Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:02 Hey guys. It's Penoza 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 this 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 that 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 deliver some great content. Um, obviously all the knowledge I have 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 modern 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 trickling what we've done this first year in our second year. On that note, let's get into this next episode.
Speaker 0 00:03:11 Cheers. Hey everyone, it's Adrian Penoza here with the Motor Life Real Estate Investing podcast, helping you get more to life so you can start living your dreams through the power of real estate investing. Our guest today is Simon Papa Ilias. Simon is the co-founder and managing partner of R E C Canada, the number one investment focused real estate firm in the country. R C Canada is the recipient of multiple awards in the real estate community and has impeccable pedigree. R c is home to over 40 senior brokers that deal with over $200 million in Canadian real estate each year. Absolutely incredible. More than a remarkable real estate mind. Simon is a dedicated philanthropist who loves giving back to the community, who can be spotted on volunteering around the city without fanfare and taking up the fight for those being treated unfairly in various local communities. Simon also has a podcast, Simon's Intellect and Genuine Communication Style Make The Brokers Playbook Podcast a platform for thought leaders in the real estate industry. The podcast asks the tough questions, gets the experts who matter and raises the issues real estate investors need to stay ahead of the pack. Simon, welcome to the More Light for Real Estate podcast. Thanks for being on the show. How are you, my friend?
Speaker 1 00:04:58 My pleasure. Thank you for having me, Adrian.
Speaker 0 00:05:00 Awesome. It is a beautiful September afternoon. And, um, I really just wanna have a, you know, a a really laid back fireside chat on your journey and how really things got started for you. Tell us more, um, I guess your background, Canada and Greece, starting in the restaurant industry, learning from a lineage of self-employed people, meeting your mentor in real estate banking in your early twenties. So much to talk about. Take it from the top.
Speaker 1 00:05:34 Yeah, I mean it's, uh, it, it's been a long ride, that's for sure. And, uh, from the time we moved, uh, back to Canada, I was actually born in Canada, uh, in Alberta, actually. Uh, and moved to Greece, uh, when I was, uh, a toddler and came back when I was a teenager when I was, uh, just, uh, just about 16. I was 15 when I got back. Um, and it was back to Alberta. And Alberta's a very interesting place. Um, mm-hmm. <affirmative>. It's, um, not, not, not nearly as diverse as Ontario. Um, the, the mindset, uh, at that time specifically, and still to this day, I, I find the prairies struggle a lot with, uh, a general outline of ignorance and, um, just a much more closed mindset, more, I'm not gonna call it conservative cuz that's not appropriate. It's, it's, they struggle with ignorance as a generality, of course.
Speaker 1 00:06:21 Um, the, the more populous centers like Emington and Calgary are far more, um, accepting to both entrepreneurship, uh, immigration, um mm-hmm <affirmative>, because as when I came here, was treated as an immigrant. And I say that because there was a negative connotation to every interaction I had, which, um, in those formative years, uh, affects you in different ways. So, um, not, not that I had a horrible upbringing in Alberta, but it wasn't a positive one. There wasn't any positive role models. There was nothing there cuz I was in Central Alberta specifically that inspired me. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I made great friends as a teenager. Uh, but those friendships are personal, meaning personal life in business life. Uh, the only role models I had were my parents, um, who were, all they did is work. Um, as many immigrants coming to this country. Um, they find themselves working 18 hours a day, uh, trying to make ends meet, give us a better chance that they had when, when they came here originally after the Civil War in Greece.
Speaker 1 00:07:28 So ba basically I had, I started in restaurants, I, I worked my ass off, uh, like, like anyone else. And, uh, the minute it came down for post-secondary, uh, I made a, an instant leap out of a Alberta into Toronto where I attended Ryerson. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I finished off my college there in accounting and financial management, um, and went straight to the workforce for, for banking mm-hmm. <affirmative> where again, if you, if you've grown up in restaurants and owning restaurants, kind of management is built in. So I was able to have an exceptionally, uh, quick rise, uh, to the top of management inside the financial institutions I was working with. Um, and found myself in a six figure salary by 24 years old. And that, of course felt good and, but it felt like a, a ceiling cuz there was nowhere to get promoted too, after, unless you have masters and unless you have the, the education and pedigree.
