"Inspired to Invest" Real Estate Investing Podcast

Unlock The Secrets Of Infinite Banking!

• Serena Holmes • Episode 57

Share episode

Get ready to unlock the secrets of infinite banking Megan Betker, an accomplished entrepreneur, investor, and wealth coach from Victoria, BC.

Welcome back to "Inspired To Invest" episode 57. To watch rather than listen, click here.

Megan's journey into the world of real estate began with a spur-of-the-moment decision at a three-day event, leading to her first rental property and igniting a passion that has shaped her career.

She reveals the critical importance of mentorship, education, and taking decisive action in propelling her real estate endeavors. With a diverse portfolio that includes flips, buy-and-hold properties, and single-family home builds,

Megan's insights will offer you a roadmap to navigate the complexities of the real estate market.

Prepare for some jaw-dropping stories as Megan recounts her most challenging and unforgettable moments, like shoveling a driveway at nine months pregnant and managing a nightmare tenant who turned into a personal harasser.

Through her experiences, Megan highlights the necessity of investing in yourself and acquiring new skills to ensure financial success. However, she also cautions about the potential pitfalls in the realm of educational investments.

With her practical advice and inspiring anecdotes, Megan provides a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to start or expand their journey in real estate investing. Listen now to be inspired, informed, and ready to take the next step toward your own real estate success.

To connect with Megan, go to @meganbetker on social or https://vantagepointfinancial.ca online.

Thank you to Honeytree REIT for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”. To learn more about them, go to honeytreegrow.ca online & to make your investment, go to: https://invest.atlasone.ca/offers/HNYTRE/about

“Inspired to Invest” is proud to support the Beyond Success Program, a not-for-profit financial literacy program for students, launched by More To Give & MAK Investments. Find out more at @more2give.ca.

Join us again on Jul. 317 to learn how to raise capital the RIGHT way for your real estate investments.

“Inspired to Invest” is proud to support the Beyond Success Program, a not-for-profit financial literacy program for students, launched by More To Give & MAK Investments. Find out more at https://instagram.com/more2give.ca & https://more2give.ca/beyond.

Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by @serenaholmesrealtor & remember, "when you invest in yourself, the sky's the limit!"

Sign up so you never miss an episode! https://serenaholmes.exprealty.com/ask/896312e0f685fdd06401c1e53ca6fd17

To connect with our host, Serena Holmes, go to https://www.linktr.ee/serenaholmes.

To buy a copy of The Accidental Entrepreneur, go to https://www.linktr.ee/serenaholmesauthor and for a free copy go to https://serenaholmes.exprealty.com/ask/f813c4efdfaead4980a467b614d73604 

And, for everything related to real estate and real estate investing, please make sure you've subscribed to @serenaholmesrealtor on YouTube & other platforms. We also have a page dedicated to this podcast on Instagram and Facebook @inspiredtoinvestpodcast where we preview guests each week, highlight their episodes, top takeaways, tips, quotes and more.

Are you a full-time real estate investor with an inspiring story to share? Apply now - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1p6SfS8dePhLl6wMmSgdPpQ7xsJuEsBUbPDTJ0vgy9h8/

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Inspire to Invest podcast, where we're sharing stories from real estate investors and how investing has changed their lives. This episode of the Inspire to Invest podcast has been brought to you by Honeytree REIT and PropertyCastio. Hey everybody, welcome to the Inspire to Invest podcast. I have Megan Betker here with me, joining me all the way from Victoria BC. She is an entrepreneur, a real estate investor and also a financial advisor specializing in helping real estate investors and business owners implement the power of infinite banking. Of course, we're going to dive into that topic later on. As a business owner and real estate investor herself, she realizes that standard financial plans and strategies don't work for an entrepreneur or real estate investor most of the time, so her purpose is to share specifically design strategies that can help clients take control of their finances, grow their wealth and net worth, while enjoying the lifestyle and security that it provides to them. So thank you so much for being here, megan. How are you?

Speaker 2:

I'm wonderful. Thank you so much for having me, Serena. I'm really excited to be here.

Speaker 1:

So now, obviously, the whole focus of this podcast is real estate investing, so maybe you can talk to us a little bit about what your portfolio looks like and take us back to what life looked like before real estate investing became a focus for you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So in terms of real estate investing, I've kind of I'm not going to say I've done it all, because there's a lot more that I can still do, but I've done flips. I have buy and hold properties. Most recently in the past few years I've been focusing on building out single family homes. So that's kind of been my focus since I got started, I guess in 2015. And there's a lot of different places that I'm hoping to take this, but that kind of the fundamental um and what kind of got me started there in real estate was going to a three day event. I'm not going to mention which three day event it was, because I'm sure a lot of people get started there.

