Discover the Resort Development Real Estate Investing Strategy

Introducing the Inspire Beach Resort with Sarah Larbi and Harry James

The pandemic has seen increased demand and prices for vacation-type properties either as 2nd properties or for short-term rental investment opportunities. This coupled with a desire to stay closer to home and have an almost all-inclusive type experience has created a gap in the market for higher-end resorts and multi-guest properties that real estate investors are starting to look at for a diversified income strategy. 
 
This very special National event focused on resort development and other multi-guest real estate investing opportunities. Our guests shared their experiences and projects so you can determine if this is a real estate investing strategy you want to pursue. 

Daniel: Harry James and Sarah Larbi. Harry James is a serial, some people would say serious entrepreneur with numerous businesses, restaurants. He owns a quarry and a company that focuses on finance and employee benefit. Harry is a certified real estate junkie with more than a hundred million dollars of deals in the rear view mirror devoted to playing the game to win while protecting his most precious asset, time.

I can understand that once you get to your age there at 35, 37, the meantime is really important. Sarah doesn't know about that yet, but she'll grow into it. Sarah Larbi, the millennial real estate investor speaker, mentor, podcast host, and REITE club co-founder. Her goal is to inspire young professionals to own property faster and easier. She does a wonderful job at doing that from what we hear.

If you're gonna teach something, you better do it yourself. Sarah Larbi, retired from the nine to five job world on October 1st, 2020, after investing in real estate using the BRRRR strategy, which is Buy Renovate, Rent, Refinance, and Repeat. You've done that at that point, you've done that for seven years and your portfolio includes a mix of long term and short term rentals in South Ontario. Recently, Sarah started acquiring lend to build on and using the BRRRR strategy.

As soon as you hear the word resorts, just the word immediately brings a vision to mind. No matter what you're looking for or where in the world, you're thinking that a resort should be about an experience. Tonight, our seasoned real estate investor success can be attributed to the fact that they're able to think outside the box and see opportunities, bring together teams and expertise to move from vision to reality.

This creativity and being open to opportunity has allowed their real estate portfolio to now include resort development. This is a strategy that most real estate investors have not even considered yet. That's one of the things we're gonna find out tonight, or guess will be sharing their experiences and projects. You can determine if this is a real estate investing strategy you want to pursue. Good evening folks.

Sarah: Thank you, Daniel. That was a wonderful intro. It's nice to think outside the box. Cause I think we gotta pivot, but I'm excited. I'm excited to also be here with my mentor, the one and only Harry James.

Daniel: I'm gonna go with the first question. What are the reasons you guys decided to build a resort?

Sarah: Because we're crazy. Of course not. Like you mentioned, a lot of what I was doing was the BRRRR strategy and at some point, real estate. In my opinion, it should be boring but once in a while it could be a passion project. Once in a while, it could be fun. When I started getting into the development part and we found some really cool land for some townhouses and stuff like that with Harry we said, hey, what about tiny homes? Like a tiny home cottage resort or something along those lines.

That was before we found land and then we actually found some land and actually created a vision that we're still creating. But I think the reason that we got into that is two things. I think 1. We've gotta have fun doing what we do. 2. I think it's time to pivot, do something a little bit different cuz what was working yesterday is not necessarily gonna work today.

The BRRRR strategy, even back in the day, doesn't work as much anymore. You've gotta go into some bigger, better things in order to make the numbers work and in the resort is a way to also pivot and do something different while enjoying something really cool that can set you apart from everybody else. Harry, what about you?

Harry: Sarah, let's be honest. You're the one that dragged me into this thing. You focused on tiny cottages. Also, disclaimer, were kind enough to present us as experts in resorts that nothing could be further from the truth. We are novices at resorts. I love real estate. My passion for real estate got me owning a quarry, why? Because the land that I bought had an existing quarry on it. I ended up becoming a quarry owner for 13 years. My real estate passion caused me to become a restaurant tour, why? Because I own three properties that were perfect for restaurants that had commercials.

