Welcome to the Wisdom Lifestyle Money Show. I'm your host, Scott Dillingham, and today I have Alex Sciatoli joining us. He is an investment focused realtor from Windsor, part of Team Goran REMAX. Welcome.
Alex Ciotoli:Thanks very much, Scott. Thanks for having me.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah. No worries. I'm so glad and so excited for this. Now, one of the things actually that I start off with every podcast is who our guest is. Right?
Scott Dillingham:So who is Alex Sciatoli?
Alex Ciotoli:Tell us your story. Don't know where to start. I brought I guess born and raised in Windsor, Ontario here. Grew up, went to high school, university here, and then I was fortunate enough to go to law school in Michigan at Thomas Cooley. Came back and worked for my parents' structural steel business.
Alex Ciotoli:So I was born into that. My my parents parents were immigrants here to Windsor, right? My brothers were born in Brazil. I was the last of the three born. I was born here in Windsor.
Alex Ciotoli:But I was born into a structural steel family. Nice. My dad immigrated here, worked for Ford as a truck driver, then got the opportunity to start making steel railings. And I don't know if you guys remember Becker's stores here in Windsor and throw around here.
Scott Dillingham:I remember Becker's, the convenience stores.
Alex Ciotoli:Yeah, that's right. So he got he got a he got a break from a contractor. He was asking my dad if if he could make Becker's, know, store structural steel. Awesome. Had no clue how to do it.
Alex Ciotoli:He was making railings, but he said yes. Forced through it and did well and ended up getting all the contracts in Ontario.
Scott Dillingham:That's awesome. That's awesome. So Becker's, I'm pretty sure Becker's was bought out, is it Max Milk?
Alex Ciotoli:Yeah. Okay. He moved on to Max Milk as well after that. That was sort of his story coming up and growing the business to one of the biggest structural steel companies in Southwestern Ontario.
Scott Dillingham:Nice.
Alex Ciotoli:So I was sort of forged by steel in that business. Yeah. And, you know, learned from the ground up, you know, within the shop and office management and then progressed to project management and doing takeoffs and quotes, right? Yeah. Which was a very, it's a very essential tool in business, regardless whether you're doing, you know, manufacturing or if you're doing pricing for whatever it may be, for instance, in real estate.
Alex Ciotoli:That's it. Especially for investors.
Scott Dillingham:That's it. And so, and I love that too because you mentioned you grew up here, which I think is important because, you know, if you've just moved to a town, you've only been there a year or two, how do you really know the ins and outs, right? Where you've seen the city completely revamped, be rebuilt and everything. So I love that. And I mean, just touched on real estate.
Scott Dillingham:So let's hear. What's your perspective on the real estate industry right now?
Alex Ciotoli:Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. I think Windsor, like you're saying, ups and downs through the decades here, like growing up here, see like 2008, happened, before that, it's cyclical, right? But with all of the investments coming into this area right now, it's just the growth is explosive. Whether it be, you know, industrial, commercial, or, you know, single family homes, all the way up to, you know, multi million dollar homes.
Alex Ciotoli:There's there's growth and there's, you know, the more construction. He's a gentleman that owned all the land for the Expressway here. Back in the day, it was friends with my father. They told me I was a little kid, but he's always put it. I never, you know, left my mind.
Alex Ciotoli:Whenever you go into a city and you see cranes in the air, invest in that city. So there's growth and and and progress.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah.
Alex Ciotoli:So Windsor of it's it's dynamic right now. Right? So there's a lot of money coming into this area. Yeah. Which ends up, you know, lending to new house sales and building and all kinds of stuff.
Scott Dillingham:No. That's it. And that's awesome. And I heard that same quote too. And for the many years, I was discouraged because I was not saying any cranes in Windsor.
Alex Ciotoli:I like,
Scott Dillingham:what's going on here?
Alex Ciotoli:Yeah.
Scott Dillingham:But I gotta say probably five, for the past five, maybe six years, it's just, it's really turned around and things are getting really strong.
