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(00:00) a broken Canada no way we’re richer than ever but tell it to young people who don’t have Rich parents living on their own paying rent 1,800 for a basement apartment yes that’s what I’m asking for my basement apartment not just one bacon welcome to the truth about real estate investing show for Canadians where’re a little podcast that started in 2016 with well over 300 episodes we’re probably approaching 350 by now each an hour long and these days we have an unpopular opinion depending on where you stand on the future for real EST investing in
(00:31) Canada friend of the show Scott dilam owner of Len City who can broker as in he can accept referrals from other mortgage professionals to who want to help their clients obtaining us mortgages with us lenders uh beyond the Canadian Banks um appreciate that Canadian Banks still use your local credit which most of us real Real Estate Investors don’t want to because we’re all tapped out anyways uh Scott’s been on boarding and signing uh a numerous number of mortgage professionals agents and Brokers so anyways I spoke to some
(01:02) of them uh just this past last week and one of them said uh again these are veterans uh to quote to quote Bill he said I see no business case to invest in a Canadian investment property unless the parent is buying a student home for their kids to go to college or university for 10 years end quote what I love about mortgage professionals is they know numbers hence they’re fans of well Bill and uh Dory and I are on a call because they want to learn more about us income properties because they’ve seen the numbers that we off that we’re that
(01:38) our clients are doing at share o over the Canadian deals that they they’re used to looking for and uh just quick side note I’ve yet to have anyone debate me uh that uh that I’m wrong anyways uh so there so yes I agree there is good business be done in flipping on repositioning properties wholesaling developing which are all much more active businesses or Investments so it’s hardly passive so again I agree with all those things there’s tons of that to be done I’ve seen I have lots of past guests of the show who are making making hay on those
(02:18) types of businesses um if you don’t believe me just look at you know half my past guess anyways uh but again I’ve yet to have anyone disagree with me that us long-term rentals uh are better than Canadian Mones pretty much again if you PLL Canadian investors these days there’s almost no one buying something that has long-term rental attached to it uh for that reason uh I have a bad feeling for investor focused real estate uh realter and uh mortgage professionals going forward my advice to my clients uh for many reasons uh other
(02:55) than just the state of the the Canadian Market is to diversify to the US hold uh maybe even sell some of their Canadian properties if they’re unable to hold them or if they no longer serve them uh I could be wrong I admittedly I could always be wrong but the I’ve been generally right on these long-term trends uh based on the information we have right now um for example uh my colleague Tim uh Tim Hong who on my team a member of Rockstar real estate like myself uh he posted a real on his Instagram showing the difference between
(03:26) ATT tenanted three-bedroom properties uh that are are vacant owner occupied again these are three bedroom properties in Kitchen warl Cambridge he he was showing stats comparing uh tenanted or occupi sorry tenanted properties versus vacant or or occupied properties the tenanted properties were selling for an average of $60,000 less than nonr tenanted properties and they took 65% longer to sell that’s 38 days on Market versus 23 and this is just what happens to sell now that’s not these aren’t perfect comparisons but that gives you an idea
(04:02) on what the market thinks about tenant properties so uh I posted I posted uh screen capture in the link in the show notes so you can grab it there or you can follow my my my colleague I recommend that you do follow Tim Hong on Instagram because honestly he’s hilarious and he tells it like it is which is why we get along so well uh the current market is telling us that they they they Value Rental Properties less than regular properties we are even seeing the same for vacant legal duplexes in Hamilton uh my investment my
(04:31) my investment thesis was the host with the Bas in our apartment AKA in in the west they call a mortgage helper I I always thought it would be the most desirable property as it would be more affordable than a sing than a regular single dwelling home live in one unit rent out the other but uh based on the market that we’re in today the market does not want to be a landlord of long-term rentals and then in general a lot of these markets are are quite against uh airb be short-term rentals in general uh so that may be the case may
(05:05) change once we have rate cuts and the market goes back to being nuts uh but the current math is the current math income properties in the USA have better numbers with less tenant risks no rent control no landlord ten boore uh to me the more investors the more conventing investors get educated on how easy it is to invest in the USA the better uh the better for them so they can avoid honestly the troubles I’ve been through I’ve had three basement uh three basement’s flood I’ve had four visits personally where I’ve had to go visit to
(05:35) the landlord tenant Tribunal for tenant issues for nonpayment of rent for tenant vandalism uh and if you’ve never been to the LTV before that’s a short term for it it’s easily one of the most depressing places to be uh so again I can’t wait I’m having so much fun in my work I cannot wait to lead the journey for many uh speaking of we are back on September 17th with an all new free training uh a 101 of real estate investing uh style to now incorporate the best practices of both local real estate investing and the USA I’ll go into more
(06:10) detail uh about the property I just bought in St San Antonio Texas uh so on realtor.com they actually list uh my property as having 2,200 fet I paid 265 for the house for all you condo investors out there you all know square foot costs so the math says I bought my house at $120 us per square foot how’s that compared to condos which are $ 13 to $1,800 a square foot oh also my rent is $2,300 per month I’ll share that my latest economic research including which markets which Market we recently took off our list to invest in which will
(06:51) again be an unpopular opinion uh but uh we at share we have no geography bias because we basically service the entire country um so if you can service the whole country why not just cherry pick the best markets with only Mark with Market leaders in their Industries making historic levels of investment to me it’s a very pragmatic decision a broken quote a broken Canada no way were wealthier than before the pandemic end quote uh some brighter news as per for the headline that is the headline of a recent tal Star article house owners and
(07:29) those with stock portfolios are generally better off now than they were before the pandemic in terms of net worth I have no argument there I person my client vast majority of my clients and I have benefited greatly U by holding properties since the p since before the pandemic started where I disagree though is that every conversation I have with someone in the real estate Community or anyone younger than me with limited assets they all complain about the lack of affordability um for anyone who’s a parent they all
(07:59) are concerned for their kids uh due to the lack of affordability um a lot of folks know they can make more money in the states or they have friends who are already leaving in Canada or have already left because they’re make they can go make more money in the states uh they can and there’s many places in the world they can pay more less tax maybe not many but generally the conversation centers around the USA or Dubai uh for lifestyle I’m hearing more and more Canadians are going to Mexico Costa Rica or even southern Europe the grass may be greener
(08:28) on the side but the truth is we all know talented people who are investing outside Canada for sure there’s t i we have my phone won’t stop bringing FK on on folks interested in investing outside of Canada there some folks are preparing to leave some have already left I was just the I was just chatting with uh friends who had moved to Florida and the question comes back to am I leaving right now just my capital is leaving uh based on the world today the way things are in Canada today I don’t expect my kids to stay in Canada
(08:58) after University uh for the same reasons I mentioned it before uh and uh and the other thing is I’ve spoken to a lot of parents who have kids in high school and they all tell me that the good programs here in Canada at our wonderful universities they’re really hard to get into like 90s 95s High 90s to get in honestly I don’t think my I don’t know if my kids have that in them uh and also where our local kids are having to compete with uh SP uh with International students a lot of stud spots are saved for international
(09:32) students so uh the writing’s on the wall I’m at least mentally preparing myself that my kids will have to be International students themselves as in they won’t go to school in Canada uh for College University sadly uh speaking of Education oh we have a college instructor on this week’s show Brian Gordon is an old friend of mine from years ago I believe we met both I think we first messed each other at rain uh he works full-time for the largest appraisal company in Canada if not North America in a management position uh I’ve
(10:06) linked his his LinkedIn in the show notes if you want to know who it is we’re we’re not naming it because we’re not we’re not here to promote his employer anyways prior to that he works for as a senior property tax analyst for one of Canada’s largest REITs if not the biggest uh you know working for the re that is owned by one of Canada’s biggest million billionaires again you can get the details on on uh Brian’s LinkedIn uh Brian has been methodically growing his own real estate portfolio over a 7-year period consisting of a dup a collection
(10:36) of duplexes an Airbnb in Blue Mountain and more recently an 11px uh development in Branford Ontario where he’s adding two additional units so super cool um adding value that’s typically a good way to go uh as mentioned Brian is a course creator and instructor of it’s called Uh real estate investment strategies at George Brown College a comprehensive yet affordable course which is one of the big reasons why I wanted to have him on the show real estate investing is largely about return on investment and that includes what one the dollars one
(11:08) invests in one’s education Brian’s the course that Brian teaches it’s only $392 24 cents uh and I’m pretty sure there’s government stuff out there that uh that will that will help you make this even cheaper it’s a 20-hour course and it includes some private one-on-one consultation Time with Brian that Brian will in the show what an absolute steal uh I’ve got a link in the show not show notes for this course again it’s real estate investment strategies uh online and if you add George Brown when you’re Googling you’ll find it that’s how I
