[00:00:01] Speaker A: If you're looking for the skills and.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Tools to succeed in real estate investing, you've come to the right place. This show is about breaking through barriers, breaking through limiting beliefs, and breaking through.
[00:00:13] Speaker C: To the life that you want to.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: Live through the power of real estate investing. You're listening to the Breakthrough Real Estate Investing podcast. And now, here are your hosts, Rob brake and Quinton D'Souza.
Foreign.
Welcome back, everybody. Thanks for joining us again today. As usual, Quentin D'Souza is here with me. How are you, Quentin?
[00:01:19] Speaker C: I'm doing well. How about yourself, Rob?
[00:01:21] Speaker B: I'm feeling good, man. I had a little bit of a cold the last few days, but just coming out of it, like, changed my world perspective again. I was like all down and grumpy from being sick.
[00:01:31] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, and then you're, then you're lifting 95 pound dumbbells. Like what he said. So he's sending me videos of like 95, like pumping 95 dumbbells. I look at, I'm looking at my dumbbells. I got like 50s. I'm like, oh, man, this is pathetic.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Well, I just share, like, see, I don't even put stuff. I don't like, post any of my gym stuff on Instagram or any of that stuff. Like, nothing. I just don't do it. Like, I don't care if other people do it. That's their thing. That's fine. But I just sent that to you, by the way, just for you. And then he goes and puts it on Instagram on his.
[00:02:09] Speaker C: Of course. What do you think, man? Yeah, well, you know, Jen's got to be proud of what her husband looks like there, right? Come on.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Everyone listening, please go over to Breakthrough, reipodcast, ca. You can hook up with all of the people that we have. Well, not hook up with them. You can get in touch with them. Get in touch with all the people that we have had on the show in the past and, and they've got all of their links in the show, notes and all that kind of stuff. So go over there and get in touch with us and then go over to itunes, leave us a rating and review. Let us know what kind of content you want to hear in the future, what you like, what you don't like, all that kind of stuff. So go over to itunes and, and leave us a review. I know, man. I say it so much say at the beginning of every show, but not all of you are doing it. So take this as a little bit of a call to action and go over and rate and review the show. Please, I know you're going to want to give us five stars. Quinton's been doing an amazing job here.
[00:03:07] Speaker C: You're.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: We, you know, it's crazy. We're almost pushing like a year with you on the show.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: I appreciate it. It's been fun and I really enjoy talking, talking to the different guests and, you know, making different types of connections with people that it's been, it's been really cool. So I'm, I'm excited about continuing to do that in the new year. And, you know, thanks for having me.
[00:03:31] Speaker B: Taking it up a notch.
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Absolutely. You know, take, you know, when you have different hosts too, I'm sure it takes it in different directions as well. So.
And you know, I've got my bobblehead, Rob to remind me of doing the podcast. So it's always, always handy. So I appreciate, I appreciate that. And I don't know, like, I like talking real estate and, and investing in wealth and, you know, this is right up my alley. So I'm hoping that it helps other people and inspires them to continue to do what they do. Right. Every week I'm working on projects and you know, right now I've got, I'm working on converting. I've got a property in Bowmanville that is a detached house and it has two units in it.
I've. I had to do a variance in order to get the lot split. So I've been able to split the lot in two and I can take the detached house, have a demising wall down the middle, and I've turned it into a semi detached house now.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: No way.
[00:04:37] Speaker B: Really?
[00:04:37] Speaker C: Yeah. And so what the, what I'm able to do with that is actually I can put three units on one side and three units on the other side. So I'm taking that single family home now and converting into a six plex.
I'm gonna get all, I've got all the plans done, but I'm thinking about actually just selling the, the lot and the plans and you know, to somebody who's interested in doing that type of project, because I've already made, I bought that property quite a while ago. I've made lots of money. Someone can make a couple hundred thousand once they've done the conversion. I, I can go and take the, the money and it into other projects and actually for me it's more about, you know, I probably just enjoy it a little bit. Maybe travel to Costa Rica, meet up with my buddy in Costa Rica there. What's his name again? Rob. Rob. Break.
Have some fun there. So I'm doing that sort of stuff. How about you? What are you working on in, in Costa Rica, other than your big muscles?
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I'm always working as a realtor here, so that's, that's a lot of fun too. Um, but it is so much different because like a lot of times when people visit here, it's like a blink of an eye sort of thing. Right. And especially when if I'm busy and like I know people that are coming down, it's, it's, it's almost hard for me to, to get together and even have a drink because it seems like it's like four days have gone by and they're going to leave in like two days later, you know, and you're like, whoa, that went by so quick. Right. But, but just the, and it's the same when clients come down. You're trying to show them everything you can show them and give them like a good overview of the way that things work and all that kind of stuff. And they're gone. Right. And, and so a lot of times, you know, people cool off when they leave. So it's really only those that, you know, have the, the real passion for the country that do end up pulling the trigger. So that is where I find it's a little bit different from, you know, just showing some numbers of something in Ontario and they're ready to go based on the investment. Just looking at it as an investment where I think when it comes to Costa Rica, as much as, you know, that's important to most people buying, they are looking for something as well where they can enjoy it for a certain amount of time through the year. So it makes it a lot different, but it's still fun.
[00:07:09] Speaker C: Yeah, that's neat. It sounds like you're, you're, you're keeping busy. And funny enough, our, our next guest. I, I was in the port.
Well, before we jump there, did you want to.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: I wanted to ask you one thing before we introduce Mike here. I wanted to ask you one thing because I was interested in what those plans looked like. Is that like a garden suite on each side or you're going up with it? Is that what you're doing? So what I've done basement as well.
