Okay, welcome everybody.
Nice to see a lot of familiar faces.
Welcome to your monthly mastery.
So if you do have a quick second before I do, I go into introductions and stuff like
that.
If you hover over your own photo, or your own video feed in Zoom, you'll see three dots
there.
If you could change your name to your name and where you're from, I think that would
be really helpful, especially for networking purposes and just knowing who's from where.
And if you wanted to connect with people, you can do that via chat or you can direct
message each other.
And yeah, I think that that would be awesome.
If everybody can make it a habit of when you come to the events, if you can share where
you're from, that would be super helpful for everybody.
And so without further ado, welcome again to your monthly mastery.
Congratulations on putting the time aside for your business.
Today on the roster, I have the lovely Gabrielle, Gabrielle Kane, give a wave.
I also have Nick Skalkos, mastermind coach, who some of you might be familiar with if
he is your mastermind coach.
And we have Carl Benson, who is one of our Keyspire US coaches.
And so for any of you that are from the old Keyspire Income Property Labs days, I was
telling Carl, we had a good laugh, felt like we're getting the band back together, man.
Dude, I was there.
And yeah, we've hosted and done a lot of really good sessions in IP labs.
And we're starting to, you know, we want to integrate because we do have a lot of members
from the US and we have a lot of members in Canada.
And so we're starting to do what we would love to be able to split and share insights
from both sides of the border.
Investing in the States is a very hot topic right now.
And so having both of them here just makes us all stronger.
And so, Gabrielle, anything that you would like to share?
Anything that I forgot?
How you doing today?
Thank you, Joe.
Um, you, you hit it.
You hit every single note.
I just want to thank everyone for being here and joining us on this monthly mastermind
You're, you're, you're feeding into goals, dreams and your aspirations and this for you.
So we want to support you in your journey in every way that we can.
Please don't hesitate to network.
This is an amazing networking opportunity.
So we strongly encourage you to have your cameras on.
Something I personally like to do when I'm networking is I'll put my name and the state
or province that I'm from.
So that way people can see where I am.
And it makes it easier when we're in breakout rooms.
I'm just really happy to be here.
So thank you for the introduction, Joe.
Thanks.
Okay.
Nick and Carl, I am going to hand off to you guys to do what you do best.
And I will be here supporting and putting stuff in chat and breaking everybody out into
breakout groups when the time comes.
Good to see everybody again.
And let's get going.
Hello, lovely people.
Welcome to the monthly mastery.
We have another amazing night set up for you.
It's so wonderful to see so many familiar faces in here.
Joe, thank you so much for being you.
Gabrielle, thank you so much for caring for everyone.
If you don't know who your program advisor is, it's either one of these two.
I'm sure you've all connected with them before.
Absolute gems here.
If you haven't yet, please feel free to do so.
And excited to introduce to you in the house tonight, Mr. Carl Benson from Utah.
Hello, sir.
Hello.
Introduce yourself to everyone here tonight.
Sure.
Carl Benson, and I live down here in the States.
I think I was the very first, actually I was the very first Keyspire coach when Keyspire
came down here.
And I've been investing in real estate for over 30 years and coaching and mentoring for
going on a fair amount of time for about two decades now.
And I just love being a part of it all.
Yeah.
Wow.
You are OG, eh?
Incredible.
Same with Joe.
Joe's been with us for a very long time.
So you guys are getting the special treatment tonight because we have a very special monthly
mastery meetup for you where we're going to be talking about something that's so important
that a lot of us tend to overlook it and a lot of us want to wear all of these hats.
But the truth is, is that you need to come to terms with something.
You're scaling your business at some point.
You're going to want to scale.
And when you're doing that, you want to build your business so that it's actually scalable.
So that's what we're doing tonight is we're talking about how to scale your business.
And how do you do that?
Well, of course you do with other people.
Real estate's a leverage game.
We leverage.
We leverage knowledge.
We leverage money.
We leverage expertise.
We leverage each other.
We leverage time.
And whenever I'm looking to jump into the pool, do something different.
Do something bigger.
Do something that scares me.
I always want to hold someone else's hand and do it and drag them in with me because
I'm just...
too afraid because I'm just not going to do it myself and then everything that's required to
do so will just lead to inaction and you know what do they call it analysis paralysis like
you want to avoid that you want to conquer that building your team that's how you do that that's
how you scale so there's various forms of scaling as you get through real estate as you get to bigger
projects you'll start scaling in your own team you'll build people no longer is it you that's
no longer is it you that's running the asset no longer is it you that's raising the capital or
doing everything yourself mowing the lawn selecting the tenants it's great to start
out like that and we will be talking about investing like that but this is the first
stage of scaling after that it just keeps going because eventually you want to know how to
get busier and have your business grow without it consuming your time that's the goal here is
your business is making more money your business is growing but you're getting your time back
as you're doing that so that's what we're talking about today and and that's why and that's why we
decided to do this for you so and we brought in the U.S. perspective as well because a lot as a
lot of you know I've been investing in the U.S. for the last three three years and intend to keep
doing so and I think a lot of us are interested in investing in the U.S. as well so you're going
to get both perspectives tonight if you don't mind so who are the players here in this team
well we're talking about basically service providers and I think number one is a mortgage
broker I got to tell you everything I know about commercial financing came from the mortgage broker
everything I and that broker I didn't use that broker or close on that building but that
conversation blew my mind I know what to put in for maintenance when I was running numbers
I knew how lenders were going to look at this deal I learned about debt service coverage ratio
just by talking to a mortgage broker so that is how you're financing your property is the first
question you got to solve mortgage brokers the person's going to do that and make it really
educate you there second person second uh team member we're going to talk about is property
manager this is extremely crucial for more reasons than you'd probably think so I'm looking forward
to diving into that realtor wholesaler that's a full-time job by the way when you're dealing
you're looking to you know look for properties from a realtor or a wholesaler you need a lot of
time you've got a lot of portals you've got a lot of emails to open and especially when you're
