Out of Africa To House Hacking, Student Rentals & Now Mentoring with Hilary Tolong

 

Erwin  

Hello everyone, my name is Erwin Szeto. Welcome to the truth about real estate investing show. And I trust everyone’s doing well. Especially with the weather improving and the world going back to normal. I know a lot of restrictions here in Ontario are lifting. Across Canada, a lot of restrictions are loosening as well. A lot of people are making plans for the mask mandate to be lifted. And because my personal and family’s health situation allows, last week, I was attending in-person events hosted by the entrepreneurs organisation that I belong to, to mastermind and watch a presentation on the great resignation. For anyone who has been hiring for anything, you know, work to be done, contractors, if you are an employer like I am, if you’re trying to hire people, or pretty much anything, it’s been difficult to hire people for jobs. And that’s a pretty consistent message I’m hearing from anyone who is employee who employs people, anyone who’s trying to hire for something. For example, I was talking to a pharmacist yesterday. And he told me that pharmacists, now if you sign a two year contract, they will give you a signing bonus of $30,000. I don’t know how common that is out there. If that’s common in your industry, good on you. If it’s not, these are special times. As always, at these events, I’m always taking notes, I attend these things because the content is good. And this was another great event. As usual, both my mastermind and the event that I attended, I took lots of notes, which I plan on sharing in our next real estate meetup hosted by Cherry and myself. So there are three things that stuck out to me. One is exit plan, we all need one. So I understand that the context of these events that I attend, there are for entrepreneurs. So as a business owner, they always have exit plans. For myself as a real estate investor and yourself as a real estate investor. We all need exit plans as well. Two money. Not many were taught about money as kids. That seemed to be a very common theme, but it wasn’t discussed much. And it wasn’t taught very well by our parents. So I know that’s a minute turn I work on with our kids. Three, there are over 1 million job vacancies in Canada and rising. Isn’t that insane? So yeah, back to the exit plan thing. Chairman I we’re in the middle of refinancing a couple properties within new lender that we’re trying out, specifically, private banking at one of the big banks. We don’t have much to share at this point. Because no, let’s see if we can get this done first before we let everyone know if it worked or not. Our plan is take some equity out tax free, of course, because we’re borrowing it, we’re not selling anything. And I don’t really want to sell anything. But I do want to take advantage of the most seller’s market I’ve ever seen in my career. Since you know, again, I’ve investing since 2005. I’ve never seen a such a seller advantage market ever. So again, I’m trying to take advantage of these new prices at these all time highs by getting appraisals and refinancing my properties. Anyways, I’ve noticed that Mark is getting softer. And all my friends around me are in real estate like full time, but are noticing it’s getting softer as well. How soft will I get. I can’t really answer that. There are a lot of things going on the world. But as I mentioned tonight, we have our real estate meetup coming up on March 26, Saturday, March 26. So we will elaborate more there on where the markets at. And we’re going to review what happened last time during the last correction of 2017, which was a minor correction. Maybe we can pick up some numbers on a more major one, which would be more like 1989 for the Toronto real estate market. So what happened may disappoint you as it was a wonderful time to get into the market. So learn from history. If you didn’t buy the dip, you’re going to be doomed to repeat it. You’re going to be doomed to repeat history. Did I mention we are back to in person meetings. I’m excited. I thoroughly enjoyed the meetup that I went to for over 40 people there will be no virtual option for as our AV staff they’ve been overworked thanks to the pandemic because we’re doing so many things online, but they’d like the weekend off. So again, march 26 will be entirely in person live and only we’re not recording anything else because we’re not recording anything. We’re going to be more open and honest. But a lot of things, including one of our coaches recently had to sell a property that was tenanted, and for those you view in the No, that’s not the easiest thing to do. So we’ll be sharing how that was navigated. In order to optimise our clients return on their property. I’m personally excited to get back to networking with like minded people. I really miss seeing my clients live and in person like the old days, in the old days, we used to host over 200 people in a room so can’t wait to get back to that. The mask mandate is expected to go away before our March 26 meeting. So I’ll let you adults police yourselves and I will all have on on hand I have a whole bunch of N95 Maths, we’re gonna offer them for $1 or anyone who feels they need more protection. From me smart for myself. My presentation will be around how the rich structure their investment portfolios, I was asked by a group of entrepreneurs who are seven figure entrepreneurs to present to me how I see portfolio management. So that’s the presentation I’ll be giving is here on March 25. And it’s worked out, it’s worked out. For those who have followed along, you know that several of my clients have been contemplating retirement in the immediate future because they can so they can they have the option to do so. And they have the option to do so comfortably. And while they’re still in their 40s and 50s, which is pretty awesome. For those of you who are interested in more affordable markets with better opportunities to cash flow, we have Stephen Phillips with us. He will be presenting on… He’s from Belleville, Ontario, so he’s an investor in Belleville, Ontario, and he’ll be here to share about how to invest in Belleville, Ontario, Saturday, March 26 COMM network at 8.30 doors are open at eight comfrey. If you want to network, like I like to name start medians around 12, but stay for the networking. I’ve included a link in the show notes. The cost for non clients is $20, which goes to charity and for clients, you have a link in your email to go for free. Again, there’s a link in the shownotes for  $20. I’ll see you there are 26. 

 

Erwin  

On to this week’s show. We have Hillary with us. He is a longtime client of us of ours who’s been on quite a journey from growing up and immigrating from small town Kenya, Africa, coming to Canada as a visa student. So as so many immigrants do these days, then getting really outside his comfort zone. Is this going to Canada from Africa, it’s not getting out of your comfort zone. Thank goodness, he bought a house and your house hacked it, because that’s what you need to do to get by the House hacking isn’t new people have been doing it for ages. My mom did it for our family as well, so that we could get by on our home with three mortgages. And Hillary didn’t stop there. He started investing in real estate. So imagine that a gentleman not from this country is coming from rural rural community with what Hillary describes as I added the silly guys made the silly question like do you guys have a Walmart you have a Costco because No, we have one, maybe two tea shops. That’s how small a community he came from an African Kenya Africa. And he’s we have to buy houses and renting them to university students. And he’s got some regular rentals as well. The first property being a student rental in Thorold, Ontario back in 2015, that he bought for 351,000. I’ll let him share with you what it’s worth today. Hillary strategy is for systemic, fully furnishing, Houston rentals. It’s the way that he’s done it as the first I’ve heard. So you want to take note on that if you’re interested in that strategy. He didn’t stop there with investing wise as he’s actually gone on to mentoring others in his community, and even joint venturing with some of them to purchase properties in northern Ontario, with nickel pricing spiking like crazy. Hope that’s good news for our investor friends up North, including Hillary, Hillary has a full time job and he enjoys having just one job. He doesn’t want to retire from a full time job and take on another job as a full time real estate investor. So he’s proof that one can invest successfully for a comfortable retirement as a side hustle. We also have on the show, kinda like our guest host. We have James moneybags mags on James is held his coach on my team. So he’s on to help us extract Hillary’s journey, so that we can pull out some of those best tips. So we may learn from his experience as well. Please enjoy the show. 

