Welcome to the Wisdom Lifestyle Money Show. My name is Gillian Irving, and I'm a mortgage agent with Lens City Mortgages. I'm, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a long time real estate investor. I'm a former business owner. A mother of four, and I'm an avid runner.
Gillian Irving:And today, I'm so delighted to welcome my really good friend, Monica Jaszek, to the show. I'm going read Monica's bio. It's a long and impressive bio. Monica is a wife and a proud mother of four as well. So Monica and I have had many long chat about having four kids and how tricky that is and how great it is.
Gillian Irving:So she has four wonderful yet expensive children. After the completion of her master's degree in teaching in 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 four kids while assuring all of their immediate and future needs are met, which you could think about is no easy task, especially when they're all at university age. But I digress.
Gillian Irving: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, But she didn't add in tennis, which I know is also a huge important part of her life. Welcome, Monica.
Gillian Irving:Thanks, Jillianne, for having me. Yeah, it's so much fun. I mean, honestly, Monica, it's been a while since we've hopped on a call to catch up with what's going on in our lives. What is keeping primarily what is keeping you busy these days?
Monika Jazyk:Four kids and I'm sure 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. Primarily my number one job really is a mother two four 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.
Monika Jazyk: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 fourteen years and it really never gets boring and it certainly can keep you busy as well. Definitely figuring out what works in this tricky market also takes a lot of time as well.
Gillian Irving:Yeah, bet it does. Pretty much every investor I've talked to over the past two years has had to pivot is the new word, right? So I'm sure you had to rethink and reimagine and dig into your business you know, just to make it more profitable or find out the profitability edges in it. But what do you say is like a big, has 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:Yes very different.
Gillian Irving:I have
Monika Jazyk:two different fronts too. 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 we were out of those horrible markets because we had lots of leftover properties in there. So we got into those markets and we also really took advantage of the price of our properties and the gains in our properties in the tertiary markets which really are not so tertiary anymore so I'm talking the Hamilton's, Barrie's, the KWC's, the Windsor and a lot of those properties were just at this all time high and especially like the Windsor market so I knew you'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 market. 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.
Monika Jazyk: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 folks changed another thing too. Hope I have got so
Gillian Irving:many questions. Hold that thought but let's just back up a second. 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.
Gillian Irving:So for investors who are lured and who are motivated by cash flow, tell me what problems, what are the problems of investing far away in smaller markets? Like what is the difficulty with that? Why were they also problematic?
Monika Jazyk:All in general is this. No. No, red flag. I think that the properties with us, yes, it was good until it wasn't. And there's a lot of people who are acting like Timmins and these northern places, Sudbury and Sault Ste.
Monika Jazyk:Maria, 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 a thousand dollars 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 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, know renting out properties, saying they're vacant when they weren't, and really running our buildings and all these properties.
Monika Jazyk:There's like over 100 units into 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 really apply to residential real estate but on in regards to what income you're gonna 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 two 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.
Monika Jazyk:Another problem with those properties in these low growth markets is the appreciation is pretty much non existent. 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 going to 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, 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 multi millionaire 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.
Monika Jazyk:A lot of these places in Washington state are flat markets. 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 fourteen years ago. People are like Kansas City is the next best thing.
Monika Jazyk:Were in that market twelve years ago. So it's not just in the Canadian markets. I've also seen this in The U. S. Markets as well.
Monika Jazyk:People like, oh I want to invest in Detroit because it's so cheap. Once again cheaper is not and The U. S. 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'd focus on because 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. Won't touch any other province in Ontario or city even in those provinces.
Monika Jazyk: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 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 and COVID allowed us to expand first across Canada and then across high growth areas in The U.
Monika Jazyk:S. 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, all those people.
Gillian Irving:So when you say we have grown are you talking about your education piece or like just your teams that help investors who want to purchase there? What do you mean by, is that what
Monika Jazyk:you Our 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 U. S. Then here is a team in place for you that you can do on your own.
Gillian Irving:So let's pause here on The US stuff because as you know, Lendcity mortgages, now we're able to help foreign nationals get mortgages in The States. Honestly, Monica, I'm sure you felt the sentiment shift too. People are just so tired of Ontario. Honestly, 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.
Gillian Irving: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 talk to a lot of Ontario investors who are kind of sick and tired of having their house or their rentals held hostage by tenants. That's never happened to me, but I have my student rental strategy, so it's a strategy that's kind of immune to that. So many people are talking about going to The States. And have you seen a big title shift in opinions who want to move out of Canada?
Gillian Irving:Or do you see it like people just want to get out of Ontario? They want to look more to Alberta's, the Alberta's of the world? 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:I just think it's funny that everyone acts like investing in The US is new. I've done this for fourteen years. We were doing portfolio raises for a Mick here and we were sold 20 like one properties in Kansas City to this an Ontario based MIC and that would have been like nine or ten years ago. The U. S.
Monika Jazyk:Is nothing new it's always been an optional 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 kind of seems like it 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 you do it kind of suits you and like you always say it fits with your life it doesn't And fit with your
Gillian Irving:that's
Monika Jazyk:your portfolio ought to be.
