Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hey everyone. It's Adrian. Penoza 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 guests today. Super excited to have Sean R on R REA REA REA Sean REA. Sean is an active investor and an agent with a firm focus on the power to believe and achieve. He attributes all of his success to a switch he made in his mindset to unlock the ability to keep moving forward. Sean specializes in helping real estate investors look for fix and flip properties, as well as multi-family properties all across the Niagara region and Southern Ontario, Sean rent from living paycheck to paycheck, barely being able to put gas in the car to building a real estate empire now of 36 rental properties and believe this guy's, uh, in three years, which is great. 36 properties, three years when he started investing at the age of 25, he planned to retire by 55. Instead he absolutely crushed his goals and achieved full financial independence at the young age of 34. Now he is teaching others the special strategies he's used to grow his real estate empire, and even own a piece of an island in Beese. So Sean, welcome to the more life real estate investing podcast. And thanks for being on our show.
Speaker 1 00:01:53 Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited. Um, you know, just to be here, chatting with you and telling you about my journey. Um, it's still surreal to me when I hear somebody else say those words and like what, you know, what has, has transpired over over the last, you know, 5, 6, 7 years. It's actually, it's still surreal to me. And sometimes I sit back and reflect and I can't believe that I am where I am today, but it, it definitely started with a switch in mindset years ago.
Speaker 0 00:02:18 Yeah. And we're gonna get into that, but I can, I can second, I can second comment that as well. Um, sometimes when people ask me and they're talking to me and I've been interviewed on, you know, dozens of podcasts, myself as a guest and you know, they're saying, oh Adrian, this and Adrian that, and how many units you have. And it's like, wow, I still can't believe, you know, I have north of 350 doors that, uh, our company owns in partnership. So I <affirmative>, so I completely completely relate to, uh, that feeling of, wow. It still seems surreal. So yeah. Congratulations on obviously your achievement at such a young age. Um, so why don't we start off by telling us your journey, like, let's start right from the beginning, that very first property, how it all unfolded to where you are today.
Speaker 1 00:03:10 Yeah. So, um, I'll, I'll go back to before I bought the first property, I guess what, uh, what, what ended up happening was I found myself stuck in what we call the rat race. You know, when we talk about the rat race, I was stuck in the, the nine to five, uh, corporate world and I was living paycheck to paycheck and I thought I was doing everything correct. So I was, I was, you know, I, I went to school, I got a job. I was saving money. I bought a house, a primary residence and I had a new car and everybody thought, okay, you know, Sean's doing everything correctly, everything that we've been trained and told to do our, our, our whole lives. And I found myself stuck living paycheck to paycheck. And I, I didn't know why, why I wasn't fulfilled, you know? And I'm like, I'm like, I feel like I'm doing everything right, but I don't feel fulfilled.
Speaker 1 00:03:59 And at the end of the day, I have no money left, even though I'm working really, really, really hard. So what can I do? What can I do differently? And that's when I, I started educating myself and, um, I read rich port ad, which, you know, a lot of people can relate to as one of those life changing books. Um, I read that book and that was that light bulb for me, where I realized that, you know, I had not been focusing on buying assets. I was really just, I was doing the opposite of what this book was telling me. I should be doing if I wanted to become financially free. And if I didn't wanna have to worry about money. And so I ended up, um, I ended up selling this brand new property that we had built. Um, it, it was about a year old and we were, you know, I was living paycheck to paycheck, pay, paying the mortgage and everything.
Speaker 1 00:04:48 And I convinced my wife to move into a duplex. And that's how we started. And that was, that was 2013. So that was eight years ago. And we, I didn't know what the next step was. I just knew that I had to do something different. I had to change what I was doing. And in, in this case it was offsetting our mortgage. And so we, we ended up buying a duplex. We moved into it, we house hacked it. I lived upstairs, we rented the basement and it covered our mortgage. And I thought that that was gonna solve all our problems. And I'm like, okay, now, you know, now I'm gonna be good. I'm set. There's nothing else that I need to do. I've changed my life. And, and the reality is, is that when I offset the mortgage with the rental income, I didn't change my mindset of how I was viewing money.
