WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.840 Good morning, Keyspire community. 2 00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:13.240 Thank you so much for joining us this morning. 3 00:00:13.240 --> 00:00:15.360 I'm just giving you guys all a moment to trickle in. 4 00:00:15.360 --> 00:00:20.880 I do see some people are still connecting. 5 00:00:20.880 --> 00:00:27.360 Beautiful. 6 00:00:27.360 --> 00:00:28.680 Love to see you all. 7 00:00:28.680 --> 00:00:39.600 Good morning, Prue, happy Monday, Tatiana, Philip, Dan and Donna, Jennifer, Ivis, Pat. 8 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.040 So good to see you all. 9 00:00:41.040 --> 00:00:46.440 Hello, Brandon, Lauren. 10 00:00:46.440 --> 00:00:47.440 Good morning. 11 00:00:47.440 --> 00:00:50.960 So lovely to see everyone joining us this morning. 12 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:55.560 Okay, so I'm going to get started here. 13 00:00:55.560 --> 00:00:56.760 Good morning, everyone. 14 00:00:56.760 --> 00:00:59.260 It is Monday, March 3rd, 2025. 15 00:00:59.260 --> 00:01:04.680 My name is Gabrielle, and I'm your program advisor here at Keyspire. 16 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:06.560 And this is our weekly focusing call. 17 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:09.480 We are taking a look at our 14 day radar. 18 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:11.860 I'm getting a lot of good mornings in the chat. 19 00:01:11.860 --> 00:01:13.440 Thank you so much, everyone. 20 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:14.920 Hello, good morning. 21 00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:15.920 Thank you so much. 22 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:18.000 I love to see everyone joining us. 23 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:24.160 We've got everyone coming in coast to coast, all across Canada and the US. 24 00:01:24.160 --> 00:01:30.040 And I love to see that everyone's participating and programming their RAS to take a look at 25 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:34.320 what you've been accomplishing over the last seven days. 26 00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:39.640 The purpose of the 14 day radar is to take a look at what you have accomplished in the 27 00:01:39.640 --> 00:01:44.600 last seven days and what you plan to accomplish in the next seven. 28 00:01:44.600 --> 00:01:50.720 The first thing I'm going to share is I do check in calls, I do welcome calls. 29 00:01:51.160 --> 00:01:52.160 Good morning, Cassandra. 30 00:01:52.160 --> 00:01:55.080 Good to see you too. 31 00:01:55.080 --> 00:02:00.840 And I get a lot of check in calls with our members who start off by saying, Gabrielle, 32 00:02:00.840 --> 00:02:02.880 I'm wasting your time right now. 33 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:04.380 I have done nothing. 34 00:02:04.380 --> 00:02:09.520 But let me tell you, it takes less than 10 minutes of the conversation to discover that 35 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:12.560 you have actually done a lot. 36 00:02:12.560 --> 00:02:18.360 Whether you realize it or not, I think as a community or as a society, we are so used 37 00:02:18.360 --> 00:02:24.800 to minimizing our accomplishments and not giving ourselves enough recognition for what 38 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:26.060 we do. 39 00:02:26.060 --> 00:02:32.120 And it's not everything case buyer, it's not everything real estate investing, okay? 40 00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:37.560 We have so many things that we need to accomplish and focus on. 41 00:02:37.560 --> 00:02:42.480 So we're dealing with life, we might be a spouse, we might be a parent, we might be 42 00:02:42.480 --> 00:02:48.040 a sibling, we might be a grandparent, we might have a full time JOB. 43 00:02:48.040 --> 00:02:53.200 We might be retired, we might be property managing, project managing, we have so many 44 00:02:53.200 --> 00:02:58.320 things that we need to do in a day, it just feels like there isn't enough time. 45 00:02:58.320 --> 00:03:01.480 And this is what makes us feel like we're not accomplishing enough. 46 00:03:01.480 --> 00:03:07.560 So the point of the weekly focusing call is to take a moment and take inventory of what 47 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:12.200 we've done and celebrate those wins, no matter how big or how small. 48 00:03:12.200 --> 00:03:16.440 So I'm going to start with my 14 day radar. 49 00:03:16.440 --> 00:03:21.240 In the last seven days, I've been working on spending quality time, I'm going to do 50 00:03:21.240 --> 00:03:23.260 a personal one and a professional one. 51 00:03:23.260 --> 00:03:29.200 So I've been spending quality time with my family, and making sure that I make time for 52 00:03:29.200 --> 00:03:30.200 them. 53 00:03:30.200 --> 00:03:32.720 And yes, I have to fit them in my calendar. 54 00:03:32.720 --> 00:03:37.120 And I have to cross reference to make sure that I don't have a workshop that day or over 55 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:43.000 the weekend, or maybe a monthly meetup that week in the evening. 56 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:48.920 But I do make sure that I make time for my loved ones, my family, my friends, blood and 57 00:03:48.920 --> 00:03:50.760 chosen family. 58 00:03:50.760 --> 00:03:56.520 So we took the kids to the movies on the weekend, I made plans to have a sister day with two 59 00:03:56.520 --> 00:03:58.960 of my sisters. 60 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:03.320 The week before, because I didn't host the weekly focusing call then on family weekend, 61 00:04:03.320 --> 00:04:05.360 I also spent time with my brothers as well. 62 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:07.400 So I have four siblings. 