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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: 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.

Apr 27, 2019

How goes your balancing act with life, work, investing and charity?

Last week for us was definitely pushed our limits to the edge.  My wife and I are parents to a three and five year old, Cherry is in her final stretch for tax season doing Accounting to over 100 local real estate investors, our charity for which Cherry is VP Finance and I am President had one of our three major events this past weekend fulfilling the wish lists of 32 of Hamilton’s poorest families.

Thank you to all our donors and volunteers.  If you see my post on Instagram you’ll see Batman and Thor, God of Thunder were in attendance to spread some cheer.

On top of all of that, we closed on our newest investment property on Thursday and it’s one of the worst closings I’ve ever seen mostly our own fault and the general difficulty of the lending market and lots of learning lessons.

The biggest lesson here is to start your financing process earlier than we did. Most of you are on the ball as you have your financing in order before conditions are lifted. We did not have a financing condition so we let that deadline slip a bit too far. I do however want to thank Butler Mortgages, specifically Dave and Michelle as they bore the brunt of our challenges but got it done.

Also I’d like to thank Crystal at CAP Law for getting our deal closed and doing an excellent job coordinating with the sellers’ lawyers.

Real estate investing can be all things: easy, challenging, fun, challenging, rewarding, challenging yet worth it.

Tonight is game seven of my hockey team the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Boston and my favourite team, the Toronto Raptors game 5 of their playoff series. But guess what I’ll be doing? I’ll be in Hamilton with a wet/dry shop vacuum to get the water out of the basement at our newest property.

This is one of the realities of investing, the best deals are often houses with challenges, this one the basement is known to leak but it’s a very easy fix by rerouting the downspout away from the foundation. I’ve already done it but now I need to get the rain water out of the basement to prevent mould growth in our unfinished basement. I’ve always wanted to own a shop vacuum anyways and I’ll be home in time to watch the remain two thirds of the game.

If you don’t like doing any work on your properties that’s totally ok. I was just way to slow in booking my handyman to do this job and again, I’ve always wanted a shop vacuum :)

Speaking of investing being challenging and worth it, that brings us to this week’s guest Evelyn Lamarsh, our client since she was 26 years old when we met in 2011. Fast forward to today she is one of those few investors with 10 properties and living in financial peace.

Evelyn and husband Mike are living the dream. Evelyn has her dream job, Mike retired from his job in his early 30’s, they have two young children they get to spend lots of time with and they just bought a 30 foot boat to spend family time on and entertain friends and family. A boat paid for by their investments.

Financial peace and living the dream are indeed possible with some early hustle as explained by our client and more importantly friend, Evelyn Lamarsh.

Apr 20, 2019

What is the deal with AirBnb rentals and short term rentals?

First off I’d like to thank everyone for leaving their reviews on itunes results in this show being one of the top investment podcasts in all of iTunes.  If you have any constructive feedback or questions please send them in and not write them in a less than 5 star review.

We received a less than stellar review about my lack of understanding of RESP. Admittedly, I don’t understand the nuances of RESP’s nor do I care to but don’t listen to me, my investments for my kids education plan returned only a couple hundred thousand in less than five years.

Personally, I’m a problem solver and the problem for a dad with young kids is affording their education is going to be expensive.  A Globe and Mail article forecasted my kids’ education costsing $70,000 each for a four year undergraduate degree for tuition alone.

I have two kids so I need to make an extra 70k times two as I have two kids so how do I solve this problem of affording university?

In hindsight, investing in real estate has worked out quite well based on the results of equity gains in the hundreds of thousands while my kids are only five and three years old.

In asking Certified Financial Planner, Masters of Business Administration holder, investor of 10 properties and upcoming guest of this show Kathleen Van Den Berg, she informs me the nuances of RESP’s maximum grants per lifetime are $7,200 each kid.  Again I don’t understand the nuances, I have shiny thing syndrome bad enough but my problem is saving $70,000 big, not $7,200 in grants.

