Make your money grow in a practical and consistent way through real estate and our guest for today Marcin Drozdz who is an active investor who has sourced over $250,000,000 in capital for several ventures ranging from Real Estate, Customer Services and Finance. Marcin is also the host of The Game Podcast where he interviews people who have absolutely crushed it in the Game of Real Estate, Entrepreneurship, and Mindset.
Contact Marcin through the following:
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/howtoraisecapital
Website
https://www.instagram.com/realmarcindrozdz/
https://www.marcindrozdz.com/
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgS_2twPJXdMwX30JxKLQug1
Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcindrozdz/
Hey folks. Welcome to another edition of living in Calgary. I'm your host, Brian Howard. And today I am on the show a long time. I wouldn't say friend, but connection may be colleague in this real estate space. A Mersin drought. Well announced and I met probably about 2011 Mersin was probably five years into his real estate journey at that time.
And we had a great conversation and we both remembered fondly at the Blackfoot in sort of having a coffee and a. He was really connecting, looking out for shakers and movers in the real estate industry. And I was grateful for our connection, although Morrison and I have never really, you know, done business, but I've been on his email list and connected and always impressed that what he's doing.
So here we are 10 years later, since first meeting and looking so much for the show. Thanks for your. Thanks. Thanks for having me, Brian, you had the 10 years later and a few, few, few wrinkles later. Here we are. Right. So I think you're actually [00:01:00] looking a little better than you did. Even when I met, is that possible?
What are you doing to stay fit these. I I've, I've got, I've got the love of my life is 10 years younger, so she keeps me moving. That's important. Yes. It must've kids. Yeah, actually we just had our first daughter literally last month here. November 10th. So. That's fantastic. Well, congratulations.
I should also add here in terms of a little bit about you, the, the, the elevator pitch you're an active investor. You have sourced over $250 million in capital for several ventures ranging from real estate customer service and finance. You're the host of a game that I love the name, the game podcast, where you're interviewing people, crushed it in real estate, entrepreneurship and mindset.
Awesome. Yeah. Thank you. So you're having some fun and some are maybe just starting to get into it. What year did you move to Calgary and what [00:02:00] strikes you about living in Garland? So I ended up in Calgary. I think it was 2008 2000 tail, 28, 2008, 2000 early, 2009. I don't remember exactly when, but I know it was right when the party ended the first time
2008, the party ended. Yes, it was. Okay. Might've been around then. Cause I saw a lot a seller, a lot of realtors and mortgage brokers trading in their Ferrari's for cameras back then. So, you know, it's a, it struck me as quite odd because where I grew up in Ontario, you know, you're always hearing these stories where, you know, Tim Horton's workers are getting paid $15 an hour.
Guys, we're getting paid a hundred grand a year to cook eggs up in the camps up north and just all these stories. Right. And live in an Ontario. You're just like a hundred grand is a lot of money today. Still all things considered, but in 2008. Wow. Like that wasn't the same. So yeah, I think I ended up in Calgary, right?
When the, when, [00:03:00] when the party stopped the first. I did a little as I was preparing for our interview here today, or a chat, I should call it. I was doing a little research on you and I read, you know, your, you, you have great YouTube channel. I learned that you originally came from Poland with your parents, I guess I'm guessing you were probably.
And you guys moved from Poland. Was it worse out to Toronto? Let us tell us a little bit about that. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I was born in communist Poland, and my dad got arrested for smuggling corn into the country. He was selling corn like literally at the black, the black market. If you can imagine he was basically running an illegal grocery store.
And he got arrested and they were going to send him to jail. He didn't like that idea. My a did neither. So that night on a moped day, cause we were in the Southwest of Poland. They literally took a moped through the forest, into east Germany and eventually into Western Germany and you know, and a couple years later, cause that was only a few months old at the time, a couple of weeks, a couple of years later, my grandpa literally threw me the trunk of his car because he was a government official.
And just drove me across the border [00:04:00] and reunited me with my family. And then eventually 91, we came to Canada. He smoked. And what year were you born? Like what year was this? That you're 85. So your parents did this. Wow. In 85, just before things were a little easier in the nineties, I guess in the two thousands, in terms of nobody knew things were gonna, you know, there's this big political movement in Europe Poland called Sally Domino's, which was essentially the.
You know, the, the right to choose freedom and the freedom of the people, so to speak right from the whole communist manifesto. And yeah, we were already who knew right. That it was going to happen. So we, you know, for good measure, dad dad didn't want to be told that he can't run a business. So you know, we were lucky enough that Canada.