Speaker 1 00:05:37 I was still living the same way as I was before. So now that my mortgage was offset, I was just spending more money. And I didn't, I didn't put any of that money away. So what ended up happening was I stayed in this house hack for almost four years without buying any more properties without even knowing what the next step was. I, I knew I wanted another property. I wanted to buy another duplex. I wanted to get into real estate investing. And I, I didn't know what to do. And what ended up happening was, again, started educating myself after four years, with four years of kind of wasting, wasting time that I could have done so much more. But I started, I went out to bigger pockets and I found bigger pockets. I found other investors that were in our area in Ontario, and I started connecting with them and I started plugging away and asking questions and asking them, Hey, how do you have 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 20 properties?
Speaker 1 00:06:30 And that's what brought me to the next level, where, where I connected with a mortgage broker who was a real estate investor. And he, he told me, Sean, you know, that did you know that you can leverage your duplex and the asset that you have to, to go and buy another duplex. And then I learned about the birth strategy, and that was 20, that was 2018. So my journey really started in 2018, from 2013 to 2018. I didn't really do much. I was just house hacking, living in the same property. And in 2018, I, I bought my first duplex, um, that I was not house hacking that, you know, it was a proper investment, 20% down in Ontario. And I went, I, I plugged away and I started doing renovations and I bought, and I followed the bur process on this property. Um, I put every single dollar that I had into it.
Speaker 1 00:07:23 So I, I, I refinanced my initial property and put all the money that I had from the refinance of the, of the first property into this, this, you know, this duplex. And that was scary. That was so scary for me because I was scared I was gonna fail because I had never done it before. And it was the most money that I've ever had in my life. And that, that hurdle, um, I think was, or, you know, that that process was what motivated me to make sure that I was gonna succeed and I was ready to do whatever I have to do to make sure that it's a success. And I ended up, I ended up renovating this first duplex in 2018. In 30 days, I was pretty hands on with the contractors, doing what I had to do. Um, I'd, I'd go work my nine to five.
Speaker 1 00:08:07 And after the nine to five, I would, I would go to the property and I'd help contractors until, you know, as late as I could. And then the contractors would leave and I would stay and do work myself, um, not knowing really what I was doing, but we ended up renovating this property in 30 days. And in 40, 45 days after I closed, I refinanced it. And I got all of my money back plus $30,000. And that was, that was surreal to me. That was, that was like the biggest thing that I'd ever accomplished in my life in 2018. And that's what, that's what motivated me to be like, if I can do this in two months, then what's stopping me from just repeating it and doing again and again. And, and again, again, in 2018, I, I think we bought five or six properties and I did the bur method on all of them. And we repeated the same thing, 20 19, 20, 20, 20, 21 up until today.
Speaker 0 00:08:56 Wow. So turning around a duplex and burning it and refinancing it in 45 days that, and I've probably taken part myself and our company in over 60 bur. Um, but that is impressive. I've never, ever, E even our company has never turned, uh, you know, around a property in, uh, in 30 days to loan.
Speaker 1 00:09:24 Uh, I lost a lot of weight.
Speaker 0 00:09:25 <laugh> I was gonna say, you must have been there. Well, obviously there was hammer swinging, probably very close to 24 7. Yeah. In order to get that done. And then obviously you must have analyzed your numbers pretty, pretty darn good. Because if you are walking away with all your capital plus a surplus in 45 days like that, that is incredible.
Speaker 1 00:09:50 That, that, and that was, that's why I think I moved so fast was because the first one was successful for me. And I realized that if I put the effort in, and, and I, and I listened to other people who'd already done it. I just, I just copied somebody else's process. Right. The bur process was already being done by people. I just copied it. And I, and I realized, okay, I can actually execute on this. So once I had the confidence to execute on it, I realized, okay, well, I just need to take this and repeat it as fast as I can as many times as I can. And eventually I'm gonna hit my goal, which was, you know, financial freedom and I wanted cash flow. So when I first started investing in this journey, the whole point of it was to make cash flow.
Speaker 1 00:10:30 I wanted to make, you know, maybe $500 a month or something like that off of a property. And I figured if I have X amount of properties, then I'm financially free. I don't know. I don't have to work anymore. So that was my initial goal. And I ended up, I ended up achieving that in 20, actually after only two years. So in 2020, I ended up achieving that. And my strategy changed a little bit because once you have the cash flow to sustain your life and your, you know, your cup's full and you have everything that you need, I can take care of my family. I can take care of my kids. Then the next step was okay, well, you know, what, what else can I do now? And my, I felt like my cup was overflowing. So I started coaching. I started coaching others on how to do it. And, um, yeah, I like, and you know, now, now we're here today, four years later and I've completely changed my life.
