Sarah Larbi: REITE Club Nation, welcome back to another awesome episode of our podcast. I'm here with Laurel Simmons and I am Sarah Larbi. And I'll tell you that this is probably one of my most favorite podcasts that we've done so far. Dylan Suitor is on our show. Amazing Energy. Scaled tremendously from zero properties in 2018 to over 350 doors, two and a bit years later. It's just absolutely incredible. But before we get into that, Laurel, welcome. How are you doing?
Laurel Simmons: I'm doing great and just like you, Sarah, when we did the interview with Dylan, I was stunned. I was actually stunned at how fast he's like, how fast he's grown and in so many ways, right? It's not just about the doors and the numbers, because the more you get into this, the more you realize that the number of doors and the amount of money that is a result of other growth in other areas of your life and your business. Wow. This is an amazing interview. We could have talked to him all day.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. We're gonna have to have him back for something else in the future, maybe on another webinar or whatnot. But I will say that like even just his schedule, like how he ensures that he dedicates a certain amount of time in the morning to meditate, to work out, to do things for him so that he can clear his mind to start the day.
He's able to take on these crazy challenges. And during the show, you guys are gonna hear there is one property in particular that we were talking about where he had to fork up. Almost an extra million dollars just to continue and finish the renos for some unforeseen things. So really, scary.
He is just a go-getter, like he can sleep throughout all of this and he can see the bigger picture and that mindset piece, right? That mindset piece is so important because it's gonna take you through the ups and downs. Laurel, do you wanna listen to the podcast with me? Let's bring Dylan in.
Dylan Suitor: Let's do it.
Sarah Larbi: Dylan, welcome back to the show. How are you?
Dylan Suitor: I'm incredible. How are you?
Sarah Larbi: Good. It's always a pleasure having you on and you just grow like crazy so much. Every time we talk you just, I don't know how many other properties you bought or what you're doing or now you're buying brokerages, but let's take a step back. I just, for those that may not have heard of you before or watched or listened to a prior podcast episode 30,000 foot view of your real estate investing strategy, who you are and your portfolio.
Dylan Suitor: Sounds good. I guess I'll start at a real high level and my mom was a mortgage broker and has been a mortgage broker and was at Scotiabank for 28 years. She's now been in the mortgage broker world for three. So I came from a background of real estate now. It always was. More conventional real estate. So what I'm doing now is totally branching off of what she had done in the past. However, I'd been around it for my whole life. So I started buying properties at a young age and in my teens and then in 2016, I came back from Poland.
I finished my degree, I came back from Poland, and I got my real estate license, and I joined Keller Williams. And took part in the training, took part in the education and started to stumble my way into coaching and mentorship and realized that I just started thinking bigger and bigger. And being in proximity is a power concept where the people you spend the time with actually do matter.
I started an interview, or I started working with coaches. I started working with mentors, and then I started looking up events such as the REITE club. At the time it was so right, I believe. Yes. And rain and some of these different events. And what I started realizing was that I actually really enjoy the world of investing as both an investor and as an agent.
I started rebuilding my real estate business that was initially just designed to be for myself. I started re rebranding it and rebuilding it around real estate investors. And I'd always been someone who liked to do something prior to actually selling it or talking about it. And so I started to stumble my way into all these different types of investments.
I started to build this team around me that was able to service clients and service investors in a way that I hadn't felt was being done at a really high level. And now there's a few, obviously a few investor teams, but most real estate transactions are. Oh I'll sell real estate and it's an investment property.
I can do that as well. But there was no real specialization. So what I took was the combination of the coaching side of things as well as the actual investing and merged the two together. So I started working on creating a power team and building out a power team. And then over the last four years, I guess since 2016, around 2020 2021.
The last four or five years, I've added about 350 doors or so to my portfolio. Everything from flips to student rentals to Airbnb Duplex, conversions, TriFlex conversions, all the way up to the largest purchase to date, which is a 30 unit apartment building, which I'm sure we'll get into a little bit further as we go on today.
Really high level conversation would be, I started in real estate from a young age, being around it with my mom and started to really understand and educate myself on how real estate could not just create, be a business or a career, how it could really be an entire lifestyle. And so here we are.
Laurel Simmons: You said something really interesting and that was about surrounding yourself with the people that would help you grow. Can you talk just a little bit more about that, because I always find that a fascinating piece and I think a lot of people don't really understand how powerful that is.
Because as you said you had, you got coaching and mentoring and you started changing your mind. So can you just tell us a little bit about that and what difference it makes, why you did it and what maybe a couple specifics of how it changed what you were doing or why you, how you were thinking.
Dylan Suitor: This will honestly be a relatively exploratory question for you to ask me then, because I'm still figuring it out myself. To be totally honest I just, I like learning. I like educating, I like being in a growth environment. I like to be around other people who have done it in the past or done something in the past, and you can always pick up something.
No two people are the exact same. However, you can always ask questions that may relate or you may become passionate about. You may enjoy it, you may like it. And so I've done coaching with Stephan Ario. I've been a part of flipping formulas. I've been a part of the REITE Club.
I've been a part of Spire events. I'm currently a Tony Robbins platinum partner, so one of 400 people in the world that basically go around all Tony's events, Tony Robbins events including some of his smaller events. And the big selling feature of the Platinum partnership is the proximity as power concept.
