Table of Contents
Podcast Transcription
Erwin Szeto [00:00:08] Greetings. Real estate investors and friends. I continue to represent the truth about real estate investing. Show Erwin Szeto. and. Small confession. I really like researching stocks and real estate. I personally love it. I got to the office early and make coffee and that is diving right into stuff. I don’t know why and I’m not always narrowly focused. I actually like to look. Ever since I got into stocks and stockbroking, I’ve been looking at the world more in terms of economics, and I’m reading a bit around history of money and economic cycles, which goes back beyond past 300 years. I’m even reading about Chinese history in their economic cycles. Because my plan is to learn from history. So should it repeat itself, I will be prepared. And along the way of how in the middle of researching, I’m also taking action. Some may call me a conspiracy theorist. You know all this talk about resets. It’s not new to me now. Again, some people might call me a conspiracy theorist or I’m just overly anxious, but I like being prepared. Am I always right? No. I’ll admit when I’m wrong. I’ll take responsibility. Learn from it, of course. Correct. But I do prefer to be over prepared. And it’s actually benefited my family, my clients quite well. What I read recently I found particularly disturbing is and it only further feeds my over protectiveness of my daughter as reported by Global Mail. Nearly one in three students in a 2018 survey from my alma mater. So where I went to university, it was called the University of Western Ontario back then. Now it’s called Western University, I believe. Anyways, one in three reported just under, one in three were reported they were sexually assaulted and that statistic is 10% higher than the Ontario University average. I’m obviously a bit disappointed again in being a productive father of a daughter. My imagination run. So it would seem Bolt was a hamster on a hamster wheel. That’s how my that’s how fast my brain runs. When on stuff, I tend to consume information and then I try to take action from it, or I simply ignore it because I can’t change everything in the world. But I’ll action what I can do. So yesterday. So the same day yesterday. Well, after reading the article, I was driving my kids and myself to kickboxing class. I took kickboxing classes as well. I was explained to them how many people have been touched inappropriately at university. And that’s part of the reason why I took my kids to martial arts. So I’m explaining to them people university, a good number of them are touched inappropriately. And that’s part of the reason why my kids are going to martial arts four times a week. There are some questions I tell them if someone bullies them, which can include inappropriate touching, I tell them, you know, you tell them loudly, No, don’t touch me. Try to get away. Running is the best defense. Tell an adult or a teacher if they can’t get away or find help, give one final warning and then to exercise their training. I’m not giving advice and this is what I’m telling my kids and I fully support whatever repercussions come. My kids are friendly people. They don’t hurt people, but they will have to defend themselves because I won’t always be there. That’s why they’re doing all this training. There are other real problems in the world, including one’s ability to retire. And I was reading an article that was talking about a CIBC, the just published results result. And those survey results shared that 52% of Canadians are confident in their financial security to retire. Only 2%. Only half. So if that’s a problem for any of you out there, thankfully, that’s our specialty here at Island Real Estate. Thanks to the most recent run up in prices, I’ve been having more and more conversations with our clients regarding their imminent retirement, or they’ve actually already retired, retiring from their day jobs. Some have already retired in the last six months and have a couple more coming this week. This year, you know, some of them took my advice. Some of them were planning to sell. And one of my clients actually nailed the time perfectly based on our advice. I was based on the readings that was available out there. My suggestion to her was to sell in early in the year if her plan was to sell in the next year or two. I told her You should sell early in 2022. She did. And then I texted her yesterday if she were to sell that same house today that house be worth about $100,000 less. So my client pocketed an extra 100,000. She’s, of course, very happy. So as you mentioned, so along that same line of thought, the market is currently dipping as expected. And the timing can be better for anyone who’s looking to learn to invest in real estate or get started or even just buy the dip. I’m no financial advisor, but I have dozens and dozens of clients who have increased their net worth by millions of dollars buying, renovating, renting, and holding cash for real estate, cash flow and real estate. And we’re always looking for more hardworking Canadians to help us understand also that we introduce all of our clients to the same people that we work with. To make their investing experience as easy as possible, including proper management, so folks can get back to their day job in their families, which is really their priorities. Real estate investing to me is largely a side hustle, and I believe that’s appropriate for most people. All the power to people who want to do a full time, it’s just in reality that’s a small, very small population. So as such, we’re back to in-person for many of our networking and training opportunities. Training events, most are free, and those who subscribe to our email newsletter will be informed when registration is available and they tend to fill out quickly, especially for in-person, right. So we can’t have unlimited numbers like virtual to get on our email list. Simply go to W. Truth about real estate investing that k. Fill in your name and email on the right side of the web on the website and you’re good to go. Also, you’ll find there on our website, on our show notes. So, for example, for our guests, we have our contact their contact information there and get them in your email as well. Once we have your email address, please enjoy. Onto this week’s show, we have Ryan Pool back with us, who is not your average Florida realtor. He’s got 24 years’ experience. He’s on the show today to share his experience during the housing bubble crisis. What wasn’t a crisis? The time when the prices just went up like crazy and then the eventual financial credit crisis of 2008. So he shares his experience about the runup and also during the crash, including when they’re buying portfolios of distressed properties, $0.04 on the dollar. Of course, I ask him, does he see the same thing happening right now? And he’ll share the answer to that. He shares also what typical investments are for those and also who are the Florida buyers beyond Canadians, which make up a certain percent of buyers in Florida. We actually have the majority. So Ryan actually shares his experience and the splits between who’s buying in Florida. We talk about local amenities, whether hurricane preparedness for and buyer financing. Can you tell? I’m curious. So I’m asking all these questions. Yeah, that’s right. Oh, yeah. And again, foreign buyer and financing. Ryan says he’s got access to that intimate introductions because now as Canadians are turning the tables, we are now the evil foreign buyers this time. Ha. As I mentioned, Ryan is not your typical realtor, is an owner of a tech startup as well called Real Trade. Oh, well, sorry, that’s the that’s the URL as well. Real trade. Oh, which is a marketplace for realtors and real estate. It’s kind of like a combination of Facebook and Realtor, MLS and one, but it’s owned and operated by realtors meant for realtors. So it’s a lot more friendly that way. I’ll let Ryan explain it. He’ll explain it better than I will. Ryan’s a good guy, and I learned a ton about investing in Florida from a local 24 year veteran of real estate. I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did. Please enjoy the show. Hey, Ryan.
Ryan Poole [00:07:54] Good. Is that clear? Can you hear me better on this one?
Erwin Szeto [00:07:58] I think so.
Ryan Poole [00:08:00] Hopefully stays good. You know, we’re working on this. Awesome. I don’t know if your real trade went through this pretty amazing tech accelerator. There’s this community called 1909 here in South Florida. It’s like an incubator accelerator. And I went through the accelerator and then I actually worked out of the space here. It’s pretty exciting.
Erwin Szeto [00:08:16] Oh, I was wondering about the space behind you, is it looks for.
Ryan Poole [00:08:18] Yeah, yeah. No, it’s, it’s like this, you know, accelerator, incubator, a bunch of cool tech companies coming out of it, you know, the like some really successful one. There’s some companies here that already have like, you know, 20 to $50 million valuations. So. Pretty cool to watch it all happen.
Erwin Szeto [00:08:36] Can you show it real trade’s valuation is and.
Ryan Poole [00:08:38] What we’ve we’re working on some investment but we’ve got in the millions you know we’ve got in a million valuation right now. So you know, it’s pretty exciting, you know, with everything that’s going there. But we’re just trying to build it, you know, build it up more, you know what I mean? To, you know, take out Zillow in that.
Erwin Szeto [00:08:54] You know? So I think that’s our goal.
Ryan Poole [00:08:58] That’s our goal. And I mean, we got a whole different business model than they have. It’s like which people really are gravitating, especially agents, you know, because obviously a lot of businesses don’t like Zillow the way that their business model is set up. You know, they use the agents data against themselves, they make the agents, you know, they just work hard to get those listings, take those photos, get the property for sale. If Zillow takes that data, then and they make their agents bet against one another for the leads off there on this team.
Erwin Szeto [00:09:23] Zillow is not big here, but I see like the Instagram social media posts where you can tell the agents don’t like them.
Ryan Poole [00:09:31] Yeah, and well. Well, the worst part is like Zillow is now like becoming like a broker. So they’re literally like starting to cannibalize their basically content creators, which are the agents, right? Which are their listing agents? So it’s like, yeah, that’s nuts.
