Alfonso: I'm going to introduce our next segment here. It's the REITE club coast-to-coast panel and it's with some amazing guests, Mr. Tim Tsai from Trust Your Talent, and he's going to represent Western Canada. Kaely and Alex Pal from Pal Property Solutions right here in Ontario and Mr. Jason Fillmore, Canada homes for rent Canada.
A little bit about Tim Tsai again, I said, trust your talent. He's an international real estate investor. That's overseas across the pond. Award-winning mentor in business. He retired himself at the age 30 and he's a self-taught chef that can cook for, I think it was over 25 people, loves karaoke and now getting really involved with some meditation.
Thank you, Tim for joining us .Tonight from Pal property solutions, Alex and Kaely Pal, some amazing. They're the Pal Property Solutions and Alex is actually fluent and speaks Hungarian. And I've heard him and it's the more that he drinks, the better he speaks as well.
Kaely grew up on a farm and has shown horses competitively her whole life. Amazing. They're expecting their second child in December and they make some really cute babies. Let me tell you. And their first place that they called home together was a living room, turned bedroom in a student house that Alex owns.
Amazing that they're going to be joining us tonight. Thank you guys so much. And then from Atlantic Canada, Mr. Jason Fillmore, Regional Director for Canada Homes for Rent. Over 20 years of real estate investor and property manager experience. He is a whiskey connoisseur and it's a little bit later out East.
He's probably got one going out there already. And he's a history buff, a civil war in revolutionary war reenactors started developing his flair for fun with his first job as a Zamboni driver. Really good. And we've been told he's got a 16 year old son prodigy in the real estate business. We're very excited to have these amazing people, these four guests up here.
Thank you guys, Alex and Kaely, Tim, Jason. And we're going to bring Sarah on as well too. We're going to both co-host this panel and yeah, why don't we start out east with Jason and we're going to go ask all you guys the same question, but what trends are you seeing specifically in your markets?
Jason: In New Brunswick here, we've been seeing a huge trend. Then a lot of investors from across Canada come here to St. John, Monkton to buy properties. We're getting multi offers that are selling within 24 hours of listing. It's been a very exciting time here even with everything going on in the background with COVID and people losing their jobs. It hasn't slowed our market down at all.
Alfonso: Yeah. Okay. So, let's go to Ontario, Alex and Kaely, what kind of trends and what are you seeing currently in the market?
Alex: It's funny, Jason mentioned that we're seeing very similar results here in Ontario. Even this past week, we had 1500 or so listings come on the market, 2100 sold firms. So, it's like a feeding frenzy out there. We think that a lot of the people that purchased property on the back burner during the whole COVID inception have now decided to come to the trough.
It's crazy out there. We're seeing multiple offers is massive insurgence of these properties that are selling in an hour, not just to not non dimension days. It's a very low inventory, so it's a good time to sell.
Alfonso: Yeah. Is this what some of, what are some of the drivers of that? Is it the lack of inventory, the main reason, or are there other things that are pushing that as well?
Kaely: I think, honestly, there's very motivated buyers. I know, again, as investors, we understand the back end of it a bit, but the CMHC announcement shook up a lot of people and put on that motivation to purchase before July 1st. And honestly COVID delayed our spring. So, we had a lot of sellers that honestly just put it off that weren't able to. You have a ton of motivated buyers. That pool is just as big as what it was before, if not bigger and very low inventory. So, people are fighting. Yeah.
Alfonso: Some people are going to have the sparklers on July 1st. Some people aren't going to want to talk about fireworks and maybe not to bring in a downer, but what's going on out West. And I know Jason and Alex and Kaely mentioned a lot of buying and selling. I don't know, to an extent, what's going on out west, is it the sky falling in.
Tim: You know what, I'll speak to Alberta because I haven't actually done my homework. Get on BC. A lot of you guys know that I'm actually based in it and it's in Alberta. And so, right before COVID happened, it was still very much of a buyer's market. And funny enough, like everybody was just sharing. It feels like there was a lot of pent up demand and some of our realtors out in the field these days, they're joking. It just feels like a lot of families started to realize that they did not like to be trapped on small kids in their own family.
