More Money Podcast - 326 Buying Your First Home in a Hot Real Estate Market - Sandra Rinomato, Former HGTV Host and Real Estate Broker

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

I’m so excited to share this week's episode of the More Money podcast because I’m such a mega fan of my guest. You may also recognize her from popular HGTV shows like Property Virgins and Buy Herself — Sandra Rinomato! Sandra joins me on the podcast to share her expertise in all things real estate. Sandra Rinomato is a Toronto real estate Broker/Owner with over 25 years of experience. She has worked with hundreds of clients, many of them single women, and her book, Home Worthy: How to Buy Your Dream Home with Ease, outlines the importance of knowing yourself well, setting goals, remaining flexible, and keeping the goal of homeownership at the forefront of your search. In this episode, Sandra shares stories about helping single women purchase homes for the first time and how their fear for the future is often their biggest obstacle. I also ask Sandra why it seems like older generations are forgoing downsizing and what impact that has on the current market. So much is covered in this episode that you won’t want to miss!  Don't forget to enter Sandra's special giveaway for one lucky listener! For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/326 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the More Money Podcast. This is your host, Jessica Morehouse, and this is episode 326 of the show, and I'm fangirling right now. Let me tell you, I'm so excited to have my next guest on the show because I'm a huge fan of her, loved, loved, loved her TV shows, and I'm honestly thrilled to have her on the show to talk about a really hot topic, one that I personally still love talking about, even though I'm done with the whole home selling and buying situation. I've got the one and only Sandra Rittamato on the show. She's a Toronto real estate broker and owner and the former host of the popular HGTV shows Property Virgins and By Herself. And she has over 25 years experience in real estate. So she really, really knows her

stuff. And she's worked with hundreds of clients, many of them single women specifically, and understands the importance of knowing yourself well, setting your goals, remaining flexible, and keeping the goal of home ownership front and center. Not only that, she's a recipient of the coveted Stevie Award for Women in Business and a multitude of real estate awards and has appeared as a real estate expert on The View, CNN, Global TV, BNN, CTV, and way more. And she believes everyone should give back and enjoys participating in many charities that aim to improve quality of life for women and animals.

And she also has a book and she's doing quite the giveaway, let me tell you. So her book is called Homeworthy. And she also has a course called Women Homebuyers, 10 Critical Steps to Success. Make sure to stick around to the end. I'm going to share more about this really special contest. It's not just a book giveaway. You're not going to want to miss it. So you're going to want to listen to the entire episode, including my little after chatty time. So before I dive right in, because we have a lot to talk about, because so much has happened, I think, even in just the past couple months in real estate in Canada with inflation, interest rates are going up. What

is going on with the real estate market? So much to chat with Sandra about in this episode. So I know you're going to love it. But before I get to that interview with Sandra, just a few words I want to share about this podcast episode's sponsor. This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported by Oxio. Have you had it with the big internet providers in Canada, the contracts, constantly shifting prices, and customer service that will keep you on hold for hours? If only there was another option that could provide you with the same quality internet, minus all that other BS. Oh wait, there is. Oxio, a digital internet service provider that first launched in Quebec in 2019 and has since expanded to Ontario and British Columbia. Want to know why I made the switch to Oxio? For starters, Oxio is everything the big telecom

companies are not. They provide unlimited internet, no contracts, fast and local customer service, and they don't sell your data. And they pride themselves in being radically transparent with their pricing. No, seriously. For all of their internet packages, they show you the breakdown of where your money goes from network costs to how much the company actually profits. Not only that, Oxio's prices are typically lower than the average market price, so switching could mean more money in your pocket. It sure did for me. Want to give it a try too? Just visit Oxio.ca and use promo code MOREMONEY to try out Oxio for free for one month. It's as simple as that. Once again, visit Oxio.ca, that's O-X-I-O dot C-A, and use promo code MOREMONEY to try Oxio for free for one month. Welcome, Sandra, to the More Money Podcast. I'm thrilled as a super fan to have you on the show.

Thanks, Jessica. Likewise. Thank you. You're so welcome. So like I kind of mentioned before I hit the record button, a huge fan of all of the things that you do, especially, you know, I told you, I've watched pretty much every episode of Property Virgins, obsessed with it. And this was like, you know, before I ever could aspire to even own a home. Now I'm a homeowner. I'm so excited to have you on the show because I get so many questions, especially in today's crazy real estate market. No matter where you live in Canada, I feel like it's still kind of in flux. A lot of people, and especially people that listen to the show, they're younger, a lot of women are concerned that real estate is, you know, they see that the

benefits of owning property, but it just seems out of reach in your experience. And, you know, because you have 25 years of experience in real estate, what do you think about this? Is this kind of, you know, like, I've seen this before, you know, I've heard people, you know, crying, oh, there's going to be a bubble burst and all that stuff. What's your kind of take on what's going on right now? You know, I have seen this before. I, as you say, I started 25 years ago and it's been, you know, fairly consistently a strong seller's market since then. So I've always heard, Oh, don't buy now the market's going to crash. And, you know, the media loves to scare people. Um, and I remember several years ago there, you know, there was an announcement that 50,000 condos are being built in Toronto.

There's going to be a condo glut that was spread out over like 10 years, pre-construction product, you know, projects and stuff like that. So, um, really you have to talk to somebody who has their finger on the pulse, but I have seen this before. And you know what the thing is today, what you think is too expensive tomorrow, you're already priced out. It's already gone up. And I mean, that's the scary thing, right? But I get asked a lot of questions and I think there's a, when you start thinking about buying real estate, you probably went through this too, Jessica, but you know, is it better to rent versus buy? And you know, I'm very biased, not only because of the industry

I'm in, but because I sell real estate for a living. That's what I do for a living. That's where I get my income. But where my wealth comes from is from holding real estate. So you're a landlord. I am. I am. And I'll tell you, even being in the business, every single time I bought a property, even if it was with my husband, Gary, you know, we're stretching. We're a little bit nervous. Is this the right thing to do? I'm going to tell you a story where we're located, our office.

We're at the bottom of a condo building. So I said, okay, we're going in there. We have to buy a condo there. And it was still, you know, there were still a few left through the builder. It's a brand new condo. So we bought one and we paid what we considered to be an exorbitant price. And I thought, this is going to take forever to appreciate. It's not quite double, but it's almost there.

And that's in five years. So I've got some stats because I get asked this question, should I rent or should I buy? But you know what, Jess, before we get too deep into that, and I do want to go there, the thing that I want to talk about mostly is, is it the right time for you? Yes. Don't let anybody tell you. They did this to me when I bought my first place. They said, oh, if you don't buy now, you'll never be able to buy real estate.

