Carolina: In this scaling process, we started to realize that we couldn't just do everything ourselves. So very quickly we were hitting milestones that maybe typically would've taken us a little bit longer and we're like, okay, we can't.
Sarah: REITE Club nation, welcome to this week's podcast. I'm Sarah Larbi and my co-host today is Alfonso Salemi and we've got some great guests, but before we get into that Alfonso, what is new and exciting?
Alfonso: Yes. What is new and exciting? It is in the middle of February right now. And hitting full steam ahead. It's a tough market out there, but at JAAG we're continuing to grow. We've brought on two new team members. I'm officially putting it out there. By the time this launches we'll have them up in full steam, but we have a new sales executive on our team that is helping us and our growth and bringing on new clients and helping find more professionals to help more people to get into home ownership.
It's amazing to see the growth that we've seen. It's a tough market out there for sure. We've seen a lot of people get priced out of the markets, but what's been really inspiring is our operations team. Has been able to land some amazing properties and amazing deals, even with some conditions.
When people are saying it's impossible out there, it's really hard. You gotta go cash, you gotta go a hundred, 200 overasking. I'm gonna push back a little bit and say, in some scenarios, some cases you may have to, but there are still some really good properties to be found and to acquire out there. We're always looking at new opportunities to help more people. That's just new in my world. Sarah, what are you up to? What's new in your world?
Sarah: What is new? I'm working on some development. Obviously the Inspire beach resort, which is going to be ready at least with the three first cottages, three of nine. We're gonna do three this year and we're actually also doing a retreat in August which is gonna be an all inclusive three day retreat, health, wealth time for sale for investors, for entrepreneurs.
If you are interested, send me a message, maybe on Instagram, that's probably the best way to reach me, investor Sarah Larbi. I can send you the link. We are limiting it. And then by the time this airs, I don't know if it's still going to be available or not, but I can always put you on a waitlist for the next retreat. But aside from that, I have townhouses that we're continuing should be ready by the end of this year and mixed use eight plexes.
But aside from that, I am excited to just chill out some more this year and May to September is gonna be my time at the cottage where I don't have to be working on too much other than my dock, some dinner, that good stuff. But aside from that, we've got some exciting things at The REITE Club. So keep checking us out at thereiteclub.com and we've got lots of events all year.
Some that include wine and some that include zoom and some that include in person. So check that out. But aside from that, we've got great guests today. We have Carol and Brandon who are a young Canadian couple. They've actually just been scaling from zero to 22 doors in the last two years with a newborn child. Super inspiring. And what do you say, Alfonso?
Alfonso: Awesome couple, great chat with them. Really inspiring, really great energy. I think you guys are gonna love this podcast and if you do, please let us know, make sure to rate, review, share it with a friend and get on thereiteclub.com to listen to more. I'm excited. Let's get right to the show.
Sarah: Carol, Brandon welcome.
Brandon: Thank you. I was so excited to be here.
Sarah: I'm excited. I don't know you guys and I don't think Alfonso either, so it's always nice to meet new people and hear about the different stories and different experiences. And I'm sure based on what I'm reading, you're gonna be providing tons of value today. We're really excited. Maybe just tell us a little bit about how you got started in real estate investing in the first place.
Brandon: Absolutely. We got started about two years ago and it just came down to a matter of us really wanting to take more control and seeing the opportunity to flip the house that we were living in and move into investment properties.
We started that slowly, just the two of us. And then in order to accelerate we jumped into a coaching program. We just saw ourselves take off from there and it's been quite the journey, like any real estate investor. It's a bumpy road, but it's an awesome journey.
Sarah: Very cool. Do you mind sharing, like what your portfolio looks like and the strategy.
Carolina: Primarily we focus on the BRRRR strategy. That's what we started with and that's her bread and butter. We do a little bit of flips as well, but primarily BRRRR currently we have, we went from two doors to 24 doors over the past. I would say 18 months. And we now have a portfolio by the end of the year that should yield us about $600,000 in rental revenue. It's pretty awesome. Every one of our properties yields about a thousand dollars in cash flow a month as well. It's been difficult to get there, especially in this market.
It's been awesome. Like the community is amazing. We love that every single conversation we feel like we can add value to, but also get value from. We love having these types of conversations all the time for that reason.
Alfonso: Your growth has been amazing in that short period of time with the size of the portfolio, the success of the different types of properties. Where are you buying? Where are you focused? What are the areas that you guys work in most?
