Sarah Larbi: REITE Club nation welcome to another awesome episode of the REITE Club podcast. I'm Sarah Larbi and I'm here with my wonderful, new father co-host, Alfonso Salemi. Hey buddy, how are you doing?
Alfonso Salemi: Awesome, Sarah. Doing great. And yeah, things are awesome. How about you? How are you doing?
Sarah Larbi: I am doing amazing.
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. And you know what,it is really customizing how you want to live your day to day.
There's no right, there's no wrong. It's just finding that out. And sometimes that is hard to do, to find out what am I gonna do? Cause you know, after a certain while I feel anxious. I like doing something, but really finding out what you enjoy and getting to that every day is so important. Today is a great example with Matthew and Esther.
They talked a little bit about, they're still full-time, they still work full-time as a teacher, as a social worker. They love their jobs, they love their roles. But they're also real estate investors. They're providing a future for themselves, for their family, as well as, still working full time and time blocking. We talked a little bit about that in this podcast as well too.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Esther, Nicolas, Matthew Regan, they've been together for 12 plus years and started off by house hacking and I think just like even the discussion that we have about their progression and then them buying a 25 unit mixed, or not mixed use, multi-family.
Getting into the commercial realm I think is incredible. And seeing how they were able to, step out of their comfort zone and do something completely different. So I think it's super inspirational, super motivational. If you are in the Ottawa area, checkout. Her meetup group has been well received and is so cool.
Like I can't wait to go to the Ottawa region and be part of it myself as well. I hope you enjoy the podcast. Don't forget to leave a rating and review and check out our free resources at thereiteclub.com. There are a lot of free resources and many webinars and anything else that you can think of, if you wanna build a team, you can go there as well. If you wanna ask questions, you can go there as well, So lots of great stuff. But enough with that, I think we've got a great podcast as well today. EstherNicolas, Matthew Regan, let's bring them in.
Alfonso Salemi: All right. Welcome to the podcast, Esther and Matthew. So great to have you guys on. You guys are, we were just chatting just before we started recording here, and you guys are just such a nice couple for all those that are listening. Give us a little bit of a background about yourselves.
Esther Nicolas: We both live in Ottawa. We are originally not from Ontario, though. I'm from Sanji home in the Lorens.
Matthew Regan: I'm from, just outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Esther Nicolas: We've been living in Ottawa since. 2013, and we have two young kids. They're four and five in a chocolate lab. And I'm a teacher.
Matthew Regan: I'm a social worker.
Esther Nicolas: We also have a real estate investing company and we love investing in real estate. That's why we're here.
Matthew Regan: We have single families and now we're venturing off into Multifamilies. We've done a bit of everything. We've done like I said, single families secondary dwelling, and now multifamilies.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. So a teacher and a social worker. Usually not the professions that think outside the box. No offense to anybody in terms of, not relying on the pension, doing something where you could potentially retire earlier. What got you into real estate and I'm just curious too, was it Esther or Matthew first?
Matthew Regan: Good. Cause I think we both came to it the same time.
Esther Nicolas: We honestly cannot answer this question every time it's asked to us because we don't know. It's like we morphed into investors. It just happened naturally.
Matthew Regan: Very organically. Like we wanted to invest and create some passive income. And we looked at just like many people, we looked at day trading, we looked at just different types of investing and real estate is something that just kept coming back as a solid safe. We consider safest investment to put your money.
Esther Nicolas: I think to be honest, that we became real estate investors by accident because we lived in Montreal for years before moving to Ottawa. And we always lived in smaller apartments and going to university and everything. So we were used to a certain space. And when we bought a house in Ottawa, it was a bungalow near the Ottawa hospital here.
We thought it was so big for just the two of us. We had no kids at the time. We had a dog, but still it was way too big. So we immediately decided to do a secondary dwelling in the basement.
Matthew Regan: It didn't need the space. And there were parts of the home that we never stepped foot in. So one day we said, Listen, we know of people that are doing this, let's take a closer look. Did some research and then we went. We put in the secondary dwelling and started renting it out. And it almost went, I remember the day, we remember the day when we had our first rent payment.
