Sarah Larbi: REITE Club nation, welcome back to another episode of the REITE Club podcast. I am Sarah Larbi, and I'm here with Alfonso Salemi.
Alfonso Salemi: Today we have Sarah and Leonard that are on the podcast. They, recently new, real estate investors. They bought real estate, in the past, their primary residences. And Leonard had a goal of becoming a homeowner by the time he was 30. But they have such a great story as well, that they've done a whole bunch of different strategies they're getting into land development.
Stay tuned in. Listen in about the dream date. It's not what you think. So it's about the dream date. So I really hope you guys enjoyed this podcast. If you do, please rate the review. It helps others find us. And as well, get on to thereiteclub.com. Grow your community. It's all about networking and growing who your people are and who you can help with, help people and people help you to get to your goals quicker. What do you say, Sarah? Let's get to the podcast.
Sarah Larbi: Let's do it. Sarah Leonard, welcome. How are you?
Sarah Semajuste: We're doing well, thank you.
Sarah Larbi: Good. So I'm excited to have you on. I don't think we've met before. And it's always nice to bring in some new opportunities to meet each other. And also just some opportunities for people to get to know you as well at The REITE Club Nation. So before we get started, maybe just give us a little bit of background on what it is that you do and how you got started in real estate investing.
Sarah Semajuste: I guess I can start that myself. I'm a speech language pathologist by trade, but right now I have to say I'm pretty much almost a full-time real estate investor. Lenard works for the government but currently has the opportunity to leave. And how we got started in real estate investing. I think like a lot of people, when Covid hits you pivot a little bit. And at least for us, we had more time on our hands just being outta work. And we started diving more into What is it to invest?
I think what is, how it started is really changing our mindset and listening to other people talk about wealth and how it's possible to retire early. And that's when we started learning a lot more about real estate investing, even though we had properties, but we really understood how people scaled and how it was possible for us to do that and eventually just to retire early.
Alfonso Salemi: Wow, that's fantastic. And Leonard, yeah, a little bit about your background. I know Sarah covered a lot there with you, but anything that you wanna share or why you got into real estate investing, you said you worked for the government and on paternity leave, so congratulations.
Lenard Semajuste: Thank you very much. For me I guess I just started owning our primary resident that we own right now. So I want to make sure to own my first property before the age of 30. I'm not sure why I gave myself that goal when I was younger, but that was a goal.
Sarah said that was more kind and not very strategic in any way. Like I wasn't thinking about cash full at the time. I wasn't thinking about refinancing and buying something. So I lacked those strategies initially, but I still have a couple of good baselines as to how I was able to save money. I was able to manage my expenses and reduce my expenses just so when I bought my first place, I wasn't over.
Sarah Larbi: It's amazing. All right. So that's a great story and it's nice to always see couples doing this together as well, creating that power team. So what's your main strategy when it comes to real estate investing? If you wouldn't mind sharing, and then just maybe with a little bit of what your portfolio looks like.
Sarah Semajuste: Tell the truth. I think we're now zeroing in into what we really want to invest in specifically in what a strategy is. But we've done a few different things. We bought and held a bird.
We have wholesale and we're currently actively wholesaling as well. I think we did everything but flip. Yeah. And now we're actually doing a land development deal and we also bought multi-families. So in the future what we want to do is focus more on land development. We are in Ottawa, and Ottawa is a growing city with the LRT coming and also lots of integration coming into the city in the next few years. So we're gonna be focusing more on land development and multi building, multifamily buy and multifamilies in the future.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. And land development is something that I started dabbling into very recently. . And if you don't mind me asking, what, why is that maybe the strategy that you're thinking of going and putting more of your time and effort into moving forward.
Lenard Semajuste: For one, it's like one of those strategies that actually I took a liking to for one. And then if you do your research properly and you buy the right property, there's so much more room to scale and to force appreciation by either tearing something down and then building multiple units or being able to rezone something to repurpose that property. And then also there's an aspect of it where you tap into your creativity so it's not just aland by and hold, it's just like you're actually using your imagination and trying to create something that other people can't see.
