My friend Shawn Bedard who I first met at REIN over ten years ago and our real estate investing paths were quite different. Back in 2010, Shawn couldn’t find deals that make sense in Ontario so he went to landlord friendly USA and bought 4 houses in Atlanta and 10 in Memphis, Georgia. His experience and investment went…. I’ll let him SHARE.
Other than real estate investing, I’ve invited Shawn on the show to discuss his volunteer work at a non-profit organization called Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO), specifically the Accelerator program where Shawn leads the initiative to guide entrepreneurs with $250,000 to 999,999 in revenue USD to get over a $1 million USD and become a full member of EO.
EO has been an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs like Shawn and I. I luv it hence I joined the board of our Toronto chapter. What I luv about EO members is they’re kind, successful people who all want to make their mark in the world.
Our values are:
Trust and Respect. Each of us is unique and equal. ...
Thirst for Learning. We have an insatiable curiosity. ...
Think big, be bold. We innovate, take risks and see opportunity in a challenge.
Together we grow. We are committed to each other's growth and well-being.
To learn more about EO’s Accelerator program
https://eocanada.com/accelerator/
To connect with Shawn:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-bedard-65a3/?originalSubdomain=ca
We have my friend Adam Kitchener back on the show as we get along because he keeps it so real. No pictures of him on a private plane, or luxury vehicle or luxury watches. Well he does actually but they’re obviously photoshopped as he’s poking fun at the phonies out there.
Don’t get me wrong, luxury stuffs great. I personally luv it when folks celebrate their success and reward themselves. Keep in mind, most successful people in my experience don’t brag about their wealth, read “the Millionaire Next Door” if you don’t believe me. The book describes 99% of my millionaire clients exactly. Why would anyone brag about their cars and watches or gold chains, on social media? That would make them a target for robbery. Adam actually rips people who do such things and turn out to be frauds on his social media accounts.
On today’s show, Adam recounts his trials and tribulations of being a full time, active investor. He shares how he finances deals including private money, the numbers on the deals he’s done, why they are deals, how cash flow and timely execution is paramount to survival and he pulls no punches, it’s not sexy.
He’s been assaulted and harassed by tenants, arrested by police, bought houses with backyards littered with used syringes from drug dealers.
Investment wise, he’s doing excellent and well setup for the future but it was far from sunshine and rainbow getting here. Feel free to reach out to Adam on social media, he’s happy to take a question or two for anyone who needs a second opinion on anything real estate related.
https://www.instagram.com/mradamkitchener/
https://www.facebook.com/adamrkitchener
Please enjoy the show!
Returning to the show is Andrew Kim from Brampton who identifies as American. He used to invest locally, the return on time wasn’t there so he bought 20 houses in landlord friendly USA ten years ago now he cash flows over ten thousand US dollars per month. His Accountant Carmen was the one who guided Andrew to invest in the USA along with several of her Accounting and Financial Planning Clients since 2008. Since then they’ve combined forces to make the same opportunities available to everyday Canadian investors with the company they co-founded call SHARE thanks to their innovative technology and automation to bring down the costs substantially.
Full disclosure: I am an advisor to SHARE, meaning I get paid to develop their business in Canada through Marketing and Sales. It's the most fun I've ever had in my real estate career. I wake up every morning excited to speak with investors and help them find opportunities in the USA. Active as an investor and landlord since 2005, I'm eager to share with my clients and community a simpler way to combat inflation and build their wealth with less risk and higher cash flow, in places where investors are truly welcomed.
I want to thank Andrew and SHARE for inviting me along for the ride and for helping me invest in USA. I can’t wait to start making offers in May after my rentals here are sold and closed.
As I mentioned, Andrew’s context of real estate and investing is very American since he lived in California for five years and wants to go back. He’s here today to share what 150 Canadians interested in investing in the USA have said to him.
Please enjoy the show.
📅Join Our Upcoming Workshop: How to Invest in the U.S. Real Estate Market as a Canadian Investor! For those who’d like a deeper understanding of how to invest in the USA, we are happy to announce our next US investing workshop on Saturday, April 13th.
