Table of Contents
Podcast Transcription
Erwin Szeto [00:00:07] Hello wealth hackers, tonight is night. Yes, tonight, Cherry and I will have our little date night tonight and I plan for us to become Marvel Avengers to save the galaxy from whatever Galactic Give is trying to destroy Earth in virtual reality. That is no, I’m not crazy. This is a video game I’m talking about. It’s sort of like a video game. I’m not more crazy than usual. Anyway, if you’re not familiar with virtual reality games, we are going to a place called Rec Room. It’s basically a Chucky cheese for adults with video games, food and drink for this particular game in virtual reality. We wear a headset with display with a display built in display and earphones to immerse us inside a game as we’re in the virtual world. I just watched the trailer for it and it’s like we get to be outfitted with the virtual Black Panther suits and fight Ultron alongside many of my favorite superheroes. The Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man, etc. What’s funny about superheroes is that they’re all reluctant heroes, as at some point they all give up the responsibilities that come with great power. For those who are familiar with Spider-Man, he wanted to be a normal teenager. Can’t really blame him. And as you know, I adore superheroes. Of course, I have no superpowers. But one day a switch went off inside me and I made a decision to stop playing small in order to help more people. It’s partly what drives me to make this world a better place through educating everyday Canadians to take control of their financial futures and, of course, to fight my enemies, which is child poverty and hunger via our registered charity, the Hamilton Bastard Brigade. It’s not easy, but someone has to do it. If anyone is out there looking for a romantic partner, this is how supportive my wife cherries of me tonight at 6:30 at the Mississauga Library, we have another sold out free training class with 85 registered investors to learn about the number one investment strategy of basement apartments. This is a strategy we practice ourselves is the highest return investment strategy there is. I have married him. Accountant. I think she knows she’s seen many, many tax returns, so it’s hilarious. Whenever people like turn it bounce investment ideas off me and they say, Oh, this is great. So I just asked Cherry, like, does anyone actually report earnings in this strategy? She’ll say no. So if you want to follow what’s a good investment, that’s kind of like what we’ve been doing based on track history. So not a bad idea. My team and I have implemented dozens of basement suites over the last few years when it became legal, and we’ve lately done more of them in our targeted investment neighborhoods than anyone else. Cherry is so supportive. She’s coming with me tonight on day night while I give my portion of the presentation, and then we may go on our date night. Cherry Value’s DNA over GIFs So this is really important to her. So DNA is really important to her, but she’s willing to make the sacrifice for my business. Pretty cool. If you’d like to be at the next free training class on the highest return on investment strategy, please go visit. Get on our invite list at investor training dossier slash free class. Again, that’s investor training dossier slash free class. Today’s guest is Chris, the Captain Hook, our friend and client since we met him back in 2012 when he started investing in Real Estate. His journey in real estate investing began by being fear stricken at purchasing a Stony Creek townhouse for two hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. Yes, there were houses available before a Hamilton that one, the top investment towns in Ontario and in Canada for two hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. His hesitation to acquire such a property was because they would only cash flow one to two hundred dollars. Fast forward to today, that same townhouse is selling for three hundred and ninety nine thousand dollars an F. Why the rent has almost doubled for that property. Back then, rent probably was about thirteen hundred, and today it would be closer to $2000. So that is a change of, you know, we’re at 60 percent ish. And can you think of anyone’s income improved by about 60 percent over the last eight years? Not many. The moral of the story is don’t be stricken by fear, as it will cost you. Since then, he has tried several different real estate investment strategies, such as rent to own flipping, regular buy and hold legal secondary suites and student rentals. His current portfolio consists of two legal duplexes and one in the final stages of being converted. Real estate has allowed his wife to stay at home, which is more important than owning properties. It is the freedoms that our investments give us again, so wife Jen is able to stay at home and raise the kids while trying to start her business of her own. As Chris looks to continue to grow his portfolio through joint ventures and one day getting involved in a development opportunity, he actually has a property that may be able to develop. He is also looking for alternate ways to generate income with the ultimate goal of being able to leave his corporate job so that he can spend more time with his family, travel more and play more golf. Chris is a very good golfer, is probably the best golfer among my group of friends. Some of the other methods of generating income are through options, hacking or stock hacking, and he’s had an econ business for over the last 12 months. Chris also has his real estate license and is practicing real estate agent. Without further ado, I give you my friend, Chris. Welcome to the show,
Erwin Szeto [00:05:05] thank you for coming.
Chris Hook [00:05:05] Thanks for having me.
Erwin Szeto [00:05:07] What’s keeping you busy these days?
Chris Hook [00:05:08] Oh, well, there’s a couple of things, I guess. So first thing is for the Real Estate perspective, I’ve got a couple of refineries that I’m working on, also trying to close out my final four because of the permit on my one of my rentals, which was duplexing and also got options trading going on when I was on my Amazon business that I’m trying to build. I got my Real Estate license that I got a full time job and I have a full time job and two and three young kids.
Erwin Szeto [00:05:36] Okay, see, I got a little bit going on just to double check. I mer you in 2011 2012
Chris Hook [00:05:45] I think 2012, I think is when we first met. So I guess the story with regards to that is I joined REIN in 2012 and I was following the REIN model looking for a realtor. And I’ll never forget my first REIN meeting. I don’t know if you remember the story or not that you’re the one person that I wanted to see meeting. And he walked in front of me and I was so nervous, I didn’t like I can see with you, Mr. Hamilton Georges, the honor of so nervous I didn’t even approach you at that point. But a couple, I think a couple of weeks later, I went on to your website and submitted an application. We actually went through an interview process. And so we’ve been taking we’ve been working together ever since.
Erwin Szeto [00:06:24] We’ve slimmed down that application process this year. Now it’s down to one pager. Oh, it was because I was by myself at that time.
Chris Hook [00:06:34] Might have had Maria working with you, potentially. But yet you were like the only realtor on your team at that point.
Erwin Szeto [00:06:41] Right? So if anyone doesn’t know I was still by myself as a realtor servicing clients and had a full time assistant, Maria, as Chris mentioned, and I was just busy, the demand was high for, at the time, the only investors specific realtor to help people buy investment property that would actually cash flow and Hamilton. So I was this busy and that’s why we had that three pager did it to at least, you know, filter out some tire kickers just to see who actually wanted to have like a real discussion and actually want to work on something together to create something. In fact, we did know where to start. You sound busy, full time job and two young kids. How old are your kids?
Chris Hook [00:07:20] They are seven and five.
Erwin Szeto [00:07:23] Oh, wait, you didn’t have either than when we met.
Chris Hook [00:07:26] No, no. Charlotte was born in 2012, so the first month I purchased the property, so Jenn would have probably been told my wife would have been pregnant.
Erwin Szeto [00:07:34] I think when we would have to remember and motivation to get into real estate investing. You didn’t have any kids at the time.
Chris Hook [00:07:39] No, I didn’t. So I mean, I work in accounting. I was an accountant, corporate accounting and corporate accounting for a while. Then different roles within finance. I knew that it was something that long term I didn’t want to stay doing, didn’t get me excited. So I was looking at alternate ways to generate additional cash flow. So I read that Don Campbell book real estate investing in Canada. So that kind of I remember reading that over Christmas in 2011, and that kind of jumpstarted me and wanted me to get motivated, like the concept of real estate and buying a property and someone paying down your mortgage just seemed like a no brainer to me. And so we just kind of dug in and did it.
