We have the founder of Property Technology company Viler Lika on the show. He is the founder and CEO of SingleKey and if you haven’t heard of them yet you will want to pay attention to this show as in my experience, they are providing us investors a ton of value at affordable prices. SingleKey is the largest tenant screening service out there with their recent acquisition of Naborly.
The majority of the professional investors I know are already using their tenant screening aka credit checking online software as it’s fast, cheap, encrypted, and the reports written in plain english. Even our big local REIT uses SingleKey.
Viler is super smart having both degrees in Engineering and MBA from the same Business school I graduated from at Western University in London. On today’s show, Viler shares his journey of starting up a real estate technology business that brought us small investors the same tools the big corporate REIT’s use.
SingleKey will even underwriter insurance on the tenant which can be purchased by the landlord OR the tenant. How amazing is that? The rental market is highly competitive is most medium/major cities. If I had to enter a bidding competition to rent a place, I would insure my rent to set myself apart from the others.
Viler is also kind enough to share what features are coming in just a few months to forever change how we screen non Canadians and report tenant rents on their credit/Equifax.
This is not an episode to be missed. Please enjoy the show!
As a bonus Viler was kind enough to provide us a discount code “erwin” my name, a five letter word for 20% off a tenant screening, background report that also works on Americans. I’ve included a link in the show notes!
20% off discount code:
https://platform.singlekey.com/screen/request?promo_code=erwin
We have Ben Bergen who has acquired 14 properties over a short period of time and has the scars to prove it! Ben is a graduate of one of those many $13,000 per year group coaching programs, spent close to $50,000 and in his words he grew too fast, too soon, ego driven, nearly lost his shirt when he had 3.5 major renovation projects on the go.
My observation is if not for Ben’s own sweat, hard work on the tools as he is in construction, he would have ended up bankrupt like some of his coaches and fellow students. In the business world Ben filled both the visionary and integrator role. If his business was Apple, he was both Steve Jobs AND Tim Cook or Steve Wozniak. As in Jobs could sell big dreams, raise capital but Steve Wozniak had to build the actual computers or Tim Cook had to make the Operations as smooth and efficient as possible.
In my study of failed real estate investors, they were incredible at raising capital, their influencer marketing was expert level BUT they could not execute on their vision of on time renovations, on budget in a challenging environment both in construction AND the truth about real estate that no one is talking about, there’s more folks out there than ever trying to raise capital from both veterans and weekend guru workshop graduates BUT passive investors/lenders have dried up.
Back to Ben, if not for some prudent decisions and his skillset, Ben would be in huge trouble hence it’s best you give this episode a listen. Ben lives and invests in Sarnia, has a construction background, has since left his six figure job and pension behind, and is starting up a property management company with the help of coach Elizabeth Kelly.
Please enjoy the show!
To Follow Ben:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benbergen_rei/
PM Company: https://www.instagram.com/rsb_property_management_2021/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ben.bergen.7121
With all the craziness going on it’s nice to have a palate cleanse with go getters like my old friend Amanda Bouck and Marty Gordon.
I first met Amanda around ten years ago at Rock Star Real Estate when she was running the day to day as the in house Property Management business.
Fast forward ten years she’s managed a team of coaches, created educational content at Keyspire and together with her husband Marty, a licensed carpenter who’s gone from employee in construction to general managing their own property management company and investment portfolio of small multis in Guelph to small apartment buildings in London. Apparently Marty has free time between all that, their one year old son to coach as a Keyspire coach as well.
Hey, I’ll never fault anyone for multiple streams of income ;)
Amanda and Marty’s journey from beginner investors in their early 20s to the present, 17 years later, a fair sized portfolio and getting close to buying and building their dream home on large acreage and custom built mansion. It’s an inspiring and real journey.
Amanda and Marty share how they journey wasn’t easy and required hard work. Success is not guaranteed but with hard work, smart decisions, over a large period of time, it’s hard not to be successful.
To connect with Amanda and Marty
Email: amanda@eliterentalmanagement.ca
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martygordon-swingingthehammer/?trk=pub-pbmap&originalSubdomain=ca
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HouseHustlers
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amanda.gordon.739
On to the show!
