The Truth About Real Estate Investing... for Canadians

This week we have an everyday, blue collar Canadian, 33 year old Shayne from Montreal who just bought his first investment property and he has executed a BRRRR in suburban Memphis, Tennessee. The ARV is substantially higher than projected, rent came in almost 10% higher.

Shayne is the youngest client of mine by far for years and years so I’m of course excited to have been part of Shayne’s journey to become a successful investor and mentor him in scaling up to not just have a large portfolio but for financial peace of mind.

This is his story, if you enjoy the show, please share this episode with your fellow Canadians who want to invest in real estate, especially those who can’t afford to get into the Canadian market or want diversification.  Please enjoy the show.

Today’s guest is Dr. Wing Lim, a true renaissance man - a dedicated medical professional and serial entrepreneur who has built an impressive portfolio of healthcare facilities and senior living communities. For over 30 years, he has balanced a thriving family medicine practice with innovative real estate ventures.

Dr. Lim's impact extends far beyond the medical field. He has spearheaded the creation of the state-of-the-art Synergy Wellness Center and the award-winning Esther Gardens senior residence, providing invaluable resources and care to thousands. Beyond his professional accomplishments, he is committed to empowering the next generation through his Physician Empowerment podcast. Link: https://www.physempowerment.ca/ 

Join us as we dive into Dr. Lim's remarkable journey - from the challenges of running a medical practice to the triumphs of building a real estate and senior living empire. His story is a testament to the power of vision, perseverance, and a relentless drive to create positive change. Canada needs more investors like Dr Wing Lim and I hope this show inspires one of my 17 listeners.

Today’s guest is my good friend and past client, Adam Johnson, CPA, CA, CBV, CFA—who, at the time, was my youngest client and didn’t have as many letters behind his name. Adam’s not your average CPA. He’s also a Chartered Business Valuator CBV and Chartered Financial Analyst CFA, making him one of less than 100 people in Canada with all three designations. He even ranked #1 in the country on his CBV exam. But what really sets him apart is his hands-on experience with one of Canada’s biggest investment banks, where he analyzed stocks and worked directly with equity traders which prepared him nicely for a long-time career in business valuations.

Now, Adam’s expanded his investing to the U.S. after Ontario deals no longer made sense, and he’s the founder of Synthesis Valuations, providing top-tier valuation reports for everything from mergers to shareholder disputes. 

Note we recorded this episode before the most recent hurricanes Helen and Milton devastated Florida the deadliest since Katrina in 2005, each with a combined $100 billion is losses, $50 billion each. For context, that major storm Toronto had in the summer caused $1 billion in damage, these hurricanes were 100 times worse. My thoughts and well wishes are with Florida. Link to source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/helene-milton-losses-50-billion-each-hurricanes-rare/

For your business valuation needs, Adam’s company website: https://synthesisvaluations.com/

What’s someone with so much stock and business valuation skill and experience doing overweighted as a real estate investor? Let’s ask him!

We have the co-founder of Trust Your Talent, Tim Tsai returning to the show after a two year hiatus from the show. Tim’s members include 150 who have achieved some level of financial freedom, including the first level which is to have one’s monthly expenses covered by the cash flow from their investments.

That’s a lot of people Tim and co-founder Rey have directly coached and mentored but he’s not alone as past guests of this show Vince Lee and Brooke Shang are past members and now coaches of Tim and Rey’s group.

Tim is back this week to share what has worked for his own portfolio including what has not worked, when he saw red flags and was able to avoid damage unlike the many who have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in private lending in small towns, high leveraged, too much, too fast, too complicated investments.  However Tim’s members have survived and thrived over these same times and I can’t wait to meet the dozens of award members at Tim’s InvestED gala.

About Tim: After retiring himself at the age of 30, Tim began to pursue another goal and passion of his – helping those who are committed to achieving financial freedom do the same. To this day, Tim continues to be an active investor as he believes investing is a “lead by example” venture.

With the investment he made in his own financial education, Tim became financially free in 2 years (25 months to be exact) after his first training. In the past few years, Tim has built cash-flowing portfolios in Canada, US and the UK, using a variety of strategies – income properties, lease options (residential and commercial), creative financing, flipping, wholesale, infill development, mobile home parks, etc.

Conference details: https://trustyourtalent.ca/invested-annual-conference-2/

Website: https://trustyourtalent.ca

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetimtsai/

On to this week’s show, a topic I’m a big fan of, avoiding long-term rentals in tenant friendly provinces like Ontario hence we have Spencer and Ashley Giles back for round 2. If you didn’t already know, vacation rentals are a business, 24-7 for some like Airbnb managers like Spencer and Ashley Giles who are back to share more, dig deeper into the strategy including operating and owning in the USA. 

Their management portfolio is 50 properties at time of recording spread across much of Ontario and Up State New York so they have a lot of diverse experience to share.

To follow Spencer and Ashley Giles, their website is https://spencerandashley.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/spencerandashley/ on Instagram.

Please enjoy the show!

