Sarah Larbi: REITE Club nation, welcome back. I'm Sarah Larbi, and I'm here with Francois. My wonderful co-host, Francois Lanthier, who went from two to, I don't know how many, 50, 60, 70 properties in a matter of a year and a half. How many are you at now, by the way?
Francois Lanthier: We've actually sold a few, so we're down now to 19. We've really scaled back and I think what Justin, what you'll hear in the interview will really tie into what some of the decisions I've made staying liquid in uncertain times. I have liquidated and yeah, but buying all these properties allowed me to do this liquidation.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Hey, we've got a creator lifestyle by design and that includes being able to ride the ups, the downs, and the laws along the way. But Justin is an investor, a realtor. Has a great team, a great mindset. I think you will all enjoy today's podcast. There's a ton of energy. And he really knows what he's talking about.
He's been in the investing world for a while and is doing some really cool deals as well. Club Nation, don't forget to write and review and check us out at thereiteclub.com. We've got lots of events happening all the time. thereiteclub.com. Let's bring in Justin.
Francois Lanthier: Hello, Justin, Welcome to The REITE Club podcast. I'm really excited to have you as a guest, Justin Konikow, and I'm accompanied by Sarah Larbi, and you're joining us from beautiful London, Ontario, and I'd like to get some more background information. So many of you, our listeners, may know of you and see you as the persona on Instagram and on various social media platforms. But it'd be nice to get to know you a bit more if you could give us an overview of what you've done over the past few years and what brought you into this industry.
Justin Konikow: For sure. I'm an open book and if you follow me on any social media, you might get more than you bargain for. But I would tell you that I do think we live in an age where social media gives people an image that isn't necessarily the truth, right?
I think that's because people can just make preconceived notions of other people's highlight reels and not really get to know the people. One thing I like about, say Sarah, for example, is over the years, I've watched her. One of the reasons we connected was I know that she's a fan of jujitsu for reasons that she has, right?
That was one reason that I started paying attention to what you guys are doing. And then Francois, your name reminds me of where I grew up. I was actually born and raised in Montreal. My mom's from Northern Quebec. Half my family speaks very much French. I was raised in Montreal. I came from a family where my dad was actually a salesman.
I'm in sales now. And he worked for DuPont at the time. So we went to Toronto for a placement. He moved back to Montreal because they moved him back. That's where his job was. And he was in non-destructive technologies or basically, anytime you wanted to analyze something without damaging it, you would call this company and they would come in and they'd sell you x-ray equipment and all these different things.
When we actually moved back to Montreal, DuPont shut that division down not very long after we got there. And my dad's family had immigrated from the Ukraine. He worked really hard. But that's a big thing to happen to a guy with a young family. So my dad actually took out a loan, bought the inventory, and bought the client list and said, You know what?
I can do this. I know how to do the job, I'll do it myself. Founded a company called Tricon Technologies. So I grew up in a family where we didn't have a ton, but my dad had a very strong work ethic. My mom, same thing too, came from a family where she had six brothers. She was the middle child, so she used to take care of all her other brothers while her parents were working really hard.
Learn the value of hard work super early. Fun fact, and you both may recognize this name, but my best friend growing up was Anthony Broccoli, the guy that runs Broccoli Construction. His family at the time had built the three homes on our street and they were tiny home builders at the time. It was John who was his dad and all of John's brothers and I, again, got to see the other side of the coin from a development family.
Now I'm in sales and Anthony's building Amazon. It's funny how everything works out that way, but I really grew up around an environment of real estate without even really thinking about it. I was on the sales trajectory early on. And then I ended up leaving Montreal in my early two thousand. Part in part because Montreal was too fun of a city.
I knew there was more out there for me and my sister at the time was taking kinesiology at Western and a lot of people that I knew had gone to London for school and I just kept hearing about London and my dad had been recruited by London Life years ago. Didn't go to London cause it's a tiny little town, middle of nowhere.
We're from Montreal. Why would we go to London? Sure enough, both his children follow. I followed my sister to London in the early two thousands and started working for a man named Mike Smith. So if you know anything about London, you've probably heard of a place called Joe Cools and maybe Jim Bob Rays, If you go back.
Francois Lanthier: Oh my goodness, yes. That brings me back to college .
Justin Konikow: That's actually one of the reasons why I know everybody in the city was I worked for a man named Mike Smith at the time, got a job at those places, did every job in the company, but those are the restaurants that everybody goes to. You would walk in the cools any day of the week.
