"Inspired to Invest" Real Estate Investing Podcast

Get Out Of Debt And Get Ahead By Investing In Real Estate

• Serena Holmes • Episode 31

Share episode

Get Out Of Debt And Get Ahead By Investing In Real Estate

There is nothing that feels more discouraging and defeating than crushing debt, is there? If this is an obstacle you've been facing, then this is an episode you absolutely don't want to miss.

Welcome back to the "Inspired To Invest" real estate podcast.  If you'd rather watch than listen, click here.

This week, we are with Nick Skalkos, a multi-award winning platinum recording podcast who was incredibly successful in his musical career, but he just didn't have the money to show for it. 

After watching a few episodes of Income Property with Scott MacGillivray, Nick was inspired to leverage the space in his home to house hack, so he could save money and climb out of debt. 

From there, he took the leap to start educating himself about all of the various real estate strategies out there, and has managed to scale his portfolio to hundreds of doors, not only across Canada, but also into the United States.

Brace yourself for Nick's nuggets of wisdom, beneficial for real estate investors in the beginning of their journey as well as for those who may be further along on their path. His insights are both practical and profound.

Find out how Nick has strategically positioned himself in the industry as a thought leader, expert, and master capital raiser - all extremely attractive qualities to potential partners he was contending when he was ready to grow.

And grow he did!

His journey as a real estate investor, is nothing short of inspiring. Nick's story is not one you should miss.  

To connect with them directly and to learn about opportunities he has for investors, go to @nickskalkos on social or https://nickskalkos.com online.

Thank you to the Canadian Real Estate Women Association for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”.  To learn more about them, go to @canadian.re.women.association on social or https://crewa.ca.

“Inspired to Invest” is proud to support the Beyond Success Program, a not-for-profit financial literacy program for students, launched by More To Give & MAK Investments. Find out more at https://more2give.ca/beyond.

Tune back in on Wed., Jan.24 for Ep32 to hear from a mortgage broker based in California who has made it her mission to inspire others to take the first step to start investing in real estate.

Thank you for tuning in & remember, "when you invest in yourself, the sky's the limit!"

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the "Inspire to Invest podcast, where we're sharing stories from real estate investors and how investing has changed their lives. This episode of Inspire to Invest has been brought to you by the Canadian Real Estate Women Association, also known as CREWA. Welcome to the Inspire to Invest podcast. I have Nick Skalkos here with me today. He is a platinum reporting artist turned real estate investor. He and his wife, sarah Lourish. They own hundreds of doors across Canada and also, more recently, across the United States. Nick is passionate about providing opportunities for people to invest in real estate passively and also creating affordable housing for people that are living on the spectrum. So welcome today, nick. We're so happy to have you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, serena, I'm glad to be here.

Speaker 1:

So you have a really interesting journey because you're in the arts, so you're a recording artist. So bring us back, like how did you make that jump into real estate? Like that is a huge transition.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, my prior life. I was quite an accomplished musician. I've had several critically released albums through major labels with many different artists. I've got platinum records with a variety of recording artists as well, and I've toured the world with all my favorite bands Nice and it's been quite the journey. I ended up in the more behind the scenes later on in my musical career where I started producing bands and writing and producing for other artists and television shows and theme songs for TV and stuff like that. And how I got into real estate is it's pretty. It was like I had no, I had no knowledge of real estate. So how would it all happen? I have one person to blame. Bob McGilver is the reason why I'm investing in real estate and to this day have him to thank. And this is why it all started with a HGTV show, ironically called Income Property.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I would be watching. You know I liked HGTV because I found real estate interesting, but I didn't like how all the shows were just simply, you know, improving a property so that you know the husband and wife could like enjoy their surroundings or whatever Privileged and entitled. Yeah, here comes along Scott and Michael with Income Property and they're going into people's homes where these people are house poor and you know, and the financial, monthly payments are sort of tightening up on them and I really related with that.

Speaker 2:

So he would go into their home, he would identify an opportunity to create a unit in their basement, thereby, you know, giving them some financial freedom in a way, you know, lessening their monthly mortgage payments.