Speaker 0 00:11:20 Amazing. Um, do you mind sharing with us, what city was that in? That you did that 45 day bur
Speaker 1 00:11:27 That was in Forry Ontario. So in the nega region,
Speaker 0 00:11:30 Niagara region yeah. Which is obviously another hot market, uh, to be in. Yeah. That's amazing. Um, when you got started, did you have like, obviously doing your first bur, right. Did you have a mentor, a coach, somebody that was able to kind of guide you through it or was kind of hands on learn as you went?
Speaker 1 00:11:51 No, I, I definitely, um, I, I went to the school of hard knocks. <laugh> I, I learned, I learned it all on my own. Um, I haven't had a coach or mentor to, to date. Um, I, I think that I, you know,
Speaker 1 00:12:06 You, you get to a certain point where you realize that it's, it's probably something that you definitely need if you need to level up and get to that, you know, that next level and have bigger goals. So that's all, that's on my list of, you know, things that I, I do want is to, to find somebody that can, can, can elevate me more. Um, but I, I've had a very strong mindset, um, since the beginning of this journey. And I think that's, what's carried me through. So it's, it's a lot of like letting go of those limiting beliefs and really, really just believing that, you know, you can accomplish this and having that strong self-belief is what, right. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:12:42 Amazing. Yeah. Our stories are very similar, you know, because I, I, uh, scaled quite aggressively too when I started 11 years ago. And, um, I jumped through the hoops. I started by, you know, leveraging the equity I had in one of my properties and used that to go move forward, to buy rental more rental properties. So that's very similar. And then from there, I went to the school of hard knocks too. When I started, I, uh, I was growing, I was scaling and I never hired a coach or a mentor, or really had a lot of influence in my corner from, you know, other people that have done it before, other than the school of hard knocks like yourself. So been there, done it, I think, uh, you know, touching on that topic and now you, you mentor and coach people, so to speak as well. Um, I think it's worth its weight. I think it's worth the money and, you know, for people out there listening, if I could go back and you would ask me, so if you could go back, would you, would you have a mentor and coach starting from the beginning? What would you say?
Speaker 1 00:13:48 I would say. Yeah, because the, the, the biggest, the biggest problem, you know, in, in life is that you don't know what you don't know. And if somebody can give you that shortcut, then it's, it's worth its weight in gold.
Speaker 0 00:14:02 Yes. And you, uh, I think you can appreciate too. It could save you time. It could save you money. And in this game, like obviously harm money, go hand in hand and attribute to success. So for, for everybody listening out there, I personally strongly recommend it. Um, if it's in the budget and again, don't think scarcity think abundance, right? This, yes, it's an investment that you're making in yourself by spending the money on a mentor or coach, but, um, or, you know, like we obviously joined venture on a high level or, you know, working with a professional company, the JV as well, or someone like yourself who's been there who can help you, uh, and, and, and get you off to the races, so to speak so amazing.
Speaker 1 00:14:51 Exactly amazing.
Speaker 0 00:14:53 Um, Sean, you've attributed a lot of your success to a switch in mindset, and then we may have touched on it just very briefly there a few minutes back, but a switch in your mindset to unlock the ability to move forward. Um, tell us more about what this statement means to you and how you came to this evaluation.
Speaker 1 00:15:18 Yeah, so, um, my, my life definitely changed when I had my first daughter. Um, so I'm, you know, people will say, what, what is it that drives you? What is it that motivates you, you know, to, to get up and be hungry and, and, and want to live that life of abundance for, for me, my, why was, was my family, my, it was, it was my daughter. Now I have three daughters now, but it was my, my first born was, uh, you know, that motivator that was like this life. Isn't about me, it's about somebody else now. And I wanna provide the best lifestyle that I can and I have to put in the work and do whatever I gotta do to make sure that I can provide that because I, we didn't grow up with money. Um, you know, I grew up with just, uh, single mother. Um, and we, we, we, we didn't have money. Like we, we, uh, shopped at food banks. We, you know, we struggled and I didn't want that for my family.
