 Sounds good. Yeah. Good. I'm gonna I was I'm gonna make sure I'm gonna look for it on Usually I just look on it on your page and then I'll just share it gotcha Yeah, but I like this bathroom. Yeah The I posted that about two weeks ago and it was like What is the most ironic thing about this bathroom and the the hilarious part of in that picture is the whole ceiling is caving in right Yeah, and he's got three packs of roofing shingles laying on the floor next to the tub I'm like good grief Couple people comment about the About the Empty trash can what I what I think is the funniest here Out of out of this picture. Mm-hmm is that if you look in if you look on the toilet seat Mm-hmm. There's a toothbrush. Oh good grief. I didn't even see that and so if you if this is how you live The last thing on your mind is brushing your teeth. I think it. Yeah No doubt Yeah, it was just too funny when I saw it I'm like Yeah, yeah, I mean that's not like a made-up picture that was in a Group of 20 photos on a property that someone was trying to wholesale. Yeah. Yeah, I'm like good grief So, well, you know what I've seen my share, you know, like oh, yeah, I'm sure I'm sure Definitely, that's not even the worst I've seen. Oh, yeah, no doubt about it So we got people logging in now. I know you just shared it as well. So for everyone logging in welcome. I have a Let me look good. Okay. Hopefully a new network that we're gonna be forming here between the United States and Canada and the International international International exactly so we got my good friend Alfonso. Where exactly are you in Canada? I am in Ottawa, Canada the cat nations capital. Gotcha. Okay Nations capital most people think it's Toronto. I know but but but they're mistaken It's actually Ottawa, Canada, Ontario close by though. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, I have family that travel in from out of the country from Argentina from Ireland and they all come to I live in Washington, DC And they all come and they see the White House the presidential White House. I'm like, why is it so small? They're thinking like these cities they have these huge cathedrals and palaces and they come we come to the US and it's this little White House Well, we got this we got the parliament buildings. I guess I guess where the where the business happened is the Pentagon. I Mean, that's the real. I think that's where the real business happens. Yeah, I'm assuming. Yeah. Well the US capital Which is a big structure? The Pentagon obviously, you know, and then all the different agencies, I mean In comparison internationally the White House the presidential White House is a pretty small building I mean, it's not small, but in comparison to what you see around the world is definitely It's not this big prominent figure of a building. So but look man Um, I know I got a bunch of folks that uh on my on my YouTube channel and social media That don't know you can you give us like just a quick 5,000 square foot view of who you are where you came from and where you're headed and you know, what not well originally immigrated to Canada from El Salvador, Central America Small little country in Central in Latin America and You know had a real tough time integrating here in Canada school and whatnot Ended up getting into trouble dropping on a high school at 15 leaving home as well spent some time on the streets getting into trouble and And had a life-changing moment at 17 when I became a dad Gotcha had a little girl changed everything. Give me gave me purpose. Give me a why Started a small business at 17 by the time I was 21 that business was across Canada Did really really well the problem was I was very much consumer mind. I had a consumer mindset spend all the money Right and you know when the the next market correction came and almost took me out and So what I decided to do was create a secondary Income stream that was indestructible Armageddon proof and that was real estate and that's when I started in real estate back in 2002 okay, and You know specifically multi-family And an apartment buildings and by the time the next market correction came for you guys It was a crash for us. It was a market correction here in 2008 I was ready. I was very much I'd converted my mindset from a consumer mindset to an investor mindset and Was able to capitalize on all the opportunities that were around that time Through the the portfolio to apartment buildings across Canada and the rest is history Let me let me ask without getting I'm trying to find the feed my man. I'm trying to find the feed on the page. Would it be somewhere else? It should be in the entrepreneur strategies group as well Okay, I'm not a part of that because I'm looking at I'm just trying to I wanted to share it got you It's not on your page, right? It might not be now that you're saying that let me take a look real quick Because I want to share it That's true. The world needs to see the world needs to see All right, so yeah, so I am Yeah, I'll jump on my page and then I'll share it to you but what I was gonna ask you when I do this what I was gonna ask you was Starting out in real estate. Did you start out in multi-family? In a very small way Triplexes got you, okay Triplexes and you know the little stuff, you know ones and twosies okay, and You know, I realized that that's a lot of work for Not a lot of return and so every time I leveled up. I realized how easy It was right and I'm like, I should have been doing this from the beginning Then I leveled up again and then I said, oh, I should have been doing this from the beginning and That's where I am right now. You know my the type of portfolio that I look at now it's you know, I'm trying to step into a hundred units plus and That's why you know when when you know I became aware of what you were doing I'm like, man, I gotta meet meet this guy even the US. I want to enter the US They got that inventory that I'm looking for. Yeah, and we just had that as a little conversation before the show You know, you guys are also, you know, are dealing with an inventory issue, but not like us Yeah, that's us. Well, as we were just saying Your country population in comparison to the US is about 10% right? Yeah. Yeah, we're like around 30 million plus You got a 300 million plus correct, correct Difference Yeah, that's a major difference. I mean the math is gonna be the same but for every 10 I find you find one Yeah But um, all right, so let's go back to Starting out Multiplex two and three units. Are you seeing actually I just shared it. Are you seeing the share that I just Yeah, I seen the share See if I can go right to your page, but I might just have it on there. Yes I see it now. Okay. Okay. I'm gonna share that right now We can truly You know connect share the information Canada no, so with the With like the multi unit two and three unit were these like condo style or They were, you know, three-story homes. What type of it? It was just, you know, three units in one on one property, right? So a triple X. Yeah, you know, there's a lot of we have a lot of that