I had no idea how many new tax rules we investors have to deal with this year, the Underused Housing Tax is especially concerning as I’ve spoken to many pros out there who don’t understand it either. What’s worse is the penalty is $5-10k for not filling and a lot of us investors have to complete and submit the Underused Housing forms even though we are an excluded owner thus having no liability. We still have to file the forms though.
I’m not an Accountant though but I did invite my lovely wife, Cherry Chan, CPA, CA who happens to be the most in demand Real Estate Accountant speaker to share some of the top tax changes we investors face for 2023.
Cherry does break down these same tax tips on her YouTube Channel Real Estate Tax Tips so make sure to subscribe to her channel along with the 10,000 other subscribers.
https://www.youtube.com/@RealEstateTaxTips
In case you’re curious, yes Cherry is still accepting new clients but not sure for how much longer. admin@cccpa.ca is the email address for your inquiries.
Please enjoy the show!
Today we have my friend Saurabh Singhal who is a real estate lawyer and litigation specialist out of Mississauga, Ontario.
Saurabh services some of our clients and a whole lot more investors from the general public so he’s seeing first hand the financial difficulties that speculators and private lenders have put themselves into.
Saurabh himself is working on 32 files for power of sale, meaning the borrower is in default and the lender is forcing sale to repay the debt. We also discuss lessons from many 2nd mortgages gone bad.
To my 17 listeners, please do extra due diligence out there when vetting partnerships and private lending. There are exit scams going on where gurus are looking to raise capital while already bankrupt or approaching bankruptcy.
At the same time, fear is high and the time to be greedy is good timing. As always, my preference is to invest in assets I control in the markets where I’m an expert and recommend my clients do the same. If these 32 investors in power of sale were to have followed my advice this all could have been avoided. All they had to do was listen to this podcast which is available for free…
Unfortunately they didn’t and it will be my clients looking to buy distressed properties like we already are.
Feel free to reach out if you do enjoy working with professional service providers such as my team and we can get you investing like a professional and all we charge is Realtor commission which is paid by the sellers anyways.
Saurabh Singhal is a returning guest of the show so we did cover his journey to move his family to Canada, transition from a crown prosecutor in India to become a Canadian lawyer. I recommend checking it out as the story is an inspirational one.
Please enjoy the show!
Website: https://www.singhal-law.ca/
Email: lawyers@singhal-law.ca/
We have something a little different, a real estate investor with a lot of heart in Melissa Dupuis, we rarely have investors on this show who target those on social assistance but Melissa has with her renovated, repositioned 10 bedroom rooming house.
As we don’t have many rooming house investors on this show, we spend some time on the subject in terms of numbers, target tenants, regulations, and of course the numbers: $525k on the buy and after fully renovated, $6,000 plus per month in rent.
Melissa is a true sophisticated investor as she’s an avid student and action taker in converting underutilised properties as she’s currently converting a duplex into a triplex to improve cash flow in this rising interest rate environment.
As always, real estate investing is a team sport, Melissa has engaged in hiring a coach and has a mentor. Melissa details how she found them and how it worked out.
Melissa is also a Property Manager, owner of Athena Property Management Inc servicing Niagara Region, Hamilton and she’s also a land banker in Belize.
Please enjoy the show!
IG: @eatsleeprealestaterepeat @athenapropertymanagement
FB: https://www.facebook.com/athenapropertymanagementinc
Kyle Pearce is a Math teacher and Kindergarten to Grade 12 Math consultant to his local school district in Windsor, co-founded an online learning business for Math professional development.
Kyle actively invests in real estate for value and cash flow, stocks and options trades and partners to co-own North Shore Properties that holds 30 units in and around Windsor, Ontario. Please pay attention to how Kyle and partner Matt divide responsibilities as they have complimentary skills.
Kyle is currently on unpaid leave from teaching to pursue the above business, investing ventures and co-hosting the Invested Teacher Podcast. We get very detailed on Kyle’s most recent acquisition of a 9 plex and the vendor financing and terms.