There's awesome events and there's lots of learning and lots of education, but it's the networking that you're a part of. I was in Tony Robbins Natural Hot Springs in February, 2020 with him and seven other people in Sun Valley, Idaho. And just hearing the conversations we're talking about artificial intelligence, we're talking about how when Tony passes away that he's basically replaced himself with an artificial intelligence that could go out right now and teach and train and also he's gonna have artificial intelligence for his family.
There's a different version of him. And then even getting into the conversation of how. Only we're probably a couple years away from artificial intelligence and AI, we're actually physically replacing him to the point where the artificial intelligence will be able to think at a higher level than he will as a person and as human.
Being in conversations and being in proximity around conversations like that it's you learn by osmosis and you learn through hearing and listening and having conversations. And I think the other really important piece of it is execution. So it's actually following through with what other people say.
It's awesome to be in a room or a group with a bunch of people and it's great to learn and it's great to write down notes and have notebooks over and over again and take coaching and take education. But the only time you actually get into success is when you actually take action.
That's the piece that I would say that I've done at a really high level is that once I've learned something, once I understand something, once I'm happy with my understanding of it, I go and apply it. And whether that be for myself or for someone else, or it be a duplex or be a building, whatever that may be it's just adding a zero or adding two zeros, whatever that may be.
Being in an environment where you always feel comfortable that you have people that you can go to and talk to and bounce ideas across. Nothing I do in any of the investments we do now is alone. If at any point in time I have a question on, oh, would you do windows, would you do roof? Who's the best for, I don't know, brave foam insulation in the basement?
Like little things that you can go to Facebook groups, you can go to meetup groups like this. You can go to a coach, you go to a mentor. There's people that have done it before you and there's no point in rewriting everything. You might as well just take what works and apply what's most important to you?
Sarah Larbi: Surrounding yourself with people at a higher level that can help propel you to that next step, and then taking action on those conversations and the advice and the insights. What keeps you up at night? Like you've grown really quickly. You take, for many people they might think very big risks. Or big steps or scale, you scale up very quickly. 350 plus doors within the last three to four years, which is incredible. Do you lose any sleep? And if so, over what?
Dylan Suitor: I don't think I really would say I lose any sleep. If you ask my girlfriend, as soon as I lay in bed and my head hits the pillow, I'm sleeping. I don't know if I'd say I lose any sleep. However, I would say I get up early and I pour myself. So I've run a schedule for a few years now where 4:00 AM till 7:00 AM I pour myself. And I will say that recently it hasn't been as good as it was in the past.
Like I had about a year where I didn't miss at 4:00 AM and it was just every single morning at 4:00 AM And so from four until seven, I poured into myself. And that means journaling, reading, writing Scripting, going to the gym whatever the scenario may be.
Like I'm pouring into myself. Even meditation. It's so powerful. Even if it's a minute, it could be a minute, it could be an hour. Just to allow your mind to run free or visualize and see where you want to go. And so I spend the morning by myself for the first three hours from four to seven.
Then from seven to nine is where in the past there used to be a lot of my coaching calls where I was being coached. I have a number of coaches and mentors, so every morning I would have a coach or a mentor or two where we'd have a 30 to 60 minute conversation and I'd ask questions and learn different things.
I have different mentors and different coaches in every area of my life, whether it be my real estate career, my real estate is an aging career spiritually, whatever the. The area may be, I've had someone that I can learn from, and I do that normally from seven to nine when I'm the sharpest, when I'm the most ready to learn and absorb.
Then from nine o'clock in the morning until nine o'clock in the evening is when I pour into others. And that's really the schedule that I've worked on for a couple of years now. And so I think that the other piece to mention on that, Is that there's six main human needs and there's four that everyone needs and does and desires, and there's two that you grow into.
This was at a Tony Robbins event in November of 2018 that I heard about. The need for certainty, the need for uncertainty, the need for love and relationship, and the need for significance are the four main needs that every human has and they're born with. And then the two that you grow into are growth and contribution.
It's constantly growing, being in an environment of growing and pushing and living in the world of chaos really, because growth is not comfortable most of the time. You're normally dealing with headaches or problems and problems become bigger and bigger, and that's what growth really is.
Then it allows you to open doors that you never really felt possible. And then contribution is where you're giving back. And this can be done through charity. This can be done through donations. This can be done through your time, whatever it may be. Contribution is really what I focus a lot of my time and energy on now.
Whether it be within the team or it be within the brokerage, or it be within creating a better home for our renters and our tenants that may have lived through a rougher type of property before and now we're fully renovating it and giving a premium unit that is affordable and livable and really comfortable for someone.
Laurel Simmons: You're right. Growth is never easy. It is chaotic. But I really love them, like what you said about just, you go for it and you grow. And it can be painful at times. There's no question, but you're not going to change anything unless you're willing to grow, right? It's like change and growth. Change can be negative, but if you put change and growth together, then wow, the world's at your feet and you're surrounding yourself with really great people and sounds like you're working hard, but I think you're also having fun. Am I wrong with that, about that?
Dylan Suitor: I have a lot of fun. Every, what's the point in living if you're not having fun? Financially, I've reached a point at this point where I'm very I'm well off at the point where I can enjoy stuff. I could dial it back. I could kind of not work as long and as much, but I don't really consider it work anymore.
Like everything I do analyzing a building or listing a property and the negotiation or like getting the highest value on a street or like the most recent building that we're in the process of refinancing, like I'll go for the numbers if you guys really want, but it's like that building in particular, I could do 24 hours a day on, like it's looking like if I could just spend all my life looking for more on those, it would be really exhilarating and doing that for myself.
