Watch THIS Before You Pay for Real Estate Coaching

Should you pay for Real Estate coaching?

How do you assess the price tag and value of events and coaching programs?

What’s the best way to get educated as you become more committed to taking action and closing on your first property?

Tune in for Episode 2 of our Mini-series with Real Estate investor Stehanie. Last time, we discussed her experience dipping her toes into the real estate waters, going from watching YouTube videos to mingling with the pros in her local real estate networking scene. 

Now, in this thrilling second part of her story, Stefanie’s level of commitment gets real. She pays for her first coaching event and begins assembling her very own real estate squad.

Get ready to challenge those self-imposed limits, folks! Terrie shares how beliefs can shape success and how Stefanie’s mindset got a serious makeover at that boot camp.

Buckle up, because this episode is jam-packed with real estate wisdom. grab those headphones and let’s dive into Stefanie’s journey in the ever-exciting world of real estate! 

What we learned from Stefanie and Terrie Schauer in this episode:

  • How to Forge an Unstoppable Mindset and Achieve the Impossible in Real Estate.
  • How to Handle Rejections with Unstoppable Grit.
  • Build the Dream Team for Real Estate Gold, Without the Fluff
  • The Secret to Profits? Non-Stop Learning and Market Mastery.
  • Crush Barriers Holding You Back and Claim the Success You Deserve.
  • How Bold Choices Shatter Norms and Propel You to Unimagined Success.
  • The Explosive Formula for Rapid Mastery by Mixing Education with Real-World Thrills.

Notable Words From The Episode: 

  • You can’t learn everything from books, you do need some on the ground experience – Terrie Schauer
  • And even if I don’t reach my goal, like that’s okay, because I’ll still be a few steps ahead of where I was before – Stefanie

Timestamp:

[00:00] Podcast intro

[01:00] Stefanie  discusses her journey from being a novice.

[03:27] Stefanie talks about the process she and her partner went through when deciding to attend a weekend training event

[07:00] Stefanie talked about their experience attending a course where the instructor motivated participants to establish ambitious objectives and confront their own limiting beliefs.

[08:39] Terrie highlights overcoming limiting beliefs for success and how pricing reflects the value of coaching products.

[15:41] Stefanie contemplated whether to invest in a $5,000 course for real estate, hesitating because she wanted to buy a property first to ensure her commitment.

[16:51] Terrie advises understanding coaching program value hierarchy and sales tactics.

[19:57] Terrie emphasized the significance of making strategic and timely investments in education.

[23:14] Stefanie discussed how she realized the importance of carefully choosing team members during the homebuying process.

[25:29] Stefanie emphasized the importance of establishing initial contacts.

[26:46] Terrie emphasized the importance of finding an experienced real estate broker who specializes in working with investors.

[29:40] Stefanie recounted her encounter with a real estate broker who falsely claimed expertise, while Terrie emphasized how many in the industry prioritize closing deals over offering specialized knowledge due to commission incentives.

[32:25]Terrie and Stefanie shared their struggle in parting ways with their first mortgage and real estate broker.

[38:03] Outro

Watch this episode on:

 

Connect with Us:

Facebook Page

Email: reic@clubimmobilier.ca

Axel Monsaingeon’s LinkedIn

Axel Monsaingeon’s Instagram

Terrie Schauer’s LinkedIn

Terrie Schauer’s Instagram


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Ever wonder what makes a basement suite legal?

Want a checklist for risk-factors to help you identify an illegal unit?

Do you know the difference between a sublease and a lease transfer? 

In this coaching call episode with investor Chauntelle, we expose the pitfalls of renting out rogue units. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned pro, this episode is your ticket to understanding the in’s and out’s of illegal (and legal) additional suites.

Tune in, level up, and get ready to make your real estate dreams a reality! 

