Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey everyone. It's Adrian Pino again with executive capital and super excited. We are believe it or not episode number 17. Wow. How time flies. And I wanted to take a minute before we introduce our next incredible guest. Um, just to kind of tell you what we've been up to lately. So as of late, our most recent off market purchase is a 13 unit townhouse complex that we've, uh, secured and firmed up on the deal that, uh, we are gonna be working on. It's gonna be an incredible bur project and get this one. Did I tell you nine out of the 13 townhouses come vacant upon the possession of this amazing complex? So we can pretend, you know, obviously boots on the ground right away in construction, beginning right off the bat. And we don't have to wait or there's no lull there to get construction started so crazy, crazy.
Speaker 0 00:01:01 Uh, you, yeah, excited about that. And, um, even better imagine being able to, um, buy a townhouse in 2022 for under $400,000, like it's insane, uh, that the, the kind of deal that we picked up here. So yeah. Um, that's what we've been up to lately. So yeah, if you guys are interested in getting involved in some of the bigger off market acquisitions that, uh, our company gets involved in, by all means, reach out to us, um, definitely can work together in a joint venture structure and bring some of these amazing off market deals to you as well. Um, on that note, uh, that's all we got for the intro here. And, uh, yeah, if you'd like the content that we're delivering in our guests, please give us a five star rating. Obviously it, it, it does go a long way, uh, for our podcast being such a new podcast, although we're doing exceptionally well, um, really appreciate that, um, like us on iTunes, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast from, and, uh, shoot me an email ever, if you wanna just see a certain type of content or guest on the show, I'd be more than happy to help out with that as well.
Speaker 0 00:02:13 So on that note, I'm gonna get into introducing our man of the hour, um, episode number 17 guest, Hey everyone, it's Adrian Zo again with the Mor to life real estate investing podcast, where we help you get more to life. So you can start living your dreams through the real, through the power of real estate investing super pump today, guys, our guest, Darren Voros he's here with us, and he's a amazing things in real estate. As a real estate investor and trainer, he controls a portfolio of properties now worth over 10 million and has traveled across north America, educating, inspiring and motivating audiences on the subject of real estate, investing financial independence and financial literacy. Darren has been featured as an on-air renovation expert, the goods and city line. He was also the behind the scenes contractor on my Reno in game of homes. When he's not on TV speaking or acquiring new real estate, he can be found spending time with friends and family at the yoga studio, or where are you now away enjoying
Speaker 1 00:03:32 Costa Rica On the beach, ina Rica
Speaker 0 00:03:37 On the beach in Costa Rica, February. Amazing. Um, so yeah, when Darren's not on TV speaking or acquiring new real estate, he can be found spending time in Costa Rica with friends, family, the yoga yoga studio, and walking on his re working, walking his rescue pub. Sorry. So after all that very proud to welcome Darren VRO, Darren, how you doing pal?
Speaker 1 00:04:00 I'm doing great. Thanks for having me here.
Speaker 0 00:04:03 You're doing great in Costa Rica enjoying what's the weather like down there.
Speaker 1 00:04:07 It's not very good. It's only 32 and sunny here today. So yeah, it's, it's a little, <laugh>
Speaker 0 00:04:13 No big deal. No big deal, right? Yeah. That's amazing. And the epitome of living on your own terms and by the power of real estate investing, Darren is the prime example and it's Costa Rica right now. And you've been away for a while, right? Just kind of traveling.
Speaker 1 00:04:30 Yeah, I left mid-December uh, and this was a goal that I had a couple years back really was like, I, you know, worked really hard on my real estate investing, you know, business. And, and one of the things that I realized was I don't like Canadian winters. And so I was like, wow, how do I, how do I create a life by design? And so that for me was a couple years ago to say, okay, what would I need to do to shift things around a little bit where I could leave mid-December and come back end of March. And so the last couple years it's been fragmented a little bit, but this is the first year where I've been, you know, left mid-December and I will not return back to, uh, to Toronto until end of March. And, uh, yeah, so I bounced around, I was in Arizona for, for the holidays of my family. And, and then, uh, I went to Mexico for a month in Costa Rica for two. So it's been a, it's been a great, I, I, you tell you what, like, it's been the best decision in my life and, um, I am really enjoying being here.
Speaker 0 00:05:20 Awesome. <affirmative> you don't mind me asking, how old are you?
Speaker 1 00:05:25 I'm 45.
Speaker 0 00:05:26 Yeah, 45. And you've been in the game now. Real estate investing, coaching, mentoring, construction, how long?
