The Truth About Real Estate Investing... for Canadians

This week on The Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians, I'm joined by Nathan Payne, founder of Painless Flipping—and no, that's not just a clever name. Nathan's a full-time real estate wholesaler who runs his entire U.S.-based business virtually… from small-town Ontario, Canada.We get into: ✅ How he wholesales houses without ever meeting sellers in person ✅ His pivot during COVID that expanded his business nationwide ✅ Why he prefers wholesaling in the U.S. over Canada (spoiler: faster evictions, better cash flow, and yes—fewer meth labs) ✅ The truth behind wholesaling income claims, guru coaching fluff, and what new investors are getting wrong ✅ His hands-on apprenticeship model—a no-fluff, partner-on-deals approach to learning the businessNathan doesn't just talk about values—he lives them. From faith, family, and integrity-first investing, to feeding missionaries and knocking doors in rural Ontario during a snowstorm... This guy walks the walk.

I'm thrilled to have Tony Irwin on the show today. Tony is the President and CEO of both the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations (CFAA) and the Federation of Rental Housing Providers of Ontario (FRPO)—two of the largest organizations advocating for landlords and rental housing providers at the provincial and national levels.With years of experience in policy, government relations, and housing advocacy, Tony is at the forefront of the fight to protect landlords, encourage rental supply, and push back against policies that make it harder to provide housing.If you own rental properties or are thinking about investing, this is a must-listen episode. The policies being decided today will impact your bottom line for years to come!

Are you a Canadian investor struggling with low cash flow, rent control, or expensive renovations? In this episode, we sit down with Ben Barry, a U.S. real estate expert who's deployed over $2 billion in capital and helped transform how investors like you succeed south of the border. What You'll Learn:How Canadian investors can tap into high-yield U.S. rental marketsWhy technology and data are changing the game in real estateThe real story behind turnkey rentals and institutional landlordsTips on navigating taxes, financing, and management across bordersWhether you're fed up with Ontario's eviction delays or you're just curious about basement conversions vs. single-family rentals, this is your roadmap to smarter investing.

Hey friends, this is Erwin Szeto, and welcome to The Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians, where it's my job to interview the top minds in real estate and business to uncover the strategies, mindsets, and habits that actually work—especially in today's market. In today's episode, I'm joined by Ben Berry, a true industry heavyweight who's successfully deployed over $2 billion into single-family rentals, build-to-rent, and commercial real estate assets. Ben's journey began during the depths of the 2009 global financial crisis, where he carved out his path in commercial real estate before pioneering large-scale single-family home acquisitions during the U.S. housing recovery. His leadership helped operationalize the mass acquisition, rehab, and management of thousands of homes backed by major Wall Street and Canadian institutional investors. Now, Ben is the Vice President of Acquisitions and Sales at SHARE, a platform revolutionizing real estate investing by making U.S. rental property ownership simple, passive, and accessible — even to everyday Canadian investors. With boots-on-the-ground expertise across over 20 markets — from Florida to Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, etc… — Ben shares how institutional best practices are now being offered without the need to bring $50M to the table. We also talk about why landlord-friendly states matter, how technology and data have transformed real estate investing, and how Canadians now invest just like the ultra wealthy and finally escape tenant friendly markets and find deals that actually make sense. If you're serious about investing smarter in real estate, this episode is a must-listen. If you'd like to connect with Ben you can go to iwin.sharesfr.com and click the “Schedule a call”  Please enjoy the show!  

Hey friends, this is Erwin Szeto, and welcome to The Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians, where it's my job to interview the top minds in real estate and business to uncover the strategies, mindsets, and habits that actually work—especially in today's market. My guest today is Michael Ponte—a full-time real estate investor, educator, and co-founder of Savvy Investor. He's been investing for more than 20 years and owns a multi-provincial portfolio that spans Alberta, BC, and Atlantic Canada. He's raised capital, survived multiple recessions, and built a strategy around what he calls “lazy investing”—focused on cash flow, simplicity, and long-term success. In this episode, we get into: Why he avoids over-leveraged strategies like promissory notes and MLI Select What it's like to refinance and pull nearly $1 million out of a property And how he built a business around student rentals, multi-family units, and zero tolerance for rent control Also—Michael is hosting a free virtual boot camp on May 3rd, and I'll be one of the speakers. It's called The Savvy Investor Boot Camp, and it covers everything from BRRRRs to private lending to U.S. investing. You can register at thesavvyinvestor.ca -- again, it's completely free. Now, please enjoy my conversation with Michael Ponte.

