The Truth About Real Estate Investing... For Canadians

On to this week's guest, Monica Lee who is like family, she is Cherry’s BFF, godmother to our most prized assets, our son and daughter.  Monica and husband Rich are both second generation Canadians, their parents immigrated to Canada from Korea with not much in search for a brighter future for their kids.  Rich and Monica both became lawyers who eventually quit law and six figure salaries to be full time real estate investors. Monica invests in cottages for short term rentals, a couple commercial retail properties, they develop and build houses, she stock hacks for six figures all the while being a mom to three great young kids. Just wait till you hear the story about how someone told Monica’s oldest son she would fail and give up as a stock hacker.  Her response is pretty epic. I present to you, Monica Lee. To follow Monica…. She doesn’t do social media nor have a website.

In planning on a future without his wife Kaitlin and mother to one year old son Kingston, Ken Beckendam made the decision to quit his job and double down on his efforts to build his real estate investing business. At the time, half his income was coming from Ken’s investment properties plus the need to build towards the flexibility of schedule being an entrepreneur as Ken is now a single father and financial freedom that comes with being a successful real estate investor.   Ken is a renovation expert both for his own portfolio and for clients, especially in adding legal, income generating suites and additions to existing properties and like many high level real estate investors, he’s raising private mortgages so you’ll want to pay attention to that part.   I don’t want to spoil too much so I’ll let Ken tell you his story. I give you Ken Beckendam.

Cody is a first generation immigrant who came to Canada while still high school age, went to university, got a white collar job but apparently it was good enough as he quit this past January. I learnt of this before we started recording but I assumed he got a new job. What 29 year old doesn’t have a job? This one I guess. Cody is a YouTube influencer, a real estate investor in houses with legal basement apartments in Barrie, Ontario, and he took our Stock Hacker Course last fall.  These investments allowed him to quit his job to focus on building new businesses. I haven’t known Cody a long time but I do know he hustles which separates him from the pack and his story inspires me so without further ado, I give you Cody Yeh

We have my friend Ron Esteban on, he considers himself an average investor and not a big shot but he’s got a couple properties but what is super cool is he’s teaching students how to invest in both real estate and stock options. That’s right, Ron is a teacher with one of those big fat teacher pensions we’re all jealous about but he received some great advice to invest in real estate from an unlikely source.  Ron made some mistakes early on which lead him to meeting me around eight years ago and we’ve been friends ever since. On this episode, Ron shares how he got started, how being part of a community helped his investments, a more recent “life changing” means to invest on top of just getting married and becoming a new dad, what he’s teaching his students.  Parents, pay attention to this part in case you’re trying to get your kids interested in investing.

Speaking of Cherry, she is this weeks guest here to share about the latest in Government subsidies, why she got into Stock Hacking when I was already deep into trading, our BHAG, big hairy audacious goal and so much more!

Buying high in demand assets with growing demand makes a lot of sense in hindsight. The business case for Canada to grow the economy via immigration makes a lot of sense financially to attract investment and talent. Unfortunately, many investors heard the same advice I did and instead of investing in Toronto, they invested in Edmonton and Calgary Alberta.  Again, hindsight being 20/20, that was not a good decision.  I know many of these people personally. Then last week, Wade Graham, a long time Facebook friend of mine commented on one of my posts about real estate how he’s glad to have exited all his Alberta real estate, $11 million dollars worth.  Wade was part of the same network and community I was for just as long and I wanted someone who’s not all rah rah real estate to come on this podcast.  Wade fits exactly that bill :P What Wade as a guest does offer is what went wrong in his real estate journey so you may all get it right.  But real estate is not all bad to Wade as the network and skills he built t

“Deadbeat. Loser. Failure .Criminal. Imagine growing up in a family where those words were meant to be your future. Without loved ones supporting you, would you, too, believe “You’ll never amount to anything?” All around you, right now, there are kids who dream to be great but live without the support or circumstances to do so. Whether you were raised with encouraging parents or you bootstrapped your way on your own, you have the option to give a break to a kid in need. Successful real estate investor and business owner Roger Auger knows firsthand. No Excuses is his story of hustling stolen mac and cheese and paying his parents’ mortgage at age 13 to running a successful real estate empire. Carve out your own path of growth and learn: What life can be like at home for some kids, how to spot a kid without support, and the little things you can do that have a big impact, How hard work can make almost any dream a reality, The pathway to creating a better future through real estate investing—even if you’re a kid

SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR OBSESSED WITH EMPOWERING ENTREPRENEURS AROUND THEIR BUSINESS FINANCES.  Her track record speaks volumes: she has built a highly profitable 7 figure company, been on Dragon's Den (the Canadian version of Shark's Tank), done a successful crowdsourcing campaign and sold two businesses in the e-commerce space.  She now works with a fellow entrepreneur, her husband on FFV Capital and Fast Forward Ventures, our real estate companies focussed on private financing and commercial real estate investing.  She’s been featured as one of the top female entrepreneurs in Canada by the w100 and also recognized as a top 20 under 40 entrepreneur by Business London.