I’m not saying don’t invest in RESP’s, I think for some they make a lot of sense but personally for my kids, I need a lot more savings and flexibility as more and more, I see tremendous quality of education for Sales, Marketing and Business to be better outside of traditional brick and mortar universities. Back we can talk about that another time.

Ex CRA to Full Time AirBNB Operator Bryan Kirow

While we are talking about my kids’ houses, one of them we have changed strategy from student rental to college kids to a short term rental and what a coincidence I had an in depth learning session, I mean interview of a full time AirBNB operator Bryan Kirow of Northern Host Kirow Management Inc with over 400 overnight stays in his units and counting.

As you can tell from the interview, he’s quite bright, upon graduating university he worked for the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) for our American friends listening, that’s the equivalent to the IRS in the USA. Bryan worked there till life had him move out of town and he decided to make a full time gig of operating short term rentals remotely as some properties are over 300km’s apart, and he’s acquiring more properties.  Currently he owns four properties with seven units but his portfolio is doubling in size in just a few months.

His investments have worked out quite well as he’s often doubling or tripling the rental income of a long-term strategy, and at the same time avoiding many of the tenant issues from long-term tenancy.  Bryan even shares the little known renovation to try and double his already tripled annual rents on his property in a vacation town. Doubled his tripled rents. I know that sounds weird but when you listen it will make more sense.

Would you like my show notes?  The notes I’m taking during the interview as I know many of you listeners are pre-occupied while commuting or cooking or working out while listening to this so if you are interested, I will include my notes in my weekly email that let’s folks konw the episode is available. Like you, I’m an investor too here to learn and I’m finding typing my own notes is a good practice for learning and my notes can be yours too if you simply go to http://www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca/ and enter your name and email to subscribe.

Apr 13, 2019

Are you ever really sure you know what you’re doing?

I regularly check in with our investment decisions and more importantly what my wife and I are doing as parents.  No different than investing, a custom approach is best and kids with their personalities is no different.

Admittedly I’ve taught my kids some controversial things and today is international bully awareness day so I thought I would share.  My son enjoys hitting and wrestling, my older daughter not so much so I’ve told her to tell him to stop, if he doesn’t, walk away, if he keeps pestering you then hit him just not in the face.

I know many don’t believe in violence but from everything I’ve read on bullying and from my experience, there are people out there who don’t understand words, such as bullies so I view this as a learning experience under the safety of our home.  My daughter learns to stand up to bullies and my son learns that unacceptable behaviour will result in being hit by the victim.

Even though their fighting drives me bonkers, to see how they are best friends makes it all worth it. Here they are, my daughter is riding my son’s bike because she got tired of riding her scooter and my son is copying me how I was pushing my daughter when teaching her to ride without training wheels.

My family is my motivation to work hard to afford more financial freedom and financial peace.  Financial peace is a term I first heard from this week’s guest who is mega successful thanks to his TV show The Everyday Investor but he has peace as he does very little other work other than starting his own church.  He has peace as he called his phone company to remove the texting function from his phone and he deleted all of his social media.

Rav was a Realtor and owned his own brokerage plus several investment properties but the lifestyle of hustle and demanding schedule did not suit him so he stopped being a broker and sold all his investment properties. Instead Rav focuses on his producing his show and others, teaching others how to invest passively in land developments.  But by far the majority of his time is spent with his wife and two teenagers. Financial Peace indeed as Rav is rich yet his favourite store is Old Navy and the only car they own is not fancy and over ten years old.

Here am on as a guest on Rav’s Show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzRuyalspiY

If you’re interested in learning more about investing in real estate we have upcoming Street Smart tours of two of the elite 8 towns: Brantford and Barrie.

Saturday morning of April 27th, we have the former Economic Development Officer of Brantford leading our tour of potential investment properties. One property will be ideal for the recreational investor and another for more intermediate to advanced.  The tour will be followed by a mastermind lunch with fellow local investment including experts from the iWIN community.

