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Podcast Transcription
Georges El Masri [00:00:01] Welcome to the Well Off podcast, where the goal is to motivate, inspire and share success principles. I’m your host Georges El Masri. On this episode, I interviewed Alfonso Salemi, who is the co-founder of JAG Properties. He specializes in Rent to Own and have had over 240 successful projects. Jake works with mortgage brokers, realtors and tenants to conduct a successful rent to own transaction. And on this episode, we discussed growing his company to eight full time employees. Today’s market impact on Arctos rent to owns, including the higher interest rates. What happens if appraisals come in below the pre-determined purchase price? The three components of a successful rent to own. And also how realtors can work with Jake in order to help their clients, their tenant clients eventually buy a home. So there you go. I hope you’ll enjoy the episode. And if you do, make sure to leave us a review on the Apple Podcast platform. Five stars would be appreciated. Make sure to share this with a friend or family member. And then also, if you want to connect with me to discuss multi-unit investing, we have some pretty cool ten unit opportunities in the region, so make sure to go that well off ex on Instagram, send me a DM or you could just book a call on the website while off dot CA. Enjoy the episode and I look forward to connecting with you soon. All right. I’m here with Alfonso for a second time. First time was probably maybe two years ago or so. Somewhere in that range. Yeah.
Alfonso Salemi [00:01:30] At least, yeah. Yeah, two years ago now. Yeah. With the pandemic, it’s hard to gauge. It feels like not too long ago. But then on the count. Yeah, that’s true.
Georges El Masri [00:01:40] That’s true. Yeah. So what’s going on with you? We were talking a little bit before, before we started recording. So what’s new? What’s going on in your life?
Alfonso Salemi [00:01:48] Yeah. You know, what’s, uh, very similar to yourself and. And your lovely wife? We have a little guy that’s almost 14 months, actually. Tomorrow we do 14 months. So he’s. He’s keeping us rather busy and yeah. Perspective on life and talking about just the rapid development and that little guy and yeah, our team has grown since we’ve spoken. Now we have eight full time team members and then my, my business partner and myself. So there’s ten of us all together and yeah, just kind of riding up the storm. It seems like, um, you know, a year, year and a half ago when everybody was talking about purchase prices increasing and, you know, that was a great time for your program because, you know, it’s a hard time to buy and the purchase prices are so high rent to own and is great opportunity. And the same things are being said to me today. Right, with, you know, the interest rates increasing and purchase prices slightly coming down, not as quickly as they went up, but now’s a great time to buy and a great time to get it. And it just reiterates the fact that, you know, our strategy, the Rent A Home program solution that we have for our clients, for our joint venture partners, it works it works in an upmarket it works in a down market. It works in a flat market. So homeownership doesn’t go out of style.
Georges El Masri [00:03:02] Yeah, well, I was going to actually ask you about this, but in what way has the recent have the recent changes impacted rent to own the rent to own model? And I guess just to kind of recap for anyone who doesn’t really know how this works, but basically it’s the rent to own. If you want to just briefly explain, it’s kind of like you predetermined a price that you’re going to buy it with tenants. The tenants will pay a certain amount of rent, which is generally a little bit higher than market value. And then after a certain amount of time has passed, they set themselves up to be able to qualify for the purchase of this home and you guys guide them along the way. Throughout that process, the investor makes some money and the tenant gets to buy a home where they might not be able to in the current position.
