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January 17, 2024 38 mins

Get Out Of Debt And Get Ahead By Investing In Real Estate

There is nothing that feels more discouraging and defeating than crushing debt, is there? If this is an obstacle you've been facing, then this is an episode you absolutely don't want to miss.

Welcome back to the "Inspired To Invest" real estate podcast.  If you'd rather watch than listen, click here.

This week, we are with Nick Skalkos, a multi-award winning platinum recording podcast who was incredibly successful in his musical career, but he just didn't have the money to show for it. 

After watching a few episodes of Income Property with Scott MacGillivray, Nick was inspired to leverage the space in his home to house hack, so he could save money and climb out of debt. 

From there, he took the leap to start educating himself about all of the various real estate strategies out there, and has managed to scale his portfolio to hundreds of doors, not only across Canada, but also into the United States.

Brace yourself for Nick's nuggets of wisdom, beneficial for real estate investors in the beginning of their journey as well as for those who may be further along on their path. His insights are both practical and profound.

Find out how Nick has strategically positioned himself in the industry as a thought leader, expert, and master capital raiser - all extremely attractive qualities to potential partners he was contending when he was ready to grow.

And grow he did!

His journey as a real estate investor, is nothing short of inspiring. Nick's story is not one you should miss.  

To connect with them directly and to learn about opportunities he has for investors, go to @nickskalkos on social or https://nickskalkos.com online.

Thank you to the Canadian Real Estate Women Association for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”.  To learn more about them, go to @canadian.re.women.association on social or https://crewa.ca.

“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://more2give.ca/beyond.

Tune back in on Wed., Jan.24 for Ep32 to hear from a mortgage broker based in California who has made it her mission to inspire others to take the first step to start investing in real estate.

Thank you for tuning in & remember, "when you invest in yourself, the sky's the limit!"

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the "Inspire to Invest podcast,
where we're sharing stories fromreal estate investors and how
investing has changed theirlives.
This episode of Inspire toInvest has been brought to you
by the Canadian Real EstateWomen Association, also known as
CREWA.
Welcome to the Inspire toInvest podcast.
I have Nick Skalkos here withme today.

(00:23):
He is a platinum reportingartist turned real estate
investor.
He and his wife, sarah Lourish.
They own hundreds of doorsacross Canada and also, more
recently, across the UnitedStates.
Nick is passionate aboutproviding opportunities for
people to invest in real estatepassively and also creating
affordable housing for peoplethat are living on the spectrum.

(00:43):
So welcome today, nick.
We're so happy to have you.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Thank you, serena, I'm glad to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
So you have a really interesting journey because
you're in the arts, so you're arecording artist.
So bring us back, like how didyou make that jump into real
estate?
Like that is a huge transition.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah, my prior life.
I was quite an accomplishedmusician.
I've had several criticallyreleased albums through major
labels with many differentartists.
I've got platinum records witha variety of recording artists
as well, and I've toured theworld with all my favorite bands
Nice and it's been quite thejourney.
I ended up in the more behindthe scenes later on in my

(01:20):
musical career where I startedproducing bands and writing and
producing for other artists andtelevision shows and theme songs
for TV and stuff like that.
And how I got into real estateis it's pretty.
It was like I had no, I had noknowledge of real estate.
So how would it all happen?
I have one person to blame.
Bob McGilver is the reason whyI'm investing in real estate and

(01:47):
to this day have him to thank.
And this is why it all startedwith a HGTV show, ironically
called Income Property.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
And I would be watching.
You know I liked HGTV because Ifound real estate interesting,
but I didn't like how all theshows were just simply, you know
, improving a property so thatyou know the husband and wife
could like enjoy theirsurroundings or whatever
Privileged and entitled.
Yeah, here comes along Scottand Michael with Income Property
and they're going into people'shomes where these people are

(02:20):
house poor and you know, and thefinancial, monthly payments are
sort of tightening up on themand I really related with that.
So he would go into their home,he would identify an opportunity
to create a unit in theirbasement, thereby, you know,
giving them some financialfreedom in a way, you know,
lessening their monthly mortgagepayments.
And I thought that was reallycool because I too was in a home

(02:43):
that had a separate entrance,it had a kitchen in the basement
, it had an in-law suite and Iwas, and at the time I was using
it as a recording studio, whichwas amazing.
But I was also feeling thepinch and I didn't know how I
was going to get out of debt.
So I watched every episode ofthis show and I just loved him,
I loved the program and when Isaw that he was coming to town

(03:05):
to do a speaking event, I wentyeah, and at the speaking event
he basically it was a basicallyexplained how he created wealth
through real estate investingand he was a student and he
would get a few rentals.
And I found his story soinspiring that my wife and I
decided to dig in a littlefurther.