 

Erwin  

Hello Hillary

 

Hillary  

Hi Erwin!

 

Erwin  

What’s keeping you busy these days?

 

Hillary  

Well, family work and real estate. That’s all.

 

Erwin  

No one has the same answer. So when you first walked into the office, we were asked I asked you like most last time we saw each other other than December other than December the client appreciation. Before that was last time we saw each other. 

 

Hillary  

Pre-covid

 

Erwin  

Do you remember what year? Pre-covid is a long time.

 

Hillary  

Probably. No, I attended all all them. iWIN meetings. So when when we stopped? Yeah, but I attend all the…

 

James  

Probably 2019 My guess .at least if not. Try to remember when we did our last big events would have probably been fall of 2019. 

 

Erwin  

Well, the March 20. Restriction capacity restrictions and on March 1, so we plan on being back full. For everyone who’s comfortable. March 26. You saw the new office 

 

Hillary  

Yeah, very beautiful, 

 

Erwin  

Thank you, I think we’re a little bit crazy to buy more real estate.

 

James  

Practice what you preach right?. Yeah, makes sense. 

 

Erwin  

Having some cash on hand might not be the worst thing. Yeah, this wasn’t cheap. All right. Yeah. Some people are listening. So they don’t know that James is here. James, why are you here?

 

James  

I’m here cuz I’ve got Hillary and I have kind of grown together since we met way back in 2015. Yeah, so it’s kind of Yeah, it’s it’s I think he was, say started 2014 Part time. So 2015 was my first full time here. So Hillary I kind of met as I was learning the real my realtor kind of game. But I had been an investor obviously for five six years before that. So but it was nice to be able to tag along to see his journey. Right.

 

Erwin  

And that’s that is MBM folks moneybags man just in case anyone doesn’t recognise his voice, and he is just gifted at making money. Mi T should only Carly’s Cash for Keys with the car lease. this is the first time and everyone’s it’s shared this publicly. 

 

James  

Yeah, it’s it’s I mean, I think there’s a lot more people that are kind of experiencing the same thing. But

 

Erwin  

Not me…I called the dealer today 

 

James  

Depends on the car, but a year ago, my lease is up on my on my car in March of this year. And so about a year ago, I was thinking about should I buy it out to trade it back in us on a lease. And then as we got closer to the time, I started hearing more and more stories about used cars having a massive value bigger than their buyout. And so I looked into it, and then normally, when you get back a car, there’s all these fees and everything that costs you money, and instead the dealer’s gonna pay me $8,000 To take the car back so that that $8,000

 

Erwin  

From renting a depreciating asset they’re gonna pay you to have to get 

 

James  

That actually is turning into the downpayment on the new car, which is the Tesla.

 

Erwin  

So it’s exciting. What’s the resale value? What’s the market resale value? Delta’s? Yeah, because you’re looking at buying the car out, and then selling it yourself.

 

James  

It’s about 15,000. But I would have to pay tax on it. And then the new buyer pays tax on it. Exactly. So it just made sense. In the end to take the 1000 from the dealer direct

 

Erwin  

Cash for Keys. Yeah. So I’m actually happy to share that on the podcast cuz I remember sharing during the early pandemic that I told my insurance company to let them know the cars parked in the driveway. So they altered my insurance plan. So then people thank me later that they didn’t know and they do the same thing. They’re able to save whatever, 5060 100 bucks a month on their car insurance. But just like the car insurance company know it’s parked there. And now we have an opportunity for folks to receive Cash for Keys.

 

James  

As opposed to paying like we normally do as landlords.

 

Erwin  

Yeah, yeah. So I actually thought like next next time, I’m gonna catch you complaining next Sunday that you’ve attended cash Ricky’s been about you? We we talked, we talked about you too much MBM. Hillary. It’s been a long time. Since I have a chance to speak to you because we pandemic thing. Where are all of your properties?

 

Hillary  

Well, my first property that James helped me was in Thorold. And I tell you, we bought the property because James said that he was going to buy one. So I figured if he had confidence in in the project, then at least he’s been in the industry. So yeah, so we got the property with James. And then we were a little bit scared. And I think James realise that we had a chat in the tomato and some other we were kind of concerned, is it going to be rented out and all that? Anyway, we closed on the property in August, and then it was fully rented immediately. And I think on my birthday, 2016, you helped us buy another. 

 

James  

Right. 

 

Hillary  

So that was like how many?

 

James  

It was maybe six months later?

 

Hillary  

We were comfortable

 

James  

Well, the first one we doesn’t also mention is it was it was easy, because it was new construction. So there’s no maintenance, there’s no anything that was our Winterberry properties, right? So Off Plan, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So under Tarion warranty. So that’s a good way to get like easily get into the market without having to worry about too much. Because that’s a lot of investors. First time purchase concerns is like, what if a roof leaks? What if something else happens? And that kind of took away a lot of those concerns? I think what’s so so easy to fail, then you’re like, oh, I can do this with this by something else?

 

Erwin  

And I don’t know if you know, but like that street is like a number one choice for students in that market. Did you know that?

 

Hillary  

No, because I have a wonderful property manager who deals with the feeling and I actually do not know who my tenants are.

 

Erwin  

But as a business owner, yeah, but for example, a good friend of mines a school principal, yeah. And her son was looking for a place and specifically asked, Do you know anyone with property on Winterberry? Right, which is your brand new property was on is on and you’re unsure about it? And now it’s the most it’s like the most desired location now for Brock University students and definitely on that work. So get yours? Yeah, no. MBM screwed up.

 

James  

No. We did. Okay. I transferred it to another student rental in Hamilton a little bit closer to home easier to manage for me,

 

Erwin  

Hillary, do you mind? Do you mind sharing? What did you pay for this first property?

 

Hillary  

Oh, we paid 351,000.

 

James  

Yeah, the numbers were amazing.

 

Erwin  

And it was 100 square feet was that again? The 2000. 

 

James  

There’s the two options at the time there was the semies and then there was the town. I think he’s just a town right? Yeah. Chad. Well, yeah. And so those were 1700 square feet versus the Emerson’s, which were 1900. But they were all still seven bedrooms. Yeah. But it’s interesting how that market has changed. So I mean, we were talking about values and stuff in Winterberry. And they will shut up through the roof for a while, and then they all pause. And then some things happen within the last 12 months, 12 to 14 months, where there’s just investors can’t get enough of anything on that street. So we keep seeing those prices go up and up and up and up. So the numbers are, I think the most recent sale actually, we haven’t even shared that as a team. It was similar to the one that Tammy and our team sold. And it sold for 990 rank, or did you sell hers for 820, or something like that? So within just a matter of months, so we’ve seen a massive run up, same unit saying I think there was a few differences, but it was still a semi at that one. So I mean, you factor in a little bit for the difference between the town and the Semien. And he did okay, coming from the 350. Mark.