You'd see Ty Domy next to Carter, next to Corey Perry. All of these guys came up around the same time that I was working in this restaurant. And it really was that place where you could have a contractor next to a guy in a $10,000 suit. And it was because of the man that ran it, Mike Smith. So Mike became one of my mentors very early on, and I did every job in the company.
I just, again, just being raised the way I was. I always had a job. I always worked. I tried. Everything that I could, I was the dj, a bouncer, a bar back, a manager, a supervisor. Ended up working my way into the marketing and coordination position at the company. So I was wearing multiple hats, similar to many entrepreneurs, I'm sure like you guys and people that are watching this and I was really in a place where I enjoyed what I did, but it was still at the behest of somebody else. And then I guess during that transitory time, I met my wife, who's a superstar. I like to say she's the real brains of the operation and she's a ghost. You do not see her on any podcasts.
You don't see her doing any of the things that I do, but there's a very thoughtful reason behind. My wife was a graduate from the MBA Ivy program. Run a consulting company in New Yorkville. Grew up very similarly to how I did. Where she or her family had a car dealership in the middle of nowhere that ended up becoming one of the top dealerships nationwide because her parents know the value of being creative in tough markets and just the value of a hard day's work.
She kept pushing me and kept mentioning real estate as something we could do together. And I think I was at a transitory time in my life where during that time actually was my foray into seeing what real estate investment could be. My sister had bought a house for $88,000. It was a. Duplex in quotations 65 Riverside Drive. I moved in to help her with the renovation downstairs. That's where I thought I could become a drywaller. I was wrong. That's where we thought, you could have the tenant in the basement who stopped paying her and then had to go through courts and start seeing that, that side of things.
I realized the vehicle was there, right? Those two people living there were ultimately paying down a mortgage over time, and the value of that asset was increasing. Fast forward also got an insight into student rentals and the student rental market because just being in and around London, you can't help but see the other side of that coin.
It was the complete flip side where I saw very early on, super high rents, really good cash flow, super high maintenance on these same properties. So circles of people I was running with were buying everything on Thurmond and Fleming. I had buddies that were renting houses out to six to nine people and redoing all the drywall.
Every single time the cohort would change and new students would come in. I also noticed something on Thurman and Fleming, specifically near fan shot at that time, where the rest of the city kept appreciating value. But because those were like 98% student rentals, they were just maintaining a baseline.
These are beautiful back split homes that should have been selling for a couple hundred thousand dollars more than they should have. So I started just seeing these little things here and there. Fast forward back to the conversation with my wife. I swear she tricked me into real estate because she gave me the ad, the old line where we'll get your license, you'll save money on commissions.
I was like, Okay I'll get it. For the education I was managing, everything I was managing with Mike got my license and that's when the light bulb went off. Cause the very, one of the very first listings I got was a commercial property that had 55% vacancy. And it was a challenge because my guy was a meat packer out to Oakville, and wanted a million dollars for this property.
If we ran the numbers as a crew, we would sit there and we would say, it's worth, 6 57 on paper maybe. That's being generous. But he wanted a million dollars. My wife and I both got homesick because the commercial was telling us it was overvalued. We were never gonna get what we priced it at. We were just around the 900 mark. She came up with an analysis of this property, of the future potential of it. She did three different appraisals on it. So almost the ignorance helped us to the standpoint where we were able to justify the value. And the very first, one of the very first deals we did ended up being a vtb deal where we did a deal at.
I wanna say at that time, seven 50, but we did six 50 in financing, basically a hundred down on the property, Structured a 5% vtb over the period of time where eventually my guy made more than a million dollars, cause the guy just kept resetting the vtb while he brought the property up to spec. We had got a buyer that got a property.
Arguably under market value with creative financing when that really wasn't a thing. This would've been like 2012, 2013, and he was able to take that money and it ended up buying like three or four more buildings because he got it up to 95% occupancy, refinanced the building, but kept the actual vtb, bought another building, did the same thing.
We really realized that the BRRRR method was something we just stumbled on very early. So I guess that's what really got me intrigued into real estate. And I guess the last piece of it was we're not really a real estate agency, right? I'm not really a brokerage. I'm not really a real estate agent.
I've said this the last time I had a podcast. I just play one on tv. We happen to have an expertise in real estate, but we operate more as a company from the prime perspective. And from myself as say, a real estate investor, my wife and I look at real estate as a vehicle to opportunity that will generate long term wealth. So I guess that's the full scope of how I ended up here.