investing out of province or out of state which is what this will allow you to do you've got a
full-time job and we'll talk about that in a second lawyer we just an hour ago I had a conversation
with a lawyer that was trying to tell me that for you Americans you're not going to get this but
they're trying to tell me that we had to have a GST number the GST number to purchase an eight
unit that we're looking at and we were just like what we don't need a GST number and this lawyer
was adamant that we did so I called up my accountant who's a freaking genius and it's just
like I got this lawyer telling me that I needed a GST number so he threw the book at her probably
loved it like flexed his muscle and everything and then she she called back you know she's like
so adamant but now she's like okay like this makes sense we'll proceed so watch out for lawyers
uh that's going to be the uh not all are good and I'm going to I'm going to actually show you
how I pick a lawyer and it's not what you think it's not it's probably not what you're thinking
here so accountant I just stressed how good my accountant will get on the call with me
my accountant will put someone in their place when they need to be put in their place
my accountant is there to not do my taxes but to educate me on everything just so I know here's
how corporations are taxed that's why you're going to want to incorporate when I'm incorporating
I always talk to my accountant definitely definitely a go-to in fact if I had to reverse
the order it would be that but you're going to need a lawyer pretty quick so a general contractor
that's the tough one that's a tough one how do you find a good general contractor I'm hoping
that Carl's got some good tips for us he's been in this game for so many years so Carl I'm going
to be leaning on you for that because I've only had awful experiences so um I can tell you what
not to do maybe that'll be helpful here we go so mortgage broker why I why would you want a
mortgage broker well you've got access to more lenders rather than going to the bank having them
tell you no you can go to a broker who's got access to you know 80 90 and in the U.S. uh
way more than that uh different lenders so why not right um residential brokers and commercial
brokers are very different learn how they learn how they differ this is how they differ
a residential mortgage broker in my experience I don't make a lot of income I'm going to be
very transparent with you the conversations are Nick you
need to like get another job, you need to make more money, you need to, you know, pay off your debts.
And I can't scale like that because I like I'm just never going to be qualifiable. And I don't
want to be if getting another job is the quote, I'm not in, I don't want another job. That's not
what I'm going for here. When you talk to a commercial broker, well, it cames up, they don't
sound like they're in a cubicle. Sometimes I hear my broker at home babies crying, dogs barking,
chewing on a BLT. It's like, okay, what am I talking to the mafia here or RBC? I'm talking
to RBC. Wow. Okay. So that's, that's interesting. Now I give my commercial broker, rent and expenses,
and then they give me back a verbal, I actually have a verbal mortgage. You're like, this is what
we're willing to give you. And I was like, wow, you didn't even ask me how much money I make yet.
Like the residential broker did like that was gruesome. And the answer is always bad.
But with the commercial residential broker, if that building, if that DCR hits the mark for them,
hits their criteria, and they like it, they'll give you, they'll give you a mortgage on that
income or no income can have bad credit. And you do need to qualify based on net worth.
And this is obviously another conversation, but I can't stress how different they are,
a residential mortgage broker and a commercial mortgage broker. And often they're not one in
the same. They're either, or so be careful with who you're choosing and know what the difference is.
And the fees are different as well. Right. And, and you'll have to talk to a broker on how
they're wrapped up. But from what I understand, commercial residential broker,
in most cases, I mean, it's been a while. I think the lender might cover
their fees. Whereas on a commercial residential mortgage broker, you're paying those fees out
up front. Now talk to a broker to figure out what their fees are. Maybe some places are different.
Maybe things have changed. I don't know, but they're very different. So know the difference.
Absolutely know the difference. And you know what, this is a big one. If your broker says,
no, you got the wrong broker, your broker like that, that, that word should not be in their
No, can't do that. Really? You know what my broker says, says, Nick,
you're a challenging file, brother. Well, you know what? I'm going to call you back in a minute. Okay.
That's what my broker says. I'm going to call you right back. I like that. Go get them tiger.
Your mortgage broker does not have to be in your state. Does not have to be in your province.
Remember that everyone's always looking for a broker near them. Why
want to take them out to coffee? Like what's the deal with that? It's a service provider.
It's not a buddy. So Carl thoughts, my man. Absolutely. I mean, it's having, having a
conduit to financing is imperative. I mean, most people aren't able to secure a property without,
without financing. And as you mentioned, Nick, the resident, the residential mortgage originators
versus the commercial brokers, there's a huge difference. You know, the the residential ones
will always try to qualify you on, on your income and on your ability to repay. And in reality,
we know that it's the project, it's the property that's going to be servicing that debt.
And another big thing is that strategy. You know, what is our strategy? If we want to do,
like some of you that I know in here are involved with fix and flip properties down here in the
States. Well, you go to a residential mortgage broker. They're not going to have any idea what
you're talking about. They're not going to be able to do a thing for you. However, the right mortgage,
mortgage broker might be able to put you into a program where they'll give you money to buy
the property and give you money to rehab that property to complete all the renovations. So
I think that's knowing who offers what and where the rates may be the best, but where the terms,
I think, are more important than the rates, where the terms suit the project the best is imperative.
So important. Yeah, that's absolutely amazing. And up here, we have something called CMHC,
insured mortgage. Down there, you guys have HUD. Do you use that product often or what?
No, you know, really for investment FHA, the HUD programs, let's back up. Most HUD programs
are residential centric, you know, one to four units, and they are not,
they will finance investors, but it's not usually the easiest route to go.
When it comes to HUD financing and so forth, if we want to jump into some
commercial projects, especially like multi-units that have
out that cater to maybe low income or senior housing
or things like that.
They're a great way to go,
but just a lot of hoops to jump through.
But most of the mortgage brokers
and some of the commercial lenders down here,
they don't fall under these federal guidelines
or the same regulations or conditions
that HUD or FHA put into place.
So oftentimes it's much easier to go that route.