 

To get your tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/iwin-april-27-brantford-street-smart-tour-tickets-59267081436

 

Save the date: Saturday morning of May 18th, same idea for Barrie, a street smart tour led by award winning Realtor and investor of 10+ properties, John Beddome, he was a guest on this podcast just two weeks ago and has been investing in Barrie since 2007.  John will be hosting a tour of properties followed by a mastermind lunch with fellow local investment including experts from the iWIN community.

 

Save the date for now and stay tuned for how to buy tickets which will be in the show notes at the http://truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca or get on the email list so you are emailed when new episodes are released and informed when we host events.

 

To follow Rav, again he doesn’t have social media:

https://everydayinvestor.com/

https://simplechurch.ca/

Apr 6, 2019

Onto this week’s show!

I’m getting a lot of emails and seeing it all over the investor Facebook groups folks are experiencing basement leaks so I’ve invited my secret contractor, friend and client Manny Cabral on the show.  Just to warn you, he’s ultra busy and selective of who he works with. He’s earned the right as he’s so busy with his own portfolio and existing referral business.

Anyways, Manny is a real professional contractor, he used to manage government renovation contracts for government buildings and schools.  He’s used to large scale projects with lots of regulation and moving parts which makes him well suited to be a general contractor and investor and house flipper.

Manny plus his two sons are members of iWIN and he used to sing and play guitar in a travelling rock band.  As the serial entrepreneur that he is Manny also collected Corvettes including a time when our dollar was near par where Manny was the biggest reseller of Corvettes in Canada but that’s all boring compared to leaky basements so have at it Manny!

Mar 30, 2019

On to this week’s guest!!

 

Sadly the truth is there are few people I like in the real estate industry and even fewer in the real estate investment industry.  John Bedomme is not only of the good ones, he’s one of the great ones.

 

John is a licensed real estate professionals, he listens to what his clients want and get them exactly that.  The job is to guide investors as best as possible with the highest possible return on time and investment and John delivers exactly that.

 

When I was checking John’s references (I check references for guests of the show :) I was informed the client was showed seven properties by John and the investor bought five of them because John listened and found them exactly what they wanted.

 

John is also an investor, a top 10% investor as one of the few who achieve double digit investment properties at 12 having started in 2007.  Even more important is what a good man, husband and father he is but I won’t spoil it for you here, he shares at around the midpoint of the interview that had me choked up.

 

Finally John is an original member of iWIN and member of the League of Extraordinary Real Estate Professionals that I personally endorse.  After you have a listen, you will understand how John qualifies.

 

Without further ado, John Beddome

Mar 23, 2019

On to this week’s show!!

In 1964 a comic strip called “Wizard of Id” was published

In the first panel the diminutive tyrannical King character addressed his subjects from the balcony of his castle and emphasized the need for “peace and harmony”.

In the second panel the King continued by stating “We must all live by The Golden Rule”.

Traditionally, the golden rule is to do unto others as you would have done onto you.  That’s what nice people do. The tyrannical King, the central character to the Wizard of ID is not nice so you can imagine the confusion by both the reader and the audience before the king.

In the last panel the jackass king character states “Whoever has the gold makes the rules.”

In today’s real world, the banks have all the cheap money, cheap money all us investors want and on the show we have my old friend Dion Beg who specializes in mortgages for investors and he just so happens to belong to the #1 mortgage company in Canada, Butler Mortgage.

I’ve always believed in working with the best of the best and bringing you the best of the best hence I asked Dion to give us all an update on the mortgage markets specific to us investors and across multiple investment strategies.

Pay special attention near the end when Dion explains the break down of his client tell between recreational, intermediate and advanced.  I may have many super stars on this show but as Dion shares, you don’t need much to build a healthy sided retirement nest egg. If you’re new to investing, start there. Because no one else is going to give you a pension for this little effort.