Alfonso Salemi: Definitely. And obviously maybe a little bit more of a complex strategy and as you guys have gone through your journey, what gave you guys the confidence that you guys sort, have tried buy and holds and BRRRRs and wholesales and done different things, but what along the way, gave you that confidence?
And I don't know if we touched on it, but like, how long has the journey been this far and obviously getting the confidence to, to get into these bigger deals? Explain that to us a little bit.
Sarah Semajuste: The journey itself, like actually purposely investing into real estate only started last year 2020. I bought my first property in 2014. Lenard bought his first in 2009. We bought one in 2018. But not really again, like thinking of what is cash flow, what is brewing and all of that. So I would say that seriously investing in real estate, we've only been doing that for one year. And I forgot the second part of your questions. You did talk about going ahead.
Alfonso Salemi: The confidence how you guys have built that confidence in yourselves to make those decisions, to move on to different strategies and now into the land development world.
Sarah Semajuste: The confidence definitely came from surrounding ourselves with people who were doing exactly what we wanted to do.
I think the first thing that we did, right when we decided to really dive into real estate investing is to right away get a coach. And we were part of the group of people who were highly motivated and really wanted to achieve lofty goals. And I think you're the product of the people that you surround yourself with.
Just seeing them go from zero to a hundred in just a few months gave us the confidence that we could do the same. And we just followed the path. Yes, you make mistakes and, but we saw them more as learning opportunities. And I think when you think of what's the worst that could really happen you're like, oh, not much.
Maybe you lose a deal or you make less money or you make no money. But at the same time those were worth the learning experiences. So that's really what gives us confidence. Just seeing that people around us were doing so much more. Then we're like, Hey, if we do the same things like then we won't fail.
Lenard Semajuste: Just to add onto that, like being able to leverage the mentoring and the coaching was very powerful. And then we're just naturally people that tend to take action too. So that also gave us the courage to tackle these new challenges. And also we learned very quickly that. Managing a duplex is almost the same thing as managing a 15 plex. Obviously it's a slightly bigger scale, of course, but as far as the headaches, it's the same headaches, so might as well go a little bigger.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. What do you think? Because obviously there's always ups and downs in real estate investing and it's an amazing mindset I think can push you further and it can also limit you. And it sounds like you've got the mindset to keep going and taking action, which is amazing. But there's challenges, there's potential pitfalls. Along the way there is, things that are not. Awesome. That you see on Instagram.
What are some of the things that happen maybe in your journey? Cause it's really only been, really it's been a few years, but really ultimately a year, that you can share with the audience to say, this is real. There's some pros, there's some cons. Would you mind sharing something there?
Sarah Semajuste: I think the two major things and then I guess you could add on, if Leonard can add on, if he finds other things. Definitely. Thinking that you'll be able to get a tenant out at a certain time and being able to rent it at a certain price and the timeframe that it'll take. You're like, okay, within six months cash, the keys this and that. And then the tenant's no, I wanna stay. And you're like, oh no, the property won't be as assessed at what you want and you won't be able to burn out within six to eight months.
Then you're leaving your money in there longer than you want. So that's definitely a challenge that we faced. We've also faced tenants who don't pay and then having to go through the LTB and everybody knows that, that was closed for a while. And so just knowing okay, how are you gonna sustain the property?
In the meantime. And luckily we had buffered a certain amount of money for that. And we're just being able to maintain it while that process is going on. For us, one of the biggest mistakes was really like not necessarily knowing the timeframe that it would take to really get your property to where you wanted to be. Do you wanna talk about maybe the renos?
Lenard Semajuste: Oh yeah the renos? That's one thing. It's always renos somewhere. It's always renos and one thing about like just adding to this topic. If it wasn't for our mindset changing, and instead of seeing every little hiccup or every little stumble as oh my God, like why this?
And oh, something else. Now we have more of a kind, like a solution based type of mentality where it's okay, this is our problem. What is the solution? And how can we derive this solution? Who can we contact within our network? To help us find or resolve this issue.
