Real Estate Partnerships with Guests Chad Walmsley & Joel Labonte and Host Stephen Simpson - Ep.5

Joel Labonte is a seasoned real estate investor with over a decade of experience in the field. As the founder and General Partner of Dwellscape Investments, he has established a reputation for providing investors with opportunities to diversify their portfolios through passive real estate investments. With a wealth of knowledge in underwriting, funding, asset management, and investor relations, Joel has been instrumental in the success of Dwellscape Investments. His expertise lies in the acquisition and management of multi-family assets, a niche in which he has demonstrated exceptional proficiency. In addition to his role at Dwellscape Investments, Joel is the proud owner and operator of JL Custom Flooring, a flooring contracting business established in 2007. Through this enterprise, he has demonstrated a commitment to quality craftsmanship and client satisfaction. Beyond the world of real estate and business, Joel Labonte is an avid outdoors enthusiast. He finds solace and adventure in activities such as rock climbing, mountain biking, and fly fishing amidst the breathtaking landscapes of the Canadian Rockies.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-labonte/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dwellscape.ca Website: https://www.dwellscape.ca/

Chad Walmsley is a General Contractor/Builder and the General Partner of the Walland Property Group. Chad is also a Real Estate Investor and Syndicator, a Networking Enthusiast and enjoys Helping investors and their families create financial freedom. Chad and his partners have 125 units and $25M in AUM.

Chad founded Walland Property Group in 2021 with a focus on acquiring real estate assets that provide meaningful returns for investors. In his free time he enjoys spending time with friends and family, enjoying the outdoors especially on the water. www.jordanlane.ca https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-walmsley-b3299457/ https://www.instagram.com/walland_property_group/

-- 

Subscribe:   

 / @focuscapitalpodcastwithstephen   

Listen on your favorite Podcast Player: www.buzzsprout.com/2358487

Web: focuscapital.ca

Transcript

Chad: 0:55

ladies. that's

Joel: 1:01

Thanks for having us.

Chad: 1:01

So I'm

Stephen: 1:02

Okay, so As I mentioned there's a couple of topics that we wanted to get into such as partnerships and multifamily real estate. But first off, I just want to say, you know, Chad and Joelle are two gentlemen that I've had the pleasure of getting to know over the past few years. We've done a lot of deal reviews together some mastermind groups and had the opportunity to just chat a lot about real estate in general, the market specifically here in Canada and, and commercial real estate overall. So I'm looking forward to the discussion today. And we'll get into all those topics that I mentioned, but I think what I'd really like to kind of. Kick things off with gentlemen is really just getting an understanding of how you two got into real estate investing in the first place. What was sort of that thing that that prompted you to, to take that step to, to get into real estate as, as an investing asset class and maybe a little bit of backstory about you know, how you, how you progress from there. So, so Joelle, maybe we'll start with you and just talking a little bit about your real estate background and how you got into it.

Joel: 2:05

Yeah. Thanks, Steve. Uh, Well, the background. Yeah. Uh, Like uh, my bio lengthy bio said that I started as a construction flooring contractor here in Alberta. And um, we were doing some, uh. a renovation for a contractor and the contractor uh, when we asked he said, the, the owner was actually on a real estate investor and I was like, what, what, what is in that real estate investor? And so the next day I met him and we had a good conversation. It was telling me, well, this is a flip we're doing and we're doing rentals. We're buying house, putting suite in the basement and we're splitting profit with investors. And that, that really piqued my curiosity. And so I investigated and did some courses, read some book and podcasts, and eventually started in 2012 in a small residential. And that's kind of what triggered the real estate investment journey. Journey And in 2002 2020 or 2019 decided to take a d different direction toward the multifamily where again, did a specific course toward that and and learned about the asset and eventually started to wall, skip investment and move into multifamily.

Stephen: 3:24

Excellent. Excellent. Okay. And, and Chad, what about you?

