Hello real estate investors!! Welcome to another episode of the truth about real estate investing show. Happy New Years to you all! We have many terrific guests lined up for 2018 so make sure to subscribe so you may learn their lessons to ensure you achieve your new years resolutions and I’m sure they include increased financial security and freedom!! In case anyone is interested, the Real Estate Investment Network is hosting it’s annual weekend workshop call the Authentic Canadian Real Estate Systems (or ACRE for short) on March 2nd - 4th near Toronto Pearson Airport at the Pearson Convention Centre. For my friends and listeners to the show, REIN has provided me a discount code and I tested it just now to save you $300 per guest. If you’ve been to other events that are out there, the full retail price of $687 which has never gone up to my recollection, I’m a REIN member so my admission is included in my monthly fee…. but anyways, the full retail price is a fantastic deal already and my discount code of ERWINSGUEST will save you $300. Link: http://info.reincanada.com/toronto-acre-2018 If you want the full ACRE experience, I recommend you plan to attend the informal evening festivities to network with the other attendees. To me, it’s a great time to reconnect with my out of town real estate friends who don’t make it to all the events but they make the time for ACRE because it’s such a great event. Anyways, on to my 2017 Year in Review The Real Estate Market: From January to May, the market rocketed up. It was near impossible to purchase a property in Hamilton as it was a regular occurrence to compete with double digit offers on the same property with limited supply and demand through the roof from Toronto folks and locals. St. Catharines grew in popularity for us as investors as competition was still fierce but nothing like Hamilton and we were renting at rates close to Hamilton’s. KWC was crazy hot as well and continues to be hot as multiple offers there are a regular occurrence. After May, and after the Foreign buyer tax becoming effective, the market slowed considerably for Hamilton and St. Catharines, exactly what us investors wanted though we noted less interest from investors in Summer and Fall. Oddly enough, that is when I purchased two properties, in the summer and fall, both as discounts from the Spring market. Right now the market feels more balance but prices remain up around 7-8% in our target markets compared to this time last year. The Rental Market: As a real estate investor we have two real estate markets to monitor: real estate prices as that determines the value of our portfolio and acquisition costs. Then there is the rental market and 2017 was very good to investors. From January to May, our investors were obtaining the highest rents we’ve ever seen in the markets we operate: mainly Kitchener Waterloo Cambridge, Hamilton, Brantford, Hamilton, St. Catharines, Niagara Region. In the Spring we were consistently seen rents of 1650 plus utilities for renovated three bedroom apartments and 1300+ for basement two bedrooms. Keep in mind about five-six years ago, we rented entire three bedroom houses for 1300+. The summer saw reduced demand as kijiji ad views and showings were way down and returned to a moderate level in the Fall. Myself, I like to review my rental ads and prices every two weeks. If I need to make an adjustment I will, most often to price or tweaking of the headline or ad copy. For the property we purchased in the summer, I needed to reduce the rent 3-4 times by $25-50 increments till we found a great tenant. For the property we closed on December 1st, knowing we were approaching the holidays and winter, the slowest market, I was ultra aggressive by advertising our rent $50 below market value. Evaluating a $50/month discount vs. being vacant for three months, an opportunity cost of $4,800, I chose the $50 discount and we rented to a customer who attended the first showing. On the business side, we’ve grown considerably helping investors transact on over 100 properties in 2017. We’ve undergone many changes moving away from the Mr. Hamilton brand to the Halton Real Estate Investment Group as a necessity as we expanded our geographic coverage of top towns for investment in pursuit of cash flow. Our team has grown considerably as well in order to support the number of clients we support, apparently good news travels fast and when you do a great job helping to coach clients to financial success, they compliment you with referrals of friends and family for which we are forever grateful. Erika Spencer joined our team in late 2016 and has been a force to reckon with even with the birth of baby Owen in October and was back to work in November. Koukun Unosawa, Han Wang, Tammy Ditomaso all joined us in 2017 plus Paisley Mackenzie is coming onboard in early 2018 all as Junior Coaches. To ensure our newest team members received the same or better training I had given, James Tiberius Maggs was promoted to Vice President of Coaching Services with all of our coaches reporting directly to him. On the Personal side of 2017, improving my health and energy levels took main stage. After years of pushing myself mentally and physically for years, I was burnt out. My body was giving up yet I continued to get by on excessive caffeine (coffee) and sheer will power. I took a couple tests while seeing a new doctor, Dr Callum Cowan, a high performance health specialist who works with pro athletes like NHL’ers, UFC fighters, high level executives, to repair the damage I’ve inflicted on myself to get to where I am today. I did a very restrictive cleanse in February and March avoiding my food sensitivities and to take care of a parasitic bacteria I picked up somewhere all the while competing in the Crossfit Open. I also started going to bed earlier. As you parents and entrepreneurs know, we can only control what we can control and I’ve found my mood and energy level is simply better with more sleep. My kids and family, my clients, my business deserve the best me so I started tracking my sleep with my wearable technology called a Whoop and app to ensure my peak performance. With all these changes, the quality of my work has improved as my mind is rested and more clear. I’m able to train more often which I love without having to take as many afternoon naps. The best part is I’m less cranky with my wife and kids so everyone wins with more sleep. Dr Cowan is one of our guest speakers for the January Halton REI Group meeting on January 13th. His talk is titled "Feel Better, Function Better, Become a Phenom” and if you’ve seen him present before, don’t worry, the doctor has promised updates as the science of health is ever evolving!! We will also be hosting a guest panel of investors on the subject of raising successful kids featuring Carol Dias, Margaret Plut, Rob Watson, Charles Wah and Mary Clements. All are successful in their careers and as investors, and they are happy to share the lessons so we can all achieve one of our ultimate goals, parents to successful children. To Listen: On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/truth-about-real-estate-investing…/id1100488294 Google Play: http://goo.gl/CAM5Mn On Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=87335&refid=stpr
Till next time, Just do it, I believe in you. Erwin Hamilton, St. Catharines, Toronto Real Estate, Land Development Investor This podcast is brought to you by the Halton Real Estate Investors Group. The goal of the Halton REI is to entice would-be real estate entrepreneurs to get off the couch, make things happen, and replicate the success of our multi-millionaire clients such as podcast guests Charles Wah, Andy Tran, Evelyn, Kaush, Cherry Chan, Michal Wywrot and Tim Collins. Our track record of coaching highly successful investors is extensive and we share our secrets, tips and tricks at Halton REI meetings. So if you are interested in travelling the path of least resistance to real estate wealth without ever swinging a hammer than this is the place for you. Go to HaltonREI.ca/signup to register and do so quickly to avoid disappointment as we have waitlisted folks many times and seats are limited. One of the secrets of success is to surround oneself with successful people and in my ten plus years of attending workshops and networking events, this is one of the best places to be and I hope to see you soon.