I tried to do it myself, but failed miserably. Now, thankfully I still own the properties and restaurant tours that know what they're doing or paying the rent. But I agree with Sarah, I think in this particular environment I think one of the best ways to create value, it's a little riskier, but is to build something that doesn't exist. We have an aging population. People are more interested in experiences today than they are in. That is going to build more and more.

Everybody's my age and older, they want to travel, they want to have experiences, but they also wanna experience nice things. Sarah actually sourced this beautiful piece of property that was always its own commercial, six acres on shadow lake and coming area. My partner, Joe, and I went for a look and anyways, we bought it. We got what I think is a reasonable deal and now we're learning as we go. No, we're not experts. We've got the zoning, we've got the permits, we're building four cabins, which should be ready for our retreat, August the ninth.

We're learning all sorts of cool stuff about water purification and septic tanks. It's weird, but we're focused on the experience. Not necessarily the budget. We're doing these really high end finishes in the cottage and every little tiny cottage has got its own.

When you go to inspire beach resort, you've got your own privacy, but you can also walk down the beach and mingle at the main fire pit. We've got all sorts of outdoor activities. We feel that if almost like that movie, if we build it, they will come. If we do this again in six months, we'll let you know if it actually happened, the fallback position is six acres on a beautiful lake. Even though I'm a very positive, optimistic person, I know Sarah is too, but even if we get bumped and bruised along the way, we do have a contingency plan, but we do think the market is right for this. It's a boutique. It's high end. It's in an area that doesn't have any competition. We really think that we're onto something and we're excited to create it and see exactly what people think of it when it's done.

Daniel: I will correct myself. You are experts in the making because after six months of working on this or a year and a half of working on this, you will be experts. We're catching you at the beginning. Yes, Sarah, how did you purchase and structure the deal?

Sarah: Like Harry said, I dragged him into it. I'm thankful that he and Joe came in, but ultimately it was about finding the right zoning. Cuz changing zoning on something could be years potentially and may not even happen. And originally actually we found a different piece of property that was close to the water and there were some trailers on it and we're gonna do something. Remember that Harry? And it was on a floodplain and it was just everything was wrong with it in terms of the land itself, even though it looked really nice. But I think that cultivated the idea of just continuing to look for something with the right zoning. We just got lucky it was on MLS purchased it for 1.2. We got 1.1 zone C3 that allows for resorts.

That was probably the main thing I was looking for when I was looking at MLS, called the listing agent directly sometimes, again, it might be easier if you are experienced in having done a few transactions in the past, maybe to just deal with the selling agent there. We were able to negotiate a vendor take back. I believe it was for 850,000 of that. That's for two years. It was like a 5% rate which we actually just recently paid out anyways early.

We essentially closed with cash now. How we found it was really ultimately just the right zoning and just understanding what that zoning permits and going from there. It's interesting because we got that and it was in the middle of winter. I believe, maybe it was February.

Harry: The market was definitely depressed. It was suppressed and yeah, it was not a time where you'd be looking around for a resort for sure.

Sarah: It actually ended up being a lot prettier than we thought. Of course we had like pictures from back then. It used to actually be an old resort, many years ago. It was essentially torn down in the ground. And then there was one decrepit house that was exposed to the elements for the last 10 years with barely a roof.

I'll tell you, we walked through that, definitely I should have had a hazmat suit on and a big mask. We tore that to the ground now, but that was rough on that property, but it's important to know how to close and negotiate certain things because that would never get a regular type of financing, especially land that is harder to finance.

Harry: I think that's an excellent point, Sarah, for anybody on the line. When you're looking for stuff that's not in the mainstream, vendor take backs are much more readily available. We would've never got a mortgage on that commercial where nobody would've lent anything on that, but the person selling it knows that.