Doing that for clients. Stephan Ario challenged me unfortunately before he passed to purchase a hundred unit apartment building. So anyone who is out there that has a hundred unit apartment building, please reach out. I am actively looking for one. I want to do a full turn on it. And I will absolutely get into a hundred unit building before too long.
Sarah Larbi: Can we go through the building? We were talking a little bit about it before we started recording, and it seems like an absolutely amazing deal. So if you could share with us what it is that you purchased, how much you found it, how you're financing it, and just walk us through the whole process.
Dylan Suitor: I have two business partners on it, one of which is how we got it. So it's a 32 unit, 32 unit apartment building in St. Catharines. And when I was first exposed to the idea of it was right after going to another education course with Pier Paul, and it was. My business partner David Che, on that one.
He actually had a relationship with a property manager. And the property manager had known that they wanted to keep management in the building and they wanted to sell it to someone else who would keep them. It's 32 units, 17 units were vacant at the time we were looking at it. The building hadn't really been touched in a while.
It was really run down. There were units with cockroaches, there were units with bed bugs. It was dirty. It was exactly what you would think of a building that's half vacant. And so we ended up picking it up for 3.4 million.
There was really no justification. I think it's important to realize there was no justification to the price regarding a cap rate or how you're traditionally gonna get to the value on a building, because so often I find that people are like, oh, that cap is the three cap and I won't buy it.
It's half Fagan. How can you possibly say it's a three cap if it's half Fagan? So when you start looking at the actual tangibles of it, we started looking at what the upside could be and we started looking at our renovation budget, and we're like, okay, this would be cool.
We started running the numbers on it and we had to target for about a $900,000 renovation, and we expected it'd be somewhere around mid sixes, mid to high sixes would be the valuation when it was complete and so we started going out looking for another partner. And so we were looking at different ways to try and finance.
This was the first time I had purchased a building at all, nevermind this size. So I didn't even have a sixplex or an eight plex or 10 plex by then, it was all just houses. And so the traditional way of financing that I had gone about was doable with smaller houses, but it was tough to get 3.4 million in private money that I could just basically pay a higher interest rate on.
We ended up bringing in another partner, which was my cousin, and we ended up purchasing it. He ended up purchasing it in cash and doing the renovation in cash and bringing him in as a partner. And it was a debt and an equity deal that we ended up having to put together on that one. And it was his first property.
It was a challenge to come to a negotiation in terms on what this would look like. He has a number of different businesses that give good revenue, but this was his first exposure to real estate investing. So what kind of opportunity other than a 32 year apartment building and he had no idea what the upside was.
When we bought it for 3.4, we figured we'd put 900,000 into it. We'd be at 4.3 and then there'd be five to $700,000 worth of interest cause we were paying a pretty high interest rate on the money we borrowed. So we were gonna be around 5 million all in. That was the idea. And at the time we're thinking, okay, we'll go with a conventional 70%, 75% loan to value and we'll be able to pull out most, if not all, of our equity.
This was pre covid. And so we started to make the deal. We got into it last, it was November of 2019 that we ended up closing on it and started getting running on it immediately. We started getting the units that were vacated, demoed. We started spraying the walls constantly. And then right through the winter we actually had some pipes explode, and so we had a flood on the top floor.
Water damage on the top floor came down and I had photos of it still. There were like all the windows from the top floor all the way down to the bottom because it was, I think it was April or March or it was still cold. And so all these windows had frozen and seals broken and right down. So the entire thing was being gutted.
We had already, it was luckily on the side that we had already basically gutted, but there were a couple different. Pops, there were two different spots that had popped and flooded us, and water was coming down. So we realized at that point in time that we have this building with a boiler system that has water running through all the walls.
It was 60 years old, and we're sitting there going, we need to consider replacing all this. So we started looking at what it would take to replace all these, all this plumbing, and we decided to transfer from the boiler system to electric ductless split unit. So by doing that, the importance, why I'm sharing this is that by doing that we were actually able to add hydro to each of the units.
Now in all these units, only having heat, no air conditioning and having air conditioning windows, Our window units that were really ugly to me outside. Now we were able to remove all the plumbing, and never have to worry about water flooding our place again, given the boiler system. We got to remove the boilers, which then gave us more space.
We got rid of gas completely, and we changed to an entire electrical system. So now the entire building is done electrically. And we have heat and air conditioning in each of the units controlled to the temperature they desire. How they want it. And we ended up replacing all the windows. So we weren't planning on replacing the windows, we weren't planning on replacing the boiler.
Now 154 windows later. Ductless heat systems everywhere, we had to increase our utility and our hydro service. Building a concrete box underground. Had to buy a transformer because we couldn't get one from the local city because it was a pain to get ahold of Electra. So we had to literally go and purchase from the manufacturer.
This transformer we put underground in a concrete box and then we had to rewire every single unit. So the entire building now has new windows. It has a new HVAC system in every single unit you can heat and cool 'em. They were gutted down to the studs. Every single unit got gutted down to the studs.
Our renovation costs ended up going, we're not even finished yet, but we'll be somewhere in between 1.5 and 2 million on our total renovation cost. So we're sitting there going, okay, we bought it for 3.4. We have five to 700,000 in interest. We have a million and a half in renovation budget and we budgeted six and a half million dollars.
