Sarah Larbi: REITE Club Community. Welcome back. I'm Sarah Larbi. I'm here with my co-host Alfonso Salemi, and you are in for a treat today. I'm super excited for today's podcast episode, Alfonso
Alfonso Salemi:. Super awesome podcast today with Brian. Such a wealth of information. He's been a great friend to the REITE Club very early on right from the beginning.
We're happy to have him on, share some interesting tips. He's talking about financing, talking about US properties, talking about how potentially you can get a 1.75 rate on a 35 year end. You're gonna want to listen to that. What do you say, Sarah? Let's get right into it.
Sarah Larbi: Let's do it.
Alfonso Salemi: Welcome back to the podcast, one of our favorite guests of all time on this show, Mr. Brian Hogben. Welcome, thanks so much for joining Sarah and I in another episode of the REITE Club podcast.
Brian Hogben: Thanks for having me Alfonso, sir. It's always amazing to see you guys, amazing to be here and just really honored, always to be on the show with you guys. Thank you so much.
Alfonso Salemi: Yes, absolutely. And you know what? We have so many topics to unpack and uncover today. If you guys don't know, Brian is from Mission 35 Mortgages. He's the owner of the brokerage.
He's got many agents across the province and I think across Canada the last time we were talking as well too. So different mortgages from the mortgage side. He's an investor himself. He's been in the game for a long time. And the mission 35. You gotta have to check in with Brian and get onto his info on why it's called Mission 35 mortgages.
Just as we were getting on here, we were talking about all different types of strategies going to the US large apartments, different types of financing, so I'm really excited to get PAC right in. Why don't you let us know a little bit about what you're currently working on right now, what you're doing to grow your portfolio and as well as help others grow.
Brian Hogben: Absolutely. Thanks, Alfonso. You know what, it's an exciting time right now. We've seen property values go up year over year, 20%, 30%, 40%, really depending on what market area you're in them. They've gone up tons and as we're always droning on in people's ears about leverage up.
I said to myself, you might as well do it yourself, Brian, because you can't just be preaching if you're not doing it right. We did a big leverage upgrade with our portfolio this year. We had an apartment building in Hamilton that we bought five years ago. I think it was a really long BRRRR okay. I think I'm gonna have to enroll in Sarah's course to get me to do it quicker.
Okay. But it was a five year role and are able to take out a tremendous amount of equity and that was a nine unit building and now we just firmed up actually on a 12 unit building in Hamilton now. So it was absolutely amazing and it was great to see. You know what I really need to learn myself before I teach.
Anything else? So I really got to learn a lot about leveraging up an apartment building and purchasing it myself as well too. I did that with the same partner. I've got one JV partner that I've been in with for five years now, and we're able to see that really roll and come full circle. It's actually exciting to see a plan get executed and completed. So we're really excited about that.
Sarah Larbi: That's really cool. And I preach this all the time, is who you have on your team of experts. Hopefully they're investors themselves because if they're gonna give you advice on how to scale and how to do certain things, yes, of course.
As a mortgage broker you learn this kind of stuff. But there is nothing like actually doing it and living it and breathing it yourself and then being able to also share that experience with others and I think that is amazing. Congratulations. You are one of the top mortgage brokers and it's interesting that actually you are in Canada that Alfonso mentioned that like where else other than Ontario are you guys?
Brian Hogben: You know what? I like that we're excited. We're getting a license right now in Alberta, in BC. So our license is in, and hopefully they don't find any of those crazy lawsuits. Just kidding. Okay. But we should end up going through BC in Alberta. So we're really excited about that.
We've got some partnerships out there that we're working with as well, with a debt settlement company to really help us leverage out in those areas. So we're super pumped and. Just with the way the world is now in 2021, it's a lot easier than ever to do business nationally than it ever was before, right?
That was something that we really had to expand just with our brokers to make sure that we could serve the needs of the people across the country as well too.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. And I do wanna ask you a question about what you've said with the going and you're going into a 12 unit or nine unit and financing from that standpoint? For myself, I'm building a 12 unit residential building. It's considered commercial residential property that's gonna be ready in two years. But I'd be curious because there's lots of people going into multi-family, what are some of the things that we should be aware of, for 2021 onwards about financing larger or medium sized multi-family buildings?
Brian Hogben: Awesome. So one of the biggest learning curves I found was and I think when you're getting into the 9, 12, 20, 30 unit buildings, the due diligence. I thought I was being smart and I said, okay, I need 45 days, 60 days from my due diligence appraisal takes longer, so on and so forth, right?
