Interested in the secrets to boost profits from your real estate investments? Welcome back to the “Inspired To Invest” podcast. Tune in!
If you’ve been wondering how to transition from a corporate career to full time real estate investing, this episode is for you!
Meet Kory MacKinnon. He joins us with an arsenal of wisdom, chronicling his ascent from a six-plex house hack to a portfolio boasting nearly 100 doors. Discover the finesse of transferring skill sets across industries and the indispensable role of sheer determination in Kory’s narrative.
Delve into the strategies he employs for future property development and gain insights into the foresight required for impressive growth in the volatile real estate sector.
Transitioning from a corporate grind to the freedom of entrepreneurship, Kory shares her formidable tale of leaving a nine-to-five to spearhead Infinite Real Estate Results Coaching. His story is a masterclass in risk assessment, financial planning, and the transformative impact of networking within the property investment community.
Listeners seeking guidance will find Kory’s blueprint an invaluable resource for navigating the complexities of real estate investment and the importance of building a supportive community.
Rounding off this episode, we peel back the curtain on the realities of property management, from emergency situations to the intricacies of tenant relations. The resilience and resourcefulness required in this field come to the fore, as does the vitality of a robust support network.
We discuss the expansion of his coaching business and the exploration of new opportunities within the storage facility market. The episode closes with a reflection on the immeasurable benefits of investing in oneself, leaving you with a clear message: limitless success could be just one investment away.
To connect with Kory, go to @korymackinnon on social or online
To connect with Seif, to go @newforeinc on social or online.
Thank you to Judi Pare from Plentitude Inc for bringing us this month’s episodes of “Inspired To Invest”. To learn more about them, go to @plentitudeinc or @mama.judes0 on Instagram and online.
“Inspired to Invest” is proud to support the Beyond Success Program, a not-for-profit financial literacy program for students, launched by More To Give & MAK Investments. Find out more.
Tune back in on Wed., Apr. 10 to hear from an active investor who is sharing the secret to scoring big with your real estate investments.
Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by @serenaholmesrealtor & remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”
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Real Estate Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1
00:02
Welcome to the Inspire 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 Plentitude Inc. Hey everybody, welcome to the Inspire to Invest podcast. I have Corey McKinnon here with me today and, for anyone who doesn’t know him, he’s on a mission to help people struggle less with their finances and business and also real estate investing. He has helped hundreds of people with six and seven figure growth with their real estate and business, and he’s currently taking a message across the country to serve more people who want to live their lives on their own terms. So thank you so much for being here with us today, corey. How are you?
Speaker 2
00:47
You’re awesome, Serena. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1
00:49
So obviously I know you may be a little bit better than some people just because we are in a mastermind together, but for anyone who doesn’t know you, maybe you can shed some light on what life looked like before real estate came into the picture.
Speaker 2
01:02
All right. So before real estate came in the picture, gosh, I mean, I grew up in a duplex so I’d have to go way, way back. But you know, didn’t really have a lot growing up, came from pretty humble beginnings and I think it’s. I don’t think there’s anything wrong about that. I remember one time I mentioned that to my mom and she felt really sad. I’m like mom, I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it wasn’t for what we came from and what we had and what we had to figure out and all those different things. Right so, but you know, I saw my family struggle at a young age.
01:30
My dad went on strike a few times. My mom was always working, you know, part-time jobs hairdressing, delivering flyers, babysitting, you name it just to make, you know, some extra money. And I made a commitment at a young age just to say, look, I’ll work two, three jobs, I’ll do whatever it takes. I’ll become an entrepreneur, which I did officially at the age of 19, started running a franchise and did really well and just did business and since then, and you know, bought my first property when I was 30, so I didn’t even get a super head start on things, like a lot of people. I see people that are buying properties in their late teens or early twenties, and hats off to them. They got such a head start. What a blessing.
Speaker 1
02:06
Yeah, yeah, no, it’s amazing.