And I get so mad when I see posts or media that suggests that millennials will never be able to buy real estate in Toronto. I get really upset about that because if you have a plan and you have a will, there's a way to do it. And that's when you hook up with professionals like a realtor and mortgage broker. But if you hook up with one pro, they usually have a network. Like I have a network that of all the people that you're going to need through this process. Um, but really it's your mindset. It's your determination. It's your reasons why, but the people who sit on the fence, you know, should I rent? Should I buy? Is it better to rent? And you're going to find articles and people saying that it's better to rent. And some, sometimes it comes from a source that I'm actually quite surprised that they're saying this. And trust me, there's a million reasons why you should rent. You just

move to the city or country. You're blending families. You just hooked up with somebody. You want to try it out. Yeah, rent. So there's lots of, or you just graduated from high school, not high school, from university or high school, and you want to get your own place and you can't afford to buy it. You have to save up your down payment. You have to develop your credit rating and all that stuff so the lenders will have confidence in you. Yes, I agree. But there's lots of reasons to own.

And like I say, I might be biased because I'm a real estate broker, but also because I believe real estate can be the best investment in the world. So if you had bought, let's look at condos. If you'd bought a condo three years ago in the GTA, on average, and this is an average, so there are places that rose higher than others and were hit harder than others with the pandemic. But three years ago, pre-pandemic, if you had paid 500K for a condo, it's gone up about 49% now. So that's 750K roughly. So you paid 500 and now your property is worth 750,000. So you go, okay,

that's pretty good. You made 250,000. If it's your home, it's tax-free dollars. Okay. You get to keep every penny. You don't have to pay to the government, but let's say you put 10% down when you bought this $500,000 condo three years ago, that's 50 grand. So the appreciation you should calculate is on your own money. I invested 50 grand and now that 50 grand is worth 300 because the property went up by $250,000 plus my original 50, that's five times. That's a 500% increase on your investment. Okay. So you have to look at it that way because sometimes properties go up 3% per year, 5% per year. We haven't seen that in a long time, but it does happen. It might even stagnate or go down a little bit, but I believe real estate should be a long-term purchase. If you want to

buy and flip, that's gambling. You're on your own. I'm not going to give you any stats for that. And I don't even recommend it for first-time buyers, unless you can do it for long-term. Like if you can buy and flip, and I'm talking over a three or five-year period, then you're cool. And some great advice that was given to me, if you're ever going to speculate, make sure it's a place you can live in. So if you've got three kids, don't buy a one bedroom to spec, and then you get stuck having to live in it. Right? So that's condos. But if you look at detached, the opportunity, if you were thinking of buying three years ago and you did not, the opportunity you missed was this. It's gone up over 82%.

So there's also, I mean, you know, and let me tell you, you've got to have, as you know, a strong stomach to buy in the GTA. Oh, it's insane. It was it was like, honestly, the most stressful because it's I remember my experience buying my townhouse almost six years ago. And I'm like, it wasn't that bad. Like we had a sort of a bidding war with another interested party. But you know, and it was still was like a hot market. We saw it that day, we put a bid in that day, we got it like the next day. So it was still like pretty intense. But this looking for a house and especially, you know, we were lucky in finding a detached house.

We thought we'd be getting a semi-detached, but it was like nothing I've ever seen or experienced in my life. And I never want to do it again. So we're staying here for a very long time. I don't blame you. You know, like, yeah. And you had a strong professional. You also had a strong will, like, yeah. And you, you had a strong professional, you also had a strong will,

a strong determination. So this is what I want to say to the people out there. Excuse me. So this is what I want to say to the people out there who are listening. If you're considering buying property, perhaps for the first time, or even a move up, the first thing you have to do is figure out whether or not you really want to buy real estate. And that sounds like a silly question. Yeah. Yeah. I want to buy a place. Okay. You really want to buy a place. Then let's ask you why, why do you want to buy this place? And knee jerk reaction is you're going to give a superficial answer. Uh, everybody, my age is doing it. I've got to do it. We're going to give a superficial answer. Everybody my age is doing it.

I've got to do it. We're going to buy because we're getting married next year. We want to have a family or whatever your answer is. The next question you should ask yourself is, why is that important to me? And go down seven levels deep. You can find this exercise on the internet, but I offer it in offer it in my course, uh, women homebuyers, 10 critical steps to success. This is probably the one thing that I would say is the most important thing you should do before you start.

And I'm going to tell you a couple of stories. I worked with a woman. She had saved up, this is quite a few years ago. I'm going to say six years ago. She had saved up 200 grand. Okay. Single woman renting. She wasn't living at home at mommy and daddy. She was paying rent for a long time. Professionally. She might've been about 30 years old, 28, 30 years old. That's a lot of money after tax dollars. 200 grand is a lot of money. Not easy to do in an expensive city like Toronto, right? So here we go. She comes in for a buyer meeting

with me, which I love to do. I love to sit down with buyers because this is when they're rational and we can suss out exactly what they're doing and why, like what's your goal? And she had thought about this for a long time. And I find that women are real planners and I'm generalizing here, please don't hate me. I think it's a good attribute. Yeah. Women are planners and I'm generalizing here. Please don't hate me. I think it's a good attribute. Yeah. Women are planners and quite frugal. They don't want to overspend and then they feel restricted by their budget or can't keep up. So she had thought about it a long time. She'd done a lot of research. She thought about what if I have a baby? So she decided she would get a one bedroom plus a den, which would allow her to grow

a little bit of her. If she had a baby, there was room for the baby. She knew she couldn't really afford a two bedroom condo at that time. Actually she could, but the budget that she restricted herself by, she decided a one bedroom plus den was good enough. Okay, cool. So we talked at length and I thought, wow, I'm really impressed by this woman. She knows exactly what she wants and she's prepared for the future and let's go. She saved up a lot of money. Now at that time, when we were looking, she could have bought something for less than 400 grand. Okay. So she was putting down half. So her mortgage was minuscule, right? And again, that goes to her being able to save money to

budget appropriately, but she was also being frugal. It's like, I don't want to have to pay huge mortgage amount plus property tax and all the extras that come with home ownership. So it was very wise. So we started looking and it just so happens at the time that we started looking in that area, prices started going up the way they are now. It seems like, you know, at nine o'clock in the morning, unit 505 sells for X dollars. And at one o'clock in the afternoon, unit 605, which was identical, sells for $5,000 more. So this is what was happening. And we looked over a three month period she offered on a place and lost.