It's just a case of giving them the confidence that you're gonna pay their interest payments. Those types of deals do create a very attractive vendor take back or private financing type arrangements that allow you to go down a different road that maybe ultimately you wouldn't be able to go down.

Daniel: I got lots of questions for you guys, but one of them is that on August 9th, you're hoping that the four cottages will be finished when the whole project is done. When the whole resort is finished, how many cottages will you have?

Harry: We'll have five cabins and another four cabins above a main lodge house. There'll be a rockstar type cottage, probably 7,000 square feet. Where if you were having a wedding, you could have 15 people stay in the house. You'd have a main ball area, you'd have an infinity pool. This is the kind of place you could book for a wedding, a corporate conference, a retirement party, a private family outing very exclusive, but with all the amenities and everything that you need right at your fingertip.

Daniel: That's the one that Sarah's gonna use when she invites all the lady friend there to have some wine over the weekend. That probably came up with that idea. What's the timeline? When will the project be finished?

Harry: Three to five years. The second phase we have to put in, once you get this certain number of people on the property, you're subject to water purification rules. We'll have to put in 150,000 to 200,000 water purification systems before we take it to the next level.

That's what's gonna open the door for finishing it off. We bought it in two separate parcels. What's interesting and fortunate for us is we don't have to spend the $200,000 before we build the rockstar cottage cuz the rockstar cottage is on a separate lot that we bought at the same time, right next door. That allows us to combine them, even though they're separate, but it doesn't subject us to the water purification rules.

Daniel: I had a question about financing. You talked about it quite a bit, but as I remember you, this is the BRRR R. At some point there's going to be Refinance, Rent and Refinance, at some point, will you be going mainstream to get a mortgage or financing on this deal?

Harry: It's uncharted water. I'm gonna say September, October, once we have a little bit of track record and some people booking it and an appraiser can walk around. It's gonna be very interesting to see how they're gonna value it and what type of commercial financing we might qualify for.

Not counting on it. We do have private resources that we can draw upon, but it will be interesting to see how that unfolds. This is one of those things. It's just not an easy thing to put your arms around because you can't look at the one next door and compare.

Daniel: Before I ask the next question, you're talking to us tonight about thinking out of the box and doing something different and creating something that's not there. You're doing that with the resort, but at the same we've got 25 minutes tonight. This is not a course or a workshop on how to find, build, develop, market and run a resort because that would be a full Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM in order to go through all of that.

People who are on this call, please don't think that in 20 minutes you're gonna be able to just pick up your phone, go and find a piece of land and then copy what these people are doing because there's a lot more to this than what we're gonna be talking about.

In general, we're gonna be asking a few questions about zoning, building permits. What are the things that somebody should be thinking about? Like you mentioned earlier, Sarah, one of the first things was to find a piece of land that had the right zoning.

Sarah: One of the things I would say just aside from that, because these are likely projects that are gonna cost. An unknown amount, right? It's hard. Let's just face it. It's hard to actually pinpoint how much this is gonna cost. Let's just say each cottage is, I don't know, 200,000 the furnishings themselves. I think we went high end on that one 40 K a cottage but then there's a lot of stuff. Like septic tanks are expensive, but what I will say is it's important to understand where your money is going to be coming from.

It's one thing to close with a VTB. But how are you going to get the cash for this? This is gonna be likely a couple million potentially more to finance. If you don't have access to private money, this could be again, we didn't do it this way. For us, I think the less people that are involved in the project, the easier in the long run, but could we have brought in investors could, if you get a piece of land and you're like, I don't have the cash, to build even though there's a VTB, maybe you bring in some investors for shares or cottages or something along those lines.

There's definitely different ways that we can structure it. I think we had a good discussion here in the beginning about whether we wanna offer a piece of the pie and bring in some money partners. I think we decided to not do that, but it doesn't mean that if you don't have access to private funding for something like this, again at a reasonable rate it doesn't mean that you can't do these projects. You might just share a little bit of more of the pie by bringing in some investors.