Speaker 0 00:16:16 Amazing. So the mindset, so you started off and where was that? Obviously your goal was, I want a different lifestyle for you, for you and your family and your children and, and providing for them, um, for other real estate investors in getting into this space of, of investing in rental properties and whatnot, what advice or how can others in real estate kickstart their mindset, uh, and kind of follow your path? What would your advice be to them to kickstart their mindset and, and follow that direction?
Speaker 1 00:16:56 Yeah. So you'll, you'll need to, you'll really need to, you know, figure out what, what is it that you want to achieve? What, what is your, what is your goal, right. So you have to have, you have to have something that you're striving to work towards. For me, it was time, freedom. And the reason for that was when I had my daughter and I had that motivation that why I wanna provide the best lifestyle that I can. My biggest problem was that I didn't have the time even to spend with them because I was working so much in the corporate and I, I was commuting from, uh, first Hamilton, Hamilton to Mississauga. Then I moved to, uh, well, end was our first house hack. So I was going from, well, end to Mississauga. And I, I was, I was seeing my baby, like maybe for 30 minutes every night before she went to bed.
Speaker 1 00:17:41 And that was it. And, um, so what I did was I ended up doing, I ended up doing like, again, because I didn't have a mentor or coach. I did things that I, I probably, could've not, I, I didn't have to do so. I, I, I started working three jobs, for example, I didn't need to do that. I know I could have raised capital now and I could have joined venture. I could have borrowed private money. There's all of these things that I didn't know, because I didn't know what I didn't know. So back then I, I went and I started working three jobs and I, it was counterintuitive because I wanted more time with my daughter, but instead I went and I got two more jobs so that I could save money. So I could buy that rental property because I knew that my end goal was, I need time freedom.
Speaker 1 00:18:23 So what do I have to do? I have to do whatever I can right now and sacrifice that, that time for, for a bigger goal. So if you wanna, if you want to, you know, jumpstart yourself and get into that right head space, you need to just surround yourself with people that are already doing what you want to do. And that's, what's gonna, that's, what's gonna drive you, right. But at the end of the day, you need to find what your, why is, what is it that's pushing you forward, but then surround yourself with people who, who can elevate you and also bring you there with them.
Speaker 0 00:18:51 Couldn't agree more your, what is it, your circle of your five closest people you hang out with will probably reflect who you are or who you will achieve to become, um, in, in, in the work you want to do as well. So, yeah, I couldn't agree with you more, um, in, in about around 2020 Sean, you decided to open your own investment group, property management company, own your own business, and even become a real estate agent. Um, obviously mindset helped you achieve that. Um, how did the idea come to start these businesses? Would you just fall into place given where you were in real estate investing, or did you have a plan? How did that all evolve? These businesses
Speaker 1 00:19:40 That, that definitely grew organically. It wasn't something that I had. Pre-planned when I started becoming, uh, a real estate investor, as, as I got to the point where my portfolio was, was, uh, was large. And I realized, okay, there's a lot of time that I'm spending in the management of these. I realized that I could probably create some, we learn about joint ventures in real estate. So I realized, well, you know, you become a business person, you become an entrepreneur and real estate is a business. And so I, I realized, well, I should probably be leveraging the contractors and the people that I use and create some sort of business around it to create revenue and also save myself time, because I didn't want to, I didn't want to be a real estate investor to, to, to make money. I wanted to be a real estate investor so that I had time. And I realized that as my portfolio grew, I had less and less time. So
Speaker 1 00:20:35 I went, I went to my contractors, uh, my main contractor who was doing all my bur projects. He was doing the full, full renovations on all of them. And I pro I proposed to him to, uh, to open a business, a property management business, where he owns 50% equity in it, and I'll help grow the portfolio and continue getting more clients. And then, and he'll, he'll manage the current portfolio and he still gets paid. And it, it was a win-win for both of us. Um, and that's how, that's how that evolved into, you know, that property management business that we have. And that, that saves me a lot of time now. Um, you know, where I can be, I'm in Belize right now. And, uh, and we have the portfolio and the properties are being managed and it's, it's smooth.
Speaker 0 00:21:17 The more we talk, the more your story. So resembles mine, because we, you know, I had the same mindset as well when we were growing at a fast pace of, you know, having the in-house construction company, having the in-house property management company as well, that would facilitate, um, all of our acquisitions and our JV partners, our JV properties, and on and on and on. And yes, it would obviously produce revenue as well, but more so for me too, it was also a peace of mind that we have the right people in place for our properties that are looking after the construction that are looking after the property management. So very, very similar stories. Um, with respect to that, I, I think we think a lot alike ironically, but, um, that's awesome. That's awesome. Um, question, you mentioned the lease, let's get back to that. So you're there right now, just for, for our listeners. What, what's the weather like there now? What's the temperature like in Belize right now?