type of inventory here in Canada, you know You know, there's a lot of multi res, you know, three units four units five unit properties You know 24 unit buildings, there's a lot, right? So it's like it's the way the what I like about the US It's like sometimes you have these communities where you have like 200 units all In an area, right? Maybe a gated community or whatnot. Yeah and Like for here if you want to get a hundred plus then you're looking at a building that you're looking at a 24-story building versus You know, I'd like though. I don't like to deal with elevators. I don't like Elevators, I like the walk-up situation like two-story walk-up or three-story walk-up And I like it to be wide because you get that property You're you know, like if you're buying a hundred unit building a hundred unit property You're probably looking at like, you know, two acres or three acres or whatever. So you get the land Yeah, true. True. Yeah, there's I mean throughout the US There there are like you say these their communities basically their communities of rental properties Some would almost call them like a garden style apartment community where you only have one or two levels So you have a ground level that probably has a patio and then the second and third floor might have a balcony at most But yeah, yeah, so that that's there. I mean for me you you don't really get that much more rent by having an elevator But the maintenance cost alone in the replacement cost Is huge and so you're gonna it's gonna eat up a lot of your cash flow and so, you know I love these, you know These type of like properties like two-story walk-ups or if three stories four stories, okay, you know Someone's gonna really think about moving into the fourth floor Like they're gonna have they're gonna like I'm gonna walk. I'm gonna bring all my furniture There's like I gotta make a commitment, you know, like this is gonna be a few years So, you know, if you have four-story walk-ups You'll find that the fourth floor or the five the fifth floor rather, you know Like four fifth floor are gonna be where you're gonna have your highest vacancies Yeah, I'm just thinking about bringing groceries home. Yeah Trekking four and five stories upstairs, you know Wow, so the in like let's just for example in Ottawa. What is what is a typical rental property for you? What is it? I mean is it? I don't invest in Ottawa, okay, but just the cap rates are too low We're looking, you know, like for example like right now the average Properties trading about, you know, 2.5 cap and and you have like in Toronto GTA. It's below 1% cap rate Yeah, and so, you know An investor like me that leverages debt Mm-hmm. I Like my properties have to serve as the debt or it's not even worth it for me And so that that that's pushed me over the years is pushed me to secondary and tertiary markets That are supported by major markets in Canada. Okay, and that's been that's kind of been my strategy and Going into the US That will be my strategy. I mean, you're you're probably Experiencing similar cap rates or you know, what's it? What's the cap rate there in Washington? I mean it I haven't looked in the last few months, but once the pandemic hit and And the market kind of like kind of plateaued where inventory went down buyers went up. Yeah I Would say back in the mid-summer it was probably around six or seven Wow, somewhere in that ballpark, but I can't say that speaking today Yeah, I have I have not actually looked at it a lot of the stuff that I've actually been doing this past year was I've been focused on Using private investment. So I've been investing with other developers that I have relationships with So I'm currently not managing any rental Properties we're in the middle of two Reconstructions, you know, we're doing a full renovation and they're probably They're probably gonna end up being you know a flip They're you know single-family brick-row homes in the city Where yes the cap rate on those could be potentially over 10 Just because I mean just for an example the house is probably only worth about Completely redone. It's probably only worth about a hundred and fifty thousand us When you get it what that much more rent out of it, you can get close to a thousand a month on that though So you could potentially if you didn't in a sense didn't refi out of it or anything You could probably be positive cash flow 100% after about six years. Yeah, you know So I Guess the topic that that we created for this discussion is the effects of this global pandemic and I thought none other than someone Someone who's managing 500 doors? And is looking to expand into another country to acquire even more doors You can't I can't think that kovat didn't affect you But how has it affected you and what are you implementing now that you didn't do before? Yeah, well, you know And and like this conversation could be obsolete next month, right? It seems that it seems like every month things change, right the kind of market that we're in right now Well back back when there was a global shutdown, right? There was just so much uncertainty and You know on my on my YouTube channel back in April I said that you know, it would probably the recovery is gonna be probably a V recovery and You'd probably it would be like a surge like the second lights go back on It's like, you know, people are not gonna know what to do with their money And so this is why people are scooping up all the inventory I Think mixed in with the amount of money being printed This is this is creating an Like an inflation, right? And this is what's happening, right? People people have first of all people are scared of inflation They don't understand it and So they're they're they're looking at Bitcoin. So you got Bitcoin you got gold I mean, where else are you gonna put your money other than real estate? And so this is what's causing the cap rates to go down because people are willing to accept less of a return Because they're hoping for the appreciation They're hoping to hedge against inflation and they're hoping for the property to go up in value Well, as you guys know back in 2007 that was the problem people were buying properties at any price At any cap rate paying any interest Be for the hope that the that property is gonna go up in value So this is very similar. This is very this is a very similar situation now It might isn't and this is just my opinion and Chris. I'm glad we're having this conversation, but For us the past year we took those Shitty properties and we sold them. So that's been a big strategy for a lot for the longest time It was just buying hold and keep for for life Right, but but now we're like we're at the very top of the market right now It's probably a good time to exchange the bad for the good right and level up some things and shift things around and and just like clean up house and That was kind of our strategy moving into 2021 and then now now we want to put You don't want to sit on the money, but we want to put that money and deploy it and put it to work And so we're looking to level up