And so that was an 85. You were born your parents, I guess it was that year that they sort of escaped on a moped. Your grandpa. I know a fair amount about Poland. Great friend. Lots of stories about the area about Poland, but and then you moved to Canon roughly what year? What year did you, and was it travels?
It was 91. [00:05:00] August forget the day, but it was August 91. And we ended up in this, a house with three other families in Ronson, spelled downtown, Toronto and rotten spelled now is, is a really nice, I mean, throw, it was really nice at this point now, but that was a pretty. You know, rough and tumble neighborhood back then.
And I remember I'd never experienced humidity before and you know, you're just, you just come to this new country. And I remember seeing my dad master mechanic, businessman, entrepreneur, just any job he could get sweeping floors. You know, my mom's a pharmacist, she's PhD, she's working at a donut shop, thrift shop.
Like you just, you just did whatever you had to do. Right. And I grew up with that and I saw that as a kid. And you know, there was never a plan B you just made things work, like whatever it was. It was going to work. You didn't know how yet, but it was going to work and dressing. So I graduated from university in 1998.
There were no jobs in Canada. So 91, there were still no jobs. We're in a tough time. And so you guys landed in [00:06:00] Toronto and so obviously your, you grew up in the area and you moved to Calgary in 2008. H you already told me . And what brought you to Calgary? Was it your family or did you come here because of the real estate?
What was happening? I, I CA I came more so for a, an opportunity to work for private equity firm at the time, they're no longer around, but it was a family owned shop. And it was an opportunity because in Ontario, before. Those late teenage years, I'd read rich dad, poor dad, Steinbach, sir, buying rental properties and things like this.
And I had an opportunity to learn about larger apartment buildings, land assemblies, just, just larger transactions, things that, you know, you only Rica boat. And so I took the opportunity and the opportunity was in Alberta. And I ended up in Calgary and as I came here, like I said, somebody that, you know, with the record is like, Right.
But I, I did that for a couple of years, learned a lot, and it [00:07:00] really leapfrogged leapfrogged my my education in real estate because of that. So what's your education background other than. So I went to a, I went to college for law and security initially. And then I went to a York for, I got accepted for it was, it was the initial year was business or law.
I hadn't decided yet. And I started buying property at the same time and I just, I, I just dropped out of university. I was bored out of my mind, to be honest with you. I, it was good information. In hindsight, if I took accounting specifically and just stuck to accounting, because that's applicable for business, I would have probably put, I would have probably stuck with it, but because of the things I was studying were so.
Like air, it felt fluffy to me. Like I didn't, I couldn't apply it to what I was doing. So I just ended up dropping out, learning sales, public speaking you know, getting into real estate. And it's you know, I, I, despite my mom, she would have loved to have been able to say that her son's a lawyer or an accountant or something, this, but despite my mind's [00:08:00] misgivings, I think I made the right to.
Yeah. You were early to the boat to like, realize that, Hey, maybe I don't need that. Whatever $100,000, four year degree, or $200,000, whatever it cost at the time were still cost you're early. The party that it seems a lot more young. People are doing that today because everything seems accessible on the internet in terms of self-learning motivation too.
I mean, there's a whole motivation part. If you know what you're going to do, right. Yeah, well, I was sitting in the classroom and I did the college thing and college was fine because it was hands-on and I had enough time to keep doing the house thing on the side. But then I, the first year of university, I'm sitting in this classroom with a couple, a couple hundred people.
And as I'm talking to these people, they're all talking about getting good jobs, getting good grades, getting promotions, and all this stuff is fine, but my brain was like, well, I don't want. I don't want to learn how to work for people. I want to create things and the people I was talking to, I just wasn't, I didn't feel like I was in my environment with those people and it, you know, good, bad indifferent.
I just, I wasn't. And then the workload, it was, [00:09:00] it was so technical, so deep and I'm like, why am I learning this stuff? Like, I, this stuff doesn't help me today. And you know, again, you know, being early twenties, maybe you make decisions a little bit more brashly but Yeah, I just I was excited about actually going out and doing.
Mercer, we originally got I shouldn't say we got reconnected somehow. I maybe clicked one of your links on a Facebook ad or something on how to raise capital. And I maybe even signed up for the, you know, the free one day course, you know, limited time offer. And I never participated in the course, but I'm on your email list.