Erwin Szeto [00:09:44] With the thing that I’ve seen in many businesses, for example, Costco, where I shop a lot, you know, I see the Haagen-Dazs ice cream bar for like, you know, ten bucks, whatever it is. And then you see like the Kirkland ice cream bars for like six bucks, right?
Ryan Poole [00:09:57] Exactly.
Erwin Szeto [00:09:58] And I swear, it’s intentional.
Ryan Poole [00:10:01] Oh, yeah. No, of course it is. I mean, they’re you know, they’re over here just with their I buyer program, you know, basically blew up. But, you know, they’re trying to basically become the whole thing, right? Broker They’re the title company, the mortgage company. They basically try to take over everything which your real estate. Real estate is very local. You need that local knowledge, boots on the ground. Right. To help facilitate the sale. So, you know, that’s what we do real time. We really concentrate on the local agents and the local service providers, you know, allow them a chance to network with one another, you know, help facilitate the sale.
Erwin Szeto [00:10:33] Yeah, I saw like a real estate commercial. They’re selling mortgages, but they said entirely it’s so it’s a so easy it’s entirely online. And I’m like, if I’m a first time home buyer or a first time real estate investor, I’m probably pretty nervous. And I could use someone who knows what they’re talking about. On the other side of the conversation, I know your buttons and you’re confident in my decisions.
Ryan Poole [00:10:57] Exactly. No, you do. You need to have a pro, right? Especially like the first couple of times, like you said so. And still when you go to sell a home, I mean, you know, you must value an asset or you do something wrong. I mean, you could cost it tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know. So it’s crazy. You definitely have a pro on your side for sure.
Erwin Szeto [00:11:17] Yeah, we won’t get into that. There’s other things more interesting. So. Right, right. And when I asked you to come back on the show was twofold. You’re a fan of cryptocurrency. We’ll get into that later. But before we were recording, I mentioned how there’s a whole bunch of Canadians who are looking to diversify by vacation property somewhere warmer than Canada because it is cold whenever people say it, it’s colder than Florida. They don’t think anyone gets colder. Florida, it’s cold in Florida. I don’t think anyone can argue with me on that. Some neat things that I like about Florida specifically is it seems like Miami may become like the bitcoin capital of the world, potentially, maybe at least for America. I don’t know. You tell me better because you’re at least American. I don’t really know. I’m just a Canadian, but I just find it weird that I see a lot of Canadians who don’t have much experience in real estate in Florida, let alone the US, and now they’re touting themselves as experts. So I thought I’d reach out to someone who actually has spent more than eight months in Florida to tell me what it’s like to invest in Florida.
Ryan Poole [00:12:22] Yeah, just so you know, you know, my over my 24 year career or real estate, you know, when the market crash last time, you know, in oh eight, you know, I started a boutique asset management company called RCI Asset Management, where we basically help hedge funds and, you know, basically acquire assets from regional banks. They’re buying non-performing loans and distressed assets. So as far as the investment side, yeah, I’ve seen it all really helped. These funds that make some of the biggest money I’ve ever seen made in real estate was from like oh 9 to 12 or 13 credible. They were buying these loans like they were buying distressed, you know, distressed. You know, they’re buying nonperforming loans for like $0.10 on the dollar to do.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:03] Keep some of these for yourself.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:05] Yeah, I was able Bob.
Ryan Poole [00:13:06] Was the way that these things were set up was like to even bid on those loan pools from these regional banks like you needed to have like, you know, proof of funds of like 20 to $15 for the, like you bid on. I mean, they wouldn’t, they would beat them all in one portfolio over one tranche, you know what I mean? Now, the cool thing about the fund that I had, like they would buy them and then they’d spin them off, obviously, you know, once or twice. But their goal was to maximize the returns. So they would usually they would see the property, you know, get the property back through dealing with foreclosure. If it was a note. And they just go to the borrowers and go, hey, you know, we’ll make this whole thing disappear like it never happened. You’re in foreclosure. You’ll have, you know, more than your house is worth, you know, worth half of what you bought it for will forgive this whole debt because like this purchase never happened. You just sign over the property to us. And that’s what they did.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:57] I know. Now, any parallels between the run up now compared to 0708?
Ryan Poole [00:14:04] So I went through that whole I went through all of that, right? So no, it’s totally different, at least here in Florida. I don’t know how it is in other markets, obviously, but you know, here in Florida, the buyers that are buying here, I’m enjoying their cash. Right. So they have no mortgages here. I mean I mean, seriously.
Erwin Szeto [00:14:19] The opposite of what it was before then.
Erwin Szeto [00:14:21] Yeah. No, that’s exactly that’s.
Erwin Szeto [00:14:25] And got it got property.
Ryan Poole [00:14:27] Exactly. It was like I remember vividly like in, like I said about 0708, you know, when teachers, schoolteachers in Florida were buying second investment properties, not their first their second one, you know, then I was just like with no money down, no money down, stated loans. That’s when I knew I was like, man, this is crazy. And the developers at that time, they were giving cash back incentive. So the people would actually buy the house, make money. When they bought the house, put no money down, they were in an interest only ahm loan, negative and loan.
Erwin Szeto [00:15:04] And.
Ryan Poole [00:15:05] They were like you know; cash flow positive. But of course everything was contained down to the back side of the house, the property. I was like, man, this is crazy. I don’t know how long this can last, literally like a few months later, but four months later.
Erwin Szeto [00:15:17] Right?
Ryan Poole [00:15:18] The peak of the you know; the craziness is when that was that the negative and long. Like I think that was like literally like the crater, like, you know, the grenade that blew everything up.
Erwin Szeto [00:15:30] So I can explain negative land.
Ryan Poole [00:15:31] Loan. So basically, yeah, you’re just paying you’re going negative every single month. So you’re paying it was set up a negative amortization loan that like you never paid, the principal got added and kept increasing over the length of the loan. But, you know, people were betting, so your payments were very, very low, but people were betting that. But the payments were like hardly anything, actually. Then people were just betting that, you know, that the market was going to continue to go up. They could rent it out for six months to a year and have a good cash flow and then to sell it in a year. Right. And then pay off their loan and still make this money. That to me was like a set. The grenade pretty much blew up the market here.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:10] It’s like their investment on, like, multiple levels of steroids.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:14] Yeah.
Ryan Poole [00:16:15] Yeah, they wouldn’t do it. Like I said, like doing the loan with no money down. So it was just like, you know, and then they were buying, dude, I’m.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:23] Telling zero skin in the game.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:24] Now.
Ryan Poole [00:16:25] No skin in the game.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:27] I assume nothing.
Ryan Poole [00:16:28] The developer was going, okay, so you’re buying this this condo for $250,000, right? With no money down. Okay, great. You’re going to rent it out for 1500, $2,000 a month. Great. You’re negative. And loan is only like 506 hundred bucks. Your taxes are this, you’re going to cash this. And then the developer would come in, go, hey, you need to furnish your place, right? Like you’re going to you want to rent it out furnished. That’s where you going make the most. And then they would give him what’s called a, you know, a decorator credit and they would give a $40,000 at closing back dude seen him saying they would give him $40,000 back at closing to decorate their unit. To decorate their.
Erwin Szeto [00:17:06] Unit.
Erwin Szeto [00:17:07] So everyone knew this was coming and shorted the market, right?
Erwin Szeto [00:17:10] Yeah.
Ryan Poole [00:17:10] I mean, that’s funny. Everybody people are piling on. I mean, I remember guys, like I said.
Erwin Szeto [00:17:15] I mean, I.
Ryan Poole [00:17:15] Watched guys like five, five or six units like this, right? I mean, it was it was crazy. That was at the very like at the very peak. That was like at the very peak like that last six months to it. The developers started like because they wanted to move all that inventory. Right. They probably they probably saw it comin. They probably saw something coming in like we need to spend these units out fast.
Erwin Szeto [00:17:35] Just was buying this debt. So, so then what happened to these investors? Like what happened to the gentleman who had five or six units?
Ryan Poole [00:17:42] Yeah. So this is exactly what happened, the hedge fund guys. And so ironically, the guys that basically originated those loans, right? These guys were like Bear Stearns guys and you know, those kind of guys that came up with this crafty way we can.