Speaker 2:

And I thought that was really cool because I too was in a home that had a separate entrance, it had a kitchen in the basement, it had an in-law suite and I was, and at the time I was using it as a recording studio, which was amazing. But I was also feeling the pinch and I didn't know how I was going to get out of debt. So I watched every episode of this show and I just loved him, I loved the program and when I saw that he was coming to town to do a speaking event, I went yeah, and at the speaking event he basically it was a basically explained how he created wealth through real estate investing and he was a student and he would get a few rentals. And I found his story so inspiring that my wife and I decided to dig in a little further. He had an opportunity to join Key Spire, which is an educational program, one of the best in Canada, and joining them changed my life.

Speaker 1:

But what year was?

Speaker 2:

this. This was in 2016.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay. So it's been about seven, eight years.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it was in it. And I must point out that I joined. I was reluctant, I was very reluctant.

Speaker 1:

I think anyone's reluctant when they see the price tag attached, but it is worth it, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I think I felt the same way.

Speaker 2:

There was a couple of things that play here. First of all, sarah was in and she was in, but I was not convinced. I was like what's going on? Here is the sale. But the thing was is that she was a teacher at the time. I'm not going to say that she's now retired and working on her business with us, but she was a teacher at the time and she just couldn't fathom living, working until she was 65 and then waiting to collect the pension. She just couldn't do it. So she was like doing this thing, whereas me I'm just like, hey, life's great, like I'm a broke musician and I always and I'm okay with that, because I just always thought that that was my life. So I was just like hold on here, let's put the brakes. What's going on? And it's funny when people hear the story, because I'm such a bubbly positive guy and I'm always like invest in yourself, invest in yourself. But I wasn't like that at first.

Speaker 1:

So I just hope that resonates with someone.

Speaker 2:

If this is you, that's like reluctant to purchase anything. The truth is is that I wouldn't be where I am today if it wasn't for Keyspire and coaching and immersing myself in the knowledge that I now have. You know, learning how to turn a liability into an asset, learning how to raise capital, all that stuff. So I blame Scott McGilvery. That's how I got started. I started with an HDTV television show.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but everyone's catalyst is different. I think, just to your point, the mindset is a really big part of it, and I think that was even you know why I was inspired to kind of start this podcast. Because a lot of times people look at real estate investing is really elusive, you know. They feel like they look at these investors that have these massive portfolios Everyone's highlighting the number of doors that they have and stuff like that but it's to bridge the gap, to show you that, no, like you could be this broke musician, you could be a teacher, you could be whatever it may be. And then there's this little catalyst that lights a fire when you realize, like no, I don't have to be broke. Like you know, I can be living this life that most people would dream of, right. So I think that's really important, just to consider reframing your perspective, to go after those things.

Speaker 2:

So important so what happened next?

Speaker 1:

So you joined Feespar. So what did that look like in terms of your transition into full-time real estate investing?

Speaker 2:

I started converting single-family homes into duplexes because my challenge was is that I had time but I had no money, so I had to figure out how to recycle. I had to figure out how to create money and then how to recycle that, and the best way to do that was through a burr. Feespar calls it the four ways to win, if you do it their way, specifically, and I love that idea. So I began to convert my existing home into a duplex and Sarah and I compromised by actually moving into the basement and renting out the upstairs to young families, and we were still renovating our basement while we were living in it. So we would have drywall hanging up on the sides, exposed ceilings. We'd have the city come in and let us know that we did it wrong. We'd have to take down all the insulation and reseal the two units. It was the process of working with the city pretty much turned me off of doing burrs.

Speaker 1:

I just did that.

Speaker 2:

Back in 2017, I don't know if things have changed. Apparently they're loosening up some of their zoning laws and making it a little bit easier, but they made it so difficult for someone to go ahead and add another unit to their home, which is brutal, and I did it again.

