Episodes
On to this week’s show! We have one of my oldest real estate investor friends Andy Tran who was among my first clients and home inspectors.   I’ll always remember the first deal we did together, a detached house in Hamilton for $216,000. The house had been sitting for nearly two months before we came along and during our appointment to see the property, I noticed there was something not right.  The owners listed a man and woman’s name but while inspecting in the fridge and closets, I could...
Published 05/01/24
My friend Shawn Bedard who I first met at REIN over ten years ago and our real estate investing paths were quite different. Back in 2010, Shawn couldn’t find deals that make sense in Ontario so he went to landlord friendly USA and bought 4 houses in Atlanta and 10 in Memphis, Georgia. His experience and investment went…. I’ll let him SHARE. Other than real estate investing, I’ve invited Shawn on the show to discuss his volunteer work at a non-profit organization called Entrepreneur’s...
Published 04/22/24
We have my friend Adam Kitchener back on the show as we get along because he keeps it so real.  No pictures of him on a private plane, or luxury vehicle or luxury watches. Well he does actually but they’re obviously photoshopped as he’s poking fun at the phonies out there.   Don’t get me wrong, luxury stuffs great. I personally luv it when folks celebrate their success and reward themselves.  Keep in mind, most successful people in my experience don’t brag about their wealth, read “the...
Published 04/17/24
Returning to the show is Andrew Kim from Brampton who identifies as American. He used to invest locally, the return on time wasn’t there so he bought 20 houses in landlord friendly USA ten years ago now he cash flows over ten thousand US dollars per month.  His Accountant Carmen was the one who guided Andrew to invest in the USA along with several of her Accounting and Financial Planning Clients since 2008.  Since then they’ve combined forces to make the same opportunities available to...
Published 04/10/24
We have returning to the show my friend Seth Ferguson and I want to thank him for hosting the biggest real estate event of the year May 24-26th.  The Friday is a 101 for beginners then the main course is the Saturday and Sunday and I’m excited to see all my friends from the community, hopefully our 17 listeners and Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort. I don’t know his full story outside of the Leonardo Dicaprio movie, he did go to jail for doing awful things with peoples’ money but I know...
Published 04/03/24
This week we have a very special guest in Patrick Francey, CEO of the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN for short). What makes REIN special in my experience is they’ve always been affordable, REIN has been around longer than pretty much all the other real estate education or networking organizations.  They focus on economic fundamentals and cash flow, they literally teach both subjects extensively once per year in each of the cities they operate. As such, their members are among the most...
Published 03/28/24
On today’s show, we have one of my mentors and brokers in Tom Karadza, co-founder of Rock Star Real Estate Brokerage, Inc who in my experience is one of the best leaders and influencers in our community.  If results are what matters to you like they do for me, Rock Star’s 1000+ members are well educated in investing and are among the most successful especially after you adjust for risk.  No get rich quick schemes at Rock Star. On today’s show Tom and discuss how Rock Star members have...
Published 03/19/24
On to this week’s show! Today we have my Mortgage Broker Scott Dillingham from Windsor Ontario who as far as I know is the only investor specialist who can help Canadians with mortgages in both Canada and the USA. Scott while he was the #1 mortgage broker at one of Canada’s biggest banks got my clients and I many mortgages at cheap rates and I’m now selling one of them. Scott has since opened his own mortgage brokerage called Lendcity, he shares how American debt service coverage ratio...
Published 03/05/24
On to this week’s show, someone polar opposite to my strategy of lazy investing: fully involved and active investing including having executed on 150 or some deals in 2023 including 50 flips.  While Luc Boiron lives in Ottawa, he has flips are far as Vancouver and while flips are sexy as people love to watch them on tv or take courses on flipping… well I’m sorry, not sorry we have Luc here to share a behind the scenes look at why he’s flipping and it’s not what you’d expect. Luc is the...
Published 02/28/24
Our guest should need no introduction, it’s my lovely wife the Real Estate Accountant Cherry Chan!   Cherry Chan is here to share about the convoluted changes by our Federal government who seem to know more about what real estate we own, they keep coming out with half baked ideas only to delay, delay, make us all jump through hoops, make busy work. It’s really complicated stuff but Cherry is a talented messenger who can explain what the Trudeau, Liberal government is doing.   We also chat...
Published 02/20/24
In this enlightening episode, Rachel, with a background in advertising managing a $65 budget and a significant journey in real estate investment from growing up in a duplex to owning investment properties in Florida, investing in duplexes and garden suites in Barrie, Ontario to now full blown cottages resort business owner and operator in Muskoka.  Rachel's story of strategic investment and personal growth. Our conversation touches on the challenges of property management, the insights gained...
Published 02/14/24
On today’s show I invited my good friend Christian Szpilfogel to discuss the sad truth about real estate in managing and recovering distressed assets, understanding the root causes and having proactive strategies. We discussed the risks of private lending, the responsibilities of the borrowers.  Christian has the unique perspective of having worked in a heavily securities regulated environment of Mergers and Acquisitions when he was a general manager under one of Canada’s richest Canadians...
