On to this week’s show, as always, we try to focus on cash flow the young, lovely couple Spencer and Ashley Giles are Niagara- based real estate investors with a shared love of travel (they are literally vacationing in Nashville, TN right now, hopefully they find an AirBNB investment there as I hear Nashville is awesome), fitness, and dogs. They started investing in 2018 and have since expanded their portfolio to 13 units with a mix of short- term and long-term rentals. Spencer and Ashley co-founded Travelluxe Inc. in 2019, a short-term rental management company, which currently manages over 45 units across Canada and has expanded to the USA. We go into detail about that on the show including the numbers.

They were able to leave their corporate jobs in 2021 and 2022 to focus all their efforts on their businesses. Their love for travel has brought them all around the world where they are able to mix work and pleasure by creating systems that allow them to be location independent. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spencerandashley/

Website: https://spencerandashley.com/

Ellicottville Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/53721048?locale=en&_set_bev_on_new_domain=1719192849_EAMTU0NWYwZTcwNj&source_impression_id=p3_1719192850_P3OWaZ8QQzOrJpJd

We have a special guest today who we squeezed in before her return home to Tampa Bay, FLA to warm weather, pickleball year round, fruit trees in her backyard. The reasons are obvious why Canadians love Florida. Carmen is a Canadian living in Florida, she’s Chartered Professional Accountant Tax Specialist in both Canada and the USA. She owns 70 income properties in the USA, her 24 year old son even owns three rental houses in the States too! Carmen got into investing after selling her business, then in the 2008 real estate crash and bought a portfolio of single family homes in Florida to generate cash flow and replace part of her income.

Carmen is a passive investor as SHARE’s property management team takes care of everything so she gets to enjoy early retirement income.

As Carmen is a practicing Accountant who prepares tax returns for Canadian clients, she introduced clients to invest in US based single family rentals including Andrew Kim, CEO of SHARE and together could see how involved the process from legal setup to ongoing property management but the returns are life changing hence they knew they had to create SHARE, a technology based real estate solution for anyone to become a US landlord without all the hard work.

I’ve invited Carmen Da Silva, CPA in both Canada and US to return to the show to focus on the most common questions Canadians have about investing in the US.  The answer is different for everyone and Carmen takes the time to explain why.

Friendly disclaimer, I Erwin Szeto am not an Accountant, Carmen Da Silva is an Accountant but not your personal Accountant so you still need to seek your own professional, expert advice for your specific situation.  Our conversation is for educational purposes, tax let alone cross border tax is a complicated subject.

With that said please enjoy the show!

Cody Yeh arrived in Canada at the age of 18 on a student visa, initially lacking knowledge in income and wealth creation. Over the past 11 years, Cody has undergone a significant transformation, evolving from a student to a full-time project manager, and eventually to a financial coach, real estate investor, and stock options investor. The skills he acquired during this period enabled him to leave his full-time job at the beginning of 2020. 

Cody now has a stock options investing program and he’s buying apartment buildings in the USA.  It’s quite the journey.

To follow Cody, his website is his name Codyyeh.com

Please enjoy the show!

In the latest episode of our podcast, we had the pleasure of speaking with Milena Simsic, a remarkable individual who transitioned from being an ICU nurse to becoming a top 1% Realtors in Windsor, ON. Milena's journey is a testament to the power of determination, strategic thinking, and adaptability.

Career Transition: From Nurse to Realtor

Milena's story begins in the high-pressure environment of an ICU in Detroit, where she worked for four years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite her passion for nursing, she realized that her financial goals and long-term aspirations required a different path. Intrigued by the potential of real estate, she saved diligently and made her first property investment, a sixplex within eight months of starting her nursing career.

In February 2022, Milena made the full-time switch to real estate. Leveraging her skills, discipline, and having grown social media presence of 10,000, she quickly established herself as a formidable player in the Windsor market. By the end of her first year, she had achieved $300,000 in gross commission income, placing her in the top 1% of realtors in the area.

We talk about why and how Windsor’s market is booming unlike the rest of the province and how an investor can take advantage of it.

What I love about having this podcast is getting an hour of time from busy, successful talented people such as Milena so we can drill into what makes her tick, her secrets to success, how it didn’t come easy but rather with a lot of hard work.

I’ve been lucky to have many pasts guests of this show and I happen to hang out with 7 figure entrepreneurs all the time so I have experience hanging out with talented people and I’d count Milena among them. You don’t become a top 1% Realtor without talent and hard work. 

If you’re in the Windsor area, you definitely want to the check out the Windsor REI Social, the largest real estate networking event in Windsor, ON. Milena has honoured me with an invite to be the guest speaker Wednesday June 19th, 6pm at the Winelogy Restaurant and Bar.  I’ll be sharing my journey from 20 year landlord in Ontario to my recent pivot to the USA and I have to same kudos to Windsor REI Hosts Milena and Brandon Finn for hosting a speaker on the subject of USA Investing.  Not many local real estate professionals would.

To register for the meetup:
Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/windsor-rei-social-429899

To follow Milena:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milena_simsic/

Website: https://milenasimsic.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/windsocialrealty/

Please enjoy the show!