable in chemistry. The cash flows from these investments are typically better than anything I’ve seen here in Ontario. For example, cap rates are seven to 11%, which is better than any apartment building I’ve seen in many, many years.

Erwin 3:30
And again, these investments require a way less capital, somewhere in the range of 60 to 110,000. And again, that’s for a whole house. That’s less than many renovation budgets,

Erwin 3:42
let alone down payments for a house in Canada. I’ve written a blog post about it. And as always, I like to share my research. I’m not an expert on the subject. But when I do see great opportunities, I like to learn everything I can about them. Links will be in the show notes and in the email newsletter onto this show. Again, we have our guest today Andrew Kim. He’s got over 10 years experience investing in real estate he started in the GTA didn’t go so well because he was so busy, he couldn’t really handle manage them properly. The Cash Flow wasn’t there to afford a manager either. And then he went on to do build a portfolio of 2020 properties that are fully managed in a couple locations. Upstate New York, Florida. I think we’ve all heard of Florida, Atlanta, Georgia and Dallas, Texas. He’s a serial tech entrepreneur who has worked in Silicon Valley startups is now combining his passion for real estate investing with technology. Andrews company combines the expertise to handpick quality investment properties for Canadians in the US. Right, which includes writing offers, arranging ownership, structuring taxes, property management, financing partners, yes, Canadians can get mortgages to renovations and setting lease rates. It honestly doesn’t get more passive.

Erwin 4:55
And properties do again the generate enough rent to pay for top notch property.

Erwin 5:00
He basically it’s living the dream. In my experience, with inflation getting out of control, rent control, the uncertainty of receiving rent here in Canada, for mainly Ontario and BC investors, especially Ontario investors, I think it’s advisable even listen to this episode.

Erwin 5:17
And for those, for those who don’t know, we actually sent out a survey just last week on who was interested in receiving more information on us real estate investing 92% of you said you’re interested in attending a webinar, our workshop on the subject of real estate investing, and we collected a whole bunch of topics. So you asked, we will deliver, we are, we will be hosting a live in person.

Erwin 5:43
us investing workshop on Saturday, October 21, it’s just the morning. So it’s only three hours of your time, we will be doing this hybrid as well. So we do we are offering tickets for both in person, we are almost sold out of the in person tickets. And but again, if you for we literally had folks asking from BC as well, if we’d be if this would be available online. So yes, if you’re far away, you will have well, we will make this available to you online. So again, that’s a Saturday, October 21. So save the date, check the show notes in our website for links on how to register for that events. It’s we’re charging a mere $30. And it all goes to charity. So the content is gonna be incredible. We have, we’ll have Andrew and his team, including Carmen, who will be coming on the show. And also she is a CPA, she is a Chartered Professional Accountant on both sides of the border. So we will we will, we will be able to answer pretty much all your questions on structuring taxes. And also my friends got dealing him from lens city will be coming as well, because they just announced they’ll be offering mortgages to Canadians to invest for Canadian investors investing in the USA. So we’re going to cover all our bases. It’s just one morning your life, you do not want to miss this because again, 92% of you asked for this. So hopefully see you there. Again to follow. For anyone interested in following Andrew, we do have a website for it. We do have a shared website for it. It’s iWin dot share sfr.com. The SFR stands for single family rental. So again, it’s iWin dot share sfr.com. And you can go there to view current and past deals, you do need to sign up which is basically just given your email name and email address. They’ll ask you Where were you came from? If you just say or when are i when our truth about real estate investing, they will take good care of you. Please enjoy the show.

Erwin 7:45
Hey, Andrew, what’s keeping you busy these days? Oh, share my new company. It’s a venture backed real estate company, we try to help investors, both Canadian and American find high yield hybrid high returning rental homes in the US. And then we take

Erwin 8:03
a management role and we want to put your portfolio growth on autopilot.

Erwin 8:08
So first off, I want to say thank you for your service. I’m not military but I’ll take it

Andrew 8:14
it’s just because I know where you’re coming from. Like here in this business here I wouldn’t real estate we try to help the everyday investor as well.

Andrew 8:20
I think everyone knows the high our high net worth clients are the easiest to work with. Because they can purchase the cash right? And they can purchase many many properties. But I still want to help that pert that middle class person who doesn’t have family help. Yeah, to be able to acquire income properties. Yeah, and I understand your experience is no different. Yeah, high net worth people are way easier to work with. Yeah, high net worth people are easier to work with. You know, we love working with them. But you know, we our mission is really you know, financial security by way of real estate. And that’s why we got into it it wasn’t for the high net worth individuals for those you know, lower to middle that have are aspiring or want to target wealth for themselves and their generation after them their kids and they’ve saved up and accrued money to finally get into the real estate space. But you know, the failure rate in this world in real estate is pretty high, the risks are high

Andrew 9:18
with moderate to good returns so you know we are trying our best to mitigate those risks and actually help these individuals retail investors everyday investors Mom and Pop DIY errs to get in safely and start building their portfolio

Andrew 9:33
you know like that kind of goes back to my upbringing where it’s like I wanted to get into real estate and you know obviously now in Toronto just it’s much harder for someone to break in but I saved your millennial yeah I’m like at the tail yeah the tail end or tail the the very beginning of the millennial I think my or I guess that’s how you put it Yeah, last names Kim. So your your must be a crazy rich Asian. No, not at all.

Andrew 10:00
The I mean, I didn’t come from money definitely not low income family actually, probably what drove me to today. Parents were had some entrepreneurial attempts were not very successful and like what convenience stores? Yeah.

Andrew 10:17
I read the stereotype.

Andrew 10:20
Yeah, they added convenience store. We lived. Yeah, they first came to Canada. They lived in Rexdale, which is a Toronto.

Andrew 10:28
Toronto neighborhood. Yeah. And then I’ve gotten today. I my dad might have one we owned a convenience store. But I can’t remember but I remember there being like scares. But yeah, but in the like, they would give me this privilege kid lifelike, and all this extracurricular piano sports, you know, baseball, Kumaon, all this other extra stuff. And I’m like, looking back now that I’m a bear. And like, where’s this money coming from? Yeah.

Andrew 10:55
And yeah, like they declared bankruptcy when we were young. I remember them picking me up from like piano lessons. And there’d be duffel bags of clothes in the backseat? And I’m like, What’s this for? It’s like, just in case we get locked out of our house. Like get evicted. Right. And I was like, Okay, can we want to be Donald’s like, No, we got food at home, like, and also that was, and then as you get older in you realize that, wow, this is that that’s a lot of strife. And you’d see your parents arguing here, your parents arguing, and you’d never want that.

Andrew 11:23
To be witnessed of that and ever to repeat that. So that kind of I think, was some of my biggest drive for sure. It’s like, I want to eat McDonald’s every day.

Andrew 11:36
Exactly. I want to eat like everybody else eats out. Why do we always get to eat at home? Right.

Erwin 11:43
And you were pretty young. When you started that.

Erwin 11:47
You went to Silicon Valley, how old were you? Sorry, yeah, your first tech startup for you. So I’ve been in like, always had my foot into some sort of business online hustle, whatever it was. But my first real like venture backed like we’re outside investors tech company, was in 2011 was when I moved to first LA.

Erwin 12:07
Because we were in the YouTube Space in LA made more sense. We had a high a lot of high profile, angel investors, including like, its top executives from WMV, which is a notable like agency for actors. And then the CEO of YouTube was also one of our angel investors. So because we’re working with YouTubers la made sense. So we moved to LA and lived there for about four teen months of our family.

Andrew 12:38
So I was just married. So prior to getting married, I’ve my wife was my high school sweetheart.

Andrew 12:45
And she’s known that I’ve been entrepreneurial my whole life. And as we got serious, she’s like, You need to stop making these big, like swinging for the fence attempts, get a job, be stable, let’s buy a house get married. So quit my my first startup and then got a job. We bought a house and then my business partner reached out to me while my honeymoon is like when you get back, let’s talk. And then when he got back from our honeymoon, that’s when he had this idea. We started incubating it and then it was the same year that I moved to LA and quit my job. So she was not happy. She took the risk. So newlyweds bicoastal husband?

Andrew 13:24
Yeah, that was tough. I that’s the first I’ve heard that term bicoastal. Yeah. Because you were living on the West Coast. Yeah. My wife was in the East Coast.

Unknown Speaker 13:33
We don’t have a coast here in Ontario.

Unknown Speaker 13:36
We’re not doing it. There’s no Oh, Eastern Time eastern time zone. Because I wasn’t Victoria recently. And they call us East Coast and like, Okay, hang on. What ocean do we have? But with? Yeah. But I get it. I get New York’s were pretty much in line with New York. Yeah, New York is by different. Yeah, yeah. So she, she luckily worked from home. So she’d come out, spend four weeks and go back and forth.

Unknown Speaker 14:00
And then she eventually got pregnant. And then that created a whole new set of variables and risk. And then we sold the company. We sold the company to a company in the Silicon Valley in the Bay Area. So had to move up there. And now that I’ve sold the company, I don’t own my own schedule, I had to become an employee and then to earn out my stock because it was a majority stock deal. So I had to move up there working like six, seven days a week, 1214 hours a day newborn that’s sitting in Toronto, and you know, my wife could think Canada has 12 month parental leave, she could spend four weeks here back and forth, back and forth. But it was kind of miserable. So that’s why I said you know, screw it, it’s not worth it. I’ll build another company. So I quit left a bunch of stock and money on the table and came back to Canada in like 20 late 2014. Early 2015 Yeah, that was uh, but yeah, do have family. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It was a hard pill to swallow because it came right back in winter. And I was like, I’m never coming back here. But good thing I kept my house good.

Unknown Speaker 15:00
You know, because it worked out for the better. Amazing. And then you you have been an Ontario landlord before. Yeah, yeah. I so my foray into real estate was just before moving to California, like the oh nine, like 22,009 2010, you know, read up among about the burst strategy found, like started looking at houses in Ajax and Barry, and at that time, you could get something like on the 300,000 price point for closed, dilapidated, put in, like 20%. CapEx, but it was work like, oh my gosh, and like, it really only penciled if you’re doing it yourself, like what I’m even doing is like self managing, like, there was no third party property manager, there was no line item for that. And my, my math was literally on pen and paper at that point.

Unknown Speaker 15:48
And I did that a few times, was intentionally maybe not looking at the numbers to tell myself I’m making progress. But it wasn’t until, yeah, I moved to California, and met my who is my now current business partner. She kind of she’s an accountant. And also in the real estate space. She’s the one that looked at my numbers like this is this is not a good investment. If you want to do real estate, let’s go look in Florida, right? And then just combine that with you’re out of town. Yeah. Young family. Yeah, you’re busy with the business. Yeah, you can’t be at an active real estate. Yeah. So I was living in California, she’s like, you gotta look in Florida, like you like, you’re here. Now you visa your tax ID number, like, it’s a lot easier for you now. And if you sell those properties, you could probably buy some of these cash and like, What do you mean, like, and it’s like, but like, how long is it gonna take for me to cashflow these things? And it’s like, well, as soon as we lease it up. So it’s like, Well, okay, well show me these properties. And you know, at the same at this time, you could buy something in Florida for $100,000. Like St. Pete’s pronounce count, like very well in our nice neighborhoods, for like, 100 110 you know, double digit net yields. So I was like, let’s go let’s do, you can get, like, over 10% cash on cash return with a 20% down. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It’s nuts. It was nuts. These are unicorns. Yeah. So like, but no, these were all cash deals. But like, from like a yield perspective, it was very accretive opportunity. These weren’t desirable neighborhoods at that time. Right. And but what was the bonus was they like, look, I could get a property management company skimming off my rent, and I’m still not still cashflow positive, which for me, was just mind boggling. So

Unknown Speaker 17:39
knowing my typical all manner, I think you’re kind of the same way like, Oh, my God, let’s go. So to solve my units, bought a couple houses there, a few houses, and then kind of sat back. After I sold my company bought more. Now this was like, probably the my last purchase was like, 2013. And then that’s when I started moving to the Bay Area, worked with the company and then came back to Canada. 2014 15 may ask how many properties then you’re in the States? At that point? I think I had a bogey on. I remember, you’ve told me before, you’ve never seen any of them. I’ve never, ever seen. Okay. Please continue. How many houses do you hold? So now have over 20? Okay.

Unknown Speaker 18:21
20 hertz is never seen? Never, never again, how many times have tenants called you to fix something? So earlier on, it was it’s only it’s only ever property managers that has have contacted me, I’ve never, never dealt with a tenant directly. So, yeah, I’ve never dealt with 10 directly. It’s always a property management company. But even you know, even though the economics allow for a property manager, you’re still having to deal with them. And property management companies, you know, like their non razor slim margins. So if they have to go out to a house, like two times a month, it almost eats into the whole margin of that door. So you know, they don’t like going out for every single thing. They kind of like bundle it when they’re in the neighborhood, they can do that. But yeah, I would talk to property management companies, probably more frequently than I would have liked. Right. So just to clarify property management, because my experience here in Canada is it’s usually like, one person, maybe husband wife shop. Yeah. And they have some people that are may have contractors, right, like, so not people that are on staff even Right, right. But what is it more like? What’s the US? Yeah, so experience. And yeah, because of, you know, rental properties is is a major method of wealth creation for Americans, like it’s a $4 trillion asset class 88% are owned by mom and pop investors that own one to 10 units. So the ecosystem for like, sizable property managers from Mom and Pop property management’s to large institutional ones, run the gamut. Like you could throw a rock and hit two property management companies, because that’s not what it is like. Yeah, so like you

Unknown Speaker 20:00
Can like depends on how you want to search. But, you know, if you were to talk to your agent they could probably refer you to three property management company. So at that time the property management company we had there they would be considered a small one they had a couple 100 doors. Okay, there’s not that many around here Yeah, so like that would be a small and they do what’s what we do is called like scattered single family rental SFR.

Unknown Speaker 20:24
And then you know, they can move up the rungs of condos, whatever, but they those would be called your mom and pop shops then a couple 100 And then there’s a very boutique smaller it’s like a contractor but they have a software we can plug into it, I can log into the portal and take a look at things

Unknown Speaker 20:42
back then there that wasn’t as readily available, but it is today for Mom and Pop property management companies. So my experience investor with investors here in Canada is that you know, that on the on the less on the less expensive, more affordable end of the scale is like condos.

Unknown Speaker 20:59
If the unfortunately bought last two, three years, they’re negative cash flow 1000 or more.

Unknown Speaker 21:05
And then so like for example, in my business, we’ve always, we’ve always been more aggressive like so when we started back in like 2005 We bought we bought a lot single family homes, we can cashflow them, and then when we couldn’t it did student rentals and then let’s duplexing was available then we did those as well. understand all these have very significant renovation budgets, right? A basement suite apartment for example. Our our retail price retail price from general contractors has about 160,000. Right because it’s an invasive renovation. Investors market for for for that. So these houses that you own, are they what kind of properties are they apartment buildings? They they’re all single family. I got a couple of duplexes in there. But like I use duplexes loosely it’s like a house with you know, basement I guess you can call it a duplex, you know, top floor and main floor apartments but majority they’re all single detached homes and then your Airbnb in order in order to make it cashflow. Nope, they’re all long term rentals. They are the sort of single family the US single family is definitely long term rental is the safest real estate asset class in the world. My opinion.

Unknown Speaker 22:18
You know, they’re obviously got modest yields. And then you kind of got the risk level you can do short term rentals, Airbnb, higher yields, but higher risk. But in terms of plain vanila risk, and resiliency is the single family long term.

Unknown Speaker 22:33
I just find because I watched too much social media is that there’s all this hype behind Airbnb. But I don’t know if people realize Airbnb property managers usually take 23% of your rent. Yeah, yeah. And Airbnb takes them to Yeah, so like when we underwrite, like when I pencil sort of Airbnb opportunities, like, yeah, there might be some local boutique agency that will charge less but just for the sake of the exercise 20% on your revenue is kind of where you want to mark it off. Just like if you’re going to underwriting property management in like a mid tier market, mid mid cost market in the US, like you could roll with it. 8% is probably soft, right? Accuracy. Yeah. And then the alternative assets and friends who just who rented to the property management company, so they are Airbnb arbitrage the lingo. But then I’m just getting regular rent. Yeah. And still negative cash flow. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 23:28
What am I doing here? Yeah, that’s why, like, I, it’s hard to make those things pencil. And in the turn rate is pretty high, the risk is hard, because you got very transient tenants, right? Like, it’s, you don’t know, if you’re gonna get one party in there, that’s just gonna ruin stuff. So your RNM line needs to be a little higher. And, you know, you got to be very cautious about that.

Unknown Speaker 23:50
A lot of people don’t even have proper insurance. Yeah, so they’re understanding like, they’re worried what if the insurance company doesn’t pay? Yeah, yeah. And like, and the reason why I’m like, kind of risky, but now kind of thinking about some short term rentals is one the pandemic really wanted, like, it would have been really nice to have a short term rental to kind of dip into in somewhere hot. So it’s more of a personal spend, but they did take a massive hit. And, you know, if the market goes downwards, you know, short term rentals vacation discretionary spend will go down. So that’s, that’s problematic for me, like, I don’t like that kind of risk. And then here more locally, as well as when clients who are property managers for vacation rentals and they’re sharing with me that all these all these pre construction projects that when they when the clients closing the property, they’re putting them on Airbnb. Oh, interesting. So we have because they need higher rents in order to cash flow, right. But my point is, there’s more supply. Therefore more competition for existing Airbnb, Robert Yeah. Yeah. And that’s what you saw like in Arizona to like in Arizona and Florida, certain Park pockets where there’s a lot

Unknown Speaker 25:00
lot of short term rentals, they got hit hard. Right, right and saturation cuz you got to compete now too, right? Like you go to Kissimmee, Florida and you kind of look on Airbnb, there’s like a million of them. Right, right. And then when it gets hits, it’s like a race to the bottom. We can lower the rates faster. My point, though, is that it sounds great. Yeah. But then, when you dig a little bit further, yeah, like, I don’t like competition. Yeah, it’s Yeah, exactly. Right. I don’t like people pushing my rents down.