We might be in trouble. So I started looking at this and I was like, okay, how could this make sense? So before we did all the heat and air conditioning, we ran our NOI numbers again, we started running the numbers as the, as you do on a building. We started realizing that by taking the hydro that we were currently paying out of the deal and charging our tenants for hydro.
Additionally, by having air conditioning in the units, these units were now worth an extra a hundred to $150 a month. And when you apply a cap, which in St. Catharines, the average was 4.6. So as being conservative and using a five cap, we realize that our valuation actually comes in somewhere north of 8 million.
We started running through this whole process before making any decisions and weighing out our odds and looking to replace the boiler or not realizing that this building now had so much upside that it was going to be the nicest unit in St. Catharines. Like it's, we're no longer comparing it to other apartment buildings.
We're now comparing it to brand new condos. So when looking at the direct comparison approach and you start looking at what properties may look like, Because the entire building is brand new, there is a 1% maintenance and repair. We can actually justify that because there's nothing else to do. We're putting, we painted the outside.
We painted the inside. We're doing our new driveway, new living space. We have a brand new spray foam roof, which if you haven't looked into for a building, highly recommend it. It was 40 some odd thousand instead of 250,000. So that saved us 200 grand and we really just experienced this whole process.
Who do I know that had done this before? Nobody. So I was getting back to that proximity as power conversation. All I was doing was being in conversations. And again, it comes back to what keeps you up at night? It doesn't really keep me up at night. Just think, makes me think of who I can talk to.
That I would be in conversation that would allow me to understand the pros and cons of a spray foam roof or of ductless splits in the units, or heat and AC versus just heat in these units and painting the outside of the building, making it look aesthetically pleasing, doing a driveway, all these different things, having conversations with people who'd already done it.
At the end of the day, we also found out that because of what we're doing, we can actually do CMHC financing. So we're refinancing it through CMHC. So the intention is that we're gonna have a building between eight and 10 million that we are going to go back and get 85% loan to value.
Since we have a private mortgage on it, the private will be bought out by. A CMHC approved lender. So we're, we have the whole process figured out, and this was something that every single day when it came to the financing, it came to the appraisal. I had to relearn. I had to learn new areas and new aspects and we're always missing pieces.
The environmental is gonna take us two months to get, the appraisals right now are a six week turnaround. So we're looking at the timeline where all this stuff is at. And there's always hiccups, there's always bumps in the row. But when you have the vision and when it really comes back to that morning routine where I spend a few hours thinking, I spend a few hours just visualizing what this could look like?
Who do I have to talk to so often? And it's gonna sound weird, but so often in the shower, I wish I was thinking about yesterday. I wish that I had a whiteboard in my shower. Then I could just write down notes. Cause I always just think of things in there and I remind myself and so I keep my phone outside and I'll email myself.
The different things that I'm thinking about, like notes, how I need to follow up, who I need to talk to, I need to follow up with what meetings I have to call different ideas. Okay, what about this? For some reason it's in the mornings that I always think of these different ideas and these concepts and so it's really been an awesome experience to go through the building and do the building project.
Since I've had that now, I guess it's, we're coming up on 12 months and I've had the building, I've since sold 10 or 12 buildings to other investors. One of which was my parents. And when I run the numbers on that building, everyone that I tell about it after it actually closed is why didn't you bring that one to me?
I'm like, I did bring it to you. You just didn't pull the trigger on it. You didn't wanna go into multiples, you didn't wanna do this, you didn't wanna do that. And that was an MLS sixplex. My parents are making $3,200 a month and without touching it. And it's like they net $3,200 a month on sixplex. they're putting $160,000 into the start and then understanding it and then going and doing all kinds of, it just excites me.
Sarah Larbi: It just goes to show though that mindset is really 95% of the success that you'll create because as you're telling the story, there were a lot of problems that you didn't account for. There were a lot of extra costs that weren't accounted for and you kept that, your mindset in check and you kept doing what you needed to do to get to the end. A lot of people probably would've given up the towel. And I don't either sell it or whatnot.
You were able to maneuver through all of those punches that you were being dealt to, to come out to the other end to say, like this, I made a few million dollars of profit on this building. It took 12 months, lots of problems. It was worth it, and it's a blessing in disguise because you were able to take that lift.
What would you say to somebody that you know is interested in getting started, but maybe they're afraid of certain things like that. Like what are certain things that you can give them in terms of insights of how not to panic or lose a ton of sleep over things that will happen in real estate?
Dylan Suitor: I gotta give a lot of credit to my other business partner, Robbie, as well as to the power team that I work with, because even working with Claire, I don't know how she keeps her composure at times. And any problem that I have, I'm like, oh Claire could deal with it, so I just bounced the idea off.
All right, so it's like even when I first started doing this investing thing, We, Robbie and I'd get a piece of mail and all the mails forwarded to his office and they deal with all of it, and it's like overdue, I don't know, hydro or overdue property taxes. And I'm sitting there and I'm pulling out the last of my hair, not even sure what to do.
I'm like, this property tax bill has gotta get paid. Why isn't it paid yet? And I'm losing it. Meanwhile, Robbie's sitting there and just saying this is what we do. Like we'll pay taxes when we refinance. We'll do this, we do this, we'll do that, we'll do this. And it's. All these different things. So there's a priority.
When you look at your 20% activities that are gonna produce your highest results, what are they? Whether that be the 20% of your bills that you need to pay to make sure that everything can get done. Obviously, I'm not saying don't pay your bills. What I'm saying if push comes to shove, you have to weigh what is going to continue to drive you forward.