Speaker 2
02:08
What kind of franchise was it Student Works Painting? So it wasn’t a true franchise, it was more like an owner operator. It was like a hybrid model where they sell the intellectual property. At the end of the year I stayed in that company and I got promoted all the way up to VP of operation through Eastern Canada. So I was in charge of millions of dollars worth of business and it was just really great to see this grassroots business and working with really ambitious people from the ages of 17 to 25 and just showing what’s possible.
Speaker 1
02:38
Yeah, no, that’s amazing. So then obviously that’s not like real estate business, but you’re servicing homeowners and stuff like that. How exactly did you make that jump then into real estate from an investing perspective?
Speaker 2
02:50
Well, the big part of my job was actually HR, like human resources and making decisions on hiring, and I think it’s highly correlatable Like when you’re an entrepreneur, lots of things that are going to be highly correlatable to owning real estate or business or what have you right. So for me that’s always been pretty easy to make gut decisions on tenants, even if I’m not the person that’s talking to them, like I have my assistant now they do all the screening and we just talk about the top three and I’m just looking for that. Where’s the story? Does the story check out? Is there any drama? Do they have good references? Do they make good money?
03:23
Because it’s not that difficult to make good choices and sure anybody can kind of go off the deep end and stop paying their rent, I guess. But if you do a lot of that work upfront, you can definitely avoid that and just having strong work ethic like hey, nothing in life is easy, you got to work hard for it. If there was an easy route, I think you and I would have found it already and we have it. You can’t replace hard work.
Speaker 1
03:47
Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. So, in terms of growing your portfolio, can you talk about where it started and then where you’ve grown it to today?
Speaker 2
03:53
Sure, so my first property was a house hack and a six plaques right, and that’s maybe one of the reasons why it took me a while, just for, like, having to save up for the down payment, because talking to my dad and talking to other people are like, don’t pay any CMHC fees, and back then it was 25% to avoid all the fees, not 20% right now. So yeah, back in 2005, I saved up like $107,000, which would probably be at least double that now. So that’s a big chunk of money to save up when you’re in your 20s. And from there I didn’t even know what the burr was Like. The burr didn’t really even have a terminology, but it was just improving the building, raising the value, like everything, except for the terminology of it.
04:34
So then I just was buying duplexes, triplexes, five plexes, that sort of thing, and I haven’t really bought anything really big. But we’ve got close to 100 doors right now and it’s just all seven plexes and below. We’re starting to sell off some of our single family type stuff, that is, medium term rentals, but when the client leaves or if we feel like we just can’t do very much more with that location or that property, we’re going to go and sell it. So I’m just getting into bigger things. We do have some big developments on the way coming up, which is super exciting.
Speaker 1
05:04
Yeah, I found just by recording this podcast, a lot of people say they wish they had started bigger sooner for another reason, like economies of scale. You’re kind of duplicating that work if you had one building with 10 doors versus five duplexes and things like that. So do you think that would be more where you’d like to take things just going bigger? Do you kind of like that size of property? I don’t mind it, I’ve done well with them.
Speaker 2
05:28
I mean you do run into a different bottlenecks with financing and things of that nature. It helps when you have a higher net worth than that checks more boxes for you as you go along.
Speaker 1
05:36
Yeah.
Speaker 2
05:37
And there just isn’t a lot of inventory of the bigger stuff. In Canada I think we always listen to the Grant Cardons of the world and Sounds like there’s buildings everywhere.
05:45
I know right, but in Canada we’re obviously one-tenth of the population, I’d like to say we don’t even have as many buildings that could even do what they do in the States, so nothing wrong with going bigger, and I think if you have the right systems in place, though, and you have the right mix of your buildings like a lot of my buildings are in clusters anyway, so the grass doesn’t have to travel that far, the snow person doesn’t have to travel that far. We have handymen on staff, we have a deep roll of decks of everything that we need.
Speaker 1
06:17
So, Helen, would you say it took you to then become an investor full-time? Did you make that decision like this is what you’re doing when you rip the Band-Aid off or did you wait until you had a certain number of doors or cash flow?
