Alfonso Salemi: Welcome back, REITE club nation for another episode of the REITE club podcast. I'm Alfonso Salemi, and today my co-host is Laurel Simmons. We have an amazing guest today, Susan Flanagan, and she's been a longtime friend and supporter of the REITE club and she does a great job.
She really does it with a heart and puts her heart and effort and really cares about every single one of the projects that she works on and all the people that she works with and helps along the way too. So we got into chatting with her about private mortgages and private money and all those things. And I don't know, I always joke around, I'm Italian, I have a background, so when you talk about private money, that means like a bad thing.
You're going to the loan sharks and if you miss late payments, you're in trouble. Those types of things. But we're talking about a little bit of a different type of private money today on today's podcast and yeah, the benefits and all those things, and really, You can think it's good or think it's bad, and guess what?
That's just your opinion. But this is some more education, some more information so that you can decipher if it is for you or if it's not for you. And we're not telling you it should be or shouldn't be. It's just more information so that you can make the best educated decisions that you can possibly make.
Laurel Simmons: Just like everybody else, I know that Alfonso, you're the same as I am. Every time we talk to a guest, we learn something, right? We always learn something. It's either reinforced or there's something new. Hey, I think it's great, and Susan did a great job. So shall we go to the interview now?
Alfonso Salemi: Let's do it. Let's get to the podcast.
Laurel Simmons: All right. Hey Susan Ffl and welcome to the RI Podcast.
Susan Flanagan: Thank you for having me. This is exciting.
Laurel Simmons: It's great to see you and to hear you and oh, so many things we're gonna talk about in the next little while, but first, but before we get started into the meat of this. So just, are you having a good time, Susan? Are you enjoying this lockdown and the covid and all this stuff? And do you just like being creative? Cause we were talking a little bit about this before we started recording right about you have a choice. You can either suck your thumb and whimper for a couple of years, or Oh, you can be creative. So what are you doing?
Susan Flanagan: I'm totally into it, let's be creative. We've gotta figure out ways to make things work. Yeah. It's actually, like we said, a difficult time, but it's also an exciting time for new creative ideas. Moving forward in business, whatever our businesses are.
Laurel Simmons: I agree. Sometimes when you're forced to be alone or however you define that, and that's often when we get. Like ideas because sometimes we can be a little bit quieter, right? And think more instead of being constantly bombarded by, gotta go here, gotta go there, do this, do that. There's something to be said for some quiet time. I don't know if we want two years of it, but we don't have much choice.
Alfonso Salemi: Definitely in that light, right? And being creative and, with your background and you being a great friend to the REITE club for many years and friends of most of ourselves with Laurel Daniels, Sarah, and myself being good friends of that.
You are that person that you know is not gonna let you down, not gonna suck your thumb and just go hide in the corner. You're gonna find a creative way of doing things. And, that's what we're gonna delve into a little bit of, some creative financing. So maybe for those members of the Wright Club community that maybe haven't met you or had the opportunity to work with you. Give them a little bit of a 30,000 foot view, a little bit about yourself and the kind of the business that you're in and what you like to do.
Susan Flanagan: Okay. First and foremost, I am a real estate investor. I hate to admit it, but over 30 years. I started when I was five. And along the way I've dabbled in many areas of real estate investing from buy and hold rent to own flips. And then I got into lending money a number of years ago, and that led me to where I'm at today with Fridge.
I very specifically, it is to do with private lending. So the name of my brokerage is Private Money for Mortgages. And Throughout the last three years or so, I've gotten more known within the real estate community of investors as actually the go-to person for private money, if that'd be the right way to put it. But I'm also an active real estate investor.
Laurel Simmons: When you say private money, Susan, I feel, I think some people don't know what that means. What is private money? We know what the bank's money is but what is private money? What does that mean?
Susan Flanagan: That's a good question because people do get it confused.
Laurel Simmons: Basically, the cheapest money out there to get as a real estate investor is from the bank. You've got a lender, you have B lenders. Those are both bank lenders. And then your third group is a C lender, which is private money. So whether it comes from a myth which could be a mortgage investment corporation, or whether it came from a business or whether it came from an individual or groups of individuals.
It's private money. It's not institutional money. That's the whole difference. And what that brings to the table at the same time is a whole different set of rules. I mean it's, I always say using private money as the Wild West, anything goes.