[00:07:37] Speaker C: I appreciate you because it is kind of awesome the way that I've, I've got this done. So by putting the demising wall, what I've done is I've created a top up. So basically you're going to take the top floor off, you're going to put another floor on the top and an addition on the back to get the square footage. And that allows me to have probably about like about 900 square foot units. So two bedroom units across all six.
So that's just within the footprint, the house and the addition on the back. So you're really just doing construction on the top and the addition on the back. And then in the future you could always look at adding a garden suites on, on both sides because you really just cut it off. Now the, it depends on the municipality right now I don't think you could get away with it in Bowmanville for the additional garden suites, but that doesn't mean in the future you won't be able to. And, and the six units, what, what's beautiful about it because it is six units and the way that the footprint looks, you're most likely going to be able to get CMHC financing on it and it's possible that you could get some of the built building financing. Now they're really looking for that building financing for like 50 or 60 units. But you never know depending on your exit strategy. You could still just, you know, put it into a standard CMHC program and get all your money out of the project too. So it's a, it's really an interesting project that I think, you know, for the right person. I'm at a different stage right now. I'm more at my enjoy stage. I'll probably end up selling off some of my like all my smaller properties over the next, you know, 15, 20 years, you know, one a year and you know, just enjoy some of the benefits of the, of the equity that we've gained over the last 20 years. So.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Yeah, and then that's amazing because you still got all your bigger like you're into much bigger investment projects now like apartment buildings in the States and in Canada, right?
[00:09:44] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, 25. So we've got 25 apartment buildings in, in Ontario and I don't have apartment buildings in, in Tampa. I have like single family homes and duplexes. So those, those are doing really well. Cash flow. Well, but the, yeah, for, for me I'm probably, I find that right now that there is, it is interesting because of the densification rules that, that I've seen municipalities have, have. I think what I'm going to start to do is look at all my projects and do all the plans, get all the, the variances done, make it all ready like kind of like paper ready and then sell those projects over time and then that way.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: Sounds great.
[00:10:33] Speaker C: Yeah. So people can add the unit, add a garden suite, whatever it is. I'll get everything ready for them, all they have and it becomes a value add to the actual like. So it's not just your regular duplex. Right. It's a duplex plus two or our duplex four in this case. Right.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: So it's going to be doing all the research for you guys. I know, I know there's probably going to be some listeners interested in that. But you're doing all the legwork, right. You're finding out highest and best use. Yeah. And then they just walk in and get some amazing opportunity.
[00:11:04] Speaker C: Yeah. And they have to do that while they have to do the construction work and all of that. I'm not the reason why. I like, I always find that with deals it's important to create some equity so that they can, you know, take it to the next step. Right. Always leave some meat on the bone. Right. That's what I feel makes sense for projects.
So that's what I'm going to be doing with, with these type of projects. So, you know. Yeah. Get to create the relationships with people. Sorry, I didn't want to go down that path.
[00:11:37] Speaker B: Just too curious to not ask because, you know, you don't know whether it's just what you've got there. And then you throw the. A small, like one bedroom in the basement and then you got garden suites or something like that.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Where I find that actually a lot more appealing, you know.
[00:11:51] Speaker C: Yeah. You're purpose built, you know, you end up, we're going to end up with, you know, six units. Prob. You know, let's say you're renting 1900 plus all utilities because you can do that with. When you're, when you're building it out like that. Like you're. If you're using a cap rate with 1900, you know that that value can, that could be in the millions. Right. So that if you, if you're depending on how, what your construction costs are, you can, you can do quite well on it. So try to, like I said, leave meat on the bone for the next person.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: Very good. Awesome. Okay, thanks for, thanks for sharing that.
[00:12:31] Speaker C: No problem.
So this next guest is I, I met him in Playa del Carmen. He was down there for, I don't know, a few months and he was just enjoying himself. We were talking a little bit of real estate. We're talking about crypto or just, you know, having, having an interest, interesting conversations, you know, and it's always good to connect with people. I met Mike a few years ago and, you know, I wanted to get to know him a little bit. He did property management and he was in the Niagara area and St. Catharines and down that, that, that area. And, you know, it was always interesting to chat with him because he was also interested in stocks, cryptocurrency. He, he was, he's invested in some international projects. He was, he's flipping merchandise. So he's got a lot of.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we're not to get into that.
[00:13:34] Speaker C: That would be pretty cool.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: A broad term.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: Yeah. So he's been doing some, some interesting things, and I always find that it's good to talk to. I, I enjoy talking to people who are doing unique and different things, and Mike Yolano is just one of those guys. So I think this will be an interesting conversation with Mike, and I'm sure that he's gonna give us any more details that he wants. But I thought we could start off with just a little bit of, you know, where you got involved in real estate investing, Mike, and, you know, you know, managing student rentals and, you know, that part of your life.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Welcome, Mike.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for having me on here, guys.
So, you know, my journey has been a bit of a long one and I've changed paths a couple times, but that's kind of normal, I guess, you know, depending on what field you get into. So I actually went to school in Niagara. I got a degree in health sciences. Nothing to do with investing at all.
