What if you could escape the monotony of the 9-to-5 grind and embark on a fulfilling journey through real estate entrepreneurship?
This week, we had the pleasure of inviting Gary Hibbert, a seasoned real estate investor, agent, author, and educator, to our podcast. Gary’s inspirational journey took off during the 2008 housing market collapse when he transitioned from a corporate career to real estate entrepreneurship. He shares indispensable insights on tenant screening, thriving in dynamic real estate landscapes, and the role of real estate groups in his impressive portfolio of 19 properties.
Our conversation takes an engaging turn as we open up about our personal experiences, the trials we faced, and the strategies that saw us through. Real estate is not just about the bricks and mortar; it’s a mental game. You need nerves of steel, a clear vision, and a strong community of like-minded individuals to thrive.
We tackle the topic of high interest rates and offer practical advice for those feeling the pinch. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the challenges of real estate investing, this episode is your wake-up call to face those hurdles with determination.
In the final stretch of our energetic chat, we delve into the treasure trove of lessons learned from Gary’s journey. The value of stepping away from your comfort zone, the importance of a shared vision with your partner, and the art of successful communication and goal-setting are just some of the nuggets we unearth.
Gary opens up about his wildest experiences as an investor, emphasizes the importance of trusting your gut, and shares a strangely effective tip about using sticky notes for positive reinforcement. Whatever your real estate aspirations may be, this episode is a goldmine of learnings from seasoned pros who’ve been there, done that.
Tune in for a rollercoaster ride through the captivating world of real estate investing and entrepreneurship!
To connect with Gary directly, go to @garyhibbert or @smarthomechoiceinc on social.
Thanks to TruCapital Real Estate, Strategic Success Consulting & Infinite Real Estate Results for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”.
To learn more about TruCapital , go to @investorcarleen on social and https://trucapitalrealestate.com online. For Strategic Success Consulting, go to @danielle.chiasson on social and for Infinite Real Estate Results, go to @korymackinnon on social or https://linktr.ee/korymackinnon.
In addition, we are thrilled to announce a new giving component. “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 & @makinvestments. To learn more, go to https://more2give.ca/beyond. Together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generation.
To connect with Gary, go to @garyhibbert or @smarthomechoice on social.
Thank you to TruCapital Real Estate & West Developments for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”.
To learn more about them, go to @investorcarleen on social and https://trucapitalrealestate.com online as well as @west.developments or @west_gareth on social and https://westdevelopments.ca online.
In addition, we are thrilled to announce a new giving component. “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 & @makinvestments. To learn more, go to https://more2give.ca/beyond. Together, we can build a brighter financial future for the next generation.
Tune back in on Wed., Dec. 27 for Ep28 to hear from a real estate investor who has built a $12M portfolio by the age of 26!
Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by @serenaholmesrealtor & 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 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 TruCapital Real Estate, strategic Success Consulting and Infinite Real Estate Results. Hey everybody, welcome to the Inspire to Invest podcast.
00:24
I’ve got a great guest today, named Gary Hibbert, to give you a little bit more information about him before we dive in. He’s a full-time real estate investor, licensed and award-winning real estate agent, author and educator from my neck of the woods out here in Durham region. Back in 2008, he made a decision that would be completely life-changing by purchasing his first investment property, and, through hard-work and dedication, he left the corporate world to become a full-time real estate entrepreneur. Now he not only has a large real estate portfolio he’s off to his short-term rental in the city of New York and he’s also a broker, donor and operator and a mentor focusing on inspiring the same change that transformed his life, which makes him a perfect guest to be on Inspire to Invest. So welcome here today.
Speaker 2
01:11
How are you? Thank you, thank you very much for having me here. I’m great, I’m doing good, even with everything that’s happening in the world today. I’m finding ways to pivot and adapt, and I think that’s always the most important thing, right? Is that the one thing that’s always constantly changed, and so, once you get comfortable and familiar with that, it’s a good and easy way to continue to keep navigating through this thing called life.
