Welcome back to the “Inspired To Invest” real estate podcast. This week’s guest, Dr. Alex Tam, is with us to share some of the secrets to success in real estate investing that he’s learned along with how (and why!) he made the shift from passive to active investor in recent years.
Embark on an enlightening journey with Alex Tam, whose remarkable transition from chiropractic doctor to ace real estate investor unveils a world of opportunities for work-life balance and generational wealth.
This episode isn’t just a story; it’s a blueprint for revolutionizing your financial future. Alex throws open the doors to his experiences, detailing how a pivotal business conference ignited his passion for property investment, leading him to become an influential player in the multifamily real estate scene.
We get candid about the intricacies of investment structures, the strategic move towards stable, cash-flow positive properties, and the wisdom behind geographical diversification, giving you a front-row seat to the mechanics of building a robust portfolio.
As we navigate the roadmap of property management with Alex, he underscores the game-changing advantages of having an integrated approach to managing your investments, sharing insights on scaling up to 250 units.
The conversation steers into the essential practice of conducting due diligence on sponsors and operators, emphasizing its role in safeguarding the trust of your partners and investors. Anecdotes from our real estate community highlight the shared visions that propel us forward, serving as a lighthouse for those aiming to steer their investments toward calmer seas. We also reflect on the common astonishment people express upon discovering the sheer potency of real estate investing.
Closing the episode, we muse over the essence of financial freedom, not as a pinnacle to be scaled but as a journey of incremental triumphs that enable the pursuit of passions, underscoring that real estate isn’t just about accumulating properties—it’s about crafting the life you’ve always envisioned.
To connect with Alex, he can be found @alex_tam_official as well as online.
Thank you to Megan Betker from Vantage Point Financial for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”. To learn more about them, go to @meganbetker on social & online.
“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.
Tune back in on Wed., Mar. 20 to hear from an active GTA based real estate investor who, with her husband, has self-funded and grown a real estate portfolio worth more than $50 million across Canada and now into the U.S.
Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by @serenaholmesrealtor & remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”
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Real Estate Investing Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1
00:01
Welcome to the “Inspired to Invest” podcast, where we’re sharing stories from real estate investors and how investing has changed their lives. This episode of the Inspire to Invest podcast has been brought to you by Fluent Capital. Hey everybody, welcome to the “Inspired to Invest” podcast.
00:20
I have Laurie May Peroff here with me today, and she was actually someone that played a pivotal role in my real estate investing journey and gave me the encouragement that I needed to educate myself and move forward. So to give you a little bit more detail on her, she started her real estate investing a little bit later in life, at the age of 50. And over the past decade she’s built up a huge portfolio, including private lending, buy and hold, multifamily land development and also running a MIC. She runs a monthly meetup tailored to the unique needs of mature investors who are 50 plus years, called the Silver Hair Investing Team. She has 14 corporations, which includes Sweet Sweet Home and More Doors Capital, and she also is a pet mom to a Bengal cat named Lidda Boo, which is named after one of her investment properties. So, laurie May, thank you so much for being here today. How are you? I?
Speaker 2
01:10
am well. Thank you for inviting me, Serena. I’ve been looking forward to this.
Speaker 1
01:14
Yeah, I have been as well. Obviously, we had connected several years back and we had kind of an indirect association through your daughter-in-law, which I think really helps just make me feel really comfortable and confident just in terms of some of the decisions that I was making back then. But I guess, just to bring people back who don’t know you what were you doing before real estate investing came into the picture? Because you obviously had 50 years prior to that happening. So what did life look like for you before that?
Speaker 2
01:40
Well, I never was very good at sticking to one job. I jumped around careers fairly frequently. But the 10 years before I was working at a college teaching Microsoft Office Suite to offer student who didn’t think they had anything to learn about Microsoft Office Suite Turns out that’s pretty transferable skill to tenants who don’t think they need to pay rent.
Speaker 1
02:02
Oh, there you go. Yeah, I can see how running up students and tenants could be similar in some different ways. So then, how did you discover real estate investing, and what was the catalyst to really kind of go down this path to where you are today?