What we learned from Chauntelle and Terrie Schauer in this episode:

  • The Ultimate Secret to Rental Success Lies in This Must-Know Legal Compliance
  • Your Guide to Mastering Zoning Regulations!
  • The Astonishing Power of Legalized Basement Suites.
  • The Shocking Impact of Illegally Rented Units on Your Property Value.
  • The Hidden Dangers Lurking in Master Lease Agreements – What You MUST Know!
  • The Unseen Dangers of New Rental Models Could Wreck Your Finances – Learn How to Stay Safe.

Notable Words From The Episode: 

The “severability clause” can determine how rent obligations are divided among multiple tenants on one lease.  – Terrie Schauer

Timestamp:

[00:02] Podcast intro

[01:14] Terrie welcomes Chauntelle as a returning guest to discuss the complex and potentially problematic issue of subletting and basement suites in the real estate market.

[2:31] Terrie discusses the checklist of considerations for landlords regarding basement suites.

[10:22] Terrie discusses the legal and practical implications of renting out properties with incorrect zoning and multiple tenants on a single lease.

[21:45]  Terrie discuss the financial aspect of renovating a basement suite and expanding the number of units in a property.

[25:20] Podcast outro

Watch this episode on:

 

Connect with Us:

Facebook Page

Email: reic@clubimmobilier.ca

Axel Monsaingeon’s LinkedIn

Axel Monsaingeon’s Instagram

Terrie Schauer’s LinkedIn

Terrie Schauer’s Instagram


Join the Real Estate Investor’s Club Podcast on:

  

Confessions of a Damage Insurance Broker: Making Choices in a Changing Insurance Market

Interview with Jacques Amzallag: Top Damage Insurance Broker

The insurance industry is changing. Premiums are going up, and so are claims-exclusions.

It’s  a good time to hear from an expert in the field!

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jacques Amzallag, top damage insurance broker at Racine & Chamberland.

Here are some of the highlights of the interview.

Towards a “Hard” Insurance Market

What’s the difference between a “hard and “soft” insurance market?

 The insurance industry is cyclical, just like any other market. According to Jacques, the industry is moving into a part of the cycle called a “hard” market, where premiums go up, and criteria of admissibility for coverage goes down as insurer appetite for certain risks drop. Depending on the carrier, additional exclusions to coverage wording can also find their way into your policy.

 While some of this may be due to changes in climate and social and political situations such as the pandemic, we do well to remember that the insurance industry is a market like any other:  risk is priced into premiums based on coverage availability and loss potential. When additional carriers enter the space and offer coverage, this forces the remaining insurance companies to drop premiums to be competitive. In contrast, if insurance companies tighten up and exit from certain market segments, premiums to rise. It’s the law of supply and demand as it applies to insurance.

 Long story short, as we enter a “hard” market, we mustact with the knowledge of what this means 

Over- And Under-Insured: How Do I Know?

How do you know if you have enough coverage?

In a hard insurance market, landlords concerned with the price of insurance may be tempted to decrease their coverage to control costs. This usually isn’t a good idea, according to Jacques.

Before making decisions, make sure you understand a few key aspects:

·         Reconstruction cost: Many landlords opt to skimp on reconstruction costs in order to reduce the price-tag on the premium. This may not be the best idea, according to Jacques.

There are two problems. First, in the case of a total loss, the insurer might not cover the value needed to rebuild. In this case, the client can face trouble with the mortgage lender or with the rebuild of their investment.

Reconstruction value is also an issue in event of a partial loss. If you make a claim for a partial loss of the value of your property, the insurer will calculate replacement value and verify that you have priced the value of insurance correctly based on the co-insurance clause applicable in your contract. If the landlord has insured his property below the required ratio, the insurer will require him or her to become a co-insurer towards the claim.

Ex:

Example 1: Compliance with the Co-Insurance Rule

Cost to rebuild the building

1 000 000 $

Insurance limit in the contact

800 000 $

Cost of the claim

200 000 $

Co-insurance rule

80 %

800 000 $

X 200 000 $ = 200 000 $

800 000 $ (80 % of 1 000 000 $)

You will be compensated at 100%, which corresponds to the total value of the damage.

