Sarah Larbi: REITE Club community. Welcome. I'm Sarah. I'm here with Francois, my co-host of the day. We've got a great guest, Amanda Renzella today. She got started about four years ago and has is still getting started, but has really listened to these podcasts and applied, which she's learned to be able to buy her first couple deals and looking for her third one.
It's great to talk to her. I love her energy, her passion. About, talking about real estate investing and now helping others and her friends around her. So it is really cool. Let's bring in Amanda and guys, enjoy today's podcast. Amanda, welcome to the show. How are you?
Amanda Renzella: I'm amazing. How are you?
Sarah Larbi: Good. And we're excited to have you on. It's your first podcast ever, so thank you for spending it with us .
Amanda Renzella: I'm excited. Little nervous, but I'm feeling good. So thank you for having me.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. So how did you get started investing in real estate?
Amanda Renzella: When I got out of high school, my mom told me, you're buying the condo. It's happening. You're gonna buy it and you're gonna rent it out. That's what's happening. And I'm like, what are you talking about? You're like, 18. You're like, what are you talk, I wanna buy clothes, I wanna go out. So I had to come to an agreement with my parents where I had to.
Give them a certain amount of my paycheck as rent. And they would save that for me. And that really taught me at a young age how to save, how to be responsible with my money. So I am forever thankful for them to that cuz I'm able to be successful now because of that parenting when I was younger. So parent your kids properly, it is so important for their success in life.
Then my mom was just super petty all the time. If I'd buy anything, she'd be like, I thought you're buying a condo. Like I am. So I worked really hard and it became a huge goal of mine, so I was able to get that idea through them and through our real estate friends to buy the first investment property.
Francois Lanthier: Excellent. So what age were you when you ended up buying? Cause you mentioned 18. Your mom was bugging you, were you 1920?
Amanda Renzella: It was definitely further along the road than that. By the time I got my first time job, you don't get paid a lot. So I bought my first property when I was 26 and I got a condo in downtown Mississauga. It was either downtown Toronto or Mississauga, and I ended up going the Mississauga route. So again, I had no idea what I was doing. Thankful for all the guidance I had, with finding a tenant and getting that set up. I was really lucky to have great tenants. So like I was just living my life and it just happened to be working out for me on the side.
Sarah Larbi: All right. Very cool. Are you able to share, like today what your portfolio consists?
Amanda Renzella: For sure. So I still have that condo, which has done me very well in helping my other endeavors. And then right now, and then we purchased a townhouse that we now live in, which we will currently rent out in the future.
I have the condo, the townhouse we live in, and looking for the third property right now. So I'm super excited about that. We just started looking about a week ago, so full speed ahead on growing the portfolio from there.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. So talk to us cause you know you're starting. But how has your life changed or maybe your viewpoints changed since you became a real estate investor?
Amanda Renzella: After I had that conduit and I didn't really know what I was doing, I wanted to leverage that to get another property. So the idea was for me to move into that conduit at some point. And after I purchased it, I'm like, don't wanna move in. I had a great life at home with my family, so I didn't feel like I needed to move out and I'm like, I wanna do this again.
After I bought that, my main focus was to save and purchase another property. In 2018, we're able to purchase a pre-construction town home in Brampton, and I wanted to leverage that condo to put more money down on the townhouse, but I didn't know how, nor did I have any like real estate investor friends that could really tell me.
I was stressing about that and I was talking to my father-in-law and he's like, why don't you refinance? I'm like, what is it that, and now of course, that's all anyone ever talks about, but at the time I didn't know. So I was able to use that, which is a huge advantage for this pre-construction, which has completely grown in value.
I'm so thankful. I just dived in, took the plunge and I was confident in my decision. My fiance was very unsure and I just pushed him and was super confident and I did the damn thing and I we're so happy with it.
Francois Lanthier: I know you're touching something really important here, refinancing and me too. I remember at first I'm like refinancing. That means debt consolidation. Am I going bankrupt? What's with this stuff? It sounds almost shady. And that's great that you had a family member teach you. Can you walk us through the steps of refinancing sometimes? Isn't that simple? Like maybe in your case it was simple, but sometimes it's a lot of work.