Speaker 1 00:22:26 Um, looking at the ocean right now and, uh, there's a little bit of a breeze on the Palm trees and it's 29 degrees out.
Speaker 0 00:22:34 Wow. Wow. Must be nice. Let's talk about that. So what took you obviously freedom we've, we've talked about how real estate investing has given you, or, or brought you and your family time, freedom. Um, how do you get to Belize? How did that all evolve?
Speaker 1 00:22:55 So it's, it's, it's life is so crazy. Um, I, I was in Cuba in 20 just before the pandemic. So 20 end of 2019 before the pandemic started and I was with my friend, you know, having cocktails on the beach and, you know, little bit of intoxicated conversation. And he said, Hey, how, how could we buy land and build something, you know, on a tropical island, like somewhere like Cuba. And I said, I, I don't know, but, uh, would you wanna partner with me if I can find something? And he said, yeah, sure. And so came back from Cuba. I, I went onto YouTube. I started looking up tropical destinations, where as a Canadian citizen, you can own real estate. And I stumbled across this YouTube video. This guy, Dennis K was, uh, talking about Belize and this beautiful Island's called Aus key, which is the largest island off of the, off the Belize.
Speaker 1 00:23:52 And I started watching videos and I went down a rabbit hole about the island. And I just did, as I did tons of research in a matter of like two weeks, I, I watched every video read every article I could find. And, uh, and I, I started talking to the real estate agent and I found a piece of land that was for sale on the island. And I called my friend up that I was with in Cuba. And I said, Hey, I found that piece of land. Are you still interested? We'll buy it. And he said, yeah, let's do it. And that's how the journey started. And it it's crazy how that evolved into what I'm doing here now, because it evolved into something that I hadn't planned, which originally I just wanted to buy a piece of land. And so that was end of 20 end of 2019 going into the new year 20, 20 pandemic hit.
Speaker 1 00:24:32 I, I hadn't even been to the, I haven't even been to the country, I believe let alone the island, and I'd never seen the plot of land. And I went through the whole process with the lawyers and signing the documents and I, and I got titled to the, to this land and I, and I realized I'm like, okay, that's, that's crazy. I actually own, I, I own real estate on this little island, this piece of land that maybe will build on one day and I didn't get to visit in 2020 because of the pandemic 20, 21. Um, well actually, I'll, I'll go back a little bit. So I didn't get to visit in 2020, but after I went through the process of purchasing the real estate, I realized that there was actually a gap in, in, um, the value of the real estate that I purchased and the value of the land that I purchased and what other people on forums and Facebook groups and things like that had just recently paid in the same area.
Speaker 1 00:25:22 And that, that was an opportunity. It, I realized this is actually an opportunity that I can capitalize on. And so what I ended up doing was I bought a second plot. I, I bought a second plot of land, but I offered it to my friend who I bought the first one with. And he said, he's not interested. He's gonna pass on it. So I bought it on my own and I, I kind of just went all in on the island and I ended up buying about six or seven pieces of land in 2020 with sight on scene, never being to the island. Then 2021 came and I brought the, I brought the girls down to, to the island and I went and visited all these plots of land that I had purchased. And I was, I, I couldn't believe what I had paid for it. I, it was just like just such, it's a beautiful island, beautiful people, great food. The weather's amazing. And I, I was like, this is surreal that I, that I own all this land. And I, and then I, I really doubled down and I ended up going from so 20, 21, I had six plots of land. And, uh, we're like a year later, I'm, I'm, I'm around 35 parcels of land and four condos that I own here on island now.
Speaker 0 00:26:25 <laugh> wow. That is incredible. And how old are you now?
Speaker 1 00:26:32 36.
Speaker 0 00:26:34 Unbelievable. UN like, wow, that's amazing then. Good for you. Good for you. You know, I, I know one other guy, um, that just started doing some stuff and though as well, um, and he swears by it. Um, what's um, how far is a flight to Billies?