And then when it came to renovations like a simple thing for example, like where we didn't cover up the furnace when we did a full gut job in one of our units. And we all know how quickly dust can accumulate. Goes into the furnace and then a couple months later we need to buy a new furnace so things like going forward, we know that especially if we know that we're gonna be renovating a base, a unit that has the furnace close by to make sure to wrap it up and conceal it as much as you can because you know that there's gonna be a lot of dust that's gonna accumulate in the property.
Sarah Semajuste: Ultimately just knowing that your res typically. More than you budget for. And just knowing okay, how much more do you need to budget for? If you think it's 80k, it's probably a 100k or 110k. And I think that's the biggest lesson that we've learned in the rentals.
Sarah Larbi: And so you add like 10% to 20% of the cost, but also the time that it takes too, right? Cause everything is just slower. Yeah. Finding trades could be slower as well. Permitting with the city could be slower as well. And the timing plus the run budget is never something that's like a perfect science. There's always gonna be some movement in some direction, and it's usually not for the better.
Alfonso Salemi: And you guys are talking specifically about the renovations, right? And you plan for the worst, you hope for the best. And then there's somewhere in between. And I'm quoting Miss Sarah Larbi there on that one. I think we could talk about that, not just about the renovations. I think about just. Investing in general, right? When you're looking at different strategies as things to come up. You mentioned tenants, probably investors as you start JV and do other things as well too.
And you talked about the mindset and the mentors that you've worked with, and you said you have an action taker mindset. Was that always the case or how did you guys get to that point where you got over that fact of, okay, now let's just call it, let's figure this out, versus just the woe is me.
How do you guys continue to keep that mindset sharp? Going through that and continuing to build that as the problems inevitably will continue to accumulate.
Lenard Semajuste: There's two things for that. So Sarah already alluded to one of them, so just surround yourself with like-minded people. I know we're part of a mastermind and we meet up every couple weeks a month. And just the energy from our leader, from the person that organizes Mastermind, just at least for me gives me enough drive for that week or for those couple weeks to move forward.
And then also something as simple as just reading. , reading a couple of motivational or development books. Whether like personal developments. Yeah, so personal development books and all that stuff. Just stimulating the mind on a regular basis.
Stimulating the soul from meditating. I like to exercise so I can simulate the body as well. So just the whole holistic and wellness. Just trying to hit on all those aspects, like connecting, stimulating the body, stimulating the mind, and then stimulating the spirit.
Sarah Larbi: Yeah. That is awesome. And you took it even a step further, it looks by creating and giving back through a podcast and a YouTube channel which I know is a lot and Alfonso knows, is a lot of time, dedication, effort to be consistent. Maybe walk us through, why did you go that route? And what that is a thing. It's called the same page, but what is the same page? ,
Lenard Semajuste: That kind of blossomed organically. We were having like, like we were newlyweds and then we're having problems communicating. So we seek therapy. We've always been open with that.
I know like in our culture, therapy is viewed as taboo. But we embraced it cuz we had a really good psycho, the. She gave us some really great pointers. And one thing that I decided to do is to suggest that, okay, let's try and do this activity together and then put ourselves a little bit out there.
And like initially it was just supposed to talk about our relationship. So it was a way for us to, on a weekly or biweekly basis, Just connect and talk about something that's like a relationship oriented that's slowly like blossom into us talking about opening up about infertility and then talk, and then eventually talking about some of our interests, which includes real estate right now.
Alfonso Salemi: That's fantastic and it's giving such hope for those couples out there. Are there any quick advice for potential couples or a husband or a wife or boyfriend girlfriend or someone that's listening to this podcast that's saying, I love real estate investing and listen to the podcast all the time, but my spouse is not on board. What would you tell them?
Sarah Semajuste: Actually, I've had that question come up a couple of times. Just because of her podcast. And I guess what we communicate to the audience. If I could give advice because some people, they'll come up to me and say, my, my spouse, they're not interested in real estate, but I'm trying to make them see the benefits of it and it's not working.
But my answer to that, As a spousing self, are you interested in other things that they're doing? It's not just you saying look at what it can do for a future, but is. If your husband and wife are doing something that you're interested in? So it's almost like you have to give first before you ask the other person to come and take interest in, in, in your hobbies or whatever it may be.
