Gillian Irving: 0:22

Welcome to the Wisdom Lifestyle Money Show. My name is Gillian Irving, and I'm a mortgage agent with Lend City Mortgages. I'm, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a longtime real estate investor. I'm a former business owner, the mother of 4, and I'm an avid runner. And today, I'm so delighted to welcome my really good friend, Monica Jacek, to the show. I'm gonna read Monica's bio. It's a long and impressive bio. Monica is a wife and a proud mother of 4 as well, so Monica and I have had many long chat about having 4 kids and how tricky that is and how great it is. So she has 4 wonderful yet expensive children. After the completion of her master's degree in teaching and the birth of her eldest son, Monica chose to stay at home with her growing family, sacrificing income of a full time wage to do so. To create monthly income, to be able to find immediate and future expenses for her children, Monica and her husband, Von, chose real estate as the investment vehicle to create extra income and to build long term wealth. So these guys have created a successful real estate portfolio consisting of buy rent hold properties, which has allowed Monica to stay home to raise her 4 kids while assuring all of their immediate and future needs are met, which you could think about as no easy task, especially when they're all at university age, but I digress. Monica is also a co owner of RPI Education, the world's fastest growing investment community, and she is on a mission to help everyday people invest like the top 2%. She is passionate about helping other people create wealth through real estate and alternative investments so they can reach their financial and personal goals. To date, RPI Education has assisted thousands of people across the globe to build wealth and create time, money, freedom in their lives. Monica spends her day seeking joy in everyday life through travel, philanthropy, friends, and most importantly, family, but she didn't add antennas, which I know is also a huge important part of her life.

Monika Jazyk: 2:13

Welcome, Monica. Thanks, Gillian, for having me.

Gillian Irving: 2:17

Yeah. It's so much fun. I mean, honestly, Monica, it's it's been a while since we've hopped on a call to catch up with what's going on in our lives. So what is keeping primarily, what is keeping you busy these days?

Monika Jazyk: 2:31

4 kids, and I'm sure you you would say the same. Yeah. But no. Well, you know, it's really a mix. Obviously, we really do have that time, money, freedom. That's what we really stand for. So primarily my number one job really is a mother to 4, but because of real estate, it obviously allows me to make that a primary focus. And outside of that, I do incorporate the tennis. I like how you say avid because you're actually good at it. I am like a doubles league coffee in a coffee house league player. So all about fun, but just to get activity. And then also I'm still so passionate about real estate and real estate investments. I love being in the field as a full time real estate investor and I've done this for over 14 years, and it really never gets boring. And it certainly can keep you busy as well. So definitely figuring out what works in this tricky market also takes a lot of time as well.

Gillian Irving: 3:29

I bet it I bet it does. So, like, pretty much every investor I've talked to over the past 2 years has had to I mean, pivot is the new word. Right? So I'm sure you had to rethink and reimagine and dig into your business to make it, you know, just to make it more profitable or find off the profitability edges in it. But what do you say is, like, a big is there been a primary shift in your market in the past couple of years? Is there something you're doing, like, you would say is different as a result of the pandemic?

Monika Jazyk: 4:00

Yes. Very different. So I

Gillian Irving: 4:01

and I have

Monika Jazyk: 4:02

2 different fronts too. Mhmm. So the one different thing that we've actually done in regards to real estate throughout the pandemic really was we moved we sold all in Northern Ontario, Alameda. Thank God for that. We are out of those horrible markets because we had lots of leftover properties in there. So we got out of those markets, and we also really took advantage of the price of our properties and the gains in our properties in the tertiary markets Mhmm. Which really are not so tertiary anymore. So I'm talking the Hamiltons, the Barrie's, the KWC's, the Windsor. Mhmm. And a lot of those properties were just at this all time high and especially like the Windsor market. So I knew we'll get out of this. And we actually brought it in tighter and closer to a plus markets, like downtown Toronto, like Markham, you know, like the Stouffville area, all the areas really in that's in the Ontario. And Calgary is another great mark. So we really started redefining these markets that were a lot like they seemed unachievable when we started out. But at this point, because the tertiary markets have increased so much, the gap between these a plus markets where you can really get these great tenants and using the BRRRR strategy, which is what we always do, allows us to create housing in those areas but also have a really super tight portfolio. So what do you want? A 100 problematic properties? Or do you want a $20,000,000 portfolio with 10 properties? That becomes my new threshold. But Right. Both changed another thing too.