What is the problem that you're currently facing and how, what are the different solutions? And this is also where I do a lot of my visualization in the mornings, like I'll have a problem that'll hit me and I'll say, I'll get back to you more on that. And in the morning, it's like a morning thinking time.
How am I gonna overcome this problem? I sit down and I think of who I can talk to, or I think of who I can, which coach I can ask about, or I just, I think about what other scenarios I can look into and I'll do some research. I looked online. I do whatever I'm gonna do. To figure out how to overcome that problem.
Then once you've decided that you have a solution to overcome that problem, be absolutely certain that's the right off right decision. And your state and your physical environment that you're in is so important to ensuring that you're confident with this. There's times where even now replacing the, all the windows, is the right thing.
I could have replaced 12 when I replaced 154. Should I have put 144 windows worth of capital back in my pocket? Would I have seen the upside? I truthfully couldn't tell you, but I've already made the decision that the one a hundred fifty six windows we replaced is the absolute correct decision and we're running with it.
I knew that we were gonna run with it, and I know the numbers are gonna work and that problem's behind me Now. I don't have to worry about that right now because I have other problems that I'm dealing with right now. Now, There's other stuff that's gonna come up day today. It's ensuring that you always have the bigger picture and you know where you're going and you refuse to let anything take you there. One thing I also will say is if anyone has a problem like I had and needs to offload a building because they had a flood or they had some damage and. They want to give me a dump, I'm happy to take it, so please call me.
Sarah Larbi: Dylan, the other thing that's new with you is you are in the midst or have already purchased a few brokerages and that's really exciting. So talk to us about how you're expanding, cause that, in addition to being an awesome and really successful real estate investor you're also, or you started out as a realtor and you've really expanded that part of your business. Talk to us about that.
Dylan Suitor: Absolutely. So I guess the idea would be that, I truly believe that I am where I am today because of the understanding. I've learned the mindset stuff that I got from Keller Williams, and I didn't realize, I didn't even know what Keller Williams real estate was or realty was when I first got into real estate, I was just like, okay, I gotta put my license somewhere.
That was the place I was. But the people that are there in that building for the most part are growth minded. I'm constantly being pushed with different training in different courses than around me that make me think differently. And so part of the whole, Human needs and contribution is being able to give back.
I want to make a positive impact in my environment, in the world, in the city, wherever that may be. And I feel like one of the ways that I can do that right now is to be involved in some of the brokerages and be involved in some of the leadership because there's so many agents out there that don't really have guidance and training and.
Going back to Elevation for a moment, I'm creating a 12 week Navy c onboarding. I'm calling it, and it's basically 12 weeks of education. That is what it took me two or three years to experience. Like it's everything that I got in two or three years of real estate built into an online program that also has the three different types of learning, which is like self-learning, coaching, accountability, and full immersion.
You're in a full immersion program for 12 weeks and you have this online platform that has questions and answers. We're building it out through thought so you actually can understand everything. So as I'm sitting in these brokerages and I'm having conversations with brand new agents and they're like, Hey, how do I get started?
What do I do now? Like I went and got my real estate license, it took a year of my life. I'm like, okay, I have three friends that told me that they wanted to buy or sell real estate and that I could have a chance at that, and I got my license and now here I am. And other than that, they don't know where to go, where to start.
I've created this program that I'm using with Elevation Realty. I used it with the agents that are coming up through elevation, and now we're taking this into the brokerages. So as we go through and build it out with elevation every 12 weeks we do it, we learn some more, we tweak something more, we play with them more and bring that to the brokerage.
Every Friday I actually spend three hours in front of the camera filming different clips, filming different ideas and eventually that's going to be doing interviews. So I'm gonna be interviewing mortgage brokers and lawyers, and every step of the real estate business because I have this entire backend portfolio of education that people are able to tap into and be a part of.
Then I take those same learnings and go to Facebook Live and have meetings and all I'm doing is I don't call them recruiting conversations cuz I'm not looking to recruit people. At the end of the day I'm gonna add value. So I, they're value add conversations. I'm gonna sit down with you. I'm gonna talk to you, see what your pain is, what your struggle is, what your problem is, and if there's a solution that I, or Kelly Williams, or an investing module, whatever that may be, if there's a solution to your problems, I want to give it to you.
I want to give it to you, and then follow up and find how we can overcome it together. Because you're no one's alone. You're not alone. You are able to overcome these different goals, these accomplishments. And it just comes down to something that someone else knows that you may not have access to.
Why not provide that to as many people as possible? And that really comes down now to the brokerage side. And so like the brokerage is a system you buy into a franchise of Keller Williams. And this is a franchise that provides you with the systems, the models, the accountability to overcome your natural ceiling of achievement.
How can you get past where you would otherwise grow? It's the systems, models and accountability. So I do that at a high level now with all the agents in the office. So I purchased the Keller Williams office in the junction and a couple of the other proximity power people. I think I saw Sandy come on here not too long ago.
Sandy's, he's one of the investors, a lead investor in the Vaughn office. So we're actually launching a Keller Williams office in Vaughn as well. So by this, by the time this is aired there will be a Keller Williams office in Vaughan as well. And that's, again it's being in an environment where we share or open doors, you have a question.
