The Truth About Real Estate Investing... for Canadians Erwin Szeto

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

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

🔗Sign up: https://USAworkshop.eventbrite.ca/?aff=YT 

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

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