 

Erwin  

So almost a triple.

 

James  

That’s a home run for sure.

 

Erwin  

I mean, 3x. I mean, yeah. Yeah, so I’m sure people are calling it a home run. Remember what the original rents were was the rents in the first year?

 

Hillary  

The first year was rented for 3150?

 

James  

I think we were looking at around 500 a room for so yeah,

 

Hillary  

We started 50 actually 454 75 and 500 for the

 

Erwin  

Big master bedroom. Yeah. And then I know you’re pretty hands off. Do you know what it’s rented for today

 

Hillary  

Rented for $3,000 but we only have five students. Okay. Yeah, the thing is, it seems like when you have less students, you have less wear and tear. And so, I don’t know six six students 3400 each. I think that distribution is different because what happens is I think they get a group of students and they distribute among themselves and the property manager just has one lease all the students so

 

James  

It’s an interesting story though this property manager handles things a little bit different to explain kind of their logic and how they manage your property compared to some of the other rentals

 

Hillary  

Yeah, so what he does is that you have to furnish your your rental do the bed understand that yeah, he as standard you know equipment like if the bed you have to get it specifically from a certain supplier IKEA number these these these so you have to buy everything. And I think what he does is he just shows one house to the students and and you have to come as a group. Okay. And I think he’s done a very good job. I’m really happy

 

James  

Thought it was pretty genius because then any repairs he gets doesn’t matter which property it is he knows where to go to get it replaced It’s identical to the previous one he got unless something goes like Ikea discontinued something, but it’s I hadn’t heard that before. I thought it was pretty cool. That’s pretty neat.

 

Hillary  

But you know, the other thing is a in terms of maintenance, I told you I had to spend like almost $5,000 in terms of fixing it up and all that before I could rent it to this property manager protect so I think the most important thing when you’re doing student rentals is to to have a system as a system that can help you through the process 

 

Erwin  

Including screening 

 

Hillary  

Screening and the thing is if you have all the furniture then the students will not move anything okay 

 

Erwin  

So less wear and tear 

 

Hillary  

So we don’t paint their house we do not prepare any items.

 

James  

That was the biggest thing for me with the Winterberry ones is that we found that the wear and tear on from the students was in use a lot were noticeable on in new construction. So when everything’s perfect, perfect, the dent and ding walls bringing up their dressers and then this and that right so when it’s furnished there’s I think the only thing they bring is your mattress. Yes on your mattress. Nice and soft. You don’t have to worry about damaging walls.

 

Erwin  

Yeah. Especially these days is by those sealed ones. Yeah. Andy here. He’s probably just sponsored by Andy. Give everyone a coupon when they move in. Because they’re so tiny, right? Yes. 

 

James  

Deliver a mattress in a box. Yeah.

 

Erwin  

Okay, sorry. I cut you off. You’re talking about the second property in 2016 birthday. Nice present to yourself. Wait, you bought it on your birthday? You closed on your birthday?

 

Hillary  

I tell you we bought it. We went to see the property on my birthday. 

 

Erwin  

Okay, that’s how I would do. I’m more interested in making money than celebrating my birthday. Okay.

 

Hillary  

Yeah.

 

Erwin  

What did you buy? Or was it? 

 

Hillary  

It was a townhouse in Hamilton mountain?

 

James  

Yeah. And I think originally the that was back when rent to own still made sense. Yeah. So those initial conversations were about rent to owning a property. So you’re probably happy you didn’t rent on the property.

 

Erwin  

What do you mean? Like, oh, you just chose not to or the tenant bailed?

 

Hillary  

Oh, no, the tenant still has an option to purchase it from us. They have been there for a long time.

 

Erwin  

2016, that’s a long time. Yeah. For tenant. Yeah,

 

James  

So did the option expire now? It’s just at market value.

 

Hillary  

Yeah, we have our own agreement in terms of when they are ready to buy the bikes from us.

 

Erwin  

What would you pay for it? What did you pay for this place? How much reno did it need?

 

Erwin  

317 

 

Erwin  

317. Freehold town? 

 

Hillary  

Yeah, yeah. 

 

Erwin  

Didn’t you much reno?

 

Hillary  

No

 

Erwin  

Zero that’s not common. 

 

James  

No, it’s a nice little pocket on the mountain that had newer towns that we don’t normally see anything in and then 

 

Erwin  

Oh, I remember that. I remember that. What’s the name of the name? The street? Yeah, Sherman? No, but that neighbour has a is dressed upper Sherman. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I remember those buildings. Oh, yeah. Like the kinda like skinny three storeys. So the one?

 

James  

Like there’s a different one. Those are only they’re only two-storey I think. Yeah, yeah. But it’s rare. Like there’s just a pocket of towns in that one section. And there’s not much like it around and they were newer construction at the time. 

 

Erwin  

You remember the year their bill? Pretty close to that? 20? 

 

James  

I think they’re like 2010 or 2011? Oh, yeah.

 

Erwin  

One of my one of the strategies are like, newer, Freetown holds less than 10-year-old free towns. Frugal towns. Yeah. And then what did you rent it for? Originally?

 

Hillary  

At that time was 16 1600. Yeah,

 

Erwin  

That was socialist.

 

James  

Those are great numbers at the time. 

 

Erwin  

Boy that was rent-to-own rent?

 

Hillary  

No, no, no, no, no, no. The challenge came when we wanted to do a rent to own and then there was some screw-up somewhere. Okay. Yeah. So I won’t go into detail about it. But yeah, same tenants. Yeah. So we were supposed to do a rent to own so the rent one figure would have been a little bit higher. But I ended up renting it for 1600. But they’ve been really great tenants. So that’s

 

James  

The rest of the same right now. Are you? Did you come up with it? Yeah, I

 

Hillary  

Just said a little bit. But yeah, just a little bit, because they’re still there.

 

James  

That’s the tough thing, too. When you when your mortgage hasn’t changed. If you haven’t done a refinance, then the numbers are still fantastic. Even at the just over 1600 range. So

 

Erwin  

What’s refi what’s not refinancing? Yeah. I don’t know anything about that, would you?

 

Hillary  

Yeah. Well, the thing is, in terms of refi, it wouldn’t make sense, because then you’d have to go back to your pockets over time. But we did tell if you find these two properties. Here have we did? Because that helped us by Chordata. Housing. Yeah, so that sounds like the baby.