63 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:13.640 And I've made sure to set aside time to have quality time to build those solid relationships 64 00:04:13.640 --> 00:04:19.640 with my siblings, and my mother, and I know that I made plans with my one of my best friends 65 00:04:19.640 --> 00:04:24.580 to go to Port Hope as well, and spend some time with my friend. 66 00:04:24.580 --> 00:04:26.200 So I've been working on that. 67 00:04:26.200 --> 00:04:29.760 We have some light renovations going on at home as well. 68 00:04:29.760 --> 00:04:35.580 So we are replacing the light fixtures, we're painting, we're lightening everything up. 69 00:04:35.580 --> 00:04:40.220 And then as this is evolving, we're discovering, oh, wait, you know, maybe I don't want to 70 00:04:40.220 --> 00:04:44.820 just paint, maybe we should redo the kitchen, maybe we should move this around, maybe we 71 00:04:44.820 --> 00:04:47.700 should add on this or change that. 72 00:04:47.700 --> 00:04:52.540 So our creativity is being sparked alive again. 73 00:04:52.540 --> 00:04:59.020 And we're finding our passion for our primary residence, which is really good, because it 74 00:04:59.020 --> 00:04:59.980 allows me the opportunity. 75 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:06.760 Opportunity to gain the experience so that way when I'm active investing and I'm working on my my portfolio 76 00:05:06.760 --> 00:05:10.360 I have more experience in that department on 77 00:05:11.280 --> 00:05:13.240 project management and 78 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:15.240 How I'm going to accomplish 79 00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:22.800 Different tasks to bring up the revenue in these properties and it really excites me because I've done tiling 80 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:24.800 I've done drywalling 81 00:05:24.960 --> 00:05:26.320 I've 82 00:05:26.320 --> 00:05:32.200 Built up quite an inventory of tools. Have you guys noticed that do you guys do you guys build up tools? 83 00:05:32.200 --> 00:05:38.200 Do you have tile cutters and saws and I didn't at one point? 84 00:05:38.200 --> 00:05:42.360 I didn't know the difference between a regular drill and a hammer drill or an impact drill 85 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:48.040 but now I know and I also have those and I'm really proud of my collection of tools and 86 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:54.360 That I know how to use them. So I've been working on that as well. And I also got myself a new drill set 87 00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:56.360 So now I can drill through 88 00:05:57.080 --> 00:06:03.960 PVC piping and brick which I'm really excited about because we're going to be adding on a deck over the summer. That's the goal 89 00:06:04.760 --> 00:06:07.320 and as far as professionally 90 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:14.880 My team and I are still running numbers on properties. This is something that I don't want anyone to feel like 91 00:06:15.720 --> 00:06:19.360 Like you're running out of steam. Okay the momentum 92 00:06:19.400 --> 00:06:24.720 You're you keep it going no matter what because I'm taking a look at the market me and my team 93 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:31.760 take a look at what market we want to invest in we take a look at the numbers and what makes sense and 94 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:37.800 Just because we don't find a property that works in the first week or the first month 95 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:45.400 We're not losing momentum and we're still looking we've put in offers and you know what it didn't go the way we wanted 96 00:06:45.400 --> 00:06:48.080 But that's okay Scott's done the same thing 97 00:06:48.280 --> 00:06:53.360 he's put in so many offers that he gets more declined than accepted and 98 00:06:53.920 --> 00:06:56.720 You can't be afraid to put in those lowball offers 99 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:01.560 You can't be afraid or ashamed to take action because that's what gets you experience 100 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:07.000 And that's what allows you to move forward and then you keep taking a step putting that foot in front of the other 101 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:14.340 And that's what my 14-day radar has been. So the next week is going to be along those lines. I'm going to continue doing that 102 00:07:14.940 --> 00:07:18.020 but that brings me to my guest and 103 00:07:18.620 --> 00:07:23.620 Some of you might be familiar with my beautiful guest that I'm about to bring on 104 00:07:23.620 --> 00:07:29.700 I've had her on once before and she is a complete inspiration to me. I admire her 105 00:07:29.900 --> 00:07:36.860 She always has a smile on her face, and I know that the market gets difficult. I know that things get frustrating 106 00:07:36.860 --> 00:07:41.420 I know life can't be perfect, but I can tell you this woman always has a smile on her face 107 00:07:41.940 --> 00:07:46.780 She sounds like an angel she is so smart. She's always working in the background 108 00:07:46.780 --> 00:07:54.420 She does not get the spotlight role, but she's always working hard behind the scenes to make those deals work 109 00:07:54.940 --> 00:08:00.100 So something Michael was talking about this morning is you have your front stage and you have your backstage 110 00:08:00.340 --> 00:08:04.660 the backstage is absolutely paramount to building a 111 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:12.020 Solid foundation for your business to move forward so that you can have a successful team and a successful portfolio 112 00:08:13.100 --> 00:08:15.720 Keys by our community without any further ado 113 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:23.660 