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(00:00) rainy in Canada’s population growth rents are flat across the country in Canada as international student interest has cratered how does that affect your investment hypothesis short-term rentals part two with experts Spencer and Ashley quote Mary sooner have more kids ignore the cost says Uber catalist Kevin nor uh big announcement and so much more on this week’s episode of the truth about real estate investing for Canadians my name is Rano your host and producer since 2016 and 300 plus episodes later all an hour long or more
(00:34) uh thank you to my listeners and for the kind words you’ve shared and thank you for the updates and your personal truths around your own real estate investing uh I appreciate that anytime someone tells me a story about uh how their Investments are going that helps develop the investment hypothesis of myself in this show uh in some Sumit related I did not know that so many of my fellow podcasters are no longer releasing new episodes uh many of them are my friends and there are some I believe who should stop a simple Google of the names of
(01:06) folks who borrowed tens and hundreds of millions and are going bankrupt uh that alone will let you know uh who gave them their platform and promoted them and some of them even earned Commissions in helping them sell what are now uh defunct Investments uh always I always follow the money understand how folks make their money um I’m always very happy to explain how I make money in real estate uh both as an investor and in doing business development for real estate for example I am a realtor in Ontario and I am and have another announcement to
(01:36) explain the US stuff so I always fact that into your screening process of who to trust and what investments you should be investing in I review many many many deals all the time uh now onto the news did you know that the FrontRunner to become our next prime minister of Canada said he would reduce population growth to match growth of new homes built and factor in health care access and jobs makes a lot of sense now I’m not here to discuss politics I just look at the trends from the polling data Pier po looks like a clear clear
(02:07) favor to be our next prime minister looking like a majority so again all I’m doing is trying to factor in where where things are going and how that should affect my investing because why I don’t really care to discuss politics with anyone I’m more interested in what this means for my clients and my business and my investments of course I always have the uh Source sources Linked In My Show notes again this was an article from the CBC uh again Link in the show notes uh now a couple problems uh housing starts across
(02:37) Canada are way down as building and development costs are extremely high it is real estate winter a lot of people are not buying all interest rates are still remain high new construction sales are low as the market needs time to digest these historic number of new construction condos and historic number of listings especially the small condos uh which could take you know one and a half two years per Benjamin tall de deputy chief Economist for CIBC uh I’ve again I’ve posted some uh charts if you don’t follow Dr M Moffet
(03:09) on Twitter I can’t recommend that you do enough uh because again he posts brilliant graphs and data and commentary on housing markets uh and of course things like International students housing starts anyways again I’ve got a link to show notes on some posts from Dr M Moffett uh for example Toronto Toronto housing starts this past year are are they’re above 2021 and 2022 but uh yeah I don’t think anyone’s confident that will last for very long uh not with uh sales being quite low especially in new construction sales being quite low
(03:45) across Canada now combine that with Flat runs across Canada as demand from International students have cratered again I posted a um a snap a screenshot of a post by Dr Mike Moffett uh from early September how international student reforms the federal government have made earlier this year have provided substantial rent relief uh we did not see rent spikes across Canada uh rents are actually quite flat over the last 12 months from August 2023 to August 2024 and so if you’re not familiar with that happened the federal government
(04:20) wants a 35% 35% reduction in the number of international students and uh the stat that I’ve seen is that applications are down 45% so uh um yeah the Global Mail is reporting how Google searches of student housing near universities in watero Hamilton and Kingston are down 46 to 55% so we’re seeing data points that that several data points that reflect a declining interest significantly reduced interest by International students um so personally my investment hypothesis is forever changing uh I’m constantly learning and uh that shaped my own
(04:57) experience and what I hear from Real Estate experts like real ones and I’m always looking at what they’re doing with their own money my hypothesis is focused on cash flow long-term growth in rents and prices if if that was news to anyone for the local investor knowing that rents are flat and in the current market again this is current market all we can ever do is understand what’s in the current market and make predictions with what we have to predict with and reduced demand from International students and immigrants
(05:27) what do you think will happen to your cash flow uh your rent growth and appreciation over the long term right I still have a number of properties in Ontario Canada so I’m concerned I’m concerned if lowering interest rates and lack of Supply will will be enough to push my prices up because yes i’ absolutely love prices to go up and rents to go up in Canada especially in Ontario where my properties are um however with economic and immigration landscape the way it is should a Canadian investor invest their Hardware earn money into local markets I
(05:57) personally know I would not deploy more Capital into long-term rentals at least were in the in the markets I invest in Ontario now on the other hand legal short-term rentals in hotels that’s another matter uh as a small airb operators get squeezed out by governments um they’re incredibly out of favor even though they cause very little disturbance to long-term rental markets anyways this is exactly why we have experts in Ashley and Ashley and Spencer back on the show but before we get to them can you believe Kevin ear said take
(06:28) my advice get married sooner have more kids family is everything that’s what it’s all about do you agree and now I’m just quoting exact the exact post on Kevin’s Uh Kevin rers on his social media page specifically his LinkedIn again I’ve post a link to his LinkedIn uh on sorry his his Instagram his Instagram anyways again I posted the the link to his Instagram in the show notes Uh Kevin explains how he wishes he would have spent more time with his kids when they were young and I couldn’t agree more I’ve interviewed hundreds of successful
(07:02) entrepreneurs and investors almost all of them would agree with Kevin in how parents will can never get back those wonderful years of development while kids are still young my decision to make my portfolio more Passive by delegating to share U who ass managing my Assets in the US free me up to do more to spend more time doing what I enjoy which is my work including this podcast and helping hardworking communs their towards their on their Journey towards Financial Peace and uh when I’m not working I love to spend time with my wife and my kids my
(07:33) kids are a lot of fun at the age that they’re at they still think I’m cool and they laugh at my jokes all the while with my real estate portfolio especially in the states uh I’m still a direct owner uh which is what I consider and what I consider the best asset class which is real estate cash flowing real estate while maintaining 100% control while someone else does all the heavy lifting for me uh shares business is exactly what I envisioned for my own Professional Services as a realtor and guing my clients as a coach because I always
(08:01) wanted them to have uh as easy as possible real estate investing as operational easy as possible and to be as passive as possible in Ontario but that’s just not possible in this market landscape with affordability being so bad when so many people can’t even afford to cash flow enough to afford a proper manager uh then you add to that rank control so then your your cash flow doesn’t ever get better while inflation just gets worse and of course tenants have all the rights in Ontario and uh that’s what I’m hearing from my
(08:31) BC friends as well um now I’ve got the big news to share that I’m incredibly excited about as you know my real estate Journey started way back in 2005 when I became a novice landlord and then I got serious in 2008 when it worked out really well uh that’s when I began formally learning about real estate investing treating like a business and since then I’ve always had my eye on landlord friendly USA economic fundamentally in landlord rights it always made a lot of sense there’s better cash flow more stable tenant laws
(09:00) as in like in favor of the landlord Etc but the challenges of getting financing building a power team I could trust finding the right deals IM managing properties from across the border just kept me from jumping into that market well I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve recently taken on a new role as head of Business Development for in Canada for share this partnership is a GameChanger for anyone looking to invest in the US market like I have always wanted to do like I am doing now uh I bought a house in San Antonio Texas just recently
(09:27) shares limitated all my hurdles that once help me back financing we have the contacts one of them just emailed me today they have now they have now signed 4,500 lenders ready to lend to Canadians deal sourcing including including off Market check ongoing Property Management we at share can handle it all with share I get to be a passive us landlord uh I’ve been a landlord for 20 years so I have plenty of experience I’ve own over 40 properties personally I don’t enjoy it and will gladly pay someone else to do it while I get to go while I still
