This week we have an everyday, blue collar Canadian, 33 year old Shayne from Montreal who just bought his first investment property and he has executed a BRRRR in suburban Memphis, Tennessee. The ARV is substantially higher than projected, rent came in almost 10% higher. Shayne is the youngest client of mine by far for years and years so I’m of course excited to have been part of Shayne’s journey to become a successful investor and mentor him in scaling up to not just have a large portfolio but for financial peace of mind. This is his story, if you enjoy the show, please share this episode with your fellow Canadians who want to invest in real estate, especially those who can’t afford to get into the Canadian market or want diversification.  Please enjoy the show.

Today’s guest is Dr. Wing Lim, a true renaissance man - a dedicated medical professional and serial entrepreneur who has built an impressive portfolio of healthcare facilities and senior living communities. For over 30 years, he has balanced a thriving family medicine practice with innovative real estate ventures. Dr. Lim's impact extends far beyond the medical field. He has spearheaded the creation of the state-of-the-art Synergy Wellness Center and the award-winning Esther Gardens senior residence, providing invaluable resources and care to thousands. Beyond his professional accomplishments, he is committed to empowering the next generation through his Physician Empowerment podcast. Link: https://www.physempowerment.ca/  Join us as we dive into Dr. Lim's remarkable journey - from the challenges of running a medical practice to the triumphs of building a real estate and senior living empire. His story is a testament to the power of vision, perseverance, and a relentless drive to create positive change. Canada needs more investors like Dr Wing Lim and I hope this show inspires one of my 17 listeners.

Today’s guest is my good friend and past client, Adam Johnson, CPA, CA, CBV, CFA—who, at the time, was my youngest client and didn’t have as many letters behind his name. Adam’s not your average CPA. He’s also a Chartered Business Valuator CBV and Chartered Financial Analyst CFA, making him one of less than 100 people in Canada with all three designations. He even ranked #1 in the country on his CBV exam. But what really sets him apart is his hands-on experience with one of Canada’s biggest investment banks, where he analyzed stocks and worked directly with equity traders which prepared him nicely for a long-time career in business valuations. Now, Adam’s expanded his investing to the U.S. after Ontario deals no longer made sense, and he’s the founder of Synthesis Valuations, providing top-tier valuation reports for everything from mergers to shareholder disputes.  Note we recorded this episode before the most recent hurricanes Helen and Milton devastated Florida the deadliest since Katrina in 2005, each with a combined $100 billion is losses, $50 billion each. For context, that major storm Toronto had in the summer caused $1 billion in damage, these hurricanes were 100 times worse. My thoughts and well wishes are with Florida. Link to source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/helene-milton-losses-50-billion-each-hurricanes-rare/   For your business valuation needs, Adam’s company website: https://synthesisvaluations.com/   What’s someone with so much stock and business valuation skill and experience doing overweighted as a real estate investor? Let’s ask him!

We have the co-founder of Trust Your Talent, Tim Tsai returning to the show after a two year hiatus from the show. Tim’s members include 150 who have achieved some level of financial freedom, including the first level which is to have one’s monthly expenses covered by the cash flow from their investments. That’s a lot of people Tim and co-founder Rey have directly coached and mentored but he’s not alone as past guests of this show Vince Lee and Brooke Shang are past members and now coaches of Tim and Rey’s group. Tim is back this week to share what has worked for his own portfolio including what has not worked, when he saw red flags and was able to avoid damage unlike the many who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in private lending in small towns, high leveraged, too much, too fast, too complicated investments.  However Tim’s members have survived and thrived over these same times and I can’t wait to meet the dozens of award members at Tim’s InvestED gala. About Tim: After retiring himself at the age of 30, Tim began to pursue another goal and passion of his – helping those who are committed to achieving financial freedom do the same. To this day, Tim continues to be an active investor as he believes investing is a “lead by example” venture. With the investment he made in his own financial education, Tim became financially free in 2 years (25 months to be exact) after his first training. In the past few years, Tim has built cash-flowing portfolios in Canada, US and the UK, using a variety of strategies – income properties, lease options (residential and commercial), creative financing, flipping, wholesale, infill development, mobile home parks, etc. Conference details: https://trustyourtalent.ca/invested-annual-conference-2/ Website: https://trustyourtalent.ca Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetimtsai/  

On to this week’s show, a topic I’m a big fan of, avoiding long-term rentals in tenant friendly provinces like Ontario hence we have Spencer and Ashley Giles back for round 2. If you didn’t already know, vacation rentals are a business, 24-7 for some like Airbnb managers like Spencer and Ashley Giles who are back to share more, dig deeper into the strategy including operating and owning in the USA.    Their management portfolio is 50 properties at time of recording spread across much of Ontario and Up State New York so they have a lot of diverse experience to share.   To follow Spencer and Ashley Giles, their website is https://spencerandashley.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/spencerandashley/ on Instagram.   Please enjoy the show!  

Our guest Meghan Hubner is a real estate business consultant who helps investors run their portfolios like a business. After a 12-year career in medical and pharmaceutical sales, Meghan transitioned to entrepreneurship, using her degree in entrepreneurship to work with various businesses. About 4 years ago, she started focusing on real estate investors, helping them with accounting, finance, operations, and building systems to stabilize and grow their businesses. Meghan is also an experienced real estate investor herself, having built a portfolio in British Columbia, and a cohost of the Real Estate Reliance Summit along with fellow dynamic investors: Elizabeth Kelly and Victoria Cluney.   For information and to register go to https://realestateresilience.ca/ but don’t delay, the all virtual conference is Saturday and Sunday Sept 28th and 29th.  Cherry and I are proud speakers and SHARE and I are proud to be sponsoring quality educational content providers at affordable prices by Elizabeth, Victoria and this week’s guest Meghan Hubner.   Please enjoy the show!   Meaghan on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghanhubner/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meghanhubner?mibextid=LQQJ4d Web: www.meghanhubner.com

On to this week’s guest! Award-Winning Real Estate Investor, Coach, Speaker, Educator & Proud Entrepreneur, my old friend Elizabeth Kelly who tells it like it is.  Elizabeth shares about her wins and losses in real estate.  She’s been an active leader in the community for nearly 20 years and is here to tell us about how we Canadian real estate investors can be resilient, what she sees for our collective futures in real estate and she’s hosting the 3rd annual Real Estate Resilience Business Edition of the summit on September 28-29th.   Myself and SHARE are proud sponsors of the summit. I will be joining an expert panel on USA investing with friend of the show Glen Sutherland.  My wife, the lovely Cherry Chan will be a speaker as well and I’m super excited for the other speakers as well. On today’s show Elizabeth shares her personal journey from mega real estate investor to entrepreneurship adjacent to real estate, the challenges of affordability for investing in local markets even after learning the hard way when back in 2010, she bought 100+ units and struggled with systems and operations. Any and all investors should give this episode a listen to learn how to both win in real estate and to avoid losing which IMHO is another way of winning. For more information on the Real Estate Resilience summit go to: https://realestateresilience.ca/   Please enjoy the show.  

Mike Beer is is an owner of a real state investment company Mike Beer Investments. They have developed an investing system that has been working for well over a decade and invest in apartment buildings in Canada. His mission is to enable each of his investors to provide their families with the financial future they truly deserve. In the past he was a professional ski instructor and scuba divemaster. Now he focuses on coaching for charity, ice water plunges, health, and loves personal self development. Website to contact: https://www.mikebeer.ca/

We have a college instructor on this week’s show! Brian Gordon is an old friend of mine from years ago, he works full time for the largest appraisal company in Canada, if not North America in Management.  Prior to that he worked as a Senior Property Tax Analyst for one of Canada’s largest REITs, if not the biggest.   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigor/   Brian has been methodically growing his own real estate portfolio over 7 years consisting of duplexes, a AirBnb in Blue Mountain, more recently an 11 plex development where he’s adding two additional units.   As mentioned Brian is the course creator and instructor of “Real Estate Investment Strategies” at George Brown College, a comprehensive, yet affordable course which is one of the big reasons why I wanted him on the show.  Real estate investing is largely about return on investment and that includes one’s education.  This course is only $392.24 for 20 hours including private 1 on 1 consultation time with Brian.  What an absolute steal.   Link: https://coned.georgebrown.ca/courses-and-programs/real-estate-investment-strategies-online   Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed recording this episode for you all to learn Brian’s tips and tricks so we may all improve our own businesses and you’ll want to hear about where Brian’s next investments will be and his views on Canadian opportunities.   Please enjoy the show!   Follow Brian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acquiring_wisdom/

