Hello wealth hacker nation! As our regulars know, I converted one of my single family homes from being rented to students to AirBnb after an awful experience with one tenant and then dealing with the pro-tenant, Landlord Tenant Board Tribunal. Good friends of mine who have much experience with short term rentals told me how great the tenant profile is vs. long term tenants. Guests of short term rentals, or STR’s for short, are happy because they are on vacation and they have budget, otherwise they wouldn’t be taking vacation. My property is inspected more frequently, as my cleaners are there every week to inspect for maintenance and damage issues. Plus damages are paid for by the guest via their damage deposit vs. a long term rental landlord has to collect themselves, it comes out of pocket, possibly goes to small claims court, which can put the tenant into collections, and you’ll possibly not get paid, etc…

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🥇First look at our post renovated and furnished new Airbnb. Honestly, it was pretty easy when you have a great team. Just hard on the pocket book to get to this point 🤣. Thank you to my wife Cherry Chan who lets me experiment and writes the cheques, furnishing by Jacqueline Paradisi, my PM Bryan Kirow. My Realtor: me 🤣 couldn’t have done it without my Realtor. My mastermind friends Tasha Monaghan and Michelle Gauthier who convinced me STRs are the way to go. No auto accept customers right Michelle 😉 Hopefully the PGA Canadian Championship allows us to charge some stupid rents to recoup some of these costs!! 🙏🙏🙏

A post shared by Erwin Szeto 🤓Wiki Of R.E.I. (@erwinszeto) on May 17, 2019 at 5:07pm PDT

So is the grass greener on the other side? We will see, but so far in less than 72 hours we have $3,500 expected revenue for the month of June. Note, that’s inclusive of HST. Our first guests arrived yesterday and we had our first complaint already, LOL. Our grass is too long, as the grass growing conditions have been perfect and as a student rental, we had the house mowed every two weeks. Note, I raised the rent for this weekend from $250/night to $850/night because the Canadian Golf Championship is in town, so the rent is high but the lesson is to be aware of your market!! Many of my friends with STR’s did not adjust their rents as they weren’t aware of this major tourist event. Fun, useless fact of the day, my guests who booked golf week are from Florida. Also to note – the upfront investment is significant for time and capital to prepare a house for short-term renting, but I outsourced it all from renovations, cleaners, Property Management, and furnishing the house. I’ll be sharing how we did things from beginning to end at a future iWIN members meeting, plus all the technology involved to make the process completely automated. This episode is sponsored by our Wealth Hacker Conference on November 9th, and we just announced is our venue: the Toronto Congress Center – North Building next to Pearson Airport in Toronto. We also announced Pierre Paul Turgeon as one of our many Wealth Hacking Speakers. Pierre Paul is an old friend, the best teacher of apartment building investing, and he grew his own portfolio from zero to 22 million in only a few years.  He walks the walk and talks the talk and he’s a good person as he donated several of his apartments to those who lost their homes in the Fort McMurray Fires in Alberta just a few years ago. Our keynote speaker is none other than New York Times Best Selling Author and leader of the 10X movement, owner of Cardone Capital with over $1 billion in real estate under management, our #1 pick and ultimate Wealth Hacker, Grant Cardone. To register go to www.wealthhacker.ca, the sooner you register the better the tickets and better the prices, so please don’t delay. Like many iWIN events, this one will sell out too.

Ask Erwin Anything EP1 with Joel Arndt

On to this week’s guest who is less experienced to investing. This all started when I posted on Facebook that we can make any investor who is ready and willing successful, as we have 15 millionaire clients who we directly assisted with their investments. They seriously come from all walks of life. I’ll detail in a future episode some interesting statistics and observations of these millionaires. Anyway, Joel Arndt sent me a direct message, or as the young people call them, DM’s. He asked if my statement was true and if he could ask me some questions. He shared his back story. Joel actually goes to Church with one of our super star clients and past guest of this show, Evelyn, and though they knew each other they have taken completely different paths. I asked Joel if we could record our Ask Erwin Anything session to share, as I know we have many young listeners and folks looking to switch careers or learn about investing for a side hustle. He agreed, and here is the interview. I give you, Joel Arndt.

