Ready to revel in a riveting roller-coaster ride of real estate investment?
Brace yourself as we delve into an exclusive tete-a-tete with Dale Degagne, a dynamic real estate developer hailing from the picturesque Victoria, British Columbia.
To tune into episode, select your preferred video or audio streaming.
Dale shares the triumphs and trials of his journey from full-time military work to full-time real estate investing. His story is a testimony to the transformation from modest house hacking and multifamily investments to managing other people’s money and the mental challenges that come with it.
Imagine your biggest dreams coming to life!
Dale Degagne did not just imagine, but transformed his dreams into reality. During our episode, we discuss how Dale overcame the biggest hurdle – giving himself the permission to dream big.
This fascinating conversation further unfolds Dale’s plans for scaling his business, his ‘freedom number’, his admiration for Winston Churchill’s quote about enjoying the journey, and his passion for self-improvement. He also spills the beans about his upcoming ebook about mitigating investment risks, upcoming projects, and how you can get in touch with him.
Listen as Dale redefines success and shares invaluable insights into the world of real estate investing.
To connect with Dale directly, you can find him on Instagram and facebook @developwithdale as well as LinkedIn under his name.
To connect with our host, Serena Holmes, click here and to buy a copy of The Accidental Entrepreneur, click here.
And, for everything related to real estate and real estate investing, please make sure you’ve subscribed to @serenaholmesrealtor on YouTube & other platforms. We also have a page dedicated to this podcast on Instagram and Facebook @inspiredtoinvestpodcast where we preview guests each week, highlight their episodes, top takeaways, tips, quotes and more.
Are you a full-time real estate investor with an inspiring story to share? Apply now!
Thank you again to our sponsors Coast to Coast Homes & REAL Power Ladies for bringing us this episode.
To learn more about them, go to:
* @goodhomescanada on Instagram or https://linktr.ee/coasttocoasthomes
* @realpowerladies on social or https://real-power.ca online
Tune back in on Wed., Aug. 30 for Episode Twelve with a real estate investor from Calgary, Alberta who is focused on building purpose built rental properties and currently have seven eightplexes currently under construction!
Thank you for tuning into Inspired To Invest – and remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”
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 Inspire to Invest has been brought to you by Coast to Coast Homes and Real Power. Hi everybody, welcome to the Inspired to Invest podcast. I have an amazing guest today named Dale Degagne, and to give you a little bit of information about Dale, before he goes into all of the information that he’d like to share, I’ll read a little bit of a bio. So he is a real estate developer joining us from Victoria, British Columbia. He makes eco-conscious, cost-effective, purpose-built multifamily buildings. He’s very passionate about systems and automations, and his big goal is to be making 3D printing multifamily housing using modular tech and recycled plastic. So thank you so much for being with us today.
Speaker 2
00:53
I’m glad to be here, very glad.
Speaker 1
00:55
Yeah, I’m so happy to have you. So I guess where I like to start is what you were doing before you got into real estate.
Speaker 2
01:02
Yeah, so I got into real estate when I was 20. So there wasn’t a whole lot of time in my life before that.
Speaker 1
01:10
Because I like to have fun, because I like to have fun.
Speaker 2
01:12
Yeah, it’s all over. No, so I started about 20 years ago and I started out with house hacking and multifamily buy, rent or buy rehab, rent and repeats, and or BERS has some people like to call them yeah. But before that I dabbled a bit in construction. I did some door-to-door sales and marketing and then, when I realized that that wasn’t a super stable income I needed a stable base I actually joined the military and that was my full-time income while I built my first real estate portfolio.
Speaker 1
01:44
Yeah, so I guess what was the catalyst? Because that’s a lot younger than, I would say, the average investor. So what was it that made you think like this is something that I could be doing and I could do well with?
Speaker 2
01:55
Yeah Well, so when I was 19, I was living in this two-bedroom apartment with like four other guys. I literally was sleeping on an air mattress, working as a door-to-door salesman, but that it was one of those companies that it really sold the dream.
02:11
The dream was you know, you build a big sales team and then you have your own office and then you make lots of money and then you reinvest that in real estate and everyone touted think you’re a rich and rich dad, poor dad. The only problem was that I was not a very good salesman and so I didn’t have enough money to be even buy these you know $10 books. Yeah, Eventually I realized that I needed this steady, stable, steady income and so I went and I worked full-time in the military, but on my first paycheck I used it to buy those two books. And so I was. I started saving and studying. And then, yeah, saving and studying, and that was kind of like the catalyst, Although there was some hard times.