So that's an option, but not so much for investing.
So why would someone go through the hassle
of getting a HUD insured financing?
Like what would be the benefit of that?
A lot of homebuyers, if they're buying their own residence,
will go this route, especially first-time homebuyers
where they require a low down payment.
They might require three and a half percent down.
And in some instances, there are some programs
where they require no down payment.
And they will finance from a condo or townhouse
to a four-unit property.
So it's like my daughter, she's buying a property.
I just talked to her about a little duplex.
She can qualify for that larger property
that might be 800, $900,000 easier than a single family,
because again, that HUD financing, lower down payments,
they'll allow up to 70% of that income
to be counted towards the debt service.
And so basically, she can get into it
with hardly anything out of pocket
and have this multi-unit as a first-time homebuyer.
So those type of scenarios are great.
And you can move out of it a year later
and turn it into a rental.
So if any people are in a position,
and I always recommend if I'm coaching them
and they can do this, buy a multi-unit,
live in it for a year, and then move on to the next one.
Don't sell it.
Don't exchange the equity or realize that.
Just hold that as a cashflow property
and go buy your next one with 3 1⁄2% down.
3 1⁄2% down.
Yes, please.
Yes, please, exactly.
Can I have another, sir?
And there really isn't,
they'll allow you to have up to nine of these type of loans.
So again, you can play that stepping stone game
and just keep it rolling in.
And other programs too, but here's what's interesting, Nick,
not just originating the loan,
but when we're getting creative,
having a team member that understands
how you might be able to find these loans
that are assumable.
We can actually take over somebody else's FHA
or federally insured loans.
So that's another big advantage
of finding those type of opportunities,
but having somebody on your team
that understands that process is critical.
Wow, thank you for that.
I think a lot of us are kind of like aiming our sights
south of the border now.
Well, maybe not all of us here,
but maybe now's not the right time, but I do think so.
There's a lot of opportunities down there.
And as Carl just exemplified,
or he just showed us that there are way more other options
than we have up here in Canada.
Like there are so many different mortgage products
and access to different styles of mortgages
that it's just, the options are abundant
compared to what we have up here.
So Carl, thank you for sharing your insight on that.
Property management.
A lot of you want to property manage your own property.
And you know what?
I think you should,
because if you're going for a duplex
or something like that,
the economies of scale just simply don't allow you
to do anything else.
Like you would be spending all of your cashflow
on that property manager.
I do have duplexes.
I do have property managers
because I have invested out of province
and it worked out.
The rent to cost ratio made sense.
So even though the economies of scale
weren't really there for property manager,
the cashflow was, barely, but it was there.
It's tough though with two plexes,
three plexes and stuff like that.
But if you're going to scale out of province,
this is, you got to do it.
You got to do it.
So I'm going to hang out here on this slide for a little bit
because this is really important.
This is an important step to not only just
getting outside of your market
and getting and investing where returns are best,
but you should be involved with property management
while you're actually acquiring the property.
And I'll tell you why.
They know where you should buy and where you shouldn't buy.
They've got A, B, C, D sections, like in the city.
There are just some areas that you just wouldn't know
looking online, seeing the prices, this looks great,
but you can't get a property manager to touch it.
So not only do they know where...
air to buy, they can give you insight to what you think they can get for rents in that specific
area.
They also know carpenters, contractors, and other people, pest removals, mold remediations.
They're your gateway into a new market.
Now, a lot of us think that their job is to just property manage the asset, which it is
as well.
But, I've got to tell you, I bought six multifamily buildings through a property manager, not
even a realtor, not even a wholesaler.
Property manager.
Because when you're in a market where it's not hot, you can be open to some deals.
Buyers or sellers, rather, are open to vendor take-backs.
They're open to off-market deals.
Try finding an off-market deal in a hot market.
Not going to happen.
You go to a tertiary market where there's a lot of inventory, prices are right, you
can get an off-market deal, and I found that property management are a really good source
for that.
Why?
Well, it's pretty obvious.
They know the owners of the building.
This particular property management in this particular city that I expanded in, he presented
the idea to me.
He's like, listen, I've had a couple building owners ask me if I know anyone that's interested
in buying this place.
And I'm asking myself, well, why don't they just put it online and get a bidding war?
Why?
Well, the market is not that right now.
There is no bidding wars.
And they don't want people coming through, kicking the tire, bugging their tenants.
It's like, I get that.
Okay.
I get that.
So they want a serious buyer.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to let this property management know that I'm a serious
buyer.
So when he brought me an offer, numbers made sense, I bought it.
And I was like, listen, I'm buying this place from you, but I want to be top of mind next
time someone else offers you an off-market deal.
Like, I want you to call me first.
And he called me and two other people, and then I bought that building.
And then next time he just called me.
I'm like, that's how you get off-market deals.
If there's someone out there with access to off-market deals, and the numbers make sense,
you buy it, let them know you're serious.
You buy it again, let them know you're serious.
And that's how you're the first person they call next time there's an off-market deal.
That was my mission with them.
So not only do I use them to asset run my manage, which, by the way, is the worst part
of real estate investing.
It's awful.
It's great.
I don't know why people would get into the business of property management.
It is a nasty business.
I want no part of it.
I can't thank them enough for doing what they do.
I love property managers, but you got to watch it.
You know where you got to watch it?
You got to watch it when they do these visits, and they're so soft.
It's like, I just did a visit, 50 bucks here.
I had to visit the property again, 70 bucks here.
I had to visit the property again, it's 80 bucks here.
That was like, you know, a loose light bulb, a broken screen.
All of this info could have just, someone could have done, went through, did a audit
of everything that needs to be done, and then you got one visit that goes over there.
But sometimes they're vertically integrated, right?
So they've got all of these people on their team.
So when they send them out to do some work, you know, they're getting some kickback as
well, and they're keeping their side hustle busy.
So what I do is I have an asset manager who manages the asset manager, property managers,
and their job is to make sure that all of our property managers across the board are
not doing that.