Speaker 2
06:30
Yeah, I guess it was a chain of events that would have happened. So, as I started getting later and later into my corporate career like year 15, 16, 17, we started having, I got married, we started having kids, we started to have a few health crises in the family and things that were taking some of my time away, but I was still getting all the same results that I used to before. Maybe I just wasn’t growing or exceeding my annual quota or whatever, and we started having some hard conversations with my corporate career. The rating was kind of on the wall that like, look, this is, this isn’t going to be forever and they wanted to start clawing back some of my positions and things like that and wanting me to do, you know, twice as much work or whatever, without as many resources. So I’m like, well, I’m going to really double down, triple down in real estate. So we went. I think we picked up five or six properties that year Some of them are Transplan Meadow Park Home Runs, which was great and we got the cash flow up.
07:31
I didn’t totally replace my income but I wasn’t worried about it just because our monthly expenses were pretty low and I always recommend that people here, anybody who’s listening. Keep your monthly burn rate low, Like even when you’re making good money. You don’t have to live like a poplar. But you know, don’t start spending these money.
Speaker 1
07:46
I love you me.
Speaker 2
07:47
I was over in the mountains of money. I was literally just out for a walk this morning in my neighborhood and I see like people are throwing out their garbage on garbage day. I’m like Gucci bag you know bags from the store and I’m just like wow, like I don’t. I just don’t feel like that’s necessary until you’re at the point where all your assets can be spinning off more than enough money that you can ever spend. Then you can be buying some of that stuff, right, but in the meantime, just keep reinvesting and leveling up over time and you can always enjoy trips and cruises and, you know, do dads and toys and stuff like that. Just make sure it’s in check.
Speaker 1
08:19
Yeah, no, that makes sense and I think just you know, just like in rich dad, port Addy talks about sacrificing and having the assets, the assets will pay for those things. I think it’s just a matter of how you line those things up Now in terms of the year that you talk about picking up that many properties. How did you do that? Because I’m sure people are like, well, how do you just go and buy like five properties Like, were you engaging investors at that point in time? Were you taking equity from other properties? How did you go about that?
Speaker 2
08:44
Yes, I don’t know if I gave that exact answer to your last question. So it was about six years six to seven years I believe it was closer to six and so what we did was we made sure that all of our properties were refinanced, so we had a good amount of money in the bank like gunpowder or whatever you want to call it to go hunting for more deals, and it was a lot easier to get lending back then. Right, there wasn’t any sort of tightening and things like that in 2013. So it’s been about 10 years almost 10 years and one month since I retired, and we were just letting everybody and anybody know that we’re looking for deals, and most of them came through my primary realtor, but some of them just came through private deals or just people bringing them our way, and I think it’s so important not to let investing or your business or whoever’s listening to this, be your dirty little secret.
09:33
You need to let the world know, obviously, in a tasteful way. Like you can be way too overbearing and it may get the forefront of every single conversation, which I don’t recommend. But when you’re in enough conversations with people and they ask you oh well, thanks for listening to me, what are you up to? Right, and you can just plant some seeds and let them know which you’re to, and it’s amazing what can come from that when you let the universe know what your outcomes want to be.
Speaker 1
09:54
Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. Now, where did the coaching business come into play with the real estate investing?
Speaker 2
10:01
For sure. So, yeah, I’m the owner of Infinite Real Estate Results Coaching, or just Infinite Results Coaching, because we also coach business owners too. So when I retired from corporate, there’s just all kinds of people that were coming out of the woodwork saying Corey, how did you do this? Like, how were you able to retire by investing in real estate part-time for six years? Because we like our jobs or we want to just have that nest egg building up for ourselves and, as people know, real estate is just such a great way to accumulate wealth over time when you do it right.
10:32
So I started to take some people on and some of these people are just reaching out to me because they’re like Corey, you’re the only person that’s ever been able to hold me accountable or you’re the only person that I was inspired to grow my business with. So it was business coaching, accountability coaching. Some people wanted real estate advice and I was just happy to help people, because I just have this vision of I want to help a tribe of people and I want to make sure that they don’t have to struggle, because I’ve been through that struggle when I was a kid. I remember just you hear your parents talking when you’re trying to fall asleep and it’s not like they were arguing, but they were definitely. I could tell they were talking about money and just how’s this going to work? How’s that going to work?
