Sarah Larbi: REITE Club Nation, welcome. I'm Sarah Larbi, and I'm here with Francois Lanthier and we are in for a treat today. We are having a great guest talking about some really unique out of the box real estate investing. Sylvia, our guest today, is into real estate investing to be able to use her creativity and her experience and her marketing background to do some really cool stuff.
Tiny homes and some really cool ways to utilize land and put some Ys on them. You are going to wanna listen to this podcast episode and don't forget to rate and review our podcast. Check us out, reiteclub.com as well, thereiteclub.com, and REITE Club on Instagram and leave a rating and review. So Francois, what do we say?
Francois Lanthier: Let's get to the episode.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. Sylvia, welcome to The REITE Club Podcast. It is a pleasure having you on.
Sylvia Eng: Thanks for having me.
Sarah Larbi: Right before we were recording, we were talking about some really cool things that you're doing and you're working on something that's very close to my heart as well. Some tiny home compounds. Before we get into that, and I do wanna, definitely get some of your experience there. How did you get started in real estate investing? And maybe just share with us what your portfolio looks like as of today.
Sylvia Eng: Okay. That's actually a funny story. So the Adirondack Mountains in New York state, which is actually where I am right now at my cabin. They have been a big part of my life since I was young. I come here every summer and they're so important to me. Like my dad is actually buried here. When he died, he was buried here. So it's a very important spot for our family.
I come every summer, Stella. I bring my kids every summer. And my godparents are the only family I have left and they're here. And I was just starting to think Oh, my kids aren't getting enough time with them. And I was renting a house down here every time I came. And it was costing me like harm and a leg as my family was growing.
My godparents were real estate agents and they kept encouraging me like, maybe look at buying something down here. But it just never really seemed right cause we were like, at the time, married and growing a family. And then after my divorce, I was in an awkward position where I sold my marital home. But as a single parent of two kids and one has special needs I could not afford a house in Ontario.
I had a good job and I had a huge down payment, but I just didn't have the credit history. I had lots of barriers. I didn't really know what to do, but I had this crazy idea and I bought a $4,000 1970s vintage airstream that was totally gutted. And the plan was, I was just gonna park it on my godfather's land.
Then when we came down, me and the kids had somewhere to stay so we could be here more. Then the town was like, You can't put that hunka junk here. That's against the bylaws . So I had to find a place to put it. So I hired a real estate agent who would work with me to find land. It's very inexpensive down here.
At the time, an acre was about like $3,000. This was 2018. Very cheap . So I had an Ontario mindset of what things cost. And so I'd never really looked into it. And then I was like, Okay, I have to find somewhere to put this thing. And I was in a rush and the agent I had was really clever and he was an investor and he said to me, What was your budget for fixing up the Airstream?
I said about 70,000. And he was like, What if instead of that we bought a house and then you could just put your Airstream in the parking lot? And I was like, Or like the driveway. And I was like, Oh, I can do that . Like I can buy a house for $70,000. And so that was like all the money that I had.
Ended up buying this three bedroom A-frame in the woods, and it came with two acres. It's a subdivided lot. So one acre has the A-frame and the other acre has nothing yet. So that's, I accidentally bought a house because I wanted somewhere to park my trailer. Then , basically what ended up happening is what started off as a place for me and my family to come to.
Then I was like maybe with my family's help, like I could get a cleaner and I could rent it out just to cover the heating bill when I'm not here. It escalated and yeah, it turned into an actual business. So I got introduced to The REITE Club just shortly after, I think about three months after I purchased this house
Sarah Larbi: Just for me, an annual, what year was it? Just so that everyone's on the same page there.
Sylvia Eng: Oh, that I found The REITE Club. I found you guys like February, 2019.
Sarah Larbi: Okay. So that was your first one. So you're still fairly new at doing all this stuff?
Sylvia Eng: Then I started going to The REITE Club, like all the time doing podcasts and all that stuff. Then I used some techniques that I learned from the club to buy my primary residence. So I actually went door knocking and did a private sale by leaving notes on all my favorite houses in the neighborhood that I could afford, and ended up doing a private sale from another single mom who just basically took pity on me, and gave me her house.