Speaker 1 00:08:27 And, um, again, uh, not to to, to harp down on minorities, visible minorities and last names, but a lot of these institutions do run a fairly tight circle, uh mm-hmm. <affirmative> of who's hired, how they're hired, and the percentage of people represented. Uh, so I just found corporate Canada or corporate Americas, uh, as, as it's known, was definitely not for me. And I understood very easily why, uh, so much of the entrepreneurship, uh, world in this country and south of the border is actually not the typical, uh, profile that you see in corporate America. Um, so, uh, I, I followed, uh, the numbers basically, and I figured, uh, with the amount of people that I knew, uh, with my capacity for networking, uh, my ability to interpret data into actionable steps that real estate was right for me. Um, and, uh, commercial real estate specifically and, uh, investment real estate is what interested me most.
Speaker 1 00:09:32 I'm not a guy to do open houses mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, or pick colors for the, for the baby's room per se. Yeah. Um, so, so it's just not me. So I never pursued that path. Uh, of course I sold homes, uh, in the beginning I would do any deal I needed to, uh, to, to start building my client base, et cetera. But, um, around 2010, 2009, 2010 is where I took a very, um, a very niche approach to real estate. I started using a, a proprietary performer at that time. Um, and there was not a single deal that I would touch that didn't meet the criteria, uh, the stringent criteria of my performer. Uh, in 2009, I bought a house in Oakville, for example, for 409 9,000 where they threw in 60,000 worth of upgrades for free. Cuz if, for all we remember, that's the Leman collapse and the economy, uh, kind of fell apart south of the border. So there was a lot of speculation, but within six years I sold that same property for a million.
Speaker 0 00:10:33 Beautiful.
Speaker 1 00:10:35 So these are lottery tickets? Yeah, these are literally handed lottery tickets. So if we call it, let's say by 2015 between this move and a few others to cut the long story short, if you can get that much dry powder, you can make a lot of moves in investment real estate. When, when you have 500,000 net dollars, net dollars, you can't save that. A, a normal average household in Toronto cannot save that in 20 years because life gets in the way. Yeah. Even if you make 150 grand a year, your take home is 80.
Speaker 0 00:11:11 Yep. Yep.
Speaker 1 00:11:14 So, so you simply cannot, and then you still have to live, then
Speaker 0 00:11:17 You gotta
Speaker 1 00:11:17 Lives. So, so real estate gives these gifts, it has these advantages just built in, uh, just the fundamentals of leverage, the fundamentals of time, the fundamentals of growth on a leveraged asset. Just put the asset class apart. So like, people will always, because I'm in this game, people always try to be like, Well, what's your thoughts on the capital markets? What's your thoughts on, Oh, if you were to take the s and p versus, I'm not looking to compare anything. I don't care to compare anything real estate in Detroit and real estate in Toronto do not perform the same way. So I can't compare real estate to the s and p, I can compare real estate in Toronto to any asset class on earth and come out on top. So there is specific things that as investors and as brokers, like I've made it my life's mission at this point to teach brokers the fundamentals of real estate, the fundamentals of salesmanship, how to actually create and deliver value to their client, not how to sell a house. What is the actual hole in the marketplace that's communication and respect and relationship. The Google
Speaker 1 00:12:38 Creates a trillion mistakes because you're literally gonna go online where you're gonna review fake reviews and make a decision based on bad data. I strive to be data driven on everything, real data, which is why when I came up with this performer, with this style of salesmanship, where I never have to say to the client, Trust me, never. I don't want you to trust me. I want you to work with me because you know, you're getting great value with real data that you can make decisions that will benefit the life and the life of those that are live far beyond you and built that generational wealth that we all seek. So that's when I became a niche investment focused broker. Whether it's putting sites together for highrise, whether it's plazas medical buildings, whether it was bulk sales of 30 units of condos in each building or whatever my client was looking for, whether my client was a reit, whether it was mm-hmm. <affirmative>, any type of different entity, lpgp formats, all sorts of different mandates. But one thing that we never, uh, came off rail for was the integrity of the data that we used. And that's what I believe real estate investment is all about.