Chad: 3:28

Yeah, thanks, Steven. Um, my kind start or a foray into real estate started in 2001 uh, called a Vancouver special with my. My mom, she was the money partner and I was the working partner and I was an apprentice carpenter at the time. And uh, I lived in the with a couple of buddies and we had a basement suite and you know, that was kind of the, the, the beginning. I mean, my family, my father was a realtor for 40 years and held a bunch of real estate in the early eighties. And obviously everyone knows the story of the interest rates going up and between him and my mom at that time, they had about 16 properties and you know, it all uh, it went pretty quickly. So. But uh, so I on from 2001 and, and uh, sat on that property for quite a while, and then got into industrial in 2013 for a need for my construction business to be housed and kind of grow. So got into that with my partner at the time and um, later, we, with a few other partners bought a mobile home RV park and uh, got into more multifamily with uh, Joelle and, and, got Wollum Property Group off the ground in 2021. So.

Stephen: 4:43

Nice. Nice. So you both have had, I guess, different kind of forays into, into real estate and, and, you know, your own sort of history with, with different asset classes and, and, you know, Chad specifically, you know, it's, it's getting into RV parks and things like that is, is a very niche sort of thing to do. So that's that's pretty unique into itself, but, what I wanted to talk about, I guess, stemming from that was

Chad: 5:09

uh, I don't know

Stephen: 5:10

how did how did you guys start working together to sort of form a partnership and when did it become apparent that maybe you know, partnering up to, to do bigger deals was, was something of interest to, to you guys.

Joel: 5:27

Chad, go ahead. You want to go ahead, Chad?

Chad: 5:29

sure, sure. I'll jump ahead. So, so Joel and I actually met, as you mentioned earlier, Stephen, through um, that group that we were getting together. Um, and found um, and um, bigger opportunity for him and a bit more of a capital raise um, and, uh, and through us chatting in that group and I said, and he's like, you know, it's a, it's a bit of a bigger deal. And uh, I think going to need some help on the capital raising side. And I said, well, flip me over the deal. Let me take a look at it. See if it's something I'm interested in. And, you know, I've known you now for a while through the group and uh, in partnering with you on it, if that's what you, if you're interested in and he said, yeah, of course. And so we just had uh, you know, multiple conversations and dwells a pretty easy guy to, to chat with and work with and. We figured out how we were going to form the partnership with our, both our entities uh, becoming partnership and raising capital uh, was a big on my side through my connections in around Vancouver. And Joel had found the opportunity was closer to the asset. So he would manage the more kind of day to day uh, with, our uh, property And that's kind of where it, it took off for, for the both of us. Okay. Okay.

Stephen: 6:47

Joelle, what was, what was your experience with that, with, with just getting that initial partnership going?

Joel: 6:52

Yeah, I think like Chad said the big thing was being on that mastermind for over a year and being able to see how the, the other on on the rise, because we looked at a lot of deals and what's their idea, their values through like the investing. So it's a bit of a gut. I got feeling as well. No, like we we saw. Okay. Well, there is a connection. We get along and and yeah, I had the deal. He had the connection for the money. It was a partnership that really made sense. Although it happened nice and easy. All the, all the back end is important too. It's not just on the napkin either. So, so we need to have the proper documents to protect each other and protect everybody, like in case something happens we all have those horror story of partnerships that we hear from others. But yeah, so far, I think it's, it's been great and we're looking forward to growth as well, our business together.

Chad: 7:51

describe an

Stephen: 7:51

That's awesome. Yeah. So I think the other thing in the mix too, is that you not only are remote partners, but you've also got remote properties, right? Can you talk a little bit about how you came up with your, or maybe just talk about the niche that you're into. And then also how that sort of worked with this newly formed partnership. Did that pose some, some specific challenges or was it sort of, Hey, we're remote anyway, so we can manage remote properties. Neither of us is, is close by. And maybe just talk a little bit, a little bit about that.

Chad: 8:29

Silence. Okay.