And, you know how it goes, right? You're young, you're 18, you're 19, you're picking a degree. And sometimes, you know, by the time you're done, it's not actually what you want to do. And you might find out later that that's the case. So I didn't realize. I don't like being stuck in a cubicle. I don't like, like doing office type work. And When I was 19, I worked at a Chinese restaurant. I didn't know where I wanted to be. I didn't have experience in an office or anything like that. And once I got into the office environment, my, you know, my zest for the work went way down. And it was much, you know, it wasn't very exciting for me. I didn't feel like I was accomplishing much. I didn't feel like I was being challenged much, and I didn't really like it. So, you know, I started hearing from certain people around me, a couple relatives that were really into real estate. And, you know, when I started talking to them, it got me interested. And once I stepped My foot in the door with real estate. As you know, the market kept going up and so I began to like it more. The freedom of being an investor, eventually property manager for other people. And it kind of just snowballed into me becoming full time real estate from about 2008 onwards. And I was in my twenties, I was pretty young at the time, still. I think I got my first house at 24. And once I got my foot in the door and that snowball started rolling, my dedication became towards real estate and investment. And I was always statistical and value based thinking. I was always really good at stats and I was always really interested in my hockey cards and judging value and all that stuff. And when I got into real estate, it kind of reignited that flame and I was able to help clients decide, hey, how do we get more rent? Where should I buy? Where do you think the real estate market's going? And I kind of got into that as a snowball effect or almost an accident.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: Okay, and like, what year was this?
[00:16:44] Speaker A: I got my first house in 2005 and I began property management by 2008.
[00:16:50] Speaker C: And by 2008, how many or at the, at the peak, how many units do you think you were you're managing or rooms?
[00:17:00] Speaker A: It was a little under a hundred properties, which could have been, you know, many hundreds of tenants, student homes, had five or six people in each one. So I was a landlord to five hundred or a thousand people.
[00:17:13] Speaker C: Oh man, you must have some really interesting stories. What's the funniest thing that ever happened to you as a property manager?
[00:17:23] Speaker A: So, I mean, there's some stories I just can't tell you, but.
[00:17:26] Speaker C: Well, those are the best ones.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: I'll tell you one that's allowed to be told here. So I was managing a property for a friend and these guys are renting it and there was no issues with renting the house to them or anything. And the rent was paid and all that good stuff. And I remember going to their house to collect rent one time and I was like, wow, these guys got a lot of beer posters hanging off the wall, right? They probably borrowed them from a local bar or something like that. And you know, they had these big, I won't even say the brand, but big beer posters. And when they moved out, I remember going in there to kind of just check the place out. And you know, you start moving stuff, putting stuff in garbage bags. And I go to pull one of the beer posters off the wall and behind the beer poster, when you flip that up over their couch, they had the entire NCAA brackets filled in all the way to the finals and who won in permanent sharpie on the wall.
And so it's not a very good story. I mean, the owner had to repaint and, like, you know, go over that with kills primer, probably.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Don't you think they could have turned the posters around and. And wrote it on the back of the poster?
[00:18:36] Speaker A: They probably could have, but it would have made for less of a cool story for them, I guess.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess. I don't know.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: But I knew who won the championship that year.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: I mean, I'm sure there's. It's always, you know, some. It's always things like that. I. I guess, you know, that's not that bad. No, I mean, no, I think a lot of times people misunderstand student rentals and. And what's, you know, what's going on there. You know, you must. You must have had to shatter some biases when it came to investors, when it came to student rentals. Right?
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Oh, I would constantly be fully honest with people about how it goes. And not everyone does that. And I was very adamant about that, because otherwise, later, if a problem comes up, they're going to blame me, not realizing it's a common thing that could happen. Right. And at the end of the day, I tell people, if you're going to make 50 grand or a couple hundred grand or whatever off your property in the coming years, paint the wall. Try to see if their guarantor will pay for it if they won't paint it. I mean, that's just the way, you know, you're going to make more money than it costs to probably paint your walls. Right. And you can write that cost off and try to, you know, prevent it from happening as much as you can.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: Mike, is this your microphone right there on your.
Yeah. You need to just move it, because every time you move, it's. It's dulling the. The audio.
[00:20:07] Speaker A: Is it not. Is it swinging?
[00:20:10] Speaker B: That's perfect.
[00:20:10] Speaker C: No, it's when you raise your hands.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:12] Speaker C: When you're moving around. It's the. It's the. It's the Italian in you. Right. Like, he's got to use his hands to talk.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: That should be okay. Now, I'll let you know if I'll.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: Keep the hands low.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: It's back out. There's one thing you said I couldn't hear just because it. It completely went out when you. When you went like that.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: All right. We should be good.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: That's funny.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: So are you still managing?
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Are you still doing Property management pretty much not anymore. I started scaling that back years ago.
It's quite a headache to manage properties.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: And why I don't try to. Try not to.
[00:20:48] Speaker C: It's the hardest part of the. It's the. The hardest part of the business is the management piece, for sure. And it's the least glorious part, right? Like, you know, it's like, it's hard to. It's a hard business. Right. So did you end up selling it off or like.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: No, I just ended up scaling it back by choice, basically. And I just had. My attention became shifted in other directions, and I had already started scaling it back in pieces because I just didn't want it to dominate my time, and I didn't want to sell it all either. So I kind of found a happy medium with it and transitioned into other, you know, other methods of income.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, well, let's talk about some of those other methods of income.
[00:21:36] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, like the. He. He used to. I. I used to see all this as wrestling stuff, and he would be flipping it.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: I'm like, what? Really?
[00:21:44] Speaker C: How can you make money on this stuff?
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Like, I heard people do that with shoes a lot. That's a big thing, flipping shoes, right?
[00:21:53] Speaker C: Tell us a little about that.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So, I mean, that's like a little side venture. Like, like I said, I was always the kid obsessed with hockey cards. I was memorizing the value of the rookie cards, and the next Beckett issue would come out, and I, you know, I was very into that as a kid. So when I got into real estate, you can do a lot of that, right? Buy a corner property with extra land, and you start figuring out all these tricks for value, right? So I started looking at collectibles and started realizing that, you know, people that had really old autographs or toys or boxing gloves or whatever, they. They would go up in value over time, right? And so I kind of started by seeing someone post a bunch of vinyl records for sale, five bucks each. I bought all of them. Guns N Roses, the Beatles.
