Podcast Transcription

Erwin Szeto [00:00:06] Hello. I wouldn’t maybe. Happy anniversary to my lovely wife. She reminded me how I should picture on a mini date, which was our first date over ten years ago after meeting on Match.com. Thankfully, she said yes to the date just suggesting our wedding day. Thankfully. Thankfully, I have learned how to write rental ads. Back in ten years ago and therefore I was able to apply those skills in selling myself as a potential date partner. That was ten years ago. We celebrated yesterday our anniversary golfing. I forget whose idea was to go golfing, but Cherry happens to be a very solid golfer. Her previous boyfriend had a membership at Angus Clan, which is one of the nicest clubs in Canada, and also home to the PGA’s Canadian Open for a couple of times. So she’s golfed way more than I have. Now a quick stock hacker update actually missed last week’s update. So here’s this week’s update. Last week was also profitable. Okay. So the week before was profitable as well. So last week it was just over. My own profits was 30 $700 U.S. dollars. And the majority of that time was spent at my friend’s cottage with a wi fi. So it was just my iPhone, my IP app, my emails, my emails from my coaches and my data plan. Cherry made over $5,000 last week. Also, while we were at the cottage without wi fi, just data plan in just our phones. So we combined for almost $9,000 U.S. and that beats our combined goal of $4,000 U.S. a week. So we better go yet again. It’s been a great run and this week shaping up to be another great week as I’m up over 1300 dollars us as a record this on Tuesday morning, June 30th. For clarity, when I refer to profits, we have exited the positions, so profits are sitting as cash in our account, no different than cash flow sitting in your account at the end of it, in your checking account at the end of each month for your properties on the real estate front. The real estate market share is bouncing off the lows from February and March. I have family who are heavily invested in Toronto condos, so while there is more vacancy than ever. So if you are a tenant, now’s a great time to be shopping for a rental for a preferred price. You are now actually renting again. The condo market was once frozen for months, but now landlords are adjusting their rents accordingly. My friends that are just into rents down 1 to $200 a month and now tenants are signing within our own portfolio. COVID cost is one of our tenants, so they moved out, but they left the apartment immaculate. I don’t I don’t know what we did right. But these tenants were younger in their early to mid-twenties. They had bright futures ahead of them. Two of the three young ladies already had their landlords already reached out for references, which is not normal. I mean, we always call previous landlord references. We, as in my team, my property managers. It’s just rare for other landlords to reach out to us for references. And for this reason, that’s why I always teach investors to learn from successful investors versus not successful ones. I think we all know that Uncle Bob, who is unsuccessful landlord who bought a piece of crap property and who knows where and they’ll tell you that real estate sucks and it’s a money pit. But they happen to be that person that never bothered to run a credit check versus we are the person that worries friends are kind of charge. So who would you rather learn from? I don’t know. Personally, my opinion, I always rather learn from successful people rather than unsuccessful people. Our new tenants are very nice people. They’re hardworking. They love their company meeting them. I realize that they love their expensive tech gadgets. Their daughter has an iPad bigger than any iPad ever seen in my life. The young gentleman, the father as a nice electronics as well, including a watch and all these other things that I can afford myself. One of the family members is a pastor and we feel we’re lucky to have them. They were one of five applications we received and it’s always nice to receive multiple offers. And so to give context, give some background. This property in Canton is in Hamilton on the West Mountain. It is a three bedroom main floor apartment, so it’s nice to get multiple offers. So I shared with you how Toronto condos and condos in general in North York and Mississauga, I’m hearing largely the same thing. There are renting again, but rents have come down 1 to $200 and versus our rent is actually our new rent is now $150 higher than it was four months ago. So just to say, we’re happy with our results, these are COVID times. So Saturday, this past Saturday happened to be at the lease signing. But these new tenants, this was the first time these new tenants have seen the property. So what had happened is I had the previous tenant, I gifted them a $50 gift card as a thank you for. Well, I asked that they do a video walk through of the property in exchange for a $50 gift card. It was just simply Amazon. So I all I do is email it to them. No contact, albeit email, very nice and safe. And then so what we did was I required my property manager to require that any tenant that wants to see the property, they have to submit an application. So and then also. Application for my property manager tells me application rates are probably down, I think, he said. He said he used to get between 80 or 90%. If he asked for an application he would usually get about 89%, 90% then back. But for my property, the application return rate dropped down to 50%. Just to give you guys an update on how this markets behaving now. So again, we required prospective tenants to submit an application so that we could approve them before they were allowed to see the property. We just felt this was the right thing to do to be before we would allow anyone into our tenants home for to protect everyone’s health and safety. And I’m glad it all worked out. They moved on August 1st and I guess it’s a little bit of time to do some minor renovations as well. Our students, they’re younger, so they’re not used to, you know, landlord tenant relations and what the norm is and whatnot. So they’re asking for a significant rental rebate and they’ve asked for some repairs. The silly thing is that a lot of the repairs is the first time they’ve asked for them. So they didn’t give us a chance to action these repairs if we’re asking for a rent reduction anyway. So one of them was a loose faucet as a loose faucet on a bathroom. Vanity. And despite the challenges and password renting to students. I consider myself useless for tools. But I can hand tighten something. It’s simply a matter of time. All I have to do is open the vanity cabinet doors, which under this fast was meant to be maintained. I had to be doing it all. What I had to do was hand tighten it. Now, remember, this was on the list of things that tenants felt need to be repaired and that wasn’t being neglected. This property we hadn’t visited in some time. So just a friendly reminder, it’s a good idea to visit your properties from time to time, even though it’s being managed or send a home inspector. We did both on Saturday and we inspected our property with our home inspector. Now, now we have a decent sized list of to dos and that’s considerably longer than the list that our tenant provided us and also handy as well to bring a home inspector. The tenants love the shower. The bath shower was leaking, turns out of the toilet. So it’s a good idea to, you know, have a professional look at things. This is important to us to take care of our properties because this we intend to have this property for quite some time. This is my son’s house, as we call it, and we plan on handing it over to him in order to, you know, this is his RSP. So this is what will pay for his university and likely pay for a down payment, at least on his first home. So onto this week’s show. Many of you listeners are interested in careers in real estate. And many of you are interested in becoming real estate agents. I get that question probably more than most. I often get questions around how to invest. And then for career wise, it’s not. Many people ask for full time careers in real estate investing. Most people ask me, are becoming real estate agents. So today we have coach Tammy de Tomaso, who is a real estate agent. She’s a licensed realtor, a.k.a. the Duplex Queen on the show. So about five years ago, Tammy switched from her esthetician business to becoming a realtor. She became licensed to real estate. First, she joined the island real estate team as an assistant. This is my company. She was assistant to James Banks and started taking clients in 2017. Since then, she’s completely rocketed to becoming an influencer in investment real estate, including doing she executed on 50 deals in 2019. To give folks some background. A very good agent does 30 deals. So 5050 deals puts you in the probably top three 1 to 1%. Right. So she’s very good where she does not unless you get a second opinion agent. So any Tran who is the leading expert on home additions. His own words are that Tammy knows zoning better than any agent he’s ever met. Tammy So needless to say, Tammy is no regular agent. She regularly gives talks to rooms of 100 attendees or more. Plus, she’s that time that she spoke in front of over 1500 people at the World Hacker Conference. And you’ll learn that, yes, I made Tammy cry before. You’ll find out in the show. I had several team members want to quit and some actually have quit this team. That’s no surprise, really. Any team that pushes limits is going to have people that don’t make it. In my experience, nine out of ten people are capable of more than what they think is possible. I push an investor clients and I push my team all the same, and that little voice in my own head that pushes pretty hard to not all can rise to the occasion, but when they do, you get people like Tammy to follow Tammy. For people who want to get in touch with Tammy, our website’s actually down to some means as I speak. Tammy happens to be their lead instructor on our free training class on the number one investment strategy in real estate. So you can catch her there. Our next date is July 7th, so don’t delay in registering. All you do is go to WW dot investor training dossier, slash free class. This is all in the show notes. WW dot investor training slash free class. Tammy will be our is our head instructor and that’s our last one for July for sure. Possibly this summer so don’t delay get on that. And her Instagram handle is and is just Tammie Ditomaso on Instagram. All right. So without further ado, I give you Tammy Ditomaso. So let’s give you a busy these days, dare you?