(09:59) get to remain a direct investor uh with 100% ownership and full control 100% of the equities mine I the pay fees it’s dream contr true for me as a nerdy investor I think you all know I’m a really nerdy investor I’ve comparison shopped so many deals over this even just this podcast of well over 300 interviews again I get to keep 100% of the equity and that’s exactly how my 45 past clients made uh the ones who made a million or more in investing in real estate they had control 100% of the equity they gave none none of that
(10:30) control or Equity up so if you ever been interested in us real estate investing now is the time to take a serious look uh if you’ve been waiting for the perfect moment to invest in the US but didn’t know where to start this is probably it the best place to start is uh my website i. Shar sfr.fr Day morning we have limited seats in person and they always sell out so check it out buy if you want to come in person make sure you buy a ticket ASAP again they always sell out if you if the $30 entry fee is too much for you I’m
(11:09) offering another free training event in late November obviously it won’t be nearly as in-depth and detailed as the US investing Workshop but at least it’s free and that’ll be in late November the writing’s on the wall I don’t see much of a future for everyday investing in Canada when deals are that we’re finding at share are just simply better on to this spe show uh a topic that I’m a big fan of indirectly we’re talking about avoiding long-term rentals in tenant friendly provinces like Ontario hence we have Spencer and Ashley
(11:38) Giles back for round two if you don’t already know vacation rentals are a business 247 businesses uh for some airb managers Airbnb managers like Spencer and Ashley who are are pretty for forward about that uh so they’re back to share more we’re going to dig deeper into the strategy because last time we only had an hour this time we’re back to dig to go you know level two get more into the details of the strategy including operating and owning airb bees in the US their management portfolio consists of over 50 properties some of
(12:09) them are their own the vast majority are for clients and they’re are quite spread out uh they’re all over they’re all in great markets across Ontario and Upstate New York which they more recently expanded to just the last few years so they have a lot of diverse experience to share they have a l they have a lot of experience to pull from in terms of what the best practices are and I always love learning from people who know their stuff who are doing it who put their own money into it and yeah my experience was
(12:37) the people you want to learn from just to follow Ashley and Spencer their website is I sure said Spencer and ashley.com Spencer ashley.com and their Instagram is also Spencer and Ashley on Instagram please enjoy the show [Music] about yourselves sure so we’re Spencer and Ashley Ashley and Spencer will go either way um we are Canadian Real Estate Investors uh predominantly in the short-term rental market we have a short-term rental management company which is travelux so we co-host basically for owners in the short-term
(13:17) rental space and then we also own a couple short-term rentals in Niagara and a little bit in Upstate New York very cool and then your Instagram handle is literally Spencer and Ashley yes very easy yes very easy Adam doesn’t follow you but this is Adam’s account it’s not my account so so again so we you’ve been on this show before so we’re here for like a part two to expand on everything um uh before we recording we talked about like the three levels of being in short-term rentals can you explain what that is I
(13:50) don’t think everyone definitely not understands that there’s definitely like multiple ways that you can get involved and there’s just different ways that you can go about it obviously the purchasing of it and you know doing everything with your capital in where you’re acquiring a property and then turning it into short-term rentals you know that’s one then there’s the Arbitrage model which is where you’re going to landlords so you don’t actually own the property you’re going to landlords and getting them to agree to letting you kind of
(14:15) suit on Airbnb or other vacation rental platforms so you know you’re you’re usually putting your your smaller down payment of rent first and last maybe security deposit and then the cost of furniture so it’s a good way for people to get in and um get their skin in the game for a lot less money and then there’s the management side which is the one that we we do we don’t do any Arbitrage at the moment uh and that is just giving out our expertise and time to investors so the investors are buying the property they’re Furnishing it
(14:45) they’re putting all the capital in and then they’re essentially handing the keys over to us to run it for a management fee um so it’s very little Capital involved for us as the management um but they’re getting more of like a hands-off experience right they’re getting the revenue management they’re getting the the cleaners the complete operation system our expertise without having for them to to kind of dive in and um get their hands dirty there so for the novice’s exper uh per for for their knowledge so what’s the
(15:14) day-to-day for your for your client then for our client uh we try to make it hands-off as possible so they typically come to us when they’re they have a property it may be furnished it may not be we kind of help them with like our supply list this is what you need to get to the property so they have to do upfront work on getting the house furnished and um getting all the supplies there and we help we have resources and like an onboarding specialist who we helps guide them and then once the property goes live like we
(15:42) like to make it very hands-off some owners like to be a little bit more Hands-On like they want to know about maintenance items or about supplies needed but we have some owners who we speak to every 3 four months and they get sent their money every month with a detailed statement breaking down all the income coming in all the expenses and they obviously get the diff difference they see our management percentage coming off the top as well and they get the money directly into their account every single month so it kind of depends
(16:11) on the owner itself and that’s why we actually as a company have an owner Avatar so we’re going after working with certain types of people because it makes our lives a lot easier when they see us as the subject matter experts and they let us do our job for them mhm yeah tell us about tell us about your avatar so yeah explain what an avatar is and then tell us about who that is sure so an avatar would be someone that you’re looking to either work with or um just like either personalities or like someone you’re trying to Target to to
(16:41) work with that you’re you’re looking for like an overall profile of a person so for us with our owners it’s more investor investor mindset um who want to be more hands-off so someone who typically is in like maybe different areas of real estate and just want to get into airbnbs but don’t want to run it themselves see that property as an investment property to make money and not like a vacation home or a second home because they’re not as emotionally attached to it because when our owners are emotionally attached they tend to be
(17:09) a lot more involved uh and that just allows us to be able to do pricing the way that we need to do it getting the supplies there that we need to do just getting approval for any bigger items that may be needed and otherwise they trust us to run it to have a five-star review and make them the most amount of money because the way that our model is is the more money we make our owners the more money we make right so then someone who wants to use the the property as well that’s not your client we’re okay with that to an extent like obviously
(17:39) you have high seasons and low seasons and you know you have Gap fills and calendars so like you know we definitely don’t recommend our clients to rent out their place on like to use it themselves on like a long weekend because you know a lot of the times we’ll say like hey you know this is your property and you can do what you want but just know that you’re giving up you know $1,000 to $1,500 a night when you’re going to stay here so so it’s that we we’ll always try like not try to talk them a lot of but well certain properties certain
(18:04) properties are less but like you know again I’m talking about like kind of like our our our higher-end portfolio ones where we’ve had people say like hey you know what’s the opportunity cost here and we’ll tell them and most of the time they’re like yeah okay we’ll pick at different time so you know the the benefits of owning a vacation rental and we even get to benefit this with our especially our ones in elville is you can go down and use it but we as owners are more last minute cuz it’s so close we’re basically saying hey if it’s not
(18:31) booked by tomorrow we’re going to go tomorrow we’ll just block it off for two days it’s a week it’s a week day it’s you know not as big opportunity cost versus blocking a weekend during the middle of ski season is like a no-o zone for us because I know that’s thousands of dollars that we’re missing out on and you know I’d much rather have that towards the investment than to go down and and ski a 60-second hill now you uh we you touched on Rental rent rental Arbitrage that’s the term yeah can you explain uh why you don’t do
(19:02) it like I just see like for a while I saw quite a bit of marketing on selling courses and businesses that that did that yeah I mean there’s it’s not that we don’t like it I I think it’s actually a great opportunity if if you can get involved it’s just we kind of naturally gravitated towards the management we found it was a little bit easier to to scale and and and to move with um essentially you’re just you got to convince the landlord that you’re going to be doing this you can’t you can’t lie to them and say I’m going to rent it and
(19:32) then all of a sudden they find out it’s on it’s on A or B and B um you know we just found it more appealing that instead of having to risk putting money out with rent first and last month and and Furnishing it you know why don’t we just manage it have our clients put all the Furnishing in and then they they you know they do the entire investment with our guidance of course and you know really kind of make the same amount of well it’s a higher return really but it’s same amount of cash flow if you want to look at it um like I said