(03:25):
He had an opportunity to joinKey Spire, which is an
educational program, one of thebest in Canada, and joining them
changed my life.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
But what year was?

Speaker 2 (03:37):
this.
This was in 2016.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
Okay, okay.
So it's been about seven, eightyears.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yeah, and it was in it.
And I must point out that Ijoined.
I was reluctant, I was veryreluctant.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
I think anyone's reluctant when they see the
price tag attached, but it isworth it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
I think I felt the same way.
There was a couple of thingsthat play here.
First of all, sarah was in andshe was in, but I was not
convinced.
I was like what's going on?
Here is the sale.
But the thing was is that shewas a teacher at the time.
I'm not going to say that she'snow retired and working on her
business with us, but she was ateacher at the time and she just

(04:17):
couldn't fathom living, workinguntil she was 65 and then
waiting to collect the pension.
She just couldn't do it.
So she was like doing thisthing, whereas me I'm just like,
hey, life's great, like I'm abroke musician and I always and
I'm okay with that, because Ijust always thought that that
was my life.
So I was just like hold on here, let's put the brakes.
What's going on?
And it's funny when people hearthe story, because I'm such a

(04:40):
bubbly positive guy and I'malways like invest in yourself,
invest in yourself.
But I wasn't like that at first.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
So I just hope that resonates with someone.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
If this is you, that's like reluctant to
purchase anything.
The truth is is that I wouldn'tbe where I am today if it
wasn't for Keyspire and coachingand immersing myself in the
knowledge that I now have.
You know, learning how to turna liability into an asset,
learning how to raise capital,all that stuff.
So I blame Scott McGilvery.

(05:09):
That's how I got started.
I started with an HDTVtelevision show.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, but everyone's catalyst is different.
I think, just to your point,the mindset is a really big part
of it, and I think that waseven you know why I was inspired
to kind of start this podcast.
Because a lot of times peoplelook at real estate investing is
really elusive, you know.
They feel like they look atthese investors that have these
massive portfolios Everyone'shighlighting the number of doors
that they have and stuff likethat but it's to bridge the gap,
to show you that, no, like youcould be this broke musician,

(05:38):
you could be a teacher, youcould be whatever it may be.
And then there's this littlecatalyst that lights a fire when
you realize, like no, I don'thave to be broke.
Like you know, I can be livingthis life that most people would
dream of, right.
So I think that's reallyimportant, just to consider
reframing your perspective, togo after those things.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
So important so what happened next?

Speaker 1 (06:00):
So you joined Feespar .
So what did that look like interms of your transition into
full-time real estate investing?

Speaker 2 (06:07):
I started converting single-family homes into
duplexes because my challengewas is that I had time but I had
no money, so I had to figureout how to recycle.
I had to figure out how tocreate money and then how to
recycle that, and the best wayto do that was through a burr.
Feespar calls it the four waysto win, if you do it their way,
specifically, and I love thatidea.

(06:29):
So I began to convert myexisting home into a duplex and
Sarah and I compromised byactually moving into the
basement and renting out theupstairs to young families, and
we were still renovating ourbasement while we were living in
it.
So we would have drywallhanging up on the sides, exposed

(06:49):
ceilings.
We'd have the city come in andlet us know that we did it wrong
.
We'd have to take down all theinsulation and reseal the two
units.
It was the process of workingwith the city pretty much turned
me off of doing burrs.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
I just did that.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Back in 2017, I don't know if things have changed.
Apparently they're loosening upsome of their zoning laws and
making it a little bit easier,but they made it so difficult
for someone to go ahead and addanother unit to their home,
which is brutal, and I did itagain.
I did it again, but after that Iwas like no way I've complained
.
I'm like you should make thisprocess simpler for people.

(07:31):
A lot of people are just new toCanada.
Maybe they're struggling with alittle bit of English and my
English is right and I'meducated and I'm still
struggling to understand some ofthis stuff.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
So yeah, and you think now the housing crisis is
on everybody's mind, it's on thenews constantly, so maybe if
this was something that theywere thinking of sooner, maybe
they would have made it easier,or maybe now they have to make
it easier, right?

