Brian Hogben: Everybody has an opinion on what's happening in the market. And people in my humble opinion, sometimes don't stay in their lane. Is that fair to say? So someone could say, you could see an influencer start talking about real estate investment who don't have a say in real estate investments. I think that's one thing. The other thing too, for anybody that is looking to invest in real estate right now, just remember the supply conversation, okay? There is a short and then a shortage of supply now. Now I want you to think about this.
Alfonso Salemi: Welcome back, REITE Club Community to another episode of the REITE Club podcast. I'm Alfonso Salemi, and today joining me as a co-host is Paul Copcutt. How you doing today, Paul?
Paul Copcutt: Great. Thanks, Alfonso. The first time we've, we've co-hosted. That's kind of fun. Looking forward. I'm looking forward to it.
Alfonso Salemi: This is the first time, right? This is gonna be the best podcast that we've co-hosted together. Definitely. I can already feel it, so, Right. We have an amazing guest on here today, Brian Hog ben from Mission 35 Mortgages, longtime supporter of the REITE club, and we are definitely a big supporter of Brian and his team as well.
All the information, knowledge that they share with the right club community, helping to get into, uh, real estate, investing from obviously from the mortgage and financing side of things. But, uh, but yeah, it's uh, definitely an interesting time, uh, when we're, you know, we're talking about interest rates, inflation, everything around the business of real estate.
That's why here at the REITE club we have all the different resources, tools for you to reach out, build your power team, get more education. You know, we want you to take action, but you need to feel comfortable and when you're ready to do that. So I know Paul, you're a big part of that. Um, what, what are you seeing with a lot of the REITE club, uh, community members? Where, where are they going? What resources are they?
Paul Copcutt: A lot of people are certainly catching up on the replays. Uh, you know, I think in the last month or so, we've had some good, good subjects because, you know, because of that, what you've just said, you know, the interest rates and a little bit of uncertainty, people are a little bit more thirsty for kind of up to date knowledge or even up to date strategies. I'm interested to hear what Brian has to say about where, where things could be heading and, and what people could be doing.
Alfonso Salemi: Yeah, it's always a great conversation with Brian. Uh, for, for those conversations and more, make sure you check out thereiteclub.com. If you are loving these podcasts, please rate, review, share with friends. It helps us grow our community and grow our resources. Those might be people out there that can give us amazing information that we haven't even met yet. So if you have that contact, please, uh, or have that time. Please be sure to rate, review, share our podcast. But, uh, but for now, let's get to the interview and talk to Brian.
I want that recorded. Awesome. Uh, alright. Welcome. Welcome to the podcast. Welcome back to the podcast, uh, Brian Hogben, uh, is uh, mortgage broker extraordinaire with Mission 35 mortgages. He, uh, and his team have helped so many of the REITE club community and beyond that, just so many people in their communities and all different types of investors.
If you haven't met Brian, make sure you're gonna go back in a previous episode and, um, and find Brian's story. But, uh, for those for the first time, uh, that are, that are meeting you, Brian, give us, uh, yeah, the 30 40,000 foot view of, uh, Brian Hogben and Mission 35 mortgages, and, and all that is encompassed in that.
Brian Hogben: Thank you Alfonso. I appreciate it, I always love being on the REITE club. I love what you guys do. I'm a just a long time listener, not a first time caller of the right club. And it's just, uh, I love being a part of it cuz you know, it's, uh, as you guys are the same way seeing people get into, uh, real estate investment just warms my heart.
You know, it's changed my life and I'm a big advocate for it. And that's really where Mission 35 came from. Um, Mission 35 was, you know, we just wanted to be better than Freedom 55. So by about 20. And, uh, we did it. So no, Mission 35 was, um, I, I wanted to pay off my house by the time I was 35 years old. And it actually sounds crazy right now saying that given, you know, certain market conditions. But ever since I was a kid, I was really passionate about, you know, finances and my dad gave me an awesome foundation, which basically stemmed from, you know, spend less than what you. Pretty sage advice as it still is today. And, uh, and I started investing in real estate, uh, and investing in real estate allowed me the opportunity to, when I turned 34 years old, take one of my investment properties, sell it.
And that was enough to pay off the balance on, uh, the, the place I still call home today. Uh, and then, uh, Mission 35 was born out of really, you know, the more that I talk about, it's really about the courage to follow your. As cheesy as it sounds sometimes, but, um, I think in this life to be bold and be brave, it helps if you have a little bit of a backing.
