Table of Contents
Podcast Transcription
Erwin Szeto [00:00:06] For investors, this is Erwin Szeto bringing you the truth about Real Estate investing show how it goes, you’re balancing act with life work by investing in charity. Last week for us was definitely pushing ourselves to our limit away from their parents to three and five year old cherry. My wife is in our final stretch for tax season, doing accounting to over 100 local real estate investors. Our charity for which Terry is VP Finance and I am the president. We had one of our three major events this past weekend for Easter Saturday. This past weekend, fulfilling the wish list of 32 of Hamilton’s poorest families, I like to say thank you to our donors and volunteers. If you see my post on Instagram, you’ll see you happen to see Batman and Thor God of Thunder were intended to spread some cheer. I want to say again, thank you to everyone who participated. Thank you to our volunteers. Thank you to our donors, especially all of you understand that we only go as far as you do. So on top of all that, we closed on our newest investment property on Thursday. And so the Thursday before Easter. Yeah, and this is one of the worst closings I’ve ever seen. At least we closed with the two day delay, which cost us. So we had to pay for our sellers bridge financing costs for those two days. But anyways, this is mostly our own fault and this was to do with the general difficulty of the lending market and lots of learning lessons, even though I’ve done quite a bit of Real Estate both for clients and for ourselves. There’s always learning lessons as the market is always changing, and that’s kind of the benefit of the show. So we’ll always bring you guys updates on how things are going in the real world and a real time manner, but you can’t learn in books. So the biggest lesson here was to start your financing process earlier than we did. Most of you are on the ball when you. It’s probably more difficult than ever, but again, most of you are on the ball having your finances in order before you lift your conditions, your condition of financing when you make an offer on a property. We didn’t have a financing condition. We were in a situation where the sellers were pretty adamant they didn’t want any conditions. But on the other hand, I knew that we were getting such a good deal that we could compensate for any sort of problems that we run into based on the purchase price. But again, we didn’t have a deadline for financing, so we let that slip a little bit too far. But I do want to thank Butler mortgages, specifically Dave Butler and Michelle Abela Market, as they bore the brunt of our challenges, but they still managed to get this done. I’d also like to thank Krystal from Cap Law, a regular office for getting our deal closed on time and doing an excellent job coordinating with the sellers lawyers. Again, a lot of these problems were not the fault of our team. We could have avoided a lot of problems if we just went through the process earlier to get our financing. There are many challenges along the way, including a seller that’s not tech savvy and also very protective of their property. So we can do a lockbox and paperwork is slow. But all those things lead to the fact that real estate is not always easy. Many times it is. Our entire property is renovated and rented. It would be rather easy because we’ll hand it over to a property manager, as always, the best property manager in Hamilton. So real to investing. To me, all things easy, challenging, fun, challenging, rewarding, challenging yet worth it. For example, tonight is Game seven as a record. This store tonight is Game seven of my hockey team, the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Boston, and also my favorite team. The Toronto Raptors are playing Game five of their playoff series. I guess what I’ll be doing. I’m booked until five p.m. today, so once I come 5pm, I’ll head to the local Home Depot and pick up a shop that because I need to, I need to vacuum the water out of the basement of our new house. This is one of the realities of investing. The best deals are often houses with challenges. This one basement is known to leak, but the fix is really easy. I just simply had to reread the downside away from the foundation, and I’ve already done it, so I took care of the source of water. But now I need to get the water that’s in the basement out of there in order to prevent Wall’s growth. It is an unfinished basement, so it’s not the end of the world, but again, the water needs to go. I’ve always wanted ownership back anyways, and I’ll be home in time to watch the probably at least the remaining two thirds of the game. I understand also if you on those people, you were even busier than I am who don’t like doing any work near properties, that’s totally OK. I was just way too slow in booking my home handyman to do this job. But I’d like it done tonight. So handsome stepping up. And thank goodness my partner is supportive in helping us with dinner and putting them to bed in order for me to be a way to buy myself a shot back which I always wanted and to get the job done. Speaking of investing, been challenging and worth it. That brings us to this week’s guest and Evelyn M. Marsh. She’s been our client since she was twenty six year old, years old when we met in twenty eleven. Fast forward today she is one of those few investors with ten properties and living in financial peace. Evelyn and husband Mike are living the dream. Evelyn has her dream job. Mike retired from his job in his early 30s, but two years ago, now they have two young children. They get to spend lots of time with, and they just bought a 30 foot boat. It’s like thirty two or three four feet, whatever. It’s over three feet. It’s a boat. Boats are really expensive now that I looked into them so they could spend. They bought a boat. They spend more time together as a family and also entertain friends and family on the boat. A boat that was paid for by the investment properties, including the financing costs, which are paid for by the cash flow from one of their investment properties. They live in financial peace and living the dream, and they let us know that. Those are both things that are indeed possible with some early hustle, as explained by our client. And more importantly, great friend Evelyn Le Marche.
Erwin Szeto [00:05:12] Someone tried something different how he started these episodes. OK, let’s start this, but not the end, but part of the current uses for a boat.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:05:21] Yeah, a couple of months ago, yeah. The at the end of the season.
Erwin Szeto [00:05:24] How big is that?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:05:25] It’s a thirty two foot cruiser. That’s it.
Erwin Szeto [00:05:28] It’s just bigger. There’s looking enormous and parking. That thing was like ridiculous.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:05:33] Yeah, yeah. Mike’s gotten better, though.
Erwin Szeto [00:05:36] Well, that’s good. Just wow. That thing that it scared me of the idea of ownership.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:05:42] I think we can borrow our boat anytime you want,
Erwin Szeto [00:05:45] but prefer to borrow your smaller. Yeah, my house, the smaller one or how it was.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:05:49] It was a 21 foot speedboat.