(20:06) nothing that we you know we we’ve even looked at doing Arbitrage especially like down in the states we still like the model it’s just we’ve always gravitated towards the management side and the scalability for management is faster as well like you can take on 10 clients all at one time whereas it’s a little harder for someone to find like 10 units and have the income and being able to furnish all 10 units at one time and get that all set up whereas our overhead for the company and for management especially as you start out
(20:35) is very very low so you can take on all of that business all at one time yeah and like obviously like anything there’s regulation changes you know if you’re in a specific building that originally allows it and then the HOA votes against it and you know now you’re stuck with all this furniture that you you might have to get storage for like those are all things that we kind of factor in as well um but I mean that’s you know that really only happens to people that don’t do the research and they buy in something where they don’t realize that
(21:02) hey like this could happen and they get stuck with it you know the people that do really well in the Arbitrage they do their homework and a lot of the times they’re getting all their money back in six months six to 12 months anyway so they’re really you know after that first year they’re they’re in it with essentially no money attached to that and they’re making good cash flow so you know there really isn’t like the best way to do it it’s really what you’re comfortable with if you’re good with negotiating with landlords and getting
(21:27) them to you know like you lease it and you can get a good rent that’s fine I mean yeah you’re still dealing with the landlords but on the management side you know it’s I wouldn’t say like there’s definitely downfalls to that too now you’re dealing with like you said owners and people that can be emotionally attached to the property um and that’s why our Avatar is straight investors that are looking for an Roi and they’re not as emotionally attached to it because we say like hey you should add this they’ll do it right and they see
(21:53) the return in it and we make sure to highlight it like hey you added this hot tub last year January the year before you didn’t have it you know you made Seven Grand this past January I just want to congratulate you cuz you you went over 10 right like I know there’s more track records and other things that come involved but I guarantee you that hot was a big factor right and just showing them that like hey you know you trusted Us in making that purchase and here’s the ROI that kind of backs that now the next time we we we go and say
(22:19) hey you should add this they won’t they won’t question it so that’s kind of the Avatar that we’re looking for the people that will see the value at and they’re okay to reinvest back into the property as well yeah we we were just this past weekend where we rented my friends rented a a farmhouse in AIA I’m I just stayed and book it but then literally my buddy that we’re driving up with is asking is there a hot tub and I was like I’m okay that there’s not a hot tub because we got a really cheap room rate perfect yeah so you know uh but
(22:49) yeah it seems to be a good thing to do to hot tubs now I want to talk about the like the darker side of of this business uh like there’s many reason like I’m an extremely risk verse anyone who this show knows I’m extremely risk adverse I I have a million reasons not to do anything and they’re all not always rude in reality that’s why we have experts on the show like yourselves to talk to it uh like for example like a like the cottage that we go to uh that our friends own this past Christmas they had the the septic was
(23:19) backing up right and so the owner had to go drive up and he’s pulling animal fat and feminine hygiene products out of the out of the whatever on Christmas yeah this is not my idea of fun because how do you even find someone to work on Christmas to deal with something like that yeah I don’t know how much you have to pay someone to deal with that at that point if there was guests there I would be like I will pay you triple cuz it’s always has to do you’re in Hospitality right like you’ve kind of left real estate we say this all
(23:48) the time once you get into short-term rentals you’re in Hospitality hospitality is 24/7 7 days a week there are no days off if a guest messages you at 10:00 at night you should answer like if a guest messages you at 7:00 in the morning you should answer on weekends on holidays especially on holidays and weekends right so um yeah and sometimes you have to be the one if you’re the owner of the property to go and fix the problem because a guest is there and that is definitely a big downside and finding trades to even go and do it that
(24:18) you trust has been can be very difficult in certain areas yeah forone says that uh airbnbs and vacation rentals are passive income it’s completely false it’s not it’s a lot of work right it is it’s like we get joy in it because we get a lot of families that come down and it’s it’s how you make that guest feel when they show up to the property like we do a lot of like surprise gifts and kind of try to go one step over and above like if they’re down celebrating like a birthday or something we’ll we’ll deliver cakes with their name on it a
(24:46) bottle of champagne like small things like that where they don’t expect it so the second they show up to the property they’re like wow you know and and creating very unique properties where they’re creating memories with their families like that’s kind of what we’re trying to portray to all of our guests but the dark side of it is that when it things go south and they’re having a bad experience like it’s it’s not only a lot of work in a pain but it also feels bad right like you feel horrible I generally feel horrible when someone does not have
(25:13) the experience that we try to give them so yeah like I said we’ll do whatever it takes to to try to turn that around because I guess you know maybe it’s just the human nature in us but we travel a lot and we go on vacations and we know how important that is to us so when someone else isn’t having that great experience that we want to try to portray you know we kind of put ourselves in that shoes and I guess that is kind of the dark side because there’s a lot of days where we just like we we we get brought into that right we feel
(25:41) that like hey now we’re having a bad day because they’re having a bad day and when you have 50 plus properties there’s a lot more things that go wrong and can go wrong so it’s hard to kind of detach yourself from that without not caring and the things that go wrong like to go wrong when you’re out for dinner at a family event at the movies you know New Year’s Eve New Year’s Eve you know that’s when they tend to go wrong and you have to get on the phone you have to you have to deal with it but I think having a strong team is crucial for any
(26:13) short-term rental investor and I love that I love that you say it what I find is with novices they don’t want to know what a strong team looks like that’s fair like before we were recording I was talking about my friend who you know who works in Tech sales in Toronto and her partner failed her including their team so she’s up there on weekends on her hands and knees refinishing the deck and trying to figure out how this make the creen the the pool go back to clear versus this screen right now MH like I can’t imagine what your well the reviews
(26:42) are pretty bad on the yeah it’s the scorecard can you imagine like what your reviews would be if you’re pool screen I would stop renting I would stop renting eventually your listing will get suspended if you have enough enough of those bad reviews right 4.1 is pretty low isn’t it for every 4.2 is usually in suspension range so they’re probably very close to Airbnb saying get your together you have we’re going to give you a few other chances but if this continues to go this way they will suspend your listing and you have to
(27:10) appeal it and it usually blocks your dates for a few weeks and it can get messy right so you have to usually nip that in the butt that’s why I said like if you are going to hire someone to manage your property you there’s there’s a few things that you want to ask them about on how they run their operations like I’m a big Revenue management pricing person so ask them about their pricing strategy do they have an extensive pricing strategy do they know what they’re talking about are they looking at lead time which means how far
(27:35) in advance that average guest is booking um for that each specific month what kind of discount strategies do they do in high and low season like those are things that I would ask if we were to hire it but also what does your operations accountability look like you know how do you work with your cleaners how do you hold them accountable how do you ensure that they get the place set up so the pool’s not green when your guests show up how do you you know how do you hold them accountable to that right are you just trusting them do you
(28:00) have a system in place you know good management companies will have answers to all of those things um obviously everyone’s human things are you know things can break and things can fall apart mistakes can happen but you know that’s another question I would ask is you know how do you handle a bad review or a bad situation with a guest and just making sure that if you are going to pay someone cuz you’re usually going to pay anywhere from 18 to 25 plus perc of gross rents with management um you want to make sure that they’re adding value
(28:30) that they’re going to bring you in more money than if you were to run it yourself right um but you’re not a miracle worker no no and you probably could have bajillions of clients if you service like Moka and karthas now actually made the point that you want your your the ideal client and it sounds like probably the more successful investor separates personal use from business mhm so can you explain why you’re not in MCO are you in cors we are in cors yeah we’ve got over 10 properties there and growing quite quickly but um so it sounds like you can
(29:05) build a business in corus not so much mccoa we’re not saying we can’t build a mccoa I think what I said before maybe it’s harder well we’re looking for one key thing one person yeah so we just said we don’t like we have very strict rules for who we work with but we hold ourselves to a very high standard as well right so and the people we work with and the skills that we bring to theable and we can’t if we’re Spencer and I aren’t phally in that location we need another us who is there who can be the boots on the ground and run it properly