02:49
Actually, I remember during that kind of time period in my life I’m studying, I’m saving I did have a car and I had a car accident and I had to actually make a decision whether I dipped into my down payment savings or to buy a new car, or if I kept you know, kept pushing towards real estate. And so I walked my butt through a snowstorm to get to my mortgage pre-approval meeting.
Speaker 1
03:13
And that’s the thing I think a lot of people don’t realize. You know, in some ways saving up, especially now, just even by your primary residence, is so expensive. So a lot of people could be thinking like how am I supposed to buy these investment properties? So I think that’s one thing that is really important. Like there’s kind of like where you were now, but now, with the projects that you’re working on, you’re not necessarily using your own money in those deals, You’re raising money from other investors to basically support your projects. Isn’t that right?
Speaker 2
03:41
Yeah, absolutely. There’s definitely a transition that’s happened over the last 20 years. For me, that also has to do with where I’m investing and why I’m investing and how I’m investing, but real estate’s no longer a solo sport for me.
Speaker 1
03:54
Yeah, and can you talk a little bit about that transition and how you’re managing that?
Speaker 2
03:59
Yeah, that’s actually been. It’s a really challenging transition because I do like to do things myself and Don’t we all yeah?
04:11
Yeah, I would say that for that transition it’s been a lot more of understanding that it’s not just about being a really good investor, it’s about running an investment company and that company’s job is to make money for the investors. And so once I made that mental shift it became a little bit easier, and then it was past that I was trying to wrap my brain around being very willing to risk my own money on projects but less willing to risk other people’s money, because that’s kind of the worst day in someone’s life is to have to say, hey, sorry, I wasn’t able to fulfill on what I promised. Yeah, and so that’s been kind of a good mental hurdle for me to get over.
Speaker 1
04:52
Yeah, no, that’s huge. Now you talked about being in the military and obviously now you’re focusing on real estate, investing full time. So were you straddling both sides for a while or, like, how did you make that leap to be doing it full time?
Speaker 2
05:05
Yeah. So it took me about eight years of kind of half hazard I’ll call it half hazard investing. I was a 20 year old, right. So I saved up, I bought a place, I put money into fixing it, I worked in the military full time and then I’d go home at night and renovate and work on the renovations, eat some pizza and go to sleep and do it all again. And I would do that for a few months at a time and then there’d be a lull where I would be a typical 20 year old but also saving money for my next investment, right, yeah, yeah. So it took me about eight years to get to the point where my income matched my expenses and then I was like this is awesome. I quit my job and I went and I bummed around for a few years doing passion projects, started a family, lived overseas for a few years, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1
05:53
Yeah, no, that’s awesome. Now, obviously you’ve got some diverse experience. What would you say are some of the biggest lessons that you’ve learned? And knowing what you know now, Like what would you go back and do different?
Speaker 2
06:04
I would say that the biggest lessons. I would probably go with three of them. I would say number one start with where you want to be in your life. Everyone talks about investing, and then they talk about being a full-time real estate investor. It is the goal to strive for and the reality is, you know what it should just be about. What do you want your life to look like? What’s your work-life balance? What’s your family situation?
06:29
Then build your investing and your work to support that. Just reverse engineer it all. Your plan may never include being an active working partner in investing, and that’s okay. Number two I would say niche down. If you go over here and you do short-term rentals and you go over here and you do multi-family burs and then you go over here and do land developments, there are three very different ways of investing. There are very different outcomes, very different skill sets. Niche down, don’t dabble. Pick one that fits your investment goals and then get educated. Maybe tag along with someone who’s doing what you want to do and then decide after that if it’s actually something you want to do on your own. The third one is don’t quit when your income matches your expenses. Get like 30 to 50% above that because life situations change. Family situations change, where you live changes, prices go up. You want to make sure that that income, that passive income, is still growing to keep up with those expenses.