And by being mortgage free and investing in real estate, it really gave me the confidence, uh, to overcome those fears and, uh, launch a business, which is now today Mission 35 mortgages. And today we've got, uh, we've got almost 40, almost 46. We've got 46 licensed agents at Mission 35. We've got 12 offices across Southern Ontario. And we love helping people get into their first and second rental property, uh, and love helping out the REITE club.
Paul Copcutt: And what about your own portfolio, Brian? How does that now look?
Brian Hogben: I'm always adding to it because I'm an avid real estate investor myself too, and I started out, you know, my very first house was a duplex that I got in 2001 and, uh, paid an interest rate of 6.75% for which I was so happy to get six and three quarters as like, I, I thought I was robbing the bank at that time.
And that was actually my mission 35 host. But you know, I'm a buy and hold and refinance kind of guy. So, over those years, you know, it's been a long time since, uh, since I bought my first one. But now I've got, um, over 50 units between, I've got a couple, two different department buildings.
I've got single family, duplex, triplex, condos, um, and I, uh, the commercial properties as well too. When it comes down to where we own and operator mission, 35 mortgages. Cause I think that, uh, well I think I'm a great tenant, so I will pay the bills. So I like to invest where I work as well too. Um, and then also getting into the vacation rentals, uh, with cottages, uh, and our first foray down into, uh, Florida as well too, uh, with investment property down there as well.
It's pretty vast and I'm always learning and growing there too, uh, with my portfolio and. And, and continuing to tell people, Cause I like to practice what I preach and I want people to, I think it's important, like if you're going to a gym and you got a personal trainer, um, I want them to have a six pack if they're telling me what to do.
I don't want them eating donuts if they're telling me to get into shape. So similar with real estate investment, uh, I think, you know, you should have partners that are doing what they're telling you to do.
Alfonso Salemi: I love that thought. And, and we talk about that a lot of, uh, at the REITE club. If, if it's, you know, if you're bringing a member onto your power team or whether interviewing them, talking to them, making sure that they're an investor as well, that they've invested, that they have some experience and they're doing it as well.
It's great to tell people what to do or to say what they should do. But if they're not actually, you know, investing or, or, or, you know, making those types of decisions, then they, they can't really understand where you're coming from. So having, you know, there's the whole do what I say, not what I do.
Well, in this case, I don't think it, it really applies is you wanna work with people that have some experience and obviously with your experience in a multiple of different, you know, disciplines of, of real estate investing. Right. So, I guess, I don't know, just a side question, like which one's your favorite, Which one do you get most excited about?
They still say like, real estate investing is like boring and you know, just buy it and hold it in, refinancing it. It's boring and don't get excited. But is there something, a passion that you're like, I love the short term, I love Florida cuz I can bring my family. Is there one or another that you know, is that sticks out or is a favorite for you?
Brian Hogben: Yeah, you know, great question and it's like, uh, me and my wife have talked about this before and we, we've talked about having this B and W cuz her name's Wendy B and W Vacation rentals and it's definitely the vacation rental. I know like you, Alfonso family guy, you know, family is just like awesome, the best.
I love that. And it was like a jigsaw puzzle trying to find out where I can vacation with my family and have it paid for through cash flow. Right? Because it just, I don't know. There's something really sweet about that, right? When you go down there. And go down to a place that you can. So my cottage, uh, and the place in Florida are probably my two favorite investments for those purposes because they pay me to go there.
And it's a lot of fun. And then I get to learn as well too. I get to enter into different markets and um, and it just opens up my horizon as well too, as to where to go. So I think, you know, those are my favorites. And I think too, those are probably the next ones I want to go. Cause I start to, I'm still a big dreamer.
Like you, Alfonso, you know, you probably lay in bed dreaming like, what's next for Alfonso ? So, so I think like, Hey, maybe I could do this in Nashville. Maybe I could do it in Vegas. Maybe I could do it. You know, multiple different places because, uh, and, and plus I just love to learn. So when I invest in a new area, you learn, right? Like the best way to learn is to put a little bit of money on the table. When you're investing in something and your, your know, when you're putting some money on something, your knowledge goes up exponentially quick.
Paul Copcutt: What did you learn from investing in Florida for the first time? Cause I, I know a lot of right club members are now looking outside of Canada and they're looking at, uh, Florida in particular and even further afield like Costa Rica.
Brian Hogben: Yeah, I think you know, it's funny, the learning just doesn't stop. I just got a notice from, uh, from my mortgage company, Royal Bank, that we need to get a tax identification number. It's a TN number. And in order to file an income tax return in the state. So please, irs, if you do happen to get this, I am on it. I am gonna do it. I'm not obeying here. But it's, you know, you don't know what you don't know.