Speaker 0 00:14:00 Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. Like the, the facts, the numbers, the data, it'll never lie and it'll never, you know, uh, like you said, you never have to trust me. Here's the, here's the, the evidence as back in my police days, here's the evidence that speaks volumes on what we're looking at. So yeah, I, I couldn't agree more Powell for sure.
Speaker 1 00:14:23 And, and I think that, and I think that's just it. So, so, and the reason why you have been successful, uh, is, is for the same reason. When you don't jeopardize the integrity of the deal for any given transaction, there is no way you can ever lose the power of referral. The power of connection and mutual respect in any form will always carry through a win always in forever. And, and when you do it for a specific amount of time, cuz I know everybody's in a rush, everybody wants to be a billionaire tomorrow, but that's just not true. It takes time to build wealth in real estate. It takes time to build a business. It takes time to build an investment portfolio. And the more patient you are, the more unwavering you are in the integrity of the data that you use and the integrity of your own character and your own goals, the faster you're gonna get there. But it's just not overnight. If anybody's looking for a blue pill, they're just not gonna find it in real estate.
Speaker 0 00:15:22 Agreed. Agreed. So, um, you are the managing partner of R C Canada, a brokerage focusing on removing friction and creating value. Tell me about r c Canada. What services do you provide through this, through this business?
Speaker 1 00:15:41 Yeah, I, I mean, so we work with, uh, the leading, uh, real estate investment education outlets of this country. Uh, whether it's key buyer, whether it's rain, whether it's a, a myriad of different meetups. We're extremely well connected. Um, and have relationships with literally over 10,000 actual investors in our database, uh, that we've serviced. So you're not an re c insider unless you've done a deal with us. Uh, so it's, uh, it's managing those people, managing those relationships and continuing to educate. Uh, we've led by edu with education the whole time. We've never charged a penny for education, uh, because we get paid to do deals. So you don't need, like we never needed to charge for education. That wasn't our business model. Our business model is peel back the curtains, show what's behind it, do all the things. There's nothing that anybody can copy.
Speaker 1 00:16:37 People are so scared to share. Uh, but the truth of the matter is, nine out of 10 people will never execute. So, so you're scared of nothing. You're scared of your own shadow. If you just literally show people how everything is done, you can rest assured that eight to nine out of them will do nothing with what you tell them. For the 10% that's gonna do something. What, what more could you than wish them the absolute best? We're in a market that's 10 million people around us. There is no lack of deals. There is no lack of clients. Anybody who's competing for clients in this market simply doesn't have a value proposition. Cuz my phone rings all day long, all day long, every single day, day and day out. Which is why I have 50 agents at this point servicing almost 500 million a year. The stat that you raised in the, in the intro, thank you for the kind words, is a little bit outdated. It's when we had 30 people, we're almost gonna do half a billion a year at this point.
Speaker 0 00:17:40 Wow.
Speaker 1 00:17:41 And that's 90% investment focused real estate with 10% being auxiliary selling your home while I'm Yeah. Refinancing or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 0 00:17:53 So walk me through.
Speaker 1 00:17:53 But that's where we're at at this point.
Speaker 0 00:17:56 And those are actually very <laugh> uh, respectful, um, proud numbers to say the least. Um, so walk me through it. I'm an I'm, I'm an investor and I wanna do business together. How does that work with your company?
Speaker 1 00:18:13 Uh, yeah. So I'll give you an example of this. Just this last weekend. Uh, we were down at the Toronto, um, money show. Yeah. Um, where there was, uh, a tremendous amount of data given by capital market status. 90%. They brought in realistic cuz a lot of people demanded it. Uh, both me and one of my business partners were there. Um, and b basically we delivered kind of our, our notion on today's market. How do you profit in what people are scared to like, like people are scared of real estate right now. They're just terrified. And the reason they're terrified is cuz they lack knowledge.