Did you know, cause I was, you know, I'm curious about, you know, what th what you're doing on that. And I just want to sort of say. Awesome. Congratulations. It's curious to me. I haven't I haven't done it despite over the last 20 years, having lots of joint venture partners in real estate. I'd like you to tell us a little bit about what you're most focused on right now and sort of maybe tie in one of my standard questions is what's [00:10:00] easy for you these days.
What's hard for you these days. All right. Well, what's what's easy for me. I get, maybe I'll just start with that. And back into the question what's easy for me is I love teaching about you know I love, I mean, I love real estate, but I, I love, I love structuring deals. As much, if not more real estate has always been my preferred deal, the deal outlet, so to speak, but structuring deals PE private equity, that kind of stuff is, is, is, is easy for me.
I mean, there's always a lot to learn, but for me, I'm passionate about it. So it's easy in that sense. What's difficult for me as a lockdown sitting here. Still actually at a necessity. So, so my latest business that we started with this whole, how to raise capital and this educational side was you know, six months into lockdown.
I'm sitting there and Maria, my sweetheart's looking at me. She's like, you've got to do something like you are. Cause, cause I used to be on flights, you meeting with people, buying buildings, doing [00:11:00] stuff, and you know, for a period of time, You're online. Right? So add a lot of people reaching out to me about deal structure and things like this.
So I put together a group I created a company called M one real estate group, where we teach people how to raise capital, how to do deals and things like this. And You know, that, that, that kinda came together. And for me, it's a lot of fun that we have, like, I have one student, his name's Ash he's in his early twenties.
He's still in college. He's in the U S he literally hops on her calls every week. Cause it's true the day while he's in the classroom and he's listening to it. You know, doing, doing the, the college thing and, and he just bought his first property. He structured you know I think he did a JV with some, some friends or things to dust.
That was cool. And then I have other colleagues that are part of, part of my group that are working on three, 400 unit acquisitions. So, you know, it's a. It's a wide range of people, but for me, it's just fun to see people kind of that light bulb that, you know, when people get it for me, that's exciting. And yeah, [00:12:00] as far as my main world, what I've always been doing, what I, what I do do is I focus on buying apartment buildings.
I I'd love to buy in Calgary. I'm Brian, I'm looking at deals all the time, but I'm having a tough goes. I'm sure you hear about the prices here in Calgary, relative to what people are willing to. It's tough. So for the last few years I've been focusing on primarily the Southeast United States. We bought just shy of 300 doors in the last little bit in Memphis, Tennessee.
That was you know how much should we pay for that in total? Maybe 7 million bucks. Think about two 80 doors. I got to put a couple of million CapEx, but still and, and now we've got a couple hundred doors under contract in Florida. So I think Florida is a really good market as well. And yeah, I'd love to do that in CA and maybe we'll talk about Calgary a little bit more, but I'd love to do that in Calgary.
It's just the economics. You know, I, I can buy apartments for 20, for 40 to 60,000 a door in the Southeast compared to [00:13:00] two to 300,000 in Calgary per door. Right. So the numbers are just really apart, right? So I'm interested mostly in what, like what's going on, like in the past year, past two years in Canada and Calgary, cause you're going to study, you know, you studied, I think markets you've studied Calgary real estate.
Like what, where are we at right now in terms of like I have a good colleagues, of course in Toronto east coast, Canada, west coast of Canada, Vancouver island and prices. Going crazy. Actually in the past 30 days, I read from a Canadian mortgage housing corporation kind of stat that prices in Canada have increased 18% across Canada.
Like it on average in Alberta it's 3.5%. Like I'm wondering, do you think ABI is a good place to invest? I got actually a little bit surprised to hear you you know, bad Calgary. I mean, let let's let's let's [00:14:00] clarify the conversation cause I'm talking multi-family multi-family but if we're talking single family, we bought three houses this year alone in Calgary.
So Calgary, as far as single family and the smaller properties are fantastic. I am bullish as bullish can be on Calgary. When it comes to houses and maybe small, like small duplex type of situations, maybe land assemblies, things like this I'm actually looking at so we just bought a house on Memorial and I'm looking at buying the neighbors houses potentially for land to send because the zoning is MC two.
I think it is so we can, you know, we can do a conversion. So, so Brian, you know, don't beat me up too bad. Cause I agree with you on the small side. And here's something else. Okay. The price per square foot to build this stuff. You like the house we just bought. So the last two houses one was 500,000 and it was five 20.
One of those, a part of a quadplex one was a standalone, but an older house per square foot [00:15:00] without the land itself, I couldn't build what I bought. You know what I mean? So if I could build it for what I paid for it. Without the land as an indicator, that that is not the only indicator value, but that's a pretty good one because Lumber's not going to get cheaper windows.