We said to ourselves, Oh my goodness, is this legal ? Like we did, the secondary dwelling went through all the steps and put down a ton of money to do it. It was hard work getting that set up. And rented it out. And it just started working month to month. We're collecting rent. We're basically living mortgage free because the rent rate was covering our costs and it forced appreciation in our home.
Esther Nicolas: We hacked without knowing what house hack was.
Sarah Larbi: That's cool. Can I ask what year this was?
Esther Nicolas: Yes, for sure. It was 2015. We bought it in 2015.
Matthew Regan: For those that are familiar with the market in Ottawa around that time, there was a huge uptick in the market. Of course we had appreciation from the market, but we also forced appreciation. We bought a home that needed a bit of work but we didn't, that's not where we put our money. We put all our money into the lower level because we knew we wanted it. Passive income, like the home, is totally functional, even though walking into a kitchen was like stepping into a time capsule. But we wanted to get the lower level finished and rent it out, and it just started working. And with that money, we were able to put more money aside for other investments.
Alfonso Salemi: I wanna ask, when you started that process, Esther did it by accident in 2015, you said, Okay, we have way too much space. The chocolate lab doesn't need his own floor, so we wanna utilize that space. What was the first step that you took? You guys said, we looked, we researched, we spent money. But what was that first step? Obviously you had the space that was a big benefit to you, but what was the first step to get you going and get you on the right track to doing.
Esther Nicolas: To be honest, we had been watching a lot of income property episodes. So watching that show, we thought if Scott can do it, I'm sure anybody can do it. No big deal. And when we looked for houses, we purposely looked for a house with a separate entrance. So we had planned for this. Years before we actually bought the house.
Matthew Regan: We knew it wasn't going to be that simple. Like I'm happy it brought up income property cause I don't know if enough people, we hear a lot of podcasts and people say, I just put in a secondary dwelling. But really I think the root of a lot of those, Ideas is that show now. And we knew that it wasn't as simple as just simply going and doing it.
There's a lot more to that and finding a property that has the right structure and that it can actually be done. Because I think a lot of people probably get themselves into trouble with ceiling heights and so on.
Esther Nicolas: In some neighborhoods you just can't do it.
Matthew Regan: We talked a lot about it, and this is something we do as a couple where we talk about every decision. And if one of us is not on board, then we pull the plug in. We don't pursue it. But it was something that we were both on board for. We really didn't have anything to lose. We worked hard to have those funds to be able to to put in the secondary dwelling.
At the time, and I don't want to make this sound like we just simply went and did this, there were a lot of sacrifices that went with this, right? I was working two jobs at the time. I was working as a social worker at one of the hospitals and then working in the emergency room at a children's hospital. And we were avoiding it, a lot of spending wasn't eating out. We did not want vacation, etc. to make that happen. So yeah, we analyzed it, looked at if it was possible, and we just took the leap and we don't regret it.
Sarah Larbi: You know what? I think that's an important thing that you said because a lot of people look at the success where people are now, Oh my God, they can retire and then they don't actually realize. The sacrifices that were put in the beginning, and I'll tell you, ultimately we all think that they're well worth it once we get to the other side.
Like you, I was working two jobs, like my first job, I was barely making five bucks an hour when I looked at the time that I was putting into it. And, again, barely could afford a car, barely could afford to have the nice meals and then going out and that kind of stuff. But there's sacrifices that we make, I think from a temporary standpoint, to be able to live like most people can't in five years, six years, seven years.
I think that's really important that you said that because it's like that iceberg picture, right? People see the top and they don't see all the stuff that goes into the bottom. So obviously you started with the house hacking. How did you get into that second one where you're like, Actually now this is, we're investors and we're doing something out of where we're living.
Esther Nicolas: When we saw the power of real estate and how much our house appreciated in such a short period we thought, Okay, we're not having too much trouble. I'm managing the tenants. It's going really well. We're really enjoying it. And I'm sure, there will be challenges along the way. In 2019, that's when we were ready. Take to, so to refinance this house basically and use the money for a down payment on. On our row house here in Ottawa as well. Which we did as a Miniver.