(29:37) like we would love to we get people all the time like on Instagram being like hey I’m in this area I’d love for you to manage it and like I really appreciate that but we don’t have any of our systems set up up there and it would be irresponsible of us to just say yes let’s just do it for the money knowing that we’re not 100% confident that we could give our best best service without properly going through the due diligence of finding our territory manager who’s our boots on the ground of finding and vetting and testing out cleaners because
(30:08) cleaners are integral to the business right there’s cleaners who clean just for the money and there’s cleaners who clean and care about the property who will spend the extra time or say hey your pool’s green I’m going to stay until it’s fixed or I know a guy who can help you and they’re so invested and that’s what we want is people who have vested interest in the property without having ownership because they care and we will pay more for that and I find a lot of novices will be like what’s the cheapest cleaner that I can find and
(30:36) then they get upset when their cleaning reviews aren’t great or their house is being isn’t being taken care of properly well they’re not reliable typically not reliable well that’s the worst then you have someone showing up to a property not clean or not clean properly this is Hotel standard clean right and we have very like Spencer already said it we keep we hold them accountable and we’re very strict with them but we also pay a premium like we’re not paying $50 at clean we’re paying almost over $200 for some of these people per clean right
(31:03) plus garbage removal plus uh pool maintenance if needed right you need someone who’s maintenance who’s able to go around at a moment’s any moment’s time like we’ve had um AC units at 8 9:00 at night cut out in the middle of July recently and we’ve had a guy there within half an hour mhm he doesn’t work for us he’s just a contractor but we pay him well to do this I just want to emphasize the point point that you brought up is like you need to separate investment from living from use like for and again I find it often comes with
(31:37) with novices um and again it’s just really just lack of Education I very common I get people calling me asking for they want Florida and then I’m like have you Googled Florida Insurance yeah right and then once they do and then like okay now once you’ve done that Google yeah Florida 30-year-old condos right because because the a Condo building collapsed back in 202 killing 98 people which Miami uh I forget which it was a Cal City I for which one but like I just can’t believe that happened in America that that a building
(32:12) collapsed my point is that um separate recreational use from investment MH because with with a different lenss it tells you different things I love Florida I’ll go to Florida I’ll go rent I love M skoka Cottages but them I won’t buy one right I’m glad to pay thousands of dollars that we do for a week so that I don’t have to deal with the maintenance and um I’m not in that business and my experience is similar to yours that it’s hard to build a team in certain areas definitely and that’s what I’m trying to extract from you with
(32:44) being experts is if if you uh you know for for listener if they want to get into this business strategy go to areas where you can build teams yes 100% And typically we start if someone’s starting out in this business like we always say start out where you are like in your own backyard or somewhere close to you or an area you know really well because you’re there and you can have a bit of control until you kind of get it together and you know what you’re doing yeah learn the business exactly and we do like working with owners even with investors
(33:13) it we don’t mind that they want to go use the property from time to time like Spencer said because we want them to have pride of ownership we want them to see this as an investment but be proud to be like hey I’m coming during the week in October which isn’t as like High season um and I’m bringing my friends CU I can’t wait to show them the property because if they have pride of ownership they will invest back into it they will maintain it because we don’t have ownership in this property we can say hey you need to do X Y and Z but they
(33:41) could say no yeah even our JV Partners that’s like part of it it’s like yes it’s like you know what you might be giving up 1% or 2% on your cash on cash return but you get to go down and use this thing you know obviously we’ll we’ll we’ll we’ll steer them away from those weekends but if they go down with friends like it is that emotion that like hey we we created this unique space this this really cool thing that people come down and use and love and it makes money MH can we show some pictures uh yeah uh we have to
(34:10) go I don’t know if it would be on our uh on our feed do we have uh anything on our Instagram be more so yeah cuz I I think I’ve seen well like this one here the middle one that’s from the balcony of our one in N Lakes one of our uh with a JV partner so yeah this is off the master the master suite um this is what people wake up to in the morning right and it is like you know something small but like again these are like the things people go out there with a coffee in the morning and the sun rises just to the left of myself which
(34:45) also overlooks Vineyards so you go out there early enough it’s it’s quite a peaceful morning and that’s why we love these properties in Niger and the lake where you you’re not staring at houses you’re staring at Vineyards right right yeah it’s totally different feel when you have a coffee on a porch staring at a Vineyard than and we don’t typically stay at that property it makes it does really well and we use it very much as an investment and we live like 20 minutes away but just experiencing that uh I was like I
(35:14) am so proud of this house and I’m so excited that other people get to experience this very cool and it it financially does really well what’s so what’s like a weekend how do you guys July and August are definitely your highest um we’re we’re over 1,500 a night on the weekends over a th000 during the week um that we’re getting like this this property here it brings in um over 150,000 gross a year that’ss about 65 to 70 a year the last three years it’s done in and around that um we’re we’re going to make some additions to that property I think
(35:51) though to uh is it yours yeah so we’re well it’s a JV so we’re we’re yeah so we we have ownership in it um but again we the way we had it is they were the the money partner we were the operations so we took care of a lot of like the renovations and getting it ready and we do we run everything so what kind of additions are you planning well uh there’s two things that we want to do uh that we’re back and forth the the main one is we want to do a sport court pickle ball specifically it is like a super popular sport and our guest avatar
(36:22) for this property is 40 plus year old couples a lot of families that we get um because it is a higher nightly rate that’s typically the the guest that we’ve seen come through in this space and we know that you know 40 plus year old people they love the sport of pickleball but also families love being able to have that activity on this property because a lot of people do spend a lot of time at this property because it has the hot tubs the saunas The Vineyards it’s got a nice outdoor patio um so spending a lot of time on
(36:52) site yeah like they’re coming there to be immersed in The Vineyards right yes they’re going to Wineries and they’re going into Old Town haager in the lake but they’re also spending a lot of time here in the mornings and coming back here for dinners and um just taking in the scenery because they’re paying for that right that’s what’s kind of nice about creating these types of places is like you know this isn’t a place where people are dropping their bags off and leaving like we’re creating an experience that they’re going to hang
(37:15) out at so you know the the pickle ball Sport Court we want to do like a basketball in there as well um just that gives that little extra uh influence for people but also you know they’ll get to enjoy it a lot more as well and uniqueness but we do there nothing like it yeah we do have a barn there that’s pretty worn out that we’re considering turning into like some sort of games room hangout space it’s got like one of those um sliding door garage doors that we want to do like a glass one with a pad that overlooks The Vineyards so
(37:46) that’s probably three to yeah three to five your play yeah we we think the the sport card will definitely bring in uh a higher Roi but the nice thing about that and what really excites me is there’s no data on it right we can’t really put uh an exact marker and how much more it will bring in but that’s what excites me about it because no one else has it is that like you know I know that it’s going to bring in more money but what excites me is that no one else is going to have something like that so how much
(38:15) is the exciting part this will be interesting to follow uh before we recording uh we were talking about how uh a lot of people are on the news for the wrong reasons um I’ve I’ve talked about it many times one one of the lessons from the financial crisis was whoever went under usually was because they couldn’t support their debt right U and then in today’s news it’s people generally hard money loans and they can’t support it now so my question to you was uh how do you finance a short-term rental it’s a lot tougher in Canada now
(38:50) um most lenders won’t touch short-term rentals I know someone like the B and C lenders will I I know that they’re talking about ch changing that like I said we’ve moved more into the states for that reason cuz they’re a little bit more accommodating when it comes to short-term rentals um but yeah that that is the challenge when you are purchasing now is you need to be upfront with the mortgage lender on what this property is going to be I know there’s a lot of people that will say you know what I’m thinking of moving in here and then they