Then I thought, okay, once my due diligence is settled, I'll just close two weeks later or three weeks later. So what I learned was, if you wanna go through CMHC right now, Canon Margin Housing, for those listeners that don't know, actually started their portfolio with multi-family homes before they got into mortgage default insurance on the residential side.
They are phenomenal. I actually had on the table an approval for, oh, Sarah, you're gonna love this. Are you sitting down? Okay. We had an approval for 1.75% on our 12 unit building with a 35 year amortization. And I'm a mortgage broker. I said, are you, can you do this? Did I just go back in time?
Because 35 years are not allowed. But with the multi-family, like when you get into that, usually 2 million and above bracket. They are all at cheap rates in 35 years. Now, there was an exorbitant fee on it. But I know we have the same philosophy that I'd rather have cheaper rates for cash flow and pay points on my mortgage to help me. Whether my renovations and growth are there.
Sarah Larbi: Especially for longer term holds, the points are gonna be minimal in comparison to the rates now and I do want you to continue your thoughts, but is 40 years a thing or do it stop at 35 years at this point in time?
Brian Hogben: Great question. It stops at 35 years right now. And that is an exception to get it approved at 35 years. A lot of times it's 30. The big knowing was because I was excited to get that mortgage, but I couldn't get that mortgage. And the reason being is because I thought, sometimes our residential financing took a little bit of time. Do you guys wanna wager how long CMHC takes to underwrite a file right now? For a multi-family, $2 million property. Like how long you sit in the queue for right now in 2021?
Sarah Larbi: I'm gonna guess six months.
Alfonso Salemi: I'm gonna say, I don't know, three months.
Brian Hogben: Sarah, you won the car. Yes.
Sarah Larbi: I dunno if that's something to be excited about though.
Brian Hogben: You're right. It's not at all. It's terrible. But it's six months, so really I couldn't take that loan because there just wasn't an opportunity to take it. Now there is, ironically enough, the lender that we were going through. They would do a pre-underwrite under what they perceive as a CMHC guideline for those big multi-family homes. And if they think you'll be approved, they'll actually bridge finance it. Okay, so they'll bridge finance it at 5% until CMHC goes through but I just not being completely comfortable with it, I resorted to my favorite local credit union who did a great job and we did a three and a quarter percent rate which is higher, a little bit higher than I wanted my 1.75.
I was like, oh man, Christmas came early on that. But now I know what to do in order to get that one right. So now there's a little bit of work to do. We had some vacancies now, CMHC they do something that's really smart, but a little tricky as well, too. My loan to value that they were gonna finance was about 65% of the value. Because as we know, cap rates are pretty low right now. They call that 85% of the value. So what ends up.
Sarah Larbi: Hang on. So what are you saying that they loaned at 85% loan of value?
Brian Hogben: Because, and you guys may have seen this, I'm sure you're getting appraisals that are lower than what the actual purchase price is. And a lot of times the appraisals are coming in lower on these, 10 units, 20 units, 30 unit buildings because the idea is that rents are gonna be increased over time. Right appraise. Let's say for example, the appraisal, the purchase price is 2.7 million. Let's say CMHC might appraise it for say, 2.1 or 2.2, but then appraise that at 85% of the value of 2.1 or 2.2.
Does that make sense? It still works out and it's great, I find that CMHC, for those of you on the call, are listening, looking to get into multi-family, the big units. CMHC is a great option to get refinanced out into. Do your purchase with private VTB credit Union money. Because they put you under a microscope, like an absolute microscope to get that money.
Like when we say the cheapest money is the hardest to get like CMHC, I think all their underwriters have t-shirts that say, you're not getting past me. It's very difficult. Not impossible, right? But I think it's for the savvy investor. Like the people on this call that are willing to do the work you need for your building inspection reports.
You're gonna need the electrical reports. Like you're not getting around anything. Like you may in Credit Union Trust Company, those sort of be lender financing where sometimes they can look the other way on certain things. You're just, that's not gonna happen. It's gotta be 100% legal, legit ducks in order with that type of financing.
Alfonso Salemi: That's so crucial. Having someone on your team that's actually walked that path, jumping through those hoops sounds almost rings a fire six months. I don't know who's gonna hold. It's tough. I know with the multi-family, there's longer timelines and there's more accustomed to those, but still six months, that's hard.
Brian Hogben: That's, it is hard to follow. For sure.