Erwin Szeto [00:05:51] Right, right. Why do you buy boats?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:05:54] So Mike grew up in B.C. on the lake, and so boating was always part of his life. And he is Prince of Cottage up north. And so there’s boats around and he’s always just been a builder. I have had the opportunity to be on boats of friends, you know, over the years, but it was not like a thing in my family. But because it was important to Mike, he wanted to get a boat and, you know, he kept showing me, you know, what about this boat? What about this one is like, No, no. And then he showed me are the 21 foot speed boat. And it was the exact same boat that they have at the cottage was familiar with it. I knew it. I loved it. Just like, You know what? OK, fine. Yeah, I’ll let you buy this. So. And we had some. We had refinanced one of our homes. And so and used it to buy two other homes and then had a bit left over. So that’s what was used to purchase. This was essentially Real Estate was buying the boat for us. And yeah, and then and then I just loved it. So we live close to the West Harbor Marina and Hamilton, and so we were able to make really good use of our boat. And it’s just so fun just to have friends out and family out. And as soon as you get on the boat, you just you forget about everything and you just on the water relaxed and we just loved it so much. And as our family is growing and my sister’s family is growing, we had everyone out in the boat and we were towing the crew and the boat just couldn’t handle it. And right then there, Mike was like, No, we’re done with outgrown this boat. So I started looking for bigger boats and then we found the one that that we bought last year and the payments for it because we didn’t have enough to buy the boat strikes. It’s more expensive than that, our old one. But. Well, if you buy them brand, well, the size that we have, if you buy brand new can be anywhere from 300000 upwards. And so we bought ours, used at a 2006. So it’s, what, 13 years old? So it’s not, not new, but it’s perfect for us, and we got it for around 70 grand. So we have used a line of credit that’s attached to one of our rental properties and we make monthly payments for it from our properties. I have one property that I own personally that cash flows quite well. So every month, when I deposit her transfer, I immediately transfer money to pay offline of credit. And so every month, my tenants actually at my first house, Burlington Street, my tenant there is paying for the monthly payment for our building.
Erwin Szeto [00:08:35] So you’re not coming out of pocket anything for these very luxury items. Correct. Because I’m listening. I know these numbers don’t sound like a lot for someone you like. 70 grand to underground understand that financing is not cheap on these things. No, like
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:08:49] we because we like explored financing and it was going to be seven to eight percent. And we’re like, think you know, we’ll use their line of credit over here. That is around four percent or less. I think three point seventy five, the one that we have right now. So it’s yeah, it’s paid for by a Real Estate. So that’s pretty cool, too. And that that’s why you know, we do what we do with our Real Estate is because it allows us to do stuff like that. And it just, yeah, I guess, you know, I think of the rockstar motto Your life, your terms, that’s what we like. We like to have a big boat. We drive old, crappy cars. I have a 2009 Corolla that is now starting to rust, unfortunately, and has a super weak engine that Mike likes to compare to a riding lawn mower. But I don’t care. It’s I love that car. I bought it for cash. Like, I don’t know how many years ago whenever it was that I bought it. So it owes me nothing. And now we just bought a new family vehicle. We got a Ford Explorer, a seven seater, and Mike bought it off of one of his friends, moms who just use it for dry highway driving to work. And it has three hundred thousand kilometers on it and we got it for fifteen hundred bucks for twenty five bucks. I forget something that’s like, not a lot, definitely less than what most people spend on their cars, but we would rather have inexpensive cars and have a nice boat, and that’s just how we are. And Mike, of course, being an auto mechanic can fix our cars. No problem. And the only reason why I let him get a boat is because he can fix the engine in the boat and do all that kind of stuff too. Otherwise about two giant money pit. But he’s super handy. You can do all that. So, you know, think of it seventy thousand dollars some people spend on their vehicle. So we just decided to use sit in a boat and then drive. In our own case,
Erwin Szeto [00:10:48] there’s no getting back on the show almost three
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:10:52] years. Yeah, because I was pregnant with Isabella, so I had no kids last time I was on your podcast.
Erwin Szeto [00:11:00] At that
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:11:00] point I had eight, right and I was about to close on my ninth
Erwin Szeto [00:11:07] Asia pause the I have always thought at the time,
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:11:10] yes, so I did that. Yeah, but that’s a cool thing. Like for your listeners to sort of here is that even though we’ve sort of taken a break, they’ve had two kids since I was on last and that’s my main focus in life right now. But the cool thing is, is that even though we’ve somewhat taken a pause, our Real Estate has been working really hard for us. And I looked at all my mortgage statements from 2018 and just for fun, because I always forget to think about mortgage pay down. So I calculated all the principal pay down from last year and last year alone, our principal pay down was over $70000. And that’s us. That’s us taking a break, basically. And while I was, you know, quietly going about my business and raising my kids, my tenants pay down $70000 of my mortgages.
Erwin Szeto [00:12:05] People say that kind of money every year, don’t they?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:12:08] Yeah, yeah. That’s for savings. I can’t access that money, which in a way is good. It’s just sort of there for in the future. But that’s sort of cause everyone is, you know, thinking about cash flow and different things and people I find forget about the mortgage pay down. And so all of our property is cash followed last year so that, you know, on top of that $70000 of mortgage pay down, there is also the cash flow and the appreciation, all the rest of it. But if you’re looking at just that one thing, all the mortgage pay down is pretty cool. No to get.
Erwin Szeto [00:12:41] I think is going to happen a year ago when we met REIN.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:12:44] Yeah, no, I didn’t. Yeah, eight years ago. Yeah. No, I had no idea.
Erwin Szeto [00:12:51] Very funny about you’re single. You were living at home,
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:12:55] but living in my parent’s house with roommates because they had moved out towards London. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:00] And their eviction stuff. That’s I relevant for those Albert these properties.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:13:03] No, they emit zero dollars towards my university education and they’ve given me zero dollars towards my real estate investing.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:12] But the whole thing is rich just with you already know
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:13:14] my dad’s a retired schoolteacher and my mom was a stay at home mom.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:21] So why did you figure this out? And what’s why? Well, since invest, because you, you have a good job. You’re going to have a fat pension. And for many people, it’s enough.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:13:30] It is. Yeah. So that the good Rob that Erwin is talking about is being an occupational therapist at St. Joe’s Health Care and Hamilton. And I love my job and there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing. And yet I still wanted my money to be working hard, so I figured if I’m going to be working hard, I want my money to work hard also. So and I graduated debt free because I worked all the way through, and it was very important to me to be debt free. And so when I started working, I immediately had money to save. I didn’t have any like tuition to pay down or anything. And so I thought, if I’m going to be making money for the first time in my life, essentially that I should do something wise with it. And so I read so many books in the library about stocks and ETFs and different things and Real Estate. And the only thing that made sense to me was Real Estate. And because my parents had moved away and I was living with other roommates throughout university, I realized that, you know, my roommates were paying rent to my parents and I was doing all the work. I was essentially the property manager. And so I realized like, I have the skills to, you know, fill a house to manage, you know, tenants to do repairs and maintenance and that sort of thing. And I figured if my like, if my parents could be making money from the Real Estate and from the tenants there, that I could do the same thing and that even though I was like young and single and female, I could buy a house and rent it out and I could get the rent checks too.