Now there's certain guidelines that most people tend to follow, but I've heard some people say they had to, they had an interest rate of close to 20%, or somebody else had an interest rate on a similar deal for only 7%. That's the craziness of that difference, but it just shows it is the Wild West at times. Unless people get educated.
Alfonso Salemi: That's why you're such a friend of the REITE Club Nation is that you're doing that. And a lot of our members, a lot of the community have worked with you from that site. So what are the most common reasons that a real estate investor would even consider using a private mortgage? Or maybe even if they are qualified, why would they want to use private money as they're building their portfolio?
Susan Flanagan: Actually one of the first and foremost reasons might be that it's fast, it's easier to get the money, and obviously if you're not qualifying anymore at the bank for whatever reason, it could be that you're over leveraged right now, and so your debt ratios don't work to be able to qualify.
Or it might be that you now have too many properties. It might be that you're buying a property that needs a lot of work. You might have picked it up under market value, but it needs a lot of work and the bank won't touch it. So these are all good reasons why somebody might say forget it.
I'm not gonna stick my head in the sand and do nothing. I will use private money. And yes, private money is way more expensive, but it also is a means to get the property. That you can move forward and there's many scenarios where expensive or not, it's worth it. It's worth doing it.
Laurel Simmons: I think that's probably one of the things that a lot of investors don't stop to think about is that you might be a little startled whoa like you said, 20% interest rate. But if it's a, particularly if it's a shorter term loan, right? Like you, for whatever reason, you might say, okay, I'm gonna take that, I don't know, 10, 50, a hundred thousand dollars.
For three or four months at that, 20%, whatever it is. And although that seems like a whack of money, if you know that at the end of that term you can pay it back or get other, other, some other type of funding in there to replace it and you do your numbers, it works for you, then why wouldn't go for the private money.
Susan Flanagan: Yes. And let me clarify that. I know I threw out that number of 20% of anybody that has mortgages for me, they're never that high, and the reason it's not that high people need to keep in mind the higher the risk, the higher the rate. Okay, so there are people out there that are paying 20% and so forth, but I can pretty well guarantee you when you look at the whole scenario, there's a good reason why they are, because it's a very risky mortgage on behalf of the lender.
For the most part, anybody doing let's say a first mortgage, Could be anywhere between say, 7% and 10%. That would be a common amount. And that could also include a lender fee there. If somebody were looking at needing a second mortgage, it's most commonly between 10 and at the most, maybe 15% through my brokerage anyhow. So I'm just going to bring it into perspective.
Laurel Simmons: Okay. And that makes sense. It's and yeah, you can play with numbers and I totally get it, that it depends on the, basically the risk is the perceived risk. It's the perceived risk, not necessarily the actual risk, but the perceived risk. Because it always is. The risk and the eyes of the lender.
Susan Flanagan: He, he who has the gold, makes the rules. And it's the same in the private space. I've seen people go, that's ridiculous that they're gonna charge me that. I think they're the ones that have offered to lend you this money. If you can get it cheaper, great. But this is all, my role in all of this, and I say this to people all the time, I'm a matchmaker. My goal is, let's say, Laurel, if you're the one calling me needing the mortgage, I need to get all the information from you as much as possible.
Tell me every detail that you can so that I can now go to bat for you and find you the best lender. Because I need to know things like, for instance, if you let's say you're doing a mortgage. You've bought a property under market value, now you're gonna put renovations into it. Ideally you might be looking for a mortgage with low return, like monthly payments, so we might be able to structure it differently so that the payments are at the end or partially at the end, whatever.
I'm trying to look at your needs and then I'm calling getting ahold of Alfonso if he's the lender running the whole scenario past him and trying to make it that yes, he gets what he wants, which is a great return. Not gouging, but a great return. And Laurel gets what she needs for her
project.
Alfonso Salemi: I love that. I love how you coined it as a matchmaker, cause they're out there. A lot of our REITE club is active. They're looking for that private money or looking for money to fund their deals. Whether it's A,B. Or in the private world. But then on the flip side, we have a lot of members of our community that maybe just want to lend out their money.
You're working with both sides. So when, yeah. When you're interviewing both, you're understanding the needs of both. But let's take a look at it. When you're either borrowing. Or lending the private money? What are like, I don't know, on e on either side, the top few things that you should really consider before you lend or before you borrow. What are the things that you like? If you don't do this, you shouldn't even step into this world.
Susan Flanagan: Okay. First off, in the point of view, the person who's borrowing money. You need to know your numbers. There's no doubt about it. And one of the things I say as people are introducing themselves to me, I honestly suggest getting a hold of me before you've got the property under contract.
