Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:02 Hey guys, it's Adrian Peno here with the More To Life Real Estate Investing podcast, where we help you get more to life through the power of real estate investing. I wanted to take a quick minute here this morning and deliver the solo, um, factual interview with myself, um, about how grateful I am, the support, uh, and feedback and positive reinforcement and support through all of our listeners since we started this podcast has been incredible. Um, we just surpassed a year in recording our episodes. We're on episode number 41, so we've delivered 41 episodes in this first year. And you know what? Amazing, amazing statistics I want to share with you, and again, super grateful for this. We're just at 11,135 lessons in our first year of recording. So, like almost, uh, like crazy numbers that I never thought, you know, that I would see a year ago when we started this podcast.
Speaker 0 00:01:13 I hadn't, I really didn't know what to expect other than I wanted to deliver some great content. Um, obviously all the knowledge I had, 11 years being in the business, plus bringing on some amazing speakers that, you know, we've done. And it's indicative of the feedback I'm getting from listeners and whatnot on, on how they're enjoying, uh, the information, the episodes as they roll out, uh, week after week after week. So, you know what another p uh, piece of information we're just in the last 90 days, we're at almost 5,000 listens, which is incredible. And again, guys, I'm super, super grateful, um, for all the support and positive feedback that we're getting. So I'm gonna continue pushing and I want to continue putting out some great content. I mean, some of the, some of the guests we've had have been incredible sharing their knowledge in the industry, right from the dos and don'ts to some great tips to their experience, the mindset component of all this.
Speaker 0 00:02:18 And, you know, failing forward and, uh, just sharing everything they've been able to accomplish, some great successes they've had that obviously you can put in your toolbox and, and do the same, or, uh, just help you in general. So that's the goal here, is just deliver that great content that we've had and continue to help you. On that note, um, again, thank you so much. It's been a great first year. Accomplishments have been superb, and I'm over the moon grateful for, for all your support. Continue to leave our comments and rate us on iTunes and everything. It helps smaller podcasts like us. It, it obviously goes a long way, and we'll continue to put out some great content, great, great guests. Uh, and we look forward to tripling what we've done this first year in our second year. On that note, let's get into this next episode. Cheers.
Speaker 0 00:03:13 Hey everyone, it's Adrian Pozo here with the More to Life Real Estate Investing podcast, where we help you get more to life so you can start living your dreams through the power of real estate investing. Our guest today, Sahil Jagging is a formal financial analyst at C I B C, world markets, equity capital markets, and he has worked his way through Wall Street and into Toronto real Estate. He started his real estate journey in 2010 with $80,000 and in a decade has built a personal portfolio. Get this one everybody over 30 million, consistently beating the market by 14% on it. Properties in Toronto and the gta, pretty impressive. Sahil has been featured in key real estate magazines, including the Gold Mail, Canadian Real Estate, wealth Magazine, real Estate Magazine, rem, et cetera, et cetera. He's also a frequent guest lecturer at Pro, forgive me for my pronunciation. Schulich.
Speaker 1 00:04:33 Yeah, Schulich. Yeah, Schulich, that's your SCH
Speaker 0 00:04:36 School of Business. And Ted Rogers School of Management addressing students on current trends in real estate sector and entrepreneurship. In addition, he volunteers his time to teaching and providing mentorship programs to fresh graduates. Sahil, welcome to The More Life. How are you today? Um,
Speaker 1 00:05:01 Doing really well, Adrian. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 0 00:05:03 Awesome, awesome. No, it's a guest and it's a pleasure to have you on our show. I mean, your, uh, your accolade speaks volumes. I mean, in 10 years you've grown a massive, uh, portfolio, um, of real estate holdings, which is quite impressive. I can relate. Um, so why don't we get right into it, um, for our listeners out there, um, tell us more about the, let's take it right from the beginning and I'd like to learn and have them hear how it, the, the start, the middle, the end, how you got started and where you are, your journey and where you are today.