I got a three bedroom house. For 250 in 2019. . Yeah. In the GTA, in Erin. It's a cute little town, it was like a miracle. I really feel like my entire journey has been just blessed by the angels and like these happy accidents. I remember I wrote an email to you, Sarah at the time, saying I don't know if but like The REITE Club saved me and the kids.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing.
Sylvia Eng: We couldn't afford the rent. It was like $3,000 to rent in Georgetown before where I was living. Then I got a mortgage on that little house and it just saved me really emotionally.
Sarah Larbi: I love your story. That's amazing. Congratulations. I don't think that luck just happens. I think you created it and you've put it out there and you've put in the effort to get something and it repays you by giving you this awesome opportunity and that you run with it.
Sylvia Eng: Definitely. Because of the REITE club, I also started working with Claire and she was helping me. And so when I told her what I was doing, she was like, No, don't give me your money. You need to buy another one of those houses. There are more of them. Go buy more of them. And so I started looking and looking.
I was actually down here at the cabin in New York when the pandemic hit and Justin told us all to come home. I was actually supposed to be seen in another house that day, so I didn't get to, I had to come back. So this whole pandemic, I haven't been home, I haven't been able to do anything, and the prices down here also skyrocketed.
Everybody wants to be secluded and in the woods now, so the equity has really gone up. But I did just a couple months ago and finally bought my second property. It was a $30,000 one acre with an unfinished tiny house on it. Which is only 200 square feet. So I have that, and that'll also be the site of the future Airstream, which is gonna be renovated and turned into another two person suite.
Then my vacant acre as well, which is attached to the A-frame . I'm constructing something from scratch there, so it's in permitting. I've never built anything before. I didn't even know how to change an air filter before this. Anyways, some other terms. I told my contractor the other day, I was like, I think we have nice wall stuffing.
He was like, The what? I like the stuffing for the walls. And he was like, You mean insulation? I was like, Yeah that's what I mean. I really went from having absolutely no knowledge. And so now I'm learning about getting blueprints and permitting and we're building a tiny house as well, that's 560 square feet on the vacant acre. Very shortly I will have four properties or four units going.
Sarah Larbi: They're unique too, right? This is not like the cookie cutter typical thing. You're creating something unique. You're creating something fun. Real estate can be fun as well. Like it, there should be a boring aspect to it, but it should be, it could be fun in what you're creating. So that is really cool. And I just wanna go back for a second, and I'm sure Francois will have some questions, but when you're saying Claire, we're talking about Claire Drage from the Wind Group, who's a mortgage broker.
Also if you're a private lender and you wanna be passive and you have money that you wanna invest, she could do that for you. So there's like lots of different avenues that you can go to. So I just wanna make sure that everybody's caught up on who Claire is Justin or our Prime minister?
I'm gonna just stop it from there. That I figured out. People can probably read from my facial expressions or whatnot, but I won't make any comments on that. However, I think it is really cool that you're building some tiny houses. Why tiny homes? Why not? Like a typical stick build, what was the concept or the idea behind why you wanted to go that route.
Sylvia Eng: Originally it was the Airstream because I was so nervous to do real estate investing in my brain. I was like if it really flops, I'll just attach it to my truck and bring it home. I don't have to be committed to something. It felt really less risky. I had done the research and knew that renovated Airstreams were selling for a very high level. So it just seemed something that was manageable at the time. But since then my slogan for my company, cause I've since incorporated in the US is habitable art.
I've really done a lot of research. I've been to so many different Airbnbs that have the sort of mood that I'm looking for. I love when they're unique. I love that they're Instagramable. I've also noticed that just from my experience and my research that you can have a house like this cabin, I can have up to eight people sleeping here, but it pretty much rents for the same price as a small, unique, tiny home.
Actually, some recent stats I heard is that 38% of Airbnb searches are for two people. So it is the market that there are definitely family markets, but there's also a very big emerging solo and couple market, and what they really want is something absolutely unique and something that they can, brag about staying at.
Francois Lanthier: It's so true. Theming. I'm seeing it everywhere. It's. It's really important. So what do you integrate? So habitable art, do you have sculptures? What's going on inside and outside, I assume?
Sylvia Eng: My big vision at some point is to have a sculpture gallery connecting all of the different units because we're like in a subdivision here, so the lots are pretty close to each other. I also just go crazy with the branding and with the decorating. Each of our properties is named after one of the mountains here and it has different thematic stuff based on that. So the A-frame is called Wolf Jaw after the mountain and it has a wolf theme and there's lots of fun places.