Speaker 2:

Um, I went to a three day event that my partner actually signed up for to go with his friend and his friend bailed last minute. So I got the pity invite to go and in that weekend I ended up securing a rental property that weekend just based on some of the fundamentals that they had shared. That really clicked for me and I kind of just ran with it from there. For me and I kind of just ran with it from there. So real estate's played a huge part in both my professional life and, just like my, I guess, my passion, my, my hobby, my personal life as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I think that makes sense. I think for everybody there's that catalyst where things just kind of happen. And speaking of that three-day event, I remember I also went to a three-day event and had extra tickets and I couldn't like sell them, I couldn't give them away, and then after I was like oh my gosh, like people don't even realize what they're missing, right. So I think it's important just to say yes and be open to possibilities and, obviously, just educating yourself and taking action. Now, since you have done so much in the realm of real estate, what would you say are some of the biggest lessons that have come along with your experience so far?

Speaker 2:

Biggest lessons? Oh, there's been a lot. I don't think you can get into real estate investing and not learn a lot of lessons along the way. I wish I had gotten started sooner, and I think everybody says that I probably could have got started right when I was out of the womb and I would have been way further ahead.

Speaker 2:

But here we are.

Speaker 2:

But, yeah, getting started.

Speaker 2:

I think that that's one of the key things is that you're not going to know everything, but if you can take one Avenue in real estate and find a mentor or find someone that can coach you, go to a three day event that's going to help give you some kind of direction.

Speaker 2:

You don't know what you're going to get out of that and where they can propel you to um and I found getting in rooms like that um really does put you around people that they've made mistakes, they've had successes, so you can learn. You can bypass a lot of the mistakes that you don't have to make, hopefully, but it can give you some direction to really, I meet a lot of people that want to get started in real estate investing but they're really not sure where, where to start. There's so much content out there nowadays, which is a blessing and, I think, a challenge for a lot of people. So if you can find one thing to focus on and take that kind of consistency, just take one step at a time in that area, I think that that's a huge learning point, I guess.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's one speaker that I saw not too long ago and he talked about the cost of lost opportunity and basically, by getting in front of these rooms or educating yourself, obviously you can accelerate your growth. So instead of taking five years to get somewhere, if you can do that in eight months or a year, just think about how much further ahead you'd be by gaining that right. So I thought that was a really powerful way to look at it, where oftentimes feel like oh, but it costs this, like yeah, but when you look at the time you're losing.

Speaker 2:

if you don't, then obviously that makes perfect sense and it goes back to that quote where it says um, if you want to go go fast, go alone. You want to go far, go together. Yeah, um, and I think that that's kind of like a key, like the more people that you can surround yourself with and absorb, absorb that information. Yeah, I think the likelihood of um not having to learn hopefully, as many lessons, mistakes or things like that, um, I think that takes really far yeah, no, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Um, now, when you look back at some of the things that you have done, is there anything that stands out to you as one of the biggest obstacles that you had to face and overcome?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think one of the biggest obstacles that I probably had to face was myself, to be honest, getting out of my own own way, my own head and I I think that that resonates for a lot of people. I remember I'm going to say it was probably about 2016, maybe 17 sitting in my counselor's office and telling him that I wanted to get into get started building homes. Um, I could envision this life that I was going to create when I was doing that and I didn't know I'd never built a thing. I had no idea how I was going to get into building homes. Where do you start? Again, but I remember that so vividly and I could just feel it in myself and it was kind of taking the risk on myself to just start.

Speaker 2:

And again, that comes down to meeting the right people. So I think it was getting out of my way and not asking the questions well, how am I going to do this? But trying to surround myself with the who's that could help me do that, and I ended up. I ended up partnering with my best friend, luckily enough, to get started into building homes, and she had done a little bit in the past of doing that, so I was able to take advantage of her knowledge already. But yeah, it was really just getting out of my own way and not questioning or saying I don't know how to do this. Yeah, I think that that's that's huge. And I don't think it's just real estate investing that that kind of comes into play. I think that's all areas of our life. We kind of get in our own head and we don't. Our bodies don't want us to get out of our comfort zone. Our conscious doesn't want us to get out of our comfort zone, Right.