And that was at the very beginning of that sort of boom. Incidentally, that also happened in January, which happened this year as well. And I've seen fairly consistently over the past several years. So mid January, boom, stuff starts to happen. So anyways, we're looking and looking for three months and we find this what I call an unusual condo because it was bigger than your typical one bedroom plus den and it had this amazing balcony like for me to get excited about a condo like I see properties every day so I was super excited about this and it had this balcony that was kind of like stuck on the side of the building and it had the best view it wasn't a like full- on lake view or anything, but I had a great view of the city, a little bit of the lake. And for me, South is key because you get this natural sunlight, which makes me happy.

And I was so excited and I could see she was excited because she recognized that this was better than what she thought she was going to get. So we started talking about it and I started, started to see her flip out a little bit and like, okay, what's going on? And she said, well, well, well, well, what if I, cause we started talking dollars, right? And she had increased her budget a couple of times from like 390. Now we were at 425. So she started freaking out. Now remember she had 200 grand in the bank. Okay. Or whatever mattress. I don't know where she kept it. And, uh, she started freaking out. She goes, well, what if I have a baby? I'm like, okay, hold on. We dealt with this. Like you had already dealt with that prior to even meeting with me, but this is why we have this den and the den is larger than normal. And I've seen

teenagers living in a den that size, you know, no window, no closet, but you know, this is what you have to do sometimes. Right. So it gave her everything she wanted and then some, but now her fears were coming back up. Now, this was a woman who had planned this for years and was very rational. And now all of a sudden these fears, she was manufacturing them again, or she was allowing now this obstacle to become bigger than the opportunity. And I could see it. So, you know, we had a chat, we had a discussion. I recognized at that point that she was ignoring the fact that she was going to build equity in her home now. So she was struggling with, yeah, but all my money's going to go into the condo. Yeah. And it's going to grow,

but you can hold back 50 grand if you want for that, you know, rainy day per se, but you have that option because she could have qualified for substantially more from the bank, but she wanted to put more down to keep her mortgage load. That's great. So what's it going to be? You have to make a decision, right? And she started struggling and she didn't understand that. Well, what if I want to buy a decision, right? And she started struggling and she didn't understand that. Well, what if I want to buy a bigger place sometime? Yeah. So you're going to pull your equity out here that's tax free and you made passively,

relatively passively because she was paying rent already. So it wasn't that much of a culture shock, a little bit more because there's other expenses like property taxes. But I said, you know, then you take that and you put that into your next property. And I could see her eyes glaze over, poor thing. And I felt really bad for her because I knew she was going to go home to her, you know, sphere of influence, let's say. And she was going to ask and ask and ask until she got the answer she was looking for, which was no, don't buy it.

So she held back money. She had given herself a mental budget of 425. She held back the money and she offered 415 and it sold for 420. So she lost that opportunity. And you know what made me, it still makes me sad to this day. This is why I remember this particular story is that year in that area, those condos went up 32%. And she lost out just for $5,000. When you think at the grand scheme of things, isn't that much money over time, you know? It's not. And she had it.

Yeah. You know, and sometimes I hear, well, it wasn't meant to be. Well, wasn't it? Well, what do you think that there's some force, let's call it God or the universe didn't want you to have this condo. They put it on the market. You went in and saw it. You know, you were there before offer night and you had the money. So what part wasn't meant to be the part that didn't allow you to see the opportunity to make the obstacle bigger than the opportunity was yourself, your own fear, right? So you probably went through this and you may not even recognize that you did. Oh, no, no, no. This sounds very familiar. We started with a whole bunch of criteria and a

budget and it definitely changed over the course of time looking at properties. Yeah, because you're sitting there in your living room or, you know, having a cocktail and you're like, yeah, let's buy a house. How much money do we want to spend? How much you want to spend on a house and how much you're going to have to spend in order to get what you want are not always the same thing. Like, what do you want to spend? I'll spend a thousand bucks on a house in Forest Hill, you know, like nobody wants to spend a million dollars. And going through the process, and this was what Property Virgins and By Herself were. You know, you see these participants going through the process and your entire perception changes

because now you're in properties that you can afford because you set a budget for yourself. A lot of people set the budget for themselves without, you know, oh, okay, the bank said they're going to give me this, but I don't want to spend that much. Okay, that's cool. I don't care how much money you spend. Let's just find what you want and buy it.

But if it's not going to be available for the budget that you set for yourself, then something's got to change. It's either got to be the location or perhaps the type of property that you're buying, right? Or the price. So one of those three has to change, but go out and get experienced so that you learn more about yourself. And I think awareness is key. So that seven levels deep exercise is so important for you to understand what's really driving your desire to own real estate. And it could even be for people who are investing because people who are not in their twenties or thirties are, you know, now in their fifties and sixties, they're

looking at real estate and they're saying, wow, I can't believe it. We bought this house for, you know, 200,000. Now it's worth 2 million. And my RSPs didn't perform that well. I should buy a little condo and okay, what's propelling this? And I get some people calling me and saying, well, you know, maybe five or 10 years from now, we're going to retire and move there. Okay. That's a long time, five or 10 years. You know how much stuff can happen in five or 10 years in your life, right? Life is what happens when you're busy making plans. So I tell them, let's analyze why you're buying an investment property. And it's usually for, um, profit,

but also, well, maybe the kids will want to go live there. Uh, or maybe they want to go to university downtown or wherever they're buying a condo, or maybe I'll put my elderly parents in there and they don't have to pay me rent or anything. I can take care of them. Whatever the situation is. Let's delve into that because you have to start now thinking like an investor. This is now a business. So what I hope they understand is this. Forget about what you want to buy five or 10 years from now. You're going to make money on this investment regardless, hopefully, right? If all things stay the same, you're going to make money on this investment. So if it's not where or what you want to live in five, 10 years from now, you sell it or take the equity out and buy whatever it is you really want to live in. So, you know, as a caution, don't buy

now what you think you want to live in 10 years. The area, the building, everything may not be what you want it to be 10 years from now. So just invest for the purpose of investing and for satisfying what other needs you have, like the kids or your parents. And let's find something that fits the bill right now. And then when it comes time for you to retire, and if you still want to move into a condo, we'll find one for you, sell that one, take the equity out of that, the profit out of that, plus your house, your big house that you don't want to clean anymore. And you use three rooms of, and we'll find you what you really want. I'm curious what your thoughts are of, I've heard from just lots of, you know, baby boomers who have the houses that, you know,

all of us millennials are like, Oh, I wish I could have that house. A lot of them seem to be, you know, they've built equity, a lot of them have paid off their mortgages. And you would think it'd be, you know, oh, wow, if I were in their shoes, you know, and they're about to retire, I would sell that place, it would have such a comfortable retirement if you downsized. What I've been hearing from a lot of that generation is that they don't want to downsize. Have you been kind of seeing that a little bit? You know, it's really interesting when you sell or you're thinking of selling your, you know, 1.8 or $2 million house and you want to downsize and you're looking at a condo because you want that lifestyle, carefree lifestyle, for example, and you start looking at what you're paying per square foot. So, you know,