We have my friends returning to the show, Marty and Amanda who’ve been renovating and investing for nearly 20 years, Amanda Bouck has managed properties for nearly 20 years, Marty her husband is a carpenter by trade and personally much of their 15+ duplex conversions in Guelph.  They are a power couple: they get numbers, execution, cash flow and hate vacancy. They drank the same Kool Aid I did. They’re reward is a country acreage and building the custom home of their dreams they’re too humble to talk about with all the gurus out there flaunting Rolex watches, Lamborghinis, private jets and yachts. Amanda & Marty scaled up as well in small multis likes six plexes, small apartment buildings to their current project, both a REIT: real estate investment trust called Legend Real Estate Trust and a 60 unit building in Waterloo. Amanda and Marty are here today to share their experience including coaching, retiring from coaching for possibly the biggest real estate education company in Canada.  As always, we share both the negative and positive of real estate investing including all the losses going on in the community, over leverage with expensive hard money loans and their own investment philosophies where none of their investors have lost any money. The honest truth about real estate investing is, speculative investments can work until they don’t and also I don’t endorse any product or offering of Marty and Amanda nor do I receive any compensation from Marty and Amanda nor from their businesses. This episode is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please do your own due diligence. If you read the article about Robby Clark, you see how some of the property used to secure financing had fires and were torn down by the city. If any lender, broker, investor had simply driven by the property, they would have known the deal was no good.  For my house in San Antonio, Texas I have a termite inspection, home inspection including pictures and video walkthrough, a quote from the property manager for renovations and maintenance. My cousin is in San Antonio next week for work and doing a drive by. Diligence people, trust but VERIFY. That goes for all guests of this show. I do my best hence Epic Alliance and Robby Clark never made it on this show or any of my platforms.  I learnt my lesson from Paramount Equity. Back to this week’s guests, Amanda and Marty, just to note, they have been censored on other platforms and Facebook groups for trying to warn people about gurus losing other people's money. They going to offend some so be warned.     Links: www.LegendRealEstateTrust.ca [email protected] [email protected]   Please enjoy the show!  

Greetings my fellow investors and truth seekers, this is the Truth About Real Estate Investing Show for Canadians and if you’re addicted to social media like I am, there’s not a lot of good news within our community.  It’s not all bad, we just had Kelly Caldwell, Victoria Cluney, and Milena Simsic. Spencer and Ashley with their AirBnbs, Zac Killem whose company Front Lobby will thrive.  In general those with healthier portfolios as in not over leveraged, focus on cash flow and operational execution are doing just fine like many past guests of this show. I was just speaking to one investor/Realtor while preparing this episode who did just that, he’s buying more multifamily buildings and completed two flips in the USA.    Off the top of my head, I can think of two past guests in significant financial trouble, one has already declared bankruptcy, the others owe a lot of people a lot of money to individual investors, not just banks.  Individual investors post to social media and tell others to warn them. I know because I have friends everywhere in the community and the messages arrive in my DM’s.   Both were newer to real estate as they made the switch to full time within the last five years or so.  I’ve left the episodes up because as far as I’ve know, there was no criminal intent nor are they being accused of any.   I run a real estate investment business called iWIN Real Estate where we are always looking to learn, evolve, and adopt best practices to help our clients optimize their investments and time, the only non-renewable resource. We started investing in single family, then multifamily, then student rentals, basement suite conversions, to garden/garage suites and it’s gotten unaffordable. We use Ai all through out our businesses.   I used Chatgpt to research case law when sellers accepted a higher competing offer when we had already accepted their counter offer.  I’ve used Chatgpt to proof read my clauses for counter offers which saves everyone time: my clients, my lawyer, my broker.    I’m working on creating a digital duplicate of myself as I’m really busy booking calls to discuss USA investing. 80-90% of the questions are the same: what is the legal structure to own US properties, how do you get a mortgage, what are the fees like, etc… all repetitive I could have an Ai twin version of myself do.    If you think I’m crazy, check out the found of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman’s two way interview of his own Ai twin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgD2gmwCS10   For anyone in sales or customer service, if you’re not afraid for your job, I don’t know what will. This is one reason I diversify my business, use Ai tools, own cash flowing real estate.   The owner of Property Guys was on BNN talking about how 25% of Realtors in the USA will leave the industry after those historic lawsuit settlements.  This August, listings will no longer display co-operating commission for buyer agents hence buyer agents must negotiate commission from the buyer.  Property Guy mentioned there are two lawsuits in the works in Canada which confirms the rumours I’ve heard.  The implication is the public will be more aware that Realtor commissions are negotiable, they always have been and it my experience, sellers who want top dollar when selling will continue to offer co-operating commission.  Most of the professional investors do it. I do it, I actually offer above market co-operating commission and use it as a marketing tool and negotiation piece. I mean it’s worked for me, the last four houses I sold, I did so, on average in 22 days on market.   Point is, I’m a Realtor, I’ve worried for my job since 2010 and never been more worried with Ai, class action lawsuits and competition among other Realtors at their highest levels ever.  If only we had as many doctors and Realtors. Imagine how good our health care would be.   For complete business and investment sense, I of course partnered with SHARE, a tech enabled asset manager that allows Canadians to be US landlords without all the heavy lifting.  My 17 listeners know I’ve conducted well over 300, hour long interviews with successful and some no longer successful real estate investors work, invest, blood, sweat and tears.  In terms of cash flow and overall returns to effort, I haven’t seen anything before that beats SHARE’s offering.   In short, I’ve seen how the top investors implement their real estate investment business and can separate the hype from results. Those with results did not overleverage, were in control the whole time, delivered operationally to renovate and rent as fast as they could.  Those who didn’t are the ones making all the headlines in the news for declaring bankruptcy protection or bankruptcy or have their names dragged through Facebook groups for owing money.    I had a call with a newer investor who’s got a great investment property in BC, she AirBnb’s the triplex in the summer months then rents to students during the school year.  That’s investing on steroids and she’s rewarded with six figures of rental income.   The investor asked why I call in long-term single family rentals boring?  To me it’s not exciting, there’s nothing innovative about it vs. what gets all the attention and likes on social media, note how many of those influencers have gone quiet or done major pivots. I know one big time condo agent appears to have pivoted to coaching Realtors which is going to be really tough in this market.  My clients and I’s investing is as passive as possible and we’ve done quite well. Our biggest challenge is under rented properties due to rent control but over the long-term, we’ve all done amazing with market appreciation.   Compare that to Airbnb in the summer where this newer investor does all the client interaction and only outsources the maintenance and cleaning to a property manager for 10% PM fees. Student rentals in my experience are a niche investment that is much more challenging to insure, manage, and get cheap financing.  My last student rental mortgage was with Home Trust at over 8% interest plus 1% lender fee.   Again, a wonderful business for the active investor.  Just be prepared for plans B and C and D should the municipality turn against student rentals or AirBnb.  Just last week, 10,000 protesters in Barcelona took to the streets, some even using water guns to shoot at tourists. The Mayor of Barcelona is banning 10,000 Airbnbs in the city… this makes me thing I need to buy some shares of hotels… source: https://www.ft.com/content/287c1d53-7dd0-410c-88bb-f43277c851b6   In my city, the City of Hamilton implemented rental licensing in the student neighbourhoods with plans to expand across the entire city and the mayor is former NDP leader Andrea Horwath.  To conform to licensing could costing landlords from a couple to several thousands of dollars in order to comply along with ongoing fees.  Thankfully I’ve sold my student rentals and I’m grateful for having done so as I look out the window of my office and know there are basements being flooded all over the province. There’s plenty of investors struggling out there already who don’t need this.  This widespread flooding event will push up insurance rates yet again, more housing cost inflation we can NOT pass onto the tenant in a rent controlled environment.   As someone who despises risk, I’m removing basement flood risk by divesting local houses and investing in houses in the USA that don’t have basements. I’m advising friends, family and clients to not invest in suiting their basements as it makes more sense to allocate those funds to buying a house in the USA.  To close on my house in San Antonio I need $97,000 US$ including a $10k reserve fund. A typical basement apartment conversion is $160,000 in my experience and you’re vacant six months.  How long depends on the municipality and the quality of your contractor.   My San Antonio tenants are renting the house back from me so I have zero vacancy and can defer my renovations till after they move out which I hope is never since this is Texas and there is no rent control   Only in colder climates do we need basements that go below the frost line to prevent heaving.  The same problem doesn’t happen in the southern USA making housing a lot less expensive to build, no need to ever have waterproof let alone flooding if you avoid coastal areas and Florida.   Even if you wanted to buy a turnkey duplex in Hamilton, Barrie, Oshawa, Ottawa etc… I’ve chosen those cities as prices and rents are similar there, I’ve calculated the capitalization rate = $ Net Operating Income / $ price at 4.1%.    Compare that to what my clients are getting, low five to mid 7 cap rates in the USA.  The numbers don’t lie, the laws are landlord friendly, no rent control, and commercial style mortgages for us Canadian investors. I make way more commission selling a Canadian property than an American one but I want happy clients hence I recommend US investments over Canadian ones. Diversification and cash flow reasons alone make plain sense. The truth is also it’s way easier selling US income properties. I’ve sold way more US income properties than Canadian ones this year, never in my career since 2010 as a Realtor have I seen so little interest by investors to buy local income properties when the timing is ideal to pick up deals.   I do truly worry for my fellow real estate professionals in Realtors and mortgage agents/brokers. There’s a lot of them already and if they make a living focusing on selling local real estate investments and they not able to sell US products, I won’t be surprised to see many of them leave the industry.     To me, it’s all a matter of education before investing in the USA via SHARE by Canadians is the norm, I honestly love my work, SHARE is the partner every lazy investor like me is looking for except they don’t take any equity share of the investment. Control and ownership remind 100% mine and Cherry’s.    I’m going to record a video comparing a new condo investment vs. a duplex vs. my client’s property. He's from Montreal, has never seen the house that is a 7.6% cap rate that only cost him about $160,000 Canadian.    Link is in the show notes.   There is no guest this week. I literally had invited a former coach of a defunct real estate “university” as they invest big, nice people but their name is being blasted on social media for not making payments on their private mortgages.  The coach didn’t respond which never happens as gurus generally love coming on my show.  This isn’t an indictment on the coach/investor. If they can survive they’ll come out a winner.  Even if they don’t, I believe them to be talented and will come back.     Personally I don’t like my investments to be a roller coaster hence I choose boring as I don’t have thick enough skin to tell people I’ve lost their money or I can’t pay them back.  That’s just me. The world needs the self declared crazies like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. I just know I’m not that and stay in my boring lane.   But I do have equity in SHARE, I have some say in the company’s direction as Head of Business Development in Canada and I don’t see a more efficient path to my company’s 10 year gold: help 200 Canadians become real estate millionaires.  I’m at 45 or so now and I can see it in my mind’s eye, 10 years from now enjoying golf and dinner with 200 Canadian real estate millionaires who’ve gained a lot of financial peace via their boring real estate investments.   I can’t wait but I’m totally enjoying the journey.  iwin.sharesfr.com if you’d like to learn about the deals my clients and I are doing, from there you can book a Zoom call with me. Past clients, I’m always down for coffee, dessert, breakfast, lunch, dinner, or golf. You know where to find me.