Erwin Szeto [00:15:13] How old are you? And he’s very private managing your parents.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:15:16] I was 20 when they moved away. I was in my second year. I was going into my second year of university. So, no, no, they taught me nothing to do with their house. Yeah, they do. You basically like a very like trustworthy, mature person. And yeah, they basically were like, if you don’t want to, you know, come to London with us, then that’s fine. You can live here and have roommates and figure it out. And I was like, That sounds like a good deal to me as
Erwin Szeto [00:15:47] the campus,
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:15:49] and it is one point eight kilometers. So it’s not even super close to campus. That’s not ideal at all. It’s not ideal at all. But it’s like it’s close to the bus route. And I was able to well, in undergrad I just found the students to live there because I’m students on purpose don’t want to be super close to campus and snitch.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:12] This wasn’t, you know?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:16:14] Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, no, it wasn’t. It was not easy because again, it’s not crawling distance. But yeah,
Erwin Szeto [00:16:21] I don’t know who it is. I didn’t close to half an hour walk.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:16:25] Yeah, it was about a 30 minute walk. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:28] And how close are you to your grocery store?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:16:32] Yeah, the pretty. There’s a pretty close grocery store. Okay.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:36] So then everything was that easy, but not everything. The house was fully renovated and, you know, big screen TVs, as you know.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:16:44] Yeah, no. No. Had not been really renovated since we were kids. I don’t think we had a TV. Oh yeah, we had one. Yeah, we had a new living and we always watch Gray’s Anatomy on Thursday nights together. That was like our one legged bonding thing with my roommates.
Erwin Szeto [00:17:02] Your friends went into the house.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:17:03] All right. They did. When I when I bought my house for myself on Strand Street. I told them, I said, Listen, I’m buying the house for myself. You can either move back here if you want, or you can just rent it out as a single family home. I can manage it for you, whatever you want. And they moved back and it worked out perfectly because I love my parents and I like having
Erwin Szeto [00:17:24] seen from the beginning stages. Mm-Hmm. Well, would you tell someone who says they can’t do this, sometimes 30, for example? Some of us 40.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:17:33] So first of all, it is not for everybody. I will say that the sort of the act of way that I do it, people passively can invest in Real Estate for sure. That can be for everyone. But sort of doing Real Estate the way I do certainly is not for everyone. Because Mike and I like we self-manage everything so that it’s not for everyone. Yeah. Well, and I guess I was pretty fortunate in that I sort of got to test drive being like a property manager of sorts because my parents had moved away. And that’s what really gave me the confidence to know I could do it. If I didn’t have that experience, I would be terrified. And I honestly, I don’t know if I. I don’t know if I would have done it or not. It’s hard to know. I maybe I would have, because my old by my mom’s dad had several rental properties growing up, and so I sort of had exposure to this was like a thing that people did. It always seemed like sort of an old man’s thing to do. So, you know, it’s still it didn’t seem like it was like a thing that a young female would necessarily do. But to go back to your question, like what would I say to anybody who thinks they can? I think you can do anything you set your mind to. That’s correct. You just have to set your mind to it. You have to, you know, connect with people who are doing it so that you can, you know, learn from people, not make mistakes, and that’s what really people are afraid of is making a mistake, which makes sense because there’s a lot of money on the line. You don’t want to make a mistake, but there are ways to avoid mistakes like, you know, joining your group and, you know, connecting with other people who are doing big things and can lead you in the right direction and help you prevent mistakes and do things right the first time. And that’s really the best way to build your confidence is to learn a thing or to get connected with people who are successful and set your mind to it.
Erwin Szeto [00:19:30] So you got your first property investment property, and it was an area of transition. Yes. What were people saying? Actually, give some context to people? Everyone ever did the address. The student on the street named Burlington Street and Enhance. And there’s a famous street because the biggest employers that are steel mills are on the same street streaming. They’re on the same street as your first investment property. So what were people saying when you buy that property?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:19:56] So this was in 2011. So at that time, people had not quite woken up to the things happening on James Street, north in the North End by the waterfront. And so people were probably pretty concerned for me. You know that I was probably being a little bit foolish. Probably I was being a little bit too optimistic. And I think
Erwin Szeto [00:20:20] everyone in this, everyone that lives anywhere, there’s probably a famous street everywhere in every city that people would not buy on. And that’s what we did here.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:20:27] Yeah, but we bought like all like the most like westerly part of Burlington is not anywhere. It’s like the farthest you could possibly be from the steel mills. You’re literally from, like the corner where the house is. You can see the marina from your city. People from our city, Szeto did not see our concern. You know, people have said to me, several people have said, Wow, you were really smart to buy that house.
Erwin Szeto [00:20:58] So in the beginning, nobody,
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:21:00] nobody, I categorically not a single person said I was smart. I used that. But people know what happens that way. You said that was smart to buy that house, that house. For the listeners, benefit was one hundred and fifty eight thousand dollars
Erwin Szeto [00:21:20] and went to work today eight years later.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:21:22] A lot. I don’t know. I’ve always seemed to undervalue my properties like 380.
Erwin Szeto [00:21:26] Maybe. Oh, easy. Easy. Sure, it could be one trucking industry, but because remember, we had we had we had friends in mine. Yeah. So the local property manager who’s an expert in property didn’t agree with us.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:21:40] Yeah. So it’s sort of yeah, it was under undervalued in a way, I guess. But that’s fine. Some people just still haven’t, even at that time, because it still was very transitional, very new. Not a lot of people had the same. I want to say really an information that we had in terms of like the go train station that was coming in and just all the money that the city had earmarked for. You know, where the Pier eight, where they have like the roller skating rink and different things happening? Not everybody knew about that, right.