Speaker 1 00:05:40 Yeah, also, so I came to the country when I was, uh, 17. Uh, the goal was to go one year, univers, uh, sorry, one year high school, and then go straight to university. Uh, so I went to Wilford Laurie University. I did my four years of economics and finance. Uh, back in 2008, I graduated. And, you know, back in 2008, before tech became the cool thing to do, I think business and finance used to be the cooler thing to do, right? So this was like the era of banking investment banker. So dream was to just get a BA job. Um, I did get my dream job right from like, you know, uh, got a job at Wall Street in, uh, in New York in the C I B C uh, US division. Uh, it was a great experience. Two and a half years I did that.
Speaker 1 00:06:25 Um, and you know what, like, but what I realized, what, it wasn't my calling, uh, I wanted to do, I missed Toronto as a city, and I figured, uh, you know, I, I want to get into something that is a little bit more entrepreneurial rather than just, you know, working my way up in the banking world. Um, so I came back, I came back in 2010 with, uh, with some savings. I had about $80,000 saved up at the time. And, uh, the plan was to get a job and in sales until I can really figure out, uh, what I can do, uh, in terms of like, you know, what kind of entrepre role I wanna take in. So I, uh, I, I transitioned into corporate sales with Nestle, and the goal at the time was that, you know, any job that doesn't require me to sit on a desk and doesn't require me to wear a suit, right?
Speaker 1 00:07:10 Right. So at the time, this was 2010, I started working with Nestle Corporate Sales, and I started diving a little bit deeper into Toronto real estate. And the journey started with actually me looking to buy for myself. This is when I was trying to see the $80,000 interest rates were still lower. I always believed in home ownership. So I started looking at condos. I started look and, and condos at the time where two bedrooms were going for about $500 a square feet, um, like downtown and all those areas. And I realized that to buy a thousand square feet condo, two bedrooms, it's about 500 K. But I also realized that if you look into the streets, right behind the condos, detach bungalows on a big piece of l are selling for about five to 600,000. So at the time, the gap between the condo and the detach market was very small, right?
Speaker 1 00:08:00 So that got my attention where I figured if you can buy land and you can, uh, you know, live in these bungalows and rent out portion of your bungalow and cover most of your mortgage cost, this would be a lot better than going and buying a condo, which they're obviously selling at a premium. And that's how my journey started in real estate. I bought my first purchase in 2010 for 515,000 or 50 foot lot in North York. And, um, from that point onwards to 2018, I've been on a buying spree. Um, and, uh, with the, just like yourself, I have worked with joint ventures, I have worked, uh, you know, where I was, the more of an active partner. I bought properties on my own. I bought a lot of equity appreciation, and I realized that, you know, I have a knack for picking these properties, right? Hence the equity appreciation and build up. And that helped me scale.
Speaker 0 00:08:49 Amazing. So let's talk about, uh, okay, so you, you make your first acquisition, it becomes addictive, doesn't
Speaker 1 00:08:57 It? Yeah, absolutely. Especially when you see results. And, you know, as, as much as I like to take all the credit market was also extremely favorable, right? Had 2010 to 2020, you could have been on a plane through a dart anywhere in Toronto, and market has appreciated. But over the years, I realized that the way to really become the best of the best is to not measure yourself by the way of appreciation of your, but measure yourself based on how much you beat the market by. And that's where my mind started getting creative on narrowing down on the kind of asset classes, locations, uh, how to, you know, get more creative with financing and scale more, et cetera, et cetera. So that's always been my goal is to like, you know, stay risk averse in bad markets and stay ahead of the market in good markets.
Speaker 0 00:09:44 That's very interesting concept. Very interesting. Yeah. Um, so tell us, obviously it started with one, and how have you grown that since it's been 10 years? It's been a decade.
