Is Africa the New Real Estate Frontier?

 

Katherine Nelson Riley: Hi Victoria. Thanks so much for joining me this afternoon. I'm really looking forward to Andrew Choubeta's interview. 

Victoria Cluney: Oh my gosh, love my pleasure. It's the first time that we're having a podcast together, Katherine. So that's exciting and what I've heard about Andrew and the places that he invests. This is definitely gonna be an interesting conversation. 

Katherine Nelson Riley: Absolutely. And most people know him as a paralegal who specializes in landlord tenant. And let me tell you, he is awesome with that. And there is a lot that is in Ontario and throughout Canada. So the thing that I believe really in makes him as successful as he is because he's also a real estate investor, but he's not just investing here in Canada or in North America. He's investing in Ethiopia, in the Gases Strip and in South Africa, and I don't think I've really heard of anybody investing in those countries before. 

Victoria Cluney: I know a lot of investors and I can't think of one. So I'm really interested to find out, what the pros and cons are and how he even got started. 
Katherine Nelson Riley: Absolutely. And with that, let's get going with the rest of the interview.

Victoria Cluney: Okay. Welcome everybody. We have Andrew Choubeta here joining us, and I am really interested in learning more about what you are investing in. Andrew, you are a paralegal and you specialize in the landlord tenant issues in Ontario. But the interesting part with what you do as a real estate investors specifically is that you're investing in Ethiopia, the Gaza Strip and South Africa. Welcome. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and how did you get started in investing? 

Andrew Choubeta: Okay. How did I get start investing? I gotta go way back. I started back in 2015,2016. Somewhere around there. Not too way back, but just a little bit of time. So I was working for a real estate company here inside Hamilton.

I was working with Keller Williams Complete just as a an assistant. And I just being perfectly blunt at it, I just saw a lot of people making a lot of money. And that was it. And then after that I went, oh, okay. What's going on with that? Let's figure what they're up to, kind of thing.
I dabbled a bit in side flips and BRRRRs and that type of thing. There was I always had the benefit of being able to go into those investment meetings because I was the one that was handling the food was the one that was handling the catering and the chairs and making sure everything was perfect.

When everything. I was staff, right? So I would just listen while everything was going on. And I've had the benefit of going to 20, 30, 40, 50 different events as they were going through the calendar year. And then after that I went, okay if everyone's doing this and I can see new people trying to get into the investment space assessment, okay, now I've gotta try to do that as well.

Although I will say, Investments went a little bit to the right of not traditionally where some people wouldn't necessarily take them, but it's been equitable as it's gone through. So it's been pretty good. And then as it continued down that road, I just met people that were investing inside those areas and then from there things just accelerated and accelerated from there.

Victoria Cluney: I have to ask, what areas are these? So you mentioned that they're not necessarily the traditional and also what market did you start investing in? 

Andrew Choubeta: Ethiopia. That was the first one. 

Victoria Cluney: Okay. So right off the bat, Ethiopia. And why Ethiopia? 

Andrew Choubeta: I always say I chalk it up to a Let's see, but my family's from Ethiopia. I know a lot of people look at that and then just say, oh, that's the reason why. Yo, okay, that makes sense. He, he's looking back there because family's from there. It's a little bit different, and it's that's not necessarily the case. I don't speak the language.

I've never been there. Like I'm very much. Canadian. I was born here. I like people laugh at me because I can't speak the accent and I can't speak language at all. I know nothing , like nothing about the place. Your guess is as good as mine kind of thing. But my mother's my mother immigrated here back in 1990.

It just seemed like everyone sees oh, Africa's a great place to invest and it's see things that you see in a newspaper kind of thing. But actually looking at it as a hard bargain, right? And it ended up being very lucrative from nearly everyone that went now and there.

It's very much a I know in America there's a lot of people that are looking at Africa more and more as a principle place to invest in. For Canada it's not really necessarily the case, like most people are very much shy away, but in China it's the complete opposite. They're actually over leveraged in Ethiopia with a lot of their investment projects.

