Dan Illman is one of the good guys. He’s faced his challenges head-on and won. It doesn’t mean that there won’t be more challenges coming his way but he now knows he’ll crush them when they arrive. He’s a husband, father, firefighter (with the coolest pager ever!), a Canadian real estate investor and more. On this episode of The Your Life! Your Terms! Show, Dan shares his story from driving a truck to traveling across Australia and New Zealand for 77 days with his family and a portfolio of real estate back home. Dan drops some gems in this episode, enjoy!
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Transcript
Hey, everyone, it’s Tom Karadza. And on today’s podcast, we really have a special guest. We’ve worked with Dan element and his wife, Laura, for over 10 years now, this guy is such a great guy, we’re so blessed that he shared what he shared on the podcast, it took them a little while to warm up, you’ll hear him taking some breaths at the beginning. He’s really just catching his breath on this podcast. And if you stay right into the end of this podcast, he just share some of his own thinking about real estate and some of his personal story. And you can see he really gets comfortable at the end and share some of some really, I think, kind of intimate thoughts about himself in his own life. So just a really good guy. Next on the podcast as well, we talk about Dan’s investing journey, some of the crazy stories that he’s gone through, sorry, crazy experiences that he’s gone through with real estate, why he got involved in real estate anyway, you’ll hear it all on this podcast. And listen, if you’re listening to this and trying to figure out if real estate is right for you. One of the places or probably the most Patna, probably the most popular spot where people check out real estate from us is a copy of our books. And the most popular one has always been income for life for Canadians, you can buy that book on Amazon, or you can get a free digital copy of that book at rock star inner circle.com forward slash books. That’s a rock star inner circle.com forward slash books. And in that book, we share real Canadian experiences and examples of different properties we’ve worked on with investors over the years so that we can all learn from each other. In fact, all our books are Canadian based content. But that’s some of the most valuable thing that we think we can bring and share. Because when we were getting started, we can only find like us based real estate information. And often it didn’t apply to us here in Canada. In fact, when Nick and I started, we were doing Nick was doing a flip, then we ended up with some student rental properties. And then we went down this rent to own adventure. And everyone told us it wasn’t possible. It was only a US based thing. But we figured out how to do it in Canada properly with Canadian agreements. And we share all these kinds of different strategies and all the different books. But if you want a copy, you can get that at Rockstar inner circle.com forward slash books. And with that, let’s get on with the show. Are you ready to live life on your terms? Is it time did take charge, real estate, business building the economy, health and nutrition and more? It’s the your life your term show
with Tom and Nick Karadza. Are you ready? Let’s go.
Okay, we are live with Dan Illman, Nick, can you hear me? Ok, I can hear you. Okay, perfect. Dan, Dan, can you hear me?
I can hear me.
Alex, can you hear us? I can. Oh, my gosh, we can all hear. This is a perfect podcast, Dan. So Dan, the goal with talking to you today is we meet so many people who want to get started in real estate and they have all these kinds of fears about real estate, you’ve battled a lot of different things with real estate. So we want to talk share your positive journey, but also all the things that you’ve been through and survived through. And you were well how you’re still living today. Because real estate, most people I think they sell it as like a passive income kind of thing. And as far from passive income, it’s definitely an active business when you’re a real estate investor. But I want to start the beginning. You before you met us. What read you were driving a truck? What what’s can tell us what you were doing?
Okay, so I was a truck driver, and I drove a flatbed truck had one of those little red forklifts on the back, deliver shingles to people’s houses. So the they’re getting the roofs done. And the roofers would want their shingles first thing in the morning. So I’d be the guy driving the truck and I’d show up and take off my forklift and drop out the shingles in the driveway and wave and go away.
Did you ever have people screaming at you when you drop them off in the wrong spot? Because Nick would totally scream at you if you put it in like in the wrong spot? No, I make those guys so they’re all my friends. I like those guys know, if you put on Nick’s curb, like in the side of his driveway, he’d be freaking out.
Okay, I’ve dealt with people like that before I
tell him so full of it not for that I don’t care
actually had somebody grabbed my jacket and give me a shake. Because when I showed up, he just told his whole crew to go home. And then I drive up by stop I throw in the air brakes. And I like I get out and he says Where do you want? I’m saying where do you want these and he came up and gave me a good shake.
Pull the mic right to your mouth. 10. So but isn’t Aren’t you deliver it like Aren’t you the delivery guy for the shingles part of the shingle company know you’re the wholesaler you were working for a different company.
I was employed by the company that was providing the shingles, the roofers we got it completed but if
you’ve done any construction before Yeah, I didn’t know if this was a big enough single company where he was like they were host the shingles. But yeah, that wouldn’t make sense. All the different colors and styles.
We had a massive warehouse.
You mean a big enough roofing company? Sorry. A roofing company.
No, there was nobody on staff that swung a hammer and did the install it. Yeah, got it. Got it.
Okay. Damn. So everybody wanted their shingles early and they didn’t want them the day or two before because we were talking about theft.
You know, they disappear overnight. It’s a common thing.
Wow, I can’t even imagine pulling up and just stealing shingles off someone’s driveway.
I often wonder if that’s true. I just think they say that so
No, but I didn’t know I know from construction sites in the past you would show up sometimes. And yeah, thanks for the supplies were gone. Yeah, actually, I remember when I moved into Oakville, the street behind us What are those things in a roof that you know it’s kind of like a triangle like a trust is it called a trust or whatever that goes okay, and build the roof of a house. Some guy with a trailer pulls up to the street behind us and start stealing all these pre built trust or prefab they were prefab but just throws them on a trailer they don’t fit on the trailer like they’re sticking out either side like this is the just the one that he wants he just wanted when he starts driving away that one of the the security guards were like the assistant super of the site catches him doing after hours. He takes off gets his the guys plate, they end up catching the guy. Right? They track his plate, they track them like what was like is that was the smartest idea you had pull up like at 7pm when it’s still daylight in the summer, and load up these trusses and like drive away with someone chasing you like you couldn’t have gotten more creative than that. But yeah, so I believe it does happen. But who knows how often it happens. So how did you get into? So you’re doing this? When did you get interested in real estate?
Pardon the silence Well, I’m I’m trying to
fix my thoughts, maybe we can edit that part of it. So I was there for like eight and a half years. And partway through that I sort of saw my entire life go right to ratchet.
I
I had to face the death of my dreams. And here I am stuck in this bullshit job that I absolutely hate. And this is all going at the same time. So I mean, I hate the job I have. I go home and I hate the life I have. You know, like I wanted to be a fireman since I was three. And
that’s okay, man, take a breath. You know, take a breath.
