Sarah Larbi: Let's just quickly go through. I'll ask each of you guys, you know, now if you had to fast forward to your goal to episode 300, you know, where would you like to be? Do You have any plans, any goals, any thoughts on what that might look like, two more years from now?
REITE Club, it is our 200th episode today. I can't believe it's our 200th one. And, uh, we've literally been speaking to 200 plus amazing, amazing people on these interviews. I hope you've enjoyed the podcast. We are gonna talk about something very special today. Laurel, Daniel, Alfonso, how are you guys doing?
Laurel Simmons: We're doing great. Well, I'm doing great. I think Daniel's doing great, right?
Daniel St Jean: just crazy busy between travel, but that's, it's a good, it's a good situation to be in when you travel too much that you're too, that you're crazy in between.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. Where did you guys travel to? We were in Costa Rica twice.
Daniel St Jean: Then we're Ottawa, Montreal, uh, Cornwall recently, Kingston, Prince Edward county. And now in a few days we're leaving for, uh, for Greece. And then after that in, in December it's Portugal and then Costa Rica again in February. So anyway, we're travel.
Laurel Simmons: Amazing. And I, and I've been in England and the U sorry, the UK and Germany, and, um, was out in Calgary, uh, in Edmonton for some, we did some REITE Club popup events out there in June. It seems like a, it seems like years ago now, but it's only a few short months. Um, and it was really, it was really great to see people out there cuz there's lots, lots is happening out there in, in, uh, in Alberta.
Sarah Larbi: And now we are coast to coast. So that's the beauty of being coast to coast is, uh, like you said, popup events in, uh, in different provinces.
I've been at the cottage quite a bit. I'm actually currently recording this from the cottage. Uh, but you know, I kind of move up there, between Victoria Day and come back, uh, just after labor day, uh, minus a few days here and there that I come and check on, on business, but it's, uh, it's been a great summer.
Today's podcast is gonna be, what we've been doing since, I guess, episode 100 to the 200th episode, uh, a hundred in between. And, uh, I know our businesses have pivoted a lot, obviously the economy at, at the time that we're recording these rates have gone up. Um, I think five times now, uh, and people are starting to panic a little bit. But I think not all is lost. Uh, some people are, are also scooping up some amazing deals. So we'll talk about all of that good stuff. Um, but you know, maybe Laurel. Start with you, uh, you know, between episode a hundred to today. Um, I mean really technically that's a hundred weeks, a hundred weeks of podcast.
That's two years. That's two years. Um, what have you been doing? How have you pivoted your real estate business or your businesses in general? Cause I think you got into some new things as well.
Laurel Simmons: Well, I think we've got virtual as a lot of people had to do. Right. But the thing with real estate investing is you don't, you've never had to be there in person, right?
To invest in properties or, or what, however, it is you invest in, in real estate, uh, whether it's lending money or borrowing money or whatever it is. So I think. The last two years when we were all, uh, glued to our computers, we all these, these computer eyes I think the vision care industry is gonna have a boom.
In fact, I'd say invest in the stock and vision care industry, probably for the next couple of years, as people recover from eye strain, but we didn't, you don't have to be in person to look at properties. And we noticed that even before the pandemic and before there were, there were lockdowns, but now I think it's become much more entrenched really.
And truly people understand that you can take a camera, you can take your phone, you can walk through properties, and you have your power team. if you, you trust them, and obviously if they're your power team, you trust them, right? Your real estate, broker agent, mortgage people, your inspector, and everyone else you need.
If they, if they say it's a good property and go, then, then you go, right. It doesn't have to be, you don't have to be in front of that door, like running your hands over the, over, over the lentil or looking at the floors. It's most of it is virtual now, and it doesn't matter where you are. You can invest anywhere in the world.
You can put money anywhere in the world. And we have the tools to do that. Although we had it before, I think now you're gonna see, uh, much more reliance on technology. What do you think Sarah?
Sarah Larbi: I mean a hundred percent. You know what, the best thing that I liked from a technology standpoint is you can be anywhere and sign your legal closings.