Speaker 1 00:09:58 Yeah, so first purchase was 2010, so almost 12 years now. Um, I've scaled from my first purchase of, of the $500,000 property today to having almost a $30 million portfolio, uh, comprised mainly of all detached bungalows within that 15 to 20 minute radius from downtown Toronto. So that's primarily my portfolio is, uh, comprised of, um, one of the big reasons why I chose that asset class is because, uh, you know, I like, I like the idea of single family homes. And again, the attention in the beginning came because the gap between the condo and detached home was very small back in the day, right? So I, and if you look at any other big cities in the world, and I'm quite well traveled and lived in another country to buy a 50 by 200 foot lot, and you can get that around the 500 to $700,000 with very little financing and 20% down compared to other markets.
Speaker 1 00:10:52 Toronto, to me, was also always very undervalued back then, right? And you're talking about areas which are walking distance from ttc wa like, you know, five minutes from the highway and very close to the core downtown. So I, for me, it's been always, you know, keeping my locations intact, it's tempting to increase the number of doors and start going into like Berry or Waterloo or Kitchener or Cambridge or Kingston, et cetera. But for me, I always thought that as the market was increasing, especially at the pace at which was increasing, um, you know, there's inevitably cycles in the market, right? So in 2017, I realized that when properties prices started deteriorating with the rise interest rates, my, my assets actually performed really well, just because at the time there was a huge talk about, uh, low supply of detached home versus high supply of condos, right?
Speaker 1 00:11:45 So it gave me that reassurance in my business model five years ago where I felt like, you know, my property values haven't deteriorated. And the big thing is that I've stuck to very good locations. So even if you look at it from a macro perspective, immigrant, we're a very immigrant friendly country. And when people come into the country, like they don't know Berry, they don't know like these other cities, for them, what's more familiar to them is Toronto Vancouver, right? So the first instinct of any family is to try and be in Toronto, which is why it's very reflective on the fact that housing has become so low in supply, right? So, uh, I'm also an economics major, so inevitably those concepts naturally come to me. Uh, and I've really, over the years, you know, from property management and, you know, gotten into heavy development of luxury homes, I've transitioned out into different things. I've also had a fund where I've transitioned into a little bit more of a commercial property or mixed use properties, and you just get better and better, and you learn as you go. Right?
Speaker 0 00:12:44 Amazing. And I imagine, you know, we always talk about this and we say it so many times in different forums, mindset is so important. How have you been able, how do you consistently, and we're gonna get into this actually a little bit later in the show, but your mindset must be pretty, uh, describe your mindset actually, if you don't mind. How do you, how do you control your mindset?
Speaker 1 00:13:13 So, uh, I, I relate mindset to me at least, uh, right back to your tolerance levels and how thick your skin is, right? Like, I, I think like, you know, from, as a child, like, you know, I grew up in India, I'm not from a very wealthy background. We've always been like, good enough to like go to good schools and education and this and that. I grew up in like, you know, boarding military school. So, so for me, like, you know, if if things are not going my way, I feel like I have a very strong threshold to push through that I don't need outside motivation. I don't need to seek motivation to focus on, um, you know, going from something not going your way to like turning it into going your way. So I think the, the issue today is that there's so much aware awareness around mindset is because just people just simply have low tolerance.
Speaker 1 00:14:00 People just simply have very, not thick skin. So anything that's going slightly negative, it's either panic mode or it's either overreaction or it's, uh, it's not. And that causes, I think, a lot of instability in people's minds where they feel like, oh, I'm derailing and I need to go and seek outside awareness, and I need to seek outside motivation and keep my mindset straight. I think tolerance, building tolerance through adversity is one of the strongest ways to grow as a person. So if I were to like singularly in one line, tell you what, what has helped me, and I think advice to a lot of people who are getting into real estate is that don't be, don't take adversity as ne too negative, right? Just push through it because there is no business, there is no success without accepting failure, without accepting adversity. Just have, uh, just to like push through the adversity, push through the failures, and have tunnel focus on your, your goals, right?
Speaker 1 00:15:01 And I, I think it's also really important to pick something that you really enjoy doing. Uh, it's very, and do not chase other people's success journey because every person has to make their own journey, right? Based on the kind of background they come from. So I can give you an example of every single industry that has an industry leader doing really well, but it's important to pick something that you really enjoy because that adds the, the, the effortless motivation in your life, right? You don't have to like wake up every morning and force yourself to like go to work if you really like, and that's the cliche line you will hear every successful entrepreneur tell you. But the importance is that I was good at banking, I was in Wall Street, I had no reason to leave. I was making killer money in my first year in US dollars in one of the most dream jobs.