Brandon: We're primarily in the Southern Ontario, Golden Horseshoe area. But at the same time it's really wherever opportunity takes us. And so we also have property in Edmonton and we're looking possibly into the United States as well. But again, like Carol said, our focus, our bread and butter is the Golden Horseshoe area.
When we JV with other folks, we wanna show up what our expertise is and we want to make sure that we're setting them up for success as well. And so when we do look at other things, other avenues, other channels, it's more about us experimenting and expanding our wings. And then if anybody wants to go along with that we're happy to take folks along as well.
Sarah: Very cool. This was during the pandemic, essentially when things were crazy when real estate prices in the beginning, they people weren't sure what was gonna happen. And then took off and there was a lack of inventory. How are you finding your properties? Your deals? Is this on market, off market? Are you guys doing anything particular?
Carolina: We do a combination of both. I would say the majority of our portfolio has actually been on market, but it's been very strategic. We find things that are incorrectly advertised. Like a lot of people, a great example is a lot of people in our properties did not advertise that the houses had a secondary entrance. A lot of investors missed out on that. But we saw the type of house and we've seen so many of them that we knew that there was no way that type of house at that age did not have a secondary entrance.
We went to see it anyway or mismarketed things online that looked like they weren't professionally dead. Usually, there's a little bit more opportunity cuz there's less eyes looking at that. And then from an off market perspective, we did hire a team of drivers for dollars. We do mailing campaigns and stuff like that.
That takes a lot more time and effort as I'm sure a lot of our listeners and you guys know as well, but we've had some success there as well. We've had opportunities that pop up that way. And as well as our network, they provided us off market opportunities as well. It's been a big investment from that perspective.
Brandon: I'd say the biggest thing there too is consistency, right? Like you could go knocking on doors for one day and knock get a yes at all. But if you're doing that every day, if you're doing that every weekend or having people do that for you, consistency, the compound effect. That's what we really believe in. That's where we're gonna ultimately get our yes. Every note gets you closer to that.
Alfonso: I love that. It sounds like you guys, even the way you guys answer questions is such amazing teamwork and you guys are working together and as a couple as well. What was your experience beforehand before you got into real estate investing? Maybe what tools or skills did you have that you are applying and utilizing in the real estate business?
Brandon: That's probably the best thing about us as a team and even talking personally as a couple we're so opposite that we really attract each other and even in business we're so opposite. Carrol is a CPA by trade, working for the big four firms here in Canada or globally, I should say. And so she's very numbers driven. She's all about auditing, making sure that the numbers are exactly as they should be and projecting where we should be as well. For me, I'm in a sales role for a tech company.
I'm more on the sales and marketing side. And so together we joined forces, we feel like we're both good ideas of people and we both execute on different things. And so we compliment each other. We stay in each other's ways as well.
Sarah: That is awesome. And you're doing this while you have a newborn as well. That's I think probably a lot of people are just looking and saying, oh you know what, they probably don't have kids. They can do this. They can really focus on it. But so talk to us a little bit about what that was like, just scaling so quickly with a newborn at the same time and maybe some challenges or some things that you were able to do to make it work for you.
Carolina: We started out, I'm a planner along with what I do with work. Like I have to manage a lot of clients and a lot of products at the same time. We were really proactive in saying, okay, this is gonna be crazy. What are the roles that we need to fail? Who's gonna do it? What's our timelines, and where do we wanna go? We try to break it down okay, here's the whole year. These are the weeks that we're gonna be crazy.
These are the weeks where we're gonna have time. These are the goals that we need to advance. And these are the small little things that we need to do. And small little things can be going on a walk and dropping off notes. That doesn't seem so challenging telling yourself. I have to find 10 deals that might be overwhelming, but when you break it down into really, it comes down to you making 10 calls a day. That's not so scary, right? And so that's what we did. We were really kind to ourselves. Like we knew the first three months of having kids were gonna be impossible in terms of real estate.
We didn't try to do more than we could. We just planned around it and I think that's key in terms of still maintaining a passion for what we're doing, because this is really hard work. There's a lot of fruit results that come from it. But if you try to live your life around real estate, I think people tend to lose passion and they just drop off cause they're like it's too hard.
For us, we tried to do it the other way around where we said, okay, no, this is my time to be with my kid. I'm gonna give myself three months. And this is what I can do outside of that. And we were just very diligent with those times. I think that drove us to make sure that we were really productive during that time.