🔗Sign up: https://USAworkshop.eventbrite.ca/?aff=YT
We have returning to the show my friend Seth Ferguson and I want to thank him for hosting the biggest real estate event of the year May 24-26th. The Friday is a 101 for beginners then the main course is the Saturday and Sunday and I’m excited to see all my friends from the community, hopefully our 17 listeners and Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort.
I don’t know his full story outside of the Leonardo Dicaprio movie, he did go to jail for doing awful things with peoples’ money but I know he’s got great stories to share how he did it all wrong and if he had only played the long game and stayed legit, he would have made 10X the money.
Robert Herjavec of Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank is the other keynote speaker along with a secret guest Seth will reveal on the show!
Seth is pretty awesome too, I can’t wait to be there to support my friend and I look forward to seeing everyone!
On today’s show Seth shares the journey to the third Multi-family conference, how and why he chose these speakers, how this year will be drastically different than years past. We’ll discuss why Seth from Milton, Ontario owns no income properties in Canada and focusses his own efforts and capital in southern USA along with some of the numbers.
https://multifamilyconference.ca/
Metro Toronto Convention Center
May 24-26th.
Please enjoy the show!
This week we have a very special guest in Patrick Francey, CEO of the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN for short).
What makes REIN special in my experience is they’ve always been affordable, REIN has been around longer than pretty much all the other real estate education or networking organizations. They focus on economic fundamentals and cash flow, they literally teach both subjects extensively once per year in each of the cities they operate.
As such, their members are among the most successful in the investor community and their members risk way less. Never did they teach high leverage investing or promissory notes in my experience.
OPM or joint venturing instruction was almost entirely equity based to preserve cash flow, reduces risk, allow the passive partner to participate in both upside and downside.
On the other hand, I’m having regular conversations with investors about professional coaches and small REIT owners who are behind on payments to their investors and folks are lawyering up. Never in my experience have I seen this scale of lawsuits in my experience hence I feel the timing of this interview with Patrick and last week Tom Karadza of Rock Star real estate is timely.
We’ve had lots of experts on this show including Alberta real estate investors but I do want to highlight what makes today’s guest in Patrick Francey standout.
Patrick’s role at REIN places him at the forefront of research and education, he has thousands of REIN members to network with across the country to help him make informed and profitable decisions. Patrick admits he’s a wee older than I am and benefits from having been both a business owner and real estate investor for several economic cycles both boom and bust.
On today’s show we reminisce about what has made REIN members successful over the decades but it’s been far from perfect, we’re talking about Alberta here who had been in economic winter for a decade, prices had crashed and the energy sector has been neglected at the federal level. As for the future, it’s bright for specific parts and strategies in Alberta which Patrick details.
Website: reincanada.com
Email: info@reincanada.com
Please enjoy the show!
On today’s show, we have one of my mentors and brokers in Tom Karadza, co-founder of Rock Star Real Estate Brokerage, Inc who in my experience is one of the best leaders and influencers in our community. If results are what matters to you like they do for me, Rock Star’s 1000+ members are well educated in investing and are among the most successful especially after you adjust for risk. No get rich quick schemes at Rock Star.
On today’s show Tom and discuss how Rock Star members have weathered the current storm, how the pandemic ruined my bitcoin gains, while Tom is laughing all the way to the bank… does that saying work when referring to Bitcoin gains?
Anyways, Tom and his brother Nick Karadza are hosting the next Your Life, Your Terms event live and in person Saturday April 6th at the International Centre near Pearson Airport.
This is likely the largest room, 1000+ attendees expected, or successful, action takers you’ve ever met where the talks are fresh, no repeats allowed, Cherry will have a booth, I’ll be networking wearing a USA Hockey jersey. If you’re a client, I have some pull so you can save the hundreds of dollars on tickets, everyone else, details and link to register in the show notes: https://www.yourlifeyourtermsevent.com/
On to this week’s show!