Without further ado, I give you Dion Beg.

Mar 16, 2019

Do you remember your favourite experience doing charity work?

I’ll always remember my favourite moment as a Basket Brigade Volunteer.

It was Thanksgiving and jacket weather, the sun was out so it was warm enough that we didn’t need gloves.

My brother Tony was driving his company car since it’s an SUV and well, we’re doing god’s work so someone else can pay for the mileage 😛 hahaha

He pulled off the main road and into a townhouse complex right off the main road.  As it goes with affordable, high density housing, it’s often right off a busy street with four to six lanes of traffic.  The houses are close together, the lots are maybe 20 feet wide, single lane driveways. We drive slowly going over speed bumps as I’m looking for the house numbers.

We find the house and pull into the driveway, it looks like all the rest of the houses but with toys on the front lawn, the grass is that shade of yellow and green.  This complex looks to be a condominium as they all look the same and built in the 1980’s. They’ve been maintained OK but they haven’t been painted in a while and I can see some tattered window screens.

Our list of deliveries details the family as two sisters sharing a house each having kids for a total of five kids, the oldest is nine, youngest 24 months.

Single moms have a special place in my heart as statistically, single moms have the highest chance of living in poverty of any household.  I’m a parent too and know how hard it is, I couldn’t imagine being on your own with a single income.

My brother Tony and I grab boxes and bags of groceries including a turkey, fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, butter, eggs, everything you need to entertain family for Easter dinner. We carry the groceries from the trunk, walk up to the front door,  knock and are greeted by yelling children. They are excited to see who’s coming and are jumping up and down with smiles to greet us.

One of my the mom’s comes around the corner to greet us and say thank you.  She’s dressed comfortably in sweats as everyone does on weekends and she looks tired and has a kind but tired smile and says thank you.  Mom hugs both my brother and I. The kids are looking through the packages we brought. They box and bag we brought are heavy so the kids are grabbing items, lifting over their heads and yelling what it is before carrying it off to the kitchen. We inform her we still have more and need to make another trip to the car.

My brother and I return with more groceries and some used kids books that were donated by another volunteer.  One of the kids screams “pie!!” and “oh look! BOOKS!!” Two of the kids help themselves to books and go outside to read in the sun, the other kids run outside to play on the lawn too.

We exchange hugs with mom and again and wish her a Happy Thanksgiving.  Tony and I return to the car and sit in silence for 30 seconds before turning on the engine.  Taking in the experience of making a difference for a single mom and kids who are so grateful for so little.  My brother says something along the lines of how great it feels to help out this family. I say nothing as I’m not good at expressing my feelings.  I’m the passenger/navigator so I check the list and key in the GPS for our next delivery.

A simple act on a fall day with my brother and I’ll never forget it. Life is about experiences after all.

This was the moment I knew we were onto the best volunteer experience ever and I got to share it with my big brother. I knew we had to bring it back to Hamilton.

This was six years ago and with the help of many others went on from being a volunteer to building and presiding over the biggest operating budget for a Basket Brigade charity, the only Basket Brigade that operates Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas anywhere in North America.  People need help and we will be the change they need.

This Easter, 32 of Hamilton’s poorest families will have their wishes answered.  Our volunteers are sending home wish lists for the families to fill out and our volunteers will receive completed wish lists with the family’s story and contact information to go shopping, we budget $100 per family member.

On April 20th, we throw a party with pizza, hot dog cart, DJ, Batman, free giveaways, all for the families.  It is here our volunteers will arrive early to wrap presents and hand them over to the families. Those families who can’t make it in person, will have theirs delivered by volunteers but can you see many families missing out on this party??

For details, the best place to follow along is our private Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/HamiltonBasketBrigade/. We are considerably slower with email 😛

April 20th, we will be the change we want to see in the world.

We will have an Easter bunny, Batman, Marvel Avengers Thor and Valkryie, pizza, hot dogs, DJ. It’s a party for 32 of Hamilton’s most impoverished families and our volunteers.