It's basically, it's, it just comes down to a cultural thing. Most people are just hesitant. To invest in Ethiopia because they're looking at a 1992 perception of Ethiopia, and they see like the famine and the droughts and the political instability and all that kind of stuff.
Even now, Ethiopia still has this issues as it stands but they're still a great investment. Because if you're looking at, the main capital city at Aava your rental prices are pretty much the same as Hamilton in West area.

Victoria Cluney: Wow. And then what kind are you doing? Long-term? Is this short-term rentals?

Andrew Choubeta: Long-term.

Victoria Cluney: Long-term rentals. Okay. And as a paralegal you'll be very well-versed in the rules when it comes to Ontario. Can you talk a little bit about any of the differences or the nuances between Ethiopia and say Ontario? 

Andrew Choubeta: Yes, like it's a particular thing, right? Because it the laws are wildly different. The principles are pretty much the same, usually wherever you go thing. But inside Ethiopia, mainly speaking if something doesn't really necessarily work out and you own the property, you just ask people to leave, and then the police eventually will show up as well.

It's not as strict as things are as here, right? The Tenant Protection Act turned into the rta, a few years back. It's there to protect tenants. Inside Ethiopia. There's, that just doesn't necessarily exist because the idea of ownership is significantly higher. That being said, you don't own land inside Ethiopia, right? You're basically leasing land. It's very similar to So you have a, you have a land lease on the property. And this is the same principle from a apartment building to a single block, to a villa, to whatever it is. But the concept, people still say oh you still own the property kind of thing.

Prices for purchasing a new villa will range anywhere between. 200,000 to 700,000. They're not very it's not a bizarre market like you would expect it to be, like you and I looking at things sub a hundred thousand dollars inside the main capital city. And that's where most people are investing at these days. Cause it's the safest place to invest. 

A lot of people are going into gated communities for expats. Pretty big thing. And Airbnbs and short-term rentals have just skyrocketed in the past couple of years. Because you're getting a lot of people who are going down to Ethiopia for not only on vacation, which is a great place to go. I'd recommend it if you're planning, but it's also a very large hub for most of the United Nations. So because they have their offices there and then there's large infrastructure projects and dams that are being built there. 

Victoria Cluney: I'm fascinated.

Andrew Choubeta: That's a huge influx of people that are going down there that need. 

Victoria Cluney: I have so many questions and I really wanna like deep dive into how you built the team. So do you have boots on the ground? And for somebody who had never been out to Ethiopia before, how did you make those connections?

Andrew Choubeta: I had to network. That's what it was. I had to network. 

Victoria Cluney: How are you networking in Ethiopia? 

Andrew Choubeta: I met people here. Okay. That's how I did it. So I met with people here at the community. I met with people here inside the modern community. I went to Ethiopian events and then that's where it started from there.

Then of course I did have family back there. I have that. Like I have close relatives that are there, but they don't know much about real estate investing at all. But they were able to make connections where, when those were necessary. So if people are looking outwards, inwards I would say is me make a contact that can assist you.

A business person in the area that can assist you with getting things done. Because it was a large learning curve, like as it is with any country where when you're investing inside America as it is, you're not gonna know the nitty gritty of making your permits. Yeah. Even real estate transactions and closing in America are completely different from what we have here.

They have escrow and a bunch of odd, like they have title companies to which, to this day I still think it's odd. So it's not really done through lawyers. It's if there's lawyers and there's another piece to it. So just learning all these things and how it works is gonna be incredibly important for you.

Networking, most investors are pretty good with that. And the good thing is the Ethiopia has a very vibrant community of business owners, right? And a lot of them are coming not just from Canada, but they're coming from France or Argentina. And like I said, inside, China as well.