So I want to be a fireman since I was three. And like I’ve done all sorts of college courses, and I got upgraded college courses and new stuff. And I quit like full time jobs three or four times to go and get more schooling. I went down to Texas a&m University, and I got like some of the best firefighter training in the world. So I come back and I’m competing with, you know, like 1500 or 1000 1200 people for, you know, like 10 or 12 or 15 jobs, right? I’m not breathing. So they’re picking like their top 12 their top 15 guys, and I’m scoring like maybe 20 25th. Right?
There’s a tie to top industry, man.
So then they they say, we’re going to put you on the shortlist or we’re going to put you in the pool. So the next time we hire in the next year and a half or two years, we’ll go you. So then they’d hire, you know, like eight. And I’d be like the 10th. Or, damn, they hired four guys. And I was the fifth.
Like two, two guys, and I was the fourth.
So were you Where do you think they were using that as an excuse? Like were they just bullshitting you a little bit on saying, hey, Dan, yeah, your fifth and we took for just to kind of keep know, I guess they wouldn’t. There’s so much demand. They don’t need to keep you interested. Thanks. So it was probably the jet.
I don’t know. How would you say right? Yeah, maybe it was just something in the interview they didn’t like and they’re just saying not this guy. I don’t know.
That’s a nice way of saying who knows? Yeah, I don’t know what the process.
So I mean, that’s going on over and over. But I’m sitting, I’m close. I’m close. So it’s, it’s right there. And then my eyesight, my eyesight went. So I got retreated. And then it went, I got retreated. And I had to meet 2030 vision. So. So in the eight and a half years that I’m there. You know, I’ve got to get my I got my eyes done in 98 and 2001 2005, maybe, so that I can meet this 2030 standard, the magic number. If you’re below that, like 2035 2040 you’re done. Right? You don’t pass the test, you’re done. So I’m about 20 2040 or so. And the doctors are saying we’re not going to do your eyes anymore, Dan. So if I want to get perfect eyesight, I have to get a cornea transplant from somebody that’s died. Oh,
that’s a little extreme. And you can’t wait we are contacts or glasses. This is like without I know nothing about this. So this is not with contacts or glasses. This is it’s
2030 vision uncorrected in both eyes, okay? Or that’s the standard in Ontario. So uncorrected,
meaning no contacts, no
glasses. Okay. So anyway, the eyesight finally goes and
like, I’m out of options now. So all the guys that have gone to school with are getting full time jobs, and they’re, they’re getting pretty good money. And here, here I am sitting up no pension, no benefits, and I’m really not happy there. Now, the only reason why I was there for eight and a half years is because they were in the same town as my house and my volunteer fire department, right. So part time paid on call volunteer whatever term you want to use. So they worked a deal with the employer that if my my fire department pager went off during the day and I wasn’t like, you know, delivering singles or something working in the warehouse that you know, if if it was reasonable, I would go and then I could jump on a fire truck and go and save lives and protect property right. So I always I always carry around this brick a pager. Whose last time you saw pager guys been a while man. And at that
age, you’re an older than I’m used to that looks like some kind of crazy pager.
So this is about the size of one of those weights that would go on a scuba diving belt and weighs about the same. And I’m on call 24. Seven even today. And you know when it goes off? If I can I can run it.
That that specific feature when that thing goes off? Is that like that bat signal, like what comes out of that speaker
so it goes beep beep beep, beep beep. Okay, and then a voice Yeah. So it’s generally a generally they say attentions, my fire station firefighters respond to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah for a medical call for a structure fire for a motor vehicle collision,
something like that. Oh, geez. So for every episode, it doesn’t matter the type of call. They just need your help. Where the fire department? Yeah, God if for some reason, I thought it was very specific reasons they would call you but it could be even motor vehicle. Like any fire call. You could be called into.
Yeah, you like? Yeah, we’re the fire department. I’m 4% of my fire hall or something like that. There was a time where we didn’t have any full time firefighters. So you know, we were first there. And there was nothing else coming. You’re calling volunteer fire departments. Firefighters to to attend your whatever. Wow.
So So Dan, how long have you been doing this then?
It’s been a while now. It’s 2005. Yeah, got it. So it was just a couple months after I got this job with the Roofing roofing supply company.
Okay, so
let’s see. The real estate. Yeah, so what’s
that? So that’s 2005? Where do we 2000? Let’s take us 2000 we started working with people 2006 2007. So you were probably 2007 2008.
Yeah, so I found I attended my information session in probably October of 2008. Something like maybe November but something like that. And then I bought my first property in January of 2009. That’s right. When the US markets exploding, right? It was great. Well, it was a great
good credit to you for buying here in 2009. Many people were like, forget it. I’m not buying real estate in 2009. and Canada, because the floor is going to come out of this market as well. You’re crazy, Dan. Yeah,
that’s right.
Got it. Okay. And so why I’m curious, you go through this journey. And I mean, thanks for sharing that. And like I can tell, you know, I didn’t know you were going to share some of this stuff. So thank you for for sharing this stuff. I think it’s helpful for a lot of people. I mean, when I was in my 20s, to hear someone share what you just shared. I think that’s it’s really impactful. 20s 30s 40s today, thank you. But why real estate? Did you read a book? What did you What motivated you to check out real estates?
So I’m driving a truck, and I’m not happy. And I figured if I quit there, I’ll get another job driving a truck. And how long will it be before the same thing happens? So I went, Okay, there’s got to be another way. So I’ve got no pension, I’ve got no retirement savings. So I better at least figure something out for my future, right. And so I started to do some research about other options. And, you know, I looked into the stock market and dividends and drips and blah, blah, blah, and I learned about the money.
I feel the same way. Blah, blah, blah, and all that shit. But anyway, sorry, go
see the
SP I know I’m not being fair. But I’m sure someone listening this is gonna just roast me for that. But But I’m with you.
But like, I thought stocks were pretty cool. I fell in love with a stock oil sands quest, it was up in northern Saskatchewan. And they said that they could see the fires from the Alberta oil sands from from their sights, right. And I thought this has got to be a good place. That’s right close to the oil sands, and it’s really cheap. Hey, Penny stock, right. But I hesitated. Given the one my money, I would have handed them every dime I had, because I thought they were I thought that
we’ve all been there, man. We’ve all done that stuff.
And then I don’t know, it went from like, 19 cents to like $6 and 21. And I’m going, Oh, man, I missed out. And then I don’t know, there was some kind of fraud or something and wipe them down to like nothing. So kind of like a bre-x or Yeah. And I went, ooh, that was close. So that’s something I had no control over at all. So I went, Okay, I don’t really want to do that all that much. Because I didn’t see that comment. And you go from stocks to other stuff that you can invest in. So you think part time job side business, blah, blah, blah, maybe self employed. And that led me to real estate investing. So I looked at other options. But you guys,
you’re the right fit for me.