If you enjoyed the show and would like to learn more about investing in real estate then you do not want to miss my Top 10 Tips On Real Estate. It’s FREE to Download!! I’ve interviewed many of the leading authorities in real estate, including Best Selling Authors like Julie Broad, Don R Campbell, Russell Westcott, and Tom Karadza. My super star investors include folks who acquire two properties per month or have transacted on over 100 properties. I have learned a thing or two in my own investing and distilled it down to 10, you-can-not-ignore, tips if you want to be a successful investor. To download the report go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca/book Sponsored by: TitanInvestmentRealEstate.com – 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 admin@mrhamilton.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, Toronto, Land Development, soon to be builder and Real Estate Investor W: erwinzeto.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/erwin.szeto IG: https://www.instagram.com/erwinszeto/

Did you hear about the major happenings this week?  The Toronto Raptors won back to back home games in the NBA Playoffs vs. the Goliath like Milwaukee Bucks.  My wife got us tickets and took me out for date night and it was awesome. In other big awesome news, I was finally allowed to share our big fat secret I’ve been dying to share for the last three weeks.  That’s when we signed our keynote speaker for Nov 9th’s iWIN Wealth Hacker Conference. He is none other than New York Times Best Seller, the man who sells out stadiums of over 30,000, the top sales trainer and real estate investor whose company owns over 1 billion dollars worth of real estate, Mr 10X himself, Grant Cardone. Which brings us to this month’s sponsor of the show: iWIN’s Wealth Hacker Conference. This all started with me putting on a free training event. I told Cherry and she wasn’t impressed. Free stuff is not appreciated nor valued. As the saying goes, “those who pay, pay attention.” Next iteration was a 30 person event in a library or something, but then we applied 10X thinking. How about a 200+ person paid event, and I’ll reach out to some of my expert friends. Then we had an idea to hire a celebrity keynote speaker, someone from my favourite CBC business reality show. Around this time, we hired an event planner. Then our thinking grew another 10X. Together we did some blue sky brainstorming. Who is the most in demand speaker in the world of entrepreneurship? And we got him. Uncle G, Mr 10X, Grant Cardone is our keynote speaker for iWIN’s Wealth Hacker Conference this November 9th in Toronto.

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When @grantcardone Management shares your event 🙏🙏🙏🔥🔥🔥🔟❌. Thank you @stevespray !!! . November 9th, we host Uncle G. . www.wealthhacker.ca to register.

A post shared by Erwin Szeto 🤓Wiki Of R.E.I. (@erwinszeto) on May 22, 2019 at 5:58pm PDT

Our objective for the attendees is for them to walk away knowing they can take control of their financial future, and we will give them the tools to become a wealth hacker: investors who can profit and thrive in any market, and not just in real estate. We will have experts share about blockchain/cryptocurrency, cannabis and options trading as well. As always, with iIWN events, the networking alone will be worth the price of admission. We are still working out details for the event, including venue and ticket prices, but we have opened a waitlist at www.wealthhacker.ca. Friends on the waitlist will have first dibs on tickets at early bird pricing, including VIP tickets for the best seats and the opportunity to meet my friend Grant and have your picture taken with him. Again that’s www.wealthhacker.ca to register for access to early bird pricing and availability of tickets before the public, plus we will announce speakers to the waitlist first.

Active Investing Vs Pre-Construction Investing, Doubling Investments Before Closing with Todor Yordanov

On to this week’s guest, my old friend Todor Yordanov, he’s the first REIN member I ever met. I first met Todor at a meetup at a Tim Horton’s back in 2008, before anyone knew what a meetup was. This was back in day when email distribution lists were how we communicated. A bunch of Hamilton investors organizing and communicating over an email list of like 50 people. When I met Todor, he was investing in condos: specifically townhouse condos in Hamilton, because they suit this 8-12% rule: the annual rent had to be 8-12% of the purchase price plus improvements. Todor wasn’t the only one following this strategy, as this was what we were taught. These houses cash flowed, but in hindsight, the tenant profile was not a good one and the condo fees were inflating at about 15% per year. The truth about real estate is that when condo fees go up out of control, it negatively affects affordability and in turn, the resale price. Anyway, Todor next invested in student rentals, but now his focus is on condos in Toronto. Especially condos known as pre-construction, meaning builders selling apartments in a high rise building before they are built. The strategy works for Todor as it suits his lifestyle and passive investment preference.