Sarah Larbi: First and foremost, I will say you're actually a really good storyteller because it was exciting. It was interesting. You definitely shared lots of details, but I think it's cool for our REITE Club Nation just to see all the pieces connecting together. And it's also awesome to see that like hard work and grit, determination instilling that early on has likely helped you along the way.
The VTB piece. Back then, yeah, you're right. There's probably not many. I just did one on the last piece of land that I just bought for the resort that we're building on now. It's 5% and, but they're like, that's the first one I've done. But it's more common now, I think, especially as they're harder and harder deals than it used to be back then.
Let's fast forward to today, if you don't mind. I Obviously you know it, it looks like you've got a lot of things going for you, but what are you working on these days? If we look at 2020 2021 we're just starting to get out of the pandemic and whatnot. What are the new, the newest types of strategies or deals or whatnot that you're working on?
Justin Konikow: What you just said makes me excited because you're talking about doing a land deal on a resort community. I had Scott McGilvery on my podcast in January, and what he was saying was he was looking at stuff nobody was looking at. And I do think that's where my head is at. So from an investment perspective, like we own prime real estate brokerage, prime media productions, we're actually doing a lot more work in the production space than we ever thought that we would.
I am investing in the businesses, but in terms of actual real estate investments, it's mainly land acquisitions. It's unless you're doing a vtb, a hundred percent financed, right? So you're putting a lot of cash down and you're not leveraging a lot, but there's an inherent value to our time. So my wife and I are pretty strategic in terms of where we're looking and what we're looking for that main reason.
Because my highest value item right now is my time, right? So I'm looking for opportunities in the land space, in the equity space. I'm also a network. Globally at this point, not because I'm patting myself on the back, but just because I wake up every day and I jump in the clubhouse, I jump in rooms like this, and I try to connect with people and I'm looking at opportunities in places that I never really thought I would.
Places like Texas, places like Florida, places like Denver. Because we do live in a global village and it sounds weird for me to say that now because 10 years ago I never thought I'd be looking at stuff in those areas. Does where you live matter as much as it did before? Does where you work matter as much as it did before?
I could see somebody like you or you Francois, having three or four places that you're visiting on a frequent basis and three or four networks of people that now become the opportunity zones because your job creates money, but your real wealth comes from the relationships that you make.
Francois Lanthier: That's so true. And I saw the Gary V shoes that you got a while ago. They're right there.
Sarah Larbi: By the way though and I'll let you, but we have the same bookshelf.
Justin Konikow: Oh, amazing. Oh there you are that's, Didn't even notice that. That's aw struck too. Yeah. That was the, one of the only ones that fit. That's funny cause that should have been a curtain. Wasco though, Great home builders right on the other Uni Baha side us and they always walk out on the patio. I'm like, I gotta put something there. But everything there has a meaning to me as well too. And I think, yeah, it's working hard and getting things is great, but I think it's the working hard in the journey. That's the fun part.
Francois Lanthier: I love that concept that you mentioned earlier. Having different places and I, yeah, I am designing my lifestyle like that. The REITE Club now is all about customizing your life. As investors, because in the end it's not the assets. We don't really care about the assets. It's what it brings to you. Like you said time is precious, you don't get it back. So that's huge. And now you mentioned different markets like Texas, Florida. Are you going even beyond that, like other countries or I know that's the states.
Justin Konikow: Well with the political climate that we have in Canada. Who knows what they're gonna let us do and not do? I'm excited for next year though. I think people are resilient. I think we succeed in spite of our political process, not because of it, but right now I'm focused on North America. My wife likes to take road trips. I get a lot of speaking engagements through my networks as well too. So 2022, I'm gonna probably be spending a lot of time in North America canvassing, anchoring those relationships.
One of my mentors happens to be in Manhattan and another one's in Charlotte, and we've got people all over, so I'm really focused on North America, but through Clubhouse, for example, I have a friend named Yogi who is in one of the best districts in Israel and fascinating to see what's happening there. Then Cina Saddat is another guy I met who actually runs an Instagram account.
You've probably seen it called Luxury Listings. It's the largest luxury real estate account on all of Instagram. And he's been just giving me insights into architects that are doing some stuff in the UK and just different vehicles of investment that I'm like, Man, it seems like we're talking a different language.