Speaker 1 00:26:55 Um, so you can get a direct flight, um, from Toronto Tobel city, it's four hours, and then there's a two hour time difference. So when you, if you, if you, if you had a 6:00 AM flight from Toronto, you land here and believes at 8:00 AM their time, local time.
Speaker 0 00:27:10 Right. Wow. And what's the average, like, if I were gonna go just for everybody listening, if let's say I wanna, well, you're on a different level, you bought all this land. Um, but if I wanted to buy a condo, let's say a two bedroom, two bath condo on the water, nicely done, blah, blah, blah. What's that worth give or take nowadays.
Speaker 1 00:27:35 So, so last year I, I took, I took the information and the knowledge that I learned in Ontario on, you know, negotiation on finding gaps in the market, um, making sure that I'm making money on the buy. And, um, I bought a two bed condo here. Um, I, in this, this, uh, resort area where I am for, I think they were asking like 170,000 us. I ended up getting under contract and closing on it for 119,000. They're selling for about 230,000 now.
Speaker 0 00:28:08 Oh, nice. So you're up a hundred grand already.
Speaker 1 00:28:12 Yeah. If we, if we were to, if we were to sell it, you know, we we're up, uh, we've doubled our money on it. Um, we don't really have plans. We're gonna definitely keep this long term, these properties. Um, but so two bed on the beach, it's starting right. Starting price right now, you're at 200,000 us, and then it just goes up, you know, exponentially after that.
Speaker 0 00:28:32 How many square feet would that give you? Um,
Speaker 1 00:28:34 This one, these, most of the ones that I have are 1500 square feet.
Speaker 0 00:28:38 Oh, that's a good size.
Speaker 1 00:28:39 Yeah. Yeah. There's there, you can, you can fit six people easily in
Speaker 0 00:28:43 The so 200 us gets you in the door. And would that be something that needs work or is it more of a renovated condo?
Speaker 1 00:28:53 Um, not super modernized. So if you want, you know, upscale, modernized, you're probably looking in like that 500,000 us range. Um, so these are kind of, you know, older buildings, maybe like 15, 20 years old. Not, not, it doesn't need renovations, but you know, could use some cosmetic touches, maybe some paint, stuff like that.
Speaker 0 00:29:14 Right? Yep. Well, geez. That's not bad at all. And you're on the beach.
Speaker 1 00:29:19 Yeah. Yeah. Like beach is right across the street
Speaker 0 00:29:22 There. Wow. And, um, safe as far as you know, to be out and about with your family. Obviously, if you guys, are you guys living down there now?
Speaker 1 00:29:32 Um, so starting this year, uh I'm. I'm, I'm opening a dive shop down here. I became passionate about diving and starting this year, we're gonna be spending about seven or eight months of the year for like going forward,
Speaker 0 00:29:46 Just staying there. Yeah. Wow. Wow. What a journey. That's amazing. So it started out as H a house hack in, in Ford E is that what you said or, well,
Speaker 1 00:29:59 Yeah. In, in, well end
Speaker 0 00:30:01 A house hack and well, where you guys lived in one unit renting out the other, turned into an empire of properties and brought you to financial freedom and time freedom, and now a bunch of properties and land in Beese like,
Speaker 1 00:30:18 Yeah, it's, it's surreal. That's what I say. Like it's, to me, to me, it's, it's surreal. Um, it's still surreal to me. I reflect some days and I'm like, I can't, I'm just grateful. I'm so grateful.
Speaker 0 00:30:29 And as far as like, just, you know, um, and part of my ignorance, cuz I don't know, bellies at all, um, is the common language spoken down there English or it is,
Speaker 1 00:30:44 It's actually the, it's the only country in central America where the, the, the primary language is English. Um, so all the contracts, everything that you buy is in English. Um, title is fee simple title, the same way we have in Canada. So as a Canadian citizen, you can, you can freely buy real estate here. There's no red tape at all. And uh, there's really no financing. That's one of the obstacles. So, you know, you probably have to leverage assets or if you have savings are like, you know, RSP money or something,
Speaker 0 00:31:13 Right. You gotta buy a cash,
Speaker 1 00:31:14 You gotta buy a cash. Um, and if you're, you know, for me initially again, it's, it's funny because I, I had, my initial plan was okay, well I wanted to buy something for lifestyle. And the reason that I ended up doubling down and buying so much land was because I was able to buy land, have locals come in and clear the land, leave just the Palm trees on it and then sell it, but hold financing on it. And, and I became the bank and I I've I've resold land four or five times what I paid for it on a 30 year mortgage at a 10% interest rate. And I just collect money from the raw land.