Amanda Renzella: It was really simple for me. My mortgage was really low cuz the condo in downtown Mississauga, of course, had grown so much in equity in such a short period of time, cuz I'd got in 2016 right before the market went really high. So I was able to just do a really easy refinance. Again, I didn't need that much money.
Out for the townhouse. I could have probably taken more, which probably would've been the smart thing to do, but again, I didn't know. I was like, I'll just take what I need. So now that I know, I went to go refinance the condo again because again, so much more equity. That didn't work out because the mortgage would've been too high and I wouldn't have been able to collect that back and rent. So I ended up going to HeLOC route for the third property.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. And a lot of people don't know that you can refinance in three ways, right? You can do a cash out refinance, so your mortgage is higher, you get the cash out. Again, that might mean less cash flow. You could do a HELOC refinance. So instead of actually getting the cash and having a higher mortgage payments, it's a line of credit that you don't pay for until you use and that's a very popular one with real estate investors.
Then you can do a combo of both, right? So if you've got something to pay back, you can do a portion in cash. And and the rest in HeLOCK. So refinancing is awesome. It's great that you've you've done well so far. Obviously we can't always bank on appreciation, but Ontario in the last 10 years has has done fairly well. Who knows about the future, what's, so you're looking for that third property right now? Where are you looking? What's your criteria? Walk us through, your journey there.
Amanda Renzella: It's been a very interesting journey. I started listening to your podcast and it was the REITE Club podcast maybe about two months ago. So my contractor posted it on Instagram and I'm like, I'm gonna check this out. And I listened to one episode. I'm like, whoa.
Sarah Larbi: What your contractor is? I'm just curious.
Amanda Renzella: It's clean finish renovations.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. All right, cool. Isn it fun for them.
Amanda Renzella: Yes, I know. Shut for them. They ended up oh, there's so many stories here. So I list, so the reason I was following this contractor is because my condo got flooded. So that was a huge headache and, working with insurance. So I basically was able to do a good chunk of renovations that was covered under insurance. So that happened. And then my contractor posted your podcast, and then I started listening to it and I binged the entire weekend.
I probably listened to about everyone and then I ended up going into Euro era where to invest and what the hell am I doing here? I have these two properties that I can leverage that I'm lucky enough to be able to bank on appreciation I need to do something. So I just got as much information as I could and I just dove into it.
Building a team, as you always mentioned, is so important. So that's what I've been doing the past two months, is educating myself, building my team in order to now make this next. Steps. So again, it's like where to invest. So there's a couple different areas we were looking at. But I'm actually looking quite seriously in Sudbury right now.
My dad and his family are from Sudbury. So I, we grew up there until I was about eight. Not live there, but we would always go visit my grandparents. He has a love for Sudbury. It's a shrine, it's a holy shrine there. So he's pretty comfortable with that area. He knows it. We have family there, we have friends there. So I feel comfortable and I've been doing research on the numbers and, rents and values of property. So that seems to be the market right now.
Francois Lanthier: Tons of potential. I'm so glad to hear it. I was worried You're gonna say I'm buying a house in Mississauga. Forget it.
Sarah Larbi: That would not work out.
Francois Lanthier: Exactly. That's really smart. So you're already, so you have local properties, now you're looking outside further kind of distance investing. That's my thing. I love that. I think there's huge potential, but you have family ties, so again, it's really smart. , are you considering like property management or will it be family that's helping out or people in Sudbury or?
Amanda Renzella: I did look into some property management companies. There's one of our cousins I'm gonna call and give him a talk to see. And then today I just am like, should I manage it myself? Would I be able to? So that's also something I'm considering. So I haven't made a final decision yet. But definitely considering all area.
Sarah Larbi: Sudbury's great. It's got great fundamentals. I know what many investors that are doing well there. There's lots of great markets, right? But you'll get more cash flow for sure there than likely your condo Mississauga if you were to buy a new one at this point. But that is great. You talked about your condo flooding, but what are some of the challenges that you experienced as a newer investors, getting started on your first, on your second, on your third and I know we talked a little bit about the refinance, have you faced any other challenges or things that you can say, Hey guys, if you're brand new, watch out for this.