Alfonso: You mentioned, and this is a big thing that we always talk about is the power team, the people that you're working with, that you trust to do their part and experts in their field. You mentioned you have the sales and marketing aspect and obviously from the CPA, from your own business. What are the key roles that, as you guys have started your portfolio expanded, some of the key players that you've brought onto your power team, that was amazing. We're so glad that we brought or found that person. And then from the other side of maybe some turnover on people that you weren't working on. Give us the positive and then we'll go into some maybe lessons that you've learned from hiring some people.
Carolina: For sure. I would say, and Brandon's dealt with more with the actual hiring, but I'll give my perspective on who has been really instrumental, having investor friendly lawyers, brokers, realtors was key. At first we were fishing for a lot of our own deals. Eventually we're like no, we need to start attracting people to bring us our steel. We started actually going out there and telling each other. This is what we do. You bring me a deal, you bring me the analysis of the comparables. I'll pull the trigger within a couple hours.
I think that message resonated with a lot of different people. We started actually getting leads ourselves. That was a creative way that we started offloading some of the responsibilities. And then outside of that, I would say we actually hired a property manager. And when we looked at that we looked at what property managers do and how much we have to pay them.
We looked at how much we could actually pay somebody to do more than property management for us. And it was actually pretty on par. That person started taking more of the administrative task of dealing with tenants, but also on their off time. They were using the time to do driving for dollars and other administrative things that have been so key for us to focus on other aspects of the business. Brandon had more experience with hiring other team members as well. So what was that like?
Brandon: It's sometimes complicated because you, especially in a COVID world, don't necessarily meet these people. And sometimes you're trying to work remotely in different markets. And so, you use your best judgment and you use your gut. And so far we've had positive experiences, right? I think so.
Carolina: I think one key thing that we did was when we looked at our organization, we looked at the key roles and we really described what we needed that person to do. We wanted to be very professional. It wasn't like, here's my Kijiji ad and oh, gimme a call and I'll tell you what you have to do. Like we had very specific instructions, so that no matter who came on and whether they left, when we had to hire somebody else, the onboarding would also be very smooth.
That's where the whole planning aspect came in. And sometimes it's important to make sure that you have not. Sometimes I think all time is important that you have your foundation really well set so that you can really propel forward strongly.
Sarah: Tons of great insight there. And I think that is genius, right? Rather than just hiring a property management company, you brought all of this stuff in house, you trained somebody, they're working exclusively for you. And then, how else can you monetize and get your best return on time and driving for dollars especially in this type of market is going to be key because you do need to find those off market opportunities here and there.
Even if it's not going to be something that you want to particularly purchase, while you could give it back to your realtors that were helping you for potentially a fee of some kind, or you can wholesale it. And there's tons of opportunities. And so I think that is likely where we're gonna be needing to get to is off market driving for dollars, creating mailers, that kind of stuff. How do you differentiate yourself so that you're not competing with 20 other offers?
What are some of the challenges that you faced? Obviously you scaled quite quickly. Maybe you, if you don't mind sharing, just some of the things that you went through as you were spending the last two years buying, a handful to 20 plus units, is it units or properties?
Carolina: It's units.
Sarah: Okay, so 20 plus units, what are some of the challenges along the way that you experienced?
Carolina: That's a good question. I would say in the scaling process, we started to realize that we couldn't just do everything ourselves. Very quickly we were hitting milestones that, that maybe typically would've taken us a little bit longer.
And we're like, okay, we can't do all these things ourselves. And we started to realize that, okay, we have our power team, for example. But as we started to move on to different markets, we started to realize, okay this power team needs to be more specific, like region specific. Like we had an investor friendly realtor.
Now, we need a flip investor, friendly realtor to really bring those kinds of opportunities or we need a specific realtor that is investor friendly in Niagara for whatever reason. I think we started to realize that we needed more and more systems. And quite honestly it was due to, I would say stress too, like too many things at one time. That's where we have to step back and say, okay, if we really wanna continue to scale, what's our bottleneck right now and what do we need to put in place so that we can continue to grow? I would say that's definitely one thing.
Brandon: Another thing that comes to mind for me is something that is self-inflicted. We've talked about this before, that glass ceiling or that self limitation that we put on ourselves thinking, okay, we never thought that we could buy 10 plus properties or get 20 plus units. And so we were never aggressive. We never believed that could happen. And so we were our own challenge.