(39:20) change their mind but again that’s that is not something we would recommend doing because if they do find out you can get in a lot of trouble for that um so that is the the Big Challenge I’d say in in Canada right now but um I would just say talk to your mortgage broker see what you can do before you uh before you purchase anything if you are going to go that route right cuz for me financing drives a lot of my decision- making for for investing um like I’ve I’m self-employed and I’m capped here in Canada and everyone runs into a cap
(39:52) versus in the states it seems to be much there’s way more options mm uh so what what would the what would financing look like in the states well yeah a lot better so for for our allocate bill on better well yeah CU that’s the thing like these these ones weren’t necessarily they were value ads but we were never going to go in and refinance and pull money out they were more value ads in terms of they were vacation rental value ads so we we we updated the outside we created more like unique things we weren’t doing kitchens
(40:23) and bathrooms and bedrooms that kind of stuff where it was really going to increase the value of the property it was going to increase the the value of the income that it brings in um so for yeah for that because we bought it in 2020 and 2021 when interest rates were super low uh we got like 2.2 and 2.59 but the beauty of it was it’s 30 years it’s not five advertised it’s it’s 30 years so we we have that rate for as long as the property exists right so that’s what we like cuz it’s predictable but that sounds like a that’s very cheap
(40:56) in any context yeah that it’s not like that now like you know your your interest rates are triple that but at the same time you have the ability to lock that in for 30 years so if rates do come down or you’re happy with something you have the ability to do that so I know a lot of people now like the exciting time the exciting thing about that is interest rates are higher yes the numbers might not look as good on paper right now you know for talking just vacation rentals this is really any investment but if you can make sense of
(41:26) the numbers and still provide some cash flow and still be comfortable with the rates now and maybe even going up 1 or 2% like obviously you want to hedge both sides of it if for whatever reason it does come down a lot of the times that means value will go up you can pull some money out if you want to refinance or you can just lock in a better rate and improve your cash flow position so you know a lot of people are getting scared away from the rates right now but we’re looking especially into the states for this because I personally we personally
(41:53) see a lot of opportunity and uh in that where it’s like yeah okay you’re not bringing in $5,000 of cash flow every single month but you have the ability to add value add to the property increase amenities on that side of it but also if rates do come down you know there’s there’s definitely a very big win scenario there and short-term rentals are very funny in the sense that um in your typical like when you’re going through the numbers to see if you want to purchase a property as a real estate investor there are some airbnbs or short
(42:23) ter rentals that won’t pencil the way that you want them to pencil like on paper but we know based on our experience that we can look like this is in a great location location is huge right we can put in some money because this is a long-term play like I’m not expecting to get insane cash on cash return after year one short-term rentals is a long-term play um and you know you can bring those those numbers up with different amenities adding into the property we reinvest thousands tens of thousands back into these properties
(42:54) every single year because you need to keep up with competition around but if you had looked at some of these properties and looked at the numbers I don’t know if many people would have really bought them if they didn’t know how to get these up to what others in the area were doing yeah the one property we looked at in elville recently oh no no no this is like the one we ended up buying um you originally we were going to do it with someone else and they’re very well-known investor in the area and like they just you know we
(43:22) showed them the numbers that existed but we were saying like hey like the good news is there’s a ton of opport people don’t know how to take photos in Aliceville they don’t know how to Market it they do not know how to price right and there’s a lot of missing amenities that we can add to really bring this up but it’s hard to just say that because I guess yes it is speculative because you are being the leader in that industry but we’ve seen how that has impacted other areas where people have already done that so we tried to bring that data
(43:49) to it but it I see how that will scare even the most seasoned investors away because it does seem speculative but sure enough we still bought that property and end up being like a very very good investment because of that but there is that risk of like you know we were 99% confident that it was going to bring it but there is because there’s no data in that area supporting it you know I can see how it would scare a lot of people away right but the price point is a lot less risks than yeah that too right you’re not buying a $1.5 million
(44:17) property you know your 5600 Grand right like it’s it’s more feasible there and to your financing question I know we didn’t really touch on that in elville because it’s so close to the Border we were able to get 80% LTV So 20% down um you know there was a little bit more fees involved but um yeah we were able to to only have to put 20% down because they do the crossb banking so rbcd for example oh you still got Canadian mortgage yeah from Canadian bank but they’re us division they were able to use your Canadian credit because there’s
(44:47) a lot of Canadians that have invested down there was so low yeah can you scale that though like whose credit are they using your America your Canadian credit yeah you can only do that when you’re I think you’re close to the board like we weren’t able to do that down in Florida but once you have property and you’re on tile in the US then you can get your ittin anyways which is basically a tax identification number and then you can start getting more favorable rates in other areas of the US using that too funny I think there’s more Canadians in
(45:14) Florida than anywhere I know they’re tracking the Border rather than like where the Canadians are I think Florida wanted yeah 75% LTV cuz we had no we had a property in a contract I mean the rate was higher though the rate was higher than if you were obviously a US citizen with an SSN and you know um it was 75% but then they wanted a $110,000 fee as well yeah the fee was higher back end fee it’s definitely you know it’s more skin in the game for a Canadian still versus if you’re you know if you have a really if you have a credit record or
(45:47) somehow get a Social Security number and have you know good built-in credit down there they’re definitely a lot more aggressive and you can also do that with uh Us credit cards like start getting into uh you guys know this game abely like yes from the points and Miles side of course but even outside of that if you start getting into us then you start building Us credit history and then they will give you a tax identification number and then you can start using that to actually purchase properties at a more favorable rate yeah so you don’t need to
(46:13) just purchase to get it and you can do that you know there’s it’s a bit of a work workaround but you can get that without having an itin or an SSN like you can get a Us credit card you need a an address and stuff in the states of course but you can get creative if you have friends that live down there just get it sent to there and you have to open a bank account but you’re you can open a bank account easily um do you have any pictures of the elville property on your IG know we probably do if you just keep scrolling I’d have to take a look but
(46:43) uh I don’t actually remember I know I know we do eventually I just don’t know how how far down you’re going to have to go you guys talk about it more often uh I don’t know we do talk about it maybe just not like all the time and we love like the travel side of it so you’re going to see a lot of that on our feed this is why we do it right because we want to be able to go experience these things we learn a lot when we travel we stay at a lot of nice five-star hotels and we we get a lot of hospitality tricks from that but
(47:13) do we have like a our personal Investments we did that we talked about that is it in that one though or no I just there there is there is a I want to see if we have it on here sure if we do 56 Grand oh 13 129 grand these are Big rent numbers we would have profiled our our elil ones when we rid the games room yeah that would have been October of last year but yeah so before we were recording we were talking about like what’s your next property can we talk more about elville like how do you like how do you get into it what what does
(47:57) the property look like so yeah the the the challenge I wouldn’t say the CH well it is a challenge with elville is that it’s a small town and there’s not a ton of Supply that’s on the market but they have tons of visitors don’t they tons of visitors it’s a it’s a tourist town so like that’s what we like about it is that the reason why we’re bullish there is because majority of their businesses the restaurants I want look at how many visitors they get cuz I’m sure it’s an obscene number yeah well it’s especially
(48:27) it’s a weekend town right you get a lot of people from you know Buffalo area Canadians especially and then you get a lot of people from like Ohio like anywhere Canadians tons of Canadians it’s not far now it’s not far at all for someone for the west and tono it’s almost the same as going to Blue Mountain in terms of commute I’d say it’s pretty close once you get over the Buffalo border you’re about an hour an hour away so yeah it’s it’s not super far but like we love it because it is a tourist town and more than likely not again going back to
(49:00) the regulations they’re going to be in favor of it I know they’re talking about um bringing in more of a a policy for it because right now there’s the Village area and that’s pretty strict uh in terms of getting a license but it’s like a specific very very detailed outlined on their on their U City website of like what zoning that is and then all like the medium density and lower density zones which again outlines it with the streets it’s very you know cut and PAC are areas that you are allowed to operate in um without like you don’t