April 20th, starts at 10 am, families arrive at 11am. We are done by 1.  All in Hamilton

For privacy reasons, full details are on our private Facebook group and for registered volunteers. Go here to register (and donate): https://www.hamiltonbasketbrigade.com/

This week’s guest is an old friend who is the newest member on my team Paisley Mackenzie!!

I first met Paisley back in 2011 when I started looking into Brantford as it was and still is a top town for investment.  A best practice when learning about a new city is to meet with the Economic Development Officer and at the time it was Paisley Makenzie.

FOR FREE, I was able to bounce residential investment opportunities off a local expert with over 20 experience of business and real estate in the city.

We hit it off immediately since Paisley is kind and very helpful. In me, Paisley could tell I was not like other real estate agents as few out of town residential agents ever come to meet with her looking for the best opportunities for their clients.

Paisley is now the former Economic Development Officer with 28 years experience in that role.  Her job was to work with investors and businesses invest in Brantford and she’s now doing the same as a member of my Titan Investment Real Estate as a coach to guide and teach others to invest in Brantford, Hamilton and surrounding areas.  Her knowledge of commercial and industrial is second to none but enough from me, I’m proud to present to you Paisley Mackenzie.

 

Paisley on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paisley.mackenzie

Mar 12, 2019

Every investors greatest fear is buying a lemon of a property. A money pit if you will.

I made that mistakes way back when I started, we were offered what every investor wants, an off market deal!  We made an offer well below what the seller’s Realtor thought they could get and boom. We got ourselves a money pit.  The house had a log foundation, the driveway was sloped to direct water into the basement window and onto the dirt floor of the cellar.

The water that came out of the taps was brown time to time… I learned a lot from that house.

Mistake #1 - we didn’t get an inspection.  The brown tap water is a symptom of galvanized steel plumbing. An old type of plumbing known to leak hence today’s insurance companies I use won’t insure it, hence you find it, you better have a plan to replace.  No insurance equals no mortgage.

So if you were going to renovate a house with galvanized steel would you get permits and update the plumbing to today’s standards when renovating the bathrooms and kitchen or would you leave the old plumbing and just replace the bathroom and kitchen?

Well as mastermind member of mine, let’s call him Brian, called me and asked my opinion.  He had an accepted offer conditional on home inspection, on a nicely renovated property BUT the home inspector found some improper electrical and the bathroom and kitchen fixtures were connected to galvanized steel plumbing.  The same stuff I mentioned earlier that insurance companies will not insure. There were no permits taken out obviously.

What would you do? You bought a house you thought would not need renovation with new kitchen and bathrooms now you find out the electrical is problematic and the plumbing all has to be redone.  Doesn’t that feel like bait and switch?

I told Brian what I thought his options were:

  1. Counter with the seller agrees at their own expense to get electrical and plumber permits to fix all the problems.
  2. Get a reduction in price to reflect the cost of remediation.  Not my ideal choice because now you have to manage contractors and have a vacant property during the renovations.  This what Brian’s Realtor’s preferred option.
  3. Walk away.

A couple lessons here. Trust no ones’ renovations and workmanship, always get an inspection unless you plan on gutting the place anyways. Even brand new, I had my new construction houses in Brantford inspected, they had passed their electrical inspection but my inspector found a mistake in the arc fault circuit interrupter that should not have passed inspection.  The seller fixed it at their expense. My inspector also pointed out how the step was missing off the rear patio door, something required to obtain an occupancy permit allowing people to actually move in.

Houses are a big investment, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Get an inspection.

On the other side, when you renovate, don’t cut corners.  You don’t want that as your reputation as the investor community is a tiny one.

As Warren Buffet said, It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.

Our next Infinity Wealth Investment Network, or iWIN for short, meeting is here in Toronto on March 28th. If you’d like to come, you have to act fast as these events sell out.