Erwin Szeto [00:10:17] All right.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:10:18] Do my kids COVID keep me busy with my kids? But definitely interesting work at home right now with the kids but feels a little busier that way for sure.

Erwin Szeto [00:10:28] Have a lot of people in your home, though? I do, yeah. The four of them are over the age of 18. Yeah. Yeah.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:10:36] Yeah. My parents live downstairs with us, so, you know, my parents are really cool. They’re laid back, their chill. They’re good people, they’re good to live with. And, you know, I don’t know if that’s the case always for everybody or how you feel, but with me it’s been yeah, it’s been great and they’re really helpful obviously. So when it comes down to even my mom has been helpful with laundry and she knows that I’ve been really busy with work and she sees it piling up and I’m out a lot and someone’s she’s been really helpful and just watching the kids anytime if I need anything. All right. Yeah, I guess I maybe too. They’re used to me being self-employed, so they know what my work ethics are like. And I’m out a lot and I’m doing things right. So they are always just there and helping and supporting. So yeah, they’ve been good to me.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:20] Self-employed for how.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:11:21] Long? Right in high school.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:24] What did you do at a high school?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:11:25] I went to Cathedral High School and then out of high school I. During high school, actually I had three jobs at the time on the go.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:36] Yeah.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:11:37] And then at a high school I saw a girl doing esthetics and I just like that. I thought, oh, I like you cut your own little business here. And I thought, this is a good set up. And I thought, I want to get into that. So I got into esthetics, not realizing fully what I’d be doing. So working off people’s. Feet. Or waxing saw certain areas. So I was like, Oh, okay, this is a little different than I thought. But you know what? I still give my all and I loved it. So I did that for about 17 years. 17 years, yeah. Now. And I started my own business, right? I went on a job interview and I got the job right away with no experience. I thought, if I can get a job with no experience, I should give it a go on my own here. And I really should just, you know, try. And funny enough, actually, I was talking with Annette and I’m sure that might come up a little later. James wife we’ve been friends forever. And it was her I remember the head said, Just go for it, just do it.

Erwin Szeto [00:12:30] I’m like, Yeah, you’re right, you’re right.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:12:31] And so I went and started my own business and then I did great. Now I moved around. It ended up becoming going in my house. And then I bought my first house and then I brought the business there and moved and everyone followed and it was great. I got really, really busy, busy weeks on weeks like you can book with me. I was booked up.

Erwin Szeto [00:12:49] Okay, so your house isn’t huge. Where? Where did you.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:12:52] See? Cause my. In reason, I had the whole basement. Oh, okay. Yeah. So my first house, I bought my partner and I then boyfriend and I, we, we bought our first house. Okay. And then the whole basement and I got to write off a third of my mortgage, my bills.

Erwin Szeto [00:13:09] Because you’re like the owner of the basement suite. Yeah. This is the basement queen. Secondary suite. What is it?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:13:17] Can you call this duplex, Felix? Yeah, right.

Erwin Szeto [00:13:21] So you were your own tenant? Yeah. What’s the better investment? Running a business out your basement or renting it out?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:13:27] Probably renting it out. Really? So good. Really good. Yeah. When I ran the business at the beginning, obviously things are slower and so on. But I mean, I became, you know, really busy and did well. So then obviously that that would’ve been a little bit different. The good income back then, I guess a lot of cash, cash business but didn’t say that out loud. Right. And yeah, so did good. And you know what, it was really good business because I probably didn’t know this time. But you know, looking back, I’m definitely a people person. So, you know, having those relationships with my clients and building that was amazing to the point of even now with real estate, I have clients that I’ve done esthetics with for years, saw their kids when they were age 11, now they’re 30 and buying houses with me and just crazy.

Erwin Szeto [00:14:13] Yeah, you were a people person I would never want. Guess how long have I known you are? Let me know each other.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:14:21] 2015.

Erwin Szeto [00:14:23] 2015? Yeah. Okay. How did we meet?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:14:25] I met you. The very first time I met you was at the Hamilton Basque Brigade. Oh, actually, I was volunteering because I decided at that point what I wanted to get into real estate. I was shadowing James everywhere and everything, no matter what. It was social. I was like, Can I come? Can I come? And so then he was, tell me about the Basque, the brigade, him to Basque a brigade. And I said, okay, I want to go. And I came there and I’d met you and you came up to me and he said hi to me and I’m like, Oh, you know me. You go, yeah, I go door. I keep you.

Erwin Szeto [00:14:51] Facebook and.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:14:53] You knew who I was that I think I’m okay. That was the very first time we met.

Erwin Szeto [00:14:58] So you mentioned James first James. Max was the vice president of coaching and were in real estate. How do you know, James? Why would you shadow that guy?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:15:07] So James’s wife and I have been friends since 1996, and we went out one night to have fun. And 98, where we met James, and those two had hit it off. And they have been together since. So I didn’t have a choice. James was in my life.

Erwin Szeto [00:15:24] And it.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:15:25] Came with the package of a net at that point.