Speaker 1 00:15:48 And everybody thought I was insane to leave that job. But the point was that I was waking up every morning and feeling miserable. So, and you know, so I decided that I have to be able to like what I do. And it just, when you have that in your life, then adversity, failures, they just, they're just roadblocks. And eventually you're gonna do well at what you do. So that's the most important thing. Don't chase other people's plans and journeys and all that stuff. Make your own journey. Find something that you like, except failures will happen and push through it.
Speaker 0 00:16:21 Amazing advice, except failures will happen and push through it. Absolutely. Absolutely. Let's talk about Min real estate and what services, uh, do you provide through this business?
Speaker 1 00:16:37 So, uh, mink real estate, originally, like, you know, I, I'll tell you like from 2010 to 2014, I was just an investor. I was not a real estate agent. I was, so I'm always consider myself as an investor first. I think building wealth through real estate has always been my primary focus. The spinoff from that was that as I started performing really well, you naturally started attracting people coming to you for advice, coming to you for, Hey, how did you do it? I wanna do the same thing. So the natural progression for me to go from corporate sales and Nestle to getting my realtor license was because I considered myself doing well in investments and I can start doing the same for other people and focus and niche on investments. So mink real estate is, I would call it a boutique, um, real estate investment company where we help people secure, uh, investments, uh, you know, focusing on, like we obviously, if somebody wants to come and sell and buy their home for themselves, at the end of the day, a home is an investment, no matter how you look at it, right?
Speaker 1 00:17:37 Because it can provide you as a foundation for the next upgrade. So I would say investment specialists, realtors, uh, focus in the Toronto area. And the reason why I think it's very important to narrow your focus when you're explaining this to clients is because if somebody comes to me and says, help me buy a multifamily in Hamilton, and I'm going there and, you know, I'm not the expert there. So for me, it's better to just tie up with somebody like you who's working in multifamily is Hamilton, because you are the expert. You live and breathe at eight hours a day. So for me, I call myself an expert in single family home investments focused in the Toronto and GTA, because that's my expertise. So that's what mink real estate is. Um, in 2016, I transitioned into, uh, a lot of the inventory of detached bungalows that I had. I was, I started building them into luxury homes, and that was my, so now we're also developing luxury homes all over the city, so about two to three projects a year. Um, and also inevitably, because we have quite a bit of investment properties of our own and our high net worth investors, we also have an in-house property manager that is helping them. You know, so you create these little spinoffs and mink real estate, uh, just like yourself is a very hands off service for an investor, but focusing mainly on single family homes and internal.
Speaker 0 00:18:59 Awesome. It's funny because, and it just goes to show you there's so many different ways to so many different types of properties to invest in real estate. You're focused on the single families and whatnot. And whereas, for example, me and my joint venture partners, there's no single family homes. We've never purchased a single family home in our investment portfolio. It's all multi-residential, but hey, whatever works, works, right? You've obviously very successful, uh, in your strategy of investments and, you know, same as us, for example. So don't, there's no one, and I mimic what you're saying, there's no one idea that can work.
Speaker 1 00:19:48 I think it's the focus and focusing your entire energy into one specific thing is what makes a person successful? And Adrian, how many real estate agents have grown in the last three years, right? We've gone from almost a hundred thousand real estate agents in Ontario or something like that, and I would say 90% of them are still making the same mistake of telling you that they can do anything for you, whatever you want. They can lease, they can buy, they can sell, they can do it anywhere in the entire province. There's no singular focus and hence they're experts of nothing. So when you're expert of nothing, your result towards your client is zero. Your referral business turns into a zero, and eventually you're, so having that focus is extremely, extremely important. And I have always tried to remain in that circle of my focus with creating more spinoffs.
