The Truth About Real Estate Investing... For Canadians

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 f

 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.

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

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

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/   Pl

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

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

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-

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.

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 f

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 t

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

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

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

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’l

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 historicall

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 m

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 wort

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 Ch