11:08
I’m not working right now on my strike or this or that or everything else. Right, We’ve got work on through our savings.
11:14
So that’s how it evolved. And from there I just realized OK, if everybody’s going to be coming from a different starting point, different goals, different experience, I need to make a pantry of tools and resources for them to be able to go do all the different real estate strategies out there and all the different areas and all different starting points and levels. And that’s what we’ve done over the past. I’d say really we started getting more into it in the past, like six years. That’s an awesome real experience.
Speaker 1
11:43
An important point. Just, you talk about retiring and I think sometimes people think, well, when you retire, you’re going to go out and it doesn’t mean you’re not doing those things like traveling and whatever it is that you want to do. But I think at the end of the day, I think it’s still very important to give yourself a sense of purpose and I think that’s something that obviously keeps people going, Because a lot of times when people retire they just wither away If they haven’t given them that reason to wake up in the morning and do good in the world and stuff like that. So I think that’s important. And to your point, just about when you have your business I think that’s one thing I learned, having my own business for 18 years.
12:17
I was eight years in before I got coaching and I’m like there’s got to be things I don’t know, like ways you can get where you want to go fast or just people that can look at things objectively because they’re not in the weeds with you and stuff like that. So I think for anyone that is listening or watching, that has a business or they’re a real estate investor, I think the most important thing you can do is just set your foundation up properly and get the right education and resources before you move forward, Because it’ll save you money and time down the road.
Speaker 2
12:43
So important, that’s so important and you can go pretty far on your own. So there’s so many resources out there. Like I tell people, literally the only resources I had at the time were the white pages, yellow pages, word of mouth and my poems on TV, and then there was maybe some like Rich Dad, poor Dad or Carlton Sheets type of stuff out there. So, russ Whitney, like there wasn’t a lot of resources.
Speaker 1
13:05
Not compared to now, like with social media and podcasts and everything else. Now, looking back at this last 10-ish years, what would you say you look at as your biggest success and something you’re most proud of?
Speaker 2
13:18
Biggest success I guess would be, you know, being able to scale the way we have with without a whole lot of effort, right? And I think it just goes to show, you know, having the right people in your network and letting enough people know what you’re doing in a tasteful way. Being able to use social media. I remember, you know, I was really into Facebook when I first came out and I just, you know, I was kind of doing like LinkedIn type of content on there and just wasn’t getting very much action. So I checked out for a while. But I was encouraged about six years ago when my third child was born, like hey, you should really be back on here and using it and I. So that’s been great.
Speaker 1
13:56
Yeah. So have you changed up your content strategy just because it didn’t work well the first time?
Speaker 2
14:02
Yeah, like I was doing like long form content I was doing, you know I just wasn’t following what people were really interested in, right. When Facebook first came out, people just kind of wanted it as just a way to kind of escape and see what the friends ate for lunch and what their pet was doing and different things like that. And some of that could just be your audience, right. Like, as you get a different audience, then they’re going to be into what you’re talking about and so. But I think it’s just important to be consistent and you know the algorithm is always changing. It used to be like how many people were in your following. You’d pretty much always get like 10, 15% of people seeing your stuff, but now it’s like it’s got to be relevant, right. So it’s not relevant People aren’t viewing it.
14:42
Yeah, it’s not going to get out.
Speaker 1
14:44
Yeah, no, I know there’s a lot to keep up with when it comes to that. Now, I guess, on the other side of the spectrum, when it comes to obstacles, like you know, you said, obviously growing that portfolio wasn’t necessarily strenuous, but would you say there is anything in particular that stands out as one of your biggest obstacles as you have grown your portfolio?
Speaker 2
15:02
I wouldn’t call it too much of an obstacle, but obviously challenges would be.