Erwin Szeto [00:17:56] Bash them since they’re gone.
Ryan Poole [00:17:57] So yeah, they are. They are gone right back. And they’re the ones that, like, created these instruments for them to do those loans. Ironically, when the market crash, those guys, a lot of them laughed or Bear Stearns blew up. They went and then formed these other vulture funds that went and bought back then.
Erwin Szeto [00:18:14] Loans from the.
Ryan Poole [00:18:15] Lenders at $0.10 on the dollar.
Erwin Szeto [00:18:18] Terrible.
Erwin Szeto [00:18:19] They made their way up and they made money on the way down.
Erwin Szeto [00:18:22] Yeah.
Ryan Poole [00:18:22] They made it both ways. I know it’s crazy. And they are.
Erwin Szeto [00:18:27] Planning it from the beginning. I mean, you know the crowd.
Ryan Poole [00:18:29] Baby.
Erwin Szeto [00:18:30] Back to the beginning.
Erwin Szeto [00:18:31] But I mean.
Ryan Poole [00:18:32] It was like, yeah, I know. Believe me, I got to see the inner workings of real estate just through this whole process. So, like, you know, I’m trying to, like, learn from what I can hear, but I have my own, like, reasons what I think the real estate market here is happening and, you know, obviously, cause it’s very hot. People want to move here, but there’s inflation happening, which is getting pushed into assets, too. And it’s not so much like, oh, the prices of real estate are going up so much too. It’s like, well, the price of the US dollar, you know, the value of the. US dollar dollars coming down. So that’s happening to me as well.
Erwin Szeto [00:19:02] So serene. And some people don’t understand what happened after. Like, for example, so say someone had five or six properties as you know, ignorant million here. There’s something about that in the state you can just hand back your keys or like in the situation you gave, they just walked away from their property. I know. How is their credit affected?
Ryan Poole [00:19:22] See, that was the good thing is like the crazy thing is like these all these units needed to get moved out, right? So that’s why they got, you know, they got all the $0.10 on a dollar to these hedge funds they were just buying up in huge bulk. And the hedge funds didn’t want to foreclose on them. You know, they didn’t want to foreclose on the units because it costs more money as an attorney’s fees to close to foreclose on them. So this is how these units got worked through. They would go to the borrowers and just be like, listen, this sign over the property to us. You know what I mean? Just sign it up. We won’t foreclose on you. You won’t have any foreclosure on your record. You’ll have no deficiency judgment. And this thing literally like this purchase didn’t happen because, you know, let’s these are 250 condos. So the people have 250 on the hook for 250,000. The condo is now worth 100 grand. The hedge funds bought that that $250,000 loan for 25 grand. So they’re still got like they’re tripling their money. They’re like, you know, they’re tripling the money. So they’re going, okay, just sign it over to us. Matter of fact, and this is this is literally what happened. Most deals, because I was doing this was they would go to the borrower, go, okay, we’re going to give you five grand for you to sign over the property. And if you cash four keys and they would give them five grand.
Erwin Szeto [00:20:36] So the borrower.
Ryan Poole [00:20:37] Now they get five grand. They hand over the property to the hedge fund. They have no foreclosure. The credit is not crushed. And, you know, they made a mistake. Right. And now the hedge funds now got the property now. So they brought they paid 25 into it. Now they’re into it for 30. Right. It’s worth let’s say it’s worth 100. They would go and put in some paint carpet in the unit. Right. Put it on the market for 100 grand. And now they’re, you know, like I said, like tripling their money.
Erwin Szeto [00:21:04] Dude.
Erwin Szeto [00:21:05] And saying.
Ryan Poole [00:21:06] Dude, that’s what happened, man. That’s how everything got worked through down here in Florida. Think it was. It was like the foreclosure capital, if you remember it, eight or nine or ten.
Erwin Szeto [00:21:16] Lots of places in the states that were funny.
Ryan Poole [00:21:18] But it was like you. South Florida was a big one because a lot of people.
Erwin Szeto [00:21:22] Is vacation property.
Ryan Poole [00:21:24] Yeah as it was investment property. So this time around it’s not like that. Like, you know, this time around, these people are like paying cash.
Erwin Szeto [00:21:31] Who are these people? These Americans, these Canadians, these Mexicans.
Ryan Poole [00:21:34] A lot of a lot of people from the Northeast. So you have a lot of people from New York, New Jersey, which, you know, their real estate prices have done well and they’re just like you. So you’re seeing this mass migration are going, okay, my house in New York’s gone up in value right now. I have a house and, you know, I’m sitting on $1,000,000 in equity on this house in New Jersey. And, you know, we want to move to Florida because now, you know, Florida has no state income tax. There were some really big political reasons, obviously, with DeSantis, you know, being never shutting down because of COVID. Right. And all these things that were in place. And yeah. So they’re selling their real estate up there and buying it down here.
Erwin Szeto [00:22:12] Oh, they’re.
Erwin Szeto [00:22:13] Moving.
Ryan Poole [00:22:14] They’re moving. They’re moving their whole businesses down here. So just so you know, the last two years, the amount of businesses that have moved to South Florida has never been higher. I mean, literally, as I speak here, I’m looking over here at a class office building. Goldman Sachs just took a whole floor of it. That fund that I told you I worked for back in 2009, two years ago, they took their whole fund from Greenwich, Connecticut, and moved it down here to West Palm Beach. So you’re having a lot of big businesses now, headquarters in south Florida. In South Florida, specifically, why? Because we don’t have any state income tax. The weather’s nicer. Right. And they’re pro-business. Right. It’s a really pro-business state as far as especially with, you know, dissenters in the political arena down here. So they’re just like they see a lot less risk here. And I mean, just so you know, like I’ve had clients move down from the northeast and they’ve told me, like Ryan me headquartered in my business here now moving it to Florida, the money that I’m saving for my past state, let’s say Connecticut or New Jersey, the income tax that I’m saving literally pays for my whole cost of living here in Florida. Like, what do you mean? They’re like, Yeah, the money I’m saving literally. Like I’m living for free here in Florida.
Erwin Szeto [00:23:25] Mhm.
Ryan Poole [00:23:26] So it’s just like a no brainer for.
Erwin Szeto [00:23:27] Them, right. All these always been like that or sort of the list of the, the tax environment’s always.
Ryan Poole [00:23:32] Been attacked, the tax environment’s always been there. But I think there was this political, you know, environment, too, that really accelerated it and just opened the eyes to a lot of people and just, you know, just like anything else, once, you know, you’re working at a company and you’re seeing, you know, the other company move to Florida and, you know, their employees are happier and they’re making great money. And it’s like, why am I sitting here up here in New Jersey paying these huge taxes, you know, and doing that? So that, I think, was a big reason as well.
Erwin Szeto [00:24:01] I hope our government listens to this podcast and they understand what happens when you overburden businesses.
Erwin Szeto [00:24:09] Or what I mean.
Erwin Szeto [00:24:10] Vilify.
Erwin Szeto [00:24:11] Them. That’s what I mean.
Ryan Poole [00:24:12] You look like some of these people in New York. In New York, like we had so many people from New York City moved out. And, you know, another thing to that’s really changed of like why these businesses should move to Florida is, you know, say what you want, but COVID really accelerated, you know, like we’re doing now, the zoom the zoom generation, right, where you can work from anywhere. Right. So if you’re a business to most, your employees aren’t coming to an office anyway, then like why the heck would you live in haven’t headquartered in Jersey, you know, or New York or wherever, you know, where you’re paying these taxes. So it’s just like, you know, this remote work culture is accelerated. Of course, all those remote workers that are sitting there all over the United States gone, well, do I want to live in Wisconsin and work remotely or should I live here.
Erwin Szeto [00:24:53] In Florida where I could.
Ryan Poole [00:24:54] Still buy a condo, you know, for 300 grand and be less than a mile from the beach? You know, and I can do my Zoom meetings in my condo a mile from the beach, and then I can go bike to the beach and walk to the beach after my call, you know?
Erwin Szeto [00:25:08] All right. So, Ryan, you probably peak lot of people’s interest. Tell us more about this 300,000 mark.
Erwin Szeto [00:25:15] What is you guys I mean, I’m still very, very bullish.