(11:42) found it needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed recording this episode it’s always a pleasure to speak to folks who are very very well-versed in real estate investing again he’s been in full-time his day job is working in analyzing properties for over 10 years uh so you better believe Brian knows what the deal looks like and we need more of those folks in this community so anyways we’re going to learn Brian’s tips and tricks so we may all learn uh for ourselves to add so we may improve our own businesses Brian recently returned from
(12:16) Mount Everest or yeah I think that’s right uh inde he did kgal recently as well so he he’s here to share these absolutely extreme experiences and again talk about my favorite subject real estate investing uh and of course we you want to hear about Brian’s next Investments uh what his views are on the Canadian opportunities please enjoy the [Music] show hi Brian what’s keeping you busy these days what’s keeping me busy um I’d say probably my garden Suite that I’m working on right now um first time ever doing a garden Suite you know I think
(12:59) it’s the city of Toronto um introduced it what was it last year um changing zoning so I’m working on a converting a detached garage into uh one-bedroom Garden Suite so very excited about that project it’s my first Garden Suite ever so a lot a lot of learnings with that but very excited about that project now tell us some more uh are you is it going to be two unit one unit how you financing it yeah yeah great question so it’s going to be uh one unit it’s about 400 square feet so what makes the numbers work with this particular
(13:32) project is because I know a couple other investors that are building Garden suites and have built Garden Suite but on average you’re spending about $350,000 for a garden Suite give or take I know people Sor are you’re tearing down the garage so no so what makes my numbers work and what makes it make what makes it make sense is that I’m going to use my existing detach garage got it and convert that into the one bedroom so my all-in cost is going to be approximately $160,000 and that’s hard and soft cost so Renovations the hard cost is going to be
(14:04) about $130,000 and then soft cost and then I’m going to add you know I’m building a shed but anyways there’s some other ancillary things that I hadn’t expected um to or I didn’t budget for but roughly it’s going to be about 160,000 right and this particular property it’s a triplex in Toronto the young and fut exting Triplex then the the garage will be a fourth unit exactly sorry yeah no no the garage is going to be a fourth unit that’s right and so it’s a great location I should be able to get rents upwards of
(14:34) $2,400 plus utilities um and I had one of my property managers come out to you know take a look at the property and give me their you know their perspective on rents and so on so he said anywhere from 22 to $2,400 Daisy and so it makes sense so if I’m all in at $160,000 and you know my financing is at say 6% interest only it makes sense and you know as we all know interest rates have started to come down um there’s been two what interest rate decreases in the past what month or two yeah so and two more expected this
(15:11) year yeah exactly at least two more expected this year so it makes sense what I don’t think makes sense is building a garden suite and spending $350 to $500,000 and getting 26 $2,700 for rents right um and what but a lot of people are promoting it these days a lot of people are promoting this year and I have friends that done it and what I like with what I’m doing is and that’s was a this was an idea from my property manager is I think this property the specific property will will help with that missing middle um you’re not going
(15:42) to be able to put a family in there but you’ll be able to put a couple for you know a couple one or two people and it’s going to be relatively affordable um versus you know spending $35 $33,700 for a two or three bedroom Garden Suite right so I could have built a 2 or three bedroom Garden Suite 800 ft um but that would have cost me probably upwards of $350 to $400,000 right so I opted to just stick with the shell yeah spend $160,000 that increases affordability for many people and it just it just makes more sense so it’s a lot more
(16:18) affordable and it’ll attract a lot more people and that was kind of my rationale for sticking with the existing detach garage and not tearing it down and starting from scratch any feedback from the existing tenants in yeah Sorry’s up with that yeah oh yeah great question so that’s been a challenge dealing with tenants so anyone that has invested before and has done Renovations where there’s existing tenants there’s always going to be issues and I’ve done that with my first projects about seven years ago and I promised myself I would never
(16:48) do it again I had no choice because it’s a Triplex so I’m not going to get rid of all the tenants U myself included so there are challenges so one one of the things that happened is when I was getting the trench dug to put in the piping the contractor ran over one of my tenant bikes so warped the bike yeah and so my tenant showed me he was good about it he’s like you know I wasn’t going to make it a big deal but you know it’s going to cost quite a bit so I told him don’t worry about it just invoice me go get it fixed invoice me and I’ll pay for
(17:18) it um you know my uh the again when the trench was getting dug the contractor blocked in my tenant cuz my tenant didn’t move his car yet and so my tenant’s car was there and he couldn’t use it and he had to go out so I said you know I’m a very reasonable landlord and I believe in treating people fairly so I told my I told my tenant look if you need to go out take an Uber give me the invoice and I’ll pay for it right because you want to keep good tenant relations right um so I’ve had challenges with that and you know my my
(17:47) projects already should have been done technically this week but I’m only at the point where I’ll probably be calling for inspections early next week so I’m probably halfway there so I’m way behind schedule but again that being said when a contractor tells me a Project’s going to be done in a month I budget for two months so although I’m behind scheduled based on what he projected I in my mind I’m more or less on track I’m a little behind but I’m still more or less on track and neighbors been okay with this
(18:15) cuz you have right you have right to do this absolutely by you can do this yeah by right you can do this in the city of Toronto which is awesome and my neighbors actually have been awesome so my neighbor to my right he owns there’s a sixplex on the right side um of where I live and he’s very very nice guy and you know my my contractor damaged the fence right so he was very good about he didn’t even mention it I told him I’ll fix it um and actually I got to know him a lot better which is nice um but yeah there’s been no issues with with uh
(18:45) fantastic with tenants yeah sorry was not tenants my neighbors which has been good I don’t know if we mentioned for listeners benefit you live in the triplex yeah so I live in the top unit so when I purchased a Triplex 2 years ago two years ago yeah about two years just over two years ago the main the top floor was vacant um so I renovated it gutted it um almost to the studs and refinish the entire unit oh wow so it’s a 1200t unit it was a two-bedroom unit I then converted it into a 2+ one um beautiful unit my contractor did a
(19:19) fantastic job and um yeah so I live on the top unit and the main and the basement unit are currently rented MH and because it’s City Toronto that’s why you can get at these kind of rents you’re probably not far from the subway no so I’m probably a 10-minute walk to Finch Station amazing and then probably about 11 minute walk to North York Center so yeah so that’s why I can get these great rents because you know an older two-bedroom apartment would is renting for about $2,600 whereas I just rented my basement
(19:49) a two-bedroom basement about 800 ft um for 24 plus utilities right so those rents are pretty good amazing yeah because your walk score is probably like 99 exactly exactly walking score to everything shops like you said transit entertainment very cool now we’ve we’ve talked micro I want to talk to my backup now now um what I like about you as a guest is you your entire career has essentially been in real estate including your education can you can you share about that sure so I went back to school as a mature student probably
(20:25) about 12 years ago and so I got laid off from my job I used to work for the Law Society and I knew I wanted to go back to school I just didn’t know what program I wanted to take and so I scurried through all the colleges universities real estate has always been a passion of mine since I my early 20s and I wasn’t necessarily looking for a real estate program but I wanted to finally take a program that would interest me so anyways long story short I started looking at a number of programs and I found this program that
(20:56) was offered through the University of British Columbia and senica college it was a joint program and I started looking at the courses and they all resonated with me so it was like um real estate investment analysis um property tax and Appraisal property tax and assessment uh law courses real estate law and so it just it to me it was a no-brainer it was a two-year program but because I had um previous gone to University and college before I was able to accelerate it and do it in eight months right and uh which means so l
(21:29) courses yeah so less exactly less courses it was it was still tough though I think I was taking six to seven courses a semester okay versus normal is like five yeah versus normal so you’re like 20 40% more workload exactly so it was intense like I didn’t see my family for eight months it was insane but it was totally worth the sacrifice and so with that graduated with um that diploma certificate from UBC in property tax and assessment so I’m technically a qualified appraiser I can go and start appraising properties
(21:58) if I wanted to right now I work for an appraisal company I decided not to go that route um as soon as I finished school I was hired by one of the larger reachs yeah um so a big one yeah big one so Choice proper they used to be called Canadian Real Estate Investment Trust but they were bought by Choice Properties so they’re you know gayen Weston they own all the Shoppers Drug Mars the LA Blas Etc um throughout Canada so they’re huge R um one got be one of the biggest oh yeah by far they’re one of the biggest if not the
(22:27) biggest now since the merger and so they own office Towers commercial properties they own industrial again right across Canada so they’re Coast to Coast so I used to work in the property tax and assessment uh department so I’d manage Consultants do the budgets for property tax um related I do forecasting for future um developments when they’re finished you know how much they were pay in property taxes um but what again what was cool though what I got excited about is the fact that my vice president was the vice president of developments and
(22:56) so he was in charge of all the acquisitions and dispositions so I was sitting with all the guys that were buying properties that were you know budgeting for huge developments you know $2 billion office properties commercial properties so I was in that group so I got to see it hear it and again I’ve always loved real estate always passionate about real estate so I learned a ton you know just by being there and you know being around those guys and uh yeah so from there I got recruited um to one of the companies