They're all buying bigger houses. And so, in the last two weeks alone, since. It got a little bit eased up. We're seeing multiple offers. The last time we saw that in this market was actually 2014. It's crazy. And so the staff that I actually got today is that there's about 6,000 listings at the moment.
And let me just double check to make sure that I'm right here and it's 4.5 months of inventory. So, a lot of you guys know that means we're moving into a balanced market, which is something that we haven't seen in the last almost five years now.
Sarah: Absolutely, it is quite interesting. I had three friends in the past two weeks by cottages. So, when we're saying people want to get out of their condos or get some more space it's, who knows if it's going to last and keep going, but it is definitely quite interesting. All right. Next question for you guys. Let's go back to the East Coast. What opportunities are you seeing and what opportunities do you think people are ignoring right now? Jason?
Jason: Right now, here in the Maritimes, I think people, the biggest opportunity people are missing is that the Maritimes were here. A lot of people aren't looking past Quebec. We have a lot to offer a lot of wide open spaces. We're a very blue collar industry here in St. John. There's lots of things going on. We have a lot of development happening in St. John.
We're at a cusp of where we're just starting to pick up momentum and things are starting to sell our market's getting hotter. Our vacancy rates are getting lower and they're building new buildings in our city now, which hasn't happened in a very long time. And I think people are overlooking that. But we're seeing them starting to come now..
Sarah: Yeah. And you know what? I started looking because I've got a couple of students looking out East and the cash flow is pretty great in comparison to some markets in Ontario. And a lot of people may say, okay, I want to go to the US diversify, and I want to get some more cash flow, but, you guys have it pretty good out east as well. Granted there's pros and cons to every single market. I'm investing personally in Ontario, but it is definitely attractive.
Jason: Oh, it is that our prices for buildings are very low. You can buy a five unit building between $150,000 and $200,000 and still get good rent.
Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. And the landlord tenant board that we have here. And again, I don't know it in as much detail as you probably, but I don't think it's as strict as Ontario.
Jason: We can definitely see with evictions nonpayment of rent, we can have a tenant out within less than 30 days. If there's issues. If we do month to month leases, we can just give them a term notice for no reason. And they have to be out at the end of the month.
Our tenancy tribunal here when it comes to evictions with non-payment of rent or with certain types of leases is very good. And when we do have our struggles with them, but overall, and I don't rock the boat much because it's been pretty good here.
Sarah: Absolutely. And you know what? I love the different markets for different reasons. And I live on the Ontario markets as well. Alex and Kaely, what about you guys? What opportunities are you seeing and what do you think people are worried about right now?
Kaely: I think some of the greater opportunities, obviously at a certain price point. Anything below 500,000 level, those types of properties are very compelling. Again, because you're just appealing to a really great pool of buyers, you're first time home buyers, investors, fixer-uppers that kind of stuff. I think the opportunities lie in the properties that are challenging. You touched on it very quickly. Obviously our LTB situation is a little bit different than a lot of other markets taking on a property that's tenanted right now.
If you have the experience and the tools in place that you can, maybe handle the eviction process, if you can carry through, if you've got, again, those resources, it's really great opportunities there because again, that's something that not a lot of people would really want to take on, especially in this environment. And I think again, in the future commercial, there's going to be a lot of really good opportunities there. And I think there's going to be some opportunities in bigger buildings as people reevaluate, maybe their positions are deciding to sell right now because it's a really good time to do something.
Alex: Student rentals is another one too, because with the universities and Mohawk college and McMaster, there's a lot of uncertainty on when they're starting. Are they going to be doing mostly online courses, come September. You got a lot of folks that are running their numbers based on these students filling in the units.
There's a lot of skepticism around, which might bring opportunity for people who are maybe interested in taking on those properties at a discounted rate and actually creating family type housing with them. Single story bungalows that have seven bedrooms in it that can also make a great duplex conversion. That's great for the family.