Gillian Irving: 5:52

Oh, but I've got so many questions. Okay. Hold that thought. But let's just back up a second. So you're talking about selling off a lot of faraway northern properties. So I can imagine that you got those properties because the cash flow was probably amazing. Right? Like, it's cheap, like, good cash flow potential. So for investors who are lured and who find the who are motivated by cash flow, tell me what the problems what are the problems of investing far away in smaller markets? Like, what is the difficulty

Monika Jazyk: 6:28

general is this. No. Stay away. No. Red flag. I think that the property is with us. Yes. They were it was good until it wasn't.

Gillian Irving: 6:38

Mhmm.

Monika Jazyk: 6:40

And there's a lot of people who are acting like Timmins and these northern places, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie are like, We've been in these markets. This is where we started, and this is the next best thing. Now it's horrible then and it is horrible now still. We were picking up the properties for like $40,000 renting them out for $1,000 a month. And it was great, especially when all the roads were leading north. We thought we had strong economic fundamentals and all of a sudden the government changed and all roads were not leading north. And all of a sudden there is unemployment, there's job layoffs, there's no employers. Our strong economic fundamentals were not strong at all. And soon as that happened, there was a huge shift in the market. Vacancies were up. There was not a demand for housing. Guess what happens with your team, which was so great and your best friends, when you don't need them anymore and you're not buying properties every day, they don't like you anymore. And the property management also went corrupt. So all of a sudden, our trusty, dusty property management team that we're trusting was pretty much stealing from us, you know, renting out properties, saying they're vacant when they weren't, and really running our buildings and all of these properties. There's like over a 100 units. And so it took me years to clear out of this portfolio, but thank God we're out of there. So I think the main thing that people try to do in these little real estate courses is chase 10 cap rates, which doesn't even really apply to residential real estate. But on, in regards to what income you're going to get, a 10 cap rate is like a cash cow. So in that perspective, these properties look great on paper, but in implementing them in reality and combining them with the challenges of Ontario real estate, such as tenants being able to not pay their rent for a year and a half, the cost of maintenance and construction, and, you know, being not being there to supervise it. I'm enjoying my time a lot better with my portfolio in Markham, which is just I just have to drive 2 minutes down the road, and I have a whole bunch of properties on the same street. And it's just it's fun to manage them and go there and maintain them and check this and check that. Keep your eye on them. The sense of control is so much more. Another problem with those properties in these low growth markets is the appreciation is pretty much nonexistent. So I'm always teaching people to make money when you buy in real estate and focus in high growth markets that really are not gonna ever be jeopardized, you know, by lack of need for housing because that's what we need to focus on. So in one of my, social media posts, I was talking about, you know, the importance of making money for you buy and how real estate, like, one property, if you buy it in the right area, can give you make you a multimillionaire in retirement. And he says, not in Washington state. And I'm like, maybe I should have put a disclosure in there and said in areas that have these strong economic fundamentals with a history of natural appreciation. A lot of these places in Washington state are flat markets. A lot of these properties in Cleveland, Ohio are flat markets. People are acting like Cleveland and Ohio is the next best thing. We were in that market 14 years ago. People are like Kansas City is the next best thing. We were in that market 12 years ago. So it's not just in the Canadian markets. I've also seen this in the US markets as well. You'll be like, oh, I wanna invest in Detroit because it's so cheap. Once again, cheaper is not. And the US real estate, you it's substantially cheaper when you compare it to real estate. Even in real estate in Calgary, which I would say is one of our lower Canadian markets that we had focus on. Cause if we're primarily in BC and in Ontario, which would be the highest markets in Canada, and then we'll focus on Halifax, which is similar. And they're at more similar price points, but they're both experiencing very market highs. I won't touch any other province in Ontario Mhmm. Or city, even in those provinces. So I won't do Edmonton. I won't do New Brunswick. We won't do we'll help people in those areas if they want to do that. It's different when it's in your own backyard. But for ourselves and for the teams that we build, we only focus on these really a plus markets that are just growing. They may have already stabilized, and we believe there's a lot of money that people can make in these tough times in these existing markets by really creating these great deals. And that was the second part of COVID. What happened was is we used to like in person meetings all the time and information, and we were only in Ontario before. Mhmm. And COVID allowed us to expand first across Canada and then across high growth areas in the US where we now have gone through and built our teams out with successful investors in those areas, as well as full service teams of agents, contractors, home inspectors, and all those people.