Amanda Renzella: I was really blessed that the first two tenants I had were an absolute dream. The third tenant, he was short term, I don't wanna say he was bad, but was really hard to manage him and the renovations and he didn't wanna live in the property. So I definitely had to take a little bit of a hit.
Because there's not much cashflow in the property I did have to cover it myself, which I was able to do thankfully. So I've been super lucky and I just found some great tenants that just moved in this weekend. But it is work. I'm always trying to get in there and clean and make sure it looks the best it can, because as I've learned from all these podcasts, you wanna track the best tenant you wanna get the best rent for the property.
That was super helpful. I made notes, I made sure to follow everything you said, and I am feeling good. So I've been super lucky that I haven't had too many problems besides the flood, but things happen. , you have to, when you're in this business, you have to expect that they will, and you just can't get too upset about it, prepare and get it done, get it fixed.
Francois Lanthier: This is so cool. So someone who's been listening to the REITE Clubs podcast and putting it into action, that's awesome. That's really great. So you mentioned renting a condo, so some condos. I assume, when you buy. You inquired about rentals, cause some condo boards don't allow them, and especially shorter term, sometimes it's not allowed. Is that something you investigated in or?
Amanda Renzella: All my other tenants had been longer and just with the way the market was in January, I was nervous about finding a tenant when my long-term tenant had left. And she was a doll. She was amazing. Like I never heard of Pete from her. She gave me her wrench, like everything ran smoothly.
He just wanted something short-term. I'm like, Hey, let me just deal with this so I don't lose too much. And then, the flood happens. So that was , all good things, but it was definitely hard to deal with the renovations with the property management board, I must say it was quite frustrating. Same with dealing with insurance, but again I'm super lucky. I don't know if I'm just lucky or what happened, but everything ran pretty smoothly.
Sarah Larbi: I think part of it is also your mindset when you get the calls of like your property's flooded to the issues that you have to maneuver with the front desk and the contractor crew and the noise to the neighbors and that kind of stuff. You're probably making it sound super easy but you are taking it really well as well, right? So like somebody else in your shoes, this might stress them out. They might not be able to sleep. And a lot of the success in real estate, right? 95% of it is gonna be your mindset.
Sarah Larbi: What do you do to feed your brain, your mind, keep positive. What are some of the things that you can share?
Amanda Renzella: My personality is definitely very positive, but I find if I get, if I think so negatively about a situation, I just get upset about it. So I just try and accept it for what it is and move forward.
My fiance is not like that at all. He gets pretty upset about things, so I have to convince him. So that helps me convince myself and just listening to all these people provide their experiences and this great advice, and I, it just keeps saying it over and over, you're gonna have problems.
It's how you handle them. You wanna be able to sleep at night, but if you get stressed out like crazy over every little thing, it's not going to work for you. So I have no problems putting in the work, putting in the research, going all over the place to pick stuff up and getting stuff done in a short period of time. And you have to be open to that. You can't look at it like this is too much work. You have to be ready for it. And I'm okay with working hard. I am a hundred percent into this.
Francois Lanthier: I assume you work full-time as well.
Amanda Renzella: I do. I work for a aesthetics pharmaceutical company, so we yeah, I'm in sales and marketing department, which has taught me so much about business and this whole mindset because I'm treating this like a business and I wanna make it my business. So I feel like I've had all great fundamentals and great teachers in my life to set me up for success as well as me doing my due diligence for the same thing. But you have to be prepare,
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Preparation is key, but also taking action on that preparation is also very much important. You mentioned your fiance a couple times and it doesn't have to just be him, but as it sounds like your parents were encouraging you to do this and they're all pro for it, which, in my situation I'm fortunate as well I'm like, I'm gonna go buy real estate. They're like, okay, cool. Have fun or whatever. That's awesome. You might have sometimes some pushback, right? Your friends are like, oh my God
I know somebody that like lost their shirt like 10 years ago on buying real estate or got a bad tenant. Or maybe your spouse has, some reservations. What are some things that you can share about that with us?