This week’s guest is the lovely Kelly Caldwell, who has converted over a dozen single family houses for basement suites AND garden suites. Together with husband Jeff Caldwell, they’ve become leaders in their community, Collingwood, ON filling in the missing middle working closely with local government as such they were invited to be a part of a new HGTV inspired series called Home Suite Home where viewers can follow along as Kelly and Jeff navigate the world of accessory suite financing, design and construction.  You can catch them on Rogers Cable TV this fall as well as Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@itshomesuitehome.   Kelly’s journey is a wild one.  She was barely an adult when she was orphaned as Cancer took her father, her only parent away leaving her as the eldest sibling of two teenage brothers.    Kelly shares about her remote investing way up north, how she managed the renovations, Kelly shares the numbers around a typical basement conversion and garden suite.  For the first time a guest talks about the benefits of polished concrete floors for both heating and finish. Fascinating stuff for real estate nerds such as myself.   If you can’t tell, Kelly is no stranger to hard work so please enjoy the show! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itshomesuitehome/, https://www.instagram.com/the_dash_investher/ Realtor website: https://caldwellrealestategroup.com/ The dash poem: https://noahwatry.medium.com/the-dash-poem-by-linda-ellis-33fe4d54a1b4 ADUSearch: https://adusearch.ca/index.html

Real estate development for it’s lack of long term tenants makes more sense which is a great segway for this week’s guest Victoria Cluney fresh off recording a show on Dragon’s Den to pitch her Tiny Home community and manufacturing of tiny houses!!  Victoria is under a hush agreement about what happens on her episode but will share her experience auditioning, getting called back and pitching to the real life Dragons for the show. Victoria is a returning guest of this show who’s on a great journey from small landlord of long-term rentals to short-term cottage “bunkies” to AirBnb’ing a motel to building a tiny home community, manufacturing tiny homes and being a part of the solution to solving this affordability crisis we’re having in Canada. Victoria is also co-hosting the RE Resilience Summit (https://realestateresilience.ca/) Saturday and Sunday September 28 & 29.  Her co-hosts include Meghan Hubner and Elizabeth Kelly.  Elizabeth Kelly as you know is a regular and friend of the show, she’s one of the few good ones in our industry so if you’re new or old to real estate investing, you know the RE Resilience Summit will have something for everyone.   To follow Victoria: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriacluney/?hl=en WE BILD Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/webild/?_xtd=gqFyqTMzNzkwNjIyMaFwpmlwaG9uZQ%253D%253D&from=ref Tiny Home building & community: https://www.tayridge.ca/   Please enjoy the show!!  

 On to this week’s show, as always, we try to focus on cash flow the young, lovely couple Spencer and Ashley Giles are Niagara- based real estate investors with a shared love of travel (they are literally vacationing in Nashville, TN right now, hopefully they find an AirBNB investment there as I hear Nashville is awesome), fitness, and dogs. They started investing in 2018 and have since expanded their portfolio to 13 units with a mix of short- term and long-term rentals. Spencer and Ashley co-founded Travelluxe Inc. in 2019, a short-term rental management company, which currently manages over 45 units across Canada and has expanded to the USA. We go into detail about that on the show including the numbers.   They were able to leave their corporate jobs in 2021 and 2022 to focus all their efforts on their businesses. Their love for travel has brought them all around the world where they are able to mix work and pleasure by creating systems that allow them to be location independent.    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spencerandashley/ Website: https://spencerandashley.com/ Ellicottville Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/53721048?locale=en&_set_bev_on_new_domain=1719192849_EAMTU0NWYwZTcwNj&source_impression_id=p3_1719192850_P3OWaZ8QQzOrJpJd  

We have a special guest today who we squeezed in before her return home to Tampa Bay, FLA to warm weather, pickleball year round, fruit trees in her backyard. The reasons are obvious why Canadians love Florida. Carmen is a Canadian living in Florida, she’s Chartered Professional Accountant Tax Specialist in both Canada and the USA. She owns 70 income properties in the USA, her 24 year old son even owns three rental houses in the States too! Carmen got into investing after selling her business, then in the 2008 real estate crash and bought a portfolio of single family homes in Florida to generate cash flow and replace part of her income.   Carmen is a passive investor as SHARE’s property management team takes care of everything so she gets to enjoy early retirement income.   As Carmen is a practicing Accountant who prepares tax returns for Canadian clients, she introduced clients to invest in US based single family rentals including Andrew Kim, CEO of SHARE and together could see how involved the process from legal setup to ongoing property management but the returns are life changing hence they knew they had to create SHARE, a technology based real estate solution for anyone to become a US landlord without all the hard work.   I’ve invited Carmen Da Silva, CPA in both Canada and US to return to the show to focus on the most common questions Canadians have about investing in the US.  The answer is different for everyone and Carmen takes the time to explain why.   Friendly disclaimer, I Erwin Szeto am not an Accountant, Carmen Da Silva is an Accountant but not your personal Accountant so you still need to seek your own professional, expert advice for your specific situation.  Our conversation is for educational purposes, tax let alone cross border tax is a complicated subject.   With that said please enjoy the show!

Cody Yeh arrived in Canada at the age of 18 on a student visa, initially lacking knowledge in income and wealth creation. Over the past 11 years, Cody has undergone a significant transformation, evolving from a student to a full-time project manager, and eventually to a financial coach, real estate investor, and stock options investor. The skills he acquired during this period enabled him to leave his full-time job at the beginning of 2020.  Cody now has a stock options investing program and he’s buying apartment buildings in the USA.  It’s quite the journey. To follow Cody, his website is his name Codyyeh.com Please enjoy the show!  

In the latest episode of our podcast, we had the pleasure of speaking with Milena Simsic, a remarkable individual who transitioned from being an ICU nurse to becoming a top 1% Realtors in Windsor, ON. Milena's journey is a testament to the power of determination, strategic thinking, and adaptability. Career Transition: From Nurse to Realtor Milena's story begins in the high-pressure environment of an ICU in Detroit, where she worked for four years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite her passion for nursing, she realized that her financial goals and long-term aspirations required a different path. Intrigued by the potential of real estate, she saved diligently and made her first property investment, a sixplex within eight months of starting her nursing career. In February 2022, Milena made the full-time switch to real estate. Leveraging her skills, discipline, and having grown social media presence of 10,000, she quickly established herself as a formidable player in the Windsor market. By the end of her first year, she had achieved $300,000 in gross commission income, placing her in the top 1% of realtors in the area. We talk about why and how Windsor’s market is booming unlike the rest of the province and how an investor can take advantage of it. What I love about having this podcast is getting an hour of time from busy, successful talented people such as Milena so we can drill into what makes her tick, her secrets to success, how it didn’t come easy but rather with a lot of hard work. I’ve been lucky to have many pasts guests of this show and I happen to hang out with 7 figure entrepreneurs all the time so I have experience hanging out with talented people and I’d count Milena among them. You don’t become a top 1% Realtor without talent and hard work.  If you’re in the Windsor area, you definitely want to the check out the Windsor REI Social, the largest real estate networking event in Windsor, ON. Milena has honoured me with an invite to be the guest speaker Wednesday June 19th, 6pm at the Winelogy Restaurant and Bar.  I’ll be sharing my journey from 20 year landlord in Ontario to my recent pivot to the USA and I have to same kudos to Windsor REI Hosts Milena and Brandon Finn for hosting a speaker on the subject of USA Investing.  Not many local real estate professionals would. To register for the meetup: Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/windsor-rei-social-429899   To follow Milena: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milena_simsic/ Website: https://milenasimsic.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/windsocialrealty/   Please enjoy the show!  