You can snap a photo. And then the trailer is the owl's head after the mountain and it has all the little owl plates and figurines and just like really gone overboard with the detailing. And oh, I forgot to mention that my fiance also has a property in South Africa, which I think Francois and I originally connected to.
His is a mermaid theme. He's copied what I'm doing. And so there's mermaid murals, mermaid bedding, mermaid kitchen items, like everything is a mermaid. And so we really lean into the theme and just make it kitschy, but fun.
Sarah Larbi: That's awesome. As you're talking, I think we have a lot of things in common cause I'm building a resort and I want each little cottage to be themed differently and have a different vision. Still upscale. But I think there is something unique about being in one unit and saying, Hey, next time I come up, or one cabin, one, next time you come up, you go into something different. So it almost creates, in my opinion, this recurring customer that's gonna come back cause they wanna test out the other option.
It also puts you on the map for being able to get, I think tourists from, even internationally if you can get something unique. And there's that experience, right? There's an experience element and I do agree with you at some point. Yes. There's lots of people traveling at six and eight. But there's many people still looking for, nice couple getaway, something different, something that they can say. I've been to this and that was the experience. And there were so many different things, Instagrammable things as well, but just something completely different than another up-and-down-the-street cottage that they can get.
I think more and more this is going to become, I think, important for, especially people at or in Ontario wanting to experience Ontario, wanting to experience something unique. There might not be again, who knows what's gonna happen, but an opportunity to be traveling as much potentially as before with the pandemics and the restrictions that what can we create? In Ontario or in the US in this case, so people can stay in their hometown and reinvest in that tourist industry. Maybe share with us some of your vision, like obviously you're acquiring more about where, what is it that you're, maybe your goals are with all of this.
Sylvia Eng: The next project that we definitely wanna do is in South Africa. We wanna do a a houseboat actually that's going to be located right near the Primate Reserve and it's gonna be called Sea Monkey . And it's definitely a monkey theme. That one is in the works next for South Africa. Then here the four projects I've got on the go are keeping me busy. . But recently my godfather showed me a bunch of beautiful concept drawings that my dad had done as an architect for this area of tiny houses that he wanted to build, which I had no idea that he was doing that.
He has unlike stamped and the blueprints and everything. So my dream is to build his houses as well. Just they never got realized. So I just would love to see them built. He had one that he made that was like specifically designed for nudists was commissioned and so it was completely mirrored glass so that the nudists who lived inside could see out, but like people couldn't see in.
Sarah Larbi: Hilarious. But it's unique and that is something that around the globe people will talk about. Sometimes you gotta take a little bit risk and here's the thing. I think there's money to be had, but I think it's also this is also your fun money, right? So you don't wanna put all of your eggs in this basket, but I think it's got the opportunity to be very lucrative. But again, it's like a little bit of a high risk. But I think it's cool because I've never heard of anything like that. And not that I'm, a nudist or whatnot, but if I was, that would be really cool.
I would I'd be very intrigued to test it out and. You're creating these little niche opportunities or people that just will say this is, I have to do this because it's on my bucket list. You're creating bucket list opportunities.
Sylvia Eng: They have the opportunity to go viral too, which is my background in marketing and fundraising is making a story basically. So I have a merch line as well where people can buy the merchandise for each of the houses, which have their own name and branding. So you can have, like a onesie or a sweater from my house.
Francois Lanthier: That's so cool. I want the mermaid one.
Sylvia Eng: It's really fun.
Francois Lanthier: I love this theme.
Sarah Larbi: Wait, and then hang on. Francois. I didn't know you were a mermaid.
Francois Lanthier: I know. I'm just kidding.
Sarah Larbi: I dunno.
Francois Lanthier: I did it on purpose.
Sarah Larbi: Me some truth to it. You never know that. There's nothing wrong with that. If you like mermaid.
Sylvia Eng: The other goal I have is to get all of the houses to be sustainable. So the new construction is going in on well water and on solar. The goal is also for the A-frame to get solar. I've how to quote in, and I just have to play with the cash flow and the right timing, but I do wanna convert everything over to solar. I think that's another thing that I really have been loving about becoming the kind of real estate investor that I am, is I've taken a lot of the core principles, but I really am also making a business that's based around my value system.