Gillian Irving: 11:32

So when you say we have grown, are you talking about your education piece or, like, just your teams that help investors who wanna purchase there? What do you mean by is that what

Monika Jazyk: 11:41

you mean? Education. But we also do everything that we recommend too. So we are currently investing in those areas as well alongside, you know, people that were saying, we have these teams, you know, here to help you. We've identified this as a high growth area. We've worked with specialists to create these strategies. This is what we've achieved. If anyone's interested in investing in the US, then here is a team in place for you that you can do on your own.

Gillian Irving: 12:10

So let's pause here on the US stuff because as you know, Lendly Mortgages, now we're able to help get mortgages in the states. And, honestly, Monica, I'm sure you felt the sentiment shift too. People are just so tired of Ontario. Honestly, it's hard to do it's harder to do business here. Obviously, if you've got a great property, you've had it for a long time, and you've got good equity and cash flow, and you can select the right tenants. Business can be great, but, oh my gosh, heaven help you if you get a bad tenant and they don't pay you for a year and a half. So I talked to a lot of Ontario, investors who are kinda sick and tired of having hostage their house or their rentals held hostage by tenants. That's never happened to me, but I have a you know, I have my student rental strategy, so it's a strategy that's kind of immune to that. But but so many people are talking about going to the States. And have you seen, like, a big title shift in opinions wanna move out of Canada, or do you see it like people just wanna get out of Ontario? They wanna look more to, you know, Albertas, the Albertas of the world, and then you know? Or do you see still the same level of interest in Ontario? Or what are you seeing in terms of just the sentiment about where to invest?

Monika Jazyk: 13:18

I just think it's funny that everyone acts like investing in the US is new. I didn't know this for 14 years. We were doing, like, portfolio raises for Mick here and we are sold, like, you know, 21 properties in Kansas City to these this an Ontario based MIC. And that would have been, like, 9 or 10 years ago. Like, it's the US is nothing new. It's always been an option optional, you know, market. And I guess and we've always had these problems as Ontario investors. I guess now when the prices have just gotten higher and higher, I guess, in real estate investing, everyone always kinda seems like looking for the next best thing. But in reality, the investing is just the best thing. It's just the best strategy. And it doesn't really matter, you know, where you do it or what you're doing, as long as it's

Gillian Irving: 14:07

you do it

Monika Jazyk: 14:08

kind of suits you. And like you always say it fits with your life. Mhmm. It doesn't fit with your life. And that's And I your portfolio to be.

Gillian Irving: 14:18

Yeah. I mean, I think the reason why I feel like everyone's talking about the US like it's new I mean, obviously, it's not new. But I suppose and I'm gonna get to I I wanna really get your on this too because, obviously, you know, if you live in Toronto and I wanna invest in Hamilton, you know, you have that oversight that you wanna see of your properties. You can drive by anytime. Like, that element of control is there. And as soon as you start investing further afield, you know, you feel like it's harder to manage. You don't really see it. It's not as tangible. You have to be reliant on your team, and they're as good as they are until they're not just like your power team that all of a sudden you're like, oh gosh. Like, they're not telling me the truth anymore or whatever. Like, far can be harder. It doesn't have to be. So what are some of the things that you know, when you're when you're counseling people to say, hey. Go find your market in the States, but these are the things I want you to think about. And as investor investing further afield, what do you recommend that they think about? What is the most important part?