Zac Killam: Real Estate Innovator and Entrepreneur, a Top Forty Under 40 winner, has made significant strides in the real estate industry. He has built a rapidly growing multi-family real estate business of 500 units, leveraging his entrepreneurial acumen to drive success in this competitive market. Beyond real estate, Zac founded Canada’s largest taxi advertising network, the second largest globally, and a PropTech company.  The other property technology company he’s know for in our community is getting national attention called Front Lobby, pioneering rent reporting to credit bureaus in Canada, enabling renters to build credit through their monthly payments, used by a small as mom and pop landlords to publicly traded real estate investment trusts. Join us on our podcast as we explore Zac Killam's real estate ventures and his innovative impact on the industry including how all landlords can better screen and improve rent collection while tenants build credit. A win win outcome!   https://frontlobby.com/   Please enjoy the show

We have an old friend in Georges El Masri returning to the show, host of Well Off Podcast, Georges used to work at the same Brokerage, the wonderful Rock Star Real Estate Brokerage but like many talented investors do, they transition out of service work into more focus on their own portfolio. Like I’ve told many new Realtors, investors in my experience make more money and Georges will prove me right on today’s episode. Georges is going to tell you it hasn’t been all sunshine and rainbows but he’s doing really well thanks to smart investing, quality education, keeping an eye on the numbers and execution. As is the trend, the above market returns are often in the more complicated projects.  Those who solve problems tend to get rewarded and Georges shares how he uncovers deals, find hidden value add but adding apartments in commercial multifamily and small developments.  Georges shares about different joint venture structures he’s negotiated so make sure to have a pen and paper ready, this interview is full of nuggets.   To connect or follow Georges: Email [email protected] Phone 416.855.4902 Podcast: https://welloffpodcast.ca/   Please enjoy the show!

We have my old friend Ming Lim of Volition Properties, Toronto Realtor and investor extraordinaire and the name volition is about living your life on your own volition thanks to financial peace from a great real estate portfolio.  The nice thing about investing in Toronto is one can’t really beat the number of high quality tenants to choose from.  In my experience, the ideal tenant is gainfully employed and optimistic about the future as their credit history is valuable to them as they want to be able to get car loans and mortgages hence they can both afford the rent AND be motivated to be a quality tenant. But Toronto is a top two least affordable city in Canada and one of the least affordable in the world so unless you have deep pockets for negative cash flow condos, you’re going to have to adopt an investment model of intensification and densification and that’s exactly why we have Ming Lim on as today’s guest. Ming and I go back over ten years, he’s an engineer by training so he’s a bright guy, he doesn’t hide truths hence Ming share’s how some Toronto investors are faring holding pre-condo construction condos, very sad stuff. On the positive, Ming shares how CMHC’s MLI select program (read cheap, 50 year amortization financing) can be used to optimally invest and develop into multifamily properties in and around downtown Toronto. For all you Toronto investors, you’ve asked “when will Erwin be downtown to meetup?” well Ming has invited me to speak at his meetup.    https://www.meetup.com/volition/events/297931009/ Tuesday, May 28, 6:00-9:00 pm The Kingston House (676 Kingston Rd, Toronto), google maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/VKQLkSEc5cVxoa9j8 4.6/5 Google reviews   I’ll be sharing my journey of being a landlord in Ontario for the last 20 years and how I’ve started selling properties here to diversify to the landlord friendly areas of the USA. I’ve just returned from Savannah, GA, I’m in the middle of creating my corporate structure in the States to be prepared to start writing offers in the USA this month and I can not wait!   I hope to see you there and please enjoy the show!   Ming’s Volition on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/volitionproperties/ Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Volition/ Advisory call: https://cal.com/volition-matt/30advisory?month=2024-03

We have my old friend Andrew Hines and his co-author of an all new book John Schwenker!  Andrew needs no introduction and John is an everyday hero, a firefighter and recovering real estate investor. Andrew has taken his turn sharing how he lost money investing in Ohio now it’s John’s turn to share how he made a bunch of money in Ontario, lost all his profits in the recent correction but it’s not all bad news, John’s short term rental property in the US is a winner. I’m confident you’ll agree when you hear his numbers especially when compared to his Niagara Fall, Ontario short-term rental. In this episode, John and Andrew share their journey to writing this book so we may all learn from their mistakes and how to be successful in their book which is like Tim Ferriss’ “Tools of Titans” where other experts have contributed chapters to the book including yours truly.     To pick up a copy of the book: “Real Estate Titans: Tools, Tactics and Wisdom for Canadian Real Estate Wealth.” Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Real-Estate-Titans-Tactics-Canadian-ebook/dp/B0CZZZWP3Z/   To follow Andrew and John: @theandrewhines @john.schwenker

On to this week’s show! We have one of my oldest real estate investor friends Andy Tran who was among my first clients and home inspectors.   I’ll always remember the first deal we did together, a detached house in Hamilton for $216,000. The house had been sitting for nearly two months before we came along and during our appointment to see the property, I noticed there was something not right.  The owners listed a man and woman’s name but while inspecting in the fridge and closets, I could tell only the father and kids lived in the house.   In speaking with the listing agent to gather information for our offer, the agent informed me the sellers were divorcing and hated each other.  Knowing we had a motivated seller, our offer was a low one and was promptly accepted to our surprise.  Note that we also included our closing costs to be paid for by the sellers.  This was back in 2010 and we’ve both come a long way.   Fast forward to the present, Andy is the market leader in secondary and tertiary suite additions.  In plain language, that’s basement apartments, additions for self contained apartments and garage or garden suites which are also apartments.   Andy is a master of maximising the rental income that can be generated from one property.  Andy has consulted and designed over 100 apartment conversions between my clients and I including land severances.   If you’d like to learn more about Andy’s services available at Suite additions, simply go to www.suiteadditions.com where he has checklists and beginner guides to secondary suiting plus his in person training program Andy mentions on the show which sold out in April but expect another this fall.   Andy’s a good guy and that’s the truth about real estate investing. Please enjoy the show!  

My friend Shawn Bedard who I first met at REIN over ten years ago and our real estate investing paths were quite different. Back in 2010, Shawn couldn’t find deals that make sense in Ontario so he went to landlord friendly USA and bought 4 houses in Atlanta and 10 in Memphis, Georgia. His experience and investment went…. I’ll let him SHARE. Other than real estate investing, I’ve invited Shawn on the show to discuss his volunteer work at a non-profit organization called Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO), specifically the Accelerator program where Shawn leads the initiative to guide entrepreneurs with $250,000 to 999,999 in revenue USD to get over a $1 million USD and become a full member of EO. EO has been an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs like Shawn and I. I luv it hence I joined the board of our Toronto chapter.  What I luv about EO members is they’re kind, successful people who all want to make their mark in the world. Our values are: Trust and Respect. Each of us is unique and equal. ... Thirst for Learning. We have an insatiable curiosity. ... Think big, be bold. We innovate, take risks and see opportunity in a challenge.  Together we grow. We are committed to each other's growth and well-being.   To learn more about EO’s Accelerator program https://eocanada.com/accelerator/   To connect with Shawn: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-bedard-65a3/?originalSubdomain=ca Web: https://jigtechnologies.com/

We have my friend Adam Kitchener back on the show as we get along because he keeps it so real.  No pictures of him on a private plane, or luxury vehicle or luxury watches. Well he does actually but they’re obviously photoshopped as he’s poking fun at the phonies out there.   Don’t get me wrong, luxury stuffs great. I personally luv it when folks celebrate their success and reward themselves.  Keep in mind, most successful people in my experience don’t brag about their wealth, read “the Millionaire Next Door” if you don’t believe me. The book describes 99% of my millionaire clients exactly.  Why would anyone brag about their cars and watches or gold chains, on social media? That would make them a target for robbery.  Adam actually rips people who do such things and turn out to be frauds on his social media accounts. On today’s show, Adam recounts his trials and tribulations of being a full time, active investor.  He shares how he finances deals including private money, the numbers on the deals he’s done, why they are deals, how cash flow and timely execution is paramount to survival and he pulls no punches, it’s not sexy. He’s been assaulted and harassed by tenants, arrested by police, bought houses with backyards littered with used syringes from drug dealers.  Investment wise, he’s doing excellent and well setup for the future but it was far from sunshine and rainbow getting here. Feel free to reach out to Adam on social media, he’s happy to take a question or two for anyone who needs a second opinion on anything real estate related. https://www.instagram.com/mradamkitchener/ https://www.facebook.com/adamrkitchener Please enjoy the show!