15:06
You know, as things come up in life, the ability to continue moving forward I think is so important. You know we’ve had our share of challenges in life, whether it’s losing family members my father-in-law, my cousin, you know like miscarriages, torn meniscus, like just having to move multiple times just to make sure that we have the family set up in the right spot. All these big life changing decisions sometimes sideline people for a long period of time and obviously we took time to grieve and to heal and to repair. But you can still keep pushing the ball down the road right. It doesn’t take that much effort to, even if you feel terrible you know this pain won’t last forever and keep returning phone calls, keep pushing emails down the road. I think it’s important, no matter what’s going on in life, that you know people will understand if you’re going through challenging times. But you’ve just got to keep things moving down the road, because when you lose momentum and you stop and you start to go backwards or you check it out for six months, I mean you’ve lost all your momentum.
Speaker 1
16:07
Yeah, no, completely, and I think it’s all in how you communicate with people, right? Like if you are having that bad day, you see an email coming in, you can always just let people know that you’ve gotten it and when you can get back to them. Right, you don’t just like ignore life and hope to come back to it Exactly Now. I guess further to that, would you say, there’s anything that stands out to you as a couple of your biggest lessons and, looking back at what that lesson was, if you could go back, is there anything that you would change that maybe would have brought you to a different outcome?
Speaker 2
16:37
Yeah, the time machine question. I used to say that I would want to try this and I want to try that, you know. But again, like, you’re on the exact path that you’re on for a reason and our lives are kind of laid out for us anyways, depending on what you believe in. So, until that technology exists, I just really want people to understand that everything in your life really does happen for a reason and your creator or the big person upstairs or you know, whatever you might believe in, they wouldn’t give you more than you can handle and that’s what does really create your strength and your resilience.
17:11
And it’s the people that don’t realize that those are the biggest lessons in life and that this is happening to you for a reason and that you can’t handle these things. This, too, shall pass. You know I will get better at this. Or you know, you know, if you think in life, lots of times you just got to go back and in the past re-review mirror to go like, look, there’s been very, very few times in my life where something has been so persistent and so terrible that it just never went away in it. Right, my life like no, we get through things and we always like the gifts that we get given in life, but we usually like the gifts that we want the most right, the great things, the A-roll stuff. But you know, the stuff that doesn’t make the A-roll are the things that you also have to take and strive to, and they make you a stronger person as well.
Speaker 1
17:55
Yeah, and I think the most important thing is that when you are faced with those challenges or less things, to acknowledge them so that you don’t keep on repeating those mistakes and you can obviously come out stronger on the other side.
Speaker 2
18:07
Yes, You’ll keep experiencing the same pain in life until you learn the lesson is a great book that I’ve seen and heard and it’s very true. Right, You’ll keep until you actually learn the lesson. You’ll keep getting tripped up in the same ways and you’ll keep having the same pain.
Speaker 1
18:21
Awesome. So, on that note, we’re just going to take a really brief break from our sponsors and we’ll be right back Inspired to invest is proud to support the Beyond Success program. In today’s complex world, it’s absolutely crucial for our youth to learn how to take charge of their financial future. We believe that every young person deserves access to accurate, practical financial information. Designed to bridge the gap, the Beyond Success program leverages a comprehensive educational bootcamp to equip young minds with essential financial literacy skills. By Beyond Success, it’s not just about teaching financial literacy. It’s also about fostering a foundation for a prosperous and empowered future. Join us Together we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations. Join us Together we can build a brighter financial future for the next generations.
20:24
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 throughout this entire process. Our homes are where we eat, sleep, relax and play. My client’s best interests are at the heart of everything I do 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 want to help you fulfill your goal of home ownership and become your trusted real estate resource for life. 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.
21:19
Looking to buy, sell or invest in Durham Region or Toronto? Let’s chat. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Inspire to Invest podcast. I have Cori McKinnon here with me today and he’s talking about his career in real estate, not only as a real estate investor, but also a real estate investing and business coach. So one thing I want to know is when you look back at the last 10 years, what’s the craziest thing you’d say that’s ever happened to you as a real estate investor so far?
Speaker 2
21:46
Well, we had a property burned down one time, so that was kind of crazy.
Speaker 1
21:50
We’re on vacation and Of course, the thing that always happened on vacation.