Monika Jazyk: 15:19

So I recommend they go there, first of all. Too many people are like to decide on scenes. And everyone wants to go to heaven. No one wants to die. So they all want this. Go to the states. I sent one of our clients down to Atlanta. He was determined that he was going to invest in Atlanta. And this is exactly what his strategy was. I'm like, you need to go there. Walk the property. See if this is for you because you've been talking about this for a year now, and we have to do something. He flew down to Atlanta. He met the team in Atlanta. He spent 5 days walking properties, touring areas, examining the model, seeing it in the flesh, and came back really thinking, this really isn't for me right now. You know? It's too cash flow neutral. I need something a little more intensive. You know? I have to switch this model. So people really I think there's 2 ways they can do it. If they're going to especially if they're gonna be an active investor in the market in the US, you can't just kind of find properties remotely and do things remotely. You have to actually be prepared to go there and work with your team and supervise the team and go down. Like, we did this when we just built 18 homes in Florida. We had a partnership and a team. We're partnered with the builder and we had a very reliable investment partner who was down there, who had worked with this award winning builder, previous relationships, and we also had our realtor there, and they were married. They are married. I shouldn't say they were married. They are married, happily married. And they have done investments in this area. She's worked as a realtor for over 20 years. They've done investments in this area, and this was a strategy. We are working on other things before, but a strategy that they identified and we did together as a partnership. And they were on-site taking video walk throughs every single day.

Gillian Irving: 17:16

Mhmm. So you kind of felt like you were there.

Monika Jazyk: 17:19

We did, and I was there. So we would fly down, and we would walk the properties, and we would shoot video, and we would see how things are going as well. So that's also really important if you wanna go to the US and you want even if you're a passive partner in that regards, you definitely kinda wanna go in and see the project and understand sort of what it looks like. Or you have to at least if you're a totally passive partner on it, you want to understand the investment model and really kind of know who you're investing with and what their history is. Too many Canadians think they can go and invest in the US. If you are the end of your deal, if you're the, like, the key person in your operation, it's not a good operation because you've never yeah. You think the states is a great place to invest because you heard on a TikTok that this is a great spot and you flew down there once or twice and checked it out, sorry. You need to be partnered with someone who lives there and has done that and has that history, And you're only as strong as your team.

Gillian Irving: 18:21

Mhmm.

Monika Jazyk: 18:21

So it really is your team that has to be leading the show and you're working with your team as the corresponding agent and then whether you're doing it for yourself or whether you're doing it for others. But like I said before, the best place to invest is your own backyard. And what I mean is if you understand it. So if you're gonna invest in other people's backyards, your partners should be from there. They should have history and they should be, you know, have a successful portfolio that when you go down there, you wanna see what they've done. The first thing you should probably look at is their current portfolio.

Gillian Irving: 18:56

Yeah. I guess that's probably a really good way of keeping your, you know, your investor focused team honest. You're like, let's try to buy your properties. So then they know the market. They know the areas. They know all the

Monika Jazyk: 19:08

nuances of each area.

Gillian Irving: 19:08

And so as you where so tell me. Where do you where so tell me. Where do you have teams in the states currently? If I if someone said to me, Julian, I want to invest in the states. I need a an established team. And I said, you should talk to Monica because she has teams where?

Monika Jazyk: 19:30

Okay. So we were in Atlanta, and I love the Atlanta market, but it's very cash flow neutral, a little expensive. So we have team in Atlanta. It's probably not our primary focus right now. We obviously have a team in Florida, but it's not Disney and it's not beach. It's in the Ocala Marion County. We only focus on the economic fundamentals, and that is where our team is, where we built all of these homes and sold these properties to US investors more so than to Canadian investors because it's in an area with a population growth of 300,000 people and 30,000 jobs have just been created. So there's a strong demand.

Gillian Irving: 20:09

Ontario population growth or Toronto population

Monika Jazyk: 20:13

growth. I was explaining that to someone recently too. They were explaining a low growth area in the states, whatever, had a job employer coming in. That's gonna create 2,000 jobs and they didn't like it too much when I mentioned that's a drop in the bucket for the US. I have a place that has a 300,000 population, you know, grow 30,000 jobs, not 2. The states is so huge. Like the amount of population of the state of California is bigger than all of Canada, you know? And so people have to really remember, and these price points too, in this market are substantially less. It's a quarter $1,000,000, which is very achievable. In comparison, when I was out in Orlando and speaking at Orlando at a conference, the price points there are more like half a$1,000,000 So you also have to take in, in, in the, the dollar exchange, but Florida, this particular area of Florida, and this is the only area that I would recommend, because I hated Florida for years years before Florida's been of an armpit. It's a huge state.

Gillian Irving: 21:10

You're gonna get hate mail.