At one point, we got in our own way at one point too, where we should have been a little bit more aggressive. We should have been able to see where the market was going or make quicker decisions. And that I think ultimately that also led us to seeking mentorship, coaching, networking, talking to other people, understanding what they've done previously.
We learn from their mistakes. And also it helped give us confidence that somebody else is doing this again. We could do it too. And Carol put a post about that on Instagram. Like nobody that's in this space is special, right? You have introverts, you have extroverts, you have very charismatic people and you have others that aren't, everyone can be successful. It really doesn't matter.
Carolina: A perfect example of missing, like taking action is like when we first started. We were taking that, look at deals in Hamilton and anybody that's calling the Hamilton market knows how crazy it is. But I remember looking at a property that was $475,000. It was a legal duplex. Fully done up, like nothing needed to be done.
I remember looking at that and being like, oh no, it's not a good opportunity because there's no upside to this property. I feel like anybody listening to us that knows Hamilton market is probably cringing at me saying that and we do too. Those are some of the big lessons I would say that we've learned.
And now we're a little bit more aggressive in terms of getting ahead of ourselves and learning more about different things like private lending and different types of structures that allow us to scale without that glass ceiling. Now if we don't hear no, then we just keep going until somebody else tells us no other than ourselves.
Alfonso: For sure. And I think you guys are being too tough on yourselves and I think most people are their own worst critics. It's always easier to look back on hindsight with the experience, the knowledge that you have gained and looking back going, oh my God, that made so much sense.
What was I thinking at the time? And I think about that as well, thinking what was I doing working full time, in my twenties, I should have been real estate investing. And now we see so many members of The REITE Club that are starting at a younger age and I'm going, good for you guys.
That's awesome. Starting from an earlier standpoint, the only way to get that knowledge is actually experiencing it. So good on you guys for doing that. I always like asking this question, like in terms of resources, whether it's people, places, things, books, newsletters, different types where are you guys getting your knowledge? Where, how are you staying, up to date on the pulse of things getting some trusted resources. In general, real estate investing business, as you guys run and operate your business, what are some from a CPA sales and marketing, two completely different sides of things. What are some good resources that you can share that you review or look at?
Brandon: Obviously listening to this podcast right here, right? That's number one. We do different things and we're always investing in ourselves. And we just spent thousands of dollars again this year on coaches spending hundreds of dollars on books. We try to read 10 pages a book, a day of something that's of interest to us. We're trying to grow mentally. We're trying to grow our network and our group of friends within the network as well. Reading, looking at groups, you could jump on Facebook podcasts is something else that we look at.
Carolina: We're always constantly analyzing. Okay. Where do we wanna be? Three months from now? And what's the first thing that's gonna break? If we wanna get to that goal. If it is private lending at whatever given time like or funding, then we say, okay, we need to talk to somebody that knows about funding.
Then we focus those three months solely on connecting with people that have gone through that process. Similarly, we went through the process of incorporation and all that stuff. During that time, a big focus was talking to other CPAs that have gone through the process and getting that understanding so that we're always challenging ourselves and saying, okay, like where do we see this being a problem so that we know how to train ourselves before that problem happens.
Sarah: That's great. And as you're saying this, and you're saying, you're talking about your goals, I'm just curious to know. If you've got some 2022 goals, and if you wouldn't mind maybe sharing one or two of them of what you'd like to focus on for this year.
Carolina: By the end of the year, we definitely would like to replace at least one of our incomes. So far, there's been a lot of expenses that have gone into growing our business. We wanna make sure that we're at a point where we've outgrown those expenses and actually are replacing our income. Do you have another one?
Brandon: Just acquiring more properties, right? Like it's a competitive market area you were saying, we gotta look more and more off market too. And so for us at a minimum, we want to keep acquiring one property a month. That could be a 10 unit property that could be a single family home. We just wanna make sure that we're constantly acquiring assets and figuring out what to do.
Carolina: I do the off market aspect of it too, in the sense that most of the time when you're finding something off market really is run down properties, and with such a housing crisis, it's pretty awesome to be able to convert those into actual living spaces for the community. That's pretty rewarding as well. We're looking into ways that we can give back more to the real estate community and allow others to really jump into doing this without that fear that we originally had. Because the best advice we could give ourselves is to do it sooner. How can we help others take more control of the financial future sooner?