Our guest Meghan Hubner is a real estate business consultant who helps investors run their portfolios like a business. After a 12-year career in medical and pharmaceutical sales, Meghan transitioned to entrepreneurship, using her degree in entrepreneurship to work with various businesses. About 4 years ago, she started focusing on real estate investors, helping them with accounting, finance, operations, and building systems to stabilize and grow their businesses. Meghan is also an experienced real estate investor herself, having built a portfolio in British Columbia, and a cohost of the Real Estate Reliance Summit along with fellow dynamic investors: Elizabeth Kelly and Victoria Cluney.

For information and to register go to https://realestateresilience.ca/ but don’t delay, the all virtual conference is Saturday and Sunday Sept 28th and 29th.  Cherry and I are proud speakers and SHARE and I are proud to be sponsoring quality educational content providers at affordable prices by Elizabeth, Victoria and this week’s guest Meghan Hubner.

Please enjoy the show!

Meaghan on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meghanhubner/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meghanhubner?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Web: www.meghanhubner.com

On to this week’s guest!

Award-Winning Real Estate Investor, Coach, Speaker, Educator & Proud Entrepreneur, my old friend Elizabeth Kelly who tells it like it is.  Elizabeth shares about her wins and losses in real estate.  She’s been an active leader in the community for nearly 20 years and is here to tell us about how we Canadian real estate investors can be resilient, what she sees for our collective futures in real estate and she’s hosting the 3rd annual Real Estate Resilience Business Edition of the summit on September 28-29th.  

Myself and SHARE are proud sponsors of the summit. I will be joining an expert panel on USA investing with friend of the show Glen Sutherland.  My wife, the lovely Cherry Chan will be a speaker as well and I’m super excited for the other speakers as well.

On today’s show Elizabeth shares her personal journey from mega real estate investor to entrepreneurship adjacent to real estate, the challenges of affordability for investing in local markets even after learning the hard way when back in 2010, she bought 100+ units and struggled with systems and operations.

Any and all investors should give this episode a listen to learn how to both win in real estate and to avoid losing which IMHO is another way of winning.

For more information on the Real Estate Resilience summit go to: https://realestateresilience.ca/

Please enjoy the show.

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

Website to contact: https://www.mikebeer.ca/

We have a college instructor on this week’s show! Brian Gordon is an old friend of mine from years ago, he works full time for the largest appraisal company in Canada, if not North America in Management.  Prior to that he worked as a Senior Property Tax Analyst for one of Canada’s largest REITs, if not the biggest.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brigor/

Brian has been methodically growing his own real estate portfolio over 7 years consisting of duplexes, a AirBnb in Blue Mountain, more recently an 11 plex development where he’s adding two additional units.

As mentioned Brian is the course creator and instructor of “Real Estate Investment Strategies” at George Brown College, a comprehensive, yet affordable course which is one of the big reasons why I wanted him on the show.  Real estate investing is largely about return on investment and that includes one’s education.  This course is only $392.24 for 20 hours including private 1 on 1 consultation time with Brian.  What an absolute steal.

Link: https://coned.georgebrown.ca/courses-and-programs/real-estate-investment-strategies-online

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed recording this episode for you all to learn Brian’s tips and tricks so we may all improve our own businesses and you’ll want to hear about where Brian’s next investments will be and his views on Canadian opportunities.

Please enjoy the show!

Follow Brian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acquiring_wisdom/

We have my friends returning to the show, Marty and Amanda who’ve been renovating and investing for nearly 20 years, Amanda Bouck has managed properties for nearly 20 years, Marty her husband is a carpenter by trade and personally much of their 15+ duplex conversions in Guelph.  They are a power couple: they get numbers, execution, cash flow and hate vacancy. They drank the same Kool Aid I did. They’re reward is a country acreage and building the custom home of their dreams they’re too humble to talk about with all the gurus out there flaunting Rolex watches, Lamborghinis, private jets and yachts.

Amanda & Marty scaled up as well in small multis likes six plexes, small apartment buildings to their current project, both a REIT: real estate investment trust called Legend Real Estate Trust and a 60 unit building in Waterloo.

Amanda and Marty are here today to share their experience including coaching, retiring from coaching for possibly the biggest real estate education company in Canada.  As always, we share both the negative and positive of real estate investing including all the losses going on in the community, over leverage with expensive hard money loans and their own investment philosophies where none of their investors have lost any money.

The honest truth about real estate investing is, speculative investments can work until they don’t and also I don’t endorse any product or offering of Marty and Amanda nor do I receive any compensation from Marty and Amanda nor from their businesses. This episode is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Please do your own due diligence. If you read the article about Robby Clark, you see how some of the property used to secure financing had fires and were torn down by the city. If any lender, broker, investor had simply driven by the property, they would have known the deal was no good. 

For my house in San Antonio, Texas I have a termite inspection, home inspection including pictures and video walkthrough, a quote from the property manager for renovations and maintenance. My cousin is in San Antonio next week for work and doing a drive by.

Diligence people, trust but VERIFY. That goes for all guests of this show. I do my best hence Epic Alliance and Robby Clark never made it on this show or any of my platforms.  I learnt my lesson from Paramount Equity.

Back to this week’s guests, Amanda and Marty, just to note, they have been censored on other platforms and Facebook groups for trying to warn people about gurus losing other people's money. They going to offend some so be warned.  

Links:

www.LegendRealEstateTrust.ca

[email protected]

[email protected]

Please enjoy the show!