Example 2 : Non-Compliance with the Co-Insurance Rule

Cost to rebuild the building

1 000 000 $

Insurance limit in the contact

400 000 $

Cost of the claim

200 000 $

Co-insurance rule

80 %

400 000 $

X 200 000 $ = 100 000 $

800 000 $ (80 % of 1 000 000 $)

Because the condition was not respected, you become co-insurer proportionally. Instead of being compensated at 100%, that is for 200 000$, you will receive a compensation of 100 000$.

In an environment like today, it’s especially important to understand the rising costs of reconstruction. Most policies automatically increase the reconstruction amount from year-to-year to protect consumers, but as you renovate and as construction costs rise, these increases may no longer be sufficient.

Want to be 100% certain? Consider having the building evaluated for reconstruction cost by calling on a professional evaluator.

·         Replacement value: What’s the difference between insuring for depreciated value and replacement value?

It can be a lot of money in case of a claim!

Insuring for depreciated value means the insurer will pay out a proportion of any damage claims, not the full amount. If you have a claim, the cheque you receive will be for what it would cost to repair the damaged portion of your property, minus an amount for the age of the property. Careful: if you have a big claim, the discrepancy might be very large.

Make sure you understand the implications before accepting to insure for depreciated value.

 

·         Water damage insurance: The most common type of claim in Canada is related to water-damage. Given this is the case, scrutinize your policy or insurance quote for two things. (1) Any exclusions pertaining to water damage and infiltration. The most common fine print here has to do with hot water tanks, infiltration from the roof or sewer back-up.

Second, make sure you’ve correctly evaluated the cost of insurance required for repairing any issues. For example, sewer back-up insurance often comes in 10k slices. But are you sure 10k is sufficient coverage should you have sewer trouble? You could consult your damage insurance broker or a license contractor to give you a better idea to make sure your ball-park estimate is sufficient.

·         Earthquakes, Floods & Other catastrophes: Worried about being Chicken Little or having a Noah moment? Understand that the likelihood and cost of insuring for a specific risk is priced into the premium.

For example, flood insurance is usually pretty cheap. If you can get it, you may want to consider adding it. Unless, of course, your property is in a known flood area, in which case this coverage might not be available. That’s a detail you might want to pay attention to! If the insurers don’t want to go, it’s a possible indication that that particular risk is high, and likely expensive.

Earthquake insurance also causes a lot of head-scratching, especially in Montreal, where it’s hard to imagine this could ever be of serious concern. The add-ons for earthquake insurance are also quite expensive. Why – in a lot of cases with multi-unit properties – does the bank require the landlord to have earthquake insurance? You may want to do a little research. I almost jumped out of my seat when I read about this: Stilling quake risk in eastern Canada demands greater focus, awareness and effort: Swiss Re Canadian Underwriter

Want to learn more?

Watch the full interview here

Listen to the podcast here

How are you showing up in your Real Estate projects?

Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Let’s find out!

I had the opportunity to interview Canadian Real Estate personality, Russell Westcott in a recent episode of the Real Estate Investors’ Club Podcast. With twenty plus years experience in investing and in motivating and coaching others, this master of sound-bites and West Coast wisdom has some great nuggets for both the more- and less experienced.

I’m going to share one really meaningful one here.

(For the rest, you’ll have to actually watch or listen to the episode!)

Russell relates a little fable to make his point.

The story begins with a teenage boy who’s down about the vicissitudes of life in the COVID moment. He comes into his mom’s kitchen shoulders slumped and begins complaining about the slings and arrows he’s facing.

His mother tells him: “Son, I’m going to show you something. Get three pots of water.”

The woman puts the three pots of water on the stove.

Once they’re boiling, she instructs her son:

“Go get me some carrots, some eggs and some coffee beans.”

The boy does this, and she has him throw each ingredient in a separate pot of boiling water.

After ten minutes, the woman says: “Let’s see what happened to what’s in the pots!”

First, they look at the carrots.

“They went in hard, now they’re all soft and mushy,” says the boy.

