Do you feel it’s important to plan for tomorrow while enjoying your life in the present moment as well?
Welcome back to the “Inspired To Invest” Real Estate Podcast. Meet Deanna Boyden, a seasoned real estate investor whose journey began unintentionally, yet blossomed into a diversified portfolio of townhouses and vacation rentals then later a real estate investment trust.
To watch the episode, click below and to listen, here.
What if you could start where you are, right now, and build a real estate empire on your terms?
Deanna has done just that, and shares her wisdom from over 20 years in the industry. She emphasizes the importance of aligning your investment strategy with your long-term vision and lifestyle, which is an invaluable insight to both newbie and experienced property moguls alike.
Through our intriguing conversation on this real estate podcast, we journey down the path of real estate investment trusts. Discover how Deanna and her trusty team of five have pioneered a unique opportunity with Wealthshare, a Mutual Fund Trust. This innovative venture allows people in service industries to passively invest in real estate, ensuring long-term security for retirement. Hear how the flexibility of real estate has enabled Deanna and her team to see the world and provide international education for their children.
Deanna doesn’t just share her journey on this real estate podcast; she generously offers nuggets of wisdom for those looking to follow her path. Hear her advice on ‘messy action’, evading the trap of ‘analysis paralysis’, and the importance of setting a revenue goal.
Learn about her ‘financial freedom number’ and the mantra that keeps her motivated. All this and more in a podcast episode you cannot afford to miss!
To connect with Deanna, go to @deannaboyden, @wealthsharereit or @realpowerladies on Instagram, or https://wealthshare.ca or https://real-power.ca online
Thank you to Conduit Asset Management, Five Oaks Land Development and Stone Hearth Properties for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”.
To learn more about them, go to conduitassetmanagement.ca online and for Five Oaks Land Development/Stone Hearth Properties, go to @stonehearthproperties on social or https://fiveoaksld.ca or https://shproperties.ca online.
To connect with our host, Serena Holmes, continue exploring this site.
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!
Tune back in on Wed., Nov. 1 for Episode Twenty-One with a guest who specializes in land development not only in Toronto but also in Costa Rica.
Thank you for tuning into the “Inspired To Invest” real estate podcast& remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”
Real Estate Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1
00:01
Welcome to the “Inspired to Invest” real estate 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 Conduit Asset Management, Five Oaks Land Development and Stone Hearth Properties.
Speaker 2
00:20
Hey everybody, welcome to the “Inspired to Invest” real estate podcast. I’ve got Deanna Boyden here with me today and I promise her voice sounds better than mine does. But before we pass things over, I’m going to read her bio to give you a little bit more information on Deanna’s illustrious background as an real estate investor. So she is an accomplished business executive and certified real estate investment advisor with more than 20 years of investing experience, not only one, but three countries. Deanna is also part of the team that launched WealthShare, so that’s a real estate trust back in 2022 that launched and this focus on providing possible returns to investors by building a solid portfolio of multi-family and commercial buildings in Western Canada. Deanna’s motto is building for tomorrow while living for today. So I love that. And whether that’s one tenant or up to 500 in our largest projects, Deanna really truly believes in providing clean, safe housing to her tenants and value their partners while living life lifestyle by design. Without further ado, Deanna, welcome to “Inspired to Invest”. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you, Serena.
Speaker 3
01:28
I’m so thrilled to be here and to share some of my story with some people that you know, in hopes that something will resonate.
Speaker 2
01:36
Yeah, absolutely. So obviously you’re doing big things, but where I want to start is like taking it back to the beginning and what life looked like for you before you became a real estate investor.
Speaker 3
01:46
Okay, great question. So my husband and I grew up in small town. Alberta, had a very sort of small world, but you know, we always had an interest in real estate, literally. You know, when we were going out as teenagers we sort of had a vision of owning four vacation homes in different places and moving around to them while renting them out to other people. And that was long before Airbnb and VRBO.
