Luxury Real Estate Trends, Strategies, Updates & Living Life to Win with Special Guest Ruben Furtado

Transcript

00:00:00 Hey, it’s Tom Karadza and listen, the reason I like talking to Ruben Furtado on this show is that this is somebody who is living life to win and not playing to lose. You know, he’s not playing that defense. You know, whenever you watch sports and there’s someone, one of your favorite teams get to lead and then they go into this defensive mode and they try to protect the lead and they end up losing. I always get frustrated with that and in life I feel like a lot of people are playing not to lose or not playing to win. He Ruben has baffled me over the years when he’s done real estate flips where I’m literally warning him on the side saying, hey man, hey dude, be careful. I don’t want you to lose your shirt on this thing. And he go, he, he will double down. We do hear him describe some of the projects he’s worked on this podcast where he will double down on what he’s doing and still come out winning on these things.

00:00:44 So just a great guy. Good friend. We met each other a long time ago. We’ve been through a lot of stuff together so it just nice to sit down and chat. Some real estate. We kick off the talk, talking about his mic. I couldn’t get his mike quite sad and we talk about just some odds and ends so it takes us a few minutes to get started, but if you’re wondering what’s going on, I hit record and it took us just a couple of minutes that gets set up there, so you’re hearing us just banter back and forth a little bit as we’re going and I just decided to leave that in. Anyway. If you are listening to this, just so you know, people like Ruben Furtado or the types of people who are hanging out and attending the your life, your terms events that we put it on.

00:01:16 The next one is Saturday, February second, so it’s coming up in a few weeks. If you are listening to this and you are a rockstar inner circle member and you have not registered yet, then you need to register contact that. We have hundreds of people registered for this thing. Reach out to the office and register. If you’re not a rockstar inner circle member and you want to learn more about this, you can go to this website. It’s your life, your terms event.com. That’s your life, your terms event.com at this thing, we’re going to be doing a brand new economic update. There’s a ton of stuff going on in Canada and the global economy that’s affecting us here and we’re always looking at this closely because the biggest thing that will dictate the future of the real estate market in Canada is a lot of it’s going to be access to credit and interest rates and we want to know what’s going on in China.

00:02:01 We want to know what’s happening with trump and Trudeau and the tariffs. We want to know what’s going on with the GM plant in Oshawa. We want to know what’s going on with China and Europe and how it all comes back and affects us here locally, so we’re doing an economic update. We have a great guest speaker coming out describing how he started the archangel summit here in Toronto. We’re giving a local market update. We’re talking about, listen, there’s two rock star members who are literally doing something incredible there are severing off a piece of land from an existing property that they have and building on it, like talking about, talk about being creative and making money from something you’re already sitting on. They already had this lot or severing off a piece and they’re building on it. We’re talking about tax updates, how to, how to also pass on your real estate from one generation to the next, which is a super complicated, not a very easy thing to do.

00:02:46 We’re bringing our accountant to break that down, break that specific thing down and a whole bunch of other stuff. So if you want to get all the updates of what we’re going to be covering on February second, it’s your life, your terms of [inaudible] dot com. And listen, this thing starts at 8:30. We jam it a packed until about 1:30. So that’s a timeframe. So, uh, we opened the doors at 7:30 AM. Um, so there’s some networking time, time to register, get your seat. And then we kind of go from 8:30 to 1:30 pretty hard. Um, we love doing this stuff. Will get a kick out of it. I mean putting them together sometimes gets a little stressful, I will admit, but in general, when we’re there at the event and get to share everything and hang out with everyone, it’s absolute blast. So Saturday, February second, that’s the next one. Your life, your terms event is where you can go check out the details of your life, your terms event.com. With that, let’s get on with the show.

00:03:33 Are you ready to live life on your terms? Is it time to take charge business? Building the economy, health and nutrition. And it’s your life, your term show with Tom and Nick Karadza, are you ready? Let’s go.

00:04:00 Okay, we’re, we’re, we’re recording. Just so you know. But what are you pulling these stats from? I don’t know, I just googled talking to the mic and speak into the microphone. That’s how microphones work. You know, you speak into the mic. No, no, don’t bring it close to you here. I can move it around. Okay, good. I haven’t had anyone set up the system. Can you hear yourself? I can’t. Oh, I had to turn down the head side a little bit, but were you pulling these stats? Uh, I don’t know. I googled it says because they weren’t on the list. Oh yeah. That’s a big trend right now, but it has nothing to do with becoming a Mendelian minimalist. This is the title of this is 17 staggering statistics about our shopping habits and you’re telling me Americans spend more money on eating out than groceries.

00:04:45 I can totally believe that though. I can totally believe that you’re going to want. When I traveled to the states, when we traveled to the states, have you noticed what kind of good food you can get at different restaurants compared to here? Like there’s amazing food options. I get it, but. Oh, this one, number nine. When asking you about hobbies, girls of the ages, 13 to 18, identify shopping as her favorite pastime. A hobby, but that’s probably always been the case like that. No, it’s a hobby. Yeah. I don’t know why this is the kind of stuff you look at. Can you speak into the mic? I’m going to have to jam this Mike over the whole week. Hell yeah. There we go. There we go. So for everyone, if anyone listening to this, this is the relationship that we have. We basically, he yells at me and I yelled back at him, you know, to prepare for this. I took a coffee bar. See this chocolate bar? It’s not even chocolate bar here because I thought I better get some caffeine in myself because I’m going to have to carry this podcast. So I thought I should. And you’re drinking your coffee. So you’re doing this. This is the toxicant cause this is like what we have. And listen for your drink.

00:05:45 The coffee that you’re drinking right now. Listen, the coffee that you’re drinking right now is 10 times better than the coffee that you know. It definitely is. You’re, you’re buying a stale coffee. I think I mentioned this already before. Where someone, you know who this came from? Our kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. But our kitchen coffee is going to be better with whatever you were telling us last time you drank, you said you drove you by stale beans on sale, on sale, on sale beings, on sale at winners. And by the time it gets to winners, those beans have been around a long time. So these coffee beans are better. Trust me. Listen. You know what? I was just thinking when before we sat down here that. Do you remember the time I was driving a Honda civic and I think you already had some BMW convertible or something when we were still both in the corporate world.

00:06:27 And I’m like, Hey Ruben, I will drive for lunch. I remember that. And then, uh, you know, and, and you, I think you said something like, okay. And then you started, you saw what caught my eye. I was so proud of my car. It was a four-door civic stick with manual windows and mint condition. Perfect condition. Yeah. Perfect condition, cloth interior, no upgrades. Um, and, uh, you looked at the car like, no, no, it’s okay. I’ll drive. Do you remember that? I did. Why wouldn’t you want to get in my civic? I just like driving my car. Okay. So it’s not that you didn’t want to be seen in my civic. That’s.

00:06:59 Oh my God. You. Okay. Listen, I’m going to ask you some real estate questions in a, in a, in a second. But before I do, there’s a UFC fight coming up. You know, there’s a UFC delusion right? Yet it Dillashaw he’s going down to fight. I didn’t even know the guy’s championing because I think they’re eliminating that, that weight class or are there? They’re talking about it. Who? I always terrible with names. Who? Yeah. I don’t know his name either. We can google it up. But uh, are you picking, I guess Tj Dillashaw you’re picking. I don’t know. They’re saying he might not make weight because he’s going to drop down. I don’t know. That guy seems pretty discipline discipline. I didn’t think he was going to be. What’s his face? The other guy, Cody Garbrandt beat him twice and he didn’t. We were at that one in the Madison Square Gardens.