Erwin Szeto [00:08:19] Yeah. So you read it over Christmas and you joined REIN and we were shopping pretty soon because remember, the weather was warm when we first looked at that book for that town Stoney Creek.
Chris Hook [00:08:29] Yeah. Yeah, because it would have been we probably would have been April or May. I think that we would have started, we would have started looking. So, yeah, it was pretty early on to you.
Erwin Szeto [00:08:38] Yeah, you took action quite quickly. They did. Do you want to recount the story of the townhouse and Stony Creek because I have on this podcast before? It just wasn’t with you as the guest.
Chris Hook [00:08:48] Yes. Yeah. So the first. It’s funny because I remember distinctly remarked, I don’t know if you remember, but we do remember very well in the corner of the townhouse complex and we walked into the end. You know, it was and it was beautiful. It was. It would have easily rented at that time, and I think we could have got at least 1500 for rent, fifteen or sixteen hundred dollars for rent. And the house at that time was selling at it. It was 214, 214 five. And I went back and I did all my calculations based on what REIN had told me, how I should calculate cash flow and all that good stuff. I think my cash flow came out to something like one or two hundred dollars a month, and that wasn’t enough for me because I wanted to.
Erwin Szeto [00:09:33] I wanted to retire on my cash flow from my real estate agent, Chris. Let’s just pause there for all the Real Estate investors to digest that show. Two hundred fourteen thousand dollars Asking price only cash flow one to two hundred dollars a month as a single family home with virtually no renovations required. Yeah, and it was. It was pretty new is less than seven years old. This townhouse was exactly, yeah, it was less than 10 years old, so nothing you would expect to have to have to be replaced anytime soon as the windows furnace roof, or no, they’re all the same.
Chris Hook [00:10:05] It was in good shape.
Erwin Szeto [00:10:06] OK, I can tell you, it was definitely from the standpoint of a single family. It was definitely what you would consider to be turnkey. There really wasn’t anything that needed to be done. But what do you think there would be today?
Chris Hook [00:10:16] So the room would probably be my guess anywhere between 18 and over 2000. Yeah, really?
Erwin Szeto [00:10:25] Oh, that knew that area. Very popular.
Chris Hook [00:10:29] Yeah, it’s popular. Well, I mean, I ended up buying the first property we bought. I ended up buying. It was just down the street from it. It was a snowy mountain right out there. So that one was that one was nicer, for sure. But yeah, the initial house that we looked at was like, when I look at it now, I think there was one listing in that same townhouse complex selling for 399. So, you know, that’s what, six, seven years later.
Erwin Szeto [00:10:56] So nearly doubled in price.
Chris Hook [00:10:57] So nearly doubled in price. A bigger return than would be the one, though, that I think I continue to. Myself about was the first, so the first one I bought was beginning as a rent to own. Obviously the first purchase, I was terrified of tenants and what would happen at that house. We did it in auto. It successfully got transferred over to the to the buyer or the tenant buyer 11 or 12 months after we purchased in that house was purchased at 285. And it’s currently a recent. I looked at a recent listing of recent sold in that particular property. It said 565.
Erwin Szeto [00:11:35] Oh, so that was an interior town, wasn’t I? It was 65 for an interior town.
Chris Hook [00:11:40] I’m pretty sure it was by 65 some folks to provide context into your townhouse. I mean, so there’s no townhouse and there’s, you know, the side of the house, there’s nothing next to it interior. I mean, it’s in the middle of a of a townhouse row where the rent demanded the rent. You got on it initially. So I think the rent was 1750 and we did, I think, one hundred dollars or one hundred and fifty dollars as a rent credit.
Erwin Szeto [00:12:03] Now, I don’t know if you remember this, but I used that property. But REIN asked me for a sample Hamilton property to analyze, for the whole room to analyze. So, you know, over 300 people investors to analyze at A.. Did you know that I submitted that property? I did not know that you’re. I did not know that you weren’t at that acre or you weren’t paying attention for that property in your cash flow numbers because I estimate that the exact same property. I didn’t get the rental number, though I gave the straight rent number, so it’s slightly below this. Okay. So I think you were a cash flowed, maybe $50 after all allowances. So for like eight percent for a property manager, eight percent for vacancy repairs and repairs in buildings above and above market interest rate. So again, folks, wouldn’t you take that deal today?
Chris Hook [00:12:53] I would take that deal 100 times, and I think I told you that even that first property about I wish I right like three or four of them at that time, but hindsight’s 20 20, exactly hindsight’s 20, 20 again. So hundreds of people are analyzing this exact, exact property, the property that you bought, but that we sold you and almost nobody when the question was asked in the front of the room who would do this deal, almost nobody brought their hand in. I say 20 20, who was right? You were right? Yeah, I was.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:24] You put your money where your mouth is and you’re the one that made the money. So I’m not sure what the lesson is.
Chris Hook [00:13:29] While for me, I think the one, the one lesson I would take from that is I think we get caught up. Sometimes we read a lot of books that tell us that cash flow is king when it comes to real estate investing. But I think where you really make the money, real estate is long term. So if you’re if you’re in it for the long term, you’re holding things five or six years. I think that’s really where you start to see the for real estate because the appreciation, you know, even three percent appreciation, that appreciation is on a much larger base rate. So you’re you, Martha, you get that you gain an equity over that five year period is substantial. And I think people lose sight of that sometimes when they’re looking at real estate as an investment opportunity. So that, for me is the biggest lesson I thought that I was going to have, you know, be a full time real estate investor and I would live off of cash flow. But I think the reality is it’s much harder to do now. And I think the way to go from a real estate perspective is that the buy and hold strategy is probably one of the best out there to really grow your wealth.
Erwin Szeto [00:14:33] This was a rent to own.
Chris Hook [00:14:35] It was a rental home.
Erwin Szeto [00:14:36] Yes, yes. Unfortunately, that’s the money on the table. But you have a very happy tenant. Exactly.
Chris Hook [00:14:41] That’s right. I mean, you like a bandit.
Erwin Szeto [00:14:44] How much equity did he have when he bought the DigiByte the day he exercise his option to buy?
Chris Hook [00:14:49] Well, I think he put the full 20 percent down. At that point, he was able to do the full 20 percent down without having to put any money into it.
Erwin Szeto [00:14:56] Yeah, the rental credit’s probably gone five percent, right? Would have gotten him down. Payment plus is his option fee, his option, the initial moneys that a rent on tenant gives and plus the rental credits that Rob Break totaled, or at least five percent, and then the built in equity that he earned from signing the rent own contract got him another 15 percent. Good for them.
Chris Hook [00:15:18] Yeah, I know they remember he was trying to negotiate with me. He did actually negotiate with me because the bioprocessing three 320. But he was complaining that there was a couple of windows or something like that that needed to be fixed. So he ended up getting I ended up giving it to him for 370. So he made a he made it really well on the deal.
Erwin Szeto [00:15:38] You didn’t get 15 percent of 317 as close to $50000. So therefore, that tenant is not a real estate investor. Yeah. Where to go next was Jen. So Jen is Chris’s wife. What did you think when you first wanted to be a real estate investor?