Ryan Poole [00:25:18] Like I call this to like I really watch the single family home market like last year just really accelerated. I was watching the condo market. I’m like, wow, it’s so undervalued. It did. The condo market has gone up, but there’s still you can buy condos here, like I said, within a mile or two of the beach and still get a decent, you know, condo for three, four or 500 grand, you know, and have a place here in South Florida, you know, you can rent it out. You know, some of these places down here that have helped with investors over the years, you can rent out one place. So you could be down here for a couple months and rent it out the rest of the time.
Erwin Szeto [00:25:52] And so, Ryan, living is positive. Let’s restart the conversation. So we met a good friend of mine, you know, a friend of yours who introduced us because you helped them buy a Canadian. My friend Charles, you need. And you helped him as his family purchased property in Florida. So sort of. So when. When you talk to a Canadian, did they tell you?
Ryan Poole [00:26:13] No.
Erwin Szeto [00:26:14] You tell them?
Ryan Poole [00:26:14] Yeah. No, I’m very bullish on southeast Florida. There’s a lot of reasons there. You know, a number of different reasons why, you know, I’m bullish. I’m really bullish on, you know, Palm Beach County. Miami is a whole different world. I always tell people, think of Miami, literally. It’s a different state. You know, is almost a different country. It’s a whole different animal down there, Fort Lauderdale.
Erwin Szeto [00:26:35] And if you just spend a day there and versus like Fort Lauderdale, it’s not the same place.
Ryan Poole [00:26:40] It is. It is. And then, you know. And then Fort Lauderdale is very busy. But then you have, you know, beautiful West Palm Beach, which is, you know, almost like I compare it to like if Miami was New York City, you know, Palm Beach. West Palm Beach is like the Greenwich, Connecticut. Right. This is where all the wealth is. You know, obviously, Palm Beach Island, everybody knows that. That’s where Donald Trump lives. And, you know, 33% of the nation’s wealth owns a piece of property there. But the cool thing is here, what you asked about Las Palmas. I think it’s a great investment. Palm Beach County is you now have the bright line, which you can take to Miami, which is a high speed train, less than an hour. You can be Miami. And number two, it’s just not as populated. So you have, you know, bigger yards, bigger condos, get more bang for your buck, if you will, and buy real estate here versus, you know, Fort Lauderdale, Miami. You are just it just there’s just more space. You know, you’re not in a parking lot where everything’s like super close. There’s just more space. So you can actually you’ll have a better quality of life in West Palm, whether it’s the same in West Palm area as it is in Fort Lauderdale, Miami. And then it just, you know, to me, it’s just a great environment. The other big thing is I’m a big outdoorsman, as you know, and one big fisherman. The fish is incredible. West Palm is actually the closest place kind of on the United States where the Gulf Stream comes to shore. So if you’re an offshore fisherman, like catching like tuna, wahoo, sailfish, marlin, it’s like, wow, this is the top spot for it to be. And then, of course, if you have a boat and you like to go out and big adventures, the Bahamas, they’re only 2 hours away. So I like literally to take my boat over there on the weekends, go diving, fishing in the Bahamas. You know, it’s got all those really nice aspects here of West Palm Beach versus Miami or Fort Lauderdale.
Erwin Szeto [00:28:24] Okay. So how about some of the most common Caribbean questions? And feel free to throw some in as I’m sure hurricanes and financing come up often.
Erwin Szeto [00:28:32] Yeah, yeah. People are.
Ryan Poole [00:28:33] You know, obviously Canadians just like anything, you know. So my parents, I’m originally from Minnesota and just, you know, but I’ve been down here for over 25 years. But yeah, the hurricanes, you know, they’re there. They come to Florida. I mean, you know, I’ve been through a couple of them. The good thing is, you know, the technology of where it was even five or ten years ago has come so far, especially the quality of building, building materials. They’d now build these homes and you can put them in if they don’t have called hurricane impact windows, which are like these high tensile strength windows that are really great. They’re also very energy efficient, too. So that’s big. And of course, the technology, they know where they’re coming, right. And are a lot more accurate. They know where they’re going to hit now better than they ever know when they’re coming. So those kind of things are great to know for hurricanes, you know, as far as, like the financial aspects, the finances down here, Florida, I mean, it is you know, for some people, they’re concerned, you know, as far as like the regulations, I mean would be deregulation here for some people might be concerned but I don’t see it as like a quality of life issue here. I see some really benefits to what they’ve done so far. And that’s just someone that’s pretty mental politics.
Erwin Szeto [00:29:43] But.
Ryan Poole [00:29:44] You know, it’s pretty good there.
Erwin Szeto [00:29:46] What are your customers doing for mortgages?
Ryan Poole [00:29:49] Yeah. So I’ve actually I have a great lender here that does foreign nationals here out of Miami. They’ve done tons.
Erwin Szeto [00:29:55] So we’re being called foreign nationals.
Ryan Poole [00:29:57] Foreign nationals.
Erwin Szeto [00:29:58] You know.
Erwin Szeto [00:29:59] We’re usurping other people with that brush.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:01] Exactly.
Ryan Poole [00:30:03] You know, I mean, obviously, you have to put more money down right on the loan. You know, as the foreign national loan, you might have to put, you know, 30%. 30%. Yeah. 30% down. And, you know, there’s it might be a little bit more, you know, paperwork involved and stuff like that. But I’ve gotten deals done. I mean, I just did a foreign national deal with a buyer from Australia.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:25] They’re coming to.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:27] They’re.
Ryan Poole [00:30:27] Coming here.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:28] To South Florida. It’s crazy like way. Yeah, it is. It is.
Ryan Poole [00:30:33] Yeah I know South Florida’s I mean you know, used to be never to we never got buyers from California like hardly ever like but now there’s buyers there are people moving here from California.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:43] Yeah.
Ryan Poole [00:30:44] We’re getting buyers from come from obviously northeast is always that. But we’ve always had Canadian buyers, you know. But now we’re getting people even from the West Coast of the United States buying.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:54] Mm hmm.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:54] And then, rate wise, what are you seeing? What kind of range?
Ryan Poole [00:30:58] Yeah. I mean, you’re going to be like in that, you know, four to low five range.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:03] You know.
Ryan Poole [00:31:04] That’s not too bad. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:06] That’s pretty good thought. This is a lot better than I thought it would be.
Ryan Poole [00:31:09] I know. I just went through this with the. You know, another buyer literally like just now. So we know the rates are pretty good. I mean, you know, having to put 30% down.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:18] You know, but.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:19] I have to do that. My wife has some of my investment properties. This side of the bank doesn’t like me.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:24] Yeah. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:25] And people can do this just personally or they have to, like, start open a company or something like that or.
Ryan Poole [00:31:30] Yeah. No, they it depends. Some lenders you can do it do personally, some they want you to open up like an LLC. Right. And purchase it that way as well. So it kind of depends.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:40] Cool.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:41] It isn’t so bad. That’s the nice thing about like, you know, to be objective. Like, I had this perception, I thought almost everyone had to buy cash. Unless you’re willing to do it by a company, for example. And like a lot of that, sounded like way too much work.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:56] Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:56] Real company and like make money in it managing be qualify for a mortgage but this doesn’t sound so bad.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:03] Yeah.
Ryan Poole [00:32:03] No is I mean I mean, still you’re putting 30% down so the risk for the lender, you know, if you’re.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:09] Right, I understand like, ah, like a lot of our investment properties are start over 700,000 and then 30% down.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:15] So you’re talking about.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:17] Junior grand condo. I know it’s US dollars that.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:20] You know that’s.
Ryan Poole [00:32:21] I mean it’s a great opportunity and even like, you know, like our mutual friend, if they bought that property, I’d.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:25] Actually just looked.
Ryan Poole [00:32:27] At the values on there. They’ve done really well since they bought it like two years ago. Like the prices have come up very considerably for them. Sure. They’re happy with that. So and usually, you know, if you’re if you’re financing 70% with the rents the way they are here, like let’s say you did buy like the three or $400,000 condo, you’d still be in a positive cash flow situation. Right. But then, of course, you’re big plays the equity player, right?
Erwin Szeto [00:32:51] Mm hmm.
Ryan Poole [00:32:51] Bullish on Florida. You’re bullish on people moving here. Patience.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:56] I’m bullish on operations.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:59] As I.
Ryan Poole [00:32:59] Said. I mean, I just read I don’t know if you can concur with me on this, but it’s like they figure it might be like 7% this year, seven or 8% inflation, and probably who knows? That’s what they’re saying.