Monika Jazyk: 21:12

There's so much development happening. You know, there's so much I remember renting a place outside Disney for an indoor pool, like 4 bedroom palatial place for $90 a night. And all you see is for rent and so much land for sale in all those areas. This area is really low on the real estate cycle. So that's why we love that area so much. Texas is amazing. We're flying out there in May.

Gillian Irving: 21:38

Mhmm. I guess as long as there's no civil war over the borders, you'll all be good in Texas.

Monika Jazyk: 21:43

Oh my goodness. K. I hope it's all there, but we're going to Houston. Yeah.

Gillian Irving: 21:49

And we

Monika Jazyk: 21:49

have an amazing specialist in there, and she does more development opportunities, where a lot of people can actually invest passively for smaller amounts. And she also advises on short term rentals in a lot of the vacation sort of areas in Texas as well. So people want to get more of those vacation sort of rental markets. So a lot of people vacation in these areas too. And then in Phoenix, Arizona, we have a really great specialist there as well. And we have a team which we're really looking at a lot of the properties there. Once again, also more for the student rentals like you might like, or it could be for the Airbnb market, which has been a bit up and down, and a lot of also development and footprint expansion. So all these specialists are also developers Mhmm. And have access to the contractor. They own the contracting companies just like our specialists here. Because it's important to always really do that value add, whether we're building from scratch or we're just doing the renovations or doing an expansion on the existing footprint. And the one last group that's sort of similar to Atlanta, you would never probably guess this is a good market because it's sort of a trophy market that you split, but we actually do have a team in LA. Mhmm. And we have an amazing specialist there who was on our group coaching, and he was talking about this awesome opportunity. In LA, there are opportunities there. And we've actually had RPI Education Events held at SIR Lounge, which he hosted in West Hollywood, which I always thought was super fun. And that's, like, where the Vanderpump Rules Netflix series is films. We always thought that was fun. We're heading out there in November. But it shows, I mean, LA is a market that has a lot of the same problems that BC and Ontario would have. And a lot of the people in LA are now investing in the other areas because you don't just help Canadians invest in the US, we also help Americans add real estate to their portfolio in ways that work, same with Canadians, so we can help them learn to invest differently and fill the wealth gap. That's the primary cause. So

Gillian Irving: 24:01

I just wanna jump back into floor to the Florida market because, you know, coming with my very naive and new kind of eyes about the states, what I hear about Florida look. I mean, I think there's so many markets all over the world. But one concern I hear raised by investors a lot is about in there's some areas in Florida where you just can't get insurance, that there's, you know, all this, like, hurricane and storm stuff that that makes so so as an investor, you have to be particularly mindful about areas where you invest in this crazy insurance stuff. Like, apparently, rates have gone up, like, 40% in some areas just year over year. Oops. Up 40%, and so that profitability really can be squeezed depending on where you're investing. And so what have you found about Is that true? I mean, is it just certain markets? Is your area in Ocala kinda safe from that? What have you seen?

Monika Jazyk: 24:52

Yeah. Like, just don't invest with those hurricanes. We're not on the hurricane path.

Gillian Irving: 24:57

No. So you're like, it's not complicated. Don't invest by the storm.

Monika Jazyk: 25:00

Block construction, So we didn't use stick frame wood housing construction. So it's termite as well as if there's no hurricanes, but if there was winds, it's more wind resistant and more durable housing structure. So that's been really important as well. And our insurance, which is insured 18 properties and the actual cost for insurance per property was$800 So I don't really know what everyone's freaking out about. I don't do Cape Coral and Naples and all those Boca Raton or whatever these sort of markets, we do something that's a lot that it doesn't have those issues.

Gillian Irving: 25:41

Right. So I suppose the takeaway from that is, like, all the negative stuff can be just offset by consideration about where, like, where you're purchasing. So if insurance is problem, don't invest in those areas where there's gonna be a problem. Is that really just