“What about the eggs?” asks his mother.

“They went in soft on the inside, and they came out hard.”

“Now what about the coffee beans?” she asks.

“Oh coffee!” exclaims the boy. “I love coffee.”

“You see?” says his mother. “The coffee beans changed the environment. The other two let hot water change them! All three had the same stimulus: boiling water. But only the coffee beans changed the state of the water, instead of being changed.”

Concludes Russell: “Every day, you have a choice. You can let the pressure make you hard. You can let the pressure make you soft. Or you can change the environment. You choose what you want to be – a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean!”

For the rest of the interview, click here to Watch  or listen to the episode.

CONDO MANAGER’S INVESTMENT SECRETS: 5 EASY-TO-SPOT RED FLAGS & GREEN LIGHTS

In Episode 9 of the Real Estate Investor’s Club podcast, we spoke to condo manager and CEO of the up-and-coming management firm Apex Solutions. We probed Alex on the secrets of condo management, getting some inside info on red flags and green lights.

Here are Alex’s top 5 pieces of advice.

1. Understand what you’re buying.

According to Alex, the first major mistake folks make is to think like they’re buying just one unit. This isn’t strictly true and long term it’s thinking that can hurt you. When you purchase exclusive rights to your portion (AKA the condo itself), you’re actually becoming a co-owner of a slice of a bigger animal: the whole building. You’ll be responsible for maintaining the roof, the foundation, the windows, the facade.

Alex’s tip: You’re investing in more than just your unit. Green light to do due diligence on the state of the whole property before closing.

2. Budgets & Meeting Minutes

Since you’re purchasing a portion of a larger organism, how can you verify it’s overall health?

In two words: budgets and meeting minutes. Yearly meetings of co-owners are documented. You can request meeting minutes and budgets when you’re going through the sales process. In these documents, you’ll see any maintenance problems, lawsuits or other issues. You’ll learn the size of the reserve fund and to see if any major expenses are coming.

Alex’s tip: Green light to request and scrutinize meeting minutes and budgets going back at least 3 years. If there are red flags in the budget or maintenance, you’ll find them.

3.  Declaration of Co-Ownership

Long, boring and hard to read, yes, but the declaration of co-ownership is a must-read before you close on a condo. Maybe you can’t rent your fraction or perhaps dogs aren’t allowed. Might be better to know this ahead of time!

Alex’s tip: If you don’t read legalese, get help. Watch for any red flags when it comes to renting the unit, especially if you’re buying it as an investment.

4. Understand the syndicate

Condo syndicates are living organisms. The syndicate is composed of co-owners who elect board members to represent them for major decisions pertaining to maintenance, insurance and administration. Did you know you can reach out to the president of the association to get a feel for the vibe on the board? Don’t be shy!

Alex’s tip: Boards that turn over a lot are a big red flag. It takes time to get to know the financial statements and ins-and-outs of administering a building. If the board members are cycling through every year, it’s a sign of poor management.

5. Get help

Condo’s are more complex than they appear. Your long term investment is tied up with a creature you will not have full control over, the administration of which should be of prime interest to you. Assess the syndicate and the whole building when deciding whether or not to purchase a unit and at what price.

Alex’s tip: Green light to be represented by a Real Estate Agent who is used to dealing with condo purchases. You could also pay a condo manager a consulting fee to sniff around and provide recommendations. If you’re making the decision to get into the condo market, make sure you have someone on your team who understands co-ownership.

Want to learn more? Listen to the podcast here or watch the full episode here.

You can also reach out to Alex via his company email: alex@solutionapex.com

5 TECHNOLOGY TIPS FOR REAL ESTATE INVESTORS

A year ago, who lived on Zoom meetings, Uber Eats and Amazon? Now we all do.

Technological change has reached a fever-pitch, and this isn’t likely to change soon.

As Real Estate Investors, we need to be mindful of how we and our businesses interact with technology, to be able to adapt to a chancing ecosystem.

How can we leverage the technological explosion to save time and be more efficient?