Gillian Irving: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 want to really get your expertise on this too because obviously if you live in Toronto and I want to invest in Hamilton, you have that oversight that you want to see of your properties. Can drive by any time. That element of control is there.
Gillian Irving:As soon as you start investing further afield, 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, they're not telling me the truth anymore or whatever. FAR can be harder.
Gillian Irving:It doesn't have to be. So what are some of the things that 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:So I recommend they go there first of all. Too many people I like to do sight unscenes 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 properties see if this is for you because you've been talking about this for a year now we have to do something he flew down to Atlanta he met the team in Atlanta he spent five 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 two ways they can do it if they're going to especially if they're going to be an active investor in the market in The U.
Monika Jazyk:S. 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 were 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.
Monika Jazyk: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 twenty years they've done investments in this area and this was a strategy we were 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:So you kind of felt like you were We
Monika Jazyk:did and I was there. 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. That's also really important if you want to go to The U. S. You want even if you're a passive partner in that regards you definitely kind of want to 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.
Monika Jazyk:Too many Canadians think they can go and invest in The U. S. 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 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. 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 self or whether you're doing it for others. But like I said before the best place to invest is your own backyard.
Monika Jazyk: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 want to see what they've done. The first thing you should probably look at is their current portfolio.
Gillian Irving:Yeah I guess it's probably a really good way of keeping your investor focused team honest. You're like, let's drive by your properties. So then they know the market, they know the areas, they know all the nuances of each area. And so as you cultivate these teams, Monica, so tell me, where do you have teams in The States currently? If someone said to me, Jillian, I want to invest in The States, I need an established team.
Gillian Irving:And I said, you should talk to Monica because she has teams where?
Monika Jazyk: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 U.
Monika Jazyk:S. 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. There's a strong demand.
Gillian Irving:Ontario population growth or Toronto population I
Monika Jazyk: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 going to create 2,000 jobs and didn't like it too much when I mentioned that's a drop in the bucket for The U. S. I have a place that has a 300,000 population you know growth 30,000 jobs not two 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 million dollars 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 million dollars. So you also have to take in in 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 and years before Florida's a bit of an armpit. It's a huge state.
Monika Jazyk:You're gonna
Gillian Irving:get hate mails.
Monika Jazyk:There's so much development happening you know there's so much. I remember renting a place outside Disney with an indoor pool like four 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
Gillian Irving:May. I guess as long as there's no civil war over the borders you'll be good in Texas.
Monika Jazyk:Oh my goodness okay I hope everything resolved there, but we're going to Houston and we have an amazing specialist in there and she does more development opportunities where a lot of people can actually invest passively for smaller amounts. She also advises on short term rentals in a lot of the vacation sort of areas in Texas as well. People want to get more of those vacation rental markets. A lot of people vacation in these areas too. And then Phoenix, 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 are 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.
Monika Jazyk:So all these specialists are also developers 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 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 Sur 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.
Monika Jazyk:That's the real primary cause.
Gillian Irving:So I just want to jump back into 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 think there's so many markets all over the world, but one concern I hear raised by investors a lot is about there's some areas in Florida where you just can't get insurance, that there's all this hurricane and storm stuff that makes So as an investor, you have to be particularly mindful about areas where you invest in this crazy insurance stuff. 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, it just certain markets?
Gillian Irving:Is your area in Ocala kind of safe from that? What have you seen?
Monika Jazyk:Yeah, like just don't invest where there's hurricanes. We're not on the hurricane
Gillian Irving:path. So you're like it's not complicated, don't invest
Monika Jazyk:We also by the used block construction, so we didn't use stick frame wood housing construction so it's termite as well as if there 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 in these sort of markets. We do something that's a lot that doesn't have those issues.
Gillian Irving:Right. So I suppose the takeaway from that is like all the negative stuff can be just offset by consideration about where you're purchasing. So if insurance is problem, don't invest in those areas where there's going be a problem. Is that really just
Monika Jazyk:And it's also a number that you could just take and plug into your spreadsheet because everywhere you go there's going to be a problem. Then we should, as investors, we should take all these possible scenarios and give them numbers. Okay, I'm going to 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.
Monika Jazyk:So before I buy this property I'm going to where is this $50,000 going to 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 pull 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.
Monika Jazyk:Did they know every other municipality in Ontario has also had tax increases and they are all due for these tax increases and if you really look at that number when it says it really only comes to an extra you know like couple thousand dollars you know a year and that's even with the 16.5% worst case scenario you're due for the increase anyway. 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 you know tax increases or insurance increases or any of these things. It just comes down to a number that you have to factor in to your equation to see if this is a good investment that like you
Gillian Irving:say fits with your life. And what, so I think everyone's probably asking, I mean, you don't, you can't give exact numbers, but I would love to hear, because you have portfolio in Ontario, you have portfolio out West, what are the returns like say in Ocala just for buy rent hold compared to, like what are those numbers and how do they compare to some of the properties that you would have here? Just on a house, like if you took a property that say a three bedroom family rental in Ocala.