Speaker 2:

I did it again, but after that I was like no way I've complained. I'm like you should make this process simpler for people. A lot of people are just new to Canada. Maybe they're struggling with a little bit of English and my English is right and I'm educated and I'm still struggling to understand some of this stuff.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, and you think now the housing crisis is on everybody's mind, it's on the news constantly, so maybe if this was something that they were thinking of sooner, maybe they would have made it easier, or maybe now they have to make it easier, right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but it waited way too long for this. We saw the signs were there. They made it so difficult for people to add more dwellings and there's still issues with that. So, needless to say, that's not my angle anymore, but that's how I did it and I love it. I love it. I highly encourage people to continue doing that, because it did a couple of things. First of all, adding another unit to your dwelling is the biggest value add renovation that you can do.

Speaker 2:

So you're going to increase the value more than by just improving your kitchen or what have you. So I love that we push the value up like that. We also saved ourselves a lot of money by having someone move in upstairs and pay for the majority of the mortgage, and what that had done is it created some options for us. It created options for us to go part time, and that was huge. That was really huge. So I think your first step OK, real estate, it's about making returns and stuff, but it's not all about that. Sometimes it's about how much you get to keep as well. If you have someone supplementing some of your expenses, that's a great way to start.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, absolutely. And then I think most people understand what a burr is. But can you talk just for a minute about the four ways to win and how that's looked at, to analyze what you should do, whether it's going with a deal or, in your instance, house hacking?

Speaker 2:

I love that. This is great, because what we're talking about here is how to turn a liability into an asset. If you can understand the principles of how to do that, then you can be a savvy real estate investor. The problem with a lot of people is that they're speculators and not real estate investors. So they'll go by a pre-con condo or a single family home and they measure it is through one way it's through the market going up or the market going down.

Speaker 2:

And a lot of cases their properties are negative cash flow. So it's a liability, it's not an asset. An asset should be something that's making you money, not costing you.

Speaker 2:

So they just measure it by one way. The market's going down, things are getting tough, but what a savvy real estate investor will measure are four ways that one property is going to bring an income. That is the appreciation of you adding another dwelling, enforcing the appreciation of it. And then, of course, there's a passive appreciation that everyone uses, which is the market doing its thing. It's going up, it's going down. What we've learned is that it goes up and down all the time, but it goes up and down all the way up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I think the people that maybe bought pre-con a couple years ago are now concerned because obviously the market's on the downstone right, so they're in a situation where they expected to probably bank whatever it was, and now they might not be in that situation.

Speaker 2:

Right, right, yeah. And I'm a fan of multi-family, so I'm not too experienced in pre-construction or condos, but for me, after having owning multi-families and seeing the economies of scale, having 12 units in the building means that if there's one unit vacant it's a non-event. Having 12 units paying rent every month allows you to have a property manager, allows you to have a landscape, all these things that, whereas on a condo or a duplex, I mean, you're probably the landlord, so there are issues with that and I had been a landlord as well. So there's the passive appreciation, there's the active appreciation. Next, that a lot of people don't consider is the principal recapture. So this is the portion of your mortgage that your tenants are paying down. It's not the interest portion that you can write that off, it's the principal of your mortgage being paid down. Every year that's being paid down. You have to consider that in your underwriting because your mortgage is being paid down.

Speaker 2:

And the fourth way is cash flow. So often we just buy a negative cash flow in property hoping that the valuation will go up. But it's not. If you want to be a savvy investor, you can't get caught buying a negative cash flow Because, first of all, you can't scale. How are you going to scale negative cash flow? In condos it's very different. So now it's like OK, well then, how do you find a cash flowing property? Good question, and it's not easy. And if it was, everyone would be doing it. And if you find a cash flowing property, it can be near to impossible. So how I started is I would create them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and isn't that how you and Sarah ended up moving to the East Coast from Ontario? Like, obviously, for me being in Ontario, I've stayed out of this location specifically because of the LTV, but also for that reason it's really hard to find something that has the chance of cash flowing here. So I think you guys move to the East Coast. There's people that have found good opportunities in the prairies or maybe, like you said, in Houston, in Texas and stuff like that. So I think you just have to be open-minded to consider things that may not be in your backyard and you're not limited. There might be some additional things to learn, like when it comes to law and accounting and taxes and stuff like that, but once you can figure that out, then it kind of opens up those infinite opportunities.