Chris Hook [00:15:57] So we were both terrified. I can dance, so I’m I would consider myself to be risk averse. She’s probably more risk averse than I am. So she’s come a long, long way from the time that we originally produced that. Yeah, it was. I think we were both scared, like we had a new a new baby on the way and we were. She’s going to not be working for the next 12 months because she’s going to be on that list. So, yeah, it was a little bit it was a little bit scary at the time, for sure. But we got we got through it.
Chris Hook [00:16:27] The first one is always the hardest one, for sure.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:29] Well, Jane, think now about you having Real Estate and also all these other things. You go on the go.
Chris Hook [00:16:35] She loves it. I mean, she does so. The great thing about it is she’s been doing a lot of networking events because she’s trying to build her own business. And she’s talking like she met with a real estate agent today, and they were talking about our real estate investments. And it was just, it’s just crazy. Like, she’s so much more knowledgeable about it, is she? She enjoys talking about it because we enjoy talking about it, made her together. So it’s definitely a good thing for both of us, and we both enjoy it and we love doing it. So she’s very open now to the crazy ideas that I try to come up with and try to convince her of. She knows she’s usually in trouble when I say,
Erwin Szeto [00:17:12] OK, I got a plan. OK, let’s look at the three of these plans that you have where you want to go between stacking your e-commerce, Amazon business and Real Estate license, where would you want to go next? What is it? Pick one, pick one in which you say about it, Let’s go e-commerce. We don’t have a lot. We don’t have a lot of e-commerce guests. We’ve been beaten the stock market thing to death, so.
Chris Hook [00:17:35] Okay, sure. So I mean, she’s great about it. She’s very supportive about it. She wants me to do well. She wants me to find something that I really enjoy. I mean, I do it a lot like the Amazon stuff has stuff that I could do at night. So it kind of works well because she’s working a lot of times on her business and I’m doing my stuff at night. I would say that if we would have done it five years ago, her response probably would have been a little bit different. But now that she’s kind of experienced the entrepreneurial side for herself, very open to it, and she’s very supportive and really ask for a better partner when it comes to fabulous, fabulous.
Chris Hook [00:18:14] So I have a tough question. Sure. So sort of Chris’s wife for the listeners benefit Chris’s wife, Jenn, does multi-level marketing. I don’t know if you want to say what it is.
Chris Hook [00:18:23] Chris. Yeah, so she does tarot, which is essential oils.
Erwin Szeto [00:18:27] Fabulous. So you have a full time job and your family has all these side hustles? Yes. Fair for third call. And which one do you think is? Which one do you think has returned the most or is the best opportunity between real estate investing, e-commerce, Amazon stock hacking, etc.? Jessica, listen to this. Isn’t she really? So I think I think we would both agree that as of right now, as of today, this moment as we speak, Real Estate is probably the number one investment by far. We’ll have to see what the next couple of years bring in terms of how her MLM stuff goes. How might Amazon stuff goes? Stock hacking, I can already see, is providing quite a good return over a very short period of time. I mean, I haven’t invested as much as some of the people that have taken the course, but I think for the short period of time that I’ve been doing, the return has been quite good and I’m quite happy with and it takes a lot less time.
Erwin Szeto [00:19:31] So I asked these tough questions because I want to listen because I know the listener. There’s listeners out there that are trying to make these decisions for themselves. If you choose one of these things, what would you choose? So Real Estate investing already clear in number one, right? Yeah. So let’s choose number two now between our stock tracking in e-commerce. Amazon, what would you choose? What do you think? Would you recommend to somebody?
Chris Hook [00:19:54] So Amazon is definitely very difficult. It’s hard to start and build. I would say that the same is true for Amazon. However, for being gen, I would say that we’re both passionate about doing both of those. I think stock hacking can probably be done by as a side hustle if you don’t want to exert a lot of time, because once you sort of understand the options trading and how it works, it really is like 15 to 30 minutes a day that you’re spending on options trading. So if I was to grade it on a scale of, you know, easiest to hardest option, trading is definitely the easiest. But if you want to have sort of that entrepreneurial type of business feel, I think Amazon or MLM are definitely good alternatives if you’re passionate about wanting to do it. So for me, the Amazon example, yeah, it’s difficult. It’s extremely difficult. Amazon has a ton of roles, but for me, the ability I love the part of being able to source the product, get the listing up there, see how people react to the listing. You get lots of stuff with, you know, I’ve had hijackers on my listing and all that kind of stuff to try to elaborate on that.
Erwin Szeto [00:21:11] Yeah, so you told me the story of the hijacking. I want the listener to understand what give us the truth about Real Estate. Now we’re talking about the truth about. So what can go wrong?
Chris Hook [00:21:20] So for a hijacker on Amazon, the way that it works is a lot of people in the launch phase of their Amazon business, they’ll give away free products or they’ll start at significantly discounted price. 90 percent is a good example. So what happens is those people that are purchasing like, there’s people out there that are looking for these types of deals and they’ll pick the product up at a significantly discounted price and then they can actually use your listening to sell their product, which is ultimately your product. Because all they’ve done is they’ve taken it, they’ve returned it to Amazon, Amazon to put it in their inventory. They’ve added it to your listing and then they’re selling your product to that same price, or maybe a little bit less. So you’re dedicating all your time as the owner of the business to source the product to find a good product. And then someone is just kind of stealing your product and selling it on Amazon. It’s like it’s the craziest thing. I remember getting very upset about it the first time it happened to me, but it’s just kind of the reality that you accept as being an Amazon seller.
Erwin Szeto [00:22:23] That’s worse than they thought it was. I thought they were just copying your stuff, and then they would have sourced the exact same product. They’re literally selling the product that you sourced.
Chris Hook [00:22:33] Exactly. They’re taking the discounted product that they purchased, and they’re selling it. They’re selling it on Amazon. So I mean, Amazon is knows that this is going on. They know that it’s an issue. They have put measures in place to try to mitigate it. So they do something now called brand registry. So if you are a brand registered, it’s much more difficult for hijackers to sell on your listing. So it is getting better from that perspective, but you need to have a trademark. You have to be registered. You have to have a registered trademark in order to be able to do that. And that costs additional money.
Erwin Szeto [00:23:07] So it’s definitely a challenge.
Chris Hook [00:23:08] But you know, I think as any business owner, you’re going to face those challenges. You’re just going to face them in a different fashion. If so, if I’m comparing that to stock trading, stock trading is obviously much easier here for stock option trading. It’s much easier from an option trading perspective. You’re depositing money into your account, you’re selling naked, puts on, you know, different underlying stocks, and you’re wrecking money that way. So, you know, again, it’s if you want the real business experience. Amazon, for me, would be the way to go. But there are definitely challenges that you face.
Erwin Szeto [00:23:44] Can I ask, have you made much money doing it?
Chris Hook [00:23:46] I have not made much money at all as of yet, but I’m not giving up. How long you been at it? So I’ve been at it just about a year. So I launched one product in the U.S., so I sold through all the products. So I guess from that perspective, it was successful, but it wasn’t profitable. And I just recently launched new product. End of August, beginning September. And I’m trying to do that in the UK. So the first couple of months have been slow, but I would say once I hit. So this is the other challenge with Amazon. So once I hit 20 20 January 2nd, to be specific, all of a sudden my sales kind of took off and I saw this big spike in sales and it was sort of averaging where I wanted my sales to be. But now I’m at risk of being out of stock inventory, so I’ve had to raise my price just kind of slow inventory. So the bleed of inventory down while I get another shipment. And then the other thing that is compounded there is that you’ve got the Chinese New Year. So and the factories in China shut down for a year or so to get product and back to Amazon. I’ve got a week now, six or eight weeks. So I’m looking at potentially being out of stock in the next probably six weeks.