And the continuous learning there and learning through Florida right there, it's been ongoing right to, to get the mortgage. We, um, we actually went through RBC. And you know, we don't even deal with RBC. Just for plain facts, we always try to do what's best for the client.
We've referred lots of people there. Um, the mortgage process leaves something to be desired to get a mortgage down in the state, so that may be another opportunity for us to grow because I do see some gaps. Um, but that was one, and also big learning, which was fairly exciting. How the, how, like, uh, the equivalent to the landlord tenant board works down there.
For us in Ontario, 2% next year, two, two and a half percent for rental increase. Um, when I looked into it in Florida, I believe, whether it's a long term rent or short term rent, but even if you had a long term rental, um, don't quote me on this, even though it is a podcast and on tape, but it's pretty much like you only have to give 60 days notice down in Florida to raise the rent by 10% or more.
If you're gonna raise the rent by 15%, you must give 60 days notice. But if you're gonna raise the rent by 9%, 30 days now, now obviously you have to be in market, but wow, what a mind shift from. From what it looks like in Ontario. Like that's a very, very different, uh, mindset, which is interesting.
Alfonso Salemi: I guess that's why they're always saying, you know, God bless America. It's true, as you know, uncovered and just, you know, lightly started to research a little bit about more US investing and, you know, whether it's purchase prices or like you just mentioned, increase in rents or, you know, mortgage qualifications. Like there's zero down mortgages still, but you know, Hoops and all that kind of stuff that you have to jump through and all that kind of thing.
They're available. They're out there. They're out there, right? So from an investor that you're looking at Rule 25 and you keep hearing rumblings, oh, they're gonna make it more expensive, more down payment, more taxes, and they're really kind of coming after those small landlords here in, in Canada. I guess that's a general statement, but um, yeah, there's, there's a whole bunch of opportunity in, in the US to, to go and to capitalize on.
Brian Hogben: Very interesting. And the prices are so like there's 300, 350 million people down in the states. It's such a vast territory. There's so much opportunity down there. Anyways, that I don't really know about yet.
Alfonso Salemi: We talked just before we started, we clicked record. On the record. We talked about the algorithms. I don't know. Somehow I started watching a YouTube video and they started breaking down the population of where they are in the US and it's like, the west side of the country, like takeout California and maybe now, uh, some Texas, or I guess that's, well, Texas would be more east, I guess, but that western side of the US is like less than like 20% of the population of the whole country.
I don't know. It's like the mountain ranges and they went back into like all that kind of stuff. So it's kind of cool. Yeah, like it was 15 minutes of my life, I'll never get back, but I watched this video on like us population, how things are, you know, um, you know, attributed or why people are moving and the migration patterns and all that kind of stuff.
It was pretty cool video on like, yeah, the 350 million, it's pretty concentrated. Like the majority of it is in like these big, these these pockets. And then there's so much. Vast lane, I guess are equivalent to like Saskatchewan, even though we love Saskatchewan, choose the Saskatchewan. But you know, where it's just like, just fields where, you know, your dog can run away and see him for three days or something like that.
We're talking about different opportunities, different types of places. Obviously we need to talk about like, Current market conditions, you know, the rates, increasing opportunities, these different strategies that we have talked about. Um, you know, maybe I would never wanna say dead.
There's always opportunities in all different types of areas, but what are, what are you seeing now from your investing clients of more, more opportunities or, or more of the types of deals that are coming through your, your brokerage or your table? Is it, is it the flips? Is it burs? Is it rent to homes? I don't know. Like, what, what are, what are you seeing more and more of investors kind of flocking to. Yeah, it was,
Brian Hogben: I would say, you know, and myself personally as well too, like cuz we deal with a lot of, uh, a lot of seasoned investors, which I would say are not full-time investors, right? So a lot of people that, you know, have a great job, great business, great income, but still love to invest in real estate.
Like I would put myself in that category, right? I still, I love my job per se, my business, but still invest in real estate. So in that category there, um, I think there's a great market and I've seen quite a bit as of lately where people are selling non-performing product. Right? And what I mean by that is, so you've, even though the price has gone up and gone down, let's say, you know, went up 400,000 million percent that came down 320000%, like it's still up a little bit.
Don't quote me on these numbers, but you get the idea, right? There's a lot of real estate investors that still have a significant amount of. Even though there's been a peak and a drop. Right. And I know even myself, you know, I had one property where I had a, a good portion of equity, but it wasn't making sense to refinance, to take the money out because the rents hadn't kept pace with the market.