00:07:43 Remember first the GSP card? A credit card. So, um, yeah. So that’s happening and I just feel like there’s a couple other UFC things happening. Like Jon Jones is gonna fight again. I don’t even know who he’s fighting and I don’t even know who he was fighting. Not excited to watch that one. I’m not excited either. The only thing I am excited to see is, you know what I want to see. I want to see Khabib fight. GSP. That’s what you want to see. I want to see GSP come back and fight Khabib. Like I know they’re talking about the Conor Khabib rematch, but I want to see GSP, Khabib, those two guys. I just want to see them go out at GSB still not over the hill. I mean he’s getting older but like it’s got to happen pretty much this year. Otherwise it’s going to be too old.

00:08:21 It’s not going to be so good. Greed is. But there are talking about Khabib. Connor rematch. Um, which I don’t even know if I’m, I would buy it. Actually. No, I say it. I wouldn’t buy it to your. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, listen, um, I want to, I’m going to ask you some stuff about the higher-end real estate stuff. How do you pick an opportunity like when you’re working with a client or you’re looking at it for yourself, how are you, like, what makes you look at the opportunity, like something that you’re interested in or something that you would advise someone because we’re dealing with several million dollars and uh, how would you know I’m not talking about, for those of you listening who don’t know, I should explain. Ruben typically works with higher-end luxury real estate. We’re not talking about a home that you might buy for four, five, six, 700,000. You might be talking about the lane is going to be 2 million and then you’re going to spend 2 million or more to build on it. What makes you look at an opportunity and say, okay, I think that thing has potential. And the reason I’m asking is usually your track record has been freaky strong. Um, what makes you look at that?

00:09:26 Well, first of all, I look at certain trends, right? I want to make sure that I’m still closer. Yeah. This thing like. Well no because you turn your headphones down to the headphones. Not The mic. Yeah. No, I know. But if the headphones are turned down. Okay, go ahead. Okay, we’re good. Okay. Yeah, we’re good. Yeah. No we’re good. Yes, it is better. Right? You know why? Because I just turned that up and then do that rather than having this mic right up against my lips. I don’t know what bacteria is on here. I’ll get, go, go. Alright. So, uh, first thing, will you look at certain trends. We want to make sure that anything that we’re doing, we’re not forecasting a sale based on. Oh, potentially this might go up like where we’re starting now. It’s a one year project or two year project or let’s say it’s a long development project.

00:10:15 We’re not taking any natural appreciation. We’re looking at if today we can wave a magic wand by this at this much, whatever that price is. Let’s say it’s a million dollars for land or 2 million for land and we’re going to spend a million or 2 million on a build that we know today that we could sell it for x and generally what we’re looking at is on a $3,000,000 investment we want to be making at a minimum a million, right? On a $4,000,000 investment at a minimum one point 5 million, because where does that number come from? It just benchmarks that were set from other projects that we say, okay, we’ve traditionally done this, so let’s that be the benchmark and anything above that above and beyond that we’re content with. So if in that area we see houses that are selling, again, let’s just take that. So it’s a.

00:11:03 we’re all in it for a million, but yet there’s houses that are currently selling in today’s market at 6 million. We know there’s a $2,000,000 margin, so that’s pretty simple, right? When you do the math and look at that way, a lot of other folks, what they run into is they’re like, okay, they just see houses selling in the area and they think I can build anything and everything’s selling here so I should be fine and it’s a great investment because it’ll sell for a similar price, similar price, but they don’t know why. The other one that sold, let’s say again, whatever price it is at 6 million, they don’t know why it’s sold at 6 million. That is probably more important to know the why than what it sold for.

00:11:40 Yeah. Got It. Okay. And I’ve seen you do that before explaining why that particular house is selling for that price and a different house that might just be around the block, around the blood, literally around the block, isn’t it? It’s making me think, you know, there’s that house in Oakville. Do you know that one that’s really modern built? It’s a modern build or modern looking home kind of. I’m in Oakville, it’s been listed for some time, just south of upper middle west of Trafalgar. Um, you know, that area, I should have printed that one off. I totally want it. Next time you hear, I totally want your thoughts on this, on this particular modern home, but uh, I’ve seen you do that many times where you’re like, okay, the reason this house is selling for $6 million is because of this. Whereas the one around the block, we can’t bank on the 6 million because of x, y, and zed, right?

00:12:24 Um, so okay, so that’s what you’re doing all the time. And then how are you able to, um, how were you able to see those kinds of opportunities? Because I’ve seen you do weird things where you’ll take like irregular lot shapes, you know, how like, a lot of people will just take a standard square or rectangular lot. Um, you’ll take narrow lot like I’ve seen you take, it’s weird. I’ve seen you take reverse pilots, reverse Pi actually that house, remember that Rochester, Rochester, that house was on a reverse pie, which most people don’t want the front yard wider and bigger than the backyard. But you were able to take that house and you sold it for an ungodly premium in that particular that was in a subdivision area in Oakville. You basically tore the house to the studs. Do you remember when everything was blowing in the wind and the neighbors couldn’t sleep at night because I think the, the, the, uh, the, the kind of like vapor barrier stuff was just smashing against the house.

00:13:17 Then the blown insulation in the attic actually escape the attic and went into our neighbor’s lawn and it was during snowing, so it kind of melted. And then they had dogs were eating it. No. Yeah,
00:13:29 like that pink insulation that you, the dogs started eating it. You, what happened to the dogs?

00:13:34 Uh, we quickly cleaned it up. Right. So you basically didn’t tell the neighbors, know the neighborhoods. I was the one that you were there, like immediately cleaning it up. So we were really apologetic. Our neighbors were great. I think they were really excited to see this house because again, it was a seven year old house, perfectly fine. And nobody could understand why we were tearing it apart brick by brick. But to get to your point, you know, looking at a reverse pie, people would shy away from that. They’re like, no, the values in the backyard, right? Because that’s your living space. But what we did there is nobody had a three car driveway, right? But because we had a reverse pie, we were able to widen our driveway. So we took something that was a negative asset, right? And we actually turned it into a positive asset and because the backyard wasn’t that big, we now can increase our budget on a cost per square foot of how we’re going to finish it off.

00:14:24 So we had like, you know, yeah, you did. Super high end. I remember the pool, the hot tub back there, like you literally walked out of the kitchen and you were walking over these floating concrete pads that had like a waterfall feature with stones and lights in it and everything like that. And again, very modern, um, with like different tiered areas. So. And then we had a lot of landscaping creating some privacy, which the other houses, they may have it a bigger backyard, a lot of wasted space where here we define the spaces as a sitting area as a patio area. And then basically the, what I would say the recreational area, which was where the hot tub was. But sometimes you just selling these ideas to yourself. Like this is a, is a three car driveway. Really that big of a deal. Absolutely. I say that and I know because Aiden’s now starting to drive and we just, we just got him Nick’s wife’s old car, which they were about to trade in for pretty much nothing.

00:15:17 We bought it. So he’s going to drive that. Do you know that? No, that just happened yet. We just got it for him. He doesn’t get his full G2 until February, so a few weeks away. So he’s going to get that car. It doesn’t. There’s nothing wrong with the car. But I don’t know if he envisioned quite that car as the car. He but he’s, he’s obviously thrilled. I’m super pumped. And uh, yeah, we could use the three car garage, a three car garage, and that’s why I’m hesitating. I’m like, Geez, you know, and, and that’s all you now does that really come into premium? It’s, I don’t think commands a premium, right? I think that on its own. But what we did is if anybody was going to object to decide as the backyard, we can say, well, hey, in this, this is what we’re offering in compensation for that.