Matthew Regan: That's the thing we often hear in other podcasts or just in networks where you hear somebody doing something that works, it's a second dwelling commercial, they'll go ahead and repeat that. And we're not close. Either, but we had the funds from the savings that we had from the secondary dwelling appreciation. And we were looking for something and it just so happened to be that a freehold row house would have cash flow. It had enough value to make it worthwhile. So it was just pretty basic. It was some flooring backsplash, stainless steel faucets, just basic stuff.
Esther Nicolas: Like light fixtures, pad and paint.
Matthew Regan: We were able to rent that property out and the way we went with another property in our portfolio. And it was cash flowing from the day we got it and not an issue to rent it out. And then basically we just continued doing that. Away with the next single family and so on.
Alfonso Salemi: I love that. Cause you know what, we always talk about that and a lot of people say, you can't cash on single family homes. That was a big reason with Rent to Own. We buy single family homes because of option payments, but, how did you acquire this property or how did you find it and still be able to make it cash flow? Did it, was it off market? Was it through listing? How did you guys acquire or find them?
Esther Nicolas: Good question. It was on mls, actually, the property. And it was in the winter. So that also helped. The sellers were very motivated. I'm not sure something happened and they really needed to sell. And the market was not as crazy as it is right now either.
Matthew Regan: Still competition. There were still multiple offers on it, but it's just to show that MLS is an excellent resource. You can find properties that have cash flow, but you, we were spending a lot of time on MLS trying to find the right deal.
Esther Nicolas: We had a great real estate agent as well, who was focused and he was awesome.
Matthew Regan: We knew how to run the numbers. Like you, a lot of people they really just, they almost ignore MLS and they believe that only good deals are found off market. And there's a lot of great deals that are off market, but there's also off market and then there's off market.
You hear people talk about, I had this deal on, off market deal because they're on someone's email list, but how many people are on that email list? You're still in competition with a lot of other people.
Sarah Larbi: A lot of those deals are retail. If you really run the numbers, they're actually not below market anymore because of the lack of inventory, they've been able to, and I've talked to many of them, cause many of them are my friends. They're able to still do really well by putting it as, even at a retail price. And still there's a lot of interest. So why wouldn't they? They're in business.
Esther Nicolas: Also we found out what the seller was looking for and we knew we had the funds. We have a really good relationship with our mortgage broker as well, and we knew our finances were good to go, it was not an issue for us to close very quickly. So I think that played a big role, right?
Matthew Regan: Another way to another technique that we don't know where we picked it up, but we were able to wave our conditions by doing a few things. Obviously we knew we had the funds in place. We knew we could get financing, but in terms of the inspection, we, through the agent, found out what the seller wanted.
Which was a quick close. So we brought our own inspector. We were willing to pay him his rate to be with us on the walkthrough so that we didn't have to have that as a condition. And we knew the property was in relatively good shape, but we wanted to have an inspection cause it gives us a timeline, when to start thinking about the roof and the furnace and the windows, etc. We were able to waive our conditions and there were offers that were higher than ours on that property. But they went with ours because we gave.
Sarah Larbi: Sometimes a clean offer gets the win, right? So let's just fast forward a little bit because you've been doing a lot of really awesome things in the last, even two years. And you're, I think, pivoting to multi-family. Can you share a little bit more about it?
Matthew Regan: Sure. So we wanted to scale up because it was relatively hands off with their single family properties that we have. And they were generating enough cash that we didn't have to rent out our lower level anymore. So we took that back along with the kids and we wanted to continue scaling up, but we didn't wanna make a ton of mistakes doing it, and we wanted to scale up faster.
We hired a coach and we went through all the different options and there's no one perfect one. I know rent to own is excellent and some people focus on secondary bonus, and Multifamilies just looked like something we really wanted to invest in because at the end of the day, if you have a multi-family, say it's a Sixplex or Tenplex, etc. You have all those tenants paying into the same roof, paying into the same furnace.
If you go vacant on one unit, the other tenants cover off for that vacancy. And we started to look outside of the Ottawa market. And so we got connected to a network of other investors. We just started putting ourselves out there much more. And then we basically made the decision that we wanted to invest in Multi Families.
We feel like that's the safest thing for us right now. Not that we eventually maybe go back to doing something different. We invest in whatever works, right? We're not shy to pivot out of single families or pivot out of secondary dwellings and go into multifamilies. We do what works. And it just felt like multi-families would be the next step up for us.