Alfonso Salemi: It is hard to follow. That's right. Hashtag that, you know that's a hard swill to swallow, right? When, if you're a seller and you want to find, and you want to get, your building sold, obviously maximizing what the purchase prices are in the market today. The six month is a longer timeframe, but having someone on your team that's walked through the path, knowing what it takes, those are the things that you can prepare for in advance so that you can refi and go get that.
You know what, that's a juicy rate, man. 1.75, that's premium. But again, you're jumping through the hoops and listening to 3.25, let's be honest that's not terrible either. And that's with your credit union. And, doing that due diligence and maximizing it really reassures. Number one it's reassuring for the lenders, but it's really reassuring your own process on how you're gonna be able to maximize profit and make this financially viable. And not just I'll buy it, I'll rent it and we'll see how it goes. This is not like a hope and pray game, right?
Knowing those types of things and yeah, you walking through yourself. So one thing I wanted to pick up on, we talked about appraisals and I remember in the heat of 2017 that crazy market in 2017 where, it seemed like things were appreciating like 15% a day, in some markets.
We've almost gotten to those levels. I know in Hamilton, over the last year it's 20 something, 20 some odd percent increase, right? In purchase prices. Are there any issues? Okay, I'm looking at this building and there's recent ones that you know, have sold, but they haven't closed yet because maybe there's longer closing dates.
The appraisals, and that could be both. That could be the large multi or even some smaller multi-families. The appraisals are because they're selling for so high but they haven't actually closed yet, or those closing dates are 60 days, 90 days in advance, that the lenders are having a hard time saying, no, we can't appraise it for that, cause they use comps.
Brian Hogben: That's a great question. That's coming up. Warren and Boro, like we saw one in a less desirable pocket in Hamilton, we shall sell for in the high seven hundreds. And this was like jaw dropping, right? And naturally the appraisal didn't come in because the only appraisals that you can use, or actually I'll put it the other way, appraisals you can't use are private sales.
Banks will not use a private sale as a comparable. They won't use one that's not closed yet. Do you know what I mean? Like one that if it's sold conditional but not closed, like you said, they won't use it as comparable and then they won't use it if it's within or if it's post six months as well. So what you're finding now is you've got a lot, like you said, of 60 90 day closings with inflated values that appraisers can't use as comparables.
What we've done is we've seen a couple deals go from where they thought they were gonna be conventional low ratio mortgages. Luckily they were purchased, they now got converted to high ratio mortgages. So what that means is, if someone was buying for 500,000 for simple math and gonna put down a hundred, that would be a low racial, no CMHC mortgage for 400,000.
Let's see, the appraisal came in at four. They would then have to put down 20% of for 50 in addition to the other 50 to make it a low racial mortgage. Okay. So there are some work rounds with that, but we've actually come across a great opportunity for your investors on the call for first time investors cause there are a lot of people I think we can agree that are missing out on deals.
You're in bidding wars. What's happening a lot now with our partners, we've got a great partnership with Remax and we've been teaching all our realtor partners this going in with a heavy deposit. Because what's happening now is there is concern realtors are putting concerns into their vendors saying, Hey, listen.
Brian just came in a 100k over ask, but his deposit's only 20k and he's closing in 60 days. I know he said he is cash, but I don't know. I've seen Brian. I don't think he has cash. So now what they're saying is you know what, Sarah came in, she's 20k less, but she's got a hundred thousand dollars deposit.
The chance of her not closing is a lot slimmer and if she does and her appraisal doesn't come in, guess what? You got that hundred thousand dollars deposit now because she came in. So I think it's a really great opportunity right now with those appraisals coming in less for those of us that are missing out on offers because a lot of us are massive competition up that deposit to, I think it's more important than ever right now to have a really high deposit on something and even have a picture of the draft with it.
Like it's right there because what a lot of people don't realize is that, If you don't hand in your deposit within 20 hours, you have 24 to 48 hours to hand in that deposit that doesn't get handed in. You're going back to that offer board again.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. Essentially the contract is void if you, I think it's 24 hours, right? That's the timeline that they have to have that at least sent with proof to the seller's agent or wherever you're sending it to. So otherwise the contract isn't null and void. So you bring up a good point. So obviously, there's some good, there's some bad, like what do you think is going to be, happening with the financing industry in the next year and a half? What are you seeing coming down the pipes and in conversation with the banks and others?