Their job is to make sure that the tenants are, the rollovers are quick, and that the
budget is on budget, and that everything's on time.
So just because I have property management in place doesn't mean I don't need an asset
manager on my actual team to manage the property managers, because that could be a full-time
job as well.
So the point of this is use your property managers for more than just running your asset.
Property managers are going to allow you to scale.
That's a fact.
If you can get a good one, you are laughing.
That is, they're a gateway to everyone you need to know, and potentially off-market deals.
So Carl, thoughts on that, please?
Oh, I couldn't agree more.
Here's a way of thinking about property managers.
Regardless of what they're charging, if it's 8%, 10%, 12%, we don't see a lot of those,
but some are out there, you should be looking at them to get an ROI.
So as Nick mentioned, time.
That's our most valuable commodity.
That's why we're paying them, is buying our time back.
And so if we are paying a property manager 10%, think of it in these terms.
Are they going to be making us, are we going to be getting a 12%, 15% return off of them?
In other words, with the rollovers.
Are they going to speed us through that?
Are they going to be on time?
on top of the property and be conscientious of
the repairs that may be needed, the maintenance,
and not taking advantage of us as indicated, Nick.
So I think it's critical on knowing that just,
it's like nails on a chalkboard
when I hear about managers taking advantage,
charging $30 to change a $3 smoke alarm battery
or something, and that's from experience,
walking in and seeing them charge me for that.
It's ridiculous.
So, but the point is, yeah, can they make us money
and network with them and through them for other vendors,
other suppliers, but also, you know,
networking with them as to what is coming available
that they might be aware of, or who do they know
that might know of something coming available?
Cause that just keeps, that just maintains their portfolio.
And that's what it's all about.
You know, if they're selling to somebody,
selling a property under management to an investor
that they already are working with, well, again,
that's keeping that property in house, so to speak.
So, you know, can be a great win-win situation.
So property managers, again, they should be good.
They should be making you money and not costing you money.
So maybe it's a contextual shift for some,
but think of it that way.
These guys need to be making us money.
Oh, I love that.
Yeah.
Not vertically integrating their own company.
Yeah.
At our expense.
And to your point, like it is harder,
the less doors you have.
The more doors you have it, you know,
the economy is a scale of there to do that,
but it can be pretty tight on a duplex
and finding a good one.
Hey, you might, you might not.
The thing is, is though,
is you just got to learn to fire fast.
That's it.
You know, and you got to,
you got to have someone watching this stuff,
make sure they're not nickel and diming.
So thank you, Carl.
Amazing points there.
Realtor or wholesaler.
So here's the, here's the thing,
is that realtors give you a portal
and then you're supposed to comb through this portal
for something you like.
Reach out to your realtor and be like,
oh, I like this property.
And they're like, okay, let's go.
Arrange a showing.
I, I, that's lazy.
That is absolutely lazy.
My, I want my realtor running the numbers on a property
and then throwing it over my desk,
being like, hey, we found something for you.
Oh, great.
That's awesome.
And that's exactly what the Keyspire Realtors do.
They do the four ways to win for you.
And they crack that down.
And then if you train them to, some of them don't,
but you can train your realtor to do that.
And if your realtor is not willing to do that,
then get another realtor.
Because there's so many realtors out there
that some are willing to be like, you know what?
This is cool.
Why wouldn't I do this?
This is absolutely awesome.
You know, why wouldn't I learn this skill
of how to run the numbers,
see if something's potentially cash flowing
and send it over to you.
That sounds like fun.
That's what you want.
That's the type of realtor you want.
Sending you a portal, looking through 200 properties.
Come on.
There's only five cash flowing properties
in the whole goddamn city.
Just send me those five, man.
Right?
Wholesaler.
I'd get on every wholesaler's list if you can.
If you've ever done that before, oh my God.
I tried to open every wholesaler email once.
It was a full-time job.
It was absolutely insane.
I realized quickly that I needed
an acquisitions person on my team
because I can't keep opening these emails.
They're crazy.
Right?
It's nuts.
But that's the thing is that, you know,
when you, that's the next step scale.
Next step scale is you can get someone
finding you the properties,
dealing with the wholesalers.
They're getting all the emails, not me.
Like, please.
Right?
But there are a couple of ways there.
I think wholesalers do have some fantastic opportunities,
especially in the States.
This is more common.
Up here, not so common.
But down in the States, way, way common.
Happens a lot.
You know, a wholesaler will go by,
will go, they're just flipping paper, really.
They're finding like a hoarding home,
and all they gotta do is just clean it out,
clean it up, and then turn it around for a couple of,
you know, 30K, 20K, whatever it is.
Like, it's not a bad side hustle,
but it's a great way to get discounted properties.
And by the way, if you're ever dealing
with a wholesaler, don't be thrown off
by their fee that they're getting.
You know, just be like, what?
You bought this place for 65K,
and you're selling it to me for a hundred?
Like, I feel ripped off, right?
It's just like, hey, that's the way it goes, right?
So anyway, but I'd love your thoughts on this, Carl,
because, you know, this is more your world, I think.
Sure.
I love how you said to train your realtor.
That might sound a little condescending.
If you don't like the word train, you use coach,
but agents need to be trained.
They can get lazy.
There's a lot of agents out there.
There's not a lot of good agents out there.
And there's even fewer good investment-minded agents.
Those agents that just send you, just spam you with, you know, 20 potential leads, which
aren't really leads at all, they're not working for us. We want them to curate opportunities. You
know, we want them to curate this inventory and only send us the stuff that really seems to fit
our buy box. And if it's not, we need to be able to communicate with them, send it in writing and
thank you for this. But we're really looking for X, Y, and Z in what you send over.