How did you because you live. Where were you living? What city were you living in when you found us?
You were on the east side of Toronto. Yeah. So
we’re just to the north of Newmarket. So they share our border there to directly to our side. I’m trying
to figure out how you even found us back then. Because you’re just the north of New Market. We were in Oakville at that time. Now we’re back in Oakville online. It was Yes, it was running any newspaper ads up there.
I found you guys in a newspaper. Okay, okay. You were a bottom left add.
Bottom left. That’s bad place. rude.
And we’ve discussed through the years what newspaper it was, and I can’t remember but but it could have been a Toronto or an oak Phil paper that somehow I got my hands on. Got it. But it was like call our phone call or number or Yeah. And leave a message kind of thing. And we have no website. Yeah, there was a fax number. You know, state of the art.
Yeah, we were leading edge both Nick and I had software backgrounds. But in this business, we had no website.
Maybe someone like Dan will hopefully call this and upper level at that time putting up a website was a lot. Like I mean, we could but it was basically putting up a half decent website was a lot different than today. Today is drag and drop. And in five minutes, you have these beautiful looking website back then it was like, actually had to coat the damn thing. It was it was a whole different world. And that was only like was a 10 years ago, really. And it was like a lot of things have changed 10 and a half years. Yeah. So when you bought that first property? What can you tell us a bit about it? What was it like a student rental or rent to own? What did you buy?
So that was a single family house up on the Hamilton mountain? And there was a rent. And I thought if this doesn’t work in their backyard where they say it’s gonna work, this isn’t gonna work anywhere. Oh, shit. So you guys sort of suggested up on the mountain and I followed your advice. I followed the system that you guys outlined in your, your books, and thank God it works, you know,
work? We don’t know. I don’t I can’t really say here now.
So I still have that property today. I’ve had
at least I think I’m on my third tenant there. Got it.
It hasn’t been perfect. My first two tenants were no my first tenant was wonderful, but they split up. And the second one, they had some troubles paying the rent. And I’ve had a family in there for got to be a good six or seven years at this point. They’re they’re great. They’re never late.
What did you buy that property for in 2009? year remember? Roughly? ballpark? I can guess it. Yeah, I guess yeah. 2009. You bought that property for 234,000. To say to 24? Yeah.
I think I got it for 249. Nine. Yeah,
we were getting
some pricey shit. But But hang on here for a second. Mike negotiated with the sellers to pay my closing costs. Oh, that was that era. Yeah. edit that out. If you feel
Oh, my gosh, no. Did that all on the up and up? We that was documented on the agreements.
I believe that’s the correct price. Anyway, so
Wow. So to 49 closing costs. And yeah, we were not able to get the banks to approve any of those deals anymore. They won’t allow that. That was the time where some people we were working with, we’re buying properties at like zero percent down because CMC had some zero percent down programs with closing costs. And so we know of some investors who bought zero percent down with closing costs, and they literally bought investment properties with nothing down. You know, that’s an not even really possible anyway, that was just that little sliver of time. And remember what with those with those mortgages and closing costs of closing costs, we were getting four years, though, we got that three a year, right? Because we have to argue with different realtors about that how it was like legitimate because we were putting it on the agreement of purchase and sale that we were asking for this. This isn’t wasn’t something that we were doing on the side or anything. This was all documented, and people would just scream at us. Oh, yeah, we got chest like yeah, like, how dare you ask for that? And we were just like, hey, look, we’re just asking for it. And some of them were the best are like you can’t do this. This is this is fraud. You have to do this on a side agreement. And I’m like, hold on what, you know, you know that when we’re putting it on the agreement? It’s not fraud. If you have a site agreement, that’s fraud, right. Like, I forget that because we had multiple people yes, that like, Listen, you can’t put this on the agreement in person. So you’re gonna have to negotiate this on the side? And I’m like, No, what you’re talking about is fraud. Legitimate, we had to get a letter from our lawyer, the time stating like, here’s the clause that we use, in my opinion, you know, it’s a perfectly legal clause in Ontario. And we would fax it to the to the agent saying, hey, look, look, look, we have a letter, you know, for our lawyer saying this is legal and stuff, you know, do you want to see a copy of it? And a large number of them said, Yeah, yeah, we want that, or their office wanted it. You know, we had people report us to the real estate Council of Ontario saying that it was fraudulent, where, like I said, fraudulent This is, and then they will be like, what, I’ve been in this business for this long, and I’ve ever seen it this way. I’m like, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done, you know. So in the commercial world, just you know, on the investment side is because it was investment properties. But in the Come on the commercial side in the investment space, that type of negotiation happens all the time, it was just because it was in the residential space. It hadn’t been readily seen by a lot of the people. And that’s that’s that’s where the problems kind of arose. There was actually one brokerage that we won’t even mention the name of that basically told all the agents working there, they banned them from doing business with, then somebody on our team, like a year later runs into a person from that brokerage. They’re doing deal. But now the tables are turned, we’re representing the seller. So we have the listing, and they come to the table with an offer with a closing costs clause in the our clause. It was our clothes. So before they made fun of us for it, and then not even a year later, they’re taking it easy. And then they’re explaining to people yes, this is how it works. And it’s totally above. So they were dragging us through. Anyway. So did you get that first property? I don’t even know the answer to this. How many properties? Have you gone on to purchase? I don’t know.
I think we’re at 10 or 11. Through the years.
Okay, so you were you, were you because I get this question a lot. Were you able to do that? From tapping, I guess equity as your portfolio, as you know, your properties grew in value, you were able to pull out money and buy more properties. We
managed to do that.
I don’t know. At one point, we were never going to do that. But I think three or four years ago, we made it. We did a pretty good refinance and pulled a bunch of equity out we went show in London for some student rentals.
Echo. That’s it. That’s a nice, very nice feeling. And then all all your properties. Have they always been cash flow positive through the years. Did you ever buy properties that were not cash lined?
I think they’ve all been cash flowing from day one. All rent to owns
Dan, or Where was it? Okay. You just said you went to London? Did you get some student rentals in London? We bought two in the same day. Oh, did you? Okay, student rentals by Western then? Yeah, yeah. Okay. You still hold those ones? Yes. Okay, we got it. And then the goal for you with those properties is to create income to replace your income, like when you were getting these properties? That’s a pretty good sized portfolio. With the cash flow. Did you have any income goals that regard for like, what was the reasoning for collecting the properties? Because you didn’t just stop at one. I mean, like not many people go to 10 or 11 properties.
