KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Unleash the Power of Real Estate for Wealth Building

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

Summary:This episode features an insightful discussion with Patrick Francey of the Real Estate Investment Network, focusing on the mindset and strategies of wealthy individuals who build and preserve their wealth through real estate. The hosts and guest emphasize the importance of viewing real estate as a core component of a long-term wealth strategy, not just a one-off transaction. They discuss the necessity of having the right advisors and the critical mind shift from being a speculator to a true investor. The content is highly valuable for real estate agents looking to build their personal wealth through their profession.

Welcome back to the Realty Funnels podcast. I'm Kevin Cahill, and I'm delighted to have with me, Patrick Francie, the CEO of the Real Estate Investment Network. Patrick, welcome. Kevin, I'm glad to be on the show, looking forward to our conversation. I am too, and thank you so much for taking the time. So let's tell everyone a little bit about yourself, who you are, what you do, and where you're located. Those are, you know, that's a bit of a loaded question in terms of what I do. But, you know, let's me, let me just go back a little bit. So I am the CEO of the Real Estate Investment Network and I am at heart an entrepreneur and business owner and I've been that way for 40 plus years. I own three operating companies. And then with that, I also do my podcast, Everyday Millionaire and Everyday Millionaire Mindset Matters. And then as well, my wife Stephanie, who is a, Olympic and world class mental performance coach. Together, we do some coaching, some one-on-one and small group coaching mental, not mental performance, but personal and professional development. And I started investing in real estate back in 1999.

I've been an entrepreneur. And as I was following many who I admired in the world of business and something I observed about them was that regardless of how many millions they made in business, they all invested in real estate. So, you know, that's really the Cole's notes of what got me started on my journey of real estate. But ultimately, I've been an entrepreneur for just 40 plus years. And that's really kind of the game that I've played and still love to play. I joke that I'm on the Freedom 95 program because I just never intend to not work.

I love it. I love what I do. I love my life. And I turned 66 recently. And I'm going, gosh, I got another 30. 30 years in me for sure. So anyways, I joke, I just, but definitely I love to be a contribution. I love it too. And that's how I want to spend every day is just adding value and sharing what I can and helping people find a great path to actually be the very best version of themselves that God

intended them to be. I find that performance coaching to be absolutely fascinating. I think that that journey really never ends. Well, I think that we all believe that, or I shouldn't say that, you know, I've always believed in the world that I kind of exist in, there's always room for improvement. You know, we often use the phrase that that ceiling of limitation that we hit, we want to turn that into our new floor. And so as we bust through those ceilings of limitations, we have to pay attention. What's the work that we're doing?

You know, I often say my life is a reflection of who I'm being, the decisions I'm making, or the decisions I'm not making, which are still decisions. But ultimately, my life's a reflection of how I'm showing up, who I'm being, what I'm doing or not doing, the decisions I'm making or not making. So I have to look at it and go, you know, how do I love my life? And do I love it a lot or is there room for improvement? And, of course, that A-type personality, there's always room for improvement. And I just want to keep going out and making a difference, being a contribution, impacting others' life. My tagline is be your greatest self, live your best life. And so when I'm operating throughout my day and I get grounded in my purpose always,

my decisions go back to that. And are we living our best life by design? And that takes a bit of work. It's a project. And sometimes we run up against challenges, but I also believe in resistance. And resistance is what makes us stronger. So if it was all easy, everybody would be doing it. But every time I feel that resistance, I kind of wired to put my shoulder into it and overcome it.

I agree 100%. I think that so often people don't actually start with the end in mind. They don't have a sense of what it is that they're trying to accomplish. They're living a life by default rather than a life by design. And they wake up one morning. frustrated and they don't realize that it was the last 10 years, 20 years, 30 years of decisions that brought them to this frustrated moment. What do you see as the common thread for somebody waking up and being receptive to making a change? Oh, that's a tough question, Kevin.

I have to be honest that I don't know what the kind of inspiration or what that moment in time is. what is that kind of tipping point. But I often say that when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change, people then decide to change. And so that's often the case. Others are like us a little bit more wired to say, you know, am I being my best self? Of course I'm not. You know, there's always another iteration.

There's always another level. There's always a ceiling of limitation to bust through and make your new floor. But, you know, I think that, again, with individuals who are struggling, feeling that frustration, once they get fed up and say, you know something, I am absolutely tired of this, something has to change. They realize, hopefully, that if they're in the right circle of influence, that the change that needs to be made is within them, not outside of them. And those are pivotal moments. Those are fork in the road realizations for many.

and when we stop looking outside of ourselves for the excuse or for the reasons of why we're not doing this or being that or having whatever life we want, when we take responsibility for it and just acknowledge that whatever we have going on, love it or hate it, it's a reflection of us. I agree. And I often see people at that moment where they're so frustrated and then they come to this realization, you know, I am responsible. I can choose my response. I'm able to respond in a certain way. I'm climbing a great ladder against the wrong wall. Or I'm just not going in the direction I want,

but I can choose to make that change. And then often it's really just a matter of slowing down and thinking a bit and then taking smart action in the direction that they actually want to go. Well, there's a couple of things around that, you know, and it's interesting that you mention that because the fundamental of all of that is that many, and many people are just not living a values-driven life and they're not clear on what their values are. What are my core values? And what lights me up? What do I really want to get behind and based on the values that I have? I think many people bump up against the realization at some point, or maybe they're in denial of it. But, Often we're living another set of values. And I'm talking about moral values and I'm not talking about societal values. I'm talking about our true values.