Unknown Speaker 25:27
100% Awesome. At a stage in my career, like I like boring because I’ve done enough very invasive renovations. And, yeah, but yeah, let’s talk a bit more share in because I think the opportunity, like the opportunity today is like more important than ever. So first up, you saw my presentation that I gave to my to my meet up,

Unknown Speaker 25:48
property taxes are getting out of control. I don’t know what market is going to do. So for those who don’t know, Markham, like in New York region’s website, they shared the notes from the budget, and they’re talking about 93% property tax increase over a three year period. Thanks, because they’re blaming bill 23 I think there’s more things, because just even during the pandemic, like public transit, for example, still running during the pandemic, but they had like 10% of revenue, their typical revenue. So like, I always knew that bill is coming, the bills coming, right. And then as myself, you know, you were onto your landlord, I have a very much so in Ontario landlord, I can’t pass these inflated companies inflating costs to my tenants. So Hamilton is looking at a 14% property tax increase

Unknown Speaker 26:35
to my properties, that insurance went to $500 per year, which is about a 20% increase. And here we are in a rent control environment. And I think it’s only gonna get worse.

Unknown Speaker 26:45
Like, you were in the Toronto Star, for example, in Toronto stars, they sound very landlord friendly in the article they write. Sorry, sorry, they sound very tenant friendly talk. They call like these rent exact, like rent control exemptions, loopholes.

Unknown Speaker 26:59
The headwinds are worse than ever, for Ontario real estate investor. So

Unknown Speaker 27:06
naturally, so let’s just take a step back, when I started my real estate investing journey, I always knew the US was certain parts of the US were very landlord friendly. But then there were so many pieces missing for me to invest down there. Financing be a massive one, because of my experience, my friends who have bought in the States or internationally, it’s all HELOC, right. So basically, just you know, if the $300,000 house, they took $300, whatever, they have to convert money to us from their HELOC, and come out all at a HELOC, like there was no leverage opportunities. And then, and then all the other problems of coming, every real estate investor knows like, oh, like, Who do you trust? Finding people to find your deals? And then to me, massive risk area is the property manager, like you need the high quality property manager in order to take care of your investment for the long term. So many people are just obsessed with a deal. Yeah, like that. Yeah, you buy wrong and go really bad. More things can go bad over the long term, right?

Unknown Speaker 28:11
People need to appreciate that. So that’s what makes me really excited about share. So like even You even told you said it publicly. You guys have you guys do a lot. So I’m reading from the Toronto Star article. Your company promises to help with sourcing, renovating property management and even taxes.

Unknown Speaker 28:32
That’s, that’s, that’s a big commitment. Yeah, yeah. We know, it is a very Canadian investment as much as Canadians fear the idea of remote investing.

Unknown Speaker 28:45
So which is why we know kind of the pillars that we have to knock over for a Canadian to be able to invest in this not just Canadians out of state investors. So you know, I think Canadians from the major metros, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, all face the same, like issues that New York, San Francisco, you know, Seattle, all the major metros face.

Unknown Speaker 29:08
They’re trying to find affordable things out of state, you know, same problems apply where it’s like, I can’t physically get eyeballs on there. How do I do without a say taxes, cross border taxes and say same problems. So we identified each of those and said, Okay, well, we can build technology and process around each of them. At first, we will maybe refer you to a partner on certain parts like lending and then tax or whatever accounting might be, but for the most part, we can kind of box you into a very specific way to get from end to end on how to get financing as a sort of a Canadian as for national, what to think about as a foreign national and all the way to look let’s get your 10th home as a foreign national. So we decided like like that’s the place we want to play.

Unknown Speaker 29:57
You know, we get a lot of Americans but like, obviously as a Canadian

Unknown Speaker 30:00
You know, I have a soft spot for to help my fellow Canadian to get this asset class. And I think, you know, as risk averse as Canadians are they need to get in here. So let’s help them get in here. If they’re risk adverse, they should understand that the risks are being easier Ontario land. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 30:17
It’s interesting, actually the common I asked you guys, I asked you to a different conversation. Like, for example, I literally have, I have a property manager friend who’s a professional property manager, who had IE, unfortunately, inherited a tenant. And that tenant has not paid since July last year. So even a professional tenant property manager cannot write cannot do anything about this situation. So it’s, it’s now September. So it’s been a year and a few months. And they still don’t have their eviction notice yet. They have their judgment from the from the landlord tenant board. But it’s been about two, three months. So they still don’t have their eviction paperwork, so they can’t get the sheriff yet. Right. All right. So people want to understand risk, like you and I had this conversation many times. The worst case scenario is

Unknown Speaker 31:07
here versus the landlord friendly state in the US is completely different. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there are probably loopholes in every single state. But that percentage of that, like somebody’s perfectly being able to box himself into that rare rare exception is small, right? Right. Like,

Unknown Speaker 31:27
like maybe a good percent, some, like, percent, like these are just rough numbers. These actually, this is just more of a gauge, but like maybe 10% of tenants in Ontario can box themselves and are educated enough to be a squatter, right? Whereas, and they know the rules. And because of the rules, yeah, they can box themselves in there. But in some of the landlord friendly states in the US, those rules don’t even actually apply. And maybe there’s like a point 1% of people that can actually slop themselves into the squatting exception. But yeah, we’ve not been faced with that. Exception. Right. But it’s not to say that there wasn’t one very legal savvy tenant, but for the most part, like the common problems you face, and from what I hear from the horror stories locally in Ontario, those are like eviction worthy events in the US. And you know, the turnaround time is just mainly administrative paperwork, and then we would proceed to the next level of evictions. Right. So what is your experience for an erection worthy event? How long to get your property back? Yeah, so we’ve, I mean, there’s a few scenarios. I mean, pandemic was kind of a weird one, where everyone felt that they didn’t have to pay. But also in the US, they released what a program called the E rap. So this might muddy our dataset, but you rap was like an Emergency Relief Fund program or something. So everyone’s like, our version is for Yeah, so like, they kind of but this was for 10 for landlords. So tenant tenants were like, Oh, well, I’m not going to pay my lease. And then they would apply for Iran. And then the government just give us a check. This to give it to you. Yeah, they give to us. It can’t really give the tenant Yeah, what it became an administrative headache, where it’s like, tenant, you need to sign this document. And it became an opportunity for property managers to actually cut like a little administrative percentage off the top, but the government did reimburse us for tenants that qualify for the rap program. But we did have like, one scenario of fraud.

Unknown Speaker 33:29
Somebody managed to a

Unknown Speaker 33:33
third party fraudster leased out one of our homes.

Unknown Speaker 33:39
And a tenant moved in. And then we realized it was was fraud and we had the mountain less than 60 days.

Unknown Speaker 33:47
Yeah, that’s pretty good. Yeah. But in all other cases, you know, we’ve we just kind of go through this procedure process most of its vanilla I would say like the longest turnaround we have and this was probably upstate New York and New York is not as landlord friendly as the other states we operate on and typically 90 days is not invested in New York. Yeah. And 90 days was like our turnaround time to get somebody back in out in in rare so but again, I can avoid that risk because not investing there. Yeah, yeah. Professionals haven’t said prevention is worth a pound of cure. Yeah, I would say like 30 to 60 days in is sort of get them out the door and you’re allowed to collect a security deposit in their Yellow Claw that yeah, we’ll pull that back. Yeah, we we are we all of our tenants we always kind of put up front land tenant insurance and reserve security deposit has to be there in order to come in right you know, a mentor of mine and it also was a vision from

Unknown Speaker 34:48
when as a brain Bushido when it first got your became a realtor back in 2010 was to make the process as easy as possible for the client, as in like, you know, like,

Unknown Speaker 34:59
kind of like

Unknown Speaker 35:00
Using a combo McDonald’s, you know, here’s six options which one you like. But

Unknown Speaker 35:05
the reality is that to actually execute that’s not the easiest, right? Especially with prices the way they are, you know, it could be $600,000 for home, it could be in a basement renovation for like, six, nine months. Yeah. You know, if they want to do a garden sweep and mop more cash out of pocket with, you know, hopefully a refinance in two years. Right. So we never got to that ideal situation. Now, you’ve because you’re a tech company, you’ve actually made the process quick, easy. Yeah, it is almost like a few clicks. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean, technology is great, because it’s an accelerant for us. So I always try to think of how we can automate people and move them through and and but they’re smarter than me. I know. But no, not at all. But, you know, we’ll really have to attribute to is the founding team, right? There’s four of us. But each of us cover a very specific part of the journey. Right? So Dimitri, he’s our head of investments comes from starlight, one of Canada’s largest private equity firms. So he brings that asset management piece, right, so he can understand how to scale that help biggest thoroughly, they’ve got a 25 plus billion dollars worth of residential real estate. Got it.

Unknown Speaker 36:21
Both here, Canada and the US. And then Carmen who is our CPA, both sides of the border. So she handles the accounting and tax and entity formation. She’s, she knows all of that stuff. So and then there’s Brandon, who’s our head, or head of technology, and then there’s me that just kind of

Unknown Speaker 36:38
gets to be on a podcast, right? So the subject matter expertise is there. So now it’s like extraction and building a platform that allows others to tap into that expertise without having to kind of bogged down the day to day, as much as I enjoy our conversations. I was really excited when I met Dimitri.

Unknown Speaker 36:57
Right? Because again, like, I’m very risk averse. I’ve seen many bad things happen. You know, I’ve, I’ve been through about five property managers in Hamilton alone, just fired my property manager in St. Catharines.

Unknown Speaker 37:09
Again, the market here is different property managers, my experience here are generally very, very small shops, right? Rare that they get to 100 doors, right? In the end, and I don’t blame them because it’s difficult. Right? If it tends not paying, how to it’s hard to bill your client for property management, or, or even just with a bit of rent control? Right. Everyone’s getting squeezed. Right. And, and a lot of people, a lot of investors have taken their properties back from property managers, because they can no longer afford property management. So PMS are getting squeezed. So it’s difficult business, just like you said, like, margins are slim. Right? Right. So I don’t fault them. It’s just every property manager I find has a shelf life. Because it’s not an easy job. Right, right. So

Unknown Speaker 38:02
Buffer, Nick. But when I met Dimitri, for example, you guys are telling me about these, you guys actually have much higher standards for who you hire for property managers. Yeah. Can you can you elaborate a bit on that? Yeah. So

Unknown Speaker 38:14
we the reason why we again, we want to be asset managers, as you know, we want to build such a aggregate portfolio for our clients that we can knock on the doors of the biggest property management companies that service typically only large institutions, because with that kind of volume and scale, they have to have certain expertise in house on payroll. One specifically we look for is like, do you have contractors on payroll that only take the 100% of their work comes from you. That way, we have control over the budget and timelines, because they’re the ones coming in doing the renovation work for us. They’re the ones setting the slot in their team. So timelines are pretty critical. And same with budgets. So the assumption is that if we’re getting them to do the rental work, they’re going to get the long the management contract. Now, when they get the manager, like, they’re, it’s in their best interest to kind of keep that budget low. And then on timeline. If they don’t, then we would walk. So we take those types of economies of scale, we pass that through to our clients. So that is sort of our core where it’s like, we need to work with reputable property management companies that have strong practices. We’ve got a good amount of team and good number of doors in that specific geography.

Unknown Speaker 39:31
I’m excited for that. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 39:33
I think it’s a different experience of working with an institutional level property manager. Yeah. And again, in my experience, not many PMS can handle renovations. Right, because they don’t have staff. And it’s a tough business. Yeah, it’s a real contractor. Yeah. Right. And then to wear two hats, both be general contractor and be proper manager. And then it’s, it can be risks as well. Yeah, the GC side doesn’t work out. You’re over budget. You’re

Unknown Speaker 40:00
If you’re not on time, then your vacancies is longer. Yeah, clients, I can be happy. Tend to might be happy because you promised them that you can move in. But you’re pushed out two months. Yeah. Because my experience here is it’s rare for renovations to come in on time on budget. Yeah. Yeah, it’s tough to because like, when a contractor, a third party contractor comes in, they’re bidding on your business as well as 10 other businesses, and they’ll still take the highest bidding project, right. So all of a sudden, they’ve ghost you, and you now gotta you hit the Yellow Pages, if that’s still a thing, find, find another contractor.

Unknown Speaker 40:35
And then, and then you also help the client up front as well to actually acquire property. Because we were talking before this meeting, is that person owning property, personal property doesn’t make sense to buy in the States? Yeah. I mean, there’s there’s liability risk there. Yes. Yeah. I think everyone knows the Americans are extremely litigious, right? I don’t see what anyone that right mind would buy in their personal name is Yeah. And for an accounting perspective, for for national, we we advise Canadians to set up an entity corporation in the respective state that they’re buying. And we’ll help you do that. So we’ve got partners to do that. So we can actually set that up for you, and then buying the house under that entity. And then you can build your credit through that entity. And then eventually, that opens up a lot of doors. How hard is this create the entity? Oh, it’s very easy. We can set that up in under 48 hours. In most states, that’s hilarious. Yeah, it’s a tax ID number that takes a long time. And it’s the tax ID number you need to when you go for financing or refinancing or pawn sale. Because I spoke to one of your customers about this, and doing my due diligence on you. And

Unknown Speaker 41:45
he mentioned how creating an entity was like, you know, a lot a lot from work. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 41:51
You know, that was a different time. Now we do it in house, you know, we were sending them to a partner and say, go to this website, sign up here and do this. And he’d ask questions, what does it mean for the share distributions? Like? Yeah, now we actually do that internally got through the same partner, but they’ve allowed us to, can take control of the experience. So now, because of our sort of onboarding and all that information, we already have a lot of information we need. So we’re just like, well, let us do it. Here it is, answer these questions. And we’ll tell you what these questions mean, as opposed to going online and being a number. But he was buying the property by clicking. Yeah, he has not seen it from what I understand. And I don’t think he’s either driven there visited the property. He told me he hasn’t. Okay. My point, though, is that traditionally to buy real estate investments is very different. Yeah. You got to, you know, get my client typically comes from the GTA. So they’re driving half hour, right? If there’s no traffic, yeah, it’s a Friday evening, there is traffic. Yeah, exactly. And then like,

Unknown Speaker 42:54
for a large period of time, we can guarantee we could still see the property that I wouldn’t sell and right. So I literally had had clients show up, like, sorry, it’s sold up, go home.

Unknown Speaker 43:08
And then, you know, going through the deal of going offering and then home inspection and then getting the contract to come in and you have the person come to draw, come and take measurements for drawings, and it’s like, you’re this past customers is clicking? Yes. Yeah, we aggregate we put boots on the ground. So we collate all that information, convert that information into hard, cold numbers and say, Is this what you like? Is this still good for you? So we kind of remove all that risk. But you know, it doesn’t come with some education process doesn’t mean they, they, they can just kind of show up and click they we we force them down in education funnel? Good. Yeah. So when you sign up and you’re interested, we actually send you some of our performance or underwriting and be like, this is your homework, read this through, write down your questions, and we’re going to come back and we’re going to meticulously go these lines. And so you understand how we are writing this. Understand your upside understand your downside. And when you give us the thumbs up here, then we’ll start searching. Right, right. Yeah. So education is key.

Unknown Speaker 44:12
Part of education. I think that’s incredibly important as well, because like this came like I’ve asked him at times,

Unknown Speaker 44:18
I coolants. The property, in terms of my understanding is just correct me if I’m wrong is I own the property Correct. No one else owns a property. This isn’t a fractional note. This isn’t shares of a private equity or read. No, I own it. direct ownership, you keep 100% of your upside. Our goal is to stretch that upside. So I can move into it if I wanted to. Yeah, if you wanted to, you could totally move in. You know, obviously, we have to go through the procedures, but that’s not a difficult thing.

Unknown Speaker 44:46
It’s pretty difficult here these days with tentative properties that you want to move in. Right. That’s I feel like that is one of the most clear cut ways to get a tenant out like is when to move in.

Unknown Speaker 44:56
But I’m not going to Yeah, I love Canada.

Unknown Speaker 45:03
I couldn’t I can just personally I don’t I don’t want to own a vacation property. I just don’t want to be pigeonholed into one place. So it’s not I’m just joking. My point is I have that level of control. Correct? Right, which in my opinion, is the proper way to invest heavy education, you control the asset? Because if anyone doesn’t believe me, just keep following the news on who loses money investing in real estate, right? Yeah. A lot of private lenders are getting whacked. It’s all over Twitter. Tons of private lenders getting whacked? Like their their capital is gone. Yeah, right. That’s okay. But I control the asset, right, so I can do whatever I want. Exactly. Right.

Unknown Speaker 45:43
I shouldn’t have asked this before, can I just you share for the acquisition, and then I do everything I want to, you could we do have a lockup period for our management fee. But again, it’s your property. If you decide to walk, we would just ask that you prorate our management fee from the lockup period, that lockup period could be anywhere from 12 to 24 months, right. But yeah, it’s your property, you can do what you want fire us, it’s your choice. But it’s not something I would recommend, obviously, because most your clients have do not see the property. Yeah, we’ve never actually turned over to clients. And they’re still with us. And in fact, I think majority of our clients fit over 50% of them are ready to buy another one or have already bought another one. Because I think the analogy would be like,

Unknown Speaker 46:26
I can get discounts at Costco if I tried to be my own Costco. Right.

Unknown Speaker 46:31
I just need to buy pallets of mayonnaise. Yeah. And then I can get the same price. Yeah, that’s, yeah. Yeah, you could totally under like, I think the disservice you would be doing and we should probably do the math on this is that, you know, if you take the property and run, you may lose some of the economies of scales we’ve provided Yes, right. Like the discounted PM, the discounted landlord insurance policy, because we can’t keep you on our master policy. So you’d have to go direct.

Unknown Speaker 47:00
So those cost savings will not be realized after.

Unknown Speaker 47:05
But yeah, again, it’s yours, you can fire us, you don’t like us, that’s completely up to you.

Unknown Speaker 47:11
The client experience sounds currently impressive again, because again, I can buy property based by clicking your guide me through the process of creating a US entity, you’ll

Unknown Speaker 47:20
you almost serve the function of a mortgage broker and putting me in place with and shopping your client to several mortgage companies to get them the best possible deal. You’re going to you’re going to you quarterback, the renovations

Unknown Speaker 47:39
and the property manager filling the property long term management.

Unknown Speaker 47:43
You even advised clients wanted to be ready for refinancing. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, right now, especially now, we’ll put those in the models upfront, be like, hey, look, this is the current rate.