Sarah Larbi: I think that's cool though. I think it's, obviously despite all the nonsense that Covid brought , the fact that we can live wherever, work, wherever, communicate. I look at some of my friends today, I've met them on Instagram probably in the last couple years. And then as things started opening up, we started hanging out and that's pretty cool.
To go back to one of the things I think was really interesting that you were saying, and I'm starting to really push this as well, as there is not a lot of inventory out there throughout North America. And I think it's important that we are not just all trying to go after the same types of deals. If you wanna do something and you wanna make things happen, you really have to look in a different sandbox and you have to go against the grain.
You've gotta really actually think, Okay, how can I create a deal here that somebody's not seeing, somebody's not wanting to do it for whatever reason. Maybe it's experience, maybe it cash or whatnot and making things happen. And I think that's where people are gonna do really well in the next couple years. If this market continues being the way that it is with no inventory and everybody competing and raising the prices off, conversion opportunities and different things.
I still love the BRRRR strategy. There are still some deals, but we're all looking for the same thing. So how you can set yourself apart and do something different, I think is going to be the most successful investors I think moving forward. So what are some of the things that you are doing against the grain going into different sandboxes? If you don't mind sharing, like maybe just a couple things. Sure. That you've been doing recently.
Justin Konikow: I'll highlight how you're correct, because the BRRRR strategy became a very busy space, and then everybody started going after apartment buildings and that became a very busy space. Now everybody's running into land development.
That's becoming a busy space as well. So It's good because it's proven that where things are, you'll have the first, second, and third mover once the third movers are there. You're having the conversation that you're having with Sarah, and I think going to. Markets that you thought were way further out than they were, right?
If you're looking at tertiary markets, I'll use Southwestern Ontario as an example because we talked about this a little bit last time. London, seven years ago, was almost laughable to some people. It was a place, maybe you played hockey one time, but you weren't really investing there because cashflow wasn't there.
Now London's and now Port Stanley is like London was, and you start going to the other markets, start going out from there and look at markets that you think, Oh, it's a sleepy little town. Nothing's ever gonna happen here because the second movers are already in those places. And not only that, I mean we talk about foreign investment and the types of people that are coming in and purchasing and buying for generations, right?
I'll take London as an example. If we're looking at this market, the people that are buying. Even the local developers and local builders are having a really tough time getting land. So the way that I like to do things is when you're having a really tough time finding deals, start looking at deals, people passed over, right?
We do that everyday here. I was actually with my team today. We had an investor in here and we were having a conversation. He's I'm never gonna be able to buy because of the market. I like to hold on. Let's look at the expired listings over the last 60 to 90 days. Stuff that was listed 90 days ago, that's probably gone up in value.
Maybe they would still sell at that same price. And fortunately, unfortunately, there's no standard of care in this industry. So you end up having people that maybe didn't position an asset the right way. And here's a very counterintuitive way of doing it. It's against the rules, but a lot of agents will scrape expired listings and just call sellers directly.
Cause why would I call Justin, or why would I call the agent that had the listing? I'll just go direct. Here's an opposite approach, and you can tell your realtor to do this. Pull your expired, call those listing agents and give them the olive branch and tell them like, I'm a buyer at this price with this type of structure.
Just start throwing darts out there. You'd be shocked how many deals we do that way. And again, long game. Those agents, I'm always dropping in their ear. Next time you have a deal, can you send it to me first before it hits the MLS? So think about cultivating long term relationships and treating people well.
You may lose some deals that you would've done that were priced a little bit better if you could've gone direct. But sometimes you end up having an asset or an agent sending you things that you didn't have otherwise. And then let's take the agent outta the equation, community perspective. Doing social media.
Sarah, it's how I got to know you. I knew you before I even talked to you now cause I feel like I've seen so much of your content, but you have to be thoughtful about how you communicate. Social media has been exposed as fake. A lot of people know that. But the methodology of communication that you have on social media is the same communication you should have at the grocery store, at the post office, at the bank tellers, telling them what you're doing and what you're looking for, and eventually somebody's gonna turn around it and find a way of connecting you with a person that has that asset.
Maybe I'm a little bit crazy that way, but I'm pretty thoughtful about how I am networking and then logging all of that information into my system and then following back on that information to see where those people were. We found a guy today, for example, we were scraping leads in our system that hadn't been touched in a long time because they were just inactive, never responding. We found a guy that actually bought a dream home and would sell it for a pretty good price. Now we're potentially looking at inventory that doesn't exist. So if you can't find the inventory, try and create it.