Today we have my Mortgage Broker Scott Dillingham from Windsor Ontario who as far as I know is the only investor specialist who can help Canadians with mortgages in both Canada and the USA. Scott while he was the #1 mortgage broker at one of Canada’s biggest banks got my clients and I many mortgages at cheap rates and I’m now selling one of them.
Scott has since opened his own mortgage brokerage called Lendcity, he shares how American debt service coverage ratio mortgages work when buying income properties in the USA. Scott is a real estate investor himself and shares some of his own challenges as a Windsor landlord and how/where he plans to buy his next investment property and why.
For long-time investors, you’ll remember the days around ten years ago when we used to negotiate seller credits to bring down our downpayments, thus improving our ROI. Well roll back the calendar as seller credits are more of a norm in the US, even more so with builders in this slow market with historically high interest rates.
Scott of course will be our mortgage expert, guest speaker at our next US Investment Workshop on the morning of Saturday April 13th at our office in Oakville broadcast live over Zoom. I thought the last one would be our last as it’s not easy, nor cheap to have as much talent in the room that we do.
We have everyone’s favourite real estate Accountant, my wife Cherry Chan, the CEO, CIO and CFO of Share: Andrew Kim, Dmitri Bourchtein, Carmen Da Silva respectively to explain how to be a USA landlord without all the work but keep all the equity.
Link is in the show notes: simply choose between in person or virtual. https://USAworkshop.eventbrite.ca. Cost is only $30 plus tax and eventbrite fees.
You can also reach Scott and team at iwin@lendcity.ca, an a custom email address made specially for you, my 17 listeners.
Please enjoy the show!
On to this week’s show, someone polar opposite to my strategy of lazy investing: fully involved and active investing including having executed on 150 or some deals in 2023 including 50 flips. While Luc Boiron lives in Ottawa, he has flips are far as Vancouver and while flips are sexy as people love to watch them on tv or take courses on flipping… well I’m sorry, not sorry we have Luc here to share a behind the scenes look at why he’s flipping and it’s not what you’d expect.
Luc is the founder of Bliss Realty, former lawyer, one of Canada’s leading investors. He has a massive team and even more massive advertising budget. Luc is a legit investor and even has some stories about fake it till you make it investors failed to close on buying wholesale deals from him.
Listeners, never forget, the community is a small one and we all talk. We know who the fake it till you make it investors and gurus are and where they learnt those strategies.
As Warren Buffet says “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.”
Luc Boiron has also recently launched his podcast the Selfwealth Real Estate podcast available on Apple Podcasts and my fav platform Spotify.
Please enjoy the show.
Our guest should need no introduction, it’s my lovely wife the Real Estate Accountant Cherry Chan!
Cherry Chan is here to share about the convoluted changes by our Federal government who seem to know more about what real estate we own, they keep coming out with half baked ideas only to delay, delay, make us all jump through hoops, make busy work. It’s really complicated stuff but Cherry is a talented messenger who can explain what the Trudeau, Liberal government is doing.
We also chat about our lessons from the downturn in the real estate market, how we are refocusing on at least cash neutral properties hence the decision to diversify to the landlord friendly states of the USA. I’m hoping Cherry and I can take a trip to the south: Georgia and Tennessee in May after tax season. Romance and cash flow. Two of my favourite things in life. I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day and find more cash flow in your lives because never forget, cash flow is what affords you freedom. US dollars are also worth more than Canadian dollars.
Please enjoy the show!
In this enlightening episode, Rachel, with a background in advertising managing a $65 budget and a significant journey in real estate investment from growing up in a duplex to owning investment properties in Florida, investing in duplexes and garden suites in Barrie, Ontario to now full blown cottages resort business owner and operator in Muskoka. Rachel's story of strategic investment and personal growth. Our conversation touches on the challenges of property management, the insights gained from renovating and selling properties, and her aspirations to contribute positively to societal health through real estate.