Sarah: Absolutely, but a lot of opportunities still, it sounds like in Ontario and things are still happening. And I love the fundamentals that Ontario has. You look at the immigration and at some point it's going to resume. And then you look at the amount coming into Ontario. So, great points
Alex: Despite all the shakiness of COVID, the devaluations on refinances are still coming incredibly strong. So, there's a question to be had on how long that could last or if there's some sort of a turn and not might be something to be weary of, but even right now, like it it's very positive just with the demand and total.
Sarah: Absolutely. Well said, guys, Tim, what's your take on that?
Tim: You know what, very much concurring with what everybody is just saying, because I feel like this right now is like having a very big prominent NHL hockey player take a puck to the knee right now. And is injured and he's just waiting to come back out and we don't know exactly how he's going to perform yet until maybe a few more months later, still, because again, there's a lot of pent up demand.
And from an acquisition standpoint, we've always taken the lesson from Warren Buffet, be greedy when other people are fearful and be fearful when others are greedy. And right now it seems like the market's a little greedy because you've got a bunch of people in there. So, from an investing perspective, we're still really observing and going back to what Alex and Kaely were just saying.
We actually were able to see some reports from PWC and TD Wealth Management as well. They were saying that actually the universities and a lot of the post-secondaries Institute institutions are starting to downsize. They're going to go into more micro campus concepts now. Student housing, there's a lot of opportunities there to pivot and transition as well. So, for a lot of flippers and comforters or conversion experts, those where I think the opportunities would be even right here now in Alberta.
Sarah: Absolutely interesting that you mentioned the student rentals.
Alfonso: Leave it to the guy from Edmonton to make the hockey reference. I don't know if the hockey fans out there, Connor McDavid, one of the best players in the game got hurt, really bad injury, but came back stronger. I love that analogy, Tim and it's true, right? We have to be careful that anybody that says they know exactly what's going to happen.
You're going to be really careful because they have no idea. I don't hate to use the word, but it is an unprecedentedly different thing. But now, we're getting more data, more information, things coming out, all this kind of stuff. And this is why we have these panels and we talk about what's going on.
Jason mentioned out East, we definitely have a few rental owned properties out east. We need to be tied in, on what's going on. And what's figuring out the different things. Cause there is, I hate that the Canadian real estate market, there's no such thing. And when we talk about real estate investing, there's all different types of strategies.
The next question, I want to start with you, Tim, because I know you've done all different types of strategies across the pond, different economies, all this type of thing where you do a lot of research. So, what are some of the types of investments? The real estate investors should be cautious about right now, it looks like the Mirage in the desert looks amazing, be careful of it.
Tim: I love that question because I think especially with people that are a bit newer in this industry, or they're looking to get into their first deal. I'm thinking a lot of people are gonna fall into that whole flip concept. Once again, is the whole, hey, I watched a TV show. I can flip a house in half an hour or an hour. And because the market is heating up again. It's all over the news.
And so those are the people the undereducated or under or uneducated, more are going to be following the trend once again in terms of media, because media definitely controls a lot of them, a lot of how people are thinking right now. So, I would say flips are definitely one of those that people need to pay attention to.
Alfonso: Absolutely, and like you said, there's all different types of strategies. You gotta really research and see what your end goal is and work it backwards. Some of the lessons that you taught me right when you're at the front of the class and teaching those lessons. Next, I want to go to Alex and Kaely because again, you do a great job. I want to give you guys a quick show.
This is the book that Alex and Kaley and they put together and their family. It does a great job on explaining the fundamentals on what you should look for. It covers a little bit about all the different strategies that you should look at. Maybe what are the pros or cons of some strategies that people maybe should be wary of?
Alex: Right now, I think that the one you want to be really careful of is the flip we're in a really hot market right now. Things are flying off the shelf. However, with the speculation down the road, you want to be really careful. You don't get caught in the trap. That's the first thing that you want to be careful of for sure. And secondly, like to be careful overleveraging. I know a lot of people like how the BRRRR strategy has really created a massive name for herself, even though tons of people have done it, before it was ever coined the BRRRR.