I think a big opportunity right now is taking the capital out of those ones and moving it into a vacant rental property or a transition rental property. So finding a place that even if it's a single family, duplex, triple. Or maybe you need to do a little bit of work to convert it and not necessarily like, I don't know how the BRRR would work in this, so I don't want to say that you get your money out of it necessarily.
You might, but the rents are climbing so quickly, especially in in, in our areas that. Even at a rate, and I'm a, I'm proud to say I'm a subprime borrower because I've got so many mortgages and I'm not, I'm not offended by that. Okay. But I have to pay quite a high interest rate on a lot of my mortgages. Um, but even I found one, I found a triplex that we were able to negotiate, um, and, and it was significant.
I sold one for five. I've leveraged up now to 1.2, but the cash flow on it is almost $1,800. So the fact that you can still, I personally think that now acquiring a property right now with existing tenants, I think is a challenge. It's gonna be, you're gonna be with those tenants for a long time, as far as I'm concerned.
But if you find one where it's vacant and you wanna do a little bit of work, or single family, it's vacant. I find those rents right now are conducive to be able to put down a 20%, still get a reasonable mortgage at 6%. That's right. I didn't think I'd be saying a reasonable mortgage at 6% a year ago, but I am today.
And you can still cash flow. I think it still comes down to those numbers, and I think that opportunity right now still exists today, similar to how it did. Three years ago, five years ago, 10 years ago. I think that opportunity exists almost a little bit easier now because you've got condition of sales.
Now the market's not as hot as what it was. I can, you know, we don't wanna not necessarily put in the stink offer that's, you know, 200 grand below, but you can put in a little bit lower offer and you can put an in condit on your financing and home inspection right now. And I think that's an opportunity, um, that does exist today.
I don't know about you, but I think a lot of people are still on the side. A lot of people are still waiting/
Paul Copcutt: and I, I'm guessing that some of them are waiting because the interest rates are still gonna be going up. I mean, at the time of this recording, we've got an interest rate coming in the next two days. Correct. And it's pretty much guaranteed. Um, Where, where do you see things kind of settling out? I mean, you hoping to see something in early 2023 where it's gonna level out and we might start to see it drop or,
Brian Hogben: Oh gosh, I'm gonna add this to the collection of incorrect Forecast by Brian Hogben. Okay. So we'll put that on there. Just put that disclaimer on there right now too. But, um, but now that I've got that outta the, A lot of us mortgage brokers, uh, that have been in the business for a while. I think people remember, you know, we look to the Bank of Canada and we look to economists, right? And, and as we were talking before, the goal posts seem to change a lot based on information that comes out.
Okay, but you know, according to a lot of the economists that I look at, people are like, and a lot of the economists actually act as advisories to the Bank of Canada. And a lot of them are saying right now, it's like, you know, telling your friend or something that's had too much to drink.
It's like, you gotta just chill out for a second. Okay. Like, maybe we'll have some water instead of another shot of whiskey. Okay. And a lot of the, and I think that's good advice. We're seeing that nationally. I don't think we're gonna see the pause this week. We're gonna see probably a half to three quarters.
We're sitting here, you know, for our October 26th raid. We're probably gonna see another quarter in December, is what the market's pricing in. But many people are advising to pause because the reality is, is these rate hikes, they don't have effect for six months. Right. There's such a lagging effect on someone.
Like I was just doing, um, I'm such a nerd. I was doing some numbers today. The average person on a $500,000 mortgage since rates went up, if they had a 25 year am. They're o, I don't wanna say only out, but they're out $2,600. So when you look at that 26, and that's not per month, that's since the rates went up in March till today, they're out 2,600 bucks.
If you put that into perspective, It's not great, but at the same time, 2,600 bucks, if you put that on a line of credit, when we're coming out of a moment in time where nobody had debt, I know there's some people that got hurt in that, but unsecured credit was at historic low's coming outta the pandemic.
If the average person has only had to put, that's, that's really getting chopped. Do you know what I mean? With these rates going up, the average person has only had to put an extra 2,600 on their line of credit. That's not great, but that's not gonna ha, that's not gonna hurt for another six months.
Now the rates have gone up higher. So I think, um, all that's to say that I'm, I'm very hopeful that we eventually see that pause. I know that the economists are urging the Bank of Canada to do that, and I'm hopeful that, you know, the rates do well after any type of recessionary times you do see rates come down again, Will that be in 2020?
A lot of people are saying Q4 the end of 2023, if we peak and then come down. I'm hopeful it could be sooner, you know, if things start to take effect sooner, but it's likely we won't see rates change for another year, um, after we've seen these increases. Will it keep going up? Oh gosh. I don't know if we have another like black swan event.
