Table of Contents
Podcast Transcription
Announcer [00:02:24] If you are looking for the skills and tools to succeed in real estate investing, you’ve come to the right place. This show is about breaking through barriers, breaking through limiting beliefs and breaking through to the life that you want to live through the power of real estate investing. This is the Breakthrough Real Estate Investing podcast, and now here are your hosts Rob Break and Sandy MacKay.
Rob Break [00:02:54] Welcome, everybody. Thanks for joining us again today. I know you heard on the intro there that it was Rob and Sandy, but today Sandy is away. So joining me as co-host, you know him. Well, Quentin D’Souza, welcome Quentin.
Quentin D’Souza [00:03:11] Hey. Thanks for having me, Rob.
Rob Break [00:03:13] And for those of you who don’t know Quentin, but if you listen to the show, I’m sure you do. He’s been on several times. He runs the Durham Real Estate Investors Club and he is the chief education officer over there. We’re getting a bunch of books, very, very active real estate investor. And thank you again for filling the chair.
Quentin D’Souza [00:03:36] Hey, no problem. Yeah. Always, always working on the real estate portfolio. That’s my full-time gig. Lots of fun. Read 80 80 million in assets, almost 400 doors now. So that’s and keep growing. We got like 93 94 unit building under contract and I got a 12-unit building closing next week. So, you know, I’ve been doing this since 2004, right?
Rob Break [00:04:03] Yeah, fun. All right. And I and I always have said that, you know, if it wasn’t for you, Quentin, I wouldn’t even be in real estate investing. So, you know, I’ve got to give you that. I got to give you those props.
Quentin D’Souza [00:04:16] Thanks, man. Well, you know what it was those ads for we buy houses that got us together, right?
Rob Break [00:04:22] So something like that. Yeah, that’s right. I mean, I was I was doing I was starting to dabble in wholesaling. I certainly hadn’t done anything again before I met you. But all of those courses in education that you offered at Durham, R.I., I helped out a lot and I was getting going, that’s for sure. Awesome. Hey, everybody listening knows this already, but you should go over to break REIT podcast. Okay, there you can listen to all the episodes that we’ve done with Quentin. I think there’s five or something like that now. I don’t know. He’s been on there a bunch of times and every other guy. That we’ve had on they’ve all had really good information over the years, seven plus years now, Quentin Wow. Believe that same
Quentin D’Souza [00:05:08] craziness
Rob Break [00:05:09] makes me feel old. But yeah, seven plus years packed with education from all kinds of guests on all kinds of topics. So everything real estate over there. And you can also get our free gift the oh boy now and put on the spot. What’s it called? Sandy always does this part. See what it’s called?
Quentin D’Souza [00:05:35] See, I can’t replace them. I can only stand it right. There you go.
Rob Break [00:05:40] Well, we have our free gift on the website. It’s called the ultimate strategy for building wealth through real estate. I’ve read it several times, obviously, but not in the past little while. But Sandy is always one that says, yeah, the ultimate strategy for building wealthy real estate and you’ll get on our email list. So just go over and sign up. Breakthrough REIT podcast Dot S.A. And, of course, go over to iTunes and leave us a rating review that always helps us get out there to more people and grow a wider audience of people that were looking for this free information that we offer here. So get over there. Leave us a rating review putting. You’ve left us a rating and review, right?
Quentin D’Souza [00:06:21] I have. Yes, sir. Have you? Yeah, I did. I reviewed. I rated. It was a good one. I got to say it was good.
Rob Break [00:06:29] Yeah. Five stars, right star. OK, well, thank you very much. And it wasn’t heart, right? You just went through a couple of lines. It takes, yeah, 30 seconds. Or, you know, you can write us, you can spend a couple more minutes, maybe like three more minutes.
Quentin D’Souza [00:06:45] But the other thing too is like, share it with two friends, right? If you’re going to if you’re going to if you enjoyed it and you enjoy hearing our guest and you enjoy the podcast, make sure that you share it with other people right that way, other people can get all that goodness and knowledge, and you know, you can pass it on to the next person. Right. It’s all about pulling that next person up behind you.
Rob Break [00:07:07] Right, exactly.
Quentin D’Souza [00:07:09] That’s what the podcast is. It’s, you know, education and information, and we want to share that as much as possible.
Rob Break [00:07:17] Absolutely. I mean, there was a time before I sort of learned that pulling people up is a better way than keeping everything to yourself. There was a time where I was sort of afraid to share a certain amount of information. You want to keep it close to your chest. It’s valuable. You don’t want to share it, but I mean, you get way more support from the universe, whatever you want to say, when you just when you just share or just share.
Quentin D’Souza [00:07:45] Absolutely. You can’t. You can’t do all the deals, man. You can’t buy all the I know, although I’m trying, I cannot buy all the apartment buildings that are out there. It’s just not possible, right? And you can’t do all the deals, so you got to, you know, be open, share what you know. And I find that karma, you know, comes back to you two. And I got to say, you know, from Oshawa to Costa Rica, what a journey, man you like. I can hear the birds in the background from Costa Rica. That’s super cool.
Rob Break [00:08:17] It is, and it’s been so much fun here. We’re having the time of our lives, to be honest. We’ve like, I mean, you know, people are asking me and things are, we’re going super smooth at first. You know, as far as like a first flip that we’re doing here, they, you know, we’ve got to build all of the contacts for suppliers and, you know, labor and whatever trades all that stuff. So we’re building a pretty decent Rolodex here. But there have been a couple of snags recently. So if I went over there today, I don’t think anyone would be there because we’ve kind of got we’re at a point where we’re looking for some electrical supply that’s apparently in, you know, in short supply here in Costa Rica. And believe it or not, white concrete, white concrete, there’s a run on it and you can’t get it anywhere in the country right now. We don’t think it’ll be long, but so that’s kind of putting a damper, putting a stop to our pool, which is turning a really, really nice. I put a pool in Ontario last summer and it was just the old steel with the liner, you know, not all that impressive, but we wanted to get a pool and that was the option at the time. But here, you know, it’s the full-on concrete, really nice, finished coping and everything it looks, you know, is going to look beautiful. So I’m super impressed by that. Come out the back door stares right down into the pool. It’s going to be nice.