But if you're banking on massive evaluation in order to extract your capital back out, just be wary that there might come a time where you may not get that evaluation. So, I would very much suggest focusing on cash, then making sure that your properties can sustain themselves versus pulling, just an equity strategy where you just, you know, you can take a negative cash flow, right? Focus more on the positive cash flow, make sure that your properties carry themselves. That's what I would really focus on.
Alfonso: Absolutely, great advice. I do, and you have to have the full picture, what your exit is, all those pieces in place before you start making those moves. How about you Jason out East? I'm not sure if we use the rental strategy? Probably like 100% out there. We don't have any holds or flips or any rentals like that. You guys manage you and your company manages so many properties out there. What are some of the things that you're looking for or maybe, hey, I'm going to stay away from that?
Jason: I think especially here in Alberta we had a lot of old buildings. And I find a lot of outside investors that aren't from New Brunswick, don't realize what they're getting into. They're just looking at the numbers. They're looking at the cash flow, all these things, but they're not looking at the building itself as a service that we do offers that we will go into a building for an investor and, see, what I believe are issues that they're not picking up on.
With the age of the windows and the buildings and the reus and the type, arrogant that it's in. So I always caution. Investors you'll let us go in. And first let's take a look before you jump into anything, because there's been many times they've jumped in, they've overpaid and then they're spending thousands of dollars on just getting the building up to code.
Alfonso: And that's so important. I know we've talked about it to many of the guests and even the panelists here tonight, Sarah, how many people we heard on the podcast say that you have to have your power team, right? Wherever it is, if you're from, like yourself, Sarah, from Oakville to Brantford or from Hamilton to Nova Scotia, you have to have boots on the ground, where people are going to be there and looking out for you and having that mindset and taking care of you.
That's a big important thing because somebody can make a mistake on a number and say a brand new roof. That's relative, somebody's 20 years old is brand new. But no, you gotta have somebody really putting their eyes on and taking a look at it.
Before I go to the next question, I'm gonna actually, I'm gonna put it on an offer. I'm going to put Alex on the spot, the first five people that go and register and actually take a screenshot that they registered on the website tonight. Can we give them five books? Could I get five books? The first five people?
Alex: All up to 10.
Alfonso: First 10 people that sign up, get on thereiteclub.com and I got my signed copy. So, that's it. Thank you so much, Alex. Sarah, I'll pass it to you.
Sarah: Amazing. Thank you so much. All right. Yeah. I will say, kudos to you guys for writing the book and sharing that information and being able to educate, cause it's all about education, right? And Canadian content is also important for Canadians. Next question. What are three tips? And it doesn't have to be three. It could be one or two that you can provide real estate investors looking to invest in your region. Let's start with Alex and Kaely. What are one, two or three tips that can be any amount? Just not more than three that you can provide us.
Kaely: Give us a call. No, in all honesty, the power team. So, going back to whatever market center that you're looking in especially if you're not from that area, if you're not overly familiar, reach out, talk to other investors, connect in networks like this is a resource it's here for a reason. You can send an email to someone, ask for a warm introduction, start to talk to people, get information about the area, and then start to build your team.
If you've never done a large scale construction project and you're in a completely different market center, you're going to have to start reaching out to a lot of people and aligning yourselves with those that do it and do it at the level that you're aspiring to be doing at that.
Sarah: Absolutely. Great. And how about you Alex, anything you want to add?
Alex: Focus on cash flow and don't over leverage.
Sarah: It's a good point, especially going into the next six to nine months. Tim, what about you?
Tim: Execute, stop speculating, execute, take action. Even if that means you've got to work with them, work with a coach, work with a mentor, just execute so many people just wait and wait and it never happens.
Sarah: Tip number one, execute tip number two, execute. There you go, Jason, what are your thoughts on that with tips and strategies or what tips can you provide us? For your region?
Jason: I guess a and I agree with everybody else on the panel here, those are great tips for sure. But get a good agent that understands investment properties. There's a lot of great agents out there that are good salespeople, but ask questions, make sure your agent understands multi unit buildings. You understand the cash flow, understand the numbers, is so important because if they don't know that stuff, they're not knowing they don't really know what they're selling you. And if you don't have someone on your side telling you these things, you could miss a good opportunity or you may get a bad opportunity.