My value system is sustainability. It's, generational wealth for my children with disabilities. It's, adoption, advocacy. So a lot of the work that I do is in the communities as well. So in South Africa, we volunteer, we give back, and we're doing just a lot of work that's in alignment with my values. It it isn't just a way for me to retire early. For me, I think we might not ever become the tycoons that some people in our club might be, but we're gonna build like sustainable communities that we really are proud of and that we love and that we're really excited to share with people.
Francois Lanthier: I love hearing this. This is so great. This is not a contest. You don't need to get a million units and become rich and have a Lamborghini and your own helicopter and helipad, it's not essential. So you really touched on a very important point here is something that represents you and your family and your long term values.
That leads me to one of your questions. So do you have any tips to get started? cause you have quite an impressive story. Short term, like short amount of time, and you've really turned it around. How do you get started? I like, not everybody's gonna buy an Airstream and park it somewhere and buy the land to park it. Do you have any other tips like financing?
Sylvia Eng: So far I've done everything cash. But you definitely can get financing as a Canadian in the States, you, there are many banks that offer vacation mortgages for the states. You can also, once you incorporate, build your own credit and get mortgages from US.
There's definitely ways you can do it. I think that's my number one tip is, and the thing that was holding me back so long was having an Ontario mindset. Once I started looking outside of my circle of understanding and started to look at other communities, I really did see that it was possible for me to get started and I had that equity from my marital house to get going with.
I've been mentoring other people and one of the big things that's coming up in that I used on one of my properties as well. You can actually, in many areas, just rent out vacant land for people to bring their own RVs, their own tents. And I started that way while I was waiting for the cash flow to start the construction on the tiny house.
I just rented it out as for RVs only for the summer, and it did really well, and it's so easy. And yeah, as long as your bylaws allow it there's so many different ways now that you can really get started. Another thing I'm doing in Erin at it's a farming community where I live in Ontario, is I've started glamping business where I talk to the farmers who want to do farm stays and I bring the tent in the setup and do the property management.
Then I don't even have to have the land. I just have to have the really fancy, cute yurt tents. And I do the portable showers, the porta-potties, and I even have an upsell FRI price for a portable hot tub. I just come in and set up on the farm and I have an agreement where I share the profits with the farm owners and then make completely hands off for them, which is, I guess like the Airbnb arbitrage that people have been doing. Again, taking the concepts that other people use for traditional and pairing it down to like really simple, easy, low cost, cause you could start that business like $10,000.
Francois Lanthier: It's almost like a popup resort in a way. This is really cool. My goodness. And what a great way to start. Like you said, $10,000 is not out of this world. It's possible you could borrow it. And then finding sources of income, like you mentioned, you leverage your land, you rented it out to be able to afford the next phase. And now the construction, are you still self financing it?
Sylvia Eng: I'm very lucky that I've partnered with a contractor who has a lot of big jobs. He's actually my real estate agent who sold me this house originally, and also an investor. He lets me piggyback off of his bigger jobs and his team. Basically every month I tell 'em like, This is my budget. This month I have $2,000. Do what you can. He just gets like a toilet put in or think a little bit of flooring. So we've been working at it that way, piecemeal because Just, I've been a little bit stalled in terms of getting all of my ducks in a row in terms of the banking and all of the credit and everything down here, because I was unable to cross the border and do things.
I've had to just really figure out how to do this from a distance. Unexpectedly because I was really using family and friends before, and then things took off like crazy. I think anybody who's had an Airbnb during 2020 onward knows that it was quite unexpected how much of a boom that we experienced. I've been playing catch up this whole past year. I've been playing catch up since I decided to do real estate investing. I think
Sarah Larbi: Sylvia, I think you said so many great things. I just wanna go back to the concept that you have cause it's funny cause for our resort, it is gonna be a five year project and it's just okay, what do we wanna do year one? What do you wanna do year two? . I wish we could build them all tomorrow and everything is gonna be there. Cause I think for ours, we got approved for 15 of them, but it's not gonna happen all of my year. But we weren't actually talking about the UTS in like a portable shower in a portable bathroom and having some of that option alongside with, some already built stuff.
I think that's a great concept. One of the things I will say, there is a, and I don't know if you've heard of them or if you've worked with them, but Hip camp is a company that if you have land. And you have, it could just be a tent that they put up or a trailer that they can come on, or you might have the trailer, or you might have the tent, or you might have the glamping tents.