Amanda Renzella: It's funny cause my parents have never, my dad especially. I'm not into real estate investing, but they pushed me to do it. So I was like, what's going on here? But I think it's just, it is a risk and I'm okay with that. I'm I'm gonna dive in and do this. Like whatever happens, I'll deal with it when it comes and you have to have kind of that personality for sure. But when I started going onto Property three and doing my research and I'm telling my parents my dad. Why don't you just keep the condo, let it get paid off, and there's your retirement right there.
I'm like, but I don't want that. I want more, and why wouldn't I? If I can get. So I have the ability and like I'm so lucky with all this appreciation between the townhouse and the condo, I have two properties to leverage. And that was an accident. Like I didn't have the same mindset as I do now, so I'm gonna take it and run with it.
Some people may look at it like, why do you want more than one mortgage? Like they look at it as a negative. I'm like, what are you talking about? So I try and I talk about it probably too much as I'm sure both you guys do as well. to your friends and they're kinda like, okay, is there anything else?
I just wanna teach them that this is a great way to live your life and to be financially free and be successful and you need to take it and go. So I don't get too much pushback maybe cuz I don't let anyone give it to me.
Sarah Larbi: That's good. That's great and it's also, you've got a strong, determination and you've got, your goals and Yeah, it's important not to let people get in your way, have you, however because the, there's markets cycles as, markets go up, markets go down. It's done well for you, that's awesome. But how are you positioning yourself to potentially take a downside or you have, a downturn. Who knows what's gonna happen and what it's gonna look like. But at some point things will change, or ch things will shift for how long, when nobody knows that. But, have you taken any precautions or steps to also be able to ride a potential downturn wave?
Amanda Renzella: 100%. So we have my conservative partner here who's always we need to have backup money. He wants way too much money, which I just don't think makes sense. So we've agreed on like a certain percentage per property to have just put aside just in case something happens because you have to be prepared. I guess I'm a little different in the fact that I'm like, whatever happens, we'll deal with it then.
I do have my safety nets and everything, but again, I'm a little bit more. Let's go, let's do the damn thing, versus let's be prepared for every bad situation. So I think that's definitely something I need to work on, but I'm lucky that I have someone that's always challenging my ideas. So I just, don't flutter along, but I think about things thoroughly, just in case.
Sarah Larbi: For sure. That is good. It's always important to have a plan. And it's important to put your plan in action and just have a backup and a, and then a downside. And I agree with you. You don't wanna necessarily have hundreds and hundreds of thousands in that account, ling away through inflation, but can you take a year of potential crap that might happen? And what is that number? And at some point, this is where we see the difference between speculators and investors, those who bought, high prices, banking on appreciation and it's great that you got the appreciation.
I love appreciation too, and I think it's secondary, right? To cash flow and one of the things that you're now doing going into Sudbury will give you the good cash flow and they'll be able to, you might not get as much appreciation as you might have in Mississauga, but it'll give you the cash flow so that if you say, Hey, if something happens and Sudbury goes down, 20%, 30%, 40%.
I'm not saying that's gonna happen but you've got your tenants still paying and covering your mortgage so that you can take the down and then when it comes back up you're gonna be fine as well. Any thoughts on that?
Amanda Renzella: I think that's great. I've always lear, I've listened to a lot of debates on, cash flow versus appreciation, and I feel like cash flow always comes out as number one. So I'm lucky that I do have that appreciation and that's a great backside. Markets like Brampton and Mississauga, they just keep gaining in popularity.
They will have that appreciation, but just having that cash flow backup, I think it's a good balance. And I feel comfortable with that and that's what I try and, tell people, they're like why Sudbury? I'm like, it's the cash flow. So really thankful for everyone give that feedback and that advice because it's so valuable.
Francois Lanthier: That's awesome. And since you've been listening to the podcast for about two months, was there like a guest or a topic that really stood out? Something that really spoke to you?
Amanda Renzella: I can't say one specifically, it's just I just lapped everything in and, I have my little book here and I made so many notes on just different ideas and different approaches and, we really talked through every single one to see what was the best for us.