But the hope is to, like retire early and just, you know, hang up your hat and say, I’m done with this crap. I don’t have to drive a truck anymore, right. But I remember way back when telling my wife that I wanted were 11 years apart her and I right. I’m the old one. But I remember telling her that I wanted her to retire by the time she got to my age. And like I wrote that on a little piece of paper that was left on one of the tables at the coffee office. Crane
August 8 2014.
Oh, that was my goal. That’s when I wanted to have 1.25 million. And I don’t know if that was in assets or in money in the bank or what? Because I didn’t understand this stuff yet. Right. I was kind of learning, learning.
And you’ve carried that. So for anyone who’s listening to this recently carry that thing. Yeah. So you’ve carried that in your wallet since then.
I got a problem. It’s July 2019. And the since August of 2019. So anyway,
are you read to us what’s on there?
I didn’t even plan on pulling this out. And quite frankly, I forgot about
what happens to us. What’s on. This is a commitment that you made
my my first meeting with Mike was on October 22 2008. And I wrote that I’d have 1.25 million, because that’s bigger than a million. Right.
Yeah, that’s bigger.
So I wanted that. I wanted that. Like,
I liked your your reasoning for having the 1.2?
I don’t know. I don’t know why I wanted that by 2014. Which, which I, if it was in assets, I, I achieved, quite handily offers Yeah,
first assets in equity. I think it just equity you probably achieved with amongst those properties.
I’m certainly there.
Yeah. My legacy, you can say whatever you want.
Okay. But this also says that Laura is supposed to retire sometime between August and November of this year. So I don’t think we’re quite there.
Sorry. So she’s not allowed to listen to this podcast, she can’t hear. You’re taking that pretty hard. That’s okay. You’re gonna be okay. I haven’t looked at that in a little while.
It’s funny, because I wrote a whole bunch of stuff down on a dream board because I read all those books when I was in my 20s. And about having a dream board. So I’m like, Okay, I’m gonna make one of these board. So I got one of these boards and put it in my walk in closet. And it was a cork board. And I put all these things and a whole bunch of these weird things have come true. You put it in the wall, you’re not supposed to put those in the walk in closet aren’t supposed to put those slides out someplace where I saw it. Well, first of all, it was a pretty ugly looking board. It was just from like staples. So I don’t think she would want me to hang this board anywhere in the house because it was just like a cheap cork board with a chair around it. So I hung it in my pocket and closet. And to be fair, it was her walking closet to you. So it was both of us. But she was probably one looking back. And I’m thinking you should probably wonder what I was doing. But I put all these things, all the financial targets on this. And there’s this one thing that hasn’t come true yet. I’m wondering if it hasn’t, it will come true. A whole bunch of other stuff has, I put these pictures of this property in Hawaii, where it has no waltz. Like it just has some bedrooms And has an outdoor living room with a roof. But like it’s fully outside in the middle of this family room is like a fire pit that I guess exhaust somehow I don’t know. But basically, the family has no walls, but the bedrooms are off of this family room. And they of course have walls and stuff. And it was on there. And I remember this picture so vividly. It was in Hawaii. I’m like, Huh, this one hasn’t really come true yet. I wonder if this thing is going to come true. Because these boards I don’t know how but a lot of the stuff that I’ve written down over the years on that board on this green piece of Bristol board next to you, Dan, I know what you mean. Yeah, a lot of this stuff has actually come true. And it’s kind of freaky. You got to put that back up in your walk walk in closet. I need the Bristol board backup. No, just the picture, but that’ll be in the walking closet. closet it won’t work because it worked last time. Yeah, maybe the watching closet is the key. So there you go again. So you’re you’re carrying that around, I had my vision board on in my walk in closet. I don’t have one anymore. You’re right, maybe I need a vision board. Anyway, that’s pretty good stuff. So you buy these properties. Now. I was sold the idea that real estate was always passive income and that, you know, you just buy these properties and they just kind of go by themselves and everything’s just hunky dory. And real estate has a ton of benefits. But I’ve know you’ve been through a ton of stuff. I specifically remember something to do with dogs ripping apart one of your properties. Can you share that? What happened on that? Pretty good a tenant? First of all, where was that prop? I feel like that was on the
east side of the city. Okay, so that’s in Curtis,
which is Claritin. Pominville air. Yeah. So it’s a rent to own home, they give us $9,000, we buy a house for them. It’s within six months, and we’re just coming back from a vacation. Laura, it’s a big long story, Laura gets a phone call from the town saying they’re going to give us a fine for violating municipal noise bylaws. And it’s like, what, and it’s got to do with dogs barking and the neighbors were unhappy, right? So we know that they have a dog or two or something. And then they send us a letter saying we’re moving out. And there was two months there. Were moving out as of this date. So that two months is kind of a really unclear part, even for us. But when we went to the house to check on things and talk to them in person and stuff like that, some people had moved out. Maybe somebody moved in, we’re not clear if it was a it was the same person or something like really bizarre story here. But there were nine dogs, and there were five cats. And of these nine dogs. Was it four or five of them were big dogs, right? So they were in the backyard barking their heads off all day long. So these people
just abandoned the dogs.
Well, this is during the period where they’re living there, I guess. But that magic two months is like January in February. And we’re really confused about what’s going on during that period, right? We’re going to the house, it looks like they live there, but they’re never there. So during that period. During that period, they said we’re moving out, right, and the house is destroyed inside with these dogs. It was $15,000 to do repairs and stuff like that, right. And the people that we needed to talk to, were never there. But there was like a grandfather with Alzheimer’s and like a minor. So it’s like, like, we’re not you’re not you’re not answering the phone. And when we go there in person, you’re not there. So we’re sort of out of ideas. Meanwhile, they’ve relocated to that city, apparently. And
so the bylaw officer, when you get this notice it comes to you as the owner of the property, this particular sometimes those notices will go to the tenant, sometimes they’ll come to the owner, but you guys get wind that this is coming to you. There’s noise violation. And
I think that the bylaw, people knew that we were the landlords and they were the tenants. And I think that was a we understand the situation. And we’re giving you a heads up in case you don’t know. But we never got a fine or anything like that. And that’s when our our you know, we hit them with everything legal that we could to, to expedite them out of that house, but at the same time, they’re actively trying to move up.