Published 02/07/24
Real Estate Journey: Woods started with a $69,000 property, gradually moving to multi-family properties, mixed-use, and commercial buildings. Market Shifts: Discussion on the changing real estate market dynamics, particularly in Ontario, Canada, and his strategies in response to these changes. Personal Strategy and Lifestyle: Woods talks about his transition to investing in the Dominican Republic and the U.S., focusing on lifestyle alongside investment returns. He stresses the importance of...
Published 01/31/24
We have podcast host of A Canadian Investing in the US, Glen Sutherland, hey’s a nice, sharing guy, a seasoned real estate investor, and he’s here to share his own journey of how he ran into a wall investing in Ontario then pivoted to the USA in 2017 and never looked back.  Glen shares insights from his experience, including strategies for finding and managing properties, navigating different market conditions, and the importance of building a reliable team all from the comfort of his home...
Published 01/24/24
This week we have professional, full time investor Chad Urbshott who lives in near me in Oakille, Ontario but he’s been investing in the US since 2013 and doing so remotely from Canada. He’s tried pretty much all the small residential investing strategies, fix and flip, wholesale but found his niche by specializing in U.S. mortgage notes Chad discusses his journey and strategies in the complex field of note investing. He emphasizes the importance of thorough due diligence, explains various...
Published 01/16/24
Dmitri Bourchtein (CIO & Co-Founder of SHARE) was formerly an Executive Director of Investments at Starlight U.S. Residential, with direct involvement in over $7B of U.S. residential real estate transactions. Dmitri is a seasoned institutional investor with experience in all aspects of the real estate value-chain and is passionate about levelling the playing field for retail investors in the competitive landscape of U.S. SFRs and enabling everyday landlords to maximize their returns. By...
Published 01/10/24
This week’s guest Carmen Da Silva, a Canadian who lives full time in Florida who knows a lot about investing for cash flow in the USA.  Carmen Da Silva (CFO & Co-Founder of SHARE) is a CPA in both Canada and the USA. She articled with Price Waterhouse Cooper specializing in corporate and cross-border tax. Carmen built an insurance platform that allows boutique investment brokers to sell tax-sheltered insurance using Family Office Teams. She generated in excess of 500M AUM in just 5...
Published 01/03/24
I’d like to take a moment to reflect on the human beings negatively affected by investing on pre-construction or speculation. There have been many and will be many more people losing their 15% deposits on pre-construction condos and houses and they’re on the hook for any costs and losses incurred by the builder when they resell the property. In combination with a slowing economy and job losses it’s just awful out there.   In a country with massive affordability issues someone was going to...
Published 12/18/23
On to this week’s show!  MacKenzie Wilson is a risk adverse, smart guy as he got into investing in Calgary real estate and wisely knew that screening for the right tenant was absolutely key and that the wrong tenant would lead to a living nightmare.  This coming from a Calgarian! Ask him what he thinks about the investing in BC or Ontario!! MacKenzie Wilson is an advocate for affordable housing and reduces the risk for landlords and tenants across Canada. With this MacKenzie has created and...
Published 12/13/23
On to this week’s show! We have my old friend Tim Hong, we’ve been associates at Rock Star Real Estate and coaching investors since 2011.  Tim has done several joint ventures in rent to owns, an apartment building, student rentals. Tim has his own property management company for condos to duplexes from Toronto to Hamilton to Kitchener-Waterloo.  In his newest venture, a cash flow play, Tim acquired a private, off market Canada Post franchise and he is approaching one year of ownership and...
Published 12/06/23
On with the show! This week we have the lovely Victoria Cluney who has a different journey than most… well at least she is the first career Canadian Armed Forces personnel to be a guest of this show.  Victoria shares her journey of how she stumbled into being a landlord by renting out her home when she was transferred by work to different bases, which made great money but it wasn’t until she developed her cottage property for short term rental income did she realise what she enjoyed most. ...
Published 11/28/23
On to this week’s show! Our guest is basically a Canadian as he grew up in Minnesota near the border. Ryan grew up further north that the vast majority of Ontarians so he knows snow, hockey, black flies and cold winters. Then he smartened up and moved to Florida and participated in some roller coaster markets including the financial crisis and housing market crash of 2007-2009.  Ryan will share his experience on how they made a killing back then. Ryan is well beyond just being a Realtor,...
Published 11/20/23
Investing for positive cash flow, areas of job growth and warm weather, regaining control of the retirement investment plan and legacy portfolio; all this and more on today’s episode of the Truth About Real Estate Investing Show for Canadians. I’m your host Erwin Szeto, landlord since 2005, Realtor and Coach to investors since 2010, 4X Realtor of the year, $400,000,000+ in client transactions, and host of this little podcast that could that is ranked #81 Business podcasts per Apple iTunes. ...
Published 11/14/23
Hello and welcome to the Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians, my name is Erwin Szeto, residential real estate investor since 2005, and in my experience, the investment that has gotten my over 350 clients ahead in life is direct ownership of real estate as they own the property, manage it themselves or hire a property manager, and grow their portfolios by borrowing cheap mortgage money. My team here at iWIN real estate has been coaching clients to do so since 2010 and it’s been a...
Published 11/07/23