It's like an Airbnb. For camping and for land. And I think that that's really cool new company that I think is going to really grow like wildfire over over the next few years. Have you a is that how you're advertising or are there other avenues that you're using?
Sylvia Eng: I did this summer when I did the camping on the tiny home site, I used both hip camp and Airbnb, because you can list a campsite in Airbnb as well. At least you can down in the states. I don't know if it's the same in Canada, but and so I tested out both and hip camp hasn't got quite as much like popularity yet, but I also used hip camp this summer as a a camper myself. And I went to a Hobbit house in Ontario. I used it myself to test out and see how I liked it as a user. Then I did also use it yeah, for the summer, for the camping.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. And these tents that you're getting, cause I mean we're looking at renting them as an example. We're looking at renting the bathrooms and the portable showers. Are you renting them? Are you buying these tents? Cause I think it's like going back to your Airbnb arbitrage for land, I think that is genius.
Like guys, if you're listening to this, There's lots of farmers out there. Could you reach out to them and say, Hey, I'm gonna set up a few tents, rent them out, let's split the profits, or I'm gonna, pay you X dollars. Let me do this for even the summer season. Like in it?
Sylvia Eng: Just the season. I just do like the warm season. cause otherwise you have to get the little Which isn't a big deal, but I didn't think there'd be that as much demand.
Sarah Larbi: I'm telling you, if somebody's listening to this like act, this is, to me, this is like a gold piece of en like golden nugget. Farmers land. Summer, made a labor day. See what you can do, rent some tents and start making a profit. Like I think it's a great cash flowing property. I have my own land. I don't need to borrow somebody else's, but a great way to get started. And so can you maybe share like the conversation roughly overview what it was like with a farmer, like what you suggested, what you got in return.
Sylvia Eng: I am deciding to buy the tents, but basically I went out and did some like door knocking with a proposal first. And so once I have a signed contract, then I purchase the tent. And the reason I decide to purchase is because I have property down gear. I'm for sure if I don't get a renewal or I decide I don't like it. I can put the tent down here and it'll be really popular down here as well. But at the time I came up with this idea, I never, I wasn't sure when I was gonna be able to cross the border again. And I was just really frustrated that I wasn't being able to move forward with new land purchase either, cause the price is skyrocketed.
I came up with this kind of Meantime, solution. I just basically went with them to them with a proposal. I picked farms that were in my area because I was planning to do the flipping of the cleaning and everything in between myself. I targeted people just really close to me. And I targeted farms that I knew had really interesting attractions and just went and talked to them. And a lot of them want to have people come and pet their alpacas or have a picnic or learn about sustainable farming or buy things from their little market that they have on site, but they don't necessarily have the like business sense or energy, especially during growing season to be managing a whole other farm stay.
Farm stays are getting super duper popular as well. I do know that maybe some of the farmers that I have on contract may decide that they loved it so much that they wanna take it on by themselves next year without me steal the idea. Which is fine. Which is I'll just maintain the possession of the tent and look for a different place. Basically fall time I was out doing the pitches and then I have a deadline for February for anybody who wants to get on board for the following summer.
Sarah Larbi: That's cool. So I think maybe like just thinking out loud here. Like even signing like a three year, five year contract of here's what I'm gonna pay you each month from May to September, so that they can't steal it away from you necessarily. Something along those lines I would say have ink on paper and then, maybe every season if you like make over a certain amount or whatnot.
Then you give them like a little incentive bonus. There's so many things that you can do. I'm almost thinking like people with like lots of like acres and land in the cortase, maybe on the water and they can't build anything. It could be a great opportunity. It could be Muskoka or whatnot, but check the rules, regulations, and then what about insurance? How did that work that out?
Sylvia Eng: Insurance, I do still need to do a little bit more research on insurance, although the insurance for the Airbnb will cover most things because as any host that comes through the Airbnb site is covered for insurance off your property. And I obviously have business liability insurance, and then the farm themselves has insurance. But we do need to still like close that gap to make sure that between those three insurances that any kind of possibility that we can think of heard. I love your idea, Sarah.
I, the reason I didn't do that is cause I wasn't too sure if I was gonna love being tied down to my town all summer because like you, I love to take advantage of the real estate investing lifestyle and I like to take off and not be around in the summer. Yeah I think that's a super great idea.