Erwin Szeto [00:22:17] No one was buying, though. There was no significant investment in that area in terms of like other large size residential. No, you were. You were. You were there before. When? Yeah, you were real way ahead of the curve. Yeah. So this is this is a good path, Iran. What was it about this area of transition? What scared you? What scares people about that area? And then and then what was it about the area that attracted you? Because I think people can take this model anywhere. Every city has bad areas. Hmm.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:22:48] I guess sort of the better off, I would say. What scared me? But the sort of what’s good? What can the concern that I had potentially was that it like, I want to attract really great tenants. And so I was concerned that it may not attract good tenants and may not, you know, attract the sort of the rent that I was hoping to get or that sort of thing.
Erwin Szeto [00:23:09] And it’s only lunchtime up when you just married. The point is we had we had this happen all the time we have this happened last night. We’re an investor said, I want to achieve this cash flow numbers versus saying I want to get a great tenant, right? Those are very different conversations.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:23:26] Yes. Yeah, absolutely. I guess you really want the magic is when you can get both
Erwin Szeto [00:23:31] the man who’s going to get bogged down so much. It’s not always a reality. No, no. Especially not for the numbers that this guy was looking for. Yeah. So what was it? What was it about the area? So we’ve seen because the area now, James North, that we’re talking about in West Harbor, all that sort of stuff is probably outside of downtown is probably the second highest amount. An investment that’s going in,
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:23:54] and certainly I would agree with that. Yes.
Erwin Szeto [00:23:57] There you were ahead of all of them. Mm-Hmm. Very much is in yet not so but is there is still at Starbucks. That’s surprising. Well, I’m sure, I’m sure soon. So there’s other things we talk about today. Well, how did they come up? How did they come up when you phrase ensuring that you know which one to us today?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:24:16] Well, you said you wanted me back on your podcast very long. Yeah, yeah. Just for an update. And I, you know, I sort of laughed when he said that because I was like, Why would he want me on the podcast when I really haven’t been like doing big things?
Erwin Szeto [00:24:30] And then I thought about it, I think
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:24:34] in terms of real estate.
Erwin Szeto [00:24:36] Hang on. And when did Mike retire? Oh, not before we were lost.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:24:42] No. No, it was after. Yes, since, I guess. Yeah. So since your last podcast, yeah, Mike did retire 100 percent.
Erwin Szeto [00:24:48] How old? How old was he? Thirty years old, he retired. OK, because he has a massive pension.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:24:54] No, no. When he so he was a mechanic at a Canadian tire and when he left the amount that he had, I don’t know if it was profit sharing or retirement or whatever he was sort of owed was about $5000.
Erwin Szeto [00:25:07] OK, that’s not a
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:25:09] that somebody five thousand dollars.
Erwin Szeto [00:25:11] And where were you? You guys are explaining it’s not the easiest job, either.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:25:15] Physical being an auto mechanic isn’t as a terrible trade. It is like he would come home sometimes like chemical burns on him. And like all that, you can think of every product that’s in the shop. There is a carcinogen in some way, shape or form. And you know, you’re under like, there’s nothing ergonomic about, you know, being in an engine bay and working over your head with the car above you. And you know, things are dripping on you from the car when you’re under those tickets. You know, in terms of occupational health, it’s not up there. And then the pay is terrible. It’s one of the lowest paid trades and it’s piecework, so they only get paid when they have a job. So if it’s a slow day, there’s literally been days when he came home and he didn’t have a single job. He made zero dollars despite spending the whole day at the shop waiting for a job to come in. Let’s not pretend this is awful. I mean, on the flip side on really busy, busy days, she would make a lot of money, but it is able to even out. But there is some days where she I don’t even know how this is legal in terms of labor law, that she could spend a whole day at the shop and literally come home with zero dollars if he didn’t get a job.
Erwin Szeto [00:26:25] And remember Mike magazine how the summer conditions were difficult, too, because the tax base is not air conditioning?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:26:32] Correct? Yeah. So in the summer, you’re like sweltering and sweating. And then, of course, in the winter, like you’re freezing, going out to like, bring the cars into the bay and then you have like ice and snow, like melting on you. And yeah, no, it’s nothing.
Erwin Szeto [00:26:49] So life has improved since retiring.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:26:51] He loves being retired, and she’s busy, is busier now than he even was then because he looks after all the properties and he, you know, just at his leisure fixes cars for our, our family and friends and just for fun. He collects scrap metal and just does like activities of his choosing. And but the best part is that because now we have two kids, so Isabella is now two and a half. Dominic is now four months old. It’s just so special that Mike gets the flexibility of scheduling his activities whenever he wants. And like, for example, Isabella is home from preschool on Wednesdays. She goes every day except for Wednesday. And we it’s a designated family day. We make no other plans except to either go swimming or we go to soccer worlds when the weather gets nice. You know, we’ll go out to the park will be on the boat, but it’ll be a family day. And I love that Mike has the flexibility to just be like Wednesdays. I’m not doing any work. I’m not going to go unless there’s an emergency. But he won’t go to the properties. He won’t work on any cars; he won’t do any other projects. It’s a family day or any other day when I need his help with anything he can schedule going to the property another day or he can, you know? So it’s really special that he doesn’t have to miss anything with the kids. There is nothing that is more important than, you know, spending time with our family, and there is almost never the excuse to, you know that he has to, you know, he has a mediator. He has to be at the office there, you know, anything like that that some people have. And it’s just such a wonderful thing that from life, you know, so we’re basically our kids will always only know their dad having a flexible schedule and having memories of him being at things. And he said, Oh gosh, he is just such a fun dad. Like, it’s all there. It’s just it’s so wonderful. And Real Estate has done that for us. Like, that was our goal from the start. Like, we were so aggressive and buying so many homes because Mike didn’t like his quality of life being a mechanic. And so that’s why we were so impressed that we bought five houses in the span of I think 18 months at are sort of most aggressive, you know, state and with the goal of being able for him to quit his job and to sort of have this flexibility. And it just shows that a little bit of that was, let’s say, a year and a half of hassle. And now we sort of we get to take a break, but we still get like the benefits of that hustle all those years ago and probably when both kids are in school or whenever we’ll have another period of hustle when we want to. But right now, we just don’t want to. Right, right. And that’s a pretty like it’s a luxury to be able to have that opportunity because so many people, you know, how have you and kids have to work two jobs, both parents have to work, you know, like that is, you know, I admire that so, so much. And you know, on the other hand, I’m so glad that we found a way through Real Estate that we were able to hustle really, really hard before we had kids so that now that we have kids, we can take a little break and just really enjoy this special, special time with our young kids.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:20] How many hours do you think Mike is working on the properties?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:30:22] It depends if he’s like working on a projects and sometimes like he’ll like, make a project for himself in terms of, you know, doing landscaping or like other things at his leisure, or just