All the best stuff, right? And it kind of eventually got me into just generally going into collectibles. And I was really big Hulk Hogan fan, Macho man, all those wrestlers back in the day. So I started literally judging value, and I started saying, what's the rarest collectible style item you could get? Right? You can get. Never open toys. Those are pretty rare. Never open video games. Those are pretty rare. And I started getting into buying some of the things that those wrestler guys would actually wear to the ring. And that's what I think Quentin was talking about.
[00:23:19] Speaker C: Yeah, so, so tell us like, like the best one that you did, the, the best kind of flip.
[00:23:25] Speaker B: You had a Hogan durag or what?
[00:23:27] Speaker A: No, I got, you know, I've got the Hulk Hogan underwear. I got the yellow trunks he would wear to the ring. Right.
So I like, he had an actual pair of the ones he wore to Wrestlemania. Andre the Giant or whoever he wrestled. Oh, wow. And I got a whole bunch of the Ultimate Warrior.
I was a huge fan of the Ultimate Warrior. So I was getting knee pads and trunks and all these things for the Ultimate Warrior. Then he passed away, unfortunately, you know, and that wasn't a good thing at all. And all of a sudden my collectibles go up in value 10x, you know, and I just got deeper and deeper into it. And I have bought and sold some of the rarest collectibles out there.
[00:24:09] Speaker C: How have you done on them? Like have you like 2x or 3x or 10x? How does that work?
[00:24:14] Speaker A: Oh my goodness. I mean like some of the five dollar Beatles albums and stuff I bought must have gone up 10x.
I have a field Nirvana album worth like a thousand dollars. You know, I think I paid 100 bucks for it. I've got a lot of really rare stuff. I've got Mike Tyson autographed gloves. I've got posters, I've got all kinds of stuff. And I've even got some original old sealed video games like Street Fighter 2, Super Mario 3. Some of those are worth like 2,3000 bucks. I maybe paid 100 or 200 for them. Wow.
[00:24:47] Speaker C: And where do you keep them? Just so I know.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll tell you after.
[00:24:52] Speaker C: Yeah, oh, sure.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: So how do you decide what to keep? Or is everything for sale?
[00:25:01] Speaker A: So originally I was buying stuff and just flipping it for more money by buying it real cheap. And I knew the value and maybe the seller didn't. And I was actually selling really good stuff. And eventually I was like, okay, now everyone starts like, there's a lot of people into collectibles, a lot of people into sneakers. There's a lot of people into all that stuff. And once I started to realize the future value, I actually would hold all my best stuff and really only put for sale. My not, you know, not so great stuff in recent years. So I have stuff that I'm going to hold for a while.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: And just one more time, can you pull your mic out of your shirt, see if that is it when I.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: Move my hands or anytime I keep.
[00:25:46] Speaker B: It on the outside, Just anytime you just as I think it's just getting covered by your shirt or whatever when you move. So that's all. If it. If you can just make sure it doesn't get covered when you move, then we should be all good.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:25:59] Speaker C: Awesome.
[00:26:00] Speaker B: That's what Quentin's doing this for.
[00:26:02] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:26:04] Speaker C: Hands. Hands.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Everyone watching this video on. On YouTube is gonna think, like, why is Quentin making, like, moose ears all the time? It's a.
[00:26:13] Speaker C: It's the Italian.
It's like trying to get it Italian.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Man to stop moving his hand.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: What are you talking about?
[00:26:24] Speaker C: It's impossible. It's just like, impossible. Okay, sorry. So how many income at that time. I know that you were doing the property management, you're flipping products, and you were also doing, like, stock investing at the same time. So you had at least three sources of income that I know of. Were there any other income sources that you were generating at that time, like, or are those the main ones?
[00:26:53] Speaker A: Those would be the main ones. I mean, I've been helping out for the hiring process with firefighters for probably 20 years on the side, and. But those were the three main money makers for me at that time.
[00:27:06] Speaker C: And then working as, like, did you get paid for the hiring of the firefighters?
[00:27:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a job. I mean, when I was at Brock University, my professor designed the program. They were paying us 10 bucks an hour as a student back then, and I know the person that ended up buying it, and I still help them to this day.
[00:27:25] Speaker C: Oh, that's cool. So you had, like, different ways that you were earning income as well as, you know, your investments. Right.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Well, I really like that you're following your passion and turning that into something that, like, makes money for you. You know, it's like you. You and your heart is 100 into it. So let's think about it.
[00:27:45] Speaker A: I. I don't have any Pokemon cards because I don't really care about them. I don't know anything about them.
I was never a Star wars fan, so I didn't know how to get the best Star wars collectibles. It would have taken a lot of research. I wouldn't have enjoyed, actually. So I dove into the subject matters that I knew best, and I tried to get some of the rarest and most sought after items I could.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: I think that's a lesson for people though, right? Like, okay, you can take it to the extreme level where if you dial back even to what Mike was saying about being in a cubicle all day, like, just start from there. It's like, there's no passion in that. Whatsoever. For most people, I don't know if they're really. If they're really engaged in the. In whatever they're doing. I. I guess you can pass eight hours in a cubicle sometimes. But for me, like, that resonates the most is like, I can't be in here. I can't be spending my day, like, told to sit in this one place all day long. I just can't do it right. So I relate to that, you know, a lot.
[00:28:47] Speaker C: Yeah. And, and. And then Mike got involved with international.