You can grab your ticket here: https://iwinmonthly.com/optin

On to this week’s show!!

While my wife Cherry and I were on a cruise ship in the Caribbean working the whole time, we fit in a podcast with our new friends Kristy and Brady Mcdonald.  With partners who contribute both the cash for down payment and renovation plus getting the mortgage, they have been able to acquire over 80 properties in just a few years.  Some were flips so they only still own 60+ properties depending on when you talk to them.

Pay special attention on how they are able to manage both the acquisition, renovations and all those tenants.  Also note the Mcdonalds now spend a lot of time on their 50 foot boat in Florida and the Bahamas cruising and exploring uninhabited islands.  Their boat is called living the dream.

Kristy also survived a tragic boating accident as a teenager and lost her arm in the process.  She’s no victim though as she practices a positive mindset.

Anyways, I give you Kristy and Brady Mcdonald.

Feb 28, 2019

What can I say, as any of you regular listeners know I’m far from normal but you know what I’ve learnt about spending time around successful people?  We’re all sort of crazy.

Anyways, Cherry had a glass of wine, a shot of tequila, loosened up and felt like asking me whatever she wanted.

If you still trust me afterwards to help you build your wealth through real estate, I’ll be at the next monthly #iWIN meeting on Feb 28th near Pearson Airport.  We have two of the nicest people in Stuart and Denise MacPherson coming all the way from Ottawa to share how to raise money with RSP’s and master of raising capital, Russell Westcott will be in the house answering your toughest questions on the subject.

Russell walks the walk too having raised 7 figures just last week and that’s capital, not mortgage money as some people on the social media are including in their definition of other people’s money.  We only bring the best of the best guests speakers to #iWIN and Russell qualifies as the best selling co-author of Real Estate Joint Ventures: The Canadian Investors’ Guide to Raising Money and Getting Deals Done.

These are the things you CAN’T learn in a book or podcast . . . These are the things we bring to the table for our Freedom 45 people. My goal for our clients is not to teach them more stuff . . . it’s to make them more wealth. Anyway, if you’ve have an interest in real estate let me know, because I’ve got a killer Freedom by 45 blueprint.

Don’t worry if you’re over age 45 or close to 45, our blueprint works for anyone looking to make more money and build wealth, even if you think it’s too late for you, we can help you help your children and grandchildren to building more wealth.

Our next Infinity Wealth Investment Network or iWIN for short meeting is here in Toronto on Feb 28th and four weeks later on March 28th. If you’d like to come, you have to act fast as these events sell out.

You can register here: iwinmonthly.com/meeting

Without further ado, I give you my lovely wife Cherry Chan of www.realestatetaxtips.ca, asking me crazy questions.

 

Show notes:

Cherry on the web
To register for iWIN’s monthly meetings
Russell Westcott’s best selling book
Erwin on the web

Feb 27, 2019

I get this question a lot from recent graduates and folks switching careers. “I want to be an investors, should I become a Realtor?”

I get it so often, I invited a young gentleman named Tim to ask me his questions and record it so I may share this for anyone in the same boat as Tim.

For those wanted to get a real estate license to get access to the data available to Realtors, over 50% of agents do 0-1 transactions per year.  Don’t you think you could hire one as your assistant to send you reports on the data you need? That would be considerably less expensive than the hundreds of study needed to obtain your license plus the couple thousand dollars per year in fees to maintain your license.

Food for thought and by the way, don’t listen to me for career advice or legal advice, these are merely my two cents on the subject.

Secondly, I learned in the methods of business, not following one’s passions.  The market does not care if you’re passionate about real estate. I got my real estate license back in 2010 because there was a gap in the market, there was no one focussed on guiding investors in Hamilton at the time.  I was part of a fair sized investor network at the time and investors there were demanding the same.

I am a Hamilton investor, I was good at it, I’m a pretty good Realtor too hence the awards you can see behind me.  There was demand and no one was supplying the service to fill such demand. That’s how I made the business decision.