Greetings friends, this is Erwin Szeto, and welcome to The Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians, the #9 ranked podcast for Canadian Investment and Personal Finance per FeedSpot! Thank you listeners and past guests of this show! As always it's a honour to have this platform and ability to give back to the community that has been so much to my family and I where we all share a passion for the best investment class in the world: real estate.  Here on this show, it's my job to interview the top minds in real estate investing and business to uncover the strategies, mindsets, and habits that actually work—especially in today's market. This week's guest is Scott Dillingham, founder of LendCity Mortgages, is returning to the show with a mortgage market update!  He is a rare expert in both Canadian and U.S. real estate financing. Scott built his career helping investors—starting as a high-volume mortgage broker at one of Canada's Big Four banks for ten years, where he consistently ranked among the top 1% nationwide. In his peak year, he closed over 410 mortgage deals, most of them for investment properties. He's also a seasoned real estate investor himself, owning dozens of rental units, which gives him firsthand insight into the challenges his clients face. What makes Scott especially unique is that, as a dual citizen, he's able to own and operate mortgage brokerages in both Canada and the U.S.—something rare, I don't know anyone else who can do that. That means Canadian investors working with Scott can access lending strategies, mortgage approvals, and support for properties on both sides of the border—all under one team. Through LendCity, Scott works with over 60 lenders in Canada and 2,500+ lending sources in the U.S., helping investors scale smarter no matter where they're buying.

 ✅ Understand why investors are shifting to U.S. markets ✅ Learn how to raise capital and structure bigger deals ✅ Hear what it takes to put 5,000 investors in a room with A-listers Ever wonder what it takes to build Canada's biggest investing conference? My old friend Seth Ferguson, returns to the show, after losing all his rental properties to a nasty divorce along with his golf clubs, he started the Multifamily Conference in Covid in 2022 which was excellent, 2023 was headlined by Grant Cardone & Alex Rodriguez, 2024 Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort and Robert Harjevic.  Today, Seth takes us behind the scenes of how he scaled from a couple hundred person real estate event into a 5,000-attendee juggernaut, easily Canada's largest Business & Investment event. With speakers like Kevin O'Leary, A-Rod, Dragons Dens: Michelle Romanow, and Manjit Minhas, and still another major speaker yet to be announced. Powerhouse is an apt name for the event.  Same for the budget! We dive into marketing, event growth, and how Seth landed some of the biggest names in business. For details and to register go to: https://powerhouseconference.com/ The event takes place May 23-25th in Toronto. We also get into Seth's own real estate portfolio and his shift away from Canadian rentals to focus exclusively on multifamily investments in landlord-friendly U.S. markets like Texas and Florida. Seth and his team specialize in garden-style multifamily properties—low-rise, landscaped apartment communities that are common in the U.S. but virtually unheard of in Canada, where high-rise towers dominate. He shares what makes these assets so attractive, how they're managed, and why he's also drawn to build-to-rent communities and why he's bullish in places like Florida and Texas. For details check out www.cpicapital.ca

It's not all bad

From RCMP to Developing 66 and 20 Unit Apartment Buildings: Marc Amyot's Journey of Strategic Development Strategic Partnerships Matter: How mentorship from industry experts transformed Marc's real estate investing approach Location, Location, Innovation: Marc reveals how strategic site selection, zoning knowledge, and maximizing land use can turn a $640,000 property into a $7 million development project Breaking Down the Numbers: Inside two projects - a 66-unit and 20-unit apartment development, revealing the power of creative financing and value engineering Dive into the fascinating world of real estate development with Marc Amyot, a former RCMP officer who's transforming Ottawa's landscape one project at a time. Learn how strategic partnerships, creative financing, and a keen eye for opportunity can turn modest investments into multi-million dollar developments. Discover the insider secrets of navigating complex real estate projects, from sourcing materials to maximizing land use, in this eye-opening conversation that proves success is about who you know and how you think.   If you have aspirations of being a real estate developer, pay particular attention to how Marc structures his deals to minimize cash outflows.  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marcandre.amyot Website: https://assera.ca/ OREIO - Ottawa Real Estate Investors Organization: https://www.oreio.org/ Please enjoy the show