you're paying $1,100 to $1,500 a square foot in Toronto, where my office is in Hyde Park, you're paying $1,100 or more per foot if it's close to the subway. And you want 1,000 square feet because you're coming from 2,500 square feet or more, and you just can't wrap your head around the fact that you're going to live in this, you know, thousand square feet seems puny to you, to someone else who's living in 500 square feet. You're like, Oh my gosh, I wish I could have 700 square feet. Right. So it's, it's very difficult to downsize because now you're buying that condo and you don't have a million dollars in the bank. Okay. So that's difficult. So what we find is they're then going, um, outside of the city, getting maybe a pied a terre downtown just to stay here. Or they say, you know what, we'll, we'll get a short-term rental. We're staying hotel,

whatever it is when we want to come to Toronto. Um, or they're going up North. So there's a lot of ways to deal with it. It is, it is really tough to downsize. I'm not going to lie. If you go from Toronto to a less expensive area, it's fabulous. You can live like a King in certain parts of Canada, right? But, uh, to stay in your neighborhood, which most people want to do, because that's where everything is. That's where their friends are. That's where their banking is, their favorite shops and what have you. Or if they want to go from the Burbs to, you know, the Annex or Yorkville is like the sticker price is like exorbitant compared to what you're used to. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's interesting. I was just like, you know, thinking about like my parents, my husband's

parents and yeah, it's, they're not going to sell for a long time. And they're sitting on these like paid off houses that are worth millions of dollars. You're like, what are you doing? It doesn't make any sense. But it's like you said, it's, I think the other component, cause a lot of people think like, I'm going to buy this property. It's going to be great. It's going to increase in value. Eventually I'll sell it, take the profit, move someplace closer. But I think a lot of people forget about the emotional side of things. You create an emotional attachment. You feel like it is your home instead of just a property that you live in. And just my little PSA for why it's important to diversify, you know, buy property and then, you know, make sure to, you know, invest in your RSPs and stuff

like that. So you're not in that conundrum, right? Yeah, I agree too. But somebody said to me the other day, actually, we were talking about it. I live in a ranch style bungalow, right? And it's, it's great for aging. Like we could stay here until we're in our nineties, you know? Um, and we've been kind of considering like, would we move outside of the city? Where would we go? And some interesting places came up and we thought about it. And then we thought the actual person said to me, why would you? And I'm like, yeah, that's true. Why would we? So it might be the same thing that you're talking about. I was like, why would I leave? I'm comfortable, but I have a bungalow, but the people that have these, uh, two and three story houses, it does get more difficult to

traverse the stairs, especially if you're, let's say your laundry room's down in the basement. Uh, you know, it's tough, but when you're in that financial position, chances are you can take space upstairs and put a laundry room up there. You can do other modifications to make the living lifestyle easier for you as you age, right? The chairlift or even put it in an elevator, depending. Mm-hmm. No, absolutely. So going back to, because I know you have a big focus in, you know, your course and your book about helping women specifically buying property, which I think is so important, because I've gotten so many questions over the years from women being like, I'm single, is this ever going to be a reality that I can own property on my own? Like, I don't want to wait until I meet that special someone so I can afford to buy a property or, you know, I Yeah, what are some of I guess, your pieces of advice for women hoping to buy a property or, you know, I, yeah. What are some of, I guess, your pieces of advice for, for women hoping to buy their place on their own? Is it possible or is it again, depending on the real estate market, you've got to adjust your expectations. You know, it's always possible. And I say that even in Toronto, if you don't live in it,

if you have a budget that you can buy outside of Toronto, let's say Brantford, you know, and you could become a landlord, you can still own property. But home ownership, this is such a passionate thing for me. You know, as I've seen so many changes in real estate over the decades, and you know, and I'm a sociologist at heart, right? So I've seen this sociological change where women are buying homes on their own and investment properties. And this is new to Canada, North America, because it wasn't that long ago, really, when you think of things, women couldn't even get a credit card on their own without a male cosigner. It's like, oh my gosh, how insulting.

Forget about a mortgage or a car loan. No, it was never going to happen, right? So it's my passion project now to help women change their destiny by helping them find their homeworthiness. And this again goes down to mindset. So I was blown away actually, when I spoke to some young women, when I was filming by herself and some women said, you know, I'd really like to buy my own place, but you know, I'm just so afraid I'm going to buy it. And then I'm going to find my life partner right after that. And I'm like, what's the rest of that sentence? I'm like, what's wrong with that? Yeah. Yeah. That's true. You're still attractive just because you're a homeowner. Like what are you doing? And Marianne Williamson has a great quote and I have it in the book. I have the full quote in the book, but basically what she says is not the darkness we're afraid of.

We're afraid of our light shining brightly. So brightly that in fact, you know, these people that say, well, what if I meet Mr. Right per se? You're afraid of shining so brightly that you're going to, you know, that person's going to feel insecure around you. Then you have to ask yourself, do I really want to be with that person? You know, what are you doing to yourself, girl? Don't hide under a basket. And I've done it. This is why I did this, because I was raised by immigrant parents and they brought with them from, you know, an impoverished Southern Italy after the war. I think they came like 70 years ago or whatever it was.

And they brought with them the social norms and mores of that time. And they were, I mean, very defined gender roles. And even kids had certain roles, right? It was very specific. And they were, I mean, very defined gender roles and even kids had certain roles, right? It was very specific and this is what they knew and it worked for them and it worked for their parents and their grandparents and so on and so forth. So this is the way life had to be lived. So I, of course, took those on willingly. I didn't know any different. And then as I was out in the world, I started to recognize that, Hey, you know what, maybe things could be different. So this is what I started to see in these women. And you know, the young women that were saying, well, maybe I shouldn't buy

a place because then I won't be as attractive to actually, you know what sex and the city did in the original one, they did one where Miranda was buying her own place in New York city. That's quite an accomplishment. Um, and the things that they wrote up in that episode were so bang on. They exaggerated a couple of them, but it was brilliant. Even one of her friends said, yeah, but you're going to displace the balance between you and your partner because, and you know, they were saying that she was heterosexual. So you and a man, the man is going to feel that you don't need him if you are self sustaining. So, you know, I feel bad for guys because they don't, you know, they, they, they don't want a gold digger,

right? You don't want a woman that just wants you for your pocketbook, but then how do you deal with one that has her own money? They're kind of like, ah, I never learned this. And they struggle. Everybody's struggling. You know what I mean? So why did I write a book just about women? Because there was a statistic that continues to fly under the radar. Almost one in four buyers is a single woman. And only one in 10 is a single man. That's fascinating to me, but we're not getting married at 18. As soon as we get out of high school, we're getting jobs, if not careers. And we're actually choosing our spouses, sometimes never get choosing, never to get married, choosing never to have children. And that power came to us in the sixties with the very control control pill. Right.