Got it. So it’s just the two months pass and they do ultimately leave. Yeah, they’re gone. Okay, you have vacant possession at this time, like you enter the house, like you have a key to the house and you’re entering this at this time. So
what we’ve been in and out and it kind of looks lived in and kind of doesn’t and we’re really confused. You know, I guess they’ve been in and out which is leaving you really confused about the status of this house. Right? And like things changed from one visit to the next but there’s nobody home it just you know the dogs weren’t there at that point, but they’d already done their damage but are they still living there? And I don’t know what my legal I don’t remember what my legal obligation was
to that. So when you take possession of this house, are there dogs left in the house?
Now they’ve moved?
Okay, so everything’s gone. But the damage is done to the house.
There’s horrible amounts of garbage and and shit left behind? Yeah, the lot of like, they were like using the basement for bathroom and pee and down the vents and all sorts of stuff. Like the animals were
the humans were,
I’m pretty sure it was the animals. Okay, we
like whoa, we we the
golden shower, coming down the vent. Hey, we
recorded a video of going through that house. And Laura. I remember her commenting about the smell and she walked in,
especially like cats the cat urine smell, man,
okay. And then she’s going through stuff in the kitchen sink. And she goes and a human diaper. And like,
you know, okay,
and you know what, I never thought just while we’re on this topic, if anyone has an investment property where you have a smell, we had Nick one property where we had that like dog smell in the house, we actually got served pro I think to go in there and they kind of it wasn’t like a smoke. It’s multiple different stages, depending how bad it is. And they had this one thing that I wasn’t quite like a smoke bomb of the host. But it was some other technology or some other thing they did to those totally eradicated the problem. Nice. You couldn’t go in I think for 24 hours. And it totally I cannot believe because we had tried everything people were telling us to put charcoal in the house and you know, vent out the house I think for for a little while we were using for breeze. Because really good. And maybe for breezy work. It’s a lot of fun. Yeah. But if you’re listening, there are totally ways to get rid of that kind of smell for sure. So you guys then took some action, I assume.
Okay. So they’re they’re out the house is a mess. We hire a contractor he cleaned, cleans it up. We put it back on the market. Not really sure how long that took. It could have been a month, it could have been two could have been three, but we got a new family in there. He was a GM worker, they stayed eight and a half. Know, isn’t that long? maybe eight and a half years, nine and a half years, something like that. They just moved out in January. And they were I mean, they weren’t perfect tenants. But they were great. Wow. So we up up the rent. So our cash flow got better. We actually chased down the former tenants in court and took them to small claims court and, and one and, and we got a portion of our money back. Got it. Okay. When all is said and done. At the six month mark, we were we broke even. Okay, even with the damage and the repairs and all that, what do you mean, six months after the new tenant moved in? So see what six months okay. When you include the rent to own deposit, Oh, I got the construction costs and the cash flow and stuff like that when you you know, mix it all up. But yeah, average it out six months, we break even. And then we we took them to court and tried to get our money back. And and I guess the judges are a lot more lenient than I think they should be when it comes to stuff like that. And we got perhaps
a fifth of what I think we were legally entitled to.
Should I say that part?
Oh, yeah, no. Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest thing for people to realize listening to this, if you’re not, if you’re an investor, there’s absolutely no shock and what you just shared, because if you’re an investor for longer than five or 10 years, you’ve absolutely seen anything. So I don’t think that’s why Nick and I are reacting, this doesn’t seem like like crazy. This is a long term thing. So six to me, I’m like, I don’t know, six months. That’s pretty, that’s pretty good. He renovated the place, you know, you long term, you’re able to increase the rent, you had another tenant in there for eight years, like the overall ROI. Yeah. So it’s always it’s the tough thing is always just, you know, the good parts or the bad parts, right? Because we’ve seen people that have done, you know, rent own, and we’ve got these huge deposits, and they’ll share those stories. And whenever you look at things just in isolation of these moment, in times, it’s very easy to make it look very good, or not so good either way, but whenever you just extrapolate over the long term, that’s I guess, for us at least that’s where I’m always more interested in that you know what I mean? Which, which I know within Listen, if there’s no misery in what you’re doing, you probably aren’t going to be financially rewarded. I’m just going to break it down like that. It’s a good way of really need to suffer. I’ve never met anyone. I don’t know, I’m just I just mean it sincerely. And I don’t mean you don’t like actually enjoy some of the suffering of building a business dealing with real estate now that I understand and it can appreciate the process. Well, what’s on the back of the shirt that you’re wearing? That’s not sure, right? Yeah. Whoever can deal with the most shit wins. Yeah, that’s that. Hey, like I’ve literally never met Nick
quote.
That’s, that’s something Nick says. I said for years. And I’ve never met an older gentleman, let’s say like, 7075 years old come to me and say, Hey, you know, I really did accomplish this. And it was so yeah, I did nothing. And it just worked out. I never met that person. So like all my dreams when I was in my 20s of starting an online business, because I did start a few online websites. And I thought, This is great. I’m just going to sell some products online. And I’ll just be at a beach somewhere with my wife. And you’re going to go Oh, yeah, sorry, guys, I gotta run. And and I thought this was going to be really, really easy family commitments, I got
a I get it, I get it.
And it was going to be something simple. And I was just going to live on the beach and run my business and kind of be done with it. But now I’ve come to appreciate that the the suffering and the misery and the dealing with the shit, it’s whoever deals with that stuff, and goes through that process, reaps the rewards. And it’s something I try to share with my kids as well. I’m like, Look, there’s no easy button. There’s no easy button. It’s an there’s no easy button, at the gym, at building a business. Dealing with real estate, there is none stop looking. Just choose what you want your life to stand for. And then focus on that. So part of building Rockstar, Dan, look at all the stuff you’ve been through, not easy. On our side, building this business has not been easy, but because we feel like we want to stand for this is something that we want to stand for. We want to help people live life on their terms. Even though cleaning out dog shit or baby diapers from the kitchen sink is not living life on your terms. It’s part of putting in the assets that may be able to help you. And that’s what we want our lives to stand for. So we’re willing to deal with the misery and the shit to get there. I feel like I’m ranting now. So
I had no idea what I was getting into guys. And and it went great for most of it. But the times where it hasn’t been great. It’s It’s It’s horrible. It’s a bit of a challenge. Yeah. Yeah. Horrible might be but yeah,
and I find that it’s horrible in real estate, because sometimes you it’s not. There’s no advance warning, it’s not like you can get something to say hey, Dan, you know, it’s January 1 2020. Just as a heads up and this year in June in 2020, you’re going to have an unexpected vacancy, that a vacancy will have some repairs that are going to likely cost you between 10 and 15,000 involve a contractor. And it might be somewhat upsetting. If you got that notice on January 1 with your real estate portfolio, I could see it actually being somewhat manageable because like, okay, in that time, I’ll be prepared for that. But no, that’s not what happens. What usually happens is right on the day, you’re about to go on vacation or the day something or whenever you’re back, yeah, whenever you’re most busy, you get this like crazy curveball situation you have to deal with. And that’s what makes real estate a little bit tricky to deal with sometimes, and it’s what most people don’t want to deal with. But I swear I’ve never met anyone who’s owned property for 10 years or longer. who’s really regretted any of it, some of it has not been joyful. They haven’t really regretted
totally, it’s it’s is absolutely worth it. And at some point your your friends are going to tell you how lucky you are or, or something along that line. And you will always have that story of the nine dogs, the five cats, and I’ve had other adventures besides those guys. So but then you can say, No, it’s not luck. It’s hard work blah, blah, blah. And here’s my story to prove my point. Right. And but long term, it’s been worth it. Absolutely. Yeah,
I think this was it was a recently maybe the last year or two years, I feel like you went on a pretty good trip. I feel like you went in all different spots or around the world. How long was that trip, but I forgot. I feel like that was a good trip.