Do we value health? Do we value money? Do we value relationship? And we start to realize that we're living a set of values that may not even be ours. And when you start to live and you're really clear on what your core values are, then you start to make decisions differently. You start to look into the future, go back to what you said earlier, Kevin, which is what do we working backwards from. So I'll just share, you know, quick story is that a year ago, I realized that, you know, something over COVID. I've trained all my life physically. I've been, you know, I've,

I'm designed. My nature is I love physical activity. I love physical work. I live on five beautiful acres in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. And I do a lot of the stuff that I do myself. Because not that I don't want to hire somebody and I actually have somebody that comes in once a week to kind of do some of the stuff I don't want to do, but I'm very physical. I like to get sweaty and dirty and I like to lift and do all of those things. That is what works for me. And the realization in all of, you know, that is that that's a really high value for me and health. And I realized that through the pandemic and the lockdowns and all the things that went on, I had let myself get off trail. And so last September, I got back and I've trained all my life. And again, I had let

myself go. And I had a compressed disc and an injury and all of those things. But having said that, I woke up a year ago and I went, I'm just done. I got to get back on track. So I looked into the future. And one of my hacks, I call it a hack, is I look at somebody that I admire. I don't necessarily need to know them. I just look at the qualities of character of that individual. And I go, you know something? There's something about that. I like that guy. In this case, it happened to be RFK Jr. And I looked at him and I went, gosh, I just like the way he shows up. He's almost 70 years old. I'm 66. I look at what I want to be at 70. I go, you know something? He's physical. He's in shape. He's well spoken. You know, I go, gosh, you know, for a guy his age, you know, I really admire those qualities.

I align with a lot of his values in terms of how he shows up as a potential can. it as president. And I go, you know, something, I just like those qualities. So I looked into my future self at 70 years old and I said, who do I want to be? And so I looked at RFK as one of my guides. And I went, there, that's a good one. That's a standard of, that's a benchmark, if you will, that I'll hold. And listen, I don't know him. I just, and whatever story I'm telling myself about him is my story. And that's enough for me. I just know that now as I'm working out, as I'm eating. I quit drinking, by the way. And not that I drank a lot, but I went, why am I drinking at all? I happen to like food more than I like alcohol. So if I'm going to

consume calories, I'm going to consume food because that's what I like more than alcohol. My point is that, you know, I got back on track. I'm training again. I got back in shape. I lost the weight that I'd put on. I got lean again. I got strong again. And that's what I'm working backwards from now when I get tested, it's a real simple hack. What would Kennedy do? Oh, he wouldn't go that. He would be training. He would be doing that workout. He wouldn't be taking a drink. I don't have any problem with the no drinking, by the way. As a matter of fact, it's like, that's the easiest part of everything I've changed in the past year. But anyways, when I say, I don't feel like working out today, I go, no, what would Kennedy do? And I work out.

You know, how am I going to be that 70 year old if I don't do that? So I'm working backward from a very clear goal of who I'm going to be when I'm 70. So that's four or five years out. But at the end of the day, that's where I start from. That's kind of some of the things that I do. It's very similar to a journey that my wife Lisa and I are on, which is about 12 years ago. I was not feeling as slim and as fit as I wanted to be. And she said, well, you probably just need to cut out wheat, and that includes beer.

And I said, okay, I can do that. And then over time, we just sort of kept cutting out more of the junk that wasn't serving us in our diet. So we got rid of beer, and then we got rid of liquor, and then we got rid of white wine, and then we got rid of red wine, and we just weren't drinking alcohol anymore. and then we got rid of caffeine. And then I wasn't drinking high fructose corn syrup anymore. And then you just sort of keep pairing it back to the point where you feel like everything that I'm taking in is serving me and I'm happy about that.

And it's been just I wake up feeling better and I wake up feeling good. And then the decisions that we make when we're out and about, are we going to stop and get junk food or are we going to pack some smart snacks while we're out all day. And you just make these decisions, but then all of a sudden at the end of a week, at the end of a month, you're closer to your ideal target weight,

or you're feeling better, or you're sleeping better, whatever that might be. And like you, I was just sort of looking ahead saying, what do I need to do now? And I'm 52 now. What do I need to do now

so that I'm going to be contributing at the highest level for as long as I possibly can? So 40 years into the future, let's say. How do I need to behave today so that I'm still contributing as long as I can? And then you're beginning with that end in mind. And then all of a sudden the decisions become easier. And in my opinion and experience, the regrets just dissipate.