Yes, virtually because back in the day, you know, like probably not even that long ago, two years ago, we had to go to an actual lawyer's office and we had to come back to the country. If we were in a country, we had to come back. And actually, sign in person. That's, that's one huge thing. I think definitely it's probably gonna continue, you know, with, with that advancement in technology.
From a shifting standpoint and a real estate standpoint, um, you know, what have you guys been doing? I know I've heard that you've started purchasing in out-of-country opportunities, uh, Costa Rica, and a few other things. Can you share more about that?
Yes, well actually the other day, I, it was interesting cause I was listening to somebody talking. We were doing a, um, uh, popup event in Cornwall and, and I was listening to the conversation of the two people next to me and they were saying, well, you know, as they.
Daniel St Jean: They were referring to the market and the interest rate and they were saying, you know the saying, if you're given a lemon, well, just turn it into lemonade. And on the way back to the hotel, I was thinking about that. And I thought, well, that's one option. So you could look at the strategy you're doing the market you're doing, and now they, they keep these things are like lemons because now you've got these.
Higher interest and, and, and a few other things that are, you know, in your way, and you can still figure out how to do, you know, lemonade from that, or like we've done, you just push the lemons away. And then you just get some oranges and you make orange juice, which is exactly what we've been doing. We're not doing buy and hold right now anymore.
We're not doing a rent-to-own anymore. We've done 51. That was a pretty good experience. But we're done with that. Now we're doing, um, buying preconstruction condos waiting, and then making a large profit by assigning it to an end user. We're buying outside the country. We have nine houses under construction.
Daniel St Jean: There will be rental, uh, rentals in Costa Rica. We are, um, uh, we have some stuff happening in Santorini, Greece. We are considering going in the winter to Dubai. Um, and then when we're in Portugal in December, we're going to be looking at what's happening in Portugal. When Laurel was there last year, she said there were more cranes.
Laurel Simmons: There were more cranes than cathedrals in churches that I could see in Porto. And for, for, for a country over there to say that that's a lot.
Daniel St Jean: This is what we've done. We've basically, we're not, we're not killing ourselves, trying to make lemonade from the lemons. We just pushed a lemon aside. We got. We just, we're just pivoted. We're just looking for a new strategy, we're not really affected, especially the buying outside of the country. We're really not affected by the, uh, interest rates or, or anything else, bank of Canada or even all of these things.
If you're not, like I told people at that meeting if you're not if your strategy doesn't work in the market where you are, well, look for another market to do that strategy. And if you don't want to go to another market, well, then look for another strategy in the market where you are or throw the whole thing out and completely go crazy and go, Costa Rica, go, go, Panama, go somewhere else. And then, uh, do a different pivot totally.
Laurel Simmons: That's and that's what, that's what Sarah you've been doing. Right? You made a huge shift over the last little while.
Sarah Larbi: Yeah, absolutely. I find it awesome that you guys are now traveling. It's probably tax ride-offs as well. along the way, as you're going to Costa Rica and, and you're expensing your trips that's awesome. Um, you know what, for me, you know, in the last two years, essentially from episode 100 to 200, um, I mean I left my nine to five. I got into some development stuff. I bought land for a resort where like, you know, actually launching it for October. Now, people can start booking it for events and weddings.
Then I started going into Hamilton buying some commercial conversions, converting that to residential. We actually have a hotel under contract, um, that is going to be potentially 14 to 16 residential units. We're doing our due diligence on that. And then probably 10 other different BRRRR's of some different sort, most of them though are three and four units.
And then that's, and then I started bringing some joint adventures, uh, JVs partners. It's been fun. I mean, it's, uh, it's definitely a pivot to where I was, where I was doing some small bur conversions by myself to expanding this whole world of things. Um, what else did I start doing?
I started doing a YouTube show called the multifamily investor show, and then, uh, everyday investor with Rav Toor and lots of other fun things along the way. So, if it's fun, I wanna do it. Uh, and you know, there's actually a property management company that we are launching for the midterm rental.
Cause one of the things that we've also done. Is, we have pivoted the long-term rental strategy, um, to midterm, the short term still too, until bylaws come into effect. I know they're all coming at some point, you know, our, our municipalities don't like the short-term rentals. They think by taking that away from us, It'll give more inventory for the long term again.