Brian Hogben: The good news is I don't see them restricting lending anymore. Okay. Which is nice, right? I don't see them putting that on a halt. The banks have had record years in, in 2020. In 2021, they have very record breaking years. I think it's good. The banks are happy to lend out money at these low interest rates. Banks don't want to have any money sitting in their reserves, so I think it's gonna be a great opportunity for, REITE Club Nation for investors right now to borrow that cheap money.
On the flip side of it, it's not easy to get it still right, because they're asking more questions than ever. Have you been affected by job loss? If you were, how were you affected? It's a double-edged sword because what I keep telling people about, which I'm really excited about, is, a lot of people talk about a bubble every once in a while, or this bubble, right?
Like personally, that's just something my daughter blows in the backyard with, like with her bubble blower. That's it. That's the only bubble I know. But the reality is that it has never been harder to get a mortgage right now. So the people who are getting mortgages right now can afford. You are stress tested at 4.75% right now.
Getting rates under two, that means rates have to double. Even if you're getting a trust company credit Union B lender deal, they're still stress tested at sometimes five or 6%. So the people borrowing money right now are very capable of paying it back. So I'm really excited. That's why I leveraged. This year, because I was like, this is the time because asset values are going up, money is worthless in the bank right now, so real assets are worth a lot.
I continue to see banks pumping out money. They're not gonna make it easier, but they're not gonna make it harder than it is right now. So people in the REITE club nation and people like ourselves need to continue to invest because that's, I think, one of the best things that we could be doing.
Sarah Larbi: Everybody always needs a place to live, right?
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. You got it. And that's the case in point and actually I'm just gonna share a quick personal story, and Brian doesn't even know this, is that I'm actually working with Brian's brother Craig on some personal financing for a property that I'm looking to buy myself from my own personal residence, right?
I'm going and I've known Craig and Brian for a long time now. We've gone back and forth and yeah they know me. We're buddies. We do all that kinda stuff. And it's like that checklist of items and sometimes I get numb to it a little bit because with our clients and our tenant buyers, we're always sending them a list.
Okay, we need these current letters, current income, all this kind of stuff. And for me it was just like, oh yeah, send it off. They'll get it all in. And then now I'm going through it myself and I'm like, Oh my gosh. And you can't see outside of this screen right now, but I have files from all around and, luckily, I have filing cabinets.
They're all empty waiting for these files. But it is so true what Brian is saying about, it's getting harder to qualify or it's harder to get the money if you can qualify. It's boom, the floodgates are open. How much would you like, what denomination, right? Like that kind of stuff. So getting that stuff prepared, having it constantly. And I don't know, Sarah, this is something that we share in common as well too, like the bookkeeping aspect of it and all the numbers and that it's not everybody's favorite thing to do, but having that prepared so that when you're gonna work with Brian or Craig or somebody from Mission 35, you're gonna say, here you go.
Here's my mortgage statements for the properties here and really starting from scratch and having a good template. I swear I might get a tattoo on my inner arm and it's just probably gonna get longer, as investing goes through the years. But of all the requirements that you need.
Getting that prepared, having that ready makes it easier so that when they're presenting it to the A lender, the B lender, the credit unions the plethora of options that you have, those are ready to go and you're able to act on that. And in a competitive market, you need to know that you can't be, I may not, because someone's not gonna deal with, I may or may not. They want people that can close to buy their properties.
Sarah Larbi: Yes. I think that's the beauty of working with you, Brian and other mortgage brokers, because once you have the data and you have the file and we wanna buy something else it's not like we're sending you everything all over again like we would with the bank. It's okay, here's the like, two or three things out of the 50 that I need. And like Alfonso, I hate paperwork with a passion. Anything that I can do to delegate that piece. I've hired a bookkeeper. He is great. He can communicate with my mortgage broker and he has everything.
That's how I like to do it. Everyone's got a different personality, but the fact that you don't have to do it every single year, all the same stuff again, I think is huge. And that is a, like for me, that's a huge piece of like why I would, there's lots of reasons, but why I would wanna work with a mortgage broker so they can file all my stuff and have it, at their fingertips when needed.
Brian Hogben: I think it's, you know what and I went through this when we were refinancing our building. Like we were able to get our nine units before we went to our 12. And you touched on it, Sarah and Alfonso, having a bookkeeper, having someone like my strengths are not paperwork either. Oh my God, I'm gonna put myself in the ground before I have to do paperwork.
Having a bookkeeper, because when you start getting into bigger deals than that too, like they wanna see every single rent going in. And if the rent was late, why was it late? What happened in March of 2020? I want to see where tenant number eleven's rent went? Like you need to have absolutely everything really documented.