I am honored to invite you to the weekly focusing call with my special guest miss Sarah LaResh 114 00:08:23.740 --> 00:08:26.760 Sarah, would you like to say good morning? Good morning 115 00:08:27.820 --> 00:08:32.380 Thank you so much for that introduction Gabrielle. That was really kind of you 116 00:08:33.020 --> 00:08:34.820 I 117 00:08:34.820 --> 00:08:42.059 I'm ready to just dive right in to to share a bit of a story with everyone if you're ready for it 118 00:08:42.059 --> 00:08:46.720 I am I'm so excited to hear what you want to talk about this morning 119 00:08:47.660 --> 00:08:53.940 Awesome. Well, I know that a lot of people are looking to scale. They're looking to shift into 120 00:08:54.820 --> 00:09:02.020 Multifamily and I thought it might be helpful to share with everyone a little bit of a story 121 00:09:02.020 --> 00:09:05.220 So you can sit back and relax and and hopefully there'll be some 122 00:09:05.580 --> 00:09:09.780 Nuggets along the way that are helpful for everyone on their own journey 123 00:09:09.780 --> 00:09:15.660 And it I'll bring you full circle to acquisition all the way to the sale of the property 124 00:09:15.660 --> 00:09:18.300 it was a two-year whirlwind and 125 00:09:20.020 --> 00:09:23.300 Nothing went how we planned but it turned out very well 126 00:09:23.420 --> 00:09:28.860 I shouldn't say nothing went how we planned but I'll let me tell you the story. So back in 2021 127 00:09:29.260 --> 00:09:33.580 We were very active in the Moncton, New Brunswick market 128 00:09:34.460 --> 00:09:38.140 Our property manager was also a realtor 129 00:09:38.140 --> 00:09:43.580 which is a really great skill set to have and I would highly recommend once you 130 00:09:44.220 --> 00:09:48.420 narrow down your your market that you want to go into and 131 00:09:48.820 --> 00:09:56.220 Invest into is team up with the property manager because the realtor is just there for that quick transaction 132 00:09:56.220 --> 00:10:00.540 but the property manager is going to be there the long the long run and 133 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:03.120 So they're gonna steer you away from bad neighborhoods 134 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:05.420 and like a quick sale 135 00:10:05.420 --> 00:10:07.160 because they're gonna be the ones looking after it. 136 00:10:07.160 --> 00:10:09.520 So anyways, we're shopping with our property manager 137 00:10:09.520 --> 00:10:14.320 and he also knows the other multifamily owners 138 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:16.120 because he's managing their properties. 139 00:10:16.120 --> 00:10:19.080 So a lot of times they'll let him know, 140 00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:21.680 hey, do you have any investors that are looking to buy? 141 00:10:21.680 --> 00:10:23.840 I wanna unload this property. 142 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:26.800 And that's what happened with McSweeney. 143 00:10:26.800 --> 00:10:29.960 McSweeney was a seven unit property 144 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:31.560 in a great location, 145 00:10:31.560 --> 00:10:34.200 just a stone's throw away from the hospital. 146 00:10:34.200 --> 00:10:36.560 It met all of our criteria. 147 00:10:36.560 --> 00:10:38.080 So we were looking for something 148 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:39.760 that was five units or more 149 00:10:39.760 --> 00:10:42.340 so that we could get commercial financing. 150 00:10:42.340 --> 00:10:47.120 It needed to have a debt service coverage ratio of 1.2 151 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:48.760 so that the banks would go for it. 152 00:10:48.760 --> 00:10:52.120 It needed to have some value add, which it did, 153 00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:53.320 but it could cover its own 154 00:10:53.320 --> 00:10:56.040 and it was a good little property as it was. 155 00:10:56.040 --> 00:11:01.040 So we purchased that for 547,500 in 2021. 156 00:11:03.880 --> 00:11:07.960 How we did that is we brought in two financial partners 157 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:10.800 and they were 100%. 158 00:11:10.800 --> 00:11:12.480 They brought all of the funds required 159 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:13.720 to purchase the property. 160 00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:16.640 We created a corporation. 161 00:11:16.640 --> 00:11:18.200 The name of the corporation 162 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:19.920 was the address of the property. 163 00:11:19.920 --> 00:11:22.880 So we created a corp for the sole purpose 164 00:11:22.880 --> 00:11:24.000 of owning this property. 165 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:26.360 We didn't create it before we knew 166 00:11:26.360 --> 00:11:27.560 we were gonna buy the property. 167 00:11:27.560 --> 00:11:30.720 We created it once we knew 168 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:32.400 that we were buying the property. 169 00:11:32.400 --> 00:11:35.760 So we set up the corporation, 170 00:11:35.760 --> 00:11:37.480 opened up the bank accounts. 171 00:11:37.480 --> 00:11:41.000 You need to make sure you're keeping track of your books 172 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:43.120 because there's a lot of moving parts 173 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:45.320 and money coming and going. 174 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:47.440 So you need your bookkeeper, you need your accountant, 175 00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:49.560 you got your lawyer for closing. 176 00:11:49.560 --> 00:11:54.080 You've got to keep all of the communication lines open 177 00:11:54.080 --> 00:11:56.120 with your partners. 178 00:11:56.120 --> 00:11:58.840 So all of us were on the corp. 179 00:11:58.840 --> 00:12:02.400 We're all shareholders, the working partners. 