I don't think it's a hundred percent true, but, uh, so we've pivoted to midterm, so we're still furnishing them and we're putting them on, you know, different platforms, um, connecting with, you know, different, uh, different, um, hospitals, businesses for people that have executive rental requests and that kind of stuff.
We're gonna ride out the market because in my opinion, the rents are gonna go up so much higher next year or the year after that, I don't wanna be stuck in a rent-controlled unit at 2.5%. It's really a combination of a lot of different things that we've pivoted to. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. Um, but it's a lot of fun.
Laurel Simmons: Well, I think, yeah, if you're having fun and you're making money and even if you have to do some work, I mean, that's, that's fair. Right?
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. Absolutely. Now, Alfonso, what about you, like what has changed in your real estate world, in your business, in your, or in your personal world? You know, from episode 100 to today's 200th episode.
Alfonso Salemi: Yeah, definitely a lot on the personal side, obviously having a, a young kid, a young baby, uh, and, and that keeping me busy for sure. Prioritizing different things. That's, uh, that's definitely been, uh, a fun, fun thing to navigate through, but, uh, but from a business standpoint, I think. You know, it's, it's blocking out the noise. There's a lot, a lot going on all different types of new strategies that are, you know, almost seems like created on a daily basis.
A lot of different things, I think in real estate, in general, and you know, people that are in business or entrepreneurs in general, there's a lot of noise out there, a lot of businesses, but really staying focused on. You know, the areas of expertise that, that, uh, that unique skill or unique, um, ability that we have in terms of knowing our strategy inside and out.
Definitely expanding. We've worked always across the province of Ontario, but now, you know, furthering our, reach out into the maritime provinces, uh, looking at some other properties out that way there, um, I think that that's been a huge, huge pivot and a huge change for us and growing our team. That's been a huge change as well, too. Being able to specialize in certain areas, focus on the strengths that we all have and bring on people to help to support that growth. So that's not just all on our shoulders.
Laurel Simmons: Very cool. Is it hard to find people to help you Alfonso cuz rent to owns a, it's a fairly specialized strategy. You have to know what you're doing. And we know cuz Daniel and I did it for quite a while, and um, it's not always easy to find the right people. So talk a little bit about that cuz you know, I mean there's a lot of people looking for jobs and for different things, but this is, this is a bit different.
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. You know what that's first and foremost, I think one day when, when I do write the book, it's gonna be like, how does rent to own work? That's the title that is for sure. The number one question, uh, that, that I get all the time, but we've been, we've been really blessed. Like we've brought on, you know, from, from like a, you know, operations and an administrative standpoint, some rules to cover those, like, you know, accounting, and administrative stuff.
Obviously, the ins and outs of the rent-owned business is not as important for those types, but, uh, but we've grown our marketing team as well, too. We've brought on our marketing manager, a social media specialist and our rent, a home specialist, which is essentially our tenant buyers, uh, tenant-buyer and, um, realtor and mortgage broker, relations for those positions.
Absolutely explaining, you know, how the rental own works, you know, who it benefits, you know, what's involved in this strategy because like I said, I think it's not as simple as the, like a fix and flip where you buy it, you fix it and you sell it, you know, the rent own.
There's a lot of moving parts, a lot of different things that, uh, that need to be addressed and, and explain. When we're marketing it or trying to explain it to tenant buyers, realtors, and mortgage brokers. Yeah. The details, uh, yeah, definitely takes a few times, few weeks to, to kind of get the hang of it. I know it did for me as well, too.
Sarah Larbi: You know what, let's pivot a little bit. I know that's the theme of, of today, but obviously with everything that's happening, the rates increasing the economy's just very unstable this, this government and all the other stuff that's happening.
What are some, you know, some advice that you could provide somebody listening to this right now to whenever podcasts, um, regarding real estate investing or, you know, business in general, uh, that they could take away with them. today Daniel lets start with you.