02:16
Yeah, of course, being in a small town like that, we didn’t have sort of role models and the internet didn’t have amazing resources like this, so we didn’t have anyone to sort of model on or to learn from, and so we took the traditional routes. You know, we both went away to school and sort of became business people. I started working for an airline right away, which further filled our travel bug lifestyle, and so as we progressed through our careers and then picked up real estate, the travel and the lifestyle has remained very important to us, yeah, and so that for us really matters. We always knew. I knew when I was 18 years old, but I wanted to live part time in Palm Springs, california, yeah, and we do that and you’re doing it we do that.
Speaker 2
03:07
Yeah, yeah, it’s amazing. So how did you then start? You started with vacation rentals and then obviously now you’ve built this really big portfolio. So can you talk a little bit more about that journey and how you went from starting small and then scaling up?
Speaker 3
03:22
Yes, Accidental landlords as the people start right, we were building a house and it was actually our banker at the time, a wonderful man who is still in our lives but is extremely conservative, extremely conservative. And he was the one who said to us you know, you could keep your other house and rent it out and still build this one. And that’s what got us started. We did one, we hired a property manager and that’s how we learned how not to manage properties. They were terrible, but we learned a lot as we went along. And then, like many people, we just continue to sort of save up until we could purchase another property.
04:11
We at the time, we were both working full time, so for us, we didn’t have, we didn’t know that we could do this full time. I think we also had to build our portfolio around our existing life anyways. So we picked townhomes. That was easy for us. We didn’t have to worry about exterior maintenance, we didn’t have to worry about mowing lawns, in that that property tend to be looked after by other tenants, right, you’re not going to have trouble with communal living like that.
04:47
And so that’s how we started and we, so we had, you know, the three or four properties and we’re doing quite well. We started investing in the US yeah, it was very that’s a whole other episode because we started investing through the financial crisis and did crazy things like standing on the courthouse steps. So we’d already purchased in the US and then we started to get some education. We found some of these great networks and, you know, the education that is out there is fantastic and opened our eyes to what was possible, as well as giving us the steps to execute, and we just kept building, but we always kept in mind what we wanted out of life and built our portfolio around that.
Speaker 2
05:34
Yeah, and I think that’s important. A lot of people talk about that longterm vision and then coming up with the steps and coming back to lead you down that path, and I know you mentioned like you obviously were working for for many years. How long have you just been focused on real estate, investing a full time?
Speaker 3
05:50
Oh, that’s a great question I took. For years I worked at a Washington DC, which meant that I was on airplanes a lot, and I somehow had some fantastic timing and I retired from that in January of 2020.
06:08
So, just prior to COVID, I was comfortable stepping away. My husband still works full time in his job because he loves it and because it facilitates what we want to do, and so I think for people who want to stay in their jobs or who need to have that income, that is absolutely fine. For those who are looking to take it full time, that is great too, and for me, it allowed me to open up some space to do some other things that I wanted within the real estate world. It gave me the room to a little more free time, opened up the space to create what I wanted to in terms of real power and spending time outside of real estate with Peter Light of, but really increased my focus on real estate, and that’s what’s allowed us to enter this new level of what we’re doing. Yeah, it’s completely different from buying our own properties and portfolios.
Speaker 2
07:07
Yeah, so maybe you can speak a little bit to that. Obviously, working on some big, big things right now. Also make share a little bit about those projects.
Speaker 3
07:15
Yes, yes, so we’ve been so blessed to be in proximity to some incredible people and with that comes bigger and bigger opportunities.
07:27
And it was actually I mean, it sounds a little crazy to say, but we’ve gone to Hawaii for a weekend with some other investors to look at a hotel. I mean, that’s what this world has brought to us and we came up with the opportunity to invest in development, man development projects. That’s near and dear to my heart. I worked for CMHC and I believe in helping to house Canadians. Whatever that looks like rentals, clean, safe, affordable housing is what CMHC believes in, and I love being able to contribute to that as well as creating great vacation memories. So when I worked at CMHC, I became aware of REITs as well, and around the same time, again, because I had opened up this space, the opportunity came for us to start was called an MFT, a Mutual Fund Trust, which is a form of real estate investment trust, and so we launched that wealth share with some fantastic partners. We’ve got a leading investor focus realtor you’re in Calgary, natasha Kipps, who you know her husband. Her husband is an entrepreneur at heart and his passion is helping people in service industries. He’s been in the food and beverage industries, so we can help these people invest passively in real estate and create some long-term security for their retirements, as well as my passion for providing homes. It’s been fantastic.