It's a lot of Chinese investors. If you actually go to certain areas in Ethiopia, they call it like little China and all of the, all the apartment blocks are the exact same buildings they're building in Beijing. So they've just printed the same thing over and over and over again. And those properties are still going for a regular rate of what an apartment would most people expect inside Canada.

You're going at 119, 150 Canadian. So you know, actually. And there's still a lot of property management companies that are aware of investors and overseas investors and they're catering to people that speak Mandarin, but they also speak English as well. So that's what I ended up just having a referral over to. I hired a property management company that does 200 units 600 units in Sabba, and then they were just ended up running over most of the properties there. 

Victoria Cluney: It's such a good idea to start to immerse yourself into the community, especially in anything that's available here. I also do long distance investing in Nova Scotia, and I used to live in Nova Scotia, so I was able to already have that connection to the community. But it definitely is for anybody who's listening, who is interested in investing outside of their geographical area. To go and make those connections, to figure out what the nuances are for those locations and connect with the locals themselves to get that support. 

Andrew Choubeta: Not only that, it's like you can the biggest thing I would just say is just talk to the u the Ethiopian embassy. Cause they're great. They'll give you a bunch of information. They have a lot of investment packages for Canadian investors. What I did was, I didn't. So I was very ignorant too. I just called them and I just said, Hey, I wanted to invest inside Ethiopia.

What do I need to know? And they just sent me an email like within an hour. Here you go, here's your full package. You wanna look at regional state, you wanna look at agriculture, you wanna look at indu industry, you wanna look at whatever it is, right? And the big thing I'll say with investors, and like where the gold mine is building.

Because that cost of labor is low. But like I said, those rental rates are high. So anyone that comes in just to build anything is, it's making a ton of money. It's pretty goofy, right? Like you can build an entire house for 20,000, 30,000. You can build a luxury villa for 50 or 60. So you're taking you're building your building cost at an apartment building. I would. Cut it in. , that's probably what you're actually looking at. And then in material and cost, you take it to one third, but like on the ground, if you're actually managing the construction it's dirt cheap, right?

It has the lowest labor costs inside most of most of African surrounding area, right? So the minimum wage is very low. Not only that the government is very much happy with taking your investment and they'll guarantee a lot of things, right? So like the big thing I was telling Catherine was, At the time when I was investing and I was looking at the documents, if you had brought, 500,000 to the table, the government would guarantee the loan bank, right?

Victoria Cluney: The government is open to foreign investors and they welcome foreign investors. 

Andrew Choubeta: Very much and for, with a large financial benefit. So let's say you're bringing 500,000 to the table right? At the time, this program, I don't know if I won't know as of right now, if the program's still available.

I have to put an asterisk on this, but this was back in 2018. So what they would do is if you bought 500,000 to the table and you're, let's say, building a project in Naba, whatever it may be, and you had your planning and all that sort of stuff completed out the government would provide you with an additional 500,000, right?

Then they would guarantee your 500 a thousand dollars investment return back to you, g. Wow. Yeah. Just cuz here's the thing, you're done and then they absolutely kill you with taxes. But, , all that's said and done, and, but your money's tied up there and you know how it goes is you do it once.

What do investors wanna do? They wanna do it again and again. Just repeat and rinse. And then they start looking. Oh, okay. Manufacturing here is really cheap and then, pretty much everything is right. So once you're a little bit tied up, they'll get you right. That's like the carrot where it's being dangling in front of your face. Because once you're there, you're not very difficult to leave kind of thing. And there's there, there is a significant amount of money to be made inside those areas. It's just people don't have that perception that.

They're just assuming that people don't, don't have the means to pay the rent or don't have the means to to afford what that's necessary to be living there. But the reality of it is s a very multicultural place in destination. So it's slowly turning into a jewel of the East Africa, right?
It is something that most people should look at. Like I say, if you're planning on looking for good solid numbers and you're okay with a learning curve, and I don't understand it Like investors will look at Belize or they'll look at like Columbia, or they'll look at like these nice vacation rentals and if something goes wrong your plane flight's gonna be two to three hours.