Daniel St Jean: Well, first of all, I would say to people, uh, don't, don't sit on your butt for the next two years, waiting for the market to quote-unquote recover, whatever that means, don't slow down one bit. Keep going to live events when they're life. When there is some available, online join, you know, join the REITE Club, go on a website, connect with people because it's amazing. You never ever know who you're going to meet or what they're gonna say that all of a sudden you go, ha I never thought of that.
Daniel St Jean: And then four years later, your life has completely changed because somebody mentioned something that you didn't know about and, um, you won't find that sitting home, watching TV, um, so go out, meet people, be on the various events. Learn, read, stay active, and stay busy. Don't wait for the perfect condition to come back. And again, if you don't like your market change, if you don't like this strategy change, and if you don't like any of that, go outside the country and do something different.
Sarah Larbi: All right. Some great insights. Laurel, what about you?
Laurel Simmons: My mine is close to that as I think it's more like about what, uh, Alfonso referred to, and that is, uh, the noise. There's so much noise out there. Oh my goodness. Like, and, and. Number one, never listen to people. Who’s never done it before? Cuz they don't know anything. Let that get rid gets, that gets rid of about 90% of the noise, right? Like right off the bat. Most people have never done anything in real estate and their armchair geniuses.
And they sit back and they say, well, you shouldn't do this or you shouldn't do that or don't try this or that's never gonna work or you'll the sky is falling. The sky is falling. The sky is falling. We totally ignore those people cuz they don't know anything. They have no experience. That's number one, number two.
Hang around with the people who are successful. It's pretty simple. And listen to what they have to say. And for heaven's sake, don't read the newspapers. That's just like, that'll just drive you nuts. Cause this well, newspapers are online, whatever, you know, you know what I'm saying? The headlines, wherever you get your news.
They make their money from the tragedies and the, and. Like the sky is falling scenario. Ignore those, go to your, your trusted sources and just focus like, and it is easier set than done, actually, cuz it's really easy to get caught up in what's going on and you just walk down the street, you go the grocery store and somebody says, oh my goodness, this is happening and that's happening and wait, we're all human.
Because it's little paying inside. This is all I think I better go home and check and are my investments. Okay. And what, but really. We're talking long-term here. Nobody gets into real estate today to make money tomorrow. That's not the way it works. It just doesn't so try to ignore the noise as much as possible. That's my advice.
Daniel St Jean: I just want to add one more thing to what you said you were saying earlier about not listening to the naysayers. People who say it won’t work. I just finished reading an amazing book. The title of which is this will never. Well, guess what, it's the story of how Netflix started. Thousands of people were telling them, this is not gonna work. This is not gonna work. This is not gonna work and look where they are today.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely Alfonso. What about you? Any key insights that you can give somebody listening to this, that right now that might be a little bit worried about where the market's headed or not too sure where to go?
Alfonso Salemi: I think, and, and it might be a little contrarian versus what we always see about taking action and, you know, getting out there, doing all that kind of stuff. I'm gonna preach. patience have some patience because I think all of us, you know, we always see the tip of the iceberg. You know, everybody has seen that.
That photo where the, you see the success right at the tip of the iceberg, but all the work effort, sleepless nights, sacrifices, all those things that, that come to get that success. Having patience, not, you know, thinking I, you need to do all this tomorrow, you know, to echo. Laurel's thoughts, right.
That it's not about, you know, getting rich tomorrow. It's not about, you know, getting that property and then having cash flow and, and then you're done. It's all of us in all of our own business. It's a constant evolution. It's never done. once it's done it may, maybe it's sold that one property or that one, but then it's on to the next it's.
There's something else that you take from that. So being patient, cuz I know that's what. Uh, I suffer from it all the time is that I, you know, even, you know, when you, when you're meeting people, when you're going out and you're talking, okay, I want to go and do that and build that. But you know, we can go through all the analogies.
Rome wasn't built in a day and thank God it wasn't because now it's lasted for, you know, multiple, uh, multiple, thousands of years. If it was built in a day, probably wouldn't still be around here. Um, so, and, and just one other thing, you know, Daniel had mentioned going to live events and, and networking events and all of that kind of stuff.