Speaker 1 00:05:34 I bought my first house in 2002. So it's 20 years. Um, 20. Yeah, actively as a, as an investor, I would say for the last decade,
Speaker 0 00:05:43 Similar, somewhat similar to me. Amazing. So, um, you've been a speaker, a coach, and a masterclass host, like we talked about over the years with some motivation and giving back. Um, at what point did you realize that the knowledge you had accumulated in this space was very beneficial in the industry that you could actually help people? Like how many years were you investing before you said, you know what, like I know quite a bit now I can, you know, bring something to the table and help people out and, and whatnot.
Speaker 1 00:06:19 It was, um, it was a bit of an opportunity presented to me, probably close to excuse me, close to eight years ago. Um, I, I was, I joined, um, an organization called kepi and I was a, a member of that organization and, and they were looking for an additional speaker to go out on the road. Uh, Scott MCGI, their celebrity speakers, you know, he was like, I only have so much time. I got a family. I need to like be home for some weekends and we're looking for somebody else. Yeah. And I have a performing arts background, so I'm, I'm not like afraid of the stage at all. And I had a enough experience in the real estate investing space that I felt like I could go out there and, and help people. So that's where I sort of that first taste of real estate education from the stage.
Speaker 1 00:07:02 And I would deliberate two hour presentation and the light bulb moments that you can kind of see as you're speaking to people, even on a relatively simple level was really inspiring to me. And I really enjoyed that. And so that was kind of that first intro to it. And then since then, I, like I said, I've kind of gone off and done my own thing, but, um, that was, I, I really enjoyed, uh, educating people and just helping them along with their journey and seeing the transformation that they could, uh, create with a little bit of additional knowledge.
Speaker 0 00:07:32 Yeah. It's pretty, it's pretty empowering to yourself and other people and even motivationally your inner self too. Like when you're, when you see somebody like even a friend or a close colleague, or even a, a student execute that perfect bur and they, they relied on your expertise and maybe some coaching and knowledge and, and direction it, yeah, it, it's amazing because they got a grin from one year to the other and they're so happy. And now, you know, they're gonna, they're telling their friends and their family, and if everybody can have financial through freedom through real estate investing like us, Kus right. Like, mm-hmm, <affirmative> go go to it. There's so much out there to be, to share with. But yeah. Um, with success comes failure. Obviously each failure we encounter is an opportunity to learn, and we know what's important to reflect on these failures. What are some of the biggest challenges you had to overcome in 2002 ish when you started investing in real estate? What were some of biggest challenges you overcame in your early, early onset of your real estate investing career?
Speaker 1 00:08:47 Yeah. I mentioned it briefly off the top. My first transaction was like far from smooth, you know, I, I bought a house. I planned to finish the basement. I did some sweat equity. My plan was to turn around, try to sell it for 25 more thousand dollars more than I had into it. And I couldn't sell it. Right. Um, not for what I wanted for anyway. And I was like, well, what am I gonna do now? You know, am I gonna sell it for less money am basically not get paid to do all this work that I just did. That didn't seem like a great idea. So I thought, well, I guess I'll, I guess I'll rent it, but I didn't have any knowledge I had. I'd never been a landlord before. Um, and I, you know, I did what I thought I was supposed to do.
Speaker 1 00:09:25 I put a tenant in place and I checked their references and I, you know, I looked at their car when they drove up and I was like, okay, this guy seems like he's good. And then he was a professional tenant. He, he was looking for me. Right. He was like, he saw an inexperienced landlord. And, and that's what a lot of ex professional tenants will do. I always say bad tenants are looking for bad landlords. Right. And so that's where I just didn't have the knowledge. And so I put this guy in there, luckily, like he didn't pay his rent the second month. And, uh, we served him with the eviction notice and it was a relatively smooth process to get 'em outta there. But when people are afraid of tenants, you know, cuz that's a lot of what I hear too. Like, oh, I've heard horror stories.
Speaker 1 00:10:08 I'm like, yeah. I, I, I can pretty much guarantee that behind the scenes there there's an inexperienced real estate investor that doesn't miss necessarily know what they're doing. Because since that time not to say that I haven't had my challenges, I've, I've never really had to evict anybody since. Um, and you know, that's, that's one of those things that I think it's just a it's it's misinformation, right? People are like, they hear somebody's uncle had a terrible experience with a tenant and they're like, I'll never get into real estate investing cuz of tenants. I, well, who said you have to manage your own property. Like when, when was that like laid down as the law, like you can hire professionals to do that. And they're like, well then that costs money. I'm like, well then your deal is not good enough. Right. So it all kind of goes back to that thing of like, it's just, it's just pure education that people are lacking and that's why they don't wanna move forward. That's where they're a little bit intimidated. So for me, that's, that's all it is right.