Doesn't make a much difference if it's 10. Doesn't. Right? And you have better numbers in Africa you have a lot better ones, right? And they're more, very much more willing and happy to hold that money for you, and guarantee things. And your money's worth significantly much more over there. And the meal, costly, like you can live quite comfortably inside Ethiopia for a thousand dollars a month. Just the cost of living is significantly. 

Victoria Cluney: It sounds just like that extra level of education and you know it's the entrepreneurial way to be able to go against the grain and sounding like Ethiopia would be an ideal situation instead of going for those popular places that are gonna be high price lots of competition because they've been packaged that way. That's really interesting. So what kind of properties are you investing in? Are you doing land development out there or are you buying multifamilies? Can you talk a little bit about that? 

Andrew Choubeta: A mixer. Yeah. I do have to say there's another partner on some of these properties as well. There's a few there's agriculture, so there's a lot of farmland like wrapped up in there. Cause agriculture's. And then it's mostly important blocks and then duplex and triplex and that type of thing, all within the same cylindrical area. So it's it's very I don't have all my eggs in one basket, is what I'm trying to say.

Victoria Cluney: Diversified?

Andrew Choubeta: Yes. Diversified because like agriculture's very, it's very cheap over there. It's very cheap. And I don't know thing about farming, but the reality of it is just if you have your own sort of property, you need to know a little bit about it. And the closet, again, like I said, the cost of labor is very, so there's a lot of different things that you can do over there. 

There's a pretty staple sort of textiles that are going down there as well. Staple crops that they're using. And, you can lease a pro, like a large swath of land for very minimal amount. Like I saw listing a few days ago and it was about 300 acres. And the amount of leasing for the, I think it was like they were asking for something like $3,000 a month for 300 acres of agricultural land. 

Victoria Cluney: Talk a little bit about the leasing, cause when you mentioned that earlier I had some questions on that. What are the pros and cons to leasing land? Is there anything that can be done without your permission? Is there risk that you could lose that lease? Like, how does that work? Or is it just an extra payment essentially that you're worried about?

Andrew Choubeta: Like this thing is the big thing that will kill off most investors, right? Because they don't like the concept. They just don't. But it's a concept that, most places in the world. Work off of, most African countries, I know China. That's the only way you invest in real estate. You cannot own land. The concept does not exist. That's a very western sort of thing.

You lease the land for a hundred years, right? And then 99.999% of the time you're allowed to renew. And it's not for the full pur purchase prices like you did previously. The, they, these things are things that there's a lot of trust. That's inside that system, right? It's like trying to say that you're gonna go from capitalist to communist kind of thing.

There's there's a lot of trust based on that system. So will I say the government has been reneging on those leases? No, for the vast majority of outside investors, they've stayed very stable. It's because the, just the significant amount of questions that would happen and concern if those leases were basically were move or drawn out or, destroyed or whatever it was you would see everyone walk away from the country quite quickly.
That's the same principle in Hong Kong and Shanghai and all these other places as well. So those leases are for a significant. And it's just directly with the government and it does last for a significant period. And I, I know a lot of the outside Chinese buyers will have 200, 300 year leases around there. 

Victoria Cluney: It gives you a little bit of reassurance for the a hundred years at least, that you can. Sleep easy. 

Andrew Choubeta: If your corporation lasts a hundred years, 10 outta 10, right? It's let's hope your profit's still there, right? But if you're dead. And your family members will to the next thing. And that makes a lot more sense. But like it's just a concept that most investors don't particularly like, cause they have the ownership of, this is mine, I've bought this thing. And it's very easy to understand. I bought the thing, you gave me the thing, I will keep the thing and then that's it. But inside most other places, primarily countries that were communist moved over to capitalist. Like these concepts are still they're still rooted. . 