Erwin Szeto [00:33:09] We need that terrible war to end in Eastern Europe. Right. You mentioned rents. So like an example, $300,000 condo, what would that rent for?
Ryan Poole [00:33:20] Yeah, I mean, if you can do the short term rental, remember, not all condos can you do the shorter term monthly rentals, but you know, you’re looking to you could get like, you know, 2 to $3000 a month, you know, to rent those out on a short term rental basis, 2000 2500 a month, you know, 2000 on annual basis. It depends. Sometimes in the winter, obviously, when you’re doing the short term, it’s even more like I know here in downtown West Palm Beach, two condos, you know, during the winter furnished, obviously, you know, they’re going as high as, you know, five or $6,000 a month. So it really depends exactly what pocket you’re. You know, if you furnish it or you know how you.
Erwin Szeto [00:33:59] Value.
Ryan Poole [00:34:00] What your strategy is.
Erwin Szeto [00:34:01] What about just a vinyl or a long term rental? Unfurnished?
Ryan Poole [00:34:05] Yeah. To condo. Like a $300,000 condo. I mean, you can easily get, you know, to 2000, 2500 a month, you know, I mean, if it’s decent inside, you know, it has tile floors, stainless steel appliances.
Erwin Szeto [00:34:19] That kind of stuff.
Erwin Szeto [00:34:20] What are your clients mostly doing? Like how would you split up what they’re doing? How many are buying for personal or recreational use and how many buying for investment purposes?
Ryan Poole [00:34:29] There’s a lot of people that are buying here to live, obviously. You know, I would probably say 70% to live and then another 30% are investors, you know, that are looking, you know, but they’re like they’re long term investment players. Like, you know, I just saw one last week, a condo. I’ll use this. They’re from New Jersey. You know, this guy’s, you know, in his late fifties, he and his wife in his late fifties, they bought a condo on the beach in Jensen Beach, which is great location. It’s just north of Palm Beach County here. Great rental that they’re getting on the beach. They bought it. They bought it for like 450,000. You can rent it monthly there during the season furnished rental, about 5500 a month off season, about 3500 a month. Right. That’s what they got. And they’re like, right, we’re going to buy this. I’m going to rent it out here for the next about three or four years, get a good return. And then, you know, when I retire, we got a place to go to down in Florida whenever we want. And, you know, I could, you know, and I can use it. So that’s happening a lot of.
Erwin Szeto [00:35:29] Yeah, my wife and I’ve been talking. We should hedge and have a property outside this country.
Erwin Szeto [00:35:34] Yeah. Well, I’m here to help you. Thank you.
Ryan Poole [00:35:37] Definitely help you. I’ve been nice. You know, we haven’t even gotten to my, you know, as you know, I’ve been.
Erwin Szeto [00:35:42] Doing.
Ryan Poole [00:35:42] Asian for a long time. That’s what I’ve done for years and years. Years. But I started a tech company that we launched obviously last summer, which about called Real Trade, which is the social media platform and marketplace for real estate. So this has got some amazing features. I tell everybody it’s a marketplace. So think of it like Zillow OC mixed with LinkedIn, but just for real estate.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:05] So sorry, Ryan, just for people, the Zillow doesn’t have much of a presence here.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:10] Okay.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:10] You have to explain to a Canadian what Zillow is like. Maybe another analogy is like Amazon and even know. Yeah, it.
Ryan Poole [00:36:15] Would be like Zillow. Zillow or what we are is we’re just an online marketplace for real estate. So we basically in the United States, I’m not sure how it works in Canada, but we have these MLS boards. So basically agents join and then they take their listings and put them on to these MLS boards, which allows and other agents to see them not for sale. Other agents could see, but then they also take that data and they push it out to these large portals which are like Zillow, that then take that data and aggregate it for a place for the consumer to see. So it’s like the consumer, you know, the consumer facing data, right? So that’s in essence what real estate is. It’s like a consumer facing data where they can see all the properties for sale in South Florida, like we have all of South Florida covered, you know, a real trade does. And yeah, so we have a lot of people using it to search for sale. The nice the cool thing about real trade that’s different than like these other online marketplaces like Zillow is. Seller can do a lot of good due diligence on not only on the property to getting all the data there directly from the MLS, from the source, but they can actually contact the listing agent directly. So they’re not like sold as a lead and Zillow got it. You know, it’s a different system in Canada, but they can go directly to the listing agent. Good questions answered. They could still use a buyer’s agent, you know, to help them buy. But like, if they have questions themselves, they can they can get them answered. And then also, we have a social aspect where they can actually see on a social feed deals being posted like coming soon that aren’t even on the quite on the market yet that the agents are sharing to the real trade market and they can network with other agents. And actually, we’re building an arm right now as we speak, service providers. So if they need a good lender, they need a good title company or an inspector, you know, all these types of people to that. They can contact those people directly to trade as well.
Erwin Szeto [00:38:10] That’s handy.
Ryan Poole [00:38:11] Yeah. More course. Things like find good agents, you know, agents that are active. Right. That you feel comfortable with. You can research them on their LinkedIn, you know, but for, you know, for real estate. So and we’re getting a lot of traction here. We have hundreds of over 560 agents from 80 different brokerages on there now and then we have thousands of buyers and sellers using the platform.
Erwin Szeto [00:38:32] And then there’s blockchain involvement.
Erwin Szeto [00:38:34] Well.
Ryan Poole [00:38:35] Here’s what we have. So let me tell the blockchain this is believe me, I’m very bullish on blockchain, too. I love talking about that. We have a point system. Before we had our own token on the 1.0 version we took so far that lived on the blockchain, and now we have what’s called a points system where basically we track the agents if they add value to the Real Trade Network, which is posting their content, inviting referrals to the network, the gain points, the more points that they have, the more exposure they get on the platform. So we have like suggested pros that properties go up into the, you know, people are searching for properties or properties go higher up in the results, you know, that kind of stuff. So in essence, you know, blockchain and what I really liked about is the way that basically the decentralized system, you know, that incentivized the network as it grows. Right, to run a transaction. Right. That’s a big thing about Bitcoin. A lot of others have theory, other things that these miners that are getting rewarded for running the network. Right. And do these transactions. And we have some of that, too. We reward the network the more they help get our data network and make it grow. And some people’s eyes glaze over when they start hearing about blockchain and how everything works. But it’s pretty exciting, really, the.
Erwin Szeto [00:39:49] Possibilities of it.
Erwin Szeto [00:39:50] You know, for someone like I deal with an old city. So for example, if I need a document pulled on my property, someone literally has to go into like the bowels of the building or pull off, pull a paper file.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:02] So slow way.
Ryan Poole [00:40:04] Wow.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:04] So people who don’t know how it is. Okay, maybe they would glaze over for me.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:10] Is that.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:11] Why are we there already? Why isn’t this all digitally based?
Ryan Poole [00:40:16] Yeah, exactly. Now it’s.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:18] So serious.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:19] I’d be excited for any sort of advancement.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:23] I mean.
Ryan Poole [00:40:23] Florida, like, we have a good system here, but, I mean, just, you know, there’s like a startup here, which I actually know the founder well, Talia. She started property and they just sold two properties here in South Florida on NFT tokens.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:37] You know, like.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:40] You know, any tokens, one token for just one token.
Erwin Szeto [00:40:43] Okay. Okay.
Ryan Poole [00:40:44] And I can, I can get in the weeds how this works. Actually, I researched it because I’m very interested. Basically, there’s an LLC that owns the property. Okay. And that’s recorded in the in the county records, right. In the state records that owns it. But basically what they did is they allowed the LLC that owns the property to be put on an NFT token. So you’re actually just buying the LLC, you’re not actually buying the property, but that LLC then is transferred ownership to you through the NFT token.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:14] Interesting. So why did this individual do it that way?
Ryan Poole [00:41:17] I think it’s like right now it’s certainly since I think it’s more like a marketing gimmick. But they did it. They just did two of them. So there’s they’re two for two and there’s like the only place and I think the world that’s doing it is happening in Florida. So yeah, I mean, obviously a real trade, you know, idea of one time we want to obviously be a marketplace and help facilitate.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:38] Fees or any sort of.
Ryan Poole [00:41:40] Any kind of real.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:41] Estate, whether, you know, tokenized real estate.