On to this week's show!  This week we have an amazing guest who's been on a bumpy path. I've known Ryan Carr for quite some time but when I attended Truth Your Talent's Awards Gala, the coach who had the most award winners and thank yous was Ryan hence I invited Ryan Carr onto the show which he gracefully accepted. From household $400k income, Corporate Burnout to 200 door real estate portfolio and more importantly Financial Freedom: Ryan Carr's Remarkable Journey What happens when a high-powered sales executive suffers a stress-induced heart attack at 38? For Ryan Carr, it was the wake-up call that transformed his life. In this raw and inspiring conversation, Ryan opens up about how he and his wife Shefali went from making nearly $400,000 a year to building a 200-door real estate portfolio, all while prioritizing health, family, and helping others achieve financial independence. Hear how Ryan overcame personal health challenges, navigated massive investment setbacks including a $700,000 prom note write off, and became a sought-after mentor who's helped 32 people break free from the 9-to-5 grind. This episode is a masterclass in resilience, strategic investing, and creating a life by design. Please enjoy the show!

On to this week's guest! I'm thrilled to introduce Wei Ting, an unstoppable entrepreneur, speaker, and innovator reshaping the rental landscape in Ontario with plans to expand across Canada. After losing over $35K to non-paying tenants and spending countless hours navigating Ontario's complex rental compliance laws, Wei Ting decided enough was enough. She co-founded Openroom, a bold step toward building a transparent and connected rental ecosystem for landlords and tenants alike. And if that wasn't enough, she's also a 24/7 on-call mom to two little ones under two years old. Wei Ting describes parenthood as her most demanding role yet, with expertise in patience, roadmap planning, and improvisation.  Did we mention the co-founder of Openroom is her husband?  Mixing personal AND Business

On to this week's guest, Kevin Costain is the poster boy for reform being needed in Ontario and he's doing something about it as the new Chair of SOLO: Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario.  He's fighting for the small everyday investor like I do. He is the author of the book “Rent To Ruin” where he documents his ordeal with his tormentor: the tenant living in Kevin's house. It is an all too common story where an everyday homeowner has a life change, makes what used to be a financially pragmatic decision to rent out his house to Barry instead of selling it. What proceeded to happen is easily among the worst I've ever heard and that is not hyperbole. For a sneak peak, I fed the transcript of this interview to Chatgpt and asked what crimes the tenant could have been charged with.  Here's the list: Arson Vandalism/theft Fraud Criminal harassment Illegal drug cultivation   Kevin walking through his burnt out house with the CBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UwYXLdfeD4 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sololandlord Web: https://solo.ca/   Please enjoy the show, do your research, invest where it's landlord friendly, make real estate investing profitable again.

On to this week's show! We have my old friend Quentin D'Souza returning to the show at my request as I need a trustworthy real estate expert to share with you the listener about the multi family market who's not going to sugar coat how tough the last few years have been and what and where the opportunity is going forward. Quentin is going to share his journey, how he does hard things and involves his family to lead his best, most successful life possible. Quentin is founder, Chief Education Officer of Durham Real Estate Investors, a private membership group of many excellent real estate investors and professionals.  If you're in the GTA area, make sure to check out a Durham REI event, they meet monthly in Whtiby and you can learn more about them at https://durhamrei.com/ Quentin has authored several books I highly recommend on the BRRRR strategy, finding deals, scaling up, filling vacancies, property management. You can search Quentin D'Souza on Amazon or go to his website quentindsouza.com Needless to say, please have a pen and paper ready to take notes and enjoy the show.

On to this week's guest! Again, Hart is a friend, I refer him clients all the time for tenant location services.  This may sound like a paid endorsement and full disclosure, Hart Pays me nothing. We receive zero compensation for me having Hart on this show and sending him referrals.  It's too bad we're selling the rest of our Ontario portfolio in the near future so I could have asked him for favours but no. Nothing LOL. Which I don't mind so my judgement is not clouded. We get a long because we're both on a mission to help Canadians get a head in life without taking away too much time from their lives and families by streamlining their investments. Let them sleep at night and we both volunteer for non-profits that support landlords. Hart's company Rent Panda is an expert on rentals providing both property management and tenant location services while also using the same tools we recommend like SingleKey and Front Lobby.  Any Ontario landlord not using them is exposing themselves to unnecessary risk. Risks that honestly don't exist in landlord friendly USA but I digress.   You can find Rent Panda along with a bunch of free online resources every Ontario landlord needs at www.rentpanda.ca