Alfonso Salemi [00:03:48] Aaron Yeah, absolutely. The only things that that I would add to that is we have a client first strategy, so our clients will apply for our program, will, you know, essentially underwrite them and qualify them based on a purchase price that they’re qualified for. So they actually get to go out and choose the home that they want to live in. So, you know, based on the budget that we’ve determined, the future purchase price or the price that they’ll be buying back, like you said, is predetermined at the end of the program and a portion of their monthly payment is actually credited back to them. So they can check off that box of down payment, you know, fix their credit if that’s the issue, and then make sure that their income is at the level that they need to be. So, yeah, you pretty much covered it. But for those people, for clients that, you know, can’t qualify for conventional financing because the bank or mortgage lender has turned them down, and then on the joint venture partner side or the investor side of things is, you know, an individual that, you know, wants to invest in real estate because, you know, like we just talked about, you know, homeownership doesn’t go out of style but doesn’t want to manage the tenants, the toilets, the maintenance, the rent collection, all the things that, you know, come up with, with. You know, there’s the pros of real estate investing. And then the downside of, you know, tenants and, you know, their lives can impact how your investment goes. So we manage all that for our Joint Venture Partners report. We send our team to visit the property pretty much on a quarterly basis. We have a credit team that we work with that works with our clients to make sure that they are, you know, doing those things that kind of a set it and forget it and be like, oh, three years ago you said you’re going to do this and you didn’t do that. We’re keeping them on track throughout the program for help.
Georges El Masri [00:05:31] All right. So now that things have changed, rates are higher. We’ve seen a decrease in sales. So I was just looking at some stats earlier today from the Toronto Real Estate Board. There have been roughly, I think it was 50% decline in sales year over year. Okay. So obviously it’s way down. Listings are up. And these aren’t scary numbers because what we had seen before was unrealistic. Like you put a house up for sale, it sells right away. Now it’s sitting on the market for three or four weeks and not the end of the world. But how does that impact your business as somebody who’s doing rental owns.
Alfonso Salemi [00:06:06] Yeah, quite honestly, it’s had a I would say, a positive impact when we were going out or our, you know, the realtors or the real estate professionals that were working with our clients that had a budget and were going out searching for homes. We were running up against multiple offer situations in almost every scenario. Right? So when we had a hard, you know, top line budget, we couldn’t go a dollar more than the good offer rate. So we saw, you know, clients think, you know, these see that listing price. That’s what they think. You know, that’s the sticker price. That’s what it should be sold for. And as we saw, there were, you know, 60, 70, 80, some cases, $150,000 over that list price. On the flip side now, when we see that now there’s some negotiation that we can have with sellers. So clients are actually their dollar is going a little bit farther where now if they’re qualified or if we’ve given them a budget of, say, $600,000, they actually look at something that’s listed. It may be at 650 and potentially get it for that $600,000 price point. Right. So from that side of things, it’s been a positive where clients now can take their time. They don’t feel rushed. You know, there is points where clients where no inspection, you can’t walk through the property, make your best offer. And, you know, and that was it, you know, when that’s okay. If you’re maybe looking at like a T-shirt, right? But when you’re making one of the biggest purchases of your life, you want to walk through that home, you want to get comfortable. You know, you want to, you know, feel like that, you know, this is a good investment or a good purchase for me, right? So now I think that that’s the positive impact. The downside is that, yeah, everybody’s purchasing power has been cut back, right? So from, you know, 3% interest rates. Right. That people were getting now to probably closer to five and six. And, you know, and as we’re recording this, there’s another rate announcement, I think scheduled for tomorrow or Thursday. And yeah, I think it’s just been a little bit of a shell shock, but I think rates are more or less on average where they’ve been historically. Right. So like you said, it was is unsustainable to have those rock bottom interest rates and everybody knew what the government was doing and kind of, you know, infusing purchasing power into the economy. But now I think it’s getting back to a dose of reality of, well, this is where they’re going to be hovering around for the next little while.
Georges El Masri [00:08:24] So just as you were talking, I was just wondering, did you have you ever had a situation where a tenant buyer, as I think you call them, bought a multi-unit. So maybe they bought a four plex or a six plex. They live in one of the units and then eventually they own that whole building and they’re able to kind of live for free.