Quentin D’Souza [00:09:51] Yeah. Well, you’re starting again, right? So like, you know, you’re going to start again with all your contacts and everything like that, but like. Sounds like it’s great I remember moving into the U.S. and starting to buy property in the US and growing that it was like starting again to like all your contacts, all your financing people, all your brokers, all your everything starts again, right? But you know, you just got the experience now. And so you know that that will help you to grow and get bigger if you want to do that and super awesome. So cool.
Rob Break [00:10:26] So, yeah, and I just wanted to say to you that if anyone is interested, I did just post that update on YouTube. On the flip project. So just like yesterday, I think I posted it. So if anyone’s interested, there is a little bit of an update on a walkthrough of the photos. Awesome. So you can even just put my name in and it will come up right here to talk about me. We’re here to talk about you and our guests. So, Quintin, I mean, you mentioned a couple of things right there. We kind of blew through it. But since last we talked, there’s been a couple of things that you’ve had going on to share with us.
Quentin D’Souza [00:11:04] Sure. Just a couple of things. One is I’ve started my own podcast, which is get really wealthy FT.com, and it’s just a little bit about some insights and education that I want to share. I’ve been I stopped coaching, which was something that I was. I felt like it had started to take on too many hours of my time, and I didn’t think $500 an hour was worth my time. So I focused more on building my real estate portfolio, and since I stopped coaching at the beginning of January, I’ve bought over $40 million of real estate that I own 50 percent of. So that’s like the super great way of. So I basically doubled my portfolio size, right?
Rob Break [00:11:53] Yeah, this sounds like a good move, but you know, moving away from one thing, sometimes you got to give it up and I know you love it, right? I know. Yeah, I
Quentin D’Souza [00:12:02] do. I love it. I yeah, it’s teaching because that’s, you know, I was a teacher for 20 years and I at heart, I’m still a teacher, but there are better ways to do it, like podcasts. It’s a great way to still be able to help people and educate. But you know, it’s one too many verses, one to one, which is just something I can’t do anymore. It’s not what I can do. So it’s a great opportunity for me. And now I’ve got like I said, I’m closing on a 12 unit building next week and I’ve got a 94 unit building under contract. Great cap rate, lots of room for upside. It’s going to be awesome. So and we’ll probably close on that in 2022, just early 2022. If everything goes the way, I hope and that’ll be a great start for the year, right? So. Absolutely awesome stuff, and I’m really excited about our guest here. So this is Ross, and Ross is a real estate agent. He’s an investor from the Niagara Region, is focusing on pre-construction and multifamily investments. After closing his first ever property in Toronto in 2020, Ross scaled his portfolio very rapidly with investing experience across multiple cities in southern Ontario. Ross is primarily a long term buy and hold investor and has used his buy, renovate, refinance and rent strategy to acquire eight properties. That’s 20 units. He has a podcast, real estate Golden Nugget, as well as a YouTube channel dedicated to helping investors break mindset barriers and educate them on how to invest or scale up their portfolio to achieve financial freedom. So without further ado, here’s Ross.
Rob Break [00:13:50] Yeah, welcome Ross. Thanks for joining us today.
Ross Nedaee [00:13:54] Thank you so much for having me. Pleasure than a complete honor to be here, especially with Quentin and Rob.
Rob Break [00:13:58] So, yeah, I prayed about this. I appreciate you taking the time and putting up with our scheduling debacle that happened trying to get you on here. So I know we rescheduled and moved you a couple of times, so I’m just glad that we can finally sit down and talk now. So thank you again for taking the time to be here.
Quentin D’Souza [00:14:20] Now, you know what, I have a question for you, you. Your background is a little different, right? So you’re an Afghan and you’re. When did you come to Canada? Just a little bit about that background would be kind of cool.
Ross Nedaee [00:14:35] Yeah, absolutely. Great question. Yes. My background. I’m from Afghanistan. I came to Canada around, I think, 2000 August of 2000. So being here for, I guess, majority of my life, you can say I practically grew up here. I was around 10 years old when we came to the country. So I, you know, there’s the what’s happening back home is it’s very dry and like, you know, drastic, and it’s sad to see that our country seems to be always progressing or that always gets held back somehow some way or another and goes back 20 years as a repeated cycle, vicious cycle, unfortunately, but grateful to be, you know, here, you know, have the opportunity to make something out of myself, right? And you know, I’d like that was that was my mindset from the beginning was like, listen, like my parents went through a lot to get me here. They were really big on their kids, right? They came here for freedom, for peace of mind. And so the whole idea behind this whole thing was education. And my parents wanted me to have a better life than they ever had and the opportunities they could never get from their home country, right? So yeah, but given that came here, like, you know, I was I was really focused on what my education made sure I was at the, you know, high grades, get that degree, get into the corporate ladder and try to make something out of myself. And then as many of us realized that that unfortunately, that’s not the only way or probably the best way to get where you want, especially if you’re looking to achieve financial freedom. So that’s when I kind of started looking around and speaking to certain folks and real estate was something I was back of my mind, but I never really understood how someone like Quinten can have 400 units like it does. It is, it is. To me, it was like impossible. It’s like, wow, like, how are these people doing it? But I think, like you said earlier, Quentin and like, it’s all about education, right? It’s about mindset and education. Because if there’s a will, there’s a way, as we like to say, and that’s the reality of it, right? So the more you connect with folks who are in the business and you learn from their experiences, the more you understand and you get encouragement to say, you know what, if they can do it, I can do it.