Speaker 2
21:55
That’s right. Turn my phone off at night, which I recommend everybody does, just to make sure you don’t have this thing like sending radio signals to your head all night long. And I flipped it on in the morning. There was even a time chain, so by the time I turned it on at 7 am, it was actually 9 am back home because we’re in Arizona, I believe and the text messages started rolling in.
22:14
It’s like Cori, I think there’s a fire, cori, there’s definitely a fire, cori, everybody’s got to get out of the house, cori. We’re out of the house, cori, we’re safe, all that sort of stuff, right. So it’s like what do you do? There’s not really much of a playbook. I can teach someone how to burn a property, but what do you do when somebody’s had a major fire or major emergency? I only knew a couple people that had properties that had caught fire and thankfully, my insurance agent was awesome. It wasn’t one of those kind of situations where I had to fight tooth and nail. If anything, they actually wanted to just pay out the claim really quickly. I was like, whoa, let’s slow this down. I actually want to go through, because their quote was like gosh, over a hundred pages long, just like how they actually detailed out all the losses and all the square footage and it was amazing how detailed they were.
23:01
But I caught a go up to $13,000 worth of things that they forgot. So it’s good that we actually did slow it down and rebuild the house, change the layout, so now it’s kind of worth like twice as much as it used to be. So that’s pretty crazy. We just had an interesting session at the LTV where you know we won our case. You know they were back. They didn’t pay for like 10 months of rent.
Speaker 1
23:25
We got our order.
Speaker 2
23:26
We got our hearing Sheriff came in. Sheriff came, changed the locks and ten of broke back in. Oh my gosh, I want to keep living there. So we actually did get paid for all the back rent through his parents and gave him an extra month to move out, get his things together. But I mean, all these little things are going to come up.
Speaker 1
23:45
Yeah.
Speaker 2
23:46
And they call it property management, but you’re not really managing the property. It’s like you’re. You’re managing all the people and the personalities in there as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1
23:54
That’s interesting. I have a client that I’ve been talking to her for a couple of years. That same thing like got her hearing that date that they’re supposed to move out came and went, sheriff came and she’s actually just, I think, scared being in her own home because she thinks they’re going to keep coming back. They actually left a lot of their belongings behind and you know just, she went through a lot of abuse with the tenants and stuff like that. So I think that is one of the challenges when you do, you know, invest in a tenant friendly area, but it’s all part of the process. That being said, obviously you have coached a lot of people. So when you think about advice, what would you say is the best advice that you like to pass along to your students?
Speaker 2
24:35
Usually, I mean, we do a deep dive into their entire situation before we start working with somebody. So we have a very detailed on-boarding process and usually there’s going to be some sort of stabilization that needs to happen. Right, they got some fires and this and that that they need to go get taken care of. Maybe they need some new power team members, because when you’re not working with the right people, it can be very challenging. When you’re working with the right people, as you know, in business and life and in real estate, it makes things a lot easier, and it’s already hard enough as it is, so why make it harder on yourself?
Speaker 1
25:05
Yeah.
Speaker 2
25:06
So that’s one of. Usually one of the biggest lessons is like you need to get some extra help on your team. I think we’re all raised to be so humble and to try to take everything on ourselves, and it’s a very old mentality. Unless you’re hanging around in your raised by entrepreneurs that literally you know having things like mannies or cleaners around the house or just like, hey, we do that sort of stuff in our business. We can bring some of that into the, into the home as well.
Speaker 1
25:30
Yeah.
Speaker 2
25:31
Just getting more help to free up your time so that you actually have some extra bandwidth and you can put the oxygen mask On. Be the best version of yourself.
Speaker 1
25:38
Yeah.
25:39
And I think it’s that mindset shift in the sense, like you know, when I had my own business, you have to balance everything. So it’s like, well, I’d have to pay somebody to do this, but if you pay someone to do that and freeze up your time, then your sales could go up Right. So I think it’s trying to have that perspective, to look at things in a certain way that you know there’s obviously a cost and benefit to everything that you’re doing. So in the beginning it makes sense that you’re going to wear all those hats, but as you grow it’s going to limit your growth if you continue to try to do that for too long.