Alfonso Salemi [00:08:42] That that’s a great question. And I’ve always tried to wrap my head around how we can do that. But the closest that we’ve had to that is we’ve had a few now tenant buyers that have purchased, say, like a razed bungalow or a property that they could convert into a duplex. So with the intention that, hey, there was a side entrance that went right down into the basement. Um, and we’ve actually had a few that were successful through the rental home program. They were doing the work themselves throughout the program. And then by the end of the program, when they own the home, they were able to legally duplex it and, you know, rent out the basement or rent out both units. And then they were on to their next property using that equity to buy their next property. So we encourage our tenant buyers, you know, whether it’s renting a room or the basement or the upper unit of their home, you know, to supplement their payment each month. The only thing is that we want our clients to be their primary residence, right? So that when we get into, you know, duplexes triplexes four or more, you know, it’s different type of financing sometimes with the banks and lenders. And we want that tenant buyer to essentially kind of stand on their own credit, their own income, their own down payment, versus relying on the fact that they need, you know, three other units of income or rental payment to qualify for the financing. We can’t control that. Nobody can control that. Right. And if they’re not trained landlords or they’re not accustomed to being a landlord, it’s very difficult to train them to be financially astute as well as, you know, a landlord as well. Right. Because if there’s late payments or mis payments, then that payments missed and you know that they’ll quickly turn around and say, well, hey, I, I didn’t collect the rent this month. I can’t make my payment on time versus if it’s, you know, y one unit or say a bedroom or something like that in that home that it’s not so reliant on, you know, two or three other rental payments for that.
Georges El Masri [00:10:33] Okay. Well, just on that note, have you had investors approach you at any point to try to make this sort of model work? Like, I’m looking to buy a four plex, I’ve got cash available, I’ve got a bunch of rentals. So it’s hard for me to qualify, but I can set it up in maybe like two, three years. I’ll have some equity build, I’ll need a lower LTV so I can refinance, whatever.
Alfonso Salemi [00:10:54] Yes, yeah, absolutely. We’ve had that. And you know, what I always go back to is that, you know, if that’s a different model that doesn’t fit into our rent, a whole model. If we were looking to JV or partner with investors on multi units, then that would be, you know, in another lane or another channel. And myself and my business partner, we also have multi-unit, you know, buildings that we invest in ourselves as well. But outside of the, you know, the JAG properties rent the home system, right. So yeah, it’s an interesting concept. They’ve had several investors, you know, approach us. But again, because we’re using joint venture partners, our own capital as well. And if we were looking to invest in, say, a four plex, we would just invest in a four plex, right? And say, hey, we’re going to hold on to that property for that long term hold and do it that way.
Georges El Masri [00:11:39] Sure. Okay. That’s I never thought about like the investment side, but it’s pretty interesting to think about that as well. Now with the rates being somewhere. So this is December six right now. So this episode will be released shortly. The rates are roughly in the 6% range if you’re looking at prime plus whatever it is for a fixed. So when it comes to these ten end buyers, let’s say they had a credit issue, that’s fine. They can address it. But for the people that are for if they have other issues or whatnot, is it still making sense for them to be able to afford buying these homes after the two or three years have passed at a 6% interest rate, or is it making it more difficult?
Alfonso Salemi [00:12:22] Well, the thing is, as we’ve always even before there was the banks were stress testing everybody that was qualifying for mortgages. We were stress testing our tenant buyers. So even when the programs were starting and we were, you know, seeing mortgages that, you know, two and a half or three or 4%, we were always anticipating rates to go up and for that tenant buyer to qualify at a higher interest rate. So we’re just doing the same. So if the interest rates today are hovering around that 6%, we would look at me, Mr. and Mrs. Tenant. Buyer, you need to qualify in two or three or four years and rates will probably be, you know, seven and a half or 8%. Right. So we’re basing on that if they don’t go that high, well, then that’s just a bonus. They’re going to qualify at that lower rate at that time. So it still does make sense. We use a very conservative appreciation rate for our clients so that they can qualify because that end purchase price is really it’s not just a number that we’re saying, hey, let’s use, you know, 15% appreciation and let’s double what we bought it for. It’s based on what the clients are able to qualify for, based on their income and their down payment, because we’re channeling them to A lenders, B, lenders where they can qualify conventionally at the end of the program. So if they’re not able to sustain that or able to qualify at the end of the program, we won’t even start that rental home program because we want them to have a clean exit for them to go to the one of the big banks or major lenders where they can qualify for that financing. So it makes sense because of the numbers that we’re looking at. Typically, like you said, if credit’s an issue over a three, four year period, most of the time with some, you know, diligence and some work, our clients can repair those issues. But the two main things are a solid, stable income. And having some type of deposit or down payment at the beginning of the program, we can save up more down payment. We can make sure that, you know, if it’s a new job or new career or if someone’s, you know, a newcomer into Canada and come here for work, now they have that time to establish that income and, you know, pay some taxes in the country as well. And that’s what the banks and lenders want to see.