Speaker 1
01:34
Yeah, and it sounds like you got started during a bit of a crazy time. You mentioned that you bought your first rental property in 2008, when obviously the housing market was kind of going through a pretty big collapse in certain parts of the world, so maybe we can start back then and why you decided that that was a good time to get started in real estate investing.
Speaker 2
01:52
Yeah, and so I ended up getting into real estate investing at that particular time, and it wasn’t so much I said, okay, well, I think this is the right time to do it. It was more of I found myself in a situation where there was more month than money.
Speaker 3
02:06
Yeah.
Speaker 2
02:07
I just I couldn’t keep up with at the time. I didn’t understand it, but eventually started figuring it out. And I did figure out in 2008 that it was inflation. I couldn’t even keep up with 2% inflation at that time, and the one thing that continued to bail me out was my primary residency. And I was like you know, if this thing bailed me out three times, what if I had one more? And so where that all changed was I went into my financial advisor’s office that day to take all my debt, put it into my mortgage, and she’s like you obviously do not know how to handle your home equity, let it credit.
02:43
You do not know how to handle your lines of credits, credit cards. I’m like you’re rid of them all. And so essentially, I kind of closed it all up. And that was when I saw the index chart and saw inflation and what it was doing and it’s like, okay, real estate is the way to go. And I did everything I could at the time in 2008 to buy my first investment property, and the first one I did was actually with a friend of mine and it was like 200,000 in Oshawa and I did a joint venture. It was like on a little piece of paper. Honestly, it was like it’s a piece of paper that wrote down a couple of things or whatever, and that was how I first started and I never looked back after that. I started understanding what real estate was all about, and being a landlord and handling tenants and all that other fun stuff that come along with it.
Speaker 1
03:32
Yeah, Now do you still have that rental property?
Speaker 2
03:34
today. I don’t. I’m trying to remember. That’s a good question. I offloaded that one, I think around maybe 2016, 2017. So I had a good good while.
Speaker 1
03:45
Okay, so you started with that Just a single family home, renting it out. How did you then accelerate that into becoming a full-time real estate investor and transitioning completely?
Speaker 2
03:54
Yeah. So then what ended up happening was after that first property, so it was actually an illegal two-unit. So, yeah, this it was a no-class of, that was a tenant. Back then I was just saying, hey, it was by property. But here’s the one thing, though After a couple of years I did actually convert it into a legal two-unit. So I did go through the city they had had, you know, at that time in Oshawa. They allowed people who had illegal two-units to come forward and make it easy for you to legalize it, and so there was a whole lot of the time that I had to do, and then I got the certificate, which was great. How I transitioned into additional investment properties is that the second property I bought was in Scarborough, and I did that with my brother-in-law. Learned a lot then with the importance of screening tenants, so the tenant that I ended up putting in the basement and even do a lease agreement or nothing, just put him in here.
04:47
He just gave me some cash and I was like man, this is such an easy game.
04:51
Oh, come on why more people, and that was when I understood the importance of screening tenants effectively and properly, and so we ended up offloading that one. And then, in 2009, I joined a real estate group and I was like just groups out there, there are people that are teaching this and there’s a room full of investors that are willing to share their story, their journey, and it was incredible, and it was so different from the corporate world, because what I found in the corporate world that people were kind of like they would teach you stuff but they wouldn’t teach you everything, because they didn’t want you to leapfrog over them, but in these room, people were willing to share everything. This is incredible. And so then, from 2009 until 2014, we bought like 19 properties and it wasn’t so much Were they all joint ventures like the first two?
05:45
Many of them were. Yeah, many of them were. I would say I think probably like 90% of them were joint ventures. So I started learning they didn’t have any money. So then I had to understand joint ventures and raising capital and presenting deals and I mean I was terrible in the beginning because I was trying to sell the property to them and the numbers and what I realized was that I, oh, I don’t sell that, I sell myself.
Speaker 1
06:11
Oh, I think and also I think what it can do for them right, Like how that changed your life and how that can really start to impact their life in the bottom line, right.