If it's not your strength or. Like you say, delegate it. Get a great bookkeeper to do that because lenders are looking at that, they're scrutinizing things more than ever. But like Alfonso said, if you pass the paperwork minutia test, you get cheap money. Lots of it.
Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. I do wanna ask you a question, and I know you, you mentioned it and I figured next time I would talk to you, I would ask you. There's obviously the A lenders, there's the B lenders, there's the private money. And I think credit unions aren't discussed that much, but they provide a great opportunity and, speaking to a lot of investors that don't have a T4 income anymore and they have large portfolios, it sounds like some of the credit unions are really good.
Now I know they're not made equally, but can you give us an overview of like, when somebody might work with a credit union and why? And like just some of the benefits that they can offer. In comparison to others.
Brian Hogben: It's a great point. You know what? I love credit unions and I think one of the benefits to working with, mission 35, of course, or another really good mortgage broker is that they all have, They will access their local credit unions.
Now they're not a traditional lender that would show up on their biologics velocity. That's our technology platform. They're like we have a couple in Hamilton that we literally had to go bang on the door and say, hi, I'm Brian. I'm a mortgage broker. Will you accept business from us? And the benefit to some of those relationships is, Like banks are what we call balance sheet lenders, right?
They're taking Sarah's deposit of a million dollars, paying her 0.01%, and then lending it out to Alfonso for 2%, and they make the hedge on it, right? So Sarah, you gotta take your money outta there. No, I'm kidding. But anyways. So then the credit unions, they do it a lot. They're very similar in the sense that they, except they have members, not customers.
I love that customer service thing. They have members, right? So what they do, but they're not as large, so they're actually able to make decisions in house. So because they know Brian, they know our brokerage, let's say, they're able to make a little bit different decision based on our reputation. And they'll end up saying, oh, okay.
Alfonso's buying his fourth property in a HoldCo. Great. You know what we understand, he's got self-employed income and it's a little bit lower. We're still gonna give him an A rate on the residential side because we understand what's going on. So a credit union I almost, it's like jumping into that time machine again and going back in time.
They actually look at it instead of having it go through an automated process at the bank where it's just like they're just ticking and bopping. The credit union will actually stop. Look at it. Like effort, trust, for example, they're a local lender in Hamilton that you guys know, they're not a credit union, but they still have a credit committee, which is amazing.
It's like a credit committee where they'll go to committee and say, Hey, Brian's buying this property, or Sarah's buying this property. What do we think about the merits of this? And you've got three or four, big credit brains looking at it instead of just one decision maker. Ivory tower somewhere before the banks do. So I really like that benefit from the credit union. And that's why we actually do quite a bit of business with them as well too.
Sarah Larbi: Do you think though, because I find credit unions aren't always, obviously you work with credit unions and some of the top mortgage brokers think, will use and utilize and work with credit unions, but it feels like they're not as well positioned potentially versus like trust companies and it sounds like may incorrect me if I'm wrong, but from what you're saying, you had to knock on those doors.
You had to build the relationships with them individually because they're all separated from each other. So it's not like you have, here are all the credit unions that work with mortgage brokers. Like you actually have to do that legwork yourself in order to bring those opportunities to your investors. Is that correct?
Brian Hogben: Yes, cause I think there's the big credit unions that we know, like the Meridian Credit Unions of the world, right? Like they're big and they deal with mortgage brokers, but there's smaller ones. For example, like we had one, which I'm quite proud of. We lent out all their money. They had $7 million and then we lent it all out and they said, Brian, we just thank you so much. We can't do any more business. You lent out all our money. Can I get a testimonial from that? I really like that. But it's just, they're just smaller.
I think it's just Alfonso's burgers and fries right? Versus a McDonald's, Alfonso's burgers and fries is gonna have a different experience and they can only serve so many burgers. Whereas McDonald's has a limitless supply chain management where they can serve out billions of burgers.
Alfonso can close his doors at six o'clock and say, I'm out of beef. Come back tomorrow. I'm out of beef. You know what? So I think that's that smaller credit union if I'm on point with my analogy there.
Alfonso Salemi: I love it. I love that. And you know what, and I'll biggie size the fries on those too, right? It makes, hearing that honestly, and I'm just, this is just a personal standpoint, makes me feel so good because I think we get lost in so much of, with the technology, fasting it out here. Pump it out on Facebook. Let's do Instagram. Okay. Synthesize it, look at it. And really that human contact is really less and less again, whoever, when you're listening to this podcast, we've recorded this, mid-February, you're listening to this, it's probably April, may, maybe even afterwards, after recorded there that timeframe.