You just walk to the neighbor's office, ask the question, you'll get the answer, you get the documents, you'll get the contract version, you'll get the 36-70, whatever it is that you need, we're here to share. We're here to grow together because people I've heard in the past, it's lonely at the top. It's only lonely, the top, but you don't have people that are like-minded in your corner. So why not have more people like-minded in your corner?
Laurel Simmons: Lemme just get really clear on this. You've been investing in real estate for how many years? Like yourself.
Dylan Suitor: I am gonna say that I've been officially investing since October 3rd, 2018.
Laurel Simmons: Okay. Wow. So now we're coming to the end of 2020, so it's, that's not a very long time. And yes, you came from a real estate family and good for you. I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that, because a lot of people listening will be going, I can't do that. I think the message that I'm hearing from you is you can do anything you want as long as you focus on it. Surround yourself with like-minded people and work with people who are ahead of you in the game.
Dylan Suitor: That's, so they always say the average of the five people. And I reached out to one of my first coaches ever. I was in my painting company 10 years ago and I was looking for a coach. I was like, what? How do I find a coach? And so I found Crystal Julian St. Catherine's and I hired her as a coach for a period of time. And I didn't know what coaching was. I'll be totally honest. I was totally green. I didn't know what coaching was.
I was like, okay coach me and I walked in her office one day and I'll never forget it, she had on the wall a whiteboard and she said, who are the five people you spend the most time with? And I had never heard it before. I never knew who that was. And I, it blew my mind. I was like, I don't, what's this?
I was like, what's the answer to the question? I wanna know the answer to the question. And she was like I'm gonna leave it with you. You're gonna get to think about that. I was like what do you mean? She's not including your family, not including people you live with, who are the five people you spend the most time with?
Through that. It's been a process of learning and understanding who that is. But you mentioned learning from those who have done it before. It's both. When you're the average of the five people, it's not that you only hang out with people that have done it before, that are doing bigger things.
It's both sides. It's being a part of a community where people wanna learn and educate. And that's how you grow a large world and a large environment, is by having people around you that want to learn and educate and apply. And also having people ahead of you that have learned and educated and applied already and want to coach and mentor you.
This constantly moving area where you're always improving yourself and others are improving themselves with you. And there's, you will find people that want to stop and they don't want to go any further. And that's okay. And not every, what I've done in two years is, has been a heck of a ride.
Truthfully, I probably wouldn't go back and do it all over again. If I look at what I actually had to go through I probably would've done it in three years or four years instead of two. And I think that's the part where you don't have to necessarily compress all the learning and all the education in a short period of time.
You can go at the speed that you like. And then one step above it. So get yourself uncomfortable. Push yourself a little bit past your comfort level.
I'm crazy and like to push myself constantly beyond any level of comfort. So I'm always growing, I'm always pushing, I'm always getting in different circles that are fun and exciting and push me because I know that at the end of the day when I get pushed to those different levels, I'm able to then push others to those different levels.
If there's some people that are listening to this that are inspired that's really. What my why is to inspire others through success, to think bigger and live their endless potential. And I learned that back in 2018 too. It was really monumental. If you wanna reach out, I can connect you to Donna.
She's the one who went through the exercise with me on Find Your Why and she's now created a business around it cause it was so powerful. I think I was the first one to sit down with her and now I refer anyone to where that's really looking for clarity in their life. They want to know. What is your purpose?
She's renamed it Now. Purpose on paper as opposed to finding your why, whatever that is. What can you tie something to that you're really truly passionate about? You get up in the morning and you're excited. You don't roll over to this SNOO button cause you're tired. You're like, I have a day ahead of me that I can get closer to my goals.
I can be in bigger conversations. I can inspire people around me. I can grow, I can learn, I can read, I can do whatever I want because this is my life. I get control of my life. I take full control of it. And so it's something that I realized a couple of years ago and I just, I do whatever that is, whatever I want.
I write it out, and then sometimes I don't even check it for a couple of months and then all of a sudden it waits a second. I put this on my goals three months ago and here it is. I remember a couple of years ago, I was like, I wanna have 10 doors. And I was like, I don't think I could do that. And then all of a sudden when I got the letter, I did a letter to myself 12 months later, and it was like, wait a second. I wanted 10 doors. I guess I missed the bar a little bit on that one.
Sarah Larbi: I think the other part that's incredible. You're, Speaking very wisely, right? Do you mind sharing how old you are? I feel like you're young enough. It's not gonna be offensive if I ask you.
Dylan Suitor: Is that allowed? No, I'm kidding. I don't know when this is gonna be released. It'll be 30 or 31.
Sarah Larbi: Incredible. That's incredible. We can keep talking and there's so many things, but before we do get into the lightning round, can you just share, cause you were talking about goals and can you share like your next 2021 goals do you have some of that thought out at this point?
Dylan Suitor: I have a very clear vision of where I want to go with Elevation Realty. And I will say that I only go three years out. And the reason I've only gone three years out is because usually I like to plan five years out. However, my biggest focus with Elevation Realty right now is to find the individuals I work with agents, administrators, support staff, directors, whatever that may be.
I want to know what their purpose is, where they wanna be in five years, because I wanna reinvest the profits from this real estate business back into additional ancillary businesses. And I've done that by starting a construction company. And I didn't start a construction company cause I wanted to run a construction company.
I started a construction company because I found an individual that would be an incredible leader in that world, given the right guidance and mentorship. And I have a ton of clients that need construction. So it's if I can pair up two needs and I can be a part of that I'm extremely excited to do that.