If you’re looking to practice as a Realtor, I suggest a similar approach to evaluating the supply, demand, competition in your target market.

A great place to start would be like I did, becoming a member of group of like minded real estate investors and my own group, the Infinity Wealth Investment Group meets on Feb 28th and four weeks later on March 28th.  If you want to be a investor, I can’t recommend enough that you spend time around local, successful investors.

If you want to take an even deeper dive into our Freedom 45 program, we can create for you a business plan that can truly give you time and freedom to do other things you love.

If that interests you, come to the next iWIN event, you can register here: iwinmonthly.com/meeting

If you’re looking for a get rich quick scheme, this isn’t for you.  Building wealth is a marathon, not a sprint and playing for the long-term takes a lot of the risks out of investing.  No different than the Casino but I despise risks to my money.

If you’re looking for a “work hard and build an awesome portfolio” scheme, then I’m your man!

Enough from me, I give you Tim, a 23 year old, recent graduate with a Psychology degree, $40,000 of student debt with big aspirations for what’s next.

 

Books I recommend:

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie (I can immediately tell when people contacting me, asking questions, asking for my time if they’re read this book or not)
Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy
Psychology of Achievement by Brian Tracy
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
Renos to Riches by Ian Szabo

 

Feb 20, 2019

This week’s guest is excellent as always, he’s a coach, a real estate business owner with both property management, home construction businesses with 18 staff, and he’s transacted on over 200+ properties since 2003.  His name is Jared Hope of Tilt Property Group and he’s seen it all, from boom, to bust and 18.5% vacancy rates in the Alberta real estate market.

Jared even shares the moment where he almost lost it all to bankruptcy, having to rely on a stranger to pay for his family’s grocery bill.

Listeners, especially those in Ontario and BC, we’ve been on a very good run since 2008, there will be a downturn and Jared is here to share lessons on where he went wrong in the early days building a massive portfolio, what he would do different to insulate himself from six figure cash calls, what experts to listen to… i have five pages on notes and know I would have 10X that if I were listening and not interviewing.

Enough from me, I give you Jared Hope.

Feb 8, 2019

On to this week’s guest who is NOT a real estate investor but a remarkable human being nonetheless. Not all lessons are learnt in the world of investing and my conversation with Dan Thiessen, owner of RAdix Performance Centre in Oakville, Ontario, my Crossfit gym has parallels to the business/investing world.

You want to be elite? The path is quite similar in athletics when compared to investing and Dan is an elite athlete.  He’s grown up playing sports at the triple A level, he’s competed at the provincial and national level in different sports, fast forward to today, he can handstand walk for 100 feet and lift a 280 lbs barbell from the floor to over his head in one movement.   

In this episode, Dan has advice for how to get started and many best practices to maintain health, fitness and performance.  The perfect thing to listen to right now if you’re suffering from the winter blahs and need motivation.

Personally, I’m near the best shape of my life.  The best was a few months ago before my November holidays but I can still beat up any previous version of myself.  

To follow Dan:

Web: https://radixperformance.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radixgym

Feb 1, 2019

Before our interview, I invited Steve to lunch at a fabulous restaurant on King William St, they just so happen to be one of Steve’s tenants. I also invited along with Luke Wywrot who is building a 30 storey apartment building around the corner as Luke and Steve have never met before.  Luke will be by the show when’s he’s less busy. We had an awesome lunch, I was the old guy among the three of us, lots of ideas were shared on advanced real estate topics and that’s what cool about so many investors I know. Many are open to sharing how to.

Just like this episode, Steve shares what motivates him, tips and strategies to attract commercial tenants, a Field of Dreams strategy if you will in a market with double digit commercial vacancy and low rents, going from residential to commercial and on and on.  Hopefully we can get Steve to give a talk at the April iWIN Meeting.