Francois Lanthier: I love everything you mentioned there. That's how I've gotten a few deals. A lot of people say, Oh, go off market, go with wholesalers. Now I actually go over the overlooked market and it does happen. I've seen London grow and boom. And also I invest quite a bit in Moncton, New Brunswick, which I find was like London a few years back. So Moncton was really cheap. Now, like you said, it's people from all over the world. My tenants, I have some people from Dubai moving in All over the place, China and they're renting sites unseen, but they're also buying sites unseen.
I sold six Plex last week. And again, people just from outta country and they just make a cash offer and they are buying for generations cause. As you mentioned a bit earlier, land development, all of that. So sometimes they buy it for the land, not for the building itself. And that's something people need to consider.
Maybe you're overpaying, but the piece of land that it sits on is huge and it's great for redevelopment. Now is that something you're seeing for London? Is there still space for redevelopment, densification, things like that? Cause it's quite low rise. London was very flat when I used to live there?
Justin Konikow: There's still, So the official plan calls for it? Yes. But going back to the political process, it's a bit of a joke the way that they have it set up, because anytime a builder or somebody finds a piece of land that's perfect, it matches the official plan. They submit the application, it gets shot down because the politicians satisfy their voter base.
They're telling the developer no, I fully support you, but I have to say no so that I get my votes. And then they go to spend 50 grand, which takes three years longer than it should be. And then they complain they have a housing crisis because they're not bringing new inventory to market. So that's like a long winded answer to your question.
Yes, there's still opportunity But it doesn't necessarily have to be where everybody else is looking, right? Like we're very not emotional about our offers and our purchases. We take shots when shots are coming, we see land that comes up and we will make offers based on what makes sense. But I, we just talked one of our clients out of a $4 million deal.
It's a big paycheck for a sales person, right? But long term for them we're like no, this is where we said the deal made sense. There were these risk factors that you guys were taking, purchasing this land. Something else will come up, right? The bank announced six rate increases over the next eight months or eight increases I heard today. So what did they just do? They just threw gasoline on an already frothy market where everybody's gonna go and try and lock something up. But, Maybe in six to eight months that dies down and all of a sudden it becomes an investor's market. I still think you'll find success.
I don't ever think you just say, Oh no, I'm just gonna wait. Because we all know the longer you wait, the more the market keeps going. But I also think you, you can be thoughtful and confident that there's always gonna be more inventory, and we treat land and development opportunities the exact same way, case by case basis. If the numbers work, great. If they don't, then we'll just move.
Sarah Larbi: I think that's important, right? Is if you're gonna have somebody on your team, in this case, a realtor, and they walk you or talk you out of an opportunity because they know that it's not the right one and it's, you're overpaying, I think that's important because that is gonna be a returning customer that is gonna come back because they're gonna be successful.
I think if you've got a sales person that's trying to be too sales and put somebody in the wrong deal. That's a one and done type of thing. And then all of a sudden, especially in this industry, it's so small that it spreads like wildfire. Somebody's happy, that also spreads like wildfire.
You've gotta do the right thing at all times. But mentioned a little bit of obviously the rate increases, like obviously inflation is a big thing. So there's that balance as well there is 1.2 million, immigrants coming at some point very soon. There's already a shortage of housing and everyone's kind of waiting for this housing correction, this housing crash. Nobody has a crystal ball, any insights that you can share on what your thoughts might be in the next few years?
Justin Konikow: To go back actually what Francois said to answer both your questions, talk about foreign investment, right? And you talk about market corrections and crashes. The amount of times I get a YouTube troll or somebody messaging me on whatever social account about the crash is coming, I'm like let's look at the global perspective of real estate, right?
You can take the same metrics we talked about where you basically drive till you qualify down the 4 0 1 Toronto, go to Mississauga, then you go to Kitchener, then you go to London, you go to Sarnia. Like it's literally gone down the highway from a depreciation standpoint. The whole world's like that, right?
You can go to places like New York and think it's expensive there until you go to Tokyo, right? So what's happening though from a global perspective is if you look at the banking systems, the reason we have so much foreign investment is we have one of the most solvent banking systems out there. We have one of the CRA craziest real estate industries, like buying offers cash, no conditions, no financing, no appraisals, no anything like it's the Wild West up here. But then you go to the States and their banking system is basically like you say whatever you want on paper and buy whatever you want. So I think if we do see any type of correction from whatever factors we just spoke about.