Sarah: Absolutely. And I will say out your way, it just makes sense to buy multi-family and big multifamily. If you can get six bucks for 150 grand, that's pretty sweet. Obviously the numbers have to make sense and the cash flow.
Alfonso: And some of the nicest people too, don't forget. They got some really good people. We will wave at everybody. That's awesome guys, this is more a little bit of a broader question, and I know you guys have your lanes and need different types of strategies that you guys have all worked on, like we said, the BRRRR strategy..
It was very popular these days to rent to own, something that we do a lot flip properties, buy and hold commercials. What are some of the investing strategies that you foresee the strongest over the next? I dunno, anywhere from six to 12 months and even longer than that, if we can forecast it and again, we're not speculating. Let's start with Jason and start out East. What do you think?
Jason: Can you repeat the question again?
Alfonso: One of the strongest strategies that you foresee in the next short-term like 6 to 12 months, right? In terms of the strongest strategy that you foresee,
Jason: Can you elaborate more in order to understand?
Alfonso: We have different real estate strategies, like the BRRRR method, right? We have rent to own, flips, buy and hold, commercials, student rentals. We mentioned a bunch of them here. What would you, if you had the magic wand, what would you lean towards?
Jason: Buying. I don't know, flips very dumb people do many flips here. But buying and holding, definitely because I think our economy is just starting to pick up and get momentum. So, you want to buy, hold long-term.
Alfonso: Got it, Tim? Any other advice?
Tim: The way we look at it, real estate has always been the vehicle of how we create a cash flow and build long-term wealth. So, for me, the strategy really would be anything that falls under the creative financing umbrella, more importantly, seller financing. If you can equip yourself with knowledge and skills and understanding and negotiation tips too, on how you can get vendors take back on deals on agreement for sales on even lease options as an acquisition strategy.
Then you can now decide what exits you want to apply onto those as well, because we still foresee a lot of people. Going into financial turmoil after COVID is done or especially during this time as well, because a lot of people are buying. Are they able to offload their properties? Because we also know that a lot of people, when they're making offers right now, the conditions are conditional upon the sale of existing property.
Is their take on it? Will that next purchase actually go through? Just knowing how to solve people's problems. That's why I'm saying seller financing techniques .
Alfonso: Yeah, not so much on the what, but on how you acquire and how you get the acquisition. If you can hold onto it, it's not that you can maybe evolve and have a few different strategies all in one. Love it. Great answer. It's why we love having you on your team. And if you haven't met him, he's a great mentor of mine throughout real estate.
And one of the first educators that I've met. It's always good to listen to hear from you as well, Alex and Kaely. You guys are mixing it up and have some commercial space, some building, some residential, what are some of the strategies that you're looking at and thinking that are good to forecast for the next?
Alex: I really agree with Tim's point there, the vendor take-back strategy, I think is going to be a really great one in the upcoming months already. It is right. We still are focusing on the broader strategy. Of course, I do think that, with the stress that's being put on, for example, first time home buyers would be CMHC rules changing. What's that going to do for first-time home buyers who thought they were ready to purchase, but now they decide to stay home with mom and dad for the next year or two? Or are they now going to be renting one bedroom apartments, these kinds of things. Really start to think about what the effects are going to be down the road.
We still are very confident in the BRRRR. And now make your money on the buy. Make sure that you're buying it. And make sure you're not overleveraging yourself. And if for some reason, you bought too high, your construction goes up too much. The BRRRR still is the safest strategy. As long as the property is carrying yourself, give it a year, give it a year and a half, two years. And it will correct itself.
Sarah: I'm just going to say the BRRRR strategy. Ultimately, you just want to have more than one exit strategy, right? So, if you are a flipper and that's your strategy, just keep in mind. If you need to hold it, hopefully it still works as a hold. And whether you're renting it short-term or long-term.
Alfonso: All I want to do is just repeat what Alex said to make money on the buy, right? That's like on the two tablets of real estate investing, like the original commandments, make money on the buy that's huge. That's a little key piece. I did want to make sure that we cover there.