Please enjoy the show!
Podcast: Invested Teacher Podcast - InvestedTeacher.com/apple
Web: Invested Teacher Website - InvestedTeacher.com
Socials @InvestedTeacher
We have an author, coach, mentor, mom, wife and investor since only 2017 who’s done a lot while keeping her day job. English isn’t even Brooke Shang’s first language as she moved to Canada from Taiwan at age 17.
Brooke has done a lot from losing $50,000 on a joint venture in Winnipeg with a now bankrupt partner who drove a Porsche to owning nearly 30 rent to owns, a bunch of duplexes, and focusing more on private lending and building her custom dream home thanks to the profits from tenants buying out the RTO’s and selling other income properties.
Brooke is also a leader within the Trust Your Talent Academy like past guests Tim Tsai and Vince Lee. Brooke’s story is a good one how much one can accomplish in a short period time while keeping the day job and how one’s goals change, e.g. Brooke has hustled and now wants more passive investments. It all works, one just must decide for themselves what journey they’re on.
Please enjoy the show!
Web: www.RealEstateNetworkingQueen.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/brooke_shang/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/brooke.shang
Book: FINANCIAL FREEDOM THE ROYAL WAY https://a.co/d/0p90cVB
This week we have Mackenzie Wilson of SingleKey the tenant credit and background check reporting service that recently acquired Naborly.
If you haven’t heard of SingleKey… well they are quite popular in the circles I run in and for you new investors, you’re so lucky you don’t have to run credit checks the old way…
Mackenzie is a very diligent investor from Calgary, Alberta. He shares how we went from oil rigs and IT at Telus and left it behind to start an online business in real estate that didn’t go so well but he survived, still owns his three duplexes in Calgary and works at SingleKey as a Director.
As you’ll soon tell, Mackenzie is a diligent landlord (one of the most diligent I’ve ever met) and loves to help other landlords in Alberta out as he’s always sharing and educating his peer group of 4,200 Alberta Landlords
On today’s show we talk about the difference between commercial and residential in Calgary, Calgary vs. Edmonton. Of course we talk about tenant screening as it appears to be a passion of Mackenzie’s even though his properties are in Alberta and how appropriate it is his day job is now at SingleKey.
One big nugget is I asked Mackenzie as a beginner investor, what should I buy in Calgary and his protip is a good one.
Please enjoy the show!
Website: singlekey.com/
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/mwyyc/
Alberta Landlord Communit: albertalandlordcommunity.ca/
Two recent articles Mackenzie recommends
https://www.singlekey.com/blog/how-can-landlords-spot-fake-application-documents-from-tenants/
On to this week’s show!
We have something different in that our guest is a successful entrepreneur in the world of Business and not real estate investing, YET.
Nick Kindler is the Chapter President of Entrepreneur’s Organization, a private membership of seven figure entrepreneurs that Cherry and I also belong too.
As a member of the real estate community, I find learning from entrepreneurs just as helpful as learning from real estate investors to broaden my learning. I also see all these memberships and masterminds costing $20,000-30,000 or more, I wanted you my 17 listeners to be aware of other masterminds, membership groups and Entrepreneurs Organization is less than $10,000 per year and I’m a big fan.
Who better to talk about Entrepreneurship than our very own Chapter President Nick Kindler who also happens to be my client who’s working with team member, Chris “the Captain” Hook to acquire quality investment properties.
Nick is here today to share his experience as an EO member, President, his entrepreneurial journey which includes a $4.5M business that went bankrupt but more importantly how he bounced back, the lessons learned so you may avoid the same mistakes.
FYI - failing businesses, losing money and letting staff is not a fun experience in my experience. Please take notes.
If you would like to learn more about Entrepreneurs Organisation please reach out to Nick on his company website www.kindlerandcompany.com/contact you can hit me up on email on DM or you look up your local chapter at https://hub.eonetwork.org/
I’ll be a the open house event on March 9th that Nick mentions so I hope to see you there! Link: https://www.eonetwork.org/toronto/Pages/upcoming-events.aspx?i=2&s=5
Nick’s consulting business helps innovative leaders communicate better, for example I attended Nick’s two day workshop on how to give a TED talk which was excellent where Nick deconstructed what goes into an excellent talk then walked us through to write our own and how to deliver with stage presence.