Harry: I think Sarah, let's be frank and maybe it's not appropriate to say this, but one of the reasons we don't wanna bring in, like I'll bring in investors and stuff that I know. For 35 years, I've brought investors into projects that we know our stuff and people have made money thankfully every single time. That's what we've built our reputation on, and that's what we're known for.
When I'm going down the road less traveled and I don't have a precedent and I don't have a track record and I'm groping around in the dark and flying in the clouds without an instrument. I don't necessarily wanna bring people along for the ride with me, because I don't want their experience to be negative.

I would hope that it's gonna be positive, but I've got at this point, insulated myself and I'm ready. I have the intestinal fortitude for the downside, but if you're just starting out or if it's your first deal or you're going along with the hope that you really wanna make money. I would be careful to bring people into deals where you're not a hundred percent sure yourself where it's gonna land. You'll suffer reputational damage and you'll lose out on joint ventures in the future because inadvertently you'll create a negative exchange with whoever you bring along in the deal.

Daniel: And the thing too is that, you two are what I call and I'm one of them. I can call you that this is not a negative, but you are very adventurous entrepreneurs. But you talk to people about coming with you. First of all, they're gonna see your business plan and a proforma. And from what I understand here, there is no business plan and there is no proforma. That would scare most people.

Sarah: You know what, though that's the kind of project that these are, because not there's resorts out there, but I'll tell you, everyone is doing them so differently and you can take them into so many different directions. I think what we bring to the table is real estate investing experience and being able to combine some things that we've done in the past into something new like, for example, the Airbnb and cottage stuff, I love renting on Airbnb. I love that short term stuff.

Harry's been developing for many years. I think there's pieces of our experience that we could bring together. But really ultimately, like for the ride, along the way. I think there'll definitely be ups and definitely downs. It's about mental strength too. They say 95% of real estate investing success is your mindset.

Harry: A hundred percent. And let me jump on the bandwagon here for a second and again, I don't mean to offend anybody, but business plans and proformas is what's keeping people poor. Richard Branson's never made a business plan in his life. Business plans and proformas become an excuse not to act. They become a way of making sure that there's not gonna be any risk or any failure. I'm not saying that you don't run some numbers and so on, but vision belief, conviction, creativity come out of a mindset where failure is not an option.

When you have a gut feeling that something is gonna work, something feels right. Whether it be the community, the direction, things that are up and coming it's when you lean into that fear and take that step of faith, that magical things can happen in your life. At the end of the day, what's the worst that's gonna happen. Proformas and business plans are keeping way too many people on the sidelines and there, and this is like the banking mentality. I'll lend you the money when you can prove to me that I'll never lose any well, that's not the way it works in the entrepreneurial world.

Daniel: I'm totally with you on that. Actually, I have a book downstairs here in my business library, and I swear to you, the title is if you wanna make God really laugh, show him your business plan. That's the title. We have acquired 63 properties and with investors and I don't even know how to read a proforma. I don't even know how to write one.

I'm totally understanding what you're saying here. The other thing too, is that because of this type of adventure, I'm betting that in five years, when you look at the finished product. It's going to be very different from what you guys, I didn't mind when you started at the beginning. If you had a business plan, you'd be following the business plan. You have to decide everything up front, but now as things go.

Sarah: It's already so different. Like we've pivoted and then you have things that you cannot even do, right? There's some limitations by what the town can do with the septics and this and that. This is about pivoting probably every single week. There's a pivot and that's just part of doing something creative versus just the cookie cutter type of things.

Harry: It's kinda interesting when it's creative and this is what I love about entrepreneurialism in the real estate business. Money becomes a byproduct of following through on your vision. See, money's not the goal. Money becomes the byproduct of creating something that you believe in that's special. When you pursue things that way, I truly believe you end up at a much higher level.