00:16:00 And by the way, the backyard, what else would you want back there? And the majority of the time it was like, I wouldn’t change a thing. So it’s no longer an objection, right? Yeah. Yeah. Because even though it’s a reverse pie, you finished the backyard so nicely that people had that wow factor. But what one thing watching you do all the different properties you’ve worked on over the years is I see you make some of these decisions in real time. Yes. Like, which kind of baffles my mind because hearing you talk about this particular Rochester property, this reverse pie, it’s almost like you had this plan from the beginning, but what really freaks me out is that I’ve seen you go headfirst into projects where I’m concerned for you because I’m like, Ruben, I don’t think you’re going to sell this house on this reverse pie in a subdivision and you’re going to do a mall.

00:16:42 You’re going to tear it down basically to the studs, to the exterior and the interior, and then you’re going to rebuild the house and you’re going to sell this for some crazy premium. I don’t think you’re going to do it, and then you go and do it. Which kind of freaks me out. And then hearing you talk about it, you’re like, yeah, well I did this and this and this, but I see you in real time making those decisions. So is it just that you have confidence in yourself when you’re going into these projects? You know what I’m talking about here, right? Because many times you’re throwing a curveball and you’ll turn it into a positive. Yeah, yeah, so every decision along the way with that house from the day that we bought that property, I already envisioned what it was going to look like.

00:17:21 I wasn’t so much concerned about that property of what it was going to solve for because that was going to be what I felt was our forever home. Right. So if I wasn’t making money on that, I wasn’t too concerned. Um, however, as I was making decisions, old Ruben clicked in, which was, hey, if I spend this, if I’m going to do whatever it is, am I going to sell it faster and for more money the day that I sell it. Right. And keep in mind because you even turn it into a three bedroom. I did. You turned it from a four bedroom down to a three bedroom. But I also knew that that would be a, that would hinder me in selling it later. So when I, when I changed it to a three bedroom, because I’ve made it this massive, a master bedroom en suite with a, a huge closet.

00:18:04 The closet was like 30 feet long, both sides at the end of the closet, if you remember, it was like a TV. No, it was great. It was a Florida ceiling mirror with a TV behind it to these beautiful chandeliers with a really nice bench down the middle. Like the closet was like a showpiece. So that was what was originally through the fourth bedroom. So even though for us we wanted the three bedroom and the bigger closet, what I did is I had already pre-framed adore to that closet though, those drywalled over and everything like that. And there was still a window at registered, like uh, for the, for heat supply and a return and all that stuff. So that I knew that eventually if I sold this house, I’m going to advertise it. It was a four bedroom. When people come through, they’re going to like a four bedroom.

00:18:46 It’s a three bedroom, like, no, no, no. At this price point, here’s the floor plan. I’m converting it back to a four bedroom for you. So the reason that was important is when somebody setting up a search criteria and they’re looking to spend $2,000,000, their expectation based on value is I want this big a house in this area, it’s got to be four bedrooms, two car garage, and I wanted to make sure that this house hit the radar. But if it didn’t show up as a four-bedroom on the listing, no one would ever see it. Right? Or very few people would see it that way. So the funny thing is the guy who bought it, I asked them, do you want me to convert it to a four bedroom? He said, absolutely not. So I was already. I’m always anticipating what the objection is and making sure that I already have a solution for that.

00:19:25 Right. It’s funny because I think in life a lot of people don’t play to win. Like I think a lot of people play defensive life. Like what they do is they try to spend the least amount of money possible. They always try to see if they’re getting ripped off. They spend so much time figuring out how the world is screwing them, that they don’t leave enough freedom or space in their mind or in their lives to take action and when. Right. And I always believe that, like if you look at Conor Mcgregor, the UFC, and I swear I’m tying this back to real estate, but if you look at economy McGregor in, um, in the UFC, I’m, he played to win. He just said, bring on whoever you’re going to, Dana, whoever you want me to fight all fight somebody drops out of the fight.

00:20:05 I don’t care. Replace them with whoever you want. When you thought Nate Diaz, Nate Diaz was like two weeks, one week class. And it depends where Conor was at that time, but let’s say one or two week classes higher than him. I don’t care. I’m going to fight him. Loses and shakes it off, comes back, does a rematch and winds. Right? And I just feel like he plays to win. When you look at a lot of these UFC fighters right now, they’re always like, kind of trying to protect their legacy. They’re trying to protect their record, right. Choose who they fly, they don’t want to fight certain people and it makes us feigns Kinda Kinda bored with them and they make less money. Whereas Connor kind of just went for. He played to win. Yeah. And glad you said that because it literally a light bulb just went off as you’re saying it.

00:20:44 I think as I was making those decisions that I’m going to like. I’ll give an example of one of my very first builds. My budget was one point, 1 million. We brought this, we talked about a number of times. You’ve done the last podcast. I ended up spending two point $2 million to build. I know, I remember. Okay. So if anybody’s hearing you doubled your budget so. And were you worried? Yeah, I mean it was certainly the. Obviously I was aware of what was going on, but the reason why it was so easy for me to make those decisions, it’s not because I had the money to bloat me, right? Because this, like I literally put everything I remember. I remember this house and they could have gone, but the reason that I was looking at it is I’m like, what is worst case if I, if I do all these things and I really believe this is the right decision, if I spend this much money on a self this much for this much more of this fast and this much faster.

00:21:33 Right? Or you know what I’m trying to say that. What is the worst case? If I’m wrong, the worst case, if I’m wrong, based on my initial analogy, which is what I’m buying it for, what I intend to sell for it because the margins were so high. Worst case is I would break even. So what did I want you scared. So on that particular one, I was scared for you because you were already sending a price. Like I remember on that price. I think at first you were going to try and sell it for like $3,000,000. And I remember thinking, Okay Ruben, be careful. Like that’s high end real estate market can change, be it, be careful. I was worried for you. You just went in, did it? And then when your budget doubled, you weren’t gonna make any money at 3 million, you’re probably going to lose money at 3 million.

00:22:16 So I guess we’re the fear from someone from the outside comes is like, like, Holy Shit Dude, I think you’re pushing up against the, the, the high end here. So to add an extra million dollars onto your build isn’t just playing to win. It’s a little bit crazy. Do you know what I mean? Do then again to again, just to correct you on the numbers. When I originally bought the lot and thought of building the original budget was to sell was around the two, two to four. Okay. All right. Okay. And then as we started spending money, then I said, okay, I’m going to get three and then I continue to spend more money. And I’m like. And I really believe the four or five was the right number. And I knew this is what’s crazy too. And we’re getting a little off topic. But I knew that anybody that if I even listed this thing at four or five, everybody would look at me and like, what the hell are you on?

00:23:00 Like the most expensive house in this area that similar size is two, two. And you’re at. And that’s a brand new house, right? You’re almost done. You’re asking four or five. So if I already knew they were going to call me crazy. Do you remember when some people told you to your face? I’m never bringing any of my clients by because I will never associate my name with this. Yes, I do. So either way. Here’s what. So I already knew that people were gonna call me crazy. And I also looked at the trend on these properties that were in that price point. There was a huge Delta between the list price and the sale price. So people still want to have a bit of a deal. So they’re going to call me crazy instead of again listing it at the four or five. I ended up listing it. It was like five to. And is that what you were originally listed? As far as I think how crazy like like even 3 million people would have said, what is the kind of situation you walked

00:23:45 into that one, so now I know we’re talking about a different property, but you walked into that one and you were going to list it at one price and you enlisted matt at some magical number. That’s a way higher, but to yourself you’re selling yourself. So sometimes when I see you do this, I don’t know if you’re just selling yourself, which is interesting to me. I’m like, is Ruben like, is he selling himself that this is going to be okay as a self defense mechanism or is he like really deep? Because I know you’re very good analytical. When you look at real estate, there is no one there. No one really. I’ve seen it do it the way you do it. You will crunch the numbers. You’ll look at, you know, every house in the area, you’ll know every house in Ontario that you’re competing against. So then part of me is like, I don’t know if he’s just doing that to keep himself seen or does he really have the data to back up these decisions

00:24:30 so I would get the data to keep myself sane. Right. And um, yeah, absolutely. As I’m, as I’m making these decisions, it wasn’t coming out of thicker, like again, coming up with a price point, I would look at it and almost out of thin air. No. So, so thin air. You’re right.