I actually genuinely care about what the other person is doing. I think sometimes they'll reciprocate and ask more questions about what you're doing and eventually you can show them what the benefits will be for your family. And that one thing that I always say to couples like this, whether it's a husband or wife that comes to me with that question, is go on a dream date.
And what I mean by dream date is not, you're perfect. Go on a date and write all your dreams, share your dreams. That person, they may be dreaming about, traveling and whatnot, and you may be dreaming about generational wealth, but you guys don't really know that because you're always just talking about real estate.
It's not really the goal. The goal is bigger than that. So I think by doing that and setting the expectation, Hey, we're just gonna talk about what we really want to do. With your future. I think you both come together and there's more of a listening mindset at that point. , you're maybe not with the kids, you're by yourselves and just talking about your future.
And I think that oftentimes opens a lot of doors and. The person just becomes more interested, talk to me more about the generational wealth piece rather than the vehicle which is real estate. And oftentimes it works, right? Then you kinda not necessarily end up liking real estate, but understanding where it can take your family.
Sarah Larbi: Yeah, that's amazing insight. And as you are talking, I'm like, following along. And it's totally true even for us, right? Like in, in the beginning I was all into real estate and Matt was very reluctant. When he came around, but it's. It's a great point. You gotta be interested in their stuff and vice versa as well.
And you talked about future plans and do you mind if I ask what's the future plans like when you guys went on your dream dates? If you wouldn't mind sharing with the listeners what that looks and then maybe tying in some real estate stuff in there as well.
Lenard Semajuste: We're due for a dream date actually. One thing that's been really interesting with this journey is that as much as it's only been for a little bit over a year. We've just evolved so much. So it's so it's almost like we have to do a dream date, almost like quarterly now because, just because either new ideas come up and then are different and then we're introduced to different strategies.
We're introduced to different people that come into our lives. So it's one of those things where it's like what we're trying to do right now is just look at the next thing as far as like, how do we want our lives to look? And be, and be very specific and then doing and taking certain actions to be very intentional as in order to accomplish that.
So right now it's focusing on land development projects. Our goal would be to come up with two to three projects a year. Have those projects, supplement our income and then be able to live a life where we can basically come and go as we please and have a certain flexibility.
Where we reside. Obviously, it's nice to own, but we're not opposed to renting. It'd be nice just to go I actually said, I was talking about maybe buying something and then living there, it means it's a little bit out, not so far out, out of town. Like we're still close to all the amenities in auto and whatnot but living that life where it's like you're like a little bit out of bounds and you're.
Living in the wilderness. We experienced that like last week over our friends' cottage and it's a different life and it slows things down a little bit and you're not cut up in that whole rat race.
Sarah Semajuste: And in terms of real estate, not only like land development is something that we're taking a lot more interest in recently, but we also wanna make sure we build our wealth. We are planning on continuing to build our portfolio and holding onto multifamily proper.
Alfonso Salemi: I love that. I love the idea of a dream date. And when you said it first, I was like, oh, okay, cool. Like you're going somewhere. Favorite restaurant or favorite place, but the dream date to talk about your dreams is very cool.
That's great advice and listeners, make sure you're going on a dream date with. Even if it's weird to say with your business partner or your spouse, but to do those dream dates. But I think we've reached the point of the podcast where we are ready for the lightning round. Are you guys ready to get going on the lightning round?
Sarah Larbi: Here's your first question. You can each take a term and answer. So what is the best advice that you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event?
Lenard Semajuste: The best advice I've heard is whatever you end up doing, like you just don't wanna lose money.
Sarah Larbi: Good advice. Sarah, anything you wanna add?
Sarah Semajuste: I can't even think of anything. I guess I can't think of anything for that, for this one.
Alfonso Salemi: So question number two, what is your favorite resource for real estate investing?
Sarah Semajuste: I really like the former Matt McKeever's YouTube channel, but the Canadian Real Estate channel. You can find pretty much anything on there.
Lenard Semajuste: And for me these days, especially since we're doing the whole development play, geoOttawa, that's a nice software that we have that'll show you all the information you need as far as the lot size a secondary plan, the official plan all the different layers that are involved. And also a quick link to all the bylaws here we have in Ottawa.