I think there's so much money that wants to be in Canada, both immigrating here, but then also foreign investment that for whatever reasons they want to put their capital in a solvent asset, that even if there was a 20% drop in the market, All that money would come in and push it right back up. I don't think we're in a place where you're gonna see an all out collapse unless the zombies come, and then it doesn't really matter anyways, because of the fact that our infrastructure and our lending is so stringent.
The other thing that I've seen happen over the last couple years is because the banks, to them, you're just a line item now. It used to be that the bank would actually look at you as a human being. Now they're just so risk averse. They make it so hard to get. They've created a secondary money market that we're all very well aware of where everybody's a private lender now too.
That's an interesting dynamic too, cause that wasn't something that we saw, over the past 10, 20, 30 years and it's almost become, you can go private or you can go public and just depending on what you're doing from an investment strategy, I do think, again, now I'm getting completely off the rails with blockchain and crypto and everything else too, and decentralization and the value of a dollar.
We're going into a very different time where I, as an investor, wanna make sure that I'm liquid, I'm flexible. Nobody owns me. I've always been very big about that. The government or the banks. I never want to be in a position where they control the decision making that I'm having. So for myself as an investor, if I was gonna give somebody a piece of advice, I'd say, as much as it's exciting to be in the market, make sure that you're also in a position where you're not over leveraged and you're not just collecting monopoly pieces cause you think that's a be all, end all.
Everything can shift like that in this industry and make sure that you are flexible in your ability to adapt. Cause I do think opportunity's coming, what that opportunity looks like still to be decided cause things are changing very quickly.
Francois Lanthier: A lot of people bank on appreciation, which we've seen for many years. But I had a guess on my podcast not long ago and he reminded me while I was quite young back then. But 1987 Mississauga was flat until 1999, properties were worth nothing compared to today.
That's a long stretch with no appreciation, nothing like that. So this could happen and I really enjoy what you just said there. Do not over-leverage and be liquid. Be liquid in what you buy as well. So properties that are easy to resell, like some people get, Crazy properties that need too much work and they're beginners.
Justin Konikow: Or like only one bank will finance it. To one specific type of person.
Sarah Larbi: That's a good point. Yeah. Like this is where I like rooming houses and like very unique deals. You gotta have some exits. The cash flow piece as well is gonna be important. Like you, you talked about 20%. I'm just gonna use this number. Sure. But if it goes down 20%, that means like you probably lost six months out of this year. Like ultimately a 20% drop. And the other thing too, I would say is not everything. Like even when you looked at 2017, and I'm sure you did the same thing and when our wonderful Kathleen Winn, I'm so glad she's out of, office.
Justin Konikow: I forgot about her until you met your name.
Sarah Larbi: She did all this fair housing nonsense, which totally backfired. Unfortunately, the government shouldn't give me too much in real estate. They clearly don't know what they're doing. But there was a bit of turbulence at that point in time. But when you look at the top third and the bottom third of the market and the low areas and the locations, like it didn't get all affected at the same time.
This is where the people that were buying pre construction, high prices hoping to flip. Or, all of a sudden the prices dropped 20% and they couldn't close cause they had to come up with the other 20%. Or the ones that were just banking on appreciation. Those are the people that got hurt, but the top tier is gonna be more affected than the bottom, like a third of the market.
When I was in Branford at that point in time, I didn't feel. Because I was in the bottom third. That's what I was buying. I was renovating and I was buying, and I was renting for cash flow and, but the speculators are gonna get the ones that I think, in my opinion, those are the ones that usually will feel it the most, especially if they're highly leveraged.
Justin Konikow: I'm very big on not buying on future value. What you said Francoise like people buying on appreciation or even, people that are doing BRRRR with no comps, like confident that they can make it work. What if you're like two weeks into that and everything shifts? Because it literally happens overnight.
Like we've seen a drop off in showings over the last 45 days. We were getting 20 to 40 showings per listing up until about that time I just sold a property and I told him, We're not gonna have many showings, like we're gonna be 30 days on market. This is the price that we're gonna sell for. I'm like, You need to just trust me in this process, right?
Or just put it at an insane price and then you'll get 20 to 30 showings, but I think you'll sell for less. Long story short two weeks into listening, he's like, Where's everybody? What? Properties are selling? I'm like, No, they're not. I'm like, Public media makes you think that, but here's the data.