I mean when you when you start leveling up you start to reduce the amount of competition The problem here in in Canada. I don't know if there's the same there for you in Washington It's just you know, like the competition is just like everybody's after the same property You have like 50 offers, you know properties people buying Apartment buildings Chris apartment buildings with no conditions. No financing condition. No inspection conditions. It's dangerous Yeah. Yeah. Oh, no, I mean So in the DC, no, also Virginia, Maryland in DC are pretty much about the same economically in this tri-state area, I was involved in a couple transactions in last year 2020 where these were just simple buy fix and flip and We were getting multiple offers before we even hit the market. Yeah People literally agents were stopping by the property and saying when are you guys listing and how much do you think you're listing for? We had no idea, right? You could have asked me the same question 12 months ago, you know March of 2020 and I would have told you I'm holding everything right now I'm not going anywhere because I don't know what's about to occur, right? Yeah Yeah, but by mid-summer it was it was just on fire and We did a I'll give you one transaction We bought a house for somewhere around 200 put about 60 in it We thought we were gonna get lower threes and we got a all-cash no contingent offer $40,000 above what we thought we're gonna list it And we didn't do it. We didn't do anything for like those Just the market is reacting, right? Yeah. Yeah, and this the buyer was from out of state they were trying to relocate out of the city down near the beach and It didn't matter they came in pre-qualified and they were done, you know, but um, yeah, and same right I had a guest on the other day on YouTube Josh Cohen who was a flipper in a high-end market he was upper hundred thousands over a million US dollar market and he basically Depleted his whole inventory and has created this whole wholesaling network and you know Expanded into 18 markets in six months doing wholesale. Wow, you know crazy There's like the I mean Warren Buffett Famous quote when people are greedy you should be fearful. Yeah, and when people are fearful you should be greedy Right now we're walking with caution We do not want to sit on money We do not want to sit on money. Obviously if you sit on money, you're losing money because they're pretty you're printing more of it What's it? What's your national debt right now 50 50 trillion somewhere around there? Yeah, so what people don't realize is Inflate they you're the governments, you know, including our government I mean, I think we're at a trillion or something and we're about I mean, there's no one's any better. We're all in debt and The inflation actually helps Governments manage the debt load, right? So 50 trillion now The value of 50 trillion now only becomes around 10 trillion. They win they go back to the same way they were back in 2019 and so There's there's nothing wrong with inflation. It's going to happen I think the the the balance the balancing act is how do you? Control it, right? How does it how do how is a government going to control? It's what doesn't go out of control like hyperinflation, right? And I think the only way that happens is by increasing interest rates and so But it's a balancing act right because you know, you have to do it slowly You can't just jump you have to do it slowly and you got it I mean you got to wait for all of these people to get into their you know 5-10 year locked in You know Mortgages at a really low rate so you can start playing with that needle. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I did last last spring Coronavirus started to infiltrate United States Our stock market started to you know get shaky and then the Fed Pumped in all the stimulus money and I ran to my institution to increase my line of credit Yeah, knew that they were getting the money at 1% or less than 1% They couldn't wait to loan that money back out, you know, and it's gonna go it's good And that's what that that's it. That's the objective, right? When you when you pump money into the into the into the market When you print money inflation So you want inflation to be you know the people that wintering inflation are the people in debt Right, not the people are sitting on cash and so if you're sitting on 50 trillion dollars Worth of debt mm-hmm You know, you're the only way you can help yourself is by creating a forcing inflation. Yeah Yeah, and they run the risk of over. Oh, you know Hyper inflating that that that is a risk that you know, we don't know No one has a crystal ball on what what will happen, right? I would think The the most logical thing that will happen is that as that starts to happen They would they would move the needle the interest rates up Mm-hmm, and then it would balance itself, right? And so back to your question. What kind of how are we approaching, you know, real estate? In 2021 versus back in 2019. Well, we're walking very cautiously We don't want to sit on money. So we want to make sure we we get out of Assets that, you know, we're not performing as as well as we wanted them to and we want to put this money into good assets But we're also taking into consideration, you know interest rates and you know, we need to be realistic conservative Be conservative conservative with our numbers We're we're definitely not going it. We're not even investing it into into any major markets right now We're we're staying away from major markets. There's I don't know if it's the same in the US for you But in in Canada right now, there's this Exit is of major markets, right? People are leaving, you know, the major areas and they're going into secondary areas Yeah You know rents rents in Major cities across Canada are going down Yeah, interesting you say that I have a buddy who is in a major US city been in real estate for a long long time he and I were talking the other day and He typically is his tenant. He has a extremely good record with Longevity with his tenants. He really really vets his tenants before he even agrees to Least his properties and he's seen a long success But he had a tenant that moved out after I think it was like 19 years in one of his apartment buildings He had to go in and renovate it because everything in there was so outdated because the tenant had been there for so long You know kitchen countertops bathrooms that stuff He ended up spending thousands and thousands of dollars to renovate it and then had to drop the rent by about 20% Just to get a tenant back in are you seeing that same thing in Canada? Absolutely in major markets Yeah, the opposite is happening is happening in secondary markets and tertiary markets You know Just just because of their smaller markets, there's just less inventory And let less rental opportunities. And so, you know, we have people trying to get you know, people are now they're trading in entertainment lifestyle for space Right and as long as as long as you have really good internet I think you're gonna