If there's a crazy dictator with his finger on the button, maybe like something else will happen. But, um, I think it all comes down to, um, you know, it comes down to your payment, comes down to making wise financial decisions and cashflow as well too, because these are such. Such tough conversations to answer, I tell you such tough ones.
Alfonso Salemi: And I think, you know, I think I know, and Brian, you're, you're a history buff as well too, especially when it comes to financing and you look back and, you know, you're talking about from starting to invest in 2001 from your first duplex and you seeing markets go up and go down in, in an upward motion. I literally said this today on a call, is that I want to call Marty Mcle and Doc and get to the DeLorean , and if you could go back to 1960, 1970, 1980, even 1990, you know, when everybody talked about, like, my parents always remind me about those interest rates that were 20% and, and all that kind of stuff.
However, like we've never seen this combination. High interest rates and then high debts, right? Usually the numbers were, were much lower. So like for those potential investors that are saying, Hey, I'm gonna wait it out, or Wait, I haven't seen the bottom of the market yet, or I want to wait till it actual, absolutely crashes.
I think that's, I think jokingly, you know, investors, Oh, I'm waiting for it to crash. I'm waiting for it to crash. Well, Like, it's never gonna go to zero number one. It's, you know, and the other part of it, once there is that, oh, it's that proverbial crash, there'll be investors lining up around the corner, down the street, you know, to, to get those prices.
That maybe that person that's listening to this podcast right now and saying, You know what? I'm not sure. You know, I, I was, I was educating myself in the last year or two, I've seen things go up and now it's at this. You know, not necessarily specific strategy, but how do they prepare to say, Okay, I want, I know that in, if I look back from, in five years from now, or sorry, look ahead in five years from now, I'm gonna thank myself that I, I bought something.
I know most rental properties that I've bought that are normal rental properties, I've always thought I've overpaid for them at the time. And then, you know, time goes by and I'm like, Oh, wow. Such a genius. Look at the great deal I got. But at the time, um, you know, I, I, I thought I was overpaying for it.
I don't know, kind of speak to them in terms of like, I want to get in, I'm, I'm wanting to make my first investment into real estate. Leave the strategy alone for a second. But just the, the, that maybe that fear of if I buy now, well things are just gonna crash and I'm gonna lose all my money. What advice can you give to them?
Brian Hogben: I think I always remember a quote that someone told me, and they just end up saying, Opportunity is arriving somewhere and seeing nobody. It's not arriving somewhere and seeing everybody there. Right. And at the time, right now, you know, people are not lining up to buy investment properties because they're waiting to hear the bottom, the bottom.
Two things I'm gonna tie it into number one is social media, which this is on all right now. Right? And the, the challenge is, is I, um, in two, I'll bring it back to 2008 only because I think that's a good time, 2008. I would argue had worse headlines to than today. In 2008, the number one headline was Global financial Crisis, if you remember. Global financial Crisis gotta be the most terrible thing to hear. Right? But the challenge or the thing is, in 2008 there was no Instagram or TikTok or Twitter. There was a hundred million people on Facebook in 2008. Right? Which is nothing, nothing in compared to the global population of, I think there's 2 billion people on social media.
Everybody has an opinion on what's happening in the market, and people in my, in my humble opinion, sometimes don't stay in their lane . Is that fair to say? So someone could say, you know, you could see, uh, an influencer start talking about real estate investment who don't have, uh, a say in real estate investments.
I think that's one thing. The other thing too, for anybody that is looking to invest in real estate right now, just remember the supply conversation, okay? There is a short and then the shortage of supply now. Now I want you to think about this. Right now there's still, I think all of us are still paying a little bit more for trades.
If anybody who is a real estate investor here and tried to get the drywaller, the contractor, the plumber, all those people to go and fix stuff, guess what? They're either backed up still or not calling you back or charging you quite a bit of money. I think that's probably fair to say unless you have a really, really good relationship.
Recent stat is that one third of all new constructions right now are either delayed or canceled. One third of all new constructions are delayed, canceled cuz guess what? If I had a plan to build something two years ago, my costs have changed. Supply has changed. Everything in my budget has changed. So now I've either canceled that project or it's delayed and now we're at record number of immigration. Right? So they're saying in like, I think like we might hit like it was over 400,000, but they're saying in over a 12 month period we might hit almost a 700,000 immigration mark for Canada. We're not building anywhere close to that amount of units.