 

James  

Yeah. For the two properties, for sure. And I think that’s a lot of people get caught up on you know, a few bought property one more property to where does the money from the downpayment for the next properties come from and usually self-sustaining by that point, if you do refinance on that, or you know, a lot of people will not to their line of credit on their primary residence in order to move the money around. But you’re just taking the equity from the existing properties to buy the new ones.

 

Erwin  

Actually, what’s the market rent for the townhouse? Now, you’ve rented for 1600 still roughly,

 

Hillary  

Probably should be between two and 500. Rent and yeah,

 

James  

it’s pretty high.

 

Hillary  

8000 Titan, that’s what I think. 25 Yeah. Yeah.

 

Erwin  

Does your tenant know what a deal he’s getting? Oh, you know, he’s like, Hey, Mr. Rich landlord, doorknobs broken, come fix it. Like, hey, this is what the rent should be. They’re mine. I’m flexible.

 

James  

Especially as a rent-to-own tenant. They’re supposed to do their other fixes, right. It’s still

 

Hillary  

No, it’s not that rent, right? Yeah, no, it wasn’t Atelier rent it was intended to be and then we went on straight to instrument Yeah.

 

Erwin  

So even if it didn’t cash flow Well, van in 2500 for 17 by that’s fantastic. And no run. It was impressive. Okay, so what tell me what tell us about this auto property. So you left us you grew your wings, you left us in Hamilton?

 

Hillary  

Some things happened been just naturally in terms of progression. Our daughter was admitted to Europa and we thought, okay, instead of going to live in residence, why not spread our wings?

 

Erwin  

First Year, okay, yeah, okay. Okay.

 

Hillary  

So that’s what we did and because of the experience that we had with our Winterberry properties, so So we did the same, we furnish the rentals and same thing,

 

Erwin  

These all the same skews. 

 

Hillary  

Exactly the same. 

 

Erwin  

I love it.

 

Hillary  

In any student mentor that I’ll do, that’d be the model because it works. You don’t break.

 

James  

Exactly. You’ve got a proven process. Why change it?

 

Hillary  

Right. Yeah. And the other thing is, you get better quality students

 

Erwin  

Yeah, but generally, it’s the boys’ stage. furnishing just because I know the fire department works for it. They don’t like it. It’s on their checklists for lodging home, but it’s lower on the list. It’s much more low on the less than the more important things that we concern ourselves with. But yeah, fascinating. If it gives you that much headache then

 

Hillary  

Yeah, yeah, it does. Yeah.

 

Erwin  

So what did you buy? It? Was it like a six-bedroom five-bedroom in Ottawa?

 

Hillary  

It was a bungalow, three-bedroom upstairs, and then two bedrooms in the basement. But we wanted our daughter to live rent-free. So we added another room in the basement.

 

James  

So she will be your property manager. successor keep seeing

 

Erwin  

This stuff is in the house. Yeah, yeah. She shakes down her friends when they want to rent money.

 

Hillary  

She does the rent collection. 

 

Erwin  

So who felt the property? Who found the other tenants?

 

Hillary  

She found it

 

Erwin  

Oh, wow. Well, she was in her first year. 

 

Hillary  

Yeah, she attended the iWIN meeting one time. Yeah. Yeah. 

 

Erwin  

So she learned everything she needed to know from that one meeting. 

 

Hillary  

I made her read some books.

 

Erwin  

What books did you make her read?

 

Hillary  

Ah, she read the property management written by Quinton paint.

 

Erwin  

Yeah, that’s it. That’s,

 

James  

That’s a great primer if you’re going to be a student, landlord

 

Hillary  

a couple of others. But there was US-based on all the information that we got from that book was really good.

 

Erwin  

We should get you a copy of my book. So James contributed. So it’s got to be decent. I read that one too. I wrote the chapter on student rentals. And that one is probably not very good. I don’t know if I could fill a six-bedroom.  She’s what 19?

 

Hillary  

18

 

Erwin  

18-year-old property manager. Good for her.

 

Hillary  

Right now. She’s 22 Yeah,

 

James  

She’s so she starts called? No, she’s

 

Hillary  

not at school. Currently. So, Judy, you’re off? Yes, it took some time.

 

James  

I can’t blame him for doing that. And it’s still an auto or she comes on.

 

Hillary  

She has a home but she still manages a proper

 

Erwin  

Virtual

 

Hillary  

Basically, I have landmines and I have people with a team of my team. It’s not. The thing is, you’re not creating a job for yourself. That’s the most important thing. You don’t want to be fixing stuff. Like, I’m not handy at all.

 

Erwin  

And are expanding your portfolio in Ottawa? Or?

 

Hillary  

No, this was more one of the more at that time. I don’t know. I am not fond of getting a lot of properties. I would rather pay off what I have and kind of not over leverage.

 

James  

But he didn’t talk about his other properties. Still too

 

Erwin  

Which other property?

 

Hillary  

I have with some joint ventures. So 

 

Erwin  

In Hamilton or 

 

Hillary  

Yeah, we got some properties in Hamilton some some joint ventures, and then we expanded to not be so yeah. Right. And kitchener

 

Erwin  

So you don’t want to have a lot of property?

 

Hillary  

Yes. Because those are not personally on with groups. button down. It was more than that. my coaching clients basically they, I’m helping them through the process. It’s part of part of me sharing the knowledge that I’ve gained from you.

 

James  

Well, it was neat to see him take the reins to be able to be the real estate expert with the joint venture partners as well. So he kind of translated his learnings from the other properties into those ones and you got new got some other really good deals too. So good numbers there.

 

Erwin  

You Are we on like, tick tock and like raising capital? Offering real estate opportunities? Yeah, not

 

Hillary  

None of those. These are just good. Close friends of mine. Yeah. Because the thing is, in terms of sharing information, I would rather see my friends doing well. Course. For me, that’s key. My expense, I believe was the number he will take. Yeah,

 

James  

It’s tough, though I found, you know, personally, it’s taken me when I’ve been an investor since 2009. And some of my friends are only just now looking at real estate, even though I’ve been talking about it, probably boring everybody to death for the last, you know, 12 years. And people are still finally now starting to take some action. So, but you did a really good job of converting some of your friends to take out like, I mean, your three different four different joint venture partners, at least, which is, you know, phenomenal. Even though I’ve been touting the benefits of real estate for years, you were did a better job of converting them.

 

Erwin  

All in one joint venture partner on one property? That’s it?

 

Hillary  

Yeah. Well, the thing is, like, I think you transitioning into a wonder to understand more about finances and all that, and I got my mortgage licence. And I realised that sometimes it may be better to use private money, and then less headaches in terms of always passing, you know, discussing a project with somebody, at times, if you use the The Bar Method, you’d be you’d do okay, you may not need to use a joint venture partner, especially if you’re not intending to grow to 1000 properties. So I think the process that you go through is very important, especially if you know that goal, what what what are your goals, if your goal is to only get five or 10? Probably don’t need a joint venture. Okay, if you structure your finances well, and you work with a good mortgage broker who can who can help you through the process, because there’s cheap money out there. I mean, even if it’s 10%, it’s still cheap. If you’re going to hold it for two or three months, and then refinance, right? And get all your money and recycle the money.