180 00:12:02.400 --> 00:12:05.160 So that would be Nick, my husband and our partner, Evan. 181 00:12:05.160 --> 00:12:07.320 We were the directors in the company. 182 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:11.920 We were dealing with all of the day-to-days 183 00:12:11.920 --> 00:12:15.520 and we had some renovations that we needed to do. 184 00:12:15.520 --> 00:12:18.160 We also had a good relationship with the appraiser 185 00:12:18.160 --> 00:12:21.000 because we'd already acquired a few buildings. 186 00:12:21.000 --> 00:12:23.680 We were able to go to the appraiser prior to closing 187 00:12:23.680 --> 00:12:25.240 and get a verbal over the phone 188 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:27.880 of what he thought the property would be appraised at. 189 00:12:27.880 --> 00:12:29.800 And so we knew going into it 190 00:12:29.800 --> 00:12:31.720 that our appraisal was gonna come in 191 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:32.920 where it needed to come in. 192 00:12:32.920 --> 00:12:35.520 And everything was all lining up 193 00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:39.520 and we were gonna ride into the sunset rainbows 194 00:12:39.520 --> 00:12:42.680 and lollipops and it was gonna be fantastic. 195 00:12:42.680 --> 00:12:45.360 And it was, it really was. 196 00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:50.160 We secured it, everyone was happy, 197 00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:53.880 but then things happened. 198 00:12:53.880 --> 00:12:56.120 There's renovations here. 199 00:12:57.280 --> 00:13:00.960 We had somebody do a midnight dash 200 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:01.840 in the middle of the night, 201 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:05.880 but really that was kind of a blessing in disguise 202 00:13:05.880 --> 00:13:09.760 because we were able to do a quick renovation on their unit 203 00:13:09.760 --> 00:13:13.920 and increase rents and everything was going 204 00:13:13.920 --> 00:13:15.040 according to plan. 205 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:17.360 And we actually had one tenant in the building 206 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:20.400 who had been there for 20 plus years 207 00:13:20.400 --> 00:13:24.720 and her rent was $650. 208 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:28.320 And the market rent, if we did nothing to her unit, 209 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:30.880 we could have easily rented it out for 1200 210 00:13:30.880 --> 00:13:32.800 without batting an eye. 211 00:13:32.800 --> 00:13:35.600 But so we sat down with her, 212 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:38.320 there was no rent caps at the time. 213 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:43.320 And we said that we would like to increase her rent to 800, 214 00:13:44.200 --> 00:13:47.960 which was a big increase for her, but well below market. 215 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:49.640 So we thought it was a good compromise. 216 00:13:49.640 --> 00:13:51.960 And she actually decided that she thought 217 00:13:51.960 --> 00:13:55.120 she could find something better 218 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:58.520 and had set her mind to move. 219 00:13:58.520 --> 00:14:03.520 So she's about to go move into her new unit. 220 00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:06.440 All her stuff is packed up in boxes, 221 00:14:06.440 --> 00:14:08.760 like she's ready for the moving truck. 222 00:14:08.760 --> 00:14:12.640 And the unit that she was planning on moving into, 223 00:14:12.920 --> 00:14:15.320 the landlord gave it away to somebody else 224 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:16.920 and she had nowhere to go. 225 00:14:17.920 --> 00:14:21.720 And so she reached out and asked if she could stay. 226 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:23.400 We said, of course, 227 00:14:23.400 --> 00:14:26.240 but she'd never had a renovation in over 20 years. 228 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:27.720 And there was things in her unit 229 00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:29.880 that really needed updating. 230 00:14:29.880 --> 00:14:34.880 And so we sat down with her and we asked her what she wanted 231 00:14:35.160 --> 00:14:39.440 and it was very modest things that she wanted fixed up. 232 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:43.480 And we said, okay, well, if we do all of that, 233 00:14:43.480 --> 00:14:46.600 would you be willing to increase your rent 234 00:14:46.600 --> 00:14:49.240 to $1,000 a month if we... 235 00:14:49.240 --> 00:14:51.680 And all of her stuff was all in the center of the room, 236 00:14:51.680 --> 00:14:52.840 all packed up. 237 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:55.480 It was very easy to work around and do the renovations. 