Sarah Larbi: You can find like people that you trust in the area and delegate it to them and give them an incentive for making sure that it's run well. And you can even just hire it. Like it might almost make sense to hire I don't know, maybe a student in the summer that's like really engaged a co-op student that's in the hospitality industry. Like we're actually right now looking at different schools that have like programs on resorts and hospitality and tourism, and I'm like, this could be their co-op is working, who is trying to, helping us put the resort stuff together, those little things that, from a hospitality standpoint.
There's a lot, so many ideas that you could take this in so many directions, but it's money can be found and if you're looking for business and you're, starting off with not a whole lot. Maybe buy a tents convince a farmer to let you pitch it up for the summer and start advertising it on Airbnb. Again, work through obviously the legalities of it and the insurance standpoint, but perfect way to make money.
Sylvia Eng: I think there's a lot of opportunity out there in the camping era and it's, they're really just gaining popularity. There's Geodesic domes is another one that's really cool right now that I'm looking into doing as well, probably down here cause I wanna do a wooden structure, a more permanent one that's for season.
There's so many really interesting cheap and easy structures that you can put up and you have to check with your bylaws. There is sometimes issues that's one of the other reasons I really love the Adirondack is that we're not having a lot of the same bylaws that Ontario has around tiny homes can be quite limiting, but that's why the farm works really well because it's just counts as an outbuilding so you don't have to worry about that as much.
Francois Lanthier: I wonder with the short term rentals, cause I'm thinking Prince Edward County, it's all filled with wineries. It would be beautiful, but they have very tough restrictions on short term rentals. So would this be one of them? And, but this could be great where it's allowed and you go where it is allowed.
Just like you said in the Adirondacks, it's more favorable than go there. Nothing's stopping you from doing it. So I just love it. Such an inspiration. You've really turned things around and you're living your passion. I think it's excellent. I think we're gonna get into the lightning round, Sarah.
Sarah Larbi: All right. Awesome.
Francois Lanthier: Taking away your line there.
Sarah Larbi: That's good. It's not my line. It's, whoever's line wants to see your line too. All right. So Sylvia, we are gonna go into the lightning round. We're gonna ask you four questions that everybody gets the same four. You're gonna give us the first answer that comes to mind. Are you ready?
Sylvia Eng: Yeah.
Sarah Larbi: All right, so question number one. What is the best advice you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event?
Sylvia Eng: Okay. So Jen Richard, who is the one who brought me to rank originally.
Sarah Larbi: Oh, thank you, Jen .
Sylvia Eng: She was like, I'm gonna take you here because it'll help you feel less crazy. And I think about that all the time because I was feeling very crazy at the beginning when I would tried to explain to like friends and family. I just kinda I dunno. Bought a trailer by accident and then I put it on land and now I have this thing and I live all the way over here and it's over there. But I think it's gonna work out. I don't know. The numbers around me look good, so I think of that all the time. That was probably one of the biggest helps that I got, is to surround myself with a community.
That helped me say Oh my God, not only are you not crazy, but you are really interesting and really smart and I wanna do what you are doing. And I kept hearing that every time I would come to the meetups and I was like, You wanna do what I'm doing, but I'm doing this really stupid, weird thing. I don't know. But when they were hearing about like the returns and the profits and stuff, they were like, Yeah, that's not usual. Like your cash flow is very high . So it was so awesome to have that.
Francois Lanthier: That's excellent. And what's your most favorite real estate investing resource? A book, a club, A podcast?
Sylvia Eng: Okay. Obviously this podcast, but also I really love a site that's a website that's called airdna.com I think, which is really fantastic. We used it when we were deciding where to invest in South Africa, like which region of South Africa. So what it does is tell you all the different regions. You can zero into a town. It'll tell you the average night spent, the price booking rates, everything. It's a small fee to pay to get the full data, but it's absolutely amazing and I use it a lot for thinking about new areas as well.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. So it's airdna.co. It is an awesome site, and you can check occupancy and you can do your numbers. I think it's a great tool, especially for anybody thinking about short-term rentals. Midterm rentals. Thank you Sylvia, for sharing that. That's a great tip. Question number three, what is the one attribute in your opinion, that has made you the most successful?