Speaker 0 00:18:47 Right.
Speaker 1 00:18:48 Most people don't know that the biggest money they'll ever make is during a downturn. So when I bought that house for 500,000, I sold for a million in less than six years. If anybody thinks 100% appreciation in a matter of six years is normal, then you're delusional.
Speaker 0 00:19:07 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:19:07 This asset class, what we want it to be as stable with a three to 5% appreciation.
Speaker 0 00:19:13 Right.
Speaker 1 00:19:14 We don't want it to be a speculative gong show, which it became. But if anybody thinks that today's prices are at the top and they're gonna go down, Let me be on record right this very second, that it is September 20,000, 22. I would love to have a review of this. It's September, 2025. Just three years away. Adrian. Do you think the market is gonna be below where it is today in three years? Or will it be where it is today or higher?
Speaker 0 00:19:49 Higher. A hundred percent higher.
Speaker 1 00:19:52 1000000%.
Speaker 0 00:19:54 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:19:55 In, in, And the reason the fundamentals of the market here, I'm not speaking to real estate in general cuz real estate has micromarket within micro markets. I'm speaking to the gta. Is is what I'm speaking to. I'm speaking to Canada.
Speaker 0 00:20:14 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:20:16 And Canada has committed to increase its population by bringing in 400,000 qualified immigrants per annum. The old target was three 40, which was increased,
Speaker 1 00:20:34 Now it's 400. They say that we might get up to 750,000 new people per year. If the government continues on this path, they're not doing it because we're in desperate need of people. They're doing it because we're in desperate need of money and revenue and increasing the tax base, the small business base. We need people to work in various capacities. Service industry's stary technology hub is growing. We simply don't have enough graduates to do the job. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> Canada is busting at the seams. I know. It's, it seems bleak on TV cuz TV wants you to keep watching the news. Yeah. The technology sector is busting at the seam. Real estate is busting at the seams. Were a million and a half homes short in Ontario today. Today. And they're increasing quotas with doing nothing to fix the actual problem. Prices stalling and coming down because of widespread widespread fear of interest rates is a very, very small part of the picture. It's temporary. People got used to a pandemic first. Meaning they, they lowered interest rates to zero. Literally the overnight rate was zero or negative, which is never before happened to get us through a time while they were printing money. So nobody goes hungry. Whether for better or for worse, I don't wanna talk politics on this thing, but if anybody thought that that was going to be the norm going forward where the government prints money, interest rates are at zero.
Speaker 1 00:22:29 Once again, we're talking about mental illness. That's not the norm. That was an opportunity for those who took advantage of it. I, for one, did in a very big way. I grew my business twofold during those two years. Why? Because the real estate broker community was as terrified as the consumer. Why? Because they don't educate themselves. So they thought their world is going to end. And I said, Hey, stop, join me. The world's not gonna end. And they made more money than they ever dream possible. My consumers and my database were shaking in their booths when they were gonna put a moratorium on rents. And I said, They can't do that. Stop. Be patient. The announcement's coming. If they put our moratorium on rent, they have to put on moratorium, on mortgage payments. And nobody's gonna tell the banks the five banks that pay for the government what to do.
Speaker 1 00:23:32 Pandemic or no pandemic. We paid our mortgages. People paid their rent is, uh, a backlog. Who cares? I'm not interested in the short term. The long term fundamentals of this business are so strong for Canada. The prairies are expecting to get the 6 million. So Edmonton, Calgary not going to Regina Eska unfortunately. But Edmonton and Calgary are hotspots right now. Vancouver, another two to 3 million over here, probably another five, 6 million on top of what we have. Where are we gonna put them? This is the time to become a landlord. If you're not one for all of those who bought real estate in the last two years, five years, or 10 years right now, you are cashing in. This is the investor and landlord Rejoice time. And I don't wanna sound like a like an ignorant ass to anybody who's not in home ownership. I'm simply identifying the fact of the matter that as a tenant right now, if you are getting milked, there's massive demand for rental because nobody can get a preapproval to buy.