00:24:47 No, but you could say thick hair. No, I thought you were just trying to clear it. You were trying to comment on your hair versus my hair. I thought you were trying to say it like you’re thick hair and my hair, but then that’s fine.

00:24:57 It’s okay. So, um, yeah, now I’m like completely.

00:25:01 Yeah, me too. But you know, you were going to go, you, uh, you originally got the data to justify the price and then you use that data, I guess to feel comfortable with listing it at the higher price. Yeah.

00:25:10 So again, and then when we were about to list, this goes with any property, it’s not just the ones that we’re working on, any house that we’re going to list, even if we think the price is going to that it had, that precedent has been set. The first question is is at today, if we were to list it at this desirable price, desirable for the seller, what is our competition? Right. And I had no competition right at that price point that I was listed. There was nothing. As you moved into a price category where there was like no one plank, but even below me, it could have been stuff that’s 2 million. No one was going to offer something that was basically south of Lakeshore. That was a hot 100 foot lot. I created all this criteria that literally mitigated all my competition. The fact that I went with a four-car garage, right?

00:25:57 So I literally set it up so that I could not lose. I’m like, okay, you tell me where there’s a house that’s going to be close to 6,000 square feet above grade that has like a multilevel home theater. It wasn’t like a simple two-level was like a three level home three with a secret passageway. What’s the secret password? And that was your idea, right? Which people love. So that all played into the strategy and when we said, okay, who has that? The next closest house was 6 million. Yeah, I was going to be in the bridal path and Toronto or something. But that was, you had either you buy mine at four or five or you buy the other one in 6 million and that’s what we try to set ourselves up to do. Right. But the biggest game changer and all of that I still think is that how do you get somebody to buy that?

00:26:36 So yeah, logically it all makes sense for them, but how do you get them to do it? And I really think in it pretty much across the of purchases that people make. They buy on emotion. Right? And that’s what we did. Like it wasn’t even about the house, it’s what that person felt when they went in the house. And how do you think you built that? Just something you did with the house or you just think the design of the house itself? No. Okay. So what did you do? The design play are playing music and baking cookies. It’s everything. It is. So when you were showing that house, I remember the home theater actually the front doors left and right. Didn’t you have them. At that time it would have been plasma TVs or whatever turned up on their ends. So if like the Leafs were playing the Bruins or whatever, you could put the Toronto Maple Leaf logo on the left.

00:27:19 Are you referring to the entrance to the, to the home theater. It was kind of like an old school theater entrance with rounded glass. Yeah. So it. So it had like two steps leading up to these massive double doors with these basically large handles that you would pull in. And then you basically had behind glass. You have those two monitors that were movie posters. So whatever movie was playing inside or whether it was going to be a UFC fight in that card, you’d have the posters on the outside and you would walk in and there was three levels and you had obviously the neon lights. So that created. Do you remember how much Avi equipment you had? A nuthouse? I do, I do. Now you could do that for a fraction of the cost base. Oh yeah, absolutely. So, and then so for the showings, how long did it take you to set it?

00:27:59 Set it up because you’re trying to cut the emotion. So I’ll give you again really good point and I’m going like every house is different but I’m going to tell you number one, we would spend just per showing like when there was a showing what spend $300 prepping for that showing. Right? And it’s crazy because I go through all these houses, whether it be, you know, a normal house in a normal, I don’t want to say normal house, but let’s just say a high end luxury home that is going to be in around 2 million to 3 million. We’ll get to the house right, and first thing they may maybe you know, there were still garbage bins outside or something like that or the grass is not cut like it was literally every little thing that you could possibly think of. So where that $300, wherever that I spent during the showing, I’d literally have the day of like just that morning, have the grass freshly cut with the lions and a 45 degree angle across the entire line.

00:28:49 Right. All my windows right there were. If there was anyone thought that was slightly. I have the guys come clean the windows on the outside. I want my windows spotless because again it was a modern house with a lot of glass and then we would have because of the automation system with the audio and everything like that, we had an audio distribution so we’d be playing music through the entire house. All the TVS would be running like this very high end quality video of the house featuring all the little nuances and architectural features and everything like that. So as you’re going from room to room, you’re seeing that video, but probably the most important thing was that during the showing and whether that that was my house, but it didn’t matter, even if it’s one of our listings, is that there’s somebody there personally greeting the person.

00:29:30 Right. And giving them a bit of introduction and making sure that there’s one or two things that get anchored in their mind that they’re like, oh my God, if they did this, I can imagine all the other things that I’m not noticing and I actually, you would drop a detail of some sorts. And by the way, I’m not gonna take credit for that. It actually, I’ve got to give you thanks for that because you introduced me that book which was build it big. Make it big. Frank Mckinney MCKINNEY’s book. Yeah. And if you remember, there was one thing in there that he said that he actually would, in his houses, which were extravagant, he would actually put a toothbrush in 18 karat gold tooth. I forgot about that. So that when they would see that that would create an anchor if they’ve done that content, that detail what other details am I missing?
00:30:12 And it just literally sends kind of a theme throughout the entire house and that’s what we would do. So when they’re coming in we would just pick one or two things right. And that we would anchor them in terms of value and also in terms of like a feature slash benefit, like a lifestyle thing because one, we have to sell them on the value because if they can’t get over their value there, they’re already shut down. They’re like, this house was overpriced. I don’t care how much I love it, I’m just not buying it. But if you can say hey, the see that house that sold for two point 2 million, like just across the street, well they’re window budget was like 80. My window budget was 240, right. So now value is like, they’re like okay, there’s twice the cost. I don’t have to tell them all the numbers, but just trying to change it so they can’t be an apples to apples comparison.

00:30:55 You’re trying to say, hey, this is just a such a different quality of house and the little emotional pieces are really changing their experience during the viewing. Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, and like I said, it was and it was offering things at other houses didn’t offer like we had like a library that Cabana was. So that was cool. Yeah. So and like I said, I’m, I’m just, maybe I’m talking too much about that specific house, but these, these are just examples and because I heard this from you and I know you probably read it somewhere with all the books that you read, is that you gotta remember when somebody is looking at these houses right there, looking at a lot of them, especially now in the market softer, they’re taking their time to look at more properties and what you want them to do is to remember yours and you shared me, shared with me that what people remember is that time when they’re going through that, that that specific moment they feel something right.

00:31:49 And what we’re trying to do is get them to feel something when they in that house. Right? So, so do you do that even, I guess you’re doing that even with clients when it’s not your house here, that’s something you do? Absolutely. It’s, I mean, nobody will ever appreciate like, Oh, I’ve seen dude, I’ve seen you go into noise. I’ve seen you go before showing it a host. It’s not yours. When they had a pool and skim leaves on the pools. There’s not a single leaf and the pool. I know, I know like, and this is not, this was like a $2,000,000 listing, just under 2 million, but I’m, I get called me buddy. Yes. Oh you don’t like buddy? I don’t know. That was the only brother. No, it’s going to look good. It’s good to keep going. So, um, yeah, so literally getting to the house and I know this sounds so, but it literally, it’s running through it as quickly as possible.