Georges El Masri [00:14:19] Sure. So that that whole deposit thing you said that you’re kind of assisting them in the deposit. So let’s just say market rents $1,000 a month for a property. You’re charging this tenant 1500. But that 500 bucks extra that they’re paying, you’re saving it on their behalf to apply it towards a down payment in the future when they’re ready to buy.
Alfonso Salemi [00:14:36] Yeah, and that’s a simple equation, but the really the number works out to be is how much do they have now saved at the beginning of the program, how much do they need by the end of the program? And then figuring out what that gap is and then dividing it over the length of the term 36 months or 48 months, so that we can get to that, you know, whether it’s 5% or 8% or 10% that they need by the end of the program. So it could be 500. It could be 300. It’d be 800, depending on, you know, how much they have saved at the beginning and how much they need by the end of the program. So it’s credited to them at the end of the program? Yeah.
Georges El Masri [00:15:08] Now, you said you’ve got eight full time employees. Last time I spoke to you, I don’t know how many you had. A lot less than eight, I think. So how many transactions are you guys doing as a company now per month, let’s say? Yeah.
Alfonso Salemi [00:15:19] Typically our goal is to be around five, five new, you know, new rent to home project started per month. So, you know, somewhere between 50 and 60 projects a year. And now, you know, because it’s, you know, typically three year cycles, we’re exiting, you know, 2 to 3 or sometimes even four projects per month. So there’s somewhere between, you know, 8 to 10 transactions that we’re buying and acquiring, starting our rental programs, and then exiting successfully our tenant buyers. At the end of the program.
Georges El Masri [00:15:47] I would, you know, off the top of your head, what the success rate is for your tenant buyers?
Alfonso Salemi [00:15:51] I do. Yeah. So we’re over a 97% success rate with our tenant buyers. Now we’ve extended programs from, say, a three year term to a four year term because maybe another year of credit or established income or typically it’s not the down payment because we’ve worked out that equation. But again, life happens. So especially what we’ve seen again through COVID, where, you know, income people that were working in the service industry or the jobs that they just couldn’t work and couldn’t make that income. Right. So and again, it’s just it to a credit to our credit team, it’s funny credit to our credit team, but it’s because we’re looking at our clients and looking at their success rate, where them coming into the program. So if they don’t if they haven’t been at their job long enough or they’re starting a brand new business, and we’re like, well, let’s, let’s, let’s establish that, you know, this is survival or hey, let’s, let’s save up some of that income, right? It’s not a zero down rent a home program, right? They need to have some you know; I need to find a better term for this. But skin in the game, right, where they have something to put down and that they want to put roots down. So it’s the quality of the client that, you know, that that we’re working with too, you know, and our credit team to go to that success rate.
Georges El Masri [00:17:03] Do you expect that rate to come down in the next couple months or maybe in the next two, three years? Because not necessarily because you guys are doing anything wrong, but maybe the prices have come down so people don’t want to purchase at the predetermined price anymore or something like that.