Esther Nicolas: I think what we liked also about the multifamily, like six units and plus more specifically, is that the building qualifies, for the bank, not us. And we knew that eventually, with our incomes, we would max out at some point. So we thought let's learn the strategy. That doesn't happen and that we can continue to see.
Matthew Regan: That was an eye opener for us. It's been a whole lot of learning with coaching, but with single families. And you see this when you go to the banks, the first thing they ask for are your T four and so on, on the multifamily side.
Once you hit six units and up, it's a commercial property. And the first questions they ask are, they wanna see the rent roll, the expenses. So they look like Esther said, qualify the building first. Then they look at you afterwards and they, from what we've experienced, like banks love multi-families. They love them.
Esther Nicolas: Especially purpose built.
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. So are you guys incorporating the same type of strategies, you know, on MLS? It's definitely a little bit tougher to find those multi's that come up a little bit less. You talked about your network, the community of investors going out and finding deals yourself and analyzing them. What strategies are you guys enacting on to go and find these networks?
Esther Nicolas: That's what we've realized is the network changes everything. It gave us so many opportunities and we were shy at first. I think especially in our profession. We're taught, I find any profession and I have a couple of nurse friends who also invest in real estate and there's always almost this stigma attached to it. When you care for other people you shouldn't be wanting to, have wealth or pursue money or so it's a dichotomy almost. But once you put yourself out there, so many great things happen because people can do business. With you if they don't know.
Matthew Regan: Here we are today, putting ourselves out there. Zoom calls almost every day. Like we have a very busy life. Get one thing straight, like we're husband and wife and parents first, and then real estate investors later on. But when the kids go down, like we scheduling Zoom calls, we connect with other investors because through that we've been able to find all kinds of great prospects. They're not just in the MLS.
We've had people over the last couple months reach out to us and say, Listen, I had no idea you were interested in real estate or multifamily. I have a friend or brother, sister, etc. That's looking to sell their property. They don't wanna do a ton of walkthroughs and put it on the market, etc. So we've been able to look at deals that we would not have otherwise.
Esther Nicolas: Yes. To make a lot of connections.
Sarah Larbi: That's interesting too, that you're networking to gain deals. Are you also networking? Have you done any joint ventures or taken loans from private lenders? Is that also something that you're utilizing and if so, how are you utilizing it?
Matthew Regan: We recently did a deal in Nova Scotia. Actually. It's a 25 unit multifamily property. 22 units are residential, and then three are commercial. And like we were saying in the beginning sometimes, if a deal works you should really just go for it. It doesn't have to be your type of real estate that you're focused on. But through our network and through connecting with people, we were brought a great deal.
It was an off market deal. And it was 25 unit, like I said, and a lot of people would have shied away from it simply because it wasn't the deal that they found themselves they did, maybe wouldn't trust someone else. But when you know how to underwrite and you know how to run your numbers and you know what a good property is from a bad one.
You can take a look at it as if it's your own. And with this deal, it was a partnership. So we're owners of the title. So that all came about through networking and putting ourselves out there and now where our portfolio. Went from single families in a secondary dwelling to boom, a 25 unit.
Sarah Larbi: So congrats.
Esther Nicolas: Our partners don't even Nova Scotia, so that's also helpful. There are feet on the grounds.
Sarah Larbi: I'm just curious how you've split it. What are you doing? How's the partnership split up?
Matthew Regan: We're equity partners. It's a 50- 50 ownership, we're equity partners on that deal. Corporation was formed and so we are part owners of that corporation. The property's held under the corporation, and so we put up a lot of our funds to have skin in the game. And random numbers, there's a reserve fund. The property is such that the cash flows enough that it takes care of property management and so on.
Esther Nicolas: We helped with whatever we could from a distance setting up tenant cloud and helping out, finding superintendents and property managers and all that. And in terms of feet on the grounds and checking the renos. It's our partners that are managing partners that are over there.
Alfonso Salemi: The day to day operations, that's out of your hands. That's your business partner that's handling that kind of stuff.