see a big shift in human behavior where people are Making like they want to be in the suburbs. They want to be in rural areas and they want to be self-sustained as long as they can have really good internet and You know and and and have access to their family. I mean the the idea of your and You know for sure Different states that have different are experienced. I mean you all of your states are different I mean the the policies are very different when it comes to COVID. I mean When I look at California versus Florida. Yeah, it's night and day. Yeah, Florida's been open the whole time. Yeah There was never a lockdown there was never a mask mandate. Yeah, Georgia the same way And then just recently in the last few weeks Texas removed their mask mandate saying we're not gonna require the state of Texas to wear masks. Yeah, I'm just like, well How is that helping the the whole country? As if there's this border wall around Texas where people can't go in and out. Yeah, it's just so so basically if you could imagine All of Canada is like, California Or or or New York, right? This we're all shut down like it's not You know, like I guess some provinces may have You know a little bit of a more flexible You know policy but at the end of the day, we're all it's all California. It's all shut down It's like, you know, and it definitely happens in pockets as numbers start to rise in some areas They'll shut they'll start shutting things down until it cools down And so they're trying to manage the whole situation versus like Florida I think Florida will come out a big winner after all of this because I mean people from imagine all the people that are leaving in Texas as well All the people that are living California in New York state alone Looking for good weather space. Yeah, and you know It's it's behavior human behavior is changing You know, you'd have these university towns It's university gonna be a thing is it do you need to live by the university? Do you need to go to class? Yeah, right or can you do your your school online and can you go to you know, um, you know Can you go to a university in dc and live in in hawaii, for example? You know, I think the world is changing for the last 12 months all of their students at whatever university Have been remote at least for the first semester of or the second semester of 2020 and then going into the fall some did go back But then had to retract because they had cases popping up all over campus again Yeah, and that that's uncomfortable. I mean after two or three times Young people are gonna say, you know what I'm just gonna do it from home Yeah, and it is my office. I'm in my office right now chris. Yeah the next room over here It's my I have a board room in that board room is my 14 year old daughter doing high school Right from her from her laptop. Yeah, and uh, she's elected to do the her entire high school online Yeah, and that's her world and she's better off doing that without Destruction then going to a high school that coming home and you know what I mean and you know, like it's it's it's the new world We live in So that is going to change real estate forever Right. Yeah number one At some point we're all going to get out of this. This is going to be a distant memory in the past And we're going to have all these empty buildings Yeah, and so I think the play And so this is these are things that we have in our minds as we're moving forward in real estate You know, it's like What are things that can be converted? Like what are what are the new opportunities for 2022 2023 2024 2025? Yeah, yeah, I mean so like in in my market in washington dc There are a lot of federal and state government offices Yeah, which all are still probably 90 to 95 percent closed as far as coming into the office Yeah, I think not only are they realizing they can be more efficient They're so people are at home working. They don't have the personal interaction which For most of us. I don't like I don't like not having that personal interaction But they've learned how to navigate it around it and I think different institutions as well as governments Are saying wow This person has been producing better than ever By working remotely And that person also is realizing it doesn't take an eight hour day to do what they've been doing And I think the bosses and the upper tiers are starting to see that too people are actually more efficient Then all of them going into the office and then they have to take an hour and a half to go out to lunch And they you know all these things I think it's going to change How all of us operate not just real estate, but just how certain things function, you know Yeah, I mean, I I don't know if anybody's in I know we're we we're all kind of anxious to get the world going again But I don't I don't think people are are Are um are looking forward to sitting in traffic for two hours at two hours a day again No doubt about it. I I think that you know the the the way our life used to be It's it's in 2019, right? That's and and forever, uh 2020 will be this pivot point in in In society where we all now leaned into technology And because this the technology was always there Without a doubt and so that that impacts real estate more than ever because now If people are going to school from home, uh, they're spending more time at home And uh, they they need to like have a lifestyle at home, right? Yeah, that means you need more space That means That people don't want to be incubated incubated anymore in these like small little micro condo units like You know that people were getting into in 2019 who need space No, and uh people's work day is going to be a lot different. Um, I think more and more the the idea of of traveling I mean The what some of the biggest losers have been the travel industry, right? So But I think there's going to be a surge Once the lights go back on I mean there's getting people are going to want to get out Right and you know what if you have a government job? You could do your job from You know as well as you have good internet you can do it from st. Lucia you can do it from Uh, same bar, so you can do it from pretty much anywhere as long as you have good internet And I think the quality of life for people is going to change and I think we're going to become Um, I think you know, you're going to see like little areas in Costa Rica Just become really like all of a sudden that's where You know, you know like this company operates out of in same bars or whatever, you know because it's like why not? Yeah, yeah, I mean I have um I have two good associates that I work with One one's a licensed real estate agent and the other one's just strictly an investor And when they started to see this lockdown one they got a little nervous But when we realized months into this pandemic that we all can work as long as we have good service They went out into the middle of nowhere and started buying up stuff Yeah, and sitting on it And now it's it's the hottest auction you've ever been to I mean they're literally getting 20 and 30 offers on these old historic