Alex Ciotoli:It's great for all sectors of business, whether it be manufacturing or real estate or the restaurant businesses. In Windsor, you see a lot of new ones popping up, which is great. It's fantastic to see all that. A lot of new Canadians coming here as well. Which lends to money moving around and being spent.
Alex Ciotoli:That's progress. That's progress.
Scott Dillingham:That's what we love.
Alex Ciotoli:Absolutely.
Scott Dillingham:Now, I do have a question for you. We obviously follow each other online. And I see, you know, the insignia or the branding, you know, Esquire realtor. So I'm actually curious, is it how you dress? Like, what is that?
Scott Dillingham:And then what's the difference between that and then what's Well, if it's, the listen,
Alex Ciotoli:if we're talking about Esquire realtor then then I must answer by you know Esquire realtor right?
Scott Dillingham:Fair enough. Is our prescription but
Alex Ciotoli:they're a gradient lens but you can't really tell. Yeah. Like Esquire is the whole package right?
Scott Dillingham:Okay.
Alex Ciotoli:So it's I
Scott Dillingham:love it.
Alex Ciotoli:It's you know, your first meeting with the client. After you've, you know, progressively told them about yourself and what you could do for them, you really want you really want to, you know, show them what you could do. So Esquire is, you know, the elite of the elite with whatever it may be, whether you're an attorney or you've been bestowed Esquire by the queen. Okay. Right?
Scott Dillingham:Nice.
Alex Ciotoli:So it's an experience that you have. There's a lot of realtors and with whatever industry you're in, doctor, lawyer, there's good, there's okay, and then there's fantastic. So I want to be on the fantastic side and I try to do that for all of my clients.
Scott Dillingham:That's awesome. I love it. Cool. Yeah, I saw that.
Alex Ciotoli:I'm so curious about this. Thanks for sharing. It's prompt responses. It's prompt correct answers. Not just shooting from the hip.
Alex Ciotoli:You want to get proper analysis for your clients, whether it be an investor at a commercial level, which they want to know about exit strategies and all that. They want cap rates to be at a certain level. Or if it's the initial investor looking to buy their first home to add to their portfolio. Yeah. So there's there's different analytics that go into, you know, each sector, I really try to, you know, talk to them, right?
Alex Ciotoli:And and answer any questions they may have.
Scott Dillingham:And
Alex Ciotoli:that that communication is key. That's mentioned always, on Team Gord as well. I rate, Team Gord as the number one team in Canada by far. I know that we're rated number three in residential home sale closings or whatnot and number six, in the world. Listen.
Alex Ciotoli:The best team to be part of, especially if you're a new agent coming into the industry, the training and the focus on on communication and the agents is is bar none.
Scott Dillingham:Mhmm.
Alex Ciotoli:So I just wanna give a shout out to Team Gordon.
Scott Dillingham:That's awesome.
Alex Ciotoli:They're doing a fantastic job there.
Scott Dillingham:Go Team Gordon! Absolutely.
Alex Ciotoli:And I'm glad to be part of that.
Scott Dillingham:No, that's awesome. That's so cool. Now, you're right. You're right about the connection with the clients. I had a realtor in the past tell me, four years after he sold the home, the client called him and said, How do I get my washing machine fixed?
Scott Dillingham:You know what I mean? So having that connection with your client I think is so important.
Alex Ciotoli:Yeah, I'm definitely not answering that question. I'm fixing washing machines, I would definitely refer that to a professional. For sure. Yeah.
Scott Dillingham:But it's true. It's testament of you do a good job and you're gonna always be there
Alex Ciotoli:for the client. Yeah, you end up, you know, these are expensive decisions to say the least, right?
Scott Dillingham:If
Alex Ciotoli:investors going in, like I said, there's different, you know, of investing, but you know, if you're a prudent, pragmatic investor who's been doing it for years, you want to know your cap rates, you want to know what your exit strategy is, the dynamics of that city or what you're investing in. So there's different levels of expertise. I try to focus on my lane, which is commercial industrial and even the entry level investor, getting them if they wanna do it. A lot of new investors are coming in, buying a single family home and converting that, right?
Scott Dillingham:Absolutely.