Matthew Regan: That's exactly what we wanted. Why are we involved in real estate? Like we wanted to create passive income. We're not the kind of people that don't need a lot to be happy. Like we don't need to have fancy cars or anything like that. We just want to have options with real estate and why are we doing real estate to have some passive income. If you're able to do that through being an equity partner, go for it. If you're able to do that by just solely owning something, do that as well.
One thing, we were talking about this earlier, one thing we've noticed is you have a lot of investors that pass up deals that cash, right? They're able to qualify for them. They have the funds they can take on that property, but they're waiting for this golden deal to come along. The unicorn. And we feel like saying to them, Listen. Buy that deal. If something better comes along, you should get that one too.
Sarah Larbi: That's right. Cause that perfect deal, somebody else will snag it before they even know it. If they're just waiting for that perfect deal.
Esther Nicolas: Right now you always feel like you're overpaying, but in five years everybody will tell you're a genius, right?
Matthew Regan: Cause real estate, from what we've learned, and I still feel like we're budding real estate investors, but it's very forgiving in the long run. Like we've come across this a few times where someone pays over or they forget something or another. And it starts off rocky, but if you hold onto it long enough it's very forgiving in the long run.
I would never do something where you're not cash flowing, cause you need to have a buffer. But if did not go with an inspection and there's a big surprise where there's the roof or furnace or some big ticket item, if you're still able to hold on, find a way to hold onto it. In the long run.
Sarah Larbi: I actually have a really good example of that. Sorry. Then Alfonso, I know you're trying to, but that exactly happened to me because I bought this house in Brantford, and even though my inspector went, the attic was shut and there was no hatch, and we realized that they had shut it on purpose and drywalled over, and there was all this vermiculite, asbestos in black mold and it was like a 20,000 thing. But I bought that thing because I bought that house for 236 and it's probably worth like 600 now. I'm like, it is what it is. Like you said, real estate is very forgiving.
Esther Nicolas: How many years ago was that?
Sarah Larbi: 2017.
Matthew Regan: The same thing. We have friends that did a similar thing as they bought a bungalow in the same area and he was up in arms when he learned what other homes were selling for the comp. And I said to him, can you pay it? Can you carry the mortgage? Does the tenant carry the overhead? And the answers were yes. I said then, the market can change day to day. Two years later and he feels like he's a genius. .
Alfonso Salemi: I just wanted to circle back and we were talking about finding that perfect dealer, that unicorn, as you guys put it. I honestly believe there is no such thing. Because it's already taken. It's already gone. It's the investors like yourselves, Sarah, myself, and all those that are listening to this podcast that make those deals, find those tenants, put the work in enact the strategy, whether it's duplexing or multifamily.
It's actually putting in that work and getting there. That makes that deal. And nothing is perfect, but it makes the deal from okay to good or to great. And even time compounds that over time. So for those that are listening, saying, Oh, we got lucky, or I'm waiting for that perfect deal, or everything has to line up, you're gonna keep waiting and you're gonna keep listening.
In five years from now when Esther and Matthew are on this podcast again and we're talking, or even before that and they've bought even more properties from them, you're gonna be sitting on your hands wishing and hoping that you would've bought today. And even in a crazy market, or it's competitive, you guys can still be successful.
I wanna shift just a little bit because I love when we have couples on the podcast and you guys mentioned you guys are parents. Parents and a couple. First and foremost, I wanna know how it's changed your relationship and some of the pros and cons.
Is it like constantly talking about real estate? Do you guys divide it out and say, Okay, no, after a certain amount of time, or, when we're with the kids, we're not gonna talk about cash flow and equity and all that kind of stuff. How is that changed your relationship and I can only assume you approved your relationship.
Esther Nicolas: You know what? It's only been improving our relationship the same way having kids improved our relationship. Every new adventure together, we get to discover each other more. And we always knew, we liked to work together and we have obviously personalities that match really well. And we involve the kids in it. Obviously not in the underwriting yet. They're a little bit young for that.
Sarah Larbi: Can I ask how old the kids are?
Esther Nicolas: They're four and five. Anytime we have a new house and we're taking possession of it, they know we're going to the new house and we're doing some work to it. And so they help out, they bring their tools and they walk around the house and they have a checklist and they draw whatever's broken. And so we try to involve them and they like that.