Aren't going to get cheaper. You know, copper's not going to come. Like all this stuff is like inflation, whether it's transitory or whether it's here to stay. I don't think prices are going to come down to any meaningful amounts. So as an indicator of value on the single family side, yeah, I know I'm bullish as heck and there's a lot of money coming in from Ontario because these guys are selling.
You know, there are $2 billion condos, downtown, Toronto, and they're coming here and they're buying six, $700,000, you know, what, what would be a $4 million house in Toronto for six, 700 grand. So very, very vocal in the single family side. I just have to let the viewers know and yourself as well. So in terms of that question and that conversation.
[00:16:00] When I was very early in my real estate career and was very focused on investing, but in post focused on investing in single family homes, I met this great guy on an imaging trail. I forgot his name, but he was a Hungarian background. I'm pretty sure it could have been Turkish. And he said to me, Brian smarts people, no, it's not, I guess, smart people buy single family homes as investments smarter people, you know, by.
Fourplexes and the smart is by buildings, something along those lines. So as my conversation to you just now was, is like, you know, you have a podcast about strong mindsets, big mindsets, big thinkers. So I'm the kind of my question is that coming from a small minded person, thinking of investments, like as a single family home, just.
So you make, you make, you make a really good point, Brian, because I mean, so-so, I'll, I'll preface all this you know, I'm very bullish on Calgary, as long as the property [00:17:00] cash flows. And I don't mean any, buy it in an Airbnb and then it cashflows by the skinnier teeth. I mean, can you buy it and just rent it as normal rental and cashflow it?
If you can do that and a cash flows, then you're fine because you're not speculating on, you know, potentially the market going crazy like it did in Toronto. And a lot of ways, those fundamentals, whether it's single family or multi-family, it's the same thing. So I'm in terms of that, like speculation you know, so right now my son recently became a real estate agent in Victoria, no Vancouver island and he he's done and he's doing these deals with these like young guy kind of investors like buying at 500,000 or $800,000 condos that they're actually turning into Airbnb.
Getting a huge cashflow, but I mean, it's kind of speculation or is it well, I mean, you're, you're, you're taking on. So I'm looking at, I'm looking at some buildings in the U S right now, where there were former hotels [00:18:00] and we're looking at converting them into a one bedroom or studio apartments for just long-term rentals.
And, and you gotta, you gotta be aware of the goalposts. So from the hotel industry, it's all about ADR average daily rates, right. And, and you, and your occupancy rates and things like this. And the problem is people. When they do the Airbnb thing, they still have the blinders of the hotel business wrapped into a residential real estate plate.
And you're confusing the conversation if you do it that way. The other thing too, with Airbnb and we do Airbnb, but I only do the. Where I control the environment. So I would never buy a condo into an Airbnb. Why? Well, condo, bylaws, the rules that the local municipal or ordinances there, there's so many different variables.
I mean, technically the municipalities can outlaw them in houses as well, but I've, I've yet to see that outside of, you know, really hot tourist areas down in Florida and things like this, but Yeah, the advice I would always have, and it's not popular advice because it doesn't work. And it prohibits sales [00:19:00] is that if you, if you, if you could run it as a rental and cashflow, Then, if you're a BNB and you cash in you cashflow more than, of course, that sounds good.
But you know that doesn't sell condos because it's hard to buy a half a million dollar condo and charge two grand a month rent and cashflow right now is you know, you mean you're bullish and Calgary. Can w also on a scale of one to 10, how easy is it buy a, a, a home let's call it a single family home, maybe a single family home with a basement suite.
How easy is that? Buy a property in Calgary that can cashflow today, easier here than, you know, Terry. So, so I guess I'll, I'll give you an example. So the last house we bought, we bought it. So just talking to Memorial, I paid just about half a million for it. And mortgage, was it actually a detached home, a Memorial.
For 500,000, that's it? I could feel [00:20:00] it's a a hundred year old house. Yeah. I assume it's a a hundred year old house, but it's actually really good. It's got good bones. You know, it's got 20, 30 CapEx that it needs and that's fine, but half lot. So 25, 29 feet or 30 feet or something like 130 feet. 20 130 feet.
It's a deep block. You could build a fruit pig, but, but my point is just that half a million, even if you paid $600,000, your mortgage is between two and three grand a month. So right there, you're already, if you're just going to rent it as a regular rental, you're already probably behind the eight ball because you, then you have property taxes, insurance, things like this.