So everything started changing back then. And, you know, when you're in a family, let's say, or a society, um, that shuns that it's going to be super difficult for you to break through that. And all of our false beliefs are super difficult to break away from. So awareness, I keep saying that word, but awareness is key. So how do you get to that awareness? You really have to sit down with yourself and start asking some hard questions like, why don't I want to shine my light so brightly? I had that issue.

I had so many of the issues that I talk about in the book, honest to gosh, my life story almost, but I mean, or, you know, perfectionists, perfectionists, that's a form of procrastination, but perfectionists harm their self themselves because they may never get started because they're, they feel like they're never going to do it. Right. And, and here's my PSA. Somebody's going to criticize your home purchase, no matter how well you do it. And here's another thing. If you tell the wrong people that this is what your plan is, after you've decided that, yes, this is really what I want, and these are the reasons why I want this, and now you have this resolve, you've committed to this.

If you start telling the wrong people, they may inadvertently or on purpose sabotage you. Oh, you shouldn't buy. You're a single woman. Or even if you're not, you're a young couple. The prices are too high. Interest rates are going to go up. No, you can't. It's really expensive to be a homeowner. You know, all these things, they may be saying them sincerely, but they don't know they're trying to derail you by doing this. And just because somebody is a homeowner doesn't make them an expert. Right. I know. I think so many people like, I, you know, get this a lot for when you ask for like financial advice from like friends and family and stuff. It's like, you know, take what they say at, you know, with a grain of salt, but at the end of the day, it's your money and your life. So who cares what they say? And they are, like you said,

just because someone owns a home does not make them a home expert. I mean, come on. Yeah. And I mean, you know, even the water cooler at the office, right? It's like, oh yeah, well, my friend did that and then they lost all this money or all these negative stories. I want to like pivot and just make all the positive stories. Are there landmines you have to avoid?

Yes, but working with the proper professionals who know their stuff, who communicate to you in a manner that you understand, that's key. When you try, like, we interview our clients and they are interviewing us as well. Because if we cannot communicate things to them properly, sometimes you just don't jive with people, right? Not going to bat a thousand with everybody. And you don't have to love your realtor. You don't have to love your

mortgage broker. You don't have to love your hometor. You don't have to love your mortgage broker. You don't have to love your home inspector. But if you trust them because they're good at what they do and they answer your questions or they answer in a timely fashion, they don't leave you hanging. You're not afraid to ask them something because you're treated rudely or, oh, that's a stupid question. Like, no question stupid. This is a lot of money. Like, you're spending a lot of money.

Even if it's you're putting, you know, $50,000 down, that's a lot of money you've saved up after tax dollars, but then you're borrowing hundreds of thousands of dollars. You better sit down with the pros and learn what you got to learn because you know, you don't know some stuff. Like, you know, a little bit of stuff about real estate and you know, there's some stuff that you need help with. Right. But the majority of that pie is that what you don't know, you don't even know. Yeah, totally. Right. Right. And, and somebody's like, I spoke to a first time buyer on the phone the other day and she says, well, can you, can you tell me more? Like, what, what, you Like, where can I research everything I need to know? And I'm like, I'm doing it 25 years and things change, right?

Like how we did real estate 10, 15 years ago is completely different now. So every property is unique. Every situation is unique. Every buyer is unique. Every realtor that you have to deal with is unique. So you can't say cut and dry, this is what's going to happen. And this is how you deal with it. That's why you need someone who can communicate and you need to communicate to them honestly. And you have to communicate

together if you're buying with someone else, because when you find out you're not on the same page at all, you've just wasted a lot of time. But if it got you to that point of awareness, then it was worth it. But don't act if there's things you don't understand. Right. It's like she, she actually said to me, Oh, I guess I should read contracts. She got duped into a contract and she says, I guess I should read everything I'm signing. Right. I'm like, yeah, contract law is pretty serious. Like people will say, well, I'll just back out of it. Well, you can't, if it's a firm deal, you're going to suffer. There's going to be consequences. Let's talk. Oh, you know what I want to talk about Jessica, if you don't mind appraisals right now, appraisals are a problem and it's happened over the years as well.

Because so prices are prices or a property is listed for a certain price and the bidding wars are happening. Is that what you mean? That's one thing. So that's been going on since 1996. But recently, as I said, in January, prices just escalated at a very, very fast rate. So this is how an appraiser works. Now I understand during the pandemic, they changed it a little bit, but historically speaking, an appraiser would go into your house that you bought today. So it's, you know, when we're recording this, it's first quarter. Can I say the date? Oh yeah, you can say it. It's we're in March 2022 as we record this. Okay.

So as we're recording this, it's March. So you bought a property last night. You wanted multiple offers. You paid whatever, $100, $200. It doesn't matter how much over asking. It really doesn't matter because your appraiser doesn't look at that. The appraiser doesn't look at the TREB information at all, Toronto Real Estate Board. You know what the appraiser looks at? What properties,

which properties have closed, which means they've now moved in. So if they're looking, they go back 90 days. So it's March, beginning of March. So they're looking at February, January, and December. Okay. So the people who closed in December, January, and February bought in October, November, maybe December. Those prices weren't nearly as high as they are now. So the appraisal comes in short sometimes. Just as an aside, I did hear that during the pandemic, they said, okay, because prices just went nuts during the pandemic, which totally shocked me. I was not expecting that. I don't think anyone was. Yeah, it was crazy. Like Canadian banks are so cautious. Canadians are typically so cautious. I'm like, are you serious? We have no idea what's going to happen next week. So anyway, but they escalated. So

during the pandemic, they were saying, okay, you can use some Trebstats. So that means last week, just like this sold for this. So you can use that as your reference. But if they're still using, we're calling it closed data, then your numbers are going to fall short. So let's say you bought something and you're putting 20% down. The bank says you can spend this much money. We will lend you this much money provided that you put down 20%, you clear off your credit cards and you pay your property taxes that are owing on your current property, right? It's a conditional approval. So now your appraiser comes in and says, oh, you paid 900,000. Well, I'm only

appraising it at 800,000. Okay. So now there's a hundred thousand dollars that you have to find somewhere. You don't have to find the whole hundred, but let's say the bank will approve you at 80% loan. That means you have to find $80,000 or somewhere around there. Like the numbers are, they have their own calculation, but let's just use 80 for an example. How are you going to find 80 grand? Yeah. Like not everybody has deep pockets. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Which is okay. But I mean, you have to beg, borrow and steal to get that money because if you don't, there are serious consequences. So here's how it goes. If you fail to close on a property, like if you did not have a condition and unfortunately, you know, these properties, you can't put a conditional. You can't make it conditional on your financing. You can't make it conditional on your

home inspection. That's why I think every seller and their agents should do a presale home inspection report to give it to the buyers. You're going to get more buyers. People are afraid, well, it's going to expose all these nasty things about my house. Yeah, but it doesn't matter. There's still buyers for it. And if you do it three months in advance of selling, you can fix some of that stuff. Yeah. And that's a big reason we bought our place. And I think why there were so many bids is because they were one of the few homes that provided that and we appreciated it. Well, there you go. There's a plug for home inspections. I believe it too. So you're not going in with any conditions and now you fail to close.