Ryan Poole [00:41:42] Have fractionalized, tokenized real estate, NFT tokens, regular real estate, you know, just like traditional.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:48] Regular presents that.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:50] Are either regular, still going to play a big role.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:58] I love the idea of like of a fractionalized ownership and we can use tokens to identify ownership.
Erwin Szeto [00:42:07] Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:42:08] It has to happen. Fractionalized ownership of real estate has to happen.
Ryan Poole [00:42:11] Oh, it’s, it’s, it’s happening now. It’s it, it is happening. There’s actually even like. Basically you can, you know, take your tokens. They just there’s a new start up here in south Florida’s working on this and actually collateralize your tokens and borrow against your tokens. That’s a whole nother game.
Erwin Szeto [00:42:27] So I start at the right time. Right? I know. I know, I know. But I just feel, like glazed over, I think. Exactly. But it’s and that’s the thing about Florida, that’s.
Ryan Poole [00:42:41] You know, this is why I’m so bullish, guys up for there’s so much innovation happening here. There’s so much exciting things in real estate that are happening here. Obviously, people love the weather and all these things. So. So if I’m if I was a Canadian looking down here at Florida, I think it would be you know, I would be like, wow, what a great place to own a second home. Just enjoy, but much less an investment.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:02] That’s great.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:03] Before we were recording, for example, the Bitcoin conference was in Miami. In Miami, I don’t know. It just keeps coming up. And also partly because the mayor of Miami is such a Bitcoin early adopter, I believe correct me if I’m wrong, I believe City of Miami already has Bitcoin on their on their balance sheet.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:22] Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:23] And they’re accepting it as a currency so you can pay your taxes. I believe in bitcoin. Yeah. And I’m not sure if that exists anywhere else and anywhere.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:33] Yeah. No.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:35] So basically Florida is open for business, for cryptocurrency versus, you know, many politicians, many governments. You know, China, for example, they banned a lot of the banned minors there. And any sort of businesses that are surround that whose underlying business is cryptocurrency and versus like us and especially like Nevada and Florida have been like.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:00] We’ll.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:00] Take you all.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:01] Yeah. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:03] And so then, you know, you tell me because you’re closer to this. And then even like Ray Dalio, for example, said, like the greatest threat to cryptocurrency is this government’s banning it. But then you see like the US government, like there come all you, all you miners.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:16] Come here and I.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:17] Think what they turn about and kick them out now.
Ryan Poole [00:44:21] Yeah well that’s to me what’ll happen. I mean this is because it’s the United States, right? So we have the states have some jurisdiction. Right, of what we can do visually. So you have these other states or the US, you know, says, Oh, you can’t do that one state. I’ll pop up and go, Yeah, you can, right? And then everybody will just gravitate towards that state. It’ll look what happened with the COVID, right? Everybody was like shutting down and everybody’s like, you know, and hurting businesses. And there comes one state which I got to give it to DeSantis. So he put himself on the line, bucked the trend, but look what a difference it made it down here in Florida. Just there was this huge discovery of all these businesses now just flock in and it’s just like this, like a faucet, right. Of people wanting to come down here. So I think the same thing point being the same thing would happen if the government shut down Bitcoin. There be a couple of states would be like now Florida is very pro crypto same with Wyoming could do some regulate look into Wyoming.
Erwin Szeto [00:45:14] That’s fascinating because there’s a couple of precedents come to mind like for example like for example cannabis is legal in several states, but federally it’s not legal. But know unions for example, if you have certain states in the US where unions are not legal, you may not you mean openly union in certain states. And that’s where businesses tend to flock.
Ryan Poole [00:45:37] Exactly.
Erwin Szeto [00:45:38] And on off chains. And again, no politician listens to this podcast.
Erwin Szeto [00:45:42] But that’s.
Erwin Szeto [00:45:43] A reality. If a business unionized is in Canada, that business owner may just relocate to a right to work state in the US. Exactly like people I need to understand like, you know, make your decision in a wider context. Zoom out in your decision on that. Don’t just like, hey, you know, fight for all rights for their employees, but then the next month they’re all out of jobs. Exactly like zoom out, look at the bigger picture, negotiate from there rather than, yeah.
Ryan Poole [00:46:13] It is. And it’s a perfect example. You have to look at look at all different angles. And this political angle is a big one. I actually honestly, until this last couple of years that I realized like how much political, you know, Arena can have on business. I mean, just incredible, you know, I mean, you know, how much influence and you know, and I honestly didn’t agree with the dissent of some of his viewpoints, but after having seen and gone through it and seen what happened here to Florida, wow. You know, it does make a difference.
Erwin Szeto [00:46:42] No one’s perfect. I think first off.
Erwin Szeto [00:46:44] Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:46:45] Everyone needs to appreciate that.
Erwin Szeto [00:46:46] Nobody’s perfect.
Erwin Szeto [00:46:48] Nobody gets it 100% right.
Ryan Poole [00:46:50] I know. But I’m a big believer. Like, let the market like let the free market dictate as much as we can, you know, discovery of what works and what doesn’t work. So long as you’re not stifling the free market. And like businesses, you know, these solutions will come into play. Like I said, I that’s why I think I’m just so big on Florida. Like we’re big on free market here. We’re big on innovation. We’re like some good things. I mean, I have a. Tech company. I’m headquartered in Florida. I went through this accelerator. Literally, the whole reason my business got built is I went through this accelerator that literally is funded by the city of West Palm Beach. Like they’re a big sponsor for 1909, which is this accelerator incubator here, which allows me, as a as an entrepreneur to come in here and have really affordable space, right. To be an entrepreneur and not have to rent, real expensive office space and, you know, things like that. Like that’s what I’m trying to tell people. Like it’s things like that. That’s where people, you know, it makes a big difference. You know that innovation.
Erwin Szeto [00:47:46] And it’s a big problem here in Canada is our real estate’s way too expensive. It’s we’re just going to scare away investment.
Ryan Poole [00:47:53] Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:47:54] And people just think investment means dollars like no, we’ll scare away people. We can’t afford to live here.
Erwin Szeto [00:48:00] Yeah, right.
Ryan Poole [00:48:02] Those entrepreneurs like those entrepreneurs are so important because they’re the ones are going to be starting new business, fresh business coming from different angles. Like there’s so many crypto businesses down here that are starting that are so exciting. Like I had a 1.0 version, like I said, but I’m looking at all these other ones. I mean, it’s just, you know, it’s incredible what’s happening just takes a couple, one or two, you know, that could be the next Microsoft or the next, you know, Apple or whoever it is, you know, I mean, that’s what’s exciting.
Erwin Szeto [00:48:29] And then.
Erwin Szeto [00:48:30] Okay, I don’t know what of the details what else the Canadians ask you when they first get in touch with you. What else? What am I missing? What else do they ask you?
Ryan Poole [00:48:36] Yeah, I mean, they want to you know, a lot of them want to like, you know, especially they want to come here and use it. They want to know, is it safe in Florida?
Erwin Szeto [00:48:42] Is this crime like what’s the crime like? You know, what is the crime like?
Ryan Poole [00:48:47] And that’s another thing, too. I like West Palm Beach is obviously Miami, as we know, is the different. There’s just more people there. There’s like a difference, you know, like I said, almost like a different country. So the crime rates are higher there, obviously, than Fort Lauderdale. And Fort Lauderdale is higher than West Palm. You know, West Palm has a lower you know, if you look at the statistics, Palm Beach County has a very low crime rate. So it’s really, really good here. As far as that wise. Another thing that want to know, like I said about the weather, the weather’s.
Erwin Szeto [00:49:16] Defense.
Ryan Poole [00:49:17] It’s always does, you know, it’s almost amazing. It’s like come late November but mid end in November, it’s like someone takes a light switch and turns it off and the humidity’s gone and it’s just nice. Then from November, December, January, February, March and even April, we’ve had beautiful weather all through April. Now pretty much you it starts to get a little bit hot. But like, you know, the only unbearable month I will tell Canadians or anybody here, it is very hot, very muggy in August, September, you know. So those are the months that I would say, you know, go travel, go do somewhere else.
Erwin Szeto [00:49:56] It can get through.