Unknown Speaker 47:53
You know, we’ll watch like overnight, later renting different sorts of treasury like graphs, whatever. And we’ll say maybe in two years, let’s model out what this might look like at a refinancing. So you can get a better assessment on a more improved cash flow. So yeah, we do that we want to put everything all encompassing, you’re in financing your lending rate, make sure whatever your capital you’re bringing to the table, we want to know what kind of if it’s interest bearing or not. And we’ll put that into the model. Speaking of financing, what are typical terms you’re seeing today? Yeah, anywhere from Yeah, mid sevens to mid eights, it depends on sort of the house,

Unknown Speaker 48:28
your down payment size, and

Unknown Speaker 48:32
how invasive you want to get in the credit check.

Unknown Speaker 48:36
So say, for someone like myself, and many of my clients, they’ll likely listen to scenarios.

Unknown Speaker 48:44
Let’s do a scenario where someone’s coming home with some cash, because I have a number of clients who are exiting here to take profits, that they’re not worried about, like, Everything points to real estate prices going up war here in Ontario and Canada in general. Right. So But again, there’s still one take profits, pay down some debt.

Unknown Speaker 49:03
I imagine many of them will be interested in this as well.

Unknown Speaker 49:06
For all the lovely reasons of investing in the landlord friendly place with strong economic fundamentals.

Unknown Speaker 49:12
So okay, so let’s assume

Unknown Speaker 49:16
that someone with like 25 or 30%, down payment in cash, and they’re buying, you tell me, okay, well, yeah, so let’s say you, you come up with 25%. Down, you got excellent credit, let’s say 720 Plus assumed credit. The house has got in a great rental demand area, where the debt to service cover ratio is really good. Then I would say mid sevens

Unknown Speaker 49:43
only Oh, yeah. And that’s a 30 year fixed. no prepayment penalties. So that’s what we’ll say, Okay, we’ll lock that in because we can actually make that deal pencil cashflow positive, once a tenant in there, right. And then yeah, we’ll refinance that probably in two years. Right. So

Unknown Speaker 50:00
and no penalty at all to refund it. Yeah, there’s huge open balloons. Yeah, that’s that’s an American very common thing. It’s like a 30 year fixed sort of term. So it’s easy to do the math on that one. Right, right. From a cash flow perspective. So I actually do educate myself on this on us mortgages, because like, people tell me about it. They don’t really understand. Oh, yeah. 30 year amortization. I get it. Yeah. But it’s, but there’s no bass that that is the term of the mortgage. Yep. So it’s, it could be like 7.5% for the entire 30 years. Yes. Yeah. amortize? I mean, you could still like, if you want to, if you want, like, there’s so many, I think what we don’t realize, and we, in the US, there are so many different versions of this. So you get a five year term, two year term, three year term, but 30 year amortization, like there, and then there’s like step down fees, different yield maintenance. So I would say like, you can get up to like a 30 year term. But you know, there’s also short terms 2357 10 Whenever with 30, year amortization, but fixed.

Unknown Speaker 51:02
So yeah, I can’t speak for the broad nation, because again, you could walk down the street and get 50 versions of this, right. But 30 year amortization is a thing. Fixed terms can be different. prepayment turns, actually, one thing is pretty common. It’s like no prepayment. Penalties is a thing. It’s amazing. Yeah. So that’s why refinancing is so much easier. Because here refinance, we typically have to pay through an interest. Yeah, yeah, there’s no prepayment, majority of them don’t have prepayment penalties, they might have a step down, so that you can lock in for longer. But again, those are sort of the unique flavors when you go lender to lender. That sounds awesome. Yeah, it’s easy to do the math there, right. And it’s great when rates are low, and everyone’s competing against each other. Everyone’s competing against each other right now. So here’s the trick, I’m gonna say investing here is, I think the best option, the best options for investing locally are garden suites and student rentals. Neither appraised easily, right?

Unknown Speaker 51:58
All right. Okay, so I can get like seven and a half, I can cash flow.

Unknown Speaker 52:04
And I don’t mind sharing my credit. Right. If anything, if it gives me a better rate, yeah, it’ll get you a better rate for sure.

Unknown Speaker 52:12
Wow. Yeah. Because these loans, they’re meant to be non invasive, sort of, like non credit, check invasive processes. They underwrite the house, essentially. So it’s like, much like a commercial mortgage here. I guess. So yeah. Like they want to see that the rental income can exceed all your debt. And, and that personally, that if they’re, if you’re a shortfall, you can personally cover that delta. Interesting, because here in Canada, you typically have to be four to six units at a minimum, in order to qualify just on the property. Gotcha. But even still, if it’s like, many times, they’ll still want a personal guarantee. Right? Or to or to tie it to one of your corporation. Yeah, but as assets. Yeah. And I believe like, even if you were to buy like investment, like residential here, the big banks kind of limit you on how many you can buy with. But in the US with these DSCR loans, you can kind of do them over and over and over as long as the assets have well, performing asset. Well, the reality is here in Canada, it’s really hard to own five income properties, right. It’s just a lot of capital.

Unknown Speaker 53:12
And then the challenge of having enough cash flow. Yeah, right. So it’s rarely when he gets the runs up against that 10 property limit. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 53:23
If you can win up to that 10, copy limit, let me know. Congratulations.

Unknown Speaker 53:28
You are you’re you’re you’re already are. Even in the past, before the pandemic, you were very rare. I think you were maybe 1% of the market that you could get to 10 properties. Right, right.

Unknown Speaker 53:39
More, I think that number went up to like two and a half, maybe during the pandemic, just because prices went up so much. People would got so much risk. So rich, but I digress.

Unknown Speaker 53:49
Great rental demand areas, that cash flow. Can you give me like, What are your top three? Yeah, I would say you know, the states wise, we would love we love Texas, Georgia.

Unknown Speaker 54:04
Tennessee,

Unknown Speaker 54:07
starting to look into sort of Midwest and what we like Ohio, Missouri.

Unknown Speaker 54:13
Florida has always been up there. But you know, there’s some headwinds there because you only change Yeah, so yeah, experienced yourself. Yeah. So the insurance rates are starting to tick up.

Unknown Speaker 54:24
You know, it’s still a great investment spot is just with climate change and insurance rates. It’s kind of questionable.

Unknown Speaker 54:31
Because I’ve, I’ve, I’ve had people on the show, who, who deliberately chose something last three years in Florida, because it never got hit by hurricanes. And then those are always Famous last words. or never.

Unknown Speaker 54:47
And yeah, I have one friend

Unknown Speaker 54:51
Bonnke coral. They lost I think like 80s 80% of shingles off the roof during the hurricane. So the house flooded from the top down. Oh my gosh.

Unknown Speaker 55:00
This is just after they renovated. Right? Right? They’re just waiting. They’re at a stage. They’re just waiting for the cleaners.

Unknown Speaker 55:06
Because the house is already renovated. They’re just waiting for the cleaners to have men to have the furniture delivered. Already just been completely renovated. And like, gosh, by like the hurricane, the storm was that bad to knock off damaged shingles that a major Wall your house permeable? Right? So a flood from the from the roof down to the basement? So another good job? Yeah. All right.

Unknown Speaker 55:28
So me personally, as much as I love Florida, I I’d be very cautious. Because again, I am risk adverse. I need to know somewhere I can always get insurance. Yeah, yeah. No insurance, no mortgage. Right. So, yeah. And then yeah, mortgages are inflating across the states. I’ve done some research in stage two, I noticed a couple of the major insurers. I believe they reduced half their portfolio in Florida. Yeah, over the last like few years. And that seems to be a trend. Yeah. Yeah, they’re starting to pull back because they don’t know what’s going to happen to that’s that state and some neighboring states because of again, climate change.

Unknown Speaker 56:07
Demetri my head of investments is the best one to talk about this, because he gets more intimately in tune with that from a sort of institutional level. But my understanding is there are big notable insurers that have like openly stated that Florida is an area of question for them.

Unknown Speaker 56:25
But then, the counter argument I always hear is like, well, that opens up the opportunity for, you know, other insurance.

Unknown Speaker 56:33
How big are these insurers? Well, who’s to say that they’re just not going to disappear? So yeah, you know, it’s, it’s it’s touching go if the client really, really is adamant about Florida? Well, we’ll help you source there, but and we’ll keep a pulse on it. I think, you know, we, we want to kind of also project insurance rates as well, that’s kind of our forecasting as some of our Forte’s or insurance taxes, but we’ll kind of keep a pulse on that. But we want to educate them, we’ll give them the sort of same sentiment, as we are talking about now. And if they still want to move forward, then we’ll let them because in my research, I believe that the lead the insurer with the largest market share about 15% and of the fastest growing is a state backed insurance company, right. Backed by state of Florida. Yeah, by the taxpayer of Florida. Yeah. And I think that was a byproduct of their insurance pulling out, but again, don’t quote me on that. That’s more of a Demetri question. But yeah, I think that was a byproduct of other insurers pulling out red flag to be a complete wreck to have to back through. Yeah, exactly. I I’m not, that’s not that’s too much. That’s too much of a red flag for me. Right. I cuz, because I have, like, almost all my properties have basements. So whenever we get one of those 100 year storms, keep coming.

Unknown Speaker 57:54
I worry about my basements. Right, right. So I’ve had enough worry in my life. I don’t want to like every time I hear about a hurricane coming to Florida, I don’t have to be Googling and researching see if it’s coming near my property. Right. That’s me personally, personally. So that’s so I’m down to invest in areas where where things make sense. Yeah. Right. So let’s what what what about Texas, Georgia and Tennessee? What do we have in common? That makes sense? Yeah. So the reason why we like Texas, and we like Dallas, a lot. I mean, those like you mentioned economic fundamentals, you know, growing population, job growth, household income, unemployment rate, those we look at all of those factors, like we plug into several 100 data points.

Unknown Speaker 58:38
So we like them because you know, they’re great for it. They’ve got They run the gamut. They have anywhere from you know, your institutional grade class A, you know, these are low risk homes, in very nice neighborhoods to

Unknown Speaker 58:50
the tertiary markets where you’re looking at higher yields and lower price points. So they’ve got a good array of those both areas. But I would say Dallas and most of the pockets of Atlanta, they got a lot of great A and B product.

Unknown Speaker 59:03
And that’s where a lot of institutions are buying up in droves. They’re buying a lot of homes because they know it’s very good rental demand. Appreciation. Same with Atlanta. Lance is home to a major a bunch of fortune 500 companies. It’s a growing population. You know, you can buy something that’s you know, 2000 build 1500 square feet for under 300,000. So great product there. So yeah, it’s close to major metro. It’s like a bunch of Hamilton’s right like it’s a good city. Great economics, good job growth. It’s got all the right factors. All these are a lot bigger. Yeah, I saw Atlanta’s greater areas but 6.1 million. Yeah, yeah, like Atlanta proper thing. Yes, about 400,000 But like the whole surrounding area. Yeah. There’s such nice pockets there. And, you know, as much as institutions kind of affect you

Unknown Speaker 1:00:01
owner occupancy inventory because they’re buying up for rental. There’s some benefit there for other investors because you know, they can help boost the rental rates and stuff like that.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:14
And they tend to keep a good upkeep of their homes. So those are all positive opportunities for other investors to sort of leverage and piggyback right. Can you give a range of price points for these A B and C Class property? Yeah, so we we go from anywhere from $50,000 homes which would be like yeah, this the tertiary no parking lot is C, the C Class homes to

Unknown Speaker 1:00:39
up to like, let’s call 400,000 for a class homes.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:44
And how you want to think about it is the A Class homes have moderate to low cap rates. So there we would look at the pencil those deals to kind of break even but they’ve got pretty aggressive equity appreciation year over year and less tenant turnover, some of the cost lines are a lot lower like allocation for RNM and vacancy and probably lower and then on the sea side, lower price point, lower appreciation but higher yields cash yields and

Unknown Speaker 1:01:14
yeah, higher risk too. So it’s not to say we favor one or the other I think a well diversified portfolio should actually be a spread across that

Unknown Speaker 1:01:25
and having good cash yield sitting on that cash and reinvesting into the a it’s a great cycle or even, you know, refinancing and buying cashflow heavy homes is you know, a good opportunity to so yeah, a well diversified portfolio you should run the gamut. Each state has their ABCs but they also have their sort of micro economic factors. So that’s why on our platform we’re like it’s good idea to diversify across states right bees here bees, their bees across Sunbelt Midwest. Yeah, thank you. So red state becomes a blue state.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:57
I don’t want to get into politics or but hurricane just all of a sudden pops up out of nowhere. No. Tornado but, but again, like

Unknown Speaker 1:02:04
this all sounds great.

Erwin 1:02:08
Anything else I haven’t asked. We’re running out of time. So anything else I should have asked? Do you want to share? Oh, question was sorry. Question I want to ask is why single family rentals, right? Yeah, so single family rentals are like after the only mortgage crisis, they became quite popularized and known as like a very safe and resilient asset class.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:31
The reason institutions haven’t touched it is because it’s kind of hard to operationalize, because you have scattered that’s why they prefer multifamily condos, but single family rentals strictly because of the resiliency of it.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:43
You know, in the market, that price point typically goes up.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:48
And then down, market rental demand goes up. So your rental rates can go up. And because of law, specifically long term rental, now short term so that way you get people who are signing longer leases, you can have a dependable repeatable monthly income to ride out down cycles. And then up cycles, you know, obviously you’ve got accelerating vehicles like refinancing opportunities and stuff like that. So to replicate so yeah, after though a mortgage crisis institutions realized how resilient this asset class was and they started entering on droves. And it is still one of the most resilient ones and what makes them resilient is not just like okay, it’s a single detached home it could be anywhere now it’s it’s a certain surrounding setup. Again, economic fundamentals where you want to be outside of major metros, certain radius, drive time rental demand percentage of home owner occupant vers renters, these are all factors that go into the classification of an SFR single family rental.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:48
Manager, then

Erwin 1:03:50
I always like to give my guests you know, a chance to share.

Erwin 1:03:54
Is there anything you want us to share about anything today?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:59
Without my repre a prompting you Yeah, like, I think a lot of questions. A lot of hesitation people get it, it’s like do we buy now we wait for later.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:09
And I’ve always been a strong proponent of like, look, single family rental, this is a 10 to 15 year hold minimum. Like that’s how you want to look at it. Timing, the bottom is impossible. And supply is dwindling.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:21
We are constantly bidding against institutions. So that’s a big Nick, you can Google like, funds deploy more capital. And there, you know, a few months ago, Blackstone just announced with along with a KKR or something that that they’ve raised another 100 and $10 billion to deploy in single family rental homes. So if you can pencil the deal today to be cashflow positive, everything kind of goes up. Everything improves over time as interest rates kind of subsides so you’ve seen the worst case scenario so lock in your assets, buy them now because in 10 years you’re it’s always the same sob stories like I wish I would have bought more. I wish I would have bought I wish I would have

Unknown Speaker 1:05:00
bought.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:02
But yeah, so if you can make a deal pencil today, snatch it up, secure it, and then ride it out. Right. And that’s what we’re seeing. We see savvy investors still buying deals. And inflation doesn’t matter as much as their Yeah, this is a great inspiration. Yeah, this Yeah, this flesh, there’s a very good inflation hedge because, yeah, the rent control pieces we can raise rents and we typically pick markets where the rental demand is strong. So yeah, rent rates have gone up. And that’s why they said so far as a great inflation hedge, which is one like, I’ve seen many performance. So when I when I saw yours and I see the cashflow goes up every month, every year. I’m like, let’s let’s do this. Yeah, the rents are going up every year. And so like the year 10 cashflow numbers are sick. Yeah. And like, those are modest numbers to like, like Dimitri is quite conservative, like I’ve seen some way more aggressive, and we actually peg our underwriting against everyone else’s. And oftentimes our cap rates are about a percent a percent and a half lower than everyone else’s just strictly because of the conservative nature of it. But the low performers I’ve looked at you can basically cashflow your day one. Yes. And one example is I could cashflow $800 a month in your 10. Yeah, we wouldn’t. Yeah, we’ll never recommend like our starting point is cashflow positive. It doesn’t start in any other scenario for us. It doesn’t make sense. Amazing. Andrew, thank you for thank you so much for doing this. Of course. My pleasure. Do you

Erwin 1:06:29
remember

Erwin 1:06:30
the landing page offhand? Yes, it’s I win dot share. S F our single family rental.com. Again, that’s I win, share sfr.com And I’ll have it in the show notes, folks, thank you for remembering. No problem. I got you.

Ewin 1:06:49
There Thank you for watching. If you want to learn how to invest in real estate from scratch, my team teaches beginners how to use the number one investment strategy that I personally use in a virtual free training class every month. Go to investor training.ca/youtube To register for our next class. Then links also in the description as well. I publish at least two to three videos a week here. So subscribe if you want to keep learning from seasoned investors like myself, my guess. And if you’re just starting out, feel free to ask questions and comment below. And I’ll do my best to answer each of those comments and questions myself. Again, if you’re ready to learn the nitty gritty about real estate investing from a professional investor register for our next virtual class. That’s at Investor training.ca/youtube. Thanks again for watching. See you in the next video.

 

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UPCOMING EVENTS

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with! Build connections with empire builders and trailblazers at our iWIN events.
 
CLICK HERE to check out what’s coming up next.

 

BEFORE YOU GO…

If you’re interested in being a successful real estate investor like those who have been featured on this podcast and our hundreds of successful clients please let us know.

It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

If you didn’t know already, we pride ourselves on being the best of the best real estate coaches, having the best property managers, contractors, handy people, cleaners, lawyers, accountants, everyone you need on your power team and we’re happy to share them with our clients to ensure your success. 

New investor or seasoned veteran investor, we can help anyone by providing our award winning coaching services and this isn’t all talk.

We have been awarded Realtor of the Year to Investors in 2015 by the Real Estate Investment Network, 2016 by the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and again in 2017 because no one told the judges no one is supposed to win the award twice but on merit, our peers deemed us as the best.  In 2018, we again won the same award by the Real Estate Investment Network.

Hopefully being the most decorated team of Realtors in Ontario will make you consider us for your first or next real estate investment.  Even if you don’t invest in our areas, there’s a good chance I know who would be ideal for you. 

I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

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Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

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Starting a Private Housing Task Force With Kayla Andrade

Today we have the lovely Kayla Andrade who’s been advocating for us landlords since 2010. We’ll be talking about the challenges Landlords face, how we can better come together and advocate for ourselves, her plans for next investment and so much more!