Speaker 0 00:31:52 Wow. That's okay. I'm very, very impressed. That's that's, that's incredible. Good for you. Um, guys, I can't stress enough, everybody listening. Um, <laugh> you want to talk about mindset and you want to talk about growing and stepping outside of your comfort zone. You're buying land in be, and you've never been there and you're buying it here during the pandemic, you know, essentially whatever you can gather on the internet, but you, you physically never went down there and yet you're buying all this land, obviously not really in your overall comfort zone, but stepping outside of that and that mindset you have, like, like you can't even write, you can't even write books about this shit.
Speaker 1 00:32:43 It was scary. It was I'll, I'll be honest. It was really scary. And after I did it, you know, 5, 6, 7 times that fear went away because I realized, Hey, I'm, I'm doing something right here. Um, it got to the point where the realtor, the realtors here working for Remax and, uh, Keller Williams and stuff. They said, Sean, like, you've actually the Island's small, it's only one and a half miles wide and 20 miles long. And half of it can't be developed because it's, uh, it's, uh, NA like nature reserve. So the, the land is very finite and, uh, it did get to the point where I had purchased almost all of the real estate that was under a certain price point on the island, all the raw land that came up for sale. And I had, I actually affected a whole market on the west side of the island where people wouldn't sell anymore because they saw that it was all being bought up. So the price actually doubled and tripled like within, within the less than a year.
Speaker 0 00:33:35 Cause you were buying it all.
Speaker 1 00:33:37 Yeah. And now, and now it's actually like it's gone up even more like we've seen about yeah. Two to four times what, what I paid, you know, in 2020.
Speaker 0 00:33:46 Incredible. Wow. Congratulations man. Amazing. Um, I think we're getting towards the end. We're at 35 minutes. So I think I want to wrap it up by our, uh, our end of lightning round as, as we call it where we're just going to, uh, shoot a couple quick, last, uh, minute questions for you and then we'll, we'll call it a date. Um, sounds good. I think we touched upon this, but um, we'll, we'll, we'll touch upon it one more time. You're obviously very successful now, Sean, and we say this 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 does Sean see?
Speaker 1 00:34:40 Yeah. So there, there, there's a saying that I, that I live by, which is you're you have to ask yourself, you know, every single day are you growing or dying? That that's my, that's my life motto. You're you're either doing two thins in life, you're growing or dying. So for me, I wanna make sure that I'm continuing to take steps forward every single day to make sure that I'm growing. And when you can get to the point where you feel like abundance in life, I think for me, the direction that I'm taking that now is affecting other people's lives and helping them
Speaker 0 00:35:14 Amazing.
Speaker 1 00:35:14 And that's what, that's what makes me happy is how many, how many lives can I impact?
Speaker 0 00:35:21 Very, very powerful. If you're not growing, you're dying are dying. Wow. And focus, obviously your focus is on growth. Mm-hmm <affirmative> cause nobody wants to die. Right. So right. That's amazing. Absolutely. Um, overwhelmingly impressed with your story, your journey, how you've kind of went in different directions and now buying up the lease, like it's going outta style, like completely, completely impressive. Sean. Thank you. Thank you so much for being a guest on our show and for everybody out there who wants to talk to you cuz I'm sure there's gonna be a bunch of listeners listening to this who want to talk to Sean? How do they get ahold of you, Sean?
Speaker 1 00:36:05 The easiest ways on Instagram, I'm pretty active on it. And it's just first name, last name. So Sean S H a w N last name R E a
Speaker 0 00:36:13 Guys look him up on Instagram. I did. Uh, that's how I connected with Sean. He's got a ton of stuff there on, uh, himself and his business and what he does and uh, yeah. Reach out to him. And um, on that note, people who still have not, or looking to get in touch with Adrian, um, shoot me an email. Adrian, a D R I N a D R I a N. Invest with epc.com and uh, yeah, let's chat on that note, Sean. Thanks again. Uh, for being on our show, it's been a real, real pleasure hearing your story and, and speaking with you today and I wish you and your family, nothing but continued success.
Speaker 1 00:36:55 Thank you so much for inviting me. I appreciate it.