We have Victoria Masucci  Very happily married mother of two Self employed for over 20 years and former business owner Voted Insurance Business Canada’s top 10 Women of Distinction Huge life change resulting from the diagnosis of a life threatening illness of a child Became a real estate investor at 53 years of age and a stock hacker at 56 years of age to ensure financial freedom (better late than never!) Working towards bigger goals including letting others know about our journey to ultimate financial freedom (maybe a book, blog or speaking engagements – or all three!) and the eventual setting up of a charity What I also found fascinating is the insurance program Victoria designed for folks like us – entrepreneurs and investors, and how she successfully included her children in her business. So without further ado, I give you Victoria.  

On to this week’s guest, my friend, client, iWIN member, real estate investor, Captain Manny Cabral.  He’s a great guy, for years he owned and operated a large scale construction company that even took on government contracts.  One day Manny hurt his back and got a desk job running a car dealership.  Manny loves cars and he’s got some good stories to share as he turned his passion into a successful side hustle importing luxury sports cars. Manny eventually made the leap to leave his great job to be full time in contracting and investing in real estate.  What I really enjoy about Manny’s application of buying private sales is even doesn’t squeeze the seller for every last dime and instead shares what price he needs for the deal to make sense for the work and risk he’s assuming. So without further do, I give you Manny Cabral of Simcoe House Buyers.

On the real estate front, can we stand down the red alert on real estate? Not to say challenges are not ahead but much more is known about the problems we as real estate investors face compared to two months ago pre-march break. Commercial is a sore spot both residential and non residential.  Student rentals will be a challenge as McGill and UBC announced many classes will be online.  What that means for our student tenants remains to be seen as many programs require labs, group work, in hospital rotations, etc… For tenants who are looking to rent something, the timing couldn’t be much better.  Same for those who have cash and credit to buy.  There will always be opportunities for some so take advantage while you can.  For example, I have a family member looking to sell a starter home in the suburbs and buy a bigger condo downtown Toronto.  The timing could not be better.  Again, opportunity will always come to those who know where to find it. Speaking of chasing opportunities, we have a legit wealth hacker a

On to this week’s show! We have with us today real estate investor and private lending specialist Susan Flanagan! Susan Flanagan is a seasoned real estate investor of over 25 years’ experience. She has done everything from regular buy and holds, student rentals, rent to own, flips and along the way added creative financing strategies to build her portfolio.  She has also been lending her own funds for mortgages for more than 12 years, as well as using private funds for her various real estate projects. That experience has led her to becoming a Mortgage Agent and then a Mortgage Broker, specializing in "Private Money 4 Mortgages" which is also the name of her website.  Susan services two types of clients.... the person who needs a Private Mortgage and the Investor who has money to lend out for a mortgage.  She considers herself a “matchmaker”, connecting lender’s and borrower’s for a WIN-WIN scenario.

On to this week’s show! As a real estate nerd, I do enjoy reviewing real estate market stats however, we wealth hackers know, the stats are great for general consumption however none of us are investing in average real estate and the smart money invests in investment grade real estate.  This is why I reached out to some of the best Investor agents I know in the top markets for investing just outside the GTA since we all focus primarily on cash flow. On this market update show we have agents from London in the west, Justin Konikow of Prime Real Estate, Rob Break who works the same real estate brokerage I do, Rock Star Real Estate all the way from the East in Durham and Peterborough, most of you know him from the Break Through Podcast. To the great white north of Barrie, we have John Beddome. Representing Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, from my own iWIN Real Estate Team: Tim Hong. And finally, the duplex queen, from Hamilton, Tammy Ditomaso. To me this episode is a special treat as these are the agents I ca

This episode is with my friends Ping and Andrew of Spotted Properties Property Management in Hamilton Ontario.  They are good guys and here to share show they are handling managing their tenants across their 6 or 800 door portfolio, they have a unique perspective as well and they do manage quite a few student rentals as well.  The letter they sent out to tenants is on our website at http://www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca/ or you are one of the clever ones, we would have sent you an email with this episode and a link to that same letter.  All you need to do to make sure you get these episodes and resources we are sharing, simply go to that same website: http://www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca/ and enter your name and email on the right.