Another great way to kind of vet these agents, and sometimes, you know, we'll go through a lot
of them, but having them send you some comparable properties along with the properties that they
chose, that's a great way to make sure that they are on the same page. Again, just kind of vetting
to make sure that they're understanding what you're trying to do. And a great agent you're
going to work with for, you know, forever. And there's a big difference, I think, when we talk
about our investment sectors. If we're looking at it in the commercial, those agents are very
different than residential agents. The residential agent who thinks they can do it all probably
can't. Well, let me share with you, they won't be able to. They might, you know, they might be
perfect or great in that lane that they travel. But again, once you start to get out into cash flow
properties, multi-units, different types of mixed-use properties and so forth, that's really
way off their radar. So training the agents, communication with them, and if they're not
good communicators, they're probably not going to be the right agent for you. You know, it's
and wholesalers are great. It's so easy to find wholesalers. Let me rephrase that. Wholesalers
can be great. They're very easy to find. I mean, we just jump on Facebook and whatever city that
we might be interested in, type in investment real estate or wholesale real estate, wholesalers, or
some keywords in that and search for groups. And you'll jump on there and you'll see all kinds of
opportunities pop up. The key here, these realtors or wholesalers, they're meant to,
we're leveraging them for leads. You know, so we want our email being fed with leads that make
sense for us, that are specific to what we're looking for. You know, at least in the States,
the wholesalers, there might be some that you'll run across that will deal in multi-units or
larger commercial type projects. Most are going to be in that residential sector. But again,
if we're looking for undervalued properties, perhaps a fix and flip type of opportunity,
wholesalers are fantastic. Wow. Thank you, Carl, for your insight there.
Really, really helpful. Real quick guys, lawyer, this is how... Sorry, guys. Can I just chime in
real quick second? I'd love that. I don't mean to sidetrack you and derail everything,
but it's very rare that we do have a Keyspire sponsor in our group. And so Stephen Mills,
I don't know if you can see me. I didn't even tell him I was going to ask, but Stephen Mills,
if you could unmute. Stephen Mills, he definitely contributes a ton of content, a ton of value in
the deals that he works on. And he actually happens to, he started off as a member and is now
one of our realtor sponsors or the Keyspire sponsor realtors. And Stephen, I was just
wondering if you can unmute and maybe share, I guess what people should be looking for,
what you do that's different than others, the expectation of what you fulfill on and stuff
like that. Are you there, Stephen? I'm here. Yeah. Thanks, Joe.
Yeah. Sorry about that. Totally caught you off guard. I just saw you sitting there and I just
thought, oh, it'd be great to hear, I guess, because I know you take a lot of pride in what
you do. And so, I just thought it would be nice for everybody to hear, what is the expectation?
What should people be looking for? What is it that you pride yourself on that we want everybody
looking out for if they're not in an area that you cover? Yeah. I mean, I couldn't agree more
with Nick and Carl around all the tips, especially around realtors. There's a lot of realtors out
there. A lot of them are very much mom and pop, single family residence realtors. For me, I've
always been an investor first. So, that's kind of where my mindset kind of goes. So, I think if you,
for anyone that is using a realtor, it's always great if you can actually have someone. As Nick
said, I use the train language as well, too, or coach. But yeah, if you can train your realtor
to do all the hard work for you to...
do the four ways to win so that you're just evaluating two or three deals at a time,
as opposed to a whole list. That's absolutely the way to go. I think you should always be
breaking down the numbers for anyone that you're working with. So yeah, I mean, that would be the
main thing I would say. If a realtor doesn't understand what a debt service ratio is or
coverage or how you qualify or how you can grow your portfolio, I mean, Nick's a master when he
walks around commercial and then leveling up your game to the next level when you're going from
single-family homes to commercial properties. And then how do you do that and how do you grow
your portfolio? So if you're able to work with a realtor that actually knows that level and
how to qualify and the introductions and the properties, off-market stuff is definitely
ideal once you've kind of networked appropriately. And then to get fed off-market stuff is fantastic
if you have a good realtor to do that for you. Man, congrats on being a Keyspire sponsor. Good
call, Joe, calling out Stephen. What area are you servicing, Stephen?
So I'm in Ontario, so I'm in Mississauga, so GTA and typically kind of an hour outside.
A lot of the stuff I do now though is actually pre-construction for MOI Select for most
investors. And that tends to be a lot in Edmonton where it's been, the numbers have been insane,
right, where you can actually get into those 5% down type of deals as an investor,
which breaks all the numbers I've kind of looked at. So that's kind of the stuff that I find is
most investors are going to, what's the high cash value and how can we actually cash flow
really nicely with a low down payment secured to a high asset? So that's kind of been the biggest
growth I would say the last six months or so. Okay. So if you're taking on a client then,
is your client basically looking for new builds in Edmonton? Is that basically who you're taking
on or are you taking on other clients that are looking in other areas that like value add stuff
or just new builds? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like a lot of the clients locally are typically looking
for flips or conversions. So how do we take a single family home, make it into a duplex,
add a separate basement unit or add an ADU in the back to get to cashflow? It is a little bit harder
to cashflow here in the GTA and outside of the GTA. New construction stuff tends to will cashflow
right away when we're using those government subsidized loans. So, which is nice. But either
way, it's, I've always invested, like, as you know, Nick, we've talked quite a bit where most
of my portfolio is out east cause it's in New Brunswick cause the cashflow is great. I've
been doing that for a while. And now I'm finding, you know, it still is out there. It takes work
though to do a lot of the burrs and so forth, which still work. But now I'm finding where
returns are best or definitely if we can take advantage of some of these nice programs and have
investors get into properties with a low down payment, the cashflow immediately. That fourth
way to win with appreciation is an amazing potential lottery ticket for a lot of these investors.
Oh, I love that. My favorite four ways to win is the tenants paying down the mortgage.
That's my favorite one. I mean, nothing beats that, man. That's great. Hey, Stephen,
can you put your contact info in the chat? I think everyone's like.
Sure. Yeah, absolutely.
On their team. Thank you, man. Awesome. Great. We're just going to go through this real quick.