Speaker 2
06:19
Yeah, but you know, the number of homes that I bought during that time is not really that important. I’d say that because I use a whiteboard and I talk about that all the time and I’d written down that I wanted 20 properties and I don’t know why I stopped. I think it was just because I now understood that it wasn’t about, oh, you have to have the money, and it was also because I started to understand, to believe in myself and to write down what I wanted. That was the more important thing, not the financial piece of it, but more of the believing in myself. And then, in 2014, I then left my full-time job and then just went into real estate, investing and teaching and helping other people.
Speaker 1
07:00
You might as well step back just quickly. So you’re talking about the joint ventures Now. Did you line up the properties first and have them under contract before you approached possible joint venture partners, or did you have people lined up that you knew might be interested and then you went and found the property?
Speaker 2
07:14
Yeah, I did a combination of both, so I’ve started trying to understand how to have the conversations and so I had, you know, in the beginning, maybe one or two people that were lined up, but then what I also, and then also what I started doing, was then finding really good deals.
07:29
And then what I would do is I would then share them because then we started smart home choice and then we had members as well too and then present these opportunities and deals to them, which then also created other additional opportunities and joint ventures by doing it that way as well. So, yeah, that’s pretty much the way that I did it.
Speaker 1
07:50
Yeah, Now that took you up to 2014. So now did you meet the jump from single family and the multifamily, or you know? I guess what’s the last nine years looking like?
Speaker 2
07:59
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then we went from 2015,. Then we started going in more than two years, so prior to that it was mostly rental owns. I did a lot of rental, so I actually wrote a book on rent to own. We’ve probably done about I don’t know maybe about 70 rental own deals, but whether some of them keeping ourselves and other ones we would actually wholesale them to other investors. Yeah, and then from 2015,. Then we got into the single family home conversions, the Burr, and I remember seeing all these Burr things coming like what the heck is this Burr?
Speaker 1
08:33
And I was like okay, well, now I know.
Speaker 2
08:34
I know everybody knows what it is now. So we started doing that. And then we started teaching investors that methodology because the single family homes they weren’t working that well anymore. You needed that additional income to make these properties cash flow. And then we went from Durham to Peterborough and around I wanna say 2016, 2017, somewhere around that timeframe, because a lot of Toronto agents were coming out and just crushing us, and so we found a new marketplace for our investors, went to Peterborough and did a lot of conversions out there and the number just made so much more sense. And then in 20, this is another pivotal moment In 2017, I then started taking a look at, well, what’s next, should I do multi-family?
09:19
And I did some classes on that and I’m like, okay, this is the path that we’re gonna take, go down to multi-family space. And I remember going to this Christmas party and I was having a conversation with one of my mentors at the time and I told him like, yeah, I’m gonna. He goes like what do you? What do you get planned for next year? I’m like, yeah, I’m gonna get into multi-family. That’s one way of doing it.
09:39
Yeah, I was like, okay, and he goes well, gary, how many more doors do you need? How many more properties do you need? He goes why don’t you’re at the point now? Why don’t you just become the bank? And I was like the bank. He goes yeah, take a look at private lending. I’ll start investing. I’ll show you a few things. And so we looked at it and I’m like you know what? This is a great idea. Like how many more doors do you need?
Speaker 1
10:01
And I think a lot of people get caught up in.
Speaker 2
10:03
I’m like there was 200 doors and I didn’t wanna go down that path I’m not knocking multi-family investing by any means and look, and I might still even go down that path. But we looked at it and it made sense. And then we started a company and we brought in a partner that understood it very well my wife was a mortgage agent at the time as well too and then we just kind of combined our forces and resources, of my strength and his strengthening coming together where we complimented each other.
Speaker 1
10:35
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So then how does a private lending business work? And then how does that help, just in terms of building up equity for yourself?
Speaker 2
10:44
Yeah, I mean I’m not gonna get too much into the details that we come up the expert in that space I don’t have none of mortgage agent by any means but what that did was it helped me create additional cash flow. Okay, was it allowed me to then free up some additional time to focus more on things that I enjoyed doing, which was the mentorship, growing, smart home choice, and then I got pulled into a brokerage as well too, which I mean we can dive a little bit more into that later on. Yeah, and and. Not so much focusing on building my portfolio anymore. So I was happy with the size of the portfolio. Yeah, and and, and and just kind of moved more into the private lending space and so when deals would come up, I would lend my money out.