You're in breach of contract. So now the seller has to sue you. Okay. So the judge will typically say to the seller, you can either sue for their deposit, which could be like a hundred grand or more that the buyer put down with the offer, or you can sue for damages. So let's say you bought it today and you're scheduled to close in June. Let's say in June, the seller can't get that $900,000 anymore and they can only get 800,000. So you're going to, you're going to be sued for damages, which is

a hundred thousand plus whatever it costs them to sue you. And there's a domino effect, don't forget. So they were supposed to go buy this $1.5 million house that they failed to close on. And they're being sued. Like this could tie you up in court for years and cost you a lot of money. And, you know, bare minimum, you're going to lose your deposit, which is going to be anywhere on that size property, like 50 grand to a hundred grand, if not more. Um, so, you know, you really have to be careful. So what's the solution to this? I don't know. No, the solution to make sure, make sure, you know, I do see people get into a little bit of a bidding frenzy and I'm involved in it with one of my clients. They're not in the bidding frenzy. They have a very solid idea of what they can and cannot spend. But people are paying prices for properties that they have no business paying for.

Because last week, something sold for significantly less. And that was an inflated price. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, are you not looking at the stats? Are you, are you, but then you know what there's, you know, in their defense, it's like, I'm so sick of looking, I've been looking for three months. The prices have gone up 200 grand since I started looking, I can't buy what I wanted to, or what I could have bought in December or January. Um, I'm just so sick of this. I just need a house. I need a house.

My wife's going to give birth any minute now, or I need those houses. It's near'm just so sick of this. I just need a house. I need a house. My wife's going to give birth any minute now, or I need those houses. It's near my mother-in-law. She's going to babysit the kids or it's near this, uh, the ghost train or whatever it is that you want. There are some people that are just now saying to heck with it. Let's just throw a big wad of cash at it and get this house. And you know what, at the end of the day, they're typically happy there. Because as I said, the price you don't want to pay today, tomorrow's not enough. Yeah. Oh, that buyer's fatigue is real, though, because we looked for about two months and near the end. Yeah, you can. I mean, I think, yeah, like you said, you know, the stories you've shared are very reminiscent of what we kind of experienced. We had a certain number that we did not

want to exceed. And we obviously significantly exceeded it in order. But I think it's, you know, just things changed so much in the past few months. We had to kind of change our budget and our expectations. But yeah, it was tough. It was really tough to kind of, you know, figure out. It's not easy. And if you know exactly what you want,

and sometimes it takes going through the process, as I said, but if you understand what's driving your goal, so this is, this information is not just about buying a house, like home worthy, how to buy your dream home with ease is not just about skills and tactics to buy a house. It's setting any big goal. It's overcoming false beliefs and conditioning, um, that you may have gotten me as, you know, being raised by immigrants, Mediterranean immigrants. I mean, you know, I was supposed to be a wife and mother and that's it. Right. Not that, not that, that that's it. I didn't mean to say that that wasn't what I chose and it wasn't given to me as an option. And that's,

that's what my sister chose and she's very happy. So, um, breaking through that conditioning and setting a goal that is outside the box thinking for your family or your church community or whatever it is, your, your society, your city that you live in. I mean, we're very fortunate in Toronto that we have a multicultural city, right? So you're seeing people do all kinds of things that you never would have thought of, or I never would have thought of when I lived in my little microcosm of a world. And I still, we all live in a microcosm, let's face it. Right. But you know what, what I want to say, if it's, I don't know if it's a parting message or not, but for women, um, all the women that I worked with after they bought, they became homeowners and they actually went through the trials and tribulations and, uh, you know,

pulling out their hair and crying. And did I, you know, did I pull the trigger too soon? Is something better going to come around next week? Um, they were completely different people. They say they were stronger. They were more confident. They became the women they were meant to be. And I know some people say, Oh, you know, people are pushing home ownership on people. It's capitalism. And it's like, now, if you don't conform, you know, you're this negative term or whatever. That's not what I'm saying. I am speaking from

the heart. My experience is what I've seen in real estate, what I've seen men and women do and what I myself did. Um, and it's just really interesting that this is such a brick wall for many people. Like some women won't even entertain the thought that they could buy real estate or that we should like, they should look into it. Right. So there's women who have been planning and saving money and they're ready to pull the trigger now, or they think they are. And then there's the women who are just starting to kick around the idea. Oh, should I, what if my life partner shows up next week after I buy the place? And then there's the women who never even allow themselves to dream. So this book in this course is to talk to each one of them, even the one who thinks

she's ready to pull the trigger. I've seen many women succeed and I've seen many women fail. So what's the difference between those two women? And this is what drove me to start researching and understanding more like that one story I told you, I've got more stories of people who were like one inch away from the finish line who pulled back. And it's always because of some fear. And the fear was, I'm not going to have for her and for someone else I'm thinking of, I'm not going to have that money in the bank anymore. It's not going to be accessible. It's going to be tied up in my property. Yeah. But you can always

pull it out again. You can always sell it. You have options. I remember watching Judge Judy, I was holding laundry. I was, you know, multitasking, had it on in the background, it came on and she was yelling at some woman. And so I'm listening. I'm like, what is she saying? So she was yelling at this woman for allowing herself to get painted into a corner. And she said, look at you. She's in, this was the victim, right? You painted yourself in a corner. You have no job. You have no skills. You have no career. You have no credit cards. You don't have any money. You have no way to make money. And I thought, wow, what she's saying is you don't have any options. You've created a life where you've stripped yourself of any options. And I thought, how can I apply this to real estate? Real estate affords you all kinds of options. When I was getting my office together, I was at a office furniture store place