Speaker 1
07:30
Yeah, no, I think that’s huge and I think that’s where a lot of people have been struggling in the last couple of years with inflation and stuff like that, because obviously salaries are not going up to match the rate of inflation. I think that’s why I wanted to start this podcast, because I know for me I would have been not in such good shape during COVID had I not been investing. I think for anyone out there that’s just working one job that has a single source of income, to me that’s almost the most risky that you can be, because at any juncture that could change, you could lose your job, you could have an illness, you could have a life event happen. I think that’s where it’s important to start strategizing and thinking of how you can put your money to use or your time to use in different ways just to protect yourself.
Speaker 2
08:10
Yeah, absolutely. To take that even a step further. So if you have your income, that you’re working your job, maybe your spouse has a job and then you start investing, you generate some income and some revenue from that. If you both quit your jobs, you’re down to a single source of income. Even if it’s over five, six, 10 properties, you’re down to that single source of income. And the same economic factors impact rental housing. If you have them all in the same town, it’s again. So yeah, so strategizing and spreading out your risk is really key.
Speaker 1
08:41
Yeah, no, agreed. Now, I guess, just when it comes to successes. On the flip side of the coin, what would you say that you’re most proud of when it comes to your accomplishments?
Speaker 2
08:51
Other than still being here 20 years later. I only say that half sarcastically. I would say I don’t tend to count my investment successes very much because for me it’s never been about the money, it’s always been about doing really cool projects. You know, I just, you know, originally it was just that I wanted to kind of prove my uncle wrong, who said, he said, join the military, join him for 20 years and make something of yourself, and that’s the only way you’re ever going to do it. And I was like well, I’ll show you.
Speaker 4
09:24
I’m going to invest in real estate.
Speaker 2
09:26
And that was you know. So I don’t really count those successes, but I would say that I’m working towards my greatest success. You can actually you can’t really see it in the video. You can see it up on my wall. This is my vision tracker. That is my. This is my pathway to being able to 3D print modular homes. This is my three year org chart. That is all about building up the small multi unit development process or development company that I’m doing right now. Build that and then I can build the get into 3D printing modularly to make multi family homes. So that’s, yeah, that’s. I’m always looking for that bigger, next bigger success, and that’s probably how I’d answer that.
Speaker 1
10:08
Yeah, no, I think that makes perfect sense. So I’m just going to take a really quick break for a word of word of my sponsors and we’ll be right back.
Speaker 3
10:15
I’m Deanna Boyden, ceo of Real Power, where female investors and entrepreneurs come together to enjoy real content, real connections and real collaborations. Our events and programs are designed to give women the type of community, the type of support, the type of learning that they need to flourish in this business. We have a 12 month mastermind program, starting a fall cohort in October. Also, we have our upcoming Canmore event, october 20 to 22nd in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, featuring a full slate of powerful female speakers, great interactive sessions and, of course, our beloved sequence social. And if you or someone you know are just looking to get started in real estate investing, be sure to check out the Girlfriend’s Guide to Real Estate Investing, kicking off in September of 2023. You can find this and more at real-powerca. We hope to see you soon.
Speaker 1
11:09
Upcoming events for real power include the Real Power Mastermind Fall Cohort, the Girlfriend’s Guide to Real Estate Investing, real Weekend Fall Retreat in Canmore and the Real Power Weekend in Palm Springs. To get in touch with Real Power, contact Deanna Boyden, the CEO of Real Power Ladies at Deanna at realpowerca. For more, go to real-powerca online. 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.
Speaker 4
12:11
Welcome to Coast to Coast Homes, canada. We are Colin and Nicole, the passionate founders. We started this journey because we know that real estate investing may not be easy, but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Our education and our relationships have formed the bedrock of our success. We invest time, energy and care in both. Our portfolio has grown from basement suites and duplexes to apartment buildings and land development, and we’re just getting started. Reach out to us to set up a time to chat. You never know where one call will lead you.
Speaker 1
12:43
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Inspired to Invest podcast. I’ve got Dale Degagne here and he’s talking about everything from modular printing and being in the military to how he got to investing in real estate full time. So we talked about lessons and successes. Now, when it comes to obstacles, what do you think is the biggest thing that you’ve faced so far and how did you overcome it?
Speaker 2
13:06
I have to say the biggest obstacle for me is it’s been allowing myself to dream big. I come from a place, from a group of people, small town in Northern Ontario. You didn’t talk about money. You definitely didn’t try and make a lot of it. You took the safe road always and the road that was always most traveled, yeah, the, the, the biggest challenge was really just to start believing that.