Speaker 1
11:26
Yeah, I mean that makes sense, because I know a lot of people that have these really big portfolios, sometimes even in the range of, you know, hundred million dollars plus, but they literally seem like they’re struggling and they have no money. So they’re equity rich but they’re cash poor, right. So I think it’s so important to have that balance when sometimes people can come in from either end but at the end of the day, you want to have that equity down the road. Be so, bills to pay, still a life to live. So it’s important to have all those different streams of income just to make sure that you are protected and you can really take care of yourself.
Speaker 2
11:56
And that’s a good point that you bring up right. You know, I remember I saw this quote not too long ago from Ross Peroni said being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur lies on the razor edge of success and failure.
12:05
Yeah and so what happens is, you know, when you first start out, you’re like, man, if I can just get five thousand dollars a month, well, whole life will change and I’ll be fine. And then you get there and all of a sudden like, oh Well, you’re hiring an admin, or you hired this person, oh yeah, you have an operations manager. Now it’s not five thousand, now you need ten thousand, you 20, and so you get. You’re always fighting this balance. You continue to grow, and that’s part of it all right. So you got to be careful of how fast you grow, how you’re growing and and what your end goal is as well too.
Speaker 1
12:34
Now it sounds like you’ve had like quite the journey in the last 15 years. When you look back at everything, is there any one thing that stands out to you that you feel like is your biggest success?
Speaker 2
12:46
Yeah, I would say I went from waiting to not waiting. I Went from waiting for the right opportunity, waiting to be invited to the table, waiting for the interest rates to be at the right level, waiting for Opportunities, anything to present itself. And you know what doesn’t wait for you, serena is, it’s fair, it doesn’t wait for you, your bills don’t wait for you. You know, depression doesn’t wait, anxiety doesn’t wait. And what I realized was that it was purpose. I was lacking purpose, it was a lacking of vision and a dream, and and that’s really what changed for me.
13:22
And so, if I really kind of go back, the start of it all was the mindset piece. It was listening to Jim Rowling, it was listening to Brian Tracy, was listening to zig-zigglers, listening to those people. That changed my mindset. Yeah, that that’s really the game changer for me, was like believing in myself, and I remember all that. I’ll never forget this. I remember I just listened to the car all the time going to work, and I remember at lunchtime we had gone up, we’re going up for lunch and I was to be jumped in my car and my co-worker jumps in and he hears the. So they turn it on. Jim wrong comes on and he’s like you listen to that. I’m like no, no, no, it’s not my, it’s my wife’s. But if my mindset wasn’t there yet, I was getting but, I, was like you know?
14:07
but you know, because sometimes you hear that stuff, people believe that it’s just this like Wishful thinking, or yeah, it can’t happen to me. Let me tell you 100% it can. But but you’ve got to feed your mind the the right, the right information and especially, I would even say even more importantly now, with the news and social media and what you get Barded with yeah, yeah, it’s kind of hard to escape it.
Speaker 1
14:31
Yeah, I mean, we definitely mean I would school for journalism even, right. So the news is always on have the paper for a period of time, way back when. But I think now it’s like there is a lot of doom and gloom. So I think you really just have to focus on what your objectives are, what your goals are, what’s positive, surround yourself with all those people that are aligned and you know, like he said, like minded thinkers and stuff like that.
Speaker 2
14:51
Yeah, 100% right, because there’s so much fear that, you know, I was thinking I had a conversation about this earlier today where I was making quicker, faster decisions in 2010 to 2014, when I let them, when I knew less, and I was just focused on the mindset. Because, if you remember, back then too and people don’t remember this there was a lot of fear in the market because of like, well, the US got hit, or come, can I get hit? Can I was gonna get hit? And you’re gonna go up and and then there was a ton of fear and people forget that.