Many people go into real estate deals or business opportunities with a defensive position. I don't wanna lose, I don't wanna spend more than this. And they start to compromise the project instead of leaning into it and doing the right thing. What Sarah and I are not doing is cutting corners. She mentioned we're spending $40,000 per cabin for furniture.

Sarah: Just the furniture. That's not even the cups, the plates that like everything else.

Harry: They're 500 square feet. When we say high end, we mean high end. We've carved out the forest and put them in unique places on pylons, which costs a lot more money and a lot more engineers. We're cutting past through the forest. We're trying to create a natural stage through a hill and we're doing all this.

The last thing on our mind when we're talking about these things is money. It's about creating the picture, the vision that is gonna draw the people there for the experiences. We truly believe that money will follow if we don't cut corners and if we don't compromise.

Daniel: I'm wondering here, going back to the business fund. Walt Disney had the business fund, when they designed Disneyland way back. What are some things that an investor should consider before taking on a project of this size beside the right mindset?

Harry: To me it's more about, again, it really goes back to mindset. Everybody on the line tonight has their own definition of success and their own direction. They have a lifestyle they wanna live and things in life they want to experience before they check out that vision, that lifestyle, their desires should dictate what deals they do. Don't look at the deal. Shouldn't dictate your lifestyle, the deal shouldn't dictate your experiences. You should decide that.

When you're looking for deals or when you're looking for opportunities, you'll determine whether or not it lines up with your vision and your criteria. I think too many people are letting the deal dictate lifestyle as opposed to lifestyle dictating the deal. I think that's what you have to be emotionally connected to what you want out a life.

When you are emotionally connected to what you want, you get into the deals to make it happen. If I have a deal that's too big for me and I've done a few of them, I'll break it down into three or four pieces. If it's a great deal, let's say it's a deal. It's a million dollars. And I can only afford 250. I'm buying the million and I'm sharing the other three shares with people that have a desire to win. 25% of something is better. A hundred percent of nothing. Today in corporations, you can cut up deals anyway. I would almost argue no deals too big. It's just a question. Is it the right deal? Does it fit? Is it gonna give you the equity or the lift that you're looking for?

Daniel: Any comments on that, Sarah?

Sarah: I definitely agree. I think it's also just looking at if you had to exit, what does the exit look like? The cottage just next door in a different lot, like once that's built. That's gonna be definitely more than what we purchased the properties for the two properties together and then some so I think it's just also looking at what are some worst case scenario exits not necessarily being scared, not to do it, but just that you can still pivot at the end and you can mitigate the risk.

We had a conversation even just about, and I think you did on Instagram too, about where the market's going and what's happening and everything like that. I think this is where the mindset piece also comes back. And a lot of people now are sitting on the sidelines and should we be sitting on the sidelines or should we still be looking at deals? Cause I think there's some really good deals out there right now.

Daniel: I'm guessing that one of the things that is part of your mindset is, if there's a will, you'll find a way.

Sarah: Ultimately like real estate is forgiving in the long term. We don't do quick projects, it is important for me to say, if I'm gonna buy something, what is the idea and what are some plan Bs plan Cs in case that initial thing doesn't work out.

Harry: I think the thing is too and I agree. We live in a society where, you know, people wanna make 80% in Bitcoin overnight. The reality is you might have some people on the line tonight that are real estate investors. They're seeing the increase in interest rates. They're hearing about how people are gonna walk away from their homes in four years.

They're hearing about all the devastation and they're hearing about inflation. They're starting to think maybe I shouldn't have done this, maybe I need to get out. I wonder if I'm gonna be okay. It starts to affect their health, their anxiety, their peace. I just wanna encourage everybody to understand real estate's business.

If you play the long game, as Sarah just said, the long game in real estate is a winning game. A long game is a winning game. It's when you need your reaction. If you get scared, if you react emotionally, that's when you can lock in some poor mistakes, turn off the news, turn off the naysayers, turn off the people that think the world is coming to an end. It's not.