Speaker 2:

I 100% agree. A lot of people. The reason why I moved to investing out of province was because, like many people, I found myself running up against the same wall. We would have multiple offers on a property that was driving the prices way up. I had an issue of a tenant that hadn't paid rent in five months.

Speaker 2:

I had, and I finally got into the landlord tenant board to put me in the case and they looked at my paperwork and they saw a clerical error. I was one day off on a month to month rent and they threw my case out after five months.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I was reading an article on that literally just last week or the week before. Just talking about that. Being aside from now the backlog because of COVID, there's all these big challenges because, yeah, it could be like a date, a spelling mistake and they literally make you go back and that could set you back a whole year on top of the year that you're behind in rent payments, right. So, yeah, it's a mess.

Speaker 2:

It's really tough. They don't make it easy for the small landlords, and so I recognized the challenges and issues and I basically sourced, I invested where returns are best and I just had to get out of my own way, because we have this thing where we feel like we need to go to the property, we feel like we need to be close to it, we feel like we need to lick the brick. They call it.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I just wanna clarify that, yes, I moved out to Nova Scotia, but it wasn't to be closer to my properties. I have properties all over Canada. I've got investments in five different provinces. I'm not here to be closer to my investments. I've got boots on the ground. I never fly out to go see my properties I'm about to buy. I've got trust to see that no better than me. So just here. Because of waterfront affordability, I wanted to live on a lake and I can't afford where I live now in Ontario. I don't have kids, I work from home. Why not? Let's do it?

Speaker 1:

No, that makes perfect sense. You've got the freedom of mobility. So you went obviously from doing the duplexes and moving. Can you talk a bit more about what you're doing now, cause I know just from knowing you that you're doing stuff in the United States and you're doing these big capital raises on larger acquisitions. But like, how exactly did that transition happen to go from you know these duplex conversions to like big apartment buildings?

Speaker 2:

That's a great question, and my purpose of joining you today is so that I can send the elevator back down to someone who's thinking about doing the same. That's now my mission. I've learned so much in life through my musical career, through my real estate career, and I find that it's very. There are a lot of conflicting news reports and information out there, so I just want people to really just narrow in and zero in on the why and the how and the catalyst for me moving from duplexes and triplexes to multi-families and commercial residential multi-families and for those of you who don't know what that means, that's simply five units and up. Yeah, the distinction. What's the difference? The difference is massive. The difference is huge. Mainly, the difference is financing.

Speaker 2:

Before you, you need to figure out how you're going to finance it In 2020,. I lost all the income that I had through my other avenues of creating income and I unfortunately had to collect SERB for a couple of months, and I didn't feel good about that, because I grew up in the welfare system. My mom and dad never got off of welfare and I vowed to never do that, and then here I am having to collect SERB, so that was really tough for me, but what I did is I took advantage of that moment to immerse myself in education, and what I had discovered is that multifamily financing works differently than residential, and what I mean by that is that you don't have to get qualified based on your income.

Speaker 2:

And this huge revelation for me, because A I had never made a lot of income, so I was never qualifiable, and that was a huge hurdle and an obstacle for me. So when I would talk to, when I started creating relationships with banks and credit unions and I would give them rent rolls and expenses on multifamily, buildings and I would buy them a mix and up.

Speaker 1:

It looks good.

Speaker 2:

Approved, never asked me for my income. They just looked up the debt service coverage ratio in the building and they were like no, no, yep, this one looks good, we'll give you X amount. And I purchased eight apartment buildings while still on serve, like I was like in serve payments. So obviously I paid back all the serve and I'm not on it anymore. But my point is that, my point, the reason why I share that, is because no matter what your circumstances are, there's always a way out and with multifamily I just found it easier to find financing for multifamily than I did for a residential.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's important to note because I think people are out there struggling just to qualify, just to buy their personal home let alone. So they probably think in their mind well, if I can't buy a house, how am I gonna buy a rental property or an apartment building? So I think it's really important for people to understand how that's looked at and how you can kind of overcome those perceived obstacles or challenges. So I guess, looking ahead to that, I know you'll talk about it now but what would you define now as your biggest success? You've done like a lot in a short window of time, but what would you say you look at as like something you're most proud of?