Okay, so
my wife, myself, my son and my daughter. So my son’s five now my daughter’s two. So when she it’s like a year and a half ago, we went on 77 days, in Australia and New Zealand, we lived in a camper. And we drove so we drove around Australia, and saw the sights and it was pretty cool. We drove in New Zealand and on both islands for like two weeks on each island kind of thing. And that was pretty cool. But we basically drove the distance home. Right? So like 15 or 17,000 kilometers or something. But I mean, that’s a lot of time to spend with your family man.
Like, I feel I feel like you’re about to say yeah, that was too much. I’m not gonna do that, you know, that was nice. Yeah, I’m joking.
We refinance the property, but the student rentals and that paid for a vacation as well. Very, very cool. So you know, like there was no saving and scrimping for that we refinance the property and went on holidays, basically to celebrate
Yeah, and and, and that’s something both Nick and I have done. And I feel like, you know, we believe that everybody needs their own asset base, you need money working for you, like incomes are not going to be enough for any of us to live the life the way we want it you need, you need an asset base. And when you’re able to tap into that asset base and extract some equity out of that asset base, you can kind of double down and buy more assets. But every once in a while, you take a little bit of that money and do exactly what you did. Because that’s what that’s what makes life worth it. We got to live today, too. And I feel like when you build an asset base for yourself, you can do that. I felt the path I was on when I was just only, I guess, quote unquote, earning an income, I didn’t feel I would have the financial ability to do that. And now I know Dan, you know, for the last 10 years, Nick and I have both taken pretty much a month off and gone to Croatia with the family and hung out. And you know, we’ve done that now it’s 2019. So I think this year will be my 10th year in a row going with my family. I think it’s my eighth year in a row going. And that’s been a lot of time we’ve been able to hang out together, you know, my son’s 17. Now my daughter’s 30 team. To them, this feels like it might be normal. So who knows what I’m doing to their expectations. Very, I feel very grateful to be able to spend that much time and New Zealand I’d love to go What did you let? Was there something that stuck out to you and easy New Zealand.
New Zealand was the star of the show. Hands down without a doubt. My wife is absolutely in love with the place called Milford Sound. Basically, you’re you’re we were on like really large tourist boats that will hold hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people and your, your driving on freshwater until it meets the the ocean, right. So there’s a definite line between one and the other. At the same time, on either side of you are these mountains. So they come right out of the water. And they they’ll be I don’t know a mile mile and a half up on either side. So you like you’re in this water filter Valley, right. And the tour guide saying you can see the marks from the first place here. And the second place, you’re in the third place here and the fourth place here and and if you get sprayed by the water from this waterfall, you’re blessed or something like that. And like like that was awesome. But that is a gorgeous, gorgeous country. And I can’t
I don’t know something I want to ask you when you got started in real estate, something we see a lot, especially between a husband and wife was one of you more pro real estate and one of you more kind of like, I don’t know what we’re doing here? Or were you guys both equally kind of into this?
There’s some great debate about that.
She’ll, she’ll say it was her idea. I’ll say it was mine. But ultimately, I found you guys. So I get credit. Right,
then and you know what, it’s totally a two way street, man. Look at all the stuff you guys have dealt with and put up with and handled with real estate. Like we know how much stuff people who are in real estate deal with. I mean, Alex is sitting here and I feel like his father, I feel like your dad, Greg, I forget one property I think had a big flood or a pipe burst out of the basement.
But the basement was like completely flooded and like twice, to renovate. And I feel
like you just renovated at one time and it flooded again.
Oh, brutal. Yeah.
So we’ve all been through so much. That’s why it’s back to your earlier point of people who say, Oh, you’re so lucky. Are you time to market? Right? I mean, once you’ve been in this business for a long time, you feel like you’ve earned every single penny that is coming your way, because of all the stuff that you’ve dealt with. And Dan, to your credit in 2008 2009, you were buying probably most aggressively 2008 910 11 kind of three? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that period was when a lot of people like I remember somebody driving to our office on a slightly older gentleman who is in real estate, giving us a DVD explaining how the world was going to come to an end financially and how we should sell all our assets. And you know, just kind of buy gold and silver and gold. Well, it’s I’m yeah, basically, and I’m pro gold and silver. Absolutely. But I didn’t think it was the right time to just dump all of our assets. So a lot during that time, people thought like, you got to get out of everything, because the world’s coming to an end. So to your credit, you guys pushed forward, I’ll never forget Nick and I back in that era, we had about 10 investors in 2009, who told us when when news gets negative, even more negative than it is now we are going to buy. And when we went back late 2009 because you know, things were looking pretty bleak. At that time. We went back to those list of investors and only two of them said they would proceed because the other eight of that two of them that we still work with today, by the way, were very happy. The other one said no, are you kidding me now is not the right time to buy things are going to get worse. So I just found in good times and bad times anytime anyone tries to time the market, they always make a mistake, the best approach is just get in and get in with a strategy that is going to allow you to hold the property for 10 years or longer and survive the market.
So credit to you. I can agree I can agree.
So someone listening to this who’s thinking about getting started in real estate and they telling themselves this story right now. I can’t believe how high prices are. I mean, I grew up in New Market. I can’t believe how the prices are now I know Curtis, I know Carrington? I know, Barry, you know, I know all these different areas. Now’s not the right time. What do you find yourself telling these people?
I don’t want to sound like a dick. But do you really think housing, housing prices are going to get cheaper. Like, there’s really long term. There’s nowhere to go. But up. So I mean, if you’re waiting, the housing prices are getting more expensive. And if you’re saving money up to buy them, they’re getting more expensive than you are earning on your savings, right. So it’s something that is running away from you faster than you can save money for it. So I mean, you it’s in your own best interest to get moving on this stuff. The longer you wait, the harder it gets.