In the app jungle, what tools are the most useful and relevant for us?

What’s the best mindset to adopt in the face of rapid technological change?

Here are a few tips & products that were highlighted in our recent Special Panel on Technology, an Episode of the Real Estate Investor’s Podcast.

1 – Advertise your units with platforms that post to multiple platforms and allow Facebook syndication.

If you ever want sacrifice peace of mind, post your rental units on Facebook marketplace (Is it still available? Yes, otherwise why would I be advertising it?) while bumping up your free Kijiji or Craig’s List units. It’s a ticket to the millennial-chatting nuthouse.   

Imagine if there was a service that allowed you to post the Ad ONCE, and then receive leads with emails and phone numbers.

Guess what?! These services now exist. We like:

Rentals.ca

Syncs to Facebook & provides phone/email leads. This service offers a free account with a certain number of Ads included. Ads appear on the Rentals.ca platform and Facebook marketplace.

**bonus for a user-friendly interface & rental stats & reports (they have access to great data)

Zumper.com

An American platform that hasn’t fully rolled out its multifamily service in Canada, Zumper generates great visibility because it posts to Facebook. It also posts Ads on its own platform.

**free account possible, but be prepared for some of the irritation of Facebook chatting

Rentsync

Allows you to post to multiple platforms (and I mean multiple platforms – Kijiji, Facebook, Rentals.ca, Louer.ca, etc. etc)

**their back-end is a bit hard to understand and their leads a bit expensive, but this service is really the top of the line when it comes to advertising rental units.

2 – Serve notice electronically.

The casinos are closed, but registered mail services have taken up their market share this year. When you send a registered letter now you’re actually buying a lottery ticket: will there be a signature? Will they deliver the mail at all? Will they leave your documents in the mailbox like any other “normal” letter making it impossible to determine if anyone actually signed for it?

Who needs this headache when there are electronic delivery services to serve notice that is legally valid.

We like Pronotif . There are others. A little Googling will pay dividends here. Also, don’t forget to have your tenants opt in to receive documents electronically.

3 – Integrate your solutions.

What if there were a way to integrate different platforms and apps? What if getting an email triggered saving attachments to Dropbox? What if someone who uses Dropbox and someone who uses OneDrive could seamlessly share files?

There are now ways to integrate out-of-scope tasks between apps and to get ecosystems to interface with one another.

We like Zapier. To discover it’s true power, check it out here

4 – Become a gardener.

This is a mindset issue.

We, myself included, tend to approach technology as a series of solutions that we implement and expect to remain stable across time. But technology is evolving faster than Covid-variants. You can’t hope to choose apps and systems once and for all.  

But what gardener expects to plant a garden once and for all? That’s not how gardens work. Horticulture is a careful process of pruning, weeding, raking leaves, mowing lawns, watering, adjusting for weather conditions and sunlight. There is an art to plant care.

Managing technological ecosystems in today’s rapidly evolving environment is similar. You choose your platforms and your apps and your services one day, but the next day might bring something new. As in gardening, you may tomorrow discover a new variety of seeds that are better suited to your unique climate and garden-conditions. You may be able to find a more comprehensive platform that does more. Don’t expect to plant your technological garden once and for all. You have to update and tinker with your solutions, learning about them, much like you would see how your tomato plants do in one place.

Adopt a gardener’s approach to technology. Don’t expect for it to stay fixed!

5 – Surround yourself with people who know how to leverage technology.

Turns out that getting good at technology responds to the same success laws as everything else.

Who knew?!

Motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said: “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Therefore, if you want more success, surround yourself with successful people.

The same applies to technology. Your ability to navigate technology is correlated to your network. So, love your geek! Find one (or two) and don’t let him (or her) go. Beyond that, if you communicate with other tech-savvy investors, ask them about their systems. You might learn something!

If you’re a technophobe or over 35, don’t despair! Technological literacy and efficiency responds to the same rules as anything else: your network, growth mindset and openness to new things go a long way.

Yours in Real Estate Investing,

Terrie