When does that catch up? I don't know. Right. But what I would say is because of supply chain bottleneck, And there's not a lot of people getting into trades now, like there used to, right? There used to be a ton of people getting into the labor force and getting into trades. It's not happening as much.
With all that said, for you to get into real estate right now, and if you catch it and you're, you're here and it's gonna dip a little bit more. Jimmy Crack corn, and I don't care. Okay. Because you're buying this for a long term, like in my opinion, um, I, I'm not a big advocate of the flip right now. I think it is a little bit risky, but if you're buying and holding and your strategy is to say, Hey, listen, I'm gonna buy and I'm gonna hold onto it for a minimum of five years or 10 years.
I think you can do no wrong whatsoever because you're still gonna get a significant amount of principal pay down and if you buy it right, you can still have positive cash flow. And I'm certain that if you were to look at this, this, I'll fact check myself 10 years from Alfonso when our kids are, you know, playing baseball.
Hopefully not having their first beer yet, cause they'll still be too young. Okay. But anyways, And then, and then we'll say, Yeah, 10 years from now, look at this. We did a great job. Right. 10 years from now. I think time, like you said, Alfonso, I'm, I'm not brilliant. I just took a risk and bought some property and held onto it.
You know what I mean? Like anybody, you know, a lot of us fall into that category, so I think that still holds true. So don't wait. Because if you wait and you try to hit the bottom, just like you said, then you might be back in multiple offers. You might be back in a situation where you gotta go cash and, and you might not be able to get that property and you'll lose that instant lift again.
So listen, take out the equity you have in your house via a line of. Because you probably got some, If you're sitting in a home and look to buy a house, it's a great market to still look at investment properties in right now. It's a nice calm market where you can get conditional offers and you can go look at it. You can go have a cup of coffee, talk to Mi Alfonso about it, say, Hey, is this a good idea? We'll say yes, and then you actually get to pull the trigger on him.
Paul Copcutt: That's good advice. I think you're right. Over the last two years, we've all. Epidemiologists, uh, world, world leaders and economists. In terms of, uh, your experience as, as a, you know, a mortgage professional, what, what are you advising perhaps the newer people in the industry? Before we hit record, you were mentioning that you've, you've got younger or newer mortgage brokers coming on board. What are you doing as a company to help me kind of handle this market, which is obviously very different from six or 12 months ago?
Brian Hogben: That's great. You know, I think anybody that's getting into the mortgage market right now, uh, you're in for a treat because I think any that you start something when it's at its most difficult phase, um, when the market change. You're gonna be in great spot. And I like to say the bad thing about a good market is you're one day away from a bad market.
The good thing about a bad market, you're one day away from a good market and this market's gonna change just like all of them. So, uh, we have a, we have a great training program right now as well too for people that are looking to get into mortgages. It's always been a fascinating industry, especially for members of the REITE Club, right?
Cause a lot of people here are, you know, looking to get into investing in real estate. So it's, it's very exciting. Um, and we're training a lot of new agents as well too. And what we tell them, It's a lot of the basics and, and it's getting back to the basics. It's starting the conversation with payment, not with rate, right?
Start with payment, reverse engineer it, and just end up saying, Hey, instead of what can I get pre-approved for? Well, let's tell I have a different conversation. What's the monthly cash flow? Well, this is how much your payment's gonna be. Right. And instead of, you know, cause for probably the past two years it was always, what can I afford?
What can I afford? Well, now we back it up and say, What's your payment? What's your payment? So we end up bringing it back to that and, and slowing things down. And we talk a lot about, now I've got a course we're teaching right now on budgeting, and we're teaching our agents how to teach other agents or realtors or clients how to use a budget.
Because you know what payments are gonna go up. For some people that aren't in a variable rate mortgage, but they're in a fix, they're gonna have some payment shock when it comes up for renewal in a year. Right? Or maybe two years. Like if they had a two year rate and it's gonna renew it five and a half or six, that's gonna be some payment shock.
I think right now, getting out there ahead and positioning yourself if you're a mortgage agent or anybody really, Where do, where, where is your money gonna fall? Where is your budget gonna be? And making sure that you're helping people with their finances. Because I think, you know, we teach our agents that all the time because if you're worried about somebody's money and how much money they're gonna have, then they're gonna position you in a different spot than if you're just an order taker saying write in, write in mortgages.
You're just an order taker. And I think that people's finances are the most, one of the most vulnerable things. In our lives, right? Like, what do we lie about a lot? Our finance, well, we won't talk about what we lie about a lot, but you know, it's always like we, we joke and we end up saying, you know, tell me, you know, tell me what you really make, not what you tell your friends.