Matthew Regan: We split up tasks too. Like we are both able to do everything I feel, but obviously how it plays out is, sometimes Esther feels more comfortable doing some things and I do other things like Esther's definitely a better networker than I am in terms of putting yourself out there in social media. And I take on other things, whether it's dealing with a lawyer or sometimes the accountant.
Esther Nicolas: He's a great negotiator and awesome with tenants as well. I think the social worker part really helps out.
Sarah Larbi: That's amazing that you both have different sets of skills. You get along really well and you can work really well, but you have different sets of skills that you bring to the table to help with the business. That's awesome.
Matthew Regan: That defines Esther can find a deal like no one she scours MLS and networks. It's been great. Like I have to say like it wouldn't be right to not be honest. There's a lot of stress that comes with this, but I think, going into uncharted waters together has been something that has only added to our relationship and we've been able to respect each other when we feel like it's not a deal worth pursuing.
Esther Nicolas: Get the other person's cues, like I can tell when he feels stressed or if it's not right. And the same thing for me, so we don't push.
Sarah Larbi: Is there somebody though that is more like wants to do more deals in one person that's like more analytical I'm just curious to know is there one person that's gotta do the next one?
Esther Nicolas: It's so funny because it goes up and down. Some days I'm like, Okay, we need three more deals before the end of the year. And like he's gonna slow me down. So we really compliment each other that way.
Matthew Regan: We pull each other back. Yeah, it's great that we both don't hit a wave at the same time where we want to just go and try to grow the portfolio more. But yeah, like I just feel like we balance each other out. That's good.
Esther Nicolas: We've always liked to do activities as couples anyways, whether it's to travel or to run triathlons together or train or whatever. It's just a new thing to do and we enjoy that.
Sarah Larbi: I think that's important, right? Even though you're investing together to find other passions and other things, that's not just business and business all the time, right? You don't wanna be like parents and in business coworkers.
Matthew Regan: We have to tell each other. It's not everything like we have to say we love our jobs. There's, you get this sometimes in real estate networks where people have nothing good to say about their jobs and they just want out as fast as they can. And we like our jobs and at the end of the day, real estate is important, but it's not everything for our relationship and our kids.
Those are the things that are important to us. And real estate is great. It'll help us in our pension plan and maybe if we keep scaling like this, we may have even more options. But it's not everything.
Esther Nicolas: It's like a chair.
Matthew Regan: We tell each other that all the time. If we get stressed or if we feel like, it's a bit too much and we find ways to work.
Alfonso Salemi: What a wonderful perspective. That is worth more than any equity or cash flow right there. That's that. The underwriting of every deal right there. And it's amazing. That's great. We love hearing. It definitely comes through, the passion for each other, the passion of what you guys do and your two little ones are very lucky to have great examples. To show them as they grow up and learn that, they can enjoy what they do and, as well as, do some other things to push them outside of their comfort zones and continue to grow. Awesome. I love that and why I bring up the subject.
Sarah Larbi: Hang on. I do have one more question before we get into the lightning round. Can you talk about, Sorry, Alfonzo, cause I think this is awesome. Can you talk about investing?
Esther Nicolas: I did not invent the term invest her. It's an American podcast actually. The real estate Invest Her show and it was created by Andreas Sagi Day in Liz FairCloth. And I hadn't been. What listening to the podcast for a couple of years and I thought it was so nice to have only women's perspectives and the only interview women, and I knew they had meetups all over the United States, and I reached out to them someday and I said, Hey, are there any meetups in Canada and more specifically in Ottawa?
They said, No. And I said can I start one? And I felt a bit of imposter syndrome because we only had a couple of properties at that time and I was wondering if I was qualified enough to do it. But I still decided to start with it. So the first one was in February. It was all virtual, of course, because of Covid.
It went really well. So every month every second month, I bring in a guest and it's always a woman investor or somewhat related to real estate. And then the following month it's a networking event. Now it's in person. We're so excited to have in-person networking events again, and I just thought it was such a great concept because I've always loved every conference that I've ever been to or courses, but I often felt like I wasn't really represented as a woman.