farm homes that sit on two acres Because mom and dad have been stuck at home in their condo Because they worked at the pentagon or wherever And now they're saying well, we've been working out our condo for the last 12 months We can move out to the country and probably spend half that amount of money buying this big farmhouse on some property And then we have as you said, we have space we get to go out we can you know So I see a lot of that Transforming what we would consider the rural areas are going to be much more populated Maybe maybe the the construction of new properties might not follow But a family of four is now moving into a farmhouse where uh old man and woman used to live or something along those lines Yeah, and the construction I think will will shift from new builds to conversions. Yeah Right where you're taking old office buildings Um that are they're they're probably going to give them the way up some point. I mean someone's going to bleed out Yeah, you know from one of the they're you know trying to carry this office building for three four years that's completely empty Then someone's going to come along and turn it into like a really spacious loft You know, I mean someone could go in and have a still have a bit of an urban feel But have the space that they need in order to you know Have their kids go to school from home and and uh, they can work from home and you know entertain from home and you know Sort of like some of those, uh, you know in the meat packing districts where they converted all warehouses to like really cool loss yeah, I mean The real estate will still be there, but the function of the real estate will change Yeah, yeah, I mean I can see in in in my market, especially in washington dc and surrounding areas A lot of these big office complexes aren't gonna recover They're gonna have to they're gonna have to transition into something. Yeah You know, I think it's gonna have to be multi res. Yeah has to be yeah It has to be either like okay, so what's the need right now like sorting centers So you have these these empty malls Who wants to go to a mall like do you want to be in a mall like no one's gonna want to be in a mall like You know, those malls are dead That's end of malls, but malls will be converted into like sorting center Like district sorting centers like amazon will take over that some of these malls and online Because it's really good real estate, right? It's like most malls are really central and You know, there's easy access to these malls. So You know, someone's already done. No the the research for you. And so these will be converted office spaces and Yeah, office spaces specifically I think will be Will be the ones that are going to be impacted the most And some maybe some Institutions, do we need there's a university need all of these buildings anymore? No You know, like, yeah, maybe they need some Yeah Like let's say they need it. They need half. Well, that means you have half of your buildings completely empty What are you gonna do? Well, they have to be converted into Living quarters of some sort. They have to be multi-res Yeah, I mean that's interesting because I was having that discussion recently with a friend Where a lot of the big universities were almost especially in the united states were forcing students back Because they couldn't build the families for the housing So they were they were using the large amounts of income Because the students weren't on campus and they couldn't build them for this on, you know on campus, you know housing So that's a that's a big hit to them financially as well because they're You know, I'm sure the the the housing costs the the food costs the All the little things. I mean I joked recently We have the 7 11 convenience store chains here. Yeah and I hadn't gone the set I normally in the morning would go to 7 11 on my way to work Come into the shop. I'd stop get a cup of coffee You know banana or something. I hadn't been the 7 11 in 10 months Wow, if you take my six or seven dollars that I spend Multiply times five Multiply that times 10 months and how many other people just like me haven't done that Yes, a huge loss of revenue. Do you do you uh, do you do instacart? Do you know do you guys have instacart over there? I I was introduced to instacart last march When our local municipalities were telling us don't go to the stores Don't kind of know don't come in contact with every Every person in the country bought every last roll of toilet paper and paper towels and all this craziness I'm never gonna waste my time at a grocery store again because it just comes to your porch Yeah, that's in the world like, you know, uh The second we started doing so my wife and I do an instacart Yeah To go to us to go to a physical store to spend time getting your car gas like what are you doing? You know, yeah, so all of these things are changing human behavior. Yeah, and so that means that means those stores Can actually function more from like someone could have a grocery store In an industrial area. Yeah, they don't need to have the wax floors And the all the the you know, they they could just sell products sell product directly to consumer. Yeah, right? They could be somewhere industrial They could they could close their retail locations and run the grocery store from their distribution centers basically Yeah, they don't need them. They don't need the inner they don't need the retail storefront Yeah, even like for the any shopping that I did for cool. I like I like I like nice. I like to wear, you know, you know, wear nice blazers and you know Have time you think I have time to go to a mall or shopping so So I have a Guy that comes He this shirt came he came right to my office, right? He came right to my office. Here's what it is Here's the fits. Well, they take it away and they bring it back Yeah You know, you know, you know the value of Time, you know all the things that you can do with your time. So I mean everything is changed and it will everything impacts Real estate Right everything impacts real estate everything everything everything because your tailor No longer needs a retail storefront No, you to come and get fitted for a blazer or a shirt He comes to you it's your measurements creates the pattern Either does it himself or sends it to whoever's doing it for him And then he delivers it back to you. You don't need to go to his store to go shop He's bringing he's bringing you swatches of different materials and fabrics and you're like, I love that one But I want this this style cut, but I want to use this fabric and you know, whatnot So yeah, I can I can see a lot of that changing Yeah, and so that so that when you ask the question, how are you looking at real estate now versus 2019? Yeah, those are all the things that are in my mind Right. It's like, okay. What what where are we going here? Okay? So, you know, we want to change, you know, we want to change bad money into good money, right? So, you know some investments. We're not doing so well Well, this is the time to get out of some of those investments