The reason is we can brainstorm together. I've done this for a long time. I'm also on the other side of the coin where I use private money as well. So I feel I bring that also to the table that you know, so we can brainstorm on it. And honestly to goodness, there've been many situations where once somebody outlines all their stuff and then I'm able to throw at them you think about this cost and you need to think about this.
By the time they're done, sometimes it's not the best situation. And I'd rather them know that before they bought it than after they've already got it under contract. So some of the costs they have to think about. Every nine outta 10 of these deals are gonna need an appraisal. That's the cost of the borrower.
Just put in perspective, a single family home would be anywhere between $400 and $500. So fourplex is obviously gonna be more than that. Okay? So you're keeping those in mind. You're gonna have to pay not just the interest rate on the money, but sometimes a lender fee. So it might be 8% lender interest rate on a first mortgage, but then there might be one or 2% lender fee.
That has to come out at the top. You also have to pay for the lawyer for the lender. Again, I'll use you guys as the two of you as an example. Alfonso, your lawyer, Laurel, would have to pay for your lawyer. So I say a budget between $1500 to $2,000. For that. You also have your regular closing costs, and people have to know land transfer tax is not cheap, so that number has to be in there, plus your own lawyer's costs.
Then there's the broker fee. We don't work for free, and that comes out of the borrower. In my case, I usually charge 1%. The minimum it would ever be is 2,800. And that number can be all over the map depending on who you deal with. Sorry, I'm losing track here. So your question, so now if I'm, if you're the lender, things you wanna think about, you need to get this, where we can help that you need to be thinking about, you're not a bank, you're lending on the equity of the property.
There is a big difference. I have some lenders. Who wants this person to qualify? Like they were going to CIBC. It's no, sorry guys. It's they're using private money for a reason. Either their credit might be in the toilet right now for a good reason. So I have to explain that. They might be over leveraged.
They might like so many things behind it, but it's like they are lending on the value of the property. So we usually like to keep it at 20% down payment or more. Okay, so if it's a first mortgage and it's a purchase and you're just gonna rent it out, you're not doing any renovations, you probably need to have 20% down.
If you're gonna buy this property and it needs lots of work before you can start renting it out, chances are it might be 70% to 75% loan to value. Okay, now people have asked me why, what's the big deal? Because my after repair value is gonna be such and such, and what I need to show them is that yes, that's over there.
During the time that the property is getting renovated, that lender has to be protected during that entire process. So while you've gutted the house to renovate it, now they're vulnerable. If anything happened to you.
Alfonso Salemi: That's a lot of good info in terms of both sides of things. So Laurel, it looks like you had a question.
Laurel Simmons: It's just you're right. It's, and I really like what you said. First of all the lender has to realize that the borrower, they cannot treat the borrower as if the lender was a bank. I really like that because it's true. Like if you're going after private money, it means for whatever reason you, you're, like you said, you're over leverage.
You've got, maybe you've already got, I don't know, 20 properties and the bank just goes. There's the rule. Really. And yet on paper and especially, and also there's the whole trust factor of the character of that person. Cause that's worth a lot. You can have two people that have exactly the same portfolio, they have the same money put in and yet two different characters. And you can look at one and say, absolutely, I would lend money to this person. And you look at person B and you go, not in a million years, I don't care.
Susan Flanagan: That's an excellent point. And so another thing I suggest to investors that have, I've learned how to use private money, and once you get onto it, you go, wow. There's no limit to what I can do, right? You just have to make sure your numbers work. And so those people, there are ones that all day long, these investors keep coming back to me. I can vouch for them now. And I also ask investors, put together a portfolio. Put together your selling yourself to say, this is what I've done.
This is what I'm doing. You're putting together a real estate resume. That's what it boils down to, and trust me, that goes so far. It really does. It's extremely helpful. And that's why I like the repeat business of different investors because as soon as they call me or the email, it's okay, I know I can get you the mortgage cause I've worked with you in the past. I know your integrity, I know your character. You do what you say you're going to do, which is pay back your loan, not missing payments. So things like that.
Laurel Simmons: It's about communication number one. Absolutely. It's about relationships because again, it is not all about numbers. At the end of the day, yes, we all wanna make money and whatever side of you, whatever side of the deal you're on, you wanna make money.