Returning to the show is Andrew Kim from Brampton who identifies as American. He used to invest locally, the return on time wasn’t there so he bought 20 houses in landlord friendly USA ten years ago now he cash flows over ten thousand US dollars per month.  His Accountant Carmen was the one who guided Andrew to invest in the USA along with several of her Accounting and Financial Planning Clients since 2008.  Since then they’ve combined forces to make the same opportunities available to everyday Canadian investors with the company they co-founded call SHARE thanks to their innovative technology and automation to bring down the costs substantially.   Full disclosure: I am an advisor to SHARE, meaning I get paid to develop their business in Canada through Marketing and Sales. It's the most fun I've ever had in my real estate career. I wake up every morning excited to speak with investors and help them find opportunities in the USA. Active as an investor and landlord since 2005, I'm eager to share with my clients and community a simpler way to combat inflation and build their wealth with less risk and higher cash flow, in places where investors are truly welcomed. I want to thank Andrew and SHARE for inviting me along for the ride and for helping me invest in USA.  I can’t wait to start making offers in May after my rentals here are sold and closed. As I mentioned, Andrew’s context of real estate and investing is very American since he lived in California for five years and wants to go back. He’s here today to share what 150 Canadians interested in investing in the USA have said to him. Please enjoy the show.   📅Join Our Upcoming Workshop: How to Invest in the U.S. Real Estate Market as a Canadian Investor! For those who’d like a deeper understanding of how to invest in the USA, we are happy to announce our next US investing workshop on Saturday, April 13th. 🔗Sign up: https://USAworkshop.eventbrite.ca/?aff=YT 

We have returning to the show my friend Seth Ferguson and I want to thank him for hosting the biggest real estate event of the year May 24-26th.  The Friday is a 101 for beginners then the main course is the Saturday and Sunday and I’m excited to see all my friends from the community, hopefully our 17 listeners and Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort. I don’t know his full story outside of the Leonardo Dicaprio movie, he did go to jail for doing awful things with peoples’ money but I know he’s got great stories to share how he did it all wrong and if he had only played the long game and stayed legit, he would have made 10X the money.   Robert Herjavec of Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank is the other keynote speaker along with a secret guest Seth will reveal on the show! Seth is pretty awesome too, I can’t wait to be there to support my friend and I look forward to seeing everyone! On today’s show Seth shares the journey to the third Multi-family conference, how and why he chose these speakers, how this year will be drastically different than years past.  We’ll discuss why Seth from Milton, Ontario owns no income properties in Canada and focusses his own efforts and capital in southern USA along with some of the numbers.    https://multifamilyconference.ca/ Metro Toronto Convention Center May 24-26th.    Please enjoy the show!

This week we have a very special guest in Patrick Francey, CEO of the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN for short). What makes REIN special in my experience is they’ve always been affordable, REIN has been around longer than pretty much all the other real estate education or networking organizations.  They focus on economic fundamentals and cash flow, they literally teach both subjects extensively once per year in each of the cities they operate. As such, their members are among the most successful in the investor community and their members risk way less. Never did they teach high leverage investing or promissory notes in my experience. OPM or joint venturing instruction was almost entirely equity based to preserve cash flow, reduces risk, allow the passive partner to participate in both upside and downside. On the other hand, I’m having regular conversations with investors about professional coaches and small REIT owners who are behind on payments to their investors and folks are lawyering up.  Never in my experience have I seen this scale of lawsuits in my experience hence I feel the timing of this interview with Patrick and last week Tom Karadza of Rock Star real estate is timely. We’ve had lots of experts on this show including Alberta real estate investors but I do want to highlight what makes today’s guest in Patrick Francey standout. Patrick’s role at REIN places him at the forefront of research and education, he has thousands of REIN members to network with across the country to help him make informed and profitable decisions.  Patrick admits he’s a wee older than I am and benefits from having been both a business owner and real estate investor for several economic cycles both boom and bust. On today’s show we reminisce about what has made REIN members successful over the decades but it’s been far from perfect, we’re talking about Alberta here who had been in economic winter for a decade, prices had crashed and the energy sector has been neglected at the federal level. As for the future, it’s bright for specific parts and strategies in Alberta which Patrick details. Website: reincanada.com Email: [email protected] Please enjoy the show!

On today’s show, we have one of my mentors and brokers in Tom Karadza, co-founder of Rock Star Real Estate Brokerage, Inc who in my experience is one of the best leaders and influencers in our community.  If results are what matters to you like they do for me, Rock Star’s 1000+ members are well educated in investing and are among the most successful especially after you adjust for risk.  No get rich quick schemes at Rock Star. On today’s show Tom and discuss how Rock Star members have weathered the current storm, how the pandemic ruined my bitcoin gains, while Tom is laughing all the way to the bank… does that saying work when referring to Bitcoin gains?  Anyways, Tom and his brother Nick Karadza are hosting the next Your Life, Your Terms event live and in person Saturday April 6th at the International Centre near Pearson Airport. This is likely the largest room, 1000+ attendees expected, or successful, action takers you’ve ever met where the talks are fresh, no repeats allowed, Cherry will have a booth, I’ll be networking wearing a USA Hockey jersey.  If you’re a client, I have some pull so you can save the hundreds of dollars on tickets, everyone else, details and link to register in the show notes: https://www.yourlifeyourtermsevent.com/  

On to this week’s show! Today we have my Mortgage Broker Scott Dillingham from Windsor Ontario who as far as I know is the only investor specialist who can help Canadians with mortgages in both Canada and the USA. Scott while he was the #1 mortgage broker at one of Canada’s biggest banks got my clients and I many mortgages at cheap rates and I’m now selling one of them. Scott has since opened his own mortgage brokerage called Lendcity, he shares how American debt service coverage ratio mortgages work when buying income properties in the USA. Scott is a real estate investor himself and shares some of his own challenges as a Windsor landlord and how/where he plans to buy his next investment property and why. For long-time investors, you’ll remember the days around ten years ago when we used to negotiate seller credits to bring down our downpayments, thus improving our ROI. Well roll back the calendar as seller credits are more of a norm in the US, even more so with builders in this slow market with historically high interest rates. Scott of course will be our mortgage expert, guest speaker at our next US Investment Workshop on the morning of Saturday April 13th at our office in Oakville broadcast live over Zoom.  I thought the last one would be our last as it’s not easy, nor cheap to have as much talent in the room that we do. We have everyone’s favourite real estate Accountant, my wife Cherry Chan, the CEO, CIO and CFO of Share: Andrew Kim, Dmitri Bourchtein, Carmen Da Silva respectively to explain how to be a USA landlord without all the work but keep all the equity. Link is in the show notes: simply choose between in person or virtual. https://USAworkshop.eventbrite.ca. Cost is only $30 plus tax and eventbrite fees. You can also reach Scott and team at [email protected], an a custom email address made specially for you, my 17 listeners.   Please enjoy the show!

On to this week’s show, someone polar opposite to my strategy of lazy investing: fully involved and active investing including having executed on 150 or some deals in 2023 including 50 flips.  While Luc Boiron lives in Ottawa, he has flips are far as Vancouver and while flips are sexy as people love to watch them on tv or take courses on flipping… well I’m sorry, not sorry we have Luc here to share a behind the scenes look at why he’s flipping and it’s not what you’d expect. Luc is the founder of Bliss Realty, former lawyer, one of Canada’s leading investors.  He has a massive team and even more massive advertising budget. Luc is a legit investor and even has some stories about fake it till you make it investors failed to close on buying wholesale deals from him. Listeners, never forget, the community is a small one and we all talk.  We know who the fake it till you make it investors and gurus are and where they learnt those strategies. As Warren Buffet says “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.” Luc Boiron has also recently launched his podcast the Selfwealth Real Estate podcast available on Apple Podcasts and my fav platform Spotify. Please enjoy the show.

Our guest should need no introduction, it’s my lovely wife the Real Estate Accountant Cherry Chan!   Cherry Chan is here to share about the convoluted changes by our Federal government who seem to know more about what real estate we own, they keep coming out with half baked ideas only to delay, delay, make us all jump through hoops, make busy work. It’s really complicated stuff but Cherry is a talented messenger who can explain what the Trudeau, Liberal government is doing.   We also chat about our lessons from the downturn in the real estate market, how we are refocusing on at least cash neutral properties hence the decision to diversify to the landlord friendly states of the USA.  I’m hoping Cherry and I can take a trip to the south: Georgia and Tennessee in May after tax season. Romance and cash flow. Two of my favourite things in life.  I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day and find more cash flow in your lives because never forget, cash flow is what affords you freedom.  US dollars are also worth more than Canadian dollars.   Please enjoy the show!