There's so much information constantly thrown. Every day. We have to stop and think about the relationships. We can't do business with everybody. We'd love to. That's the idea. But who can you service the best? And that's that whole focus of, get to the people that you want to.
Let Brian and his team do the legwork of finding those credit unions that are open to more, to, to open to mortgages, to lending out, and then work with Brian and his team and then he. This sounds like something that I've heard of and it reduces that timeframe so much. And that's what's really about having a good team, mentors, people that are on your side that are helping you, that have gone down that path so that you don't have to go and knock on all the credit union doors because Brian and the Mission 35 team already has and said, no, you know what?
Stay away from that one. cause we know. That's not gonna work. Or we love these three because, this is what we do and that one ran out of money because we gave out other, or we lent out other money. And having that balance and really working on those relationships, I think, we talk about this all the time going virtual.
It's been able to slow things down that commute time, being able to go from one meeting to the next in a Zoom room. Sometimes we don't have that time to think, but really making those personal connections, understanding what you're really doing. Cause if you're focusing and saying I might buy a duplex, I might buy a 30 unit building.
That's two completely different things. And that's just two really extreme examples. So it's amazing that it's available. And you have that access to that when possible. And obviously when it makes sense, right? I wanna shift just a little bit because it is mid-February and right now they're calling for I don't know, like a bazillion centimeters of snow in the next 24 hours.
It's always, like it's good to snow or it just snowed. It feels like that in Canada in the wintertime, right? So that's the news cycle. But you were talking about a Florida property. Everybody take a deep breath about Florida property. Think about that. That's amazing. Palm trees. Nice beaches. So give us a little info on that. How was that experience and yeah, what are you doing out in the US with Florida properties?
Brian Hogben: You know what, I'm a big believer in diversification and I love to learn and I think one of the things that. During all this new World and whatever we've been dealing with, I thought, Hey, I can really work from anywhere. My wife does not like winter at all. She really doesn't. We've typically been on at least three trips already by this time in the season to go somewhere warm and we haven't done any right. So to make sure that this didn't happen again, we decided to invest. And we purchased a new construction home down in Florida, in southern Florida.
It's just a world of knowledge. So I'm the type of guy that if I'm gonna learn something, I like to do it right. And it's interesting because number one, I think maybe Mission 35 could have a spot in a sunny state. I really do. Okay. Because it's not as easy to navigate. I first go through Google and say, how do I get a loan down there? The two companies that do it here are RBC and that was an experience, okay? Learning about it, but it's actually fairly simple. It'd be no different than having a B loan down there. A Canadian can get what's called a foreign national loan with 20% to 25% down in the states, and you're looking at a rate of about 5%, right?
When you look at things in the grand scheme of things, okay, five percent a lot higher than two, or three. But what's your cash flow? It all comes down to your cash flow. I know Sarah is, you know my mindset too. I like to invest where I can vacation and rent out as well, right? So that's the same reason why we get a cottage, right?
We can invest and live and have fun. So I figured why not try that in Florida? And then I started to learn about it like, The cash flow can give me a free property down there, right? Because reality is I'll probably go down there for 30 days outta the month and to take your 20% to 25% diversify now, because now you know why all my other holdings are in Canada.
A lot of us were investing in Canada, right? To invest in the States. Now it's our neighbor. If they hiccup, we're gonna smell it. You know what I mean? That's a terrible analogy. I'm not using that again anyways. But you get the idea. If they, it was, they catch a cold, we catch a sneeze or something.
Sarah Larbi: It's very cold. I think that's what it is. If they sneeze, we catch a cold.
Brian Hogben: It's much more elegant than this.
Alfonso Salemi: We're all wearing masks. We're all wearing masks. We're all safe.
Brian Hogben: We're okay. Okay, cool. We'll edit that, right? Yeah. Okay.
Sarah Larbi: it's great. It's a great way to diversify, like you said, but b like February really sucks.
Like January, February, March. If you can take a whole 30 days and go down there and then you're renting out the rest of it and you're covering all your. And you are potentially writing off the cost of even flying there for a portion cause you're checking on your investment property. There's tons of great stuff, again, I'm not an accountant, so check with your accountant.
There's tons of great reasons to do it. Again, it's drivable so you don't have to necessarily always fly. You can potentially, a cash flow appreciation down the road. You get your mortgage pay down, why not?