and take the money and redeploy it redeploy it into Areas where we know are gonna That are going to be performing better than before, you know, that money needs to It needs to we need to level up, right? No for us We're very specific. We're going into secondary markets, treasury markets And you know, this is why, you know, we we kind of connected because I'm coming to the u.s. You know, like I'm coming I'm coming and You know, I'm looking for the, you know, these types of, you know, these types of inventory. Yeah. Yeah, and then Most of the most of the properties now you're You own and manage now are like apartment buildings. You were saying? Yeah. Yeah Pretty much everything we do is apartment buildings, right? You know, even whether they're like two-story walk-ups, they're long, right? So you can have like a two-story walk-up that has 24 unit, but they're long and a big piece personal land Or maybe like stacked buildings all together, you know, like maybe three-story walk-ups Maybe there's a few of them stacked together, but that's that's the kind of inventory that I like No, I'm very specific. I don't like elevators. Um, I don't I um, I don't like park aides You know, yeah I I invest for cash flow And uh, you know, that's that's my passion and And I want to stay in canada for a long time. They just know the inventory the inventory here And by the way, like I wouldn't want to discourage anybody from investing into canada Uh, it's you know, you just got to be patient. You got to be patient and know what you're doing Yeah, but there is inventory here, but not as much as 300 million people's worth, right? Right. That's a lot of doors That's a lot of doors. It is it is And um, you I wouldn't be surprised if you would see you're going to see more people come from canada come in your way Yeah, cool. So did you guys Obviously the canadian government handled this pandemic a lot different than the united states did. Yeah Um, did you guys I know I had read that the the government gave much more assistance to the general population Did you guys? um Had effect anything like were people you know what I have to say that it's easy It's easier for us to do that because again, we're only 30 million people Yeah, you have I mean you guys have 300 plus million people. So I get it, you know I get that you know to try to dish out money to everybody equally You know ongoing for the past two years It has been a challenge. I see that Um, you know here it it has been a challenge You know and there has been stimulus there has been a lot of stimulus But it's easier to control You know because It's like you're opening a floodgates of like money, right? And you want to make it easy and accessible for people to To to get that money. Yeah, and so um at one point So we had a the SERV program for for a lot of our citizens which I think it was uh $2,400 a month. Yeah when when the program was live now, it's converted into something else I don't know what it how much it is now, but it was about $2,400 bucks and um Very accessible anybody and you just go online you put in your your bank account and boom the money's in your account Right, so they put money into people's hands Asked right. I don't know how it worked in the in in the u.s. But from what I heard was you got everybody got checks Uh, the problem with checks is like can we try I don't even know I'm just assuming That's what I heard. Is it is it true? So there's a yes and a no, okay So you have a certain a certain Uh sector of the population That are not technology savvy And I think it's probably more than I even realized So that's where the physical checks were okay because I was I was seeing I was seeing reports of people getting checks. I'm like, I don't trust the postal service You know like, uh, you know like I don't I'm I'm not going to be waiting for my check to arrive, you know That's that's uh, so you know 2019. Yeah, so what they did initially and this was last April or may so two months in the pandemic is um You go to the internal revenues revenue website Enter your your information. They would pull your Most recent tax return. So for me, it was 2018 because I hadn't done 19 yet And as long as you made under a certain income, I think it was 80 000 You qualified for a one-time stimulus of $1,200 One time one payment on payment Then it took months with our government in congress To then decide on the second stimulus that came out in December another one-time payment another one time of 600 dollars now when I'm saying these dollars these are maximums Right. So the first one was 1200. I got 400 and some change right And the second one 600 and then they just two weeks ago did another one for 1400 So there's only been three stimuluses Going around one time payments. Yes Yeah, so I guess I guess that's where it varies a little bit because this has been an ongoing every single month. Yeah, and At the very beginning like obviously the people could need to qualify But I think for for our government You know, it was it was more important to get the money into people's hands And so the whoever applied got the money Yeah, right. Like what there's no red tape because the last thing you want like you you have to pay your bills And then you got to like, okay, honey. Where's like, where's all the paperwork? I don't know where you bought it You know, like that's the last thing you want. And so like everybody everybody applied And uh, they got it right and then after they have to clean up the mess afterwards, right? So some people are saying well, maybe you didn't qualify or whatnot. You should give it back or whatnot and uh, but again a lot easily It's a lot uh a lot a lot better to manage 30 million people versus 300 million. I mean, yeah, I mean that just by population alone I understand why things were rolled out that way and it's easier to I guess it's easier to say that Oh, you guys did better than us or you know what I mean? Like Because it's like like when I when I look at florida. I'm like damn I want I want to go to florida, right? It's just like I think everybody you definitely don't want to be a leader during these times I mean you have to you had to make some really hard calls Sure And you just do I think everybody's just doing their best You know, I think nobody really truly means harm against anyone Yeah, I think in in many rights there were a lot of unknowns You know, you can you can push it in whoever's direction. We had an administration here a president and an administration that Honestly did not take this virus as serious as it should have early on, right? Yeah, that's anyone who says different. That's just the truth. He did not take it serious Up to the point. He even contracted it himself. That's how not serious, right? Yeah Not to get political but then yeah in the u.s. They let the governors in each state Rule out their own guidelines and regulations But that only works if we can't leave the boundary of our state Right. Yeah, so I can potentially run down to georgia this weekend where there's no mask mandate Contract the virus come back to dc