Sarah: Absolutely. All right. Next question is, why would you encourage people to look at investing in your area? I'm really big on the market fundamentals and looking at population, job and growth industries in the area, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But why Ontario, or why Atlantic Canada, or why West Coast, Alberta had been tended, et cetera. Specifically, in that region you know, we'll start with you, Tim.
Tim: We've been focusing a lot more on developments at this point as well. A lot of you guys know. And Edmondson doesn't like the Edmonson market. No offense, Calgary, even though we had this got a bigger population, the economies and the economic drivers are just not as diverse in Calgary.
In Edmonton, there's a lot more fundamentals. It's like what Sarah, you were mentioning. It's all about the fundamentals. And I think a lot of times people kind of overcomplicate things or once again, they follow media frenzy. And so, let's just peel back and look at who the major employers are, what the economic plans are in the regional, from the regional government, from the provincial government, from the federal government. Because even though yes, we're all going more, a greener in our energy.
However, we know that it's still going to take time. Oil is bouncing back, despite what most people are thinking and saying, we're what you guys are seeing because we're local. We know what's happening between our tenants, tenant buyers and all our team members. We hear things that are not on the news because the news is not good, not going to give you all of those kinds of things. And we're still doing developments right here.
However, we are definitely now actively going back into the lower mainland BC market as well to look for land. Because again, it's very much, we're going through the same thing like BC was going through two years ago, but the demand continues to be high. However, the value is dropping. And so a lot of you guys probably know the lower mainland market, which is just crazy, the most expensive properties and land values across the country.
Back in 2014, we were able to do a condo development project there. And so, now we're looking to go back there too. So, I think there's a lot of good land opportunities, because I think that's where a lot of people are shying away from. Obviously, again, if this is your new what this, that would maybe involve you to read.
First of all, it gets some education. And like what Kaely was saying, really find power team members that understand what they're doing, because you're likely going to be participating in a syndication or at the very least speak to a mortgage broker who is also an investor who understands how to secure and park your money.
Sarah: Absolutely. Thanks for sharing that. Ontario Alex, Kaely, what about you with Ontario specifically?
Kaely: We cover such a broad range. There's so many different markets within Ontario. I mean we can speak pretty confidently to anywhere in the Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton specifically, but immigration. We still have a ton of people moving into Ontario and we have very little housing to support that. Our rental market is strong. Our prices are strong. We have a relatively secure employment sector as well. Obviously, COVID has affected, I think everyone across the board, but we're diverse enough that we have a lot of industries that are still maintaining a lot of strength even throughout COVID.
Alex: Personally speaking, I'm a big advocate. I know just about anywhere. And so, that Ontario is right now just hot. But we personally like the West end. We just think that there's a ton of opportunity, the Tri-City area in the even Hamilton, even St. Catherine's up, Niagara Falls, Welland, we're seeing. When you're in it day to day, and the changes that the city's making for example, in Hamilton, there's a massive airport development. That's taking place.
We've got the Bayfront development, but you see the changes taking place. Trans is coming through, it keeps you optimistic and it just goes to show you that real estate's not a get rich quick, it's a buy, wait and you will succeed.
Sarah: Absolutely. And I really liked what you guys mentioned, so there's many markets, right? There's no such thing as a Canadian real estate market. And there's actually really no such thing as an Ontario real estate market or an Alberta real estate market, because there's so many different sub pockets. That it's just so important because if you're going to thunder bay or you're going to wind.
Or you were going to downtown Toronto and you're looking at condos or you're looking at Multilink. It's so different. Thanks for mentioning that as well. Jason, what about you? What are some of the fundamentals or what are some things that people would like to know about your area?
Jason: I think the biggest thing about our area in New Brunswick is that we're at the bottom. Now, we're starting to go up. We don't have a big population here but we are starting to get a lot of immigration. A lot of people are coming back to New Brunswick that have gone out West to work, and they're looking for homes and looking for rental properties and things like that.
The biggest opportunity here would be your pricing. Your money can go much further here with your investors. Because our land is cheaper, our properties are cheaper. There's a lot more you can do with them. And a lot more opportunity. New Brunswick is a beautiful province, a lot of open forests and rivers. And there's lots of opportunity here , lots to grow, so much room to grow here.