Quentin D’Souza [00:16:44] You know, one thing I wanted to just say is that, you know, you know, coming from Afghanistan, you must have like a really early memory of that. Like, there’s got to be something that you remember.
Ross Nedaee [00:16:55] You know what? I was actually three years old when we left the country. So because of the war, we had migrated to Pakistan to actually lived in Pakistan for about six years. But yeah, funny enough, like when I when I said that, when my parents, when they asked me, like, what do you remember? I, I vaguely remember our house so where we used to live. And I specifically remember like our bedroom. And then when I the way I describe it, my mom is like, shocked. She was like, you were like two, three years old. How do you remember this right? Is staring at me like that? Always stick with you for your entire life. I think so. You have a better memory. But you know, I would love to get an opportunity one day to go back and actually see it for myself because I know what has changed a lot. But there’s still it still has a lot of beauty and areas that I definitely want to check out. I never had opportunity before.
Rob Break [00:17:43] Yeah, absolutely. Geez, I don’t even know what to say about what’s going on there right now, it’s just so it’s all over the news and it’s tough to tough to figure out exactly what’s what really. I mean, there’s a series of is it successful? Is it not successful? I have my own opinion on whether or not it is. I mean, it clearly doesn’t seem to be. But you know, the two, if you if you ask government officials, they seem to have different ideas. But yeah, I mean, I don’t know enough about it to get in too deep, but it’s certainly hopefully something that can level off a little bit at least, so you can go back there and check out.
Ross Nedaee [00:18:33] Yeah, yeah, I know that’s all we all hope for. But you know what it is like again, just not to be a bias, but like to give my opinion of it is just that the country itself is very mineral-rich. We have like all sorts of minerals in the world that there is in that country. So for whatever reason, everybody’s afterwards, whether it’s, you know, U.S. well, I’m not going to name the countries, but there’s always somebody there and they have a purpose to be there, right? Like, think about it logically, right? If you are trillion dollar, you know, company. Let’s just say in terms of business, why would you put any sort of money and time or effort by sending your soldiers overseas for ten years and there’s nothing to come out of it for you? Just logically, right? There has to be some sort of reason, whether it’s political, whether it’s, you know, financial, whatever it may be. But I think that’s the biggest reason. And I think what’s happening now, we don’t know who’s behind it. I can’t really comment on that, but I would think it definitely has to do again with the minerals and the resources and the money. That’s what’s keeping peace out of the country.
Quentin D’Souza [00:19:38] You know, that’s very interesting that you say that. But you know, coming to Canada, you must have had for your family to just the shock at the type of opportunities that would be available, right? Because I know the immigrant story is, you know, the same from family to family. We were we were immigrants to coming to Canada and the possibilities that you have versus the possibilities where you’re coming from, whether it’s Pakistan or Afghanistan, like the what the opportunities are starkly different, right? Oh, absolutely, yeah. And what you’re able to achieve here and you know, just 20, 20 plus units and eight properties and my, you know, compared to what you would have been able to achieve in your home country where you started from, right? Just totally different.
Rob Break [00:20:31] Yeah. So let’s dig in. Let’s dig in a little bit then about you mentioned, you know. Yeah, you were looking into other things and then you discovered real estate. So let’s talk a little bit about how you know what got you started. How did you get that bargain and all of that stuff?
Ross Nedaee [00:20:47] Yeah, for sure. For sure. So it actually started with the Bible roshad pour that everybody likes to say that, right? A friend of mine, actually, his dad is a realtor. And he, I really look up to him. He’s he has an entrepreneurial mindset. He’s out. He also went to school and got himself educated. But then you kind of decided to go on his own path. And he does more the e-commerce platform. However, one day he, you know, he and I him and I connected after a while and he said, hey, you know what? You’ve got to read this book. He’s like, it’s going to change. You change your perspective in life, right? I’m like, Okay, sure. So I did that. I actually read it, and I realized, oh, my goodness, there is like assets. There’s liability, there’s leverage. And, you know, the whole concept. I know it’s a very I’m sure everybody talks about it a lot, but the way it’s written, it’s very simple. It’s the storytelling, which I think really has an impact on any reader, the reader said, because you can just relate to it on a different level, especially given my background made the poor dad and the rich dad. But you want to be the rich dad, right? So that definitely resonated with me. And sometimes in life, you know, connecting with people also leads to better opportunities. So the same friend I’m talking about is about my best friend, Hussein. He mentioned to me that there’s this upcoming project coming up in Toronto and it’s, you know, $500 a month for a condo waterfront. Like, that’s all I needed to hear from him. I’m like, I’m so like, where do I go? Sign up? That’s all I wanted to know, right? His dad obviously knew the project. And so for the next day we go, I sign the papers and documents. They don’t look at the full plan, they don’t even know where it was located. As soon as I heard Waterfront Toronto, I’m like, Listen, there’s no way he’s going to lose, like it isn’t going to appreciate. So by the time it’s both. I’m either going to be living in it or I can turn on solid or I can place Tenet that all without even knowing nothing about the industry or how works. I’m like, you know what? I’ll figure it out. I plenty of time. I just thought in terms of an opportunity and affordability at that time because a down payment was only $2500, believe it or not. And then five hundred a month, I’m like, even if I work at Tim Hortons and a part time basis, I can afford that, right?
Quentin D’Souza [00:22:56] But how long? You know, usually the projects in Toronto, like how long did it take to actually get built? That’s, you know, that’s one of the things that nobody’s talking about, right?
Ross Nedaee [00:23:06] So, yeah, no. Very good question. Yeah. This one got numerous delays and it took about, I think, seven years to close. So to your point, wow. Yeah, yeah. So like, I hear you’re
Rob Break [00:23:19] down at that time. Yeah, yeah.