Speaker 1 00:24:46 So rates are up, rents are even up higher because they're all fighting for the same rental. Who's winning out of this? The landlord, the owner of the property. So for anybody who bought at a four cap, for anybody who understands a little bit more advanced commercial real estate right now, you're already in a six. You can cap compress, squeezing millions of dollars out of a multi-family deal right now. Even with the higher interest costs. There's just a tremendous amount of opportunity. There is a tremendous amount of value that we can bring to our clients that you bring to your investors every single day. And this is the data that needs to be reached out there. So as a responsible housing providers during the thick and the thing during Covid when other people were freaking out and scared of this, scared of that we were delivering wine in grocery store times. Just an fyi. We were calling our tendency, What do you need? Are you scared? You're you don't have to move. Stop it. Everything is good. Even if you're a month behind, don't worry about it. Why? Because we're educated landlords. We're compassionate landlords. We believe in the power of many. There will always be one spoiled apple in the basket.
Speaker 1 00:26:11 Not a big deal. It's not our first apple that we've seen. We're used to it. We know it's gonna happen no matter what we do.
Speaker 2 00:26:20 That's
Speaker 1 00:26:21 Our advice. That's how we do our business. That's how we build our business.
Speaker 0 00:26:26 So that kind of segues into my next question. How is R C Canada able to start in 2008 and grow to be the number one real estate team in the country? Is it based on those fundamental principles that you, you just spoke about minutes ago?
Speaker 1 00:26:43 100%. Those principles to, to the point now where we've developed proprietary training. Uh, and if, if there are any real estate agents, uh, in your audience, by all means feel free to head over to brokers playbook.com. Uh, that is where my training platform is housed. That's where our podcast is. This feature right here will go we'll get uploaded up on our platform, no doubt about it. So, um, take a look at the proprietary training, Take a look at what we teach. So in order to be on the R EEC team, you have to go through that training. It's not even an option. You can't sell for me if I don't know what you know, cuz you won't be speaking to my clients if I don't know what you know. I need to know that you can give sound advice. I need to know that you're doing, you're in this game for the right reasons.
Speaker 1 00:27:32 And, and the first thing that I have my agents do is find their own purpose. Don't come to me and ask me what should I do? I need you to tell me what you want to do. What turns you on? What gets you up in the morning? What keeps you up at night? Cause that's the space where I want to fit. I want to be a part of your thought process. So if you're gonna be an extension of me and represent me wherever you go, you have to have the same, uh, value system as we do. There's no room for transactional agents on my team. It's relationship or bust. If anybody's looking for a relationship, just work with a different broker. It's okay. If I ask you a question of how much you make, how long you've been making it, you're like, Oh no, that's private.
Speaker 1 00:28:18 Okay, well I can't give you advice. So move along if I don't have, if I don't feel a hundred percent transparency, how can I coach you? How can I consult you on, on the biggest component of your life if I don't know anything about you? Right? So for us, everything starts with an intake. We call it the, the reap the real estate action plan where we get to know our client. It's no different than a KYC at a financial house. Uh, I know your client form. For those who don't know what a KYC is, Uh, it's an intimate questionnaire, uh, of finances, life goals, life obligations, all the things where we can at the end of it, be able to say, if you want what your goal, your goal is to retire, buy 55. Okay, well, you're 32, You make 150 grand a year. This is what you need to save. This what you need to buy. This is where you need to refi it. This is where you need to do this in order to get to your goal. And, and that's how every single client begins their journey with r.
Speaker 0 00:29:19 Amazing. Um, let's talk about investors looking to expand their portfolio. You've made it public that most important pillar to have is a strong power team behind you that can help you the investor, every step of the way. So talk to me about what is the, a power team and who should be, um, or who's on your power team. Or even if I'm an investor and I'm saying, Hey Simon, how do I build a power team so I can, uh, maybe not make as many mistakes, have the right people in my corner? Talk to me about the concept of this power team Mey.