09:04
Our fifth partner I love this is an accountant. How often do you get investor-focused accountant to be your CFO? That’s amazing, and I think yeah, and I think that’s important to think about how that sort of as you’re in this world, you meet good people, you’re lying in the values, and that’s really the story of this team coming together. I think I look back and go well, that is the power of relationships in real estate, in an industry like this and where five regular people can come together. This investment trust that used to be the land of rich old guys owned the big apartment buildings, and we come we, all of us come from humble origins. We’ve come together to do this and then open it up to others, and so the name of our company, wellshare, really resonates with us, because we want to give people that opportunity. And how incredible is real estate, but it allows us to provide homes and these opportunities to other investors in a market that we love.
Speaker 2
10:13
Yeah, that’s amazing and I think it’s something that’s really important is that oftentimes people look at real estate investors and they think, well, I don’t want to be a landlord, I don’t want to put in that kind of work, but there are options to get involved and it could be on the past side, like, like you said, if you have a job that you love, if you have extra money, you can invest it. And there are things that you can do that are in that realm. And to me, in my mind, I like the tangibility of that more than regular, like the stock market or a mutual fund or something like that. So it’s nice to know that there are more of these things coming up that give people more options from an investment standpoint.
Speaker 3
10:50
Yes, and I think we’ve all sort of sat there in the bank and you know that the chart that they have on the wall, the bankers telling you to put your RRSP’s into this mutual fund, that one and I would always look at where they were invested.
11:02
I didn’t know how to sort that out and so to be able to use registered funds as well. So put your RRSP’s to work, earn much higher returns and be able to see the assets, to drive by the buildings and know that I own a piece of that. I think that’s amazing, that it is tangible and it’s an essential service. You are helping people and the stories that you have as a landlord yes, there are some really tough a toilet in the middle of the night, that sort of thing but there are also stories of homes and the good work that is happening and helping to house people, and for me, clean, safe housing is important. So, as an investor, you’re right To be able to take your RRSP’s, put them into a building that you can drive by or point to or see, is a pretty incredible change in your life?
Speaker 2
12:04
Yeah, no, I agree. Now, when you think about your history now as a state investor, would you define that as kind of your biggest success? And if not, then how would that be for you, like, how do you define a success?
Speaker 3
12:18
It’s one of them for sure. I really love what we’re doing with this. I love that we achieve meaning. My husband and I achieved this point in our lives where we feel fulfilled and we have this abundance where we can now turn our attention to helping other people get into this. I think that is incredible. We spent a lot of years working so hard to reach that point. But it’s not all about money. It is about fulfillment. I have some important F words that I talk about Family, friends, faith, fulfillment, fun, fitness. Those are what matter To me. Your quotient of those and your balance of those are what define success and that can change over the years how much fun you want to have over finances, how much family over friends.
Speaker 2
13:20
Well, he’s just having that balance right. Yes, Depending on what matters to you and the seasons that you’re at in your life as well. Obviously, that’s going to vary depending on where you’re at.
Speaker 3
13:30
That’s right, and having the flexibility that real estate has given us has been incredible.
13:37
Our two sons both attended university internationally and they were able to make that decision because of real estate. We were able to go visit them at those places because of real estate, not just because of the money, but because of the flexibility that it gave us. My husband has always wanted to have a place in the Caribbean and I don’t think he imagined that we would own a small boutique hotel and have development land and all of that To have the flexibility to make those decisions and to enjoy that for a season, right For however long. We enjoy working on that and providing that place where people can make lifetime memories. For me, that’s success. It’s freedom, it’s being able to support the people that we want to, to support charities or to hire people or whatever it is that we’re doing. To me that is success, that level of fulfillment.
Speaker 2
14:36
Yeah, I love that. So now we’re just going to take a really brief break and when we come back we’re going to talk about the other side of the corner, which would be the challenges. Okay, great Thanks, we’ll be right back.