Brandon: And you and the off market too, that what's so great about it is that oftentimes the most opportunistic opportunities that come your way is when you're actually helping somebody else as well. Somebody might have a really tough problem, might be in a tough position. And you're that person that could actually help them get out of that and have whether it's a clean start or a fresh start. And so for us, it's also finding that win-win situation. When it's off market you have more of an opportunity to help people that way.
Alfonso: I love that. And you guys are really just putting ourselves out there and meeting as many new contacts, having conversations. Can you share I don't know, maybe an interesting story or something that surprised you, when it was maybe acquiring a property or something where you're like, oh my God, the Dutch just happened or you guys are looking at each other, maybe holding your little guy and oh, my God. Can you believe this?
We just acquired a multi, I don't know, something like an interesting story that you look back on and maybe in the moment it was a little bit scary, but now with that experience now you've gotten it. It's okay. That's so great.
Carolina: I'm not sure if this is a story you're looking for. And I think Brandon knows exactly where I'm going with this, but we're really big believers in energy and really putting ourselves out there. And we constantly go out for walks. We constantly drop off notes.
We weren't wearing anything that's said, or like we buy houses or anything like that. But we went on a lot one day and this random lady. Out of nowhere was like, you wanna buy my house? Like just out of nowhere?
Brandon: She asked us how the baby was first and then her next question was, are you guys looking to buy a house?
Carolina: We were just out for a walk. I realized I'm telling you this. It might not sound as exciting as it was for us at that moment, I don't know, it made me almost wanna cry because I really felt that you track what you put out there. It's not every day.
I don't know how many people this has happened to, but you don't walk around the street any day. And somebody's just asked you if you wanna buy their house. That was probably the easiest self market lead we ever got without even dropping off a note. I would say to your point Alfonso, put yourself out there and tell people what you're doing and it'll come back around.
Sarah: That is very cool. I'm just curious. Did you end up negotiating and getting that property?
Carolina: We're in the process of. We're still talking.
Brandon: We're still talking.
Alfonso: I love that. Hold on. Moral of the story, buy onesies that say my parents buy houses, or something like that. I love it. We'll do a joint collaboration on that one. All different sizes, colors available for everybody coming out.
Carolina: Oddly enough though, like talking about energy and destiny, and really like the way things are supposed to be everybody that we've come to our network somehow was somebody that we knew from a long time ago.
Carolina: For example, our investor friendly mortgage broker, Brandon met in Cuba in 2008. We weren't real estate investors at that time or anything like that. We didn't even know each other. Years later, somehow he comes back into the circle. Our real estate coach was actually my coach on something completely different.
He was coaching this mortgage broker and all these people are interrelated. It feels like it's meant to be. Now it sounds a little bit crazy. I realize it, as I'm saying it, but you told me to tell you a crazy story that makes us say wow. I think that's a big one for us.
Alfonso: I love it.
Sarah: I love that story. It is cool. I like the energy too. I think that you put in what will come out. I think that is key because ultimately, like we just have the one life and, sure. We can buy some real estate and we can get wealth, but what about the lifestyle?
What about ensuring that you're living the best life, the healthiest version of your life. I'm just curious, cuz you know, you mentioned reading 10 pages a day and a few other things, like what are some things that you guys are doing, on a daily basis or a weekly basis that helps you, create your best life of
Brandon: Really good question. For me, I could speak for myself at least, but it's about owning art and I run my calendar so diligently and it's really about owning that. It's about doing whatever I want with that time. If I am looking at what I do with my time on a daily basis to stay healthy we go for our daily walks.
We set aside time to work out. We eat very healthy food. We order pre-made meals to buy back some time as well. Cuz when we look at grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning, we're like, wow, we could save two or three hours out of our day. We never used to have to cook lunch before. And now we do, I think we're always looking at ways to impact our health, impact our vitality as well, and make sure that we have that energy for our son. Even though some days are tough, it's making sure. Like you said, yeah you could make money or you could take care of yourself and make sure that you're just having a great lifestyle and a great life.
With the people you love too.
Carolina: I think the only other thing I would add to that is that we do a lot of self studies as well to realize, what are our core values and how are we living those on a daily basis? One of the big biggest things we realize through this process is that we really enjoy adding value.
If we're not adding value in whatever relationships or whatever deal we're doing, it doesn't really get us out of bed and with a lot of energy in the morning. In any conversations, in anything that we do, we really see how we can add value. I feel like that's what keeps us going. was just
Brandon: thinking was like, I put the number out there, but we've had conversations.