238 00:14:55.480 --> 00:14:57.120 And that was going to be less 239 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:59.120 than what she was going to be paying 240 00:14:59.120 --> 00:15:00.600 to move into her new unit. 241 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.780 new unit, and she didn't really want to move. She really loved 242 00:15:03.780 --> 00:15:07.440 the the building in the area. And so it was a win win for 243 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:12.240 everybody. And she was delighted. She got everything 244 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:16.360 that she wanted on her wishlist. She got her unit updated, she 245 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:18.560 was still going to be paying less than what she would have 246 00:15:18.560 --> 00:15:24.120 paid moving to another place. And we got a big bump on on our 247 00:15:24.200 --> 00:15:30.360 revenue, which was awesome. And well, our, our contractors were 248 00:15:30.360 --> 00:15:32.880 in there doing her unit, there was another tenant in the 249 00:15:32.880 --> 00:15:38.200 basement who had some requests. And we negotiated a small bump 250 00:15:38.280 --> 00:15:41.960 in his rent as well. And by the way, we didn't have to 251 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:45.960 negotiate anything we could have arbitrarily just said, No, we're 252 00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:49.640 raising your rent and not do any renovations. But that's not how 253 00:15:49.880 --> 00:15:55.040 we roll. And we really wanted to look after our tenants. And they 254 00:15:55.040 --> 00:15:58.200 felt that they knew that we were looking out for them and that we 255 00:15:58.200 --> 00:16:02.800 were really fair and reasonable. And so all of these renovations 256 00:16:02.800 --> 00:16:08.560 were happening February and March of 2022. Well, April of 257 00:16:08.560 --> 00:16:12.640 2022 rolled around and the government of New Brunswick 258 00:16:12.760 --> 00:16:16.080 decided that there was going to be a rent cap in place. And it 259 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:20.320 wasn't going to start on April 1, it was going to start retro 260 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:25.520 actively on January 1. And any rent increase that happened 261 00:16:25.720 --> 00:16:30.720 after January 1, we would be forced to go back to the 262 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:34.280 original rents, regardless of the fact that we did renovations 263 00:16:34.280 --> 00:16:37.920 and negotiated, and we would have to pay the tenants back the 264 00:16:37.920 --> 00:16:44.160 difference of their rental increase. And that was only 265 00:16:44.160 --> 00:16:47.280 enforceable if the tenants actually picked up the phone and 266 00:16:47.280 --> 00:16:51.000 called and said that they wanted that to happen. And we were on 267 00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:55.000 pins and needles for a long time, because all our tenants 268 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:59.120 had to do was pick up the phone and say, I want my rent to go 269 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:02.840 back the way it was. And I want my my the difference I've been 270 00:17:02.880 --> 00:17:06.400 the increase I've been paying, I want that paid back to me. And 271 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:11.880 they didn't. And that's, that's one thing that we got really 272 00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:16.640 right, when when doing this project, and that is we treated 273 00:17:16.640 --> 00:17:19.880 our tenants how we would want to be treated, if we were in their 274 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:23.720 shoes, and we did right by them, and they did right by us. So 275 00:17:23.760 --> 00:17:27.119 that was a huge win, because it would have been pretty crippling 276 00:17:27.119 --> 00:17:30.320 to go back to their original rents after putting out more 277 00:17:30.320 --> 00:17:35.160 than $20,000 in renovations. So that was that was a big win. 278 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:41.760 Flash forward to the winter of 2023, there was a big deep 279 00:17:41.760 --> 00:17:48.080 freeze in in Moncton, and our we had pipes burst, and there was a 280 00:17:48.080 --> 00:17:51.960 cleanup to do. And we had to refix up what had just been 281 00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:58.120 renovated. And but it wasn't it was more scary getting the news 282 00:17:58.120 --> 00:18:01.440 than the actual fallout that we had to deal with it ended up not 283 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:07.440 being that bad at all. But when you're the go to person on the 284 00:18:07.440 --> 00:18:11.360 operations side, and you're the person that the property manager 285 00:18:11.360 --> 00:18:14.800 calls to, you know, troubleshoot, whatever might be 286 00:18:14.800 --> 00:18:18.720 happening, you just don't know what email what phone call what 287 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:23.360 text is coming in that day. And, and you got to hit the ground 288 00:18:23.360 --> 00:18:30.600 running and just be prepared. And we purchased in 2021. And we 289 00:18:30.600 --> 00:18:34.280 very optimistically gave ourselves a two year mortgage, 290 00:18:34.520 --> 00:18:38.760 thinking that we were going to turn over units and increase 291 00:18:38.760 --> 00:18:41.520 rents and make the building worth more. And then in two 292 00:18:41.520 --> 00:18:46.040 years in 2023, it would be a great time to refinance and pay 293 00:18:46.040 --> 00:18:50.840 our investors back at least a big portion, if not all of their 294 00:18:50.840 --> 00:18:55.200 original investment. Well, as I'm sure you know, the interest 295 00:18:55.200 --> 00:19:00.440 rates had a very different plan in mind for us. And when we got 296 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:05.280 we came up on our two year mortgage, our cost of borrowing 297 00:19:05.280 --> 00:19:09.880 was going to triple because of the interest rates. And so we 298 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:14.080 had to sit down with our investors and say, Okay, we have 299 00:19:14.080 --> 00:19:19.600 a decision to make, we can either renew our mortgage, and 300 00:19:19.600 --> 00:19:24.080 we'll be looking at being in a breakeven situation for however 301 00:19:24.080 --> 00:19:27.840 long we extend our mortgage terms. So whether we do a one 302 00:19:27.840 --> 00:19:32.920 year, two year, three year, or Moncton is still a hot market, 303 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:36.560 we could try selling it and you could get a great return on your 304 00:19:36.560 --> 00:19:43.200 money now. Well, needless to say, our investors took option 305 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:47.040 B, let's get a great return on our money now. And really, 306 00:19:47.040 --> 00:19:52.040 thankfully, for us, we, the Moncton market had not cooled 307 00:19:52.040 --> 00:19:57.200 down like the rest of a lot of Canadian markets. And so we sold 308 00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:00.120 in less than a week for $950,000. 