You know, like I don't miss any of that junk. And again, not passing judgment on anybody who isn't on that journey, but that's my journey and I'm happy with it. Well, I think at the end of the day, if somebody's listening to this podcast, you know, they're listening to hear what it is that you are doing or your guests are doing. And, you know, as I consider myself a high performer, I measure myself against individuals and many who have achieved more and have a set a high benchmark. And so for me, when I'm having these kinds of conversations and the listeners are engaged, you know, what I want the message to be is that it's not. easy, but this is so worth it. You know, at 66 years old, I can look back and say, who was I at 52 years old? And I can reflect. You know, there's something about getting older that, you know, does, you know,

give you some perspectives, some understanding of number one mortality. Number two is that where we kind of take our health for granted sometimes, especially when we're younger, there's lots of, there's lots of margin for error when you're younger, isn't there? So my point is that, you know, when I look at and I look into the future and I say, okay, you know, and I'm blessed. My mom is 96 years old. And, you know, she's physically not so great. Mentally, she's very strong. But I look at that and I go, you know, something about my mom is she's just the matriarch.

People, you know, look up to her. And part of that is because of how she shows up, you know, and she looked after her health. And she was certainly not a wealthy lady by my parents were not wealthy by any stretch. As a matter of fact, that we would argue that we were raised on the wrong side of the tracks. But the point of that is that without health, wealth is meaningless. And so it's so important to me that I share that, you know, something if you're 40, if you're 35, if you're 50, if you're 50, doesn't matter. These are systems to put in place. Some would call it habits, discipline to take, and really look into the future.

And so I consider, you know, where I am at in my life now. and gosh, in my mind, I'm 52. And I once said to my mom, I said, mom, I go, you know, she was 95. I was a year ago. I said, mom, I go, how old are you do you think in your head? And she goes, hmm, she goes, I think I'm probably right around 65, maybe 70. You know, she wasn't even close than, like, thinking that she was 95. So the point is, is that, you know, a lot of what we kind of go through and how we evolve,

is a mental game. And, you know, I really looked at it. I kind of chuckled at her, and I go, Mom, that's my age. She goes, yeah, she goes, yeah, but I would be about that. So I go, okay, cool. Cool, that's why I love you, Mom. That's why I can hang out with you and have great conversations. Oh, it's fantastic.

It's so interesting when you think about how wisdom comes with all these years. And yet, as we get a little older, get a little wiser, we see that run. way just shortening every year. Yes. And I agree with you, and I have, since I was very young, I got into my first duplex investment in 1993, so I would have been at that point 22. And I believe that my true wealth was going to be built on passive income through real estate and that whatever I did for an active income was going to be a fulfillment of my passion. It was going to be an expression of my personality and my desire and my gifts to give to the community and to the larger world.

And yet all of that funded real estate and that real estate was eventually, and not even, it wasn't going to take that long, but it was going to be this underpinning of my actual wealth. and then it would fund my lifestyle and then it would fund my generosity and fund my legacy. So tell me what you're doing in terms of the real estate investment network to share those notions with people about how real estate can be a smart part of their total life profile. Well, when we look at real estate and for 30 years, we've really coached, if you will, in a group scenario, literally thousands of real estate investors. So we've had almost, well, actually now over 200,000 people go through our various coaching program, if you will,

and have been members of our community for multiple years, 15, 20 years, 10 years, 5 years. Our average member is a minimum of four years part of our community. And they work backwards from using real estate to achieve that financial security, certainty, even financial freedom, building a portfolio. Some go into it full time, actually. Others just go back to their job and have their careers, but they create a financial future by holding a real estate portfolio. The community has transacted over $5.4 billion worth of real estate in the 30 years. And we know that number is very conservative.

We could probably add another 1.5 to that number. We get that number because people submit properties. They get awards, but they have to submit the property. They have to show us that they transacted this deal and that they have these deals in their portfolio. And there's single family, multifamily, light industrial, wholesaling. They do it all. And it's really exciting to be part of that and to have supported people in achieving those kinds of financial futures and results. And we've really, really had some huge success stories.

But something interesting about all of that along the way, Kevin, is that buying and investing in real estate, you know, we teach. the how-toes. We, you know, the mechanics, the systems, the processes, buy and hold, fix and flip, agreements for sale, rent-to-own, you know, whatever you want to do, we actually have different programs that our community gets into and different levels. But here's what's interesting about that. So for over 20 years, 25 years, really, I've been coaching real estate investors and small business owners. And by the way, from an real estate investor point of view, one of our cornerstones and one of our mantras is treat your real estate investing like a business. Treat it like the business it is. This is not a hobby. Treat it like a business and you'll do exceptionally well. Different story.