Speaker 2
02:18
So unfortunately, my father passed away at the same time that we were moving from Ontario to Alberta, so I felt like I had lost all forms of safety net underneath me. Dad did leave quite nice little inheritance and, like anybody else that has new found money, I was burning through it. I had the camper, we had the vacation, I had the new furniture, bought the computer, new computer, new barbecue for hubby. I was looking at the bank account doing this, just dropping like a rock, and said to myself you know what Dad would really want us to have? A safety net, I need something tangible, something that I can touch and feel, that feels like my dad’s taking care of me.
03:00
Yeah, so I bought a pre-construction condo up the street from Blueprints. That wasn’t built yet, but it was just up the street so I could sit in my window and watch them building. You know, buddy, that’s too long a coffee break. I’m like back to work. Really enjoyed watching that go up. And the reason why I went for a pre-construction condo instead of something that was already, you know bricks and sticks and ready to go I was scared to be a landlord, so I thought this would give me a couple of years to figure that out.
Speaker 1
03:30
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. So then, how did you figure it out, like over that period of time? Like were you focused on just reading up on it? Like, what kind of things did you do to educate yourself?
Speaker 2
03:39
No, it turns out, two years goes by very quickly and you wind up in possession of a condo and not really much idea how to do it. So I wound up at first working with Property Manager.
Speaker 1
03:51
Yeah, and how did that process go in terms of Not well yeah.
Speaker 2
03:57
The Property Manager I hired basically from a Google search. He held my money for 15 days. He didn’t do anything. He sourced tenants, but then I wasn’t allowed to have any information about the tenants.
04:11
I didn’t know their name or anything about them whatsoever until it came time that they needed something. So if they needed something, he’d reach out to me and ask me if I wanted to do it. And yes, I did, because I’m cheap. So, for example, the TV broke in one of our furnished units so I wanted to buy a new TV. And a Black Friday sale take it down. I installed it, met the fellow. That way Now the fellow has my contact information and, aside stepping the Property Manager, I wound up dealing directly with the tenant myself and the only benefit the Property Manager was holding was taking my money for 15 days yeah, that’s not easy. Where did them? And took it over myself.
Speaker 1
04:55
Obviously you started small with the pre-construction condo. So then how did that lead into private lending by and whole land development? Obviously you’ve done so much. So then how did you make that jump from one small investment into all these other things? So it.
Speaker 2
05:09
Baby steps and learn from them. So from the condo I joined that same network that you joined, learned a lot from them and wound up buying a house and thought that I could put in a basement suite. Learned a whole lot from that experience. I also learned about doing some investing into larger corporations, into land development. So that was my first taste of private lending for an equity position. Both of those went well and you learn from those and you grow from those. You just slowly expand it. The snowball starts very, very small. You just make it and but once it starts rolling downhill, if you keep up with the momentum, it can grow as big as you want it to grow.
Speaker 1
05:51
Yeah, no, I love that. So can you talk a little bit more about your experience? I know you’ve worked with Landavell and on the passive side, but now you’re also doing stuff on the active side, so you can you talk a little bit more about what you’re working on and that capacity?
Speaker 2
06:06
Yeah, so primarily I’m known for capital raising, so I get into partnerships with people that have viable, great projects. I work with people that are fairly new at this in one corporation. I go with them with an equity position and help them learn how it is to work with a partner, how you should be keeping your books, all that sort of stuff, and then once they get into bigger, more substantial projects, then that comes out into its own corporation. That’s a specific deal that we’re working on.
06:39
So, I’m doing one right now in Sucpecy and it’s going quite well. It’s a very interesting process. I’ve learned a lot about good partnerships through this process.
Speaker 1
06:50
Yeah. So what would be some of those things Like, I’m sure by saying good partners, you’ve had some bad partners, I have Anyone that is entertaining the possibility of a partnership. What do you think are some of the most important things that someone should look for?