So. You know, the nicer areas of Calgary just on a strict cashflow basis is hard to do. But if you grow further out on the east end force law in that whole area where it's starting to develop, and there's a lot of rejuvenation happening in that area, I was talking to a few developers out there and they're pretty bullish on the Gentrix regentrification, that [00:21:00] whole area where you can get your average price down, where you can buy a duplex for that rather than a single family house.
And it's a lot easier to cashflow. So with that, how was the Memorial drive? Will it cashflow for. Yeah, it'll if we'll work, we're actually going to do turn it into a Airbnb, but as, as a standalone rental property, it would cashflow maybe a hundred, 200 bucks like night, but that's not the we're not doing that.
But if that was the math, I'm saying like, if we're a hundred percent, yep. I understand that if it didn't work as an, if it didn't work as an Airbnb, we could do it either as a furnished or an unfurnished rental and furnished rental. The cashflow really well, unfunded. Barely capital would still at least cover itself.
And if you're negative 50 bucks, 80 bucks, a hundred bucks, I mean, you know, you know, as long as you're not looking for cashflow from that property, you're fine. But the Airbnb, I mean, we have some Airbnbs like cashflow, net cashflow three to five grand a month. So it's you know, it works, but again, that that's [00:22:00] only the.
That isn't what I went into this thing. Right? Because to your point, Calgary, I mean, look, I'm bullish on Calgary, but I don't know if it's going to take off next summer, 20 23, 20, 24 or 2025, who knows what's going to happen with Trudeau, who knows what's going to happen with the oil industry? Who knows if you know, Amazon's impact on Alberta and Calgary in particular is going to be, as you know Fundamental as we're world hoping it is there.
There's just so many who knows. Right? So in the meantime, as long as the cash flows, eventually you'll be right. It's just, you know, are you right today? Are you right in five years? And how long can you wait? I remember some first rental property I bought. I was the negative cash was 20, 21 years old first round with property.
I was negative cashflow, $800 a month, but that hurts. It's 21 years old. You know, how many, how many dates I couldn't afford to go on? Hey [00:23:00] sweetheart. Another picnic. Yeah, we're we're we're going to the park. What do you believe?
The I'm getting. So do you own Airbnb in Calgary currently? Do you have anything Abraham and B properties? They they're awful in the city. I mean, awful when you compare it to I'm booking my trip to California or Phoenix or Hawaii, and the prices we pay at Airbnbs and other cities versus what like a hundred bucks is kind of a lot of money here in Calgary for an Airbnb.
Not really, but there's lots of properties available for a hundred bucks a night. Well, and I think that the ones that we do are our average rate is between two and 400 nights. But yeah, they're, they're typically you know, more bedrooms, four baths, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, or three bathrooms, that kind of thing.
They're bigger houses. And that's what I mean, like, you know, if you're trying to. Like the, the quadplex that we bought the last one on Kensington here, you know, where Kensington is lost. When we bought in Kensington, we [00:24:00] paid just over 500 for it. I mean, this thing is, and I bought that in the summer. I bought it privately.
You know, but, but to, to build. To build this thing. Wait a second, you bought a quadplex or a fourplex for $500,000 in Kensington. One of the, one of the one unit. So there would be, there'd be strata fees, then it'd be a town, right? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, we will. We have the HOA pardon me? HOA. The condo fees.
250 bucks or something like that. But my point is it's 1800 1700 square feet. If your construction costs are about $200 a square foot, plus the land, I mean, basically you're replacing the asset for what you paid for it just, just on a replacement cost basis. So real estate typically trades that a much higher, multiple than replacement costs.
That's where builders make the margins. Right? That's. That's the builder's count on the fact that people are paying more than what it costs to build. Obviously. Just for fun, the math in your head [00:25:00] right now, when you're talking about a price per square foot what number are you using? Like what can you build for in Calgary, a price per square foot?
Well in, so I've never built in Calgary, so just I neither and I have a number in my head too, but like what, what, what do you use as an investor? Just, just the box. Just the box. I'd say a hundred and fifty, a hundred seventy five. It's hard to say because lumber keeps that's what month? I mean, I just literally looked at lumber prices for the last three months and it literally just did this, but I, you know, I look at the box 150 to $200 a square foot.
And you know, if you have your finished. You know, it, it, it, it varies. So, I mean, if you take $200 a quick, quick math, you know, again, lumber changes so fast nowadays, but, and other things too, but assuming you can get things, that's, that's another thing, but $200 times, 2000 square feet is 400 grand and that's kind of, you know, and then you got to assume there's some value in the lab, right.