Joel: 8:30

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So going for a property remotely, it's always a little bit,

Chad: 8:36

You know,

Joel: 8:38

perceived as a little bit more riskier, but it's also a little bit more challenging, I guess. So it's quite important to create a team around where,

Chad: 8:48

So,

Joel: 8:50

to be able to manage and to be your eyes and ears on the property. So it's all about, I think, team building and for now, how we approach it between our partnership is whoever this, that kind of imaginary line in between, like, in the middle of BC, basically, where Here it's closer to Chad and maybe Chad at this point will take care more of the asset management and more like dealing with the manager. And on this side, well, it's maybe more Joao that's doing this. And so that's the kind of approach we've been doing doing. Although some, some property may be like further than than we, than a quick day trip. But team building, I believe, like, is very important. The property manager the in house manager and have all the trades to take care of your building. That is I think what's important when investing remotely.

Stephen: 9:50

hmm.

Chad: 9:51

just to add on Joel's point, you know, it's, it's when Joel talks about your whole team, you know, on the, on the on site stuff is it's really important to have a great property manager and caretaker like he mentioned, but um, stages and putting everything together, you know, it's critical to have a. A good uh, lawyer familiar with either, you know, syndications or joint ventures or that type of um, estate. It's also, you need a great accountant. Um, another couple, couple people that you really need to have on your team. And then, you know, relationships with brokers as well is, is pretty helpful. But uh, in terms of for, you know, being remote with the asset, yeah. With me and having my construction background, you know, I actually uh, had out. I've flown out a few times now to, to that asset before we acquired it and, and looked into, you know, some of the uh, bigger things that, you know, might be required or things that could really hurt you on a, on an investment, right. You know, you're not going to just it when the seller says that they've redone the roof and okay, well. You read down the roof. For me, it's who was the contractor that did the work? Was it, you know, your cousin that did the work? Or was it a licensed contractor? Were they insured? Uh, did they compensation? Like, were they a legitimate contractor? So, you know, we get up on the roof and have a look at those things, you know, age of the boiler, that type of thing. Those are some, you know, big things that can cost you um, remote if you don't check those things out or You're not there doing uh, the inspection and walkthrough as part of your due diligence, you know, so even though, you know, now, for the most part, the team's in place and it's running in remote um, you know, there still is that, you know, on site, you know, you need to see it and have a look, especially when you're working with big numbers. So. Um,

Stephen: 12:22

how that has Helped you with respect to, you know, getting into real estate, getting into some of these bigger commercial deals is multifamily deals. And, you know, what are the things that you know, your background in, in that sort of, you know, the trades and construction side has, has kind of given you as you're going into these real estate deals and maybe Joelle, we'll start with you.

Chad: 12:46

Yeah, Yeah.

Joel: 12:50

I think one of the big, drawback or things that an investor would see as an hurdle to move into buying a bigger building is the physical aspect of the building. Like, there's so many units there, there's a boiler and there's all, all those aspects and being in construction and seeing so many and seeing how pretty much all finishing and everything, how it's done. That's definitely not. Something that is intimidating when we look at the property and now we can look at 10 unit or a hundred units, it's pretty much all the same, just little box stack on top of each other, like it's, so it's not, so it gives us a little bit of an advantage in terms of mindset to, to move forward.

Chad: 13:36

going to

Joel: 13:38

In terms of being pride pricing it or seeing opportunity as well we. go after value added apartment buildings, where we can increase the value through meaningful renovation and increased rent or increased income and such. So, being able to look at a place and right away seeing what we can do, how much it will cost, is definitely an advantage as well.

Stephen: 14:04

Yeah. Yeah. It sort of gives you a little bit of inside track on, on, especially when you're dealing with some of the,

Chad: 14:11

about

Stephen: 14:12

I guess, You know, infrastructure pieces of the asset when you're dealing with, you know, any renovation work that needs to be done. It kind of gives you a leg up on not only the understanding of it, but also being able to check costs and pricing and things like that.