 

To follow Steve:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coreurbaninc/
Website: http://www.coreurban.ca/

 

Jan 28, 2019

I first met Anna after seeing a piece by CTV Barrie on how an area student landlord was switching gears and renting to seniors instead, link below.  Anna has been in the student rental business for 25 years and after the straw that broke the camel’s back, another abused rental property by the student tenants and thousands of repairs and clean up bills, she switched gears in renting to seniors.

As a student rental investor myself, I immediately reached out to AMR Property Management to speak to owner Anna Moore and here is our recorded discussion.

Anna is a veteran business owner with a successful printing company, she currently manages 200 doors, many are her own investments, and she vacations much of the winter in the Bahamas and Europe in the summer.

Yet another lifestyle success story for you listeners as it’s not about the investment, it’s about what our investments afford us in lifestyles and Anna is living the dream plus her business is every improving as she goes from five senior rentals to offering as many as 50 this spring.

Without further ado, I give you Anna Moore of AMR Property Management

 

Link to CTV coverage of Anna: Company turning student homes into shared housing for seniors

Website: www.amrpropertymanagement.com

Jan 18, 2019

Craig Ballantyne is the first influencer I followed back in early 2000’s before influencer was a term to describe some with a significant following.

I knew Craig, he didn’t know me from his highly successful online fitness training program.  Craig’s clients would sign up online to learn how to exercise and diet to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. Craig also taught his business and marketing methods and produced many other successful online fitness entrepreneurs.  He is the real deal.

Fast forward to 2019 and Craig is still crushing it, two personal friends of mine are enjoying his personal coaching and I’m enjoying Craig’s Perfect Day Formula as seen below. Here’s the link if you want to check it out: https://perfectdayformula.com/

Craig Ballantyne is the first influencer I followed back in early 2000’s before influencer was a term to describe some with a significant following.

I knew Craig, he didn’t know me from his highly successful online fitness training program.  Craig’s clients would sign up online to learn how to exercise and diet to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. Craig also taught his business and marketing methods and produced many other successful online fitness entrepreneurs.  He is the real deal.

Fast forward to 2019 and Craig is still crushing it, two personal friends of mine are enjoying his personal coaching and I’m enjoying Craig’s Perfect Day Formula as seen below. Here’s the link if you want to check it out: https://perfectdayformula.com/

Jan 10, 2019

On to this week’s guest, Tom Sullivan, he is a Cancer survivor and when he learned of his Cancer, it served as a reminder how short and precious life is and went on a tear to acquire over 10 investment properties and earn him the Real Estate Investment Network’s award for Rookie of the Year in 2015.

Tom is a smart guy holding his Masters in Business and Chartered Professional Accountant designation, investing in the Durham Regions and places east of Toronto.  He’s also one of the nicest, most sharing people you’ll ever meet which is why it’s awful how another investor did not live up to their contractual, joint venture obligations when the partner profited so massively above projections from the deal.

As always, this is the Truth About Real Estate Investing show so we bring you real stories including those of headaches and financial losses so you may learn how to avoid similar mistakes.

As the saying goes, a fool learns from their own mistakes, a smart person learns from someone else’s mistakes.

Do have your note taking implements handy as Tom is full of great tips and thanks to him, I just loaded up with tons of extended warranties.  Without further ado, I give you Tom Sullivan.

To follow up with Tom:

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-sullivan-mba-cma-cpa-471604/

Jan 4, 2019

Our keynote speakers Andy Tran, Charles Wah and Construction Manager Steve Ford are currently building two houses from the ground up on a lot they already own and had severed. Basically they got free so the returns are quite significant when you have next to zero land acquisition costs, especially the cash flow once the basements are legally suited.  Andy Tran knows a thing or two about that too. Two houses >> four units, brand new.

This is an ideal strategy for investors new to developing and we are very lucky to have Charles Wah and Andy Tran to share how they are doing it.

To get on the invite list: http://www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca/meeting

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