Before we get to Kayla, welcome to the Truth About Real Estate Investing Show for Canadians where we’re on this journey together to seek out the truth on how to best invest in real estate. We host leaders in our community who have demonstrated repeatable investment strategies, I ask them about their tips and tricks so we may leverage their experiences to improve our own portfolios and in turn our lives on a path to financial peace.

My name is Erwin Szeto, I’ve owned over 40 investment properties since 2005, full time in investment real estate and coaching since 2010, four time Realtor of the Year to Investors and I’m looking to pivot away from Canadian real estate.

You heard that right. Cherry and I are looking to divest some of our properties to take profits, pay off debt on properties that don’t cash flow positive with these higher rates and rents we’re not able to increase.  I have two properties that are under rented by $1,000 each and thanks to rent control, I’ll sell them. There is a 95% chance someone looking to move in will buy and move into one or more units removing rental supply, not that our government cares. They knew this would happen thanks to rent control.

Combine that with the opportunities in southern, landlord friendly States in the US combined with debt coverage ratio mortgage options meaning qualification is based entirely on a minimum down payment of 25% and the financial performance of the property combined with a managed service company I’m currently doing due diligence on…

For those new to sunbelt, USA states, there is no rent control, no Landlord Tenant Board, single family homes in the $100-300k range that cash flow.  The numbers are so good the 5-7 cap rates are better than apartment buildings here with way less headaches hence I’m throwing myself into the due diligence and am booking a trip south next month.  I’ll report back my findings when I’m back.

I have no doubt prices will go up again when the Bank of Canada cuts rates but I also have no doubt I can not raise my rents when my property taxes go up 6-14% and the Landlord Tenant Board is effectively broken. 

I’m left with no option but to figure out how to Make Real Estate Investing Great Again 😉

Based on the survey we sent out, 92% of respondents are interested in a workshop on how a Canadian can invest in US real estate.  You have spoken so we are doing just that. On Saturday morning, Oct 21st we are offering an investing in the US Workshop in partnership with SHARE SFR (https://iwin.sharesfr.com) and LendCity USA (iwin@lendcity.ca).

We will be covering US ownership structures to optimise mortgage options while limiting tax and liability, the top areas for investment including everyone’s favourite: Florida, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, basically all the landlord friendly, sunbelt States; how you can improve the cash flow and returns while buying US houses in the $100,000-$300,000 range.  Needless to say, the affordability is significantly better stateside.

In person seating is limited to 24 seats, yes there will be a hybrid option to attend via Zoom but in person learning is always best but if you live in BC, we got you 😉

Tickets are a silly $30 plus tax both in person and online, all proceeds go to Charity.  If you’re a frustrated Canadian landlord like I am, you owe it to yourself to learn how to Make Real Estate Investing Great Again because inflation is real, you need to be able to raise your rents and there’s more inflation on the way.

See you there! For tickets: https://iwinworkshop.eventbrite.ca 

Starting a Private Housing Task Force With Kayla Andrade

On to this week’s show!

We have a long-time friend of the show Kayla Andrade, President of Ontario Landlords Watch, a grass roots, not for profit organisation, there’s almost 10,000 Facebook group members. Kayla has been advocating for landlords ever since her local city passed a by-law that if a tenant doesn’t pay their water bill, said debt gets applied to the landlord’s property tax.  Got to love how landlords are expected to back stop the tenant’s debt.

Kay is here to share about best practices and how we may advocate for our rights so we may all come together to make a healthier rental market for everyone including the vast majority of tenants who are great.  We discuss challenges we face, how she’s pausing growing her portfolio, and the always amazing, upcoming Ontario Landlord Watch Conference on October 28th, doors at 1pm and dinner is included.

I’ll be there along with many wonderful speakers and a certain member of Parliament Kayla announces for the first time on this show!!

Link to receive more information and tickets available here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ontario-landlords-watch-5th-annual-private-housing-sector-conference-tickets-681955085017?fbclid=IwAR2BgiOKha4BOJhFvCHjY9MSN7UwA2AUISHy-tUsPRgMZO6hqNOUlpajMUI

Again that’s Saturday Oct 28th, doors at 1pm, my friends from SingleKey and Front Lobby will be there too. Dinner buffet included!

Please enjoy the show, I present to you Kayla Andrade

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-generated**

Erwin 0:00
Welcome to the truth about real estate investing show today we have the lovely Kelly Andrade, who has been advocating for us landlords since 2010. We’ll be talking about the challenges landlords face, how we can better come together and advocate for ourselves, her plans for her next investment and so much more. Before we get to Taylor, again, welcome to the truth about real estate investing show for Canadians, where we’re on this journey together to seek the truth on how to best invest in real estate. We host leaders in our community who have demonstrated repeatable investment strategies, I ask them about their tips and tricks, so we may leverage their experiences to improve our own portfolios, and in turn our lives on a path to financial peace. My name is Erwin Seto, I’ve owned over 40 properties since 2005, full time in investment, real estate and coaching since 20 1014, realtor of the year to investors, and I’m looking to pivot away from Canadian real estate, not entirely and yes, you heard that right. Terry and I are looking to divest to divest some of our properties to take profits pay off some debt on properties that don’t cashflow positive. With these higher rates, and rents were not able to increase, I have two properties that are under rented by about $1,000 each. And thanks to rent control, I’m going to sell them, there’s about a 95% chance in my experience, that’s someone who will buy them over that’s going to buy them will likely move in and they’ll move into one or both units. And then sadly removing rental supply from the system. Not that our government cares, because they knew this would happen, because that’s the symptom of rent control. combined that with the opportunities that presented themselves to me in the southern parts of the United States, where it’s landlord friendly, and the debt coverage, mortgage, sorry, debt coverage ratio mortgages are available, which is kind of commercial financing here in Canada, there’s just there’s just such a plethora of options available in the States. So debt coverage ratio means qualification of the mortgage will be based almost entirely on your down payment, which has been 120 5%. Down and the numbers of the property. So if you find a good cash flowing property, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get a mortgage. Combine that with a managed service company that I’m currently doing due diligence on. For those new to the Sunbelt, USA states there is no rent control in the right, and the good ones, and not all of them looking at you California. And there’s no landlord tenant board. Single family homes are in the 102. Well, the target, the ones I’m targeting are in a 100,000 to $300,000 price range. That is US dollars in the cash flow in US dollars. The numbers are so good. We’re looking at like five to seven caps. And that’s better than most apartment buildings here with way less headaches. I don’t need to have lots of tenants. I’m totally okay to make my money passively. And again, I’m drawing myself into the due diligence process. I’m booking myself a trip down south next month, I’ll report my findings when I’m back. I have no doubt prices will go up again when the Canada cuts rates but I have no doubt that I cannot raise my rents. On practice property taxes are going up anywhere in the six to 14% range. And if they don’t crazy, literally Belleville passed a property tax increase of 5.8% this earlier this year, and Hamilton is looking at a 14% increase for next year. Also the landlord tenant board is effectively broken and left no option but to figure out how to make real estate investing great again. That’s tongue in cheek folks. You know, I’m not political. But I do like to make my investing Great. Based on the survey that we sent out. 92% of respondents are interested in a workshop on how to learn and in general, they’re interested in a workshop on how to Canadian can invest in real estate real estate. In general, you’re all interested in learning more about investing in the States in general. So you spoken and so we’re doing just that. We’re going to have more guests on the show to speak to us investing. I just booked a Florida guest for next month. And also on Saturday morning, October 21. We are offering for the first time ever, and investing in the US workshop in partnership with share SFR and lens City USA. So we will be covering topics such as that you’ve been interested in such as US ownership structures in order to optimize mortgage options, while eliminating tax and liability. The top areas for investment including everyone’s favorites, Florida, Texas, Nevada, Arizona, basically, yeah, you’re my audience. Not surprised you’re very very knowledgeable on where the landlord friendly states are. How you can improve your cash flow your portfolio and returns while investing in houses in the United States. And again, we’re talking about the $100,000 range and $100,000 to $300,000 range. Needless to say, the affordability is significantly better stateside in person Seating is limited. We’re limited to 24 seats, and we’ve already sold a bunch of them. Yes, there will be a hybrid option to attend via zoom but in person learning is always the best in my opinion, in my experience, but if you live in BC, we got you tickets or a silly honestly silly little price. To $30 Plus tax for in person and online, All proceeds go to charity. If you’re a frustrated Canadian landlord like I am, you owe it to yourself to learn how to make real estate investing great again, by investing stateside. Again, this dis education, folks, because inflation is real, you need to be able to raise your rents, and there’s plenty more inflation on the way. Just to clarify, again, we’re talking about buying property in the states that you own directly in control. You’re the only one on title, there’s no shares, there’s no private lending, none of that sort of that sort of that stuff. It’s just you owning the house. And again, friends of mine are coming, they’re gonna be talking about their managed service options. So see you there. I went to get skinny dot 10 Well, I have a link in the show notes. Of course. I win workshop.eventbrite.ca Just go to the show notes. It’s easier. And and just click on it again. $30 Plus tax and on to this week’s show. We have a longtime friend of ours and Kyla Andrade on the show. President of Ontario landlords watch a grassroots, not for profit organization. There’s almost 10,000 Facebook group members that follow along. Kayla has been advocating for us landlords ever since to her local city passed a bylaw, that if a tenant doesn’t pay their water bill said debt is applied to the landlord’s property tax. Gotta love how landlords are expected to backstop attendance debt. Kayla is here to share about best practices on how we may advocate for our rights. So we may come together to make a healthier rental rental market here in Ontario. For everyone, including the vast majority of tenants who are great. That’s my experience. I thankfully don’t have any tenants who are holding back on rent. We discuss challenges that we face, how are pausing, how she’s pausing the growth of our portfolio and, and of course, always amazing upcoming fifth annual Ontario landlord wash conference on Saturday, October 28. Doors are at 1pm And dinner is included. I’ll be there with many wonderful speakers. I should mention there is no online option because everyone’s gonna be able to speak unfiltered if there’s no recordings and no online auction so doors doors, doors will be closed. I’ll be there along with many wonderful speakers and a certain Member of Parliament. That killer announces for the first time on this show. I’ve got a link to get tickets in the show notes. So grab my you can again that’s Saturday, October 25 20 Sorry 28th Saturday, October 28 doors at 1pm. My friends from single key in front lobby will be there to I hear there’s another great tech company that will help people with their landlord forms so that they don’t make any mistakes. Please note the show I present to you Kayla Andrade

Erwin 10:24
How are you? I’m good how you doing?

Kayla 10:27
Ah, you know, chillin like a villain. I was good. It was it was not my normal buffet that I did. But still, it was like pizza that normally I give to the kids. And then we made like a chicken salad sandwich. I had a macaroni salad, some sushi. So it was it was good. It had a little bit of my little flavor to it. Usually a lot more items on there. I’m loving your food that you’re cooking, though. You keep posting those, my friend. What is he making?

Erwin 11:04
It’s funny, because it’s totally like my real estate strategy. Keep it slow and boring. Because if you go slow and boring, you take so much risk out. Right?

Kayla 11:15
Yeah, when you are getting into like, let’s let’s run with it, then you start making mistakes, right?

Erwin 11:21
Well, like if you’re like grilled steak. It’s so time sensitive. You’re over by a minute. You’re really screwed up.

Kayla 11:31
Like Hey, Siri, set a timer. Yeah.

Erwin 11:35
But even still, but yeah, but my problem is always got too many things going on. You know? I mean,

Kayla 11:40
I said that and Siri picked up how long?

Erwin 11:44
Yeah,

Kayla 11:46
now it’s picking it up on the tablet there. Good. Golly. I swear we’re being listened to everywhere. Yeah. But ya know, it’s, uh, it’s crazy. It’s absolutely crazy out there right now.

Erwin 11:58
Yeah. Okay. But yeah, I want to I want to have you on. So you can talk about your conference. And, you know, kind of get an update on where you’re at in terms of like your own investment journey and how you’re supporting a wall W members. And, you know, we were talking about, if you want to talk about front lobby or anything like that, you know, me,

Kayla 12:21
you bounce them off me? I’ll answer it.

Erwin 12:26
I’ll make a list. And yeah, isn’t really a particular theme for for, for the conference this year.

Kayla 12:33
I know, we’re just Brandon is Ontario landlords watch. Because I’m going to be creating a committee after the fact. It’s going to be a private house Housing Task Force. So we have a government Housing Task Force. So let’s, let’s work our private one in there. And we’re just going to be more control of it. And then your Christian. Yeah, let’s do it. I’ll let her know that he’s been sold.

Erwin 13:01
Already did some work. Right. He already spoke in Ottawa for stuff.

Kayla 13:05
Oh, yeah. Like he’s a part of the Ontario the Ottawa landlords association that was established up there already. So it’s great to have like multiple voices in the industry. We’re trying to save some of them, you know, some of our, our landlord or regional ones from ramaa. They’re like trying to build themselves up from dust right now. So a lot of these small landlords associations are starting to die off, I John Dickey stepped down. So he’s going, he’s not going to be a part of CFA anymore. And then foco is going to the guy Tony from Volvo, he’s going to start managing both of them. So you can kind of see like, we’re we’re starting to take one leader and stretching him thin, we need to get more more voices and be more established. So that’s what the committee is going to do is really harness in what we’re advocating for him, which I have the ideas now, but we just want to write that into policy, which would be more inclined for elected officials to look at it because it’s being wrote in the way that they write policies. And then from that committee, we’re going to be utilizing that committee to go after the elected officials and be like, hey, we want you to have a meeting with our committee. So it’s not like we’re waiting to join their meetings anymore. We’re going to be saying you’re coming to us, and this is who we represent. But we need to start organizing and collaborating on how many of these landlords we represent, you know, being on Facebook with like 9600 members or having so many people on our email list, like we want to have like who you are, how many units you represent as you own or manage. You take the unit off of the long term market, you know, we want them to inform Ontario landlords watch about it. And if we can get that committee to recruit our landlords out there to do the same as well as if they have an issue with our elected officials. We want them to see see us in that letter to that. So it would be pretty good.

Erwin 14:55
I agree. Okay, one second. That’s got changed my headset. I don’t like the look of these one second.

Kayla 15:01
It looks stylish like, did you think? What’s new with you?

Erwin 15:13
Check check.

Nevermind didn’t work. No good. No good. And then we can talk about headwinds investors are getting. I heard about it. I didn’t I didn’t believe it when I first heard it, like Markham city of Markham that the rates are taxes 93% over a three year period. What are you seeing locally to you?

Kayla 15:53
We’re at 10% of the property tax increase.

Erwin 15:58
We’re looking at 14 for Hamilton.

Kayla 16:01
Yeah. And then they want to say, Hey, it’s 2.5% That’s all you can raise your rent, like the paralegals are starting to get gather information now on the government expropriating your land? And could we actually tie that into a situation where they’re technically expropriating our land without notice, and without a proper, proper compensation? Because if they’re there, they’re now refusing or delaying the eviction based on our landlords having tenants in the unit with children. Um, like, so don’t rent to children. Like

Erwin 16:38
you’re gonna do with your own portfolio?

Kayla 16:40
Mine, I’m just I’m buckling down like, I’m not buying anything. If I see if it see anything, I might turn my house that I live into like a rooming house and booger off North or go down to Dominican. I’m not too sure you

Erwin 17:01
know, but you know, tell it like it is like, for example, Elizabeth Kelly came on and she was saying how she’s recommending people for invest more on businesses that have real estate tied to it, like a motel where you own the land, you know, I mean, we own the asset as well. Well, that’s not that’s, that’s different.

Kayla 17:20
You’re definitely into like a business of real estate. But at the same time, look at our look at our hotels and what they’re being utilized for right now. They’re being utilized for, for newcomers coming to Canada, and people that are being refugee status, they’re, they’re packing them into into hotels, and even for the homeless population, they’re, they’re utilizing the hotels. So if the hotels are being taken up from the newcomers and the immigrants and the homeless, you know, where are people going to be staying when they’re coming to bring tourism into a city? You know, that was our short term rentals, but they’re no now we’re talking to short term rentals.

Erwin 18:01
Don’t know where this all goes? I could see for losing the next election.

Kayla 18:06
Yeah. And you know, what’s even scarier if he that he is going to lose based on the Greenbelt based on his ties and the corruption that was in it, but look at the next leader is for the reds, and what are the reds and the NDP abic advocating for

Erwin 18:20
we’re gonna lose our rent rent rent. Rent control exemption 2018 one we’re gonna lose that. I’ll be the first easy one to go. Oh, yeah.

Kayla 18:31
So that they’re they’re already attacking that now look, look at those those girls that are like, Oh, my rent, just skyrocket? $9,000 And it’s like, um, I would like to sit back and one find out who the landlord is on this, because, like, it seems like propaganda a in one way. Like, is it really true? Are they just trying to highlight there’s no rent control on on units built after 2018? Or are they difficult tenants? And that was him being an asshole to be like, Oh, yeah. Okay, well, $9,000 you take it or leave it because it’s gonna cost I need that much money to deal with your bullshit.

Erwin 19:07
It’s just crazy because her rent was only 3500 I think I think erased it to that, which is a good brand.

Kayla 19:12
I think it was like 25. I think it was initially at 25. Yeah, but

Erwin 19:15
they raised it to something but then it doesn’t matter. So the Turner is actually called vacancy decontrol when you can, I didn’t know that was a term for when you turn over tenant and that’s when you can raise your rent. Yeah, to see that going away to

Kayla 19:30
they were trying to do it with the when the wing government right with us. With the standard lease. What do you think? What do

Erwin 19:37
you do so when the liberals or NDP

Kayla 19:40
win for the provincial? Yeah, I hope that we still have a stupid conservative. If anyone did have to have a chance, it wouldn’t be the Liberals taking it because Bonnie is going to she’s got that little personality traits for her but guess what? She doesn’t like secondary suites in her bait in her city. That’s why her in

Erwin 20:02
the Mississauga mayor is gonna run for Liberal leader. Why?

Kayla 20:04
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Buddy crumby she got the blessing from Hazel. So she got, you know, obviously pushed into the mayor. And now her hatred towards Doug Ford and you know, having a fresh face to the to the leader of, of politics and she stands a good chance she’s she’s down here campaigning already with these potential candidates.

Erwin 20:27
Show me her job to do. Oh, she

Kayla 20:29
just took a leave of absence, or tishie.

Yeah, I think they would they do they’ll they’ll put like a deputy and

Erwin 20:36
talk about election, we talk politics,

Kayla 20:39
should we be drinking on this call?