Erwin Szeto [00:30:35] for the listeners context for the benefit, like us to create projects that improve properties actually enjoys it.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:30:41] He loves it like he can put
Erwin Szeto [00:30:43] in a patio door or a patio door didn’t exist before stuff like that.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:30:46] Yeah, new kitchens always do granite, you know, update like, you know, bathroom vanity, things like that. And he yeah, he which is nice because then it’s always like keeping our properties updated little by little. So there’s not necessarily like a massive renovation that’s super disruptive. Do you know little projects here and there and other tenants really love it because they get to benefit from it immediately? So it’s not like we wait for them to move out and then do this big thing like, Hey, you know what? We’re going to put a new kitchen down here for you because these are the kitchen in the basement here is looking pretty tired. And you know, he’ll just put in a new kitchen for the guys are mostly at steam rentals and the students love it. They don’t mind like the sort of disruption of it because he keeps it pretty clean and then we win because then in the future, it’s easier to rent out because he’s done the little things here and there. And but yeah, I would say it varies. So there are some weeks you little. Lily won’t go for a whole week like he if he wants to not go or if he has other projects that he’s doing like right now, he has to get the boat ready to go in the water. And there is a part that needs to be who’s hoping to repair, but it’s not asked to be fully replaced. So that’s going to be many hours this week of working on the boat. So he has the flexibility to not do things at the property except for like an emergency thing. And he is going to be working on the boat as his focus for this week. But he on average and then there are some weeks like when he’s doing a bathroom right where he’s there every day for the whole week. But I’d say on average for sure, no more than eight to 10 hours a week.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:37] Hmm.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:32:38] Because he’s so efficient, like he’ll make a list of the different properties and the student rentals, especially. They’re all like within like a kilometer radius of each other. So he can just go from one house to the next two to do what needs to be done. He’ll bring all the tools with him that he thinks that he’ll need for whatever job is there and then do his things. And because we keep all of our properties, you know, at a very high level of maintenance, they don’t need very much at all.
Erwin Szeto [00:33:08] There’s tremendous amount of moisture portfolio now.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:33:10] So we have five student rentals and then five single-family homes.
Erwin Szeto [00:33:13] One thing they had more criminals that would be on one of the next wave of rentals.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:33:17] So, you know, so I share some of my story of me being a student living with students. And so I just have a familiarity and like a comfort with students, and partly also because when I was a student, I would like to go to my like friends, know student houses to work on projects or hang out. And a lot of them were quite deplorable. And you know, I guess myself, like when I literally had this thought, like when I grow up, I make money. So I would like to buy nice student rentals to give students a nice place to live. And that truly like has been. My motivation is just to like students deserve to live in a nice house. And I wanted to provide that for students. And it’s just worked out so well because as we provide students a high quality house, you know, with good solid furnishings and, you know, nice features, they respect it and they, you know, takes it. You know how a bit of pride of ownership in a way, and they appreciate, you know, providing that. And then we had this good, respectful relationship, and a lot of our students stay year after year. And actually one of our student rentals, the girls have been there for their whole undergrad and they’re now graduating. And one of the students emailed me and she’s like, Hey, my sister is in finishing first year and she’s looking for a house with a group of friends. Would it be OK if they looked at the house and if they liked it, could they rent it for next year? And I was like, Yes, your sister and her friends, of course, can live here. And I will give you money if they do as a thank you for filling the house for me. And that’s exactly what happened. So they’ve been there for the whole undergrad now, like her sister and their friends are going to move in and hopefully they’ll be there for their whole undergrad too. And that’s what happens when you have, you know, a good house and a good neighborhood and you treat your tenants well, they’ll, you know, refer their friends and family to you, which is really nice.
Erwin Szeto [00:35:16] Did you raise friends? I did. Yeah. What was it and what did you raise it to?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:35:21] I should have raised it more. They were paying for seventy five room paying. Well, that was like three or four years ago, right? So then I should have. I know and I should have raised more. But it’s five hundred every now.
Erwin Szeto [00:35:34] What do you think it should be?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:35:35] It probably should be five, fifty or more. But you know what? But part of me, though, like I still had a psych soft spot for students. Yes, because I can still see myself for my friends, friend’s students, so I don’t want to like bankrupt them entirely. So, you know, I’d rather make a little bit less money, but have a really great students. Then, you know, have rent, be super expensive. And then have you know, these super entitled students who are demanding and ridiculous. So I have no regrets
Erwin Szeto [00:36:07] as doing my haircut and I still go, sorry, my kids are getting a haircut left out on Saturday and an appointment after a young guy. I look at issues like dude nice shoes he’s wearing that uses so many things important to people. I know it sounds silly, but I think it’s important for people to know how to be able to spot money when they see it, especially when reviewing potential tenants. So we spent $600 shoes. I don’t know any on any shoes. I think that are over $300 with Kim University transitional issues. So I don’t mind charging make more money for them.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:36:40] I know it’s students that like that are paying themselves right and their rent check is just their name on it. Like, I don’t want to. But anyway, here’s your nice.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:49] What’s the worst thing that’s happened to students?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:36:51] What’s the worst thing that’s happened? The worst thing that’s happened is one of the students brought bedbugs into the house.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:57] Oh yeah, there’s that.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:36:59] I heard it as teach gongs now. Yeah. So but aside from that, honestly, nothing like student. Our students are wonderful. But yes, student Brian bedbugs. And it was really, really awful.
Erwin Szeto [00:37:11] How did? Who knows? Oh, I don’t know.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:37:14] They either brought in furniture or had a friend come over that had bedbugs or who knows it happens.