Ross Nedaee [00:23:22] You know what? But again, it worked out for me, for my lifestyle because I was, I was I had just graduated university. I didn’t really know what I wanted in a career and so forth, but I just figured it might as well pack my money somewhere. So by the time it does get built, obviously the total is four years at the time, but I got delayed another three. But it worked out at the end because the appreciation took a ride like drastically. So I was able to basically close on it, take, you know, a line of credit and then use a line of credit now to purchase additional property. So it did kind of set me up. I wish it was a little bit earlier would have been better for a lifestyle. But I think in terms of investment, it worked out fairly well for me.
Rob Break [00:24:01] Oh, that’s awesome. And so it actually closed, right?
Ross Nedaee [00:24:05] It closed in June of 2020, so year
Rob Break [00:24:08] 2020,
Ross Nedaee [00:24:09] I got occupancy in October, but officially closed in June because they always, you know, condos they give you about three or four months earlier.
Rob Break [00:24:16] So in the meantime, were you because so when did you read it? OK, sorry, I’m trying to get a timeline here. So did you learn about this and then run out and invest in the condo?
Ross Nedaee [00:24:27] Oh, I’m sorry. I guess I messed up the timeline a little bit, though, so the condo came first. Oh gosh, that poor that came literally. And I always say in 2020 is when I read it. That’s when he told me the book. So I messed up the timeline. Sorry about that.
Rob Break [00:24:41] No problem at all. I’m just trying to try to clear things up in my head to hear. OK, so once this place closed, then you were you were sort of the mindset already to take, you know, to whatever you said, take the line of credit and go reinvest it. So that’s what you did from that point.
Ross Nedaee [00:24:59] That’s right. But even before that Rob, I didn’t know that you could even do that. Like, I had no idea that you got do line of credit, right? And I thought, oh, you know what? There’s one property at a time you’re supposed to buy a property is supposed to get a mortgage. Pay off the mortgage. Save the money. Then you go buy another property you like. That was that was the mindset, right? And then I once I got introduced to folks that are in the business, right, like mortgage agents and so forth, speaking to them, talking to them about how they’re leveraging money. They I was blown away. I was introduced to a completely different world because in this industry, so by leveraging right, it’s all about leveraging, especially money. And yeah, I had no idea that I could do that to once I figured that out. I started listening to podcasts, right? BiggerPockets with a big influencer. I really liked, you know, the way they pitched ideas and everything, but I didn’t really relate to it just because it’s a little bit of U.S. content. So I started looking for Canadian content and then there was a few podcasts that I came across and listen to. Sarah LRB was one Andrew Hines yourself, and I just literally sat down like a sponge to absorb everything like all the guests that were featured. And I did one more thing that I feel like a lot of people are very afraid of, and that is reaching out to these folks. So if you look at my Instagram now, it’s all those guests are literally my connections. So what better way to connect with somebody than, you know, have them on the podcast or go for coffee, whatever may be right? Give some sort of value, of course. I know everybody’s busy, but like that was my way of basically getting into the network of investors and learning from them. And then that’s how I got introduced to Sean Wray. I know you had Sean Wray on your podcast as well. And I was looking at Niagara at that time because I was looking at somewhere where I can buy something that’s a lot more affordable than GTA, of course. And Niagara was on my radar at that time, so connecting with him kind of gave me the courage to now take on the next action, which is investing in multifamily.
Quentin D’Souza [00:26:57] So when you’re saying multifamily, you’re saying the one to four units, right? Correct. Yeah. And you said that you were getting into buildings in 2020. So that means that those 20 units or eight properties were done in the last two years. That’s awesome. So like what got you into burning like buy, renovate, refinance and rent? What got you into that strategy? Because it’s not usually where people start, right?
Ross Nedaee [00:27:26] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So same thing. Like, I started listening to all these podcasts and everybody’s talking about the BR. Explain how it works, how you calculate, right? To this day, I use Andrew Hines his calculator. I like he has a spreadsheet to, you know, do my assessment and my analysis. And I think the biggest thing is like taking action. I think that was my biggest success, I would say, and I’m still taking action on things that I know 100 percent. I’m not a hundred percent confident on, but you know what? I know I can figure it out. And I think that’s what it is. You need to have a little bit of a leap of faith in yourself and, you know, just keep going. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen? I had a Francois Lanta on my podcast and I love his call. He said, What’s the worst that going to happen? You die is like, I’m not even afraid of that.
Rob Break [00:28:16] Well, I don’t know. I mean, I guess you’d like the building falls on you, but if you got other bank problems, maybe, maybe, maybe you don’t die. But yeah, OK, well,
Quentin D’Souza [00:28:28] listen, man, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to die. So like, was
Rob Break [00:28:33] this portfolio so
Quentin D’Souza [00:28:35] that I can just like, like, no way, man.
Rob Break [00:28:40] Whatever. No. But I’m just saying it’s
Ross Nedaee [00:28:43] just a mentality, right? It’s like, you got it. You got to just believe it. Like, I think real estate is a god given like bulletproof investment. In my opinion, I can’t think of anything else that is more lucrative, not only just in terms of finances, but you can leverage the money you can save so much on your taxes, right? It’s literally free money, and it’s the fastest way to get to financial freedom. And I’m seeing so many folks that prior to myself who’s been doing it, so I’m just literally following their footsteps. I’m not reinventing the wheel, I’m just following the process and successes that they had, and that’s been working pretty well so far.
Rob Break [00:29:19] You know, what people don’t know is the barrier of entry for this kind of investment is relatively easily achievable to you. It’s like a lot of people don’t have that mindset. They think that it’s impossible, like, look at the prices of houses, how am I supposed to do it right? But again, it’s just about setting a goal and then trying to work towards that goal. You know whether you team up with somebody or whether you go into different kinds of investing in real estate, whatever it is, you know, as long as you as long as you set the goal, you’re going to get there as long as you work consistently towards the goal.