Alfonso Salemi [00:17:18] Yeah. Like again, because of our because the program is most of the time I would say three years that that’s usually that’s probably about over 70, 80% of our programs are in three years or maybe even four. I do think that, you know, the prices go up and down in an upward motion, right. So and again, because we’re using very conservative, we’re not anticipating or building in 20% appreciation each year. Um, I really don’t, I don’t think that that success rate is going to come down. We’re basing it again on the clients qualification. Now, you know, in this midterm period where maybe property prices won’t appraise at that end purchase price, again, we’re happy to extend that program until they do. Now, we’ve seen Ontario that’s been on a, I don’t know, 15, 20 year run on, you know, increased purchase prices. But counterparts and or different, you know, companies that we’ve worked with in Alberta experienced that. And I think is 2016, 2017 when, you know, the oil crisis in prices kind of flatlined and actually went down. And what they had done is basically extend those programs. So if they were scheduled to sell, say, at 500,000, um, and they weren’t able to get that appraisal for that 500, they would extend that program and wait it out until the prices went back. And most of them were able to get back to that point, whether it’s six months, a year, 18 months, two years after.
Georges El Masri [00:18:39] Now, is that in that scenario, is that a bad thing for you? If you had to extend it because the properties weren’t appraising or it doesn’t really matter?
Alfonso Salemi [00:18:46] No, it doesn’t really matter. At the at the end of the day, the client’s still in that home. They want to buy that house. You know, if they say, hey, I don’t want to buy that home. And, you know, because of the purchase price, well, then we can work something out in terms of, you know, whether we sell the property or move on from that. But um, I guess it’d be kind of a neutral like we would, we would be okay with extending that, that program. The clients are still, you know, covering, you know, principal interest tax insurance payments. They want to live there. They’ve, you know, they’ve most cases done work and prove that property, maintain it like it’s their own home. So yeah, either net neutral or it could be a positive for us.
Georges El Masri [00:19:24] Just if we go back to kind of the company itself and how things are kind of run, do you guys need an investor partner for every single deal? Is that kind of how it works? Like you, you bring in a partner, they purchase the home and then you guys coordinate everything on your end and then you have the tenant buyer. So what, three, three pieces to this?
Alfonso Salemi [00:19:45] Absolutely. Yeah. So for the majority of the programs that that that we operate, yeah, we have our joint venture partner, we have our tenant buyer and then JAG Properties is kind of that intermediary between the two, right where, you know, we’re effectively, you know. Property management for our joint venture partner, where, you know, the landlord and property management for that tenant buyer and the services that we offer are not necessarily fixing toilets, but, you know, fixing credit, saving up down payments. Right. Facilitating what the client, the tenant buyer needs and reporting to our joint venture partners so that they’re feeling safe and secure in their investment. And we’re handling, you know, any issues or calls from the tenant buyers, the clients, things that, you know, eventually do come up. We’re handling all that for our joint venture partners.
Georges El Masri [00:20:28] Okay. And for any realtors that are listening to this, if they have a client that might qualify as a tenant buyer for whatever reason, what would that look like for them?
Alfonso Salemi [00:20:39] Yeah, absolutely. We see that all the time. Those are some of our most favorite, you know, connections or relationships that we’ve built is that think of us as, you know, somebody who referred to it as the fire extinguisher under the sink. You always know it’s there. You hope you never have to use it in the same. Well, I’ll say it to any realtors that we hope that, you know, every client that you work with is just straightforward qualifying at the bank, getting exactly what they, um, what the tenant buyer or what, sorry, what the client needs to qualify for. But in the case where they don’t have that amount or they don’t have that qualifying amount, I should say, is that they can refer them to us. We’ll put them through that same screening process, that qualifying process. And once we’ve given them that budget, that realtor now can work with that client to show homes, do their realtor thing, you know, listings, searching for homes, driving around looking for that and we’ll work with that that realtor with the agreement of purchase and sale, you know, submitting the offers, sign backs, all that kind of stuff, and they’re still now able to close that deal that they wouldn’t have been able to.
Georges El Masri [00:21:41] Yeah. Do you feel like it kind of takes a little convincing for a realtor to get the client to go for this type of program where.