And something Yeah, never thought about that it’s running away from you faster than you can catch up to it. That’s kind of a good way to break it down. Because that’s exactly what’s happening, especially between the difference with incomes and asset prices. Something I find myself explaining a lot to people is you know, everything that you went through, I’m like, Well, if you’re worried about damage, or vacancies and properties, there’s insurance for that. I mean, you can get insurance now it’s going to cost you more than regular insurance. But it didn’t exist a lot. It didn’t exist 10 years ago, some of these insurance programs, but some and some insurers now have programs where they were in where they will insure against vacancies, they will ensure against tenant damage, all the things that are your fears, they will insurance. In the last three or four years, I’ve seen more investor insurance programs that I ever thought would be available to any of us. Again, I just want to say you do pay higher rates for this kind of stuff. But if that’s something that’s holding you back, it’s something to consider. And then to your point, you do, I feel you do have to protect yourself for property prices to go down. Because even though I’m kind of with you, like I don’t think property prices are going down, especially in this market with our population growth. You to me you it doesn’t grant you the the permission to buy properties that you can’t hold for 10 years. And what I mean by that is don’t buy a property just because of the appreciation and you’re going to eat negative $500 a month on cash flow, because you’re expecting the property go up because we do see that where people will buy properties just for the appreciation because quote unquote properties can only go up. And I would say that’s not the right approach still buy properties where you can cover your costs or create cash flow. And then you’re protected from any market. So totally agree. Right? Yeah. And I know you agree with that kind of stuff. But But I’m kind of with you. I’m like I don’t know, especially in the GTA where property prices are going to go. And I guess I’m putting you on the spot here, Dan. But the other any other lessons are looking back any anything that you guys have learned? Over the years on something that you would wish you had done differently? Or a fear that never came to fruition? Or did come to fruition? Just looking back anything you would change or do differently with your investing.
I’m struggling to come up with an answer.
Either always been afraid of my tenants, I think and my wife is stepped up to bat and helped out a lot more than then I’d like to admit. So I give her great credit for that I’m I’m doing my best to I’m not afraid of them. I just have a hard time being the hard the hard ass with them, right. But I have no problem phones doing like, you know, the email thing I could you know, but I’ve grown up and I’ve evolved and and I’m more able to communicate with them now. So hats off to my wife. And I’d say to the average person that if your spouse is not on board with you, this is going to be a little more difficult for you then if they are on board with you. So I think you should get that worked out early. And if not get yourself a partner.
You can
listen you’re not alone on being scared tense. I’ll never forget this first tune rental property Nick and I purchased I Nick was on vacation when we took possession. And I had to go and cut the grass and they cold saying that the microwave broke. And I didn’t realize that the microwave was like the past tenants that we weren’t really taking responsibility of the microwave, but I thought we had to at that time. So I went to a friend’s house. He had a microwave in his garage that he had wanted some bachelor party or something. I paid him like 50 bucks for this microwave. And then I collapsed my lawn mower and my Honda Civic and I jammed it into the trunk of my car and my trunk wouldn’t close. I like I bungee cord it closed. And I broke early. Yeah, that was the one more Sorry, that was a lot more of the trunk in the microwave was like in the backseat. And I went and I dropped off the microwave like on the front steps. But I didn’t even like knock at the door because I’m like, Okay, I’ll just leave it here. I’m going to go cut the grass, maybe they’ll just see it there. And I won’t even have to deal with them because I was petrified. And I remember cutting the grass and one of the tenants was looking at me through the window of the kitchen in the backyard as I was cutting the grass, and I kind of saw them looking at me, and I felt was like a horror movie because I was scared of them. But then the curtains kind of closed. And I’m like, are they scared of me too. And I was just like, so petrified. And then I went in the house because a couple locks had to be changed. And I changed the locks while they were staring at me. You know, and you know how nervous You know, you’re staring. So yeah, they were just like looking over me as I change the locks because some of the students doors I don’t know where the keys wouldn’t fit or something. So I’m went in there changed a couple of weeks, I cut the grass, like I gave them their microwave. And I remember leaving, I must have been sweat. Like I must have been just pure sweat out of just fear and intimidation. I didn’t even have to ask for rent. I didn’t have to do anything like that would you know, maybe be a little bit scary. And I was just completely petrified of the whole experience, man. So Dan, you’re not alone. We even had one other guy who called us a coward over email. We saw him this is when we were much more confident we had experience. And we saw him at the property he was moving out. And he sent us an email calling us a coward. And this particular property I think we got into an argument over who had last month’s rent. Like we clearly in this case, for some reason didn’t collect last month’s rent, I forget why like I would never advise doing that. Anyway, there’s some disagreement on it. He moves out calls us a coward. And I remember getting that email and even over email, it was slightly scared. I’m like, Oh my God, this guy sounds like what the heck is he gonna come looking for me or something. But and that was when I had experience. Now we’re well past that. We have full confidence in everything that we’re doing. And tenants don’t really intimidate us in any capacity. So if you ever need help with anything at all, I feel like a rock star. We should have like the SWAT team, where there’s like, you know, you’re on call with the volunteer the fire department right now. I feel like we should have a SWAT team of rock star members who are just on call to deal with any kinds of situation. So based on the situation, you can call in the right people to deal with a new imagine.
Like an in house advisory team. Yeah,
totally, totally. But anyway, Dan, anything else you wanted to share before we wrap this
up? I’ve got more stories than the dog and cats but I don’t think we have the time
we share we share one more crazy story share one of your favorite crazy story.
So I had a my second property and bury the big rent own sign goes on the front lawn. The neighbors next door I guess they didn’t want a renter or a rent to owner. So every single time I went to that property, the rent own sign was knocking down. They were gonna say stolen and there was there was bicycle tracks over it like often. And every single time that I went there to show off the property, they were like revving up engines in the front lawn or mow in the backyard or something like that like to make lots of noise. And the teenagers were sitting on the hood of somebody’s car in the driveway. I had a mom and a daughter, she’s the daughter’s 1315, something like that. They said the most horrible thing about her and it’s like, what do I do here? What’s the right thing to do? My mom certainly gave them a dress and down. Right? Like, you don’t say that to anybody in public, right? But that’s just the kind of mindset that that these people had, right? So we moved in this monstrous big, you know, a big guy, a construction worker that it just come from the Alberta oil sands. They would not have screwed with him at all. They’d have been scared of him. It was awesome. And he was a he was a great Dan’s revenge on the property.