15:21
But you look back in like, well, of course you should have invested back then. I made so much sense, and so I believe now, now you’re gonna see some phenomenal opportunities. You are seeing phenomenal opportunities, right, um? But you know, I, I see it now, where I see so much information now and now even for me, it kind of freezes me a little bit as well too. I’m like, okay, hold on a second, why am I, why am I being frozen here? All come looking at this data point. I’m looking at this chart and of course the chart has to come down, and so you got to be careful of what you’re looking at and paying attention to right and focus on the mindset and just go take action.
Speaker 1
15:55
And I think it’s important to think that right now, if you’re to buy something, for example, and the rates are high, you kind of know what you’re dealing with. I think, for the investors that are struggling right now might be the ones that got into the market two, three years ago and maybe they thought they’re running their numbers Conservatively, but nobody dreamed that interest rates were going to triple in a year, right, so they probably didn’t factor that in. So I think some of those Companies or people could be struggling in a way that for anyone walking in right now You’d have to think like they’re probably going to be extra conservative. But they know what they’re dealing with and you know things have only got to get better.
Speaker 2
16:29
Yeah, you know what, but I will say this, though, to those people that jumped in in 2020 or 2019, 2021 Welcome to the game.
Speaker 1
16:37
Yeah, at least you’re playing.
Speaker 2
16:39
At least you’re playing and you’re not watching.
16:41
Yeah, and learning and I can guarantee those ones that stick around for the next, say, five or ten years they’re gonna have some great stories and and they’ll be fine. You just have to fight through it and struggle a little bit and. But there’s things you can do. You can raise, you can get partners to come in, you can get cash injection, you can see what’s high and better use for your property. Don’t just say, oh well, this wasn’t for me and my co-workers are right. It’s very easy to do that and all of a sudden you know friends and families are like told you.
Speaker 1
17:10
Yeah, yeah, the naysayers I know, you talked a little bit about some of your challenges in the early years just not qualifying tenants and stuff like that. When you look back at everything, what would you say are a couple of the biggest lessons that you’ve learned and and your takeaways from them?
Speaker 2
17:24
Oh, the biggest lessons that I’ve learned is it’s okay to fail, it’s okay to make mistakes, it’s okay to fall down, just as long as you get back up. I think that’s what it is. When I take a look at each year, I throw a lot of things at the dartboard and there’s only maybe two or three that really stick. So that’s really what I think it comes down to just try different things, learn different things, fail early, fail fast and learn from those mistakes and move forward. Don’t be scared of failing. I think that’s the biggest thing for me. Don’t be scared to try new things, like public speaking. I hate it, public speaking. I still even at times when people ask me to come and do a talk, I’m like, okay, fine, I look at you now.
Speaker 1
18:17
I mean, when I went to your event I thought you’re very natural and felt really comfortable. But it takes time to work towards being that way. It’s not like anyone just probably walks out for the very first time.
Speaker 2
18:28
No, I have the same fears like anybody else does.
18:30
I want to make sure that I’m delivering the best message. But yeah, it’s part of life, it’s part of things. Then it allows you to push out into your uncomfort zone. But when you’re able to do that, you can come back to a comfort zone and then you can push again. Think about it like this as well, too when you go to the gym. Why are you going to the gym? To make your muscles fail. You’re getting to the point of 10 pushups and you can’t do anymore. Now you’ve failed. Then it’s allowing you to go back again to say, two days from now, I can do 12 pushups now. So if you take that approach and apply it to life, the same thing. Just apply it.
Speaker 1
19:12
Yeah, I think it’s all in how you look at it.
Speaker 2
19:13
One hundred percent.
Speaker 1
19:15
Now would you say there’s any one thing? That was the biggest obstacle that you’ve had to overcome.
Speaker 2
19:22
There’s been many different obstacles that I’ve had to overcome over the years. The one that sticks out I would say you know it was the difficult one, and I think a lot of people can maybe resonate with this is if you’re doing it with your spouse, that’s difficult. When the other partner doesn’t want to do it or they think that it’s not going to work. And so then how do you overcome that obstacle? How do you get on the same page as your partner?