00:32:36 Any like pet toys, hiding them, toilet seats, down, bluffing. Like I literally get toilet paper, a num buffing the faucets so that there isn’t any watermarks on it. Taking the toilet paper and actually creating the little folds that you would see like in a, in a hotel. Um, and just thinking of everything, watch. I’ll even say like, one of the listings that we have is on a busier feeder street and there’s a bit of traffic. I’m so conscious or making an obstacle on the street so that there’s less traffic. No, I wish I could do that. Shut down the street. No, but what I do is when I’m there, as soon as I see the people pull up into the driveway, I don’t want them standing in the driveway. So I’m literally opening up the front door and say, hey guys, how you doing? I’m already kind of literally greeting him and bringing him inside so they’re not sitting outside and hearing cars go by.

00:33:27 Right. And if, let’s say that houses backing onto an area that’s close to a busy area, I’m literally going out and buying a bows like or it could be any speaker, but we have a Bose Bluetooth Speaker that I’m playing music in the background to drown out the noise. Right. And even if a windows open, depending on the direction that the windows open, that might amplify sound coming in from outside, like it is nuts. All these little details running around. He always been like. And I know that people who work with you aren’t even fully maybe, I’m sure there are appreciating it. They don’t even know to the extent of your anal-ness on the property. But, uh, you always been like that. Yeah. Does that come from coming from your days of selling furniture? I think it comes from that. And it’s like, I have this thing I always say to my kids, it’s like when you do your work to your best work, right?

00:34:16 And um, so that’s, that’s part of it. And then the other thing too is again, because we had bought and sold so much for ourselves, that literally every showing was a production. If I looked at it that way. I remember going to your house when you guys were living in those hoses, selling those houses. He was like, you were, your house was, was like a model home. It was perfect. But um, how, where does that mentality come from that I just want to go back to that point of, you know, the reverse pie house and the second one that we were talking about there, where does that mentality come from that you’re feeling confident enough to spend more money? Because most people are looking to cap their budget, not to double their budget. Where does that mentality coming from? Yes. So perfect. If I know that there’s going to be an objection because you must struggle with that when working with some people, because I know you, you basically consult with people doing builds 100 percent.

00:35:10 Yeah. So great example is let’s take that house that was on a busier street. Alright. So again, I would have probably not suggest that they buy there and dealt with the intentions of selling on that street, but it’s too late. So now that they’ve done it and now they’re getting worried, hey, maybe I did it on the wrong street, this is where now they start tightening up. They’re totally panic sets in and now they’re playing not to lose, not to lose. Exactly. And I’m like, no guys, this is where we now have to amp up our game because we know there’s going to be an objection so we have to execute flawlessly. We got to offer something else that somebody else doesn’t have to make up for what we don’t have. Right. So here, this basement wasn’t finished and I’m like, we this, we need to finish this basement because we already have a strike against us.

00:35:58 But they’re already thinking I don’t want to. I don’t want to risk it. I don’t want to spend any more money to want to lose money. I’m not going to finish that. Exactly. Or they’re like, and they’re all done with this place. I’ve been here. It was, it was, it didn’t go as planned. So sometimes it’s not even a money thing. It’s just like, I don’t want to. I don’t even want to come here anymore. I’m just wanting to get rid of it for me. And it’s so sad because literally there’s still potential, right? But they’re making it that much more difficult for them to actually, lease, you know, try to take a bad situation to make the best out of it. Right. And then so where do I buy? I just want to get to this point, why are you confident with that approach?

00:36:38 Are spending more money? Again, that’s not the natural way to go about things. And, and I’ve just, because I’ve seen you do it. Why? Because I’m still looking at what is selling. If there was nothing selling or there was a house. So you’re pulling the data so you feel comfortable. It’s always based on data. Like for example, that same house, if I say, hey, you know there’s other houses that have finished basements, have a pool or in a similar things and they’re still selling at this price. They don’t want to tell them don’t spend any more money. But if I’m looking at other properties, I’m like, we need to outdo that property in order to achieve what they did. And they’re still margins to be made in this one. But again, the mentality is people are literally at that point, they literally start pulling back and they start getting scared and not wanting to spend some of the opportunities.

00:37:24 Now with the, I think in the higher end market, I mean I know some stuff has slow ever since mortgage changes of last year. Obviously some stuff has slowed down, but there’s always a little niche opportunity that I know you’re looking at. We’re, what’s the opportunity now for people who are playing in that higher end inspiring space when you’re in the higher end space? In my opinion, there’s less risk there. There is, right? Because the margins are so big that if you needed to liquidate the home, I could do a significant drop in. It’s gone. Where in let’s say I would say. And the way I would best describe it is a upper middle class, right? So upper middle class to me is anything from like one point five in this market, right? Um, it depends. The area that you’re in, upper middle class, generally it’s going to be a fully detached house and it’s going to be from like one point $5 million all the way up around two, two point five, just shy of $3 million. Right? That market is actually the one that I’m seeing right now that soften the most, right? People are kind of just settling because they’re the ones that will feel it the most, that if the market takes a bit of a um, a bit of a dip, right? They get really concerned or job secure, whatever it is. But when you see something at 10 million, 8 million, 6 million,

00:38:41 they don’t feel this if it’s a different level of. Exactly. So a little economic swing here or there is not affecting that kind of money. No. So you’re thinking the big opportunities in the super high end and the super high end. Yeah. So and, and in Canada and the Toronto area, people are still buying in that category. They are, they are. So the only thing is, is then stats coming out. Like I think they just reported the December numbers in areas that are given that headline I saw, but the reason those headlines in the media bother me so much is that December number. Uh, so there was a headline in the, I forget pretty much all media last week saying December year over year is down. But first of all, it’s sales activity that’s down. It wasn’t, they weren’t even addressing prices. It was basically sales activities down. And I know you know why sales activities now you know, I know, you know, sell activities down is because last December was fire for the real estate market because the mortgage changes, we’re going to come in in January, this is why I hate them, you know, and because they don’t say that.

00:39:38 And so everybody and their mom tried to buy a property before the end of last year. It made the December numbers and real estate really much higher than usual. So then when the year over year comparisons come, like it did this December, which actually this December, it wasn’t that bad by the way, but this December was still less than last December. So all of a sudden it’s like the numbers are down and everyone’s like, the sky is falling and I’m like, you do such a disservice to everyone when you don’t paint the whole story. But it does make a good headline. Yeah. And it does make a good fear-based headline. So you’re right. I didn’t know. Sorry, I didn’t know if you were going somewhere with, with that. But I know the December numbers came out and it does bug me when I see those headlines. So. And again it’s not saying what category, like. Yeah, just talking about like an average. Yeah. And sales in general. Love to see like last December,

00:40:28 right. And let’s say within the GTA, how many houses sold over $3? Million versus this, this, this December, right? Are or just anything? That would probably be the same based on what I saw happening. Like yeah, I think it’s going to be very close to the same. I didn’t do that particular exercise. Normally I’m looking year over year

00:40:47 plus buying over 3 million the are you still seeing Kenny [inaudible]? Like, I know there’s gonna be some pretty well off people buying over $3,000,000 properties. Are you still seeing any foreign money come in?

