The Most Successful Investor I Know
Hello Real Estate Investor!!
Top of Grouse Mountain Post Grouse Grind
I hope you had a great summer! My wife and I just returned from a week in Vancouver and had an excellent time. We can see why Vancouver is consistently the most livable city in Canada with the city nestled in between ocean and mountains and rainforests and underrated beaches. Outdoor adventures are aplenty but what isn’t aplenty is real estate to keep up with the demand. As any real estate investor, we couldn’t help but browse Realtor.ca for what local properties were asking for and Vancouver does not disappoint as the least affordable city in Canada. The AirBnb where we stayed, similar apartments were asking around $1,000 per square foot for a building downtown but was built in 1982, no air conditioning by the way and only electric baseboard heating. Houses, they cost just a bit more than the areas we invest. A house listed for $400,000 in Kitchener is priced low but safe to say it will sell for less than $500,000. The same house in Burnaby, just east of downtown was asking $1,300,000. Needless to say we will continue to use short term housing like hotels and AirBnb when visiting Vancouver vs. purchasing a vacation property 😃. If we even want to move there, we will definitely need to invest more in order to afford it.
I’m working on a longer form write up of my trip to Vancouver should any of you be planning a trip there so you can learn from my lessons and have an even more enjoyable trip than I did because if you haven’t been, add it to your bucket list. Vancouver is now my favourite city in Canada after having visited Halifax, St. John, Montreal, Mont Tremblant, Calgary (Banff and Jasper), and now Vancouver. I recommend you start from the East and work your way West as it’s less expensive in the East and so you’re not underwhelmed.
The Most Successful Investor I Know is The Inaugural Halton REI’s Keynote Speaker
I am very happy to announce our Keynote Speaker for the inaugural Halton REI has confirmed, he is one of the longest time investors I know who started in 1991, so he’s personally invested during several housing cycles and he will have lessons on how to survive and thrive in all markets. He also happens to be one of the most successful real estate investors I know so you don’t want to miss out on Donato Cascioli’s presentation. Don is a serial entrepreneur who may not have made it on Dragon’s Den, well he was on the show, did not receive an offer but if he was offering his real estate investment opportunities, the Dragons would have stepped on each other to give him money.
Kevin O’Leary Trying On Donato’s Cell Phone Carrier on Dragon’s Den
You don’t want to miss Donato’s story of humble beginnings to real estate success at the inaugural HaltonREI.ca meeting September 23rd at our new location at Sheridan College Conference Centre. Same time, same great content and networking as the Mr Hamilton Inner Circle Meetings, it’s just a new name. You do have to RSVP by clicking here to pay in advance and receive the parking code for the closest available parking lot. For privacy reasons, we cannot share the code publicly. Do come early for the networking and sponsored refreshments provided by Auger Properties.
Donato will be a future guest on the TruthAboutRealEstateInvesting.ca podcast but for privacy reasons, some of his live presentation will be omitted so you do not want to miss out on his uncensored presentation at HaltonREI.ca’s inaugural meeting.
As always the meeting will include an economic update including this week’s announced interest rate increase, market updates on both real estate prices and rents.
Hope to see you all September 23rd!!
Who wants to golf?! Not me. Swinging golf clubs is tough on my shoulders as it’s repetitive, I swing way too hard, and I have no technique. It all started when John from podcast episode 6-years-part-time-and-600k-in-returns reached out asking if I wanted to golf and I responded, let’s do something fun instead. The somewhat local gun club (Silverdale Gun Club) had a special on a sniper rifle package and that’s what we did on a Friday afternoon at the gun club. We shot a couple rounds with an AR15, SKS, Remington 700, and the big daddy of them all, BMG 50 which weighed in at 34 lbs and each additional bullet would cost us $15 per. Don’t worry if the gun names mean nothing to you. I have no idea either, this was only my third time ever holding a gun in five years…. Our instructor Eric was patient and excellent and the gang agreed, it was better than playing 18 holes. We all had fun but make no mistake, the afternoon was a productive one because everyone one in attendance is an active investor with numerous properties and leaders in their fields. When you spend time with like minded people, you are guaranteed success. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
We are also moving our meetings to a new location: we’ve out grown the Rock Star Office’s training room, though we loved the price and convenience, we could use more space for comfort and to allow more attendees as in the past, we’ve had to wait list and turn away people. We want everyone to have a chance at financial freedom so we are relocating to the Sheridan College’s Conference Centre located at 1410 Trafalgar Rd, Oakville, ON, just north of the QEW.
I am super proud of my little cousin Christopher, here I am wearing his Timmy’s visor. He’s not really little anymore as he just turned 17 but he did get a summer job at Tim Hortons. He’s still in training but the plan is he’ll keep working when he’s back to school to save up money for a car. Christopher is crazy passionate about all vehicles: tanks, planes, trains, cars, bikes. I seriously ask for his advice when buying cars but I have to temper his preferences as he seems to think I operate without a budget. I don’t need a BMW M3 or M5, I don’t care about the extra 2-300 horsepower, I care about my monthly payments and how much of my lease is tax deductible
large portfolio of buy, rent and hold investment properties with her husband. She co-founded a property management company based in Kirkland Lake, Ontario. Elizabeth also runs a boutique Rent to Own company, which specializes in providing home ownership options for families.
We’ve had guests in the past from the other side of the country. Don Campbell, who resides in British Columbia, Pierre Paul Turgeon, who’s from Alberta. This week our guest, Andy Tran, is on the other side of the world in Japan, visiting his wife’s family. I’ve been friends with Andy since 2009, when we met at a mutual friend’s birthday and ran into each other again at REIN. Andy was one of my first clients, as I helped him purchase investment properties in Hamilton back in 2010, but now the tables have turned as I have hired Andy to prepare my investment property for a legal basement suite conversion. As always, I believe in hiring the best to work on my business and it just so happens that Andy is a leading expert in accessory apartments in the golden horseshoe of Ontario. Andy is guiding me and my property through the city’s permit process including building code, certified drawings, working with the city’s planners and inspectors etc… stuff that I neither enjoy nor have time for.