Speaker 1:

It's content there, um so, yeah, but you adapt and you learn and you grow, would you say. There's anything that, uh, you're most proud of when you think back to all the different projects you've been part of.

Speaker 2:

I still think it's like just getting started my very first build, I'd say, is probably what I'd be most proud of. Um, and the reason I would say that is just be some reflection that I've had recently. Me and my business partner are now wanting to get into multifamily and I felt a little bit of like a push and kind of felt stuck. How do I get into this multifamily space, playing from the single family home space? Yeah, and I kind of just remember back that like this is exactly how I felt when I was trying to get into that single family home space. So it's kind of just part of that transition. So I'm pretty proud that I was able to do that and I know, looking back at the evidence, that I can do this as well. It's just a matter of figuring. It needs to be again taking those, those steps, getting around the right people asking the right question, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Now you obviously not a full-time real estate investor because you're also a financial advisor. Can you talk a little bit about you? Know what you're doing in terms of your career and how those go hand in hand?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 2:

I am a wealth coach that specializes in helping business owners and, primarily, real estate investors.

Speaker 2:

I think the majority of my clients are real estate investors utilize a specific tool to essentially create a foundation for growing and storing their capital growing their wealth in a tax efficient manner. So this has really parlayed itself very well into real estate and I think that's why I was so drawn to this type of strategy. It's called infinite banking concept. It's a strategy where you're utilizing a tool of permanent life insurance and you're able to utilize that tool and leverage it much like you would like your home and having a HELOC, so being able to leverage that asset to be able to to grow your real estate portfolio. So I think it's just really it's blended so nicely for me to be able to be involved in real estate and do my day job because I'm using this tool to grow my real estate portfolio and I'm able to show people exact I don't know scenarios of how I've been able to do that and how I've seen a lot of other clients be able to grow their wealth by utilizing a tool that allows them to invest in two things at once.

Speaker 1:

Essentially, yeah, yeah, and I think that's really smart. Obviously, there's a lot of things happening right now when it comes to our government and taxes and stuff like that, and I think it's. You know, it can be scary for someone starting out where they could be looking at it as a deterrent. So I think you just have to again be creative, think outside of the box and think about ways that you can protect your wealth as you're growing it and just take advantage of the tools that are available to us right now. But, on that note, we're going to take a really brief break for a word from our sponsors and we'll be right back Looking for a safe and stable opportunity to invest Own.

Speaker 1:

The future of hospitality Tourism is changing. Introducing Honeytree Real Estate Trust, a revolutionary opportunity offering a stable investment and strong targeted returns. Hotels designed for the future of travel with automated check-in, extended stay hotels and robust amenities. Grow your real estate portfolio with Honeytree. The journey has just begun Seeking $25 million in equity to acquire and approve licensed short-term rentals. Cash and registered funds are accepted. Key fund benefits include quarterly income, capital appreciation, registered funds, diversified risk and a drip at 2% discount. This opportunity is open to eligible and accredited investors only Invest in the next generation of short-term accommodation and hospitality asset ownership with Honeytree Real Estate Trust.

Speaker 1:

Thanks again for following along with this episode of inspired to invest. In addition to real estate investing and running my own brand experience agency for 18 years, I also published a book called the accidental entrepreneur in October of 2021. This is my story and it chronicles how I turned tragedy into triumph to embrace my destiny in entrepreneurship. If you're interested in picking up a copy, you can find the link at serenahomesrealtorcom and you can also find my link tree with all of the retailers in the details below. Thanks again for your support. Is it real estate investment you're considering a goldmine or a landmine? Introducing propertycastio, the black magic of real estate investment analysis. Use PropertyCastio to analyze and underwrite real estate investment opportunities, unlock the potential of a property and share professional reports. Jordan McGregor is a commercial realtor and founder of PropertyCastio. He identified the need to simplify and streamline how properties are underwritten to help investors make better decisions and sound investments. Propertycastio is a best-in-class, purpose-built tool for real estate investment analysis. To find out more, go to PropertyCastio and to sign up, click the link in the show notes.

Speaker 1:

Inspired to Invest is proud to support the Beyond Success program. In today's complex world, it's absolutely crucial for our youth to learn how to take charge of their financial future. We believe that every young person deserves access to accurate, practical financial information. Designed to bridge the gap, the Beyond Success program leverages a comprehensive educational boot camp to equip young minds with essential financial literacy skills. At Beyond Success, it's not just about teaching financial literacy. It's also about fostering a foundation for a prosperous and empowered future.