Speaker 1 00:20:36 So when a client comes to you, he knows that what you're really good at, and if you're, if you're, if they come to me for something that I'm not an expert at, I have partners all over the city or all over the province that I partner with and I refer deals to people be like, Hey, I'm not a local expert. I'm not an expert at this specific, uh, portion of real estate, but I can connect you to the right person. And that's the, that's another way to gain that credibility because that client will appreciate it.
Speaker 0 00:21:02 Awesome. So talking about partners, cuz that's obviously something we do at a high level as well. Um, how do you select your joint venture partners? Do you have a, like, how, how do you go about saying, okay, are there specific characteristics that you look for in pairing up, in deciding to get into business with somebody in the real estate world?
Speaker 1 00:21:26 Yeah, absolutely. Yes. That's such a good question because you get so many people trying to joint venture and they're just knocking on the wrong doors. I think it's important to have a very good selection process of your joint venture. And it's almost like, you know, finding a business partner or finding a life partner, you have to have the right fit between the two of you. Uh, I can only speak of my criteria. My criteria is that, you know, at some point when you're scaling, you will, you will tap out on the financing, right? Your income can only support so much debt. So, and, uh, but on the contrary, I'm very hands on and I have an entire infrastructure to offer my joint mentorship back. So I look for partners who are passive. I look for, uh, professionals such as doctors, lawyers, bankers, uh, or just simply very business busy entrepreneurs that are looking to have, uh, smart investments.
Speaker 1 00:22:17 Uh, typically all my joint ventures, ownership is very important to me. Hence I have also stuck to single family homes because as you start going into commercial and multi and the ticket purchase ticket goes up, like, I like to have higher meat, like, you know, the bigger piece of the pie. So I don't do any joint ventureship less than me owning 50% of the stake. So typically for a single family home, because they're not as expensive as other asset classes, we do 50 50, they bring in the financing, we open a holding corp, they're the guarantors behind the financing. And every single other aspect of the entire business model is handled by me. Uh, what's also important is it's, it's important to show your investors your business model very professionally. Where you come in and you say, you know, give them a case study of your numbers, give them exact idea.
Speaker 1 00:23:05 Like when, when I say hands off, it doesn't mean that it's, they're uneducated about what they're investing in. So it's important that they come in with an entire knowledge about the entire business model. Transparency is extremely burden. So if you are charging for, as a real estate agent, and if you are separating yourself as a realtor on the deal, you are separating yourself as a property manager on the deal. It's very important to show them the business model up front. Um, secondly, it's also important that they understand what their role is and what your role is, right? And number three, what is your exit strategy? Every joint ventureship should have a clear cut exit strategy, or at least a time horizon where people know that they can pull their money out if there's an option because nobody likes to lock their money in and just have no control over pulling the money out.
Speaker 1 00:23:53 So it's important as a joint venture for you to a, make sure there's a clear cut business model. Number two, there's complete transparency on the entire services and roles. And number three, uh, make sure that they understand that there's an exit strategy and what that exit strategy exactly is. And based on these three things, if, if the partnership seems right, then I partner with that person. And, uh, so far I've only had three partners in my, in my portfolio of 30 million because I've never needed to step out of that, uh, that zone. I don't need 7, 8, 10 different partners to babysit, right? For me, I'd rather represent you as an agent or help you through your joint mentorship with someone else. But for me, because it has to be the right fit, right personality, right background, uh, I have these three partners that I partner with and they're very successful, like I said, doctor.
Speaker 0 00:24:44 So you're investors are bringing, they're, they're guaranteeing the loan and they're bringing the capital and and whatnot and you're taking care of, no, you're taking care of everything else.