As Sarah said, even in this environment, as a matter of fact, probably more in this environment. There are some incredible opportunities because when people get fearful, there's a lot more deals available for those of us that are in it for the long haul.

Daniel: You're right. We were just having this conversation this afternoon, actually. Yes, I live in Niagara on the Lake and the houses here. I've gone down 10% in the last two months, but they went up 29% last year. Guess what? We're still way ahead of the game from 18 months ago. People slow down. Like you said, stop reading the news. And you've got a couple of gray hairs.

I can see there. You were not around in 1981, when the interest rate hit 21.65%. To all the folks out there who are going from 3.25% to 3.75% was a long way, and it's never gonna happen again from 21.65%. Relax, enjoy your summer and in the fall, you'll see how things are gonna bounce back. But anyway we're digressing. Can one of you tell me more about inspire beach resort?

Harry: Sarah you take it away and I'll parge in the gaps.

Sarah: We did wanna create something unique, something where people can be inspired, something that is different from every other resort. We are pivoting every single week, but essentially the concept is going to be luxury adults only. It's gonna be all season with all of the little extra perks that you may not expect from a typical getaway. But we still wanna make it so that it's boutique and small enough, it's still quiet.

There's a beautiful beach, Sandy beach area, nice water. But just a place where somebody like you and me, Harry, wanna get away and spend two hours driving or less. And then we've got a nice weekend getaway where you've got a different cottage experience. Every time you go, you've got beautiful beach services that come to you. But it's also going to be a place where I think Harry mentioned corporate events, boutique, weddings, retreats, we're gonna do one retreat, but there's gonna be many other potential people that will rent it as well for retreats.

Me, personally, when I go away to all inclusive. I wanna go somewhere where I can sit down and to be honest, it's adults only usually. And I think we're gonna start it at 16 plus. I don't think there's many adults only resorts, but we also want to theme them all differently so that you can come back and you stay at a different cottage and it's all a different experience.

Even though it's a resort where these places are located, all very private and so you're not necessarily cuz we visited some other resorts as we were doing this. We went to some beautiful resort in pickle. And we got a nice tour, but the cottages were so close together.
You can hear the conversation from over the next cottage, but we're building something like our vision of where we would wanna go and I'm sure there's gonna be many other people that will have the same desires and the same goals of experiences that I think this is going to be, as we go into each year, every single year, I think it's almost more about experiences.

Life is short. It's about experiencing something different. We are not gonna be the cheapest. In fact, we're probably gonna be at a premium price. But we are gonna be creating an experience that you can't necessarily get from another resort. I think one of the big concepts and the big discussions that we've been having, but Harry feels free to fill any gaps.

Harry: The one thing I would just add is in my career and believe it or not, I was around in 1981 and interest rates between 1%. As a matter of fact, I had a mortgage in 1990, at 13.5% on a $400,000 mortgage, which is actually equivalent to a million dollar mortgage today.

Everybody thinks it's a lot more expensive today. It's not really, but anyways that I digress, but for me, when I'm building businesses or I'm going through a period in my life where I'm reflecting or trying to figure out what to do. I always go away. I always get outta my natural environment and that's where the best ideas come to me. It's where the most creative ideas come to me.

This resort is to just do that, to inspire, to sharpen your acts, to reflect on what matters most in life, not the monopoly game, but your relationships, your health, vitality and all of the things that we do to try to make the world a better place.

For anybody I know, when they get out of their natural environment, whether it be their house or their office, and they get away for two or three days and they step back and they reflect and they plan and they meditate and they look at the world through a different lens. That's when some pretty pivotal things happen in life.

The name inspires not just a cute little name. It was born out of that philosophy of, hey, push the pause button, sharpen the ax, take care of the most important investment, which is the person in the mirror. And every part of the surroundings is to enhance that and to reflect that vibe.