Monika Jazyk: 25:57

Well, and it's also a number that you could just take and plug into your spreadsheet because everywhere you go, there's gonna be a problem. Then we should, as investors, we should take all these possible scenarios and get the numbers. Okay. I'm gonna invest in, Ontario. I can have no rent for a year and a half. Let me think. That is at least, like, a $50,000 problem. Okay. So before I buy this property, I'm gonna, where is this $50,000 gonna come from? You have to put that in your spreadsheet. If you compare that to insurance, I don't think anyone's gonna be paying $50,000 in insurance in the states. So it really is just people always just love to talk so much about real estate and their fears. And until you take your fears and them out of the air and write them down on paper and really entrust them for what they are. Like for example, the Toronto tax increase, everyone was freaking out about that. Do they know every other municipality in Ontario has also had tax increases and they are all due for these tax increases? And if if you really look at that number, when it says, it really only comes to an extra, you know, like couple $1,000, you know, a year. And that's even with the 16.5% worst case scenario, you're due for the increase anyway. So it's just like one of those things that the media and investors, people like to hype up to always go back to that original question, is now a good time to invest? It's always a good time to invest, even with vacancies, even with increased mortgage rates, even with tax increases or insurance increases or any of these things, it's just down to a number that you have to factor in to your equation to see if this is a good investment that, like you say, fits with

Gillian Irving: 27:35

your life. And what so I think everyone's probably asking. I mean, obviously, you don't, you can't give exact numbers, but I would love to hear because you have portfolio in Ontario, portfolio out west. What are the returns, like, say, in Ocala, just for returns, like, say, in Ocala just for a vibrant hold compared to like, what are those numbers, and how do they compare to some of the properties that you would have here? Like, just on a house per like, if you took a property that say a 3 bedroom family rental in Ocala.

Monika Jazyk: 28:06

Yeah. If you look at the property, you have to realize we did build these homes. So the first stage of investment was built on the actual forced appreciation and the sweat equity from the homes. From taking this from the ground up to what it currently is, you're automatically at a 66% ROI.

Gillian Irving: 28:23

So that's so no one can access that right now because their homes are built already. So if they came with your team and we're buying you know, we're just already buying a a a house that already is built, and they're gonna buy it and rent it. What are those kind of returns like?

Monika Jazyk: 28:37

Yeah. But that number is important for people to know because they might want to get involved into the next one of an investment as well.

Gillian Irving: 28:42

Okay. So that's so that's back up to the

Monika Jazyk: 28:45

would be primarily based on, like, a 36% ROI. It's not the cash on cash return. The overall ROI, if you wanted to equate that in. And it's really driven at this point, we cashflow around 400 US dollars a month per property, which is after all your contingencies in place. So I consider that a fairly cashflow neutral investment by Reynolds. It's not gonna make you rich. What I believe in will always really kinda help you build is to get involved in a project in the US that really takes advantage of the forest appreciation. This is the same thing we do in Canada, and then tap into that appreciation immediately and then transfer the property over into a longer term hold strategy, which is gonna have a reduced ROI because it's based primarily on natural appreciation, which is so important that you end up in an area with those strong economic fundamentals. Otherwise, when you refinance, you're going to be basically trading apples for apples and being like, oh my gosh. In 10 years from now, I don't want this property to still be worth $250,000.

Gillian Irving: 29:58

Got it. So let's back up and start. So for people who might be interested in doing, like, a development project with you or one of your team members in the future, if you could just take me through so you said the first let's so let's start at the beginning. So I give you so how would it work? I say, here, Monica. Here's what you buy the house, or you just invest in the project as a whole or how how would it look?

Monika Jazyk: 30:23

Basically, we arrange everything. So you'd invest in the lot as well as a mortgage with a so in this case, someone gave the mortgage as Land City, which would be a construction financing mortgage pretty much that they'd have to do and pretty much the the have an initial amount of cash to buy in, you know, and then be able to fund the investment till it actually becomes

Gillian Irving: 30:47

Which is like, what is the what's that kind of investment number? So you buy the lot for

Monika Jazyk: 30:51

At that point, it was $60,000 USD for the full amount of investment. That's your 30% down as well as your lot purchase. That's what you're required to put in. So it really is. But now the area I know. But now the area could be higher because the area has grown leaps and bounds because in this area, there's so much jobs and there's infrastructure being built every day that's being filled with Chewy and FedEx and Amazon and creating more and more growth in the area. So the number is always sort of a moving component. But in that regards, the thing is to really kind of you get in low. It was also a longer project as well. A lot of delays in construction and new development as well that will bite into returns too. But at the end of the day, you have a brand new house in a high growth area.