Quentin D’Souza [00:29:56] Absolutely. You know, people have been saying that same thing for years, right? Like in 1975, they said, oh man, I don’t think I’m going to be able to afford a house. The houses are too expensive. They said the same thing in 1985. They said the same thing. 1995, they said the same thing. So let’s focus on how to do it rather than, you know, how hard it is, right? And I think that’s what you’re doing when you’re getting when you’re implementing a strategy like, you know, the BR strategy, you know, I know the guy who wrote a book on that. So like, you know, the ultimate wealth strategy book, right? And in and it’s definitely it’s doable. You just have to you can’t. You can’t say, you know, it’s hard. You got to say, how can I get it done? How do I do it right? And you know, you implementing that strategy is really cool. Like, so you must have. So you you’ve probably seen the variations of how that strategy gets implemented and there are homeruns and then there are like singles and doubles, right? That’s the way I like to look at it. I’m a baseball guy. I don’t know. But like, so you’ve got a homerun, I’m sure, and you’ve got some singles and doubles in there. So maybe describe what a homerun looks like and compare that to what be like a single or double?
Ross Nedaee [00:31:22] Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I would love to talk about my first rental investment actually turned out to be a homerun, which I’m very happy about. So this was the property that I purchased in Fort Erie. So prior to getting into that, I decided to get my realtor license because there was this was a I’ve been in sales for, you can say, about 10 years or so now. So I’ve done numerous different jobs and everything. But real estate again was something that was always interested. So I figured, you know, I’d want to get my realtor license. I like to learn something on my own. Why do something fall on my face, fail miserably at it, but learn from my mistakes and then show someone, hey, this is the way to do it right? So they don’t make the same mistake. So I figured being a realtor would kind of give me that insight into the industry knowledge. Right. So given access to MLS, for example, was a huge win for me because then I could do comparisons and so forth. So long story short, came across this property on on on MLS, where it was listed for about 420. I passed on a couple of times, but then decided to take a look at it. It was conditionally sold, spoke with the with the agent and luckily, you know, the person couldn’t close the due to finances and they came back to me and I ended up closing that property for three hundred and thirty thousand dollars. So from forward 23:30, yes, that’s insane.
Rob Break [00:32:45] Yeah, that’s that’s
Quentin D’Souza [00:32:47] that’s more than twenty-five
Rob Break [00:32:48] percent, especially in the last couple of years to
Ross Nedaee [00:32:51] yeah, this was in November of 2020. So it was before the crazy COVID hit
Rob Break [00:32:55] a giant hole in the roof that nobody saw before or something like that.
Ross Nedaee [00:33:01] No, what I did with this one, Rob is like I had it on the contract, so they wanted 20. It was not worth for and it was worth definitely worth four hundred. I got it locked in at four or five. I had my inspection clause, so I did my walk through that inspection. In the best part of this, this property was that two out of the three units were basically renovated, so I didn’t have to do anything, and two out of the three were also vacant. So I get vacant possession and I can put my own tenants, which was unbelievable, right? Just the upstairs was an older gentleman who has been here for a few years, but then he was acting like a property manager to say right, he was kind of taking care of the units and so forth. So that’s what I mean when I was at home because I got two units ready to go and I have to do any sort of renovations on top of it. What I went through, the inspection I came across, you know, numerous things that were there needed some sort of attention. They were not necessarily immediate, but I use that as a leverage in my negotiation to say, hey, you know what? You want this, but here’s the reasons why I think that property is worth this much, right? And truthfully, I was thinking of 350. I think 350 was a really good price range for both of us. But I have to have a conversation with with Sean, actually, because I I called them up and and funny enough, he was looking at the same property and he just said, you know, I, why don’t you shoot your shot? Like, why don’t you just give him three, 30? And I’m like, Yeah, I mean, what’s the worst thing that can happen, right? And the agent was like, shocked. He’s like, so hold on, Russ, you’re telling me you want me to present this to my client? And I’m like, Yeah, let’s go for let’s just see what happens. And an hour later, it kills me that you won’t believe this. He’s actually going to accept that offer like he’s willing to take it.
Rob Break [00:34:39] Let’s see. That’s that’s an example
Quentin D’Souza [00:34:41] where a good realtor makes you money, right? Everybody thinks everything as a cost, but there is a benefit to having a good realtor who knows the area and has a reputation, right? That’s a good example. And you don’t know like you. Obviously, another deal went through and it didn’t come through. You’re like, We’re not sure. Or maybe, you know, like, was it a financing issue? Because if it was a financing issue, it could have been an appraisal issue and it could have been something in that seller’s head that was going, oh man, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this. I don’t think he’s going to get financing. So maybe I have to make a change and that’s a big change, but I’ll still be able to get out of this deal, right? And then you’re going, oh man, this is a great deal.
Rob Break [00:35:26] Holy cow. Let’s get this quick. I mean, it takes a certain amount of cojones, I guess, to even present that offer, you know. So yeah, it’s something that I don’t think most people would would think to do, you know, because it just c does really seem too drastic. So there’s a little bit of a lesson to, you know, I mean, let’s just put it out, there is what you what you would, what you would like to see, right?
Ross Nedaee [00:35:54] For sure, for sure. And I definitely made sure that I had a really good relationship, both already with with the other agent, right? Like we were on the same page, right? So he needed that’s off his hands, the seller, what was unfortunately, I guess, wanted to offload because he was having some health concerns. I found that out later. I don’t even know about that, right. So to to Quentin’s point, the reason why I feel like he jumped on it fairly quickly was because he just wanted his money and out because he didn’t. He needed; he needed the money desperately sounded like right. So it worked out to it, to my advantage because he’s still got to win. I mean, he still made triple what he invested in originally when he bought this property. And, you know, it helped me and help them. So it was definitely a win across all of us.