I think just Sarah's opinions have been great. And then, just jumping to her podcast as well. And then I just kept jumping and jumping from different podcasts and I'm like, I need more . Every podcast doesn't work for, the style doesn't work for your mentality or what you're looking for. So it's definitely being able to find the ones that work for you.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. And the topics that are interesting to you versus not. But I will say too, like the podcasts are great. That's really how I started is reading books and listening to podcasts. Back in the day, there were a lot of American podcasts and not so many Canadian ones at the time, that, that helps propel you. But then there are some that you're like, Oh, there's this topic in that topic and in this other topic, but it's important not to have, and it doesn't sound like you do, but the shiny penny syndrome or analysis paralysis.
Should I do this? Oh no, this sounds really cool. I should do that. And a lot of people that listen to podcasts, I mean it's awesome cause you get great education, but they're like, it's the shiny penny syndrome and then it's analysis paralysis and they don't end up doing anything for years and they're like just listening to podcasts.
I will say congrats on listening to the podcast and then taking. Applying it and making things happen with that, because that's a big step that not many people can take.
Amanda Renzella: For sure. And I've heard analysis paralysis so much and I'm like, you know what, there's probably, I need to read books. Cause there's so much valuable information and everyone recommends books. But I didn't wanna get stuck in analysis paralysis. So I listened to podcasts when I was cleaning. I go for lots of runs. I would go for walks, anywhere that I was moving around in the car. So I'm like, I'm gonna take this and jump in and then be able to grow from there and have that team working for you.
Like different mortgage brokers and accountants and realtors. I talked to everyone, you can imagine I was tired from having phone calls. I'm like, oh my God, I haven't even gotten in yet. But it's preparing yourself and I didn't wanna get that analysis process, so I'm like, I'm diving in head first and I'm gonna get it done.
Francois Lanthier: You're doing the next big step, which is networking. So is that something you've already mentioned it, so phone calls eventually in person I guess at some point. So networking, like you've already leveraged some of your network, your family. Do you talk to it to talk about real estate at work as well? Cause it's shocking. I've had partners from work. Is that something you're exploring in the future?
Amanda Renzella: Definitely. I know my manager at work, we just get lost in this conversation for a couple hours and just what she's doing and what I'm doing and what our plans are and it's. So valuable and we're able to impress each other. Definitely talk about it to my friends a lot. I probably talk about it too much, but I'm like, if I have this information, why can't I pass it on? And I need to do more, more networking. And that's why I was so excited to come on this call and talk to like-minded people and learn from you guys and grow. So this was a really big, exciting step for me.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. And you know what, one of the things is that you'll find that when you speak to others that you might know not in real estate already, but you'll realize like some of them will actually be like, Hey, that's so cool. Let's talk about it and do it and go their way as well.
It sounds like you've got a good manager that does it. And it's funny cuz my, my boss, so my work boss when I used to work. , I think he's got eight or nine properties now. But like he got into real estate after I started talking about it. And he's Sarah, I can't thank you enough. Like my net worth has done so much awesome.
Like he's got two kids in university. So it is really cool when you can, inspire others to, to also do that. And, but you'll find that over time, you might gravitate more towards those people if you're so passionate about real estate investing and you're like, okay, if you're talking to somebody about it and they don't get it.
Even though they might be great friends, you might say you know what, I'm so passionate about real estate. I'm like, I'm inspired. Like you might change your top five people that you hang out with the most. And that might happen over time, which is totally cool. But I don't know if it started happening to you yet or not.
Amanda Renzella: Not really. I feel like people are interested in what I have to say. No one really pushes me aside, but there are, I would like to get in contact with people that are on the same path as me and we can just talk it out so we don't make each other. Cause I'm pretty sure I annoy some people, but I'm sorry. The conversation always gets back to real estate. I don't know how I don't do it on purpose.
Sarah Larbi: That is good. You know what, we'll have you back at some point again. And it was a pleasure obviously talking to you. The next part of the podcast though is our lightning round. So you might know what the questions are already if you've listened to this podcast.
Amanda Renzella: I do.
Sarah Larbi: All right so here we go. You ready to play?
Amanda Renzella: I am.
Sarah Larbi: All right, so question number one, Amanda, what is the best advice that you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event?