Erwin Szeto [00:37:22] And I actually she did a few. But this good tip for anyone. Very hard for bedbug, for bedbugs. It’s usually an economic profile of people that would that will take furniture off a corner and bring it into the home. Students, as one of them students, often qualify for that. The other thing I think furniture off a corner, not knowing it’s hard to invest in the bedbugs. So you came up with any of these no street side furniture. And how bad was it to get rid of it?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:37:49] It was awful because the students, unfortunately like, were not very good at doing the bedbug preparation. So you have to like backup all your clothes, put on a high heat in the dryer and move all your furniture away from the walls because they have to spray all the walls to the baseboard. So open your drawers, spray all your drawers and that sort of thing. And the students were just pretty like laissez faire about getting it done, which was ridiculous because they were so the right word is they were so ridiculous about their like demands about, you know what? Me like what I as a landlord was doing about the problem. When was in, they brought them in and it was in their control to do, you know, proper preparation so that the spray would actually be effective. But anyway, after several months, yes, months of getting sprays done, we finally offered that was like, you know, what is the going to be like the end of December? And I was like, You know what? Why don’t we sign in on 11, a mutual released end tenancy? And you guys can just find new places January 1st, and that’s it. And in retrospect, I should have done that earlier, which I know now because it’s just it’s just too hard to get rid of bedbugs if people are still living there, if their stuff is still in the house, even if you do a proper preparation. It’s just it’s too hard. So I will know that for next time to offer just mutually, let’s just part ways. Because then when the house was vacant, so easy gets raised on Szeto has gone. We’ve never had a problem since
Erwin Szeto [00:39:29] we use that pretty regularly. It’s called take away. So is the term for it, especially tenants, especially difficult tenants? And as a family, I think they may both be doctors, but it has a lot of rent and also that they’re very demanding. For example, air conditioner wasn’t working properly. What was happening was I had a free online or one of the lines was frozen. So it happens, right? Yeah. Yeah, it was working hard. You know, you call someone to repair definition of summer. It doesn’t happen right away. No, I think he has someone there within 48 hours, which is still that’s pretty good. And they were just livid, though this is not humane. Well, great. And as we immediately moved there to do what we continually saying, Hey, if this isn’t working out, you can move out. Well, finally, one in the shot right from there. Yeah, right? Yeah. Because they were in multiple offer to pose a threat from us. Right. So this is a standard negotiation posturing. Any university authority to negotiate your house in December if you wanted to rent us on January 1st, Erwin possible. Actually, that’s another point. Even though your husband nice, I’ve seen that model that in other markets, it doesn’t always work just because your house is nice. I’ve seen that model still not work in terms of who’s being respectful. I think it is part of your success is also it’s a market of respectful students.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:41:01] It is to I think it also helps us is because we’re hands on landlords and because it’s Mike personally, who’s going to the house when they have maintenance concerns or whatever they see. Mike himself and Mike is like the nicest guy you’ve ever met. And so our students like Love Mike so much. And so part of it is that we have that respect because they know us personally, like I’ve been to the house and all like, you know, ring Isabella or have Dominic with me. And, you know, then they’re sort of interacting like playing with the kids or whatever. And so they see that we’re just, you know, a regular, you know, regular people that were nice, that were not out to like, you know, cheat them or anything like, we’re just like regular people doing our thing and they respect that because they know us and like us and. We know and like them, so that really works for us in terms of, you know, we always sort of play up the whole mom and pop shop type of thing. And it’s worked out really well.
Erwin Szeto [00:42:00] I do the same. Our policy is that we still need our tenants when they move in to give them their congestion. I should make my way to make sure I bring the kid regular lunches with me. But for folks who can’t do this? Understand you guys are cutting corners, but with no management with your maintenance. Oh, go, gosh. No, no. Which is, I actually see is a very common problem with amateur investors, even though even big-time investors. Yeah, I see lots of corn being cut. And you better believe that has noticed that when they do.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:42:30] Oh yeah. No, Mike cannot stand a job not done. Yeah, right. The first time
Erwin Szeto [00:42:36] where the recreational investor so the investors, as often as you where they can really can still avoid cutting corners is, for example, my team. They know if it costs less than $300. And how do you even do it? You never
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:42:49] ask me. Yeah, yeah, it makes it a lot of sort of like ridiculous requests from tenants if it doesn’t take too much time or money. Why the hell not?
Erwin Szeto [00:42:58] If we’re going to mess with this long, solid machine, those salaries are growing fast. Just a minute. Yeah. And apparently the people do that. So there doesn’t wasn’t gleaming glass proper manager. How many people of their clients or give them is the place to do what they need to do to make your customer happy? Yeah. So a great step, I suggest for anyone, but we need to get this get when she landed this yesterday. I’m an owner of families, too. Having being a father of a daughter, I mean to everyday real people can argue whatever they think about it. But I do believe, as I mentioned it before, we start recording as I was texting with honey saying as we believe that we all have our issues, we all have our own beliefs. Often they never talk to us. But I believe women specifically is probably the only minority group who specifically reports males specifically because of the sex. So even more limited release than what everybody else has that you can’t do because you’re a woman. So I know you’ve been through some of the stuff, too, and you wanted to share about it today. Yeah, well,
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:44:06] just sort of the
Erwin Szeto [00:44:08] other
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:44:09] ones. Yeah. So being a mother now, you know, for me, especially having a daughter, REIN, it forces me to think about what I want to teach her, what I want her to learn, which then makes me think about, you know, what was I? What did I learn or what did I? What information did I absorb that sort of, you know, shapes my mindset in terms of what was possible and that sort of thing. And yes, it was the female stuff. We’ll get to you. But I just want to talk about other sort of just a little self-limiting beliefs just to share through guess in case it helps even just one person.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:47] Opportunities are finally.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:44:48] Yeah. So I definitely just sort of in general thought that, you know, as a kid, just that opportunities. We’re finding that there is just not enough opportunity for everyone in the world. And now I truly like from the bottom of my heart. I believe that anyone who wants to be successful can be that there is enough opportunity for everybody to be successful in, you know, in various ways. Not everybody is meant to be successful in the same way, like, you know. But there is an infinite opportunities for people to be successful. And, you know, growing up, probably everybody has heard from 100 different people. Money doesn’t grow on trees. And so that which implies that money also is limited. And I literally like, you can laugh. But it was like only a few years ago, and it was like even after it had, you know, several properties. It was only a few years ago that I actually thought about that, and I was like, I’ve been lied to my whole life. Money does grow on trees, and I want to, you know, teach my kids that money grows on trees and you can have as many trees in your orchard as you want, as long as you or your team of people can. Can manage it if you can. You know, water and weed and harvest and do everything that needs to be done to have a healthy orchard, you can have as many money trees in your orchard as you want. That, to me, is new information that I had, you know, I had to unlearn. You know, this belief about money being limited and now sort of you, you’re trying to expand my thinking and it like it hurts my brain to, you know, as it’s expanding. And so that’s, you know, something that I’ve had to learn is sort of what almost goes along with money being limited also is that money is. That is, you know, sort of pick that up, you know, or I did anyway growing up. And you know, there’s people misquote money is the root of all evil. The correct passages. Money is the root of all kinds of evil.