Alex Ciotoli:For a secondary income. So you wanna make sure that they're in the right zoning because in Windsor right now, they're section one and and two zoning of their their the city's implementing their inspectors to go through. Right? So they wanna make sure that you're abiding by all the codes and you've got your proper permits and that. I just went through that with a client of mine that bought a property and the initial property owner was starting to do conversions to an ADU.
Alex Ciotoli:Didn't pull permits, didn't do any of that. Ran out of money, ended up getting foreclosed on by the bank. And when we went in there, we saw the explosive potential of that property there. We knew that there was permits that had to be pulled. But after working the numbers, it worked fantastically.
Alex Ciotoli:We pulled the trigger and he got the property.
Scott Dillingham:That's so cool. Yeah, that's awesome. And you know, this is a bit random because I know I didn't ask you this before, but I'm curious just from our conversation. So you touched on staying in your lane, right, and industrial and commercial style properties as sort of your niche. But then you also mentioned at the start, like your parents, you were involved in all these commercial projects and stuff.
Scott Dillingham:So do you think that growing up with your parents into that stuff, like, that's what naturally allowed you to get into it?
Alex Ciotoli:110%. You know, I've been doing takeoffs ever since I was 14 years old. Takeoffs, if you don't understand what that is, folks, is, it's it's a quotation method. Right? And just breaking down your cost, materials, your your your labor, your contingencies, all that going forward.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah.
Alex Ciotoli:And and laying out, you know, the amount of time that it's gonna take, which is essential depending on the season that you're in. Sometimes it'll take more time in the wintertime moving forward or the labor force may not be up to your standards and going that quickly. But those are a lot of analytics that have to be worked out. And you want to win, man. You want to win for your client, you want to win for yourself.
Alex Ciotoli:And at the end of the day, if you're not winning, you're not working.
Scott Dillingham:That's
Alex Ciotoli:it. Winning is essential. That's the objective all the time and I've yet to lose.
Scott Dillingham:Absolutely, that's awesome, that's awesome. So no, that's great. And so I wanna add some value to the listeners now, right? So we talked about you and how you are and just kind of your niches in that. Let's talk about the market a little bit.
Scott Dillingham:So ideally my vision is somebody who is listening to this, whether they're in Windsor or outside of Windsor, who would consider investing in Windsor, let's talk about Windsor. So what's the market doing? Is is it it trending up or trending down? Right? Because in in Canada, everywhere is up and down depending on the location.
Scott Dillingham:So let's talk about Windsor. What's what's Windsor doing?
Alex Ciotoli:Hottest market in Canada. Nice. I don't know what the actual number is. It's a million new Canadians coming in every year. The majority of them are coming to Ontario because of the, you know, industrial growth.
Alex Ciotoli:Yeah. Right? There's a lot of industry here, and there's a lot of potential. So I don't know the exact numbers on what the growth is. Have to look that up.
Alex Ciotoli:But I know that every sector that, you know, in real estate has been growing. Whether it be, you know, commercial building leases, single family residential homes. A lot of them are being converted to ADUs. Like I said, there's, you know, mister mayor here in Windsor has allowed, you know, that to happen, which is essential. There's a there's a housing housing shortage here in Windsor.
Alex Ciotoli:Right? And I think throughout Ontario.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah.
Alex Ciotoli:So growth wise, I think, you know, if you're an initial investor coming in here or, you know, you're looking to buy and and grow, I think the city here is fantastic for that. Okay. I think there's potential in moving forward. The next ten year trajectory. I foresee in Windsor Essex County to be explosive.
Alex Ciotoli:So the market right now, yeah, it was trending. It, you know, how it works. Scott Interest rates correlate to housing pricing, right? Not to not to mention bonds, right? So these are all correlated factors.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah.
Alex Ciotoli:We don't wanna get too technical here, I I think. But Yeah. Growth is like this right now.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah.
Alex Ciotoli:I think it's plateaued a little bit in late April just because I think a lot of people are waiting for interest rates to see what's gonna be happening with that. You're very well aware with that.
Scott Dillingham:For sure they are. They're waiting on the sidelines. I have so many buyers that say as soon as the rates lower, like, I'm I'm hopping in. So it's gonna be pretty crazy.