Erwin Szeto [00:15:27] You know, the shadow him, you know, shadowing him.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:15:30] You know what? I just I saw what he did and, you know, I witnessed it. Hearing about of this being his friend for so long, but then also seeing all of his accomplished accomplishments on Facebook. And I knew that I wanted to get into that business. And I just felt like he was a great person to watch. And he led by example. And I knew I just wanted to be part of every, every aspect of it. Like so even his social events that he would go to, I just really wanted to be around just to listen to them because I could listen to him talk and learn every single time. He’s one of the few people I can listen to consistently, like for, you know, hours. Too many hours.

Erwin Szeto [00:16:05] Maybe, but.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:16:06] Hours. Yeah. And yeah. So I just and I remember too and you commented on it was on Facebook. I think it probably came up as a memory a while back. But James had done a presentation with you guys in a meeting and I commented underneath saying, Wow, James, this is amazing. Like how he’s, you know, he got to speak in front of all these people. And then I remember soon after I joined the team and you had commented on it maybe a year later saying, Oh, that’s going to be you. And I never thought that would be me. I never thought I’m going to be up there. I just thought it looked cool that he was doing it. But I remember you had commented that to.

Erwin Szeto [00:16:41] As opposed to. I don’t know. James has been on the podcast before. He’s quite successful financially. Is that what kind of made you interested in doing something similar?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:16:52] No, actually, I wouldn’t say it’s quite that I. I mean, obviously that is part of any kind of job and an interest there. But I just I knew at a young age that investing as well was really important. I remember being 20 and I remember hearing about some people that had investment properties and I thought, I need to get into that. There’s money there. I know there’s like there’s some having these properties and so on. So obviously there was some intrigue definitely with the income on that. And but I just I didn’t do it. I didn’t jump into it and I didn’t get in. And then I saw James doing it and I actually just had the interest in wanting to be out there, being in houses, looking at what I needed to what I needed to look for, for clients, the people, everything that your group was doing. I was interested in what the him to best brigade and how you guys were leading people tours like just the whole thing doesn’t interest me for sure. But James, you know, he’s not a flashy kind of guy, but, you know, it’s there. I don’t think he’s.

Erwin Szeto [00:17:49] Seen his.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:17:49] Car. He doesn’t have full. Yeah, but not one I know at first he had a white Mazda. At first I remember when we when he very first started and I know because he was driving.

Erwin Szeto [00:17:58] Now.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:17:59] I was actually watching Ballers watch the show and the rock is in it and his car is James’s car. I’m like, James, you’re baller. What is it? It’s a Range Rover.

Erwin Szeto [00:18:11] Range Rover? Yeah. So it’s a very new, very large Range Rover. The tires. I can’t even imagine with the tires as costly. These are enormous. Yeah. So how long were you shadowing? Working with James?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:18:23] So I joined the team 2015. So we ended up having James over in Annette for dinner one night. And I said to James, I had done my statics, like I said, for years, and then I had my kids and I really didn’t work too much while I was raising them. But I remember saying to James one night and I said, You know, I really want to get into real estate. And I really wanted I’m thinking about getting my real estate license and my family’s been very supportive and they’re amazing, my husband, me and my parents and so on. But then when James said to me, I think you should do it, I think you’ll be great. And I said, Wow, really? And it meant even more to me coming from him. And he said, Well, I need an assistant. Do you want to be my assistant while you’re taking the course so you can kind of learn both sides of it? I said, Yeah, of course I extend. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even know how to excel. I don’t know how to do any of that stuff. I’ll figure it out. But my kids were going to be going into school full time, so I had the opportunity to stay home with them, plus work and do the classes and so on. So when I actually did get licensed, I got to learn another side of the business with real estate, with all the legalities, the paperwork, everything that needed to be done, which really can take hours when you’re first learning. And I was able to whip through stuff really quick because of what I had learned with James. So that’s kind of how the ball got rolling with everything. Yeah. So that was 2015 and then I was actually licensed 2017 flipping. Ah, yeah, 2017. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:19:43] I mean transactions they’ve done in the last 12 months of months.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:19:48] So I actually was looking it up recently because I was trying to compare mine to James. I was filling up our old stats for the last, you know, how many days and so on. I don’t even I’m not even sure I know what I did last year and this okay, so maybe I’m at about but last year and this year so far. So was that a year and a half, about 50.

Erwin Szeto [00:20:07] You think that was possible? So actually for the last 50, I’m pretty sure puts you in the top your top 1%. Yeah. For the listeners, we count that from an institution to being assistant, real estate assistant to being licensed to be fully licensed in 2017 and the 50 deals in 12 months. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that puts you in the top 1% for among real estate agents now. Yeah, I don’t I don’t think there’s many people, even at our brokers that beat you.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:20:37] You can’t. And if somebody tries look it up, it’s not all there. Because I went back and I started getting rattled by the numbers, just trying to, you know, push myself. Right. And but yeah, I guess there’s somewhat the Toronto boards and Hamilton board and a lot of exclusive listings that we’ve been able to come across. Right.

Erwin Szeto [00:20:51] So thank you. Some people want to look you up. Yeah.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:20:53] Me up. And you think I’m a liar.

Erwin Szeto [00:20:57] I think 45 to be safe. So to me, that’s pretty impressive, I think.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:21:03] Yeah, pretty.

Erwin Szeto [00:21:04] Impressive. Yeah. There’s many people who’ve been in the industry for 30 years who never come dirty deals is usually a very good bar for a very good agent. So to do 50, it’s something considerable. I even though the number was that high and I think people know I’ve said this many times, maybe not so much on this podcast, but the vast majority of real estate agents are people, persons. If I took ESL. Perm. And my English people skills, excellent people skills. But you and then you know the courses. No, not that. In my opinion, if you get a real estate license but then you went which further because our businesses we work with investors requires one be highly analytical and very process driven because all the all the red tape with the deal with the city and building code fire total, those wonderful things. Do you think you would do all this?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:21:56] No.

Erwin Szeto [00:21:56] So tell me. It’s the same as the duplex. And tell me how many duplex conversions did you work on last year?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:22:01] Last year I think was about 20.

Erwin Szeto [00:22:04] 2020 duplex conversions. So and then when Andy Tran, hopefully people new and different is any Tran is like by far the leading expert on, I don’t know what you call secondary suites, building additions, that sort of stuff. And when he need an expert on the real subject of real estate, he reached out to you, did he not?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:22:20] He did. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:22:22] What was that about?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:22:23] Yeah, I paid him. So when I first started this to go back a little bit, yeah, investing was definitely very new to me and challenging for me because a lot of the realtors or coaches that you have on your team already had investment properties, and I didn’t have that. And so I knew that I was, you know, pushed by you and in a way to say, hey, you haven’t felt this part yet. So until you’re going to get your property, you need to, you know, really, really learn everything, which is what I wanted to do. So I started getting myself involved with everyone that I could, just called and made calls and built up relationships with people that I knew I would learn from. So Andy being one of them. So we became quite close, just, you know, being able to turn to him and ask him and be able to learn everything or a him help lead in the direction to it so that we knew where to go and what we needed to do, so that I can learn a lot of those ins and outs of everything that was needed to do the suites. So I definitely made sure I was surrounding myself with, with the right people as well.