Erwin Szeto [00:47:02] For anyone who wants to wonders about money being a finite or infinite. Just think about you can do a simple Google on the supply of money. You can look at the states. You can like Canada. You see what? Well, anyone who’s in real estate investors should be following bad policy and all. But look at our interest rates are from a personal standpoint when I do a refi and then I buy something with that money. It just feels weird.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:47:28] I think it feels great to do a refi and buy another house with it
Erwin Szeto [00:47:32] feels also scary because that money just grew from nowhere, now nowhere, and it almost feels like it’s not real. Yeah, and then especially when you use that money to cash and the principal in terms of that money, the cash is ready to all have cash on in case you have no blackouts. It just feels not real. It’s like weird. Like this money came out of thin air, it feels like. And that’s largely because of our modern monetary policy habitat in the US. Yeah. Yeah. What you’re saying when you source of all evil?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:48:03] Yeah. Which is not true. Money can be the source of lots of kinds of results, but money can also be the source of incredible, good and. If you focus on all the good that you can do with the money you realize it’s freeing in a way because then you realize, you know, when you talk about this, the more money you have, the better you can do, the more people you can help. And so I definitely don’t ever want to give my kids any indication that money is bad. I want them to know that money is good when it’s used for good, when it’s used to help people and to focus on that. Certainly, money can be used for all sorts of bad things. But I want my kids to know that it is also can be used for many, many good things and to focus on that.
Erwin Szeto [00:48:58] In one instance, look at who the top donors are in the world.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:49:02] The biggest philanthropists Rob. Exactly. And then another sort of limiting belief that’s probably just unique to me and my siblings is that debt is bad. So my parents very much valued debt free living like something that was, you know, they lived it, their, you know, overdosed, you know, teaching us that debt was that and which is a good way to grow up. It was a very excellent example that they set for us. Like they any trip that we went on, they had saved in advance any car that they bought, they had saved for. I don’t think they ever used a lot of credit or else they would even know what a line of credit is. And customer, who is very smart, and I’m definitely glad that to have that example, and I definitely adopted that kind of got into reading university debt free despite them not contributing towards tuition in that sort of thing. And so it was a bit of a thing to wrap my head around when I wanted to start investing is because I would be using debt, mortgages, a debt so that, you know, I had to, you know, overcome that and sort of unlearn, you know, this, this value that I was taught and realized that debt can be good. So but the most important thing that I’m still unlearning that we talked a bit about was just sort of the self-limiting beliefs about being female. And, you know, as a kid, you know, I was just like a strong, assertive girl and just sort of picked up or learned that it was not really super desirable, as you know, as a girl to be assertive and strong. And I can’t say like, I can’t think of a single like memory or anybody saying anything specific is just sort of, you know, enough little things over the years that I learned that these were like not desirable, you know, feminine qualities. And so I really did try to tone those things down and like effort fully. And it’s kind of unfortunate in a way, you know, because but nobody ever said to me that it was OK to be assertive as a girl. No one ever said it was good to be strong and. And so because of that sort of lack, I just sort of, you know, came to my own conclusions and I tried to, you know, be more as I tried to describe. But I tried to be like more like cooperative or be quiet when I wanted to say something that I knew was important to be said and I hold back. And it’s too bad like me. But that’s OK, because now I know that it is good to be assertive. It’s good to be strong. It’s good to see the things that need to be said. And I guess how this all relates to Real Estate is just a culmination of all these sort of self-limiting beliefs that I’ve had to read through in order to be successful. And, you know, I’ve had to really work on my mindset and I guess, you know, perhaps what the listeners can take away is just doing, you know, your own exploration of your mindset, of your self-limiting beliefs. And so think about, you know, just to do the work to overcome, you know, those beliefs that are holding you back that are limiting you. And yeah, it’s just a good exercise to do. You know, just in terms of, you know, personal development and that sort of thing,
Erwin Szeto [00:52:42] this she’s quite extroverted. I don’t know
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:52:45] how it is about, you know, what she is. She is assertive and strong. She is
Erwin Szeto [00:52:52] even temporary.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:52:55] You know, kind. I’m trying a new and there’s so and there’s part of me that wants to just sit down and to be quiet. And, you know, I’m just trying not to interfere. And it’s, you know, it’s kind of hard sometimes. But I really I want her to know that it is good as she is. Strong, assertive
Erwin Szeto [00:53:14] girl. Yeah, yeah, that’s what it was like, almost the opposite. I like soccer class. She’ll be chasing with another kid, usually boy trying to pursue the same goal. And then it’s just common that there’s going to be contact, right? They’re coming. They’re converging on the ball. There’s these other decisions she feels she feels and is leaning on her. She stop running game and just give the ball. Yeah, no. Well, what about other teams that I’ve heard?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:53:41] Yeah, yeah. Doesn’t need T.J. meant she. She needs to not be taught the opposite.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:47] Yeah.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:53:47] Yeah, because that’s who that’s who she is. And it’s the, you know, some girls just are just generally not assertive or whatever and have other great qualities and whatever. And that’s great. And obviously they should be encouraged. However, however you are is OK. You shouldn’t have to effort fully try to change who you are or tone down parts of your personality to be more likable or whatever. That’s complete nonsense, which I realize now
Erwin Szeto [00:54:17] whenever there’s someone in beliefs or are being taught stuff, I wish leadership would understand the context behind it. Like you’re talking about like that and not having that. So many ways to look at. I was like, Why do these people believe you shouldn’t have that? Because there’s people who were paying like our parents, their generation. We’re paying, you know, 17 percent of mortgages at one time. All right. So yeah, you don’t want to have debt. You want to savings. Yeah, yeah. Because you were making my age 10 percent of your money. Yeah, risk free, basically. So, yeah, I would do that. I’d rather have savings than that. Or you think of even people who actually lived through the Great Depression? Yeah, you don’t want to do that in those periods, either. You would have to have savings. But then we do look at the environment today. Or we have where interest rates are historically low. And there’s a good chance they’re going to go even lower based on where they are today. Why not use that money? Cassandra on Saturday, I shared with you but the I to privately on our Facebook group, our rates. So real estate investment trusts have been the number one investment asset and been the number one asset category for the last 20 years. And based on the analyzed returns somewhat and my comment was, Oh wow, what are you really? Is anyone really surprised that economic theory actually followed became a reality during falling interest rate times and interest rates are probably lower for a while? So what do you think Real Estate is going to do? So like you said when you bought Burlington St. and you bought your first investment property when Jacob Brady, he said a lot of them. He says Real Estate is an open book test.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:55:57] Yeah, I love that