But the point is that having coached literally one-on-one, one-on-many spoke to thousands from stage in terms of guiding them to invest in real estate the right way, looking at the economic fundamentals that drive real estate. We do all of that. The how-toes are so important. But it's interesting. I sometimes look back on rain as a community and I go, you know, thousands have done so well. We teach them how we show them all the things. What's the difference between those individuals who crush it who do a great job? They get that one, two, five, 50, a hundred doors, whatever that number is for them. But there's always a group of people that just kind of fall off. They don't do it. They hang out for a year or two. They never quite pull it off.

They're learning the same thing that all the others that are crushing it. And I go, what is that? And that was actually the kind of realization that mindset matters. And it really is often the most common is a shift of how we view the world. We look in the mirror, how we take on a shift of our mindset to realize that in order to go through it, the hows are easy. That's just system. That's just process. It's all been done tens of thousands of times before. But how you show up, how you face challenges, how you face the economic headwinds, if you will, that is a mindset issue. That is a how do I create the resilience? How do I take on challenges? How do I create relationships that get me through these tougher times? And that was really what makes all the difference. And so I share that with you only, back to what you said earlier and understanding that all of the things of the how-toes all been done

before. And what is the difference between the how-toes and those who do it and those who don't is their view of the world, how they shift their thinking in terms of taking it on and actually taking action? I agree. Mindset is the number one determiner in my experience. And I've been a real estate broker since 1999. I've owned offices. I've been an executive for the fastest growing real estate franchise brand and then an executive for the largest single brokerage in the world at that time. And the difference is mindset. And I think you're probably alluding to this, but there's an element of just courage. Like, I'm going to take that first step and I know that the next steps will show up when they need to.

Other people have gone before me. They're leaving clues. The clues are right there. What do I do with those clues? You have to have courage. And so often that's just a, in my experience, a decision that a person would need to make to rise above whatever is holding them back.

100%. And, you know, there's a, there's a, there's some things that, you know, we call them, we have to be able to say, okay, well, why is it that Kevin can do this or Patrick can do that or Joe or whoever, Stephanie? Why can they all do this? And what is it a way about their thinking? And the first part is that we are aware of how we're thinking. We reflect. We look at what's in our way and what is the story we're telling ourselves. What is the ceiling of limitation and our belief that we can or can't do something? And so, that takes reflection. It takes intentional observation of our thought process. And of course, then making sure that you're surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals who you can have conversations with, meaningful conversations with, to bust through these things, to talk them through and to be able to move forward. To your point, I often use a phrase that confidence is rarely owned. It's almost always borrowed. And we borrow it from friends. We borrow it from, you know,

mentors, family, you know, nothing is more powerful than when somebody that you respect, you know, looks at it and goes, you got this. You got this, Kevin. And it's like, you know he's just pumping your tires or she's just pumping your tires. But it makes all the difference in the world, these subtle little things. And when we look at confidence, back to your point around courage, it does take some courage. And, you know, there's a, I'm sure you've heard these many times with your own clients. is that we hear the story is that, you know, what are you afraid of? You know, what are you bumping up against? I'm just, I'm so afraid of failure.

It just shuts me down. And I often have come to the, now I push back, but I've come to the conclusion over the years that, and the realization for me is that when I'm talking to somebody in they're afraid of failure, I point out to them that it's probably not failure they're afraid of. They use that as an excuse. the mistakes that people make are rarely catastrophic. Rarely. I mean, it could be expensive, but it's rarely catastrophic.

But most people are really afraid of, if they tell the truth, is they're afraid of the judgment of not achieving that goal by their friends, their family, their peers. And that judgment is what they would term, you know, that is really the fear of failure. and it's not the failure. It's the fear of the judgment that goes, their story of what the judgment is that goes along with it.

I think of all those stories that you and I have heard over the years. You know, the monkeys are in a room. There are bananas tied up on top of a step ladder. And every time somebody goes up to get a banana, they get squirted with water. Eventually the monkeys are swapped out one by one. None of them are in the room anymore when they got squirted with water, but none of them will go up there to get the bananas anymore

because they've been taught. You don't want to even try. Yes, yes. And it's so true that the judgment of other people has this weight on our actions, and yet you and I are at an age now where we realize, hey, look, most people aren't even judging you. They're not even thinking about what you're doing. They don't care. Very few really care. They got their own stuff that they're willing. working on their own problems, their own pressures. Just go for it. Now, what I really believe, and what you're talking about is, you know, whether you own that confidence or if you borrow it or if you're lent it from somebody else, sometimes you just have to borrow it from your future self. True. You know, and you just go for it and just make it happen and just, you know, you're going to

recover from any of those mistakes you make. But then what I think is so important, why I'm so excited to talk with you is that I think that a lot of people wonder if they have what it takes. And I think the real question is, do you have who it takes? And that's the value of that environment that you're in. And I think that our environment is massively impactful on our ability to go forth and make things happen or on our reluctance to even try. There's a few things around that, Kevin, is so interesting that you bring that up. And that is that I don't believe everybody is wired to be an entrepreneur. I think most are, but let's face it, some are not. And some are just wired. I got to go to work at eight. I want to be at home at five,