(23:27) that does the assessment and um um assessment in Ontario um from actually one of my former professors um she was the vice president there and I got recruited from her and then so I moved over there and yeah so I’ve been with so what what year was that mov that year was 2015 December 2015 you’re making me age myself or when um for the listener’s benefit we have we need to justify your reason to be here absolutely why did you listen so yeah so December 2015 I started at um this assessment organization and I’ve been there for 8
(24:00) and a half years in management and a senior management position now oh sorry just for the listen benefit for privacy reason we’re not naming it but it’s a big one that everybody knows yeah absolutely absolutely absolutely um you know I’m not there on I’m not here on their behalf which is why I’m not going to name it but but yeah they’re the biggest in North America okay right and uh so yeah so I is a it’s a National Organization right no provincial provincial okay so every province has their own jurisdiction and
(24:30) even some provinces it’s broken down by municipality so but again we’re the largest in North America I believe definitely Canada but I’m pretty certain in North America right and then what what kind of real estate did you assess all of it any Farm everything so every single property type in Ontario so Farm um office Towers you know TD Tower downtown Sky doome yeah so failing marks for anyone who can’t guess who this is but basically basically you can easily Google it you can easily Google me right um but yeah they’re they’re
(25:06) they’re huge and you know again so I’m I love real estate passion about real estate this allowed me to be in the real estate industry from a different perspective because I work in stakeholder relations um there but and it’s good relations and to me that’s my when people ask you what’s your superpower it’s to me it’s it’s relationship like I’m a relationship person you know naturally I enjoy people I’m able to build relationships with people very naturally easy and so that’s you know it’s no surprise at my day job I’m in I
(25:39) guess stakeholder relations amazing yeah that’s cool so yeah you’ve seen lots of stuff yeah seen lots of stuff like I said my background educational background um is in real estate assessment Taxation and of course you know I’ve been a real estate investor I’d say seriously for about nine years um and and yeah so I I have the Practical I guess and the theory mhm behind what I do and your day job isn’t it yeah and you’re paid lots of money to do this stuff yeah I get paid decent I got paid decent definitely I have no
(26:09) complaints uh sorry quick question about the UBC synica program is it still around yeah absolutely it is around actually I met with the coordinator of the program a month ago cuz I started a scholarship um at the program I started it a couple months ago actually it was one of my goals this year um in honor of my brother who passed away years ago in a car accident s so thanks so I so I started a scholarship on on his behalf and I was just met with the dean for a coffee who’s a lovely person and uh we were just catching up so because again
(26:42) the program was like you said it’s still around very beneficial did a ton for me from a career standpoint yeah um and just I I can’t see enough about the program right right because before we recording we were talking about like private education around this and coaching programs and how you know they can range from like 10 to 35,000 I’ve seen yeah per year versus like how much do you think this how much is the UBC course for example uh the program probably you’re probably looking at I don’t know maybe two grand two three grand a semester I’m
(27:13) sure inflation but still you know say you spend 10 grand for the two semesters if you do the accelerated program which is what I did you’re you’re almost guaranteed a job right basically they have like a 90% um chance that you’ll get a job when because such huge demand and it’s such a niche industry so you can either do inhouse property tax for a major re you can work for an assessment jurisdiction you can work for as an appraiser you can work as a consultant for property tax like you have a lot of opportunities and because the industry
(27:44) is so Niche there’s just not a lot of people right I actually have this conversation with a lot of investors when they like they tell me about what they’re paying for coaching whatever and then they’re they want to they want to do a development project and learn on the job I’m like yeah why not just get a job yeah and then not risk your credit and capital in like your home which is often the security for the development yeah yeah no absolutely like you can go learn on someone else’s dime and get paid for it well that’s it so but you’re right
(28:11) though right cuz it’s a it’s a win-win you’re learning you’re getting paid for it and you know most people I would argue and the best way to learn is learn by doing right and so you get to learn on someone else’s dime yeah you get paid yeah you mentorship it’s all part of the job you don’t have to pay for it exactly so to me it’s a win-win right right um and which is kind of how it worked out with me fortunately um especially at at the re right yeah so you you you have a wealth of knowledge to apply to your own
(28:41) portfolio so tell us about tell us about what are you investing sure so so this is your own portfolio yeah so my own personal portfolio that I built over the past seven years consists of several triplexes in Pickering and ashaa specifically um so you know the Ty go buy a detached property at a legal secondary Suite so I have several duplexes in again aswa Pickering I have a Airbnb in Blue Mountain that’s worked out really well I bought that about seven years ago8 minutes yet I paid $250,000 for a three bedroomroom four
(29:15) bath town home and uh 9 minute walk to the Village my actually my son and his friends are there right now sorry for the listeners benefit this is our I don’t really want to say it but it’s like a equ it’s Ontario’s equivalent to Whistler yes yeah Fair yeah fair not as nice but not as nice not not world class skiing but you know Ontario is really populated so they get a ton of people up there it’s a huge tourist destination humongous huge and so with that prices have you know more than tripled since I bought it so I I that property that was
(29:48) more luck than anything else and so I bought that with some investors so that worked out really well um I have a that Triplex that I’m converting now to a fourplex Young and Finch which which I bought two years ago I have a 11 unit building in Brandford where I bought with my partner and I we currently adding two more units so the property is more or less stabilized now which is awesome we bought that just under a year ago we bought that last year August closed on it last year August and we’re just working on like I said we have
(30:20) permits for the 12th unit we’re working on we’re getting a we applied for a minor variance for the 13th but that should go through and then we’ll be able to add two more units to that are these additions or within the existing envelope yeah so so one of them is we’re converting the washer the the laundry room laundry room thank you to a unit and then so that’s in the existing envelope and so we’re relocating the laundry room into the hallway the hallway is massive it’s a waste of space so we’ll close it off and add the washer
(30:51) and dryers there and then the other one we’re adding on top of the um existing envelope of the property so cost a bit more but okay so it’s like a top up exactly exactly how much is a topup cost so we don’t have many people doing top-ups in we’re budgeting about 160 grand for it because it’s going to be a small unit so it shouldn’t cost too much really cuz we’ll make the building is Brick but we’ll just use vinyl for this for the side we’ll put it off to the side so it won’t cost too much okay um how long does that take and there many
(31:21) contractors that do this yeah yeah so we’re we we’re still in the process of getting quotes because we’re still W we’re still waiting for the minor variants um but we got a quote for the first one I think we budgeted 70 grand for the first one because we’re using the existing envelope it’s it’s like a 400 square feet property around there and um so that’s not going to cost a lot Plumbing is already there electrical is already there it’s just about running um further plumbing and of course your framing your studs your drywall Etc
(31:50) kitchen bathroom exactly exactly IKEA style right um so that’s so that’s ongoing U my part George he takes the majority of lead on that so shout out to George and U also Sir George is more like the like the operations guy yeah he’s the operations guy so it’s interesting we so we’re both active investors and I’ve never I’ve never been a passive investor in my life so when we decided to team up to do this project you know we were talking back and forth you know who’s how do we do this right and I reached divide up the work right so I reached
(32:20) out to one of my mentors um ask him like you know you know how should we divide it how should we do it what are your thoughts and I got and he the exact same thing so the long story short is he takes most of the lead you know I provide you know my expertise in terms of knowledge um you know resources where he needed but he does a lot of the boots on the ground work which looking back at it now I’m glad I live in Toronto yeah bf’s a little far for you far for me much closer for him and traffic’s horrendous traffic’s horrendous and it allows me to
(32:51) continue working on my projects allows me to continue teaching and do all the great things that I really prefer to do yeah things you enjoy exactly and it’s a different tenant profile right and that’s one of the things what do you mean between braford and Toronto evening but even but even just the product type right so everyone touts multif family and multif family is great but you with multif family unless the property is in Toronto and even Toronto has sketchy multif family um um tenants but the tenant profile is just very different
(33:26) yeah for 11 unit in Brandford will be different than a duplex in aswa very different very different right like asosa you have workingclass people they’re not going to skip out on on your rent assuming you know you you you screen properly um I’ve never had an issue with a tenant in terms of R paying rent whereas Branford again totally different tenant profile apartment um but you’re also assuming these tenants you didn’t place them exactly totally different yeah so we got I think three or four units were vacant when we got it
(33:56) and now it’s fully stabilized which is is great we’re getting great rents um so right you know things are looking good but still different tenant profile which well an 11 unit in ashaa would likely have a similar profile to Brandford absolutely versus the duplex because the rents are in the duplex are way higher so again the price point kind of filters out your like well sort out your demographic yeah exactly price point and and and your T target audience with a duplex you’re going to get a small family one kid maybe two again they’re