Gillian Irving: 31:44

So so let's let's supposing we invested the 6 someone invested their $60,000 in year 1. You have a house in what year

Monika Jazyk: 31:54

3? No. The house was built in the house was built in in a year. Now that was with a that and it was supposed to be built in 6 months.

Gillian Irving: 32:03

Right. So it took a year. It's a little over a year.

Monika Jazyk: 32:05

And I'll tell you the only reason why there was a delay in this project was because, initially, it was supposed to be a 66.6 percent return as a preconstruction house flip. We were gonna be selling these people and moving to the area right before. Okay? So it's supposed to be done in 6 months. The builder did their part. They got going. We cleared the lots. We started the construction, started building. Then all of a sudden, there was a hurricane in Fort Myers. Okay. And so this was horrible. And in Florida, they were a really tight bunch. All the contractors, everyone helps everyone. So a lot of the people had to go out there and do cleanup crew to help the people in Fort Myers. It didn't affect us, but it affected the crew in in the Fort Myers. And at the same time, SECO, who is the energy company there, changed their plans from above ground poles to all of a sudden the permitting to be below ground. And we were like, oh my gosh. That caused an 8 month delay from that. So from that part, that was a huge delay. And as soon as the permits were issued and CECOM gave the approvals and we could do that, the building started again. The homes just popped right up, but what happened between the 8 months is a crash in our global economy. So now interest rates went up 6 times during that delay. Now all the people who are buying in the US, people aren't like our us Canadians who have seen us before and were shy enough, but to them, they've never had the 19 eighties interest rate hike. Like, those sort of things. Like, that has never happened in the US market, and they're still very burned from 2,008. A lot of people just finally found their footing again and now are just like, oh my gosh. So people are scared. It took them a lot of time to get over 2,008. So that caused even more delays to stop our strategy. They wanted to buy on occupancy, not the preconstruction house flips. So these are just delays that happen in new construction, and it will bite into investors' returns, of course. But at the end of the day, the returns in real estate are so astronomically high. It's just part of it. If you wait, you know, and you can really see through all these storms, it still is a very profitable investment. And if I didn't have my team there also on the ground this entire time monitoring things and calling SECO and doing the site visits and getting, you know, all these things done, it wouldn't gone up nearly as quickly.

Gillian Irving: 34:42

Yeah. So it just sounds like any kind so great returns even though the late, not as high the returns as you would have hoped for, obviously, but no one could have could have predicted, you know, these events that happened, but still fantastic returns if you got in early. But Fantastic returns if you buy now because

Monika Jazyk: 35:00

it is low on the real estate cycle, but it's not a cash cow. With buy rent hold real estate, we are looking cash cows really don't exist within this interest rate market. And if foreign investors are buying through Lendly using this, they have to get used to higher interest rates as well. It's just a reality behind it. And it still makes sense because you actually have stock in US real estate. You are making US dollars. Yes. You have to spend US dollars, but then you're making US dollars. And it's just like another tool in your tool chest to tap into is why not have stuff in the US economy?

Gillian Irving: 35:37

Yeah. No. I agree. It's such a it's a great currency hedge to have as well. I, Monica, I kinda feel like we need to get either your Texas team or your Ocala development team or maybe all your teams to come and do a webinar for us so that we can actually illustrate with charts and whatnot what either investing in a preconstruction home build plus then the rental after that or, you know, someone who wants to just buy an existing house somewhere with one of your team members. Like, what those numbers could look like? Because as I was saying, I feel like people need they have to plug into a team that's trustworthy. Right? Otherwise, why would you put yourself through the anxiety of going further afield? If you get it wrong, then you really are so on your own. So do you think your team might be willing to come back and do some webinars for us? We'll have you there and maybe your Florida, your Atlanta, and your what do you think?

Monika Jazyk: 36:41

I would love that. I think each one of our teams deserves their own series and what the way we build these models when we identify these areas and build models, these teams, we're very specific. I know Zandra, for example, in Texas. She's an amazing investor, and she'll walk you through some of the, the, you know, opportunities that she presented towards our groups already and that we invested in. And it's just phenomenal, and it's really important. That's kind of our job at RPI Education is really to do the vetting and build the relationships with people and then bring back to you guys and really say, hey. Have you ever considered this? Rather than you going on the computer to Houston, Texas and trying to figure it out all on your own and contacting like a realtor. You don't know if it's a good realtor or bad realtor. They seem nice enough, but that's really kind of what I think will be really cool is that people can actually learn about each area, why it's a great place to invest and what are these investors actually doing themselves there, and what can they help you there? And we'll definitely get that right down in terms of economic fundamentals, area, investment strategy, project walk through, and actualized ROI.