Speaker 1:

Join us Together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Join us Together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Join us Together we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Hey everybody, welcome back to Inspired to Invest. We have Megan Betcare here with us today. She's a real estate investor as well as a wealth advisor, and she was talking to us before the break about how she leverages infinite banking to basically protect and grow her wealth as a business owner and also a real estate investor. But going back to the concept of real estate investing, can you share anything that would be the craziest thing that's ever happened to you?

Speaker 2:

The craziest thing I would say. I think to come to mind me shoveling driveway on a flip. That I was doing when I was about nine months pregnant. I was due two weeks later, so that was just crazy in my own head. The second would be having yeah, we rented out a property and we thought we had a really great tenant. He was there for a couple of years. We thought he had the suite, having his family in it, and we went there for an inspection one time and there was like all these random doors on really like closet, like things that shouldn't have been rooms, that he was just renting out extra spaces, carpets were destroyed. So we gave him his notice and then he started coming to our home in the middle of the night our personal home and yelling on our street and leaving things at our door. And yeah, it was a, it was a whole thing. But you can't have the good without the bad Right. So thankfully that was my one nightmare tenant, um, but I've also had some really great ones.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I can appreciate that. I have an uncle that went through a separation and he ended up renting a basement at a house, not realizing that he was basically moving into a rooming house. And you know, same thing, the landlord was just renting all these spots, like the landing between the basement and the next floor, like the living room was like curtained off, so someone like had their room was in the living room. So you know, she was even renting, I think, above the garage, so maybe nine or ten different spaces. And it culminated that I have a cousin that went by just to drop off like an aquarium or something like that, and basically like SWAT descended on the house.

Speaker 1:

Oh, my goodness, I don't know exactly on what. I don't know if it's for drugs or guns or something. But the irony is my, my, my uncle was actually the uh, like a manager at a jail here in Toronto. So like he's like no, look, I work at the jail, like there's my jacket, meanwhile, like him and my cousin are like on there on their face basically, while squats descending and his dog's like ripping around freaking out, and he ended up, um, everybody basically got kicked out except for him and then he basically just helped the homeowner property owner, I should say like basically fix the property up to sell over the year ahead, but definitely like a slumlord, like you know, using it to that advantage. But it had this whole like crazy story that went along with it.

Speaker 2:

So that's a big thing. People have some really crazy stories, so mine isn't even that crazy, but I would say that that was the worst. That's crazy. They came to your house.

Speaker 1:

Like I mean, I've talked to other investors that have said, like you never introduce yourself as the owner. You just say, oh, like I just work here or whatever it is. And he gave me a story about someone that, um, you know he shared that he was the owner and then they were texting him like asking for money all the time and you, I think because they had a child that he felt bad for he would send money kind of here or there over the years. But he's like yeah, I learned, like you never tell anybody who you are.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I definitely wouldn't put my primary residence on the tenancy application again, that's for sure, had I been home alone, I think it would have been a lot more distressing being home with my infants at the time.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all part of living and learning. And I guess it comes to down to advice and stuff like that. Obviously, you talked a lot about educating yourself. What would you say is some of the best advice that you've received as a real estate investor?

Speaker 2:

The best advice that I've received as a real estate investor would be to invest in yourself. I think investing in yourself is the best possible investment you can make, because your potential is unlimited. We all want to be putting our money in places that it's going to grow, and we have the ability to grow our money. More knowledge we can grow our money with better network, more skills and things like that work. More skills and things like that, we can grow our net worth, and I think we underestimate how much we can do by leveling up ourselves. Yeah, so I think that that's the probably the best invest or the best advice that I've been given.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I can understand, like obviously it's so important to invest in yourself, but at the same time, I know there's just so much out there where people are charging money, so you also want to make sure that you are investing it in the right places and that you're not being taken advantage of, just because the costs can really widely vary Like you can be looking at anything from a couple thousand to like 35,000, you know. So obviously you want to make sure that you're going to get that return and I think the biggest thing is that you have to be ready to take action, so you can't just educate yourself and spend all this money and then you're not actually able to move things forward. So I think it comes hand in hand, because I think for people that you know maybe have gone down the path of these education programs and stuff like that, if they aren't in the position to take action, then it'll all be for nothing, right, unfortunately?