Listen, for a lawyer, I always get a referral from someone I trust. I'm like, who do you use?
That's the best way to do that. I use this guy. My second question, how hard are they to pin down?
And if the answer if the answer is they're pretty hard to pin down, you got to move on. It's as
simple as that. You got to move on. You got to find someone that's good and that's going to get
back to you pretty quick. Like I understand they're busy, but we can't be pulling like we
can't be waiting for mortgages to close because your lawyer is too busy. He's really good. He's
not the way it should go. So real simply here, like a lawyer that's been referred to by someone
you trust, someone that's doing things you want to be doing and then make sure that they're easy
to pin down because there will be times where you need them to respond within a day or two.
That's all I ask. Carl, thoughts on this? Absolutely. And I think having a responsive
lawyer adds with anybody, but especially an attorney, because oftentimes stuff they're
doing is very time sensitive. But also, you know, there's a lot like agents. There's a lot of lawyers
out there, but there's not a lot that focus on real estate. You know, we might have a realist,
a general practitioner that covers anything from personal injury to divorce and everything,
but really we want to find one that understands that we can rely on.
on for tenant laws, evictions if that's the case,
contract, asset protection, just the whole ins and outs
and everything related to real estate.
I think it's really important to have
that right team member in there.
So not just anybody with Esquire behind their name,
but somebody that really appreciates
and understands what we're doing
and understands the time sensitivity
of our projects and deals.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for weighing in on that.
We'll have to tell Jason that he's got a spelling error
here on his deck here, guys.
I like it.
Accounting, bookkeeping.
They're two different things, by the way.
Just so you know, like we need, you know what?
I have a, I told you earlier, Steven, like this woman,
I have an asset manager running my property managers here,
but that's not all they do.
They also keep track of the books.
Let's face it.
If your back end isn't tight, things are gonna be a mess.
And who loves bookkeeping?
Because I don't know anyone that does.
It certainly isn't me.
Like, it's awful.
So what I do, I graduated from high school,
then I went on tour.
I didn't get a chance to go to post-secondary school.
So what I do is I hire people that have degrees.
They're smart.
They went to university, they went to college.
That's great.
Now they work for me.
That's awesome.
You're gonna book keep for me.
You're gonna asset manage for me.
I'm gonna give you 12% of some of my equity.
You're gonna run everything.
That's how I scale, but that's a different conversation.
But on your team is a bookkeeper.
You can hire a bookkeeper,
or that can be your asset manager that does that,
or someone on your team that's just really good at,
you know, keeping the line order,
like keeping everything clean, your books,
because when they get together with the accountant
at the end of the year,
especially if you're dealing with corporations
and stuff like that, everything needs to line up.
If anything's off on a cent, like it's, you know,
it's bad.
So I have a really solid bookkeeper.
And by the way, they're really hard to find.
And I had to go through a bunch of bad ones
to get to a good one, but that's okay,
because that's what this game's all about.
You just gotta fire quick.
And I have a really good accountant
that's willing to explain to me, you know,
how, you know, some of the benefits
of some certain structures, you know,
limited tax flow throughs, anything like that.
You know, there's, and he can explain to me,
it's super clear in a way where, okay,
I understand why I'm corporating now.
I understand how I'm saving money
through this limited partnership now.
I understand why my high net worth investors
love this sort of structure because, you know,
there's some leniencies with the tax stuff.
So having an accountant is,
that's who you wanna talk to
when you're creating a corporation.
And you also want a corporate lawyer as well,
but you actually want to be on a three-way
with both of them and just kind of like
be the fly on the wall and let them,
you give them your mandate
with where you're going with real estate
and you let them set your structures for you.
Accountant, super important
that they're willing to educate you
and, you know, inform you on, you know,
how to run your business, how to save money,
you know, how to write stuff off, how to structure.
And then bookkeeper, gotta be solid, gotta be tight.
Carl, thoughts on that?
Oh, absolutely.
You know, you've got a little bit of,
not pushback, but weigh in.
Nick, a couple of bookkeepers out there,
they love the books, but I think on the creative side,
having those numbers line up all the time.
We need them.
We need you guys.
I'm glad you own it.
We need you.
Exactly, exactly.
No, and your accountant or in the U.S.,
we have CPAs, I'm not sure if they're in Canada,
if that's its designation,
but, you know, it's like a master's degree
in accounting, so to speak.
And they,
they should be educators.
They should help us, you know,
create these strategies where we minimize our taxes.
And I have the experience of going to one once
where he just, there's black, white, there's gray
when we're filing our taxes.
And I'm, you know, I don't wanna deal in the black area,
but there's a lot of ambiguity in the U.S. tax code.
And my tax liability was higher than I thought it would be.
I went, got a second opinion,
and this other guy ended up really understanding real estate
and really taught me something.
Saved me 20 grand in tax liability for that year alone.
And so I'm like constantly picking the brain
and looking for other avenues
and other ways in which we can save money,
keep money in our pocket, I should say.
And so it's well worth their fees.
It's well worth having that bookkeeper.
And those, like you said,
the communication between those team members
so that there's some congruency
and we're not going back and forth
asking one for the other's information and so forth.
100%.
Carl, I wanna know, this is the last one that we've got.
know how you handle finding a good general contractor or a contractor because I only have
bad experiences to share. Actually, not recently, but starting out I did. Where we are at now,
I've got this nailed down, but how do you do it? What are some tips for getting good contractors?
Well, I think the first tip is, first pro tip, lower your expectations.
Then the disappointment will be far less. Now, there is a wide spectrum of
contractors and the quality of work that they do, the type of work that they do. So one,
we want to find contractors specific to what we are working on, whether are we hiring a handyman
where we should be hiring a general contractor or vice versa. We want to have that scale, right?