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, but it waited way too long for this.
We saw the signs were there.
They made it so difficult forpeople to add more dwellings and
there's still issues with that.
So, needless to say, that's notmy angle anymore, but that's
how I did it and I love it.
I love it.
I highly encourage people tocontinue doing that, because it

(08:17):
did a couple of things.
First of all, adding anotherunit to your dwelling is the
biggest value add renovationthat you can do.
So you're going to increase thevalue more than by just
improving your kitchen or whathave you.
So I love that we push thevalue up like that.
We also saved ourselves a lotof money by having someone move

(08:40):
in upstairs and pay for themajority of the mortgage, and
what that had done is it createdsome options for us.
It created options for us to gopart time, and that was huge.
That was really huge.
So I think your first step OK,real estate, it's about making
returns and stuff, but it's notall about that.

(09:01):
Sometimes it's about how muchyou get to keep as well.
If you have someonesupplementing some of your
expenses, that's a great way tostart.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And then I think most peopleunderstand what a burr is.
But can you talk just for aminute about the four ways to
win and how that's looked at, toanalyze what you should do,
whether it's going with a dealor, in your instance, house
hacking?

Speaker 2 (09:23):
I love that.
This is great, because whatwe're talking about here is how
to turn a liability into anasset.
If you can understand theprinciples of how to do that,
then you can be a savvy realestate investor.
The problem with a lot ofpeople is that they're
speculators and not real estateinvestors.
So they'll go by a pre-concondo or a single family home
and they measure it is throughone way it's through the market

(09:45):
going up or the market goingdown.
And a lot of cases theirproperties are negative cash
flow.
So it's a liability, it's notan asset.
An asset should be somethingthat's making you money, not
costing you.
So they just measure it by oneway.
The market's going down, thingsare getting tough, but what a
savvy real estate investor willmeasure are four ways that one

(10:07):
property is going to bring anincome.
That is the appreciation of youadding another dwelling,
enforcing the appreciation of it.
And then, of course, there's apassive appreciation that
everyone uses, which is themarket doing its thing.
It's going up, it's going down.
What we've learned is that itgoes up and down all the time,
but it goes up and down all theway up.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, and I think the people that maybe bought
pre-con a couple years ago arenow concerned because obviously
the market's on the downstoneright, so they're in a situation
where they expected to probablybank whatever it was, and now
they might not be in thatsituation.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Right, right, yeah.
And I'm a fan of multi-family,so I'm not too experienced in
pre-construction or condos, butfor me, after having owning
multi-families and seeing theeconomies of scale, having 12
units in the building means thatif there's one unit vacant it's
a non-event.
Having 12 units paying rentevery month allows you to have a

(11:05):
property manager, allows you tohave a landscape, all these
things that, whereas on a condoor a duplex, I mean, you're
probably the landlord, so thereare issues with that and I had
been a landlord as well.
So there's the passiveappreciation, there's the active
appreciation.
Next, that a lot of peopledon't consider is the principal
recapture.
So this is the portion of yourmortgage that your tenants are

(11:28):
paying down.
It's not the interest portionthat you can write that off,
it's the principal of yourmortgage being paid down.
Every year that's being paiddown.
You have to consider that inyour underwriting because your
mortgage is being paid down.
And the fourth way is cash flow.
So often we just buy a negativecash flow in property hoping

(11:50):
that the valuation will go up.
But it's not.
If you want to be a savvyinvestor, you can't get caught
buying a negative cash flowBecause, first of all, you can't
scale.
How are you going to scalenegative cash flow?
In condos it's very different.
So now it's like OK, well then,how do you find a cash flowing
property?
Good question, and it's noteasy.

(12:11):
And if it was, everyone wouldbe doing it.
And if you find a cash flowingproperty, it can be near to
impossible.
So how I started is I wouldcreate them.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Yeah, and isn't that how you and Sarah ended up
moving to the East Coast fromOntario?
Like, obviously, for me beingin Ontario, I've stayed out of
this location specificallybecause of the LTV, but also for
that reason it's really hard tofind something that has the
chance of cash flowing here.
So I think you guys move to theEast Coast.
There's people that have foundgood opportunities in the

(12:39):
prairies or maybe, like you said, in Houston, in Texas and stuff
like that.
So I think you just have to beopen-minded to consider things
that may not be in your backyardand you're not limited.
There might be some additionalthings to learn, like when it
comes to law and accounting andtaxes and stuff like that, but
once you can figure that out,then it kind of opens up those
infinite opportunities.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
I 100% agree.
A lot of people.
The reason why I moved toinvesting out of province was
because, like many people, Ifound myself running up against
the same wall.
We would have multiple offerson a property that was driving
the prices way up.
I had an issue of a tenant thathadn't paid rent in five months