Erwin Szeto [00:23:25] Well, I guess that you dug a little further because I believe and his exact words for some. So it for folks who don’t know any Tran any Tran work for Carson Dunlop for many, many years. I think he’s done somewhere around 1500 home inspections before he switched roles. And then he was when he was writing the training materials for Carson Dunlop, for anyone who’s had a home inspection, if you’ve ever been handed a hard copy book by your home inspector, and that’s the book that Andy worked on when he worked with Carson. But I recall his exact words were Tammy de Tomaso Nos basement suites better than any realtor? No, no. You said zoning. Yeah. Tell me. No zoning better than any realtor he’s ever met. Yeah. And you’ve been licensed for how long?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:24:06] Two and a half years.

Erwin Szeto [00:24:08] So it took years. Because you even know better than I do. I have to ask you questions. Yeah.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:24:14] Yeah. I started learning all of the zoning requirements for Hamilton and surrounding areas. Mm hmm. I got myself familiar with for sure. So, yeah, I appreciated that. That was a nice compliment from Andy coming from Andy, too.

Erwin Szeto [00:24:28] So you just have a big, infinite time to spend on research?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:24:31] No, I don’t know. Not, you know, not enough. Like I started doing graphs. I thought, I’m going to get all organized, but I wasn’t great like that. But just really getting involved and, you know, digging into as much as possible. And because as I’m talking more people, sometimes things will come up and I’m and I’m always hard on myself if I don’t know the answer. And I’ve gotten more comfortable now that if something comes out that I’m not sure of, that I can say, hey, listen, I’m not sure, but I’ll look into that, no problem. And I feel comfortable with that because I, I know I will. But when you first start, you hate those words. So I don’t know. Right? So I didn’t want to do that. So I thought, I need to I need to know as much as again. As quick as I can. Right. Because the other part with joining the team, you know, and going back to like James, not with the team, but I when I first started would do that that probation period type where you, you know, you start in there and you’re getting your feet wet, getting in there with clients and getting to work with clients that have already been talking to the other realtors on the team and working with them. So I zip through that real quick and I want it just I really wanted to go hard, hard, hard, hard, you know, just to really kind of kind of get in there and then be able to do my own thing afterwards. So I was excited to be able to get through that. I think we did that in only a couple of months.

Erwin Szeto [00:25:45] Do you think that you guys you’ve always worked hard? I guess.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:25:48] Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:25:49] For you.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:25:49] Parents? Yeah. You know, my mom, my mom’s always been very supportive, but she’s been the family person always for us. And my dad’s been the worker. You know, as we were growing up and my dad moved up in his company and his business very quickly, self-taught and did very well for our family. And then I don’t know I don’t know if it’s you know, that. And then I guess some people are just I don’t know, you bought out or you learn that or you’re just that person. I’m not sure. But I just knew I was I was always driven with whatever I would want to get my hands on. I enjoyed it. I just wanted to run with it. And I was the same as the esthetics, you know, like, I need to build this. What do I need to do? What I got to, you know, I don’t even know if I share the story, but I remember when I first started my Esthetics business, I will start telling people that I was booked and I wouldn’t book them for a while on purpose to look busier. And then they started, they started booking and they were like, Oh, she’s busy. Okay. And then they would become a regular client. But then I would get to the point where I was fully, actually fully booked and there wasn’t any of that, but I just knew it. There was things I needed to do to build up that confidence to get there and go with it. So I know the word for the esthetics that doesn’t work quite the same for real.

Erwin Szeto [00:26:58] Estate.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:26:59] You need to know. But I had a good team and I had the support with you guys. So with the push for sure, you know, it’s in me, I’m driven with that. But I also know that I had the support of the team. So you’ve pushed me to do things that I don’t want to do.

Erwin Szeto [00:27:12] Sometimes.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:27:14] Or I didn’t think I wanted to do or makes me very nervous and sick to my stomach at times. So I remember when you first had me present in front of people, my voice cracked. I don’t know if we have a recording. I have to see we have recorded that because it’s probably pretty bad and my voice is cracking so bad that I just looked at everyone and I said, I know my voice is cracking. Okay.

Erwin Szeto [00:27:33] I know, I know you know, you don’t know.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:27:36] And I remember thinking, oh, and I remember going up to those meetings and I couldn’t believe I was so sick to my stomach and nervous. And then it became a point where you just kept pushed me to the next. What do they say? They say that the next envelope get that saying I’m pushing the envelope. But the envelope. Yeah. And you always had me go that step further, step further, step further to the point where, I mean, you had me with Grant Cardone, right? Right.

Erwin Szeto [00:27:58] Let’s start with when did you first talk?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:28:01] On March. I know it was March. It was probably March 2008. Was it tells me you actually do what? I don’t even know.

Erwin Szeto [00:28:11] Do you know where it was?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:28:12] It was at Sherman.

Erwin Szeto [00:28:14] So a certain conference center.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:28:16] The Sheraton. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:28:17] Okay, so that’s 2018, 2018.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:28:19] So I think it was around March and they’re right soon after my. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:28:22] And so it’s probably in front of 8000 I.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:28:25] Think there was. Yeah. Pretty close to there and because I remember it was my second time going up and I remember doing another presentation and I had said to my kids, I said, Guys, Mommy’s all done preparing a presentation. Now, do you guys want to go get some ice cream? So yeah. Okay. So we get in the car, we’re going to get ice cream and I’m trying to sound really important. And, and I said, you know, Mommy finished her work because I was working on a presentation and you know, that I got to talk in front of like 800 people. And my son, who’s very of coherent that said, Mom, I was talking in front of my school and we have like 800 kids in our school. I was like, Yeah, but. When I. Got up there, I knew I need to kill it. Because. I’m not even on the same level as my son yet. But I do remember so I do remember there being about 100 people because of the big scream story. Yeah. So and then I think soon after that January, it was 200 people. Oh, we got that many. People that want the slope. That was one 200. But yeah, yeah we were going yeah. We’re going growing fast. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:29:29] And then you did something with Grand Cordon. Yeah.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:29:33] Besides run up to him when I saw him like a crazy person. Yeah. Yeah, that, that when you got a check on my Instagram page, it’s a funny video, but. Yeah. So he yeah. You had him over for the Wealth Hacker Conference and had asked if I would speak on stage as part of a panelists, as part of a panel. And there was about 16, almost 1600 people there. And that I thought is going to be sick, too, of course. So that was really nerve wracking. But there was no way I was going to say, there’s no way I’m going to say no to anything you ask me to do, even if I want to do it or I’m. You nervous to do it? And I’m glad that I did that. There was I couldn’t turn an opportunity like that done. Obviously you trusted me to do that too. Was pretty huge.