Cottages and short term rentals are a hot topic in the community, Rachel has experience in both short and long term rentals, she’s a no BS kind of gal, she’s obviously smart, you don’t get $65 million dollar advertising budgets to manage for some of the most recognizable brands in the world at two of the top 10 advertising agencies in the world.
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chaletsmuskoka
Chalets on Muskoka: https://www.chaletsmuskoka.ca/
Property Management: https://www.caradengroup.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rmholden
On today’s show I invited my good friend Christian Szpilfogel to discuss the sad truth about real estate in managing and recovering distressed assets, understanding the root causes and having proactive strategies.
We discussed the risks of private lending, the responsibilities of the borrowers. Christian has the unique perspective of having worked in a heavily securities regulated environment of Mergers and Acquisitions when he was a general manager under one of Canada’s richest Canadians only to see the wild, wild west that is real estate investing where some investors openly violate securities laws in soliciting the public for capital even offering guaranteed returns.
The last time I heard “guaranteed returns” was from the owner of a now bankrupt company and he’s on the run from the cops.
Christian being one of the good guys in real estate, I thought he was ideal to text at 9:30am to come on the show for 10:30am to talk about losing money. Christian is the owner of the Aliferous Group where he invests his and only his family’s own money, he has no courses to sell, no coaching to sell, he’s not accepting OPM other than the bank’s, he just wants to help people. It’s why we get along so well.
Christian is also Vice President of OREIO, the Ottawa Real Estate Investing Organization, a non-profit, membership based educational organization. Annual membership is only $127, I’m a member too and the value is unmatched. https://www.oreio.org/Membership
I’ve included some links to news sources in the show notes as well. Sadly, I saw investors go belly up in 2008 in the financial crisis, we’re seeing many have problems today and we’ll see this happen again because some didn’t learn from history. So please take this chance to learn from history else be doomed to repeat it. Also watch out for confidence artists, note that con artist is short for confidence artist.
Please keep your investments safe and enjoy the show.
From the Globe and Mail article:
https://www.ksvadvisory.com/experience/case/SID
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/investors-bankruptcy-1.7102325
Real Estate Journey: Woods started with a $69,000 property, gradually moving to multi-family properties, mixed-use, and commercial buildings.
Market Shifts: Discussion on the changing real estate market dynamics, particularly in Ontario, Canada, and his strategies in response to these changes.
Personal Strategy and Lifestyle: Woods talks about his transition to investing in the Dominican Republic and the U.S., focusing on lifestyle alongside investment returns. He stresses the importance of being in markets that are favorable to investors.
Investment Philosophy: Woods emphasizes the value of education in real estate, joint ventures, and creative investment strategies, including his plans to explore single-family homes and creative financing in the U.S.
Health and Work-Life Balance: He touches upon the significance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance and not letting the pursuit of wealth overshadow personal well-being and relationships.
Challenges and Learning: Woods shares lessons learned from managing properties, the difficulties faced, and how these experiences shaped his approach to real estate investing.
Book: https://www.amazon.ca/Ultimate-Wealth-Strategy-Complete-Refinancing/dp/0993671705/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083765135506
Web: www.jefferywoods.com
We have podcast host of A Canadian Investing in the US, Glen Sutherland, hey’s a nice, sharing guy, a seasoned real estate investor, and he’s here to share his own journey of how he ran into a wall investing in Ontario then pivoted to the USA in 2017 and never looked back.
Glen shares insights from his experience, including strategies for finding and managing properties, navigating different market conditions, and the importance of building a reliable team all from the comfort of his home near Waterloo, Ontario. He emphasizes the value of solving complex property issues, I emphasise complex as Glen is dealing with complicated deals in small towns not for the faint of heart.
Me personally, I’m going for boring, Glen however is a full time investment with sufficient capital and he must like the excitement. We are totally on two different end of the risk tolerance spectrum which is totally ok. This is the truth about real estate investing podcast and there are various ways to invest in real estate.