You make , you know, So it's like by getting vulnerable with people in their finances and budgeting, I think we're, we're helping a lot of people too, because the fear of all this interest rate conversation and inflation. When you really break it down into dollars and cents, a lot of people, the majority of people are actually okay.
The government, you know, as much as I squawked about the stress test, did a good job. They had a stress test in there. A lot of people can't afford it. Maybe they didn't budget for it, but majority of people are gonna be okay with this and we'll be able to weather the storm. But maybe we just need a conversation, get out of our head instead of thinking, Oh, no, no, no, I'm terrible.
You write it down, write it down. Put it into a budget and then you'll be able to see, Oh, okay. Maybe, maybe I'm gonna cut down on three lattes with Alfonso. You know, maybe I'll just have one latte with Alfonso. It'll be okay.
Alfonso Salemi: We'll get at home machine going right in the backyard. We gotta help the economy too, right? We gotta help small deals. . We won't go to the big, We won't go to the big chains. We'll go to the. Smaller chains. That, and by by lattes there a lot of them. But, you know, I just wanted to just finish out your, you know, to add to your point there, there's, um, there's a quote, and I wanna give Alex Pal credit for this.
Alex, if you're listening to this, he said, price is only an issue if value is not present. Right? So that's, that's what your, your, you, your team, the, the, the, the agents that, that you are training, that you're working with, is that providing that value? Because if it's just. Let me go get you a mortgage at this rate, at this price and close it.
At that day, you're, you're commoditizing what you're doing. Right? But that additional value, adding in the conversation around budget planning, what can you afford, what other goals do you want to achieve, that it's not just a mortgage. Right. Those are the pieces that really, it's just a part of the whole puzzle.
I love what you're saying is that, People are so scared to talk about those finances and we talk to our tenant buyers, it's like, well, you know, we ask 'em, Well, how much do you make? Sometimes we get like an hourly answer what their paycheck is every two weeks. They don't really even know how to answer that.
I make this much per hour. Right? And, and that's where like our society is going to, is not how much it costs. It's like, how much is it per. Right. It's like my streaming service, my whatever service it is, how much is it per month? And it's not looking at, well, how much is it adding up over time?
Is it per month? So having those conversations, getting people, like you said, vulnerable, talking about those, those topics, it's not an easy thing to do, cuz. You're talking about dinner parties, you're talking about the politicians or the latest thing on news, or the last person that went viral on TikTok, but it's not about like, Hey, what are our financial goals?
What are certain things that you wanna achieve to, whether that's within your own household, within friends or family, or to those professionals that you're working with. You have to be open and trusting, and I can speak personally. I, I've, I know many of the, the, the mortgage agents on Mission 35. I work with one personally, you know, 'em like a brother.
That, you know, is just such, such a huge asset of, it's not just about that rate or that product. It's what's the overall goal? What's it gonna accomplish? It that domino that's gonna affect multiple dominoes. So, Let's not push it in the wrong direction or just push it just yet. So, I'll get off my soapbox now about that.
Brian Hogben: I like that soapbox, me and you have the same opinion on how fun. So I think it's like you just come from caring, right? You come from caring and uh, and then you can really help people that way. And I know you guys do that with, with your business as well too at Jag, so,
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. Brian, I think we've reached the point that we're gonna get into our lightning round. Are you ready for the lightning round?
Brian Hogben: I don't know. Can I phone a friend?
Alfonso Salemi: Okay. So let's start out with question number one. What is the best advice you've ever received from another investor or at a networking event?
Brian Hogben: The one that I can think of now is just do it. Do it now. Do it now. When is I, I, and I had a coach in real estate as well too, that used to say, When is now a good time? . I like that. I like it. Yeah. When is now a good time? I think immediacy, taking action, whether, you know, you go buy a property or you make a phone call, uh, I've at another coaching program taking massive action I've had just take action. Do it now. Do it now. Dwayne, wonderful.
Paul Copcutt: What's your favorite real estate investing resource?
Brian Hogben: The REITE club is my best reason. The REITE club, correct. Ding dinging.
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely the REITE club. But for those out there listening that already love the REITE club and know the REITE club, what? Where's where? Somewhere that you go as a resource, whether you know as a website, a publication, a blog, I don't know, A TikTok page. I don't know anything. You know what?
Brian Hogben: There's a guy that I love, I actually love listening you. His name's Rob mc. I'll give him a shout out. Rob McCluer. He is got a great article called Mor Mortgage Logic News. Uh, you subscribe to it and, uh, he's got a very good in tune, uh, market update. So I think he, I think he charged like a hundred bucks a month or something like that for subscription.