Speaker 5
14:48
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Speaker 1
15:33
Our homes are where we eat, sleep, relax and play. I value transparency, integrity and trust. If you choose to work with me, you can be assured that business will be conducted honestly and openly. Time is of the essence in this industry, so you can expect nothing short of quick, clear communication from me. I’ll keep you informed every step of the way so you feel comfortable through this entire process. And, with this said, my service to you doesn’t end when the transaction does. As your realtor, I’ll not only help you buy and sell your property, I’ll also educate and support you along the way. I can’t wait to share my passion for real estate with you. More importantly, find you the perfect house to turn into your home.
Speaker 4
16:42
Stonehearth Properties and Five Oaks Land Development present the Stonehearth Mutual Fund Trust. One great fund, two great projects. Our MFT can accept a variety of registered funds and cash to diversify your portfolio. An MFT is one of the most tax-efficient ways to invest your capital and is widely used in real estate. Our MFT offers a competitive interest rate, flexible two-year term and a dip option. Help us find out more about the MFT and how to invest in real estate.
Speaker 2
17:17
And if you’re interested in the MFT, please contact us for more info via email or by visiting shpropertiesca or fiveoaksldca. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Inspired to Invest podcast. I’ve got Deanna Boyd in here and she’s talking about all of the efforts that she’s stacked from family, friends, fulfillment, flexibility and all the different things that real estate affords us in different ways. We talked about success and what that means to you. Now, on the other side of the coin, what does it mean when you look back and you think, well, what challenges that you’ve experienced, or what are the biggest obstacles that you’ve faced and how you overcame them to be where you are now?
Speaker 3
17:47
Such a great question and I love that it’s looking back over time. I think, as with any entrepreneur, any successful person, one of the biggest challenges to get over is your own mindset and to get that in order and you think about the word mindset Every morning. You get up and set your mind. We’ve done a lot of work on that. I continue to help people understand the importance of that, because when you think about the level that some people achieve when they come from less than you have, they might have less advantages. We just heard a couple of great speakers at a live event Alex Rodriguez and Grant Cardone and I had a moment listening to them where I realized they started with much less than I had. Right, and it really sort of makes you realize.
18:42
So mindset is really important and you’ll go through challenges. You’ll go through challenges in life and business and it’s how you deal with them, how you choose to deal with them every day. You know, I think, that in any business you can be impacted by external factors as well, but entrepreneurs who get crushed, it’s because they let themselves get crushed, Right, and you hear about these people. You know, it’s not the number of times that you fall, it’s that you’ve got to get up one more time than you get all in. So I think that that, first and foremost, is really important and for anybody who is looking to get into this industry align and surround yourself with the right people.
19:24
Resources, pay attention to what’s in your feed, what you’re consuming in terms of information. One thing that I’m encouraging my community to do is to set one goal on mindset a book, a podcast conversation per month. Yeah, don’t, you know, don’t feel overwhelmed. There are so many fantastic books and resources. Just pick one a month and that really helps you with that. So mindset is, it can be the biggest challenge. Some of the other sort of tactical challenges, I mean, you know, we’ve had it all. We’ve literally we’ve had fire in a project.
20:03
We’ve had water and tire, building flooded and tenants out for a year.
Speaker 2
20:08
I was literally my next question is like what’s the craziest thing that you’ve experienced as a real estate investor?
Speaker 3
20:14
Yeah, I think. I think fire we had. We had a little spell so we had the flood first, and then a friend phoned me and he was driving in Barrie and he knew where one of our projects, what, or you know a house that we had there, and he said, hey, I’m just driving by whatever street and the slot team’s all over, oh dear, it’s probably at our house.
20:43
And then a few days later, not kidding you, I was doing yoga in the living room, we happened to have CP 24 on, you know just the news channel for the Toronto area and a story came up about a fire in a townhouse complex. And I think I was literally in downward dog and I sort of looked over at my husband and I said I bet that’s ours. And sure enough it was.
21:06
Now the fantastic news about that is nobody had moved in yet, so there were no one was hurt and we were invested passively. So this wasn’t an active, this was. You know, this is the advantage of investing in things like REITs, so this crazy thing that we could have had to look after. All that happened is we were delayed by about six months and insurance took care. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but I think I think the fact that I was trying to do yoga at the moment that this fire came up on TV still makes me giggle.