I have no idea how this international property investment. So he. So I, I have a little background because, you know, I've. I've met up with Mike before and, you know, just chatting with him and the type of projects that he was involved in. Can you share a little bit about your. Like, the international projects that you've got involved in?
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Yeah. So, I mean, it kind of ties into my overall investment plan. I guess it's a bit of a complex answer. So in 2022, as we know, markets changed in Canada, interest rates changed everywhere. And I started trying to figure out what I was going to do because I actually took a lot of profits on different investments. I sold some Canadian property, bitcoin, a bunch of stuff, and I was kind of waiting for the market to go down. And I ended up having a. A friend that was already doing international real estate throughout the 20. 20, 2021 cycle. And they were investing in Portugal and, you know, places around the world. Spain, Mexico, usa, all over the place. And these are Canadian people. And basically I was given an introduction into what they were doing, and I ended up dipping my toes into international investment. And I've got some stuff in Mexico now. I ended up being in Mexico when I saw Quentin in the winter. Part of it was because I was going towards the real estate there, and I just didn't really think Canada was the best place for my money at the time. And that turned out to be correct for the most part. And so I was just seeking places that seemed to be going up in value actually during the rate hikes or that they were handling it better and I was diversifying my investments.
[00:30:47] Speaker C: How do they end up doing if, like, like, how did. How did you get. So did you, like, were you purchasing lots? Were you purchasing condos? Like, can you describe a little bit about that? And.
And I think that would be helpful. Yeah.
[00:31:03] Speaker A: I mean, it was a little bit of both.
So there's some land where I've gone in with some partners and strategically combine them together, get some Drawings together. Right. To be able to build it or flip it to a builder.
[00:31:15] Speaker C: Right.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: And then there's some pre construction stuff where this group I'm with already has established relationships with some pretty well known builders and we get to buy their first phase of construction, which is the cheapest phase of construction. And now the project is wrapping up and the prices are already higher.
[00:31:34] Speaker C: Well, so what, what would you have for the pre construction ones in Mexico? What would you have bought it at and what do you think it's valued now?
[00:31:43] Speaker A: So this was probably, probably only a year ago or a little over a year ago that I got into a condo development and they were probably worth maybe just 240, 250 US is what we were buying them on that type of a projected payment.
And right now we're seeing comps right around the same development, built by the same builder, same type of specs and they're in the 400s. So seems like it's up probably 80% or something like that.
[00:32:14] Speaker C: Wow, that's awesome. In just over a year.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: Just over a year by getting in to the phase one and you're letting your money sit there, right?
[00:32:24] Speaker C: Yeah. It's interesting because I mean the pre construction market in Toronto in the last couple of years has been a bit of a nightmare. Right.
So it's interesting that you're using the same strategy but you're doing it in, in Mexico and this particular group is doing it in Portugal and you know, in different places within Mexico. Right.
Not just. So what were the, what were the places in Mexico? One was Cabo. Right.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: I mean there's a bunch like there's Puerto Vallarta, there's Cabo, there's Acumel, there's Playa del Carmen, Tulum. It's kind of spread out all over the place, but those are some of the, the main ones.
[00:33:10] Speaker C: Wow. So you really got into. And, and then is that, so is that how you ended up going to Mexico and like to look at the.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: Projects or so it's funny like I, I got invited to go to Mexico to check out this stuff and I'd already researched it in advance and everything and I don't know, I went there for a two week vacation. I ended up staying for months and I like, you know, initially it was like a week or two, like a week business, a week pleasure and I don't know, the way of life there is so beautiful. The food there is amazing. The aura of the people, the aura of these cities is amazing. And I didn't want to Go back to cold Canada where we were having interest rates go up and everything was going for crap.
And I just, I just kind of stayed out. Like, I went to Costa Rica. I went to Costa Rica last summer. So I did a bachelor party trip to Nashville, which was awesome. And then right afterwards, I came to Costa Rica and none of my friends wanted to come with me. They're not really like digital nomads. Like, they want to go to a resort or nothing. And I was like, no, I'm going to go to actual Costa Rica. And I fell in love with the place. Like, you know, like, I had a great time there. The people were awesome and I just learned so much. And they have a saying in Costa Rica, it's Buddha Vida. And it just means pure life. Like if you got yourself a can of beer and a piece of chicken and you're watching the beach, life is good. And I just found such a big difference. Nothing against Canadians or anything, but we grow up in a world where we're always trying to get more money and more stuff. And the guy with a beer and a piece of chicken feels rich in Costa Rica.
[00:34:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's one of my biggest things that I tell people too is don't go to all inclusive resort in Costa Rica. There are a few and they're, they're okay. I mean, like, sometimes if I want to, just a quick vacation, I'll, I'll jump to one. I'll go to like the, the planet Hollywood is close to us and there's a ryu here that I'll, that I'll go to every once in a while. Take the kids, they got water slides and all that kind of stuff. But like, really, if you're coming to visit Costa Rica, you, you, you don't stay in a resort. You know, if you're gonna go to Mexico, you stay in the resort. They got some absolutely beautiful resorts in Mexico and they're actually probably more affordable than the ones here too. So that's what I say. If you want to go to an all inclusive resort, go somewhere else. Go to Punta Cana, whatever. But if you're coming to Costa Rica, you know. Yeah. You immerse yourself in, in the culture a little bit.