The vision for five years involves everyone in Elevation Realty and where they want to be, what other business they want to be on. Do they wanna have a podcast, they wanna launch a construction company or Mandarin company. We wanna do that together. We wanna grow together. What can we do to make that happen together?
The three year goal is to sell 1200 transactions, sell 1200 houses across Southern Ontario. Which would be an average of 30 units per agent for 40 agents. So in a world where most agents are like the average realtor is selling under 10 houses a year given any city. To do 24 deals a year is the number on the team where you'll net a hundred thousand dollars and you can come in and learn our system that is now virtual and the program is there and you have the support to do it, and you have.
Everyone around you is successful in that you can come in your first year in real estate and make a hundred thousand dollars net after all expenses. And so that part where if I can affect, if I can impact 40 realtors to accomplish that in three years from now, 1200 units would be the goal. And that's all based on calculations, the investing goal.
I'll be honest, the real estate investing is really Robbie's baby. I'm just here as a supporter and Robbie's goal is a billion dollars in real estate in the next five years. So next year we need to get to 150 million which is about three, 400 purchases based on what properties we're buying.
Quarterly we intend on buying about a hundred houses in 2021. Buying up blocks, buying up cities, buying on market, buying off market. And it's all, we're all at a tipping point right now where we're getting really close to a grow, like a large refinance that will give us the ability to to really scale this business.
Those would be the elevation goals and the real estate investing goals, and I guess the brokerage goal. My big vision, and this came from the regional director in Canada, was to impact 800 realtors and have 800 realtors as a part of our real estate brokerage in Toronto. One, I have 800 agents that are growth-minded, that are growth-oriented, that are all about the big picture, that are thriving, that are living their best life. And that would be the goal in the brokerage in Toronto in the next five years.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. Thanks. Thanks for sharing some really great things that you've got. And Robbie was recently on our podcast as well. Great guy. And it's so nice to see all of your success and your progress and you guys working together. You really compliment one another, right? And you bring in what he doesn't have. He brings in what you don't have and you can just crush it together. So That's awesome.
Dylan Suitor: One point I will make on that, cause a lot of times people say should I join Venture here on my own? I was always gonna do it on my own. I don't want to bring a money partner in and I want active partners. And I didn't have the capital to do it, so I was like, okay, private money's the way to go. And then I started having a conversation with Robbie and realized like, I can do a lot of what he's doing. I. And he can do almost everything, if not everything that I'm doing.
When it comes to the world that we're a part of, we're two in the same that we could actually do it all. But what we realize is that like the construction and the management, I could go, I could be a part of that. I'm doing it in this other building. I'm doing it on my own, but I don't have the time like you.
That you can grow together. And so what Robbie and I do really is we complement one another in the area where it's like, Hey, you focus on this side of things, I'll focus on this side of things and we'll bring it all together. And instead of having one plus one is two, we'll have one plus one is a hundred.
We've complimented each other in a way where it's like a joint venture partnership where neither of us are money partners, we use private lending for all of it. But the conversations and the meetings that we have now are how do we grow a bigger world? How do we create a bigger environment for everyone in our world to thrive and be a part of what they want?
It's two very similar mindsets that are constantly pushing each other, and most conversations that I'm a part of, I'm probably the biggest thinker when I get in conversations with Robbie. Every single time I see him, he says something and I'm like, I didn't even think that size. Like, where is it?
Okay, what is the next step? And instead of me stepping back and being like, whoa, I'm a little scared, it's great what's the next step to make that happen? So when I say a billion dollars in holdings, I have absolutely no idea what that looks like. But I'll be honest with you, I know that Robbie writes it out every single day. And so his vision, he's got his mission, I'm just gonna poke holes in it and kinda ask different questions on how we can refine it and make it better every time.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. I must say this is probably one of my favorite podcasts. Like you shared so much insight, so much value. So much. Thank you, Dylan. You're just incredible. It's just amazing. Every time I speak to you, I learn so much and I'm like, oh that's awesome. I gotta apply some of that into my life as well. So the next part of the podcast is our lightning round. So we're gonna ask you a series of four questions and you're gonna give us the first answer that comes to mind. Are you ready?
Dylan Suitor: Yeah, let's do it.
Sarah Larbi: All right. Number one, what is the best advice that you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event?
Dylan Suitor: Best advice I've ever received. I would probably say that execution is where all the money is made. It comes down to following through on what you say you're gonna do. If you say you're gonna do it. And education's awesome. Definitely be a part of education and you have to take that education and apply. So execute on what you say you're gonna do.
Laurel Simmons: All right. Question two. What is your favorite resource for real estate investing? And it can be anything, a book training course, an event. And we know that you've got many resources and over time things have changed. But right now, what's your favorite resource?
Dylan Suitor: I would say coaching would be my favorite resource. And I'm not gonna point to one individual coach cause there's a ton of real estate investment coaches that are out there that can do a lot of different things given where you're at, I think finding a coach that you're comfortable with, that is where you want to be or is a little bit further than you want to be and pushes you a little bit past your breaking point every time would be coaching would be my favorite.
Sarah Larbi: All right, great answer. Question number three. What is the one attribute that has made you most successful in your opinion?
Dylan Suitor: I'm gonna go cheat here. I'm gonna give it two. Cause I'm gonna say execution cause I did that two questions ago. And then I'm gonna say an unwavering belief that I'm gonna accomplish it. There's nothing that's gonna stop me from getting to my end goal and I will continue to work until I get there.