309 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:06.040 $1,000. So we bought it for $547,500. And two years later, 310 00:20:06.040 --> 00:20:11.440 we sold it for $901,000. Our investors got a 60% ROI and 311 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:16.840 annualized over two years a 30% over two years. So they did 312 00:20:16.840 --> 00:20:21.840 extremely well. And we learned a ton we we made mistakes in that 313 00:20:21.840 --> 00:20:26.260 building we made. We had some big wins in that building. And 314 00:20:26.260 --> 00:20:29.940 certainly, we can't feel bad about how how that exit 315 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:37.100 happened. However, I will tell you, nobody, especially me, set 316 00:20:37.100 --> 00:20:41.980 about going through all this work of creating a corporation 317 00:20:41.980 --> 00:20:46.020 and getting an accountant and filing corporate taxes, and and 318 00:20:46.060 --> 00:20:50.100 all that learning curve to flip an apartment building, which is 319 00:20:50.100 --> 00:20:55.380 essentially what we did. And so you know, if I could rewind the 320 00:20:55.380 --> 00:21:00.980 clock, I probably would have realized that our investors, we 321 00:21:00.980 --> 00:21:03.300 set the expectations that they were going to get their money 322 00:21:03.300 --> 00:21:05.780 back in two years. And that's really what they had in their 323 00:21:05.780 --> 00:21:10.140 mind. And in our minds, we wanted that to happen too. But 324 00:21:10.140 --> 00:21:13.460 we also wanted to be able to retain the building for many, 325 00:21:13.460 --> 00:21:18.020 many years, we wanted to hold that for 10 plus years. And so 326 00:21:18.260 --> 00:21:22.740 that just wasn't an alignment. If we if I could go back, I'd 327 00:21:22.740 --> 00:21:26.660 say, you know, we need investors that are in it for the 328 00:21:26.660 --> 00:21:31.380 long run, who would have ridden out the the the high interest 329 00:21:31.380 --> 00:21:36.060 rates a little bit longer, but, you know, it was a win. And, and 330 00:21:36.060 --> 00:21:40.500 hopefully some of that is helpful. But that's next week. 331 00:21:42.060 --> 00:21:47.500 Excuse me while I pick my job off the floor. Oh, my goodness, 332 00:21:47.500 --> 00:21:51.220 Sarah, that sounds like whirlwind didn't didn't cover 333 00:21:52.020 --> 00:21:57.900 what you went through. And you just summarize two years in 10 334 00:21:57.900 --> 00:22:01.260 minutes. I have so many questions. 335 00:22:05.900 --> 00:22:12.420 Okay, so how do you how do you pivot the market changes, rules 336 00:22:12.420 --> 00:22:16.900 change, changes, law changes. The government makes surprise 337 00:22:16.900 --> 00:22:20.260 announcements and just drops a bomb at your front door when 338 00:22:20.260 --> 00:22:24.900 you've made all these plans. I think my first thing is, how do 339 00:22:24.900 --> 00:22:29.140 you one I know you remove the emotion, but how do you pivot? 340 00:22:29.140 --> 00:22:33.180 How do you say, okay, we just got a bomb dropped on us 341 00:22:33.220 --> 00:22:37.820 mentally, I feel chaotic internally. How do we move 342 00:22:37.820 --> 00:22:42.900 forward? So who do you bring into the conversation so that 343 00:22:42.900 --> 00:22:45.500 you can make these educated decisions on how to move 344 00:22:45.500 --> 00:22:46.420 forward and pivot? 345 00:22:47.420 --> 00:22:51.180 Well, the nice thing about our structure is that we were a 346 00:22:51.180 --> 00:22:55.580 team. So there there was a few parties involved that had a 347 00:22:55.580 --> 00:22:59.620 vested interest in this in this property. So, you know, you just 348 00:22:59.980 --> 00:23:04.900 sit down and look at well, what are our options, and we we hash 349 00:23:04.900 --> 00:23:08.300 them out over over a zoom meeting. And we come to a 350 00:23:08.300 --> 00:23:14.980 consensus about what is the best way to to move forward. And so 351 00:23:15.340 --> 00:23:19.300 yeah, it's just a matter of evaluating with the best amount 352 00:23:19.340 --> 00:23:23.020 like with the best available information at the time, and 353 00:23:23.020 --> 00:23:28.300 making sure that everybody's, you know, heard and really, we 354 00:23:28.300 --> 00:23:31.980 we never really ran into any situations where we had really 355 00:23:31.980 --> 00:23:36.340 opposing views. It was pretty easy to come to decisions, even 356 00:23:36.340 --> 00:23:40.100 in in hard circumstances, because you're just like, well, 357 00:23:40.340 --> 00:23:43.780 this is what's on the table. This is what we're looking at. 358 00:23:44.140 --> 00:23:49.220 And these are our options. So which one, which way do we want 359 00:23:49.220 --> 00:23:54.860 to go? And we all really just kind of agreed on on the way to 360 00:23:54.860 --> 00:24:00.180 go. So I don't have a lot of experience in having really 361 00:24:00.180 --> 00:24:03.780 opposing views sitting at the table, which would be another 362 00:24:03.980 --> 00:24:08.820 level of challenge. So luckily, we never had that. But I think 363 00:24:08.980 --> 00:24:17.100 you gain that level of contentedness with your team 364 00:24:17.140 --> 00:24:21.820 just by being completely transparent. So never sugarcoat 365 00:24:21.900 --> 00:24:26.420 any situation. It doesn't it doesn't do anybody any favors. 