(49:31) need a license in those areas they just allow you to do it what I think they’re going to probably move to and they’re talking about but again it’s probably going to be a while from now is putting more of a a licensing program in place and the main reason is just to make sure that operators are doing their job and not just renting it to bad guests right because I think in any community that is the main concern is that you know if you have two residents living beside an Airbnb that person’s mismanaging it and
(49:58) there’s parties and they’re they’re up till 2: in the morning you know create creating noise and garbage and all of that that’s what really makes the headlines in the news about airbnbs right they don’t highlight the tens of thousands of families that come to the area and go to bed at 10:00 and leave the place in better condition than when they got there literally so I think it’s good that they’re looking to do stuff like that but um yeah that’s that’s elegant fing a nutshell so Holiday Valley gets 1.5 million visits yeah the
(50:28) ski resort itself that’s it yeah and they have they have a private one there as well a lot of members called called hont that’s where we haven’t found it yet but that’s where the the one that we we purchased is on it’s literally a 30 second walk to the the ski left yeah so tell me uh like paint The Listener a picture of what your next property would be like in elville or just in general in general because if you’re going to put your money into it I’m sure people will be interested I I they always say like don’t listen to what people are saying
(50:59) follow what their money’s doing yeah that makes sense um I think we still love on the lake like even the the property that we were looking at before that’s a variable mortgage and it’s still done very very well and that was an over million dollar purchase price um I think you need to really Target municipalities like Spencer was was just saying who need tourism to thrive that’s your elville on the lake like they have they big hotels cannot go into on the lake because they have to be historic buildings can’t be built over a
(51:29) certain height yeah but it’s really low height too very low height so they need short ter rentals they send us like thank you letters for operating every single year the city’s easy to work with and operate in um the purchase prices are high but we still find that that it works and then on the elville side like I feel like we would do both because elville is our offseason right so El’s High season is nagar life’s uh slow season and we like having a little bit of boat right CU you get the ski town and so they’ll never get rid of
(51:59) short-term rentals because they need people to come and stay and ski because that’s their High season um but I think the location in these places makes is really where it’s at you can’t go into nag Lake and find a subdivision and find the cheapest house and be like I’m in nagr the Lake I should crush it because people want to see what they came to nagr Lake for which is Vineyards so you want property they want Farmhouse they want country mhm and that’s what our properties would would give them we wouldn’t find something in a subdivision
(52:25) and then on the elville side they want to see like mountains and ski chalet and lots of wood inside you know that typical ski chalet Vibe close the Mountain close to the mountain that kind of thing yeah like we’re definitely big quality over quantity people I I would much rather have something that you know you are very proud of when you step in like every time we go to both elville properties because they’re both different properties where one’s got more more land but it like it’s got two if you want to call them Hills they’re
(52:55) mountains but they’re not mountains uh on both sides when you walk there you look right it’s just the Big Valley and you look left it’s The Big Valley and there’s a little creek that runs in the background so it’s very peaceful more tranquil versus you know our other one that’s right on the ski hill same thing it looks up at a mountain but you’re also in a great you’re in a much closer proximity yes you have neighbors left and right but you still have the views you do have that you step in there and you go wow and that’s kind of what our
(53:21) next property will be like is you know something where you have proximity to two things like ski sounds speech whatever it may be but also creates that unique experience of like there’s views there’s amenities on the property that you know people get to come and enjoy that you would be proud of when you get to go and visit and when you vacation my first time to elville I thought it was a I had no idea what to expect but like my context is like today’s Blue Mountain it’s but much much much smaller like it’s like two two blocks is the downtown
(53:54) but it’s so cute when you we were just there and you walk down there and you’re like this is such a cute town they really have it done up nicely with all the flowers all the little shops like people love that stuff I’m surprised no big private equity’s gone in and try to repeat something like a Blue Mountain there if it did your summer business would explode there’s a hotel going up apparently now um but again like not everyone want wants to stay in a hotel they want to stay in a chalet right like there’s always going to be that market
(54:20) for it and our homes sleep anywhere between 8 and 12 right and those people want to be they don’t want their individual homes they want to have dinners together they want to be in the hot tub together they want to be around the fire pit together right and no Hotel will ever take that away my friends are like that too like even when we still toay at Blue Mountain we Brenton arban B but more my point was like when you have a big Village there’s so much to do and then that attracts so many more people someone told me that Blue Mountain
(54:48) attracts more more visitors in the summer than the winter and that just blew my mind yeah that’s what we like about alil because it’s not just one High season like even the summer we had a very very good summer because again there’s there’s there’s hiking trails big mountain biking trails in that area so a lot of people come down for that but just being in that little town there’s lots of shops patios restaurants um they have they have a good golf course you would love it amazing gol yeah it’s very very difficult but it’s
(55:15) uh yeah really nice golf course right it’s got everything that a summer vacation town you know should have really because i’ I’ve talked to people about again our cotage country here in can in ont is like crazy expensive mhm cuz I I have some friends who are already saying they’re going to look in the states for a cottage and this kind of seems like competing with you but so please get get into get into um um I want can what do the property look like like tell me more about this target property that you have in mind in
(55:47) elville yeah I mean I I would I definitely would want to say something where it’s like more of a chalet Vibe but we we would say we probably do a hybrid between the two so like the first one that we got the more expensive one that’s right on the private Hill is 100% sh it’s beautiful right like you walk in it’s you know just under 3,000 square fet um oh that’s big yeah it’s it’s it’s it’s a good size um how much did you pay for that one 525 we got yeah I was listed at 589 we got it for 525 but that back in 2021
(56:18) price has gone up a little bit since then not crazy appreciation in elville but there there there is some but um wasn’t Callingwood that’d be a small fortune yeah it would be that’s what we’re saying we kind of joke this would be 2 million in Callingwood just given the fact that you can walk to the ski lift it’s right there so you see my point why more canans would be look into this for Cottages yeah especially if you’re going to use it it’s a it’s a I mean it’s US dollars but even then still it’s it’s quite reasonable property
(56:47) taxes are high there right I think that one were over 10 grand or actually right around 10 105 a year for that one and you get nothing for it you still have to do private garbage snow removal all of that um holy Hannah okay so yeah that they that’s probably why it keeps prices down too yeah for sure um but then our other property this is more in the country and this is the one that has the detach garage we turn into a games room it’s got the fire pit cuz you know the the first one is on a hill so it’s a big
(57:15) slant and you know putting in a fire pit there would be very difficult so on the second story balcony we’ve got the luxury Lounge set with a gas fire table so you can still be outside and take in the views and have the fire but we’d want to I would say probably try to find something in the Middle where it’s a little bit nicer on the inside shall like the first one but with a bit of property with views right um even if it’s just outside of town that’s fine cuz the other one is about a f- minute drive outside of elville versus this
(57:44) one’s right in it um s i just paolog you there does your company have a website that with pictures of these uh yeah I mean should we go to the Airbnb ad yeah we can go to the we can go we can go to that um how do I get it to you guys um we can Google if you just go to Al if you just like go to airb and Google Al bille you can go to our profile from there we’ll find the property oh for the listeners benefit we we do Post these to YouTube as well so we actually have the a big screen in our background where we’re going to look at this
(58:12) stuff you know we try to try to be like Joe Rogan once no I love I love it but yeah I would say what definitely an in between we like we see the ones that do really well there to have that the a little bit of land saunas fire pits elville is that what we do for where you have to search El I would just search like any week too because we’re pretty booked you’re not going to find it if you search uh e l i e l l i oh two L’s they there then you can just hit um yeah like flexible do a week yeah just hit search you’re good
(58:54) there all right it might be faster if we go right to um how’s this sorted actually while we’re in here how does how does well this you’re searching you’re searching any week so it’s going to give you um what’s available yeah it’s going to give you the majority of the properties that are available if you just want to I think these are important things for people to know I have no idea so cuz that’s that’s the thing too and like for your pricing strategies that like if you are searching for a specific date like I