Speaker 2:

Honestly, it's not real estate related. The big thing I'm most proud of is that I became vegan and I've always loved animals, but whenever I ate animals I would just I never thought about how it got onto my plate. So now I can really align my morals with my goals and I'm in complete alignment. I don't think some lives matter. I have compassion for all lives, not just dogs and cats or pigs and cows and everything. All lives matter. And now I'm in complete alignment with my morals and my living and I don't think our compassion should stop at people. So my biggest accomplishment is being vegan and I'll be vegan for life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's amazing. I can't wait to look at it. Yeah, I love that. And I think, when we even look at the world in general, I think it's not necessarily sustainable for humans to continue to eat just because our population can't support what's required to produce that right. So I think, as time progresses like there's gonna continue to be that movement, not just because made people that want or don't want, it's like out of necessity because we can't keep draining our resources.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for saying that. I appreciate that.

Speaker 1:

No problem. So I guess now looking back like you've had your fair share of challenges and stuff like that. Is there any one thing that you look back, and now at these last days like eight years, as the biggest challenge that you've had to overcome?

Speaker 2:

Well, yeah, no money, no money was the biggest challenge I had to overcome. I think most people stop at that and are like, well, I don't have money to invest in real estate. Yeah, the truth is, is that? Well, I was talking to a lady two weeks ago that had millions in stocks, millions in RSPs, and she was broke, struggling and the thought of buying a coach, buying someone that could walk her through redirecting her registered funds, being the bank on some of her money, and I calculated that she could make 30,000 a month in passive income and it was mine, like she had no idea. But she couldn't pay the 10 or 15K or whatever it was to join this company that I was recommending that she joined so that they can help her make money. She couldn't get that. She was like, well, if I put 10,000 down, that means I'm going to have a credit card payment and I can't afford that. So it's not money, isn't the barrier of entry here, it's your mindset, it's you, it's your stock.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and your perspective, that's huge right, because you think, when you look at joining something like Keesfire, like a lot of people have sticker shock and for me, like I'd to validate if it would be worth it. And then, you know, I met Laurie May-Pairoff, who happened to be the mother-in-law of one of my staff, and she said you know, if you're ready to take action, you'll make this back within probably a couple months. And I did. You know, I joined and I made that investment back. But it's the investment in yourself and educating yourself. Like you said, she would be making $30,000 a month. So, yes, you're going to spend 10 or 15, but if you're making 30,000 a month, you're going to make that back in half a month.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, money is not the money's not the barrier, it's your own mindset. And the other barrier, too, is that people are happy living mediocre lives, and it could be due to limited beliefs, because I didn't think that I was capable of being the person that I am today. But the reason why I'm capable of doing that is because I've become the person that can do the things that I need to do so that I have what it is I have. A lot of people feel like they need to do this in order to be happy, so they can have that. Or some people feel like they need to have the money so they can do the things they need to do to be happy. But that's not what you need to become the person. So, starting back when I was a kid, I would manifest being a rock star, and it happened. I didn't just wish it, though, obviously.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I know you have to practice and be dedicated.

Speaker 2:

Right, right, but the same thing with real estate. So the problem is that our goals are too small. Our goals are way too small. We're just happy with what we have, and it's because we probably don't believe or know that there's more out there. And if I can encourage someone to not just settle with being happy but to think about giving back, think about the impact of giving someone an organization that you care about. Imagine giving them a check so big that they tear up when you give them this check. That's impactful and that's motivation. So if you don't have a strong, why then you're not going to do hard shit. So you really need a good reason.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, no, I love that. And, with that being said, we're just going to take a really brief break for a word from our sponsors and we'll be right back. The Canadian Real Estate Women Association, also known as CROA, is a national not-for-profit association of female professionals working and investing in Canadian real estate. They believe that women have no limits in the real estate world. They're looking to connect with leaders in the industry who will share the strategies that they use in real estate, along with exclusive details of their life experience, which are important for consistent personal and professional growth and happiness. To learn more, go to CROAca. Thanks again for following along with this episode of Inspired to Invest. In addition to real estate investing and running my own brand experience agency for 18 years, I also published a book called the Accidental Entrepreneur in October of 2021. This is my story and it chronicles how I turned tragedy into triumph to embrace my destiny in entrepreneurship. If you're interested in picking up a copy, you can find the link at SerenaHomesRealtorcom and you can also find my link tree with all of the retailers in the details below. Thanks again for your support.