[00:35:40] Speaker C: Yeah, it's, it's interesting. Like the, you know, my son is actually going to an all inclusive in like February next year, my older son, and it's in Tulum. And I'm like, why'd you go there? He's like, because it was cheap. And it was, and it looked good, right? Good reviews. So I, I could see that for sure.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: I went to Cuba like four times because you could go there, stay in an all inclusive resort with the whole family for like $4,000 or something like that. You know, that's including the flights you go to sunwing the whole week. All, you know, not the food's great, but it's like $4,000 for family of four to go for a whole week.
[00:36:17] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. That's really affordable. And I, that, that's nice too. But, but, but Mike, you, you've also been like doing some interesting char of stocks and then you like, obviously if anybody's watching the video, Mike's shirt is like bitcoin shirt. He's got like, you know, bowl hat. So like, you know, and he's got bitcoin picture background there.
[00:36:41] Speaker B: So obviously real place, isn't it, Quinta?
[00:36:44] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: That's a sweet pad.
[00:36:49] Speaker C: So, so tell us a little bit about your journey, you know, into like charting and you know, like, obviously you've ended up into cryptocurrency, so maybe you can tell us a little bit about that.
[00:37:01] Speaker A: That's a custom bitcoin punching bag right here too.
So, yeah, like I. So you actually mentioned earlier, were there any other streams of income, you know, along the way?
I also got into investing in stocks, you know, once I was into real estate. It's a natural extension to get into stock market investment, but that takes a while to wrap your head around it, right. And to become confident at it. So I became confident that the real estate pretty quickly and I would have considered it a main business of mine from 2008 onwards. The stock business took some time and there was a lot to learn. There was some mistakes to make. And I was always really good at probability statistics and charting. In school I was taking grade 13 math and grade 11 because I wanted to. And I'm not a gifted student or anything like that, but I was very good at that subject. And it applies directly to real estate and collectibles and stocks and all this stuff, right? My mind's already wired that way. And I started to read books and some of the common ones, right? Rich dad, poor dad and all that good stuff, right? Wealthy barber, all that stuff. Warren Buffett. But then I got into the technical analysis and the charting and you watch your bnn, Bloomberg and your CNBC and they do some charting on there sometimes. And I started looking deeper at it and it might sound kind of crazy, but I've taught myself to be able to analyze charts and use Them for my investments at a pretty high level.
Self teaching and learning from other experts on YouTube and on the Internet that I've followed for years, reading books, studying election cycles, all this stuff. And when 2020 came, and when the recent election just came in 2024, I gave my followers a direct game plan on what to do. And it worked out.
So that's, you know, I've really, really shifted my focus to stocks, cryptos, and using chart analysis with it.
[00:39:12] Speaker C: Okay. And so you've got, you got into like crypto. So what kind of like crypto is a big topic because there are, you know, they're the, there's bitcoin, right? And then there are the other kind of. I will call them like stable coins, like, you know, ether. And I don't know if you would call that a stable coin or not, or Solana. And then there are like all the meme coins and there are, you know, real world assets and like AI coins and all this stuff. So what, what, what are investable, you know, cryptocurrencies to you?
[00:39:52] Speaker A: So, you know, luckily going into the cryptocurrency thing, I'd already gone through the stock market venture, right? How do you pick which stocks to buy? Right. Do you buy just the blue chips? Do you buy just Canadian ones? Do you buy penny stocks? Like, what do you do?
Do you chase the pot stocks in Canada in 2016 and 2017? There's all these things you can chase, and then there's your Royal bank and your Microsoft and stuff like that, right? And with real estate, do you buy the prime location and pay more, or do you buy the little scattered locations and hope for the best? Right. You can kind of apply that logic to all of these things. So I kind of luckily already had somewhat of a roadmap from real estate and from collectibles and from, you know, investing in stocks. And I kind of applied that type of a logic over to cryptos. So if you're not familiar with cryptos, that might sound a little weird, but there's a crypto market, just like a stock market and a real estate market and a collectible market. And a lot of the skill sets I've built over the years are transferable to the next thing I do. And sometimes you need to adapt them a bit. But with cryptos, I was able to judge the ones that were more the blue chippers, the ones that were kind of middle of the road, and then the ones that were just completely speculative. And I was able to use my past methods of, you know, analysis Engaging value and risk on cryptos as well.
[00:41:22] Speaker C: Okay, so you're using what you've learned from the, from investing in real estate and stocks into cryptocurrency. That's, that's really interesting. I think sometimes we forget how much the things that we've learned over the years helps us to get to where we are now. Right. Are you able to derive income from that or is it more like betting on appreciation? Kind of like a little bit more speculative.
[00:41:52] Speaker A: So it's both for me, which is wonderful. It's ideal to have both.
You know, you could be a realtor that's making money on commissions, and you could also own real estate and speculate. Right.
And so for me with the cryptos, what I've done is I've been through three crypto cycles. Okay. It's not my first time.
[00:42:12] Speaker C: Explain that, because I don't know if anybody understands what that means.
[00:42:17] Speaker A: So there's an Olympics every four years, right? And you wait for the next Olympics, you wait for the next World Cup. Well, there's a World cup of cryptos for, for bitcoin, there's a cycle every four years that we wait for as crypto investors. And I didn't know that in 2017, but I did know that four years later. I studied. And in 2020 and 2021, I took big advantage knowing that there's a four year cycle just like there's an election every four years.
[00:42:44] Speaker C: Yeah, so. So what happens in every four years?
[00:42:48] Speaker A: So basically, bitcoin is an asset that has a limited amount out there. So Picture There were 21 million Michael Jordan rookie cards in the world. Okay. And you know, there's a certain amount that have been released, and there's a certain amount of those rookie cards that are still in on unopened packs of cards out there that you can go find them. Right?