Erwin 20:42
Like I told you, I am selling some my portfolio here to move it to the states.

Kayla 20:47
And in the States is like, you got to look at those more favorite like, obviously, things are changing there too. But at the same time, marker read where it is, right. Like, we just you’re gonna be banking on what Who do you want to be president there?

Erwin 21:05
No, no, that’s that’s I don’t know, don’t take control ranking state. It’s too complicated. The states, they usually

Kayla 21:13
state vice. They’re usually state by state, but it’s always been that way too. And here, it’s like, same thing here in province to province, everyone has their homes. They’re all looking at each other and trying to to figure out who they are. And you know, what their rules are. Some are putting in rent controls for the very first time. Some are putting it in for like a three year kind of like pilot program. But and then the other countries that are or the other provinces that don’t have rent controls are doing well. Right. And that’s what they don’t quite see that this is a symptom. What you see now with the increase is jumping so high, it’s because of that initial 2.5 Why these landlords like they’re turning good landlords bad because of all the changes that are happening.

Erwin 21:54
Right. Oh, and then Rachel Notley is, you know, NDP, former Premier of Alberta, she’s she is proposing inflation plus two, for rent control. So it’s better than us.

Kayla 22:09
We don’t even get inflation, like we’re supposed to be like, we don’t care about that. And literally, when you give tenants an increase, and like, Oh, that’s not thing, like, you know, it’s nothing that increased, nothing, haven’t recovered me for that light bulb I put in for you.

Erwin 22:26
We’re just coddling tenants, like slow to like, disconnect them from the reality of inflation and Miss government mismanagement there might Alright, we’re not using it. Alright, let’s talk about the conference. So I always lead off with what’s keeping you busy these days. Go ahead, talk about conference. Go ahead. Talk about anything that you’re up to front lobby, whatever. I’m going to ask you about what you’re doing with your own investing. What are you seeing among the community as well? Make sense. So

Kayla 22:52
they’re selling the selling them to save themselves?

Erwin 22:55
Because of overleveraged rates or just their look, you know, because everything points to real estate prices going up. But our rents don’t go up?

Kayla 23:04
No. And the tenants moving? Depends aren’t moving, and you just gotta find creative ways to get them to move.

Erwin 23:11
Yeah, let’s not talk too much about it, though.

Kayla 23:15
That’s at the conference. You got to talk about that. So yeah. Behind closed doors,

Erwin 23:21
they do that I mentioned that please. Just like because, you know, we can’t. This is released publicly. You know, neither of us want to be sued, or have tenants protests on our front lawn?

Kayla 23:31
Yeah, that’s when you call me

Erwin 23:35
to protest returns a protested on the front line?

Kayla 23:38
Oh, yeah. It’s almost like we have to do credit what the tenant unions are doing and understand, like QP is supporting tenant unions. Tenant unions are putting these tenants down a very dangerous path of not paying rent. Right. So I don’t know

Erwin 23:53
if they’re going to collect union dues? Are they going to collect union dues?

Kayla 23:57
I don’t know if they’re paying, like right now, acorn is attending union. So they they pay about $15 a month to be a member and they have 140,000 members.

Erwin 24:06
So 140,000 paying members.

Kayla 24:09
Supposedly, they said they had 140,000. But for

Erwin 24:13
Florida inflation rates the way

Kayla 24:17
and it doesn’t even like there, it doesn’t help them. It’s not paying for their filing fees. It’s not paying for legal representation. They’re just harassing the landlord on behalf of the tenant.

Erwin 24:27
Which does make them exit and then you Yeah, I mean, no one’s gonna build

Kayla 24:34
Oh, they’re like you see the projects being canceled, you know, the, the numbers don’t make sense for them or they don’t see a lot of interest now from our community wanting to buy these pre construction kind of properties. Yeah, they got to

Erwin 24:47
this is gonna do it.

Kayla 24:50
A test to see if I know what the hell I’m talking about.

Erwin 24:53
I usually like to take this little catch up and

Kayla 24:56
it’s to get you into the zone so you can answer the ask the question Just to

Erwin 25:00
make sure that we cover what you want to cover. Is there anything else we can cover? You got a book coming out or No? Anything else? No, nothing we’re working on.

Kayla 25:10
No right now. It’s gonna be the taskforce the housing taskforce I’m gonna be so we’re gonna open that up for the first time at the conference to so

Erwin 25:20
I can ask you how local politicians or how you’re dealing with pulvinar you guys are getting along?

Kayla 25:26
Yeah, I just got invited to like a little shindig breakfast thing now on the 22nd from my MPP. So to that one, make them I saw

Erwin 25:35
you on TV. Oh, that was pretty good. But that bad economist, book writer, man, he’s a socialist, like you’re a communist, bro.

Kayla 25:44
You see the show after the cameras turned off? That was the highlight. They should have kept recording.

Erwin 25:55
As he just is he just a communist? What is he like,

Kayla 25:58
he just wants to he wants to talk what people are feeling right. And even though it makes them feel good to understand that we need more rent control to think that is what people are eating, but he doesn’t have that bigger vision of how it’s going to have a triple like, you know, domino effect to that decision. So he just got his book and he’s getting out there on CBC and you know, they’re, they’re, they’re part of this whole big propaganda of trying to all the media narratives

Erwin 26:27
of a Toronto Star article open right now but also part of the problem is landlords never speak up.

Kayla 26:31
Now they’re too afraid.

Erwin 26:34
They’re worried about everyone it’s like a full time job to battle all incoming media like for example, Elon doesn’t respond anything. Did you hear like if you email him, email them for the year if you email PR at Tesla, whatever, you get an auto response with the ship emoji

Kayla 26:53
sorry, can you give me can you give me a minute I just gotta answer this call quickly.

Erwin 26:57
Yeah, I gotta fix my chair

Unknown Speaker 27:25
Right Right

Kayla 29:05
sorry

Do you show our faces when we’re doing this? Are we just voice on YouTube? Oh, okay, so I should have done my hair. Okay.

Erwin 29:23
The voice part is the by far the bulk. Some clips will pipe multicam soundbite is this from this as well? Sounds good. All right, ready? I’m ready. All right. Hi, Kayla. What’s keeping you busy these days?

Kayla 29:40
Oh my God besides for children.

Erwin 29:43
For mental?

Kayla 29:45
Oh, yeah. I remember the last one. I was pregnant at the conference. It was crazy. 18 that was I am surprised. It was like the conference on the fifth and he was born on the 25th on the 21st right on election day. So yeah, it’s it’s a He keeps me on my toes, but he’s in school now. So I am jumping two feet in to my advocacy work even more than what I’ve been doing now for the last 14 years.

Erwin 30:15
So for those who don’t, who aren’t familiar with yourself or onto your LandWatch, let’s talk about this least touch on when you started a while W. Because you’ve been doing MacKeeper advocacy work for us for a long time, and actually just was thinking in my head, how funny it is. We thought things were tough back in 2019 for landlords. Well, oh, how we were spoiled.

Kayla 30:39
We were so wrong. Well, I started off in 2010, with the City of Cambridge when they made the landlords responsible for the tenants delinquent utility bills. And that was a wide opening experience. It’s just trying to understand municipal government, what they how involved they are in the housing industry, what policies, what bylaws they can they can make. And we were going back and forth with that for like a good four years just on water billing. And then once we had a petition trying to take that matter, now to a provincial level, it was it was a different, a different beast in itself, you have to really get to know the the players, you get to know how they introduce policy, what kind of policies they introduce. And so we were bringing that petition to the province, but then more landlords were calling me and like, can you fight the Residential Tenancy Act and the landlord tenant board, and then we’re like, Okay, we got this. And like, at that I never had issues at that time, I’ve never had issues really, as a landlord, over 20 years of being a landlord. So at that time, I just started listening to what they were going through and understanding and learning the RTA and then obviously having to understand what the landlord tenant board was all about, and how they were obviously, how they provide access to justice to all parties involved. So that’s when you know, you start to get to know the issue is now you have to come up with the solutions, but aren’t my goal was to how to communicate with all of the people that I’m communicating with. And that’s why I had a Facebook group created. So every time I was on a podcast or at an event, it was like join the group ground, join the group, we need to, you know, win a war and you need warriors. So my goal is to recruit as many landlords property managers and realtors into this group so that we do have a strong and united voice. But as you know, with politics, everything changes, we’ve had so many different assistance to the Minister of Health seen, oh, my God, I don’t know how they are thinking that they’re going to create a solution with the same mindset that actually caused this problem. And then they keep switching up our leaders and the people who have been put in charge to create solutions to this. And that’s where you get setbacks, you know, through our advocacy efforts, trying to build that relationship trying to build up we are, but it’s a new year coming. And I have some some few things up my sleeve, a different strategy. And it’s going to take this entire community, for us to see the type of changes that we are advocating for.

Erwin 33:17
And the problem is even made worse because like we’re joking how the good old days of 2019. We added, we added like a million new people in this country over the last two years. So the problem is that we had problems then now they’re magnified by another million people. Well,

Kayla 33:34
if you look at you know how many rental units that were created in from then till now and then the landlord and tenant board still dealing with there, there’s so many adjudicators and they’re happy, they got you know, $6.5 million to hire 40 More adjudicators to handle tenants who don’t pay rent. So it’s like, there’s so many ways that, you know, money could be spent in order to keep people housed keeping the landlords paid to keep that relationship strong. But unfortunately, it’s just about mismanaging of you know, funds on this on this crisis. And our government is obviously mismanaged the way that they are managing their own housing supply, and now they’re attacking the private sector and if our landlords don’t sit back, smell the roses, and understand that you need to step up, learn to advocate and fight for your property rights, it’s going to get a lot worse.

Erwin 34:31
Right. And I would say that the same thing for tenants do they need to fight for a healthier LTB as well? Because people with true issues, not non payment or rent, they need their hearings heard as well.

Kayla 34:43
Yet the tenants are well, the tenants in Toronto they were obviously taking part in rent strikes, so that they

Erwin 34:50
remember Yes, yes. Well, they’re

Kayla 34:53
they’re starting to collaborate, you know, with Acorn having 140,000 members, you know, Their goal was to try to stop AGI is from happening. So they try to do a rent strike.

Erwin 35:07
What’s the what’s above the guideline?

Kayla 35:08
Right? Increase? Right?

Erwin 35:11
So these are our sorry, these guidelines above guideline increases, they were already approved at the Lego town board.

Kayla 35:17
No, they weren’t even approved yet. So they were just applying for it, which are just the application. Okay, yeah, just the application, which could take three years to go to the landlord tenant board. But because the tenants had started a movement for a rent strike and trying to spread that to as many buildings as they could, they actually the landlord tenant board actually expedited that hearing for the AGI. So that the tenants are now fully aware of what their could be expecting as an increase, if any, and help them not, you know, contribute into these tenants still going on not paying rent on that landlords. So they were able to get an expedited hearing to deal with that case. And then the tenants were upset with it, because there was an expedited hearing for the AGI. It’s like, isn’t that what you it’s justice, like, this is a way for you guys to find out if it’s approved. First of all, to be told that you need to keep paying your rent no matter what, you don’t have to pay the AGI increase until it’s been approved, but you need to pay your rent on time. And they were they were upset that and that the landlord did get an expedited hearing to have his AGI heard because of the tenants taking part in a rent strike movement.

Erwin 36:33
Right. And the landlord is following process for their application.

Kayla 36:38
They’re just they’re just falling it’s a tool that they need. And I’m we’re lucky that sometimes specially for these bigger buildings, the agent infrastructure, these API’s are crucial, especially with a 2.5% rental cap on on rental units here in Ontario. So we really need to, you know, utilize these API’s whenever we can, but it’s not going to be as good as what people think it is a friend of mine had a $1.2 million building, they did $200,000 With the renovation costs, they took away heat and hot water from the tenants responsibility. And they were approved to a 7.1% increase over three years.

Erwin 37:16
spread out over three years. Over three years. Yeah, pretty minor.

Kayla 37:19
Yeah, and it’s, you know, your 200 bucks in, you got a lot of work a lot of proof of, you know, expenses and showing proof that you’ve done the work in order to apply this information at the landlord and tenant board to do it. So it does it’s not as easy as they think it is. But you know, push comes to shove with these bigger buildings, bigger buildings means bigger expenses, sometimes they need it, and they shouldn’t be trying to make a mockery of it. You know, it’s a business and it needs to be treated as such.

Erwin 37:48
These things cost money, which used to replace windows, you have to upgrade balconies, you have to repave the driveway, the parking lot, there’s all costs of that,

Kayla 37:56
the size of that roof, like come on, what are you paying for that?

Erwin 38:00
The heat loss I mean of us because you and I have our own roofs, so we have to pay for the whole thing. Like we have to share those expenses across everybody else.

Kayla 38:08
Yeah. So you get you got a lot of pushback. And we understand like there’s not all tenants are poor, and not all landlords are rich. And so it’s sad to see that we can’t try to come together as good tenants and good landlords, you know, trying to come together with a creating a fair and balanced housing system. But our main concern is that supply, you know, and if our investors are not helping the government create the supply is going to be the taxpayers paying for that supply, and if so, how much is it? And how long is it going to take for them to create that supply?

Erwin 38:48
Because everything I read points towards more price appreciation, inflation. I don’t know if investors nationally have the appetite to eat more of the inflation without be able to pass on the costs. Since rent rent controlled.

Kayla 39:03
That’s where they’re pivoting, they’re pivoting now between tenants leaving and staying into the long term rentals or are they getting into short term rentals if allowed, because obviously, they are attacking short term rentals in many different cities throughout Ontario. And

Erwin 39:17
so just for listeners benefit you even network with how many investors

Kayla 39:24
everyone who wants to talk with me?

Erwin 39:27
So how big is your Facebook group? For example?

Kayla 39:29
Um, we’re just about 9600 members,

Erwin 39:33
you know, small community

and what are what are we what are they saying? What are what are your once you have your finger on the pulse of 9600 real estate investors from Ontario watch.

Kayla 39:48
I watch a lot of a lot of the groups of what’s happening and I’m seeing an influx of the owners wanting to move out of their own personal unit or their home and wanting to move into their rent. sell units, just because obviously, those expenses have went up on that property and they have a long term tenant that obviously is not paying enough to keep up with the expenses. They are selling to save themselves. Speaking to my my paralegals in the community, a lot of our investors are in hot water based on when they bought that property. And having an A broken landlord tenant board system, property taxes are increasing left, right and center in every single municipality. And I don’t they’re trying to get out now, before those those increase take take effect. And so we’re seeing them wanting to explore other other countries and other provinces that are more investor friendly, and you can’t blame them. And this is the messaging that we try to give to the elected officials to be like, you were trying to gain 1.5 million homes before 2031. But you’re not calculating the rental units that you’re losing. Because either the landlord is just taking it off the market completely, or they have to branch and getting themselves into different forms of rentals, like the short term, the midterm, or even rooming houses. You can get about $1,000 a room now for just a room.

Erwin 41:17
Five student rentals. I know. Yeah, get that much but my house is my house isn’t as nice as yours. Is your home?

Kayla 41:28
Are you getting a lower

Erwin 41:30
market for McMaster rentals is around $700 a room? Right?

Kayla 41:35
That’s weird. Like we have our local shelter who is trying to recruit landlords to take part in their program. And they will give $1,000 per room and or $1,300 for a one bedroom. So the shelter is charging, giving out more money, I think you need to switch who your clientele is their money.

Erwin 41:56
I don’t trust government to blame me.

Kayla 42:00
Amen, brother. Amen. And that’s what I tried to tell them like they see like Ontario landlords watch, you know, hey, you know, I said, Listen, you can come and you can talk about your program, but be prepared to get the feedback that you don’t want to hear. Because what the government has done is created someone you know, creating a position, they’re gonna pay him to recruit landlords to go on this program. And yes, $1,000 Seems you know, all sudden done dandy, but if you can charge that, and to the private market and still get it, you know, what are the benefits of joining up on that program, and this gentleman is going to be spinning his wheels, and we’re spending money on a salary for him just to spin his wheels and not be productive and getting more people housed.

Erwin 42:45
I just want to finish my point, why don’t trust government with our property, so they don’t trust them? That is trust that I have my students and their parents guarantee that rent and damages, right? If it’s government, I don’t know how long it’s gonna make you only gonna be for me to get my damages back.

Kayla 43:00
You are looking at not just on students, people are looking for a guarantor. It’s a way for them strengthening their application with you know, hey, you know, my credit score is like 600. It’s not crazy good. But if I come with a guarantor, does that strengthen my application? So more and more landlords are calling upon that because now you can go after potentially to people in order to get any type of arrears because inflation and the cost of living has gotten so high? What is that bill that’s going to be not paid first. So that’s why you have to you have to be prepared and you have to learn how to work many different strategies into making sure that the rent is getting paid on time so that you don’t go underneath water and then the property suffers with that.

Erwin 43:48
So actually, before we’re recording what is your plans with your own portfolio expanding shrinking,

Kayla 43:53
I’m gonna utilize what I have. So like I have a five Plex six Plex two triplexes plus my single family home I have a basement. So I’m going to start doing some infill maybe just so my triplex I’m going to try to get a fourth unit created there. And then we have one unit that needs some renovations for the bathrooms and things like that. So maybe the the time could be where we, you know, flatten it and rebuild on that particular property, because we love our no rent control on on new builds. Yeah, when I said that, as soon as that policy came out, I’m like, Oh, thank you and flick of a pen. You could put rent control on that. No problem, guys, but like, I don’t think a lot of people were biting to it anyway. So it wasn’t too too bad. And then obviously, it’s just looking outside of the country. You know, I might just rent out my house as a rooming house and take off to Dominican or up north and live in the bush. You know, any anything right now you have to keep all your options open because we have an election to prepare for it

Erwin 45:03
Just now just to share my experience is as because we have we worked investors all the time, we have several properties for sale that are tenanted and the and there isn’t much demand for it. The demand seems to be currently for properties that are owner occupied or vacant. Right? Even Even we have listings where the rates are current. But again, investor appetite is not there. It could just be rates could be seasonality. But what your sentiment is, seems to be consistent. So I think our elected leaders need to understand that. And also whoever buys our income properties, typically, they’re moving in. Yeah, yeah. So then. So then rentals are being erased from the rental market.

Kayla 45:48
Landlords are doing it on purpose, they failing like the government, push them out with their policies to fake

Erwin 45:54
sellers will sell to anyone, they don’t necessarily care.