Speaker 2
26:05
Yes, and also just teaching people about money. Like I know, you do a lot of transacting when it comes to lending and things of that nature. People get so attached mentally to what’s in their bank account so if they don’t have, let’s say, enough money to buy the next property, to think that, okay, I’m just done until I need to like I need to literally do this the slow way, save up from my paycheck and wait for bonuses and commissions and all that sort of stuff. It’s like no money is just a tool out there in the universe that you can go on excess. There’s a lot of it out there and there’s people that want to get a return on their money. Even in these more challenging times, I’m still lending out, I’m sure you’re still lending out. So money is just a tool that people need to transact in business and in real estate. So when you, when you figure out how you can actually attract it, it’s important and it’s not like anything else other than like a hammer or screwdriver or drywall or two by fours.
26:56
You need it.
Speaker 1
26:56
It doesn’t have to be your money, but yeah, that’s the thing that a lot of people don’t realize when it comes to real estate investing right, they don’t necessarily need your own money, so even that, I think, is something that the average person can’t really fathom before they start educating themselves and being part of these communities.
Speaker 2
27:12
Exactly, and it’s no doubt it’s nerve wracking the first time you go raise money or you. You know you take on the risk of someone else’s money. But I mean, if you’re a good steward of money to begin with, you shouldn’t be too worried and you treat it like your own and you’re responsible. And you know back in the day how was business done. Business was done with a handshake and your word. So if you’re a person of your word and your handshake and your word means something, I think it’s super important.
Speaker 1
27:37
Yeah, no, I agree Now. You talked about it a little bit at the beginning of the chat, but what would be next for you talked about some different projects that are coming up, so can you speak a little bit about those in more detail?
Speaker 2
27:49
Sure, you know, because the last like three to five years have just been just really just growing our coaching business to the point where we’re doing more collaborations and we’re going across the country and we’ve already service people all across Canada, which has been awesome. But you know we’ve had some deals and some developments have just been sitting, and you know we’re also raising four kids, right. So I kind of swore that until my daughter was in school and she’s four years old now she’s in the school system.
28:15
Yeah that that just frees up extra time because we’re not driving around as somewhere new every single day of playgroup or a drop in. So we’ve got a church that we bought about five years ago and I’ve just been holding it. We were, we had it at the starting line at the beginning of COVID and then all the pricing and things, just kind of what nuts. And you know, my partner wanted to go do something different with his shares so I bought him out. So that’s something I’m excited to get rolling again Now that we’re starting to get signals of interest rates going down.
28:43
Yeah, that’s good. And we’ve also got 10 acres of land that we can develop into, either just getting it site plan approved to the starting line or chopping it up into lots or, you know, gcing out all the builds, which I don’t think I want to become a tarion home builder, but there’s so many different ways that we can do with that. Getting more into storage I was just literally drove to a city yesterday or two days ago to go check out a storage site that we could build from scratch. So that’s something that I’ve been getting more and more involved in the past couple years and really been enjoying it.
Speaker 1
29:14
Yeah, we were actually. I was just on a family holiday and we noticed how many storage facilities there were, and one of the things I was thinking is, like, who’s using these? Because it feels like in the real estate investing community it’s a very, very big thing that people are always talking about. So maybe can you speak to you why it would make such a great real estate investment.
Speaker 2
29:34
Sure, I just had a curiosity what city were you in for your?
Speaker 1
29:36
vacation, so I was in Fort Myers and Cape Coral, florida, so obviously different demographic, but just it feels like they’re everywhere now, right so Well, it’s definitely one of those things that it’s.
Speaker 2
29:49
They’ve been around since like the 1970s and it’s become more and more and more popular, especially as you know home sizes now are going to start to become smaller, yeah, and in that case there’s always going to be a need for it, like estate sales or like I always. We always used to register a unit when we were getting ready to sell. Our primary residents were like, okay, we do not live in a staged house. We got to thin the house out, some of the stuff’s got to go and that’s just so convenient that it’s there. It’s like, oh, some of that stuff that’s in storage, we don’t really need it right now. Like I always extend it for like an extra six months and at certain points it’s like, okay, this is enough, I got to get our stuff out of storage and put it back in our own.