19:52
And the best way to do it, at least that I found. There’s two. Actually, there’s two things. Number one do the disc analysis. So for real estate agents a lot of them are familiar with this it’s a personality test. So what type of person are you? Disc is so important.
Speaker 1
20:06
Yeah, now I know what that is, but for someone that’s listening that doesn’t know, can you just overview, like, what the acronym stands for?
Speaker 2
20:13
Sure, yeah, so disc is so. D is like a driver they get it done. I is like an influencer, somebody who has like that vision of where things are going. C is somebody who is cautious they’re calculated, they need the data, they’re data driven. And S is somebody who likes systems and processes and so you know, if you’re like, say, a CS, they’re usually really good at admin roles and then trying to say that somebody who’s not like a CS can do it obviously.
20:43
But you know they’re usually pretty good. You know an I is somebody who’s like kind of like that leader and like this is the vision, this is where we’re going, and also D’s as well too. But I highly recommend that you do it. You know, and also good too, like, if you’re building that business is to do those disc analysis for people that you’re hiring as well. It really does help put the right people in the right positions in your organization.
21:07
And then the second thing was the whiteboard, the white. Here’s a reason why the whiteboard. What’s the whiteboard? Or your agenda or piece of paper, whatever is? It allowed us to dream together. It allowed us to say where are we going this year? And every year we sit down and we go through that and we argue and we, you know, we have, like you know, different ideas on where we want to go and where we want to grow personally or in the business, but at least we’re hashing it out and it’s a communication. So the communication is so important to be in here. Ok, fine, this is what we’re going to do this year, and everything else that comes in, we’re not paying attention to it because this is what we said we’re going to do this year.
Speaker 4
21:48
Yeah.
Speaker 2
21:48
So I would say that’s probably the biggest obstacle that I think most couples will face.
Speaker 1
21:53
Yeah, I can resonate with that. I had a mentor that once said you know, if you don’t know where you’re going, then you could add up someplace else. So I think that is extremely important whether you’re working individually or as a couple, but I think extra important when you are in a relationship, so that you guys are aligned with your goals.
Speaker 2
22:09
For sure, yeah. And if you don’t know where you’re going, you fall into somebody else’s design. You know and guess what they have designed for you? Not much, yeah. Good job, yeah exactly.
Speaker 1
22:18
So I guess, with that, we’re just going to take a really brief break for our sponsors and we’ll be right back.
Speaker 3
22:23
Hi, my name is Karleen Sue and I’m the CEO of True Capital Real Estate. Our mission is to help busy professionals build lasting wealth. We focus on multifamily purpose built rentals as a strategic and accessible investment strategy. Our goal is to demystify real estate investing and be your trusted partner to handle all aspects from beginning to end, because, after all, it’s not actually about real estate. It’s about having a robust and secure financial future so you can focus on the people and things that you care about the most.
Speaker 1
22:55
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
23:30
I hope you’re enjoying the podcast and we’ll get you right back to it. But I have some exciting news to share. Myself from Strategic Success and Corey McKinnon from Infinite Results have banded together so we can bring to you an amazing platform where you can learn and grow and have support on your real estate journey. We’re building a community, we’re building the help and the support, we’ve got the coaching for you. We’ve got the content. So if you want more information and see how it can help you on your journey, click the link below in the show notes or click the link in my bio for more information.
Speaker 1
24:03
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Inspire to Invest podcast. I’ve got Gary Hibbert with me today and he’s talking about his journey as a real estate investor over the last 15 years. You talked about some of your successes and challenges and obstacles. Now what I want to know is what’s the absolute craziest thing that’s ever happened to you as a real estate investor so far?
Speaker 2
24:24
But the craziest thing I would say probably a little bit earlier on, I remember we’d put a tenant in one of our properties and it was against our gut. We knew, we knew and we put them in, and it was like I knew it.
Speaker 1
24:38
I knew it.
Speaker 2
24:43
And you know what? For three years it was nonstop N1s and going to the landlord and tenant board, all the late rent payments, just everything. But you know what’s good about it when I look back at it is, hey, I learned how it worked. I understand the system. It allowed me to write a guide on how to screen tenants and what I did wrong.