Sarah: Amazing. Very cool. All right. Alfonso, what do you think, should we go to the last question?
Alfonso: Guys, this has been amazing. It's been awesome to hear from the experts from all different pockets of this country and why we want to do this on a consistent basis because there's things that we can learn that Tim's doing out in Edmonton, or Jason's doing out in Nova Scotia that Alex and Kaely are doing right here in Hamilton, the Greater Hamilton Area that we can apply to whatever we want to invest in real estate and those things.
That's why there's a McDonald's in almost every city, guys. You can buy real estate in every city, drop it down and real estate. But the last question I want to throw a throw to everybody here is, what's one thing that you would like the REITE club community to know that we haven't talked about so far tonight. Just one thing that you want to share with some of the people that are on tonight, the people that are listening to this that maybe isn't the hot topic or on the news or people aren't talking about that you want to share. Let's bring it out East and then bring it back home. Let's start with you, Jason.
Jason: What's the one thing I want people to know that we haven't talked about yet. Why is that covered a lot? Just trying to think about what we have to offer.
Alfonso: It could be about whiskey.
Jason: Whiskey is a wonderful thing. It's like real estate, you explore all the different facets of whiskey, there's good and bad whiskey, and whiskey is an investment. Some whiskeys are very expensive. But what we did as far as real estate goes, we haven't picked on. I really think we covered everything as far as I know.
Alfonso: Okay. Fair enough. All right thanks, Jason. You know what, I'm sorry for the tough question guys, but Tim Alex, and Kaely I know that they always.
Alex: I would suggest at this point, be very careful on what you listened to in the media. There's so much stuff that we hear about, like major headlines that when you actually read into the script, it was like a quote as part of a sentence that meant something completely different. You make sure that you really look behind the curtains, make sure that you're really doing your due diligence so that you're not basing your decisions, especially in investing on hypothetical or just flashing.
Another thing to really caution too is, this whole CMHC change and we've been talking to a few experts in Ottawa just in terms of what's been going on and once again, it's speculation. I don't know any of this for sure. But because the government has, we're in some serious debt as of the payouts and things like that, pull CMHC, maybe an indicator.
Now, once again, like there's no proof, there's no guarantee that I like that. We know that but some of the speculation is that there may be a government working with layoffs, these kinds of things, and that's going to shake up consumer confidence. So, just keep in mind, like once again, speculation, we don't know there's been no real announcements about it, but whenever you see signs, CMHC is no longer taking 5%.
Now it's only 10%. These are signs that you have to think about. Why are these? What does this mean for my business? What does this mean a year from now or a month from now? Whatever, just stay educated and make sure that you're not reading the fluff.
Alfonso: Good job. I love it. Dig deep and really get the facts and apply it. Information is one thing, but applying it and doing what you're doing to what your business is and what your investing strategies are, that's the key. Let's end it off in Alberta. Tim, what one thing that you wanted to share that maybe we haven't covered tonight.
Tim: I think what I want to share is Alex, you and I are like, you're my brother from another mother. A lot of people like to joke about the fact that all my teams. If there's one word to sum me up, it's the word context, context matters. People get taken out of context. So, I'll put jokes aside though. The one thing that I want to share is, again, if you're going into a new area, especially, I literally just had another conversation with somebody up in Fort St. John yesterday and was looking at opportunities there.
One of the biggest questions that I always ask is tell me something that I would not otherwise find out in any other areas from any other avenue.
I'll give you a quick example. The reason why I asked that question is Alberta, Edmonton, especially who here thinks that Edmonton has a tech sector. Nobody, Edmonton has one of the biggest, if not the biggest AI tech sector in all of Canada. Most people think it's the GTA because Google was going to set up a giant Google University there, however, it is actually Edmonton.
The only reason why people don't hear about it, is because a lot of these people, they will graduate from say Waterloo. They will graduate from any other University, even US University, international universities, they will come into an AI based company in Edmonton. Within a year or two, they get head hunted to go down to Google, to go down to Facebook, to go to Silicon valley, who want to spend it minus 40 here in the winter time when they go to Sunny, California.