Speaker 2
07:05
One of the things that I didn’t put a lot of thought into. You have a good project and everything looks good. I think that we can partner on this. There’s more to it than that. It’s very much like a marriage. You’re living with that person and those decisions for years and you need to have very similar value systems, very similar priorities. You need to be able to communicate in a way that’s comfortable for both of you Good news and bad news. So I think I learned to put a lot more due diligence into the upfront partnership selection, same as you would picking a spouse. The other thing I learned was be very rule specific. Well, you’re still loving each other and all excited about the project. Flush out your very defined roles. If I have my lane, I can run in my lane. I don’t have to worry about my partners jumping in my lane.
08:09
For sure their input is encouraged. I want to hear from them. But at the end of the day, this part is my responsibility and that part is their responsibility.
Speaker 1
08:19
Now, have you had issues when you’re working with partners where they’re not upholding their responsibilities in their lane? Yeah, I have. How did you manage a situation like that? Did you eventually dissolve the partnership or did you bring in someone new?
Speaker 2
08:34
I’ve done both things and I’ve also just lost money. They basically just took off with funds. Oh no, a lot of learning, but please use my learning so that you don’t need to learn those lessons.
Speaker 1
08:47
Yeah, when you look at that lesson, is there anything you would have done differently if you go back and do it again, like if you’re dealing with investors, money and someone runs off of it, like I’m sure there’s legal consequences. So like, how would you be handling something like that?
Speaker 2
09:02
Well, luckily this wasn’t investor money, so it was my own. But the way I learned to deal with it was to make those user roles very much upfront.
09:15
Get that very well defined, have things built in. If you don’t do your job to a certain level, at what point can we step in and bring somebody in professional to fulfill your role? How is that paid for? All sorts of different conversations up front that are very, very difficult to have while you’re caught up in the enthusiasm. Yeah, but do it anyway. The biggest lesson I learned from that first one is don’t let the enthusiasm of the project allow you to start the project before the paperwork’s done.
Speaker 1
09:48
Yeah, yeah, no, I can understand that and I think, at the end of the day, there’s time is always of the essence, right, and things are moving along quickly, so it can be some people become more focused on landing the deal I might have, maybe where they’re ready, when they’re working with partners or whatever.
Speaker 2
10:02
That is the hardest part to remember is there’s always another deal coming right. Yeah, it’s not like one and done. There’s plenty of them out there.
Speaker 1
10:11
Yeah, no, absolutely. Now, looking at your portfolio right now, like what does that look like in terms of number of doors or whatever you’re comfortable sharing, just so everyone can understand how you started with this condo and then where you are today?
Speaker 2
10:25
So I don’t really count the number of doors too much. I know I have 53 at the moment, but to me that’s not the full focus of my portfolio. I’m more proud, probably, of achieving a 20% annualized return on my self-directed funds. I think that’s pretty good, and also my capital raising ability is to partner with people, so I do enjoy that side of things.
Speaker 1
10:53
Yeah, no, that’s amazing, and I’m just going to go back at the last 10 years. What would you say is something that you’re most proud of?
Speaker 2
10:59
Raising my children to be two functioning adults Not just they both my number one goal when I was having children. I was raised to be not independent. I was very, very, very 24 years old. I didn’t even know what my car insurance cost Like. I was very, very, very protected by my parents. So my goal to raise my children was to have them be very independent. They have overshot that mark a little bit. I have one living in Erie, pennsylvania, and the other one living in Brisbane, australia. Wow. So I miss them a lot, but I’m so, so, so proud of them. They’re both chasing their passions and they’re not selling for anything less than their passion.
Speaker 1
11:40
That’s awesome. Are they investing in real estate?
Speaker 2
11:44
One is the other. One would like to be, but hasn’t gotten there yet. She’s done the odd private loan, but she hasn’t done anything in terms of buying properties yet.
Speaker 1
11:55
Yeah, now, in terms of obstacles, what do you think is one of the biggest obstacles that you’ve faced as you’ve educated yourself and grown your portfolio?