However, the other side of that is about relationships. That is really important because if I as a borrower get to know you, Susan, as the broker really well, and we have a really good relationship, and you know me, you trust me you go, oh God, Laurel's calling. I know it's a good deal.
I'm there. And at the same time when you pass me onto a, or you connect me with you being a matchmaker. You connect me with Alfonso, who's the lender, and I get to know Alfonso and he says, oh, I love Laurel, and I know you do Alfonso. I know you love me. But aside from that, It is about that relationship. And it grows and everybody wins in that situation.
Alfonso Salemi: That's right. And, try to get a relationship like that with an a lender or b lender where they're firing out so many deals and they're doing, I call the retail buys. A lot of the mortgages that we do with our rental owners are just qualifying for mortgages. It's their first, few investments or something like that.
You can't build up that relationship. There's no rapport building. There's just literally breaking it down to the facts where this is almost like a hybrid of, hey, we still need to make sure the facts of the property of the project are gonna be valid and working, but let's see if the track record, let's look at the person that's actually gonna be boring out of the gate as well too.
I love that you're helping. Support your lenders to see that as well too, and have a good repertoire of lenders. That is taking that money, and then saying here, no, this is the type of project that you're gonna be looking at. This is what you wanna do. And you're really getting to the root of what their goals are. It's so valuable. What you do for both sides of them.
Cause everybody's gotta win. And I think, in a good negotiation, everybody's gotta walk away happy, but everybody's gotta walk away. Like they should have, they wanted a little bit more too. And I think that's what makes a really good deal. I wanna switch gears. Go ahead Susan.
Susan Flanagan: I was just gonna comment what you made the to do with the banks. And this shows my age, but I remember years ago, this is back when I lived in Canmore. You were known in the community and I can remember walking into CIBC, sitting down with the manager.
I was a nurse at the time, and I could just, she knew me. I. They know you personally. And then I will walk out knowing I was getting a mortgage. That unfortunately does not happen anymore. It has no bearing and that's where a lot of people are still misled thinking, oh, but I gotta talk to my bank. And they know it and it's They don't know.
Like you're not known at your bank. You're known through the system by numbers such and such, and it's all crunching numbers. There is no relationship anymore that there used to be with the banks.
Alfonso Salemi: That's a great point. Definitely at a branch level. The banks there are gone. I almost compare. Like the bank is almost like a Home Depot. You're not gonna go ask those people in the orange aprons how to install a toilet. You're gonna ask 'em where the toilet is. And almost at the bank, that's the same type of thing. They're gonna tell you where the product is, they're not gonna look out for your best benefits.
Speaking of the banks, right? You see those flashy numbers at the interest rates are, all time lows. And that's what they have planted up in their front mirror of the glass, and those low rates, but how can a second mortgage be helpful for those that are coming up on a refinance of a mortgage? Cause I think that's another way that private mortgages and private lending can be utilized as well.
Susan Flanagan: Good question. Actually, it's very beneficial if people understand how to use it. Yes, a second mortgage is expensive, but as earlier, Laurel, what you were saying, it's based on the entire year, right?
Let's say it was 12% for an entire year, but you only ended up needing it for six months. Okay so there is a but the reason why you would use it to help you refinance is that, okay, so you own a property, whether it's your principal residence or a rental, and now all of a sudden people are noticing, oh my gosh, look at the rates, You can be getting mortgages now under the 2% and if you're sitting with something, say a three point something or four or five, absolutely.
You wanna try and get the lower one? You have to look at your whole scenario and go, how can I fix this? How can I fix my credit rating? If it's off right now, how can I get rid of some of these debts so that I can qualify? The best way to go about that would be to take out a second mortgage. Yes, there's a cost factor, but at the end of the day, it's minimal compared to what you'll get by getting a better mortgage when you can requalify. So it's worth a discussion. To see if people fit.
Laurel Simmons: Susan, what's happening right now? What are you seeing out there in the real estate investing world, are you seeing, particularly in this time of the pandemic, are you seeing different types of deals or certain, like what are the trends? Are people coming to you for flips? Single homes like what's going on? What are you seeing? What crosses your desk?
Susan Flanagan: Actually flips are very common. Also, now a lot of people are recognizing it because it's so difficult jumping through all the hoops with the bank in order to pick up properties.
Laurel Simmons: It's beneficial to not worry about doing it right off with the bank. Just get it up, pick it up with private money and then reorganize yourself after the fact. And it's funny, even though Covid i's huge and everybody's, weary of what's going on, I find savvy investors are looking past all that and still projecting what they wanna be doing in this next year or so.