13:30
You know that I am worthy, that I’m powerful enough, smart enough you know I insert whatever word you want enough to to be able to dream big, not only during big, but also to achieve those. And so it was a big mind shot. Mind shift set. Firm mind set shift. Mindset shift for me yeah, to go from say you know, be successful, but what? Not too successful, that you might rock the boat, you might alienate yourself, like you got to get a pass that and be kind of unapologetic about it. Yeah, and do what’s right for you and yeah, so I’ve just.
14:07
That was the biggest mindset shift for me. It was less about believing in myself. Some people talk about it’s believing yourself. It was less about believing in myself and more about Am I allowed to. Is that like being a good and right and noble person to be able to, you know, to want those things to, to push for those goals. And I’ll say we wouldn’t have light bulbs without it, we wouldn’t have electric cars without it. So yeah, you know, it’s okay to dream big. So dream big and do cool things.
Speaker 1
14:35
Yeah, I think so, and I think that’s why it’s important to share story stories like yours and all the other investors because it gives people that Confidence and the courage sometimes that they need to think well, maybe I can do this too and I can change. You know what’s happened in my family. You know, for me, I was like I’m gonna be the first person, my family to go to university.
14:51
You know, and just to achieve certain things right. So I think you have to set those goals, and sometimes they come from Different circumstances, like if you haven’t had a lot, this is, you know, almost like your survival skills kicking and stuff like that. But I think it’s important for people to be trailblazers so that you can show others that it’s possible and it’s you know, it’s not such a stretch like we’re not extraordinary people, but you can do extraordinary things. So I think that’s important.
Speaker 2
15:15
What are the motivations for me around that was like my kids, my they’re both nine years old. My son is my son has some very significant challenges in in his life. He’s. He has ADHD and dyslexia and he processes in the second percentile of of all kids his age. So he’s very slow. He’s not, he just slowed a process very intelligent but slow to intake so he’s got his challenges and Really I just needed to.
15:42
I wanted to set an example for him that he can dream and he can believe In himself and he can set. He needs to set the bar high for himself and he can do it. He can achieve those things. But how am I supposed to show him that the world is his oyster if I’m not gonna go out and and act that way?
Speaker 1
15:58
Yeah, no, I think that’s huge and it’s so important. Now I guess, going back to investing and all the the different things that you’ve gone through I are you comfortable sharing me the craziest thing that has ever happened as an investor?
Speaker 2
16:11
um, I Mean at one point I did have a property manager who put in Somebody in one of my units that he eventually lit the unit on fire.
Speaker 1
16:22
Oh dear.
Speaker 2
16:24
That was that was, you know, not cool, which you know. That’s what I think back to whenever somebody wants me to use my, my rentals as Almost like a charity, like a gift back sort of thing. I’m like, yeah, you know, we did that once and it resulted in, you know, for people being displaced from their homes. So, yeah, yeah, so no, we’re not gonna do that. That’s probably the craziest thing. Although I didn’t, I was I was living overseas, I didn’t have to deal with it, but that was. That was a horrible time.
Speaker 1
16:52
Yeah, I would agree. I think anything that involves like flutter fires it’s definitely not good for anyone in that respect, now, I guess, in terms of advice. So I think that you know we’re all big believers in coaching and support and mentorship. What would you say is the best advice that you’ve been given over the years?
Speaker 2
17:10
Probably the best advice. It was actually reasonably recent. About nine months ago, I had the opportunity to talk with Brandon Turner. He talked about being a business architect and envisioning what a company can look like from the outside. In he basically said, just literally form the vision, fill in the details and start pushing forward. What you’re actually going to do is you’re going to attract people who are actually going to help that vision become real, like a self-fulfilling prophecy For me. This is why I’m talking about 3D printing modular or modular 3D printing multifamily homes. We have some of that technology, but I’m hoping someone’s going to hear this and they’re going to be like hey, that’s really cool. Dale, I want to be involved. Bingo, you’re the type of person I want to connect with. So we’ve made the vision and now we’re pushing towards that. So be a business architect.
Speaker 1
18:01
Yeah, no, I think that’s so important Now, in terms of the projects you’re working on right now. What does that look like, and are there any opportunities for anyone to get involved?