(34:24) not going to skip out on on your rent you know in the middle middle of the night and do a and dash right you’re not going to get that generally speaking I’m generalizing but you’re not going to get that type of tenant profile with a duplex um whereas 12 Unit in ashaa or brenford some of those tents have probably been there forever exactly exactly so some like be on government assistance and again I’m generalizing stere for sure you get talking from my experience you get that and that’s why for me I’m decided to stick with you
(34:56) know like singles duplex Triplex because of the ten yeah and what I’m looking for in life yeah like yeah I the same thing like I think everyone should just um Define who they want as their Customer because you’re going to be they’ll be part of your life yeah so if if if certain people you don’t want to be part them to be part of your life then maybe that’s not for you agree like for example like in an 11 Plex in Branford so I’ll use my own experience like if it was an 11 Plex in Hamilton you know probably half the
(35:24) units the tend to smoke which is their right I don’t like smoke so I don’t want to be there so that’s why it’s not part of my strategy yeah and we had that same issue too when we moved in for months tenant smoking your Tri no not no not the Trix no in the uh Branford got it yeah all right so to your point my in my Triplex I have young the true definition of like young professionals just both graduated from um UFT master’s program got jobs before they graduated and working I think for celestica and oh they’re making good
(35:59) money though yeah yeah both making good money young tech people um yeah and my other tenant is an engineer yeah right so totally different tenant profile right which I prefer I want I want peace in my life yeah yeah right and again I don’t I I am passionate about real estate but I’m more passionate about traveling and spending time in family so amazing that’s my focus okay we need to take the travel but I still need to get the George Brown can I say that yeah yeah of course absolutely yeah how do you end up teaching college yeah so so
(36:30) great question something that I didn’t expect I would do too so one of my best my best friend uh we we go out once a month we’ll have dinner we’ll talk about life like everyone else business Etc and I told him that I want to create a a program and a real estate program for um new investors and I’m thinking about may maybe not sure how I’ll set it up would I do a workshop on the weekend like many other investors um but I wanted to teach it at a college and he was like yeah that’s a great idea he’s like well I’m uh you know I teach
(37:03) at George Brown and I can connect you and I’m like oh my gosh I forgot that you teach there right so the next day it’s it’s a part-time thing for him too totally yeah yeah he he doesn’t teach you anymore he actually he facilitates the the um he’s just one of the coordinators so he built um an HR program there and so he he connected me with the dean of continuing education and we had a like a three-hour conversation back in um your first conversation was 3 hours about 2 hours about a 2our conversation we hit it off
(37:35) still long yeah we hit it off really nice guy he was totally um interested and and in what I was going to going to uh offer in terms of you know the Target and George Brown doesn’t have a program like that and I don’t think any college has a program like that and um so he looked me up you know he did some research on me I could tell he went on my LinkedIn profile and obviously wanted to make sure I was credible and you know did some other due diligence and then he called me back a couple weeks later and he’s like yeah we’d love to have you
(38:02) teach so I developed the program the curriculum and uh that took several weeks and then I started teaching so the course is geared to new investors and the reason I did that is selfishly is because I know when I was in my early 20s you know internet wasn’t as readily available as it was you know I had no one to go to you know I guess the typical immigrant parents they were trying to you didn’t have a smartphone that used access the internet no not at all and I didn’t have anyone in my circle that I could use as a mentor or
(38:34) leverage and so that’s why I wanted to create this program that could be a starting block for new investors right um like someone like the 20-year-old you yeah ex exactly a 20-year-old me surprisingly enough my my the age range of the program is probably on uh probably maybe 40 right because it is done through the continuing education program okay in the evening so which is fine though because these people are more likely to take action this age group they either have a house or they’re thinking about buying a house so I just hope more young
(39:08) people would take it too some 18y olds 20y olds no I haven’t I think the youngest person in my program so far is probably late 20s right because I’m guessing they don’t get a they don’t this this credit isn’t credited to wordss or diplomas exactly exactly it isn’t credited towards a certificate program or diploma and nor do I want to build a curriculum that way way like my focus is just to give them enough tools and I try to make it as practical as possible that’s the benefit right not just Theory just practical so I provide resources I
(39:39) provide podcasts you know like so one of my slides is here are some real estate investment groups in Alberta because I have students in Alberta I had a student reach out um from New Brunswick that’s going to take my course so I find real estate groups saying Hey cuz to me one of the things that you should do as an investor is join a real estate group like that propelled me as a new invest and durh exactly durh sh Quinton yeah shout out quintona and that helped Propel my investment career and so that’s one of the things I promote right
(40:09) so I have a slide with you know a number of real estate groups in the GTA that I think are credible I have you know podcast you know one of the podcasts that I listen to right again free education so yes you are going to have to pay for certain things but you know what are what are other ways that you can educate yourself um and podcast is a great way it’s free you can listen to it at your leisure so again practical tools I try to I provide to the students and steps that they can take to start their Journey amazing how long did it take you
(40:40) to put together this course oh probably about a month and a half right how many hours do you think that was oh god of effort maybe 50 hours okay 50 hours um the good part is a lot of the knowledge I already had a lot of the knowledge it was just putting it on paper putting it on a slide deck presenting it properly making sure that I’m not using a lot of jargon and I can explain it easily to the students and then you know where I have the gaps because I’m definitely not an expert in every field I’ll bring in a
(41:16) expert in the industry right so if I want to present on short short-term rentals or midterm rentals I’ll bring in a midterm Rental specialist um if I’m really passionate about a project um or shouldn’t say a project but a strategy that I think is working right now I’ll bring in an expert on that strategy if I’m not the expert so it’s awesome because you know you have you get to obviously hear me speak and and you know try to share my knowledge but then you also have experts in the industry that you wouldn’t typically have access to
(41:46) unless you’re paying hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars for coaching or workshops Etc and so it’s it’s a huge win for the students and where can people find more information on on the George Brown course yeah so if you go to George Brown continuing education uh course you can find it there I think it’s under the business um program but I I would just type up real George Brown real estate investment strategies and it’ll come up so again just type George Brown real estate investment strategies and you’ll see the course I typically
(42:14) run it each semester so the next course starts I think September 11th and then I I run it again in the winter and I think the next course is around February and then I take the summer off because I like to spend time with family and and just relax and it’s it’s $10 to $35,000 to take this course it’s actually 26,000 no I’m kidding so again for limited time only for limited time only there’s only eight slots left run to the back of the room going back to what I said earlier I wanted to provide the education to the audience again I
(42:48) thought about myself when I was in you know when I when I was 20 years or 20 years ago and I couldn’t afford a course for 10 or $5,000 25 years ago and so I wasn’t going to even consider charging that much I wanted to make sure it was accessible and affordable for the average person so the course is around $400 and it’s eight courses for roughly three hours I think it’s two and a half hours once a week so it’s a very affordable course and what I like is that so a lot of people like you irn they’ll reach out to me on Instagram and
(43:21) say hey can I pick your brain can I take you for lunch and you know I’m probably too nice when it comes to that I will always do it and so now what I do is and you know it’s not and I’m not promoting my course but what I tell them is take the course and then I’m happy to have a couple consults with you after because I know that if you are serious you’ll spend $400 but if you’re not serious you’re not going to spend $400 and I’m frankly I’m just not going to spend time with you right yeah so that especially with like absolute begin your questions
(43:52) should I incorporate or not uh what are the top cities to invest in yeah yeah that’s that’s like the number one rookie question I always tell people that what what uh should I incorporate now or later like but yeah so it allows me to actually step one figure out how to make money basically right we’re all going to pay taxes yeah so it allows me to sift through people that are actually going to take action um which you know so so to spend $400 not a lot of money they can start to learn and then like I said I I do provide my time I tell each
(44:23) student I’ll give them three hours of free consult to help them along their Journey right afterwards for a $400 course yeah where they’re going to learn a bunch of stuff to get three hours of your time as well yeah which is insane I mean I know myself I’ve paid $400 an hour to consult with certain people yeah well our lawyers are like right and I even saying other Real Estate Investors that I respect I’ve spent upwards of $400 for an hour of consult right so you’re getting I don’t know what is it 24 hours for $400 so anyways I think it I
(44:57) think it’s a great program um especially for what you’re what you’re paying and it’s it’s a great way to start you know if you’re a seasoned investor this is definitely not for you um but for those people that want to start the process and they have they don’t know where to go they don’t have resources then this is a great way to start I always think it’s good for refresher as well especially for $400 and you can take this anytime you want you deliver it live looks like I deliver it live September’s delivered live 6 6:15 p.m.