30:26
But I think you know, as people come more materialistic, people are traveling more, becoming more nomadic and especially if you’re in an area that’s kind of touristy, people might want to store their stand up, paddle boards or just some of the big things that they don’t use all that often, or even just like their tires for swapping out winter tires to regular tires, like the garage wants to charge you a lot of money to do that sort of stuff, right? So, and for people that have a business, they can write this off on the business probably too. So it’s just one of those things that I think people have been kind of been ingrained in over time. And you know, we’re starting to get into like the second generation of people using storage, and I know now with the cost of building and home sizes shrinking, it’s probably going to be more commonplace and there’s ways to figure this out if your area is too saturated or not saturated enough.
Speaker 1
31:12
Yeah.
Speaker 2
31:13
And at the end of the day, it’s a marketing game. Whoever can market the best for their units, you’ll probably win the game anyways.
Speaker 1
31:19
So it’s not like you’re living there.
Speaker 2
31:21
So people don’t really, they just want it safe. Maybe obviously secure some cameras, lights, all that sort of stuff is important. But if you can be more convenient and if you’re like kind of top of the pile of Google reviews and everything else like go win the game.
Speaker 1
31:34
Yeah, and for my business, we actually use them a lot for storing samples and stuff. So, for example, handed out like 30,000 cans of tuna or whatever it could be right, because we’re going to transit stations. So we needed a unit that could accommodate the samples. But it was safer stuff to drive in at like five in the morning, load up securely, take things out. So we would often run them for like a couple of months at a time so we’d store this stuff in advance, everything we needed for the program and then wrapping it up and all of that. So depending on where you know across the country like we’re doing all of this, so you know there’s definitely a lot of different needs. I was just curious to see, like because of such a surge in popularity, like what the general masses were using them for. So I guess, in terms of motivation and inspiration, obviously the name of this podcast is inspired to invest. So what would you say are a couple of your favorite quotes that motivate and inspire you?
Speaker 2
32:22
Yeah, so this one’s from Gary Vee that, like all big things start small, because when you look at his first tweet or post or whatever, I think it only got like six likes, right. So it’s very true that you can’t expect big things to happen overnight, but that compound effect over time really does, you know, take fire and that’s sort of like the next one. That’s just like the compound effect of like focused, intentional action. Right, don’t mistake being busy for actually being productive. But when you can actually be focused and productive, it’s amazing what comes out of that. And maybe even just an extra quote I was literally just at my son’s belt testing.
33:03
There all of our kids are in tight window and he’s probably not going to go up a belt level, and he wasn’t happy about that. And something that was instilled in me a long time ago, like a couple of decades ago, was that you know what life is not fair and it’s also not easy. So life is not easy, it’s not fair, and once you realize those two things, life actually becomes a lot more easy or understandable for you, right? So it’s very true that, hey, just there’s going to be lessons and there’s going to be things that hit you sideways all the time. You just have to be prepared for that, and that’s just how life is. Look at nature Whenever you’re in doubt. Just look at mother nature and see how things happen in the wild, and it’s very applicable to our lives too.
Speaker 1
33:43
Yeah, and you just got to keep on going. So, with that being said, what’s the best way for anyone to get in touch with you if they want to get in contact?
Speaker 2
33:50
Yeah, I’m probably the most active on Instagram, so go find me on Instagram. We also have a YouTube channel. We’re starting to post again more, which is great, so go give us a sub and a like there. We appreciate that. And just coringmikinencom or just Google me Like. Basically everything at Coring McKinnon easy to find and I look forward to you know serving anybody or answering any questions that people might may have. Moving forward, Happy to help.
Speaker 1
34:13
Great. So thanks for your time today. We’ll include your information below and, of course, for anyone that is watching right now. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, make sure you like, comment, subscribe. You can also follow along on social at inspire to invest podcast and this episode will be coming to you briefly. But last but not least, make sure that you remember when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit. Thanks again for tuning in. Thank you to Plenitude Inc 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 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.