Cory is a 20 year investor who's been through rough times back in the financial crisis, from Toronto he was investing on the wrong side of the tracks in London, Ontario, sleeping inside the renovation project as he didn't have funds for trades and to cut down on his commute from Toronto. Fast forward to today, Cory's been a full time investor for 2.5 years specializing in BRRRR investments, suiting basements, garden suites and an office to residential conversion that's gone anything but smoothly. Cory funds his projects with silent, passive joint venture partners, and when there's no cash flow… I'll let Cory explain what he does. Cory's story is quite a journey of survival in terrible and good and difficult times.  Anyone new or old to real estate investing will have lessons to learn.  If you're one of the good guys in real estate, you'll appreciate how a good guy like Cory can thrive in an industry swimming with Sharks.   Website: www.coryfroc.com Instagram: @coryfrocinvestments and @coryfroc on Facebook   Please enjoy the show!

Please welcome co-founder of Addy Stephen Jagger, I'm excited to have him, if you haven't heard of Addy before, it'll blow your mind.  If you have, the advancements in deal offerings, technology will surprise you along with one of their investment vendors who went belly up. Oh yeah, this is the truth about real estate investing show so when deals go sideways, I'm going to ask about them, Stephen, kudos to him does not avoid my questions and better yet they'd already publicly addressed them.   https://addyinvest.ca/2024/07/19/strengthening-our-due-diligence-lessons-learned-and-steps-forward/   Or as the saying goes, a ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure.  If they'd asked me for a reference check, they could have probably saved a bunch of headaches.   To connect with Stephen: Twitter: @sjagger Email: Stephen@addyinvest.com Website: www.addyinvest.com   Please enjoy the show!

In this episode, we sit down with Christine Traynor, from Victoria, BC, a seasoned real estate professional who has navigated the industry from multiple angles.  She started as a paralegal in mortgage enforcement/foreclosures, became an appraiser in 2002, worked in for a high end real estate developer then buying a real estate appraisal firm, buying two more with creative financing and in 2024, sold those businesses for a seven figure exit. What's now keeping Christine busy is her current ventures as an Edmonton, Alberta real estate developer, multifamily investor, Christine shares a wealth of knowledge and insights that are sure to inspire. For those looking to raise capital, specifically registered funds like RRSP's and TFSA's, Christine is involved with a Mutual Fund Trust as part of a 94 unit build so you'll want to hear about that. Christine shares how and why she chose not to invest in local, tenant friendly, unaffordable Victoria, BC for landlord friendly Edmonton which is something pretty much every BC, Ontario, Quebec investor from a tenant friendly jurisdiction is considering. Christine is an advocate for empowering women around investing and finances, and is the host of She Builds Wealth, a (free) online community where she leads women in conversation around real estate investing, business, money and mindset.  She is also the creator of She Builds Wealth: A Foundational Course for Women on Building Wealth in Real Estate.   To follow Christine: Instagram: @Christine.traynor.reinvesting Website: www.christinetraynor.com   Please enjoy the show

Now for those of you with deeper pockets and want to be developers closer to home, we have my old friend Pierre Paul Turgeon returning to the show.  A former industry insider as an underwriter at the CMHC, active investor, and real estate expert in the apartment building space, who has analyzed 100s of large, lucrative multifamily investment deals all over Canada. As a good Canadian, Pierre Paul wants to help build more housing and believes it is developers in Canada who have the greatest potential for success and he's here to share about the latest Federal programs for developers no one is talking about. I'd never heard about these programs so if you're a developer, builder or plan to be, you'll have to give this episode a listen.  Developers are who the federal government wants to support because they build housing we so desperately need. Landlords? Not so much.  To connect with Pierre Paul, email him at  ppturgeon@maoki.ca Or his website www.multifamilyinvestingcanada.com where he offers free resources and a paid, in depth detailed courses on apartment building investing. Please enjoy the show!  

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 Amanda@Legendinvestments.ca Marty@Legendinvestments.ca   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 info@welloff.ca 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.  

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: info@reincanada.com 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 iwin@lendcity.ca, 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/