Victoria Cluney: What are some of the biggest challenges that you've faced investing outside the country in Ethiopia and anywhere else that you've invested really?

Andrew Choubeta: Mainly speaking is cause I still have to get over that hump of am I actually gonna get my money back? It's this gonna burn into the wind kind of thing. And I do get a lot of jokes because I don't know the language, I don't know the culture. I know nothing.

I'm very westernized. I don't have any real concept. My mother speaks . My dad speaks a modic, but I don't know either of them. My brother knows more than I do. So I have very much little understanding of what the subtext of conversations are. But people expect me.

People just start. As if I understand what's going on. I just nod and uhhuh. Yeah. Okay. My idea is just as much as you Victoria, like I have no clue what they're saying or what they're asking me. I just like nod. I'm like yeah. Okay. Of course. 

There's a lot of that, there's a lot of expectations that people have of me sometimes of, like I have an idea of what I'm doing with the culture and that kind of, and then the big thing as well is I, as of right now, I know there's some political sort of instability in Ethiopia, which, people are talking about the past couple of years. But it's always had, pol political issues, Ethiopians love politics and talking about it so much.

Kind of like Italians, right? So the Italians, when they went down there and back in the war, there's still a lot of places in ere and then northern Ethiopia that still spark a lot of. . And it's very much a pastime for for people to talk about it. And people always ask me my consideration of what's going on there, which I just don't much care for too much.

Politics always plays a role in what you're investing in and the changes in government always have a implication of how you're going to invest and where you're going to invest. And it's a big thing. So that is something that, that is. That is something that's gonna be difficult for most investors, including myself, to get over, right?

Like what the political climate will be in the next 20 years or 30 years. But the one thing I can say, and I have a lot of confidence in is just the growth of the industry and the growth of the country has been exponential year over year. And the big thing I always tell everyone, don't do it yourself.

Just look what somebody else has done. Don't take your own concepts. Don't try to remake the wheel kind of thing. A lot of people are investing in Ethiopia, which drew me over to it, right? And it's primarily, it's foreign Chinese buyers. That's the bulk of where the money this money's coming from, it's from there.

They're building significant developments, significant roads, significant hydroelectric dams. Like a lot of that money's coming from there. So I just looked at. Okay, I'm, maybe I don't have 150 million, but let's see what, where the money is to be made on this. Because the numbers, if they work, then they just work. Why do you care where it's going or what the, what anything else is. 

Victoria Cluney: Absolutely. And so what is the future for you? Where do you see yourself in the next 10, 20 years? 

Andrew Choubeta: That's a good question. I haven't much thought of it to be honest with you. When you mean like in the sense of in investment or do you mean like professionally speaking or what like the trajectory is?

Victoria Cluney: It's open-ended, but certainly from an investment perspective in Ethiopia, do you have plans to expand? Are you gonna stay on the same trajectory that you're on? Are you investing in other areas that you are trying to get into those markets? 

Andrew Choubeta: I have a colleague who does a lot of investment in Gaza. Quite a significant amount, and all of you don't know go really? It's it's a very dense spot, very dense, and the only place you can go is up, right?

You're having real estate boom quite quickly inside that area. So I have a colleague who does a lot of that out there, so I've been looking at that more and more as more work my money should be going. . And then South Africa has always been a big place for vacation rentals. So I know short-term rentals here are now becoming a really big thing cause people are trying to escape the RTA.

The RTA doesn't exist out in South Africa and the cost of living so low, you can get a very nice place and Airbnb it that make a, I have some clients that have been making and reaping the benefit of going out into new markets. So there's a lot of that to be said.

Probably what I'll be doing in like the next 10 or 15 years is I'll probably just expand the Ethiopia to be brutally honest with you because it's just I can, I don't have to deal with 10, like if I invested here, I wouldn't have to be my own client. Which is if I don't send an N four out or don't send something or don't do something, I would in inherently be attached to the Residential Tendencies Act, and I'm not really interested in doing that these days.