and this woman is this massive warehouse. And, uh, you know, she was in her late fifties and I was at a office furniture store place and this woman is this massive warehouse. And, uh, you know, she was in her late fifties and I was in there three, four times. And finally she started saying, Hey, what's it like to be a realtor? And I'm like, why are you thinking a career change? Like she was managing this entire business, but it wasn't her business. And she said, yeah, well, you know, the boss is, uh, closing this location down and he's just going to be working out at Brantford. And I said, oh my God, what are you going to do? Because, you know, when you're that age and you're at that level in your job, it's pretty hard. That's a pretty, you know, small

industry. Where's she going to go? I said, aren't you worried? She goes, no, I'm not really worried. She says, I only have two mortgage payments left on my house and then I own it outright. And I thought, oh my gosh, that is so brilliant. And it made such an impression on me because she said, you know what? I can get a part-time job and pay my property taxes and, you know, new roof, whatever I need. And she says, or I could rent out my basement. And I said, or, you know, after I left, I said, or she could rent out the whole house for more and go pay to rent a smaller place for herself. She had just gotten a big, big dog. So not too many landlords like that. Okay. So she would have paid a lot for rent, but then she would have been paying,

let's say if she didn't own a real estate all those years. And by the way, she took a chance as a single woman, she took a chance at some point. She was probably scared and she was probably, you know, I'm not sure this is good for me long-term, but for some reason she was determined to do it and she did it. And now she was sitting pretty. So here she was, you know, almost retirement age and she didn't have to worry about it. Um, if she had rented all those years, she wouldn't have, she could have invested in other things, but she would be paying at least $3,000 a month rent to get what she was living in now. And with a big dog, you're pretty limited. So she wanted a house. So she'd be paying at least

$3,000 a year, if not more. Um, and her property taxes at that time were probably $4,000 a year. And, you know, when you start utilities, you're going to pay anyway, if you rent a house. So the only thing that was different was property taxes. And if you have to replace a furnace or a roof or something like that, she had loads of money. So if she went and she made, you know, a couple hundred bucks a month, she'd still be okay. You know, sorry, a couple hundred bucks a month, she'd still be okay. You know, sorry, a couple hundred bucks a week, she'd still be okay. And there was no pressure on her. So I really liked that she did some great planning, took chances. And now she's reaping the benefits, you know, because she didn't want to move to where the business was going. She didn't want

to leave her home. This is where her home was her life, her friends, everybody was there. She'd lived there for 20 years. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I completely agree. I mean, when we bought our townhouse, it was scary. I think that's a normal feeling for every first time home buyer. No one's like, Oh, I feel amazing. It's terrifying, because it's the unknown. But you know, like you said, it's, it's, you know, maybe it's not for everybody. But for me, it was always something that I wanted to do. And I always, you know, you said it's it's you know maybe it's not for everybody but for me it was always something that I wanted to do and I always you know looking back sure I wish I could have done it in my 20s but it just was not financially feasible and so we did it you know when it made financial sense for us and like you said too because we were really pressured I feel like to

buy an actual house but I'm like you know prices are crazy in Toronto and it didn't make sense for our careers and our lifestyle at that point and And so we changed our expectations and our wants. And so we bought a townhouse, it was more affordable. And we lived there for five years and built five years of equity putting money into that house, but then it also appreciated. And so it is one of those things where it's it doesn't, you know, it didn't, we knew at the time, like, oh, this isn't our forever place. And it's not perfect. but i'm glad that we we did that because then that did give us more options right like you mentioned it gave us the opportunity when we wanted to leave to move and to move to a a better place in bigger space in a different neighborhood and you know yeah i

feel like it's one of those things where it's like if you understand kind of the math and your goals, like you said, and also, again, the idea that this is a long-term thing. And I think for us as just individuals and also investors, it's very hard to always think long-term because we're always thinking about the present moment. It's hard to think what's life going to be in 5, 10, 15 years. But also, I feel like life goes by so quickly. So, you know, it is important to kind of get into that mindset of thinking long term. And I mean, for me, it's like, I think we all know, like probably handfuls of people that are like, I'm glad I bought what I did and just stuck with it. Because now I'm on the other side of it. I'm really glad I own that property. I don't know too

many people that have regretted buying. And maybe the people that did because you mentioned, you know, everyone has a story of someone who maybe lost money on real estate. Maybe it's important to understand like, what were those circumstances? Typically, they lost money on that property because they were forced to sell because they had to move, they lost their job, they bought too much house, some other circumstance. So, you know, do your research work with professionals that know what they're doing and understand the benefits and also the consequences so you can plan in advance. You nailed it. Yay. I learned something from, you know, buying a couple places, but it was such a pleasure having you on the show. I wish I could have you on for much longer,

but you mentioned to me before we hit record, you want to do a bit of a special giveaway to listeners. Did you want to kind of share what were some of the things that you want to give away to one lucky listener? Sure. So I'll give away the book Homeworthy, How to Buy Your Dream Home with Ease, which I talked about. I'll show you how to achieve huge goals, whether it's homeownership or not, and things that you can use throughout your lifetime. Plus, free membership to the Women Homebuyers 10 Critical Steps for Success, which is an online program with recorded videos. And I'll give a one-hour consultation so that we can talk about your hopes and dreams, even

if you're already a homeowner and even if you own a ton of investment properties, maybe I'll learn something from you. So one-hour consultation where we could talk about anything you want to talk about. That's amazing. Thank you so much, Sandra. And I'll include all the information. I'll share more after this episode. So keep listening for the details on how to enter this giveaway. Well, thank you so much. Before I let you go, where can people find you on, you know, on the web, on social media, where can people follow you? So on Instagram, it's Sandrine Amato. On Facebook, it's Sandrine Amato. And the website, I have two of them. If you want to learn about the course and book, it's sandrinamato.com. Seems to be a narcissistic theme here. Or my real estate website is

rinamado.com. Amazing. Well, thank you again for joining me on the show. It was a pleasure having you on and you honestly shared so many good nuggets of wisdom. Jessica, thanks so much for having me and continued success to you. Good for you. And that was episode 326 of the More Money Podcast with the wonderful Sandra Rinamado. Make sure to check her out at sandrarinomano.com. And you follow her on Twitter and Instagram. You can find her very easily. Also on Facebook at Sandra Rinomano. Of course, I'm going to link everything in the show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 326. Also too, if you're looking for a realtor, I mean, she is a realtor. So her real estate company is Royal LePage

Terra Equity Renamato. Again, you can find more information at her website, but she serves people in the Toronto area. So check her out. And yeah, I have some news I'm sharing about this very special giveaway. I will share in just a moment also some updates about how things are progressing because I'm sharing, you know, I always like to share how I'm doing, what's going on in my life. So stick around. Just a few words I want to share about this podcast episode sponsor, and then I'll share the goods. This episode of the More Money Podcast is supported by Oxio, empathy, radical transparency, simplicity. Free spirit. When you hear these words, I doubt the first thing you'd associate them with is an internet company. Oxio wants to change that.