00:40:56 Um, we are, I, I still see some of that. Uh, there is like, there isn’t a, like a particular avatar that I see it. I’m always shocked and surprised, right? Um, I will say that the majority of showings that are happening right now, um, are foreign buyers, but right now they’re looking for deals, right? Then we’re seeing them throughout some, like little crazy low ball offers. Um, and the sad thing is, is because of the lack of activity, my concern is that there’s going to be one or two people that bay maybe misguided by their real estate agent that accept a low ball offer that sets a new precedent. So there’s always that possible. And then you might see prices haven’t really seen much of prices coming down. I’ve seen maybe it’s a little bit of a standoff right now between buyers and sellers. Right?

00:41:47 That’s how it is to me. It has to happen. Like, I mean, you look at that property in south, um, in, in Joshua Creek, a couple friend of yours, right? I mean that property would have easily sold that at any given time. Two point 4 million and then it sold for 1 million. 800. That’s right. Oh my gosh. That’s an example of someone getting actionable advice and dropping the price. Exactly. Um, when you’re, you know, with these properties you’re dealing with, often you’re doing a full, you’ll buy a property, do a full rental on it, sometimes yourself or working with a client. How are you picking contractors? Like I know you have relationships now, but for someone, I mean we all have our contracting experiences. Um, and there’s obviously some great contractors. There’s obviously some not so great contractors. What are you looking for when you pick a contractor?

00:42:32 Is it just purely referral based from your network now? Or is it if someone doesn’t have that, what questions are they looking at? So before they used to be pretty much all my contacts from previous builds, like I worked with a builder and I would leverage his trades that he had and everything like that, but what’s happened working with a lot of different clients and doing it, they also had some relationships because this might have not been their first ran or first build, so we kind of survey and have discussions about who they liked, how do they compare it to the people that we used. So literally a lot of these contexts just become through this circle of like this network of people and clients, right. That we then start sharing with one another so that. And so it is through referrals, but it’s through not just a general referral.

00:43:14 Somebody that we’re actually working with on another project. So that the. And again, what we’re looking for when it comes to trades really number one is that the quality of work. It doesn’t have to be the best, right? It has to be at par. It has to be good. I thought you were going to say the. I thought you were gonna say the quality of work has to be like 10 at a time. The fine finishing details and stuff like that. Like for example, some properties, it seems like every detail. I mean you’re lining up. Remember that one property. Oh, there was the reverse pie law. Remember the hardwood flooring going underneath the glass on your rail, on your staircase and you were like, you didn’t even have any posts in the hardwood. You know what I’m talking about? Like the little details you were looking at, and I’m going to say anybody who does hardwood and does a decent job could do that.

00:43:58 They will know how to do it. So luckily because we’ve did it, we can give them instructions. That’s why we don’t need always the best trade. We can kind of give them advice in how to do certain things. Um, but what’s important is that they’re cost-effective because a lot of these are investments and number two, that they’re reliable, right? I will sacrifice, you know, it being a not like, instead of a 10, it’s a nine, right? Because I’m going to tell you when you are doing your hardwood floors, if it is a, if you expecting a 10 and you get a nine, you will it because you did your hardwood floors, but if you walk into a house right and left, and I’m going to preface this by saying you did not just finished doing your house and doing your floors because now your focus and your context is like, I got to check out these floors.

00:44:43 See how they did it. You haven’t done floors in the last 10 years. Okay, and your place now you’re going into a house and the floors are a nine, not a 10. You won’t notice. You’ll walk out of that house and you’re going to get you. What you’re going to remember is what was different about it? What you felt right? You won’t remember. Oh my God, that floor. I just remember it wasn’t like a hundred percent. There was a little bumpy. You won’t remember that, Scott. It. Okay. Don’t get me wrong. Qualities. Like I said, I’m not. I don’t want people to think they’re going to walk into these houses, nasty equality, and it just doesn’t get obsessed with perfection. Important. Are you going to some contractors that you don’t know and looking at their previous work, is that something you’ll do? Absolutely. We’ll look to go into like a past project here.

00:45:27 Going there. Physically looking at their past projects. Yeah. And a lot of them we’ve already used. Right. So, um, yeah, that’s part of it. Okay. But another, another house that I thought was maybe tricky to sell. Remember that one on the, on the, I think there was a seedy and it backed on South East oak fill maybe. How did you, didn’t you have to Redo the zoning to get that one built? It was a longer build, kind of a like a, not that deep backing onto a ravine school background. You’re talking about some of the challenges were that one were the, that was again another lot situation, right? Where you had to read, didn’t you know, so I didn’t rezone it. So you’re. Yeah, you’re right. It was a southeast, it was around 3000 square foot brand new built ground up. That’s right. Yep. We had the issue, there was an and people looked at it.

00:46:11 It was being offered for sale and no one saw an opportunity. They didn’t. And then even after we bought it, when I say we, so it was a client, I represented a client. I said, I still think there’s a huge opportunity here. I think we bought them for. Why did you think there was a huge opportunity on something that everyone else was dismissing? Because I didn’t have the same opinion as everybody else in south-east Oakville. Right? Um, and again, the supply. So what people were buying, right? And the way they perceived value was location. Yeah. Mass. When I say massive, big lot. Big house, right. That’s like the. Because a lots in southeast hopeful Were like older style. So they’re at a minimum, they were like 100 huge, wide 150 feet deep. so that’s why people are going there just to buy those big lots to build the big houses.

00:46:59 Right. And those are the houses that would sell over 3 million. So when they looked at this lot, because of conservation and the footprint at best, they’re going to probably build 3000 square feet and really no backyard because it backed on conservation. So the back of the house literally just there was a that ravine. It was nice. I know, but you’re right. It was, it was shallow, shallow. the lot was deep, but it was unused. That’s right. Because it was the usable space with shallow. Yeah. RigHt. So, so it got to the point where we looked at it, we then even came up with a design, worked with like literally did the architectural drawings and things like that. And then at that point, because it took so long with conservation that my client was thinking, hey listen, this is taking a lot longer. You know what I probably second guessing whether this is the right thing for me.

00:47:47 and I went out. So I offered to buy him out. I’m like, listen, if you, I don’t want you to, I would never put you in something that I wouldn’t do myself. So I’d love to build it for myself. He didn’t want to sell it to me though, right? So he was nervous, but he didn’t want to know because if you do it then you’re going to probably make 500,000. And I’m like, But if you went out, I will just tell me what you have in it. Right. And I’ll pay you everything you have in and also give you $150,000 for the time that you kind of went through this process. It. Remember he did very little because I was the one that’s where you’re crazy again. And that’s where I say you play to win. Yeah. You know you’re going for it. At that point I believed in the opportunity so much, but he’s like, no, no, no, let’s just sell it to somebody else because it would bother him that if he saw me do it.

00:48:27 So if somebody else. So I’m like, okay. So here’s what the funny thing is. I put it on the market. This is crazy. We put it on the market with the drawings and everything ready to go. So now, but somebody. So nothing’s not even, it’s not even built in. Not built. Okay. Right. Is there an old house on the left? There’s an old house in a lot. But the vision is there because we have the drawings and is showing where the house is going to fit. And we were offering it for one point $2 million. This is what’s crazy. Right. And so the build-out cost of this house was no more than a million, no more than a milk because it was a 3000 square foot home. So if anybody looked at it, if they believed what I believed, they were like, okay, I’m buying at one, two, I’m spending a million and the house in this area, which I believed was worth around two point 8 million, just shy of 3 million.

