Long Distance Relationships - Investing Further Afield

Welcome to Canada's Property Management podcast, your number one resource for investing, managing, and maximizing the value of your real estate assets. And now, here's your hosts Carla Browne and Adrian Schulz, Canada's rental property experts.

Adrian Schulz (00:18):

On today's episode of Canada's Dating Podcast, we're talking about long distance relationships. I'm kidding, Carla. No, but serious, we are talking about long distance relationships, and since we're talking about relationships, I thought I would wear a pink striped shirt that my daughter picked for me.

Carla Browne (00:43):

Oh, awesome. Awesome. So, you're ready for Valentine's and Pink Shirt Day all in one, hey?

Adrian Schulz (00:49):

I think we would celebrate Valentine's at our house every single day because the kids are convinced it's just like Christmas, where you get limitless chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Adrian Schulz (01:00):

But on a more serious note, we are on, I think it's an investor's dream right now to be investing in real estate, but prices are so high and potentially inflated in the primary markets, and those would probably be Toronto, Vancouver, others will scream to be in that group, but they're too expensive to invest in, which leads us to the potential of having a long distance relationship with a tertiary market. What do you think, Carla?

Carla Browne (01:40):

Yeah. Well, real estate, we've been in this game of real estate long enough to know that there is a cycle to everything, and every market is going to go through these cycles, and it's important to understand that the rental market, just like the sales market, does this, and that, when investors are looking to invest, where they live might not be the right timing for them to invest there.

Carla Browne (02:01):

But you have the ability in our industry nowadays to invest outside of your own backyard. And this is one thing I often talk about to investors really, really important to start doing some research and find out where's the best place to invest right now, and then start figuring out how you're going to go in there and start looking at the properties.

Carla Browne (02:21):

Because you're right. Some of the major market, and it'll change. Next year it will be somewhere else, so it's no sense in us dating this and saying where to invest today. There's always a good place to invest. You just need to do your homework and understand what that looks like. But getting out of your own backyard or getting out of the mindset that you have to be able to drive by your property every Sunday afternoon to make you feel like an investor, that's not what it's all about. It's about finding the property that is going to build and create wealth for you.

Adrian Schulz (02:50):

You mentioned mindset, and let's think for a moment about how we invest our RRSPs, our ESPs, TFSAs, unregistered investments in mutual funds or holding stock equities. GICs, whatever, directly with your bank.

Carla Browne (03:09):

Well, let's bring this up to date. Where do you invest in your cryptocurrency?

Adrian Schulz (03:13):

Right. Well, you know what? I am not yet a crypto fan. I have to choose my word wisely. I know it's inevitable.

Carla Browne (03:24):

You'll get there.

Adrian Schulz (03:25):

Perhaps. Perhaps. I know if our friend, Chris Turcot, has his way, I will become a crypto fanatic. But back to mindset. So, think about that, right? It's a piece of paper or on your computer screen, where you see what your wealth or what your assets are. So, it shouldn't be a stretch to invest in real estate, in another town, in another city, in another province. That's still as tangible, if not more tangible, than holding a bunch of equities in a stock portfolio. So, I think it's a mindset thing, and you can use a property manager in those tertiary markets, which is a real person that you have a relationship with, managing your asset.

Carla Browne (04:11):

Yeah. And this is the thing. I love to talk about this because it completes this vision that I have, that an investor could be in Montreal, Quebec, and they could be investing in Ottawa. They could have an investment in Regina, Saskatchewan, and they could have another in investment in Vancouver, or in Colonna. And we could tie that all together. Their experience would be very similar in all of those markets and they could print off one statement that gets put in their owner portal, so to speak, and everything looks the same. They understand the language. That's all there. These are real things that can happen. And this is what an investor, how they should be looking at things, is where should I be investing? Not, "I'm going to invest. Now, I'm going to start driving around and seeing where I want to invest in my own city."

Adrian Schulz (04:58):

I think, right now, how many offices are there with RPM Canada in Canada?

Carla Browne (05:04):

Just under 20, across Canada, going from Vancouver, and we do as far as Ontario, Quebec.

Adrian Schulz (05:10):

So, if you want to own a rental property in Saskatoon or in Edmonton or in Barry, Ontario, wherever it is, you've got the potential to get consistent financial reporting on your real estate investments in all of those markets, not really any different than if you have multiple investment accounts and you get those annual statements. It's a balance sheet. It's an income statement with account cash basis, income and expenses that you give to your accountant, who does your annual taxes with the, I believe in most cases, it's going to be statement of business activities, or the rental property addendum. So, you've given the tools from an RPM office that are consistent across the country, that can manage those assets for you. And, by the way, you get to monitor and see the activity of your assets online through a rental owner portal, again, not much different than having an online investment portfolio.

Carla Browne (06:21):

Yeah. That's a great point and a great analogy to put it against. Let's go back just a little bit because I got really all excited about RPM being all over Canada and being able to do all of this for an investor. But let's talk to the investor who maybe things that they could do this on their own, and they could. They could. Technology has really brought us to this level that, really, you could manage a property in a center where you're not living. But I will caution that there's a few things that technology can't necessarily do, and sometimes you do need boots on the ground type of thing in order to be able to really assist you. And I also caution to do not rely on friends and family. Do not rely on friends and family.

Adrian Schulz (07:02):

For anything. No.

Carla Browne (07:05):

Well, I like to rely on them for some things, but I will say do not rely on friends and family.

Adrian Schulz (07:10):

Oh. And if grandpa is listening, I'm sorry. We do need you to help with the grandkids.

Carla Browne (07:17):

And I love my friends and family, but you want to make sure this, it stays in a business transaction. This is a business that you're running, and you wouldn't just allow your friends or family to stop in and see how the management of your convenience store was doing or your restaurant was doing. And this is very much the same thing, is that you need to make sure that things are being scheduled. You got all these regulatory things that we got to make sure smoke alarms are inspected on certain timeframes, and inspections are going in. Is the tenant making sure that the yard is being looked after? All of these things that do require some eyes on the ground, and you can get that by investing in a property management company of some sort, property management services. And I say it is investing because it is not a cost to do that. We've got another podcast that talks about how much a property manager actually costs, but it is something that I think gives you great peace of mind to know that somebody is professionally looking after your property day to day.

Adrian Schulz (08:14):

I can't stop myself from saying it because a dear-

Carla Browne (08:19):

When do you ever stop yourself?

Adrian Schulz (08:21):

No. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But a dear friend of mine is actually a professional match maker, legitimate business, has connected many legitimate people looking for love. And I say to her, anytime I'm speaking with her, I say, "Haven't the dating app technology taken over matchmaking?" And she said, "Talk to my clients who have used my service, that tried the virtual dating apps, versus me who gets to know both parties and develops a connection between the people, knowing the things that are needed to make the relationship work." So, just like a professional matchmaker, since this is our romantic, long distance relationship episode, just like a professional matchmaker, a professional property manager in the local market, or in the tertiary market, that you're wanting to invest in, is going to have that relationship with your tenants, your residents, and with you to make that investment a success. I'm sorry.

Carla Browne (09:33):

No, I'm loving it because I often call myself a matchmaker between the investor and the tenant. So, now I'm thinking to myself, "I wonder what her screening processes are like." This is going to be a whole nother episode.

Adrian Schulz (09:45):

It is. It is. And you know what we'll have to do is we'll have to get a matchmaker onto a podcast episode as a guest, maybe next Valentine's day.

Carla Browne (09:56):

Oh, that would be awesome. That would be awesome.

Adrian Schulz (09:59):

Now, that's Real Property Management.

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