366 00:24:26.740 --> 00:24:32.100 And as soon as there's something you know, to share, you share it 367 00:24:32.100 --> 00:24:35.180 like nobody wanted to hear that retroactive news and that we 368 00:24:35.180 --> 00:24:38.580 could be on the hook for, you know, giving money back and 369 00:24:38.580 --> 00:24:44.020 going back to original rent amounts, which would have 370 00:24:44.060 --> 00:24:48.220 really crippled the value of our building too, because it's based 371 00:24:48.220 --> 00:24:53.580 on our revenue and income. So you know, there was there was 372 00:24:53.580 --> 00:24:59.060 pins and needles, but I think is as long as everyone feels like 373 00:24:59.700 --> 00:25:00.060 it 374 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:05.000 it's open and transparent and that nothing's being hidden, 375 00:25:07.780 --> 00:25:11.420 then it was pretty easy to make the right choice, 376 00:25:11.420 --> 00:25:12.600 to be honest, yeah. 377 00:25:14.140 --> 00:25:15.700 Thank you for that. 378 00:25:15.700 --> 00:25:18.600 This might be a basic question, 379 00:25:18.600 --> 00:25:22.780 but do you have your lawyers and accountants 380 00:25:22.780 --> 00:25:26.160 a part of those conversations to weigh out the pros 381 00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:27.860 and cons of what your options are? 382 00:25:28.760 --> 00:25:33.760 If their advice is valuable, 383 00:25:33.780 --> 00:25:36.120 like if it was just a matter of deciding 384 00:25:36.120 --> 00:25:38.560 whether to sell or hold, no, 385 00:25:38.560 --> 00:25:41.600 but there's certainly times when you want 386 00:25:41.600 --> 00:25:44.120 to bring them in on the conversation. 387 00:25:44.120 --> 00:25:49.120 So we had another building where our lawyer did a search 388 00:25:51.440 --> 00:25:56.440 and discovered that the oil tank had been originally buried 389 00:25:56.620 --> 00:25:59.140 on the property, this is for another building, 390 00:25:59.140 --> 00:26:03.820 this isn't from McSweeney, but he did a pretty deep dive 391 00:26:03.820 --> 00:26:06.580 and the same thing when we were selling. 392 00:26:06.580 --> 00:26:11.580 So if there was, it became a point of contention 393 00:26:12.620 --> 00:26:14.660 when we sold the building as well 394 00:26:14.660 --> 00:26:19.060 and luckily all was good, 395 00:26:19.060 --> 00:26:23.020 but we had to do an environmental 396 00:26:23.040 --> 00:26:26.980 as like the buyer of this other building 397 00:26:26.980 --> 00:26:28.840 required that we do an environmental 398 00:26:28.840 --> 00:26:31.040 to just basically put their mind at ease 399 00:26:31.040 --> 00:26:33.160 that there was no contamination. 400 00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:35.760 And our lawyer was quite concerned about it 401 00:26:35.760 --> 00:26:37.880 because he said, well, you know, 402 00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:40.080 your oil tank might not have leaked, 403 00:26:40.080 --> 00:26:42.280 but it was common practice in the area. 404 00:26:42.280 --> 00:26:46.240 So all you have to do is have a neighbor's tank leak 405 00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:48.040 and that could contaminate your soil. 406 00:26:48.040 --> 00:26:51.000 So you might discover that your soil is contaminated 407 00:26:51.020 --> 00:26:53.180 and it might have nothing to do with the oil tank 408 00:26:53.180 --> 00:26:54.620 that was buried there. 409 00:26:54.620 --> 00:26:56.460 So it was just like all this risk 410 00:26:56.460 --> 00:26:59.100 that you just didn't even realize was a risk. 411 00:26:59.100 --> 00:27:01.140 Like, yeah. 412 00:27:01.140 --> 00:27:05.280 So sometimes it is very appropriate to bring in a counsel. 413 00:27:07.340 --> 00:27:08.400 Okay, perfect. 414 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:10.740 Thank you for that clarification. 415 00:27:10.740 --> 00:27:12.060 I think it's important as well 416 00:27:12.060 --> 00:27:17.060 to get the professional opinion of those involved 417 00:27:18.100 --> 00:27:20.340 so that you can make those educated decisions. 418 00:27:20.840 --> 00:27:22.240 You don't know what you don't know. 419 00:27:23.600 --> 00:27:27.700 Was there a deadline for tenants to appeal the increases? 420 00:27:29.800 --> 00:27:31.040 That's a good question. 421 00:27:31.040 --> 00:27:34.040 I think they could have had basically 422 00:27:34.040 --> 00:27:38.060 the whole remainder of 2022 to appeal, 423 00:27:38.060 --> 00:27:41.800 but then in 2023, the cap was removed. 424 00:27:41.800 --> 00:27:44.000 So basically come 2023, 425 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.680 we all could really breathe a big sigh of relief 426 00:27:47.700 --> 00:27:50.680 because it was no longer hanging in the balance 427 00:27:50.680 --> 00:27:52.600 whether a phone call could be made. 428 00:27:54.180 --> 00:27:57.060 So then we were officially off the hook 429 00:27:57.060 --> 00:28:01.340 and we sold later, we sold in the spring of 2023. 430 00:28:01.340 --> 00:28:06.340 So it was like there was nothing hanging over our heads 431 00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:08.900 anymore when we sold. 432 00:28:08.900 --> 00:28:13.900 And the province has actually now since reinstated 433 00:28:13.900 --> 00:28:16.300 a cap on rents again. 434 00:28:16.320 --> 00:28:18.440 And I don't think it's going anywhere this time. 435 00:28:18.440 --> 00:28:23.440 So yeah, you can do all the due diligence in the world, 436 00:28:24.720 --> 00:28:26.400 but nothing can prepare you 437 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:28.660 for what you don't have control over. 438 00:28:28.660 --> 00:28:32.360 So you really just wanna make sure you're going in eyes 439 00:28:32.360 --> 00:28:34.520 as wide open as they possibly can 440 00:28:34.520 --> 00:28:37.640 because you have no control over interest rates. 