Well, with cryptos, out of the 21 million, there's 19 million or so already out there, and they're still releasing some. Right. Every four years, they give out half as many of the remaining bitcoin. So, you know, imagine you go to your store and they bring in a thousand of the new PlayStation, and then when the next new PlayStation comes out, they bring in 500. Right now you got to fight for 500 new PlayStations. That's kind of what they do with cryptos. They're giving out less and less of them per, per day. And that value changes every four years. It's called a having cycle. You get half as many bitcoin per day. Come to the Market brand new ones that you could actually go try to purchase, if that makes sense.
[00:44:01] Speaker C: Gotcha. Yeah. So but that's specific to bitcoin, right? That doesn't necessarily happen with other cryptocurrency. Right. Like so that's, that's the bitcoin cycle.
Okay. And then the.
How do you make money off of that cycle?
[00:44:20] Speaker A: So through my charting and my pattern recognition and you know, my probabilities and everything that I have spinning through my head when I'm looking at this stuff, I kind of just back test a lot. Okay. And there's a book I read in 2006 that taught me about the presidential election cycle which is every four years. And you know, stocks go up a heck of a lot after the US election and it just seems to be this cycle that you can expect and count on. And with bitcoin I've learned the same thing. And most people don't zoom out on charts like I do and use them the way I do. But if I zoom out on that chart, you can see a clear distinct peak in the bitcoin price every four years. And sure enough, four years later, there's another peak in the bitcoin price. And I just, I couldn't deny the pattern that was in place and how it coincided with the bitcoin halving event which happens every four years. And that's the same year as the presidential election, which makes everything go up additionally. So you're getting a rarity factor. You're getting a rally post election and pretty much all assets for the most part. And you're getting dollar devaluation and inflation and if your dollars are less valuable, you got to pay more for a house, more for.
[00:45:43] Speaker B: I think so let's just, let's just put it like this though. Like it.
So you're believing in bitcoin, right? It goes up and down, it goes through its cycles just like everything else. But throughout that time you're just buying and buying and when and when it comes to that having moment, that's when it pays off.
[00:46:06] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So after every, so it's not really.
[00:46:09] Speaker B: Like you have to do anything extra or whatever. Like as you're waiting for that, you more just have to believe in the product and, and do the investment like.
[00:46:18] Speaker C: A, like a pre con condo once it's completed then, then the values there, I guess. Is that what you're saying, Rob?
[00:46:27] Speaker A: Well, basically I'm seeing opportunistic times where the price has come down a lot and people have lost faith in it and they don't recognize what I'm telling you about the cycle.
[00:46:37] Speaker C: Right.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: And there's people either that don't recognize the cycle or they do and they've taken some profits.
[00:46:42] Speaker B: So you've been very strategic about when you purchased it based on the cycles and the prices and, and some of your like, ability to I guess, forecast the market.
[00:46:54] Speaker A: Yeah, like, you know, I. No one can time the market fully, but man, am I doing a good job on those metrics. And I was warning people when to get in through the 2020 onwards cycle. And I'm doing the same thing now with the 2024 onwards cycle and I'm trying to teach people how it works because most people don't know and I want them to hopefully make the choice to experience the, the rally that I think is still, still coming. Right. All right.
[00:47:26] Speaker C: All right, so we're gonna put this to the test today. Bitcoin is 104k US at the end of January.
Mike, what do you think bitcoin is going to be?
[00:47:37] Speaker A: Yeah, don't put me on the spot.
[00:47:39] Speaker B: He loves doing stuff like this.
[00:47:42] Speaker A: That's like the worst question you can ask anyone.
So it's very difficult for me to come up with an accurate number. Nobody can do that. Nobody.
My gut feel is that we will be at least between 150 and 200,000 in January.
[00:48:01] Speaker C: @ the end of January. Really?
[00:48:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I. Wow.
[00:48:04] Speaker C: Okay, that's awesome. That's. I appreciate you, you putting yourself out there and saying that because that's, you know, crystal balling is impossible. Right. Nobody can crystal ball anything. But you know, when you, when you have that gut feel and you're telling people to buy something, you're invested yourself, right. You, you, you're putting your own money where your mouth is. And I think that's because a lot of people will sell real estate or sell, you know, books or sell products, but they, they not necessarily invested in it themselves. Right. And that's, I think that's important to me with, when you're talking about a particular, you know, stock or product or whatever it is. Right. You got to be self invested.
[00:48:55] Speaker B: Yeah, that's important. I have a question for you.
Like, alternatively, when the market is high, are you, are you selling off and using that like as income through the year or how are you, how are you making income through the year?
[00:49:13] Speaker A: So you know, I, I ended up selling my bitcoin when it was about 56000 in 2022, very publicly. I have an online social media community with invest like Mike if you go on Facebook, I have an invest like Mike group for free. And I posted there that I got out and I basically was selling Canadian real estate, getting out of my bitcoin. And I knew what, you know, eight rate hikes was going to do to the economy and I just waited for it to happen and I bought everything back cheaper, essentially. So that's one way I benefited from it. But what I also did in 2020, we all went online with Zoom Video all of a sudden, right? Nobody expected to work from home and be stuck at home. And I ended up having some friends of mine say, listen, there's people teaching through Zoom Video. It sounds weird, but, you know, it's common now. And with what you know and with what you've been sharing in your social media groups, you should try to teach it to people one on one or as a class and do it through Zoom video. So in 2020, I started a whole new, you know, couple of revenue streams of one on one coaching, coaching people in a class format. And I started a weekly training session where I summarize what's happened for reading charts, right?