Ryan Poole [00:49:57] In can an August is a great like, you know, a month to be up north. Right. September is beautiful. You can come in to start getting in the fall, you know, the fall colors and stuff. So and then like I said, October, you know, it starts to cool down a bit by November. It’s beautiful here.
Erwin Szeto [00:50:11] So amazing. What else? The kids asked. Do any of them bringing kids with them? They even asked about schools.
Erwin Szeto [00:50:16] Yeah, well, I.
Ryan Poole [00:50:17] Mean, that’s another thing, too. Palm Beach County has incredible schools here. Like we have some of the best rated schools of anywhere in the state, you know, both private and public. Really good schools here on the side is a lot of activities here. Like me.
Erwin Szeto [00:50:30] Said.
Ryan Poole [00:50:31] They all like. Well, Ryan, what about the golf? Tell me about the golf going to be like, okay, do you know where Tiger Woods lives? You ever heard of that?
Erwin Szeto [00:50:38] Yeah.
Ryan Poole [00:50:39] Live here. Palm Beach coming of in Jupiter. I heard a golfer called Jack Nicklaus.
Erwin Szeto [00:50:45] Lives.
Ryan Poole [00:50:46] In North Palm Beach. Right. There’s actually more PGA golfers living here in Palm Beach County than anywhere else in the United States.
Erwin Szeto [00:50:54] Is it golf affordable?
Ryan Poole [00:50:56] Yeah, that’s the thing, too. There’s so many courses here. There’s tons of courses here, like, you know, so many. And I think there’s like over 100 different courses here within like a 20 mile radius of Palm Beach. So, you know, there’s tons of golf to be had, you know, as far as entertainment. Oh, another big thing here. South Florida, if you love to eat out, the restaurants are fabulous. That’s another thing with a lot of kids that’s like what about the, you know, the dining seafood restaurants, incredible.
Erwin Szeto [00:51:22] And very.
Ryan Poole [00:51:22] Competitive here on this. You know, because obviously a lot of people come here on vacation. They want it didn’t want to cook, so they eat out. So the restaurants here are just another level. And then obviously the fishing, the diving big like we have the clearest water that Gulfstream comes so close. So it’s really good diving. We get actually closer.
Erwin Szeto [00:51:40] Explain the Gulfstream.
Ryan Poole [00:51:41] So the Gulfstream is like a warm river currently. Ocean actually starts down in the Caribbean, goes up between Cuba and Hispaniola and through the Bahamas Channel, and it comes up and then goes first through the Straits of Florida and goes right along the coast of Florida. Well, if you look at the map, Palm Beach County bumps out of Florida a little bit. So that Gulfstream literally brushes right through the right at Palm Beach County, right at King Island. So that water is crystal clear. Like there’s days here when we have if you’re a diver, we have days where we have 150 foot of its. So if you can imagine, you’re in a hot 150 feet of water. You see the bottom.
Erwin Szeto [00:52:19] I know.
Ryan Poole [00:52:20] I know. So I’m a big free diver, like and like I said, a fisherman sort of for me, like, you’re getting all these days of the year, like almost 300 days a year. We have beautiful this fire, the fish, the other life down there, which is great. So the activity wise, you know, as far as like sports teams obviously in West Palm, enough professional sports teams here. But again, we have the bright line brings a right downtown to Brickell, Miami. You’re literally right across from what used to be called the American Airlines Arena, where the professional basketball, you know, team plays the Miami Heat. Of course, got the Miami Dolphins and Florida Panthers from the. I know these Canadians are hockey fans.
Erwin Szeto [00:52:55] Where are the Panthers? How far how far to.
Erwin Szeto [00:52:57] How far we.
Erwin Szeto [00:52:58] Need to adopt a hockey team?
Erwin Szeto [00:53:00] I don’t know yet. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:02] Tampa’s not here is great. Florida is actually playing extremely well this year.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:06] Yeah, the Panthers are in.
Ryan Poole [00:53:07] There, like, right on the edge of Fort Lauderdale and Miami. A little bit further west. So it’s not far from here. West Palm. I could be in the Panthers arena, you know, in, like 40 minutes.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:19] That’s it.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:20] Yeah. So it’s the interaction.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:24] Of the cars, too?
Erwin Szeto [00:53:25] Yeah, it’s like.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:26] It’s like 30, $0.30 on the dollar compared to what we pay here.
Ryan Poole [00:53:30] And so what are you guys are awesome. Canadian plays are awesome hockey fans and guys drive up the price.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:35] Of their overpaying hockey fans.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:38] Yeah. No, no.
Ryan Poole [00:53:40] I grew up I guess I grew up in northern Minnesota, so I grew up playing hockey.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:43] All right. Yeah. Your phone’s going to break when this podcast drops.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:47] Yeah, I think I’m excited. I mean, like I said, it’s.
Ryan Poole [00:53:50] It’s the timing’s good. Like, if I’m an investor looking out, my gosh, these condos and stuff are still affordable. Like, you know, they’re still not, like, crazy yet. And I just. I see what’s happening, you know, here in South Florida, just so many, like I said, people coming here. What’s happening? And I’m just you know, I’ve been lucky. I’ve had a great 24 years, so I’ve had a great life. I matter, you know, I know a lot of fun things to do. People to meet, you know, people they’re investors. I, I have, you know, my own company, like I said, real straight could help. And then, you know, I mean, I just had actually a Zoom call with this awesome startup called Future State here in South Florida. They literally just headquarter for New York down here and they help basically short term investors manage their AP, their Airbnbs, VR bios, everything all from one place, one location, really great software that they developed. You know, I became.
Erwin Szeto [00:54:44] I’m sure hurricanes were like the.
Ryan Poole [00:54:45] College is called Future State. I’m good friends with the founder. They actually work out of the 99 space here.
Erwin Szeto [00:54:51] Were you on a zoom call with them? You said.
Ryan Poole [00:54:53] Yeah, right. Right before this, I was just literally like on a call with them just before this, before we jumped on. Yeah. So, you know, because they obviously love, you know, real trade. They wanted like why wow. They want to go to the network because there’s all these real estate agents that can refer them business. Right, with their investors. You know, because I’m talking the short term investment thing, guys, is an awesome way to go. The returns are great. And it’s just like, you know, it’s exciting. It’s exciting. You can make great returns and you know; you’re getting into the ladder of the real estate market here in South Florida.
Erwin Szeto [00:55:22] You know? So it’s a great way to go.
Erwin Szeto [00:55:25] How many buildings allow it versus not allow it mean we’re starting to. Wow.
Ryan Poole [00:55:29] Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. The ones that allow there’s not a like.
Erwin Szeto [00:55:32] Most of them will.
Ryan Poole [00:55:33] Allow you to do to rent most condos will allow you to do you know two rentals a year, right. So you can do one short term rental and then another rental over the summer, the ones that are obviously, you know, real desirable like that. I see right now these ones that you can do the monthly rentals, you know, where you can rent them out monthly, which are great. And now in Miami, which I have a great contact, literally one of the developers is my good friend they’ve built now and there’s a couple that they’re selling pre-construction that are set up for Airbnb nightly rentals. So they’re building the units, right? And they’re literally like, there’s no rental restrictions. You can rent them out nightly for you. They’ll man and they’ll help you manage it. Obviously doing the cleaning and everything that of course you can put them on the other platforms, whatever you want to put on to with us, Airbnb or BRP, our partner. But the future stay obviously they can it can help you there as well. So you know, make it pretty turnkey for these investors to be able to do that. Obviously if you need a foreign national loan, but 30% and you know, you have a little bit of cash flow, you’ve got a place to come to Florida, rent it out, you know, nightly. That’s pretty advantageous.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:38] That’s pretty awesome. I need you to put me in touch with one of your clients that has one of these places to rent.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:43] Yeah, so I’ll keep it.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:45] Clean to.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:47] Athens. Yeah, yeah. No, I did one actually that.
Ryan Poole [00:56:51] Most they get rented out like that. But that one client that just bought that one in Vero, he’s just getting ready to put it on the market. So there will be some time after that. He just he just closed on the last week.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:01] So when the challenges of short term rentals is it’s easier if you live there, all your investors are not local at all. What are they doing in terms of like cleaning and stuff like that?
Ryan Poole [00:57:12] Yeah. So I have some great partnerships that I. With some management companies that will manage it. Know, reclaiming everything for you, of course, they take a percentage of it.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:22] It’s a yeah, they do.