I'm sure we can all agree there's going to be a lot of deals to be had, in this next year. So in order to participate with some of them, if you can't qualify at the bank, people are turning to private money. They're getting less fearful of private money. Here's the answer. And I think it's just because pure education is happening more and more.
Alfonso Salemi: Kudos to you because you are providing that education and showing the benefits and those misnomers right. About private money. And it cost me like, No 12%, but as we break it down and look at the numbers, it might, it's not actually 12% every single month. It's broken down over the years.
Again, like you said, working out your numbers and you touched on something really good with, you said with the banks, right? And everybody's lining up to the banks and maybe it's, you can't qualify yourself as the investor or as the lender, but as well too, there's a huge backlog. And as we know, there's all kinds of competition going on in the market and multiple offers. And this is the last house that will ever be for sale.
There's 97 offers going on. And yeah, and it's crazy. So again we're limited with the banks on what they can do in their turnaround time and the bureaucracy and the way that they go through it. But to avoid that with private lending, maybe what are some things that the lenders can do to make sure that they can be efficient when they're borrowing?
You mentioned a portfolio, a track record, those types of things. But maybe what are some other things that If I'm someone looking to lend money, wanting to build my portfolio, what should I have ready to go so that I'm as fast as and efficient so I can bring that to you and you can be off to the races with finding me a some good, solid private money.
Susan Flanagan: Okay, so again, two sides to it. So let's just talk from the lender's side right now. If you wanted to become a lender on my list, like it's and this is something I need to clarify cause I've had people go do I send you my money? And it's oh, I'd love you to, but no, that's not appropriate.
Alfonso Salemi: You can send it to me.
Susan Flanagan: Send it to you. Okay. So what happens is that, first off, they need to fill out a, what we call a private lending portfolio. It's just a one page document. That gives me information on them. These are things which are our governing body, financial regulatory services authority overseas, all mortgage brokers.
We have to do this and it protects people from money laundering. Especially money laundering and also terrorism people funding terrorists and so forth. So I have to know certain things about you. So there's that. And I also need to have two pieces of ID from you to make sure you are who you say you are.
I also have to have a discussion and know the ins and outs of where you stand with your experience in lending and so forth, and I take notes every time. I was just on a call about an hour ago with a new lender she's wanting to do with their RRSP money, TFSA money. She's been doing it for the last four years.
Like I'm taking notes so that I understand who I'm dealing with and keeping them in my file so that when I do have a mortgage to present, I can go back until I get to know you better on a regular basis, I need to refer. To my notes on where your experience is, places some people only wanna lend in the GTA.
Say somebody else might only wanna lend on single family homes. Like whatever your preference is, I acknowledge that. But to be quite honest, I suggest to people, don't be narrow minded in what you're gonna look at. Let me present lots of stuff to you and we can talk about it. So that's from the borrower perspective.
Sorry, lender perspective. Now the borrower. There are things that you can do as well to make this streamline and do it fast. And what it boils down to, I do not reach out to my lenders by just you sending me a text. I got this fourplex I'm picking up in Windsor, got me lenders. I get texts like that all the time.
There's more to it than that. I still need an application. I still need to pull our credit report. I still need documentation from you. I need to analyze the whole scenario before we present it to lenders so I make it clear. You want me to. Fund this quickly for you. The faster you get me the information that I'm requesting, I can get that lender lined up within a day or two of it, but I don't need to, I have learned not to start talking to lenders on behalf of, so Laurel, you're my client.
I hear what you say, but your documentation helps me truly understand your scenario because it needs to all match up. And then I can get you a lender just like that. I don't know if that helps.
Laurel Simmons: It makes sense cause I know, Danielle and I've gone with private money and I remember once driving down from Ottawa to the lake and I swear to God we were going down the highway seven and wait, I get a text from the mortgage broker and it was like, Okay, you gotta stop in and whatever.
Go to the bank and get this. And we'd run into whatever little town and then the next, like we were driving 20 minutes and there's another time. Okay, gotta get this cause it was a funny kind of deal where, like it was really time sensitive. It was just a really odd situation.
I swear we hit every single bank from Ottawa to Toronto along Highway seven. Do you have any idea how many banks there are? But it's because our broker was being really careful. Like she wanted to make sure that we had every single base cover.