(45:25) on Wednesdays delivered live and you get the recording yeah you get the recording right how long you get to keep the recording you can keep it as long as you want if you download it oh wow yeah which is cool yeah okay and you get you get my slides as well um but and you get to meet other people you get to build relationships with other industry folks because again I bring in a lot so what I’ve heard from many students is that one of the greatest benefits that they’ve seen is that the resources that I bring that I
(45:53) bring in right so again I bring in experts in the industry um from you know whether it’s folks in the west whether it’s folks in the East so you know if you live in the East or you want to invest in the east then I’ll bring in experts in the East that can whether it’s a real estate agent whether it’s a mortgage specialist to um you know to help people on their Journey because as you know Irwin if you’re going to become an investor you want to work with investor focused everything investor focused agent investor focused mortgage
(46:20) broker investor Focus appraiser etc etc and so these are the resources that I bring in that I make available to my students which otherwise they wouldn’t know how to do folks you’ve already vetted exactly yeah cuz I you and I both know that you can’t trust everybody oh gosh and that’s one of the things I stress on my course is that just because someone’s on Instagram yeah you know in front of a plane or in front of a fancy car means nothing yeah a lot of those people went bankrupt recently yeah exactly sadly so sadly to your point you
(46:50) know I make sure I vet the people and that you know they’re aligned with my values right it’s not all about money yeah we all want to make money that’s fantastic but like they actually truly want to help people that’s important to me yeah amazing and we before we recording we were talking about like return on investment you know if your investment for Education starts at $400 there’s a good chance your return on investment will outperform no question a lot of things yeah right no question I know I know I’ve had people on the show
(47:19) who who’ve taken like $30,000 programs whatnot I had one that took I had someone that took paid 40,000 and it was complet they said it was complete sham uh so you know negative Roi for 40,000 but again like you know this is a small bite yep small bite great way to leverage resources great way to see if you want to get started and you know one one of my first class I tell people tell my students that you know before you even consider becoming a real estate investor you need to decide what type of real estate investor you want to be
(47:53) meaning are you going to be an active partner are you going to be a passive um um investor sorry active investor or passive investor and I met one of my students um I won’t say her name but she she was actually at the event I saw you at that Rockstar event the last one actually and um she’s a doctor and she’s like I don’t need the money obviously right but I’m going to retire soon and I need someone to keep myself stimulated and so I told I told her and I met her after and I said you need to figure out what type of investor
(48:22) you want to be based on where you are and then we met her for a coffee a couple weeks ago and she said she’s like okay Brian I’ve decided I want to be a passive investor for now until I wind up my practice and then also become active and I’m like awesome you know now your next step is deciding who you want to partner with right so again everyone thinks they want to become an investor or an active investor but there’s other ways to become um an investor right like through channels like share um which we’ll probably talk about later but
(48:49) there’s different ways to still invest in real estate but not be an active investor as you know Irwin right I will say and I think always it always I always like to repeat it is uh in my experience people who get rich are generally the ones who who are somewhat active by definition they’re active and I’ll qualify by that saying U they’re they’re 100% owners yeah right it’s it’s I don’t know many passive investors who get rich going that way if they get rich if they make a lot of money like a million or more it’s typically because
(49:21) they have a lot of money to put in right exactly and they don’t need the money originally right it’s just a great way for them to diversify and on the flip side though the people who are losing their shirts were the active investors as well true so more risk right more risk more risk but then we we this the stuff that’s going on that like neither of you or I were ever touch no no like we before we were recording you were talking about and I say this all the time I do one project at a time y right like my Project’s not over until tenants
(49:48) in rent rent’s being paid and collected and properties refinance for me like again I’m very methodical and some people will say slow so part of the that my investment Club I know people are doing FES or were doing five or six Burrs flips at the same time and I’m like wow that’s fantastic but I’ve always said I’m going to buy renovate you know Place ATT tenant like you said refinance the property and once my refinance is done then I’ll take a break for couple weeks and then I’ll look for the next property so that cycle is
(50:18) usually about 8 months from beginning to end and so I you know for the past seven or eight years I’ve been buying a property about every eight months but it worked for me I have two kids I enjoy full-time job I and a parttime job and a parttime job and now I teach as well so you know my time is very precious like most of ours and I want to make sure that I’m using my time in the best way and I don’t want I don’t I don’t need to do two or three Deals you know simultaneously I don’t need that for my goals again and you know or I don’t have
(50:52) to tell you but one of the first things you should do when when you become an investor is saying you know what are my goals what are my objectives what am I trying to achieve and I didn’t that was a mistake I made I just did what everyone else was doing but um you need to decide like what are what are your goals what are your objectives and the strategy should then be determined based on what your objectives and goals are right where they should align and so you really need to determine like what are you trying to achieve with your
(51:18) Investments um so yeah that’s kind the point of the show as well is like if uh for example I have like I’ll have like stars like yourself like Thea like Ryan Carr on the show and then I extract from them like what their day-to-day looks like what what that period of life has been like for them to to You Know M build massive portfolios and now for an investor who’s listening to this like I want to be like Ryan Carr like okay understand Ryan car is like a 7 to S guy seven days a week 7:00 a.m.