I can’t believe they were on the other side of the property on their property wrapping their engines, like what is that some kind of weird?
Like, they wanted to make it as unpleasant as possible for me to fill that property. Right. So at the same time, I’ve got a vacancy in Hamilton. So I’m in Barry one day I’m in Hamilton the next I’m very I’m in Hamilton. I’m in Barry. I’m in Hamilton, I’m going to bury to show off a property. I’m called for a tornado strike a horse farm. They’ve got 400 people on the property and there’s people injured and it’s like, I’ve got three. I’m like, my finances are absolutely redline. You know, I’ve got my mortgage, I’ve got a second mortgage. I’ve got Hamilton and I’ve got Barry. And it’s like, oh my god, how am I going to pay for this? The advertising, it’s just insane. You know how how expensive it is to put ads in the paper. So, you know, and I’m doing it in two cities, and no one is going to run how expensive it was. But if you if you don’t know how expensive was to advertise, the papers were pricey, Holy crow. So I’ve got three families coming. I’m desperate. And I’m getting called for this, you know, tornado hit this horse farm with 400 people on site, and there’s injuries and it’s like, what is the right thing to do there? That is such a horrible moral dilemma for me. And I wound up turning my car around on the road on the way to bury like for like 1234 times. It was just bad. You know, I wound up having to go to bury and show my property. I didn’t want to lose my house. Right? Yeah,
absolutely. So that’s good sometimes to before you can save the world, you need to save yourself.
Yeah. So it’s it was 52 days, where I had both properties empty. And that is because I think I’m
I’m not the best
landlord when it comes to showing off my places. And, you know, I think I like I said, I’m scared of people, right? I’m not a sale, he
doing a great job, man, you’re doing a great job. For you sharing all this today, you’re doing an awesome job.
And I’m sober. That’s the best part.
That’s pretty rare. I don’t think when we first met 10 years ago, you would have sat down and shared stuff like this. But you know, what you’re sharing I think is really important for everyone all of us to hear, because we’ve all been through those moments where you’re stretching your finances, to the limit. And I think when you’re trying to build your asset base, we all kind of go to that dark place. And I think looking back now, I feel lucky that I scraped through a few times. And that’s probably something I would just advise anyone that always make sure you have access to some liquid cash somewhere and anticipate, you know, we always say be short term paranoid with real estate, but long term optimistic, because you never know what’s going to happen. Maybe you are going to have some vacancies that go longer, Nick and I once filled seven or seven or nine properties and forgetting now in a row on the very first show. And we were getting so confident we’re like, oh my gosh, I guess we’re the best. Like I guess now we are like what you would call awesome real estate investors. We hit this next property took us five months to find a tenant. And that property was perfect. We cut the grass, we maintained it just through circumstances like someone was ready to sign up. But then they had a family situation change. So they bailed on us, then we had to re advertise the property. So just through different circumstances, five months to fill it. So I find real estate is a very humbling thing. The moment that you figure though, yeah, got it all figured out,
get cocky and you get knocked down just as fast. It’s great.
It’s totally, it’s totally great. But But you survived that period. So your finances were pushed to the limit. But then what you got tenants in both properties? Yes, we did.
Yeah. Got it. Very happy with it. Got it. Yeah, I’m 30 months later, the big big oil worker bought the place out, we made a very healthy profit profit off of that. So that was a really, really fast rent. Oh,
yeah. Cool. Yeah. It’s funny how some workout like that, right. And it’s also funny, I feel how your context changes in real estate, Nick, and I had a rent to own property by out last week, and some money was deposited into one, you know, one of our bank accounts and stuff. And I guess like 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, we would have probably been, like jumping up and down and celebration. And now like, if context changes, someone was like, Oh, so how much is the taxes going to be like, how are we What did you tell the accountant about that’s happening? You know, yeah, like, it just turns into, like an almost an everyday thing. And sometimes I think we need to pause and kind of reflect and say, Holy smokes, you know, that’s kind of a lump of cash that would have taken us who knows how long to make when we were in our 20s. And now that’s just hitting our bank account. And we doesn’t it doesn’t even really faze us. And I don’t mean to be arrogant in any way. I just mean, sometimes your context changes, right. So, Dan, just watching you and Laura from the outside. We’re, we’re we’re totally impressed with you guys. Man. You guys have seen through everything, and you deserve everything coming your way. But you shared that cool story there anything else on your mind that you wanted to get off your chest before we wrap? Now?
Yeah, that’s fine.
I’ll find something
dramatic. No, but Dan, really, thank you for sharing this really. I mean, we feel fortunate to have cross paths with both of you guys. Were pumped to see pictures of you guys traveling around the world and doing cool stuff with your kids. And that kind of stuff. really means a lot. You’re sitting here with a rockstar t shirt on that you actually made this Rockstar t shirt and said is because I have a version of this at home. This is the
unauthorized Rockstar. Sure, yeah,
totally. were you gonna say something there?
So I was one of those guys in a dead end job, no pension, no benefits that I absolutely hated. Okay, my dreams were dead. I felt like a failure. And I hated my life. So it’s 10 years later. All right. I’ve got new dreams. They don’t feel like a failure anymore. I think my retirements looking pretty good. You know? So this is sort of, I don’t know, I don’t want to say the word redeemed. I don’t have the right word. But you understand where I’m coming from here like this. This is a life changing thing for me. And I’m really grateful that I’ve gotten involved in this real estate investing with Rockstar. So I mean, you know, thanks.
Let’s leave it at that, man. Thank you, Dan. Thanks for sharing that. Really appreciate it, man. Thank you,
everyone, it’s Tom crowds again. So hopefully you enjoyed that chat with Dan Millman, great guy, like I mentioned, I’m just grateful that he would come on and share his his journey and his story like that. And if you are listening to this, and you want some more real estate investing information, you can get that at Rockstar, inner circle.com forward slash books. That’s a free copy of our book that we sell on amazon.ca of all our books are on Amazon, actually, you can get free digital copies of them at rock star inner circle.com, forward slash books, and someone was asking me, why do you give away your books for free. And the whole idea for giving away the books is that we feel that if we can give away enough good, valuable information that one day, if you’re in the Greater Toronto Area, you might think, hey, I want to work with these guys. And I want to buy some investment properties with these guys. And that’s our whole intent. To give good information, hopefully be helpful. Maybe one day you’ll think of coming out and meeting us and we’ll work together. That’s the whole idea. So if you want a copy of one of our books, you can buy it on Amazon or you can get a free digital copy at Rockstar inner circle, calm forward slash books. That’s it for now. Until next time, your life your terms.
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