Chad: 14:28

Absolutely Steven, you know, having that, that confidence and knowing that, okay, well. You know, you got X amount of units in this building, and if you're going to turn them over, and this is the scope of work that you're going to do, and having that confidence and comfort knowing that, you know, you're, you're good on your numbers and having that experience in construction is big and I cut my teeth on. On uh, which I'm sure a lot of people have heard about in uh, in and around Vancouver. So I, I did that for a number of years. And uh, so, when I look at these types of properties, you know, I'm always Mindful of, you know, does the building have overhangs? You know, what are the conditions of the decks and balconies and the windows? Because those are You know, on a 50 plus unit building, you know, windows and door sliders and decks and railings can add up to some big numbers. Uh, if to re and re that type of stuff. So uh, we replaced um, a bunch of the windows on 2 of our buildings, the townhouses, all the, all the windows and sliders. And, you know, that's, That's a, it was a six figure ticket to do uh, to work. Right. And so having my connections in the industries with, in the industry with suppliers and, and trades and contractors, as well as Joelle's uh, contacts, that definitely gives us a leg up or, you know, an advantage and for us, you know, that comfort of knowing that we're good on our, our numbers when we're factoring that into, you know, if we're going to pursue an asset. So.

Stephen: 16:05

You know, different asset classes, you know, in commercial real estate. So everything from multifamily to office to industrial, which is what I focus on obviously a bit more. Right. And what, what was sort of the background that led you guys to focus on, on you know, your multifamily asset class and specifically, you know, what you guys are doing with, with the value add projects, maybe talk a bit about. You know, the background on, on what sort of led you to come up with that thesis. Was it just sort of a natural progression or was it something that you saw in the market? And and then how you sort of, you know, narrowed in on that really would be interesting to hear that sort of the background story on that.

Chad: 16:46

picture. Yeah, here we go.

Stephen: 16:49

Uh, Joelle, go ahead. Yeah.

Chad: 16:51

Yeah.

Joel: 16:51

Yeah. So then with my background, I guess, in flooring, I always been inside a unit. I always been working on the inside of the house. So for me, the rental long term rental is definitely a natural progression. And that's what. It was appealing to me, multifamily. It was some kind of familiar for us in terms of multifamily the economy of scale in terms of when you buy, want to build a business as an investor seem much easier than actually buying a hundred home while you can buy a building that has a hundred units, much easier. You have that economy of scale where. Well, you can have one, two or three units empty, but yet you're not in the red. You're still cash flowing. The property is still produced. So that was very appealing to me. And also it's very appealing to our investors. They want to make sure that wherever they're putting the money, like we're not, they don't want to call and say, Hey, we need, We need 20 more thousand to cover this month, like they don't want to see that. So the, the economy of scale that multifamily can get is a very big thing. And so that's one of the reason I think when I went toward multifamily.

Stephen: 18:12

Mm hmm. And, and Chad, what about you? What sort of, you know, pushing that direction?

Chad: 18:17

similar to what Joel mentioned, you know, it kind of just generally what pushed me into commercial was, you know, in my early days, I thought, you know, as a carpenter, I'm like, okay, great. You know, my, my retirement plan might be, I got 10 single family homes and, you know, after a mortgage and expenses, if I'm making, if I'm netting a thousand bucks and I got 10, that's 10, 000 bucks. Well, you know, Hey, that's a pretty decent retirement, but. The challenge is that you're, you're trading one job, you know, if you're working as a carpenter, for me, I'm trading one job as another job for a property to be a property manager, because it doesn't necessarily make sense to have a property manager for, for all those 10 properties. You're going to do yourself um, because take out of it. And then you're 10 different roofs and 10 different boilers. And, you know, it's, it's more headache when you can scale up to a multifamily. You're going to have a caretaker on site, you know, depending on how many units and uh, manager and they're fielding and dealing with those calls. And then you become the asset manager and you deal more with, you know, investor relations and whatnot for that. So that was kind of my, you know, progression to that. The other side is, you know, in a single family, if you've got a. An upstairs and a downstairs, you lose a tenant, you're now down, you know, 50 percent vacancy on that property, you know, you can afford to lose a few tenants on a 50 plus building or, or, and, and still have, you know, a lot of uh, a in and you're, you're covering more than all your costs. It's not going to hurt you really. So, you know, that, that's for me, the, the uh, the benefit of the of the multifamily side of things. So um, yeah, And this is the version

Stephen: 20:04

Mm-Hmm, Okay. And, and so maybe talk a bit about your specific niche with sort of value add. Are there certain things that you are looking for? Obviously, you know, you want to, I guess, get things, get assets lined up where you, you feel like there's, there's an opportunity to add value, but maybe talk a little bit about your, your strategy and, and are there certain markets that make this work more than others? Are there certain. Types of assets that sort of you know, allow for this this strategy to be executed and maybe just kind of fill in a bit of the blanks there on, on your specific strategy with the value add.