 

Erwin  

Right. So you changed your process, your investment process to do that. Andrew property, do private you borrow privately?

 

Hillary  

Yes. And then I fix it up, and then we refine it. Yeah. We’re not doing the full gut. No, you just need to look at a property that has some value, your cosmetic stuff, and you fix it up and go back to the bugs.

 

Erwin  

So then what would your like renovation budget be then?

 

Hillary  

That 20 to 30,000? Yeah.

 

Erwin  

Very cosmetic. Yeah. We’re not getting super aggressive here.

 

James  

Kitchens and paints and yours. Yeah. Appliances, maybe? Yeah. Interesting.

 

Erwin  

And then how much are you able to extract them on the refinance? We’re really sorry, refinance sort of is?

 

Hillary  

Is this something certainly fine. You know, you do get probably, like this one property? We did. We spent 30,000. We got a lift of 80.

 

Erwin  

Just from kitchen and painting,

 

Hillary  

Buying, buying, right? That’s the most important thing.

 

Erwin  

Yeah, was Jimmy’s copy by right.

 

James  

This is out of my wheelhouse. And I want to I wanted him to kind of share a little bit more. And I put this all this stuff up in North Bay. Because yeah, I think there’s somebody else we were talking to you that we know has been looking at stuff up there because I know that the North has been growing kind of exponentially, even though they’ve seen the same percentages growth, like the 20% year over year change, their entry point is still much much lower. So even if the appreciations are smaller, you leave a much smaller downpayment compared to, you know, a million-dollar Hamilton bungalow, which right now,

 

Erwin  

Right. But the renovation budget same though, yeah. Close to what, everywhere? Yeah. In

 

Hillary  

Terms of if you get a good team, because the problem is the US contractors, challenge debt. That’s everywhere.

 

Erwin  

It’ll come out eventually. But one of our clients been a different in the north Northern Ontario city, their general contractor declared bankruptcy. So the trades are going after our client. What not like they’re working with someone else. They were a realtor in a different town in northern Ontario. So not our not our client on that deal. Yeah, but yeah, not pretty.

 

Hillary  

No, I think, I think the most important thing is who do you have? Like, for example, for the North Bay properties, it was more the property manager, also under the construction, the little innovations, okay. And she brings it to our own standard, because she’s the one who is renting businesses and she tells you tell me, okay, yeah, Do you buy this? This is how much I’m gonna rent it for. Yeah. And she does it. Exactly. Wow. So I think having a team is key. And especially for the new people, because.

 

Erwin  

When you are driving North Bay

 

James  

I think you said you’ve only seen the house once right

 

James  

How far is the drive. 

 

Hillary  

Yes, each way. Yeah. 

 

Erwin  

Should even get there today. Like it’s snowed today? Yeah.

 

James  

Did you make like a trip out of it? Did you go like spend quality time and sightseeing and family stuff? Or did you just strictly business just to see the house at home?

 

Hillary  

We did the site, too. We drove around, and stayed up there

 

James  

For say three hours and then come home. It’s you make sense to stay over a couple of days at least especially in the summer.

 

Hillary  

Hopefully, sunlight says somebody says really good. It is very nice. It’s very nice. Yeah.

 

Erwin  

How long is summer? So I’m just curious about these things. Yeah. And then And then what’s your plan? Like you? Okay, so you mentioned you don’t want to have a lot of properties or were you expanding next to them? Or you don’t expand any city?

 

Hillary  

And not really, if I were to do anything, I would come back to Hamilton. Come back here. No, the thing is, in terms of the law, you’re going to get the cash flow. Once you have enough cash flow to give you some room, then you can come here and do more stuff. Right? Yeah, because it’s challenging to get cash flow in, in Hamilton. Unless you know, the down payment is quite a bit. And for a person who is starting to be a little bit challenging. You would need to start somewhere. And then once you build up some capital, you can come back.

 

James  

I think we’ve seen property values and down payments triple, since you started looking at least since 2016 2015. Yeah. So if the average person didn’t have their own primary residence, saving up that downpayment is getting harder and harder, which is why I think most people are pulling equity from their, their primary residence because they’ve taken advantage of the uplift that we’ve seen across the GTA.

 

Erwin  

And actually, the the story of you’re buying your daughter a house is a good story. So does she put any money into it? No. Oh, so you’re one of the 30%?

 

Hillary  

No, bu it’s the Winterberry and upper Sherman

 

Erwin  

You see, one in three homebuyers is getting help, 

 

James  

but it’s nice. Your house and her name? Is it or is it her name? 

 

Hillary  

No

 

Erwin  

All right. I said we get about a question a lot. Yeah, Why not? Why can’t her name Why can’t the husband her name? Well, as work is professional. I don’t know, I don’t know anything?

 

Hillary  

Well, you still have to qualify for a mortgage, you still need to have credit, you still need to have down payments, and you have to prove where the down payment is coming from a student more time that

 

James  

You would have had to cosign anyway

 

Erwin  

You did’nt want to share the property with her? So that’s where you left her off?

 

Hillary  

Yeah, well, the thing is, if things change, right, should decide if a student decides to move on to other things, what would happen, especially if they’re not contributing to the mortgage? Right, right.

 

Erwin  

Okay, so when she’s done school, does she plan on staying in Ottawa? Or? No, probably not. And then when you don’t do with the property?

 

Hillary  

I don’t know.

 

Erwin  

I saw it moved money back to Hamilton. I have no bias.

 

James  

Say if he’s got a good year, right, but if he’s got a good setup there, it’s nice though. It’s a lot closer to come to your properties in Hamilton than it is in Ottawa. Yeah, so

 

Erwin  

someone must rent or relationship used to manage? Yeah,

 

Hillary  

Yeah. The thing is, yeah, we got to Tibet, in the summer, and that can be the next use of us. Driving

 

Erwin  

Talking about him staying in the house.

 

Hillary  

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we inspect that

 

James  

Check on the property. And he happened to have a stay at

 

Erwin  

The Four Seasons and Montreal

 

James  

expensive

 

Hillary  

And, and I think that that’s that session aspect is what a lot of people are missing in terms of just how good the system is for somebody who has a property or a business. Because I mean, all your mortgage insurance, all your expenses are tax-deductible. And that for immigrants that is very difficult for us to grasp because we grew up in a system where you have to save, save, save, save, okay, and put the money in the bank. Okay, now I hear you’re being told, you know, if you actually invest, you’re able to write off some expenses, which is really good. Yeah. 

 

James  

And with inflation where it is money in the bank is worth less than less every week at this point.