I drowned him in data. It was actually, it was a lot of fun because it was a super unique client that loved that side of things and I over-communicated to him what the data was showing me. I'm like, you gotta act today. I'm like, same thing from a purchasing standpoint, right? Like you only lose 20% if you sell it.
If you don't sell it, you don't lose anything. And if you ran your numbers and it's cash positive, One of my friends is the top agent in Silicon Valley. Do you think they buy any cash flow investments in Silicon Valley? You don't. Right? So we're spoiled here that if we're not getting cash flow, we think, Oh no, we're losing. Or if you see the numbers drop, you gotta be thoughtful in the way that you're acting and you gotta be looking at today's numbers, not the future.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Awesome. Justin, we can keep talking forever. You are so entertaining. We're gonna have to have you come back again. But the next part is our lightning round. We're gonna ask you four questions and you're gonna give us the first answer that comes to mind. Are you ready?
Justin Konikow: I am.
Sarah Larbi: All right. What is the best advice, number one, that you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event?
Justin Konikow: Learn from people who've done it before you. I think getting around mentors is everything.
Francois Lanthier: Excellent answer. And we have Sarah, who's a mentor here, so that's excellent. Question number two, what's your favorite resource for real estate investing? Could be a book, an event, a podcast.
Justin Konikow: Honestly, it's social media in general, right? Like following people like Sarah in bigger pockets and people that I run with in the industry. The reason I say that is that you get like day by day updates more so that I like podcasts, but I actually like following social media accounts and seeing what people are doing. Also, you're gonna notice what they're doing too. So if they're doing it, maybe you should be taking a closer look at what they're doing.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. Great answer. Number three, what is the one attribute in your opinion that has made you most successful?
Justin Konikow: My wife.
Sarah Larbi: That's a great answer.
Justin Konikow: You know why though, is if you can get around somebody that could see something in you that you couldn't see in yourself, sometimes it's great to have that person to push you or unlock your genius key, right? I know what I'm good at. I know what she's good at, and they're very different things. So she's been instrumental in getting where we are today.
Francois Lanthier: Very cool. And the fourth question, what do you typically do on a Sunday morning?
Justin Konikow: I do screen free Sundays typically. I've built my life where I try and do a full dopamine reset. So try to do no iPads, no screens, no iPhones, no nothing. Usually wake up, I spend some time in prayer. In My journal, I usually make pancakes for my wife and daughter, which usually turns into some type of game with my daughter. And yeah, we, Sundays for the family. But that said, I'm in real estate too, business needs to get done. We have systems in place for that.
Sarah Larbi: Very cool. I'm gonna add a fifth question because we have the same bookshelf and you mentioned that there's everything in there that means something to you. Pick one item that means the most to you and tell us about it.
Justin Konikow: Oh, there's a lot of stuff there item wise.
Sarah Larbi: What's that football there? What is that about?
Justin Konikow: It's Philadelphia Eagles football, but I can't pick that. I'm gonna keep going. I keep looking back to the same books. So there's actually sellers like Sirhan up there, and the reason why that's super important to me was the type of guy Ryan is. So there's a photo of him up there. And mentors, as I mentioned earlier, have been a huge part of my life. Actually, there's two, there's another guy wearing a Santa shirt. That's Scott.
Sarah Larbi: We can't see their faces though. Can you like, just bring up the camera a little bit? There you go. All right.
Justin Konikow: There you go.
Sarah Larbi: Ryan and Scott.
Justin Konikow: Yes Ryan and Scott. So Scott actually came via a phone call from Jazz Tacker years ago. Called me and he's hey, we're looking for somebody to represent the London markets. Scott's got this investment network group. I thought it was a scam. I actually said no to jazz when he called me.
Enter my wife where she's Scott's at C I B C. It's, it seems like legit. So I went, I ended up changing my life and it's funny cause I think people see me in these photos sometimes and they think it's just pay to play. You just show up, get the photo up and that's all the relationship is. My relationship with Scott actually started long before he had the trusted Agent program and he would always pour into me.
I'll mention both of them. Actually, Scott, I'd ask him questions. Get an answer and I go do it, and I come back and ask him another question. He gave another answer, and it really developed a relationship over years of him seeing these little things every time, but then kept giving me the information.
I actually thought Ryan did the same thing. I was like, Okay, Jazz is sending me to see Ryan, Like what's a guy in Manhattan gonna teach me? I'm in London, Ontario, and it's just a guy from tv. Like I had preconceived notions about him. I met him and I remember I brought down Nathan and Jamie. We were there for 45 minutes.