Amanda Renzella: The one that stands out in my head the most is Matt McKeever's. Problems are profits. And I think I say that all the time. I think I said it for a week straight to everything. My fiance said, I was like, problems are profits. And I just feel like it's such a great mentality to have in the way to look at something and it helps you to approach this and not get so upset about things and work through.
Francois Lanthier: I love that you have a t-shirt or the hat. I've seen a lot of people with it.
Amanda Renzella: My friend got me one for my birthday. It's coming in the band. We both got each other one and it's like we say it to each other all the time. So it's pretty funny. I'm, I want the mug next.
Francois Lanthier: Oh yeah. The mug for sure to match. Next question is, what is your favorite resource for real estate investing? I think podcast, but maybe there's something else like a person or a book.
Amanda Renzella: It's definitely podcast right now. I love the REITE Club. Of course. Andrew Hines was great. I loved how we broke down the numbers. I found that really the Rise Network with Austin, and Mau, I really like them. They're pretty funny and they have a group on Facebook where it's a bunch of people that are able to network, and I really like that because, for example, I can type in Sudbury and get all this valuable information on handymen and insurance companies and real estate agents. It's just, it's really helpful.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. Have you checked out thereiteclub.com yet?
Amanda Renzella: I have. And I found so many great people on there too, and I love how you can search different vendors and get some feedback. So best believe I called some people on that list.
Sarah Larbi: That's great to hear. Very cool. So question number three, in your opinion, what is the one attribute that has made you most success?
Amanda Renzella: I think being goal oriented, once I get a goal or idea in my head it's happening. I'm making it happen. And once I make that decision, it's just full steam ahead and I will do whatever's necessary to make it happen and put in the work. And it's worked out well for me. It's a good, it's a good path ahead. So I think that's a good trait in this industry.
Francois Lanthier: To be persistent, consistent, consistency is huge. It's like anything in life and yeah, that's essential words of wisdom. Wow. I'm impressed. I can't wait for the next interview. Maybe I won't be on, but in six months or something and then we hear, okay, now I have 14 properties, or 14, I don't know.
Amanda Renzella: I'm trying to impress.
Francois Lanthier: It's working for sure. Question number four. So what do you typically do on a Sunday morning?
Amanda Renzella: Sunday is my day of rest. I don't work out on Sundays. I don't clean, I get everything done. During the weekend on Saturday. So
Sunday morning I like to wake up, I go get my coffee and I lay in my big comfy bed and I binge watch whatever TV show I'm watching for that moment. And then later on I'll go on a hike or do something fun with my friends or family to get out of the house. But it's that bed morning.
Sarah Larbi: Sounds great. Amanda, where can our community reach out if they wanted to talk real estate with you or find out more about you?
Amanda Renzella: Instagram, definitely. I think I sent over my handle or Facebook Amanda Renzella and I'm definitely excited to talk some like-minded real estate investors and get some great feedback and information.
Sarah Larbi: Perfect. And your handle is @AMARENZ and then underscore
Amanda Renzella: Yes, Amarenz_ for Instagram.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. And then we always ask this at the end, any final last words.
Amanda Renzella: I'm just super excited to start this journey and I just wanna thank everyone out there who's provided so much advice and that has been, that has allowed me to be on this journey and hopefully be successful in it. So I just wanna thank everyone for putting all this great information out there.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. Thanks for being on the show. It was a pleasure getting to know you and looking forward to having you back and seeing your progress in the next year.
Francois Lanthier: Thank you.
Amanda Renzella: Thank you so much. So exciting. Have an amazing night and thank you so much for having me.
Sarah Larbi: Thanks very much.
Francois Lanthier: Sarah, so this was great. A young woman getting started in real estate investing and already at property number three. All thanks to our podcast.
Sarah Larbi: That is very cool. I love that she's been listening to the podcast for the last two months and took action from listening to others doing it and said, I am going to take the knowledge. Free information and go ahead and make something out of it.
Great job, Amanda. I'm excited to have Amanda back, in a year from now and see where she's at and you know what she's learned along the way and all that good stuff. Francois always a pleasure co-hosting with you. You are awesome, but what do we say to our REITE club community?
Francois Lanthier: Come grow with us and watch our next listen to our podcast.
Sarah Larbi: Bye guys.
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