Nick is also the author of Impact: Simplify, Transform, and Perform Pitches and Presentations available at https://www.impactbook.ca/
Without further ado, I give you Nick Kindler.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Truth About Real Estate, my name is Erwin Szeto, the four time award winning Realtor to investors, host of this podcast, the #81 Business podcast per iTunes, where we focus on bringing you true experts, masters of their craft and we have a great guest for you today in real estate coach and educator Elizabeth Kelly.
The term coach has been used lightly these days. I see even folks with 1-2 properties as side hustles call themselves coaches. Elizabeth Kelly has a bit more to her resume than that. Her own property management company hundreds of doors, she was a full time real estate investing educator at Rich Dad Canada having personally taught a couple thousand investors including many of the infuencers and coaches you see today on social media.
Today we touch on a couple subjects such as the investment in real estate education and some of the different options out there as there are more than ever but some offer better value than others.
Elizabeth shares about her career and investor journey to arrive at where she is today. Her strategies when starting out investing in 2008 is very different than how she invests today and my intention for you my 17 listeners is to see for yourself how a professional investors at different stages, lessons learn so you may avoid mistakes and make more money.
Then we will offend many when we discuss what’s working and what’s not working in 2023. This may shock you, many of the fad investments getting a lot of hype won’t work in 2023. Make sure to have a listen before investing in any coaching or courses or even property.
2023 is going to be a fascinating year and here at iWIN real estate, we will be arming our community with the best information possible. Staring with our free webinar on how to sell a tenanted property for maximum return on January 17th, followed by our iWIN, in personal networking meeting on Saturday morning Jan 28th when my team and I share our bold predictions for 2023 for our target investment markets and we have at REIT in the house, Lawrence Raponi of Equiton with a brand new presentation explain how professionals buy apartment buildings, from how they find deals, to the numbers they need before even looking further into.
Learn how the professionals invest or at least learn how investing in a REIT works including cash flowing from day 1.
If you’re on my email newsletter, then you know how to register. If you don’t? Well that’s just silly, go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca enter your name and email and you will receive an email when we have events and when new episodes of this show is available.
New to 2023 is we will be producing a lot more free educational videos and podcasts. If you have suggestions for topics you would like covered please let us know.
It’s my pleasure to introduce to you, my friend who passed our strict screening, Elizabeth Kelly.
Please enjoy the show!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-kelly-consulting
FB: https://m.facebook.com/EKConsulting.ca/
IG: https://instagram.com/elizabethkellyconsulting?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE=
Real Estate Resilience Summit: https://realestateresilience.ca/sumreal-estate-resilience-summit-ek
We have Ken Bekendam who is up to many things to generate cash flow and build wealth in real estate. The best part is Ken is available for hire! One can hire Ken’s company https://legalsecondsuites.com for major renos to your home or investment property including basement apartments and garden suites.
Ken and Legal Second Suites has even been in the news representing one of his clients, a mutual friend of ours Alex who happens to be Ukrainian who wants to convert his garage into a garden suite to rent to Ukrainian immigrants but the rich neighbours think the added density of tenants living in a garage will damage the neighbourhood and increase traffic.
Thankfully, with municipalities trending in the right direction to allow for us private investors to create more housing… well I won’t spoil it and let Ken explain to you how the story ends. Rich homeowners vs. rental housing for Ukrainian immigrants….
In today’s show, Ken details what strategy makes up the majority of his portfolio and provides him with the massive cash flows. It’s not what you expect as none of the influencers out there are promoting, nor offering courses on this strategy.
Ken shares how to invest in garden suites including build costs and rents plus some conversion projects both big and small. This is really great episode for education purposes so do have those pens and pencils ready.
I give you my friend Ken Bekendam
Please enjoy the show!
Web: https://legalsecondsuites.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/legalsecondsuites/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/people/Legal-Second-Suites/100086295136299/