Chad: 20:45

Yeah, sure. So. For the value add, we're typically looking at, you know, older buildings uh, you know, be from the 80s or 70s uh, just dated. It buildings that need. Upgrades to the units that uh, move or leave, you can, we can add that value, you know, it's maybe got old carpets and we're going to put vinyl plank floors in for, for instance, that are going to be durable last long. You know, clean it up, might add cabinets, some lighting, clean the unit up and, and increase the rent substantially. Um, the, the, the great thing about the value add side and, and bumping the rent, rent, because, you know, in the commercial real estate industry, most people know that the assets valued on what's the income that it produces. So you're pushing that income, you're pushing the value of the building. And so that's really the name of the game. And uh, that's the kind that we're, we're interested in. We're primarily looking in secondary and tertiary markets because, you know, the land values are so high and um, in and where I am in, in Vancouver. Um, that's there's not opportunities around here, but we really find that our, our um, our bread is in the secondary and tertiary markets uh, that we're, looking around all around BC and, and Alberta. Yeah,

Stephen: 22:09

Yeah. And I can, I can agree with that because it's, you know, we see the same thing in Ontario here. It's the GTA is, is just so far out of whack with respect to the land value that really to get any type of you know, any type of leverage and any type of value in, in, you know, really any real estate asset class, you've got to be looking outside of the GTA and those secondary and tertiary markets.

Chad: 22:32

Yeah, and it could be, it can be a lot harder to, you know, it's, it's easier for us. We find to find those cash flowing assets in those markets, as opposed to. You know, in the, in the, in the, in the core markets or the primary markets that uh, tougher and um, you groups too, that you're going up against that got much more horsepower and capital behind them. So, and their, their outlooks far, far longer. Um, find also for us, there's just less competition and we're in the areas that we're, we're looking to uh, Okay. Alright.

Stephen: 23:12

Okay. Interesting. Okay.

Chad: 23:13

Okay. You

Stephen: 23:16

I guess I wanted to talk a little bit about know, again, this, this sort of active versus passive investing that you know, that takes place. So maybe talk a little bit about that transition from passive to active real estate. And, you know, I'd be interested to hear sort of, you know, the things that you're seeing, obviously you guys have got investors on board, you've got partners in your deals. What are some of the advantages of having a passive investment and investing in an Deals like the ones that that you guys are offering and what are some of the benefits of, of of those types of investments for those passive investors and, and really how could they leverage your expertise as, as partners in these deals.

Chad: 24:03

Um,

Joel: 24:04

Yeah, absolutely. The Yeah, the our business model is basically if go get a property and bring it to our investor group so they can actually invest passively in that.

Chad: 24:18

we kind

Joel: 24:18

So that's why a reason why we like the value add strategy.

Chad: 24:23

there any, you know, can you

Joel: 24:24

It can provide a little bit better return for for the for the investor for everybody in the deal for all our partners. And so. Our approach is we're finding the opportunity through our network that we have created a broker and through basically both province and then we're doing the due diligence. We're removing all the insecurity around the deal, all the risk. And then once it's all nice and cooked, just before purchasing it. We're bringing the investors and we're bringing basically a product that says that we feel confident we can actually give projection in terms of what it should return with our expertise and experience. And so for us, it's definitely not passive. This is definitely a lot of work going into those properties and also managing them afterwards. The nature of value added means that there's a lot of work even after purchasing it to be done. It's not just collecting rent every month. We have unit renovation going on a month to month basis, and we have CAPEX to do, and our job is really to Keep on the business plan what we have projected and and try to knock it out of the park as well, right? And so but for the investors they receive basically an all cooked deal and an idea with a business plan. And that's what we're trying to do with this property. And that's what we think with our expertise that we should be able to attain as a return. Now we're, we're not nobody have a crystal ball and it's nothing guarantee. It is, there's risk and invest in any kind of investing, but then the investor decide, well, yes, I'm, I'm, I'm okay with this. And I want to invest their money. And basically their work stops there. They, they have the documents to sign. In terms of the agreements between the general partner and the limited partner, and then after that, it's fully passive for them.