Speaker 2
12:03
I think my biggest obstacle was hiring staff. Yeah, just in order to level up, I had to learn to let go of a few things. Like most entrepreneurs, I prefer to do everything myself and learning that other people are actually better at a number of tasks, especially those tasks I don’t like, and they’re better at it and more efficient at it than I am. It was a big learning lesson. My biggest fear in hiring staff was I felt that I had to have enough surplus income at least to be able to pay them an annual salary. So I thought I needed 40 or 50,000 in order to hire an assistant and hire staff. You don’t need that. Yeah, all you need is a month to two months. Yeah, once you’ve got a month or two months of salary saved up that you can pay this staff member. By that time they’re going to free up your time enough that they’re paying for themselves by you being able to get more business.
Speaker 1
13:01
Yeah, no, I think that’s huge and I think for any entrepreneur, whether they’re a real estate investor or a business owner, it’s always that ebb and flow. In the beginning you have to budget for things appropriately, but it’s just shifting your mindset to also understand, if you’re paying those lower value tasks, how much time it opens up for you to focus on what’s more important, like driving sales and productivity and things like that Exactly.
Speaker 2
13:23
Yeah, I don’t like. I’m not fond of the word lower value because all of it’s high value.
Speaker 1
13:28
It’s all fine If you could pay someone $10 an hour to do something and you can go after $500 an hour. Productivity, like it’s just a way to look at it. Different. It is all important, it just depends on where it should be important to you.
Speaker 2
13:42
Yeah, I look at it more. The routine tasks. I use that, so the things that I’m doing repetitively that I can create a process for and give to somebody else especially somebody else whose strength that is maybe they can improve my process, and often they do.
Speaker 1
13:58
Yeah, I mean, I think that was probably my biggest lesson from a mentor I had was just hiring a bookkeeper, and at that point in time I just where I struggled was how do you communicate all of these hundreds of people we have to pay every week based on who they are, what they’re being paid? And it was really just a matter of trying to come up with the appropriate system to communicate that from our team to the bookkeeper. But then I went from spending anywhere from four hours to two days a week on payroll to like I would hit a button, submit and then I would transfer the money. Well, you can imagine how much more time I found in my schedule to focus on things. So our sales pretty much doubled the year that we hired a bookkeeper and I was like why didn’t I do this Like?
14:36
five years ago, right, Years ago, you know just. But I had to understand like, yes, it’s gonna cost money, it might be $1,000 a month or 2,000 a month, but it would free up so much at that time, right.
Speaker 2
14:47
That’s exactly the lesson I had to learn, Exactly Like you see yourself level up and it’s like how did that happen? Oh, because I have her now. That’s how that happened?
Speaker 1
14:57
Yeah, absolutely, but letting go isn’t easy. But on that note, we’re just gonna take a really brief break for a word from our sponsors and we’ll be right back. Inspired to invest is proud to support the Beyond Success program. In today’s complex world, it’s absolutely crucial for our youth to learn how to take charge of their financial future. We believe that every young person deserves access to accurate, practical financial information. Designed to bridge the gap, the Beyond Success program leverages a comprehensive educational bootcamp to equip young minds with essential financial literacy skills. At Beyond Success, it’s not just about teaching financial literacy. It’s also about fostering a foundation for a prosperous and empowered future. Join us together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Join us together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations.
Speaker 3
15:53
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Speaker 1
16:38
Thanks again for following along with this episode of Inspired to Invest. In addition to real estate investing and running my own brand experience agency for 18 years, I also published a book called the Accidental Entrepreneur in October of 2021. This is my story and it chronicles how I turned tragedy into triumph to embrace my destiny in entrepreneurship. If you’re interested in picking up a copy, you can find the link at serenahomesrealtorcom and you can also find my link tree with all of the retailers in the details below. Thanks again for your support. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Inspired to Invest podcast. I have Lori May Peer off here with me today and she’s sharing all the wisdom from her past 10 years as a real estate investor and business owner. So I guess one question I have is what would be the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you as a real estate investor so far?