Speaker 1:

Inspired to Invest is proud to support the Beyond Success program. In today's complex world, it's absolutely crucial for our youth to learn how to take charge of their financial future. We believe that every young person deserves access to accurate, practical financial information. Designed to bridge the gap, the Beyond Success program leverages a comprehensive educational bootcamp to equip young minds with essential financial literacy skills. At Beyond Success, it's not just about teaching financial literacy. It's also about fostering a foundation for a prosperous and empowered future. Join us Together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Join us Together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Inspired to Invest podcast. I have Nick Skalcoz here with me and he's talking about his journey in transformation, going from a rock star to a real estate investor. We're just talking about the challenges and obstacles. When you look back now, is there anything in particular that stands out to you as a couple of your greatest lessons learned so far?

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, oh yeah. And these lessons got me all of these records that I have here on the wall, and this was a good one. I Was struggling to get my band notice and I knew we were good. We didn't start out good, we were awful. But nine years later, I'm, we were still at and we were like I needed some, I needed help. I, I couldn't. I was the manager, I was the producer, I was everything.

Speaker 2:

And and so one night I had we were playing at a small gig and I had an old, old friend walk in the bar. I haven't seen him in forever. I was like yo ball, how's it going? He's like, covered in tattoos, really animated guy, super charismatic. He's like yo, bro, I've been out of LA. I've been tour managing for Goldfinger. I'm like holy, gold finger, that's a massive band. I'm like would you mind listening to my CD that I self-produced, because obviously I did everything. And and he's like, yeah, man, no problem. And then, like a day later, he calls me at like midnight and he was like dude, this is incredible, you guys should be the next big thing. Like I'm gonna manage you guys. And I was like, wow, you're convincing. I'm like, okay, let's do this thing. So he's like you know, meet me at my night school because obviously he was still working on getting more Credits because he didn't finish high school, like most of our entrepreneurs that I know and and I met him at night school, went back to his apartment, we sat on the floor and I was like how are we gonna do this? And he looked at me and he's like no, no, no, no, no, it's not. How are we gonna do this? Who do we need to know? And he began to write down president of EMI, president of Warner music, president of universal and he wrote down the names and he's like we need to know them. And he got in the rooms with these people, yeah, and he created a bidding war over my band. We were one of the most sought after bands in Canada. We had every. You'd walk into a showcase show and you'd see every record label there. So all the other labels are just like holy, we better jump on this because Warner's there, university there, i's right there. And that was the power of who, not how. So I carry that with me today in an example of how, how I do. That is, in 2021.

Speaker 2:

I struggled to find cashmoney properties in Canada. There was a lot of government overreach, there was rising costs, there was war in Ukraine there was. Things were getting crazy and I just couldn't find anything anymore. I was looking in markets with a population of 2000 people, wow, and to me that's the equivalent of like looking in your freezer for your car keys, like it was insane, right, it was just like I'm just looking everywhere. So I realize I had to pivot to the States.

Speaker 2:

But the, the thought of learning how to invest in the States, like I went to a boot camp with Marson drods, who's now my, and it was a fantastic boot camp.