(59:24) said if you if you have dates that aren’t available and guest are searching for that date you’re never going to be found right so you do want to be putting in a little bit more of an aggressive pricing strategy to to show up ideally on the first page right here we’re just searching for for any week so might make sense to go on the map here um so go kind of like right in this left side so see where Al Bill see go left of it yeah right see where that gray patch is zoom in on that there it is that’s the property so yeah you can click in on
(1:00:02) that so this is the the first one that we bought that’s right on the hill um oh wow that’s sub 3,000 square fet I think it’s like 20 2,800 gee this is nice so yeah we’ve done some recent updates to it but the nice thing about this is it was a previous Canadian owner so most of this came furnished so we worked that into the mortgage as well but we we’ve recently we redid the floor and the kitchen and the dining room but like we add things like this espresso machines coffee the kitchen was like that already pretty much minus the floor we we redid
(1:00:34) the floor and obviously we upgraded we added some we’re big water we big water snobs so we added like an RO system in there because it makes coffee better and the water’s safe to drink there it’s just people don’t always want to have to buy bottled water when they go in so and there’s still gorgeous some updates that we can make we redid that shower not intentionally the previous one was leaking m yeah that’s is the TRU about real estate investing stuff breaks and costs money but I mean really like what it is is
(1:01:03) like the back of the PAAD here like when when you’re out there you’ve got your hot tub and this and you’re overlooking kind of this view that’s that’s awesome it’s very peaceful and that’s that’s kind of what we want to try to do like not just a subdivision right you want to have views and how big is the lot it looks like there’s nobody nearby oh no there is it’s just cuz it’s on such a slant I don’t know the total size love that’ll give you a better indication of it there uh that one photo on the left like you can see you’ve got a property
(1:01:29) right right to our left and there is one to the right as well it’s just kind of hidden by trees what about back neighbor uh there well it’s more like way down that’s the only that’s like the the thing it’s like you kind of look on top of their house just because it is on the hill and the thing with this property is there’s so many levels there’s like six levels to it it’s like three or four steps down three or four steps down three or four steps down it just keeps going lots of stairs this is super cool and this was your first Venture
(1:01:57) this was yeah this is the first one we we bought and then we purchased another one in Aliceville probably like a month later this that’s outside this is probably the one we’re the most proud of um most proud of like getting people to come by like our friends and stuff if we go down for a couple days during the week but the other one that we have is the more profitable like net they’re both very profitable but the other one was just like actually if you so go back to the listing it’ll be faster like click on that like oh yeah
(1:02:25) click on the click on this picture again go back into the listing no no oh it go through your profile right yeah sorry go back to that where you just were go back to the property atam and then click on the uh click into that operators and then scroll down slightly see where it says let click on the logo at click on the logo again and scroll down all right now we’ll find the other ones um so you can view all oh you have a lot of listings you can go to view all listings it might be faster most most of these are management clients so like see where
(1:03:04) it says view all listings uh below that you manage that many mhm how What’s the total of properties you manage uh just under 50 just under 50 now but okay we have a bunch going live try to find the other El these are all like really pretty like there’s no subdivision houses there’s a couple but yeah we try to stay away from them oh yeah I see one there yeah yeah yeah okay so stay away from subdivision hoses I mean it’s it depends if you get the right deal on it it can make sense but again you’re dealing with neighbors
(1:03:37) and all of that it there’s more there’s more variables when it comes to that it’s probably going to be there on the on the right side there entire we got to redo the photos on this one I just remember that so this is the one we did with the games room um again this property we purchased for 240,000 um furnished as well and then that you can see the games in there on the top right this was just an empty garage space it was already insulated it had heat pumps in there so it was just like a a skeleton it was but it was already fully serviced
(1:04:11) electrical and it had the heat pump so air and air and heat so all we did was we hired a a a design company to to come up with this design and uh we did the work ourselves we went down and I’m never doing that paint job again but sa to say we we we did that ourselves and uh really all we added was you know the TV the pool table the basketball game you know some furniture and table eh you trust that with your guess honestly that wasn’t a very expensive pool table I think it was like a $600 pool table but you wanted something that was like the
(1:04:43) center of attention and you you I didn’t want to you didn’t want to leave it like open and I think that’s what the design company said as well um but yeah there’s there’s damage claims for everything so if it ever does come to that our cleaners are pretty good to replace some of the pool cues but that’s people just drop them like they put them up and they fall over who knows yeah it’s weird yeah so this one isn’t as like aesthetically pleasing on the inside like the other one I feel like a super Chalet they have like the
(1:05:12) wood the wood everywhere on the like very Chalet Vibes which I love this one is like an old converted Schoolhouse so it’s cute but it’s more in the country so you get way more of like a not winter so like spring summer fall crowd and because our covering costs on are so low cuz we bought it for a little over 200,000 it still brings in a couple thousand dollars every weekend all the time and then more in the winter so our our cash on Cas and then especially when we added this games room our um cash on cash on that is just really skyrocketed
(1:05:47) like this is the most profitable home in our portfolio that we own so when did you want more of them yeah that’s why I say we probably do a hybrid between the two but if you look looked at it it wouldn’t pencil the way that I feel like others would pencil if that makes sense well we were when we ran the numbers on this we were running a projections of like hey if this does like 40 Grand a year this makes like close to 800 bucks a month if it does 50 Grand a year we’re very happy and it’s going to do over six
(1:06:11) figures this year because of the garage right and the garage cost us so you’re double very happy yes good return that’s kind of what we looked at but penciling it didn’t do that because there wasn’t a lot of there wasn’t a lot of you know comps per se we like this games room did not exist in alic bille so we’re like you know are we throwing 10 grand at a wall and hoping it sticks probably not but there was 10 grand but I couldn’t go to investor with like hard numbers and being like look if you invest 10 grand
(1:06:37) into this games room here’s what it’s going to return we didn’t know but yeah but when you pencil the next one you have you should have a lot more confidence exactly and there’s also a lot of issues with that house because it’s in the country there was like a whole bunch of like animal issues it’s right beside a cow farm so we didn’t know if that would really impact the reviews or so we had to put a lot of time and effort into this property that we did not and money and that we did not have to put into the other one but now
(1:07:03) that we’ve spent all the money up front we got it all to where it needs to go and it has been pretty good since then C far people love it actually they’re like my kids like cuz they they can walk over and there’s like cows right on the fence you say your kids no not our kids I said kids like cuz we get a lot of families that come here right because like the you know the outdoor space the games room brings in a lot of families and uh yeah like originally were like oh there’s like a farm here but the luckily the smells it doesn’t really smell um
(1:07:31) and and and the kids love it cuz they get to go over and see the cows and yeah it’s just it’s a different it’s completely different from the other one cuz on paper I want a portfolio of these 100% yeah like we were scared because again both of these we purchased sight on scene um because this was during covid we couldn’t get there so we’re running the numbers we had people doing Facetime videos walkthroughs and you know it basically got to the point where it’s like even if they did on the lower side it was still safe so we were okay
(1:08:00) with that but when we went out to see this the first time we’re like oh no what did we what did we buy but again we just like I said did a lot of work to the backyard and you know updated a few things on the inside and yeah slowly but surely it started uh becoming quite profitable and you did one at a time no no that would make sense but no no this was months apart probably like two or three months part that’s not too bad yeah you get for a for a short- term rental when you couldn’t get down there um through 2020 in 2021 when we were
(1:08:35) flying from Toronto to Washington back to Buffalo so we could rent a car so we can go over there like it it was excuse me that’s how You’ get there yeah yeah yeah or like we were on a tail end of a trip back and into turkey and we landed in Boston we’re like why would we go back to Canada we might as well just book a domestic flight to Buffalo and go to the property so we’re all jet legged and whatever and go and do like 3 4 days of work really quick and right you got done though yeah it’s pretty amazing no so so