Erwin Szeto [00:30:14] So what was harder the first time a green card on stage.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:30:18] So believe it or not actually the first time I’d say was definitely harder. And then when the nerves for getting up with Grant Cardone, obviously my nerves were going there, but once I was up those lights, remember those lights were so bright I couldn’t see anybody anyway. So, so that definitely helped I think. But that first time going up was probably harder. Yeah. Yeah, I took so it took me I days I worked on my presentation that was probably, you know, 20 minutes or something and just making sure that the pictures were lined up, right. That they weren’t crooked in any way. I’m nobody even noticing that stuff, right? That there was a border around each picture. That’s this. So yeah, it just put a lot into that. I was nervous and now it’s just. Yeah, second nature almost. You’re doing those for you. But I still enjoy and I still put a lot of effort because I still, you know, still very important, of course.

Erwin Szeto [00:31:07] But and I hear some conflicting reports because I thought I I’ve heard you. You’ve cried several times since joining the team.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:31:17] Yes. Tears of joy. Lots of many, many tears come joy. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:31:23] No, explain, because usually we after a conversation we’d have and then I get a call and say, what did you say to tell me?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:31:32] There was one call that was not very nice. And I think, you know what? I think that you and I became like real learned about each other a little bit, too. So there was a lesson that you had for me, which I learned. And at the same time, I think you learned a little bit, too, right?

Erwin Szeto [00:31:48] Oh, no, I already know I’m a jackass.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:31:49] You learn not to talk like that.

Erwin Szeto [00:31:52] And that’s why you apologized.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:31:55] And then and then I think, too, like, we realized that, you know, also because you can motivate me and push me in a lot of ways. Right. And then I also realized to how well I work towards when people are talking positive or I have that reinforcement injuries and even that much further. So if I see other people even doing what I want to do well, or if I see other people, I hear that some positive stuff happening. I want to be involved in that. I love that part of it. The parts for your harder. I’d say the most pushes I had from you was during. Besides the Sears Tower. Fine that you made me do, you know. But work wise, you. Clients, the. Work. Work wise was definitely of the presentations that you would just like me. You threw me in your like throw someone in the water and they learned how to swim. And as scared as I was, it absolutely worked because it just, you know, it did push me to face those fears and know that, you know, what I needed to do. To work. Not what you’re talking about now, you know? And you had to do a lot of scary other scary things, too. So when you talk like this, the entire climb that was that was a lot you. No, it was scary if anyone’s done that.

Erwin Szeto [00:33:11] Yeah it’s for the listeners called the edge walk.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:33:14] The walk through walk.

Erwin Szeto [00:33:15] Can walk up the stairs take an elevator.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:33:18] Yeah. I’d rather have walked up the stairs really than the edge. I couldn’t even move my you know, when people say, oh, my goodness, I’m so scared I couldn’t even move. My body was frozen. My body was frozen. I actually had to squish my toes forward to like inching closer to the edge. Terrifying, but. Okay, yeah, that’s a different kind of fear that you put out there for us, but it’s still proving something, right? Mm hmm.

Erwin Szeto [00:33:40] That’s interesting, though, because your first talk was the most difficult.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:33:43] Huh?

Erwin Szeto [00:33:44] But the 600 person talk was easier because.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:33:48] Easier? Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:33:50] Would you say it gets easier?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:33:51] Yeah, a little bit. It does. Yeah, it definitely does.

Erwin Szeto [00:33:55] Because even though even though you did talk the first time we did talk in March; your talks were more in-depth and longer as they went on.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:34:03] Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:34:03] The audience has got bigger.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:34:05] Yes. Yeah, I was. Yeah, it definitely gets easier. I still always have I have a little bit of nervousness in me still when I present because I don’t want to look stupid. I’m scared that I’m not gonna, you know, say the things. I’m not very articulate and I, you know, am I going to come across okay? And I worry about a lot of things. And I remember talking to, you know, our team, they’re like, you need to be yourself because that’s what people will gravitate to. And, you know, you have the knowledge, you know, more than you think you even know. So just, you know, you’ve got to go up there, put that out. And so, you know, over time, it’s really gets easier. But there’s still a little bit of pressure. I want to make sure that everything is good. Good, great. Mm hmm. Yeah. Same with our other classes that we do in our Zoom calls and our presentations and other stuff. You threw me in there. Free training classes and. Yeah, I mean to do. Of course. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:34:55] Yeah, I was. I heard.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:34:57] Well and then you had us do the academy. That was, that was hard. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:35:00] Was that hard.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:35:02] Yeah. Just because I guess the pressure of making sure that I’m okay, that I’m doing all right and I’m getting the points across that I want to and you know. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:35:09] What’s the free training class that you do?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:35:11] The free training class is teaching investors or somebody that maybe wants to be an investor. Why? Second suites are a great investment property. So it’s great for beginners in general, but also for beginners geared towards the second secondary conversion. So we get to talk about that and why it’s great. And so I love that part of it, but then I love that the follow up is our tours that we do as well. So we’ll often because we get especially we know COVID and all the Zoom calls we’re getting people all over the place coming in. It’s not at our, you know, Mississauga location as example. So we have people from Ottawa and everyone zooming in to see what we’re talking about. But it’s nice that we have the tours that we follow up on. So because then we can say, Listen, let’s now get into the nitty gritty, let’s get into those bylaws, let’s talk about the whys. You know, this exact property will work or not work and so on. So I like that part of it as well. So I have that background. I do meet people in person, but I do like that we’re touching more people at the same time, you know, I mean, because there are more people that can call in a little bit easier than maybe not being able to drive in on a Saturday.

Erwin Szeto [00:36:17] So if anyone can tell, Tammy likes to go. I know she’s. Wildly. Extroverted. So there’s COVID times are not suited for her personality. I’ll just keep.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:36:28] Calling.

Erwin Szeto [00:36:28] People. Yeah. Yeah. But you’re so you talk about basement suites, like. But now we shouldn’t do basement suites anymore in the middle of recession COVID. Right. It’s a terrible investment.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:36:39] Yeah. Don’t buy them because we’re going to buy them.