 

Erwin  

Sorry, you’re in Oregon.

 

Hillary  

Yes, I am. 

 

Erwin  

No one told me that. Yeah, where are you originally from? 

 

Hillary  

From Kenya 

 

Erwin  

What’s the name of the city?

 

Hillary  

I don’t come from the city, I come from a village 

 

Erwin  

Is there a name of the village?

 

Hillary  

Oh, well, it wouldn’t even be known. 

 

Erwin  

Pardon me if I ignorance is going through

 

James  

What’s a typical population of your like your village?

 

Erwin  

Is there isn’t a Walmart

 

Hillary  

We don’t have Walmart’s actually, I don’t think we have a Walmart in 10 year period. We don’t know. When it’s not the time. I know. Yeah. But it’s small town similar to small town here. But when you talk of small town, you have one shop and you have a tea place. not that important.

 

Erwin  

Sorry, did you say one tea place? 

 

Hillary  

You know, one or two? Yeah.

 

Erwin  

We can walk to one or two towards where we are right now. 20 staff and each of them

 

Hillary  

Nice, It’s a different place.

 

Erwin  

And you want to leave obviously, I have because you’re educated. You’re well educated more than us. 

 

Hillary  

So what I when I left, I left Kenya to go and do a master’s in Belgium. I did a master’s in Belgium. live there for three years. And then I came to Canada to do a PhD, but ended up doing a master’s in Halifax. And that’s where I actually I stayed in a student. So that was where I began.

 

James  

Experience as a student, at least the level. Yeah. How many years ago was that?

 

Hillary  

I came in 2001

 

Erwin  

How old were you then?Can I ask? 

 

Hillary  

I was in my 30s.

 

Erwin  

Yeah, so these opportunities are available back home. You had to go to Belgium in Halifax.

 

Hillary  

Ah, no, I had a scholarship when I came to I when I went to Belgium. And then I got a scholarship to come here

 

Erwin  

So, you are really smart

 

Hillary  

Oh, not really, just opportunity

 

James  

I felt downplaying it a little bit. I’m sure not everybody’s just handed a scholarship. So

 

Erwin  

What’s Halifax? Why did you come out here in Halifax? I love Halifax,

 

Hillary  

I suppose a nice city, lots of snow. I didn’t like it. Ah, but then in terms of job opportunities. In my profession, this place is better. Ontario, the population is massive. 

 

Erwin  

And then when you start getting into real estate. The good days

 

Hillary  

That’s how I got into the NACA valorize. I didn’t have the down payment.

 

Erwin  

You missed out. Zero down.

 

Hillary  

But, but at that time, I actually started how’s that? Because we were specifically I told my realtor that time. I’m not looking at any house that didn’t have a Tim. And my calculation was that I was paying almost $1,000 in an apartment. The house to purchase tells us in Mississauga like 300,000

 

Erwin  

Outrageous, no expensive then of course

 

Hillary  

It was very expensive.

 

Erwin  

I remember those days I thought was ridiculous.

 

Hillary  

Interest rate was also high.

 

Erwin  

Remember what the interest rate was for the young people listening.

 

Hillary  

Around 4%. And it’s led to 5%. I think they were creeping up then yeah, because I was on variable. And then it came down and I was like I felt blessed came down. But my calculation was that if I was paying 1500 Even apartment, if I was able to get into a house that the mortgage was around 1500 At that time, and a tenant was paying me seven, the tenant was paying 700 So I was way ahead. Okay, so that’s how I actually my expenses after I moved into the house was less than a thought to me? Yeah. So, uh, yeah, I think that’s when I got into real estate.

 

Erwin  

Yeah, so sorry. What was the tenant renting? A room? A basement?

 

Hillary  

The basement. So we lived upstairs on she lived in a basement garden.

 

Erwin  

And legal right. Oh, all legit permits?

 

Hillary  

No I didn’t. I didn’t know anything about that. 

 

James  

I don’t even think the basement suites back then.

 

Erwin  

So then they’re on-site the kitchen. Yeah. They have a separate side entrance or

 

Hillary  

Separate everything separate. Oh.

 

Erwin  

And so what was the property was like an 800 square 1000 Square Foot bungalow type thing or

 

Hillary  

Like was a semi-tight? I don’t 1800

 

Erwin  

big. Yeah, a big one. Two, storey.

 

Hillary  

Just okay. Yeah,

 

Erwin  

That’s what you paid for your Winterberry for the same square footage? Yes. Yes. Yes.

 

Hillary  

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And you still have that house? No, no, no, recently talker. Yeah, that’s what has helped us do all this. Because initially, it was like paying down your mortgage, pay down your mortgage until I read. Time to address then. And then I read the Smith manoeuvre book. And things change? Yeah.

 

James  

Amazing how just a couple that there seems to be a lot of common first books that a lot of real estate investors read. Rich Dad, Poor Dad being the one I hear the most myself included.

 

Erwin  

Yeah. Same actually kind of pivoted lately, though. As the as the second book. I think this is our book. Obviously I’m biassed, but because I think you need to be tactical for today. And you think of all the books we read in the past for specific real estate. They’re not tactical for today. No. Right? Versus ours tactical for today’s market. So I am biassed, obviously. But what would you read second?

 

James  

Yeah, there’s so many books that were fantastic. But the the underlying principle still is valid today. But like you said, the tactical execution doesn’t work in this market. So you need something that’s been updated.

 

Erwin  

Especially for myself, I’m analytical. So I need to first start with the macro. So the book, you know, the first chapter was on macro economics. So I think when you look at it that way that drives the decision like, because in my opinion, your mistake, not bad real estate. I think you guys would agree. Yeah. See, that’s an endorsement of the book.

 

James  

It isn’t ready yet.

 

Erwin  

He knows what’s heard is presented from the front of the room. It’s not different. We’re not that creative. Hillary, wan’t to talk about building a business?

 

Hillary  

Yeah, the thing is, in terms of most of us work

 

Erwin  

A full time job. 

 

Hillary  

I’m a full time real estate. Yeah. I see a lot of real estate investors who move from investing, not move from full time job to investing but being an active investor. And that is just like having a full time job. So after reading several books, I think one needs passive income, income that does not rely on your time. And so even when you’re building a business, of course, the first few few years, there’ll be some groundwork to be done, but the eventualities that you need to have the business one on its own. Okay, so that’s where I come from, in terms of any business or two you create, you don’t want to be an employee of the business, you want to own the business, right? Yeah. Otherwise, you’d be transferring your your status as an employee to another status where you are still an employee’s that doesn’t give you freedom. And I think why why most people do real estate is more to have freedom to, to do other things that they love.