There is an event that I was at recently and. I swear the person didn't even ask you, my name. They just can I get your business card? And they just grabbed my business card and just walked away. And I was like, oh, okay. And you know, whether it's okay, you're growing your network. We always say that that's what the right club is, is, you know, growing and expanding your network, finding those successful people, but having meaningful connections with people because people know if it's just about getting your business card and then them selling you their product or service or if it's actually about a meaningful connection where you can help somebody in the future because you know about them, you know, their likes, their interests, their dislikes, what their passions are.
If I started all of a sudden, I just grabbed Laurel's business card and then said, Laurel, I love beer and you wanna talk about beer and she'd be like, listen, you don't have no nothing about me.
I love wine. Maybe she does love beer. I definitely would put a bet on that. That would be her preference, but, uh, but meaningful relationships, patience, and taking that time to actually build something that's meaningful. That's my advice.
Sarah Larbi: Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, I agree with many of the things you guys are saying. For me, you know, I think that there are going to be some opportunities, some opportunities to be able to, to purchase for the long term. I don't think this is a time for anything short-term at this point, personally, I'm not a big fan of flipping or anything that has not multiple exit strategies.
When I look at something. I wanna have multiple exit, multiple options. One of the things that I would also suggest is that in order to do that, and in order to be able to make some strategic purchases, uh, you're going to be somewhat liquid as well.
And so, you know, is there, if you're, you know, is there a house or two, if you've got a portfolio that you could potentially liquidate to have some of that cash ready to go for the future, potentially, I'm not saying sell your whole portfolio, but maybe sell one or two. You've got some cash ready to go.
I think there's gonna be some opportunities. I mean, right now, even in the last month I have had some students purchase something in the Hamilton market that used to be in the six, seven hundred for something, with a number four in front of it, which is almost unheard of for a very long time.
I mean, it was 495, but still I mean, it was, uh, you know, it's gonna be a three or four-unit property when it's all said and done. Um, you know, there are starting to be some good opportunities. The rates are increasing. You do wanna have staying power. You do wanna understand what your financing looks like.
There's also something called the ML select program with CMHC for some commercial, larger residential types of things that you have a little bit more control over silver. Learning about reach as your mortgage broker and, and understand what the ML Select does gives you really good points.
Up to 50 years potentially, higher, low into values, lower rates. There are ways that you can actually pivot and do some different things like that. You know, think midterm rentals. I mean, a lot of us right now that are variable, many investors are, um, as the rates go up if you're not locked in.
You're essentially losing cash flow every single month. Especially for the tenants that are in there already. Anything new, anything new that you're creating that is potentially subject to rent control in those units put long, you know, put some midterm short term in there, furnish that, and then put the long term renters in the new units that are not subject to rent control that were created after November 15th, 2018.
Now that can change at any time, but right now I think Ford changed that for us in our favor. And I think he's still there for four years, so we should be okay. But. Think about those ways that you can recreate the cash flow as the cash flow is now starting to dwindle away. Um, you know, is your like look at, even at your properties that you currently have, is there an opportunity to add an additional dwelling unit or to do start, you know, maybe a second unit, a conversion, maybe that tenant that's been there paying, you know, half price.
There's a way that you can duplex that, uh, you know, in that case and potentially. Have two new tenants at market rent. Again, I'm not saying to do Ren evictions, but we have to make some money at some point and we gotta do it strategically. Ethically and legally, but we have to still, um, you know, pivot at that point in time because the cash flow is going to probably be a little bit worse until the end of the year.
I'm hearing again. No one knows for sure, but I'm hearing another couple, at least price increases before it stabilizes. We are in for, I think a little bit of a turbulent time, just be ready, uh, you know, have some cash handy. Don't live too close to the edge. This is the time that you wanna probably look at your portfolio with your, you know, financial planner mortgage broker.
And figure out what the next move is for you and look at another potential, 1% increase in what that does to your portfolio, so that you have the downside mitigated, but you've got some upside too.