So, yeah, I. St [00:26:00] Matthew Morrison. So 10 years ago, a builder, you know, a good friend builder told me he was built, oh, you know, $250 a square foot, like 10, even 10 or more years ago. He told me that. And I've heard people say recently I would like to say more new immigrant builders. Can bill for 165, a square foot.
I'm seeing, I've heard that in last 18 months. Certainly I don't think I could do that. And then my sister who recently built, you know, probably built closer to $400 a square foot. I mean, this is her home. So yeah, it's in terms of quick numbers, I mean, 200 is not being really safe
if I showed you the.
It'd be more than 200, but you know, again, it it's just cause, cause again, the finishes, right? Because like I said, just the box would be one 50 and then you've got your upgrades, your finishes. Are you putting tile? You know, what quality carpet are you doing? Are you doing hardwood, laminate? You know, are you doing the, there?
There's just so many little things. Right. But I mean, it's. You know, the, the, the [00:27:00] thing, the thing with Calgary is I really do think there's a lot the city has to offer also, you know, there's no traffic and I know people that have grown up here think different, but I encourage you to go to Vancouver or where I grew up in Toronto.
And you will see some traffic cars here. This is the fact that you can get around. You know, relatively easiest is great. Quality of life is amazing. You know, you have world-class infrastructure, you have, you know, the, the performing arts, you have all these different things that make Calgary, you know, the mountains, it's just spectacular, fresh air, like, you know, for somebody, for somebody coming from Toronto or coming from other parts of Canada, they're going to look at, they're going to look at.
Other affordable markets and they'll compare Calgary to other centers in central Canada and far non Calgary just has so much to offer. So when you're I mean, my podcast is Calgary living in real estate and lifestyle. You're, you're, you've come from well kind of a global perspective, just in sense of where you [00:28:00] come from and your parents and your experience and what I've noticed on your sort of Facebook group is that you are attracting.
Th there's not Calgary based. It's like the world. Like, how do you know in terms of your questions, it's how to raise your first 500,000 or $50,000 or $50 million in capital. What this sort of leads me to the question. Why when you you're, you're big, you have a big, a big mindset, some thought around you're a global thinker.
Why are you staying in Calgary? W like end. And in terms of your, your audience who you like to teach to and train are you your audience is global, isn't it? Or is it the Western hemisphere of north America? Yeah. I mean, I I'd say a lot of it is north American, but we do have a lot of people in Europe and overseas that you know, participate in our various forums.
But you know what, for me I love, I love being a Canadian. I love living in Canada. I love just that feeling of being on Canadian soil you know, call me biased. I, and for me, Calgary has [00:29:00] always been you know, Calgary has always been my favorite. It really has. I mean, I love Toronto. I love Vancouver but I've always felt at home in Calgary.
And I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it's a big city, but it still feels like something that you can wrap your hands around. And, you know, I like, I liked that feeling to it. I I've, you know, I've, I've done the thing in New York. I've spent time in Montreal and that hustle and bustle is great.
But then, you know, now, especially now I'm having, you know, kids and either you start to change. You know, I saw my daughter crying this morning and it just changes that you just, you know, you just, you know, apparently I'd put the diaper on the wrong way, but th but that's another story. But you know, cow long story short Calgary Calgary is a fantastic place to live.
I love doing business everywhere. I, I love doing business in the U S especially the, you know, the Southern states because the rules are very. You know, they understand who butters the bread in terms of investors, investment attracting capital Canada, I think is a [00:30:00] little bit more Yeah, I mean, enough said this Canada, this probably has to do with your Polish background and your father smuggling corn into the country.
Like there's a there's there's there's there's rules. There's black, there's white there's without getting too philosophically charged. Government's job is to aid. In the conduct of, of great society, its job isn't to direct society. And I think when you start to see too much direction coming from above, you start to slip in a territory that you know a lot of people that grew up in those territories try to get away from, so, you know, there's parts of Canada that are, that are much more open and you know, I.
It's very hard to compare Canada to us because us is just so pro-business, they just like, let's go, let's go. Like everybody is motivated to make something happen. And I love that. Yeah, that's true. Interesting. Let's get jumping into loan about [00:31:00] finance and stuff. What were some of the biggest lessons you learned on your plan to raise $250 million the first time?
Well, well, I mean, raising, raising money, whether you're raising 50,000 or getting a $50 million commitment from an institutional facility or investment group or whatever it is, there's a lot of similarities. And you know, this is one of the things we teach, we teach about and it's having a certain approach to your business.