Alex Ciotoli:Which is which is best if you think of it. Right? Because everybody's waiting for the rates to come down. So everybody's holding off to get into the market. And then when the rates come down, what happens?
Alex Ciotoli:Everybody gets in the market. Yeah. Which is
Scott Dillingham:And the bidding wars
Alex Ciotoli:and everything. Yeah. Like, so if you have the cash folks, or if you're, you know, approved with, Lens City, or your bank for that matter, get on to a good realtor and get in the market because your chances of getting the home that you want or your dream home are fantastic right now. And you'll pay, you know, a considerable amount less.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah. Right? No. That's awesome. Now for those that don't know the area or even those that do and are from Windsor, maybe they just don't read the news, Can we touch on some of the major infrastructure projects that are happening in and around Windsor right Sure.
Alex Ciotoli:Well, the major one is the battery plant, right?
Scott Dillingham:Yep.
Alex Ciotoli:Over 350,000 square feet of building there, which is incredible. I think it's 10,000 new employees are going be operating in that facility there, which is explosive. That alone right there, that money that's going be generated just with the labor force is explosive. These people need to eat, they need to live, they need to buy clothes, they need to shop travel. Absolutely.
Alex Ciotoli:So there's a lot of growth there. The new hospital that's gonna be up here, the mega hospital off of 42 there. I think the projections are for the 2025. Yeah. Amazon plant, the new Gordie Howe Bridge.
Alex Ciotoli:Kinds of kinds of development and the plethora of new Canadians coming in. I noticed that the streets are a lot more crowded, whether it be Monday to Friday with traffic, which is fantastic.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah, we were talking about that and I'll add another piece of value here, but we were just talking about that literally today. So, ever since, Lens City has been opened as a location for four years. And we went through COVID and all that, so there's been very little foot traffic of people coming in off the street. But that has absolutely increased. So now we're like, okay, we need our sales team in the building because our team is very remote because they can work from home.
Scott Dillingham:Or they're out at Tim Hortons meeting a client or after work, you know what I mean? But now we we literally need people in the office because it's just yeah. The foot traffic. So you're right there. The other thing I wanna say too is if you look at Detroit, so for those that are not from the area or, again, those that are but just don't know, Windsor and Detroit, because it's a border city, they very much mimic each other.
Scott Dillingham:So if Detroit has, you know, downtime with business, Windsor tends to have downtime as well. And you wouldn't think that because it's different countries, but they're so connected that they do. But if you look at Detroit right now, just like Alex said, there's cranes. They're building buildings, they're making moves, there's things going on, they're revitalizing the community there. It's really impressive when you go over there compared to seeing it a few years ago.
Scott Dillingham:It's night and day difference.
Alex Ciotoli:Not to mention the real estate market in The United States is booming as well, So Canada tends to mimic that. We're a little behind. Our population is a lot less, obviously, but very co related, which is great. Exciting times coming.
Scott Dillingham:So just a little bit of FYI for the investors listening here. So let's talk about the out of town investors. What is the best advice that you would give to somebody who's not from Windsor who wants to buy in Windsor? What would you give?
Alex Ciotoli:Well, for one, if they're not part
Scott Dillingham:of an
Alex Ciotoli:investment group, whether it be Ontario or wherever, get in contact with myself or a fantastic mortgage broker that does those dynamics. For instance, Lund City, you guys have a lot of different groups that investors are a part of, right?
Scott Dillingham:Absolutely.
Alex Ciotoli:That would be your start of the vetting process there. Yep. Do your due diligence, ladies and gentlemen. Do your due diligence with whomever you're gonna be involved with that's gonna be spending your money on investments and grill them. Give them the gears.
Alex Ciotoli:Make sure that they know as much as you do, if not more moving forward. Because it's a process. A lot of people you know, I I see, you know, this industry is crazy. You know, getting into it. You know, there's a lot of realtors that have just come from, you know, selling t shirts and now they're selling houses and they think it's the same thing.