(1:09:07) say today I want to get into a deal like this let’s use this as a sample deal uh what What’s financing look like it’ still be again if you’re Canadian you can there’s a few mortgage brokers like TD and RBC and then I think First National is a good one as well um where they’ll be able to look at your Canadian credit don’t quote me on this one I’m still positive you can get 80% LTB So 20% down obviously you got to do the conversion you your US Dollars now on a declared student on declared Airbnb you can correct g i you can’t get that in
(1:09:40) Canada probably Canadian Banks yeah yeah probably probably not again like it’s been a we haven’t inquired one here um in two or three years so again that might have changed um but when we were down there you know we disclose everything this is what we’re doing same thing with insurance you have to tell them what this is going to be for what’s Insurance on these is it’s a the short-term Insurance short-term rental insurance commercial commercial insurance so like a Hospitality some sort of hospitality recreational business insurance policy
(1:10:11) yeah like you’ve got like at least 2 million liability and you know uh loss of rent those types of things right if you have like an issue and you have to cancel bookings for whatever reason because you have a flood or so it’s a business insurance yeah it’s it’s not it’s not your home owner occupied insurance it it’s probably double what you would pay for home insurance if not it’s not bad consider the liability exposure but it’s it’s really not that bad like you know some some people pay more for internet and cable you know if you get
(1:10:37) like the really souped up version it’s it’s worth it that’s for sure interesting um but yeah I would say like something in between these two would be our next one like cuz if you know if you scroll maybe down to the bottom like it gives the one picture gives you a pretty good view of like the garage like if you go all all the way to the bottom uh keep going sorry up a bit more my like right here cuz like on that side you still look into what do you want to call it the hills the mountains but then behind it has it as well so like when you’re at
(1:11:06) the property you’re kind of surrounded by this so it’s just like very peaceful and we really like that aspect of it no neighbors um but the problem is Like Houses like these don’t go for sale every week right you kind of got to keep an eye on it and try to scoop it up when you can but also there’s certain areas here that are flood more flood plane prone due to the runoff so you do want to make sure that you’re not in the hot spot there uh so yeah there and then obviously with the zoning you want to make sure that you’re good like this
(1:11:34) area is fine but um if you’re going to be more so near the ski hills there’s certain areas and communities that don’t allow it so big Lookout there like definitely like what I did is I just called the um the city before we bought these and even though it had a pretty detailed and they told me the very detailed zoning map I’m like here’s the address here’s what I want to buy like is this in the zone zoning like can you confirm that and they did they’re like yeah your medium density you’re good to go I’m like okay cuz I didn’t want any
(1:12:00) surprises didn’t want to we didn’t want to close on it and then find out that we can’t do it so I would always recommend doing that in any municipality if they have like some sort yeah a downside to uh elil is finding trades is very very difficult and very expensive y worse than here oh yes oh jeez get worse they they they gou you I mean here’s the thing you can you’ll find someone eventually cuz there’s other neighboring larger cities but it’s not like you’re going to call and get three quotes and you’re going to be happy with one of
(1:12:33) them the year eight plus quotes until you find someone that can do it and even then it’s like are they reliable is are they going to show up it’s because the nature of the majority of people that own here their second and third homes they know that hey we’re going to charge a premium if you want this work done it’s it’s small enough where it’s people can do that I imagine it’s much like that in our Cottage countries too yeah yeah mokas I can’t I’m assuming is the same everyone that I know that owns there brings their
(1:13:04) trade people in from the city to to do work and pay them a premium because it’s still cheaper right yeah my friends do that and then well what big cities are close by uh well Springville I mean when I say big it’s called to Walmart um that’s Big T yeah so like Springville is probably half an hour away and then I’m going to butcher it but it’s either Olen or oen that’s oen they’ve got that’s that was the famous Home Depot runs that we made but they’re all about half half an hour half an hour away they’ve got a
(1:13:32) Subway there so it’s good um but yeah that’s the there there’s two pretty big big towns about uh and then Buffalo is what an hour yeah an hour away you know we running out of time we still didn’t talk about travel rewards might need a part three part three yeah just on that again we’re running out a time any fin final thoughts you want to share with the guests listeners well we can leave a cliffhanger because all of the when we do these projects we also get a few first and business class flights out of them so stay tuned for part
(1:14:02) three and then you guys have you I I see on your website you offer what’s your website first of all it’s Spencer ashley.com yeah very creative maybe rebranding the Ashley and Spencer who knows yeah and then you can get you guys have courses you have some free giveaway stuff there there as well no sometimes we do um free webinars which we’ll I think we’ll be doing one soon cuz we’ve actually gotten a lot of uh people asking how we keep our cleaners like accountable and stuff so we’ll be probably doing a free webinar on that uh
(1:14:36) Spencer did like a three-hour pricing um paid pricing webinar I guess or a course Workshop that he that we’re selling and that’s like 3 hours in depth of exactly all the things that he does for our short-term rental pricing which I think was like an insane value because that’s everything you’ve learned over years and years and years for like a couple hundred bucks and then we do what you see here is um obviously private one-on-one consultation calls just basically about anything uh yeah but that’s about it we will be doing
(1:15:08) probably some sort of mentorship more than like a course uh more on the management side and that would be upcoming probably next six months or so and you’re looking for more clients to probably manager for oh yeah that like we’re open to to JVS as well but again we’re very specific on who we work with we’re quality over quantity and you know we need to like the people we work with as well that’s that’s that’s very important so we’re uh you know it’s a marathon not a Sprint got to got to enjoy it too yeah life is short mhm very
(1:15:38) cool any final final words for The Listener against a scary time for many people M yeah I I think short-term rentals are still a very viable option I know some people don’t believe that I think we’ve said this before but um you have to be in the top 10% of properties and then you’ll see the the profits I think that we see like we reinvest quite often if you’re a CNB property or if this is a like Last Resort and you’re half-assing it you are not going to do well um you get into short-term rentals intentionally not because selling won’t
(1:16:11) work renting won’t work and whatever right um yeah but still a very big viable option it’s just a big business and and then on the co-host side you don’t really need money to get into short-term rentals you can start by co-hosting for for a percentage of gross rents the way that we did and then we’ve built an entire business that’s our entire lifestyle from that so very cool and then what’s next for you guys sounds like you might expand buy another property yeah I mean want expand to or we are looking at uh acquiring I think
(1:16:41) you know nag the lake and and elville would be probably the the two we keep an eye on the most um but obviously open to other markets the management business we are expanding more into the states so that’s going to be our big push in the next 365 um obviously we’re expanding in Canada too like mscok is still on our list we just need that person that wants to work with us that can be the boots on the ground and you person’s listening yeah exactly you never know a lot of them are realtors too because we get get
(1:17:07) them a lot of representation too that’s kind of we find that goes hand in hand like our guy and cor this is a real estate agent and he’s got his own vacation rental so he’s got his own skin in the game so it was a perfect fit for us um remind our listeners What markets do you service so we are south Ontario so basically Burlington down we are are in the GTA now recently so we do cover basically all the GTA what areas allow it but it has to be pretty unique property I imagine unique property and being able to do it yeah like if you’re
(1:17:36) in a condo they have to allow it and it’s got to be a primary there’s a ton of restrictions but still doable cores uh we service that we are in Norfolk County so sorry where’s Norfolk Simco area more like Lake Erie yeah Simco Dunville um over that area it’s it’s like little Cottage Country down that way it’s a nice spot out there it actually is really really nice yeah then we are also in BC so we service like the mainland and the island and El elville and soon hopefully maybe California but we’ll see mhm any part of
(1:18:17) California where’s Kevin going uh La Huntington Beach like that those kind of areas around there so one of our just moved down there nice yeah not bad free place to say we go down it’s a big decision to move there because it ain’t cheap no no no no no but I mean we’re we’re we’re so preliminary on that haven’t really dove into the markets too much I know from like an acquiring standpoint it’s it’s from what we’ve heard from investors down there it’s it looks a little rough but we’ll see you need boots on ground all right
(1:18:50) well thank you so much for coming in thanks for having us appreciate it thank you thank you for watching if you want to learn how to invest in real estate from scratch my team teaches beginners how to use the number one investment strategy that I personally use in a virtual free training class every month go to investor training.
(1:19:26) com learn the nitty-gritty about real estate investing from a professional investor register for our next virtual class that’s at investor training.com

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