Speaker 2:

But what I learned is that there is so much I need to know and I Naively thought I was going to come back from this boot camp tell my, my business partners, how we're going to invest in the in the US. Yeah, the weight of it. I knew the weight of, I recognize the pressure that I was feeling and I and I and I acknowledged that that was going to lead to inaction. I just knew it's gonna lead to inaction. So back to that day when my manager sat me on his floor and told me it's not how we're gonna do it, who do we need to know. And I reverted back to that and I was like who do I need to know? Yeah, and I found out who that person was and I partnered up with them and that's yeah, that's how I'm doing great things. I partner, I hitch my wagon to people that are skilled negotiators, experienced in what they're doing, because the the pressure of trying to figure it all out on my own is just too much in ability to inaction.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I think that makes sense and just someone that's going to help you get where you want to go faster and easier, like I think that sometimes we sit there and suffer and struggle and you know, real estate investing can feel really isolating if you don't immerse yourselves in a community and trying to find those people right, and I guess you've obviously had like such a breath of experience, but what would you say is the craziest thing that's ever happened to you as a real estate investor.

Speaker 2:

I'm lucky, I'm fortunate I didn't have. I didn't have really anything crazy happen to me, like I've had investors tell me about fires and their apartments or deaths and stuff like that. For me the craziest thing was having the government make these, make some rules like Retroactive. So in new Brunswick a couple years ago we had the new Brunswick government come back and say, hey, uh, if you've, if you've increased the rents on any of your properties over the last six months, those tenants could are now eligible to go back to their original rents, that you, that you assumed them.

Speaker 2:

So basically what happened was we had arrangements with some of our tenants where, hey, we're gonna. Is there anything in your unit you'd like to be renovated because we're going to be increasing the rents? And we were like, oh, this is a great option to stay here. You've been living here for a while and we can completely renovate your unit or you know, you notice, and you can go find something a little bit more affordable. But most people were just like, no, we love it here. I don't mind paying that price, as long as you could fix the counter or the Dripping sink or whatever. And yeah, we would like do new floors and do everything and we, and then we had agreements, you know. So we had a new rental agreement in place, everything's fine, and I was like, hey, you're entitled to go back to that rent, yeah. And it was this like wow, I can't like is this a government or is this a mafia?

Speaker 1:

and I wonder why they would have done that right, like what would be the government's motivation to even do something like that.

Speaker 2:

I think it's. I think their intention was good, because there are probably a lot of people that are taking advantage of people in certain Certain provinces where landlord tenant laws aren't as tough as Ontario. They were basically putting things in place to protect tenants, which I'm 100% for, but in this scenario, had one of our tenants taken advantage of that, they would have been taken advantage of us because this was for, like, slumlords who were taken advantage of people, not landlords who were taking care of their tenants. Now I'm happy to report that, because we treat our tenants great, none of them did that. They were like no, no, no, we agree to this right. I'm more than happy with paying that. I'm not going to go back, but the fact that they made it retroactive is like as of six months ago. It was brutal. It was really brutal. So that was another catalyst for me to moving to the States in regard moving my portfolio to the States.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's nice. Now I guess, just in terms of the education that you've received in the mentorship, what would you say is the best advice that you've gotten?

Speaker 2:

Oh, wow, honestly, the best advice. Again, it might not be real estate related, but the best advice I ever received was to accept what is and free yourself from obsessive, compulsive thinking. 98% of the thoughts that you have are absolutely useless. And if you could free your mind of this useless, obsessive thinking and accept what is, then your life will improve and you'll just be a better listener. You'll be a better lover, a partner, a better real estate investor, a better person overall.

Speaker 2:

And I challenge people, too, to accept what is. Next time they're in a lineup, when there shouldn't be a lineup, there should be another teller there. You shouldn't have to wait this long. You're getting impatient or you're looking at your phone right away. I challenge you, serena, and all the listeners, next time you're in a lineup to not pull the phone and try to kill that time, because what you're doing is you're missing the very essence of life itself. It's just too uncomfortable because it's boring and nothing's happening, but that's being present. So I encourage everyone to accept what is. You just got cut off by someone on the highway. Well, assume that they're rushing to the hospital to meet their wife because she's in labor.