Brian Hogben: I've always been of the mindset, get your retirement home now. And even if it's not your retirement home, get into the market where you want your retirement home to be. Because if that house isn't the one that I want to be at, but let's say I like Florida or maybe Miami, or I wanna go somewhere around there, at least I'm in the market and building up equity in the same destination that I want to be.
The same with cottage country, right? If you didn't buy your dream cottage, at least you're in the market. Like, how much has the cottage gone up in the past 12 months? Oh my God,
Sarah Larbi: I wanna say at least, so mine, mine has gone up. So we bought it in 2018 for 485. It's about 860 now. What? It's just insane. Insane. We put 70 ish K into it, but still, it's still nuts. This year alone, I think it went up by over a hundred.
Brian Hogben: I think that's just to the point, right? Whether that's your forever cottage or not, or one you just leverage and take out more money and buy another one. You're in the market, right?
It took so long to get to my cottage and I saw it just appreciating in front of my eyes, right? Like I was not missing out on that appreciation in front of my eyes. And I said, I just gotta get in, right? And so I took that same mindset into Florida. It's just getting in. It doesn't have to be my dream place or the place where I'm gonna be forever.
I'm gonna learn. I'm gonna get knowledge from it, and then I'm gonna build equity because it's real estate. The mortgage is gonna go down. I'm gonna get some appreciation. So
Alfonso Salemi: I love it. That is awesome. And you're pretty close to Cape Canaveral too, right? Because that's where the Mission Rocket is gonna get launched one day. Elon gets their touchdown first. So it's all safe. And then, yeah, then we're jumping on the Mission 35 Rocket to space. Very close. I love it. Throw that in. I love it. But no, that's amazing. So many good things. Like you said, getting in the market earlier, whether it's cottages or US property, that passion, I love that thing.
I wrote that down. Get your retirement home now and get into the market that you're in, that you wanna eventually live in long term. And yeah, like Sarah said, you know what, that's I think why they put Valentine's Day in February to make everybody love it because it's so cold or I don't know why.
Anyway you know what, Brian, we've gotten to the part of the podcast where it's gonna be our lightning. Are you, I think we've done the lightning round with you already, so maybe sometimes questions, answers, they change, but are you ready for the lightning round?
Brian Hogben: I'm ready. This
Sarah Larbi: All right, Brian. Here we go. Question number one, what is the best advice that you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event.
Brian Hogben: That would be progress over perfection? Move forward? Just move forward? I've had a manager say that before, and it was actually through work, but it was just moved forward. The sooner that you can focus and face the problem, the sooner the solution. So just focus on the problem, but just deal with it, whatever's in front of you, deal with it, and move on to the next one.
It's not as bad as you think it is. It's only as bad as you think it is until you stop thinking about it. So just move on to the next one.
Alfonso Salemi: Love it. Great advice. Great advice. Besides yourself and jumping full on in and being the resource and learning about all the, US and multi-unit, what is your favorite resource for real estate investing? And that could be anything, a book training person, an event. What's your biggest or favorite resource I should say?
Brian Hogben: Honestly, I love YouTube. Like I go onto YouTube and I end up, like, when I work out in the morning, I'm like religious, 6:30 AM I'm on my elliptical and doing that, and it's just whatever I'm thinking about, I'll type it in and I'll watch it.
If I'm thinking about multi-family, watch it. If I'm thinking about cash flow, I'll watch it and it's just, There's always a nugget in everything that you watch and learn. There's always a nugget, and I think it's the moment you think you know, everything is when you're dead or when you're gonna start declining, because I've even felt myself getting in that mindset like, Ooh, I know that.
I know that. But the reality is you there's way more that you don't know than you do know. And YouTube's great for that. It's nice, it's easy, and sometimes I don't even know what I'm looking to learn. But I'll just type something in and play it for 20 minutes. And just seek to grab something out of it.
Sarah Larbi: That's great. And things change all the time, right? New rules, new regulations, new information. So even if you're an expert in one field, in a year, lots of things change even from a real estate perspective. Awesome. Number three, what is the one attribute that has made you most successful?
Brian Hogben: I'm gonna say my stupidity probably. So just I would say that jokingly, but in the sense that I don't I'll take immediate actions on things no matter what it is. I'm really good at taking an action that will cause another action, right? Whatever it is.
If I think that, like Florida, okay, send an email to a realtor. Get them to send something back to me. Like anything, I cause action that will create a reaction, and will create forward momentum for me. And I think for my success in real estate in the business is just always doing something immediately.