Kayla 45:57
Once that, oh, they’ll sell who are with with the right number, for sure. But there is that that sourness that has put on to those landlords where they’re like you want to move into it, then yeah, I want to know, you want to move into it, because I want to make sure that we’re taking it off the market. They’re very upset with the government, it’s been years of them just failed policy after failed policy. And now, we have a housing crisis that we don’t even know if actually, it could be managed anymore. Like, look at it before, we were looking like trying to help with affordable like, we’re just trying to sustain what happens. And we need big bold ideas out of the box thinking and ideas in order to get these incentives created that is working side by side with the private sector. But if you’re not listening to, you know, the private mom and pops the ones who are putting their money into this business, and just to developers and or pass pit politicians, we’re not going to see these these significant changes that will do any type of change that is going to benefit all parties involved.

Erwin 47:01
So I think you need to go after some of the sources of issue. For example, I think there’s just too many people coming. Like, for example, people, not just immigration, but for example, like international students,

Kayla 47:12
yes. Oh, my God, like, I’m glad you brought that.

Erwin 47:17
Most people don’t know that. Undergraduate tuitions are frozen. The rate, the price, the tuition prices are frozen and have been for quite a few years. Hence, colleges and universities are forced to recruit internationally. And that’s why we have so many of them here.

Kayla 47:33
40% of their enrollment fees is from international students and for international students coming over and they’re going to be paying more and I believe I was speaking with one of my landlords that the schools used to talk about, oh, I mean, we need money. You know, back in 2015, they were just hurting for the money because a lot of the people weren’t going to school. And now all of a sudden, we have way too many students that are coming in, and they’re on their city on their college and university websites, stating that residency is actually not in the private sector is more affordable than staying into residency. And so really encouraging people who are enrolling in that school to go into the private sector. Meanwhile, we’re tapped out for supply. And they continue to keep bringing more and more students over into the country, which is obviously just putting so much pressure on on the housing supply, as it is not including, you know, the war happening and people coming over to that bridge. And then they want to go back there. Back to Ukraine, because they can’t find housing here in the KW Syria, like, this is their they have multiple different levels of government handling each sector, but each sector still ropes around that concept of housing. So if you have someone in charge of, you know, immigration, and they just think that the people coming here for immigration is going to help us build more units, they’re sadly mistaken. So we do have to put, they need a cap. They need a cap, but the schools are they’re bringing in billions in revenue, and they’re passing, you know, they get to get the profits and they’re passing. They’re that type of service now to the private sector. Just like same thing with with government. There’s 855,000 People in Ontario on social assistance, and they don’t have near that amount for social housing. So they’re passing the need for housing to the private sector as well. So and the private sector is yelling at them saying, hey, you know, we can’t handle this landlord tenant board. We can’t deal with the broken RTA, we can’t handle these bylaws and these policies in the landlord licensing and the restrictions in the property taxes. You guys, they’re backing the private sector into a corner and we had to figure out why. So that’s part of like, why I was calling for Steve Clark. to step down, you know, we’ve ever we had the Greenbelt working with calling for his resignation. I was calling it for the concept, his policies were very much promoting the developer. And, and trying to get the small the small landlords out of the business or the small housing providers, private housing providers, and backing them out of the industry. So, but he’s gone. I’m hopeful. On the new one.

Erwin 50:29
It’s an impossible job like talking to any any country anywhere, or except the number of newcomers that we do. Do you ever see the Americans doing as much as we do in terms of accepting new people? Well, and just to clarify something, as well, a university co authored an article and then just pretty recently, how they are still struggling to make budget. Right, I’m gonna guess that they’re a little bit more on the ethical side, they didn’t just accept anyone. So they might think get to their 40% international students in order to make budget. So yeah, so

Kayla 51:01
Oh, they’re marketing, the marketing the international world with this dream, you know, and love it. People are selling their belongings in their homes to come here for soiling going back like, like, but it’s a stepping stone into getting their citizenship. And I think a lot of them are here to do that. Because, obviously, if they’re not happy, where they are just like the Ontario, Canada, Canadians are trying to go into other countries where, you know, the cost of living is a little bit less, which is very shocking to hear. But it’s

Erwin 51:34
often are Yeah, yeah. So we’re going

Kayla 51:37
down a very deep rabbit hole. And we have to be prepared more so now than ever, but we have to get our community or private housing sector united and organized and loud.

Erwin 51:50
being loud and uniting. Tell me about the LW conference. Is that what’s called onto your landline watch. Yeah,

Kayla 51:56
so we got the Ontario landlords watch private housing sector conference. It’s going to be on October 28. In Cambridge, Ontario, at the Armenian club, or the center. It’s almost like a wedding. So we have our easy about that,

Erwin 52:11
because I know how hard you work, you put it into these things. It’s like, it’s like organizing a wedding, isn’t it?

Kayla 52:16
So anyway, we got a three tiered cake that’s sponsored by Athena property management. We have our centerpieces at the table. We even got our little, you know, the little things that you get at the your wedding like little favor or wedding favor? Yeah, we even have one of those. And instead, tell you don’t, I’m really bad at keeping your kids not telling me. Then we’re going to be having our guest speakers we have a good 10 of our speakers to I’ve been working with throughout the years just really harming in what needs to be done what needs to be said for the education portion to help our landlords with this troubling, troubling time. And the key is going to be tenant screening, preparing them what changes are happening on the provincial level with Bill 97, that’s already been passed. We did put our two cents in which we see our mandatory rental payments, a part of Bill 97. So we’re going to highlight that at the conference to talk about what that is and what landlords need to do when it comes down to that, that that change. And of course, in Thirteen’s, you know, so how many of you investors, you know, look at a property, and you’re like, Yep, okay, I’m gonna buy this, I’m going to tell all the tenants that they need to leave, and I’m going to renovate it, and then you know, get the get the numbers up on that property, right. So, Bill 97, does impact that ability for the landlords to serve and in 13 application, so you are going to need to get approvals from a contractor to state that the tenant does need to vacate in order to do these typical changes. So we’re going to highlight what that looks like for the landlords when they are going through that and how we can work within that scope in order to still reach our goals, because we know we have a lot of aging infrastructure. All the forms that are happening at the landlord and tenant board, the advocacy, what’s going to come after the conference, we’re creating a Private Housing Task Force. So somewhere where we are going to unite ourselves with different chambers across Ontario in order to step up our advocacy efforts, because it’s now needed, more so than ever, and we just need to get organized. And so we’re gonna get I have a lot more to say about that one at the conference, and prizes. So instead of you know, bringing a present for me, because I’m not getting married.

Erwin 54:48
No renewing your vows with Eric No, no. wedding vows.

Kayla 54:53
Were actually it’s the same, same venue that we actually had our wedding reception, so he might not even like Step inside the hall. I don’t know.

Erwin 55:04
That’s so cute.

Kayla 55:05
But we haven’t we have a 10 item buffet, we have a 10 item buffet dinner. We have cookies and cake and cupcakes and fruit, that we’re going to be serving for dessert, but making sure that people are leaving with their minds and their bellies full. And I want to be able to take it offline and have it in person to build that strength of our community, and to share from these experts who have been at the landlord tenant board who’s been advocating alongside with me, and I think we’re, we’re we got the next year to really put her put her boots on and start running. Because it’s not where we have to start learning how to speak a certain language. It’s for us to move. I gotta start watching Gara. I got I got down to

Erwin 56:00
one point of clarification, that sounds so nerdy. Will this be recorded? Because I know the answer to that?

Kayla 56:06
No, no, it’s it’s definitely going to be like be here or be square, you know, we got to make sure that

Erwin 56:14
a closed door meeting for Yeah, it’s for privacy.

Kayla 56:35
I just I just didn’t want them to have that possibility of backing out or whatever. But he’s he was definitely interested. So we have to, to work him into into the conference. So he’s going to do a speak and you know, especially speaking on the federal side of of housing now being a popular topic at the federal level, we’re going to have him speaking at the conference and hopefully enlighten him on what’s happening at the provincial and municipal level that he should be concerned about. And I love his take on CMHC so he knows there’s issues with CMHC that he would like to see addressed to take I’ll see you may see you got to watch this video I gotta post it. He’s he’s definitely he’s he’s everywhere, he’s going to be a voice to you know, at least see how we can see where the federal government is coming from with their changes, because they’re obviously making some significant changes. So we need to know step up our advocacy ever levels, not only now to do it at a provincial and municipal level, we now need to reopen our federal Well, we have our my federal, Brian May, one of our conferences and we had our MPP Belinda Carlitos. And we had the mayor of Cambridge, at the last conference. So it’s great to see that they’re still coming in, they’re still listening to what we have going on. It’s just sadly, it’s this is government, and this is how slow it actually takes to see some significant changes. But as landlords we have to look at what do we want, you know, do is a privatization of the landlord tenant board what we need, and will that help landlords you know, be more willing to get back into the business knowing that they have someone that they can hold accountable for not giving the proper service of standard service that we expect with the current landlord and tenant board? And we need to remove and streamline the process of non payment of rent? If you

Erwin 58:24
don’t get it? I don’t understand why that’s a hearing. You don’t have you don’t have money, you don’t have money. Why do you need a hearing?

Kayla 58:30
Oh, aren’t you you have no idea people are they would cry to get their their cases adjourned. People are waiting seven to eight months now for an injured hearing. So they ran out of time you waited eight months, you got your hearing, they ran at a time now you have to wait another seven to eight months for an adjourned hearing. The people or tenants are stating that they are they have anxiety, they have a depression, so that way, they can adjourn the hearing or delay the eviction or demand that they can work out a longer payment plan.

Erwin 59:00
So landlords not gonna have to be depressed after that. Well,

Kayla 59:04
they’re asking they’re beside before I read this order. Is there any children in the home? And I’m like, what does that have to do with anything and like, you need to issue the order based on the rule of law, and there’s no consistency with it at the landlord and tenant board. So hopefully, we can, you know, show them that there is a better way of streamlining the non payment of rent applications, especially with Bill 97. And that mandatory rent, mandatory rent payment plan, that they’re forcing down everyone’s throat through COVID. But then that kind of went away and now they needed to kind of put it into into the act. And that’s why we have to learn how to work within that system and the different programs, the different government programs that are out there for tenants who are in hardship situations. Yes, it’s taxpayers money, but at the same time, it’s cheaper to keep people in their homes and to have them on the street. So we want to utilize those programs for these tenants. If they are are good tenants and you want to keep them, you know, start knowing about these different programs that can help them.

Erwin 1:00:04
Yeah, I actually saw a report, I think I forget what city you might have in Hamilton, we’re academics from the university, we’re seeing how it’s because there’s so much supply has been lost from the low income area like under $700. Like the politicians, they always say we just build more. And but the academics like that could take forever. And it’s really expensive. You talk about $500,000 a unit, or we give the tents money, so they can afford market rents.

Kayla 1:00:31
And they have that now with a portable housing benefit. But this is the cash. So if you have a tenant that’s waiting for government housing, that waiting list in the Region of Waterloo is 12 years. So if you

Erwin 1:00:41
if we come down to you, right, you know,

Kayla 1:00:45
you know why that list is coming down, that list is coming down, because they’re offering the people waiting on the housing list, a $350, portable housing benefit to remove their name off of the government housing waiting lists. So it makes it look like they’re chipping away at that list. And it’s not so much 12 years anymore, it’s going down a year. It is it’s just it’s it’s fabric Osteen. And you know what, sometimes if you look at who’s in government housing, they don’t need to like that should be used for people with more complex needs, I think. And everyone else just needs that little bit of a buffer, but you can’t give it to like you need to give them a hand up. You can’t be given them in a handout because no one wants to do anything for themselves. They don’t want to work. If it’s just going to be keep giving into him, right.

Erwin 1:01:32
It’s crazy. The whole comment about like, not people wanting not wanting to work like there’s so many jobs for trades people.

Kayla 1:01:39
Yeah. And then they look at how much the Reagan tax there’s a there’s a gentleman that was new to Canada, and he literally quit working because he seen how much he was taxed.

Erwin 1:01:49
Did he go home? Yeah. And then he went home.

Kayla 1:01:56
Alright, so I don’t know, man, I think we need a comedy show like this. This needs to be a definitely a reality TV show.

Erwin 1:02:08
We advocacy advocacy group help us with our property taxes. Actually, the whole everyone in the city should rise up because we’re all affected. And then just the landlords.

Kayla 1:02:20
This is where everyone has to get involved with politics, like know which level so if you have like the provincial government, they have like this little you know, NDA or EDA organization that helps you know, people become a member of the Conservatives or the federal, and then their job is to go and get people to sign up on a membership fee. Same thing with the municipal, they’re out there networking, they’re trying to get support, they want donations, like it’s always about donations, and always about support. And they always want to know that big issue that everyone’s talking about you housing is obviously the big issue. But we have to start holding these elected officials accountable. And if you look online, like our normal way of doing things was, you know, tag, tagging them in it or comment on their posts, a lot of our elected officials, especially on the housing, they’ve literally turned off commenting on their posts, because it’s very negative, you know, with Doug Ford saying that we’re going to have affordable houses under $500,000. Who’s really like, is this the Bukka? Bear thing again, like come on, you know, that doesn’t

Erwin 1:03:28
work, who’s gonna build it?

Kayla 1:03:30
Well, they’re actually saying that there’s these so many houses and rentals that are going to be built in my area, the KW C area, but it’s not going to be sold to everybody. It’s going to be a very selective like investors can’t buy them. And I’m like, this doesn’t sound like Canada anymore. Like what what is you’re buying something but only selling it to ascertain like who’s buying them? Like who’s buying the rental? Yeah, so we have a lot of a lot of stuff and especially with on social media, like we can’t get our news. So it’s really important now more so than ever for these investors to get out. And to get to any of these networking events that are out there. If they’re monthly, great. If they’re bi weekly, even better, we do need to work our networks together to get the news so that we’re better prepared and to to sharing it and to come up against it. But we can’t be too we can’t be quiet anymore.

Erwin 1:04:29
And your event you’ll be able to hear it from the horse’s mouth. 

Kayla 1:04:49
Oh, yeah, that one is a very strong one to do. And it’s just about giving them that that information that they’re not getting from, you know, the mom and pop the people with and who are in the trenches, we have to kind of say like, what are our issues, but we’re done talking about the issues, they know our issues, we need to give them those recommendations and line them up into what that looks like. Just like the conference, there’s a company called rent itis r e n t iu s.ai. And so they’ve created something where it’s programmed that the landlords can have all of their end forms for the landlord tenant board automatically populated. And it helps to avoid any type of errors. They’ve supposedly spoke with the board. And they like what he’s created. So now they just want him to launch and get the feedback from the community. So it’s going to be my first time seeing this program at the conference as well to give these these gentlemen some feedback, because it’s what is absolutely need it to help these landlords. So we need to look at the different tools and programs that are out there. But at the same time, learn to network with one another to be prepared to what’s what’s to come because landlord licensing is spreading like wildfire, it’s a cash grab. And honestly, I feel it’s a it’s an it’s an infringement on your property rights. And it’s not just about advocating for a better fair housing system. This is about fighting for our property rights now, like they’re telling you what you can do with your own property, even from you renting it out to a short term guest because you don’t live in it. It’s like, now I pay my taxes to those property folks like I can, as long as I’m not, you know, messing up or digging up anything or reconstructing they shouldn’t be as an invading on our property rights as they are. So we have to we have to do more.

Erwin 1:06:42
In Hamilton, our rental licensing is, is around actually it was a large area around the college in the university requires a electrical inspection once a year, even though if you even if you haven’t done any electrical upgrades, which I think is odd. The rules already exist when you take a permit out for electrical work. So they’re just having some sort of duplicity. And look, the fire inspection. I don’t have a problem with all right, but But yeah, but again, like the electrical part, like that’s so doesn’t make any sense in like, no other municipality does this, as far as I know, because like, for example, Waterloo has had their rental licensing program for quite a while

Kayla 1:07:23
they’re gonna get the police record, you’re gonna get a police check.

Erwin 1:07:27
I don’t think we have to do an hour so.

Kayla 1:07:31
But the electrical side of things, it’s about creating that business, we’re an electrical company to come in and do that kind of check, right? And if there’s not having any concerns, I can see the safety issue but when you have property standards that a tenant can call and you advertised on your website, you know are you having any maintenance issue did your landlord not salt or snow shovel your driveway is your heat on not at this temperature called property standards they already do that marketing because if the landlord doesn’t do it, they’ll come in to do it and they’ll put it to your property tax it’s it’s almost like a business a lot of these cities are struggling to bring in the money and their job. Their job is to look for ways to bring more money to the city and this is now a way for them to utilize again the private sector to gain more money for them to go and Miss manage it. They just had to tap into our reserves in the in Cambridge to build a soccer field. And like we have boneless cannons and people sleeping in sleeping pods. And you want to build a soccer field meanwhile, there’s a soccer field in every corner of every park and school in our inner city. But they decided to build these two big soccer fields in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s just the type of people you’re getting into into power. Like you guys need to start reading into these people’s portfolios where they come from where their stands are, and they’re going to be very cautious about it because they don’t want to come out publicly to give you their full opinion because it could really tarnish them but what’s for them as they run for the election. We have a by election happening right now for Ward one in the City of Cambridge.

Erwin 1:09:17
What’s your poverty tax going up?

Kayla 1:09:20
About at least 10% for the region.

Erwin 1:09:23
So our people are gonna be on people pissed about soccer fields.

Kayla 1:09:26
problem is they don’t they’re not there a budget time the way the budget time starts coming up now for like in the winter where people are like okay, get ready for Thanksgiving they’re getting ready for Christmas. No one’s really able to know what’s happening within budget time or they don’t have an in simple terms. So I’m hoping that we have like this tax group coming too late. They just got registered I heard in our city so they’re going to start taking that information and trying to do the best that they can of reaching that information out to the public. To be like guys like step by For this, you have to say no to some of these, these assets from some of these organizations, and also spending, like they’re spending like over $250,000 at the city to redo a wall that is supposed to have water and plants on it. The plants started dying, and now they’re going to redo the wall for $250,000. It’s like, we’re in times where like, if you’re telling us to cut our Netflix or Disney, why isn’t our elected officials starting to cut back on on them? You know, and they’re spending? Or how many elected officials we have? You know, do we really need that many elected officials? I’m gonna get someone fired.