Erwin Szeto [00:55:59] you just happened to read the book. Yeah, right. A lot of people didn’t because it was all there. The areas already transitioning, you can see things in people’s driveways because they’re renovating. We knew about the investment already in the basement part. You could see the artists of all the retail before gentrifying. The artists were coming in. The next to
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:56:18] train station was on
Erwin Szeto [00:56:19] its way. We knew that we knew a massive, massive industry was coming and they were already broken ground.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:56:23] No, they had not yet broken ground.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:25] So we were expecting,
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:56:26] yeah, but I knew it was going to happen and we knew as an app
Erwin Szeto [00:56:30] and it was still okay, though it’s not saying that’s OK. But even going
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:56:34] out to go train station, I still would have done it right.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:36] But you still would have done it because you’ve got a tenant profile you want and you identified a profile in your trash for your time. Yes. So even without the coaching stalemate? Exactly. So it all made sense. We were just speculating. Yeah. And then for everyone else listeners, this is your homework is to go find the next area. Yeah. Now you mentioned it wasn’t planned discussing this, but because you mentioned that we’ve seen you’re turning over one of your single family rentals?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:57:01] Yes, in the house. So for people who might not know the way that Mike and I met is that I bought a house for myself and he was my neighbor. And so I moved next door and then my house became a rental. And we’ve just been having it as a single family home. But we were talking a couple of months ago and we’re like, Hey, like, we really love our tenants next door. But you know, we hope they stay for a long time. But if and when they move, we want to turn it into an Airbnb because the location is so great, like we’re so close to downtown Hamilton. We’re minutes away from the go train station, right by the waterfront trail there. By that Hamilton harbor
Erwin Szeto [00:57:40] parking, which is rare in that
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:57:41] area. Two parking spots in the driveway, you know, three bedrooms, two full kitchens, three bathrooms. It’s just a very desirable house itself, and then the location is just killer. And so that’s what we’re doing. Our tenants are unfortunately moving out at the end of this month, so May 1st, it’ll be available and we’re going to paint the whole thing and furnish it and get it looking really awesome. And so last night, just for fun, I posted the listing on Airbnb, and this morning I already got a booking for four days in June for a family that’s coming to the area for a vacation and they on purpose want to be between Toronto and Niagara Falls. And they’re they’ve booked to stay at our house.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:32] You know, we’re listening to them.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:58:33] No, I literally just got the email as I pulled into your driveway. So I’ll find out
Erwin Szeto [00:58:39] this period from demographics, but that’s interesting. You never thought someone would do that for tourism. You stay in between.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:58:47] Yeah, interesting.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:48] Especially from a vehicle is hop on the go train and go either way.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:58:53] Some people there are there a family of six, I believe so. They probably is. So it’s way cheaper to have a rental car and do your thing than six people were paying THORChain train. Yeah, but they could
Erwin Szeto [00:59:03] become a little drunk. Then they can go to REIN when that?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:59:07] Well, that’s a family with kids. So I think that’s too much on the agenda. But yes, and that’s our newest thing. So that’s really exciting. It’s something new anyway, because all that we’ve been doing basically is the student rentals in single family homes. So it’s fun to learn something new and sort of expand. And yeah, and having a fun time just, you know, think, just go to home Sandy. I’m just like buying artwork and things that I Real Estate to me. Is it really a fun thing? It’s a business, but this has actually been a little bit of fun for me and just a new venture.
Erwin Szeto [00:59:43] Hmm. So when you consider separating the two units, the basement from the top?
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:59:47] Well, we can’t because it’s the second row house in. So there’s no way to access the basement.
Erwin Szeto [00:59:54] You go around your house.
Evelyn Lamarsh [00:59:55] Well, no, it’s not ideal now. And you know what? There’s something nice about being able to rent like a full house to yourself. Being idle attracts, you know, people who want that you don’t want to have just. You know, an upstairs apartment or whatever. Yes, kind of, who would go in for as are potential renters for next door.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:15] So for fun with this Erwin go, there’s a potential equity here. Hmm. I’ve mentioned to you before, it’s over in a while. They resell for hotel furniture. Oh, OK. Yeah, it’s all commercial grade.
Evelyn Lamarsh [01:00:28] Yeah, prices. Yeah. Babette Gallo, I have to
Erwin Szeto [01:00:31] look into that. Awesome. You want your dog to leave any final thoughts?
Evelyn Lamarsh [01:00:36] Now the other thing is, we’ve left people, hopefully with a few things to think about.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:41] Any advice for anyone that needs to be pushed off the fence to do something or not?
Evelyn Lamarsh [01:00:46] Yeah, just do it. The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today. So if you know you look at me and you’re like, Oh, well, yeah, I work because he started investing eight years ago and things are different now. Does it matter? So, yeah, if that’s crossing your mind in any way that you think that you’ve missed it or whatever that you know, it should have started at eight, 10, 15 plus years ago. Like, don’t beat yourself up about it. Just do it now. Now is like a perfect time to do it, and it’s just connect with other people who can help you to be successful. And that’s
Erwin Szeto [01:01:19] it. What would your guests be? Is it easier now, or will it be easier if 10 years from now to start investing?
Evelyn Lamarsh [01:01:26] You do it now. You know, the only things are getting harder is the developable land is getting smaller every year. The time is now. I mean, of course you can do things. You’ll still be able to find deals eight, 10 years from now, but you’ll wish that you started today.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:45] Thanks everyone for doing this. OK, thanks. Razaq. You look to the Greater Toronto Hamilton area.
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Erwin Szeto [01:04:07] You.