So. Fundraising in my opinion was one of the hardest skillsets and one of the most underrated skill sets out there because people entrepreneurs, and I know people like this that think, well, you know, I have this great idea. People should just be lucky to participate in. Like, they're just going to fly there.
You know, they're just going to grab it to a, to like a moth to a flame. Well, that's not how it works. Even the guys that started Facebook and Amazon and all the various real estate investment trusts that exists. And they have to go around and tell their story and go door to door and collect the [00:32:00] first 5, 10, 15, $20 million to get started.
So it doesn't matter how compelling your vision is is you, you still have to do the grunt work and. It's easier to do the grunt work when you're really clear on what what, what you're, what you're offering. So one of the things that we teach as the six factors that allow you to kind of craft your niche, and one of them is, you know, what's your unique selling proposition.
So in other words, you like what makes you uniquely. So did you grow up in construction? You know, have you always been in real estate? Have you always X, Y like, what is, what is, what is, what is the thing about you that makes you unique? Another factor is the market that you're going to after the investment thesis.
So there's, there's all these different components and really getting honed in on your conversation is so important because, I mean, you you've seen this too. You meet somebody and they ask you what you do, or you ask them what they do. And for 12 minutes they just talk about stuff and you're standing there and you're going.
Oh, man. I have no idea what this guy is [00:33:00] doing and I don't know how to get out of this conversation. And they just, and then all of a sudden they're talking about something super specific and it's, it's important to learn how to engage people in a way where they actually want to learn about what you're doing.
And that's, that's probably one of the biggest thing is, you know, learn how to be interested. Not interesting. Cool. How do you create an investor friendly deal? Well creating an investor friendly deal is I mean, think about it from the investor's perspective. I mean, one of the, one of the main things to think about is.
You have, well, first of all, before the deal itself, you have to have a deal that you can explain in less than a minute. Now I know there's a lot of technical stuff and data and analysis, but if somebody has to talk to me and put a deal for five or 10 minutes, either eight, eight, or understand it, they don't know what they're doing or see, they haven't fully thought through yet because you should be able to tell me, Hey, we're buying this.
Building or buying this mobile home park. It's worth this. If I do this, it will be worth this here's proof [00:34:00] again. And here. Here's why I know how to do it. Like it should be that simple. And, and, and those are, those are the factors to get someone engaged as far as creating an investor friendly deal. I mean, first and foremost you know, have a management team that has done what, they've, what they're obviously raising money for.
Secondly, you need to have a structure where your investor feels like they're prioritized over you making money. It's okay to make some money as a management team, going into the transaction because you can't work for free for three years, five years, but you also shouldn't make all your money up front and then basically say, okay, so, you know, when this works, you're going to get your returns.
So getting a good priority structure is important. And then finally communicating communicating guy, investor communication. So, you know, when somebody invests, they're going to get a quarterly newsletter, annual financial report. You know, what else, you know, what kind of ongoing communication and set those expectations up front because you're not buying like Brian, you're not buying a cell phone.
You're [00:35:00] buying a car. You're not you write someone a check for a hundred or 500 grand. You're not getting something. I mean, you're. Piece of paper that says you own units or shares in an apartment building or whatever it is. But other than that, that's all you got. So how do you retain and build that confidence over a period of time?
That's the communication piece and, and all those things will make it much easier for you to be able to go back to the, well again, So I'm out as I'm sitting here with all these years and experience, I'm like I personally, I mean, again, I've had single joint ventures and the biggest deal I've done personally was a fourplex or fiveplex Navy.
And and so I'm, how do I get, and with all this experiences ages, you know, I'm at the tail end of my career at 55 years old. In real estate, like the last, whatever 30 years do you how come I'm personally? Like when I think of when I think of raising capital to maybe look for a deal, I'm like, I'm thinking, well, or a [00:36:00] partner, I'm thinking have their credit to buy a biotech, get mortgage financing, and maybe invest like a hundred thousand or 200,000 that's peanuts in your perspective.
Isn't that? Who is your, who's your typical. Well address both questions kind of thing. So, so Brian, it's all relative. I mean, ultimately I know people that are hundreds of houses. I was talking to a guy that owns 1200 doors and 1200 doors. And I mean, single-family houses down in Florida and a lot of those houses he's bought himself and a lot of them he's got JV partners, so you can scale.
Way, or you can scale with the multifamily way. See me I'm lazy and I'd rather do less work. I'd rather do more work less often, and I'd rather buy a hundred, 200, 300 doors at a time and then just take a minute. And, and that, that's kind of just my mentality. So it's not that one's right or wrong, but yeah.