Gillian Irving: 37:55

And, Monica, if someone wanted access, say, to your Texas team, what does that mean? They first of all, they're joined RPI education, first of all. Right? Is that step 1? Or much. Yeah.

Monika Jazyk: 38:08

Yeah. We wanna learn more about who you are and why you wanna do the invest and what kind of it's almost like a KYC. Like, I know your client and figure out what is your investment goals, where are you at from a capital standpoint, and what kind of returns do you want. And then we would advise on which US team you'd be interested sort of in. Now if people wanna do things on their own and they want to learn from the people to do hands on investments by themselves, and they wanna be a developer. They wanna do this. A lot of our coaches actually provide coaching through the RPI Education community. You don't just have to get coaching from us. You can get coaching from an RPI education coach who specializes in their exact field. And these coaches, I just wanna say, have really impressive credentials. I know a lot of people are really into commercial multifamily real estate, which I view as one of the most dangerous things. If people wanna build it, we have coaches for that. But one of the coaches that we actually work with at RPI is an MBA real estate professor at the University of Seattle. So this is the caliber of people that we have in our community. It's not some guy that's just figured it out on his own. These are all people who have really that proof you know, of concept, and he was helping people get into 20 to 70 unit buildings. It really is dependent on on, you know, what you want. What does everyone what you might want may not even be possible. A lot of people will be drawn for the US because they want cheaper properties and they want more cashflow. People have to realize sometimes more is not more. Whereas if you break down real estate to a per door basis, your ROI component should be relatively static. Multifamily real estate really is just per unit valued at on top of one another. It doesn't guarantee a cash cow. So people just have to really be real. And I think that's where we always kind of, you know, try to step in and have real returns for people, real people who actually live there, not just another Canadian who's either temporarily relocated or they're not even there at all.

Gillian Irving: 40:30

So it sounds like you can RPI Education can offer learning for pretty much any investor of any kind of stage, whether you just wanna do, like, a single family rental or you wanna do sort of a prebuild or you wanna do development or if you wanna do multifamily that you have team members in place already, credentialed team members in place to do that for them.

Monika Jazyk: 40:50

And even syndications as well. So we have coaches on the roster who have helped investors. Because if you aren't getting bunches of multifamily real estate, the next step really is to create a fund or form a syndication where then at that point, you can take this private asset and grow it so it's ready to be publicly traded. And we have a lot of apartment syndicators that we work with also in the US as well. For people who want to get a more static or preferred return on investment, and they don't want to actually own actual real estate there. It's also options for Canadians to grow their money totally passively in the US as well.

Gillian Irving: 41:30

Okay. I'm really excited. So I think people who have listened to us today are gonna have to stay tuned for the the dates for when we have a webinar where we get your team members back to just kinda spell everything out in detail for us. We can see the numbers, see the location, see all the criteria that one that make your team so great, that make each location so special, and that, you know, underscore the economic fundamentals for the choice that you've made. And so you better block off your calendar because I'm gonna be talking to you a lot coming up, Monica. Good. And in the interim, before we do, if people wanna get in touch with you, what is the best way for them to reach you?

Monika Jazyk: 42:06

Visit rpieducation.com, and our contact information is on there, info at rpinvestmentsdot ca, and you can shoot us an email. And better yet, sign up in the pop up for access to the community, and you'll get our weekly newsletter. And we talk about all the different events and stuff that we have going on, including our information

webinar every Monday at 6: 42:27

30. We have a live information webinar that really outlines who we can help, how we help, and if this is the right community for you to join.

Gillian Irving: 42:38

Okay. Great. And if anyone needs to reach me as well, I can be reached at Gillian@lend city.ca. Monica, it has been so much fun catching up, and I hope to be in touch with you on the podcast again soon, but I'll definitely see you on a webinar with your team shortly.

Monika Jazyk: 42:55

Excellent. Thanks so much, Gillian, for having me. Thanks, Monica.