[00:50:32] Speaker C: Because I remember you were showing me how to read charts too, because that wasn't something that I knew a lot about, right.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: I was basically teaching people all the different tools that I use basically for investing. So charting is part of it, but part of it is just teaching them what a darn market cycle is and how the US election works and showing them what happens after market crashes and what does it mean to have a bailout, money printing, lowering rates drastically, raising rates drastically. I've been teaching people about all this stuff in combination with the charts, in combination with the crypto cycles and everything else. And it's a heck of a mess to teach people.
But usually if you understand a subject at a high enough level, you can try to use analogies and simplify it down into a palatable way that they'll understand. So I started doing that in 2020, and at this point now, I'm pretty darn good at explaining things to people. Even if it's a complex subject. I've tried to figure out ways of explaining it.
[00:51:36] Speaker C: So are you saying that your. Your main revenue source now or income sources, teaching and coaching?
[00:51:43] Speaker A: It's probably investing. I mean, it's hard to beat the investing returns, to be honest.
But you know, that's my job at this point. I mean, that's probably a better way to describe it, right?
[00:51:55] Speaker C: So it's a. Your active income is from, from the coaching and then your investments are in stocks, crypto and like flipping. Do you still flip like merchandise and stuff like that?
[00:52:09] Speaker A: Not really.
I just, I have really good stuff that I'm packing away for a while.
[00:52:15] Speaker C: And you're holding, you're holding.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: And you know, I don't think there's any reason to get rid of my Beatles albums and my Guns and Roses and all Mike Tyson and all that stuff.
[00:52:26] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. And do you still have those shorts, the Hulk Hogan shorts? Is that one of like, do you have that in like a case or something?
[00:52:36] Speaker A: Like I've got them in a very protected place.
I think there's only 19 of them in the world. So it's a pretty special piece.
I paid like, I think I paid 17, 25 US for those. And I know they're already worth five or 10 grand.
I think they'll be worth 10 or 20 grand at some point.
[00:52:56] Speaker C: Man, I never thought underpants would be worth that much.
Yeah.
[00:53:01] Speaker A: And they're not even clean. There's like blood or something. Something on there.
[00:53:08] Speaker C: Too much information.
Awesome. It's been great chatting with you.
[00:53:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so where would people learn more about that? Can you tell us the website again?
[00:53:20] Speaker A: So if you go check out investlikemike.com it'll give you my bio and kind of what I'm doing. If you go to Facebook, type in invest like Mike and you can join my group there and you'll see everything I'm talking about. The main thing to mention to people is I have a crypto boot camp service where 150 bucks a month, it's pretty cheap and you get one hour videos with me live every Sunday. I post the recording to a private group. You can watch it whenever you want after the fact. And I tell people what's going on in the crypto market, what I own, what I'm selling, what my strategies are. And I'm trying to take people that don't know that much about bitcoin or people that do know a bunch about bitcoin and try to accelerate their strategy towards it.
[00:54:05] Speaker C: Cool.
[00:54:06] Speaker B: Okay, that sounds good. We'll put all that info in the show notes so people can access that from there. And again, thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate you coming on and sharing all this. This has been fun.
[00:54:16] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me and not making fun of my bitcoin shirt too much.
[00:54:22] Speaker C: It was really interesting and a different conversation for us, that's for sure. And, and Rob, how do people get a hold of you and get in touch with you?
[00:54:31] Speaker B: Well, you can reach Me at robisterbreakthrough Ca. That's my email address and, and you can just ask me any questions you want there. Also, you know, if you're gonna be in the area, check out Manta Ray Lodge. We've got that going on now. And I mean the, it's actually booked up pretty good over the next couple of months. Like as soon as Christmas hits, we're pretty much fully booked. But, you know, worth checking out because every once in a while there's a few days in there. So if you're interested or in the area, just check that out. Manta railodgecr.com and Quinton, how can people get in touch with you?
[00:55:11] Speaker C: They can go to quintondasuza.com and book a 15 minute call. Happy to chat with you about real estate or investing. And you know, if you're interested in learning about real estate investing, I encourage you to join durham
[email protected] and connect with me there. I do monthly live meetings that are streamed and people from all over can, can watch. So it's, it's always been good. I've been doing that since 2008, so it's been a long time.
[00:55:43] Speaker B: Yeah, wealth of knowledge there.
Go do it.
[00:55:48] Speaker C: And one other thing, if, if you're interested in the six plex, please, you know, connect with me and I'd be happy to share some details about the single family home to Sixplex conversion. If you're interested in, you know, perhaps doing that project yourself, reach out to me.
[00:56:06] Speaker B: Amazing. Okay, well, thanks everybody for listening and we will see you next time. Have a great day.
Thank you. I was gonna say when, when he went right at the end and I just, I, I had to hold my tongue. I just couldn't do it. I was gonna say, quinton, maybe you should try to sell your underwear online.
[00:56:37] Speaker C: Yeah, good luck. That's not gonna work.
I may get negative money. People are charging me.
[00:56:44] Speaker B: Please show up at your house.
[00:56:45] Speaker C: Yeah, I was gonna, you know, maybe you rob with your 85 pound or 95 pound dumbbells.
[00:56:52] Speaker B: Maybe you don't want them after.
[00:56:55] Speaker C: I, I love that. I love the fact that, you know, they're not, they weren't really clean.
That was the best mic.
[00:57:06] Speaker A: So I gotta tell you something. Hulk Hogan was on a podcast and he was telling a story. And they've asked the Rock and stuff this too, like, what's the most embarrassing thing that kind of happened, like during a match. And there was one time that like Andre the Giant, like was punching him or body slamming him so hard or something that he literally his pants.
So I might have those. I don't know.
[00:57:32] Speaker C: Oh, man.