Cause I just see the horror horse so much, I know a lot of my clients are moving to Alberta, but then the laws are gonna catch up over there too. As things progress inside Canada. So it's like, where am I gonna get my most bang for my buck kind of thing. And I've seen the markets, and it's if it's not gonna be on vacation area, which I'm not really too much into, then I can only expand inside an air where the cost and the work is so cheap. Labor is so cheap. So I don't know anything about manufacturing, but I can tell you I'd find out very quickly if I had enough capital to do it. 

Victoria Cluney: There's good incentive right there. But I suppose that is the hazards of being a paralegal, the job that you see all the horror stories and it just puts that in the forefront of your mind and the risk that would be involved sometimes, at least, especially today, being a landlord in Canada. In Ontario specifically.

Andrew Choubeta: It's difficult, so that's why everyone's looking at it for other options these days, right? It's it's getting harder and harder, not getting easier and easier. So it's okay, if we're. Some investors the vast majority, I would say of of liquid investors that have multiple holdings.
Let's say over five, let's say, I would say you're in the top 1% of investors. I'd say it's as soon as you get five, right? And instead income. If you're owning a secondary property, you're already in the top 1%. As much as I. My clients, some of my clients are living paycheck to paycheck because these are people that are, retired in their eighties and they have an extra property that they bought 30 years, 40 years ago.

People have this expectation, like they have a lot of money, but with, when it comes to net wealth, usually it's that it's using the top 1%, but there's a big butt here. The situation for those individuals that are at the higher level, they can deal with the rta, like they're fine, like they'll be okay.
It's the new investors. That are really tr having a difficulty in breaking into the market and finding the numbers that they needed five years ago. This was five or six years ago. , it would still be great for new investors, but now you're looking at people, look at Alberta and Nova Scotia and all these other places because it's what's necessary.

They can't pass the stress test, they can't do this, and the cost of living for themselves here in Hamilton's gone up right here in Toronto, etc. Where am I gonna get this to work? So Belize, all these other places, like what I would tell people is, Look at Africa, it's a very good and safe investment.

It's which, country that you're moving in South Africa is a great, safe investment. Ethiopia's a great, safe investment. It's a lot of plays in Morocco. It's just you have to get over that hump. And the biggest thing is, I don't know the language, I don't know the culture. It's you don't have to, let's be honest here.

You like money talks. Find someone that can assist you with it and you'll be okay. Like most people speak English in Ethiopia anyways. It's like it's, they speak English. A lot of people speak English. Most government office speak English, so it's like just get with the program you. You'll be awkward, but you'll be fine. They'll be okay. 

Victoria Cluney: I love that. Like it's overcoming the challenges. Yes, you're gonna face challenges, but be resourceful and at the end of the day, money speaks the same language anywhere. So yeah. That is a good tip. This has been amazing. I think I could ask you a million more questions, but we are gonna jump into the lightning round and Katherine is here. So Katherine, do you want to start us off? I think I've talked quite a bit. 

Katherine Nelson Riley: Absolutely. This has just been fascinating for me. I'm on the newer end of investing, so knowing that with Ethiopia and the Gaza Strip in South Africa it's this is really fascinating and you've opened up a lot of food for thought and possibility. So thank you. This has been really excellent. So into our lightning round, Andrew. In 30 seconds or less, what is the best advice you've ever received from another investor or at a networking event? 

Andrew Choubeta: Best advice. I'm pretty sure he stole it from Yellowstone, so I don't know if it's I don't even know if it's legitimate or not, but he's just being an investor is a hard life, but it's what's cut. And I'm like, pretty sure I saw Rip say that on Yellowstone. I was watching it with my dad. I just recently picked it up and I was like, that was very familiar, but I'm still gonna use it kinda thing. But it's still good advice. Still sound B investors is very difficult. It's it's not easy.