and I want to live that TikTok life. That feels comfortable for me, that feels safe. And outside of that, I don't really want to do anything. I'm not inspired to do that. Now, having said that, when you start to know yourself, I think that's so critical. What is it that really lights you up? What is your skills? I happen to be the CEO of the Real Estate Investment Network, but I've spent a lot of years being the president and vice president of a couple of other businesses. And because I didn't want to be the CEO, I'm really great at what I call sometimes being the Sherpa. I love it when I can get behind somebody who's got a clear vision, wants to take action, going to climb that mountain. I'm happy to get behind that person. Again, that's a little bit of how I'm wired with my work ethic. I'm happy to get behind

that person, you know, put my hand on their back and just push them up that mountain. I love doing that. It's a role that I'm good at. They know they can count on me. They know they're not going to fall backwards and have nobody behind them. I'm always there and they can count on that. So their only focus is getting to the top of that mountain. You keep looking at the top of that mountain. You keep following and guiding that path. I'll make sure that you're supported in getting there. And I'm great at that. And I don't mind being a CEO and being that person, but I also am good at it now in terms of making sure I have the right people behind me or beside me so that when we're climbing that mountain, they are there, they know what they have to be. I create that culture. I make sure we're in that environment and we create that environment intentionally.

So back to what you said earlier is that individuals really do need to consider what are their strengths and what is it that they want. would be really, I guess, skilled that in terms of taking on a new initiative. I talked to many real estate investors and they go, I love real estate. I go, really, what do you love about real estate? Well, I just love it. Well, no, there's nothing to love. Real estate just as real estate. What is it that you love about real estate?

And they stop and they think about it. I go, well, do you love negotiating the deal? Do you love property management? No, I hate property management. Okay, well, let's take that off, but that's part of real estate. you know, do you love finding the deals? And then as you start to break it down, you start to realize that people don't love real estate. They love certain aspects of what they do in real estate.

You know, I've got I just talked to a young man a couple of days ago, you know, last week who said, you know, what I really love about real estate is I love finding deals with hair all over them, you know, zoning that's all messed up. And I got to go to the city and I got to fight with bureaucrats. get stuff handled because that's where I find the money. And so I go, great. So that's what you love. Then you say, okay, well, what is it that you don't love? Well, I don't like this, this and this. I go, great. So that's what you have to be able to offload. That's what you have to delegate, put the right people on the team. And so that, you know, really breaking down those nuances, Kevin as well, is helpful for people to realize that you don't have to love all aspects of real estate.

That's it. And that could be that by the way applies to business. It's so true. If you can stay in your strength zone and backfill the people into your world who can pick up on those other necessary but not enjoyable components, then you're just going to thrive but also have greater impact, provide greater value to the people that you're serving. and it really, it would make a lot of sense that the real estate investment network helps with all these different components of the real path to wealth through real estate. So talk a little bit more about what the real estate investment network does and how you serve your members. Well, first and foremost, when we look at real estate, you know, as investors, we have to say, well, we're investing in real estate.

Why? Well, because we want to see the future of where real estate is going. Now, depending on your strategy, am I looking for passive future income or am I looking for active income? Well, that then dictates your strategy. If you're into a buy and hold world, then, well, that doesn't really generate a lot of active income. So then you have to say, you know, what is it that I want real estate to do for me?

The big myth, of course, is that I'm going to buy a buy and hold and it's going to, you know, cash full $1,000 a month and I'm going to make an extra $1,000 a month. And we all know that that's just not true. You know, you're going to generate a thousand bucks a month. It's going to stay in the bank account and you're going to put it into maintenance. You're going to put it into whatever period of time that is empty for whatever reason and upgrades, all the stuff. So the point is that if you're looking for active income, you're going to engage in a different strategy than future state income, passive income, perhaps when you slow down or retire or whatever that might be.

The point is, is that we look at the strategy and we say, where's real estate going? Well, in order to do that, we have to look at, well, what drives real estate? What drives real estate pricing? What drives appreciation? What drives rent increases? And we have to look at GDP, you know, how healthy is the economy? When we have positive GDP growth, then we have population growth because people move into that region, into that city. And then when people move in, they're going to rent.

That's generally what happens in any new. an immigrant coming into a city or even interstate, they don't always buy because they don't know where they want to live. They may not have a credit rating. Their job isn't secure. So they work for a while, which means that they rent. So when you start to see an increase in rental demand because of population growth, then we start to see an increase in rents. So I'll say this. Then when we look at the economic fundamentals that drive real estate as we are assessing where to invest, what strategy to use, what strategy to use.

use, we have to look at the economics of any particular region. And for my money, I want to work harder. I want my money to work harder for me than I work for my money. So I'm looking at specific cities or regions that have a strong economic future, a great economic development office, people moving in, industry opening up. And then I know that there's going to be jobs created. And when people are working, they in fact spend money, they drive the economy, they look for a place to live, they pay rent, and that eventually drives real estate prices because as those people get established, have a credit rating, know culturally where they want to live, what part of the city they want to live in, then we see price increases. So when I look at a, when I look at real estate, whether it be the