00:49:12 So it’s a no brainer. There’s $600,000, right? And it’s ready to. It’s tied up because we’re already in the permit process and everything like that. And everybody’s like, even with their plans, they’re like, I don’t see it. I don’t see it. You’re not going to get it. You’re not. There was no. And the reason they didn’t see it, there was no easy comparable, I guess. Right. That was one, right? Because. But in my mind I could visualize this house finished. So they were trying to compare it to something that didn’t even exist. Right. But I was like, no, you tell me, where are you going to buy a brand new house? Right. High end luxury home. It didn’t even have to be modern. I said anything that’s going to have a. Because what we did is we did the suspended lift, which was really cool.

00:49:53 The lift came from the ceiling and the garage for the car, the car, and it was. We had a three-car garage, So now we had a three car garage and it wasn’t one of those lifts that has the post spend it lift and then what we got you. We’re going to do the member. I was one of the things that you were trying to do in the house to really make it stand out. And then after when we actually showed the house with a on the videos and everything like that, we had like a range rover and that there at the time we actually, so we could fit a full SUV in the suspended lift. So the, the, the SUV was on the one side and what we did is we called Porsche and the Porsche no support. So I brought my vehicle, which was a one portion.

00:50:26 We’ve got another beautiful um, it was a couple people. you drive a Porsche, it’s another, it’s not a Honda, so you didn’t like my honda civic, it’s fine, but either way. And so now we have like two Porsches in the garage plus the range rover and we’re showing the video of like it how it operated. And it was the only within a few seconds if we didn’t focus on that entirely, but it’s part of that video. And then we did the same thing and that goes exactly to one of those, what we were talking about earlier, the emotional component to buying because nobody, people felt emotional about that. But here’s the thing is if, because the house was smaller, a lot of people are like, I don’t need that extra, that extra parking space. Do you know what that parking space provided storage. Think of an entire single garage.

00:51:07 Sure. Bringing it down, putting stuff up there easily, and then just bringing it back up. See? But I hear that and I’m like, ah, I’m not going to spend $3,000,000. So I have a lot of extra storage in my garage. If somebody used that as well. It is. When there was no. Because again, 3000 square feet of basement was fully finished. There was no extra space in the basement. But either way I’m going to end off by saying that house we then the client just, okay listen, I’m doing it. I think he spent like 800. He told me he spent like 8:50 on, on the build because he kept track of the numbers. So he bought it for around the 9:50 mark. So he was all in like one point $7 million. We Sold it for 2.8 grand and nobody saw the opportunity of it.

00:51:47 Anything else that you did in that house to make it stand out? I’m curious, what else did you do? Like what’s current right now on luxury stuff? So that house we had automation, so like a spa thing, sauna. So we had a steam shower downstairs. So again there’s one thing we try to hit as a minimum. We know our buyers, we know that number one, that they’re likely going to have a teenager. So the bedroom in the basement is probably more important outside of the master bedroom. The bedroom in the basement is probably with the most because it could be an in-law suite, it could be for a nanny, it could be for teenager. Exactly. So when you’re thinking of all those different things you want to think of again, lifestyle. So we want to make sure that they have their own private washroom separate entrance to that basement too or no?

00:52:26 No, we don’t need a separate entrance. This is not old school. These people live together. Right. So. But that, that bedroom has to have a nice window, right? It has to have a really nice washroom, accessible from the bedroom and a nice closet. And then we always dress it up with really nice furniture and we put a tv or really nice, whatever. Latest technology, smart tv, we put it in there and people like that. So you’ve got to think about it. Think of you personally. No, no. Your son, Aiden, you’re looking for a house. Which room do you think he would take? Got it. He would want that. Yeah. And so after he goes at it, looked at all these -houses, I just didn’t know if that was like a selling feature. It’s a huge selling feature. Absolutely. So, so lift that kind of attractive bedroom space.

00:53:12 Any other stuff was. So the automation system, so we had control for their, for everything, good lighting. So that played a factor into it. Again, these were the things that instead of me spending $500,000 more than a lot, $500,000 more in a build we spent between the lift, the automation. Um, you know, the steam shower, um, and a couple of other things like that, we probably collectively spent maybe 30, $40,000. Right. The other thing that was really unique about that house too, because it was so small when you have a smaller house, I love how you affect, you’re talking about a 3000 square foot house being so small talk and sell, selling one of the brand new building that’s tiny, right? But because it was smaller, right? That um, when you start adding a lot of doors, right, it starts, it really starts chopping up the house.

00:54:00 So all the, like the closets in the front, the powder room and everything outdoors, not even pocket doors. They were, it was a pocket door, but they were completely seamless. So it was like a cube in, um, that was clouded and skinned in a really nice kind of millwork detail, like a wood detail. It’s almost like the walls were moving. Yes. Right. Which was really cool because when you walked in, you had these seamless looking walls and it wasn’t all these doors. And then we did a stone wall feature inside the house at that state, at the. Sorry that segment of the market, it sounds like spending more money on really finishing the inside of the house is getting you more bang for the buck than old school because I think the old school was more like big law, big house where now it’s more like obviously big lot big house going to apply to a whole bunch of people.

00:54:47 But it’s really enhancing the living inside the house. That’s what you’re saying. Basically 100. So the lifestyle that the house is bringing to the buyer is really making a big difference in the sale. Correct. So if I were to take that house and blow up that house on a bigger lot, we sold at a to eight, but on a massive lot, 100. And I would have, let’s say a built that a 5,000 square feet, that would have been a $6,000,000 home. So if you see someone who’s doing a build in a different area now struggling, I guess that’s something you would be advising them to go in and do. Make sure there’s some of these kinds of features, like what’s the wow factor in the garage? What’s the wow factor in the basement? like give me some emotional response in this house. Yup. Okay. Home theater still a thing or is that like not a thing anymore?

00:55:32 I feel. I don’t know. I think that’s very specific to a buyer. So what we try to do is, is basically, um, I would want the sauna, like I would want the infrared sauna kinda thing steam room shower that kind of sent me this. So I yoga, fitness, that kind of thing. Yeah. So I don’t, I wouldn’t say a place for my espresso machine. Am I going to say something now in my spare? Yeah. Sorry, go ahead. Go ahead. Just go. We’re here to hear you speak huge. Just go. If you go, I know about your expressive Michigan. Go, go, go. What were you going to say? Um, you were saying? Is that the theater thing? Alright. So just to give you an answer, I don’t know if I would have a designated room now for theater. It depends if I’m doing like a, you know, I got 6,000 square feet to work on the first and second floor.

00:56:19 I don’t have a 3000 square foot basement. I need to start using that space. I probably would, right. Otherwise it’s just a big open space and there’s no value to it. but in a more house that’s going to be anywhere from let’s say 2,500 square feet above grade all the way up to even almost 5,000. Um, I do think that having a multipurpose room, which is like an area that is a common area that the family can get together. So I call it more of a media room, right? So if you’re the place I’m in now, right, that’s a nice setup now. So it’s perfect because the theater, what’s important about a theater is that you have the optimal room for audio, right? And lighting. And that sound is not traveling through the entire house. So we’ve come up with a concept of creating that but still keeping it open.

00:57:04 So it looks like a big common area rec area. I love the door that you have in your area and in that sliding door that that’s the biggest pocket door I’ve ever seen him. Well, how long is that thing that they say? I feel like it’s like 15 feet and I think it’s like 12 or 13. And, and again it’s the way it’s finished, right? So a lot of people want to create all these crazy features. Like I literally just came from a consultation with the guys building. He’s probably about three point five to $4 million dollars in Burlington. That’s the intended sale price and he’s worked with architects. um, and he’s literally at the framing stage right now is just putting in the windows and we’re going through it and he’s creating all these features. Like I’m at the front of the house where he kind of does this reset thing.