Erwin Szeto [00:25:03] Very REIN. So sorry. So Chinese New Year adds a week to your lead time.
Chris Hook [00:25:09] So no, because the factory shuts down for the whole entire month. My whole month.
Erwin Szeto [00:25:15] Okay. Oh my.
Chris Hook [00:25:16] All right. They’re closed from the 15th of January to the 15th of February. So, all right, that poses a challenge for
Erwin Szeto [00:25:23] folks to this podcast is shutting down from the Vivo Typekit Chinese New Year, and they work. They worked like crazy, though, so get on do.
Chris Hook [00:25:34] The weird thing about their new year, though, is that it really varies depending on the factory to some factories. Like with my previous manufacturers fire, they were only shut down for like two weeks, so it really depends on the company and how long they choose to be off. But you’re right, they do. They do work crazy hours like I’ll get because there’s a 12 hour time difference. I mean, I’ll get emails from them at like noon my time, which is obviously midnight for them. So they work some crazy.
Erwin Szeto [00:26:03] Here’s how to get started
Erwin Szeto [00:26:05] on this, just in case anyone interested in learning how to start it was e-com. Was there a book or program that you would recommend?
Chris Hook [00:26:11] Yes, I mean, I did it. I started actually through. I had heard about the event that Rockstar was holding, which Greg and Brian, Brian, Brian Zammit, his father, son, training group they’ve created. So I heard about that now because I’m impatient by nature. I decided to start my first product prior to actually going to the course. I probably should have waited the three months that I was going because I figured I could do it on my own. So I actually I downloaded a Udemy course that kind of gave me the basics of how to do it. Mm-Hmm. And then I worked with Greg and Brian sort of near the beginning. So when I just launched the product, which had been around the January timeframe by attending some of their because they do like coaching calls and stuff like that, and they do a live in session meeting. So I attended some of those. But once the product launch, it’s not as I haven’t really been as dedicated to that group as I should have been. Mm-Hmm. And then when launching in the UK, I’ve actually got another mentor now that I’m working with as well, who is actually based at the UK, so I’ve been working with him for the last little bit.
Erwin Szeto [00:27:27] Fantastic. From your experience, what works well for people that are successful because, for example, Greg and Brian of Econ VIP, so shout out to Brant, Greg and Brian. Brian has been a past guest with this podcast as well. We talk mostly stock, so he will come back to talk about e-commerce slash Amazon business. But what is what is it that made these successful people successful? Is it the fact that they were earlier or did they have a brand like what is it?
Chris Hook [00:27:53] So in the case of Amazon, I think watching earlier definitely had an impact. Those people that launched five years ago have done very, very well, right?
Erwin Szeto [00:28:03] So in the business, we call the first mover advantage.
Chris Hook [00:28:06] Yeah, exactly. But I mean, Greg and Brian are like super smart. They’ve figured out strategies that are highly effective. Mm-Hmm. So I think that’s what’s helped them maintain their businesses because Amazon is changing every day. There’s so many different rules and they’re there on top of all of that stuff, and they’re looking for new ways to continue to grow their business. So I think, you know, I want to say that they had definitely the advantage of being early adopters to the Amazon business, but they’ve found ways to continue to be effective given the increase in the amount of competition that Amazon see.
Erwin Szeto [00:28:44] Mm-Hmm. Okay, fascinating. Let’s talk about some Real Estate. This is a Real Estate podcast.
Chris Hook [00:28:51] Sure.
Erwin Szeto [00:28:51] You have student rentals, you know, do you still have student rentals?
Chris Hook [00:28:54] I don’t have a spare rental right now. So that student, I did have student rental wife that we converted. So I had students in there for, I want to say, a year or two. And then we did illegal basement conversion on that. So it’s illegal duplex. Now your mohawk took like six bedrooms upstairs in the unit downstairs, but you know the student Szeto rentals for me, was the best experience. I know a lot of people or I’ve heard of a lot of people that have done them and who have been very, very successful. I think you were actually, you’re one of them as well. For me, though, it just wasn’t my wasn’t like the tenant profile just didn’t fit for me.
Erwin Szeto [00:29:34] Yeah, I think that part of the secret is that you have to show up often for certain profile, certain profile, you to show up often, right? Otherwise, they’ll push our limits because I believe there was a keg party at yours.
Chris Hook [00:29:47] Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised. I know that they know that Rodger had had to go in there a couple of times and Szeto kind of camp out just to make sure nothing was going on. But yeah, there is. I remember when they moved out. So there is one situation where there was a broker. I think they broke the door and half; they broke another door. So that’s one of the things. But when we had to go clean out the unit when it was done, it was just you said that it was like one of those is so dirty and I know students’ lives like that. I just it’s hard. It’s hard for me to walk into that, knowing that that’s my property.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:24] I think one of the tough, tough things best in rentals is sometimes you don’t want engaged parents or helicopter parents, right? But in the student rental property, you want them right because they’ll come and check on the property for you.
Chris Hook [00:30:39] Yeah, exactly. I think one of the things I would have changed if I was the new student rental again, I think I would do it closer to the university as opposed to college. I think that that difference in that tenant profile is just it’s not a huge difference, but I think there is enough of a difference there that it makes it a little bit of a better experience. Mm-Hmm. Mm-Hmm.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:00] I think part of it is also if the students are a tougher. Program, so not to disparage colleges, but some colleges have really difficult programs or really difficult to get into. For example, I think shared in student rentals do quite well. Just like, for example, the graphic arts stuff is really difficult to get into the world class. So that’s a great profile for students. And I have nursing students right now and have teachers a wonderful profile for anyone who looking for anyone looking to do student rentals. So you convert it to legal basement suite. Correct. What was the ceiling height? Because we’re getting a real geeking out here. I think some people will appreciate this and some people won’t. But that property is was a one and a half story.
Chris Hook [00:31:43] Correct.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:44] And traditionally one and a half stories don’t have enough space for a legal basis suite as actually going to a ceiling height. But you’re saying you often don’t have the don’t have the footprint enough footage? Well, not necessarily square footage, but ceiling height is one of the reasons why you can’t convert them to legal duplexes. But this one had seemed like it was six 11. Oh, I don’t know. Fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. So it worked out well. I actually had Andy, Andy, Trent, and I think when he first started out, he was one of the first. He did all the drawings for the first when I was legalizing not one. And yet, from what I can remember, a certain area of it has to be at least six 11. I think it’s like 80 percent. I can’t remember what the exact details are. Yeah, it was six 11. So the height, the ceiling height was quite good.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:32] So the listeners don’t mind because we’re trying to paint a mental picture here. But that was a one and a half story. I don’t recall it. Having a separate side entrance that went to the basement didn’t decide a set of rear entrance. Go into the kitchen.
Chris Hook [00:32:45] So there, yeah, I mean, it went into the kitchen, but it led to the downstairs and it was actually quite easy to close off. There was like there was like a door. There was like a doorway to go out to the back. But that doorway also went down to the basement stuff, so it was relatively easy to close it off. You know, the laundry like an ensuite laundry?