Erwin Szeto [00:36:41] Why would you want it?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:36:42] Yeah, nobody’s basement suites. I mean, listen, I think all investment properties are actually fantastic. And I do have some clients that will say that they’re nervous right now to buy because of COVID. And this is a little bit different, this pandemic’s different. We’re not used to that. And there’s some, you know, health reasons and people losing their job. And there’s a lot of reasons why somebody might want to invest. And I’m not going to push them. This is a different kind of area. But if someone asks me, should I be investing now? Yes. Would I invest now? Yes, absolutely. I think that if you’re asking me for something short term, well, then, yeah, we don’t have that crystal ball. We don’t know short term and so on. But we’re investing for the long term. We’re investing for five years, ten years, 20 years. We’re going to hold this property. And if you watch the market trends and you watch. Where the, you know, history of prices and in real estate and you see that it if it does come down a little it goes up, it goes up, it goes up and that’s how it is. So for those reasons, even now, yeah, I do think it is a good time to still invest and I and I always feel a little iffy with that because you know me, I’m not I’m not that salesperson. I’m not doing this for a sale. I’m not doing this job actually just for income like we talked about a little earlier. I love it. I’m doing because I want to do it. My husband and I have a successful business with the gym. It’s not that that I needed to do this to support my family doing this, cause I want to do this. So when I’m speaking of speaking from the heart and being genuine and what I feel and I never want to come across as anything other than that, but if you ask me if it’s to invest, then absolutely. And I think investing in any kind of property is also great. Single family homes, duplex, triplex, and so on. But duplex is where my heart’s at.

Erwin Szeto [00:38:19] I guess.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:38:20] My niche, I guess, so to speak. Although we have been really looking into some other cities and growing our portfolio even larger and down the road with 30 units. So even as a team, we’ve been doing a lot of research lately and we’ve got a lot of great people that we spoke to economic developers, property managers and a train who’s great and making sure that we’re definitely again, I need to nail that. I know everything about it before I’m going to go ahead and present it to someone. So and especially I mean, if you know me, you know, I’m from Hamilton, born and raised. I know Hamilton inside and out. Even just driving down the streets, I quiz myself on street names and so that if anything comes up, I can remember where it was. And so. Hamilton I’m great. So and then we’ll do the surrounding areas. But I also need to make sure that I know those areas and where areas that are good to turn to or not and so on. So that when someone just mentioned someone, I can answer it. Not that I have all the answers by any means, but, you know, just try to learn as much as you can.

Erwin Szeto [00:39:16] We were meeting with Elliston next week. You should probably be there. Sure. So if anyone doesn’t know Elliston, their ginormous construction company and they just opened up a manufacturing facility in Hamilton, Stoney Creek, where they’re going to start building modular homes. Modular. Yeah, modular everything. So we have a meeting with them next week. Maybe you want to sit in on that? It’s probably more important you’re there than I am.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:39:42] I’ll take notes for you because.

Erwin Szeto [00:39:44] They have a they have a huge, vested interest, obviously, in making modular homes a bigger reality in Canada and especially in our local. I’m sure they’d love to be able to deliver more of them locally in a Hamilton just makes for a better story and it just makes it easier for everybody. I’m pretty sure most of the staff there are hamiltonians. Yeah. Why should investors be paying attention to third unit opportunities?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:40:05] Yeah. So the third units are amazing because you already own that land, you’ve bought that land, you have that property. And so you’re not going to be paying any additional fees because you’re able to put this unit right on the lot the already owned. So if somebody says to you, Hey, if you want to buy this property, it’s $150,000 and it’s going to, you know, maybe your rents will be on a low end. I’m going to say 1600, probably going to get more. And you work at the numbers, would that work for you? Definitely that would work, right. I mean, we’re buying houses. That is 400,000 that were renting out as a single family home receiving those rents. So why wouldn’t you add 150? So you’ve got this property that you’ve bought and let’s say we can even turn it into a legal duplex and then you already know your cash flowing there and then you spend that extra hundred and 50,000 to put in a third unit. But the cash flow numbers are just I forget the exact numbers are we do have them all written down, but yeah, it’s pretty sturdy.

Erwin Szeto [00:40:59] I was at one of my properties on the weekend just checking on things and then a who mentioned it, we were with Rob team and then someone mentioned it like, you know, hey, we have a lot of that garage. Tear it down, potentially put up something else and like. All right.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:41:16] Right.

Erwin Szeto [00:41:17] Because we’re so close to the university. Toy like ones the zoning allows. I think I would totally tear off my garage. I think for zoning purposes, they’ll probably require me to put the garage back or I’ll tear off my existing garage, put up a new one with a suite above it.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:41:34] Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:41:35] And then I think the ballpark cost for that would be somewhere around 160, I’m guessing, and I’m pretty sure I could. Rented it for 1800. Yeah. I can rent out the apartment for 1800.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:41:44] Yeah. Yeah, I have a client. We, we just closed on a property this year in April and it’s a legal non-conforming duplex and in the back has a three separated three car garage. Yeah. So our, you know, the wheels just start turning, like, what can we do? It’s not zoned right now for that third unit. And the fees to change the zoning, which is also a maybe are quite, quite expensive. So I’ve heard some different numbers going around, but you know, we about $20,000 to change the zoning. And yet with the other cities that are surrounding us and how they’ve made some changes to their zoning rules, we will see what happens with Hamilton and the case. And, you know, he’s laughing right.

Erwin Szeto [00:42:31] Now if he’s cash flow in today. But yeah, I would sit on it personally.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:42:34] Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:42:35] Yeah. Because you know, my thing is once it’s allowed price is going to jump.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:42:39] Mhm.

Erwin Szeto [00:42:40] The same thing happened to duplexes once duplexes were widely known that they were allowed the prices on jumped for houses you could duplex. Yeah we’ve seen it already for example our friends we have we’re trying to get appraisals on houses that one and a half storeys the market doesn’t want to pay as much for them as generally we can’t sweep them right versus anything. It’s a bungalow with a separate side entrance. They all praise for higher. Yeah.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:43:03] Yeah. No, that’s true. And the appraisers, you know, appraisers already are different. Buy with each appraiser you might get and some of them will look at definitely the one off stories but I’ve been looking into recently even doing more conversions with the want to have stories and even two story homes. And so Andy and I had a sit down actually about it and went through exactly what we would need. And I always like to know, even just the breakdown of all the prices. So do I have to put in some stairs? Do I have to? What are the windows? What are the prices, what? Everything that it might need. And then run it with my cash flow number or with my rent numbers to see what the cash flow is going to be. So there’s definitely some opportunities there too that we haven’t really hit. Obviously, bungalows are nice. They mirror at the top, the bottom and you know, you know, we know those very well. But there’s a lot of good opportunities where you look at the back in the day, in the Hamilton, in the lower city, they’re all two story homes and they’ve all been duplex. But now we’re looking at do we do that now and today’s standards and rules and bylaws and does it work? And I think that actually can be pretty attractive. So yeah, there’s some I think there’s some extra opportunities out there that we need to look at. But to keep that a secret, guys.