Speaker 1 00:24:57 Capital is always 50 50. There's no, there's no discrimination on the amount of money we put and it's 50 50 from day one. And thankfully my income in the last five, six years has really done really well for myself as well. So, you know, last year we hit diamond agents, so we're doing well. So I have the capital to ilist. Um, my loan to value is very low in my portfolio. I'm only 50% loan to value. So if I need to bring in the capital, that's not an issue. I like to keep things clean. And I feel like when you have skin in the game, you're respected more by, by the, by the right partners. So yes, we're using their financing ability to go to take loans, but the equity portion of it is always split 50 50. And the, so their only role is to just make sure that the financing is secured with, with a lenders because you know, I can even go and buy these properties on my own because it's not the capital that I lack, but I just don't prefer to go to a b lender or a c lender or private lenders.
Speaker 1 00:25:55 I like to stick with a lenders. And for that you need good financing partners. So capital is 50 50, their role is financing and I'm the active person through my infrastructure, but I do charge for the services that is above and beyond viewed as me as an investor, which you would pay anybody else to do anyway. So I'll provide that in-house infrastructure to keep things a little bit more under our control and make sure they're more cost efficient.
Speaker 0 00:26:21 Cool. Very, very, very cool. So, um, let's talk about, uh, I guess your favorite strategy. Okay. Your single family homes, but like we love to get involved in the buy, renovate, refinance and rent. Are you guys looking more for turnkey properties in Hamilton or what's your investment strategy as far as that goes?
Speaker 1 00:26:47 So mainly investing in Toronto. Um, and you know, as the markets are slowing down, I'm actually starting to go more towards the core. So I don't wanna go further away from Toronto. I actually wanna penetrate more into like the downtown area and buy freehold property there cuz that's primetime real estate, right? Um, so in terms of my model, uh, I like single family homes. I also am start dabbling into mixed use, which is like, you know, those two story with commercial on the main floor in residential and upstairs, I think they're great asset classes. I always invest something that comes with an upside. So for me, the value proposition is very important. I don't wanna buy, I don't ever buy an asset that has reached a point where there's no upside left, right? So I'll always buy something that I feel like in the next five to 10 years has the ability to develop as well.
Speaker 1 00:27:34 Um, I like properties that are distressed where we can come in and renovate and, and increase the rents. Um, I don't focus too much on refinancing. My goal is mainly to like only refinance when we have, when we are closing in on an exit strategy. So for example, I'll buy a single family home. Let's say I bought something for 800, uh, in three years that 800 has become 1.2 million and hence we are able to pull the refinancing out. I will only do it if I know that I'm taking the refinancing to build it, improve, make improvements on it, and then sell it. So I don't pull out money prior to, uh, just after I renovate, I either sell or, uh, because I, I like to have higher portion of equity because ultimately we all want the equity to grow and we all want the equity to appreciate. So, um, if you're just going to keep leveraging up just for the sake of buying doors, to me, that's not very safe. And in markets like this, you don't wanna be in a position where you're more over leveraged than the actual values, right? So, um, I don't do too much bur because for me it's more about buy and hold. And when you're closing in on the exit strategy, then you can go and refinance just to put money back into development.
Speaker 0 00:28:45 Hey, and, and here's, here's a, here's my point in check, we do the opposite <laugh>, we do the burs, we pull out a ton of equity and we circulate that equity to, to other acquisitions. Again, each to a own. What you do works, you obviously, it's now, correct me if I'm wrong, owns, is it
Speaker 1 00:29:08 17 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:29:09 Properties. Yeah. So you own 17 properties and without breaking it down, how many you own, how many are JVs or whatever, that's, that's irrelevant at this point, uh, are not important. But you own 17 properties, your system and model works for you. You've been successful at it. It's not to say that my system's better,
Speaker 1 00:29:31 Of course not. This is just a preference. This is just a different model. You've obviously been super successful in your model and it seems to be working really well. And you know what, if I really put myself in your shoes and I look at your business model, I think the bottle is very suitable and very smart for multi-families. I think for single families you have to apply a very different structure because it's also driven by a lot of end users versus investors, right? Right. And you also have a lot more doors to cover in a singular asset to make sure that your debt service is served in single family. If your tenant is gone, you're responsible for a hundred percent of the mortgage. So not, not apples to apples comparison at all. This is just my model in single family homes and we're doing the exact same thing for single family homes. I'd go on a debating spree with them. I would sit and love to talk to people who are applying the birth strategies to single family owns. Because to me that's very dangerous, especially in outside markets where it's more volatile, multifamily. I think it's very smart.