 

Erwin  

I was on my phone by a song from the dealership, or your car from them, you got to start talking about real estate, because he doesn’t own anything besides his own home. So I said to him, imagine your two properties are 500 grand each, right? You have a million dollars worth of real estate. If it just goes up 5% That adds $50,000 to your net worth. How long does it take for you to save $50,000 How many people save make $50,000 They put away each year? He says nobody. Right? Now I don’t know where I’m going. But it’s your point about Yeah, I know lots of people have gone full time in a real estate just to replace their job. And sadly, it’s gonna come out pretty probably pretty soon but some of these bigger outfits have gone belly up. It’s actually kind of funny because you know, like James and I follow the stock market more like first time peloton is the same go bigger go home, or a company like peloton or going home. Right? Well, they laid off 2000 people, right? And only 2400 people some company 2000. Right? They went big. And so big is not always better. Right? It’s great for the ego doesn’t mean you’ll be successful, because scaling is not easy. building businesses and not easy. Yeah, I live it. And I guess that it’s not free? Can you’ve determined growing at a slower pace is good for you?

 

Hillary  

Yeah, I think they I think MMA in terms of, I looked at myself, I’m more productive, connecting with people, tapping with them, guiding them, I like to see success in people. And so if you have a particular business where you’re starting with somebody, and you’re moving them through a journey, like what James has done for me, that is more valuable, as opposed to, you know, doing a deal here, and then going to do another deal there. No, that’s, that’s not scalable. It’s not a business. It’s for me, I think the connection, the relationship is more important. And then, and then building that and hoping that we’re coaching would also do the same to somebody else. And especially for immigrants like us, we have very you don’t We don’t have families. Okay, you are alone. And when you learn these things, really, if you don’t, you don’t have a parent who has a home, you don’t even know how to get your first mortgage. Really? Okay. You don’t even know. No realtor. Right. I moved from Halifax to Paris. I do normally. I don’t have any family in Canada.

 

Erwin  

Okay. Did you even know where your community was? There’s gonna be Kenyans in Toronto.

 

Hillary  

They are but who do you know, you know? Like, like, if if you went to where you grew up in Pickering, right? Yeah. So if you if you want to pick her in and say, Oh, I grew up here. What do I know? You don’t know anybody? Right?

 

James  

There’s not a group of Pickering town in Toronto. Right? Yeah.

 

Hillary  

Yeah. So I think I think for most people who are coming from outside a The reason immigrants are even the ones who have been here for some time, is very difficult to build a community. Okay. And we all we all want to own real estate, because we know it will help us. But how do you start? Right? Yeah. The strike groups like what you have as it helps a lot, because when I came here, I realised Oh, okay. Now I know a realtor. Oh, now, I know a Morgan. Passive now I know. A lawyer. Okay. Yeah. Because you’re coming into a team of people. Okay. You’re not just going along? Yeah. So I think I think that’s, that’s something that is important, especially when you go to a new place. We are getting many 400,000 new immigrants

 

Erwin  

Each year. It’s a higher, it’s like, I haven’t read the report yet. But I think it’s like seven years or like 417 430. Like it’s bigger than original panels. 400,000. Yeah. Now that that’s a bit bigger than 400,000 each year.

 

James  

I don’t think that number even includes the students.

 

Hillary  

Actually no, it’s more it’s currently the emphasising what the students to come as a student, then there is a pathway of you to become a permanent resident over 

 

Erwin  

The number doesn’t that number doesn’t it doesn’t include students.

 

Hillary  

Now most students get jobs, and they get included in those.

 

James  

But I think the government target doesn’t include the students that turn over. And I’ve seen it I don’t know.

 

Hillary  

I need to look at it more,

 

Erwin  

if that’s how you got in? Yes,

 

Hillary  

I’m getting through the student process. 

 

Erwin  

before we were recording outside this room, we were talking about your sharing how it’s easier for someone outside the country to come in. And if they’re going to try to immigrate to Canada, it’s easier to come to a small town in Canada. 

 

Hillary  

Oh, at the moment there, there are several programmes that the government is promoting and like, there is an online within Northern Ontario rural programme. I forget the name exactly. But the government is trying to promote people to go to the small cities because the cities are die, towns dying because they are less people. People are moving out of those towns so you don’t want to. You don’t want that population to go down.

 

Erwin  

litter box their backfilling room. Yeah. So why are they dying? Or do you know why these towns are dying?

 

Hillary  

And in addition consultants, but it’s not paid declining? Nice steady, it’s been steady. But I think in terms of the the government is looking at the tax base, right. So the most people knew what that is yet. Right.

 

Erwin  

So including that municipality, they’re trying to raise taxes.

 

Hillary  

So so the municipalities, the more people you have, the more consumers you have within the polity and the more revenue, right, that’s, that’s my thing.

 

Erwin  

Right. So they’re prioritising both big job vacancy and also towns that need people? Yes. Yes. Yes. So it’s like, so it’s like a twofer? Not just don’t have one problem. We have two problems. Yeah. shrinking tax base. And they need plenty of job vacancies.

 

Hillary  

Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, candidates huge, they need PIP calls. Right. Now, let’s say for example, a if you’re in a northern community, you’d need a doctor, you would need a nurse you’d need but you need a mass critical mass to support that. Right? Yeah.

 

Erwin  

No, all these towns don’t even have doctors. Yes. Because they don’t want to live in rural. A lot of them don’t want to live in rural. Yeah. You make a lot of money. Julie generally want to live somewhere where you can spend it and enjoy it.

 

James  

There’s not much to do and a logos towns, especially some of the really no further authors like mining towns, right? There’s nothing there. Very similar to Kenya, there’s like one bar one to two houses.

 

Hillary  

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I’m just saying what I’m saying. What I was saying about I come from a smaller town. It’s not that you if you went to the city like Nairobi, it’s the same as there is no difference. Okay. But if you come from the rural parts of the country, it’s completely different. Yeah.

 

Erwin  

So did you come? Did you come to like the student visa programme, then? 

 

Hillary  

Yes, I came as a student. 

 

Erwin  

Yeah, that’s probably the easiest way to come in. And isn’t it? You don’t have to get stuck? Well, the thing is, watch our country.

 

Hillary  

No they challenge you this is more, if you have the financial, you have to prove that you can pay. So if you have a scholarship, and yeah, if you don’t have then you need to have money. Yeah, a student in Canada get a student loan. But you can get a student loan to come and study here. Right? Like, how many parents pay for the school fees for their children? You have also a lot of people take courses, because they know they cannot save, right?

 

Erwin  

My kids aren’t taking

 

Hillary  

So many people do. But there is a facility to take you through school. Right? Yeah, if you’re coming here, generally, somebody has to prove that they have enough money to support themselves, which is a

 

Erwin  

And move to small town Ontario or Canada.

 

Hillary  

It doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have to go to school. No. But what I’m saying is it’s it’s easier for one to go to school in northern retire, because if there is a programme that can give you a pathway, why not? But you can come to Toronto. Okay. Yeah.