It was very male dominated. I think it was a need because there are a lot more women investors than I thought there were here in Ottawa and in Toronto. It's just really nice to give the opportunity to women to talk about challenges. And ask questions, in a safe space.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Thank you for organizing it. That's awesome. And you're right, in a way, real estate and finances was always a masculine type of role. But I think recently tables are starting to change and women are becoming more and more interested, which is awesome.
Esther Nicolas: Yes. And when women are financially free and have more financial literacy, they're more free to leave difficult relationships or abusive relationships or leave difficult jobs. I just find that it's so important.
Matthew Regan: I can add anything to that. Like you certainly see it in networking circles. If you go to a live event now, and if it's mainly men, the content is they immediately go to how many doors do you have? What's your cash flow? There's a lot of posturing up when you have a more diverse crowd. If you have, equal representation, like I feel like it's so much more civilized, like the main theme.
Sarah Larbi: That's awesome. That's good. .
Alfonso Salemi: That is fantastic.
Esther Nicolas: Think that I don't like that word.
Matthew Regan: There I noticed that it's certainly a different flavor.
Esther Nicolas: The conversation is different and the perspective certainly is different as well.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. Cool. So sorry to cut you off Alfonzo, what were you saying ?
Alfonso Salemi: I'm glad you did cause that's amazing and I love that. You're empowering more and more people to do that. And like you said, those challenging situations. We see so many, single par single moms or single, rent to own programs that need a little bit of help and guidance through financial awareness and whether that just getting on your feet in basic financial awareness or now stepping it up to investing and getting that confidence to being able to do it and having you, at that, leading that, of saying, Hey, if Feer can do it, or your guest that you bring on, or, Sarah I know has been such an inspiration for so many other women in The REITE Club as well too.
That's amazing and it only makes everybody better in my opinion. Ku, kudos to you and I'm glad Sarah brought that up. I was gonna say, I'm excited for the lightning round because you guys have given some amazing answers to the questions we've asked so far. So I can only imagine the questions or the answers that you guys will have for our lightning round.
So are you guys ready?
Esther Nicolas: We are ready.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. All right, so first question that comes to mind. You can each answer, so maybe Matt will start with you. What is the best advice that you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event?
Matthew Regan: I'd probably say, take action. I think a lot of people get stuck, and this comes up the analysis paralysis, right? If you run your numbers, you know how to do that and you have your funds. Don't get stuck at analyzing. You have to take action and make an offer. Put yourself out there.
Sarah Larbi: I hope that this little snippet makes it to the beginning, when you're editing and you can leave this part out, but I think that is gold. Esther, what about you?
Esther Nicolas: Put yourself out there and get used to being uncomfortable because that's when you grow. And 2021 so far has been a very uncomfortable but amazing year. Don't be afraid to be afraid. You'll have so much out of it.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. Both like super awesome golden nuggets right there.
Alfonso Salemi: Love it. Awesome. All right. Question number two. What is your favorite resource for real estate investing?
Esther Nicolas: We've been listening to so many podcasts from bigger podcasts to, as I said, real estate investing and of course, Canadian content, your podcast And The REITE Club and the Ito's one too, right? Sir? Breakthrough, Yes. Breakthrough two. Love Don Campbell's books as well.
I know it's, you were looking for just one answer, but lately it's been our coaching program, the Masterminds, and really looking into what other investors are doing and what they think about certain situations. That has been very helpful.
Matthew Regan: I don't have anything to add to that. All this, All the above. Yeah. The books in one book are one reason, obviously I think. If I could recommend a book, it would be the best ever syndication real estate by Joe Faris. That was a good one. You Get Your Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but I'm sure everybody talks about that one podcast.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. All right. Very cool. Question number three, What is the attribute that has made you most successful? Matt, we'll start with you since Esther answered the last one first?
Esther Nicolas: That's a tough question. Wow.
Matthew Regan: It's gonna make me feel like I'm...
Sarah Larbi: You're so humble. You're not bragging, maybe there's something that you can share with others.
Matthew Regan: Like being not shy to to put yourself out there to talk about real estate, but improve your people skills. A lot of people get fixed on real estate being a numbers thing. It is. And you're gonna see a lot of people that are involved in real estate.