My, my, what I do when you're buying a 5 million or $50 million acquisition, that the numbers are bigger. So, you know, things, [00:37:00] things like getting an investor qualify for financing. Isn't so important in my world because the bank isn't looking at me personally, to pay the mortgage on a $15 million building.
They're looking at the building first. Now they're going to look at the management team. They're going to look at us and make sure we can obviously sustain the business. But first and foremost, it's the, it's the deal itself now. If I was buying a hundred houses or 50 houses a year, whatever it is, then you're right.
I would need potentially somebody who qualify for credit and for somebody for equity, but even on the, on the equity side, I would want to make sure that I do it in a way where I can simplify the paperwork. So it's not, you know, everything. And it's probably why I don't do the house thing with, with investors, because for me, it's a lot of work to buy a house with an investor paperwork-wise.
So I'd rather focus that attention on buying, you know, a 20 unit or 200 unit building, because there's still paperwork, but it's it's a different scale. And it's because it's as much frustrated like this is last thing we bought this Airbnb. [00:38:00] I I've spent less time buying, pardon me? Lilies than I spent on this thing.
Just cause it was an old house and I had two RPRs and engineer reports and all this stuff. And you do the same stuff for apartment buildings, right? So it's a, it's just a function of priorities. That's all I believe, you know, that's great. No, that's true. Merci when kind of looking at my watch and I'm going holy you know, we could talk for a lot longer, but we need to keep your time in mind.
And certainly our listeners time. Maybe a couple of quite well, obviously we want to end with you know, how to, how to reach out to you and and, and get involved in follow you. So those channels but I also want to ask, what advice would you give your younger self? Don't be so hard on yourself.
Don't be so hard on yourself and the Rome wasn't built in a day. I remember when I was starting my early twenties and you know, I'm now in my, you know, I'm 36 now and I'm, I'm sitting here. I'll probably watch this podcast a couple of years from now. And I'll laugh at things I'm saying today as well, but I.
I just was really tough [00:39:00] on myself and I really twenties. I thought I had to have everything done at a certain age. And then I would give myself permission to enjoy myself rather than enjoying the process of learning as I do things. And I would always say to myself, okay, once I buy this, once I buy this property, I'll be happy.
Okay. Once I do this, I'll be happy. Okay. Once I get this, I'll be happy. And it was like this goalpost that always moved. And then one day I think I woke up when I was 30. Like I've done this stuff and why am I peed off and stuff? Like why? Because I've never allowed myself to just enjoy the process. So for the last five, six years, You know, the good and the bad, because if you've been in real estate long enough, and you've, you've been in real estate longer than I have, you will, you know, you will live to, to feel dumber than you actually are.
Things will happen that were well beyond your control. So just appreciate that. What's I had a mentor tell me you're never as dumb as you feel, and you're never as smart as you look. [00:40:00] So maybe that's good advice. No. Great, great advice. The one of the most sort of, one of the quotes that I've heard are like what defines success and and the success is the.
The progressive realization of a worthwhile goal. And so, and there's no, so it's just like setting goals and moving forward and there's no real goalpost. So and, you know, take your time and enjoy the process. Nice to hear you say that. I said, what's the best way for. Follow you, reach out, maybe contact you.
Sure. Yeah. My website is probably the catch hall cause it's got a lot of free resources for people that are trying to figure out how to scale their real estate business or learn how to raise capital for their portfolio or, you know, learn more about what we do. So it's Marston dros.com and I think we can put that in your show notes rather than filling that out.
And then on Instagram I have. I'm pretty active there, a real Mars syndromes.com and then Facebook, we've got a group called actually this, this, this group has really gone [00:41:00] crazy since we started it back in October. It's called how to raise capital for real estate. And we started it back in October.
We had like 30 people and now I think we're about to crack 16 or 1700. So it's a. I, if I knew Facebook groups grew like that, I would have started it a long time ago. Good for you though. That's awesome. Well, it, I want to thank you for being on the show and I look forward to staying in connection a little bit closer than we have over the last 10 years.
Yeah. Let's let let's do it. I really appreciate the opportunity. And you know, it's, it's really encouraging to see you you know, doing, doing your thing here in Calgary, because I mean, the market needs people that are consistent because of the, the one thing about Calgary is for better, for worse.
It has been a a common go town and it's nice to see people like. You know, pillars in the community, which was really good. Thank you, Martin. It's a pleasure. Awesome. Thanks for having me.