(13:21):
.
I had, and I finally got intothe landlord tenant board to put
me in the case and they lookedat my paperwork and they saw a
clerical error.
I was one day off on a month tomonth rent and they threw my
case out after five months.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Yeah, I was reading an article on that literally
just last week or the weekbefore.
Just talking about that.
Being aside from now thebacklog because of COVID,
there's all these big challengesbecause, yeah, it could be like
a date, a spelling mistake andthey literally make you go back
and that could set you back awhole year on top of the year
that you're behind in rentpayments, right.
So, yeah, it's a mess.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
It's really tough.
They don't make it easy for thesmall landlords, and so I
recognized the challenges andissues and I basically sourced,
I invested where returns arebest and I just had to get out
of my own way, because we havethis thing where we feel like we

(14:14):
need to go to the property, wefeel like we need to be close to
it, we feel like we need tolick the brick.
They call it.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
And.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
I just wanna clarify that, yes, I moved out to Nova
Scotia, but it wasn't to becloser to my properties.
I have properties all overCanada.
I've got investments in fivedifferent provinces.
I'm not here to be closer to myinvestments.
I've got boots on the ground.
I never fly out to go see myproperties I'm about to buy.
I've got trust to see that nobetter than me.
So just here.

(14:42):
Because of waterfrontaffordability, I wanted to live
on a lake and I can't affordwhere I live now in Ontario.
I don't have kids, I work fromhome.
Why not?
Let's do it?

Speaker 1 (14:52):
No, that makes perfect sense.
You've got the freedom ofmobility.
So you went obviously fromdoing the duplexes and moving.
Can you talk a bit more aboutwhat you're doing now, cause I
know just from knowing you thatyou're doing stuff in the United
States and you're doing thesebig capital raises on larger
acquisitions.
But like, how exactly did thattransition happen to go from you
know these duplex conversionsto like big apartment buildings?

Speaker 2 (15:15):
That's a great question, and my purpose of
joining you today is so that Ican send the elevator back down
to someone who's thinking aboutdoing the same.
That's now my mission.
I've learned so much in lifethrough my musical career,
through my real estate career,and I find that it's very.
There are a lot of conflictingnews reports and information out
there, so I just want people toreally just narrow in and zero

(15:38):
in on the why and the how andthe catalyst for me moving from
duplexes and triplexes tomulti-families and commercial
residential multi-families andfor those of you who don't know
what that means, that's simplyfive units and up.
Yeah, the distinction.
What's the difference?
The difference is massive.
The difference is huge.

(15:58):
Mainly, the difference isfinancing.
Before you, you need to figureout how you're going to finance
it In 2020,.
I lost all the income that Ihad through my other avenues of
creating income and Iunfortunately had to collect
SERB for a couple of months, andI didn't feel good about that,

(16:20):
because I grew up in the welfaresystem.
My mom and dad never got off ofwelfare and I vowed to never do
that, and then here I am havingto collect SERB, so that was
really tough for me, but what Idid is I took advantage of that
moment to immerse myself ineducation, and what I had
discovered is that multifamilyfinancing works differently than
residential, and what I mean bythat is that you don't have to

(16:43):
get qualified based on yourincome.
And this huge revelation for me,because A I had never made a
lot of income, so I was neverqualifiable, and that was a huge
hurdle and an obstacle for me.
So when I would talk to, when Istarted creating relationships
with banks and credit unions andI would give them rent rolls
and expenses on multifamily,buildings and I would buy them a

(17:03):
mix and up.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
It looks good.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
Approved, never asked me for my income.
They just looked up the debtservice coverage ratio in the
building and they were like no,no, yep, this one looks good,
we'll give you X amount.
And I purchased eight apartmentbuildings while still on serve,
like I was like in servepayments.
So obviously I paid back allthe serve and I'm not on it

(17:26):
anymore.
But my point is that, my point,the reason why I share that, is
because no matter what yourcircumstances are, there's
always a way out and withmultifamily I just found it
easier to find financing formultifamily than I did for a
residential.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
Yeah, I think that's important to note because I
think people are out therestruggling just to qualify, just
to buy their personal home letalone.
So they probably think in theirmind well, if I can't buy a
house, how am I gonna buy arental property or an apartment
building?
So I think it's reallyimportant for people to
understand how that's looked atand how you can kind of overcome
those perceived obstacles orchallenges.