(51:48) to 7 p.m. that’s how he works like oh I don’t want to do that but I want the same results like can’t have it both ways I don’t know how you get there is my point and that’s kind of the point of the show when I have people like that on right like you know and then like for me I know I’m not that so I Stay in My Own Lane agree right and again that’s the kind of the point of the show like this is how they got there and now decide for yourself where you fit into that yeah I agree with you 100% And I remember when
(52:11) I was when I was traveling with Quinton last month he said to me he’s like you know there’s times that I’m very stressed like there’s a lot of stress that comes with having a portfolio and it really made me think to exactly what you were saying like you know it’s great to be extremely successful but understand that there’s downsides right stressed um you have to be available you know so it’s in many cases you can’t have it both ways like you have to put the work in you have to put the time in if you want a mass a massive portfolio
(52:41) yeah and and uh and like we are in real estate winter right now I was talking to uh someone you know someone you know as well who whose apartment buildings to sell and I don’t even think they’re getting showings and she’s a great investor and she your buildings aren’t even getting showings yeah right I know who you’re talking about yeah so it’s whereas fast forward or go back two years ago and people were buying side on scene yeah villains were going like hot cake Hot Cakes it’s six PL I’ll write the offer right now yeah no totally I
(53:12) remember I was flying looking at look looking for apartment buildings it was it was a totally different environment totally crazy totally crazy um but you know and everyone was celebrating everyone was making money but like uh but yeah so many people have gone quiet social media right now for example yeah well it’s again it’s telling and again I tell my students yeah the war Muffet quote right yeah like when what does it go again when when the goes out yeah you know who’s swimming naked and this is what you’re seeing so I expect to see a
(53:43) lot of investors disappear a lot I expect to see only a few investors really left over the next couple years which is why I still think there’s you know there’s still a ton of opportunities depending on the strategy but a lot of people have already disappeared right you know you’ve seen the news um headlines like I have you know we’re in the Investment Circle you know we you know I hear things people that I know that have done extremely well you know they tell me about other people that have reached out to them and
(54:10) see if they see if they’re buying yeah yeah yeah I have this to sell you buying exactly so although again what people yeah we went from flying to fine building leads to sellers of of owners of apartment buildings calling you to see if you’re buying you’re 100% right people reached out to me and said hey this person’s selling their buildings they’re offloading all their buildings really but it’s it’s just a different time and you have to understand that and some of the great best advice I’ve gotten from one of my previous mentors
(54:39) was that you have to have staying power and I was like what do you mean what do you mean by that right and what he said is older guy’s I think he’s probably 60 and so he’s been through the ups and downs of the real estate cycle and he’s like you know there are going to be bad times and you you need to have you need to be liquid enough to get through those bad times and Co taught me if Co taught me anything was that from a financial standpoint was that when covid hit I wasn’t liquid um April rolled around and like
(55:14) many investors I was very concerned because we thought you know Doug Ford was telling people not to pay rent um politicians were saying not to pay rent I love that and so I was worried right that who wasn’t exactly every investor was worried everyone was sh so I’m running I’m running all these models saying okay what do I look like and I had access to you know line of credits and so on right I access a ton of line of credits but I did not have a lot of cash right right you know give God thanks all my tenants continued to pay
(55:43) but it taught me a lesson without going through the lesson was that I was not comfortable relying just on my helocs to get me through bad times so I started raising Capital right enough Capital right to to get me through the back at times which is actually the only reason why I was really able to buy that apartment building that I bought last year because I had Capital um for an emergency fund MH so you know a lot of people have have come through the situation where you know we’re all dealing with rough times
(56:13) now because of interest rates but you know a lot of people are overleveraged they have no Capital available and no liquidity they have no liquidity right no credit no credit no liquidity and sorry I’ll clarify credit like they’re credible it says lenders ain’t lending lenders aren’t lending you know they have to exit deals like we were talking about with private money um you know I raise private money for this this uh duplex s not duplex this building that we bought fantastic deal we did a vtb and then a good friend of mine led us to
(56:49) rest privately um but I made sure that I had like threee btb right because I knew this wasn’t going to pass anytime soon soon um and so so far it’s working out extremely well but I told people if you’re going to do a btb now or private funds you better have it for at least two to three years at a minimum and this was about a year ago yeah get through real estate winter get through real estate winter but um but yeah so it’s tough times you know I don’t wish ill on anyone I hope everyone’s able to make it through this you know this downturn but
(57:21) that’s not going to be the situation no it’s going to be pretty bad yeah yeah it’s going be this is going to be the worst correction I’ve seen because um you I I saw some people go belly back in 0807 0708 but the commun the investment the community is way larger now yeah and there um and The Leverage that people took on was way higher than back then yeah by far Yeah by far by far so we are going to see way more Carnage here cuz a lot of it was hard money loans in this current time versus back then it was people with people it was largely equity
(57:56) deals back then yeah yeah but the cash flow just yeah well the credit ran up credit problems cash flow problems and that that put people under but like all the this current generation they never learn from those mistakes because they’re brand new y yeah and they never like I said experience there’s one thing you know when you when you teach Theory or you listen to Theory but you really learn through taking action and actual practical experience and a lot of these folks have never been through a downturn yeah right so they don’t know how to
(58:24) react yeah 2008 was a credit crisis meaning there was no credit so your portfolio should be stress tested against what if you can’t get more credit yeah and most people don’t even understand that right so again I stress tested my portfolio I don’t know I can’t tell you how many times over the past three years right whereas you know newer investors I mean you upwards of five years they probably don’t even know how to stress test their their portfolio properly because they they can just continue to raise money right right or
(58:51) or or interest rates not interest rates or values continue to go up so it’s you know it’s good times and you know even myself included I got pretty comfortable in that prices were just going up right um but you know it’s unfortunate but again I think there’s going to be more opportunities because there’s going to be a lot less investors right in the next for people who have capital and credit exactly for people which we’ve always known yeah you have capital on credit you will win Agreed 100% now we Al you and I have also talked about a
(59:19) bit about the states as well what what are you seeing I think most people know where our standpoint is yeah I think most people and like I said recording I don’t want to drink my own Kool-Aid no no no but I so here’s there’s a couple reasons I like the states I think Canada you know and I love Canada I was born and raised in Canada is on an economic decline right like even if you don’t understand money and I spend a lot of time understanding money money supply um the history of money and how money works and so on
(59:50) right but even if you don’t understand that and you know you’re not really into that Canada has has and had a a productivity problem right we’re just not productive which is interesting considering that we bring in and I was thinking about this on the way here we we bring in record numbers of immigrants and especially way more per capita than the US oh yeah then you ask yourself why is Canada not as productive right because a lot of the productivity The Innovation the entrepreneurship comes from immigrants right at least in the
(1:00:23) states and some degree here too so why musk was an immigrant yeah so so why do we have such a productivity problem right and we could spend hours talking about that but the reality is Canada is on an economic decline um our productivity is like the lowest I think in the G7 and the bright spot of Canada right now is Alberta because of oil of course um but and they’re attracting all the talent of people and they’re attracting all the talent absorbing it from everyone else and they have aord housing so where does that leave the rest of
(1:00:59) Canada um we live in Ontario you know you probably know Ontario has the highest sub sovereign debt in the world meaning if Ontario was a country they’d be the most indebted in the world most people don’t know that so think about that for a second yeah and while our services haven’t improved hasn’t Ser has healthare and education haven’t improved so what does that mean Irwin it means that governments have to raise taxes which they did which they did and will continue to raise taxes um it means that it will be tougher for
(1:01:29) landlords or rental providers going forward investors period investors period there’s no question in my opinion so if you believe those things which I do I think it’s prudent to look elsewhere so and I also realized too and a friend of mine was telling me this when we were traveling it’s like he said he owns a number of properties in the States because a him and his wife were thinking about moving there wintering there but also he never has to change you his Canadian currency when he travels to the US and I’m like that’s a
(1:02:02) fantastic idea if nothing especially at today’s rates especially at today’s rates they were like 72 cents right now yeah especially after the most recent announcement uh interest rate announcement yesterday and so you ask yourself where are you going to go right you know we we border the the country that has the largest um the largest economy in the world or is almost everything right and that has similar property rights which are important to Canada yeah and that’s still very productive and still has the the world
(1:02:42) Reserve currency sure it’ll be gone in 20 30 years but yeah yeah we’ll be dead i’ probably be dead by then I may be dead by then no maybe not yeah but but I’ll be well set up for it exactly that’s my point that’s my point right so I’ve started doing some research I started talking to different people i’ I’ve had a couple calls with Sher I started doing my own macro research um no different than what I teach in you know my course and we should have lunch and talk about it totally should so I’ve narrowed down my search to Atlanta oh
(1:03:12) that’s where I’m going to buy and I started researching the neighborhoods the only thing I don’t know with is am I going to go with am I going to get use share to support the process for the first couple properties and go on my own or do I just go on my own and just start buying so that’s that’s where I’m at right now I want to take a trip to Atlanta either this month MH or next month just deciding on life because I may have some Life Changes soon so if that does happen then I’ll probably go in mid August um if not I’ll go in I’ll
(1:03:42) go September and do boots on the ground and and just to get a feel I’m a very visual tactile person so I like to see touch and feel and I find taking a couple trips out there um just to get a feel of communities and so on make sense but I’m I am my focus after completing this Garden Suite in Toronto will be the US um single family homes yeah yeah and I I keep having to CU Canadians are generally marketed courses around much more advanced things I find CU because there’s no cash flow in single family homes condos single
(1:04:15) detach duplexes really y so almost everyone comes to me like oh I’m on a garden Suite I’ll buy a apartment building like in your they’re a complete novice and they’re like why are you buying single family home in the states like so like literally my house in San Antonio is a 5.1 cap rate Wow versus duplexes for my math for like Osa Ottawa Hamilton roughly about like a 4.1 to 4.