and infect 20 people, right? Yeah So how do you and i'm not pushing blame in one direction or the other? How do you can how you control that? How do you contain that? Yeah, you can't you can't and uh, there's a lot of times like toronto obviously has The biggest population And this is where you have Most amount of cases happening in toronto But you have to shut down the whole province Uh, yeah, because someone in toronto. Okay, I'm going to go up to ottawa to have drinks or go for my for valentine's day, right? And you just have to shut everything down. There's places in northern Ontario that have never even seen one case, but they're all shut down, right? I mean What are you gonna do because that's where everybody's gonna go, right? Yeah, so it's like I said from a from a leader's perspective You don't want that job. I mean, I'm sure the the governor of california I mean, he doesn't want that for for that. I mean Some of the things i've seen and I know that I know the the news can be biased, of course But the things there is some truth to to what's going on in california. I mean And It's not the same california. It was, you know, uh, you know Back in 2019 No, not at all not at all. Have you have you experienced I guess with your stimulus in canada a little different With the amount of doors that you all manage. Have you seen the same Flight from the urban environments out to the country out to the to suburban areas. Have you seen that as well? Absolutely. Yeah, that's that's exactly what's happening Right people are are leaving these like major cities and they're going out to secondary markets Yeah, it's changing real estate forever. So are you looking at these secondary markets heavier now because of that? Yeah, I mean, I was always uh, I mean I got a like cap rates kind of Determined where where I go, right? And once cap rates start to dip That's probably my my time to go go invest somewhere else. Yeah, and so I was already into some of these secondary markets But now I'm looking at tertiary markets Okay, right These these are, you know things that maybe before 2019 I might have not even looked at but now They're becoming more exciting And now I'm looking at You know because of the only way to to escape the the trap of like competition I want to I want to be you know buying 100 200 units 300 units at a time and The u.s. Is the only place that has that type of inventory for me. Yeah. Yeah, what um What's your ideal condition? Are you looking more At what that area has the potential to become or is it already? We define it here as you're either on this side of the railroad tracks or you're on that side of the yeah Yeah, so That may I mean definitely has a factor in the u.s. Right? I mean you have some areas that are going to be completely depressed for a very long time. Yeah um I look at three things the first I need I need access like I need What is the access to a major market? Like I'm not investing in major markets, but I I need to have direct access Right. So, you know a highway, you know, how how like How far how how far do I have to drive? To have fun Basically, right? How far do I have to drive to go in for the go into that one time a month that I have to go into work Um, you know to go to that meeting how far is that like how like how easy is that? Drive, right? So you have some of the secondary markets there in timbuk to like these obscure places Well, I'm not really I don't really want to invest there because it's there's no access, right? Yeah, uh number two You know, whatever the town is has to have has to have a reason to grow like what's the reason For that area to grow what what's going to be the stimulus there? Is they're going to is there like as amazon moving into to the area like what what's happening, right? And then lastly, um For me, it's management, right? I need to have you know, I need to have Areas where it's easier for me to manage Uh, I need to be able to move people there if I have to employ people in some of these areas So if I if I'm buying a hundred unit, uh complex Um, then then then I need to make sure that I can I can have my team I can hire, you know the superintendent the maintenance person They need to be able to live on the grounds and it needs to be easy for me to get people there I might I've I've been uh, I've been successful in relocating people from one side of the country to the other Uh for management live in supers and live in property managers and things like that So those are the things I look for right and uh, as long as I have a good team I know that I could I could weather any storm and uh, you know, we could take a you know Maybe a bit of a rougher property and make it into a better property. Yeah, I know I used to joke Uh with a couple buddies in investing in real estate and I used I used to always call it the mcdonald's effect Where mcdonald was not afraid early on. Um, I don't know if you saw the documentary they'd put out Love it Love it. He was not afraid to go buy Initially to buy the real estate. Yeah, all right, but ray croc Then said wait a minute. Let me buy the land first And then lease the yeah, it was just awesome But my point being is There's a reason why there's always a strip mall adjacent across the street or behind the mcdonald's because mcdonald's came in and In a sense created that infrastructure first. Yeah, also a reason why there's always A wendy's across the street because wendy said mcdonald's has already done all the research Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah They already found the major corridor the area You know, they they they initially did that. That's how they they branched out the way they did So let me let me ask you a question like so right now you're doing new builds Yeah rehab's more not not not okay new new rehab rehab. So you're taking old old product Is it like row housing type of? In different areas a lot in in the dc suburbs They're mostly single family homes that sit on, you know a decent yard They're usually not connected. They're not adjacent Just north of me in the city of baltimore. It's almost all brick row homes inner city And then dc is a mix so some neighborhoods in dc are row homes capital hill is a lot of row homes brick row homes Out around the outskirts um in northeast and northwest areas of washington dc You'll see a lot more single family homes that have you know, half an acre of of property at most probably And that's so so right now you'll right now you're doing like you just flipping these properties For the most part. Yeah, I so I have not done many rentals. Um I partnered with somebody on a rental and then just decided I didn't want to do that Yeah In in the dc market Pre-covid and even during covet the air bnb market is humongous. I mean people. Oh really? Yeah humongous Yeah, the air being the air bnb stuff. Uh, I know in some areas Took a hit It did so early on it did but then imagine all these people were cramped in and cooped up at home Had to had to get moving Well, they had to do something So what they would do is they would do an air bnb for