U.S. or Canada, I'm looking at strong economic, future because that's what drives real estate. And that can be really difficult for an investor to grapple. They may have an insular notion of like, well, I want to be within 20 minutes, I have to go and fix the toilet. But that may not necessarily be the very best way for them to be thinking investment in real estate. So then you get into the whole notion of, I need property management people. I need local boots on the ground people. But you know what? My investment, might work a whole lot better for me in that city than my city. So I need to come to grips with that as a realistic approach. Well, you make such a great point. And that is often a block. Yet I don't own,

I shouldn't say that. I own very little real estate in my own backyard. I do own some in British Columbia, but most of my real estate is in Alberta. I don't live in Alberta anymore. I get back there because I've got grandkids and a daughter and all the rest of it. So my wife and I are back there. I got my business back there. But I'm not looking at my real estate. As a matter of fact, I don't look at my real estate at all. I have a great property management team. But something that you would know, would know like you realize this, and many people don't, is that if you want to look at another city, another state, another province, if you're in Canada, whatever that might be, you have to look at the economic fundamentals of that. And that just takes research. And we, within the real estate investment

network back to your other question. I have a research team. I myself am a little bit of a geek that way. I love doing research. I get into it. I love fighting about politics because politics are a huge influence on real estate, shorter term generally, but it still has an influence. So my point is, is that when we look at how do we build a team outside of our own backyard? Because sadly, you know, you may live in a city that, guess what? Real estate's not a good investment in your city. Now, having said that, preface everything with Rain is that we say, surround yourself with an investor-focused team. So that means investor-focused, mortgage broker, investor-focused lawyer, investor-focused accountant. Investor-focused is the preface to all team members. Because there's some great realtors out there that, man, they can just

crush it when it comes to buying or selling a home. But they're terrible. when it comes to bring in deals to the table that makes sense to a real estate investor. Give me a mortgage broker that understands real estate investors and the fact that there might be a capital partner, a joint venture partner, there may be some kind of hair on the deal. And those mortgage brokers totally approach that file differently than a mortgage broker who just goes, okay, well, I thought it was just financing a house. Those are easy. You know, that's like easy. Now, getting best.

Mortgage 101. And so, you know, the part of what Rain really teaches is, number one, we come to the table with trusted partners, what we refer to as trusted partners. And that is to say that many members of the community are experts in a certain field. And we don't get in, we don't have any skin in the game with them at all. They've been rain members from some of them for 20 years. They built their own portfolios, and they learned a lot of what they learned from rain, and they built businesses, and they're just a great support mechanism for the community. Now, the point of all of what we do is to keep driving home, treating your real estate investing like a business,

putting a team around you, delegating to a great team. That's not abdicating, by the way. I mean delegating. Working with the team. How do you work with the team? How do you correctly assess a property, put a pro forma together that you're not stretching the numbers to make them work? Where are you getting the real true rental data? What are you doing to backcheck and who's the lawyer you're working with that's going to help you do your diligence?

So all of these things are part of the ecosystem that we've created for the community. And we've done that consistently again for 30 years. and so what we're supporting members do right now we're in a you'll be very familiar with the thought process perhaps not the name which is the self-funding house headlines are blaring all across Canada and I know in parts of the U.S. Of course nobody will ever own their own home again. It's priced out of, you know, priced out of the market. You know, when I was buying a house, it was four or five times income for the price of a house now. It's 10, 15 and more times income. And so young people coming on are going, there's no hope of me ever owning a home.

I can't afford it. And that's just not true. They can't make it happen as easily perhaps as we did as boomers. But the reality of it is, listen, go. And within Canada right now, by the way, Kevin, the banks are being very accommodating. So if I go and I buy a detached, let's say a duplex, triplex, fourplex, they will give me, 100% rental offset if I take one of those units as my primary residence. So if I moved into a duplex or a fourplex, I'm there and I've got an extra $2,000, $5,000 in rental income. Guess what? That's 100%

rental offset. Well, all of a sudden, you went from having to make $150,000 or $175,000 a year income or more to make that mortgage work to like $70,000 income. So, there is a way to do it. It just takes education. It takes support. It takes guidance. It takes having some tools. You and I within our own communities, gosh, I live on a beautiful property in the Fraser Valley. I have a tenant in my home, you know, and that's just how I'm wired. So for many of the sophisticated investors, this is a, you know, we do this stuff in our sleep. But surprisingly, very few people understand or want to do it because they have all sorts of stories of bad tenants and tenants and toilets and oh my gosh i could never have somebody living and they tell their story about all those

things yet you know i know that owning a home with a we'll call it a mortgage helper a mortgage hack if you will i mean it's very very doable and guess what three five years later you keep that rental property you turn it into a rental property and you literally go on to buy your own home I actually feel as a real estate broker a huge responsibility to help this younger generation actually see the truth about the importance and the value of owning investment real estate. And I get it. I was an agent and I watched people in 2008, 2009, walk away from a real estate investment because everything that happened. after the credit market collapse in September of 2008. And so we have these younger people who saw mom and dad really go through the ringer.