Daniel: Which of course is hard to do when you go away for a week and you bring your two year old, four year old, six year old and 10 year old, and you can't do much of that. I can see why you're thinking adults only the sound level will be different. Everything that's gonna happen there will be a little different than in most cottages where you go. That's pretty cool. Anything else that is, did you guys bring any pictures? Can you show us any preview of what's gonna happen?

Sarah: I can show you guys a little preview of the different cottage themes that we're thinking of doing. This is where each cottage is costing $40,000. I can show you, we have a great designer that Harry has been working with for many projects. We asked her to come up with different concepts for every single cottage, so that it's a different experience.

Here's an example. She's one of the cottages that will be a lodge cottage, so you can see the themes and the different look and feel. This rustic cottage is bedroom two, each of them is gonna have two bedrooms. And then we're gonna have a couch that's gonna pull out. There'll be six people that can go. We have different floorings, different shower tiles, et cetera.

That's all for the one cottage. There we go. The second one, the lake house cottage. Again look and feel it's gonna be different. The vintage Hollywood is actually a blueprint of the cottages. This is what it's gonna look like. If you guys can see that, two bedrooms, bathroom, then open concepts, vintage Hollywood again, the nautical cottage.

Every single one as we build them we'll have a different look and then I can show you a picture of the beach, which we're still gonna expand. Here's essentially part of the acreage with the waterfront. This changes every day. They're actually getting through the woods and now they've opened up this nice parking spot. There used to be about four acres of wood. Let's see if I can show you guys the beach.

Harry: We've created a parking lot for 60 cars.

Sarah: That's the beach area here. Got a nice dock. Every single week we're moving forward, cuz essentially these cottages need to be done by July. We tell Joe our builder, he's got a certain time timeline to get things done.

Daniel: I was looking at your pictures and my first wife back in the seventies, their parents had a cottage, one of those where it's basically just four walls in plywood with four windows and whatever, not even four seasons. This looks really fancy. It looks like somebody's house in Burlington or York or whatever. I can see your market will be people who first of all can afford it, but also will appreciate that luxury.

Sarah: And you don't have to build for everybody. I think sometimes people build for the masses. You just have to build for enough people to see your vision. And look at red brick lofts, Harry built red brick lofts. You just needed a certain amount of tenants to pay a premium price.

That building has beautiful high end finishes. We're gonna do something very similar with a cottage and many people can go to a cheap cottage with those walls that you were saying Daniel with a bunch of kids stuff. There's lots of cottages like that, but what is something that's tailored for adults for peace, for inspiration, for quiet, for adults to have corporate events. There's not that many out there. We'll create something different and I think they will come.

Daniel: We'll pivot but here's the thing you're gonna have 9 or 10 units. You said, you don't need to build something for everybody. You're gonna have nine units. You don't need a hundred thousand people to come to your cottage. You have nine units to rent. All you need is to have enough people to rent those few units. That's it. I think by the way, this way of thinking there about you doesn't build not necessarily build something for the masses.

If everybody builds something for the masses, there would be no Rolex watches. There would be no Ferrari. There would be none of that because there would be all Volkswagens.

Harry: It's interesting. Sarah was kind enough to mention red brick lofts. Actually on my website, we have pictures. If anybody wants to see it at harryjamesenterprises. com, it's red brick, lofts and Lakefield. But when we built that we had a vision. I've never built anything or got involved in any project where I wouldn't wanna live myself where I wouldn't want my children to live or people that I love to live.

Red brick lofts are a good example. We had two choices, Daniel. At one point we could go with builder lights throughout just the basic lights to have lights, or we could get my wife who's my secret weapon and my decorator and get her choice of lights. It was either 8,000 worth of lights or $55,000 worth of lights.

We went with the $55,000 with the lights, the chandelier. If you look at the front of red brick lofts it was $3,500. Now it's not because I like wasting money, but you can't put on a thousand dollars suit and a $5 pair of sneakers and have that match. When we put the lighting package in my humble opinion, that's what's secured very premium rents and the premium clients.