In this enlightening episode, Rachel, with a background in advertising managing a $65 budget and a significant journey in real estate investment from growing up in a duplex to owning investment properties in Florida, investing in duplexes and garden suites in Barrie, Ontario to now full blown cottages resort business owner and operator in Muskoka.  Rachel's story of strategic investment and personal growth. Our conversation touches on the challenges of property management, the insights gained from renovating and selling properties, and her aspirations to contribute positively to societal health through real estate.   Cottages and short term rentals are a hot topic in the community, Rachel has experience in both short and long term rentals, she’s a no BS kind of gal, she’s obviously smart, you don’t get $65 million dollar advertising budgets to manage for some of the most recognizable brands in the world at two of the top 10 advertising agencies in the world.   TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chaletsmuskoka Chalets on Muskoka: https://www.chaletsmuskoka.ca/ Property Management: https://www.caradengroup.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rmholden  

On today’s show I invited my good friend Christian Szpilfogel to discuss the sad truth about real estate in managing and recovering distressed assets, understanding the root causes and having proactive strategies. We discussed the risks of private lending, the responsibilities of the borrowers.  Christian has the unique perspective of having worked in a heavily securities regulated environment of Mergers and Acquisitions when he was a general manager under one of Canada’s richest Canadians only to see the wild, wild west that is real estate investing where some investors openly violate securities laws in soliciting the public for capital even offering guaranteed returns.   The last time I heard “guaranteed returns” was from the owner of a now bankrupt company and he’s on the run from the cops. Christian being one of the good guys in real estate, I thought he was ideal to text at 9:30am to come on the show for 10:30am to talk about losing money.  Christian is the owner of the Aliferous Group where he invests his and only his family’s own money, he has no courses to sell, no coaching to sell, he’s not accepting OPM other than the bank’s, he just wants to help people.  It’s why we get along so well. Christian is also Vice President of OREIO, the Ottawa Real Estate Investing Organization, a non-profit, membership based educational organization.  Annual membership is only $127, I’m a member too and the value is unmatched. https://www.oreio.org/Membership I’ve included some links to news sources in the show notes as well.  Sadly, I saw investors go belly up in 2008 in the financial crisis, we’re seeing many have problems today and we’ll see this happen again because some didn’t learn from history.  So please take this chance to learn from history else be doomed to repeat it.  Also watch out for confidence artists, note that con artist is short for confidence artist. Please keep your investments safe and enjoy the show.   From the Globe and Mail article:  https://www.ksvadvisory.com/experience/case/SID https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/investors-bankruptcy-1.7102325 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-former-ytv-child-actors-northern-ontario-real-estate-empire-files-for/  

Real Estate Journey: Woods started with a $69,000 property, gradually moving to multi-family properties, mixed-use, and commercial buildings. Market Shifts: Discussion on the changing real estate market dynamics, particularly in Ontario, Canada, and his strategies in response to these changes. Personal Strategy and Lifestyle: Woods talks about his transition to investing in the Dominican Republic and the U.S., focusing on lifestyle alongside investment returns. He stresses the importance of being in markets that are favorable to investors. Investment Philosophy: Woods emphasizes the value of education in real estate, joint ventures, and creative investment strategies, including his plans to explore single-family homes and creative financing in the U.S. Health and Work-Life Balance: He touches upon the significance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance and not letting the pursuit of wealth overshadow personal well-being and relationships. Challenges and Learning: Woods shares lessons learned from managing properties, the difficulties faced, and how these experiences shaped his approach to real estate investing.   Book: https://www.amazon.ca/Ultimate-Wealth-Strategy-Complete-Refinancing/dp/0993671705/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083765135506 Web: www.jefferywoods.com  

We have podcast host of A Canadian Investing in the US, Glen Sutherland, hey’s a nice, sharing guy, a seasoned real estate investor, and he’s here to share his own journey of how he ran into a wall investing in Ontario then pivoted to the USA in 2017 and never looked back.  Glen shares insights from his experience, including strategies for finding and managing properties, navigating different market conditions, and the importance of building a reliable team all from the comfort of his home near Waterloo, Ontario. He emphasizes the value of solving complex property issues, I emphasise complex as Glen is dealing with complicated deals in small towns not for the faint of heart. Me personally, I’m going for boring, Glen however is a full time investment with sufficient capital and he must like the excitement.  We are totally on two different end of the risk tolerance spectrum which is totally ok. This is the truth about real estate investing podcast and there are various ways to invest in real estate. So with no further ado, I give you Glen Sutherland   Web: https://www.glensutherland.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@acanadianinvestingintheusa

This week we have professional, full time investor Chad Urbshott who lives in near me in Oakille, Ontario but he’s been investing in the US since 2013 and doing so remotely from Canada. He’s tried pretty much all the small residential investing strategies, fix and flip, wholesale but found his niche by specializing in U.S. mortgage notes Chad discusses his journey and strategies in the complex field of note investing. He emphasizes the importance of thorough due diligence, explains various aspects of note investing, and shares his experiences, including the challenges and rewards of this niche market. I know I’ve talked a lot about about boring investing on this show so I wanted to offer you my listener the other extreme for those who want a full time strategy that’s worked for someone as talented as Chad.  Note his returns, risks, effort, and please take lots of notes. I’m sure for some of you, you will want to listen to this more than once. You can find Chad on social media by searching his name Chad Urbshott or his website: https://www.equigrowth.com/   Please enjoy the show!

Dmitri Bourchtein (CIO & Co-Founder of SHARE) was formerly an Executive Director of Investments at Starlight U.S. Residential, with direct involvement in over $7B of U.S. residential real estate transactions. Dmitri is a seasoned institutional investor with experience in all aspects of the real estate value-chain and is passionate about levelling the playing field for retail investors in the competitive landscape of U.S. SFRs and enabling everyday landlords to maximize their returns. By the way, if you like what Dmitri has to say, he will be speaking at our US Investing Workshop this Saturday January 13th.   Our guest speakers included Andrew the CEO, Carmen Da Silva, last week’s guest and CFO, and today’s guest Dmitri, CIO of Share. We have owner of LendCity Scott Dillingham, the only investor focussed Mortgage Broker I know who can offer US commercial style mortgages to Canadians for income properties. Note commercial lending is better than residential mortgages. The property and the cash flow is the lender’s focus so it’s way easier to qualify and one can in theory have unlimited mortgages. I’m your host and we are teaching direct investment as in the investor owns the property 100%. That is the definition of direct investment. No shares, no joint venture partners, not private lending. Good old fashioned income property ownership, in-line with how my client 350+ clients and I invest in real estate.     Link for details or to register: https://USworkshop.eventbrite.ca/?aff=iwin To connect with SHARE: https://sharesfr.com/partners/iwin

This week’s guest Carmen Da Silva, a Canadian who lives full time in Florida who knows a lot about investing for cash flow in the USA.  Carmen Da Silva (CFO & Co-Founder of SHARE) is a CPA in both Canada and the USA. She articled with Price Waterhouse Cooper specializing in corporate and cross-border tax. Carmen built an insurance platform that allows boutique investment brokers to sell tax-sheltered insurance using Family Office Teams. She generated in excess of 500M AUM in just 5 years, sold it, and bought 25 single family homes in 2008 for early retirement.  She has significant firsthand experience in U.S. Single Family Rentals (SFR) and has always recommend direct ownership in US real estate to her Accounting clients including her own children.  Carmen’s 25 year old son already owns two rental houses in the US.    Currently, Carmen is passionate about combining Ai, technology and real estate investing to make US income properties accessible to everyday investors, not just the ultra wealthy and multi-billion dollar institutional investors currently gobbling up all the income properties.   In my experience, it’s rare for Financial Planners and Accountants to recommend and own so much real estate so for you my 17 listeners, you’re in for a special treat.   We can only cover so much in a 60 minute interview so if you would like to learn more about US income property investing, Carmen and her team will be presenting at our US Investing Workshop on the morning of Saturday January 13th.  We will cover what the investment looks like, the numbers, corporate structures and Accounting, Financing, property management, as much as we can in a morning.   Of note, we are teaching direct investment as in the investor owns the property 100%. That is the definition of direct investment. No shares, no joint venture partners, not private lending. Good old fashioned income property ownership, in-line with how client 350+ clients and I invest in real estate.     Link for details or to register: https://USworkshop.eventbrite.ca/?aff=iwin To connect with SHARE: https://sharesfr.com/partners/iwin

I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the human beings negatively affected by investing on pre-construction or speculation. There have been many and will be many more people losing their 15% deposits on pre-construction condos and houses and they’re on the hook for any costs and losses incurred by the builder when they resell the property. In combination with a slowing economy and job losses it’s just awful out there.   In a country with massive affordability issues someone was going to get burnt and let’s not forget renters who are praying to stay in their rent controlled units as a move could be a disaster in having to pay today’s outrageous market rents. A friend of mine told me he rented out his downtown Toronto condo, two bedroom, two bath for $3,500 plus utilities and it’s still negative cash flow. Rent went up $500 over a two year period. If the federal Liberals wonder why their polling numbers look so bad… well they didn’t have the courage to force municipalities to revise their zoning to allow for higher density and they’ve simply allowed immigration to exceed the supply of health care, education and housing. While the Canadian economy is shrinking in real GDP terms.  The numbers are even worse when you remove the economic growth from immigration.  Housing affordability hasn’t improved much either and it’s about to get worse. Royal LePage is forecasting Toronto housing prices to increase by 6% by end of 2024.  Between rate cuts and rising prices, this is why I’ve recommended my clients to wait for a rising market to sell to maximise their sale prices.  We investors need all the help we can get with investment properties so out of favour in the current market. The housing crisis still exists, there are deals out there for short term gains for those with deep pockets and strong stomachs.  I still believe those who create housing, as they always have will continue to be a profitable investment business hence we have a serious expert today in Michael Collins-Williams who is the CEO of the West End Home Builders’ Association. MCW as he’s known to his friends, has spent his entire working career in Planning and Building with a degree in such from Ryerson University, followed by 18 years at Ontario Home Builders’ Association before taking the big job as CEO almost 3 years ago at the West End Homes Builders’ Association. I know several members of the West End Homes Builders’ Association.  They are an close knit, active community of members with the major players including folks with hundreds of millions worth of real estate.  Cool party is the crazy rich builders are approachable and humble in my experience. With all the development craze I’m seeing on social media, if you’re one of them, I can’t recommend enough you check out your local, non-profit, Builders’ Association for low price, high value networking. There’s a saying in Chinese, the best things are cheap and quality which is why I’m so frugal :). You can connect with MCW on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikejcw?lang=en, website is https://www.westendhba.ca/ and Mike is happy to speak to anyone interested in joining, just reach out!  Just tell him you heard him on this show.   Please enjoy the show! Erwin