00:57:45 He was like, I’m, yeah, I’m thinking something here, like with a waterfall feature and me with some rocks. And, and then over here I’m going to take this area and I’m going to do like I’m a wine cellar feature, but it’s more of an architectural thing because it’s not going to be temperature controlled and all these things that he was discussing, they’re all great, they’re super expensive, but what they do is they acquire or they require space. right? And when you’re building a house and now like a high end luxury home could be as much as $850 a square foot. And if you’re now just to create that little feature, you’re like taken up a, a big chunk of square footage. You’re given up very valuable space. So what I was suggesting to him was like, hey, try to think of what you’re skinning the wall with.

00:58:32 Right? And how that can create an impact rather than an entire feature. Right. So, and then we. And then we were talking like even where he was going to do that, built in kind of wine cellar thing that was going to be architectural. Like with all these wine bottles, he already had a wine fridge. I’m like, that’s overkill. So that whole area, we blew that out and now similar to what you saw in one of our places in Rochester, in the kitchen, there’s like, it looks like it’s part of the kitchen, but there’s actually a secret kind of passageway door that leads into a separate pantry area and that’s where you have all your countertop appliances, another sink, your coffee makers, toasters, upper cabinets, beverage, fridge, all that stuff gets hidden in a way. And that is going to be a selling feature because that is actually functional. You’re using that everyday. Exactly. It’s functional and that I got about the water feature.

00:59:22 Just think am I going to have to change out the water water get dirty. It’s the maintenance on that. And where’s the motor access panels?

00:59:28 True. Right. And again, if, if I, if I’m worried about costs in the space, I’m not doing it, but if all of a sudden I’m talking 6 million, the $6,000,000 buyers not worried about maintaining, I want to. Right. So because we had worried about maintaining that breaking down.

00:59:47 Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Hey, so, and you know what, I just want to be clear, we keep saying the name Rochester, we’re not talking about Rochester, New York, we’re talking about a street name here in Ontario, um, that, that one’s actually an Oakville the vacations. I didn’t know when your next one is, but you’ve done a good job over the years telling us or giving us vacation tips. Do you remember when I found you and do a bit of creation when you are in a moped? I do. Uh, that was, that was hilarious. But I’m just think I was going to like Croatia. You thought, you know, you went to that kind of related it to you guys. So I was like, who are these people? You went to the number one tourist attraction. That’s a nice little, you know, that place has gotten so busy that uh, this year, I believe it began last summer.

01:00:29 They’re starting to like, throttle the cruise line, stopping in there just because they can’t get so many people into them. It’s a tiny little spot, right? And you’re jamming. It was like this summer we were in a Portofino, Italy and, and uh, um, you know, what am I talking about? Portofino, where we were in Positano, Italy on the Amalfi coast and we were, it was so jammed in there like you couldn’t even breathe, like you couldn’t move. It was beautiful. I would go back, I loved it, but just when we went in the middle of the summer was a, was a really tough. I’m just curious, any vacation tips because you gave us that great place in Jamaica that we like to go to. Any vacatIon trips lately from you? You’ve been, you did a cruise recently, one of those big cruise lines. I’m a still a Disney cruise fan man. And even though my kids were older, I would have enjoyed a Disney cruise way more because they’re smaller ships and the five star service I tell everyone, even if you’re just adults, go on a Disney cruise line. So,

01:01:19 um, I love old people. Right? Your cruise was full of old people. Oh, it was. I felt like I was in a senior’s home. when did you go? What month? Uh, we went November, end of November.

01:01:33 Yeah. Okay. So no one’s going on vacation. People are going on vacation, but it’s not a high.
01:01:37 Here’s the advice if you’re going to go where it’s not during a normal break, right where people are taking holidays and then on top of that you extend it beyond a week. So because we went for 12 days, just shy of two weeks, no one’s really taking time off work and a non vacation type period for two weeks. And then when you want to cruise, which cruise is already known to have a lot of seniors on it. So literally we showed up and we actually sailed from New Jersey so when we got to the port New Jersey and we’re like literally getting in that area when you’re embarking. My kids are looking around because my kids, when I say my kids, so one’s 19 and one’s 24, you know, we’re thinking going to be partying it up, right? Um, and literally we’re looking around, they’re like dad for real, like zero, like are we being like, I don’t know how you guys still partied up.

01:02:30 Anyway, I’d go to sleep. I just want to go to bed. You know what? Maybe I’m a good fit for the seniors cruise. But uh, yeah. Okay. So check the cruise line and check the uh, who’s going on again? the, the, the cruise line in the ship and the amenities were great. The destinations were great, but yeah, we pretty much spent all that money to be on the cruise ship, only to be in our rooms watching Netflix. But it was great because we, we kind of bonded more together during that time. Still relaxing to get away. We’re all running around here. So crazy and I supposed to get away with it was, it was that, I know you’re working hard and when, I mean when you’re here you’re working right? So it’s just tough to get away. So if anyone wants to reach out to you, I don’t own find you.

01:03:06 Is it a, they got to go to your Instagram feed? I think. Are you still putting pictures of all the different houses and projects you’re working on now that you’re active on that feet still and then is Austin still working with us and then we do a lot of stories and so showing the progress in some of these builds and renos that we’re doing. So that’s one channel. And then the other way is through our website. So the Instagram feed is, so if you’re on Instagram it’s just at thefurtadogroup. If you’re gonna go on our webpage, our website. It’s just thefurtadogroup.com, thefurtadogroup.com on Instagram. Your Instagram feed Austin is so good at that stuff. Is he still doing stories?

01:03:48 I mean, I’m not even an Instagram guy, but the stuff he does on Instagram is he still has the time to do the stories for you guys. We’ve done, uh, we’ve kind of slowed down a little bit and I think that’s part of it was the holiday. So we’re going to pick that back up. But yeah, that’s something he’s super passionate about and so we’re going to continue to actually put more content out there. And if you don’t know this, this is Austin Furtado. Your older son who’s 24 you just said, and he’s working with you guys or he’s now been, I think doing this for three years. He’s two and a half because I know that you know how after two years you got to do that extra course. Yeah, that’s right. He had had to do it. Did that. It was almost, I think he’s three years old.

01:04:23 He’s such a guy. He said he got another tattoo and the ink didn’t take. Oh man, I didn’t even understand. I didn’t have time to ask them what I don’t get it. They didn’t take. So he did like a whole tattoo on those bottom potter, his leg. and it was like over two days. One day I think was like 10 hours. The next day was seven hours. So was his leg just started rejecting me because it was so swollen. But what happens now? So when it, when it heals up, he just goes back for touch-ups. It isn’t. Okay. And that was probably him being overdramatic but it just didn’t heal up quite the way it was supposed. Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah, but I mean it looks great. It, you just got to go back and touch it up a little bit. Cool. Thank you man. we’ll do this again soon. Sounds good. Later. Bye. Hey everyone, it’s Tom Karadza. So hopefully enjoyed that chat with Ruben Furtado. Really great guy. Obviously a good friend of mine. So sometimes we battled back and forth. Um, we actually didn’t do too badly there. We were pretty cordial. I don’t think we really made fun of each other too bad. That was actually a very respectful

01:05:18 chat between the both of us. Um, so a good guy, if you need to check them out. Uh, he ended up his Instagram. You should definitely follow them. Instagram, check out his website and if you want any real estate information about investing in income properties, you can always go to rockstarinnercircle.com. Register for our class, get free copies of a digital copies of our books, get access to articles and videos, and a whole bunch of reports that we’re releasing. Get access to it all rockstarinnercircle.com. Until next time, your life, your terms.