25:07
And then they finally did a midnight run and we went in there. We went in there and, man, it was a mess. They destroyed it, they destroyed the home. I remember opening up the bathroom and you know those big green flies there was about like six of them, seven of them that flew out of there. The city had turned the water off on them for like I don’t even know. I think it might have been like three months.
Speaker 1
25:31
So they had no running water.
Speaker 2
25:33
They weren’t even fussing that. They was going there and do what they got to do and it was a mess, and so we had, I think, about two and a half bins of garbage ready to pull out of there. We got the whole entire place. We, I think we put about 25,000 into it, which was at the time, you know it hit the pockets and then we ended up selling it and I think we made I’m trying to think now almost 200,000 on it. So was it really that bad of a story?
Speaker 1
26:06
Yeah, you know, it’s just not nice to walk into something like that.
Speaker 2
26:10
No, no, 100% is not, do you think?
Speaker 1
26:13
that, when you think of that tenant now, like you had your instincts going off telling you this isn’t the right fit, like what would you have done differently? Like, looking back now, like it was it just that you were in a brush to get it rented, or was there something in particular that made you feel that way?
Speaker 2
26:29
Like yeah, there’s a couple of things. Number one was I was using and they were playing with my, my heartstrings, you know, and so I was using the. It was the emotional part of like, okay, let’s give them a chance, let’s help them out, as opposed to the fundamentals, the documentation, the income that they make compared to the rent that they’re going to be paying, and so when you kind of take the emotion peter style and just look at the data and the facts, that’s that’s always the best way to go and, you know, trust a little bit of your gut as well, too. If your gut’s kind of saying something to you, just dig a little deeper to get the, the, the information that you need. Don’t be scared, don’t, don’t rush into it. It’s okay to keep your property vacant, for I’d rather keep it vacant for another four weeks, six weeks, to get the right family in there.
Speaker 1
27:21
Yeah, yeah, no. I think that makes perfect sense. Now, obviously you believe in mentorship and mindset and all of those good things that come along with coaching. What would you say is the best advice that you’ve received?
Speaker 2
27:36
Sticky notes. That was a really good one. So sticky notes was, you know, putting a sticky note on your mirror. Smile today, be grateful today. Put a. Put a sticky note on your refrigerator right, drink a glass of water.
Speaker 3
27:51
Yeah.
Speaker 2
27:52
Right. Put a sticky note wherever you need to put a sticky note right. You know on your computer, turn off notifications. So it was. It’s just those little quick, friendly reminders, and I said I did that I don’t have them around now, but it got me into those habits.
Speaker 3
28:06
Yeah.
Speaker 2
28:07
Right, like go, go, go for a walk, get up in the morning, go for a walk, like the. So, the little small, so it was little. You know, the difference between success and failure sometimes is just inches. It’s not much, it’s just the little small thing that you decide to do, like getting up, and you know, I go to yoga. I get up, I don’t want to go. Yeah, you know, and you know six o’clock in the morning and I’m in my car and I’m driving there and, yeah, it’s dark and I’m like what am I doing? But I can tell you this, it it’s so Rewarding and it allows you to clear your mind. There’s no notifications, nobody can get you. I’m not thinking about my businesses, because I’m trying to figure out how do I twist my body into this position she’s asking me to do.
Speaker 1
28:54
It also sets the tone for the day, right, I was always really inconsistent, working out, like I’ve had a home gym for a long time, but you know, when work got busy I could sit down and work for an hour or five in the morning instead of working out. But now I’ve been like three years on track. I’ve probably only missed a couple weeks each year. But it’s one of those things like if I miss it, like I pay the price, like my energy is not the same, like my mood Is not the same, so it’s one of those things that you know it obviously pays you back tenfold 100% it’s.
Speaker 2
29:22
It’s imagine Brian Tracy right like eat the frog.
Speaker 1
29:25
Yeah.