That's why it's not a big thing. And most people don't hear about it. However, there is that traffic that actually holds that bind pool where there's demand for high-end condos, how's it houses still. So, those are the things that people don't hear about just like Colona and BC. They were gearing up to be Silicon Valley as well before Katie ever saw it. Now, Vancouver is going to be competing for that title too.
Alfonso: It's so important. And this is why these are these types of webinars, this information, having the experts. I got the best of the best in their industries that are doing it every day. Boots on the ground, not just reading about it, actually lifting up the sleeves and working.
And I want to make a point that, as we were answering those last couple of questions, the chat was on fire. And we're talking about the CMHC announcement. I want to give Alex the opportunity to clear it up. It's not that you heard the announcement, it's when you hear types of announcements, you weren't making a stating factor.
Alex: No. I want to be very quick. There are a lot of news headlines of the speculation that CMHC will be.
Alfonso: Exactly. And just to prove. We have Claire Drage who is an amazing supporter and sponsor on there and she's right on there and going, Nope, they still do the five where you know what, there's no Donald Trump's on this channel here. We're fact checking and we're making sure, so, sorry if that upset anybody.
Sarah: It's just, they made some changes for example, like how much your credit score needs to be. And there's a few other changes, but this is work with a mortgage broker, as an investor we're not in that percentage necessarily of going to the 5% down. Most likely unless you're gonna live in the property we are doing 20%, but definitely there are some changes like Alex and Kaely, you guys mentioned and there might be more changes.
When you look at it, about a month ago, Scotia said no more. He locks us to the source of down payment during COVID and things might go back to normal. They will go back to normal. Everyone's definitely taking some extra precautions.
Alfonso: I'm not to use the COVID lingo, but I think maybe it's like that first wave, if it's going from 5 to 10 and speculating that, then how does that impact and get that second wave to investors and going on. Cause I know Tim, like you, you do a lot of rental as well, too. So, that CMHC rule is very important on the exit strike. I have rent to own if it's 5 or 10 or 15. And Tim always taught me, do this stress test before the stress test, we knew what the stress test was before it was cool or not cool. Depending on which way?
Alex: No, from that standpoint though, like when it comes to things like financing, like for example, Kaely and I on the investing side. We rely on our power team. So, we actually use Claire's team and we have a very close relationship with Amiel and we were talking twice, three times a week, sometimes on what's going on? What is this going to mean? What if we decide to do this, how does this fix this? Yeah. Just highlighting once again, the importance of surrounding yourself with people that know more while we can verify the headline.
Alfonso: Yeah, absolutely guys. We can talk all night, but we're going to wrap up this panel from Eastern Canada, from Western Canada and in Ontario. Thank you guys, Alex and Kaely and Tim and Jason. Thank you guys for sharing your information, your knowledge with our REITE club nation.
Here's their info as promised. Guys reach out to them, get in touch with them. Some amazing comments, questions, and really great answers for you guys. Thank you guys for sharing your time with us. And we know that is so important and the greatest asset that we all have and why we do what we do. So thank you guys. It means the world to us in sharing your knowledge.
Kaely: Thank you.
Sarah: That's great. So, these guys are awesome. Reach out to them, Tim, Alex, Kaely, Jason, build your team, right? We would not the four of us be here today, or maybe you guys as well. Had you not built a team to help you get to that next level? Alfonso, what was your biggest take away point?
Alfonso: You know what? I was like scribbling down my notes and listening to the questions. One thing I want to say to the biggest takeaway from, even all of this as we've been growing and evolving the REITE club and getting online is really having the knowledge from all these different people.
If you want to talk to three people and feel comfortable for it's like the one person, a hundred people listen to 50 webinars, but get different opinions. Fight both sides of the argument. Don't always have it with rose colored glasses. And that's why partnerships and power teams are so important and having people on your side. And focus on cash flow. That was the other one.
Sarah: Absolutely.
- Log in or register to post comments
- ARNEL-LLEMIT-1637316866's Blog