The Truth About Real Estate Investing... for Canadians

I’m thrilled to have Tony Irwin on the show today. Tony is the President and CEO of both the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations (CFAA) and the Federation of Rental Housing Providers of Ontario (FRPO)—two of the largest organizations advocating for landlords and rental housing providers at the provincial and national levels.

With years of experience in policy, government relations, and housing advocacy, Tony is at the fore...

Are you a Canadian investor struggling with low cash flow, rent control, or expensive renovations? In this episode, we sit down with Ben Barry, a U.S. real estate expert who's deployed over $2 billion in capital and helped transform how investors like you succeed south of the border.
 What You’ll Learn:

• How Canadian investors can tap into high-yield U.S. rental markets

• Why technology and data are changing the game in real...
  

Hey friends, this is Erwin Szeto, and welcome to The Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians, where it’s my job to interview the top minds in real estate and business to uncover the strategies, mindsets, and habits that actually work—especially in today’s market.

My guest today is Michael Ponte—a full-time real estate investor, educator, and co-founder of Savvy Investor. He’s been investing for more than 20 years and owns a...

Greetings friends, this is Erwin Szeto, and welcome to The Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians, the #9 ranked podcast for Canadian Investment and Personal Finance per FeedSpot! Thank you listeners and past guests of this show! As always it’s a honour to have this platform and ability to give back to the community that has been so much to my family and I where we all share a passion for the best investment c...

 ✅ Understand why investors are shifting to U.S. markets ✅ Learn how to raise capital and structure bigger deals ✅ Hear what it takes to put 5,000 investors in a room with A-listers

Ever wonder what it takes to build Canada’s biggest investing conference?

My old friend Seth Ferguson, returns to the show, after losing all his rental properties to a nasty divorce along with his golf clubs, he st...

It’s not all bad 🙂

Thank you to everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to wish me a happy birthday. The vast majority of messages came from the real estate investing community, and reading all the comments and seeing the names brought back a lot of memories—many from easier times for real estate investors.

My fellow escape-room-loving, nerdy friends attempted to be among the elite 4% who successfully escape... #FAIL

From RCMP to Developing 66 and 20 Unit Apartment Buildings: Marc Amyot's Journey of Strategic Development

• Strategic Partnerships Matter: How mentorship from industry experts transformed Marc's real estate investing approach
• Location, Location, Innovation: Marc reveals how strategic site selection, zoning knowledge, and maximizing land use...

On to this week’s show!  This week we have an amazing guest who’s been on a bumpy path. I’ve known Ryan Carr for quite some time but when I attended Truth Your Talent’s Awards Gala, the coach who had the most award winners and thank yous was Ryan hence I invited Ryan Carr onto the show which he gracefully accepted.

From household $400k income, Corporate Burnout to 200 door real estate portfolio and more importantly Financial Freedo...

On to this week’s guest! I’m thrilled to introduce Wei Ting, an unstoppable entrepreneur, speaker, and innovator reshaping the rental landscape in Ontario with plans to expand across Canada. After losing over $35K to non-paying tenants and spending countless hours navigating Ontario’s complex rental compliance laws, Wei Ting decided enough was enough. She co-founded Openroom, a bold step toward building a transparent and connected ...

On to this week’s guest, Kevin Costain is the poster boy for reform being needed in Ontario and he’s doing something about it as the new Chair of SOLO: Small Ownership Landlords of Ontario.  He’s fighting for the small everyday investor like I do.

He is the author of the book “Rent To Ruin” where he documents his ordeal with his tormentor: the tenant living in Kevin’s house.

It is an all too c...

On to this week’s show! We have my old friend Quentin D’Souza returning to the show at my request as I need a trustworthy real estate expert to share with you the listener about the multi family market who’s not going to sugar coat how tough the last few years have been and what and where the opportunity is going forward.

Quentin is going to share his journey, how he does hard things and involves his family to lead his best, most s...

On to this week’s guest!

Again, Hart is a friend, I refer him clients all the time for tenant location services.  This may sound like a paid endorsement and full disclosure, Hart Pays me nothing. We receive zero compensation for me having Hart on this show and sending him referrals.  It’s too bad we’re selling the rest of our Ontario portfolio in the near future so I could have asked him for favours but no...

Cory is a 20 year investor who's been through rough times back in the financial crisis, from Toronto he was investing on the wrong side of the tracks in London, Ontario, sleeping inside the renovation project as he didn’t have funds for trades and to cut down on his commute from Toronto.

Fast forward to today, Cory’s been a full time investor for 2.5 years specializing in BRRRR investments, suiting basemen...

Please welcome co-founder of Addy Stephen Jagger, I’m excited to have him, if you haven’t heard of Addy before, it’ll blow your mind.  If you have, the advancements in deal offerings, technology will surprise you along with one of their investment vendors who went belly up.

Oh yeah, this is the truth about real estate investing show so when deals go sideways, I’m going to ask about them, Stephen, kudos to ...

In this episode, we sit down with Christine Traynor, from Victoria, BC, a seasoned real estate professional who has navigated the industry from multiple angles.  She started as a paralegal in mortgage enforcement/foreclosures, became an appraiser in 2002, worked in for a high end real estate developer then buying a real estate appraisal firm, buying two more with creative financing and in 2024, sold those businesses fo...

Now for those of you with deeper pockets and want to be developers closer to home, we have my old friend Pierre Paul Turgeon returning to the show.  A former industry insider as an underwriter at the CMHC, active investor, and real estate expert in the apartment building space, who has analyzed 100s of large, lucrative multifamily investment deals all over Canada.

As a good Canadian, Pierre Paul wants to h...

This week we have an everyday, blue collar Canadian, 33 year old Shayne from Montreal who just bought his first investment property and he has executed a BRRRR in suburban Memphis, Tennessee. The ARV is substantially higher than projected, rent came in almost 10% higher.

Shayne is the youngest client of mine by far for years and years so I’m of course excited to have been part of Shayne’s journey to become...

Today’s guest is Dr. Wing Lim, a true renaissance man - a dedicated medical professional and serial entrepreneur who has built an impressive portfolio of healthcare facilities and senior living communities. For over 30 years, he has balanced a thriving family medicine practice with innovative real estate ventures.

Dr. Lim's impact extends far beyond the medical field. He has spearheaded the creation of the...

Today’s guest is my good friend and past client, Adam Johnson, CPA, CA, CBV, CFA—who, at the time, was my youngest client and didn’t have as many letters behind his name. Adam’s not your average CPA. He’s also a Chartered Business Valuator CBV and Chartered Financial Analyst CFA, making him one of less than 100 people in Canada with all three designations. He even ranked #1 in the country on his CBV exam. But what real...