Like we did an event, you guys were part of it when we had Josh Altman down, like a real estate guy from LA once, and it started just from me and my wife having a glass of wine. Watching that show being like, we should bring that guy here. I'm like, yeah, we should. So I sent him an email. I Googled him and sent him an email. And it's just it starts by, as crazy as your idea is, just do something in that moment immediately that will cause a reaction to create forward momentum. So yeah, that's what it is for me.
Alfonso Salemi: I love that and that was an awesome event. That was like a red carpet, like a full on event. And that's cool from just having a glass of wine watching the show. That turned into that amazing event that, there were professionals from across the industry, like top players.
It was a great event. So there you go. Take that action and get involved. I love that. And you are so humble too, that's the other part. I want to make sure that you put that in there too. You are a humble dude, man. Alright, so last question of the lightning round. And the question is, what do you typically do on a Sunday morning and it's not jogging around in an Elmo suit? What's your typical Sunday morning look like?
Brian Hogben: A typical Sunday morning is when I wake up to mom, dad. Mom, dad, I have to pee. Got a four year old that just is like a rooster. So she gets up and then I'll make her eggs or pancakes or something in the morning and then we go for a little hike. I've got little stairs by my house and whether it's freezing cold or whether it's warm or whatever we do, we grab by teeth and then we go up and I try to, cause she gets up at five. Like she's not, she gets up at five 30 and I try to like, we try to catch the sunrise, we try to catch the sunrise at the top, overlooking the escarpment there.
I'll bring some hot chocolate and some goldfish. You haven't tried goldfish. Highly recommend them. They're amazing. Nutritious snack, good for any occasion. And do that, and it's like it's just such a wicked start and it's Sunday's always my family day. Like it and real estate investment. Has been able to help us do that. Sunday's always my family day and it's with Lila in the morning, the best part of my week.
Sarah Larbi: That's awesome. So it sounds fun and there's probably not a lot of people up that early on a Sunday morning, so you get the, basically the place to yourself in the silence.
Brian Hogben: It's true.
Sarah Larbi: Awesome. All right, Brian, where can our REITE Club community reach out and know more about you?
Brian Hogben: You can call us to the office, (905) 574-5255 mission 35 mortgages. Just Google us. Check out our reviews. Find us on Instagram at mission 35 mortgages or on Facebook. And just send us a message. We're dying to help. We care. We wanna help. Any way we can get you to where you want to go.
Alfonso Salemi: For sure Brian and thank you for being so generous with your time. If you haven't, Brian has been in another REITE Club podcast. He's been on several of our right experiences and our webinars. Get onto the, to thereiteclub.com. Look for Brian. He's so much information and reaches out. Brian, any last words of advice or tips that you wanna share with the REITE Club Community?
Brian Hogben: Keep listening to the right club. Like no matter what and Alfonso, Sarah, I hold my hand up to you guys. You guys did a wicked job of pivoting. You know what? When you guys had your events, which I missed to give you a hug, Alfonso and Sarah, but when you guys change, and I think it's a testament to what real estate investors have to do.
You never know what you're gonna face. But to have your AA meeting, like your REITE club meeting it fills you up and it keeps you going because there is it and there's a tremendous amount of shit out there today and the news and in the world that what you guys provide for people is very refreshing from a mental state.
In addition, it provides hope. You know what? It provides hope for a future and in a future where sometimes people don't see it. So really, stay connected to this stuff and if you start to think you know everything, just punch yourself in the face cause you don't. And go to another meeting and go to another one. So thank you guys for having me and also creating this forum for people because it truly is a blessing for people. So good job.
Sarah Larbi: Amazing. Brian, thank you so much for being on the show and thank you for your continued support. And guys, reach out to Brian, his team and Brian. They are amazing and it's all about scaling up as real estate investors, so you gotta do it smartly. Thanks Brian.
Brian Hogben: Thanks guys. Thanks again.
Alfonso Salemi: Awesome guys. What a great podcast. What a great interview. Brian is always so generous with his time, his information, and sharing his personal own experiences like so many of you in the REITE club community.
We really want to hear from you. If you'd like this podcast, please review it. Help us get in front of the eyeballs and ears. Of so many others in their journey in real estate investing. And make sure you do visit thereiteclub.com for everything that you need along the way.
Sarah Larbi: Sarah, I think that's it, REITE club Nation Alfonso, what do we say?
Brian Hogben: Come grow with us.
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