Erwin Szeto [00:33:05] Excellent. And what I trying to get to here is for the listeners, benefit is so that they don’t exclude these properties when they’re looking at looking at one and a half stories because most one and a half stories are automatically excluded for the opportunity in the basement suite. But you got lucky with this one. Yeah, for sure. You just had to get a realtor.
Chris Hook [00:33:24] Yeah, I did, actually. And I remember the first I don’t know if you’re aware of the phone call, but you’re standing at the house.
Erwin Szeto [00:33:31] I don’t honestly. Go ahead. Yeah, fire.
Chris Hook [00:33:34] So you’re facing the Walmart, right? And you’re standing up in the master bedroom. And I just told you that I wanted to do a student rental and you got in there and you called me and you’re like, Yeah, I can’t believe we can win this quickly. And I was like, I wasn’t expecting you to find it. That quickly sounds a little bit terrified that I actually had to actually take action. But yeah, I ended up taking action, and it actually ended up being one of the best, I think, one of the best purchases because I purchased on at 275. Mm hmm. And with it being illegal duplex now because the one who has to worry, the values aren’t as good, I think the values they’re seeing are five seventy five. But yeah, I’ve done well on that one
Erwin Szeto [00:34:11] for sure, which is the funny thing because the value hasn’t done well because it’s traditionally bungalows that have basement suites. And for some reason. And so they get a higher valuation because, like we mentioned, a lot of one and a half stories cannot be tweeted. So people, the value isn’t as high. But in reality, it is a one and a half story and can be sweet. It has a higher value. This is your appraiser doesn’t recognize these things.
Chris Hook [00:34:35] Exactly. The other thing I was going to mention about that property, too, is there’s it’s funny because when I bought that one, I thought it was all I thought, as was the student rental. But now you just look at the it’s on a decent sized lot.
Erwin Szeto [00:34:51] So what are the dimensions for the for the listeners benefit?
Chris Hook [00:34:54] So I think it’s 75 by one, 20. I believe in the house of mostly on the left side, mostly on the left side. So it’s got the potential for either a tiny house or the garages right now because it looks terrible and it’s an eyesore. And so I think it would add value to the property for that or even severing the lot, potentially. So it’s something that I definitely want to look into with that particular property.
Erwin Szeto [00:35:23] But just that I just interviewed before you is a coach, you know, coach. Yeah. So his lot was seventy five by 150. Depth is usually not that big of an issue. Usually not that big of an issue. Different cities we’re talking about, right? But you probably have a different opportunity here to suffer.
Chris Hook [00:35:39] Yeah, for sure. By the way, coaches felt it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I can’t wait to see out when we go on the tour is just the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. So impressive it
Erwin Szeto [00:35:51] Apologies to folks who are listening to this because lately the tour has passed for coaches to see coaches modular home that he’s putting on a severed light. This is advanced stuff, but this is wonderful. Return on investment. Ashley, do you want to know his numbers?
Chris Hook [00:36:06] Sure.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:07] You know his numbers. I don’t. Did you go see the delivery of the host?
Chris Hook [00:36:12] I didn’t see that. I only watched the because he did a Facebook life, so I was watching the Facebook. I didn’t actually get to be there for it.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:19] You’re watching your life.
Chris Hook [00:36:20] Yeah, I was actually watching it myself from work.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:24] Don’t ask me to sample my businesses.
Chris Hook [00:36:26] I’m not going to answer that. And Christina said, You know, we don’t live in the US.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:32] So Kush built eight hundred square feet. His build was about two hundred and twenty five, including soft costs. Keep the plans appraised for six 20. But he’s in for about 450. For 60, a preliminary.
Chris Hook [00:36:44] He said 225 two per square foot per square foot, including soft costs.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:49] So folks, I hope your Opie appreciate it because we’re really geeking out here. I don’t I don’t know if anyone else is able to talk to this stuff. So we’re getting really specific apologies to anyone who’s been bought by this. But if you enjoy talking about it, real estate stuff, actually, most people don’t share these numbers. So we’re lucky to have these two hundred twenty five as per square foot and cutting staff costs appraise the plan appraised for six twenty tosses in for about 450 to 460, and he’s it didn’t take long to deliver.
Chris Hook [00:37:18] No, it was crazy. Like they put it together in like three or four hours. I think it was like three or four hours. They put the entire house together.
Erwin Szeto [00:37:25] Understand he ordered the house in November. No.
Chris Hook [00:37:28] Oh, is it that quick? Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:37:29] Is that correct?
Chris Hook [00:37:30] It’s funny because I remember talking to him last year when we were golfing about him potentially doing the modular, and he had decided that at that point in time, that’s crazy how quickly he got it.
Erwin Szeto [00:37:43] It’s a two story. The app is going to be four bedroom, and he expects over 20 rent in the basement for about between thirteen, 13, fourteen hundred before the current market.
Chris Hook [00:37:56] He’s legalizing the basement, right?
Erwin Szeto [00:37:57] Yes. Yes, it’s legal claim that he lives in the basement, but the build cost I gave you includes the basement.
Chris Hook [00:38:03] What were his? Because he would have had development costs in their touring and so on.
Erwin Szeto [00:38:08] I think it was, he said, five. Five percent five percent of park land fees slashed apartment charges when he began calling it for him.
Chris Hook [00:38:14] That’s awesome.
Erwin Szeto [00:38:15] But he’s an accountant like you. So I trade. Yes. So I’m sure you guys are OK at your numbers.
Erwin Szeto [00:38:21] Yeah. So we are just it’s worked out. All right. And then you did a flip. I did so believing that you should done a lot of them because you made so much money so quickly. Well, tell us about it.
Chris Hook [00:38:32] Yeah. So that that flip happened. The crazy thing about that flip so genuine into the hospital in December of twenty fifteen, right before Christmas, three days before Christmas later that she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. So basically what happened was she was she lost all function in her body. Pretty much she couldn’t. She couldn’t even get her to bed. She had no, she couldn’t. It’s an autoimmune disease. So very scary. For eight weeks, she was in the hospital. We had to spend Christmas in the hospital. That year was terrible. While she was in the hospital. I was kind of splitting my time between being at the hospital half day and going to work half day and on one of the days where I was off or had some time actually went and met with Erwin Tratado Rock. And that’s how I kind of got introduced to the idea. And we ended up doing the flip in August of that year. And yeah, it was pretty easy. So I owned the house for remember. We closed on August 19th. We purchased that one at $730000. Mm-Hmm. We essentially did not a lot of work. We put in new flooring. We painted. We painted the kitchen cabinets. There were some concrete work around the back of the house that we needed to do had to cut down a shed and clean up the house because it didn’t show well. It had been on the market for 50 days when we picked it up. Mm hmm. And the funny story with that too is that my so the GM of the company that I was working with at the time lived right across the street. So when I would have to go there to do any type of work, I was trying to kind of hide because I didn’t want him to see me. I didn’t want him to see me. Like doing all this site, work on the house. Mm. I think we spent thirteen thousand dollars on renovations for the house with all that stuff combined. Mm hmm. And we ended up selling it. So it was done August 19th. We put it on the market sort of end of September or the second week in September. So it’s about a month after we ended up getting eight fifty for it, and it was only one. We only had to pay the one commission because it was a private gathering was a private kind of a deal.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:47] Mm hmm. That’s a very kind of urban.