Speaker 2:

So they're like buddy, I hope you make it. If you're in a lineup, if something's happening to you, just accept what it is, no matter how hard it is, and that will transform your life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I can completely relate to that because I feel like I'm more like that in my relationship. So there's oftentimes like I'll say that to my husband, like just relax, like it's not a big deal, or you're here anyways, like it's not going to change anything if you get upset about it, it's just going to wreck your day. So I definitely have that same outlook. Now, in terms of the projects you're working on right now, can you shed a little bit of light on what those look like and what kind of opportunities there could be for investors?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. I'm partnered with a very talented group of people on 144 unit in Houston, texas. We gained, we've purchased this property in June so we have it in our control, but we're still inviting some investors to come on board just to finalize the raise. We were pretty much there, so that one's pretty much closed and I've just embarked on an initiative to create housing for people living on the spectrum. So my partner and I teamed up with Autism Edmonton and we did over a 20 unit in Edmonton. We negotiated a vendor take back on this building because that's a fantastic technique to purchase buildings in today's high interest rate.

Speaker 1:

And for anyone who doesn't know what a VTV is, can you explain?

Speaker 2:

what that is. It's basically a vendor take back it's what it's called and the seller is willing to hold the mortgage for us. So we don't have to go to a bank and get financing. They're going to be the bank. We give them a small down payment and then we'll give them an interest on that loan that they're holding of, say, 5%. So for them it's great because they now make 5% on their money, which isn't bad, and they get to defer the tax that they would have paid on that sale down the road. So understanding what the advantages are for the seller to do a VTV is really important when negotiating, and I'm really excited about this initiative because now I feel like I've really called, graduated to another level where I'm not only helping people create wealth through passively investing in real estate, but I'm doing that and giving back to community.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that's huge.

Speaker 1:

I mean, going back has been way back.

Speaker 1:

When I graduated university for broadcast, I was volunteering as a videographer for Rogers and I covered a story on this Paracenter, I guess you could say, for developmentally challenged adults. And I guess when you look at that circumstance, like there are a lot of resources for children when they're in school and stuff like that, but if you think about that, if you are the parent of now an adult child that has challenges, where do they go during the day? And like what kind of resources are there? Right, and I really open my eyes just to show like how there's a lot of lacking in resources for people once they turn 18 and they're no longer in the school system, because they may or may not be able to work, they may or may not be able to truly live on their own and stuff like that, right. So I think there's very much a need for that when it comes to different things like paying for things, housing, all of that. So I think that's really commendable, that that's something that you're doing with all the knowledge and resources that you have now.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's huge, so that's awesome. Now, in terms of just motivation and inspiration in general, what is one of your favorite quotes?

Speaker 2:

Oh, my favorite quote oh my God, what I would have to. That's a good one. I think. Accept what is is a good one, and I think it's important for people to know that you are worthy. You are worthy of doing more and being more and giving back, because most people don't know that. So if we could just stop being so self-immersed in ourselves and think about how you can uplift other people's lives, I think that you will improve as a person and just know that you are worthy of having more. You are worthy of giving back and you are being wealthy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I think that's huge Now for anyone that wants to get in touch with you, just to connect because you're a great person, but also to learn about your opportunities. What's the best way for them to find you?

Speaker 2:

Honestly, it's through Facebook Messenger. I would give you my email address and you could still email me, but my emails? I'm afraid of my emails. I just like a bunch of snakes just flying out. So, honestly, Facebook, Nick Scalcos, join me, add me, follow me and message me. Dm me on Instagram or Facebook. Okay.

Speaker 1:

And we'll include your information down below in the show notes as well. So thank you, Nick, so much for being here today. Of course, if you like what you've seen, please like, comment and subscribe to this channel here on YouTube. Of course, thank you to everyone that's tuned in watching Inspired To Invest and remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky's the limit. Thank you again to the Canadian Real Estate Women Association for bringing you this episode of Inspired To Invest. The views represented on this podcast are for general information only and does not constitute investment or other professional advice or an offering of securities. The host and guest featured on Inspired To Invest make no representations as to the performance of any particular investment. Should you decide to make an investment, you are responsible for conducting your own review and analysis. It is recommended that you obtain independent legal accounting and tax advice from licensed professionals.