Speaker 1 00:30:08 Yeah. I I mean, if you're gonna do anything, it's no different than if you had to get eye surgery. Um, you're not walking into any office to say, Yeah, just gimme the first doctor that's available. You're gonna ask who, who in the world is the guy who's gonna be cutting my eyes around?
Speaker 0 00:30:24 Right?
Speaker 1 00:30:26 So if, if you have been able to save a couple hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 0 00:30:31 Right
Speaker 1 00:30:32 Over the course of your life and you are now ready to make the biggest move of your life and committing those hard earned after tax dollars into anything how in the world, people pick up the phone and try to make deals or work with their cousin Vinny, and it's insanity. To me, a power team is the absolute biggest component of it all. Having a trustworthy, experienced, well reviewed and referred mortgage broker, having a well to do experienced referred and well reviewed broker, your real estate agent.
Speaker 2 00:31:23 Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:31:24 <affirmative>. If you're looking to buy multi-family and you speak to a downtown condo specialist, well you are worthy of your fate. Just because Buddy said, Of course I can transact the deal. It's like anything else,
Speaker 0 00:31:40 Right?
Speaker 1 00:31:41 The absolute f he can, What does she know about boilers? What does she know about foundations, about roofing systems, about cladding systems, about entire building envelopes, Capital improvements. You buy a building today, if you don't know when the end of life is for each item, how are you gonna project your rent? How are you gonna project a a balanced portfolio that's not gonna bankrupt you in year three when you have to do the foundation repair and the roof goes at the same time Only experience to teach these things and experience in each asset class is as different as night is today.
Speaker 0 00:32:30 Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:32:31 If you're buying a retail plaza, you need somebody to be able to tell you what the tenant mix is, what the best tenant mix would be, the all the different things that each asset class has. Its own nuances. So a power team has to be, it's not one power team for all. It's a power team based on what you're trying to do. So if you are looking at making a commercial, play a multifamily, play a condo, play a preconstruction condo, play a resale income property conversion, adding a door, adding a lane way suite, a garden suite, there is no one size fits all. And if anybody feels that they know everything, they're just a liar.
Speaker 0 00:33:15 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:33:17 So build your team with the people that you believe are the best fit for the job. If you don't know how to interview an agent, you need to find out how, what questions to ask for a broker. For a real estate lawyer going to a reseller, regular real estate lawyer, who's they? They have experience in one asset class. If you bring them a preconstruction contract, Preconstruction condominium contract, half of them haven't seen one. Let's not look at Toronto specifically, which is so popular with condos. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But if you go to small city west of Edmonton, there's never been a condominium there. So what, what experience do they have to review a 200 page condo disclosure? You need to go to a lawyer that knows condominium law. So if you live two hours west of Edmonton and you're making a purchase of any condominium, take the two hour drive to Edmonton where there's thousands of condos and reach out to a lawyer that's there. Not your best friend George from the golf club who's never seen one of these. He might be your best friend, he might love you, but he doesn't know how to protect you.
Speaker 1 00:34:41 Or he might kill a deal that otherwise would've made you hundreds of thousands. Power team, power team, power team in insurance, in legal, in real estate, in mortgage, anything to do, anything to do with the purchase of real estate contractors. You have a vertically integrated construction company in your company, Adrian. Why? Because you don't have to go look for them every time. You don't have to trust somebody. Not every time.
Speaker 0 00:35:09 Right? Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:35:13 Because right now, if you were to go and say, how much would it be to redo this basement and convert it into a legal duplex, ah, this person will tell you 30, 40 real life, probably about 60 to 70. Now cuz materials have gone up,
Speaker 0 00:35:30 Especially
Speaker 1 00:35:30 George did, Cousin George did his renovation five years ago. We'll go to Home Depot now. Pick up a piece of lumber, see how much it's,
Speaker 0 00:35:38 Yeah, yeah. Edge across
Speaker 1 00:35:41 By getting it delivered. It might be six months late now you have to carry the house for next or six months at three grand a month. Not rented out. So power team, power team, power team.