We're like, oh, we could make X amount. It's yeah, but is it worth it? Before you would say yes 10,000 or whatever number you wanna put on and is worth it. Now our time is worth more. Our health is worth more. Our peace of mind is worth more. What really? Where is the trade off?
For us it's putting us as a priority.
Alfonso: There's nothing more valuable to that. Especially, leading such a lifestyle and being an example for your young one, as well too, that you guys have there be there the time. It's so funny trying to relate.
I know sometimes I'll be hanging out and holding, he is four months younger than your guy and I'll be holding my phone and he'll be looking at me looking at my phone. I'm like, okay, I gotta put this down. I gotta put this away because sometimes, you are. Listen, they do a great job by locking you in and, scrolling and liking and all the different types of things, but having that mindset of what you're doing each day and making sure that it's getting towards your goals.
I think it's those small wins that you have to accumulate over time. You guys are doing such a great job, and the energy that you guys have around it as well, just feeling it over this conversation.
Brandon: Thanks so much. We feel yours too. Thanks to both of you.
Alfonso: That's amazing. I think we've reached the point of the podcast that we're gonna do our lightning round. So Carol, Brandon, are you guys ready?
Brandon: As we'll be.
Sarah: All right. Here is question number one. First thing that comes to mind, and you guys can each share a different answer. But what is the best advice that you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event?
Carolina: I would say the JV queen herself will go bigger sooner. By in her words, the effing acid cause
Sarah: What is the best advice that you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event?
Carolina: I would say the JV queen herself will go bigger sooner. just cause, and in her words, the effing acid cause I'm not sure if I'm allowed to spare. Those are probably the two biggest ones, just by the effing acid.
Brandon: I think that's a good one. I heard one this weekend. I hate that we're gonna swear too.
But those who eat, get the biggest reward or whatever it is. We believe that it doesn't come without hard work. You gotta be smart too, but it doesn't come without some hard work.
Alfonso: Absolutely love that and we're not PG rated. Don't worry. We can bleep it on.
If we're offending somebody, you know what? We apologize, make sure you turn it down for the kids in the vehicle or if you're listening.
Brandon: Quoting here, it's not ours. We have to quote.
Alfonso: That's right. Okay. Question number two. What is your favorite resource for real estate investing? That could be anything, a book, a training, a person, an event. Anything that you guys use as a resource that you would recommend for.
Brandon: For me, it's our coaching program or, buying, whether you participate in a monthly group, a weekly group, a mastermind, I think getting in a room, even if it's a virtual room and talking with other investors is probably the best thing.
You could read a book that isn't really going to, I find oftentimes push you to get off the coach and go do something. When you're part of these groups, when you're investing yourself, your money, your time and your accountability to these folks that really has, I think for me specifically, really pushed me throughout this journey.
Carolina: I would say the same thing for sure. The network.
Sarah: Awesome. Great answers.
Next is number three, in your opinion, what is the one attribute that has made you most successful?
Brandon: I think I said it earlier for me, it's the consistency. Like a book that we both really enjoyed and believe in is Jeff Olson, The Slight Edge.
It's all about the compound effect as long as you wanna be making the right decisions more often than that, and keep yourself on that upward trajectory. It's not about perfection. Nobody can be perfect. But for us, I think it comes down to consistency. As long as we're consistent in what we're doing and the actions we're taking.
I believe that the result will show up.
Carolina: I think also just organization and the ability to plan. We try not to live in the future, but you gotta know where you're headed. Otherwise you're gonna get nowhere real fast.
Alfonso: That's awesome. You know what? I love the answers. It just shows you guys personality. It's great.
Brandon: Even when we talk to our JVs, they ask us a question. I'm like let me give you my perspective or like a speaker, and then I'll give you mine. You have to make up your own mind where you land.
Alfonso: It's great. It's so complimentary. I love seeing that. Last question of the lightning round on a typical Sunday morning, what are you guys getting up to? What do you guys do on a typical Sunday?
Carolina: This is gonna sound real nerdy everybody. We wake up at 6:00 AM, even on weekends, sometimes earlier. On Sundays, the first thing we do is we debrief on how the week went.
We have weekly goals and daily goals and we look at okay, what did we accomplish? But did we not accomplish it doesn't necessarily have to be just real estate related. If we said we wanted to workout five days a week and we did, and we're like, okay, you gotta do five hours worth of workouts today.