Speaker 0 00:11:01 The power of leverage. Right? Leverage your time, give it to professionals. So you can continue to focus on the bigger picture, the bigger, the bigger meat and potatoes of growing your portfolio or just enjoying and living life in Costa Rica for the winter months of the year. Right? Like obviously you're leveraging whatever you're leveraging cuz you wouldn't be able to be there if you had to be here and deal with tenants.
Speaker 1 00:11:24 Right. That's right. So
Speaker 0 00:11:25 It's, it's all relative. And if you reach that level, I mean we all start by, we all started once upon a time to look after our own properties and deal with our tenants ourselves. You did. I did. And you know, for me personally, and I'm sure you're probably the same, but for me personally, things really kind of started to grow when I learned the power of leverage and you know, pay the guy $15 an hour to do the $15 an hour job so we can focus on building apartment buildings. Right. Yeah. So it's all relative and you the right mindset to get you to continue to grow for sure. Um, so Darren real estate success doesn't come out, doesn't come. If you had to restart your investing career today, where would you do it and how would you start? Would you do anything different?
Speaker 1 00:12:26 Uh, absolutely. I would. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I, I think that my journey has been, uh, very, um, common journey for many real estate investors, but I'll tell you what, um, I could have done it a lot faster. Um, I think that the mistake that a lot of people make is they go out and they learn about a strategy and then they try to implement the strategy. I think if people started to look at it more from a business perspective and build a around real estate investing, they'd have a lot more success. So to your point, you know, from day one, if I can leverage other people's time and energy, I would've been able to do that many more transactions. If I can leverage other people's money, I can do that many more transactions. But that comes again back to that sort of piece of like, why didn't I do it?
Speaker 1 00:13:14 I just didn't know. I didn't know. It existed. You don't know what you don't know. And so if, if that's the case, then I think there's, there's a, you know, you can, you can, um, you can, you can learn things and you can implement them very quickly. So for me, I, I would say like, that's the biggest thing that I, that I missed in the beginning was building the business and the strategy is the end piece, right? It's like, okay, where, which market am I going to? That's kinda like that first thing that I talk about, it's like, and the second thing is like, where's okay, build your team up now you've got your team. Well now you're gonna start to look at where's your capital coming from? Is that the bank, is that an investor? Is that whatever. And the last thing in that process is the strategy. The strategy is like, okay, I can go, I can flip. I can bur I can <affirmative>, um, wholesale, I can do whatever, but, but people start with strategy and I'm like, no, you gotta start with business. Right. You gotta start with that process. And then you can build on that
Speaker 0 00:14:05 Amazing advice. I agree if I started to leverage things a lot sooner. I mean, I've, I've only been in the game 11 years. Um, and I think we've got a very healthy portfolio after 11 years, but yeah, I didn't start leveraging till probably three and a half, four years ago out of my 11. So that first six years, you know, getting started, which isn't bad, but I didn't leverage at all. And I was still a police officer at the time. So I would, you know, be working my night shift and this shift in court and then running to my rental properties, screening tenants, cutting the grass and just, you know, ultimately it, it enabled me to retire early from policing, but I probably could have retired maybe, you know, three years sooner than I actually did, but yeah, I completely relate to that. PE mm-hmm <affirmative> um, so we're getting to the end of the podcast here and, um, call it our lightning round if you will. But, uh, quick, and to the point, Darren, what is your, why we, why do you do what you do?
Speaker 1 00:15:12 You know, this is, I, I gotta be really honest with you. Like this is something I've struggled with a lot as a real estate investor. Um, I, I, I've never had a, a great why. I don't think, um, I saw my parents struggle a little bit growing up, you know, we were in probably middle income family. Uh, my dad and my mom had good jobs. Uh, they both lost their jobs when I was about 14. Um, and that was kind of that moment where they said, if you want something in life, you kind of have to go and work for it and you gotta make your own money. I'm grateful for that experience. But since that point, you know, they've, they've struggled, you know, financially they've always been able to put food on the table and a roof over their head and they live a very, you know, uh, simple lifestyle if you will.