Speaker 0 00:35:54 I wanna talk a little bit about, we're, we're hovering it around 33 minutes now. We usually try to cap it around 35, 40 for that drive into work and whatnot. But I want to talk a little bit about, cuz obviously, you know, mindset and surrounding yourself with the right people, power team, stuff like that. I want to talk to you cuz you mentioned it and it's a word really, really true to my heart. Generational wealth, long term wealth. This isn't an overnight game. And a lot of our listeners out there, be it novice, be it advanced, be it intermediate, you can always fall back and always remind yourself and train your mind in, in your attitude. Um, focusing on that. Like for example, me and all my uh, units and doors and JV partners, we don't flip. And then not that I have anything against flipping, we don't flip. I renovate, refinance, hold for, for years to come.
Speaker 1 00:36:57 Well that's
Speaker 0 00:36:59 About your mindset.
Speaker 1 00:37:01 Well, so, so gnarly. Do I agree with you? Flipping is not real estate investing first and foremost. That's a business.
Speaker 0 00:37:07 Bingo.
Speaker 1 00:37:08 There's a difference between investing and a business. The flipper, he has exponentially more risk than we do as investors. When Brittany, the flipper picks up a home for the sole purpose of forcing appreciation via construction. Cuz that's what it is. You're going to an area that lacks a specific type of housing. You find the ugliest law on the street, potentially turning into a beautiful little prize and sell it to the market for what is needed in that market. Great. It's a great business. But we cannot call a speculative business an investment. None of the principles of investment lie within a flip. A flip has to be timed, it has to have a budget, it has to have a business plan. If it has a business plan, it's not an investment.
Speaker 0 00:38:12 That's right.
Speaker 1 00:38:14 A flipper relies on timing the market. An investor understands and respects time in the market.
Speaker 0 00:38:24 Bingo.
Speaker 1 00:38:26 And and that is our mindset of buy and hold. Call it the bur call it whatever you wanna call it. But 100% of my portfolio has been in position for Burr since the beginning and inception of my portfolio. So, and it always will be unless something changes in my life, Bob, and it always will be.
Speaker 0 00:38:49 So the appreciate the time in the market as opposed to timing the market and the long term gain, the long term wealth. How long you been in the game now? Uh,
Speaker 1 00:39:03 16 years my friend. 16 years. 16.
Speaker 0 00:39:07 And I'm sure you've seen properties you've own quadruple in value in 16 years. Which
Speaker 1 00:39:14 Of smile. But, but I, I have invested, I have held, I have flipped, I have tried every, and we have indeed. So, so we, we've had a lot of success with flipping, withholding with everything. But we also have to remember that we're in a market that we've seen the, the highest and longest rise in values, uh, ever. So all boats rise in high tide. It's when the water comes out that we see who's left exposed and who's gonna sink.
Speaker 0 00:39:49 Right?
Speaker 1 00:39:49 So it, it, it's, it's very important. Uh, my message to your audience, the message to my audience at all times is speculators, which is a very nice word for gamblers, will always lose no matter what. It's gonna be a matter of time before they make one mistake in judgment, one error, one bad relationship. And they're gonna get burnt. When you get burnt in real estate, we're not talking about, uh, in most cases it's not recoverable, meaning it's gonna set you back 10, 20 years. So if you're a novice investor, you, you put together some scratch, you're finally ready to invest. If you feel that you have the luxury of making a mistake, you're wrong.
Speaker 1 00:40:36 You're wrong. And you have to be cautious and you have to be careful. You have to work with people that can be trusted with their advice and their counsel. And I'm not saying that's me or that's you. I've been talk nonsense. It's a big country. There's many beautiful and amazing people out there to work with. But I can assure you with absolute certainty that there is a lot of traps out there. There is a lot of garbage product out there. And that's the same as capital markets as it is in real estate. There is charlas, there is liars, there is all the nonsense. It is more imperative than ever for people to pay attention to who they work with, to have patience, to not be know at alls, to listen to podcasts, to read books and stories of others. There's so many amazing people that love to share their stories. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, listen to them. Everybody's unique perspective can teach you something. Be coachable.