Erwin Szeto [00:44:10] Maybe don’t put the. So has no one ever push you as hard before?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:44:17] Because I.

Erwin Szeto [00:44:17] Push everybody.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:44:19] No, no. And I mean, you know, when I was younger growing up, I had like I said, I had three jobs and I as soon as I could work because news. You got that social insurance card? I was 14. I was a lot of work. I started working. Those were just little jobs, nothing big. Right. Arenas and coach girl, you know, when I was old enough and so on and I actually managed a store when I was 18, that was pretty, pretty big responsibilities there. But no, never any questions like that. And then even when I did my own esthetics, I mean, there was nobody this is you’re really the first boss I’ve had since I was 18.

Erwin Szeto [00:44:55] James was you.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:44:56] Boss, so. Oh, come on.

Erwin Szeto [00:44:58] I’m just kidding. Yeah. No. What?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:45:01] No, James definitely pushes me. But we also have a friendship of 20 years behind us, and so we have a comfort level of even how we could talk to each other. So as much as I can have a close relationship to you, I still have a different look, like how I look at you. You know what I mean? Because you’re still that that boss, even though you work as a team together, there still is that there. So there so no. And the answer to your question short, I don’t can’t answer anything. Sure. Don’t ask me.

Erwin Szeto [00:45:26] To. I don’t know the question whether they were.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:45:28] Yeah but you want to push me as hard as you, so the answer is no. Now James has definitely been supportive and he definitely pushes me. And then there are certain times where Erwin just ask me to do this and I’ll go. He’s like, No, you got this, you got this, Tammy, you know? And he went, Okay, you know, and I’m not going to back out and I’m going to do it, but I’m nervous and I’m scared. But, you know, definitely pushed me harder than anybody else.

Erwin Szeto [00:45:52] I know how well you’re doing.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:45:55] Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, you tell them. Well, they always come home and tell your kids. Like my kids overheard me talking. To. My husband and. Yeah. So, you know, I don’t know if the kids notice anything like that. Of course not. Right. But yeah, my parents know. But my parents about, you know, they always look at me as a hard worker my whole life. And because, like I said, our gym did well and it was successful. And they saw how we were and we live our life. We definitely try to be conservative where we can, but we like to have fun as well. We like to do some things. But honestly speaking, since I obviously got into this job and I’ve been working with you guys, it has definitely allowed me to do more. So, you know, for the first time we went on our first family trip the beginning of this year, which thank goodness we were able to get in before COVID because it was our first family trip, which would be the sad to disappoint the kids. But we did manage to get that in just in time. But then my husband and I also were able to do a little bit more. So we went to Miami with you, my husband, to Vegas with the guys. We did another trip to Costa Rica, a trip to Dominicans. We did definitely get to do a lot more than, you know, than I would have done probably for sure. So interesting. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:47:06] You make a lot more than your husband do.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:47:09] You can listen to this. I would say a lot more, actually, but I well.

Erwin Szeto [00:47:17] I just do one successful gym.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:47:19] He does he does do very, very good. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:47:21] I’ve looked at buying a gym before, so I have an idea what numbers look like and have a good idea what you make.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:47:26] Yeah. Which is probably best you do very, very well. So definitely some ups and downs, Jim, different have different months where you’re going to do better than not. And it’s funny enough because they’ll say, Oh, Jared’s your busy time at the gym. It’s not it’s a busy time for our members to be in there. But my husband was personal trainer. Right. And so that’s where our gym does its best and it’s actually commercial, believe it or not, or that it’s a lot busier for him and he’s super, super busy packed gym and he work very hard to like he works. He never took the day off. We first opened up never that one. And then after a year of sitting, you’ve been working really hard. I think we should you need one day that you don’t go to the gym, like just have it where there’s nothing. And so he took Sunday. Also Sunday became our family day. And then since then he’s been able to yeah you know just the hours how he wants to and get into golf and stuff do right. Mhm. And actually it’s turning into something, he’s doing something new recently where he took a golf specific training course to train people with up to golf to work out like sports specific training towards golfers. So then COVID had happened just as soon as he got licensed. So we’ll see what happens there. But yeah, something he wants to push next.

Erwin Szeto [00:48:36] Let’s talk we think about all your success.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:48:37] He’s super you know I’m really lucky to he’s super proud and happy for me which you know, is great. But because we’re both self-employed people, like we talk to other people, even our teams and people always ask, how do you manage everything? And with maybe because we’re both self-employed, I’m not sure. But we’ve been able to if I say to them, Hey, listen, babe, I got to work, I got to do this, get go for it, go for it. And he always says, Listen, Erwin always those determined say that, okay, I’ll do that. But he’ll do it, you know.

Erwin Szeto [00:49:08] Just like and but yeah.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:49:11] So he’s extremely supportive and supportive of me. Apparently. So.

Erwin Szeto [00:49:15] Yeah. Quick stop now. Yeah.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:49:20] But he yeah, it’s been great. He’s been very, very, very happy and very proud. And you know, I’ll message him and he’s excited for me because he knows I’m excited for my clients. The one thing with both of us is that as much as I can sit here and say, Oh, this client got it, you know, got this property and so on, he knows how much. How much I love that that that person I know has got a good property and that they’re going to benefit from that property, they’re going to make money and so on. And I love that. And he’s the same with his clients, right? He wants his clients that he’s training to learn how to work out and be healthy to the point where if they don’t even need to train with him anymore because they can do it on their own. That’s great. Let me help the next person, you know, so we both kind of have those, you know, we both, I guess, think that way and then just push each other and know that it’s important. So we’re never hard and hard on each other, but that it’s not yet. We’re good.

Erwin Szeto [00:50:09] What’s your next investment going to be?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:50:11] What is it going to be? Yeah, well, I my plan is to fi to get a wholesale deal that you’re going to bring to me. Right. And I’m going to have many of you the contract. Work and. Then I’m going to have it duplex and I want to buy a turnkey. Turnkey duplex is that’s the plan anyway. Obviously inventory is a little slow and it’s kind of hard because so the last one that Manny just did; I’m still kicking myself. And I told my clients, I, I should have bought that. I should have bought that one. And, you know, sometimes we get asked, well, when you get these deals that come forward, don’t you guys just take them? But we don’t you know, a lot of times we do turn toward return to our clients. And now it’s in hindsight where I thought. I. Should bought that one, but.

Erwin Szeto [00:50:54] I should tell a story and one that remember that house that you did with James that we couldn’t sell.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:51:00] Yeah. So we had. We can sell it. No, we suck. Sell that for you. Invest real estate. So we, we had this deal come to us a wholesale deal and we sent a note to clients, but we also sent it out to contractors to have a contractor. That wanted it sent out to go over 300 people. And. Then just a couple. Contractors felt like there wasn’t going to be enough margin. Is that the right word for them to do this flip and make money spread, whatever.