Daniel St Jean: And don't be afraid to broaden your horizons. I was talking last week to somebody who just bought a third property in Timmons and he's cash-flowing. And we are involved, um, in with a developer in Nova Scotia. He's building 300 houses in a beautiful development. About 35 minutes from Halifax houses are gonna be selling single-family homes for about 475. And the rent there is about 2,700 a month. There’s a possibility for cash flow. In other words, just because you've always done business in Ottawa or in Hamilton or in London, and it's not working but you like to try to watch other places look elsewhere.
Sarah Larbi: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You know, you know, the only thing though, um, that I look at right now whereas you're seeing Timmins and, and whatnot, I'm not saying it's not, and I'm just gonna challenge you, but I'm not saying it's not the right thing, but if the market does take a tumble and it comes back, do we think that it'll come back in the closer markets first or in the further markets? Just the same? My opinion.
Let's just say we tumble a little bit and the market goes a little sideways. I think, and I'm sure Timmins has good market fundamentals, but I think the places that have good market fundamentals that are closer will probably rebound a little bit faster. That's just my opinion.
Not that you can't do cash flow and do well, but I'm just saying from a, an equity standpoint, uh, you know, I think a place like Hamilton might fare better once, once things go down and come back up.
Laurel Simmons: You're probably right. There's always the ripple effect. We know that in the bigger centers that's where they have the steepest declines or I should say faster, but they also have the recovery faster.
If you're looking at the GTA. That's Greater Toronto Area. Yes, of course. There are going to be maybe more, um, decreases and then they don't, there'll be an upswing. However, it really doesn't matter where you are because there's, there's just, there are two things that people have to remember. The land is limited. We don't make more land. We just don't. Canada is blessed with land, but even at that, we have certain areas where the population goes. We only have so much land that's number one. And number two population is growing and there's a lot of immigration. People are coming in at least before the pandemic.
I mean, there were like 10,000 people, uh, uh, a year. No, was it a year? Yeah. To Toronto. No, it was a month, a month, 10,000 people, a. That sounds more accurate. 10,000 people a month to Toronto, and we know that the gates are opening up again. People are coming back. When you have that kind of population pressure, eventually something's gonna give, so again, it's like Alfonso said, be patient because things if there's an upswing.
There's going to be a downswing. And if there's a downswing, there's going to be an upswing. As you said, Sarah, understand your market, understand the fundamentals, you, you, you manage things so that you, you mitigate the risk. Is there a risk? Of course, there is there's risk in everything, but you do your due diligence.
You figure it out. You have a great team of people and you make a decision and you move on. Do we all make mistakes? You bet. Sure. We do. None of us here has come through even the last two years without making some mistakes. That's not the game of the game. The name of the game is okay. I made a mistake. What can we learn from him? Move on to the next one and do better the next time. That's it?
Alfonso Salemi: Just don't make those same mistakes. That's right, exactly.
Laurel Simmons: That's the same mistake.
Alfonso Salemi: Back to the point just really quickly, and then we continue here, whether it's Timmins, it's Hamilton, it's London, it's Niagara. It it's understanding why you need to be able to romanticize about that certain area. Maybe that's where you grew up or where you always want to live or where, you know, your favorite. I don't know, what person is from or where, whatever, whatever, whatever, but it's understanding why, if you're able to explain this in a simple business case, think about how the banks, how the lenders, how they give out their money.
There are no feelings. It's simple facts, right? And if you can lay those facts out and sure you can add the romanticizing afterward, but if the simple facts make sense where somebody could pick it up, a logical person could look at this and say, hey, this is a viable business strategy. It makes sense. Why you're there. Then, you know, then, then you go where, where, where it makes sense for you. I just wanted to add that point.
Sarah Larbi: Yeah, no great point for sure. Okay. Let's just quickly go through, I'll ask each of you guys, um, you know, now if you had to fast forward to your goal to episode 300, you know, where would you like to be? Do you have any plans, any goals, or any thoughts on what that might look like, two more years from now? Alfonso, maybe we'll start with you.
Alfonso Salemi: That's a tough one. I, I don't, uh, I don't normally look too far into the future, but you know what? These 200 episodes came up pretty quick. Three hundred's probably going to come up even faster. At that point, that's about maybe a year. No, maybe two years from now. Two years from now, I would probably say still talking about rent to own.