But for finding contractors, there's a number of sources. Just like any of these other team
members, the best sources will be from referrals. So other members that we know,
other within our own community, other team members like our lawyers or property managers
or realtors. And so oftentimes if we're dealing with an investment-minded agent,
they're going to have worked with other contractors. They're going to have worked
with other people that they might be able to refer. So again, I'm going to repeat this again,
who do you know that knows somebody or who do they know that might know somebody?
So network with or through our other team members. But it can be as easy as some of these Facebook
groups. There's contractor Facebook groups in local areas. Kijiji or down here Craigslist,
they have ads in there. So if we're starting from scratch, from a totally new market,
that's usually where we'll start. And back to your property managers, they usually have crews
in-house, but they'll sub out other stuff as well. So they should be a good resource
to find them. But what's most important, they're all going to tell us what they think we want to
hear, but it's vetting them. Like you're saying that the BBB, Trustpilot, some of these other
issues or other platforms that allow us to understand the quality of work. Hey, do they
come in on time, on budget? Are they trustworthy and so forth? Then there's a lot of other platforms
out there like, and I'm going to just quote some US ones, but like Angie or Thumbtack or House or
some of these others that you can go to get referrals for subs or generals for your specific
type of project that you're working on. A person that's going to be renovating the house is
different than a contractor that focuses on remodeling house. Might sound subtle, but under
renovation, we're got to stick to a strict budget. Remodel, there's a lot more emotion and the
checkbooks open a little bit wider. So we want to make sure that again, we're speaking the same
language that we understand and what they're doing, they understand what we're doing and that
we're coming together and having that meeting in the minds. So I think that referrals and vetting
them out and there's a process in vetting, but that's how we're going to find the good ones.
Sometimes we have to weave through or navigate through the bad ones. Like you, Nick, I've had
bad experiences with contractors and sometimes it's easier to hire them than to fire them,
but firing may be a necessity to just progress through the next, to find the next better one.
Yeah, I think what we're talking, I think we can all agree here that this is a tough one.
Even because even with referrals that things can go wrong and they're likely to, like it's really
tough, but you gave a lot of really great resources and things to look out for.
Referrals is definitely great. Yeah, a better business for real. Thanks, man. It's tough and
it's, you know, I went on to one of my friends is a really big developer, not a big developer,
but he does like boutique, like six units and stuff like that in Toronto. And I went on site
one day to help him out. And even at his level, after 12 years of investing in real estate,
he was still trying out realtors or sorry, contractors on Kijiji and they weren't really
the best. Like he was still trying to figure it out. So that was a lesson for me. It's like,
wow, this guy's been in it for 12 years in this market and he's still plowing through contractors
and still hasn't found the guy. Right. So that's a tough one.
here. So, use the community, guys. That's a really good place to start and, you know,
and take some of the advice as well. Obviously, reviews are great. Scott always says, you
know, call three realtors to the site and whoever shows up, or sorry, three contractors
to the site, and whoever shows up is your contractor, because two of them aren't going
to show up. Maybe all three of them won't show up. So, that's interesting. Joe or Gabrielle,
we don't have much time. We're about to wrap up, but I'd love to throw everyone in a breakout
group. All right. Yeah, I have the rooms. I have the rooms ready. Amazing. I'm just
going to, I'm going to open the rooms, and so everybody is going to get a notification
to join a room. Just click okay, and then if there are any stragglers or anybody that
hasn't joined, I'll try to move you into a room, but you'll see the notification right
now. We're going to break you out into the room. Sorry, I just want to give instructions
real quick before everyone goes into the rooms. We're sharing who we have on our team, guys,
with each other. That's all we're doing. If you've got no one, then say you got no one.
If you got all these teams, you got all these teams. If you're looking for certain people,
just throw it out there when you're in the group. Hey, guys, looking for a realtor in
this area or this area. That's it. So, we're just going to break out groups. We're going
to introduce each other. Probably be small groups, right? Groups of four or something
like that. Go through. Okay, there you go. Yeah, we'll take about five or six. Yeah,
we'll take about five or six minutes, and then we're going to come back into the main
room to wrap up. You'll get a warning when the room is closed. I love it. Have fun. Network.
That's what this is all about. We'll see you on the other side, everyone.
One, two, three, four, five, six. Six players. There we go. Yeah, I tried my best to break
people out into where they're from. So, if they change their name, then they'll go into
a room where they're from. So, if they need someone, hopefully they get a contact as well.
So, I didn't realize we're running so late. Hey, we're having fun. Yeah, we usually do.
We'll probably wrap about 10 minutes late or whatever, but we've gone 90 minutes before
sometimes on certain topics. So, no one usually complains, but you will see a drop off right
at eight o'clock. You'll see a bunch of people go into other classes or rooms and stuff like
that. I'll have it wrapped up before then. It's going to be super quick.
Yeah. I'm just going to see if anybody...
What's the time?
I'm going to give them five minutes from when I put them in. So, from 7.52, I'm going to pull
them back in and I'm going to put five or six minutes. I'll give them a little bit of time to
Okay. Carl, man, love having you on here, adding a lot of value and I really appreciate you.
I'm just trying to keep up with you, Nick.
Come on, man.
Yeah. I mean, it's simple stuff, right? But we're meeting people where they're at and
hopefully some people are getting value out of this.
Absolutely. You could drill down so deep on any one of these
topics, these team members. It's hard just to kind of scratch the surface.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, yeah, we could... Oh, wow. Especially when we're getting in the realm of
multi-family, you're talking about a lawyer creating corporations and
tax flow through structures and oh, man, that would just blow people's minds, I think, though,
right now. It's got to be simple.
So, after this, I guess we're going to... I have a survey link to go into the chat.
And then we also have... So, maybe when we come back, we'll give them the tool
and then go right into... We'll put the tool in the chat and then we'll do calendar. And then I
have the survey link that I can put in the chat. Do you want to wrap up, Gabrielle? Are you
comfortable with that? For sure. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can do the closing and just go over the calendar really quickly,
remind them to do the survey. And then, yeah, Nick will go to the tool. He'll thank everybody
and then he'll take it from there. Okay, great. So, we'll come back.