Speaker 2
17:31
You know the ones that stand out are the bad news stories. So before I give the two craziest things that happened to me, I want to say that you know 53 doors have a fair bit of stuff going on and the vast majority of it has been super, super, super, just fine. But the craziest one I was pretty early on and I was renting one of our first condos to a couple. I was showing them. Actually I had a couple that I really really liked young couple but they couldn’t take the place for about six weeks.
Speaker 1
18:03
Yeah.
Speaker 2
18:04
I had another fellow that kind of gave me the creeps, but on paper he looked fine and he was able to take it in two weeks. So of course I wanted the vacancy filled sooner rather than later. I decided to go with the fellow in two weeks. At the same time I was heading out of town. So I head out of town and I tell my daughters make sure he gets the keys, signs the lease, get the deposit from him and we’re good to go. So she agrees to do all that. Well, he comes with cash money for the deposit instead of a check. Well, my daughter knows herself pretty good, if she takes cash money it’s never going to see me, especially since I’m not down. She’ll be shopping on the way home. So she says no, no, keep your money, my mom can come collect that later. So here’s the fellow now. Has got the keys, has a lease. Oh no, the profession of the property. We have zero dollars.
18:57
So I get home and I call them up and I say I try to call them up and I get nowhere. So I send texts. No responses, there’s just no communication and I’m just trying to figure out how the movie went. So finally I start getting frustrated and I Google the guy. He comes up on my screen as an arsonist in Florida for setting furnished condos on fire and building. Oh good, burning down condo buildings, oh my gosh.
19:26
I rented him a furnished condo suite. Needless to say, the three and a half hour trip from my home to Edmonton to Calgary where the condo was, it took about two hours. Flew down, found out he hadn’t moved in, found out he hadn’t done anything because I had told him previously that we were changing the locks. I was able to change the locks, prevent him from getting in. Three months later I got a phone call from him asking me for the new door code because he couldn’t get into the building and I explained that I had rented it to somebody else because I hadn’t heard from him and hadn’t received any rent. So he was fine with that and he went away. But I later learned to he hadn’t gotten in contact because he was in jail.
Speaker 1
20:11
Wow, that’s crazy.
Speaker 2
20:14
That’s the craziest one. The other crazy one was I hired a teenager to mow the lawn at a renovation project we were working on and this young guy’s having a great time. He mows the front lawn and heads into the backyard, comes back about five minutes later, ties her this big and he’s just thrilled and excited and scared all at the same time. I’m like what the heck happened? Did you see a snake? What’s going on? Yeah Well, it turned out there was a lady of the evening with her fella in the backyard. Oh boy.
20:45
And he got a new education. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1
20:49
Yeah, definitely A couple of really crazy situations, but it’s all part of the journey and I came out on the other side with no major issues, so that’s funny. The fella’s father did not kill me. Other tenant ended up lighting any other units on fire.
Speaker 2
21:08
As far as I know, there’s been no arson in Calgary around that time, remember you are.
Speaker 1
21:13
Maybe he’s still in jail, I don’t know. So I know I guess looping back, like in terms of education, obviously that’s a really big thing and that’s one thing I see just in our network. You’re always kind of sharing. You know different tips and lessons and stuff like that, but when it comes to advice, what would you say is probably the best advice you feel like you’ve ever been given?
Speaker 2
21:34
I think being given manifestation, I think, was one of them. I didn’t understand that if you really put, if you program your RAS, that you’re looking for something, you will find it, whether you call that, praying on it, manifestation, whatever you want to call it if you want it bad enough, you will find it. I think the best advice I got was don’t ask me how much it costs me, ask me what it makes me.
22:01
You have to spend money to make money? Yeah, absolutely, and it’s hard to put that money out upfront and then just changing your mindset. It’s really in the way you look at something. I’m not an empty nester, I’m a bird launcher Nice yeah.