When somebody walks in, they can feel the energy, see the finishes, see the care, it creates an ambiance. Yes, it's a big investment. It is a big risk, but you're being true to your vision. I think if you're true to your vision, you ultimately get a return on that might take a little bit longer, but like Sarah says, I only need 14 people to appreciate those lights, not 1400.

Daniel: Guys, do you have an August 9 retreat? What is that about? What exactly is that retreat? Is this for the public or is it private and just for a few of your friends or what's happening here?

Harry: The retreat is for people like everybody online tonight that don't wanna stay home, watch Netflix, eat chips, and just decline that wanna do something with their life, wanna grow, wanna be inspired, wanna pursue their dreams, wanna become the best version of themselves. We're bringing 40 like-minded people together. Predominantly real estate, but frankly just entrepreneurial people and health, wealth, and time for self is about enjoying the moment you're in.

Even when there's stuff undone, even when you haven't met your goals, but having a group of people where you can have multisensory experiences, phenomenal speakers, great food, great entertainment, great ambience, really nice conversations, nice place to stay with. Like-minded people that are authentic, that are going to truly share ideas and look out for each other. The transfers, the hotels, the food, the wine. We've got one of Canada's top comedians, two of Canada's top bands.

From Tuesday night to Thursday morning, everything's first class and it's all in at $2,000 per head, which is how you look at the cost of any workshop, any seminar. You can obviously tell that we're not running it to make money. We're just wondering about it to create an experience where people can really move their game up and connect with like-minded people.

Daniel: Where can people find out more about that?

Harry: liverealfactory.com is where you can buy tickets where you can certainly see the description where we are. I think we have a handful of tickets left. We are not here tonight to try to get people to buy, but anybody, honestly, though, and this is something I say over and over, especially to my kids or the people I have the privilege of working with. The number one investment is yourself.
Books, workshops being with like-minded people. If you go online and take a look at it and you're looking to bring your game to the next level, I promise you the number of people that you will meet here. These are authentic people that are not just talking about it. They're doing it.

Sarah: We put the link in the chat as well.

Daniel: Sarah, any final word?

Sarah: I think it's just about pivoting in this environment whether it's resorts or not resorts, but just look at what you have been doing and see if it still works. If it doesn't work as well, it might be time to pivot whether that is into Just different types of deals, different strategies, different locations, cuz what worked yesterday is not working probably today and it probably won't work in the future.

Stay ahead of the curve. I think the next you know, year will be a test for many people. This is where some people are gonna come out way ahead. Some people might succumb to, I think some turbulent times coming in the next few months with rates increasing and everything like that. I think it's just about look at where you are today, where you're going and don't be afraid to make some different moves, whether it's different strategy or location, et cetera.

Daniel: It's amazing how the word pivoting, which was not even part of vocabulary three years ago. Now it's already here at least a dozen time every day. Harry, final words before we go into the networking.

Harry: I guess my final words, I'll just repeat what I said earlier. What the history has proven time and time again. That when things get bad going against the crowd, pays big dividends, being counterintuitive, stream type thinking, not going with the crowd, sticking to your convictions and reaching out and being vulnerable.

I've made a lot of mistakes in my life and there's been times where I've been really scared and times where I thought I'd really made some big mistake. The real estate community is just a first class community of people. It doesn't matter if you're at the front end. Everybody is there trying to accomplish the same things.

The real estate community is just a great support network. If you find a like-minded person with a great energy and you're feeling a little down, or you're feeling a little scared, or you need a second or third opinion as to how to maybe get yourself, reach out before you sell, reach out before you panic, reach out before you start beating up on yourself.

Chances are all the decisions you've made are good decisions. We're just navigating through a bit of a storm, stick to the program. Think long term, think 10 years and everything that you've done will pay off for you.

Daniel: Thank you very much folks.