I'll thank everyone. I hope you enjoyed that. I don't want to sound like I'm wrapping up.
When we come back, why don't you guys take it over from here? You can say...
Well, no. Yeah. Just to say, yeah. So, that covers building your team and then tell them
that we're going to drop a tool in the chat and that you can find it also in Keyspire Connect
when the monthly meeting recording comes up. Okay. And then Gabrielle will wrap.
Okay. I've got the PDF sitting in the chat right now waiting.
Yeah.
So just the PDF, not the Word document, correct?
Yeah, PDF is fine, if they're the same, for sure.
OK, I'll let everyone know it's in there.
And then I'll pass it over to Gabrielle
to tell us what's going on.
And when she's done, I'll thank Carl and you guys,
and we'll sign off.
No, no, link, survey link.
Yeah, you got it.
Why don't you do the survey link with the tool,
just in case people sign off early.
Sure.
Just go, here's a tool, here's a survey link, download both.
Yeah, I have it copy and pasted.
And so when Gabrielle drops the tool, I'll drop in the survey.
OK, I'll speak to it then.
Beautiful.
OK, so I'm going to be putting a PDF and a Word document
in there for people to read through,
because I opened them, and I forgot that they were both
different, so they're sitting there waiting.
OK, good to know.
I'm going to speak to the monthly thing.
I've got the pages up on my other monitor, so I'll just.
Oh, perfect, thank you.
Tell them to sync.
Do you want me to remind them how to sync their calendars?
Sure.
OK.
We don't have a lot of time, so I do want to wrap it up by 8,
so just got to do this super quick.
OK, so remind them how to sync their calendars.
They know how to join today, so they know how to sync.
It's fine.
Yeah, I'm going to close the rooms.
They'll be back in one minute.
OK, good.
And they're going to say that.
Oh, can you turn the recording back on?
These fly, eh, guys?
Monthly meetups fly.
They're so much fun.
I love them.
Hey, Teresa, good to see you.
Thanks for liking all my Facebook posts.
I really appreciate that, your support.
Oh, you're on mute.
You're on mute.
You're on mute yourself.
I didn't hear a single word.
I said you're welcome, but I guess
I'm one of those people, I don't know what they call them,
but you get those badges and stuff.
Oh, you got a badge?
I love it.
You're a top fan.
Yes, 100%.
I appreciate that.
Thank you for consuming my content.
I hope they find it inspiring.
I hope I'm not being too forward with my comments, though.
No, I appreciate the engagement.
Oh, my God, please keep it up.
Thank you.
OK.
I know it can feel weird to comment.
No, I'm glad you mentioned something.
No, I love it.
Thank you.
Cool.
Yeah, that's awesome.
What was the comment?
Yeah, I was about to ask.
Oh, it's because he was saying that I should go to get
private lending and stuff like that,
but I said something about when you're a beginner,
nobody wants to give you money because you don't have any skin
in the game and whatnot.
I don't agree with that, sorry.
Yes, and you're American.
No, I mean, yeah, I'm on that side of the border.
But I dive into the Kispire resources and guidance,
and believe me, I got loans.
I'm on my second one.
Well, help me do that, then.
Yes, you guys need to connect.
Yes, you need to connect.
Can I make two quick comments?
Do you mind?
Yes, of course.
Yes, hey, man.
They're not giving you money, so you
need to change your mindset about that.
They're investing with you.
And you're also giving them an opportunity
to earn either income as a lender or equity profit,
depending on how you structure it.
And as far as skin in the game, there's
more ways to have skin in the game than just money.
It's expertise.
It's finding deals.
It might mean that your first deal, you don't offer
or you don't take 50%.
You might take 10%.
You know what I mean?
You can position it where you propose to somebody,
look, you'll be the 90%.
You'll own 90% in equity.
And I'll just take 10.
This is my first deal.
You know, and as you.
gain experience
Then you can increase the amount of equity that you demand
So just a thought that but you can structure it. However, you want, right?
Yeah, I would talk with your coach on that one for sure
right
Michael that was incredible. There you go. Teresa. There you go. I love that awesome
So yeah, great advice love having you always love having you in here Mike. Thank you so much
So we've got this tool for you. It's in the chat here. It's a team builder quick guide
Downloaded have it in your resources there. We also have a
Survey link as well. We'd love it. If you could let us know how we did tonight
We always strive to do our best for you. So if you enjoyed tonight, please let us know how you did
I think Gabrielle, why don't you tell us what is going on at Keyspire? Thank You Nick. Hello everyone
Thank you so much for joining us tonight
So our monthly masteries are the first Wednesday of every month our weekly wind sessions are every Monday at 11 a.m
Eastern Standard Time unless it lands on a holiday
Then we skip it and we accommodate both Canadian and American holidays
Then we also have our inner circle lives on July 8th 16th
23rd and 29th and then we have the roundabout on the 31st
If anyone is interested in joining, you know how to sync your calendars
I challenge you all to do that today and just in case there's a screenshot for you in the chat. Thanks Nick
Love it
Joe
Gabrielle Carl Benson guys
Let's give a round of applause for these folks are taking the time out tonight to serve you and gave you some of their insight
That was amazing for those of you watching online or watching this video one year from now
Thank you for viewing. Thank you for joining us. We hope that you found some value in here
Connect with each other network with each other use each other as resources
That's what this beautiful community one of the best communities out there, right? It is we know that so make use of each other
That's where you're gonna move the needle again Carl Gabrielle Joe. Love you all love all you folks
Thank you for joining us tonight, and we will send you off. Have a wonderful evening everyone. Thank you everyone
You
Carl thank you so much, sir for taking this on your master Nick
See you girls next next week
Absolutely. I look forward to it. Good night guys. Have a great evening
Take care everyone. Take care everybody. Thanks for joining. Thanks for helping out guys. Take care