441 00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:40.400 You have no control over government initiatives 442 00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:41.520 and decisions. 443 00:28:41.520 --> 00:28:43.000 So yeah. 444 00:28:43.940 --> 00:28:45.060 Wow. 445 00:28:45.060 --> 00:28:48.660 Well, I applaud you for being able to pivot, 446 00:28:48.660 --> 00:28:50.260 removing the emotion out of that 447 00:28:50.260 --> 00:28:53.580 because if I understand correctly, 448 00:28:53.580 --> 00:28:55.060 you went in there with the impression 449 00:28:55.060 --> 00:28:56.660 of a long-term buy and hold. 450 00:28:56.660 --> 00:29:01.660 And after two, I'm assuming short-ish years, 451 00:29:02.140 --> 00:29:03.640 you had to pivot and you had to change 452 00:29:03.640 --> 00:29:05.340 and remove that from your portfolio 453 00:29:05.340 --> 00:29:07.220 to do what was best for your investors. 454 00:29:07.220 --> 00:29:09.980 I imagine that those weren't easy discussions 455 00:29:09.980 --> 00:29:11.260 with your investors, 456 00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:14.760 but understanding how the market changes 457 00:29:14.760 --> 00:29:17.000 and understanding how you can invest 458 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:19.960 in someone's opportunity that they create, 459 00:29:19.960 --> 00:29:22.580 how things are beyond your control 460 00:29:22.580 --> 00:29:24.880 and that from time to time, you have to pivot. 461 00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:27.160 You need multiple exit strategies. 462 00:29:27.160 --> 00:29:29.800 And sometimes it's not your first choice, 463 00:29:29.800 --> 00:29:31.920 but it's what's best for the tenants. 464 00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:34.040 It's what's best for the investors 465 00:29:34.040 --> 00:29:37.160 and your long-term business decisions. 466 00:29:37.160 --> 00:29:38.720 Yeah, totally. 467 00:29:38.740 --> 00:29:41.780 I mean, we would have hung on to it, 468 00:29:41.780 --> 00:29:45.380 but no, our investors did fan, 469 00:29:45.380 --> 00:29:46.500 like they were over the moon. 470 00:29:46.500 --> 00:29:48.340 They were thrilled. 471 00:29:48.340 --> 00:29:51.420 30% return annualized was like, 472 00:29:51.420 --> 00:29:53.100 it was better than projected. 473 00:29:53.100 --> 00:29:55.460 So no complaints there. 474 00:29:55.460 --> 00:29:57.380 We just, if we had a choice, 475 00:29:57.380 --> 00:29:59.940 if it was our say, we'd still own the building. 476 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:07.000 I can understand that. Well, um, what is your focus for the next seven days, Sarah? 477 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:24.000 Oh, well, I would like to find another one, knowing what I know now, and, and just align myself with with the right investors who have a really long term vision, the way that that we do. 478 00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:44.000 And, you know that I think that'll be a lot easier just because, you know, now I have experience to apply that I didn't have the first time around so it'll be fantastic but no I'm on the hunt for another great property like McSweeny. 479 00:30:44.000 --> 00:31:02.000 And I also have a couple of development projects in the works here in Nova Scotia that are ticking along nicely so, but I know that might sound like I'm really busy but really, it's, it's hurry up and wait a lot so there's busy moments 480 00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:13.000 and then a lot of the times I'm just cooking and doing yoga and reading and, like, having a great life, honestly. Yeah. 481 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:17.000 Well that sounds like lifestyle freedom day to me. 482 00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:34.000 And Sarah, I know you very well. For those of you listening who who don't know Sarah and I have been friends since before I even joined Kiesbauer, and we met because I was one of Sarah's tenants in in one of the properties that her and Nick had owned in Cambridge, 483 00:31:34.000 --> 00:31:54.000 Ontario, and gardening was one of your things that brought you peace that I loved seeing you do every evening as the sun was going down and health has always been top priority so being able to put that at the forefront of your day by design to be able to do yoga is admirable 484 00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:17.000 and I do admire you I do look up to you and I want to thank you very much for taking time out, out of your day to share with us your story your experience and your knowledge because it is invaluable so thank you once again for joining us Sarah, I want to thank the entire community for being a part of the weekly focusing call with us this week. 485 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:35.000 And I would love for everyone to please document what your 14 day radar is what have you accomplished celebrate your wins no matter how big or how small, and always have a focus to move forward, check those things off your list so you have that sense of accomplishment. 486 00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:52.000 So I want to thank you all once again. I hope you all have a fantastic and productive week and we look forward to seeing you guys next week on the weekly focusing call also heads up the monthly meetup is this Wednesday at 7pm Eastern Standard Time we look forward to seeing you there. 487 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:55.000 Take care everyone. 488 00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:58.000 Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. 489 00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:01.000 You're getting applause in the chat. 490 00:33:02.000 --> 00:33:06.000 Thank you both of you. Fantastic info. 491 00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:09.000 Thank you. Absolutely.