Laurel Simmons: Okay. And question number four, what do you typically do on a Sunday morning?
Dylan Suitor: REITE club podcasts.
Sarah Larbi: That's true. It's Sunday morning today.
Dylan Suitor: Sunday morning I get up and mountain bike as long as I can. I really enjoy mountain biking and spend a little bit of time on myself, a little bit more reading, a little bit of time with Katie, and then usually if it's football season I head over and enjoy some nfl. So I didn't do that in the past, but I've started to really commit to giving myself Sundays to rejuvenate and recoup and recharge my battery a little bit.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Awesome. Dylan, where can the Wright Club Nation reach out if they wanted to find out more about you or speak to you or connect?
Dylan Suitor: Here's a curve ball for you that I didn't, you didn't know before, but I did a 50 and 50 at the beginning of 2020, which was 50 coffee dates in 50 days. It started out in person and then moved to virtual. Over the next week or two, I'll be launching a 365 and 365. So I will be doing 365 virtual meetings, one-on-one 30 minute sessions with 365 individuals in 2021. And I would say that someone can reach out and check that out. There's gonna be a website that'll be launched.
Check in on soon and we'll start to share it all over. Instagram at Dylan Suitor Elevate. You can check that out there. It will be, all the posts will be shared there. And you can reach out to the office@infoelevationrealty.ca and Kim will get access to that and she can book it in, book it on time with me. 9055924220 is our office number. And that would be probably the easiest way to get a hold of me.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. That's great. And I remember you do, and I, we went on a coffee date and it was awesome. We got to reconnect and plan some cool goals out together for the business. So guys, take him up on that and be one of the 365. So one last final question that we always ask is, what is the one insight or tip that you wanna leave us with today?
Dylan Suitor: I would say, I'm gonna bring this to a, this probably shouldn't do this, but I'm moving to anyways COVID is probably the greatest opportunity. That we may ever have in our life. And there's really two different ways you can look at it. You can let it affect you in a negative way. You can look at it as a positive, and there's opportunity in everything. And I saw a quote when I was Tony Robbins the other day, that opportunities always show up as obstacles.
COVID 19 is officially the largest obstacle that I've been a part of in my life, and I hope it's the largest obstacle that I've ever been a part of in my life. And it has also been the biggest opportunity I've had. I've now acquired and launched four businesses through this period of time, and there's more coming down the pipeline and market share.
It's the time, it's the time now. There's properties out there, there's inventory out there there's deals you can find, and Covid is a blessing in disguise for those of you who want to look at it in a business perspective there's a lot of negative remarking down there, but when it comes to a business perspective, there's opportunity that has come out through this. And so go out there, find it, find the opportunity for yourself and execute.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. Thank you so much, Dylan, for being on this show. It was a pleasure having you on. Thanks very much.
Laurel Simmons: Sarah, I don't know about you, but Wow. I just don't wanna say I'm jealous cause I'm not. I am really happy for him. He's just on such a growth curve. It's just so amazing. To see what someone can do when they really focus and they have a passion and a drive and he's helping people and he's obviously having a lot of fun cause you can't continue to do that if you're not having fun, if you're not getting something for yourself.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. And I will tell you with what he's built and what he's doing, like you bet you better be sure that he's got clear processes, clear goals, he's got the right team in place. This is like great that he's been able to build all of that and and still keep going. I can't even imagine what he's gonna be doing in the next two or three years. He's going to take the real estate. By the, by the horns or whatever the saying is. Like he's creating this awesome brand, this awesome name for himself helps.
He's, and he's still very humble. Like he is super nice. He's willing to work with our right Club Nation guys. Those 365 coffee dates, grab one of those. If anything, you're gonna get tons of knowledge, tons of insight, and I went on a coffee date last year and it was awesome. We figured out what the goals were for helping my students and the acquisitions on some properties and working and moving that through. So it's definitely awesome. I would recommend it. Laurel, what about like a key takeaway for you?
Laurel Simmons: There were so many, there were so many takeaways for me. But I think the final one was at the very end when he talked about, covid s Yes. It's huge, you can view it as an obstacle and yes, it is an obstacle, but out of huge obstacles come huge opportunities. And I really believe that too.
Like I've never been busier and more productive than in the last year. You can see that he's just taken this worldwide event that affected everyone and said, okay, so it's a problem. Let's deal with it and not only deal with it, let's use it as leverage to do something else and to really grow. And that's what he did.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. In any crisis, in any downturn, there's great opportunity. Don't miss out waiting on the sidelines and not propelling yourself forward. Whether that's with learning, with education, with taking action, and, everyone's gonna be at different levels of course, You wanna look back at it and say, I spent some time, pushing myself and accomplishing some of the goals that I've had.
That's super important. And guys, we can definitely continue this conversation @thereiteclub.com online. We also have a Facebook group and there's lots of investors out there having great discussions talking about just all of the trends that we're seeing off market opportunities. I've also seen some on our Facebook group, so check that out. Facebook, it's the REITE club and also thereiteclub.com online register. It's to create your account that is completely free. And reach out to Laurel and I. On the reiteclub.com.
Laurel Simmons: That's right. We'd love to see you. So what don't we say, Sarah, about? You know the people who are part of our REITE Club community.
Sarah Larbi: We say, come grow with us guys, REITE Club Nation. Until next week, see you later.
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