(1:04:40) 3 yeah and think about it right if you could buy a single family house in a GTA you would go nuts and just start buying single family homes right the least tenant issues yeah at least tenant issues um you’re not dealing with multiple tenants you don’t have to split the utilities split you’re getting a higher profile tenant your property manager loves you property manager loves you it just makes sense so you can go to the largest economy in the world in great neighborhoods beautiful homes oh they’re so nice and cash flow or break even on a single
(1:05:15) family house yeah yeah why would I complicate it I’m a simple guy Irwin so to me it just makes sense from a currency diversification standpoint a geographic diversification standpoint and like I said unfortunately things are going to get worse in so many different ways in Ontario again whether it’s it’s um increased taxes U more Pro um tenant legislation anti- landlord anti capitalist sentiment anti- capitalist sentiment anti- bus sentiment at some point people are just going to give up investors right and seen well yeah you
(1:05:56) see it I’m sure you saw the same stats the same stats I saw where they said there were record outflows of capital um in Canada record right B Canadians Canadians aren’t investing locally Canadians aren’t investing locally and although people will always hate on landlords but the reality is you know there are small landlords like us or rental providers like us that are you know that own one to 20 units we’re the ones that are responsible for producing like 80% of the housing in Ontario by adding one two or three Suites so if
(1:06:29) people like us are leaving and I can’t tell you irn there’s not a there’s not a real estate meeting or real estate session that goes by where I speak to an investor that either has left or they’re thinking about leaving mhm yeah wait till I talk to them honestly so not everyone’s going to leave and don’t get me wrong I still think there’s opportunities here from like small development intensification yeah but I think you really I think if you look long term the opportunities are going to dry up in the GTA yeah in the next I don’t
(1:07:08) know three four years yeah like even just simply like my my uh cash to close in my house in San Antonio is 67,000 American wow right like that’s your hard cost on your garden Suite or 130,000 Canadian I paid I paid what did I pay I paid I think I paid like 25,000 land transfer tax oh my God on this Triplex I bought two years ago was insane some ridiculous amount Hey cuz it’s Toronto yeah CU of Toronto you’re paying double land transfer tax but you know I I think it’s prudent to start looking at other options yeah
(1:07:46) my advice to my clients is um you know you don’t have to sell everything but your your next purchase you have to compare to what we’re doing in the States agree agreed and and I’m not going to like there’s a couple properties I have I don’t I don’t usually buy new construction at all but I did buy a new construction um in Georg and Bay I paid 600,000 for 2200t end unit town home on a golf course sounds amazing yeah fantastic deal it’s gone up hundreds of thousands of dollars and they keep pushing the closing which is
(1:08:17) fantastic for me um but I also own a property in Blue Mountain with investors that property the property in Georgia Bay I won 100% And but I I’m not going to keep both properties right like I don’t need two I don’t need both properties so I’ll sell one of those and I’ll divert that cash to the states um but I will sell one or two properties and invest there and right now I’m just in the process of raising capital and I’ll use some of my own to make my first purchase but I think you have to look outside of Ontario or Canada I think you
(1:08:50) we’re we’re at a point now where it’s not a nice to have it’s a I think you almost have to start looking outside to me I think it’s a baseline I think I think a share of property for everyone in that and you know obviously I’m biased but Al straight up I make more money selling a local property in commission wise than I do in in the states not even close uh but yeah so my bias my professional opinion is a share of property should be everyone’s Baseline and compare everything against that yeah both in terms of cash flow return and
(1:09:22) effort and capital out outlay right like we know many people who are shelling up 300 350 to build Garden suites yeah right 350 I know a friend of built the 350 I know someone who spent 500,000 yeah and you get no land with that right and because we in real estate cuz we want hard assets yeah I get I have a large lot in the state I’m getting my San Antonio property but but it’s a good point though because if you spend 350,000 on a garden Suite you 200,000 yeah but let’s say you’re going to be conservative you wanted to dip your feed
(1:09:54) in and you bought it cash 300,000 like I don’t know or like it said buy two properties spit it I don’t know I just think at that at this point now a lot of investors are looking for ways to continue to invest and until something changes with Garden suites the math doesn’t make sense because if you spend $350,000 you’re better off lending it at 10% ideally using two tfsas so you don’t pay taxes and then you pay tax on the other because interest interest interest income is taxed high and but otherwise like it it doesn’t make
(1:10:29) Financial sense I’m generalizing to build a garden Suite yeah I agree with that right I don’t even think it makes sense for a basement Suite no because if you spend say you spend 80 grand on a basement Suite 90 oh that’s a cheap one okay yeah I mean if you’re if you don’t have connection you’ll spend 130 but I would probably end up spending about 90 right it’s still worth it because 90 so you do that in Ashawa you’ll get $1900 rent it’s still worth it now if I know people a friend of mine she just finished a
(1:11:01) basement she spent 180 Grand for basement and some cosmetic finishes at the top so at some point it doesn’t make sense but it doesn’t make sense because the purchase price is too high so whether it’s whether it makes sense to spend the money on a basement apartment you can’t buy the house to spend the money on the basement apartment because prices are too high so it doesn’t make sense dup the duplex formula is gone that ship has sailed years ago it doesn’t make sense which is why people are you know pushing Garden suites but
(1:11:30) Garden suites also don’t make sense unless in my opinion you can use a detached garage to do it yeah do with in an existing building exactly but otherwise Garden suites don’t make sense yeah yeah so I’ll throw in at the other pieces uh my current observation of the current market is that the market we uh for example I believe there’s six legal duplexes in the in sitting in Hamilton that aren’t selling they’re vacant wow so the market is telling me that buyers don’t want rental property like there’s a cuz my original
(1:12:01) philosophy with buying doing basement suiting duplexes was that people would want the mortgage assistance from having the rent being able to rent out part of the house M but the the current market is telling me that’s not not wanted anymore interesting right the the the uh the market is telling me that like being a landlord is like a basically a stigma no one there the market does not want to be a landlord so that part that plays into my decision why would I invest all that money if buyers don’t want it now
(1:12:31) that’s a snapshot of this current market I don’t know what’s going to happen a year from now but based on what I know today this is where it is and and if the LTB doesn’t improve how does this how does this change well we know that’s not going to improve and and well you know what it’s funny because my students I’ve had a couple students reach out to me and and they don’t want to buy an Ontario at all they’re just not interested they won’t yeah buy an Ontario and it’s because of they don’t want to be landlords because they’re afraid of
(1:12:59) they don’t want exposure to the LTB exactly which is reasonable which is very reasonable and so they’re looking at other options so even new investors which I mean most new investors they want to invest close to home it’s familiar you know they feel it’s easier money though right which is more money but even new investors now which is interesting they’re not they don’t even want to invest in Ontario so it tells you how bad things are mhm mhm right and even my one experience is being a realtor uh is converting rich people to
(1:13:30) become landlords in Ontario really difficult oh yeah yeah because they don’t to them it’s not worth it no because they’re rich yeah they’re rich they value their peace and they don’t want the headaches y yeah so again so that plays into my decision my my own current theory that it doesn’t make sense to basement Suite or garden sweet yeah and as you get older too or as I get older you know my my needs change right so I’m not going to yeah do some of the things that I did when I started 79 years ago right oh yeah this is fluid
(1:14:03) I want is fluid right I want more peace right so to more to me single family homes in great markets makes sense yeah I was just in I was in Atlanta just uh two months ago for uh a networking meeting among seven figure entrepreneurs and I met a rapping manager there who who manages 800 units wow I’m like oh you have a qualified what are you buying next single family homes okay okay you just more of my own Kool-Aid but again qualified opinion right yeah no agreed agreed all right we have to talk about Everest because
(1:14:38) you’re crazy sure let’s talk about Everest what do you want to talk about what L you the people die wait did you see bodies no well we saw we saw a shrine so let me backtrack so I’m sorry I’m just getting right into it let me backtrack so why did I do Everest let’s backtrack so I climbed kilamanjaro last year and the reason I did it was because my my mentor at the time as we were planning out I think 2023 he he wanted me one of the things he wanted me to do was he wanted me to do something that was going to challenge me physically and