Erwin 1:10:47
Oh, I might need a job that comes with a guaranteed pension for life. And

Kayla 1:10:52
hey, buddy, we need people like you running. Why aren’t you? I know you got Andrew. Oh, my God.

Erwin 1:10:59
You have? Yeah, you’re lucky.

Kayla 1:11:05
I’m there I like

Erwin 1:11:07
for listeners benefit. Kayla is referring to the mayor of Hamilton, who is the former leader of the NDP party for the province of Ontario. You can look into that as much as you like. Let’s get into some best practices, because you have a lot of great companies that are sponsoring your event as an example. And so yes, because these all seem to line with what you’re what you’re talking about, you need to take any tenant screen for example, like I see you have a couple of tenant screening companies in your in your sponsors of the conference.

Kayla 1:11:41
Of course, yes, we have not only one but two. So we have single key, oh, Lawson v. And we have front lobby and landlord credit bureau. These these are our CO hosting sponsors. And we have McCauley legal services. So obviously making sure that we’re fully equipped with our legal representation at this at this event, because we want to make sure that any landlord that’s going through a difficult time is that we’re giving you have the right key players to bounce these ideas off of in the right atmosphere. So we want to give a huge shout out to to all of our co sponsors, and especially our rank Titus, r e n t IUs, I’m going to talk to them about changing their name. This movie can say it sort of like, like tendinitis, or like you it’s like that’s it this tightness and like rent is.

Erwin 1:12:42
So sorry, you said earlier, they will help you prepare your, your LTV forms.

Kayla 1:12:48
Yeah, their platform is like it’s almost a way to communicate with your tenants to so you can text your tenant through the platform, and it timestamps and dated. So it really teaches the landlords about documentation of your communication with your tenants, and keeping that as a very detailed collaboration. So if you do need to go to the landlord tenant board, you now have this information that’s going to this, it’s going to protect you a little bit better than just saying it’s a hearsay situation. And then through putting this data into the information and knowing when there’s a non payment of rent, it’s going to automatically populate so that you don’t screw up the name, you don’t screw up the address, you’re not screwing up the numbers, because any type of form error on these paperwork, that’s it, it’s it’s game over for you and you have to start the process all over again. So it’s very crucial that our landlords are understanding what form does what and how to fill them out properly. And then our our friends at Glenn Gosling, he’s going to be coming and highlighting how to represent yourself at the landlord and tenant board and how to argue your case effectively if you choose to do it without a paralegal I like I like going by myself I hope I help some landlords out like it’s either a I’m like off to the side and then we mute and then I’m like

Erwin 1:14:15
oh, you’re talking to virtually Yeah, we’re always

Kayla 1:14:17
virtually now. You’re virtually for the landlord and tenant board.

Erwin 1:14:22
No one’s in person anymore.

Kayla 1:14:23
Oh, where are you? Well, you can tell you have never had an issue.

Erwin 1:14:28
Luckily, it’s been a while I’ve I’ve done like for example I use front lobby I use Linux er Bureau you know, I use companies like RAM panda just we scream like crazy.

Kayla 1:14:38
You have to and it’s good because honestly if you if you don’t then you’re gonna come into the problems and it’s not just that problem tentative. You’re gonna have the problem with the LTV. The problem with the RTA you’re gonna see all the broken loopholes within the system that does favor the tenants and not just the tenants per se but it but it favors the tenants who are abusing the system. And, and there is very creative ways into doing that. So I’m glad that you know, you don’t really know. But yeah, all of the landlord tenant Board hearings are online. And I encourage our listeners to listen to some of these hearings, just so that you can have an understanding of what’s actually happening and what tenants are out there. Who are, you know, technically abusing the system, we do have tenants that are just fell into hardship situations, but you can tell through the hearings that they’re trying to work out something very genuine with their landlord trying to make sure they they can get themselves caught up to date. And I do like that they deserve

Erwin 1:15:36
to be heard. amount of time.

Kayla 1:15:40
And then and even when you go to a landlord tenant board hearing, you have a chance to mediate. So there is a chance for for both parties to agree for a mediation. So you can go into a room with a mediator and kind of hash things out to see if you can come to an agreement. And if you can’t, then no worries, you’re back in the queue waiting for your hearing. And sometimes those those mediations can go a long way. And you can connect that tenant to obviously, these different programs that help them with rent relief, and there’s a company that actually just came out, and they’re now offering first and last month’s rent, and rent assistance, obviously for our cost for tenants.

Erwin 1:16:18
Are they a sponsor? Well, I meet them there. Well, I hate them. Yeah, they’re

Kayla 1:16:20
nice. They’re not a sponsor? I’m just Yeah, it’s like, and who can we give your number to is like, but yeah, it’s almost like a payday loan situation for tenants. Right. So you start to bring that back into the advocacy, we have local service managers, we do have regional programs. And we also now have companies coming out with situations where they’re getting first and last month’s rent, almost like a payday loan situation. single key has its rent guarantee program that they put out there for the private landlord, especially for ones where the numbers are, are very tight. But obviously, the criteria you have to make sure that the tenant is is making a good portion of of income in order to have them qualify for that for that rental guarantee program. But there is these programs that are now starting to to expand out there just because they know how broken Ontario is MBCs next species. Absolutely. They’re they’re complaining like us, but there’s still some justice. Still there. We just did a an interview with a BC landlord. They have just the much of the craziness. But it took her four months, they had a lot more steps to go through. But it still only took them four months to get an eviction. Not like Ontario or

Erwin 1:17:38
times better than here.

Kayla 1:17:40
Yeah, I’m like, Whatever, I’ll take it. That’s like, stop you’re complaining. We’ll take it.

Erwin 1:17:46
Alright. So she did things perfectly to get four months eviction.

Kayla 1:17:50
It was the tenant still pushing back, it was the tenant applying for a stay, the sheriff actually came to her property was loading up the the tenants belongings into a truck. And within that 24 hour time frame that they had, the tenant had still applied for a stay on that Supreme Court ruling. So he they actually had to give the key that they just got changed back to the tenant. Yeah, welcome to BC guys. And it’s funny is like our law is not funny. But our elected officials, they’re looking at BC that’s where this portal came in and navigate tribunals Ontario, like they started to look at what BC was doing. And yeah, so we know that they’re modeling after BC and not Alberta. But hey, Alberta. We got to help those Alberta landlords out there. They’re trying to, you know, kick up some storm with the tenant unions trying to get rent control in Alberta. Hopefully they don’t succeed, but the only way they’re not going to succeed is if the if the community of the private sector collaborates, because we may be like, oh, there’s just so many tenants, right? And that’s what people like. They just keep doing it because they have so many tenants and there’s only few landlords? Well, if you look at the landlord, you look at the contractors, their property managers, you look at the paralegals. We we are our mortgage agents, like we’re a huge industry. We just have to learn how to work collaborative to cook together in order to to step up the advocacy, and to be more opinionated. And in medias light, even if it’s a letter, you know, and we want everyone to write to their elected officials write to their media, and send us a copy, you know, so that we can try to get your voice out there as well.

Erwin 1:19:44
Jeff, I’m mostly gonna watch this one. Well, everyone’s busy. First off, my clients all have kids and work and jobs and businesses. They don’t this isn’t a priority to advocate for themselves. And then on the other side is a lot of people that are not public about the fact that our landlord cuz they don’t want to be considered rich and ostracized and have to show up at their houses and protest,

Kayla 1:20:07
except me, when I call my tenants it says Ontario landlords watch on my phone.

Erwin 1:20:12
Sorry, what is your relationship like with your tenants?

Kayla 1:20:15
Honestly, great. If you look at, like, you gotta just lay the law down, you gotta put the rules in place and be like, um, this is a business relationship. So my husband is the nice guy, he goes in, he does all the fixing, he talks to them, then he comes and talks to me. And then I’d be like, okay, like I’m doing the inspections, I come and do the inspections. And a lot of it’s going to be, here’s a writing letter, just to say like, this is our finance, this is what I’m obviously needing to have to address with you, you have a certain amount of time to address it, failure to address it will result in a potential eviction. And then I started issuing out my forms, right, like, you have to keep that you gotta Good cop, bad cop situation. That’s why some of my, my husband, when he’s like, don’t, you know, this unit number and this tenant, and I’m like, listen, I know the tenants that I need to talk to. Like, they’re the ones that get stuck in my head. But a lot of it comes down to they know they have low ranks, they’ve been in there for a very long time. And a lot of people don’t want to make noise when they don’t pay when they when they pay low, low rent. So they they’re, they’re just long term tenants that are that are there. And then if not, you go through the process of the eviction and making sure you report their unpaid rent to two front lobby, so that it gets shared to the Equifax. So I might tell them straight up, I don’t need your consent, and I don’t need an order to do it, it’s going to impact you. So you’re going to struggle looking for other accommodations with this on your on your credit. And even for what we just had a two bedroom unit $1,800 Plus utilities. And we had 118 inquiries in 24 hours and another 119 inquiries the next day. And these people who were applying for the application, both of them are making $80,000 salaries. And we had a ton of people now now you’re going okay, everything’s looks good credit, looks good income looks good, you know, what’s their debt ratio, now you’re just looking at, are you going to be a nice person to do with, right, and this is where we’re, we’re getting ourselves into renting to the potential homeowners, you know, if we have a good amount of people that are so close to homeownership, and just can’t take it to the next level, they’re now taking up that that spot in the in the housing industry for for people to, to live. So we so the people who are stuck in the rental industry, they’re having a heck of a time, heck of a time. I can’t even imagine how these like we see it in these different groups on Facebook, like little mom groups, and people are like, Hey, I just applied for government housing, how long is it going to take? Someone put down 36 years? And I was like, Okay, I don’t believe it’s not that long for you, but and they’re looking for very creative ways to get sped up on that housing list. And I’m not gonna say it here just because I don’t want anyone abusing it. But there is that, that the they’re looking they’re desperate trying to get into government housing now. And they’re going to, they’re going to lie to get themselves in there. Same thing with your application process. So many people are doing fraudulent paperwork, fraudulent credit check. So making sure you’re doing your own credit check is very, very crucial and verifying like people who haven’t seen it, yeah, they created websites to say that they work for this company, they’ve created the whole website to make it look like it’s a legit company. Like they’re desperate times call for desperate measures. And that’s what’s that what’s unfolding in this because a lot of our landlords, especially with the single families or condos, and you know renting to the big families, they’re selling and taking it over and and selling it to a homer home occupier, that you just lost the rental unit, and now that tenant now has to downsize into an apartment. So we’ve seen that right after COVID. Where, where people were selling their their single families. Or do

Erwin 1:24:15
you say as well, because investors have to naturally pay more, don’t want a house versus a homeowner. So

Kayla 1:24:22
ideally, you want to duplex it if you can, or like put a triplex in there, but at the same time, if your city is making it impossible, or the funds are just not there for it, then yeah, but push comes to shove. You gotta, you gotta let go and look out for better things.

Erwin 1:24:38
We’re running out of time. So I’d like to ask this question pretty much everyone. So say a new investor approaches you. What would your advice be?

Kayla 1:24:46
Run to okay,

Erwin 1:24:49
I’m Dominican. Actually jokingly in my head is gonna ask you what the landlord tenant rules are like in Dominican.

Kayla 1:24:56
I’m getting familiar there. Don’t you worry. My advice would be Do you follow Ontario landlords watch, you know, it’s a free group to, to be in, I answer as many phone call calls as I possibly can to help you guide you through a difficult tenant situation with my personal advice. From listening to that information, I’ll connect you to any of the paralegals that I’m associated with to make sure that you’re fully, fully protected, and you have really good representation to deal with the situation that you’re in. But you have to get, you have to advocate you have to get involved very heavily with all levels of government, no matter what city you’re in, no matter what party your elected officials from, we need you to do it. And I want to teach people how to do that. In order for us to strengthen our housing community, we just need to get our numbers and we’re going to be planning to do that with the housing taskforce after after October and make sure that we are being recognized as a voice for the private housing sector, and make sure that we can do our part and share everyone’s voice through us. Or even better, if you want to say yourself, we want to give everyone that platform to speak up because our our housing sector is under attack from all levels of government. And if you you you look at different ways to to profit and to grow your portfolio, there’s no other better way for you to try to grow your portfolio then advocate for your for your property rights.

Erwin 1:26:26
And then I was very selfish question. I mentioned before when we’re recording that I’m taking some profits here, and I’m going to reinvest some of them in the States alone, in landlord friendly, friendly states such as like, I’m looking at like the suburbs of Dallas, Texas, suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee, again, from what my friends told me it’s for non payment of rent, or like mischief or vandalism. It’s spent 3060 days for tenant eviction. What are your thoughts on on investing in south of the border and landlord friendly locations,

Kayla 1:27:04
you’re not alone, I’ve been hearing it from a lot of our landlords moving take cashing out here going into the states going into Costa Rica, Dominican Mexico, Portugal, you know, there’s many other opportunities out there, and I applaud all of our investors who have taken the plunge, done it themselves built, built that network and are now bringing that network to back to Canada to save the rest of us. And it’s sad that we’re having this conversation because, you know, people like good, you know, then there’s gonna be more houses for the tenants to buy. And I’m like, no, just like the, the landlord was your, you know, landlord, the landlords always have their landlord, which is the banks. So we always have someone to listen to. But we do have to start. We can’t put all of our eggs in one basket. And we have to go towards the countries or the provinces that are more investor friendly. Because if you guys are on tick tock, listening to investors talking about staying away from Ontario, and you know, we’re supposed to be the province that’s open for business. And unfortunately, it seems like Ontario just evicted their their private housing sector out of out of the market. And I don’t know for what reason, unless they want to be the only the only housing providers in town. So I think they want to be the only Sheriff

Erwin 1:28:26
because they’ve done such a great job of public housing.

Kayla 1:28:29
So they can you remember when the Toronto with John, John Tory, he was excited to announce this funding for Toronto housing. And it was like, Oh, this is for fixing Toronto housing. They can’t afford to build, manage, maintain, and subsidized government housing taxpayers can’t, it doesn’t make sense. We’re asking just for, okay, we want to you to make sure our tenants have money to pay us and we will build it, we will manage it, we will maintain it. You just need to make sure that you’re subsidizing these tenants without putting us on that fine print contract. But there is there is obviously that need where they’re trying to create incentives. They’re just not quite getting it. It’s almost like they’re there. They’re trying to build something. And they’re supposed to be using tools. But they got the kids plastic tools going on. Like it’s just it’s not working for them.

Erwin 1:29:23
It’s just too hard. All right, like the NIMBYs are very vocally already against developers. Imagine it was subsidized government housing how in the NIMBYs would rise up

Kayla 1:29:33
but at the same time it’s like do you like the encampments? Do you like the tents behind your house? Do you like sleeping pods?

Erwin 1:29:42
All of it there’s no in between there’s no in the middle there’s no negotiation. There’s no mediation. This is no all of it. All of it. No.

Kayla 1:29:49
Too many people in my backyard so now just too much traffic. Have you seen the traffic on my street already? It’s like, okay, but we do have to get that sprawl. I think like if you look up in northern In Ontario, like there’s so much potential that’s still there, but people are staying huddled into into the Greater Toronto Area, Southern Ontario, but it’s going to be a change. And I think it’s that change is going to be depending on who our next government is going to be from all different levels, but everyone needs to be alert. This is our warning sign, you will not see this on the news on social media. Pay attention to your elected officials. We need we need, we need people who are experienced into dealing with this industry, and we need to call them out and tell them that they’re not experienced into dealing with it. That’s why they keep traveling to different municipalities to like, Oh, we’re in the City of Cambridge, we’re in the City of Hamilton. We’re here to talk about how we’re going to meet our goal of 1.5 million homes with who the other level of government like come on, guys. Like I don’t know what this incentive is for these municipal governments to incentivize government like they’re not building it. The private ones are doing it’s it’s comical, but hey, that’s great for it’s great for them just to ride on the coattails of it just so that they can keep getting reelected. But once I think this is the time this election, it’s going to be really, really bad for them because look at the mess that’s been created. And I don’t think they’re going to be able to find that immediate solution that people want to hear. Because they’re crying talking about how they gotta leave. Leave Canada because things have gotten way too way too costly for them.

Erwin 1:31:42
Tell them one last time.

Kayla 1:31:44
Let’s drink. Yeah. Where can you find me?

Erwin 1:31:52
Where can we find you? Where can we find it? Well, W worker we find out about your conference.

Kayla 1:31:56
So if you get onto my Facebook page, so you can look me up as Kayla Andrew, you can follow me there. The link to the conference is on my personal account as well. It’s slowly will be up on our website. But if you go on to the Ontario landlords watch public Facebook page, we have our links there. I’m also on LinkedIn and Instagram, as Ontario landlords watch. And you might even find me on Tik Tok trying to do some videos not really good at them. So don’t follow me.

Erwin 1:32:25
Before we’re recording, we’re talking about your TVO. When you’re on that TV, oh panel, would you recommend people have a look at that as well?

Kayla 1:32:30
Yeah, you can check. That was the landlord’s versus the tenants. That was when the cameras were on. You should see the show what happened after they were off. But

Erwin 1:32:42
is the URL they won’t.

Kayla 1:32:43
It was good though. It was we had like our own little video in the car after highlighting what was being said after the cameras turned off. So you can see that on my Ontario landlords watch YouTube channel as well. What was said,

Erwin 1:32:58
did it like okay, cameras are all screwed.

Kayla 1:33:03
Like, you know, this is a symptom of rent control. Like we need to get that 2.5 cap completely dismissed. And they’re like, No, we need more rent control, like rent control in between tenancies and like are you kidding me? You know that will be the death of all rentals in Ontario. Right, I’ll

Erwin 1:33:29
never be a number Postville rental built by private industry.