I love being on stage giving presentations, interacting with people, kind of being out there, being that, that conduit, but less, uh, less involved on, uh, maybe on the business side of it, having our kind of staff fully integrated, being able to pass that on, um, spending as much time at that point.
The one goal that I've always had was, like pick up and drop off from school and our new home is within walking distance from, from the elementary school. That's getting so close to reality, which is really awesome. Walking, picking up and dropping off from school and, uh, and definitely, maybe, yeah, like to Daniel's point earlier, expanding, uh, my horizons in terms of maybe outside of Canada investment, whether that's US overseas. I know you guys are in Greece and in Spain.
Laurel Simmons: Greece in Costa Rica and maybe Portugal.
Alfonso Salemi: We'll see. We'll see. How is it Portugal? That's what I was thinking. Not Spain, Portugal. Um, but yeah, like maybe, I don't know, maybe having an Italian Villa. Maybe I can maybe Laurel, you know, maybe you can do some consulting on some wine, you know, offerings there.
Maybe I'll have you out there for a business trip in Italy to talk about wine. I think you're spending the horizons, not, not, uh, as involved in the day-to-day from the JV side. But still presenting and speaking numerous times, because that's my passion. I love, I love being out in front talking about how we can help people, you know, get into home ownership, how they can invest, but doing more and more of that stuff and more podcasts for sure.
Laurel Simmons: In two years, I wanna be sitting, I wanna be traveling between my place in Costa Rica or our place in Costa Rica and our place in Greece and our place in Portugal. I wanna be like going around the world. We still have investments. We still have our real estate, but man, it's like, let's live. Let's just live. Life's too short. We've learned especially the last couple of years, life's too short live while you can because there's no guarantee. A hundred percent.
Daniel St Jean: Two years from now. Um, and, and I'm working really hard toward that goal. Um, all the income will be, uh, that we're gonna be generating, or I should say passive income. Thank you. Okay. Yes, passive income. That's why what will be done by then with the rent to own the buy and hold. Everything will be with, the houses we have in different countries and which are a hundred percent managed.
All we have to do is collect the money in the bank account. So that's where we're going to be, uh, going plus the investments we've made in Greece and energy and stuff like that. Folks when we are sitting here in September, uh, two years from now to record number 300, I'll be a couple weeks away from 74. Starting to think a little bit about, uh, not retiring, but slowing down a bit.
Alfonso Salemi: I'll believe it when I see it. There's no slow on.
Laurel Simmons: Yeah.
Sarah Larbi: Makes sense. It's, it's hard. Right? Cause you know, even for me, when I left and I didn't necessarily have plans, you get bored really fast and then you start doing something. And then when thing comes in, turns into like 10 things. But you never know, you never know you guys are on your way for sure.
Alfonso Salemi: How about you Sarah? Is it like owning like a whole country at some point whatever I would love to hear what I'd love to hear? What do you think?
Sarah Larbi: I would love for the resort to be up and going and like, be like the resort to go to for adults only like that place, you know, upscale. I think there's so much opportunity there. And then I just want to keep doing what I'm doing. I love the commercial conversions.
I love working with the guys there. They're awesome. And then I would love to still be able to like, Matt's actually off for this year. He took a year off, which is really cool just to like dip his feet into, but the other side is, is going to be, and he just does jujitsu all day pretty much. If he could make that a permanent thing and then we can really be gone for half the year would be, would be really. We're on our way. We're going to test it out this year.
Laurel Simmons: see what happens. I think what we're all saying is that we're all going, we're all customizing our lives. That's our motto. Yes, customize your life. And that's what we're all working on. With that, I think we'll say goodbye. And please come back for not just the next episode, but for episode 300.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Guys, don't forget to customize your life and check us out at the REITE Club. We've got tons of events. We are now also doing some really cool live things in person. Laurel, Daniel, Alfonso, it's been great recording with you and, uh, and 200 episodes of podcasting. Wow. That's amazing. Congratulations everyone. Congratulations to The REITE Club community as well. We really appreciate you out there.
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