Speaker 0 00:30:32 I agree. I agree. Kind of switching gears here for a second, cuz I think health and mindset and health in this game of, of, of entrepreneurialship and, um, stepping outside your comfort zone and all this kind of stuff is super important. Tell us more, um, about your success in focusing on your health in the past year or so and how that's changed and influenced your life.
Speaker 1 00:31:05 So underlining the word last past year or so, because before that I was not taking care of my health. I think before 2021, I was managing too many things on my own. I was still say that, you know, things that I could easily delegate it. I was not delegating enough. So, uh, you know, the, and, and I hit a wall in 2021 where I felt like it was, even though it was the best year of my life, I just health wise started feeling the toll, right? So I've focused a lot of my attention into like, you know, be smart about it. Like, you know, if you can't get your ass to the gym and whatnot, get a personal trainer to come home. So that's what I have. I realized my shortcoming is that, you know, in real estate every day is different. You wake up and there's something going on, so there's a high chance of your plans getting disrupted.
Speaker 1 00:31:49 So I, what I do is just better to just have an early morning workout with a personal trainer coming home. And even though you're paying a little bit more, but at least you know, you're realizing that nothing in life is more important than health and real estate. You know, especially when you're growing and scaling and you're managing more than one thing, it's very easy for you to just make excuses to not pay attention to your health because to everybody, you know, I'm working too much, seems like the right excuse, but it's not because ultimately it's health that matters. So more travel, personal training and health, always focusing on trying to eat better, better diet. And you'll realize you just overall become a more well-rounded entrepreneur. And one of the biggest things is, uh, hiring and firing, right? Like, you have to hire people, you have to incre in order for you to scale and sustain growth.
Speaker 1 00:32:36 You have to have people in your team. If you think you're going to do it all yourself, you are wrong. So you need people. So more focus on hiring staff, more, more focus on health overall, just, you know, more sustainable growth. So sometimes you have to take a couple of steps back for that, right? And, um, that's what I've realized 2021 and 2022, I've been focusing a lot more on. And you know what, it's a perfect time to do it. Markets are slow, things are a little bit more, um, uncertain. So instead of crying about how bad the market is and you're not making money, take the time to go back and focus and invest in your business and get ready for the markets to go back to being really well. So right now is the best time for any entrepreneur when you're not busy to just go right back, look at your business model and say, okay, in three or four years when things start recovering, how can I then come out as a complete beast and triple, quadruple my business? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So build your systems when things are slow, focus right back into your systems.
Speaker 0 00:33:36 Couldn't agree more, man, that's amazing. I, and I was starting to segue into that as well, that discussion as far as the market's being slower now and having, having the luxury of having a little bit more time and leniency to maybe focus back on some things that you neglected. Uh, as an real estate investor, a lot of, a lot of people I know, a lot of JV partners I have, they have full-time jobs. There are investors as well, and they're family men and they're raising family, so they're busy and mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I can't agree more mental health, physical health without those two things too, you may get, you may wind up getting in a bit of trouble or just overall part of my French would feel like shit, right? Even though you may be successful because you just bought another three houses or investments, but you know, you feel like shit because you haven't been taking care of yourself.
Speaker 1 00:34:32 A hundred percent. Couldn't agree more.
Speaker 0 00:34:35 Awesome. So as we get, we're just over, uh, 32 minutes here, but as we get to the end of the show, we get to a part where, um, I wanna talk to you about your why. What is your why, what do you do? What you do? What's your vision?
Speaker 1 00:34:55 So, you know, the why is all extremely important question, and I think I was doing this back in 2012 and 13 more just to make sure, like I've, I've got the right motivation to do things and this is the right industry for me. The why is basically like, you know, you've picked one thing to do in your life, and if you're gonna do it in a mediocre way, then you're not really leaving much behind for people that look up to you, right? Whether it could be your family, it could be your kids, it could be your friends. So what I say is when you pick something that you do and you know you love it, there's absolutely no excuses for you to not give it a hundred percent. So I'm not a doctor, I'm not an engineer, I'm not a lawyer. Like I'm a real estate professional and I want, and if I've chosen that for myself, I wanna be the best at it.