Chris Hook [00:40:49] Yeah. Well, no. It was the other end. Like he took his commission. It was the other side that was private. Mm hmm. Yeah, it ended up being it ended up like we would have gotten it. Seventy five, fourteen. In that short period of time, we did quite well for ourselves. Even with the land transfer tax factored in and stuff like that and what to be around 50k profit in a month or six weeks, we end up selling that because we ended up closing on November 1st.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:18] What happened when you try to do it again? Because I imagine you would try to do it again.
Chris Hook [00:41:22] I have not tried it since.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:24] Oh, he didn’t even look for property.
Chris Hook [00:41:25] I didn’t even look for property. OK.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:28] OK. You mentioned Jim being sick. Yeah. How important was it to have all your side hustles going before she was sick?
Chris Hook [00:41:37] Very important. She was working.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:39] She was working a full time job before that was, you know,
Chris Hook [00:41:42] as she was working full time. She had stopped at that point because it was just after 18 months after Hudson was born. So she was going to take in sort of like an extended a little bit of time to be with my son as he was kind of getting older and then start looking to do something as a side hustle or her own business. So it was sort of in that transition period. But yeah, I mean, prior to that, she was working full time. The good thing about Real Estate is without, I mean, we’ve done a couple of refinances on the properties that we have had, and it’s allowed us to get through those times where she went on that leave in 2012 when we had our first kid. Then she went on that and then again in 2014. And since that 2014, she hasn’t gone back to a corporate type of job. And the Real Estate has actually allowed us with the refinances that we’ve done in the appreciation that has happened in most properties to kind of get through that period. Mm-Hmm.
Erwin Szeto [00:42:35] It’s funny there’s a quest trade commercial shared to Quest Trade that are really commercial about husband and wife. I think the wife is holding the baby, and they’re talking about the importance of taking action to Switch, Switch, switch their all their fund funds over to frustrate the husband, Father says. Where we’re really busy, though. And then the wife looks down the childlike, she says something like the difference will make the difference of like $300000 or something in our retirement, right? And something like she looks down at her kid, is that is that worth it for her?
Chris Hook [00:43:10] Yeah, I know exactly which commercial her
Erwin Szeto [00:43:13] brilliant commercial from our advertisers perspective, like for yourself, you. It was actually kind of worse and more immediate that you needed alternate sources of income.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:26] Exactly. In order to get by.
Chris Hook [00:43:28] Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:29] Yet the number one objection for people to invest in Real Estate is they don’t have the time, right? Right? If, like you know, if you had known Jen was going to get sick. Imagine how much more you would have done.
Chris Hook [00:43:40] Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:40] And are you worried about that townhouse industry? Exactly.
Chris Hook [00:43:46] Well, I mean, I think if I look back on it, one of the biggest regrets I have from the Real Estate perspective is that we were more aggressive early on because we really missed an opportunity in that 2012 window when we first got investing. We really missed the window there to kind of grow our portfolio pretty quick because we were we were both in jobs that were paying quite well. So it was definitely easier to get financing from honestly more challenging when you have a single income. But you know, hindsight again, hindsight’s 20 20. If I if I have one piece of advice for people that are kind of sitting on the fence, you got to get out there and you got to take action. You just got to do it. You got to get over the fear because it will cost you in the long run. If you wait too long and you don’t have regrets for the things and discover, you need to touch on stock options a little bit.
Chris Hook [00:44:35] And we touched on it a little bit. How’s it going for you?
Chris Hook [00:44:39] So I’m really enjoying it. So in terms of return wise, I think I’m at about seven or eight percent and I started, I would say, beginning of October.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:49] What were your thoughts going into it? I’m sure you, though she has doubts, and I’m sure Jen had doubts.
Chris Hook [00:44:55] You know, our was actually more open to it then than I thought she would be. She was kind of all on board with it. But yeah, my thoughts were, I guess, I was skeptical, kind of, like most people, that the returns could be that good. But yeah, it’s now that I’m seeing it. There’s definitely a lot of I don’t think that 30 percent in a year is that unrealistic anymore based on what I’ve seen so far. Obviously, it depends on it’s easier the more capital you have to invest. I think it makes it definitely makes it easier to grow your absolute number. But return wise, I think twenty four to 30 percent, which is, I think what they trying to talk about in the courses is quite achievable.
Erwin Szeto [00:45:42] We still need to if we have a significant correction of like 20, 30, 50 percent, then obviously it’s all out the window.
Chris Hook [00:45:47] Sure enough.
Erwin Szeto [00:45:49] But on the other side is and I don’t know if you listen when Brian was on the podcast, but you know, as awful as it sounds, a 50 percent correction is actually our opportunity to get to.
Erwin Szeto [00:45:59] Yeah, get by. Exactly.
Erwin Szeto [00:46:02] Because it’s not even the Real Estate, because people always talk about correction, correction, correction. You talk to a seasoned Real Estate investor. You talk about corrections like. And that’s the time I’ll be backing up the truck and buying as much property as possible. No different than what we’re doing with stock acting.
Chris Hook [00:46:15] That’s where Brian Halton of his success rate for a stock market perspective because he bought a lot. What was it, 2008 2009, when the market was just not great REIN
Erwin Szeto [00:46:25] In case anyone missed it, Bryant, it is Christmas too as well, Brian Owens, TD for about $20, said. And today’s prices over $73, but also understand there was a stock split in there as well. So Brian effectively paid $20, but he owns TD stock at over about almost hundred fifty dollars a share. And I think I think of the math, if my math is right, that his dividend yield actually works out to 30 percent based on what he paid for it. Three percent dividend yield.
Chris Hook [00:47:00] It’s crazy.
Erwin Szeto [00:47:01] Oh, here’s the fun part. So I’m not McCown, please. No one take accounting advice from me, but my understanding is I think it’s the first thousand. If it’s the only income that you earn, there’s the first $40000 of dividend income is tax free.
Chris Hook [00:47:15] Big smile on his face.
Erwin Szeto [00:47:17] Wouldn’t you be happy? Totally happy. So when people type of crash and crash and correction like, that’s I’m always like, I’d like it to happen sooner so I can stop waiting. The suspense that that that sucks.
Chris Hook [00:47:33] Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:47:34] I’d rather have no deal with it now.
Chris Hook [00:47:37] Selling naked Erwin Szeto in that type of environment, it can be damaging, I guess, if you’re not really expecting the market to drop that quickly. But I guess you’re riding the covered call. Even if you do get assigned sign, it actually works out at the end of the day because the cover calls are actually paying more than they can put there.
Erwin Szeto [00:47:52] But if it drops far and the cover call won’t be that, well, true, that’s why. That’s why the risk mitigation is again, folks, this is just education. This is I’m not giving advice. That’s why I have most my cash on the sidelines, right? So for that moment to back up the truck. Yeah, the I’m just trying to share my experience and my understanding. You’re not trying to give advice or anything. I want the best for everybody.
Chris Hook [00:48:19] The stock hacking thing is interesting because it actually looked forward to Monday’s now in the market close on Friday. I feel like there’s this void. And until the markets open again on Monday, they look for I look forward to the CNBC notifications that I got my phone. When I get up in the morning, it’s one of the first things that you look at and more about Donald Trump now than I have, because Donald Trump stuff he’s never listen to. But now it’s hilarious to see how every word that comes out of every tweet that Donald Trump makes such an impact on the market. And every little thing that is going on sort of in the market that you don’t really not in the market, but in the world. Those little things really have an impact on the markets. So it’s just it’s interesting to kind of watch to see what happens when a different news comes out.