It's like hard work is never. Easy on any capacity. It's just hard work, right? And we'll reap the benefit of working hard over the next couple of years when we're 50 or 60, right? People see the immediate and they're like, oh, I, same thing I did it too when I was young, right?
I saw investors going through our. The real estate office and oh, I gotta try something. But once you're there, it's like you don't see, you see the top areas, people vacationing in Belize every other year and doing all these other things, but you don't see waking up at 6:00 AM and finishing at 12:00 PM and it's no sleep certain days and all that stuff. So it's that was the best advice. It's this is a hard life. Don't let that fool you. It doesn't fall, run away. 

Victoria Cluney: The expression choose your hard comes to mind, right? Like it's hard to work hard, but it's also hard life if you take the easy road. And it just depends on like when that the hard times come. 

Andrew Choubeta: Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Victoria Cluney: That's great. That's a great answer. My question for you, Andrew, would be, what is your most valuable favorite resource? And this could be like a networking event, it could be a tool that you use, a book that you've read, but something that you think would really help the audience.

Andrew Choubeta: Licenses and languages. There's something called the slur method. So I love languages. Like I study Mandarin, French, German so I, I like, I'm endeavor to be, to learn more than seven or 10 at one point in my life. But learning language is the best thing.
There's a book Oh, now it's learn language in four days. I think that's what the God, if you just Google it, it comes right up. And it was one of the first books I picked up on languages. And then I've loved it ever since. I would say that's one of the things I would take a look at.
It's small little blue book. It's learn language in four days for something like that. And it's a national bestseller, but it's learning conversational languages very quickly. So I would recommend that every investor should know it more than one. 

Victoria Cluney: I like that. I think I can count to 10 in Mandarin and German? 

Andrew Choubeta: It's fun. 

Victoria Cluney: I think my accent might be off, but yeah, it's It's a very unique answer. Interesting.

Andrew Choubeta: I'm African and I know. Conversational Mandarin. It's, it catches people off guard usually when I can speak it. So it's different but it's fun. Like I remember when I was learning it, cause I took it in university for three years as well and my teacher told me I was the first African American she had ever taught. I was like, oh, that's nice. It's okay. Very. So it's neat, right? It's learning language is great. It's fun too. 

Katherine Nelson Riley: Very cool. There's a thread that is full of mystery and surprises Andrew that you have. So what are seriously, what are two or three fun facts about you that the normal person would know, although we've learned a lot during this last yeah. Few minutes, but what are some other fun facts that people wouldn't know about you?

Andrew Choubeta: Back when I was in high school, I had an Olympic qualifying time in the in track and field back. Yeah, cool. I was very much considering doing that professionally, very much I was really good at it. And then second to that I know some people know this, but I'm still finishing up trying to transition to becoming a lawyer.

Eventually I'll get that done, but it does take a significant period. And then finally, It was an interesting fact. I should probably ask my colleagues , but Hey Glen, is there anything interesting about me that, Yeah. Anything interesting about me? It's just nothing that's , nothing else Interesting is my colleague brings up to the table. Thank you. I would say my last most interesting thing is it's just, it's actually the languages. To be brutally honest with you, it's like I really enjoy that. And I would recommend anyone and everyone to get into it cause you just learn one.

Excellent. Have that. I always say have the immigrant mentality. Just continue, just continue at it and just break at, break away at it. And a lot of people move into the country and they, if you're coming from Ethiopia, Somali, , English, you like some of 'em speak French, but you need to know all these language to communicate on a day-to-day basis. It's just here in Canada, you only know one. It's come. Learn French, figure it out. You'd be okay, right? 

Victoria Cluney: Okay. We will wrap up the lightning round with this final question. If you could go back in time and talk to your 18 year old self, what would you tell yourself? What advice would you give? What would you have done differently?