Speaker 1 00:15:53 But I, they often are arguing about money and things like that, and it seems to stress them out a lot. So that was something that I grew up in and I never wanted to experience that. I never wanted to go into a restaurant and worry about the price on the menu. I was like, I just wanna go in and order what I want. I wanna stay where I want, I wanna fly business class or whatever I want if I wanna do those kinds of things. So, so I have to, you know, I, I think that the biggest thing for me was I wanted that financial freedom since then, I've now shifted my focus a little bit more back to like, how can I give back? Um, and so one of the, the things that I really wanna focus on over the next couple years is, you know, uh, being a little bit more charitable and with my time and with my money.
Speaker 1 00:16:31 So, um, I, I have a rescued dog, her name's Ella, and I got her from an organization called save our Scruff, uh, who does amazing work. They go down to Mexico and all these other places around the world and they, they, they rescue dogs and they bring me back to Canada and they foster them here. And then they, uh, end up adopting them to, to Canadian families. And so, right. I'm really passionate about that. I think it's a great organization and, and I just love animals in, in general. So, uh, this year I plan to spend a lot more time in energy, uh, dedicating some back to the, to that organization and to other organizations that I feel passionate about. But that, that's my main, why I know that wasn't a lightning round, but <laugh> there you, <laugh> sorry.
Speaker 0 00:17:09 There's another thing we have in common. So I love animals too, and we got rest. Um, it's our second rescue now, uh, half boxer, half lab, uh, from a company, uh, boxer rescue, um, mm-hmm <affirmative> and, uh, the rescue we have now is found as a stray and Quebec, and, uh, was, was obviously, uh, saved and brought over and we're lucky to have her, but it, um, you're very successful, obviously, Darren. And when we say that relative to how the world views success, but do you think there's still more to life for Darren and when Darren pictures more to life, what do you see?
Speaker 1 00:17:53 Yeah, it's really simple for me. It's geographical freedom and time freedom. I think financial freedom is always that first thing that people are trying to strive for, but then it's time, freedom and geographical freedom. Can you do whatever you wanna do from anywhere in the world? And can you S set your day and not have to work if you don't want to? I think those two things are, are really powerful for me. So that's the next, uh, part of my journey is yes, I'm con gonna continue to work on the financial freedom, but now it's like geographical and time, freedom are the biggest ne next steps for me,
Speaker 0 00:18:27 Everybody listening, you should write that down. Geographical freedom and time freedom. I've never heard of that before. And I've talked to, uh, hundreds of real estate investors, and that's the first time I've heard of that phrase, if you will, geographical freedom and time, freedom is what real estate investing can give us and has given us and continue to grow with it. Amazing. Um, Darren, if you could give one parting word of advice to new real estate investors, old real estate investors, novice experienced, what would that one piece of advice be to them?
Speaker 1 00:19:06 Discipline? I think that, you know, real estate investing is not always easy. Uh, it's not always fast, but if you can be disciplined, uh, if you can be systematic in what you do, I think you'll have success as a real estate investor.
Speaker 0 00:19:23 Couldn't agree more discipline for sure. Amazing Darren. That, that was absolutely amazing. I love of the advice that, that lightning round actually, you, you you've really hit it out the park in my opinion, some great, great, great advice there. So how do people get ahold of you, Darren people want to pick your brain, they want to do business with you, invest with you, join your masterclass. How do they get ahold of you?
Speaker 1 00:19:48 Yeah. Um, simplest thing is if you wanna invest with us, it's ready developments ready is R E D I, um, you wanna take my masterclass, go to Darren boros.com and if you wanna learn for free, go to YouTube, uh, slash Darren bros, it's all there.
Speaker 0 00:20:03 Amazing. Thanks so much for having us or having, being with us Darren today, uh, all the way from Costa Rica, the sunny, the warm Costa Rica, as we hear, actually, it's pretty cold here in the GTA. I think we're hovering around minus 20 with the wind today or something. Yeah, it's bright, sunny, but it's, it's cold as you know what, so <laugh>. Yeah. So continue to enjoy yourself out there. And for anybody that wants to chat with me or get a hold of us, we're all over. So media, obviously, Adrian Pozo, um, uh, invest with EPC, our website, www dot, um, executive properties, capital.com and, uh, yeah, that's it. So again, thanks so much, Darren. It's been a pleasure and enjoy the rest of your time away until when you coming back, you said March end of March. End of March. End of March. Awesome. April. Yeah. All right. Cheer. Cheers. Thanks for having me on Adrian. I appreciate it. Cheers.