21:42
But again it was mindset right and the fact that we were there, we had a great team on the ground looking after that and they did take care of it and it didn’t you know, didn’t impact us as it could have, that’s good.
Speaker 2
21:56
Now, in terms of advice, you obviously talked about educating yourself and surrounding yourself great people. What’s some of the best advice you think you’ve been given over your career as an investor?
Speaker 3
22:07
Oh, so many gems. There’s always another bus coming. So take action. I tell people, take messy action, don’t get this analysis by paralysis. So don’t be afraid to take action on something that’s less than perfect, especially right now. Because if you find a perfect deal, let me know, because there are pretty few and far between right now. So don’t be afraid to sort of take that first deal that’s a little less than ideal. But also, as you get going, if there’s a deal that you just can’t make work, the numbers don’t quite work, don’t forget that’s not the last deal you’re going to see, so sort of two ends of the spectrum.
22:54
Take action even if it’s messy action. But also, don’t be afraid, there will be more deals coming to you.
Speaker 2
23:02
Yeah, sure, yeah, no. I think that’s really wise, because sometimes people are in that mode of taking action and they just want to take everything and then maybe they find themselves like spread too thin or over leverage or whatever it may be. So I think you want to grow, but you also want to pace yourself, so I think that’s really smart.
Speaker 3
23:18
Yeah, I think it’s really important. I’m a planner, so I believe that we should set a revenue goal and then create the plan to create that. We have a board where we write our plan for the year and here’s a piece of marital partnership type of advice. If it’s on the board, my husband has to do it.
Speaker 2
23:37
Oh, there you go.
Speaker 3
23:39
If it’s not on the board, I don’t get to do it. Yeah, he can consider it, but that, for us, has been really good. It’s helped us to focus. It’s helped us to avoid the shiny bubbles, as you say, to create the room and to ensure that we’re not, you know, chasing something that we shouldn’t be. We’re very planful about it and that has helped solve many conversations. If we will, if it’s on the plan or not.
Speaker 2
24:09
Yeah, I know that’s smart. Now, obviously you’ve had quite the career so far and you’ve built this big portfolio. What would your financial freedom number be? It doesn’t necessarily have to be a revenue goal or cash flow like, but in your mind, what would that pinnacle look like?
Speaker 3
24:25
Honestly, you know we have. We live a great lifestyle. We honestly do, and so for those who are looking for that number, a hundred thousand dollars is that number for many, many people. Whatever you are making in your day job is generally very close to what your number will be because you have less expensive but you have the freedom, I mean we want not private debt people.
24:56
We want to find business class on our vacation. Yeah, we love going to sporting events. Sometimes we want to have really good seats, but we live, you know, we go down to the Caribbean and sometimes I don’t think we can spend a hundred dollars in a week as well.
25:12
It is about that lifestyle. So just what your number is like, I say it’s likely what you made for that you know, a hundred thousand dollars. You know I’ll argue that that’s enough for anybody. I can tell them how to live a pretty amazing life on that. So don’t think you have to go for the private jet lifestyle. If you want to, by all means, I’d love to ride on your jet.
Speaker 2
25:36
Yeah, well, obviously, the name of this podcast is inspired to invest. So what quotes inspire you?
Speaker 3
25:45
Oh I you know the Maya Angelou sort of when you know better, you can do better. I think that’s really important in all aspects of our lives. It has been highlighted so much over the past few years and I, for me, that resonates. I love learning and I love trying to do and be better. That one is really a tenant for me.
Speaker 2
26:12
I love that. So now, for anyone that wants to get a hold of you so they can learn more about these great opportunities like wealth share, what’s the best way for them to get in contact?
Speaker 3
26:21
So they can contact me diana at wellshareca. How easy is that.
Speaker 2
26:26
It’s simple and we’ll include that along with your social handles below, of course, for anyone out there that’s watching. Thank you for your time. If you like what you’ve seen, make sure you subscribe. I promise my voice will improve with future episodes and you can also follow along at Inspired To Invest podcast. And remember, when you invest in yourself, the sky is the limit. Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1
26:45
Thanks to our sponsors, Conduit Asset Management, Five Oaks Land Development and Stone Hearth Properties for bringing you this episode of the “Inspired To Invest” real estate podcast. 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 Inspired 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.