Speaker 2
29:27
Get rid of that big thing in the start of the day. So it feels like you’ll accomplish some things. And then when I get back home, then I also try to take at least one or two big things. That is on my Important list. Yeah, that’s tied to my white board, so it feels like I’m Making headway and traction.
Speaker 1
29:45
Yeah, no, I was fortunate to see Brian Tracy speak at an event, maybe about 10 years ago. And yeah, just your point about eating that frog. For anyone that doesn’t know, that term is just doing the hard thing first. So if you have a to-do list, just tackle that biggest thing first, because everything else is gonna get easier.
Speaker 2
30:00
You 100%. And for anybody who’s thinking about working out Maybe they don’t work out and they’re like okay, fine, I’ll start. You know, you do do micro workouts.
Speaker 1
30:09
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2
30:09
So just say you know what I’m gonna do? Two push-ups and guess what, when you get down there like, okay, fine, I might as well do five. Okay yeah, but just do micro and do everything micro.
Speaker 1
30:19
Yeah, yeah, just start with the baby steps. Yeah, now, I guess just looking forward instead of back. What would you say is next for you and what’s your financial freedom number?
Speaker 2
30:31
Yeah, what is next for me? So next for me is to continue to grow the different businesses that I have. I’d like the the brokers that we have are about 170 agents there, so we’re trying to grow that. You know we’ve got to go right now 500, but hopefully we’ll get past that Continuing to do more private lending and the and the geographical freedom part of it.
30:57
So you know, we’ve recently purchased a property down in Mexico I’m actually heading down there tomorrow and and I want to be able to do things on my time when I want. So I love working hard and I also enjoy playing hard and and then I think we’ll probably. What other thing personally is? Well, you know, we love our home that we’re in right now, but our kids, well, one of my, my son moved out and my daughter’s down in Mexico for about six or seven months. But I think we might move from here and and maybe maybe a little bit further north and Maybe live a little bit more on the land, you know, and Because we’ve got a cottage and I enjoy that as well too. So, just being a little more outdoors, but continue to always help people, that I enjoy and, if I can do that, probably more with all the technology we have today, like more on zoom and mentorship. I think that’ll probably be a part of it in the next, you know, five, ten years.
Speaker 1
31:51
Yeah, no, I hear you on that. Um now, in terms of favorite quotes and inspiration, I know you mentioned a couple, but what would you say is your most favorite inspiring quote?
Speaker 2
31:59
Oh man, there’s so many good ones out there.
32:01
I would say um Up, as many people get what they want and you can have every and anything you want and make the goal to become a millionaire, not for the money but for the person You’ll become to achieve it. And if you really pay attention in that quote, it has nothing to do with the money, it’s who do you have to become to actually acquire that money. That’s really the reward. It’s it’s who you become, because the money will come and go, um, it’s. It’s Billing your, the belief in yourself, the integrity, helping people around you. That’s what it’s about. And the end of human connection. I think people forget that. They get so caught up, um and in building these businesses, but they forget the important piece of like this, like the conversation that we’re having and meeting people and actually Changing people’s lives. That, to me, is priceless.
Speaker 1
33:00
Yeah, yeah, it’s a power of connection, yeah. And just to your point, just talking about purpose and fulfillment and stuff like that, I think it’s all connected and you know at its core, really why I think a lot of us get into investing. It’s not just investing in real estate, it’s investing in ourselves too, right?
Speaker 2
33:14
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1
33:15
Now for anyone that’s watching right now that wants to get in touch with you and you know to connect, but also maybe learn about some of the opportunities that you have. How can they find you?
Speaker 2
33:24
Yeah, the best way is uh, gary, at smart home choiceca, that’s the the fastest and the easiest way. If you just even google my name, gary hibbert, you’ll find me.
Speaker 1
33:34
Okay, sounds good, and we’ll include all your details in the show notes below as well. Thank you, of course, for joining us today and for anybody that’s watching. Please make sure that you like, comment and subscribe. Uh below. And when you invest in yourself, this guy’s the limit. Thanks again for tuning in. Thanks again to our sponsors true capital, real estate, strategic success consulting and infinite real estate results 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 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.