Quentin D’Souza [00:36:39] You know, you solved the problem for him, right? Which was sell, and that’s what a good investor does. A good investor solves problems constantly every day. Right, right. And when you’re doing a deal like this, you’re solving that seller’s problem, whatever that is. And it was a quick close and for sure, close. Right, exactly. And that’s what he needed. And you gave it to him, right? That’s super
Rob Break [00:37:01] awesome. Yeah. Now I’m going to say, like just the other day, we were in multiples with thirty-three other offers yesterday in Durham. So, you know, obviously that strategy is not going to fly in that circumstance. But yeah, when you’ve got something that sits on the market for a while, that might be that that right there. Maybe you’re looking for stuff that’s been sitting for a while.
Ross Nedaee [00:37:22] Yeah. And you got to you got to stay true to your numbers, too. That’s another thing. I mean, I do see this quite often, especially newbies that get in the market. They try to polish the numbers, right, like they say, you know what, instead of five percent vacancy? Oh, yeah, I do. Three percent. Oh, cutbacks, no, it’s going to. It looks like the roof is fine. Let’s just make a zero percent rate.
Rob Break [00:37:41] You can finesse that spreadsheet to make it work out if you want. Yeah, you’re absolutely right.
Quentin D’Souza [00:37:48] You know, I don’t want to be the winner if I’m the guy who in 30 or multiple offers is the person who won. You lost that. I don’t care. You’re not an investor, and that’s not going to ask me. There is something going on with that. I’m sorry. I’m not a realtor, so I can say that, but I just think that you got to be careful because then you get emotion, emotion gets involved and you know, it stops. When the emotion starts to get involved, it becomes a different type of purchase. So it’s OK if it’s a principal residence, and that’s the reason why you’re buying it and you know, you’re willing to overpay because it’s something different. But an investment, you have to be careful.
Rob Break [00:38:24] I mean, again, like if you want to talk about things like that, it’s like Mark waffler. Mark LaFlare always famously says, you know, everything I bought, even if I paid too much for it, I look like a genius in five years, you know, so. So there is a certain, yeah, there is a certainty in multiple offer situations that my advice is always, yeah. I mean, you don’t want to be the winner going like having buyer’s remorse, right? Nobody wants that. So many thousand
Quentin D’Souza [00:38:56] dollar a month cash.
Rob Break [00:38:58] Well, yeah, you’ve got to put it in the offer. That makes sense. Right. And if you get it, you’re happy that you got it. And if you didn’t get it, you know you did your best and you’re not willing to go any higher if you put it on the table. So you kind of look at it from that point of view.
Ross Nedaee [00:39:14] And I explain the same thing even to my clients because like, it’s very easy to get emotional like Quentin said, especially when they’re looking for the primary investment, right? Like their primary residence, you can say. But again, we were like, we go back to the drawing board, we say, What’s the most important thing that you need, right? Like, scale it down. And then most importantly, what is your maximum budget like? Are you willing to negotiate with the with the seller to say, hey, I’m going to give you $10000? Are you going to be upset if something you that you wanted to buy, you lost out on five or ten thousand dollars? If the answer is yes, go which your maximum from the beginning, because especially in the GTA, like it’s you’re getting outbid and I’d done every single corner you look at. So again, stay true to any numbers, but don’t over. Sell yourself and over commit.
Quentin D’Souza [00:39:58] Absolutely. And you know, just to your point on LaFleur there. I mean, he’s been a friend of mine for a decade and he’s not going to. He is. He’s not going to let emotion drive a business decision. Right. And that’s what you what we’re all talking about here. So that’s awesome. We talk. Sorry.
Rob Break [00:40:17] So now we talked about the win, but we still got to talk about the challenge, like the obstacle that you overcame.
Ross Nedaee [00:40:24] Yeah, for sure. So one of the biggest challenges that I had initially starting one was, you know, contracting quite like I didn’t have a team of contractors, really. I kind of jumped into a lot of these projects blindly. You can say the first thing I was concerned about on one was like, let me find a deal. If I can find a deal, it goes back to money. People deal, right, find a deal. The money will come and the people will come right. You can sort it out. Leverage your network. I think networking is the greatest thing we can. All you know, work on, I would say, because talking to folks, I can say, hey, Rob, I need a contract in Costa Rica. I’m sure you have like four people you worked with already, right? So it’s about knowing folks around the area that will make or break your investments, I would say so. I leveraged networks to get contractors in place to get financing in place and so forth. So that really helped me. And then from here on I went. My next one was actually in Sardinia. So got a marketer I didn’t know much about. So I picked up two triplexes insomnia. Same thing. I looked at the deal. The numbers made perfect sense. I knew somewhat about the market, but I know that in and out of it, but I decided again, same thing. Let me get this deal. I’ll figure the rest later. I’ll figure the contractors out, figure out the financing. And that’s kind of have been how I’ve been approaching every single market because as much as I like to build around my backyard, it’s just the if the prices or the numbers don’t make sense, I’m also open to other markets and whatever makes sense for me, right?
Rob Break [00:41:54] So yeah, absolutely. I don’t think it’s got to be in your, you know, it’s nice when people, people always generally, I would say, invest in their backyard for the first deal or two, right? And then they start to realize, I don’t need to be that close. I don’t need to drive by it every day. I don’t need to walk up and touch it every day. You know I can if I want to, but I don’t have to. So then that allows people to like, expand and move out of their out of their immediate areas, right? And look for the deal and staff Sandy what? What is around me that I can? I can make work.