They have accounting backgrounds, business backgrounds. But I think if Like in terms of attributes, if you can be a good communicator, that can go a long way in terms of negotiations, whether you're dealing with lawyers, because real estate is a team sport, okay? It's a team sport. It's not you're not day trading, right?
You need to be able to, whether it's communicating with tenants, communicating with a seller directly, agents, your accountant, your lawyer, there's a lot of people involved. So being a good communicator.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely great answer. Esther, what about.
Esther Nicolas: I would say and embrace yourself because I have a hard time pronouncing this word, but it's to be able to compartmentalize that. Won't repeat it twice. I find, life gets so busy and being able to focus on a certain task at a certain time. Is so crucial and time blocking. If I'm at work and I'm teaching, my prep time is for grading papers and writing report cards and planning my next lesson if I'm at home and right after the kids go to bed, I know that's my real estate time and it's blocked in my calendar. I think time blocking and being able to focus is a big plus.
Matthew Regan: If you don't plan it or schedule it, very seldom does it happen. So that's great advice. Awesome. Alright. Question number four, the last question of the lightning round. What does a typical Sunday morning look like for you?
Esther Nicolas: We sleep in until we sleep in one of us sleeps in until seven that's what's sleeping in
Matthew Regan: We, it's always with the kids. If it's a Sunday morning, we were an active family. We don't hang out too much at home. We get up, usually it's early, we make breakfast and then we're off maybe hiking for the day. We love doing outdoor activities, but it's playing with the kids and being parents to young children. .
Esther Nicolas: Yes. And hiking with our dog too.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. Amazing. And I know Ottawa's got lots of great spots for that. Awesome. Esther, Matt, thank you for playing the lightning round. Where can a REITE nation reach out and find out more?
Esther Nicolas: By email. You can reach us at matterrealestate @gmail.com. So it's matterrealestate@gmail.com. And on Instagram, I'm Esther the investor.
Matthew Regan: Same email. And for my Instagram, not as active as Esther. I should probably up my game, but it's Matthew.Regan.
Alfonso Salemi: Tough to beat that handle Esther, the investor. That's amazing. But so many great Nuggets. Yeah, that's perfect. It's like it wrote itself, right? It's awesome. So many great nuggets. So much great advice. Anything you wanna leave The REITE Club Nation with before we wrap up?
Matthew Regan: I covered a lot of it.
Esther Nicolas: Yes. I just wanna say get out there and have fear, but do it anyway. Yeah. You don't feel the fear, do it. It's gonna go well. Find your support system. There is someone out there who did it and who's willing to help. Yeah. Get yourself out of your comfort. You don't have to step way outside of your comfort zone, but bit by bit, a little bit outside of your comfort zone. If you keep that up it
Matthew Regan: goes a long way.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. I think you guys are like 2020 ones Power couple on the same page, giving us tons of, and tons of great insight and golden. Thank you, Esther. Thank you, Matthew. It was amazing having you guys on. Thanks so much for having fun.
Alfonso Salemi: Take care. Thanks. The best line that I heard in that whole interview. Have fear and do it. Anyway, that was great. What a great couple, a power couple, you called it Sarah. They're just such great people, such a great outlook, helping, supporting each other, continuing to push beyond their limits and learning and continuing to improve. Great example for everybody out there in the right club nation.
What did you think, sarah?
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. I loved how they were very complimentary of each other, but they also had some different things that they were bringing to the table from a real estate investing perspective. And I think it's awesome to just interview couples that are doing it, making things happen, getting out their comfort zone together, growing together as a couple.
Super inspirational and and I will say that, they are super humble, love their jobs and are out there to provide insights and help others. And I think that's just amazing. I really wanna have them come back at some point in the future as well and see where they're at in their journey. But, I love their positivity, their motivation and their willingness to just give back, which is a break.
Absolutely great.Couple great investors, exactly what The REITE club embodies exactly what we like to work with, how many amazing people that we get to meet, interview, talk to, and network with.
If you'd like this podcast, please don't forget to rate, review, share it with friends, share it with people that you know. It only helps us find more amazing people like Esther and Matthew like we did today. So until next time, Sarah, what do we say?
Alfonso Salemi: Come grow with us.
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