On to this week’s show!  MacKenzie Wilson is a risk adverse, smart guy as he got into investing in Calgary real estate and wisely knew that screening for the right tenant was absolutely key and that the wrong tenant would lead to a living nightmare.  This coming from a Calgarian! Ask him what he thinks about the investing in BC or Ontario!! MacKenzie Wilson is an advocate for affordable housing and reduces the risk for landlords and tenants across Canada. With this MacKenzie has created and manages the largest online community of 4,000+ Landlords in Alberta. His online presence allows landlords to learn key fundamental landlord practices, navigating the risks and challenges associated with being a landlord, and maintaining a mutually beneficial tenant-landlord relationship.  If you’re a fan of development, highest and best use investing, pay special attention to Mackenzie’s current tear down, infill project in Calgary that will qualify for the in demand CHMC MLI select financing of 95% loan to value, 50 year amortization.  He’s already purchased an everyday 60’ by 100’ lot which the correct zoning for which he will intensify into eight units.  Not quite 10X but 8X the housing supply on a single lot is pretty awesome. Mac as he’s known to his friends also works at Singlekey, Canada’s largest tenant screening service.  The online service I use and recommend my clients use to screen tenants.  I luv how far credit reports have come, they’ve gotten cheaper, faster, digital and more user friendly.     To follow Mackenzie: Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/AlbertaLandlordCommunity Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwyyc/

On to this week’s show! We have my old friend Tim Hong, we’ve been associates at Rock Star Real Estate and coaching investors since 2011.  Tim has done several joint ventures in rent to owns, an apartment building, student rentals. Tim has his own property management company for condos to duplexes from Toronto to Hamilton to Kitchener-Waterloo.  In his newest venture, a cash flow play, Tim acquired a private, off market Canada Post franchise and he is approaching one year of ownership and has drastically raised revenues. He’s done this all while being married, having three young kids and two dogs. To follow Tim: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_timhong_ Email: [email protected]

On with the show! This week we have the lovely Victoria Cluney who has a different journey than most… well at least she is the first career Canadian Armed Forces personnel to be a guest of this show.  Victoria shares her journey of how she stumbled into being a landlord by renting out her home when she was transferred by work to different bases, which made great money but it wasn’t until she developed her cottage property for short term rental income did she realise what she enjoyed most. Victoria is now levelling up into commercial, recreational property, specifically a BRRRR motel in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia a vibrant and historic coastal town known for its unique architecture and rich maritime heritage.  The perfect location for a vacation property. https://www.instagram.com/thebreezemotel It hasn’t been a smooth and easy journey to success as Victoria shares on today’s episode and I do think this is a good one as more and more, Canadian investors want diversification away from long-term rentals. Commercial is one way to go!   To follow Victoria: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriacluney/?hl=en Ottawa InestHer Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/the-real-estate-investher-meetup-ottawa-canada/ Motel: https://thebreezemotel.com/   Please enjoy the show!  

On to this week’s show! Our guest is basically a Canadian as he grew up in Minnesota near the border. Ryan grew up further north that the vast majority of Ontarians so he knows snow, hockey, black flies and cold winters. Then he smartened up and moved to Florida and participated in some roller coaster markets including the financial crisis and housing market crash of 2007-2009.  Ryan will share his experience on how they made a killing back then. Ryan is well beyond just being a Realtor, he’s the founder and CEO of RealTrade Inc. which is like the Facebook Marketplace for real estate professionals and real estate listings, a smart diversification play for Realtors to keep control of their listings vs the Zillows and Redfin. On the Florida real estate side, Ryan recounts how he made money buying bad mortgages from the banks in 2009, the current market inventory and demand, short term or hybrid rentals which is a split between mid-term and short term rental, hurricane insurance and changes to construction, the landlord, tenant laws and tax benefits, what to do for fun the south Florida. 50% of survey respondents wanted to hear more about Florida so here you go! I give you Ryan Poole, please enjoy the show!!   To follow Ryan: [email protected]  

Investing for positive cash flow, areas of job growth and warm weather, regaining control of the retirement investment plan and legacy portfolio; all this and more on today’s episode of the Truth About Real Estate Investing Show for Canadians. I’m your host Erwin Szeto, landlord since 2005, Realtor and Coach to investors since 2010, 4X Realtor of the year, $400,000,000+ in client transactions, and host of this little podcast that could that is ranked #81 Business podcasts per Apple iTunes. We have a different podcast for you today as I am the one being interviewed by today’s guest of the show Andrew Kim, CEO of Share, a technology based asset manager of single family rental properties in the USA with focus on the landlord friendly states of the southern USA. After months of research and due diligence on both investing in the US and on Share, I’ve convinced my wife Cherry the risks we bear with the Landlord Tenant Board with an eight month backlog just for a hearing, rent control that makes inflation our expense to bear and with better, simpler investment opportunities in the USA it make sense to sell some, if not all our rental properties here in Ontario. On today’s episode, the tables are turned: Andrew asks me all about the decision to invest in the USA via direct ownership of real estate. Direct ownership, unlike what others out there in doing in raising capital or OPM is I own the property with full title. I have complete control over the house and do not share ownership with others like joint venture, or shares in a company.  It’s just me, the bank, and my wife Cherry. As always in how our nearly two decades of investing has been, direct ownership, if done correctly, means higher returns to get ahead in life.  I bear all the risk and keep all the upside.  Worst case, I own a quality house in a quality location that I can renovate, move into, or sell.  That’s how I’ve always invested.   My wife and I don’t take on partners, you don’t need us as joint venture partners, I can show anyone how to invest just like my 45+ millionaire and multimillionaire real estate investors in the most efficient path, with the least stress as possible via direct ownership. Let’s never take our eye off the goal of every real estate investor: a comfortable, maybe earlier retirement.  With easy financing in the US available for unlimited properties, the tax part I’m not worried about as the worst case scenario if done correctly is one pays the same amount of total tax but split between US and Canada, the biggest risks to the real estate investor are removed when investing in the southern, landlord friendly markets… there are risks like there always are but I’m choosing to invest my hard earned money where there are a lot fewer risks and more potential for cash flow. Everyone has to do their own research and due diligence. I’ve done mine including a site tour around Atlanta, Georgia and I’ve grilled Andrew probably more than anyone ever has.  Poor guy was seated next to me on the flight home from Atlanta and there was no inflight entertainment on our ghetto Air Canada plane.  Just 2+ hours of me asking questions :)))  Have a listen to Andrew asking me the most common questions Canadians are asking about investing in the United States.  Please enjoy the show. For more information on SHARE and investing in the US: Web: www.iwin.sharesfr.com mention Erwin or iWIN or you’re in pursuit of the truth about real estate investing and they’ll take good care of you.