So with no further ado, I give you Glen Sutherland
Web: https://www.glensutherland.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@acanadianinvestingintheusa
This week we have professional, full time investor Chad Urbshott who lives in near me in Oakille, Ontario but he’s been investing in the US since 2013 and doing so remotely from Canada. He’s tried pretty much all the small residential investing strategies, fix and flip, wholesale but found his niche by specializing in U.S. mortgage notes
Chad discusses his journey and strategies in the complex field of note investing. He emphasizes the importance of thorough due diligence, explains various aspects of note investing, and shares his experiences, including the challenges and rewards of this niche market.
I know I’ve talked a lot about about boring investing on this show so I wanted to offer you my listener the other extreme for those who want a full time strategy that’s worked for someone as talented as Chad. Note his returns, risks, effort, and please take lots of notes. I’m sure for some of you, you will want to listen to this more than once.
You can find Chad on social media by searching his name Chad Urbshott or his website: https://www.equigrowth.com/
Please enjoy the show!
Dmitri Bourchtein (CIO & Co-Founder of SHARE) was formerly an Executive Director of Investments at Starlight U.S. Residential, with direct involvement in over $7B of U.S. residential real estate transactions. Dmitri is a seasoned institutional investor with experience in all aspects of the real estate value-chain and is passionate about levelling the playing field for retail investors in the competitive landscape of U.S. SFRs and enabling everyday landlords to maximize their returns.
By the way, if you like what Dmitri has to say, he will be speaking at our US Investing Workshop this Saturday January 13th.
Our guest speakers included Andrew the CEO, Carmen Da Silva, last week’s guest and CFO, and today’s guest Dmitri, CIO of Share.
We have owner of LendCity Scott Dillingham, the only investor focussed Mortgage Broker I know who can offer US commercial style mortgages to Canadians for income properties. Note commercial lending is better than residential mortgages. The property and the cash flow is the lender’s focus so it’s way easier to qualify and one can in theory have unlimited mortgages.
I’m your host and we are teaching direct investment as in the investor owns the property 100%. That is the definition of direct investment. No shares, no joint venture partners, not private lending. Good old fashioned income property ownership, in-line with how my client 350+ clients and I invest in real estate.
Link for details or to register: https://USworkshop.eventbrite.ca/?aff=iwin
To connect with SHARE: https://sharesfr.com/partners/iwin
This week’s guest Carmen Da Silva, a Canadian who lives full time in Florida who knows a lot about investing for cash flow in the USA. Carmen Da Silva (CFO & Co-Founder of SHARE) is a CPA in both Canada and the USA. She articled with Price Waterhouse Cooper specializing in corporate and cross-border tax. Carmen built an insurance platform that allows boutique investment brokers to sell tax-sheltered insurance using Family Office Teams. She generated in excess of 500M AUM in just 5 years, sold it, and bought 25 single family homes in 2008 for early retirement. She has significant firsthand experience in U.S. Single Family Rentals (SFR) and has always recommend direct ownership in US real estate to her Accounting clients including her own children. Carmen’s 25 year old son already owns two rental houses in the US.
Currently, Carmen is passionate about combining Ai, technology and real estate investing to make US income properties accessible to everyday investors, not just the ultra wealthy and multi-billion dollar institutional investors currently gobbling up all the income properties.
In my experience, it’s rare for Financial Planners and Accountants to recommend and own so much real estate so for you my 17 listeners, you’re in for a special treat.
We can only cover so much in a 60 minute interview so if you would like to learn more about US income property investing, Carmen and her team will be presenting at our US Investing Workshop on the morning of Saturday January 13th. We will cover what the investment looks like, the numbers, corporate structures and Accounting, Financing, property management, as much as we can in a morning.
Of note, we are teaching direct investment as in the investor owns the property 100%. That is the definition of direct investment. No shares, no joint venture partners, not private lending. Good old fashioned income property ownership, in-line with how client 350+ clients and I invest in real estate.
Link for details or to register: https://USworkshop.eventbrite.ca/?aff=iwin
To connect with SHARE: https://sharesfr.com/partners/iwin