Alfonso Salemi [00:21:49] Sometimes some of some of our realtors, now that we’ve done handful or more deals with, you know, they love it because now this is another avenue. They can’t you know; they bring them to their favorite mortgage broker or even decline at the bank. And now they have a client that they can’t service because they’re not able to qualify. Some realtors. Yeah. It’s not the conventional route, right? It’s not something that they learned, you know, from their office or there’s, you know, that veteran agent that was burned by a rent to own 15 years ago and the neighbors, dog walkers, cousins, friend told them that rent to own is bad and or they heard about a story. So sometimes, yeah, it takes a little bit of convincing, but most of the time, you know, when the realtor sees the benefit for their client, the benefit for them closing another deal. Yeah, it just needs a little bit of time to understand it. So if you’re open to it and taking the time of understanding and how it works, you know, most of the realtors that we work with are quite, quite happy with the results.
Georges El Masri [00:22:45] Again, I’m going to ask you just for stats, not that you necessarily know, but just off the top of your head, what percent of your transactions come from agents that are bringing you a client that last minute they couldn’t get financing or they thought your moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um.
Alfonso Salemi [00:23:00] We get those calls quite often where all the financing just got pulled out from underneath them and can you get them qualified? We need to close in three days. And we love those calls because it’s like, Oh boy, I wish you would have contacted us. But again, they didn’t know that the financing would be pulled away. Yeah, I don’t have an exact number on, you know, how many are referred to us by, by realtors. But again, like, you know, this is, you know, part of my role of, you know, joining you on this type of podcast, going out to different brokerages and meeting different people. Yeah. To, to just educate people that this is another option where, you know, think about again, if you’re a realtor listening to this, think about in the last 12 months and the year of, you know, 2022, how many clients, you know, you could have helped if through a rental home program because they were turned down by the bank, they wanted to buy a home. They need to, you know, needed more space because their family was growing, but because they weren’t able to qualify. Today, they all are on your, you know, nurture list that you’re going to follow up with them every three months, six months, nine months, 12 months until something changes. We try to think of like we’re that bridge or that kind of that. Fast forward where we can help them today. If they have that solid income, if they have some down payment available, we can get them into that home today. That realtor is able to transact on that. So yeah, I don’t have an exact stat. I’d have to get back to you on that, on your, on how many are referred. Yeah. Um, but, but yeah, again, we’re, we’re, we’re looking to help more and more people do that. So if you realtors have clients, it’s, it’s a good avenue to explore.
Georges El Masri [00:24:30] For that, that example you gave where it’s like three, three days before closing and you have somebody who’s calling you. Are you guys able to close in those scenarios or is that really tough for you?
Alfonso Salemi [00:24:38] Don’t be surprised if we say, hey, we’re going to need an extension, right? So don’t be surprised because again, we’re not, you know, just a bank sitting on cash buying these properties, you know, pure cash in some cases. You know, maybe we’ve done that, but not that’s not the normal route where we’re going and qualifying through conventional means, whether it’s our joint venture partners. Whether it’s jagged properties or selves that are buying the properties, we need that time to bring the file to the lender so that they can look at, you know, the property, look at, you know, the joint venture partner to make sure that they’re qualified. So don’t be surprised if you say, hey, you know what, we need a week extension, but the numbers look in. And again, we want to take that time to go through the application process with that tenant pirates, a three year or more relationship that we’re starting with, that tenant buyer just because, you know, they have a little bit of money down. We’re not, you know, chomping at the bit going, hey, let’s go. We want to look at the viability of that client to say, hey, how successful are they going to be? Wait, they’ve been declined. Why? Why did the lender now pull that financing? What is stopping them? If is it income? Is a down payment? Is it credit? Is it a combination of those things? So we want the time to, you know, to review that file because that really for us is not about starting that rent own program. It’s about successfully completing it and selling that back to the tenant buyer, selling at home back to the tenant buyer. So we want to take our time and do our due diligence as well.
Georges El Masri [00:25:59] Yeah, that’s cool. There’s so many different ways to succeed in real estate or to build a business in real estate. And this is this is an interesting way. It’s kind of it’s a niche market, for sure. And you guys are targeting specific people and trying to help specific people. So I like what you’re doing here. And again, we’ve had you on before. So to the people that are listening to this for the first time, I’m sure they’re learning something new. So just to kind of recap, you’re talking about so there’s three components to this. We said there is the investor, there is JAG properties and then there’s the tenant buyer. You guys are tenant first you find the tenant and then they go look for a property. Realtors can cooperate with you and they will get their full commission. You’re not taking anything away from them. Is there anything we kind of missed here or.