Erwin Szeto [00:49:10] Hmm. Definitely not for the faint of heart.
Chris Hook [00:49:12] No, not for sure. I knew enough, like when the when I ran launches missiles against the U.S., I knew enough that what happens overnight and the overnight market futures market doesn’t matter that much. But it’s funny to look at my app and like, I lost like $600 in like an hour. Yes, but it all came back by the morning
Chris Hook [00:49:33] When I looked at it that night at nine o’clock, which is, I think usually when the overnight trading starts, I would have been assigned two of the two of the stocks that that I had. Mm hmm. But then when I woke up in the morning, they were back up over where they were before. So it was just it was crazy to see the drop and then I wasn’t actually expecting it to go up that drastically until the market opened. But pre-trade, it was already open. It was already up quite a bit. So yeah, it’s just it’s interesting.
Erwin Szeto [00:50:04] I think everyone is surprised and are surprised by this market. How strong it is. Yeah, that the U.S. REIN conflict wouldn’t cause more of an issue for the stock market for losers benefit. Can you share some of the stocks that you’re trading? Again, this is not advice, folks, Chris, just sharing historical fact.
Chris Hook [00:50:23] Yeah. So the main ones I’ve got right now are so did AMD today, which is. It’s your fault. It’s not my fault. Premiums are quite so they were hard to turn down. So that’s one I do. Disney quite a bit got target, which is one of my one of the ones I like to follow. Wells Fargo is another one that I’ve done quite well on. Bank of America is another one. And AT&T, because of the kind of five or six that I cannot keep a close eye on. I love to get into Apple. Just not right. Just not right now.
Erwin Szeto [00:51:05] You know, the fact is saw that AirPods before Christmas, I was like, Oh boy, they’re going to break. Something doesn’t make records.
Chris Hook [00:51:15] I just can’t buy that stock price has been, I want to say, like beginning of November, was that what, two, thirty six or ten forty somewhere in that 240 mark? I think that’s up over. It was almost three tenths, then maybe over three 10. It’s crazy like that.
Erwin Szeto [00:51:31] It’s been good. Yeah.
Chris Hook [00:51:33] Okay. It’s another one I want to look at, as well as Facebook premiums and that quite good. Mm-Hmm. Yeah, they very like,
Erwin Szeto [00:51:41] Yeah, they’ve earnings. That’s where the premiums are quite good. So let’s move on from there. Well, actually not a bit. So you plan on continuing on stock taking one hundred percent. Something you recommend others. Yeah, it’s kind of fun, too, and some people are just like, don’t talk to me about stock options.
Chris Hook [00:52:00] It’s addictive. It’s addictive. It really is. And maybe it’s addictive for nerds like us, but I find it quite enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it. Right? Definitely a good additional source of income, for sure.
Erwin Szeto [00:52:14] So we should do Jen, which I’d be interested in learning.
Chris Hook [00:52:17] She’s not really interested in it. She’s more an all kind of tell her what I’m doing, but I don’t think it’s something that should be interested in doing herself.
Erwin Szeto [00:52:26] Mm-Hmm. Mm-Hmm. So there’s a quick jolt when we were on vacation. Now I have a policy. I don’t buy Starbucks. I’m just not frugal. I was a great product and probably a bit of a I’m a bit of an environmental person as well. So I don’t want to buy disposable when you single use products. But whenever I start, she would go to Starbucks. I would sell. I put on Starbucks so I could afford it for dinosaur friends of the Halton make some money here. So you start to swipe right?
Chris Hook [00:52:55] Well, the first the first part I sold a Starbucks and I wrote the price for it was like 10 days, which I don’t think I’d do again. And I got I got to find it right away. So I’m like. And then the stocks stayed around eighty four dollars. I went down to 80 to buy just kind of hovered there for the longest time. And then today it was back up over 90 bucks. So I knew it just shows that you got to be patient the patient.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:21] But also, I find if you if you’re I don’t know what it was. I just didn’t like the chart on Starbucks at the time when you traded it and like the chart on it, and I didn’t have a good feeling about it without knowing much. So I just so I passed on it and it worked out well for me.
Chris Hook [00:53:38] And so looking back at it, I probably would not have done that as my first trade. Because you’re right, the chart, the chart didn’t look good. It looked good, but it was, I think it was at its peak at that point, which obviously it was because it came back down five or six dollars from there. But looking back on it, you can definitely see the difference. I definitely noticed the difference now in the charts now that I’ve spent time kind of understanding the different underlying and stuff like that and just looking at the charts and where you get a better, better understanding of what you should and should not do.
Erwin Szeto [00:54:11] I don’t agree. That’s why every time I didn’t follow with the chart was for me, it didn’t go well, right? All right. And not going well was just like neutral, like, for example. Again, none of this, folks, is just historical fact. I did a bit of TV to Toronto Dominion Bank, the chart said. Don’t. I did anyways. And then I got away with like making six bucks, but I could have made more money elsewhere. Right, right.
Chris Hook [00:54:40] So I’m actually finding that with Target now, it’s kind of hovering because I wrote it a little while ago and it’s just kind of hovering slightly above the strike. I feel like it’s been. It expires January 24th, but I’ll be glad when it eventually expires because then I can redeploy those funds to something else.
Erwin Szeto [00:54:59] And if anyone is interested in learning more about stock acting, Lee Laws book I’ll have the law back on this podcast soon. Neil, get rich with options and Derek Foster’s money for nothing.
Chris Hook [00:55:11] So leave all that podcasts that you did. I’m amazed at how down to earth legal. This is crazy. Mm-Hmm.
Erwin Szeto [00:55:18] Oh, he’s brilliant, though you can
Chris Hook [00:55:20] tell he’s very smart, but I just he was just so humble. It was. It’s kind of eye-opening because you expect someone who’s done that that’s been not successful. But I mean, I’ve read about him being a living, a very modest lifestyle. So I mean, I can kind of. Or is that? No, that’s a little that’s the other thing is your foster sort of stern foster that I’m thinking of, but someone lived very modest lifestyle, but it’s very cool to see. And it seems like they’re definitely willing to kind of spread the word and help people out in any way they can. Pretty awesome.
Erwin Szeto [00:55:54] All right. So Derek Foster has been on this podcast, folks, in case you want to go back and have a listen. And yeah, he wrote the book that we’re talking about money for nothing. Great. Easy read. First read. I recommend anybody if they’re interested in learning how to stock.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:07] OK, now you have Real Estate license. I learned English as a second language, so I could argue with the you know, you’re unsure about your bio, whether or not you had your license or not, because I thought you had your license. And then when I read your bio like, it doesn’t sound like he has a license, but you have your license and you have now license. Yes, correct. OK, what’s your intention with that?
Chris Hook [00:56:30] So to get more involved because I want to ultimately be involved in Real Estate on a more regular basis. And it’s one of the ways that I’m ultimately the goal with all of these side hustles is to get out of my corporate job into something else. So I love. Real Estate, I want to be involved a bit more. So that’s the reason I got my Real Estate license. Because you have all this free time to manage your rights, OK?
Erwin Szeto [00:57:01] Are you one of those that only sleeps like four hours like Elon Musk?