Ryan Poole [00:57:23] It’s a lot.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:24] A lot of.
Ryan Poole [00:57:25] Them will manage even the all the Airbnb accounts, all the posting, the bookings, like you don’t have to do anything, but.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:32] They’re going to in the end.
Ryan Poole [00:57:33] They will do that, including the cleaning, too. They’re going to range anywhere from you know, they’re going to want anywhere from like 20 to 30%.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:40] Oh, and that’s worth it for your peace of mind.
Ryan Poole [00:57:43] Yeah, exactly.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:44] Exactly like it. You manage, like, managing more than two.
Ryan Poole [00:57:48] I know. Yeah. Like you said, if you’re here, you can, you know, you can do it. You can have a cleaning lady that goes in there once, you know, once a month or whatever and cleans. If you’re doing the monthly rentals, remember single family homes, you can do most places here, like in Palm Beach County. Wow. But, you know, obviously, that’s more detail. Yeah. There’s companies out there that I got, you know, relationships with. And again, that’s through, you know, real trade going to be able to, you know, network with people on the platform. It’s literally like a way built it right.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:18] Running on time.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:19] That’s the thing for.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:20] For the long weekend and surprise you book different now because I’m pretty sure you have more fun things to do.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:26] Oh it’s great. I love it.
Ryan Poole [00:58:28] I do. I remember the last thing we did was so much fun. And, you know, it’s just I mean, look what happened since the last one we had. And then and now, like, what’s happened to.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:37] Like.
Ryan Poole [00:58:41] COVID like this? Like, you know, the real estate market getting crazy just like everywhere. So it’s.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:46] Great because the one.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:48] Thing is busy before the pandemic, too.
Ryan Poole [00:58:50] They were. Yeah. No, you were starting to see things that.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:52] Just.
Ryan Poole [00:58:53] This pandemic, this sped everything up, like I tell you. And I just I really don’t see this remote work going away, like I see it even accelerating even without the pandemic. Right. I mean, you know, without with or without it, I just see people like, you know, while I can do all this work from home and then they’re just to be like you, why am I living in Iowa? Like, what am I? What am I doing? You know, like, like I said. And that’s why you’re just getting so many people like that that are moving here.
Erwin Szeto [00:59:21] The parties rent an aspect commercial at all. How is the office space compared to like New Jersey? New York?
Ryan Poole [00:59:26] Yeah. So the office space here, you know, is getting more expensive, obviously. But that’s why this.
Erwin Szeto [00:59:31] This these.
Ryan Poole [00:59:32] Concepts like I’m at like 99 are becoming so popular, which are great. And it is like you get the benefits of these co-working spaces of obviously having an office, but then you’re meeting like I’ve met my developer here, right? I met like my marketing team here. All these people, you make it great. It’s serious. Like, it’s like I really think this the future of work is these co-working incubator accelerators, such a cool thing and there’s, you know, co-working spaces here. So you can get one with co-working spaces, have your own office, you know, for, like, a thousand bucks a month.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:03] Mm hmm.
Ryan Poole [01:00:03] And have your own office space and everything right there. So.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:06] For example, like Goldman Sachs, you mentioned, who got a floor like paying less.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:11] More? Oh, yeah.
Ryan Poole [01:00:12] Now they’re paying they’re paying less. They’re definitely paying less than I would work or anything like that.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:17] You know, a lot less.
Ryan Poole [01:00:18] But quite a bit less. Yeah, quite a bit less, I would say probably, you know, 20, 20, 30% less than they’re paying a lot of different.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:24] Places.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:25] And people are probably lining up to take I’ll move, I’ll.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:28] Move its cost.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:30] Up, but I’ll stop paying for my bachelor. What’s a bachelor in New York City? Like 4000 a month or something?
Ryan Poole [01:00:36] 4000 a month for like a studio. Exactly.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:39] Which they could come down here and get like, you know, it’s still.
Ryan Poole [01:00:41] Like, you know, a good like two bedroom, you know, like I said, you know, three grand a month, 25, 2 to 3000 a month. So it’s less right. But then you’re like I said, you’re a mile from the beach or what? Yeah. I mean, you’re right here less than a mile from the beach, so.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:56] Yeah. All right. And it was Thursday, but it’s essentially it’s Friday. Happy Easter, Ryan.
Ryan Poole [01:01:01] Due to.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:03] Thanks so much for doing this I got to by Charles we figured the date.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:07] I.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:07] Know seasons there’s no way I was good I was leaving Charles invited me to Florida but there’s no way I was allowed to leave because we’re in middle of taxes.
Ryan Poole [01:01:14] And I know we were supposed to get together. We were going to get together when he was here. Of course, I got, you know, so busy, too. And I do have a five year old son, but I told him next time he comes for sure.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:24] Yeah, it is disappointing. The temporary golf clubs. It’s like a thing we don’t travel with or golf clubs. Well.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:29] Whatever.
Ryan Poole [01:01:30] Well, there’s actually there’s a company where you can ship them. You can ship them down here. A lot of people do that to ship their golf clubs down there. It’s cheaper that way rather than flying with them on the plane. But you might have really nice clubs. I don’t know. And you might not trust somebody.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:45] Awesome, right. Thanks so much for doing this, Eric. Congratulations on your success. Sounds like you had a blast. Or at least you’re at least business is probably booming through all of COVID.
Ryan Poole [01:01:57] There was no it was good. It was good. It was crazy. And it still is. But yeah, I enjoy it. Thanks for having me on again. Let’s keep doing it.
Erwin Szeto [01:02:06] And how can people connect with you first? Let’s start with start with your realtor business. Where can people connect? Where can people follow?
Ryan Poole [01:02:13] Yeah. So the. Best way is actually you can connect with me just through real train. You can go on there and real, real trade data. So as a buyer seller, you can create a profile for free. Okay. And then I want to suggest the pros there so you can connect with me there and follow me and then we can be in contact that way. Another. Another way. Just simply email me. You know, my email is right.
Erwin Szeto [01:02:35] To warn you. This is. This is the Internet.
Erwin Szeto [01:02:37] It’s forever. Yeah, that’s cool. No, this is.
Ryan Poole [01:02:40] No, that’s no problem. So obviously create a profile in real trade. You can follow me there. Obviously, search for properties, use that, which is awesome. But then you can email me to it’s my name, Ryan Poole, our Y and P or l eat real trade dot io. Yeah, real trade dot i. I mean, i, i, i.
Erwin Szeto [01:03:04] I mean something.
Erwin Szeto [01:03:05] Yeah.
Ryan Poole [01:03:05] That’s like a real blockchain tech forward. You are? Yeah, you are. It’s an it’s actually means Indian Ocean. But a lot of the developers, blockchain guys said Input-Output, which is like a big developer kind of a URL. So it’s actually a lot of startups use that about Iot.
Erwin Szeto [01:03:21] Core is something.
Erwin Szeto [01:03:23] You.
Erwin Szeto [01:03:24] Learn something new every day. Right. It’s been a blast. Information overload for the public good. Mm hmm. I think I love the whole formation. National mortgages. And, uh. Yeah. Congrats on success. Thanks for doing this.
Ryan Poole [01:03:38] Yep. Hope to see you down here soon in Florida.
Erwin Szeto [01:03:48] Before you go, if you’re interested in learning more about an alternative means of cash flowing like hundreds of other real estate investors have already and sign up to my newsletter and you’ll learn of the next free demonstration webinar I’ll be delivering on the subject of stock hacking. It’s a much improved demonstration over the one that I gave to my cousin Chubby at Thanksgiving dinner in 2019. He now averages 1% cash flow per week, and he’s a musician by trade as a real estate investor me. I got into real estate for the cash flow, but with the rising costs to operate a rental business, it’s just not the same as it was 5 to 10 years ago when I started. Never forget that cash flow reduces your risk. The more you have, the more limbs you can absorb. And if you have none or limited cash flow, you’re going to be paying out of your pocket like I did on a recent basement flood at my rental in St Catherine’s, Ontario. If you’re interested in learning more for free from my newsletter at WDW DOT Truth About Real Estate Investing Dossier, enter your name and email address on the right side will include in the newsletter when we announced our next Free Stock Tracker demonstration. Find out for yourself with so many real estate investors are doing to diversify and increase their cash flow. And if you can’t tell, I love teaching and sharing the stuff.