Kayla 1:33:33
Never I do people will get everyone out and they would try to put them in a spot where they’d be renting and sharing accommodation so it’s not underneath the RTA you know there’s there’s going to be people will rent their units and storage units for God’s sakes like the they’ll they’ll learn how to pivot for what they work with if they can’t sell it, but they obviously I’m seeing more groups postings about people selling their nine Plex and their triplex is now like that’s something that I never saw before where people were literally posting their rental units in the group. So we we created like obviously Ontario Oh LW properties for sale and rent rooms like a marketplace? Yeah, yeah, just so that people can you know, offload their what they’re selling there. But we’re seeing more people selling their properties now. And they they’re probably doing because I’m like, I’m done. I’m getting out of the industry or I’ve made it but we have that older population too. That’s fed up with it. With the increases it’ll

Erwin 1:34:26
mean a lot of money. Yeah,

Kayla 1:34:28
and they made their their money and now they’re ready to cash out before they lose it or they’re going with the same mindset as you like let’s go and get ourselves into another into another country. Yeah, so it’s it’s sad to see that happening. We warned our elected officials it was coming and I don’t know if they they’re gonna have to do something very drastic now to stop those investors from you know, continuing to do it or to come back to the market. But once your money’s gone and invested in to another place like that, it’s going to take a bet to try to get us back to a place that has no supply, and no developers who actually want to build. So we’ll we’ll we’ll see. We’ll see how this goes. But we’re going to, you know, highlight what our government has done wrong. All right, you show them that what you’ve done for your own housing stock. And now you’re, you know, starting to attack the private sector. It’s just going to end very badly for everyone involved. And, you know, we want to we do want to look for a fair and balanced housing system to all parties involved, the landlord, the tenants and the taxpayers. Because I know our taxpayers are not getting a fair shake for their taxes. And we I don’t think we can afford any more increases for the mismanagement of our money.

Erwin 1:35:48
We’ll leave it there. Thanks so much for doing this.

Kayla 1:35:53
Oh, thanks so much. I just I can’t thank you enough for having me on. I love it. I love the invitations. And seeing you and cherry tell her I said hi, as well. We’re gonna do like a to a duo. We gotta get both of you guys on there.

Erwin 1:36:09
Oh, you’re gonna divide and conquer. We’re so busy.

Kayla 1:36:13
Yeah, I that’s all my husband. He’s just like, Okay, I’m gonna go do with the rentals. You’re gonna go and deal with the children. I’m like, Can we switch thanks so much for doing what you’re doing and bringing the information and the education to, to your to your listeners. And I want to thank everyone for for listening to what I had to say from my personal advice, and just know that I’m doing whatever I can to fight back and to advocate for our property rights and to hold us on as housing providers and strengthen that voice.

Erwin 1:36:47
And behalf of me my 17 listeners, we thank you for your advocacy and your service.

Kayla 1:36:53
Thank you so much. Oh, you’re funny.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with! Build connections with empire builders and trailblazers at our iWIN events.
 
CLICK HERE to check out what’s coming up next.

 

BEFORE YOU GO…

If you’re interested in being a successful real estate investor like those who have been featured on this podcast and our hundreds of successful clients please let us know.

It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

If you didn’t know already, we pride ourselves on being the best of the best real estate coaches, having the best property managers, contractors, handy people, cleaners, lawyers, accountants, everyone you need on your power team and we’re happy to share them with our clients to ensure your success. 

New investor or seasoned veteran investor, we can help anyone by providing our award winning coaching services and this isn’t all talk.

We have been awarded Realtor of the Year to Investors in 2015 by the Real Estate Investment Network, 2016 by the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and again in 2017 because no one told the judges no one is supposed to win the award twice but on merit, our peers deemed us as the best.  In 2018, we again won the same award by the Real Estate Investment Network.

Hopefully being the most decorated team of Realtors in Ontario will make you consider us for your first or next real estate investment.  Even if you don’t invest in our areas, there’s a good chance I know who would be ideal for you. 

I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

Sponsored by:

Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year.

Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

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Pivoting to Find Cash Flow, Exiting New Brunswick, ONT With Elizabeth Kelly

Hello and welcome to Truth About Real Estate Investing Show for Canadians. These are definitely interesting times to be a part of.  My name is Erwin Szeto, 4 time Realtor of the Year to Investors and today’s guest, I would consider as one of the top real estate investing coaches in the country and what she’s coaching her clients to do will shock many. Cash flow is harder to come by than every so Elizabeth’s clients are going out of the box and even contrary to what many gurus are saying on social media.  But before we get to Elizabeth…

I ran into some old friends of mine from the Real Estate Investment Network I hadn’t see in years at a developer’s “Insights & Perspectives” events.  We both invest passively into this developer called Greybrook, the same folks presenting at my upcoming iWIN Meeting, online on September 19th.  The presentation by the CEO was full of charts and graphs on population growth, GDP not so much growth, real estate prices of other major centres in the world Canada and North America.

It definitely gave a lot of perspective on where the golden horseshoe is in a more holistic, global perspective from someone with a lot of money at risk.

Sasha the CEO even gave his perspective on the Greenbelt’s land swap scandal and it was fascinating.  The plan is to have Sasha on this show in the near future so I won’t spoil it for you but if you’re attending our iWIN MasterMind Tour in the Niagara Region on Sept 23th, you can ask me then or at lunch.  I will spoil this though, we’re touring a super cool conversion project: a 2,300 sq foot, single family house has been converted into a three family home all under one roof and same four walls as in no addition.

If you enjoy learning about real estate and making great investments as much as I do then you don’t want to miss it.  We’re already 80% sold out so please don’t delay. These events always sell out, the tour starts at 10am so plenty of time to get your beauty sleep.  I’ll be there, my team will be there. In a world where money makes the world go around, inflation eats away at our savings, incomes are stagnant: investing in hard assets that cash flow are a must.  Come tour an actual income property owned by our client who’s an award winning investor with 20+ properties.

It’s one of the greatest lessons I’ve received in life. Well, two lessons. 1. Learn from people who have what you want. 2. Trust but verify, verify for yourself when your own eyes, see real estate, touch it, inspect it before making the decision to invest. Such is the beauty of investing in hard, real estate assets.

Invites to register went out on my email newsletter. If you’re not on my email newsletter like all my 17 listeners are you can join for free at www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca

Back to running into my old friends with over a dozen properties.  This real estate winter, high interest rate environment period has shown me a tale of two investors.  Those who invested primarily before 2020 and those after.  Those who acquired most of their portfolio before 2020 may feel the pinch of higher rates and have likely sold, taken profits on part of their portfolios. Overall, they’re just fine.  

If one acquired most of their portfolio and this could mean stocks or crypto too after 2020. They’re not doing so great. My crypto holdings are indicative of that. Especially if they invested in single family homes or condos or took bad advice from one of the several influencers who are struggling.

I took a call last week from a friend who have clients who want to launch a class action lawsuit against a well know real estate influencer, membership group leader.  She was looking for a lawyer to connect her client to who’s out several hundreds of thousands of dollars and doesn’t know if the guru even has the assets to repay.

Tough times out there everyone. Trust but verify. Life is short, only take information from winning sources.

For example, I’m a big fan of golf but terrible at the sport. My podcast of choice in golf is Hank Haney’s podcast. He’s Tiger Wood’s former coach and Hank has another hall of fame coaching client named Mark O’Meara.  Hank borrows a famous quote from a football coach and it goes “you are what you record is” as track record of wins and losses.

Personally, I judge coaches in real estate by their track record of producing successful, happy clients. I ran into clients who we helped buy and convert four houses into duplexes they’ve since exited, they made a lot of money and are happy. I’m so happy for them and to here their travel plans to travel to Tokyo to watch their daughter run the Tokyo marathon.

Pivoting to Find Cash Flow, Exiting New Brunswick, ONT With Elizabeth Kelly

You are what your record is.  If you need help improving your record, myself and my lovely friend, today’s guest Elizabeth Kelly loves to help too.  It’s why we get along so well.

Hopefully Elizabeth Kelly does not need an introduction.  She tells it like it is. Elizabeth was a paid, professional educator for Rich Dad Canada since 2012 and taught a couple thousand investors, including many of today’s influencers, coaches, full time real estate operators.  

She has own property management, Sandstone Property Management that manages hundreds of doors across multiple strategies, apartment buildings, AirBnb, Rent to own. Elizabeth has done around 100 rent to owns. 

She’s the longest time investor in New Brunswick I know so before going there please listen to this show, reach out to her, she doesn’t mind.

Elizabeth is hosting her 2nd conference after the highly successful, inaugural Real Estate Resilience online event she’s back again for 2023.  The price is very affordable at $74, link is in the show notes: https://www.accelevents.com/e/resilience2023?aff=Elizabeth

There are several friends of mine and past guests of this show and event a client on the speaker panel. If you want to go deeper into what the successful pros are doing you want to check out the Real Estate Resilience summit, a two day event, Saturday & Sunday October 14-15th.

Please enjoy the show.

  

This episode is brought to you by me! We don’t have sponsors for this show. I only share with you services owned by my wife Cherry and me.  Real estate investing is a staple in my life and allowed me to build wealth and, more importantly, achieve financial peace about the future, knowing our retirement is taken care of and my kids will be able to afford a home when they grow up.  If you, too, are interested in my systematic strategy to implement the #1 investment strategy, the same one pretty much all my guests are doing themselves, then go visit www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for our next FREE Online Training Class.  We will be back in person once legally allowed to do so, but for now, we are 100% virtual.

No need for you to reinvent the wheel; we have our system down pat. Again that’s  www.infinitywealth.ca/events and register for the FREE Online Training Class.

To Listen:

** Transcript Auto-generated**

Erwin 0:00
Hello and welcome to the truth about real estate investing show for Canadians. These are definitely interesting times to be a part of my name is Erwin Seto for time realtor of the year to investors and today’s guest I would consider among one of the top top real estate investing coaches in the country. And she’s coaching our claim when she’s coaching our clients do in this market may shock many cashflow is hard to come by than ever. So of course, people who need to pivot they need to be thinking outside the box in terms of what to do going forward. And unfortunately, some of it’s contrary to what many career gurus are out there selling in their in their advertising and courses. But before we get there, Elizabeth, I ran into some old friends of mine from the Real Estate Investment Network. Cindy and Marcin. I hadn’t seen them I actually ran into at a developer it’s developers, quote, unquote, insights and perspectives and events, events, insights and perspectives, events. You know, anyone who knows me knows I really like to learn a lot to know what developers are thinking in this market, what they’re planning on doing, how they see the world. Just understand where the, you know, I like to hear multiple opinions. I don’t do not I’ve never heard of contrary opinions. I’m always open to outside opinions anyways. So Cindy Marcin and I, we all passively invest into this developer and it called gradebook. gradebook is the same company as presenting at our upcoming Island meeting, which is online only on September 19. The presentation was by the CEO of the securities division. The presentation was full of charts and graphs on population growth, GDP are where there was not so much growth, real estate prices on from other major centers in the world and Canada and North America. The presentation gave a lot of perspective on where the Golden Horseshoe as where it sits in a more holistic, global perspective, from someone who has a lot of money at risk. Sasha the CEO even gave his perspective on the Green Belt land swap scandal, which I find fascinating. I love to hear opinions from people who are closer to the subject versus myself, I only get to read what’s in the news. I do pay for my news. So it’s better quality than most of stuff out there. But anyways, the plan is to have Sasha on the show in the near future, so I won’t spoil it for you. But if you are attending the island mastermind tour on that in the neck region on September 23, Saturday, September 23, you can ask me about it then or lunch. I will spoil this for you though, we are touring a super cool conversion project, a 2300 square foot single family house that has been converted into a three family home. So that’s three units. So there’ll be three apartments, and it’s all under one roof. And the same four walls as and there’s no addition there’s no garden suite. This is this is a super cool project. They’re not common. Probably not many of you out there have ever seen one in person. One was that was done with permits and renovated professionally. So if you do enjoy learning about real estate, you want to go deeper into your education or around real estate investing and how to make great investments as much as I do, then you do not want to miss this. We are already a percent sold out. So please do not delay. This will sell out. These events always sell out. The tour starts at 10am. And this will be in welland, Ontario, so there’ll be plenty of time for your beauty sleep. I’ll be there my team will be there. In a world where money makes the world go round. Inflation eats away at our savings, incomes are becoming stagnant. Investing in hard assets and cash flow are a must a triplex would be a good a good example of a an asset hard asset, that’s your cash flow. So come to our national income property owned by our client who is himself an award winning investor. He’s been a past guest at the show. And he owns over 20 plus properties. So he is legit. He’s also a longtime client of mine. So yes, I know exactly what he owns. It’s one of the greatest lessons that I’ve learned in life. Mostly to learn from one is learn from people who have what you want. Again, our client the property has this client has over 20 properties very successful. Number two, trust but verify. verify for yourself that your own eyes see real estate, touch it feel it, smell it taste it before you ever make a decision to invest, such as the beauty of investing in hard assets like real estate I believe that’s why many of us do invest in real estate you can see it touch it control it it’s yours anyways invites to register already went out my new email newsletter that’s why we’re 80% sold out and if you’re not on my email newsletter which is so which shall should be because it was all 17 listeners are on the on our on our email newsletter. You can join for free at www dot truth about real estate investing.ca Let me slow down WWW dot truth about real estate investing.ca. Now back to running into metal friends. They own over a dozen properties in Toronto proper. They’ve been doing it for a long time. This is real estate Winter. That’s what I’m calling it, even though we just finished summer, but it’s a real estate winter, this high interest rate environment has shown me a tale of two investors, I can basically group the investor community into two categories, those who invested primarily before 2020. And those after those who acquire most of the portfolio of their portfolio before 2020, they do feel the pinch, they definitely feel a pinch of the higher interest rates, and many of you likely already sold, or they’re gonna sell, or they’re gonna take some more profits on part of their portfolio. Overall, they’re just fine, especially when you consider the other group. For those who acquire most of the portfolio, like to be in stocks real estate, crypto after 2020 They’re likely not doing so great. My crypto holdings maybe are likely in indicative or indicative that I timed it poorly. Thankfully, I chose the two that are still around the corner theory not advice folks, especially, and those who invested in single family homes or condos, or to get by and bad advice from those, one of the several coaches or trainers that are out there who are themselves struggling. I actually took a call last week from my friend. They have she has clients who want to launch a class action lawsuit against a well known real estate influencer, a membership group leader. Their deals are going bad, they’re not getting paid. They’re not getting communication from the borrower. She so my friend has looking for a lawyer to connect with her cannot connect to a client with as her client is out several hundreds of 1000s of 1000s of dollars, actually across more than one borrower. So there’s, there’s definitely some there’s definitely some pain out there. So tough times are out there for everyone. So like I said, Trust but verify Life is short. I personally take information from winning sources. And I have a non realistic example. I’m a big fan of golf, as many of you know, but I’m terrible at the sport as anyone who has seen me play knows. My podcast of choice in the Gulf air in the Gulf space is Hank Haney his podcast, if you don’t know who he is, that’s totally cool. He’s Tiger Woods is former coach. I think everyone knows who Tiger Woods is. And Hank has another Hall of Fame client named Marco Mira. So Hank has, he always borrows this famous quote from a former football coach. And it goes, you are what your record is, as in your track record of wins and losses. That’s who you are, as a team as a football team. Personally, I judge coaches in real estate by their track record of producing successful happy clients. I ran into to my clients last night at the same event. And they we helped them successfully buy and convert for houses into duplexes that they’ve since exited. Before Interest Rates started going up. So they basically nailed it. They made a lot of money. They are extremely happy. And they’re telling me about this lovely trip that planned to go to Tokyo to watch their daughter run it in the Tokyo Marathon. Congratulations to my clients. I’m so happy for them. You are what your record is. And if you need help improving for your record, myself and my lovely yesterday, today’s guest in Elizabeth Kelly, she loves to help too. It’s why we get along so well. Hopefully Elizabeth Kelly does not need introduction. I believe this is our third or fourth time on the show. She tells it like it is.

As a real estate coach should tell you and helping you shape your portfolio. Elizabeth was a paid professional educator for the rich dad Canada organization since 2012. Before they since before they’ve gone away, this this has rebranded I don’t know where they’re at right now but it is she’s taught a couple 1000 investors including many of today’s today’s influencers and coaches and full time real estate operators. She’s very proud of that you should be she should be proud of that. She has her own property management company called sandstone property management that manages hundreds of doors across multiple strategies including apartment buildings, Airbnb midterm rental rent on Elizabeth’s done around 100 rental and I believe she’s the longest time investor in New Brunswick that I know personally. So before going there, I forget the number. I think she owned something like $45 or something in New Brunswick. So and she’s done it done, done that owned it for close to 10 years. So again, if you’re interested in New Brunswick, you want to hear an unbiased opinion. Talk to Elizabeth. I reached out to her she doesn’t mind. Elizabeth is hosting her second conference after the highly successful inaugural real estate resilience on real estate resilience Conference, which is online and she’s back again for 2023. The price is extremely affordable at $74 and the link is in the show notes. If you just look her up on social media, then you’ll find links there as well. Elizabeth Kelly, really easy to spell. There are several friends of mine Your past guests of the show who who are speakers at this event, and I even have a client on the on the speaker panel. So if you want to go deeper into what successful pros are doing, especially during this environment then you want check out the real estate resilience Summit, a two day event September sorry, Saturday and Sunday, October 14 and 15th. All day recordings I believe are available to you. Please enjoy the show.

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BEFORE YOU GO…

If you’re interested in being a successful real estate investor like those who have been featured on this podcast and our hundreds of successful clients please let us know.

It is our honour to give back and educate others on how we build cash flowing real estate portfolios using all the best practices shared on this podcast, from the lessons of our hundreds of clients and of course our own experience in owning investment real estate.

If you didn’t know already, we pride ourselves on being the best of the best real estate coaches, having the best property managers, contractors, handy people, cleaners, lawyers, accountants, everyone you need on your power team and we’re happy to share them with our clients to ensure your success. 

New investor or seasoned veteran investor, we can help anyone by providing our award winning coaching services and this isn’t all talk.

We have been awarded Realtor of the Year to Investors in 2015 by the Real Estate Investment Network, 2016 by the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine and again in 2017 because no one told the judges no one is supposed to win the award twice but on merit, our peers deemed us as the best.  In 2018, we again won the same award by the Real Estate Investment Network.

Hopefully being the most decorated team of Realtors in Ontario will make you consider us for your first or next real estate investment.  Even if you don’t invest in our areas, there’s a good chance I know who would be ideal for you. 

I’ve been around for a while, some Realtors are talented at servicing investors there are many with great ethics.  The intersection of the two, talent and ethics is limited to a handful in each city or town.

Only work with the best is what my father always taught me.  If you’re interested, drop us an email at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

I hope to meet you at one of our meetups soon.

Again that’s iwin@infinitywealth.ca

Sponsored by:

Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year.

Just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you.

If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at iwin@infinitywealth.ca.

Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.

Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.

Erwin

Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.

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