Erwin Szeto [00:51:30] They didn’t think they make enough money.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:51:32] Yeah. So I was actually going down there to the house because James was meeting contractor, our other contract man. He was going out and I was going to meet Manny because he bought me Portuguese tarts and I said, okay, I’ll meet you at the house, I’ll come get the tarts for me. So I went in the house and I didn’t even look at the house myself all that much because I thought someone’s going to scoop this up. Right? The owner for being a little the sellers were being a little funny with everything. So I just tried to chat her ear off inside and so that the guys could do what they needed to do. And then we all left. And yeah, there was no takers. So when I was talking with James and we were talking about looking for a property and he and I said, he said, What do you think about it? And I said, Yeah. I said, We can do that. We can make that work. And I remember him thinking, okay, well we might have about $30,000 renovations, so can leave me a charge like I’ll, I’ll deal, I’ll take care of all that and I work my butt off. I got the best deals with the best people and we ended up spending under 20,000, the 17, 18,000 on our renovation. And did your parents. Do some work to. Hire my parents cheap labor. My mom. My poor mom, my hands hurt. Because. They also like they came out and they were cleaning for us and painting, but they knew it was mine. So they really wanted to do a good job as well. Like they were hired people. They wouldn’t be doing this for anybody else. But my mom said, you know, your dad noticed that there was a hole here, a crack here. So we fix that and fix that. So they just, you know, they did so much. It was very helpful. I know some great people and some that’s appliances and I’ve sent him business over the time and so he really took that inspiration. When it came time for us buying appliances, I knew another gentleman and you know, it just air conditioning and furnaces and stuff. So we had him come out and yes, we were able to make it make it work. And we knew instantly we had forced depreciation on that house. When we had bought it. We knew what it was worth then and then with what it’s worth now, remember the numbers? I think we’re at least about 80,000 over.

Erwin Szeto [00:53:35] You know what you bought it for?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:53:36] Yeah, to 80.

Erwin Szeto [00:53:37] And then you spent 23.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:53:38] Ryno Yup. And we knew at that point it was worth 340, even if we put it on the market right away, and I think we’re at least three, three, 83 years later. Is it? No. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:53:50] See, force between force and market depreciation. 80 grand in just 12 months. Yeah. And we couldn’t, we couldn’t find someone to buy. Yes. Which is funny because we’ve talked about it in my team is that the common question from new investors that work with us is don’t just take all that, don’t take all the deals nationally. No, we don’t. There’s usually more deals than we have money for. In this case, just no one stepped up. No one saw the opportunity.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:54:15] Yeah, definitely. So it worked out good for me. As. A great and you know what? And the tenant that we have there, they just built a whole new deck in the back yard. It’s beautiful. It’s unbelievable the amount of work that they’ve actually put into it and cared for it as well. So it’s nice to be locked out. And a cash flows. Cash flows, yes. During the rent. rent? Yeah. Rents. We actually did a little lower that. We think we could take all we were going to ask for 18 but to rent the house at the time four years ago and we ended up finding someone that we knew through someone who was looking and their budget was around 17. So we said, you know what, let’s just put it. So it’s actually a funny story because we closed on the property on May 8th and started working on it right away and she came up to us and that all happened really quick and was moving in June 1st. So we had three weeks. Nice, three weeks. So we didn’t you know, we. Didn’t have any vacancy. We didn’t even have a month of our own mortgage payment yet. Right.

Erwin Szeto [00:55:18] So from the story, you don’t even have pictures because there wasn’t time for after pictures.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:55:23] We actually redid the bathroom there. That was probably one that costs a little bit more because we did decide to redo the bathroom. But because of the timeline of when she moved in, we were going to do partial bathroom renovation. But once we started pulling out, we realized we needed to do to the full. And so they actually had two days without a bathroom, but they were okay with that. Okay. So was good. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:55:42] So if you lunch is arrived so it won’t keep you any longer, what do you do? Hope people follow up with you. I know you have an email list.

Erwin Szeto [00:55:49] You do?

Tammy Ditomaso [00:55:49] Yeah. What’s it called? I think some people call it Tammy’s tips, but yeah, I do. I do an email blast from time to time. It’s probably one part where I don’t fully get it out as often as I’d like again, because I put too much effort and thought into it and so on. I just. I know, I know, I know. So I do. I do have that email blast to put it out. But you know.

Erwin Szeto [00:56:15] Tammy Oh, no, no, no, y’all addresses. No email address. Oh, sorry. That’s what you’re asking. Snapchat tik tok, which, you know.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:56:25] Come on, I’m too old for that.

Erwin Szeto [00:56:27] Oh, yeah. What do you.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:56:29] What does it Instagram. Okay, I’m on that. What’s your handle? And I just mini Tammy de Tomaso. Okay. Yeah, this is okay. I don’t put too much. It’s on. They do a little more family stuff, I think, and then Instagram a little bit more work stuff, but. Mm hmm. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:56:44] Awesome. So if you come to our vanity. Well, stuff and you’ll. You’ll go find Tammy if you want to share.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:56:50] Um, let me think. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:56:53] Even though it made you cry, you are still happy to be here, aren’t you being here? Yes.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:56:58] You almost had me walking off. That’s our edge, but.

Erwin Szeto [00:57:00] Yeah, that’s good.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:57:02] Yeah. No, just. I mean, obviously, if anybody is interested in getting in touch and doing anything together, even if you just had questions, I’m always happy to help, was happy to put some information out there and that. So I probably just, you know, being able to touch people and that is probably the most important thing to me more than anything. So yeah, if anyone needs any help with anything, I’m happy to help.

Erwin Szeto [00:57:24] And I think, you know, I only push you because I know you can take it.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:57:27] Thank you.

Erwin Szeto [00:57:27] Appreciate it.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:57:28] I appreciate the pushes, even if I complain and cry.

Erwin Szeto [00:57:33] Right. Well.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:57:34] I cried once. Everyone thinks that I’m crier, which is funny to joy. Tears of joy.

Erwin Szeto [00:57:38] I’ve had so many people ask me to be like mentor them and coach them and join this team like, Oh, I’m going to make you cry. You don’t want that. You got you’ve got this, this.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:57:49] Yes, you’ve got a good side, south side and you go to hard side. Definitely so. But it’s working well. Yeah

Erwin Szeto [00:57:56] And then I share this, I don’t know if mentioned this in the podcast before, but I am infinitely harder in my own mind than I am or any of you do. So just know that as well. Awesome. All right. Thank you, Terry. Thanks for doing this.

Tammy Ditomaso [00:58:10] Thank you. If you’re feeling confused.

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