 

James  

I mean, then the cost for education has just skyrocketed as well over the last since you came as well, unless 20 years, like compared to what you and I paid when we went to school.

 

Erwin  

Oh, yeah. Mine’s doubled. More than that. I suffered a lot. And I’ve been one double.

 

James  

You’re a different programme. My basic programmes probably five times. No, yeah. Body.

 

Erwin  

It’s five times I think. So when you pay when you went to school six year old? Yeah.

 

James  

Pretty sure my tuition was maybe seven or $10,000. Oh, for a year. Yeah. That much. Maybe me that included my books. Books included. I was. Yeah.

 

Erwin  

Yeah. That’s probably that’s probably all I knew. Yeah. It’s probably butchered residence and tuition.

 

James  

But still, that’s I mean, five times that’s only 35 grand. Right? What’s the cost now for a year?

 

Erwin  

My school is different. I think I paid I paid 12 I think my last year now it’s like 1530 30 a year tuition alone. That’s crazy.

 

Hillary  

So now an international student pay probably double or triple

 

Erwin  

Yes moneymakers for the schools. They love international students.

 

Hillary  

That’s an affordable to help people.

 

James  

On portable Canadians. Yeah.

 

Erwin  

He’s gonna pay that. Yeah. 6090 grand per year for undergraduate

 

Hillary  

Probably 4050 today 

 

Erwin  

Pay in to us, we’ll teach you how to make money. Oh man, if you’re gonna call on a university, or when University, no MBM University, I went to university MBM 101 drive a fancy car. It’s so great catching up. Hillary, anything else you want to share that we haven’t talked about?

 

Hillary  

So, as I mentioned, I recently became a mortgage agent 

 

Erwin  

Was it recent?

 

Hillary  

Yeah, over the last one year. 

 

Erwin  

Okay. Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s pretty recent. 

 

James  

But you got 12 months of experience, right? Like, yesterday?

 

Hillary  

Yeah. Yeah. But, but I’m working with a team of other people. And, oh, we have probably, I would say, over 20 years of experience in this, I have one, but I’m working with somebody who has more. And my idea is to help the new people navigate through the process, through the planning process, because I mean, mortgages, it’s, it’s numbers, stripes, have very numbers oriented date. I’m a scientist by training. So the thing with, somebody can do the numbers, but they cannot plan and show you, you know, how to get to your goal, especially if they have not gone through the process. And I think in terms of the experience that I have, and the knowledge and the teams that I’ve built, how to serve these people better. Because if you came to me and talk to me about a mortgage or property that you’re looking at, and you tell me what your goals are, we could change the conversation and say, you know, how we can approach it this way? Okay. If your intention is maybe to quit your job in five years, that’s a different question. As opposed to if, okay, you’re like me, you want to buy a couple of properties, pay them off, and then do other things. Right. So I think that is what is the value that we are bringing? And, of course, we also have the experience and, and we can walk with you through the process? Just like what you did. He worked with me and I know when I call him you, he answers.

 

James  

Yeah I shouldn’t from Yeah, not knowing anything all the way to now serving other people and helping them do the same thing you did. So it’s very cool.

 

Erwin  

Yeah, I think people would like to know, so your joint venture partners, these are good friends of yours. Like James and I mentioned, we haven’t converted anyone from our social circles. What do you think worked to convince your friends to invest in real estate?

 

Hillary  

Well, the thing is, it’s just sharing. Okay. How did Jesus convert people to become Christians?

 

Erwin  

I honestly don’t know. 

 

Hillary  

He was more showing them. This is the way this is how it is done. And all that, right. It’s making making students out of your, your friends. And because if you see a good thing, and you tell them, You know what, I think this is a good thing. Okay. I still did this. Hopefully, within the next five years. A terminal of paid, you are moulded by this amount of money. Okay. Are you able to save that money? Probably no. Right? And you show them? This is what I did. And awfully when they look at those numbers, they say, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Then I connect to somebody who knows what to do in terms of purchases. Yeah,

 

Erwin  

A gentleman from the car dealership I was talking to today. You just bought his first investment property with his brother. He’s like, Oh, I heard tenants are rough. Like here, search front lobby. Put him through these systems. You’ll make it much better. And then I was explained to him the whole like, like Landlord Credit bureau. He’s like, That’s amazing. Because he works on us cars. He understands credit. He’s like, you can do that. That’s amazing. Yeah. Right. But you don’t know what you don’t know. Until you talk to people who do know something. Yeah. I don’t know much. But at least pretend to. \

 

James  

We know the right people. 

 

Erwin  

Yeah, it’s like it’s like when my first clients, like they’re very nervous buying their first investment property. And they said to them, what problem can you think of that? We can’t solve within three phone calls. Right? What problem do you think you can solve within three phone calls? Real estate world? Is there anything more? Yeah, exactly. Right. So it’s easier than ever. Awesome. I always invite people to share their contact information. So tick tok, Instagram, snapchat, carrier pigeon.

 

Hillary  

I just started a YouTube channel – mortgage College.

 

Erwin  

Mortgage College. 

 

Hillary  

Yes. 

 

Erwin  

So they just search mortgage college or YouTube slash mortgage college

 

Hillary  

If you said mortgage College, you’ll see it. Basically, I’m giving tidbits of information on the process is what I’ve gone through some numbers I share, and, and also anything that I think will be helpful for somebody who is new. Okay, you would find it there. And then I have a website. So it’s called my mortgage coaches and mortgage coaches. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. I want to create coaches. Yeah. Okay. And then. Yeah, they can email me and we can chat.

 

Erwin  

Fantastic. Yeah. All right. Thanks so much for coming in. So good to see you again.

 

Hillary  

It was nice to chat with you and James!

 

James  

Nice to catch up!

 

Erwin  

Before you go, if you’re interested in learning more about an alternative means of cash flowing like hundreds of other real estate investors have already, then sign up for my newsletter and you’ll learn of the next free demonstration webinar I’ll be delivering on the subject of stock hacking. It’s much improved demonstration over the one that I gave to my cousin chubby at Thanksgiving dinner in 2019. He now averages 1% cash flow per week, and he’s a musician by trade. As a real estate investor myself, I got into real estate from cash flow, but with the rising costs to operate a rental business, it’s just not the same as it was five to 10 years ago when I started there. Forget that cash flow reduces your risk. The more you have, the more lumps you can absorb. And if you have none, or limited cash flow, you’re going to be paying out your pocket like I did on a recent basement flood at my student rental in St. Catharines. Ontario. If you’re interested in learning more register for free for my newsletter at www dot truth about real estate investing.ca. Enter your name and email address on the right side. We’ll include in the newsletter when we announce our next free stock hacker demonstration. Find out for yourself but so many real estate investors are doing to diversify and increase our cash flow. And if you can’t tell, I love teaching and sharing this stuff.

 

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