Comes out once a week and he really, So if you're looking to sort of look at a real deep, like, I like to nerd out on this stuff, if you're really looking for a deep dive, um, subscribe to his, um, newsletter. It's very, very good, very detailed. It gives you really good understanding, uh, on the market as well too. Awesome.
Alfonso Salemi: Awesome. Great. Share there. Um, alright, I'm gonna change up question number four. We have a couple different ones, but, um, uh, what would you tell your 18 year old self.
Brian Hogben: What would I tell my 18 year old self Oh, in regard In regards to real estate? Right. Okay. Cause there's a lot of things.
Alfonso Salemi: Yes. In regards to real estate business, you know?
Brian Hogben: Take more risk sooner. Take more risk, do it sooner, because I think, uh, you know, my 18 year old self, I was a little bit, I took a lot of risk when I was going up, but I would say take more risk sooner. Buy properties. Now, don't be afraid and know, I'd probably tell 'em a lot.
I'd probably sit down and point my finger at 'em quite a bit and just end up saying like, Listen, do it now. Be the same as the other one too. And I would say take risks and don't be afraid. I would say be brave. Be brave in your decisions. Be courageous in your decisions, and don't be afraid of being. When you're wrong or if something's gonna go wrong, you're, you're closer to rectifying to the right.
Get to the wrong fast, fail fast, and just do it and, and be brave, whether it be very, very brave. Hmm.
Paul Copcutt: Nice. Love that. Uh, what would we typically find you doing on a Sunday morning?
Brian Hogben: Sunday morning. Well, if the weather's nice, I'll be, uh, going for a hike with my daughter. Lila's, six years old, so, uh, she always gets up.
Sometimes she likes to get up before the sun gets up. I love that as well too. I really do. So, and, uh, I live by the garment and uh, we go up the stairs there and I call it the old Hamilton Hotel. It's actually this old sort of rocky place, like it's a leftover hotel where you can look out over the city.
It's not a hotel, it's just, I think it was back in the day. It's at the base of Upper James. And, uh, I'll bring a little hot chocolate. We'll bring some goldfish. I know Alfonso, you know about the goldfish probably. Right. And we'll sit there and, uh, chat and I will talk to her about real estate investment.
I swear to God talk to her about cash flow, apartment buildings. Uh, and that is like my, Favorite thing to do, uh, on a Sunday morning. Wake up and do that and, and, uh, yeah, that's where you find me, the Hamilton Hotel there. That's, that's actually what I call it to her. I don't even know what it's called, but that's what we call it.
Alfonso Salemi: Well, that's, that's awesome. I know I've actually bumped into Brian on the Hamilton DIS department going for, for walks or runs and, um, that, that, that's his, that's his jam. But, uh, Brian, uh, we, we just love you, man. We, we appreciate you so much for, for, for all the. Uh, information, just the caring knowledge.
Everything that you share with the Wright Club community, it's, and we know it's right from your heart, and, and it, it, it goes through your whole team, the whole mission 35 team. You, you've basic, you've done such an amazing job of, uh, of building a great network of people and it's only gonna continue to grow.
And the sky's not the limit. When you gotta rock it, you're gonna go into the universe. Um, that's, uh, we just, we just love, uh, we just love being having you on here. Any last words of advice or, and how can people get in touch with you for, for more
Brian Hogben: information? Uh, thanks Alfonso. I appreciate that man. And I just, you know, you're like a brother to me, Alfonso, and I love that we've met and we're able to do this and, uh, I'm so, so grateful to be part of the REITE Club community. I love what you guys are doing. Uh, you can reach out to us at, on Instagram mission 35 mortgages. It's not a Call of Duty one if you don't finish the mortgage part.
I think it's a level on Call of Duty, but Mission 35 mortgages. Um, or at Brian Hogben, you can message me directly. Happy to help out. Uh, I would, you know, our team is amazing. A lot of our team are real estate investors themselves. Like they love this stuff. So, and again, just, um, like I say, I think, uh, just coming down for advice, just do it. Don't be like, make sure you listen to who's doing it. You know, listen to who's doing it, listen to who's got the advice, and make sure whoever's telling you what to do, that they have what you want. And if they don't have what you want, then just, you know, make sure you listen with a filter.
Right. Because you gotta make sure you listen to people who have what you want. Right. So, go out and buy real estate, period.
Alfonso Salemi: Nice. Awesome. Thank you so much, Brian.
Brian Hogben: Thanks guys.
Alfonso Salemi: Take care.
- Log in or register to post comments
- ARNEL-LLEMIT-1637316866's Blog