I was gonna shoot a podcast and do the photo op thing. He ended up telling me everything about his team, his contract structures, how he gets his development deals, everything. And I was about to hire an actual full blown real estate coach, a very well known one. Hopped in the cab, called my wife, and I'm like, if I could have that meeting once a year.
I'm like, We can grow faster than you ever thought. I'm like, are you cool? If I offer Ryan what I was gonna offer the other guy, my wife's a hundred percent. If you think the value's there, go for it. But this is where the rubber meets the road cold email Ryan. And I'm like, Hey, thank you so much value for that meeting.
If there's anything we can do for you, let me know. I want a mentor. I know you don't. This was like 2018, but I'm like, Here's what I'm prepared to pay you for a one hour meeting once a year. I'll never bug you the rest of the year. That's all I want. And his response was, You don't need to pay me a dime.
You're welcome to come to the office anytime. I'll give you an hour of my time. It's fun. I see what you're doing and I'd love to know. I'm relentless in terms of how I do things. Bought a hundred copies of his book. I sent him a cameo from Dean Kane, the guy who played Superman, explaining why he should be my mentor.
And long story short, we ended up forming a relationship and a formalized mentorship structure. That really changed the trajectory of my life because now I have somebody that every time I go through a large shift or get to where I want to go, I can bounce off. Here's what I'm thinking. And it's not like he has all the answers.
It's not like the way he does it is the way that I'm gonna do it, but it's an idea of somebody that doesn't have to give me a minute of their time reaching down and helping me out. I think God gave me like three or four times in my life where I have no business being here. I feel very undeserving of the life that I have now.
I think the lesson from that. Is that we are that for the other people that are maybe in a different position. I know that's why you did The REITE Club and why you started it. And I know you don't have to share any of this with anybody, but if we can create a world where we're all reaching down and helping other people up then they could put all the political rules in place. It won't really matter. Because our community would be pretty awesome. So that book probably means the most to me at this point.
Sarah Larbi: That is awesome. And it is about giving back, right? And this is how we just pass it down and hopefully the people that are learning from us are gonna pass it down as well. It's such a small community of people that are really driven to do it and wanna do it. We might as well help each other out. And this is not a competition cause likely we're gonna be partnering at some point we're gonna be sharing insights, ideas, contacts. It's much more fun to do it with others along the way. Justin, that's amazing. Where can The REITE Club Nation reach out and find out more?
Justin Konikow: If you wanna talk to me directly, on Instagram there is a guy that keeps duplicating my account and trying to sell them crypto. So just be aware of it, make sure you're talking to me, but you can actually DM me and I'll respond. I'm also doing a lot of stuff on YouTube right now, so showcasing how I'm building my business and trying to do a lot more content on the YouTube channel. So Justin Konikow on all platforms.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. Justin, thank you so much for being on The REITE Club podcast. REITE Club Nation. Thank you as well. It was a pleasure having you on and you've got some great stories. We're gonna have to have you come back and share some more as well.
Justin Konikow: I like it. I like being around like-minded people, so thanks for having me.
Francois Lanthier: Sarah, what did you think about this interview? So much knowledge. I could have gone on for three hours, but that would be a long podcast.
Sarah Larbi: This is the second time we have Justin on and I think we can bring him back and we can have a whole different set of conversations. He's got tons and tons of information, willing to share, willing to give back, and I think that is the beauty of real estate investing and our network. Whether it's The REITE Club or different ones, is that we're there to provide information to help others so that you listen to this REITE Club Nation member, you can do that down the road when you have the experience as well to somebody who is just starting out. I hope you guys enjoy today's podcast. There are lots and lots of insights. While your main insight was.
Francois Lanthier: I'd say the whole liquidity. I think that's huge. Being liquid, and that can mean many things, but that's very important. And I'm applying yet, so it was nice to hear that someone else who's got way more experience is doing the same.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. All right, plan for the best, plan for the worst so that you can ride the waves along the way and still be in this industry in 10 years, in 20 years, and so forth. REITE Club nation, what do we say to the REITE Club nation members?
Francois Lanthier: Come grow with us and customize your life.
Sarah Larbi: There you go. See you guys next week.
Francois Lanthier: Cheers.
- Log in or register to post comments
- ARNEL-LLEMIT-1637316866's Blog