Ross Nedaee [00:42:32] Yeah, it’s a mindset, right? Again, there’s a mindset. It took me a while to get over that because first, like if you if you if you have to map it out again. I went from Toronto to Fort Area an hour and a half. That was a big challenge for me and my goal was so far. From there I went to Sarnia, which is even two hours away from me, right? And then that’s how it is. Like, I just as I’m progressing and I’m in the best thing. There’s this whole barrier of, you know, location or proximity is nonexistent anymore, right? I’m more comfortable to say, you know what, maybe one day one best and or, you know, Costa Rica or, you know, somewhere else or Mexico or something, because it’s just a mindset thing like, you know, as you progress, I think you get more confident. And as long as you have a good team around yourself, I think you can make it work.
Quentin D’Souza [00:43:19] I keep saying I keep hearing signing; I like why signing? What are the fundamentals that drive the investment in Sandy like it? I can see that there can be cash flow numbers, right? I think is there are there any fundamentals of the market that you that appeal to you that that kind of drove you to get to that point where you said, hey, I think this is going to be cash flow positive and there’s you know this. What do you think that is?
Ross Nedaee [00:43:50] Yeah, for sure. What will Tanya be known for their for their chemical valley, right? Like a huge component of that market is that industry. So it is very driven by that and that’s not going anywhere anytime soon the way I see it. In fact, when I was looking into it, I forgot the name of the big corporation there. But they invested another hundred thousand or so, another hundred million dollars to, I think, create another headquarters right in Sarnia. So that’s going to create jobs, that’s going to create stability, right? And also that a lot of people don’t know about Sonya is it’s like it’s so close to the border and at the beach is beautiful. So if you’re on the north side of Sarnia, Airbnb being is going to be just amazing cash flow, if you can get into that. But for me, the reason why that Palmer they got into this one was because what they were asking for the property was like, unbelievable, right? So just to give you guys some numbers. I bought one triplex for 190. The other one, I bought for 160. So again, those numbers just stood out to me. And yes, they were occupied. They had tenants. But I worked my strategy in terms of getting cash for keys, getting possession and then doing the Renaults right. So I did have the tenant turnover and once I refi, both of these are going to be a home runs as well, just like my fourth area.
Quentin D’Souza [00:45:11] That’s awesome. What kind of rents are you getting on those? So what type of sweet mix is it and what type of rents are you getting?
Ross Nedaee [00:45:17] Sure. Yeah. So one of them is this is a bachelor. It has another bachelor in the back and three bedrooms upstairs. So that one is actually a single family that they are using it as a triplex, some in the conversion process. I want to get it legally converted. It probably doesn’t have much to do. I’m in the permit stages right now. We’re just working with the parking and so forth right now and probably has to do some fire recording. The other one is a legal duplex and that one needed a lot of work. So I did renovate them and they’re fully tenanted right now. So upstairs I’m getting eleven hundred men for I’m getting thirteen fifty. It has a garage. I’m renting it for two hundred dollars. Basement is going to be done as well, so I’m expecting at least another 900 there, plus hydro. So all in all, like it’s easily over a thousand dollars cash flow and with these properties that I have.
Rob Break [00:46:11] Mm hmm. Mm hmm. And like so for that one, for example, the last one you were just talking about what would you be looking at as a legal track like three five? Well, you are right now.
Ross Nedaee [00:46:21] Yeah, the starting your market has picked up. Oh man. Quite significantly, I was just looking at a couple of listings. Right now I’m seeing duplexes listed for four fifty. I mean, I don’t think they’re going to give me four fifty, but let’s be conservative. I think it will be about 400.
Rob Break [00:46:37] So is it was a spider on? So is it going to it? So it’s going to be a duplex. You’re going to refi as a duplex?
Ross Nedaee [00:46:49] Yeah, that’s right. That’s right. But that depends on which lenders you go to because certain lenders look at the legality of the of the property, others look at the unit. So if they look at a per unit basis, then I’ll be fine, right? But even if a duplex, I think because I literally renovated like front the bottom, it’s going to go appraised for about four hundred.
Rob Break [00:47:10] OK. And that was the one you bought for one sixty-one sixty. How much you put into it?
Ross Nedaee [00:47:15] I renovations, so be roughly around 60.
Quentin D’Souza [00:47:19] Well, that’s awesome. Very good. That’s what I like to hear. That type of a deal is really good. So you’re going to pull out all your funds plus a little bit more then. Absolutely. And you’re going to cash flow positive at least a thousand dollars a month on each. So that’s going to help tremendously for that financial freedom piece, right? And you get a couple more of those and then your good. Could you do you think you could replicate that process again in Sarnia? I mean, now with the current prices.
Ross Nedaee [00:47:50] Yeah, I’m actively looking. So I mean, one piece of the puzzle that’s missing in my businesses is getting off market leads. I have been primarily working with animals and as we know, MLS is very competitive and you don’t see many at those, you know, rates, but I am keeping an eye on it, actually. In fact, I just put another property under contract. I’m going to be checking it out. This weekend is there was listed for two, for two hundred thousand. It’s a duplex again, just right across mine. I am not sure what kind of renovations and whatnot it needs, but again, if it’s very similar to what I had previously, then I’m more than likely I’m going to tie that up and then again, do a bear on that project.
Quentin D’Souza [00:48:34] That’s awesome. You know, I think if you can scale something like that and get as many as you can while the numbers work and with a couple of partners, which would be an amazing kind of scaling business that could really grow. And I totally get what you’re seeing with the off-market stuff. I’ve never even bought an apartment building off like MLS, so we’re at like 17 buildings now. So like, you know, it’s you’re right, you do have to work harder to do it, but you seem really driven. You have like a great determination about you. And so what’s next for you?
Ross Nedaee [00:49:16] Yeah, definitely they are, so it’s just I am a 20, and its goal is not to double it double or nothing. So it’s like you said, I have a goal in mind and I am going to be like a father soon. So my wife got even bigger.
Rob Break [00:49:29] Yeah. Congratulations. Awesome.