To connect with Todor:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/todor.yordanov.real.estate/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/todoryordanov/ If you enjoyed the show and would like to learn more about investing in real estate then you do not want to miss my Top 10 Tips On Real Estate. It’s FREE to Download!! I’ve interviewed many of the leading authorities in real estate, including Best Selling Authors like Julie Broad, Don R Campbell, Russell Westcott, and Tom Karadza. My super star investors include folks who acquire two properties per month or have transacted on over 100 properties. I have learned a thing or two in my own investing and distilled it down to 10, you-can-not-ignore, tips if you want to be a successful investor. To download the report go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca/book Sponsored by: TitanInvestmentRealEstate.com – 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 admin@mrhamilton.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, Toronto, Land Development, soon to be builder and Real Estate Investor W: erwinzeto.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/erwin.szeto IG: https://www.instagram.com/erwinszeto/

How is your perspective on life? I generally prefer to keep things light on this show, but I’m going to take some liberties this week and stray from the normal. A very good friend was participating in a charity 50km bike ride on Sunday and his friend suddenly passed while on the ride, likely due to heart attack. My friend was the last person to see him alive and he’s obviously upset by this. In times like these, life is put into perspective. I question what I’m doing all the time and today I ask, is what I’m doing right now what I want to be doing? Do I spend enough time with the people I care about? How do I improve how I spend my time? I know for you listeners who are commuting while you listen, many would like to commute a little less. My commute was over an hour each way on a train to work downtown and it drove me nuts every evening when all I wanted to do was get home.   Please do make sure you design a life you want and don’t wait for something terrible to happen to get started, like Tom Sullivan shared on his show. He didn’t get started building his retirement fund of ten investment properties until he got cancer. Our award winning joint venturer of the year client, Justin Chung, didn’t start building his empire until his dad was really sick. If you were to pass today, is your family set up in a position to continue without you financially? I had a client pass just two years ago, leaving behind his wife and two kids, the elder of which just graduated university with plans to go to Dentistry school. When I first learned of his passing (now don’t judge me, I have a personality of a critical thinker), my first thought was, “thank God they have real estate.” Two investment properties that had appreciated significantly, over six figures of equity each, and return cash flow over $1,000 each house, each month.  It’s not an enormous sum of money, but those are quality assets that give the family one less thing to worry about as they attract great tenants and the rents keep going up. Give it another five to ten years and this widow will be a real estate millionaire and will be better off than most widows. What is the lesson?  I ask myself that question every time something bad happens. In times of sudden passing like a heart attack, I ask myself if I lead a lifestyle conducive to someone living a long and healthy life. To share in my learnings from being the son of a doctor and the patient of a high performance Naturopath, I limit my salt and sugar intake, I don’t eat much fast or processed food, I have 4 or 5 workouts planned this week and I sweat a lot in those workouts. My workouts are so hard, I have doubts every time if I can finish.  I’m lucky as I’ve found exercise that I enjoy doing for fun in Brazillian Jiu Jitsu and Crossfit. I get plenty of sleep most nights.