(18:01):
So I guess, looking ahead tothat, I know you'll talk about
it now but what would you definenow as your biggest success?
You've done like a lot in ashort window of time, but what
would you say you look at aslike something you're most proud
of?

Speaker 2 (18:13):
Honestly, it's not real estate related.
The big thing I'm most proud ofis that I became vegan and I've
always loved animals, butwhenever I ate animals I would
just I never thought about howit got onto my plate.
So now I can really align mymorals with my goals and I'm in
complete alignment.
I don't think some lives matter.

(18:35):
I have compassion for all lives, not just dogs and cats or pigs
and cows and everything.
All lives matter.
And now I'm in completealignment with my morals and my
living and I don't think ourcompassion should stop at people
.
So my biggest accomplishment isbeing vegan and I'll be vegan
for life.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, no, that's amazing.
I can't wait to look at it.
Yeah, I love that.
And I think, when we even lookat the world in general, I think
it's not necessarilysustainable for humans to
continue to eat just because ourpopulation can't support what's
required to produce that right.
So I think, as time progresseslike there's gonna continue to
be that movement, not justbecause made people that want or

(19:14):
don't want, it's like out ofnecessity because we can't keep
draining our resources.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Thank you for saying that.
I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
No problem.
So I guess now looking backlike you've had your fair share
of challenges and stuff likethat.
Is there any one thing that youlook back, and now at these
last days like eight years, asthe biggest challenge that
you've had to overcome?

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Well, yeah, no money, no money was the biggest
challenge I had to overcome.
I think most people stop atthat and are like, well, I don't
have money to invest in realestate.
Yeah, the truth is, is that?
Well, I was talking to a ladytwo weeks ago that had millions
in stocks, millions in RSPs, andshe was broke, struggling and

(19:57):
the thought of buying a coach,buying someone that could walk
her through redirecting herregistered funds, being the bank
on some of her money, and Icalculated that she could make
30,000 a month in passive incomeand it was mine, like she had
no idea.
But she couldn't pay the 10 or15K or whatever it was to join

(20:22):
this company that I wasrecommending that she joined so
that they can help her makemoney.
She couldn't get that.
She was like, well, if I put10,000 down, that means I'm
going to have a credit cardpayment and I can't afford that.
So it's not money, isn't thebarrier of entry here, it's your
mindset, it's you, it's yourstock.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, and your perspective, that's huge right,
because you think, when you lookat joining something like
Keesfire, like a lot of peoplehave sticker shock and for me,
like I'd to validate if it wouldbe worth it.
And then, you know, I metLaurie May-Pairoff, who happened
to be the mother-in-law of oneof my staff, and she said you
know, if you're ready to takeaction, you'll make this back
within probably a couple months.
And I did.
You know, I joined and I madethat investment back.

(21:02):
But it's the investment inyourself and educating yourself.
Like you said, she would bemaking $30,000 a month.
So, yes, you're going to spend10 or 15, but if you're making
30,000 a month, you're going tomake that back in half a month.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
So, yeah, money is not the money's not the barrier,
it's your own mindset.
And the other barrier, too, isthat people are happy living
mediocre lives, and it could bedue to limited beliefs, because
I didn't think that I wascapable of being the person that
I am today.
But the reason why I'm capableof doing that is because I've
become the person that can dothe things that I need to do so

(21:37):
that I have what it is I have.
A lot of people feel like theyneed to do this in order to be
happy, so they can have that.
Or some people feel like theyneed to have the money so they
can do the things they need todo to be happy.
But that's not what you need tobecome the person.
So, starting back when I was akid, I would manifest being a

(21:58):
rock star, and it happened.
I didn't just wish it, though,obviously.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, I know you have to practice and be dedicated.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Right, right, but the same thing with real estate.
So the problem is that ourgoals are too small.
Our goals are way too small.
We're just happy with what wehave, and it's because we
probably don't believe or knowthat there's more out there.
And if I can encourage someoneto not just settle with being
happy but to think about givingback, think about the impact of

(22:29):
giving someone an organizationthat you care about.
Imagine giving them a check sobig that they tear up when you
give them this check.
That's impactful and that'smotivation.
So if you don't have a strong,why then you're not going to do
hard shit.
So you really need a goodreason.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, yeah, no, I love that.
And, with that being said,we're just going to take a
really brief break for a wordfrom our sponsors and we'll be
right back.
The Canadian Real Estate WomenAssociation, also known as CROA,
is a national not-for-profitassociation of female
professionals working andinvesting in Canadian real
estate.
They believe that women have nolimits in the real estate world