Hello and welcome to the Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians, my name is Erwin Szeto, residential real estate investor since 2005, and in my experience, the investment that has gotten my over 350 clients ahead in life is direct ownership of real estate as they own the property, manage it themselves or hire a property manager, and grow their portfolios by borrowing cheap mortgage money. My team here at iWIN real estate has been coaching clients to do so since 2010 and it’s been a great run. Yesterday, I was supporting one of my clients who I’ve helped acquire several properties whose tenant has not paid rent in 13 months even though they won at the Landlord Tenant Board five months ago.  He also shared with me how his rental portfolio was the highest source of stress in his life. Another client, a real estate mortgage professional, he’s had minor basement leakage in one property in a brand new renovation and in his other brand new renovation, the tenant move out because the floors are out of whack having been installed onto of an uneven floor.  The tenant said the flooring edges are sharp and too dangerous for their baby to be crawling around on. My client is back and forth with the flooring manufacturer and the general contractor and it’s been months. The truth about real estate investing is it can be stressful and there are challenges.  I have my own stories too for another day but this is not why I first got into real estate.  I started investing for an alternate source of income. I would side hustle as a real estate investor for a return of more freedom, more control over my finances and bring my clients along for the same journey. It’s always my job as chief investment officer of my household and for my clients to find ways to optimize their portfolios including reducing risk. In the current environment with inflation, rent control, dysfunctional Landlord Tenant Board, and elevated interest rates.  Add to that how anti landlord the politicians and media are, I don’t feel I’m in control anymore hence I see the writing on the wall.  Cherry and I are selling several if not all of our rental properties in Ontario to take profits, pay off debts, raise cash to take advantage of other opportunities mostly in landlord friendly locations in and around the top 10 cities for investment in the USA. Both Americans from California and New York along with Canadians are making the move to red, sunbelt states. The business environment in certain states where I will be targeting offers better numbers and less risk. No question.  At my stage of investing career, I’ve invested in over 40 houses, done many advanced BRRRRs but because I can cash flow better on single family houses in the US, 5-7 cap rates, the same cap rates past guest of this show do with apartment buildings after 5-10 years of renovating, turning over apartments. I see no reason to take on so much risk when there’s an easier way. I finally have easy financing, it’s actually easier to get a Mortgage in the US than in Canada. Scott Dillingham of LendCity, who I’ve been working for years to get me mortgage brokers on income properties shared with me in the summer he would soon be able to offer easy, commercial style mortgages for Canadians to invest in an unlimited number of American income properties.  No credit needed. Investing in real estate without mortgages makes little sense hence I’d never taken US investing seriously but Scott opened the door, I walked through it and went all in on my due diligence. I’ve never been so frustrated as an Ontario landlord.  For example, did you know tenanted properties for sale are getting next to no showings?  In my nearly two decades, I have never seen showings volume so bad for turnkey income properties at the same time the LTB is so broken, the allowable rent increase so far below inflation, the government anti landlord rhetoric so bad.  I just witnessed a turnkey duplex in Hamilton, ON sell for almost 30% off from peak this past weekend. But that’s OK, I’m going to pivot to investing the the USA but big but, I’m risk adverse and I’ve seen so many deals go sideways when remote investing.  Plus I don’t like sharing my investments, I prefer to keep all of the equity and all of the upside returns to myself. Then by fate, a past client of mine, Brent introduced me to his friend Andrew and it was as if the universe was telling me something. Andrew Kim, I read about his start up, a tech, Ai, enabled asset management company in the Toronto Star and Brent out of the blue introduces me to Andrew.  First off, what’s an asset manager? Let’s first start with explaining what a property manager is as we’re most familiar with that. Per ChatGPT a property manager handles daily operations, tenant relations, maintenance, and rent collection to ensure the property runs smoothly. An asset manager manages the property manager, focuses on maximizing the property's value and investment returns, dealing with acquisitions, dispositions, and strategic financial planning like when to refinance.  That’s what Andrew’s company SHARE does specializing in single family rentals.   I’ve invested the last three months conducting due diligence on investing in the US, on Andrew’s Share, Scott’s Lendcity (I’ve researched their competition, checked references), and we delivered our first ever US investing workshop to much success. Feedback rating was 9.5/10, we’ll announce our next one mid January and we raised $5,400 for charity.  Win-win-win-win, the way I like it. A win for Andrew, Scott; a win for my business iWIN, the attendees loved it, and $5,400 goes a long way at my charity the Hamilton Basket Brigade. My trip to Atlanta, Georgia was hosted by Share, I invited along another real estate investor friend of mine, we got to hang out with both Andrew and Chief Investment Officer Dmitri who is a real estate investing wizard having experienced acquiring and managing 20,000 apartment units or $7 billion as an Executive Director of Investments at Starlight. Dmitri easily has the most institutional experience of anyone I know personally and for someone who has a million questions like I do, I was super excited.  Our tour of investment properties in the suburbs of Atlanta was led by a nationwide, institutional, top tier property management company who manages 2,800 single family houses in America with 800 alone in the Atlanta area.  I was thoroughly impressed by what I saw: well oiled systems, reasonable renovation budgets and turnaround times, no rent control. I had a deadline to complete my due diligence by the end of the Atlanta trip, to understand the asset I was investing in plus the operations and just as importantly the leadership. As we were exiting the baggage area of Pearson Airport, we’re walking out together and we see a family with small kids.  Mom and dad are pushing three, fully loaded luggage carts, mom is trying to push two carts while herding her four year old.  I take a step in their direction to help out, Andrew, CEO of Share who’s been struggling with pain the whole trip due to a partially herniated disk in his back beats me to it and pushes one of the mom’s carts. What a Boy Scout like I was growing up. As my due diligence is complete, I have some exciting news to share effective immediately: iWIN Real Estate is proud to announce its strategic partnership with SHARE, a Canadian real estate asset management company specializing in streamlining the end-to-end process of vetting, buying, and managing high-return single-family rental homes in the USA for investors. Using IWIN’s influence in the Canadian real estate investor community, more frustrated, everyday investors will have the opportunity to improve cash flow, diversify, and make real estate investing great again! By combining SHARE’s U.S. investment expertise and IWIN’s commitment to delivering exceptional results and pioneering investment solutions, investors of all levels can access a wealth of benefits, from streamlined investment process, quality education, and coaching. “Frustrated Canadian investors, especially in Ontario and BC are looking for diversification in a more landlord-friendly environment and modern solutions, including supercharged systems where everything an investor needs exists under one roof,” said Erwin Szeto, Founder of IWIN. “Together with SHARE, we aim to make direct ownership of income properties more affordable, profitable, less risk, and rewarding for the everyday mom and pop investors.” SHARE offers investors a comprehensive suite of services for Canadians, including sourcing and acquiring high-quality single-family rental homes in prime locations, professional property management, financing options, legal structuring, and investment portfolio diversification. “With SHARE's diversified inventory and proven track record of generating high returns, investors can access even more lucrative opportunities with reduced risk,” said Andrew Kim, CEO and Co-Founder of SHARE. “Partnering with IWIN allows SHARE investors to tap into that passive income element and portfolio expansion all while knowing their assets are protected.”  Partner With SHARE SHARE offers real estate service providers with existing customer bases or audiences like iWIN Real Estate the opportunity to expand their investment offerings for a mutually beneficial relationship and provide clients with a comprehensive and seamless real estate investment experience in the USA.  Book a call with Erwin  to learn how partnering with SHARE can add value to your investment offerings. End of press release.   My plan is to continue operating iWIN Real Estate as we are carrying more properties for sale than we ever had in my 13 year career as we continue to help our clients with their real estate needs.  Our offerings of real estate investments have simply expanded and when new investors come to me and ask what they should invest in, I simply present, side by side an $800,000 duplex or $1.2 million triplex here in Ontario vs. a single family for $100,000-300,000 in the US that cash flows better along with all the reasons a US investment is easier and they can decide for themselves.   Officially, I’ve joined Share’s advisory board to guide the growth of the Canadian market as a part time role as part of my full time role as chief investment advisor for my family, to our hundreds of mom and pop investor clients, and my favourite people, our 17 listeners of the podcast. The truth about real estate is, I haven’t been this excited about real estate investing since legal duplexes in 2015 and now with US investment properties on the table, I see the path to no longer have to subsidize the out of control housing inflation for my current tenants and make real estate investing great again.

On to this week’s guest Francois Lanthier has already exited his long-term rentals in Ontario a while ago and now lives in Costa Rica with his wife and teenage kids. Francois has investments in New Brunswick, Alberta, Michigan, Florida, Dominican Republic, Dubai, with plans to find more investments in Eastern Europe and Panama. It’s like he trying to buy up all the spaces on a Monopoly board! On this show Francois details what he thinks is an ideal investment in Costa Rica and a three day real estate investing conference that Cherry my wife is speaking at in Costa Rica.  You can learn more at www.investinpuravida.com Francois shares a bunch of his research on where he invests and why and his path to leaving his Canadian tax residency.  His non-negotiables for choosing where to live. Also interesting is what his kids are doing for school since they’ve moved from Ottawa to Costa Rica. I’m sure many will find this to be a fascinating episode. Please enjoy the show!   To follow Francois: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/wine_and_real_estate

We have Calvert Home Mortgage Investment Corporation in the house! OR Calvert for short. The specialise in short-term financing for flippers, BRRRR investors, even pre-construction investors who need short term financing to close a property so they may immediately sell said property. As a real estate geek, I enjoy learning about what’s going on the in market, where investors are putting their money and borrowed money from Calvert to work. Where do they find deals? What cities, provinces, on or off market and I hope you the listener enjoy it too.  I even turn the table on both Ryan and Garret who both live in Calgary and ask where they invest their own money.  For anyone who wants to lend their funds privately, I think it’s a good idea to listen to how professional lenders invest their money because if it’s good enough for an insider… well just have a listen. For more information, their website is: www.chmic.ca and you can reach Ryan at [email protected]. Please like, subscribe, leave a 5 star review on iTunes or Spotify, funny enough our spotify rating is higher therefore Spotify is now my favourite podcast platform.  And please enjoy the show!

On to this week’s show! We have the lovely Lena Guirguis on the show! Her Asset Management company NV Property Management since 2005 manages 168 units including 32 of her own. Her portfolio is incredibly diversified from owning a commercial flex space in Richmond, residential properties around the GTA and apartment buildings in Cleveland, Ohio. Lena is the founder of Stilettos and Hammers, a networking and educational real estate investment network for investors at every stage. They’re evening hosting a Hallowe’en social on October 26th at night in Etobicoke, ON. Link in the show notes https://stilettosandhammers.com/event/halloween-social-networking-event/ or you can find details on https://stilettosandhammers.com/ On today’s show, Lena shares her journey of strategic growth of her business and portfolio in partnership with her commercial contractor husband.  We discuss the state of today’s market and how she as a professional investor with established power team will invest going forward. Lena came to Canada as an Iranian immigrant so be prepared for an inspiring example of what dedication, knowledge, talent and hard work can achieve. I give you Lena Guirguis Please enjoy the show!