On to this week’s guest: Kathleen van den Berg, MBA, CLU, CFP. I think she’s great because she’s one of the rate Certified Financial Planners who recommends owning real estate and she owns a fair amount of real estate too.  I invited Kathleen to come on the show asking her to share what advice she has for her clients during these historic times. Kathleen’s bio: I have the best job in the world ... and I have a ton of fun doing it.I specialize in working with individuals and families to improve their monthly cash flow and build significantly greater wealth compared to their current approach.Unlike most other wealth strategists, I include real estate strategies as one of the 6 key components in clients' wealth building plans.I implement a 6 step wealth strategy system with clients and routinely am able to create over a million dollars of additonal income in retirement. 

Hello Wealth Hackers!! As you may know, I was dabbling in stock options, had a lot of early success, took a deeper dive, hired a coach who in turn is my stock hacking mentor as he loves to share and teach me outside of my coaching time.  He’s is an ex Wall St, options pits trader as a career for seven years, he left to move to Hawaii and trade from home in paradise. Lee now has been full time trading for 30 years, he is the best selling author of Get Rich With Options author Lee “the Godfather of Stock Options” Lowell.  You may recognize Lee’s book as it was required reading for the original Stock Hacker Academy before attending the course. He literally wrote the book of the subject that became foundational reference material for all past and future Stock Hackers. It only made logical sense we partner with Lee to bring all you Wealth Hackers the all new Stock Hacker Academy version 2.0!! To register go to  www.stockhackeracademy.ca/specialoffer all the details are there and prices go up April 22nd so don’t de

Tenants under financial distress and ability to pay rent is the subject of this week’s interview, the first in a series of emergency webinars as I’m asking friends who are leading experts in the community for favours to come on my webinar and podcast to share what they are doing starting with multifamily expert and investor Sarah Coupland. She is a talented multifamily investor, owner of https://tagproperties.ca/ with over 10 years experience, she’s a friend, my regular go to for tenant challenges and when you listen to this interview you’ll understand why.  Email subscribers to my podcast will receive the tenant letters she mentions that were sent to her own tenants, they are excellent, if you’re not already subscribed, well that’s just silly. Go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca, enter your name and email on the right hand side. Without further ado, I give you Sarah Coupland.

On to this week’s show! We have good friends of mine Andy Tran who I’ve been friends with since 2008, Charles Wah I was in his wedding party, and Steve Ford who is a newer friend, client and he’s the general contractor for our new office!! What a coincidence that they happen to be real estate investors too! They are a team of three who are passionate about infill development projects, and are currently involved in several projects in the Golden Horseshoe. Each one of us brings a unique set of skills and experiences in development, design and home construction that can help you bring your project to reality. Andy Tran has designed over 160 income suite conversions Charles has developed land including over 150 houses Steve has supervised the construction of over 1,000 houses. They know their stuff, personally invested in small residential developments and are here to share how including the #1 question: the cost to build per square foot plus all the fun soft costs. Here’s the infill boys!  

On to this week’s show! Jamie and Leslie and Aaron Collard  Jamie and Leslie Collard are a husband and wife team who have spent the last few years building financial freedom through real estate acquisitions.  Their focus in the past year has been on apartment buildings with an acquired 73 units. They were able to “retire” before turning 40 years of age and now, they have the freedom to spend more time as a family, travel when they choose to and have no worries about their financial future. Throughout their journey, they have become passionate about sharing with others how they used real estate to build their wealth. Because it was a challenge for them to learn the high level investment strategies in the business, they have created their own education series that will allow others to learn from the experts in the field. Aaron Collard is their 11 year old son and wait till you hear what he’s up to. Without further ado, Jamie, Leslie and Aaron Collard! To follow the Collards: Web: https://www.collardproperties.c

On to this week’s show! “Mike Rosehart is Canada's Youngest Early Retiree, an Ivey Business Graduate, Youtube Social Media Influencer, Entrepreneur, and a Real Estate Investor in London, Ontario with an 8-Figure real estate portfolio comprising of over 50 buildings. Mike is an expert Joint Venture Strategist with a wealth of experience in finding off market private deals, flipping, renovating, and managing the bottom line – focused on cost control and maximized return on investment. Starting from humble beginnings without a dollar to his name, Mike bought his first property at 19 and built his portfolio up to over 17 properties by the age 24, using the BRRRR Real Estate Snowball Method. He retired from his day job as a Senior Analyst in IT Business Consulting in 2017 and has been enjoying Financial Independence ever since. Mike believes ANYONE can unlock F.I.R.E. and that Real Estate is one of the best vehicles to expedite the journey to freedom and maximize returns through leverage (cheap debt). Mike believe