Monika Jazyk: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 force 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%
Gillian Irving:ROI. Okay, so that's so no one can access that right now because their homes are built already. If they came with your team and we're buying we're just already buying a house that already is built and they're going to buy it and rent it, what are those kind of returns like?
Monika Jazyk:Yeah, but that number is important for people to know because they might want to get involved into next one of an investment as well. That's back up. 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 it's we cash flow around $400 S. Dollars a month per property which is after all your contingencies in place. So I consider that a fairly neutral cash flow neutral investment by Renhold it's not going to make you rich.
Monika Jazyk:What I believe in will always really kind of help you build is to get involved in a project in The U. S. 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 going to 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 ten years from now I don't want this property to still be worth $250,000.
Gillian Irving:Okay. 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 start at the beginning. So 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 would it look?
Monika Jazyk:Basically we arrange everything. You'd invest in the lot as well as a mortgage with a so in this case someone gave a mortgage as Lens City, which would be a construction financing mortgage pretty much that they'd have to do and pretty much have an initial amount of cash to buy in, know, and then be able to fund the investment until it actually becomes
Gillian Irving:is like what is the what's that kind of investment number? So you buy the lot for
Monika Jazyk: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 it. So it really is, but now 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.
Monika Jazyk: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. So
Gillian Irving:let's supposing invested someone invested $60,000 in year one. You have a house in what year three?
Monika Jazyk:No, the house was built in a year. Now that was with a that and it was supposed to be built in six months.
Gillian Irving:Right so it's a It's little
Monika Jazyk:over a year and I'll tell you the only reason why there was a delay in this project was because initially was supposed to be a 66.6% return as a pre construction house flip. We were going to be selling this people moving to the area right before. Okay so it's supposed be done in six 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.
Monika Jazyk:It didn't affect us but it affected the crew in the Fort Myers and at the same time CECO 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 eight month delay from that. So from that part that was a huge delay and as soon as the permits were issued and CCO gave the approvals and we could do that the building started again the homes just popped right up but what happened between the eight months is a crash in our global economy. So now interest rates went up six times during that delay. Now all the people who are buying in The U.
Monika Jazyk:S. People aren't like us Canadians who have seen this before and were shy enough but to them they've never had the 1980s interest rate hike like those sort of things like that has never happened in The U. S. Market and they're still very burned from 2008. 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.
Monika Jazyk:So that caused even more delays to stop our strategy. They wanted to buy on occupancy not the pre construction house flip. 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. If I didn't have my team there also on the ground this entire time monitoring things and calling CECO and doing the site visits and getting you know all these things done it wouldn't gone up nearly as quickly.
Gillian Irving: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 predicted these events that happened, but still fantastic returns if you got in early.
Monika Jazyk:Fantastic returns if you buy now because it is low on the real estate cycle, but it's not a cash cow. With buy rent hold real estate, are looking cash cows really don't exist within this interest rate market, and if foreign investors are buying you know through Lendcity 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 U. S. 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:Yeah, no, I agree. It's a great currency hedge to have as well. Monica, I kind of 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 someone who wants to just buy an existing house somewhere with one of your team members, 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?
Gillian Irving:If you get it wrong, then you really are so on your own. 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: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, build these models, these teams were 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. 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.
Monika Jazyk:You don't know if it's a good realtor or bad realtor, they seem nice but that's really kind of what I think would 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: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 right? Is that step one? Yeah.
Monika Jazyk:We want to learn more about who you are and why you want to 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 want to do things on their own and they want to learn from the people to do hands on investments by themselves, and they want to be a developer, they want to 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.
Monika Jazyk:These coaches, I just want to say, have really impressive credentials. I know a lot of people are really into commercial multi family real estate, which I view as one of the most dangerous things. If people want to 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.
Monika Jazyk: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 U. S. Because they want cheaper properties and they want more cash flow.
Monika Jazyk: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. Multi family 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:So it sounds like RPI Education can offer learning for pretty much any investor of any kind of stage whether you just want to do like a single family rental or you want to do sort of a pre build or you want to do development or if you want to do multifamily that you have team members in place already credentialed team members in place to do that for them.
Monika Jazyk:And even syndications as well. We have coaches on the roster who have helped investors because if you are 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. We have a lot of apartment syndicators that we work with also in The U. S. 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 U.
Monika Jazyk:S. As well.
Gillian Irving:Okay I'm really excited so I think people who have listened to us today are going to have to stay tuned for 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, 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 going be talking to you a lot coming up, Monica. In the interim, before we do, if people want to get in touch with you, what is the best way for them to reach you?
Monika Jazyk:Visit rpieducation.com and our contact information is on there, inforpinvestments.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 06:30. 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:Okay, great. And if anyone needs to reach me as well, I can be reached at jillianlenscity. 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:Excellent. Thanks so much,
Gillian Irving:Jillian, for having me. Thanks, Monica.