Andrew Choubeta: Don't put so much stock in university. Learn, figure that out. Learn more from people rather than that. I did four years in university and I don't regret it cuz it still let me go into my professional field. A big thing. And a lot of people, a lot of kids and parents will ask me about, what's it like working in the legal field and those other things.

The big thing I always tell everyone is learn from people. I had the benefit of working at a brokerage that was growing very rapidly, and I can tell you working for Dan Corcoran at kw, working for Sandy McKay at the McKay team was way better than anything I ever learned in university.
I can see that hands down. It was more applicable. I made more money. I actually learned how to feed myself and my family, and not only that, make investments in wise choices on how to continue forward and be an entrepreneur. That is where I got that from those people. But like I know how to write really well from, Grammarly, but apart from that.

My history degree didn't do much from, apart from that, apart from taking me forward into going to law. But it was an opening. It did not teach me the critical thinking that I needed to have to be successful. It was inside my actual workspace. So I would say, hook yourself up with someone like that. That'd be better. 

Victoria Cluney: That hands-on experience. This has been eye-opening for me. Lots of good nuggets. I'm gonna be digging into some some interesting thoughts and investing opportunities. So thank you very much, Andrew. And yeah, we will wrap up the show and hope to have you on again sometime.

Katherine Nelson Riley: Absolutely. And Andrew, where can people reach you? Where can our community reach you? 

Andrew Choubeta: You can reach us. We're actually moving at the moment. We're like you can't notice it, but there's all these boxes behind you. , they can't see it, but it's like literally just, all right here.

Katherine Nelson Riley: That's why you've blurred your background. 

Andrew Choubeta: Basically. There used to be like stuff on the wall now there's nothing there. I should probably make a blur. So you can reach us at our office at 2 8 9 3 3 9 1 3 1 1. We're listed as cavi, l p online. So you can just look us up on Google and look us up on Facebook.
We're moving over to 1 0 1 Hunter Street East in Hamilton. We're just formally at 27 John, but we'll be transitioning there in the next couple of days. And yeah, you can reach us you can reach us at our line there. Absolutely.

Katherine Nelson Riley: This has been absolutely enlightening, eye-opening and really giving everybody some great food for thought. So Andrew, thank you so very much for joining us and Victoria's always wonderful to have you a part of our co-hosting and your interview skills. So thank you very much. Wow. What an awesome interview. I learned a lot. What was your biggest takeaway? 

Victoria Cluney: You know what? I really liked the tip that he gave about the embassy calling up the embassy because I think it's so applicable for any new location that you want to invest in that's outside of Canada. And so I just thought that was genius.

Katherine Nelson Riley: Absolutely. I agree with you on that. And the other one, it really surprised me with what he was saying is that learn the language. Just learn the different languages get in there, do something different. And that traditionally formal education is so popular and it's being pushed, but he's suggesting the opposite. Get out there and get your boots on the ground, and that's where you'll find the most beneficial education, realistic education. 

Victoria Cluney: He came with a lot of good information, really outside the box type thinking and just things that will kind of plant seeds, I think for the listeners to maybe start investigating in their own investing strategies. If they're hitting roadblocks here in Canada, there might be some other places to consider. 

Katherine Nelson Riley: Absolutely. Or in the rest of the, like he said, especially, if the country is guaranteeing you back money on your investment, then it's more of a win-win. And I haven't heard of any other countries doing that as well. That was really quite something. So thank you again so very much. It's been really fun co-hosting with you today, victoria. And for all of you that are listening, please drop a line on what it is that you liked and make sure that you support us and our podcasts.

If you're looking for a lot more information, if you're in the business of real estate investing, make sure that you head on over to our www.thereiteclub.com, a fabulous resource with thousands and thousands of hours of free content for you to assist you and to research for those that are in the business of real estate investing. Thank you very much. We'll again, and have yourself a great day, Victoria. 

Victoria Cluney: Take care, Katherine. Thank you.