a weekend or maybe a week down at the ocean and they'd go down to the shore um So a lot of those guys early on and then towards the end of the summer The few that I've talked to it did slow down and then right into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays It took off like a rocket again Wow Right now. Uh, I was actually speaking to my brother this past weekend They just now had to book a a two week beach rental They can't get anything down. Um in north carolina on the outer banks. Nothing was available until august Is book solid? Wow So you see where people's mindset is So we're gonna be going through this for quite a while And they're they're planning these weekend excursions or week-long vacations Yeah, the the one thing about the flip because I did a lot of flipping in my 20s I don't I'm I'm out of it now. I don't like it too much. I was flipping out Yeah, you know, but the the thing is it's like, you know, once you it takes, you know It does take a skillset to find the property in the first place Yeah, and then you do all that work and then you got to sell it, right? So Um, I definitely like the you know buying hold Uh buying hold for forever But I like the economy as a scale model where you you have more units contained on one on one property And you know, you have more income to help you pay down The same the same expenses, right? And you you start, uh, you know, the the higher you go in units The lower the cost per unit And for some reason that makes sense to me Right. They just became a multi res guy, you know, and you know, I I I love it. I I mean, I definitely, uh Would probably say to you that you should add that component to your portfolio. Yeah You know In the in the u.s. And canada I think they're going to move into like renter nations, right more people are going to be renting and and You know that that model of multi res. I think it's it would be it's a it's definitely Something you should look at. Yeah, I appreciate that. Um, yeah, I have a couple buddies um The whole purpose of their the the percentage of their flipping business Is to take the profits from those flips to buy That's their whole purpose. Yeah Yeah, and like it makes sense, right? That's what I mean. That's where the true wealth is in in real estate, right? um You you definitely have this awesome platform Right and uh, like I mean that's awesome. I'm glad I got to meet you. Yeah, man. Likewise likewise So When do you think canada is gonna allow me to cross the border? Yeah, I mean I need to go down by you I I lived in I lived in Miami Back in oh, uh, 2001 2002 2003 and Yeah, man, I I miss it. I mean I I was on tour in the in the us for you know, many times, you know I've been I've been doing training real estate training and you know all across the us and canada And uh, I miss it. I miss going down there. I love it, you know, I you know, especially My my my daughters I bring them to to disney world. Oh, yeah We didn't get to go. We're probably not gonna get to go this This uh this summer. Yeah, it's gonna be I don't know it's open, but we can't go You can go I could go. Yeah I could go You know, it's tough to say I think I Canada specifically Um, I you know, because what what's happening is there their vacs the the vaccines are rolling out to the vulnerable sector first Same here. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think uh, I think that's That's probably not the best move Mm-hmm because when you think about it Um, someone like me like You want me to wear a mask? I wear a mask. You want me to to you know, um, Physically be distant with someone I can do it. I can Keep it down to five people in my household. I can follow all the rules Because in the back of my mind, I definitely don't want someone to be hurt because I've I've made I've done something or I was careless and and then I love one or someone that I know Their loved one has, you know got COVID and and and dies because of something I did Right, and I'm sure I'm sure a lot of the young people. I mean, it's hard to keep young people, uh, you know, uh, kind of like You know in in indoors, right? But I would say that some of them that guilt of If you do something it could affect someone else Yeah, but what's going to happen when you no longer have that guilt where the vulnerable sector has been vaccinated How do you how do you keep all the horses in the barn? Right, and I think we're going to have a big surge where people are not going to care anymore That's just a personal opinion. Yeah, and uh, because you know, grandpa grandpa grandma are vaccinated and everybody's vaccinated So, you know what nothing to worry about anymore Yeah, and um, and I think the the governments are going to have another issue on their hands And so the I I think the best rollout would have been let's get Let's get the the the Non-vulnerable people vaccinated So you can still contain them in the barn keep those people in the barn Then vaccinate the older people and vulnerable people. I don't know I don't I don't that's making that decision anyways Yeah, no mean either and I mean it's a joke and this is not a laughing topic. It's a serious pandemic, but friend of mine said why Why are we we rewarding all the people that have these medical conditions? Why don't we vaccinate the healthy people first so they can help these vulnerable people? Yeah, well, it's just an area when you're on the plane, right the plane says when they deploy the air Um, the the airbag. Yeah, put put it on you put it on yourself first Yeah, so the other person. Yeah, right. Yeah, but I'm just I'm coming from the perspective of like How are you going to keep these people now indoors knowing that there is no consequence? Yeah, right. Yeah, which I don't know Anyways, I'm not making those decisions right now. That's both your and my pay grade. That's it. That's it You know the office. I don't need to make those decisions, right? But I appreciate it, but I mean good really good perspective with you on on covid and kind of How it affected all of us and will continue to affect us because we quite frankly all of us don't know what's next, you know Yeah, and and that's that's the one thing to keep into perspective No one has a crystal ball It's all speculation Yeah, what what I'm saying what you're saying what anybody's saying. It's just all speculation We can make projection and what's a projection? Well, we can take past experiences mixed in with present experiences We can now project what the future may May look like right Nobody has a crystal ball, right and you just have to right now all I all I all I can tell anybody and your viewers included Yeah, just walk cautiously But why like don't freeze, you know, like continue to buy real estate. Yeah, but be smart about it Yeah, no doubt about it. All right, man. I really appreciate it. Um guys Alfonso once again up in canada going over with All of us this afternoon on coming your way coming your way You guys better start buying real estate to us because he's coming, right? All right, man talk to you soon. Yes, sir. We'll see you