Alex Ciotoli:And they're supposed to be professional. It's It's just mind blowing on the level of professionalism that you can find. But the key factor here is drill them, do your due diligence and vet them for yourself. If not, get someone that you trust or like, give me a call. I'll vet them or grow them for you, or you could use me.
Alex Ciotoli:I'd love to help out, add No,
Scott Dillingham:that's awesome. And I know just from the clients, the mutual clients we had together, the reviews on you were very high, so I can see that. Now I know you we kinda touched on a a bunch of things here, but I just wanna make sure there's nothing that we're leaving out. So we talked about many of the good reasons of of why someone would want to invest in Windsor over another town. Was there anything that we might have missed, or do you think we we can at all?
Alex Ciotoli:I think there's a lot to talk about. I don't think we could cover this one segment or podcast here, but Yep. You know, it depends on how much if if you have an exit strategy, if you're looking to get into a, you know, commercial building or, you know, a multiunit building and have an exit strategy in five years and have, you know, a certain rate that you wanna, you know, clear out. If you have investors that are part of your group that are going into this, I can work that out for you. We can work it out together, you know, provided that, you know, your your your goals are realistic.
Alex Ciotoli:Right? Typically, a lot of of the investors that I'm dealing with that are from the GTA, they like to see a 10% cap rate. You know, they wanna see a a strong number because there's always contingencies that pop up with properties, whether it be commercial or multi units, roof needs fixing or all of a sudden, you know, something goes hard left and it has to be tended to. So they wanna see cash flow. Right?
Alex Ciotoli:They wanna see cash flow and, you know, having a realtor that knows the ins and outs to look for and pricing those schematics moving forward. It makes the investor feel a lot more comfortable. Yeah. And when you deliver on that, they're yours.
Scott Dillingham:That's awesome. I love it. I love it. Now, again, I I don't wanna, ask the same questions, but I know we're getting to the end of the segment here. I know we touched on many of the benefits of working with you, but I'd like you to talk a little more about yourself if there's any other benefits.
Scott Dillingham:And then lastly, how do people get in touch with you to move forward if they're interested? Yeah.
Alex Ciotoli:Sure. Listen, I've been involved in big business, whether it be through a family business or moving forward with the things that I've done. I've worked abroad with a senator and a doctor in in The Caribbean with, you know, professional professional the better professional medical field. Let's say that. Yeah.
Alex Ciotoli:So I've got contacts that I've dealt with all over, whether it be Europe, Caribbean, here in North America, business that I've started and sold, which is always a great thing when you're looking to find someone that's going to be doing your investments. They understand the ins and outs of what it takes to grow a portfolio or even what a portfolio is. You're not going to just pass over, you know, you know, your hard earned money or your group's money to someone that you haven't vetted. Right? So this is a process, and it's a matter of getting to know someone, initial meetings, you know how it goes.
Alex Ciotoli:Yeah. To test your, you know, testing your first project and see how it moves forward because talk is cheap and delivery is everything on that. So the objective is to win and I don't like learning. So they, you'll have a have that saying either you're winning or you're learning? Yep.
Alex Ciotoli:No, I just wanna win.
Scott Dillingham:That's it. That's it. That's awesome.
Alex Ciotoli:I've learned enough.
Scott Dillingham:How does everybody contact you so then everyone else can win too?
Alex Ciotoli:Sure, absolutely. Can contact me through, you can call me on my business line or my personal line. You can reach me at (226) 350-5165 or (226) 773-0060. Or you can email me as well, alex. Cremaxcare dot com or call the office Steve Warren.
Scott Dillingham:That's awesome. Well, again, I appreciate you. Thanks so much for coming on. It's nice to see an interview and have people here that I do see working with investors in the neighborhood and community. And we hadn't talked about Windsor for a long time, so I'm glad to have you on so we could.
Alex Ciotoli:Thank you very much. I look forward to doing more of these, you know, and I think there's a dynamic here that we could educate and pass on some great knowledge. You've got a plethora of things to talk about, I'm sure, as do I.
Scott Dillingham:Yeah, sounds great. We'll do it.
Alex Ciotoli:So from Scott and myself, Mr. Esquire, our realtor,
Scott Dillingham:we're out. You later.