(1:15:13) mentally and make me uncomfortable yeah you could go run a 5k right could you could but so this was December 2022 and I had just come back from a trip with a couple Durham REI members and I remember Quinton saying that he was going to he was going to climb Kil Manjaro and when he told me I kind of gave I kind of just did the whole IR roll thing cuz I was like yeah good for you right and um you know I moved on and then when I sat with my my mentor at the time I was like okay and I so anyway I went back and I messaged Quinton and I
(1:15:43) was like hey is there a room for me right cuz I was like oh that’s going to make me uncomfortable I’ve never even camped before I’ve never slept in I’ve never slept in a sleeping bag before I’m not an outdoors person nothing so I knew this would make me a hardcore city boy yeah I’m a city boy right I mean sure I go to a cottage but I’m in a nice Lake I’m sleeping indoors airing air conditioning yeah yeah the weather’s not going to kill you outside no no not at all so I knew this was going to challenge me mentally physically push me
(1:16:11) make me uncomfortable and anyway long story short I I you know I went on that trip to uh to kilamanjaro how hard is that oh it was very hard the last night I got very sick I could barely I so we started we started our Trek about 12:00 in the morning and it was a 10-hour Trek to get to the peak so it was- 20 um it was you’re wearing so you’re wearing five layers B bottom and top I felt amazing I started walking ear than I kid you not within 50 minutes of starting you know the ascent 12:00 in the morning I felt sick I started
(1:16:47) getting hot flashes I thought I was going to pass out so I I needed to sit what was this altitude sickness food poisoning was it altitude sickness that that got you no yeah altitude sickness and long story short so for the next 15 20 hours going up and down I struggled I could barely walk I was literally taking four steps pausing for I don’t know two or three minutes the uh our Sherpa thank God they were were awesome they were literally feeding me my protein bars because I was so weak it was it was absolutely it it was the most difficult
(1:17:24) thing I’ve ever done in my Life by far hands down um wait hang on how much harder is Everest then so the difference I find with Everest is most of kilamanjaro was manageable except the last night right Summit night so the last 36 hours that was absolute hell the difference with Everest is every day was difficult it was manageable but every day was very difficult so I think overall Everest was harder than kilamanjaro um you know but everyone has their own opinion but the views with Everest were absolutely stunning but again very
(1:18:04) mentally tough you know physically tough but it’s worth it it’s worth it so I’m a big believer in pushing yourself making yourself uncomfortable I think those things build resilience when things go bad like they are now with you know many Real Estate Investors and I think it makes you it just makes you a better person father husband wife because it builds resilience if you if you purposely put yourself in uncomfortable situations you’re going to build that experience experience on how to deal with uncomfortable situations right so
(1:18:34) when they actually occur um involuntarily you have that experience and you don’t bury yourself your head in the sand so to me it’s it’s it’s done wonders for me I think over the past couple years I know it sounds crazy and I’m not a like I’m people are like oh you’re a hiker I’m like no I’m not a hiker I mean I like it but I’m not a hiker I just do it to push myself and you meet amazing people which has been pretty awesome did you get sick wait how do you prepare yourself for altitude so when I was climbing Killy I went to a gym
(1:19:06) downtown Toronto called altitude and they can simulate the loss of oxygen mask and so you can simulate different elevations so I did that um to train and then for Everest it was just regular training you know strength training cardio um hiking up Mountain ski hills in Toronto they have a couple ski hills in Toronto and so i’ you know walk up and down the hills um how how many months was prep for Everest so Everest I prepped for four months I started January and serious May yeah so four months and yeah so it’s you know it’s a lot of
(1:19:43) training you have to walk you should walk at least three or four hours a couple times a week just so your body gets used to walking that long cuz generally you’re walking 6 to 8 hours a day uphill sometimes just steps which I was expecting so you could walk 3 hours up a up a hill just step after step after step you know in 35° weather so it’s brutal sorry 35 Fahrenheit or Celsius 30 Celsius it was hot yeah hot so the first couple days it’s very hot oh yeah yeah first couple days it’s very hot because you’re at sea
(1:20:15) level right okay and then and then once yeah once you start ascending it gets colder and colder and colder and colder right so like where that picture was taken that was a base camp and you know so there’s glaciers off to the side you can see glaciers and just um yeah absolutely incredible for the listeners benefit we’re looking at uh Brian’s Instagram uh acquiring wisdom base C 5,000 almost 5,400 meter elevation yeah so about that’s what uh it’s probably about 16 17,000 feet above sea level what’s the equivalent in Canada would
(1:20:52) that that’s Canada we’re probably at sea level so maybe like would would B be close to that elevation no not even close not even close nothing nothing in North America nothing North America no okay nothing in North America South America has a couple mountains that are huge AK in kagwa um but nothing close to this would you recommend this experience absolutely I re so here’s what I tell people you don’t need to climb a mountain uh most people won’t that’s fine but just find things that are going to push you and make you uncomfortable
(1:21:22) so if you’re afraid of heights you know maybe do the Tower um walk outside I think you did that right did you do that done three times doing a. this summer yeah so do that right it’s going to make you uncomfortable it’s going to push you do whatever is that you know is going to make you uncomfortable it’s going to push you because there’s lots of local options there are a lot of local options but one of the cool things is again we were talking about I’m a relationship person and you meet people from all over
(1:21:48) the world yeah right and which we all stay in contact we have a WhatsApp group so a lot of the people that I climb kill them on J are the same people that I climbed Everest with right and we’re all we’re it’s an experience of travel you’re you’re all bonded for life exactly exactly and you know we stay in contact you know we message each other all the time so it’s very cool and you know we’re planning our next trip we’ll see where that takes us but it’s awesome Atlanta Georgia there’s mountain to climb there but yeah I’m I’m just a big
(1:22:20) believer in pushing yourself amazing right all right all we’re running out of time Brian I always like to give some um some open air to my my guests anything we haven’t covered or you want to share um not really just take action in life be intentional about life regardless of what it is if you want to build wealth take action if you want to become a better father be intentional you know I book date nights with my daughter you know I book you know date nights with my son just be intentional put it in your calendar and just be
(1:22:51) intentional about life whatever that is for you whatever important to you be intentional amazing uh Instagram acquiring wisdom search I’ll have the George Brown Link in the show notes but what can they search George Brown George Brown College real estate investment strategies course amazing yeah so if you’re thinking about getting into real estate this a great first option right ridiculously affordable um feel free to message me if you want some more details or you just want to B some ideas off me and learn more about the course maybe
(1:23:21) some people should even just sign up their adult children for it yeah actually I met uh I was meeting who did I meet with a couple weeks ago and they’re actually oh my one of my co-workers and she’s uh she’s going to do that um pay for adults on to do it amazing yeah any us component to this course so I actually I do have a us I had a US speaker last time someone who invests in the US because it’s this is what people want right it wasn’t my intention but people are inquiring about investing in the US because
(1:23:50) unfortunately they’re afraid to invest in Canada it’s kind of sad actually yeah if you need Carmen Demetri or Andrew I’m sure we can set that up yeah yeah for sure well my next class like I said starts September so we’ll have you guys on Amazing happy to assist awesome because I I feel like we’re like I feel every day I’m doing a public service by sparing Ontario landlords cuz hard assets we still need it still need hard assets absolutely yeah yeah yeah if if like you you you mentioned like if the US dollar fails in 30 years that the
(1:24:25) US Canadian dollar had already failed somewhere along the way exactly well that that’s how I look at it right the Canadian dollar will fail way before the US dollar yeah yeah way before so we we need diversification outside of Canada even if the Canadian economy was doing well relative to its peers we still need diversification outside of Canada yeah yeah hard assets yeah take your pick yeah exactly you and I have our favorites obvious yeah all right Brian thanks again for doing this no glad to be here and hopefully people saw some value in
(1:25:00) it 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.com guest and if you’re just starting out feel free to ask questions and comment below and I do the best to answer each of those comments and questions myself again if you’re ready to learn the nitty-gritty about real estate investing from a professional investor register for our next virtual
(1:25:37) class that’s at investor training.com

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