Susan Flanagan: We have to see, this is the thing that people don't understand too. Now, having said that, if you wanted to lend directly to Alfonso, you can do that. People do that all the time. What happens between the two of you of the documentation you need is between the two of you and your two lawyers. But as a mortgage broker, I don't have the luxury of saying don't gimme this.
I'll take that. I have to decide whether I need it to present to the lender or not. I still have to show it. Here's an example. I don't care where you get your down payment from. But I need to know where it's coming from. So you could have a second mortgage and therefore have it a hundred percent financed.
That's fine. But if I'm providing you with the first mortgage, I just need to know where that down payment is coming from? Is it gifted money? Is it boring from your RSPs? Is it under your mattress? I don't care, but I have to still acknowledge it. And that's the difference. Whereas the banks, as we know, oh my gosh, it has to be sitting in the account for three months and really rigorous rules.
Alfonso Salemi: I think it's vitally important from both sides. Whether you're borrowing or you're lending, you're gonna want to make sure that this is a big step. This isn't like monopoly money that we're playing with here. We're not buying Boardwalk Avenue, right? We're actually buying real properties in real projects.
The people that you're working with you, you want to make sure they're checked out. It's another layer of protection from both sides, right? That hey, even if you are borrowing, hey, it's the person with money. I remember the first couple. Couple deals that we got is oh, they're gonna give us money. Let's not ask too many questions.
Then as you're getting more, it's no, we have to ask these questions so that it's properly lined up so that we can knock over those dominoes. And then from the borrowing side, especially if you're working with known commodities and you're checking them out, making sure those deals, asking the questions that maybe a common borrower wouldn't ask or wouldn't know what to ask. Right?
Susan Flanagan: It's so true. When I think back to when I first started lending my own money, it was with my RRSP money. I learned from the person I lent it to. That's not the smartest move. I thank goodness I never had anything go wrong. But the longer I was doing it and the more examples you add to it and so forth, then you learn, oh my gosh. I was so vulnerable, but I didn't know I was.
This is my other thing that I'm trying to suggest to people. If you've never lend your money directly to somebody before, I honestly suggest do it through a broker in the beginning so that you have them looking out for your best interest and then go from there. I just think it's a smarter way to go, even though I didn't do that.
Laurel Simmons: That's really good advice, Susan. Be, especially as you said, if you're starting out and you don't really know the landscape out there, like leverage your knowledge, leverage your experience, like why not? That's, you're trained, you're licensed, you have to follow the rules.
There's a whole bunch, there's a whole bunch of bureaucrats behind you, literally watching over your shoulder to make sure that all the steps are taken care of. So really good advice is, Especially if you're just getting going. So you know what, we could talk about this for hours and hours, but we're gonna move on to the lightning round and you know how this works. We're going to alternate questions. We've got four questions. I'm gonna start and then Alfonso comes in with question two. So you ready?
Susan Flanagan: Sure.
Laurel Simmons: All right. Question one. What's the best advice you've ever received from another investor or in a networking event?
Susan Flanagan: Best advice. Just don't think, don't do what I'm doing right now. Don't think too heavily sometimes on things. Take action. Like you do need to analyze things, but don't do the analysis to paralysis you. You have to pull a trigger.
Alfonso Salemi: Love that sound advice. All right. Question number two. What is your favorite resource for real estate investing? And that could be anything. A book, a training person, an event. What's your favorite resource?
Susan Flanagan: You know what I gotta tell you nowadays, it's podcasts. I love them and I love the REITE Club podcast. I love Sarah Larbi's podcast. I just became a podcast addict. And it's great. You could be cooking dinner, listening to a podcast or you're taking a two hour trip and put a podcast on there's no excuses for not being able to stay educated. So yeah, that's my latest.
Laurel Simmons: What is the one attribute that has made you most successful? If you had to choose one, what would it be?
Susan Flanagan: I'm not afraid to change. I'm not afraid to try new things. I just never have. And as old as I am now, I'm still not afraid. I think that's an attribute cause I see some people study this to death, but they're afraid to pull the trigger.
Alfonso Salemi: I love that. It wasn't too long ago that we were actually in person at one of the REITE Club events, and you were so excited about launching a new marketing and getting, and you're giving me, throwing me in terms about, oh, marketing and digital. And I'm like, wow, this is great.
Like I was learning from you and just that you throw yourself right in there and I can definitely attest to this. That is you're so ready to make a commitment, to learn and try something new to better yourself and the people that you work with. Absolutely. Let's round it out. Last question of the lightning round. So on a typical Sunday morning, what are you up to, Susan? What are you doing?