Stephen: 26:34

Mhm.

Joel: 26:35

This is how the passive, we're definitely active and the investor is definitely passive. Yeah.

Stephen: 26:40

Mhm. Nice. And so, Chad, what are you sort of hearing from from your investors in terms of, you know, some of the benefits that they're getting out of these passive investments?

Chad: 26:50

yeah, Steven, you know, I think it's, It's no secret over, you know, the last few years in the pandemic and, you know, the public markets have not been great and obviously there's a lot of people that have money in there. And so, when we find one of these opportunities, you know, it can take. 10, 12, 15, or even 20, you know, deals that we'll work through and go look and underwrite before we kind of put together a pitch deck and, and, you know, it's something substantial enough where we're ready to, once we put a pitch deck together um, you already underwrote the deal. We're happy with it. And now we're going out to investors. So, you know, that's kind of one thing just to, to mention, you know, where it's not just every deal we come across that we're putting a pitch deck together and sending it out, but When we send that out to, you know, investors, we let them know that we've worked quite hard to kind of underwrite it. We put a lot of time in and where we stand behind it, you know, we put our. Own capital into the deals as well. So that's, you know, that's one of the um, for the investors kind of um, confidence or, you know, knowing that we're personally invested in the deal, we've got friend, family, family money in the deal, but, you know, the returns that we're providing as well on our, on our last deal, we were uh, you know, we were offering a 9 percent prep return. So, you know, that's pretty, that's pretty um, for a lot of the investors that were in the deal with us. You know, they like to see that kind of that reoccurring, you know, quarterly revenue coming in on that. And uh, communication style that we have sending out quarterly newsletters, keeping them updated, you know, just, Hey, we just did this unit, you know, here's the rent that we were getting before. Here's the cost of the renovation. Here's the rent we're getting now, you know, and this is where we've come from, where we started to where we are and how much we've, we've pushed the net operating income. And so, you know, we got, we've gotten a lot of good feedback from our investors on um, we and keeping them up to date. And, and that, you know, provides the maturity and confidence in, in us as uh, the general partner. So. Okay. Let's go.

Stephen: 29:07

feedback once investors are able to get access to these bigger, you know, types of assets and, and get in on deals that they wouldn't otherwise have access to just because of the scale of them. It's it's a pretty amazing thing for someone, for example, who's just. Only ever been able to buy stocks and bonds and things that are traded on on the public markets to get access to these types of you know, private equity investments. It's really a powerful thing. And so, you know, all the feedback that I've gotten has been extremely positive. And it sounds like you guys have to. And I think once, you know, our investor partners realize like, Hey, I I have access to something that's, that's pretty scarce. It's, it's really, really quite a, you know, a beneficial thing for them. And, and their kind of eyes open up to, to the possibilities of, of investing in these types of assets. So yeah, so it's, it's, it's a pretty powerful thing. And it sounds like you guys have had similar you know, feedback to what I've, what I've gotten for sure.

Chad: 30:08

Beds, Beds, and sheds,

Joel: 30:09

if I can,

Stephen: 30:11

What's that?

Joel: 30:12

add,

Chad: 30:12

beds and sheds.

Stephen: 30:13

and sheds. Yeah, those, those are the two recession resistant commercial asset classes for

Chad: 30:19

You need a place to sleep and lay your head and a roof over your head and you and businesses. Need a place to operate out of. I mean, it's, it's not going to change for the foreseeable future. right? So

Stephen: 30:48

that, you know, are ready to lease out, you know, that are, that are basically producing income day one, I mean, those are, those are so beneficial because like I just said being able to build new stock is, is really cost prohibitive and time prohibitive as well.

