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The Truth About Real Estate Investing... for Canadians

For Canadians by Canadians sharing the truths about generating wealth through real estate investing. This show is about getting rich slowly, investing is a marathon, no get rich quick methods will be discussed here hosted by award winning investor and three time Realtor of the Year Erwin Szeto aka Mr. Hamilton
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Now displaying: May, 2019
May 25, 2019

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 stuffs are 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, then we applied 10X thinking: how about a 200 person plus 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.

Our objective for the attendees 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 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 events 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 rule 8-12%: 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 when condo fees go up out of control, it negatively affects affordability and in turn the resale price.

Anyways 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.

May 17, 2019

This is the biggest, craziest thing I’ve ever done.

Bigger than buying a house without conditions, without seeing it, without my wife’s permission while we had another house vacant and undergoing renovations.

The feeling is more like that combined with skydiving, bungee jumping, hangliding, competing in martial arts, and public speaking in front of 600+ investors.

Everything I’ve done in my life and career has been building up to this moment and I’m grateful for my team and most importantly, my wife Cherry who has been my partner in this process and putting this event together.

I honestly tell her about these crazy ideas I have and she applies her critical thinking about how we make it happen.  What am I talking about?

These times we live in are hard. Housing affordability is the #1 or 2 issue all across Canada. Canadians without pensions are faced with working into their 70s or 80s to afford retirement. If you’re a parent or grandparent, you have to be worried about how the next generation can get a job let alone move out and buy a home.

If you work in corporate, are you getting ahead in life? Do you really want to keep working till your 70’s or 80’s or would you prefer to make money in your sleep?

I’ve been there, I worked in technology and survived two rounds of layoffs, once during the recession and again when our company was acquired.  I’m survived only to see my friends: mom’s and dad’s walked out by HR, folks with bills, mouths to feed and mortgages to pay, grateful I survived but  wondering when it was going to be my turn.

What is one to do about it?  Become a Wealth Hacker. Learn to make money in your sleep in any market. Take control of your financial future.

November 9th, 2019 is iWIN’s Wealth Hacker Conference and we have a massive, massive keynote speaker we just signed a wired a bunch of money to bring him to Toronto.

You may or may not have heard of him.

He is a New York Times best selling author

His limited partnership fund invested in real estate has over $1 billion in assets under management

He is one of the top top sales trainers in the world

Cherry and I along with numerous Canadians flew down to Miami to his conference, hosted in a sold out baseball stadium of 35,000 attendees.  Cherry and I were thoroughly impressed hence we brought him back to the great north for you all to enjoy.

His books are titled “If You’re Not First, You’re Last,” “Be Obsessed or Average” and “10X”

He is the man, the legend, Grant Cardone.

Grant reminds us all we are all capable of greatness, “SUCCESS IS YOUR DUTY, OBLIGATION, RESPONSIBILITY.” ~ Grant Cardone

Grant is our #1 overall pick as iWIN continues to bring the best speakers and education so you all can take control of your financial futures, take care of yourselves and loved ones. To become Wealth Hackers.

If you’re interested in attending on Nov 9th, iWIN’s Wealth Hacker Conference, the cheapest and fastest way is to get on our waitlist at www.WealthHacker.ca for the first 100 registrants who will benefit from having first access to tickets at early bird pricing.  This is your least expensive option to get tickets especially the VIP tickets as we are very limited and always the first to sell out.

www.WealthHacker.ca

Take responsibility for your financial future, we will give you the tools on Nov 9th in Toronto.

Financing Market Update, Financing Vacation Properties, Heart Attack by 39 With The Best Mortgage Broker Dave Butler

This week’s guest:

The recording is from late March and right after Trudeau’s announcement on how CMHC will help out new home buyers.  Unfortunately Dave didn’t have a chance to do a full review as he literally just got off a plane returning home from vacation but here are my two cents…

I’m really interested in knowing how the government plans on funding this program, FYI the deficit is huge and ever expanding under this government.  What is the repayment plan going to look like and do I really want the government owning a piece of my real estate?

More questions than actual insight but the truth about real estate is this.  Every time the government introduces new legislation around real estate, the market goes nuts.  In this case, I’d expect a buying frenzy when the new CMHC program goes live in the fall so if you’re actively growing your portfolio, I would buy sooner than later to avoid a buying frenzy starts.