Susan Flanagan: Sleeping. Early Sunday morning sleeping. Sometimes, and it's only sometimes these days it seems sometimes I would make it to church, but in most cases that doesn't happen. So I'm walking my dog.
Laurel Simmons: And there we have the lightning round. Thank you. So Susan, how can people get hold of you?
Susan Flanagan: That's simple enough. Private money for mortgages, and it's the number four, not the word four. There's my website. They can email me at susan privatemoneyformortgages.com. They can call me at (519) 803-1642. I'm on. I'm out there on social media. I'm findable.
Alfonso Salemi: That's great. And you know what and you're just such a genuinely caring person. Love your clients. Such a pleasure speaking with you today Susan, and great information. Any last words of advice that you wanna share with the REITE club nation?
Susan Flanagan: Just hang in there with covid we're all gonna survive this, and we're gonna grow, whether it's good or bad news in the economy. I think so. And thank you so much for having me, you guys.
Laurel Simmons: Thank you. See you later, Susan. So Alfonso, Susan did a great job, didn't she? Wow. She really shared a lot of information for both lenders and borrowers. It was really cool to talk about both sides of the equation here.
Alfonso Salemi: Yes, absolutely. I've borrowed private money, I've lent private money, not private. I guess it was my own money. It wasn't private money, but it was lending money looking on both sides. And she touched on all the major points that you definitely should consider, whether you're boring or you're lending.
The biggest takeaway that I took was that sometimes, when you're in that lending position, you want everything to be, smelly, nice, beautiful roses, and everything's perfect. And guess what? If you're lending that. That's not gonna happen in most cases. That's really, very few and far in between.
When typically someone's borrowing private money, it's because they can't get that a and b type money, or don't have the time to and timelines are rushed. So for all those private lenders out there that are just waiting for that amazing, perfect opportunity, keep waiting because it's not gonna come, it's not gonna happen. You're gonna have to really dig deep and find out the attributes of that project. That is gonna make it worth lending or not, depending on your situation.
Laurel Simmons: Susan didn't say it, but it was pretty, pretty clear. I think she meant that, if you're looking for the, as a lender, if you're looking for the perfect deal, then you might as well just go put your money in the bank or put it in a mutual fund.
Cause there is no such thing as a perfect deal. That's why private lenders exist because there, there's all kinds of reasons why people want private money and there's probably hundreds that we could come up with, but we don't have time for that. So just before we go though, Alfonso, let's just talk about the online community a little bit. Cause hey, what's going on there?
Alfonso Salemi: It's such a growing community. I have touched base with so many of the REITE club nations that I wouldn't have been able to touch base with, number one, cuz we're not in person, but number two, they're across the country. So I've been having amazing conversations with people out east and, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick.
We have members there all the way up to the other side of the country in BC and Calgary and or Alberta, and really connecting. And there's so many things. As you said we learn from every single one of our podcasts and these conversations as do all of our listeners, what I'm learning every day from our community on certain projects that are going on.
I'm looking and I'm almost like, oh my God, this is amazing. It's incredible what we've been able to put together in our community is being able to put together and interact with each other in the power that we all really have. So if you haven't been on thereiteclub.com. Definitely check it out.
There's forums, there's our events calendar. We have all of our podcasts. Maybe you're listening to this podcast from thereiteclub.com, but there are so many amazing tools and tricks and things like that you can use. Laurel, why don't you speak a little bit more about that.
Laurel Simmons: It's free to join, so just go join. If you haven't joined. Go. It's putting your name and your email address and then you're in and you fill in your profile and now you can connect with people all across the country. And yeah, we've got all kinds of stuff coming. New stuff that will be coming.
We'll be rolling it out depending on when you listen to this podcast. But stuff's coming all the time, don't wait. Don't miss the opportunity to make those connections because in the end it's the relationships and the connections. That helps us all grow and create wealth, however you define wealth, right?
Alfonso Salemi: That's right. And like I said, I really love the conversation. So if you haven't been on there or you're just new and you're not sure how it works or navigate, send me a message. This is becoming a daily ritual for me. I'm jumping on thereiteclub.com, getting through all the messages of the new people that are joining the community.
We'd love to hear from you. And yeah, we want to keep continuing to grow as we all grow. Like we say, we all get better and grow together. So until next time. Come grow with us.
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