Not that we actually do, but we just, basically take tally on what we wanted to take action on and how the next week is gonna look based on what we did or didn't do the week following. Then we planned the day to day and then we go off and typically go have a nice branch and yeah, just relax for the week. .
Brandon: Our Sundays are heavily influenced by seven habits of highly successful people where you can't go into Monday and think that you're gonna plan your week. When the week has already started. For us, it's all about how Sunday mornings are really about accountability and planning so that there's no question.
We wake up Monday, we know what we have to do. Like Carol said, after that, we do like to take our family time. Whether that's sitting lessons with Tao, going for a hike in the summer or whatever it is, We have dedicated family time there as well.
Carolina: Awesome. You guys are like an awesome power couple.
You're the ones to look out for, cause I know there's gonna be big things and lots of success from many years. You mentioned JV. I'm guessing if somebody wants to JV with you as well, they can reach out. What is the best way to reach out to you? Carol and Brandon?
You can follow us at medal properties and DM us there.
You could also email us@infomedalproperties.com and we tend to respond within 24 hours. Always happy to have a conversation. Feel free to reach out, even if it's just with a quick question.
Sarah: Amazing. Thank you so much for being on the show. That was awesome. I actually enjoyed it, it's an energy thing.
I really enjoyed your energy and it was nice. You've explained simple things or you've explained complex things into simple solutions and simple ways to understand it. I think that you will connect with many of our listeners. Thank you very much. That was amazing.
Brandon: That's so nice to hear. Yeah. Thank you, Sarah. I really appreciate the opportunity to be with you and your audience.
Alfonso: Yeah, pleasure guys. Thank you.
Brandon: Take care. Appreciate it.
Alfonso: What a great couple, both Carol and Brandon, just two different personalities, but together create, like you said, an amazing energy they're really inspiring, two short years of growing their portfolio, pushing it more, pushing the boundaries.
Getting some experience under their belt and finding off market deals, even when they're not looking, that's gotta mean something and you're in the right place at the right time, but yeah. Sarah, what did you think? What were some of the takeaways or some things that you wanted to highlight?
Sarah: I really like how they have a division of things that they are good at and, For example, one has, more analytical mindset. One has more of a sales mindset. I'm sure they can both, do all of it, but it's nice to see how they compare parts, mentalize this to really be a strong business together and to be able to hire, I thought, I think it was really cool that they hired already their first person to do not only property management, but start driving for dollars and all that good stuff.
They have systems. Their planning is definitely important, you do wanna plan, you wanna take action, execute just like them. You don't wanna have analysis paralysis, but planning is important for sure. What about you Alfonso ?
Alfonso: Again, you know what? You stole my thunder there a little bit, but the division of, doing what you're good at enjoying what you're doing and planning that's something more and more that I've learned to, to do in the last few years as well is, plan out your days or weeks ahead especially with a child you're always gonna never have extra time.
You'll never, they'll never be extra time. There's always more to do, more things to accomplish, but planning that and checking in, making sure that you are getting those little wins, having little goals that are accomplished every day, every week, every month. Those will add up and stack up for sure.
But having that looking forward to saying, Hey, what does my five years look like, what does my day look like? What am I doing? Visualizing that? Then getting back to work and going out there. Again, we always say this is something where really, what kind of you know was the initial seed of the REITE club is just connecting with more and more people getting different perspectives.
It's sometimes overwhelming, cause even myself, I go back, this is the podcast. Or we have somebody on our podcast or on one of our presentations and I'm like, oh my God, what are they doing? Sometimes I get that shiny object syndrome and look at that, but it's really just kind.
Getting through and seeing what works for you and understanding. Sometimes, I always joke around, but it's cheaper than therapy, right? You're gonna work with somebody that or talk with somebody that can share their experiences that maybe you're going through. You're not alone out there.
If you do feel alone, definitely reach out to somebody in the REITE club ourselves or anybody. I'm sure there'll be some experiences that you can share and you connect with to understand. Because there are gonna be challenges. We know that for sure, but it's how you overcome them and how you get better. That's what it's all about.
Sarah: That's it in the REITE club nation. Customize your life. See you next time guys.
DJ: Thanks for listening to The REITE Club podcast, where the focus is on helping all levels of real estate investors advance to the next level and help you customize your life. Be sure to tune in next week at thereiteclub.com/podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you get a few seconds, please rate the podcast. Wherever you're listening, it helps the show get noticed by others like you. And we truly appreciate it. And don't forget to subscribe.
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