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It’s looking like a four workout kinda week plus a round of golf (golf is not working out). This is the fourth and last set of 215 lbs x 8.. . We are redefining dad bod! my buddy Mike D @mike.desormeaux especially as a dad of two. He can bench press what I squat 🤣 . Wealth is nothing without health. Get out there and be active. Be awesome

A post shared by Erwin Szeto 🤓Wiki Of R.E.I. (@erwinszeto) on May 6, 2019 at 5:32pm PDT

I’ll also take a moment to constructively criticize the celebration and acceptance of dad bod, how being overweight is socially acceptable.  It is socially acceptable, no one is judging, I’ll just counter with a question, “Is the lifestyle and diet that leads to being overweight the one that provides one with high energy to conquer the day’s work and workouts? Does having a dad bod predict a long and healthy life?” You all know the answer. I’m no health or nutrition expert, so I’ll leave it there. I do have the occasional glass of wine or dessert, but my body fat % is well under 10%, I have visible abs and have for over four years. I am 40 years old. This is my dad bod and this will be my kids’ context for a lifestyle to follow. Speaking of stuff I’m no expert at, as a critical review of this show informed me, and I quote: “Erwin does not know the nuances of RESP’s”, and it’s true, I don’t. I chase enough shiny stuff already as I’m preparing to start option trading in the near future and I’m car shopping for a new BMW today.  That’s not the important work I do… the work I pride myself on is helping everyday, local investors become millionaires and multi millionaires and learning from multi-multi millionaires. Fun fact for the day is none of them told me RESP’s was the key to their success. Quick side note: if you have criticisms or there is a gap in wealth building knowledge you would like filled by an expert, please drop me an email.  I have an extensive network of the best of the best experts who I can request a favour to have on the show.

Financial Planning Wealth Hacker Style with Kathleen van den Berg, MBA, CFP, CLU

Back to the show 🙂 To be clear, my financial position and goals are different than most. I’m looking for 30% returns from my investments. My overriding principle is the investment you do is better than the investment you don’t. If I never lost 40-60% of my stock portfolio during the last major recession, I would never have given my full focus to real estate and the money I lost in stocks is pennies compared to the money I’ve made as a real estate investor. Anyways, enough from me. As someone not qualified to speak to RESP’s and retirement planning, I had my friend Kathleen van den Berg come on the show, who has a lot of letters behind her name and is qualified. The Truth About Real Estate Investing show continues to bring you experts in investing. Kathleen has her Masters in Business Administration, her CFP – Certified Financial Planner and CLU – Chartered Life Underwriter, the Canadian wealth transfer and estate planning designation. She also owns 10 investment real estate properties. Kathleen is here to explain the three buckets of assets everyone needs and which order to fill them, and has even more controversial opinions to share on RESP’s, LOL. Note that Kathleen does fee-based financial planning and is one of the rare CFP’s to do so, to ensure she can provide you unbiased financial advice unlike mutual fund sales people, so we are really lucky to have Kathleen on the show so we may all learn. If you are already on my email list, you will receive my type notes from the interview. If you would like to receive my personal notes from interviewing guests, simply go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca and enter your name and email on the right. Without further ado, I give you Kathleen van den Berg, MBA, CFP, CLU and RESP expert. 😉

To follow up with Kathleen:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DurhamMoneyMatters/ Web: http://www.kavwealthstrategies.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-van-den-berg-mba-cfp-clu-7b20b258/ If you enjoyed the show and would like to learn more about investing in real estate then you do not want to miss my Top 10 Tips On Real Estate. It’s FREE to Download!! I’ve interviewed many of the leading authorities in real estate, including Best Selling Authors like Julie Broad, Don R Campbell, Russell Westcott, and Tom Karadza. My super star investors include folks who acquire two properties per month or have transacted on over 100 properties. I have learned a thing or two in my own investing and distilled it down to 10, you-can-not-ignore, tips if you want to be a successful investor. To download the report go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca/book Sponsored by: TitanInvestmentRealEstate.com – 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 admin@mrhamilton.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, Toronto, Land Development, soon to be builder and Real Estate Investor W: erwinzeto.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/erwin.szeto IG: https://www.instagram.com/erwinszeto/

How goes your balancing act with life, work, investing and charity? Last week, we definitely pushed our limits to the edge. My wife and I are parents to a three and five year old, Cherry is in her final stretch for tax season doing Accounting for over 100 local real estate investors, our charity (for which Cherry is VP of Finance and I am President) had one of our three major events this past weekend, fulfilling the wish lists of 32 of Hamilton’s poorest families. Thank you to all our donors and volunteers.  If you see my post on Instagram, you’ll see Batman and Thor, God of Thunder, were in attendance to spread some cheer.