Speaker 0 00:41:43 Absolutely. Be
Speaker 1 00:41:44 Careful.
Speaker 0 00:41:47 Great, great boards of advice. Wrapping up here, Simon, I ask everybody this kind of at the end of the show and we've, we've covered a lot here and some really, really good advice for every level of investor really, in my opinion. But let me ask you, you're very successful now and we say that relative to how the world views success, do you think there's still more to life for you? And when you picture more to life, what do you see?
Speaker 1 00:42:20 Um, I'm working and I have, uh, a very keen interest, uh, in technology. Um, I have committed, um, to a new partnership. Um, outside re c um, my, my Platform Broker's playbook, uh, is headed for some serious disruption, um, in the real estate industry where I'm kind of standardizing, um, training and courses for agents to, to elevate the industry, elevate the game. Um, but that tech platform is gonna be tied to its sister platform called an Investors' Playbook. Uh, Broker's Playbook is up and running and it's being built. Investors' Playbook has not launched yet, uh, will be probably launching within 90 to 120 days. Um, where true trained investment brokers will be vetting out and uploading standard process properties to investors playbook. So you Adrian, your entire group, all of the people will be able to go to one place and look across the nation and hopefully into the United States as well. The only thing that will be housed there is investment real estate.
Speaker 1 00:43:44 Meaning if you as a broker who has been trained by investment focused brokers, identifies your residential property as an opportunity to be converted to an income property, it's going on the platform and it's not going on the platform without a certified templated data sheet that I have a separate entrance, I have a point of address in the back. This is the reason why it can be converted if it's already a fourplex. I want a certified rental with the receipts uploaded into the system with blanked out. But real data, none of this back in napkins. Nonsense. None of this. Oh no, no, no. It's uh, these tenants are here. These tenants are there. You, you buy their property and they're 20 year legacy tenants because people failed to provide a stoppel certificates, which is the verification method on the multiples.
Speaker 0 00:44:34 Right?
Speaker 1 00:44:35 Who, who's who in the zoo, who lives here. It'll take you 20 years to get these people to turn over. There goes your investment,
Speaker 0 00:44:46 Right?
Speaker 1 00:44:47 So I'm building a tech platform, buy brokers for brokers, buy investors cuz I'm an investor first for investors. And this tech platform is gonna be the perfect ecosystem to transact investment real estate that is templated and as true as it can possibly be by agents who are trained in the field.
Speaker 0 00:45:12 Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. Congratulations on
Speaker 1 00:45:16 That. So, so that's my, that's my future. That's where I'm going with it all.
Speaker 0 00:45:19 Awesome. All right. Well listen, it's been awesome having you on the show. Um, most importantly, uh, for the audience, if they want to network with you, whether they're agents out there or investors out there and they wanna connect with you, how do they get a hold of you?
Speaker 1 00:45:39 Yeah, I mean, brokers playbook.com, uh, it it, it is a b2b it is for brokers, but investors specifically will get tons of value from it all. You wanna visit the site, Uh, I never speak, uh, in, in, uh, in code or games. Uh, and as an investor, you know that as a broker I get paid by the deal, right? So like people are scared to speak about commissions. This, I say to all your investors, head over there, you're gonna learn something. Maybe you'll catch, uh, a nugget that you can use every day to yourself when you're evaluating property. Um, but, uh, my, my Instagram is s pops, uh, Brokers playbook is on the gram as well across all LinkedIn, Facebook, reach out to me anywhere it's s pops, you'll find me.
Speaker 0 00:46:24 And guys for you is listening. I'll spell you his last name. P A P A L I A S. Uh, for those of you who are looking to, uh, connect with him, tons of knowledge, 16 years in the game, obviously very well rounded in the game with everything you got going on. So yeah man, thank you so much. Uh, it's been great having you on and I wish you continued success.
Speaker 1 00:46:50 It's my pleasure for being here. I hope I brought some value to your audience, my
Speaker 0 00:46:53 Man. Absolutely.