Speaker 1 00:35:41 So that's typically how I answer my, my logic of why, right? Like, I'm not about, I didn't, I've spent eight hours a day doing something and I wanna do it, right? Whether it's eight hours, whether it's three hours, whether it's four hours, do it with 100%, um, intention and 100% like where you come back home and say, I gave it my all today. Right? And that's all it really takes. So again, my why is that, you know, you if you're gonna pick something that you're gonna do, and if just do the best, that's simply it.
Speaker 0 00:36:11 Awesome. Last question. You're very successful now, and we say that relative to how the world views success, but do you think there are still more to life for Sahil? And when you picture more to life for yourself, what do you see
Speaker 1 00:36:36 Balance? So, you know, realizing that money is not everything. You've got other things in your life that, that make you happy. So, uh, what I seek right now and what is more to life for me is to seek balance. And that could be in ways of traveling the world, that could be in ways of spending time with family, that could be in ways of friends, that could be in way of following your hobbies that you never did because you were too busy. Um, so for me, the magic word is balance. And that's how I wanna focus for the next five to 10 years with sustainable growth to systems. So that's typically how, like, you know, like narrow down or summarize my goals for the next five to 10 years is more balance, more more health, more family, uh, and keep killing it at works and do it through systemization because time is very, very precious and you have to make sure that your input is minimized and your output is maximized.
Speaker 1 00:37:33 And that's the success of, you know, how else do you think these big guys like Elon Musk or Bill Gates or all these guys manage seven to eight, 10 different companies and still successfully come out on top? It's because they have the balance and they have systems in place to have sustainable growth, otherwise we're all gonna hit a ceiling and that's that. So for me, that's not enough. And ceiling is not acceptable, and imbalance is also not acceptable, and that's the only way to sustainably grow and, and do well and continue to be motivated because you and me don't have people above us telling us to wake up every morning and go work, right? So you have to create that self-motivation through, through having enough balance in your life.
Speaker 0 00:38:15 I love it. I I like to say balance and freedom, time, freedom to be able to do what you want when you want, with that balance that comes with that can give you that freedom. Sort of speak through the power of real estate investing. It's definitely done, you know, for me, obviously over the ca course of the last 11 years growing into this space. But time freedom, geographical freedom is, is really important to a lot of people and that's why they get in the real estate game, uh, to have the time and geographical freedom. So aka balance. All right, well listen, Sahil, thank you so much. A ton of knowledge. How do people get ahold of you listeners out there who wanna dabble, maybe potentially do a joint venture with you in Toronto, uh, so on and so forth, and reach out to you. How do they get ahold of you?
Speaker 1 00:39:12 Best way and the most active, uh, uh, platform that I'm most active in is Instagram. So at min real estate, one word, m i n k real estate. Um, you can obviously Google me and you'll see, uh, you know, access to our websites and, and and whatnot. But Instagram is where I'm the most active, so easiest way to get ahold of me. We're very like a small boutique firm. So, you know, somebody will always be there to respond and always welcome new investors or people who are, you know, looking to gain knowledge to, to absolutely welcome them to come and collaborate.
Speaker 0 00:39:46 Awesome. All right guys, well that's, that's a wrap for, I forgot to tell you. Believe it or not, episode number 48. Oh wow. <laugh>, uh, we're rocking and rolling since we started here over a year ago, which is, that's amazing. An honor and a privilege to be, to be the, the host of this show. But that's how you get ahold of Sahil. If you wanna invest in real estate in the Toronto market, he's your man. Reach out to him and uh, I'm on that note. Stay healthy, stay safe my friend. And thank you so much for, uh, being on our show today.
Speaker 1 00:40:22 Thanks for having me. Thank you so much.