Ross Nedaee [00:49:31] Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, hopefully a baby will be around me in the couple of months, so we’re close. But that’s what it is, Quentin. I mean, like, like I said, it goes back to why I’m working so hard. It because I want to be able to retire myself. Hopefully, my wife have, you know, generation of wife for my kids and, you know, the other generation upcoming and also retiring my parents. I mean, they deserve it. They’ve done so much for me. So this is the least I could do. And the way I see it, I mean, if I can make this happen again, coming from a different country, I think anybody can. And that’s why I have a podcast and YouTube channel and I’m trying to educate because it really is not rocket science, right? It’s just about planning being committed to it and then executing right.
Quentin D’Souza [00:50:17] Yeah, that’s so true.
Rob Break [00:50:20] I’m predicting I am predicting you triple. That’s what I think is going to happen
Quentin D’Souza [00:50:25] or we betting, Oh man,
Rob Break [00:50:27] I love it. Good God.
Quentin D’Souza [00:50:29] And you’re saying double. I’m going to go for quadruple.
Rob Break [00:50:34] OK. Hey, remember, it’s quality, not quantity, necessarily. All right.
Quentin D’Souza [00:50:39] How about we? Do we do cash numbers? And that’s my favorite, let’s say. My guess is that by the end of next year that his cash flow will be 150 percent of what it is this year.
Rob Break [00:50:52] Well, there you go. That’s perfect. Yeah, we should
Quentin D’Souza [00:50:54] check kind of one hundred and fifty percent. OK. Yeah, that’ll take you based on your other numbers there. That’ll take you well, well on your way to that financial freedom that you’re talking about.
Rob Break [00:51:08] So before we have to go here, let’s talk a little bit about your podcast that you mentioned there. Tell us a bit about it.
Ross Nedaee [00:51:13] Yeah. So it’s called the real estate golden nugget. I started that podcast again as a way of giving back to the community and basically sharing my experiences and my guests experiences. So I have folks, you know, like yourselves that will be featured on there. So a good way to educate folks who are looking to get in or are, you know, scale their portfolio. You know, podcasts are fantastic resources. There’s not there’s not many Canadian content, so I figured, you know, why not start something of my own as well to, you know, get to folks that are new specialty. And as I’m sharing my journey, hopefully that inspires them to continue and, you know, growing their portfolios as well.
Rob Break [00:51:54] Absolutely. And it’s called real estate.
Ross Nedaee [00:51:56] Golden Nuggets, golden nuggets.
Rob Break [00:51:58] OK, beautiful. I love that. I like that because that’s what we need, right? We need the golden nuggets after. You know, let’s say, after a couple of years of investing, you, you, you know, you can obviously learn from everybody’s story, but it’s really down to those golden nugget set that we that we all need for value. So beautiful. I like it.
Quentin D’Souza [00:52:22] That’s awesome. You know, and it’s really good because if you’re just starting out, you’re going to have different, you know, insights than somebody who’s been doing it for 20 years. Sometimes I don’t appreciate some of the things that other people appreciate, and that’s what other people need, right? They need those steppingstones. If you can find somebody who’s you know, a year or just two years ahead of what you’re where you would be on your journey. That’s usually a lot better for you than somebody who’s 10 or 20 years ahead. Right? Because they’ll be able to provide those golden nuggets like you’re doing in your YouTube show and the podcast that that can help them to bring them along. So that’s awesome.
Ross Nedaee [00:53:05] Yeah, I know for sure. And I’m also like, by doing this, I’m getting a lot of people’s names out there. There’s a lot of newbies and new investors or intermediate investors, and many people don’t even know who they are. So that is a good way to get them. The other names out there, so like you said, every story has a golden nugget in it and we can all learn from it. So that’s the whole idea of that podcast.
Rob Break [00:53:26] Yeah. And I will tell you, man, when we first started, Quentin was our first guest. And I was so excited because I was just like, Man, I’m going to ask him everything I want to ask him for, like an hour. So this is amazing. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Absolutely. OK, so
Quentin D’Souza [00:53:43] and now I’m here and you know, I was even nervous coming on, so it was kind of cool to have the so-called kind of
Rob Break [00:53:51] comeback. OK, so Ross, tell people how they can get in touch with you.
Ross Nedaee [00:53:59] Yeah. The best way to get in touch with me is my handle. Ross Nagai very active on social media. And of course, you can search me on YouTube as well. Same thing, Ross, starting today. Feel free to message me. I mean, I am always communicating and speaking to folks, you know, even people that do have questions, they want to run numbers. I know I’m not the guru here, but by any means. But you know, I try to help out any way I can, so I’m always looking to network and connect with folks.
Rob Break [00:54:26] Yeah, absolutely. And thank you again for sharing all of this. You know, we do appreciate it. So and we’ll talk to you in a year, maybe and see you get the update
Quentin D’Souza [00:54:38] 150 percent of value.
Ross Nedaee [00:54:40] Absolutely. If Clinton said that now it has to be done. Yes.
Rob Break [00:54:44] Otherwise, he would be like, I’m too busy. Maybe call me back next month. I’ll see if I could be in the show, notes guys. If you want to reach out to them, just go into the show notes and all the contact info that they shared with us is going to be in there so you can reach out and talk to them about all of this stuff. And anyone who wants to reach out to me can reach me at Rob at Mr. Breakthrough dot c.a. You know, there has been a bunch of people reaching out to me and asking me questions on Costa Rica, and I am more than happy to share with everybody. So please do that. But again, everybody. Thanks for listening once again. We’ll see you soon. Have a great weekend, everybody.
Quentin D’Souza [00:55:24] See you next time. Sandy will be back, I’m sure.
Rob Break [00:55:27] Don’t worry, Sandy, we’ll be back next time. OK, thanks guys. Have a good one. Have a good one. Now.