Back to our guest who is Dave Butler of Butler Mortgages, the #1 Mortgage Brokerage in Canada and my personal Mortgage Broker. I’ve always been a fan of working with the best of the best which is why I work with Dave and Dan Patton and team.

Dave is crazy successful but he also paid the price of living as a workaholic, smoking, being overweight and pulling off 400 something all nighters resulting in a heart attack at the age of 39.

Please let this all be a lesson. If you have an inkling of a heart attack: pain, short of breath and discomfort, call 911.

Thankfully Dave is still alive and kicking to be here sharing on this podcast.

May 11, 2019

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 who has a lot of letters behind her name is qualified as the Truth About Real Estate Investing show continues to bring your experts in investing.

Kathleen has her Masters in Business Administration, her CFP - Certified Financial Planner and CLU - Chartered Life Underwriter, the Canadia 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 have even more controversial opinions to share on RESP’s LOL.  Note Kathleen does fee based financial planning and 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 ;)

May 4, 2019

Have you seen The Avengers Endgame?!?

We did just last night and holy cow!! I won’t share any spoilers but I will share that I'm a superhero movie fan.  I’m wearing my Iron Man shirt as we speak, I’ve watched every Marvel Universe movie minimum twice, some three or more times. I’m so nerd, I caught pretty much every inside joke intended for those who watched the past movies including Hulk a Hulka Burning Fudge and Steve Rogers’ “on your left” reference from Winter Soldier.

Or when Captain America unveils his shocking new super hero powers.

I know it’s all fiction and preposterous stuff superheroes but at the root of what they do, they all sacrifice, fight for good and the greater good. Which reminds me about investing…

I have had so many people tell me it’s too late for them to invest, not because the opportunity has passed but they feel there is not enough time to invest and capture all the benefits for themselves.  I get that but let’s not forget about all those who you can help by getting started today like your kids, or grandkids, nieces and nephews, your favourite charity.

I’m actually seeing some investors buying houses and condos not for cashflow but rather to rent out till their kids need the house down the road.  For my wife and I, I think we’ll move out of our house eventually and leave it to the kids while we live in a condo by the lake. Whereas many non investors I know are banking on the equity in their homes for their retirement.

Just imagine a life where you live mortgage free.  I see it in friends my age and they have so much more time and freedom and travelling.  I can’t wait to be there soon and that’s what I want for my kids instead of these $4,000-7,000 per month mortgages buyers today have in order to own a house.  Less if they plan on living in a condo but I’d prefer to see my grandkids grow up in a house.

Speaking of buying houses, my team of investment specialists conduct tours of the elite 8 towns for investing in Ontario.  This past Saturday we were in Brantford, Ontario and identified a gem of a property that was well maintained and ticked most of the checklist boxes of the Wealth Hacker Investment Funnel as it was located in a elite 8 investment town, there are several options for excellent property management services, at first look the property would be an ideal candidate for a legal basement apartment and it would cash flow quite nicely.  As I speak, an iWIN member is preparing an offer.

That is the objective or our Elite 8 town tours, to have licensed real estate professional specializing in investments show newer investors around a top town for investment, these are fun networking events as well to meet like minded people, we even hosted a certified appraiser for one of the big four banks, a foundation contractor, plus all sorts of other real estate entrepreneurs on our last tour.  Everyone had such a great time and great conversations, the lunch we hosted immediately after the tour went over two hours.

We have two tours already planned for May in the Elite 8 investment towns Barrie and Hamilton. To be notified of our tours, simple go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca add your name and email on the right side and you’ll be notified over email when the tours are available.

Note that spaces on tours are limited, we have sold out every tour we conducted in 2019 so as soon as your hear about one, don’t delay in registering to avoid disappointment or worse, missing out on a great deal.

Save the date: Nov 9th: iWIN’s Wealth Hacker Conference, all day event.  We just signed our keynote speaker and can’t wait to announce who it is in the coming weeks but for now, save the date.  iWIN members, your general admission is included in your membership fees!

 

On to this week’s guest who lives and invests in Windsor, Ontario but his full time work is flipping houses in Detroit, Michigan having started in 2018 after a much more challenging, low yielding flip where he lived in Oakville, Ontario. After tasting success in Detroit, he moved the whole family to Windsor, made lots of connections going to any and all networking events including iWIN. If you can believe it, Savio paid only $57,000 for a three bedroom house in a nice neighbourhood in detroit and flipped it for a $43,000 profit. Listen to his story of how he did it here.

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