Speaker 2:

I think a lot of the education programs see that too. They see a ton of people come through their doors. They invest the money and they're not cheap 100% and then they don't. They're not ready to take action or they're just they don't, just don't have it in them for whatever reason, whatever there is holding them back. Yeah, and that's just like going down and like investing in anything and then losing your money. Right, yeah, you need to be able to and that's important to invest in your, your mind and things like that as well If you're to try to maybe get past some of those blocks.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, no for sure.

Speaker 2:

Taking action.

Speaker 1:

Now, when you think about how real estate investing has impacted your life, can you talk a little bit about you? Know what that looks like for you now that you're nine years in.

Speaker 2:

I could not imagine not being invested in real estate. So I don't do real estate as my full time gig. I don't intend to do it as my full time gig because I absolutely love what I do, like for a day to day. But the ability to create something and like drive past houses that I built with and with my son and he we know that he's like put his handprint and things it's huge, it's. It's just amazing to know that we're creating something that someone's going to build their memories and essentially, yeah in, essentially, um, yeah, I couldn't imagine not not continuing on in this space.

Speaker 2:

It gives the, it gives me the peace of mind knowing that I'm building um a net worth. Essentially that's gonna create my pension, like I don't have a lot of people don't have pensions anymore, but I definitely don't have a pension with what I do. I'm self-employed. So doing my real estate that is my, my retirement, my quote-unquote retirement fund, that is my future fund, right, like that's what's gonna build up something for my son as well. Um, so real estate's given me that freedom. I make um decent money in my job, but and that's what covers our expenses, and then we're able to just keep building and expanding with our real estate. So that's really my trajectory there, yeah, but the peace of mind that it's brought, yeah, it's so valued.

Speaker 1:

Now, a lot of people go down this path of real estate investing because they want to be financially free, so I'm curious to know what financial freedom means to you and if you have a particular financial freedom number in mind.

Speaker 2:

I would have had a financial freedom number in mind at some point, but with inflation, all these other factors, I feel like that number keeps changing and I think it's going to have to keep adjusting as time goes on. Everyone talks about having enough passive income being produced by their real estate to kind of support their living, and I think that that having that as a kind of a goalpost is a really great trajectory to go on. I don't know if that's what I would want with what I would do with those assets, but I think just having that in mind is gives you a lot of flexibility. So, yeah, I think that number keeps keeps growing, but I would say probably liquid assets. Liquid assets probably around 5 million to create that passive income and be have enough money to be continue on expanding in my in my projects.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Now, obviously, this podcast is called inspired to invest, so I always like to ask people what's a quote that they love that really inspires or motivates them.

Speaker 2:

I think the one quote that I hold on to the most is money won't buy happiness, but poor stewardship of money will steal happiness, and that is something that the great Nelson Nash said, and he is essentially the father of infinite banking concept. He came up with the most effective way to um strategize with this type of system. Um, and I think that that that quote just really lands. I don't think that money in itself is going to make you happy, but it does provide some freedom and flexibility, peace of mind. Yeah, um, and I think, if you, if that's a constant worry, like a lot of us, grow up like this story isn't unheard of like my parents struggled with money and it was stressful in the house, and I think, if, if we can find ways to mitigate that, both for ourselves, for our family, for our loved ones, I think it just is the quality of life that we're able to then have. I think it just is exponential.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's huge. Now, if anyone wants to get in touch to learn more about infinite banking or home building, what would be the best way for them to get in touch with you?

Speaker 2:

Probably reaching out on either social media or email is great. Social media is just at Megan Becker. You can also find VI Financial on Facebook. So either of those methods also work and I will leave my email contact with you so that I can go in the notes Great, so we'll make sure that's in the show notes below, Of course.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to chat today and for anyone that is watching. Thank you for your time. If you've enjoyed this episode, make sure that you have subscribed below and you're following along on social at Inspired to Invest podcast and remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky's the limit. Thanks again, Thank you to Honeytree REIT and PropertyCastio for bringing you this episode of Inspired to Invest. The views represented on this podcast are for general information only and does not constitute investment or other professional advice or an offering of securities. The host and guests featured on Inspired to Invest make no representations as to the performance of any particular investment. Should you decide to make an investment, you are responsible for conducting your own review and analysis. It is recommended that you obtain independent legal accounting and tax advice from licensed professionals.