Sylvia Eng: I think I'm just like a dreamer and I wanna make things that I like and I just have a lot of faith that I am my own target market. So if I build something I like , I just trust and I love, I'm sure that like other people are going to really enjoy it and love it too. So I'm no longer feeling crazy. I'm feeling like really fun and creative and I feel like I'm finally like living maybe what I was called to do.
It seems, I was my birthright, maybe , to start making weird houses in the other objects. And I don't know why it took me so long to find out that, but now, yeah, here I am and I'm just have to have a lot of faith in myself because it has been pretty scary along the way. But overall, just love having fun and just being expressive like that.
Francois Lanthier: You're doing great. You're creating your own life and your own lifestyle and everything. That's the beauty of being a real estate investor, is you customize your life. So this leads me to question number four. What do you typically do on a Sunday morning? So again, customizing your life.
Sylvia Eng: My kids we do battle of brunches We like to test out all sorts of different brunches and then give it ratings. Sometimes we go out and sometimes they challenge me to cook it for them. So we do that and typically I'm also usually like running away. I am one of the biggest Airbnbs. Guests I know I love exploring and trying out new places. I've been stayed at tree houses. I've stayed in domes and yurts and all sorts of things. I'm constantly finding new places. I love little tiny road trips, so I'm often running away.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. I love it. And that idea of the brunch, like genius I will participate. Just let me know. , let know where to show up. Brunch is my favorite meal. I love it. That was a lighting round. Thank you so much for playing. Where can The REITE Club Nation reach out and find out more?
Sylvia Eng: Instagram is usually the best place to find me on there pretty often. I'll get back to you quickly. And it's @seeadkvacations.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. Awesome. Sylvia, thank you so much for being on the show and I'm really excited. Like you provided so much great insight, so many great pieces of information. I hope that everyone's gonna take something away and actually action it out cause I think there is a great opportunity luckily many people for us. Probably not. So it's not gonna be saturated. But I'm telling you, if you wanna make some quick cash, these are some really good pieces of information.
Sylvia, thank you so much. Like you are awesome. And you've done all of this in the last, like three years, which is even more remarkable. And so thank you for being a REITE Club community member and coming out to our events and connecting with the network. And so we really appreciate it.
Sylvia Eng: Thank you. I just wanted to say one more thing too. I really think that the upcoming trend for Airbnbs is gonna be on near national parks. So for people who are interested in doing this kind of glamping, tiny house, look for small towns around national parks, and we're gonna see a lot of increased traffic to nature and the tiny homes and the fun experiences near nature.
Francois Lanthier: More golden tips. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.
Sylvia Eng: No problem. Thanks for having me.
Francois Lanthier: Cheers. Hey Sarah. So what did you think about renting a piece of land from a farmer? I could see you doing that and then renting it out.
Sarah Larbi: I would totally do that. I am literally gonna call my assistant Aisha and bring the idea forward. Not necessarily, for creating something big, but like in the core as there's lots of people with lots of land waterfronts, maybe we could just add one or two of these yurts or, what I was thinking too is as we're probably gonna buy some for the phase, the first phases of our resort, before everything gets built, we can move them afterwards to these other locations so that it's not just Cause I wanna keep them there forever, but you get some cool glamping yurts. Once everything is built, we don't wanna have them there. We can move them to somebody's property and negotiate something and rent them out there.
Francois Lanthier: It's a popup resort. I love the idea you've seen popup .
Sarah Larbi: Hey, you know what? That's so smart. It has the popup resort. That is genius. I, you know what I loved I think maybe I'm, I've just been doing this for a little while now, but I love just new cool concepts and new ideas and like sometimes real estate can be fun.
Francois Lanthier: Absolutely. Yeah, this is like really fun. I just loved it. And her passions too, like Sylvia has a passion for the environment and sustainability and different things. So it's all come together, The arts and just being creative with very little money, that was shocking as well. Why not take advantage and see what resources you have. So that was excellent.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. And lots of great insights there. Hip camp and AirDNA, and many different things.
Francois Lanthier: National parks.
Sarah Larbi: Exactly. Be close to national parks. So I hope everybody enjoyed the episode today. Don't forget to leave a rating and review and Francois, REITE Club nation, what do we say?
Francois Lanthier: Customize your life and come grow with us. Cheers.
Sylvia Eng: Bye.
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