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Another successful Easter edition of the @hamiltonbasketbrigade. We have operating Easter, Thanksgiving, and Xmas since 2014. This day we fulfilled the wishes of over 150 of the poorest moms, dads and kids in #hamont . We may not be able to solve poverty but we will provide relief with durable goods that last beyond a meal. . Already in the plans is to buy in bulk winter clothing and boots for this coming Thanksgiving to 28 families in order to make our budget go even further. . Together, we will be the change we want to see in the world. @kmckone @liveandbreatherealestate @jemaggs @burlingtonbatman @thorandcandy

A post shared by Erwin Szeto 🤓Wiki Of R.E.I. (@erwinszeto) on Apr 23, 2019 at 7:06am PDT

On top of all of that, we closed on our newest investment property on Thursday, and it’s one of the worst closings I’ve ever seen. Mostly our own fault, and the general difficulty of the lending market and lots of learning lessons. The biggest lesson here is to start your financing process earlier than we did. Most of you are on the ball, as you have your financing in order before conditions are lifted. We did not have a financing condition, so we let that deadline slip a bit too far. I do, however, want to thank Butler Mortgages, specifically Dave and Michelle, as they bore the brunt of our challenges, but got it done. Also, I’d like to thank Crystal at CAP Law for getting our deal closed and doing an excellent job coordinating with the sellers’ lawyers. Real estate investing can be all things: easy, challenging, fun, challenging, rewarding, challenging – yet worth it. Tonight is game 7 of my hockey team, the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Boston. It’s also my favourite team, the Toronto Raptors, game 5 of their playoff series. But guess what I’ll be doing? I’ll be in Hamilton with a wet/dry shop vacuum to get the water out of the basement at our newest property. This is one of the realities of investing, the best deals are often houses with challenges. This one, the basement is known to leak, but it’s a very easy fix by rerouting the downspout away from the foundation. I’ve already done that, but now I need to get the rain water out of the basement to prevent mold growth in our unfinished basement. I’ve always wanted to own a shop vacuum anyways, and I’ll be home in time to watch the remain two thirds of the game. If you don’t like doing any work on your properties that’s totally OK. I was just way too slow in booking my handyman to do this job and, again, I’ve always wanted a shop vacuum. 🙂

Ten Houses, Financial Peace, in Only Eight Years with Evelyn Lamarsh

Speaking of investing being challenging and worth it, that brings us to this week’s guest Evelyn Lamarsh, our client since she was 26 years old when we met in 2011. Fast forward to today, she is one of those few investors with 10 properties and living in financial peace. Evelyn and husband Mike are living the dream. Evelyn has her dream job, Mike retired from his job in his early 30’s, they have two young children they get to spend lots of time with, and they just bought a 30 foot boat to spend family time on and entertain friends and family. A boat paid for by their investments. Financial peace and living the dream are indeed possible with some early hustle as explained by our client and more importantly friend, Evelyn Lamarsh.

To follow up with Evelyn:

You will find Evelyn at iWIN events and; On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/evelyn.difrancesco If you enjoyed the show and would like to learn more about investing in real estate then you do not want to miss my Top 10 Tips On Real Estate. It’s FREE to Download!! I’ve interviewed many of the leading authorities in real estate, including Best Selling Authors like Julie Broad, Don R Campbell, Russell Westcott, and Tom Karadza. My super star investors include folks who acquire two properties per month or have transacted on over 100 properties. I have learned a thing or two in my own investing and distilled it down to 10, you-can-not-ignore, tips if you want to be a successful investor. To download the report go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca/book Sponsored by: TitanInvestmentRealEstate.com – 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 admin@mrhamilton.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, Toronto, Land Development, soon to be builder and Real Estate Investor W: erwinzeto.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/erwin.szeto IG: https://www.instagram.com/erwinszeto/ [/av_textblock]