Sarah Larbi: Yeah, that is always good, and I think every town has them, so check it out cuz it's definitely important. Amazing. Thanks guys. So question number three. What is the attributes in your opinion that have made you most successful?
Sarah Semajuste: I think resilience.
Lenard Semajuste: Yeah. I think the fact that we take action.
Alfonso Salemi: Love that. Great combination. All right, last question. What is your typical Sunday morning? What does that look like for you guys?
Sarah Semajuste: For myself, like Sunday morning after a long week is like really slowed down. Waking up nice and quote unquote late, maybe eight o'clock getting my workouts. And that typically means that Lenard is taking care of the baby for me. And having my morning tea meditation and yeah, that's pretty much what a Sunday morning looks like.
Lenard Semajuste: Yeah, exactly. So for myself, it's look along the same lines, sleeping in doing my morning walk, also getting a morning workout in and then listening to Bishop TD Jake all before noon and then hopefully getting a chance to look at some football games in the afternoon if time permits.
Sarah Larbi: Sounds like a good day. Amazing. Sarah and Leonard, it was great to have you on. Where can the REITE Club nation reach out and find out more?
Sarah Semajuste: Yeah, you can find us on Instagram. That's where we're most active. It's "samepage.with.sarahandlenard".
Lenard Semajuste: And then you can also find us on Facebook, on our legal names.
Alfonso Salemi: Nice. All right. Any last words of advice or anything else that you want about the REITE Club nation?
Sarah Semajuste: Yeah, just take action. Like it's good to learn, but at some point you gotta pull the trigger. And what's nice is that it is typically forgiven in a sense over time. In a sense that you may not buy what 80 cents or 60 cents on a dollar like everybody tells you to.
You may make that mistake and just buy, off fair market value, but over time it's okay. And we've experienced that where, we've bought just not knowing anything and we were able to BRRRR it out shortly after. So just take action and everything will eventually work out.
Lenard Semajuste: And speaking of learning, you want to develop a growth mindset. And it boils down to finding someone that is doing something that you want to do and modeling that person using, hopefully you can build a relationship with that person. Because this business, as you guys know, it's all about relationships. And then hopefully you can leverage their experience so you can mitigate and reduce your mistakes.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing advice. Sarah, Lenard, thank you so much for your insights and congratulations on your success in so little time. That's amazing to see.
Sarah Semajuste: Thank you very much for having us.
Sarah Larbi: Wow. That was an awesome podcast. Lenard and Sarah Semajuste from Ottawa have scaled like a crazy amount in the last years with Covid and the pandemic. And the shutdowns. They found a way to make things happen and take action just. Bites being in a pandemic. Kudos to them.
They've also created some really cool things with a podcast and a YouTube channel. And really started doing not only one strategy, but a few different strategies. Cuz when the deal makes sense, the deal makes sense. What's your main takeaway?
Alfonso Salemi: Yeah, I love what they said about, and we talk about this all the time, finding a mentor or somebody that you're looking up to, someone that has done something that you want to do, follow in their footsteps, help them, maybe, assist them somehow.
But, get that mentor, hire that mentor, someone to keep you accountable, to help you along the way that you could pick up the phone or, utilize their network of people so that you can find those solutions. Guys, there's gonna be problems. It's not. It's not a matter of if, it's just when something will happen, something will not go according to plan, but it's how you deal with it and who are the network of people that you can reach out to.
You're not alone. That's what the REITE club is all about. A huge network of people that you can reach out to. I'm sure if you get onto the website, find somebody on thereiteclub.com website. There is someone that has encountered your problem, solved that problem, and gone onto a bigger problem to solve. So that's what it's all about. Finding those mentors, those people that are around you that can help and continue.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. At the end of the day, taking action is huge as you can see what they've done. And it is great to see how they've done it as a couple. REITE Club nation, obviously analyze the deals, learn what you can, but go out and take action on the rights deals.
And 10 years from now you're gonna be in a hold, a different position. And by the way, if you haven't had your dream date with your business partner or your spouse, go and do it. So Alfonso, thank you so much. REITE Club nation, thank you. And tune in next week. What do we say?
Alfonso Salemi: Come grow with us.
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