Alfonso Salemi [00:26:45] No, I think, you know, the thing is, is if this the first time that you’re hearing about rent a home or if you’ve heard, you know, things about rent own, it’s really taking the time to explore. Reach out to us, reach out to Jorge, reach out to, you know, somebody that’s done it. We have so many great testimonials from our clients, from the professionals like the realtors, the mortgage unions that we work with, and, you know, specifically with our joint venture partners. I feel so fortunate to work with these individuals because obviously everybody invests because they want to bring back more money than they’ve invested. Right. But the one thing that is that resonates or that is maybe similar to all of the joint venture partners that we’ve worked with is that they want to make an impact. They want their money not only to make more money, but they want it to impact the communities and the people that they’re helping. So the fact that they get to help a family, you know, kind of get onto that property ladder, change the trajectory for that family’s life, that getting out of that rent cycle and own their home. That’s the one thing that, you know, I feel so fortunate is that, um, our joint venture partners want to make that impact. They want to help people while they’re making a return on their investment. And, you know, I’ve been saying this for years, but the two shouldn’t be mutually exclusive. You don’t can’t just make money and not help people if you can help people and make money, I think that’s where really kind of the rubber hits the road. And you can do you can do so much for that.
Georges El Masri [00:28:05] Yeah. And I mentioned earlier that there are so many different strategies. Why is it that you chose to focus on this specifically? Do you feel like this is kind of the best thing for you or do you what’s the reason that your rent to doing rent to own?
Alfonso Salemi [00:28:16] Yeah. Initially when I started learning about real estate investing in general, the result, you know, the multifamily and you know REITs and the BR strategies and, and you know, it wasn’t called BR back then but like rehabbing and all those types of things. And for me, I’ll be honest, at first I was kind of, you know, I was a nervous investor saying I’m going to buy a property and I’m going to put a tenant in there and they’re going to ruin it. They’re going to tear it apart. They’re going to, you know, not pay their rent. They’re going to leave the windows open, you know, in the wintertime and, you know, run the water 24 hours a day. So the fact that you could help somebody and they feel that sense of ownership while they’re in that property, they’re maintaining taking care of that property as if it’s their own. That was one thing that called to me. And the simple fact, why, you know, like I remember it was I think it was in grade eight in the summer of going into grade nine. And I didn’t know what I wanted to do. You know, what do you want to do when you grow up right? You’re starting high school and then thinking to get on the path to go to college university. And what kept on coming back to me was just, I want to help people, right? I want to help people. And there’s so many different ways that you can do that. And just the satisfaction that that we can help people, a, get into their home, become homeowners, be help realtors, mortgage brokers, do more business. Because if a realtor can close more business through our program, they’re going to like us. They’re going to be happy. They’re going to win their awards and get their accolades. And again, helping our joint venture partners, like some of the families and people that we’ve been able to meet as, hey, we were able to go on a Disney vacation with the returns that we made on this rent to own investment or hey, we were able to put away some money for our kids school in the future or we were able to, you know, donate to our church because of the of the returns that we were able to get. And just that simple thing and it sounds so cliche or cheesy, but just. Helping people achieve what they want. It allows me to achieve everything that I want. Right. And in getting closer to the goals that, you know, whether it’s travel or even more time with my son and my wife, too, but both, yeah. If you’re listening to this, I love spending time with both of them. My son thinks I’m way more funnier than my wife, that’s for sure. But. But, yeah, I think that that’s what called out to me was that being able to help people make a great return while doing it and kind of putting those little pieces together.
Georges El Masri [00:30:27] Sure. Yeah, definitely. I think that’s a big part of it, just helping people, like you said. And so now just on a personal level, what does what will Alfonso’s life look like in about five years?