Sure. And what a terrible twist to this notion of investing in real estate for an entire generation. And yet the reality of it is what happened to your parents or perhaps your friend's parents doesn't have to happen again. We don't need to go in there and analyze the situation of what happened. We know a lot of people made decisions that perhaps now looking back on it,

they wish they hadn't have made about investing or holding on to a piece of real estate. But it's either that you're owning a property or you're helping somebody else own a property, it may as well be you. So let's get at it and figure out the right way to make that happen for you and for your future. There's a kind of what's happened post the pandemic

is I think many are more educated into what's happening in the world. This is a global phenomena, the monetary policies that central banks around the world put in place, the realization that as much as our properties seem to be going up to the moon in terms of value, the reality of it is that fiat currencies around the world are just losing any kind of value. So when we look at owning hard assets, real estate remains one of those hard assets to own, one of those stores of value. And is every state, is every city the right place to own that store of value? No. But it doesn't take a lot of research to realize,

that when you look at what's happening economically, there are certain cities, certain states, certain provinces and cities within Canada where I live, that it 100% makes sense to own real estate. There's a couple things, Kevin, that I share, is that we look at the condo market, I don't know what it's like. And once again, the U.S. is such a big place.

And Canada is geographically big, but certainly small population. But when we look at property type, you know, do we want to play in the condom market? No, I've never been a fan of the condo market. What they're not building more of, as a matter of fact, we digress here in Canada, and that is detached. So in other words, single family detached. When I'm talking about single family, by the way, just for clarification, Kevin, is that anything five units are up to five units is considered single family. When you hit five units, you can then go and that would be considered small multifamily, but

multifamily financing. So it becomes a different beast in terms of financing. Of course, same thing in the United States where you're looking at commercial loans for more than five units. Exactly. So it's not about your income. It's about the performance of the property. So that's a nice shift, right, when you start to understand that. The thing about it is that when we look at what's happening from a store value point of view, real estate just makes sense. Secondly, there are no bad markets to invest in real estate. Now, anybody listening is going, okay, what's this crazy Canadian doing, saying? The point is is that this crazy Canuck is saying this.

There is no bad markets to invest in real estate. There's just the wrong strategy in any given market. There are times where buy and hold doesn't make sense. There are times when fix and flip does not make sense, given what's happening in the real estate cycle of any given region. And if you're in the middle of a boom cycle like 21, 22, everybody's a real estate genius, well, you got lots of margin for error and everything makes sense. Well, guess what?

If you were buying condos in the height of the market in Toronto, Canada, and you had the intention of assigning that deal and never had the intention of taking it on, renting it out, getting a mortgage, man, they're getting crushed in Toronto right now in that condo market. They used the wrong strategy in the wrong part of the cycle and the music stopped and there's a whole bunch of people without a chair. And that's because they weren't investing, Kevin. They were speculating. And I would argue that many were gambling. And they went in because everybody that they knew seemed to be getting rich in real estate, which is often the story in a boom cycle, everybody's a real estate genius, and now not so much.

So I know a little bit of a long kind of meandering down that path, but I think it's important for people to understand that I don't care what the market is, just adjust the strategy to fit the market. Well, you and I agree. And the notion that right now is the very best time to buy a home or 20 years ago, but you can't go back and do it 20 years ago. But you look at 20 years ago or 30 years ago, it would have had to have been the right strategy at the right moment in that exact location

for wherever that property is situated. And of course here it is 20, 30 years later, of course the property is worth more, but every step of the way the person could have been making the right decisions or the person could have been making bad decisions. What I love about real estate and why it's been a fundamental, I mean, it's been my whole life, you know, since I became a working person, is that from my real estate, you know, from my point of view, it is the most able investment I can actually get my hands on. It is improve able. It is mortgageable. It is rentable. It is saleable. It is leasable. You know, all the different ways

in which real estate is a very able investment. And while it's smart to have a diverse portfolio, and of course you want to look at mutual funds in the stock market and all that type of stuff, I can't go to Home Depot or Lowe's or the hardware store and make my Amazon or IBM stock more valuable. But I can do some smart things with my real estate holdings to keep moving them in the correct path for whatever my strategy might be with that particular asset. And that's one of the things that I love about real estate is common people can really have some real impact on what they're doing. with their investment dollars. Exactly, but it takes some education, it takes some guidance, it takes having the right tools, and certainly it takes the, I guess, the tenacity and the courage to take action.

And, you know, there's a fundamental saying, you know, all these memes that are out there over the years, but, you know, if more knowledge was the answer, we'd all be billionaires with six-packs. you know, we have to get actionable in terms of the knowledge that we gain and then applying it and actually taking those first steps. And one, the first step is always the decision. And, you know, one of the easiest steps that I encourage people to do, Kevin, is just get your financial house in order. Sit down with a mortgage broker. Go through the discomfort and pain of answering all of those questions because once you know where you are financially, you can actually start to make some decisions about the direction you want to go or what you need to do to get in a better position.