Chris Hook [00:57:04] No, you don’t. I can’t function on less than like eight hours of sleep, so I’m very regimented about my bedtime. It’s like I’m usually in veterans have a clock and I’m up at six. So, you know, once the kids, it’s good because our kids go down around 7:30, seven, 7:30. So I’ve got that time at night and then I don’t get a lot done in the morning. But like sometimes if I need to get some time, I’ll get it done. First thing in the morning too. So if you manage your time REIN, it can kind of it is busy for sure. And but I find that when I don’t have stuff on the go, I kind of get a little bit antsy. Look for stuff to do so.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:42] Right, right. And for folks who are in a similar situation as Chris Christmas, a nine to five job, as he mentioned, I hope you guys caught that after the kids go down because he’s working for at least two hours a night. Yeah. And that adds up to two hours a night is 10 hours a week. You can get stuff done 10 hours a week. Most definitely. Nice hustle, Chris. Thank you. And you know, you get your Windows license because you know what it did for you.
Chris Hook [00:58:08] Exactly. I want to be able to, you know, I’ve been to obviously a lot of the events.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:14] You can see that
Chris Hook [00:58:15] the first time buyers are really hesitant. I’m kind of taking action. I never know. Yeah. But I want to be able to help people like that because I think I have the knowledge, you know, I’m not by no means do I know everything. But I think I’ve gained a lot of good experience. I still have a lot that I need to learn. But I think I can definitely help people that are kind of on there at the beginning of the Real Estate journey, for sure.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:40] Mm-Hmm. Fabulous. If people want to follow along with you, what can they do? So that’s the task for you, Amazon. But you don’t have to sell anything in Canada.
Chris Hook [00:58:48] No, I know. So I guess the best place to contact me is via email.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:54] We don’t do emails. I’ve heard people complain about emails they still get really for me on this show. You know, I try to be humble, but we do have a lot of people that listen to this show. And if you put up your email, someone’s going to email you six years from now when you’re rich and famous and you’re not answering your emails anymore. Christine, I go for a coffee. You know, you got your five million dollar trading account in your 20 properties. You’re not. You’re not taking you’re not taking a coffee break. Contact coffee meetings. You have Facebook.
Chris Hook [00:59:26] Don’t you have Facebook and Instagram. I don’t have Instagram. I’m on LinkedIn. So I guess LinkedIn or Facebook.
Erwin Szeto [00:59:34] OK? To get into the two places, if they just search your name, will they find you? I mean, you don’t have a vanity Facebook URL or no.
Chris Hook [00:59:45] OK.
Erwin Szeto [00:59:48] So it’s Ben. You get to start your own Instagram. The captain, the captain, the captain of Amazon, the captain of side hustles.
Chris Hook [00:59:58] I don’t like taking pictures, so I got to tell you have a Jen Lawrence taking pictures, and I’m the exact opposite. So I think it’s funny, but I’ll just get her to take the pictures and then I can post them on Instagram.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:10] That’s awesome. Her Instagram handle can be a lady captain.
Chris Hook [01:00:14] I think she already has an Instagram account, but it’s not lady captain.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:18] So Lady Captain of side hustles.
Chris Hook [01:00:21] Oh, I’ll pass that along.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:23] I like that, Chris. His last name is Hook. So Chris’s nickname has always been the captain. Captain Typekit Peter Pan reference in case. Yeah, I hope everyone caught that. You know, there’s still people that don’t catch the name of my kids.
Chris Hook [01:00:40] Really?
Erwin Szeto [01:00:41] Yeah, there’s plenty of people. Don’t catch that if you don’t know. DM me, folks.
Chris Hook [01:00:44] I just mentioned it on the podcast. Yeah, I’ve heard you mentioned it before.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:52] They don’t know what I have. They don’t know if it needs to be.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:58] As far as a joke, I’m not going to share what it is, but you know that my kids names are Robin and Bruce, and I think most people can draw those parallels can figure that out. If you can’t, please DM me because I want to know how many people can’t be together. They’re just totally OK because, you know, we were into that. But if you’re into that stuff and you know exactly what it was. Yeah. Excellent. Chris, any final thoughts? OK, so hang on, LinkedIn, the is Chris Hook. Yeah. Well, this Amazon stuff on your LinkedIn, they
Chris Hook [01:01:32] don’t see all my corporate stuff. OK? Trying to keep the Amazon and Real Estate stuff kind of quiet.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:38] Got it! What about on your Facebook? You know, Facebook bunch.
Chris Hook [01:01:41] I don’t Facebook much. I follow people, but I don’t really
Erwin Szeto [01:01:44] Facebook and there.
Chris Hook [01:01:45] So if they want to reach out, they can reach out through Messenger.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:48] Isn’t that amazing? And I added something new. He suggested that if people at him on Facebook just message something to say, Hey, I heard you on Erwin podcast or, yeah, something like that. So then because I get I get numerous requests a day and I have no idea who they are. So I’ve actually kind of given up REIN because I would I would say, you know, I accept. And then they invite me to something, some business of theirs, and I don’t really know this person is like, So I’ve kind of given up. I don’t accept any new inmates who are very good.
Erwin Szeto [01:02:26] Chris, any final thoughts you want to leave?
Chris Hook [01:02:29] Yeah, I guess the one my one final fight is for those of you that are sort of on the fence with Real Estate. I think it’s a great vehicle in creating law, and the best way to do it is just get out there and take action against them. That would be my piece of advice. And then don’t look back.
Erwin Szeto [01:02:49] It’s funny because I’ve ripped you for many times about the first property, but I don’t think I knew how quickly you actually read from reading book to actually buying a house, which is actually quite good. Yeah, which is better than I did. And for the listeners benefit to give context. Chris and I are close friends like we’re golfing together on Friday, for example, and I’m a much better golfer. So can we just not even state the record? It’s not fair to call me a golfer when people say, Do you play chess? I go. I know how the pieces move. I will lose to an eight year old who has practiced, though this is no different than with golf. Oh yeah. So I remembered the day very well when you didn’t buy that property because I’ve always felt guilty about that day for not convincing you to buy that property because we know what it meant. Especially in hindsight, we knew what it meant at the time and knew what it meant, what it meant. I didn’t know before this bad in terms of opportunity costs lost, lost opportunity costs. But I remember that day very well. And I, you know, I think, you know, I take I take a lot, my work quite personally and I’m very involved in all the work that I do.
Chris Hook [01:04:04] So I remember that day very well only eight years ago. Yeah. You know, everything worked out and longer. And so that’s all that really matters.
Erwin Szeto [01:04:14] Hmm. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [01:04:16] All right. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations, Christian, on your success. Thank you for doing this.
Chris Hook [01:04:21] Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure to be on here. I was a little terrified. But yeah, it was. It was good. Enjoyed it.
Erwin Szeto [01:04:28] Did you mind sharing? Because it’s right? None of my guests get their questions in advance.
Chris Hook [01:04:34] No, no, they don’t. And I think that’s the first that was literally terrified.
Erwin Szeto [01:04:40] But don’t you feel better?
Chris Hook [01:04:43] I do. I do. I so much I can go to sleep now and have a good. Good sleep and not be stressed in so noisy.
Erwin Szeto [01:04:50] All right. It’s 10 20. Thanks, Chris. We’re going overtime. Sorry for being late.
Chris Hook [01:04:54] And no problem.
Erwin Szeto [01:04:56] I’ll see you Friday. Awesome. Thanks, Chris.
Chris Hook [01:04:59] All right. Bye.
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