Chad: 31:04

Absolutely. And, you know, in our, in our decks to, you know, one of our, one of our previous deals, you know, where our um, cost was below replacement cost of that asset. So, you know, that's a, that's a big advantage for, for our, our group and our investors. So sure.

Stephen: 31:28

Um, okay. So as we're kind of wrapping up here I thought I'd just ask you guys about,

Chad: 31:35

sorry.

Stephen: 31:36

you know, maybe some tips or lessons learned or anything else you wanted to sort of share with respect to someone who's looking at, you know, Potentially investing in commercial real estate or maybe specifically into multifamily. You know, what are some of the things that they can look out for? How can they sort of educate themselves and sort of, you know, what are the things that maybe you wanted to pass on to someone who's, who's considering investing in this type of asset? Joelle, maybe we'll start with you.

Joel: 32:07

yeah, there's definitely a lot to to it and it can be kind of doubting to to get into the buying an asset like this. I think everybody can do it. But I don't think everybody does. That's right. So First of all, like, I think education in terms of how, what's the dynamic in that asset class that for us, multifamily, like, how, how is it valued, what is a good deal and the underwriting is definitely important. So, education first I mean, it's out there, there's so many books around it, the class and, and mastermind and all this around the country. There's so many Next, the next thing I think is building your team. It's not a single sport. You definitely need a team. You need to, in order to get deal flow, like to see a lot of apartment buildings that per se, you need to talk to a lot of people. Mortgage of brokers. I mean, sorry, real estate broker. And then one of the big thing is debt as well. Well, you need to have connection with the debt brokers as well. Mortgage brokers or bank. Those are really important as well. You got the legal and tax side as well. So that's a big team that you need to, to support you to, in order to buy this, because every aspect is important of this as well. And for us I believe we could have keep going on by yourself and keep growing. But if you want to grow fast, it's not it's not a single sport either. You need partnership, right? Like money. Like, finding the money to buy more assets is always one of the big challenges, I think, for every syndication business or investment business. And so when you partner with others you definitely lift much faster. So I think those are some of the steps. Building a team education and a partnership, if you want to grow fast I think or bigger in a way this is definitely important. Thank you.

Stephen: 34:15

Yeah, no, for sure. It sounds good. Chad, what do you

Chad: 34:19

Yeah, you know, just exactly what you all said, you know, it's really, it's a, it's a team sport and, and it's going to take you a long time to kind of do it yourself. There's a lot of. Uh, material out there, you know, I spend a lot of time listening to podcasts, which is how, you know, I, I ran into both of you guys um, you know, just through listening through uh, podcasts, uh, I've done a lot of reading and, and networking, networking, networking is huge, you know, getting out there, like Joel said, making those introductions uh, with brokers, having those conversations and, you know, As you start to put deals under your belt to um, you will start to come to you with, with more deals, but um, you know, just be mindful and respectful of their, of their time because for them, it's uh, it's about deal certainty and a lot of time can go into a deal and um, get paid until the deal gets done. So um, so just make sure that you're being mindful and respectful of that. And uh, and yeah, same thing, mortgage brokers, you know, get a great. Get a great um, guy to help you out with the guy or girl to help you out with the debt and um, and, uh, as well uh, accounting advice and um, education for me, it's the, it's the journey, not the destination. So, you know, spend a lot of time underwriting and uh, looking at deals and, and eventually it'll uh, it'll come together for you. So. It's a little bit more

Stephen: 35:48

Yeah, awesome. Yeah, I think the education piece is huge, right? I think it's, it's really the backbone of a lot of what we're doing. Not only,

Chad: 35:56

use the

Stephen: 35:57

you know, education in your specific you know, niche area or strategy or whatever it may be, but But also, you know, I think just generally on the personal development side, right, just making sure you've got the right mindset, making sure that you know, you're taking care of your mental health, your physically, things like that, and just making sure that you're ready to sort of, you know get in the game, so to speak. So I think all of that combined is, is really all sort of you know, winning package that people can put together.