(23:09):
.
They're looking to connect withleaders in the industry who
will share the strategies thatthey use in real estate, along
with exclusive details of theirlife experience, which are
important for consistentpersonal and professional growth
and happiness.
To learn more, go to CROAca.
Thanks again for followingalong with this episode of

(23:32):
Inspired to Invest.
In addition to real estateinvesting and running my own
brand experience agency for 18years, I also published a book
called the AccidentalEntrepreneur in October of 2021.
This is my story and itchronicles how I turned tragedy
into triumph to embrace mydestiny in entrepreneurship.
If you're interested in pickingup a copy, you can find the

(23:55):
link at SerenaHomesRealtorcomand you can also find my link
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Hey everybody, welcome back tothe Inspired to Invest podcast.
I have Nick Skalcoz here withme and he's talking about his
journey in transformation, goingfrom a rock star to a real

(25:02):
estate investor.
We're just talking about thechallenges and obstacles.
When you look back now, isthere anything in particular
that stands out to you as acouple of your greatest lessons
learned so far?

Speaker 2 (25:14):
Oh yeah, oh yeah.
And these lessons got me all ofthese records that I have here
on the wall, and this was a goodone.
I Was struggling to get my bandnotice and I knew we were good.
We didn't start out good, wewere awful.
But nine years later, I'm, wewere still at and we were like I
needed some, I needed help.

(25:35):
I, I couldn't.
I was the manager, I was theproducer, I was everything.
And and so one night I had wewere playing at a small gig and
I had an old, old friend walk inthe bar.
I haven't seen him in forever.
I was like yo ball, how's itgoing?
He's like, covered in tattoos,really animated guy, super
charismatic.
He's like yo, bro, I've beenout of LA.

(25:56):
I've been tour managing forGoldfinger.
I'm like holy, gold finger,that's a massive band.
I'm like would you mindlistening to my CD that I
self-produced, because obviouslyI did everything.
And and he's like, yeah, man,no problem.
And then, like a day later, hecalls me at like midnight and he
was like dude, this isincredible, you guys should be

(26:17):
the next big thing.
Like I'm gonna manage you guys.
And I was like, wow, you'reconvincing.
I'm like, okay, let's do thisthing.
So he's like you know, meet meat my night school because
obviously he was still workingon getting more Credits because
he didn't finish high school,like most of our entrepreneurs
that I know and and I met him atnight school, went back to his
apartment, we sat on the floorand I was like how are we gonna

(26:39):
do this?
And he looked at me and he'slike no, no, no, no, no, it's
not.
How are we gonna do this?
Who do we need to know?
And he began to write downpresident of EMI, president of
Warner music, president ofuniversal and he wrote down the
names and he's like we need toknow them.
And he got in the rooms withthese people, yeah, and he
created a bidding war over myband.

(27:02):
We were one of the most soughtafter bands in Canada.
We had every.
You'd walk into a showcase showand you'd see every record
label there.
So all the other labels arejust like holy, we better jump
on this because Warner's there,university there, i's right
there.
And that was the power of who,not how.
So I carry that with me todayin an example of how, how I do.

(27:25):
That is, in 2021.
I struggled to find cashmoneyproperties in Canada.
There was a lot of governmentoverreach, there was rising
costs, there was war in Ukrainethere was.
Things were getting crazy and Ijust couldn't find anything
anymore.
I was looking in markets with apopulation of 2000 people, wow,
and to me that's the equivalentof like looking in your freezer

(27:46):
for your car keys, like it wasinsane, right, it was just like
I'm just looking everywhere.
So I realize I had to pivot tothe States.
But the, the thought of learninghow to invest in the States,
like I went to a boot camp withMarson drods, who's now my, and
it was a fantastic boot camp.
But what I learned is that thereis so much I need to know and I

(28:06):
Naively thought I was going tocome back from this boot camp
tell my, my business partners,how we're going to invest in the
in the US.
Yeah, the weight of it.
I knew the weight of, Irecognize the pressure that I
was feeling and I and I and Iacknowledged that that was going
to lead to inaction.
I just knew it's gonna lead toinaction.
So back to that day when mymanager sat me on his floor and

(28:30):
told me it's not how we're gonnado it, who do we need to know.
And I reverted back to that andI was like who do I need to
know?
Yeah, and I found out who thatperson was and I partnered up
with them and that's yeah,that's how I'm doing great
things.
I partner, I hitch my wagon topeople that are skilled
negotiators, experienced in whatthey're doing, because the the