Alfonso Salemi [00:30:38] Oh, wow. Whole look like in five years. Hopefully, you know, doing more interviews, educating people. I love talking about this topic. Right. So whether it’s big stages, Zoom meetings, podcasts, presentations, you know, sharing the stories that you know of the close to now, we’re approaching now, I think it’s 250 families that we’ve been able to help educating that this is a way. I don’t think I’ll ever go away from that. Right. Maybe I’ll be doing that with palm trees in the background on a on the laptop in, in warmer climates from November to like April. But I, you know, continuing to grow my own personal portfolio of real estate investments and more passive income. But ultimately, I love interacting with people. So the more opportunity that I can do that, you know, like people think I’m crazy, but any time that I hear about like a networking event or, you know, a real estate summit or something like that, I’m like a kid in a candy store that, you know, I just walk around and walk to groups of people, put up my hand and say, Hey, I’m Alfonso, what’s your name? What do you do? And, you know, kind of that it’s want to do more of that that that’s my bliss that’s my happy spot. Yeah I think just doing more of that in and just again yeah warmer climates in when it when it’s cold here in Canada. Yeah.
Georges El Masri [00:31:52] Sure. You didn’t mention anything about golf.
Alfonso Salemi [00:31:54] Yes. We’ll go. Well, of course, those warmer climates playing golf. Tennis, both of those. Right. So, yeah, those are definitely more hobbies, if I can, you know, you know, train or act like a professional athlete. I’ll never get onto the PGA Tour or the, um, or any of the other tours now. But, but yeah, like having more time for those types of things as well to go golfing more for sure. Definitely. George Georges Yeah, yeah. We get out on the golf course more though.
Georges El Masri [00:32:21] For those that are listening, Alfonso is a pretty good golfer, so if you ever want to go out, play with them, I’m sure he’ll be happy to.
Alfonso Salemi [00:32:26] Oh, now you are. You set me up now, so I got to get out there and practice.
Georges El Masri [00:32:29] Well, yeah. I mean, you’re shooting in the eighties, right?
Alfonso Salemi [00:32:32] Yeah. A good day. A good. Yes, in the eighties.
Georges El Masri [00:32:34] Pretty, pretty good. Yeah. I think there’s like less than 1% of golfers shoot break a hundred. So that’s my goal for this coming year. Okay. Got to break 100.
Alfonso Salemi [00:32:42] All right. Well, well.
Georges El Masri [00:32:43] I just started last year in case anyone’s judging.
Alfonso Salemi [00:32:45] Me. Yeah. Lofty goals. Lofty goals. But you got it in you, Jordan, with a young son to that. You know what? Maybe they’ll be our caddies one day or they’ll join us on the golf course with us for sure.
Georges El Masri [00:32:54] That’s I always think about that, just getting him started early so he can get a head start. And I like me.
Alfonso Salemi [00:32:59] Yeah. Yeah. I thought of an invention of, you know, a car seat for a golf cart, so. Yeah, yeah. So that they could come out and join us. Right. You’re never too far away from the golf cart, right?
Georges El Masri [00:33:08] Yeah, for sure. Cool. All right, so how did people reach you? What’s the best place? Yeah.
Alfonso Salemi [00:33:12] Best way to get in contact with us is the website J properties dot com. Visit us online obviously all of our social media handles and yeah 1866 JAG. Now if you want to talk to a real life human being on the other side of the phone but Jake properties and yeah find us through those channels sounds good.
Georges El Masri [00:33:30] Thanks for coming by. I know it was probably a long drive for you. I appreciate it.
Alfonso Salemi [00:33:33] Oh, my pleasure. George, as always, nice to see you. And yeah, great work that you’re doing on this podcast. The content, the guests and yeah, everything that you do for the real estate investing community, you’re a wealth of knowledge. And I really appreciate an honor to be on here again as well.
Georges El Masri [00:33:48] Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this episode. Your support is truly appreciated. And if you can share this with a friend or family member, that might benefit from the information. Remember, our goal is to motivate and inspire others to take action and to build wealth and to become well-off. Enjoy the rest of your day.