They believe in disrupting the internet provider space in Canada and putting the customer first, finally. And they're doing just that by providing local and friendly customer service, unlimited internet, no contracts, and competitive pricing to customers in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. That's why I made the switch to Oxio myself. Not only that, when you sign up using the promo code MOREMONEY, you get your first month free. Plus, like everyone at Oxio, an Eero 6 router with ridiculously fast Wi-Fi speeds and better privacy controls is included. And once you've signed up, you can even use Oxio's referral program to earn free internet. Want to ditch your old internet provider like me? Just visit Oxio.ca and use promo code MOREMONEY to try out Oxio for free

for one month. It's as simple as that. Once again, visit Oxio.ca, that's O-X-I-O dot C-A, and use promo code MOREMONEY to try Oxio for free for one month. Okay, let's get to the good stuff. Let's get to the good stuff. I'm so excited to share this special giveaway. Again, you can find all the current books I'm giving away. I'm giving away all the books that have featured on season 14, this current season of the More Money Podcast. You can just go to jessic Jessica morehouse.com slash contest or contests. They both work. They send you to the right place where I'm giving away a ton of books. I think over eight or nine right now. But for this particular wonderful guest, Sandra is not only

offering a copy of her book, but also included the winner will get a book. And again, her book is called Homeworthy. Also a free membership to her exclusive course, Women Homebuyers, 10 Critical Steps to Success. And if that wasn't amazing enough, she's also providing a one hour consultation with her. So go to jessicamorehouse.com slash contest for all of the details on how to enter this kind of, you know, it's not just a book giveaway. It's a package. It's a wonderful, crazy gift package. Very exciting. So jessicamorehouse.com slash contest. That's where you can find the details for that. Okay, what is going on with me? I feel like same old, same old a little bit because it's this big projects I'm still chipping away at, but I'm hopeful that my new website will be up very soon. Other exciting news, not for you really, but for me,

finally got those two closets, guys. Finally got those closets. And also this week, not only did I get those new closets, which is life changing, I am finally putting kind of the finishing touches on my office. So, you know, we moved in, I guess, over three months ago now, but we still are kind of settling in, you know, it takes a while to guess, you know, move things around and, you know, lost the furniture that you came with doesn't work and so you have to get new stuff and whatever. Well, I realized, just like the desk I've been using for years and years, years, it's cute, not functional at all. There's no storage and it's just not, not for me. I need, I need something better. And so I'm getting some, like a built-in desk, like that I kind of designed put in also getting

a little, uh, not a beauty studio. What's it called? A vanity kind of put in, um, just through a closet company that does these kinds of custom desk jobs or whatever. Um, very excited about it. That's this, this is what's exciting in my life. I'm getting a new work desk with the bookshelves and stuff. I'll share some photos on Instagram once it's up. Cause I'm very excited about it. This is what's exciting in my life. I'm getting a new work desk with bookshelves and stuff. I'll share some photos on Instagram once it's up because I'm pretty excited about it. So that's really exciting. I also want to remind you, I have an investing course if you're Canadian. This will be of interest to you. It is called Wealth Building Blueprint for Canadians. Just in February, I had a one-year anniversary. There's several hundred students in the course now, which is super exciting. It's also really exciting just to see the progress of the early students who got in right when I opened the doors to see how far

they've come. Very exciting. Anyways, I've been doing a huge update of the course, just making it more comprehensive, adding so much more good information based off the feedback I'm getting from my current students, because I'm always listening and want to make sure it is super comprehensive and just, you know, giving them the tools that they feel confident that they can understand how investing works in Canada, but also know how to actually invest their money. And so if you want to learn more, well, you know, go ahead, just go to jessicamorehouse.com slash WBB. That's for like wealth building blueprint, WBB, or there is a link in the show notes for this episode, jessicamorehouse.com slash 326. And you can apply it is by application

only. And that is because I want to make sure that every student in the course that it is the right fit for that student that is serving them just as you know, I want to make sure that every student in the course that it is the right fit for that student that is serving them just as you know, I want to make sure that you know, basically the students that are in the course are actually going to do all the work and implement it because that's the only way that you're going to get results and actually build your wealth invest for your future and all that kind of stuff. But then you know, if you are a good candidate good fit for the course, then you have a nice call with me. This is an opportunity for you to have a one-on-one chat with me, Jessica, which is kind of exciting. And yeah, so you can find all that information on my website, jessicamorehouse.com slash WBB. And I look forward to seeing some new students in the course. That's very exciting. Very exciting. What else? I feel like that's sort of it.

Plans are coming along for Costa Rica. I think I mentioned that in a previous episode that I, I mean, I'm desperate for a proper vacation. And so far, the only trips that we have planned are weddings, um, which I'm excited about. Um, also terrified because, you know, I've been kind of in my own bubble for two years and it's crazy to think of being in a big public place with a lot of people. But I guess we just got to live our lives or I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

So we'll just see what happens. But Costa Rica is happening. We don't have a place yet, but it's definitely going to happen. And I'm very excited about it because two years is way too long to not see something other than your, you know, four walls of your house. I just need to get out. I just need out. I need, I need a break. I need a break. I don't know about you. Also, it snowed here in Toronto the other day. So I literally was spending the other weekend organizing my backyard. Like it's honestly the first time I've really been in the backyard because it's been, you know, snow the whole time. Cle whole time cleaning it up getting all the leaves out trying to figure out why there's

all these squirrels in our backyard what are they digging what are they digging I didn't see any nuts they're always digging and ruining my yard um and yeah I was just so excited like all right you know this is one step or you know cleaning it up and start a garden literally the next day it starts snowing so that's. Good old Canada for you, right? Yeah. Okay. Now I'm just rambling. Now I'm just, just want to talk to you, but I've got nothing to say. So thanks so much for listening. I will see you back here next Wednesday for another episode. Who do I have on the show? Oh, so excited. Next week I've got a good friend of mine, Alyssa Davies, who you may know from Mixed Up Money. So excited. She has a book coming out, new book coming out called Financial First

Aid. And I've got her back on the show. She's been on the show before. I'm so excited to have her back on. So you can look forward to that. Otherwise, a big shout out to my wonderful podcast editor, Matt Rideout. And yeah, have a good rest of your week, weekend. I will see you back here next Wednesday for that fresh new episode of the more money podcast. See you then. This podcast is distributed by the women in media podcast network. Find out more at women in media.network.