(28:51):
pressure of trying to figure itall out on my own is just too
much in ability to inaction.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah, no, I think that makes sense and just
someone that's going to help youget where you want to go faster
and easier, like I think thatsometimes we sit there and
suffer and struggle and you know, real estate investing can feel
really isolating if you don'timmerse yourselves in a
community and trying to findthose people right, and I guess
you've obviously had like such abreath of experience, but what
would you say is the craziestthing that's ever happened to

(29:16):
you as a real estate investor.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
I'm lucky, I'm fortunate I didn't have.
I didn't have really anythingcrazy happen to me, like I've
had investors tell me aboutfires and their apartments or
deaths and stuff like that.
For me the craziest thing washaving the government make these
, make some rules likeRetroactive.
So in new Brunswick a coupleyears ago we had the new

(29:39):
Brunswick government come backand say, hey, uh, if you've, if
you've increased the rents onany of your properties over the
last six months, those tenantscould are now eligible to go
back to their original rents,that you, that you assumed them.
So basically what happened waswe had arrangements with some of

(30:00):
our tenants where, hey, we'regonna.
Is there anything in your unityou'd like to be renovated
because we're going to beincreasing the rents?
And we were like, oh, this is agreat option to stay here.
You've been living here for awhile and we can completely
renovate your unit or you know,you notice, and you can go find
something a little bit moreaffordable.
But most people were just like,no, we love it here.
I don't mind paying that price,as long as you could fix the

(30:20):
counter or the Dripping sink orwhatever.
And yeah, we would like do newfloors and do everything and we,
and then we had agreements, youknow.
So we had a new rentalagreement in place, everything's
fine, and I was like, hey,you're entitled to go back to
that rent, yeah.
And it was this like wow, Ican't like is this a government

(30:41):
or is this a mafia?

Speaker 1 (30:42):
and I wonder why they would have done that right,
like what would be thegovernment's motivation to even
do something like that.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
I think it's.
I think their intention wasgood, because there are probably
a lot of people that are takingadvantage of people in certain
Certain provinces where landlordtenant laws aren't as tough as
Ontario.
They were basically puttingthings in place to protect
tenants, which I'm 100% for, butin this scenario, had one of
our tenants taken advantage ofthat, they would have been taken

(31:09):
advantage of us because thiswas for, like, slumlords who
were taken advantage of people,not landlords who were taking
care of their tenants.
Now I'm happy to report that,because we treat our tenants
great, none of them did that.
They were like no, no, no, weagree to this right.
I'm more than happy with payingthat.
I'm not going to go back, butthe fact that they made it
retroactive is like as of sixmonths ago.

(31:31):
It was brutal.
It was really brutal.
So that was another catalystfor me to moving to the States
in regard moving my portfolio tothe States.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Yeah, that's nice.
Now I guess, just in terms ofthe education that you've
received in the mentorship, whatwould you say is the best
advice that you've gotten?

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Oh, wow, honestly, the best advice.
Again, it might not be realestate related, but the best
advice I ever received was toaccept what is and free yourself
from obsessive, compulsivethinking.
98% of the thoughts that youhave are absolutely useless.
And if you could free your mindof this useless, obsessive

(32:11):
thinking and accept what is,then your life will improve and
you'll just be a better listener.
You'll be a better lover, apartner, a better real estate
investor, a better personoverall.
And I challenge people, too, toaccept what is.
Next time they're in a lineup,when there shouldn't be a lineup
, there should be another tellerthere.
You shouldn't have to wait thislong.
You're getting impatient oryou're looking at your phone

(32:33):
right away.
I challenge you, serena, andall the listeners, next time
you're in a lineup to not pullthe phone and try to kill that
time, because what you're doingis you're missing the very
essence of life itself.
It's just too uncomfortablebecause it's boring and
nothing's happening, but that'sbeing present.
So I encourage everyone toaccept what is.

(32:55):
You just got cut off by someoneon the highway.
Well, assume that they'rerushing to the hospital to meet
their wife because she's inlabor.
So they're like buddy, I hopeyou make it.
If you're in a lineup, ifsomething's happening to you,
just accept what it is, nomatter how hard it is, and that
will transform your life.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, no, I can completely relate to that
because I feel like I'm morelike that in my relationship.
So there's oftentimes like I'llsay that to my husband, like
just relax, like it's not a bigdeal, or you're here anyways,
like it's not going to changeanything if you get upset about
it, it's just going to wreckyour day.
So I definitely have that sameoutlook.
Now, in terms of the projectsyou're working on right now, can

(33:34):
you shed a little bit of lighton what those look like and what
kind of opportunities therecould be for investors?