Speaker 1
22:16
I like that. I had a mentor that I used to take digital marketing courses with, and he had also a course called Agents of Change and he used to say you know, if you don’t know where you’re going, you could end up someplace else, Right? So you’ve got to define where you want to go and where you want to take your future and your plans and stuff like that, Because a lot of times people are just going day to day as they take it. But if you are manifesting what you want and you’re visualizing those things, then it’s easier to work that plan back and achieve them.
Speaker 2
22:41
Yeah, yeah, even more micro than that, just wanting to do a land development project myself, and along comes the partners with a great land development project. But just yeah, it’s amazing how those things happen.
Speaker 1
22:56
Yeah, no, that’s awesome. Now, obviously you’ve done a lot in 10 years. What would you say is next for you, like, do you have a particular goal in mind or a financial freedom number? Like you know, you’ve done a lot during the past decade.
Speaker 2
23:08
We achieved our financial freedom number quite a while ago. I didn’t hurt to have a little bit of capital behind us to start. I’ve got to say a little bit faster. So now it really is more about growing the corporations. I love providing homes for people. That really does motivate me, feels good. I also I love employing people and providing at least a little bit towards their home income and their lifestyles, so I like it both.
Speaker 1
23:35
Yeah, no, I can understand that. How would you say real estate investing has changed your life.
Speaker 2
23:40
It’s completely empowering. I was very much an admin sort of person. I did not feel like I was in control or in charge. I don’t think I even felt like an equal partner to my husband. It was more his life that I was supporting, and this has changed completely. We support each other, we’re partners. We’re not one above the other at all. I just I’m so empowering. I found that the financial freedom has been quite nice. I don’t have to look at price tags anymore but at the same time I found that I appreciate what I have more and I’m less interested in buying new shiny fancy, because I like what I have. It’s fine, I don’t need that. I’ve gone to an old fashioned adding machine on my desk and I love that thing, so I don’t need a fancy new digital something or other for every aspect of my life.
Speaker 1
24:36
So I do like that part. Yeah, no, I love that. Now, obviously, the name of this podcast is inspired to invest. So what quotes motivate and inspire you?
Speaker 2
24:46
I have a few, but my absolute favorite, the one that comes to mind every time, is the phrase don’t quit. The N and T in don’t and the Q and U in quit are silent, so don’t quit, do it.
Speaker 3
25:01
Yeah.
Speaker 2
25:02
That one just short to the point, let’s go.
Speaker 1
25:05
I love that. So I’m sure you have no shortage of opportunities for investors. So if anyone does want to get in touch with you to learn more, what’s the best and easiest way for them to get in contact?
Speaker 2
25:15
I would say probably via my website. It’s laurimeca. If you want to book in in my calendar, I have 30 minute appointments available anytime to discuss anything to do with real estate. Book in on the REI Sweet Talk page. Need to talk to absolutely anybody, especially interested in people who are a little bit older who are looking to how to get going in something like this. This is a bit dear to my heart.
Speaker 1
25:43
Yeah, no, I think that that’s so important because I think a lot of people are recognizing that they have failed to prepare for retirement appropriately, and also inflation is crazy. I think people need all the help that they can get, especially people that are kind of moving along that could find themselves faced in that situation Exactly.
Speaker 2
26:02
And the Silver Hair Investor Team. That’s exactly what that’s designed to meet those needs.
Speaker 1
26:05
Yeah no, I love that. Now, obviously. Thank you for your time for today and for anyone that is watching or listening. Please make sure that you like, comment and subscribe below. You can also follow along on social at Inspire to Invest podcast. And, of course, above all else, remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit. Thanks again. Thanks again to Fluent Capital for bringing you this episode of Inspire to Invest. The views represented on this podcast are for general information only and does not constitute investment or other professional advice or an offering of securities. The hosting guests featured on Inspire to Invest make no representations as to the performance of any particular investment. Should you decide to make an investment, you are responsible for conducting your own review and analysis. It is recommended that you obtain independent legal, accounting and tax advice from licensed professionals.