And many spend so much time on whatever MLS system is out there. It's like you know, you're not going to IKEA, you know, like get with a realtor that knows what they're doing. But don't get with a realtor until you know exactly where you are financially so that when you're having a conversation with them and they say, do you have a down payment? Do you know what you qualify for a mortgage? You can go, yes, yes, yes. And oh, by the way, here's what I think I'm looking for. What's your thoughts? And that small actionable step is actually having a conversation with a investor focused mortgage broker, then understanding where exactly you are financially. Maybe you've got some things to clean up, maybe a little bit of credit to clean up, whatever. No. No.

know it, face it, deal with it, then start to take the next action step based on that. And hopefully you're in a great position and you can then reach out to somebody like yourself, an investor-focused realtor who can support you and you're not wasting any time. You're going, okay, got it. I know what I qualify for mortgage. I have a general understanding of it. I know what I have for a down payment because I know where my money is, where it's coming from. I've got seasoned money from whatever, whatever source.

My point is, is that know where you're at so you can take action. And I think it's so important that we focus on being in the right environment, having the right people with us. And you and I could easily talk for hours on end, and we'd have a great conversation. But I want to give everyone access to what it is that you're doing. So obviously we can have them go to raincanada.com, and that's spelled r-e-in-canada.com. And really, even though it has Canada, we're talking about anywhere in North America, You know, if you're in the U. Any first world country.

Yeah. Any first world country. And then you also are the host of an amazing podcast, the everyday millionaire. So let's talk about that. We can go to that website as well. Yeah. Yeah. The everyday millionaire podcast I started eight years ago.

It was interesting around it is that I had been feeling a little bit of pressure from peers to write a book, but I didn't have a book in me. And I was literally a podcast. I didn't know what it was. I'd heard the phrase, didn't know anything about it. I was enjoying a little bit of time on the beach in St. Lucia, one of my favorite hangouts. And asking myself, what do I want to do to create that brand, if you will, that legacy?

And I thought, I don't know what it is, but I want it. And then literally in a meditation, as I win my meditation, what showed up for me is how many people I know that, have achieved that what seems like, even to this day, a difficult goal, a true net worth of a million dollars. And I realized how many people I knew that had achieved that and more, far more, but who were just quietly going back to work, doing what they do, building their businesses or working their careers. And they'd created some really substantial net worth. And I went, They're just everyday people and they've got amazing stories. So out of that came to show the everyday millionaire, which was about seemingly ordinary individuals who have achieved some extraordinary results.

And it was about them sharing their story. Well, now eight years later, and especially over the past couple of years, we seem to have hit that tipping point. We're getting more than a million downloads over the past 10 months. 12 months will probably hit 1.5 downloads on the audio side of it. I did launch a YouTube channel, by the way, but it's like, that's a whole new project. But my audio is very, very strong, and I like that. I've got a great following in that regard. My wife and I also do the everyday millionaire mindset matters, and that was really

a big part of the tipping point. We started doing that about three years ago, where we do a half-hour show once a week. So that was the everyday millionaire. It was just the concept. From that, I've met some amazing guests. And over the eight years, I'm interviewing guests from all over the world who have achieved some amazing results. And so interesting, some fascinating people. It's so fascinating how many of those millionaires are out there driving their Ford or their Prius.

and, you know, eating regular food and wearing regular clothes. But you know what? They've got the peace of mind that life is okay. Well, they love their life. You know, something I got to say that at 66 years old, you know, the last thing I want is I often joke. If I have to wash it, if I have to insure it, if I have to park it, I'm not interested in it. I'm actually literally trying to simplify my life even more.

the only thing I want to maybe do is upgrade and get a little nicer tractor. You know, that's really, that's kind of my goal. I'm like nothing to. I want less stuff. And that's an interesting part of what I've come to realize. But as I hang out with my two Bernice Mountain Dogs, my wife, my grandkids are here right now and staying with us. And, you know, as we go and play around in our garden or hang out together, that's just

enough. I'm lit up by it. I love my life. And it doesn't include stuff. So it's an interesting revelation or realization at this phase of my life, I guess. Well, this has been an absolute pleasure. I'm so thankful. Patrick Francie, been a pleasure to have you, connect with you and learn more about you. And we're just in Pataco. So thank you so much for being with me on the Realty Funnels podcast. Thanks for having me as your guest. It's been great. You've been listening to the Realty Funnels podcast with Kevin Cahill and Lisa Cahill, where we share the strategies, systems, tools, and behaviors of top sales pros, so you can stay in your strength zone, earn more money, and keep more of the money you make.

Visit us at RealtyFunnels.com to learn more and to access our resources. Please be sure to subscribe to our podcast and share. share with your friends. Thank you for listening. Goodbye for now.