Speaker 2
18:10
Yeah. So for me, the way my process is going, right here I’m building what I would consider my production home for a 6plex. When you build a subdivision, for example, you build a show home sorry and then you build the production homes afterwards. So I’m building my show home, not my production home, my show home right now, proof of concept that the model and everything works. And then we’re going to repeat that and once I have the development company built out in that manner and repeating, then the next step is to scale up into taking over a modular factory, getting the 3D printing capacity involved. And so right now I need to scale up from the two starts that we’re hoping to do this year up to about eight starts in three years. That means that our capital raising goes from around $2 million in needs to $8 million. So there’s going to definitely be opportunities. In probably around four to six months We’ll start to have more opportunities for accredited investors, friends of family, exempt investors that will be there, yeah.
19:18
Awesome Did that answer the question.
Speaker 1
19:20
Yeah, I think so, and obviously people can reach out to you if they’ve got questions beyond today. Now in terms of your freedom number so I know you said money’s not necessarily important to you, but when you think about your journey as an investor and what it’ll take for you to feel like you’ve made it and you’ve reached that pinnacle whether that’s cash flow, number of doors, people you’ve helped what does that look like in terms of a freedom number for you?
Speaker 2
19:46
Oh, I didn’t know I could pick something other than a financial number.
Speaker 1
19:50
Well, not everyone wants to share that. Someone even said I reached mine, but they didn’t disclose what that was, so everyone may feel differently about that.
Speaker 2
19:59
Yeah, I would. Yeah, yeah, I don’t actually have a number. Well, you could call it two. Call the number two Development company is number one. Yeah, 3d modular printing company number two. If I get those up and off the ground, where I’m at the point where I’ve hired somebody, a COO, to run each of those companies, that is where I will feel that’s the financial freedom. The reality is, though, if I can go back actually to when I first quit my job, I was backpacking through South America with my wife, and we were having drink and services at 1pm just because we could, and I looked at her one day and I said this kind of sucks, because there was no purpose and there was no, I wasn’t giving back to society, I wasn’t actually doing something productive, and so it’s fun for a while, and having vacations is nice, but no, I like being productive, and when I think about my work-life balance and my freedom number is I’m still working 20 hours a week because I can.
Speaker 1
21:08
I think everyone needs this. Purpose is really what you’re coming down to saying, right.
Speaker 2
21:13
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1
21:14
Yeah, now, obviously, the title of the podcast is inspired to invest. So, with that being said, are there any particular quotes that really motivate you or inspire you to continue on this path?
Speaker 2
21:26
Yeah, I would say I’m all about self-improvement. Actually, I’ll go back to Winston Churchill. I’m a big Winston Churchill fan and I can’t quote it exactly. But he basically said one day that as you go through life, there will stretch before you with this ever-winding, ever-lengthening road and even far from being oh, how does that go now? Basically it shouldn’t discourage you. It actually only adds to the joy and the journey of the climb. It’s more opportunity to learn and grow and do more things and do more things even though you’re never going to get it all done. That’s what living is about.
Speaker 1
22:06
Yeah, no, I think that’s really interesting and it’s smart, because joy the journey, not the destination, right?
Speaker 2
22:12
Yeah, enjoy the journey exactly.
Speaker 1
22:14
So, that being said, how can someone get a hold of you if they want to get in touch?
Speaker 2
22:18
Yeah, the best way to get a hold of me. You can head over to Facebook and go check out Develop with Dale, or you can find me on Instagram as well. Currently working on getting a website up and actually I am building a call it a guide, an ebook. We’ll see how long it ends up getting. It’s about the risks of investing in land development and how money partners, how investors, can properly vet those deals to mitigate their risk and make smart investments. So I’m building that out right now and that will be available on my website, developwithdaleca, probably in the next week or so. From recording.
Speaker 1
23:03
Awesome, so we’ll make sure that we include that below and, obviously, thank you for joining us today. I know that you’ve had a really busy day, so I appreciate your time and, of course, for anyone watching. Thank you for your time and if you liked this episode and you want to see more content like this, make sure you subscribe and you’re following along at Inspire2Invest podcast on social. Thanks again to Coast To Coast Homes and Real Power for bringing you this episode of Inspired 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 host and guest featured on Inspire2Invest 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.