Speaker 2 (33:40):
Absolutely so.
I'm partnered with a verytalented group of people on 144
unit in Houston, texas.
We gained, we've purchased thisproperty in June so we have it
in our control, but we're stillinviting some investors to come
on board just to finalize theraise.

(34:01):
We were pretty much there, sothat one's pretty much closed
and I've just embarked on aninitiative to create housing for
people living on the spectrum.
So my partner and I teamed upwith Autism Edmonton and we did
over a 20 unit in Edmonton.
We negotiated a vendor takeback on this building because

(34:23):
that's a fantastic technique topurchase buildings in today's
high interest rate.

Speaker 1 (34:27):
And for anyone who doesn't know what a VTV is, can
you explain?

Speaker 2 (34:31):
what that is.
It's basically a vendor takeback it's what it's called and
the seller is willing to holdthe mortgage for us.
So we don't have to go to abank and get financing.
They're going to be the bank.
We give them a small downpayment and then we'll give them
an interest on that loan thatthey're holding of, say, 5%.
So for them it's great becausethey now make 5% on their money,

(34:54):
which isn't bad, and they getto defer the tax that they would
have paid on that sale down theroad.
So understanding what theadvantages are for the seller to
do a VTV is really importantwhen negotiating, and I'm really
excited about this initiativebecause now I feel like I've
really called, graduated toanother level where I'm not only

(35:17):
helping people create wealththrough passively investing in
real estate, but I'm doing thatand giving back to community.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Yeah, I think that's huge.
I mean, going back has been wayback.
When I graduated university forbroadcast, I was volunteering as
a videographer for Rogers and Icovered a story on this
Paracenter, I guess you couldsay, for developmentally
challenged adults.
And I guess when you look atthat circumstance, like there
are a lot of resources forchildren when they're in school

(35:47):
and stuff like that, but if youthink about that, if you are the
parent of now an adult childthat has challenges, where do
they go during the day?
And like what kind of resourcesare there?
Right, and I really open myeyes just to show like how
there's a lot of lacking inresources for people once they
turn 18 and they're no longer inthe school system, because they
may or may not be able to work,they may or may not be able to

(36:08):
truly live on their own andstuff like that, right.
So I think there's very much aneed for that when it comes to
different things like paying forthings, housing, all of that.
So I think that's reallycommendable, that that's
something that you're doing withall the knowledge and resources
that you have now.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
Yeah, no, that's huge , so that's awesome.
Now, in terms of justmotivation and inspiration in
general, what is one of yourfavorite quotes?

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Oh, my favorite quote oh my God, what I would have to
.
That's a good one.
I think.
Accept what is is a good one,and I think it's important for
people to know that you areworthy.

(36:55):
You are worthy of doing moreand being more and giving back,
because most people don't knowthat.
So if we could just stop beingso self-immersed in ourselves
and think about how you canuplift other people's lives, I
think that you will improve as aperson and just know that you

(37:17):
are worthy of having more.
You are worthy of giving backand you are being wealthy.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
Yeah, no, I think that's huge Now for anyone that
wants to get in touch with you,just to connect because you're a
great person, but also to learnabout your opportunities.
What's the best way for them tofind you?

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Honestly, it's through Facebook Messenger.
I would give you my emailaddress and you could still
email me, but my emails?
I'm afraid of my emails.
I just like a bunch of snakesjust flying out.
So, honestly, Facebook, NickScalcos, join me, add me, follow
me and message me.

(37:53):
Dm me on Instagram or Facebook.
Okay.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
And we'll include your information down below in
the show notes as well.
So thank you, Nick, so much forbeing here today.
Of course, if you like whatyou've seen, please like,
comment and subscribe to thischannel here on YouTube.
Of course, thank you toeveryone that's tuned in
watching Inspired To Invest andremember, when you invest in
yourself, the sky's the limit.
Thank you again to the CanadianReal Estate Women Association

(38:17):
for bringing you this episode ofInspired To Invest.
The views represented on thispodcast are for general
information only and does notconstitute investment or other
professional advice or anoffering of securities.
The host and guest featured onInspired To Invest make no
representations as to theperformance of any particular

(38:38):
investment.
Should you decide to make aninvestment, you are responsible
for conducting your own reviewand analysis.
It is recommended that youobtain independent legal
accounting and tax advice fromlicensed professionals.
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