Chad: 36:23

Yeah. Absolutely.

Stephen: 36:26

I wanted to ask you guys, I'm not going to ask you guys to make predictions, but you know, just wanted to get your sense of, you know, what you see coming down the pipe. Maybe what are your thoughts on, you know, where you guys go next with your partnership and, and what are some of the things that you've got planned maybe for the, for the, for the coming year, be interested to hear sort of what's, what's on top and what your thoughts are for 2024.

Chad: 36:50

Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, we're obviously pushing hard for, for a lot of doors. I think for us, you know, we're, we want to push uh, over at an additional a hundred doors this year to the portfolio, you know, it's, that's going to. Depend on, you know, certain deals, but uh, you know, we're, we're, pushing hard towards uh, more deals in the portfolio and um, and, and expanding to larger size deals as well and, and growing the general partnership and um, adding more writing more investors uh, on a weekly to our To our database and so having having those conversations and basically being ready to go when uh, when a deal comes along um, interest rates play a big factor and underwriting deals and, you know, nobody has the crystal ball when it comes to that, you know, there's. a lot of discussion that we're going to see, you know, anywhere from half to full point drop and when that's going to happen, nobody knows, but you know, that, that can make a substantial difference in, in some of the sides of these deals that we're underwriting. So um, you know, it's a, it's a wait and see uh, to You know, it's a bit standoffish between buyers and sellers, maybe a little bit right now, and everybody's still kind of waiting. There's still deals that are being done. We're still actively working hard and finding opportunities for our investors. And, and that's the name of the game for us is bringing value to them and putting them ahead of us and putting our investors first. But um, you know, it's looking pretty promising, I think over the next um, next, uh, year here. we're uh, we're, we're looking for opportunities. So. Uh, which is uh, is uh,

Stephen: 38:38

Awesome. Yeah, no, I agree with you. I agree with you, Chad. I think there's some light at the end of the tunnel here. So I think I'm optimistic as well for 2024. So

Chad: 38:47

once I, I'm,

Joel: 38:47

That's right. Grow is definitely the, the name of the game, like you said for this year, although it could be growing our team, we're growing our, it could be also growing our group of investors that we're always actively grow, trying to grow grow the size of the deal and grow the portfolio. Like, I think growth really I think it's the, the name and it's a good opportunity. I think right now as well. We. With what's coming with the interest rate going down, I think there's going to be much more activities in the market by the end of the year to next year. So I think right now is if you can find something that pencil out, it's a very good time to to be in the market.

Stephen: 39:30

yeah, yeah, I would agree. I would agree. Yeah. Like I said, I'm optimistic. I think, I think you know, there's a lot of pent up demand and I think, you know, there's, there's, There's, there's sellers out there that haven't sold and there's buyers that that, that need properties and need to keep money moving and, and capital allocated. So I think there's going to be a healthy, a healthy market this year. So okay, well, great. This has been a good good conversation guys. I guess maybe just to sort of you know, wrap up, I wanted to ask you guys where where people could find out more about you and, and some of the stuff that you're doing. Where's, where's sort of the best place for them to to get more info.

Chad: 40:06

Yeah, you can find me uh, on LinkedIn, uh, Chad Wamsley, uh, you can find me at uh, Walland Property uh, walland underscore property underscore group on Instagram. And those are the two, two main things uh, reach out and always happy to have a conversation. Silence.

Joel: 40:48

up. Yeah. Thanks.

Stephen: 40:50

make sure to put all those links in the show notes as well. So people can have it there as well. Okay. Well, thanks a lot, gentlemen. Great conversation. And yeah, we'll see you on the next one. Thanks.

Chad: 41:01

Thanks, Stephen. Appreciate it. Silence.

41:04

So, hope you got some value out of this podcast episode. I invite you to like and subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, leave a comment. Uh, let us know what you think. And for any other information about us, what we're doing and, uh, the types of investments we're into, please visit focuscapital. ca focuscapital. ca. And on there, you can find a ton of information, additional podcasts and a lot of free resources. So, uh, that's it for this podcast episode. Bye for now.