Matthew is the Founder & Owner of the Millennial’s Choice Group of Companies; a Real Estate, Mortgages, Insurance and Education brand. To better benefit his clients, Matthew has earned numerous degrees including, a Bachelors in Education, an Honorary Degree in Law & Society, a Real Estate Brokers License, a Mortgage Brokers License, & a Life Insurance Agent License. In this episode we discuss the importance of financial education and literacy and how they were factors in his success.
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Gaining Financial Literacy and the Stability of Real Estate with Matthew Ablakan
Shannon Robnett 00:45
Hey, everybody, welcome back to Season Two of the real estate rundown show. You know, today we’re going across the board and we’re going to talk with a gentleman who is joining us from Toronto, Canada, Matthew Ablakan. And the great thing about Matthew is he’s got a pretty diverse background in his investment theses, and has kind of dabbled in a lot of things. Don’t let his young youthful good looks for you. Matt’s got a track record on him. That is probably second to none. So let’s jump into it. Matt, thanks for coming today. How are you?
Matthew Ablakan 01:15
Shannon, I’m doing well. Thanks for having me. And kudos to you for creating content that your listeners can absorb. And, and you’re bringing them lots of value. I wish I had something like this when I was 19.
Shannon Robnett 01:24
Yeah, so do I, right. All I had was my parents grinding it out of me every Saturday on the job site until I finally moved out of the house. Read that, you know that purple book Rich Dad Poor Dad and realized my parents were right. That was a really embarrassing moment. But
Matthew Ablakan 01:39
At least your parents made you work. My parents were telling me to keep my money in the bank.
Shannon Robnett 01:46
I guess you know, the other side of that is you could have been trained improperly. I was trained properly, but I hated every minute of it. But tell us a little bit, Matthew about your journey and how you, you know how you got involved and how you got kind of to where you’re at. And then we can kind of dive into some of the questions I’m dying to ask you.
Matthew Ablakan 02:05
Yeah, so I bought my first property when I was 19 years of age, I got licensed as a real estate agent shortly thereafter, I ended up becoming licensed as a mortgage agent right after that as well. So we were trying to create this kind of one stop shop. And then long story short, what it’s evolved to now is a real estate brokerage, Millennials Choice Realty, Millennials Choice Mortgages with which is a full service mortgage brokerage with all of our A lenders and B lenders here in Ontario and other provinces like Alberta. And we have a life insurance Estate Planning Division known as Millennials Choice Insurance. But really, I saw the need for this one stop shop, the need for getting people to just have access to better services, all under one roof. Because think about it, who wants to go talk to a realtor, talk to a mortgage lender, you know, then there’s this whole conversation about insurance, nobody wants to talk about because it has a negative connotation. So I decided to build this like group of companies. And it didn’t start with Millennials Choice. It started with Matthew Ablakan, I just showed people what I was doing with my own personal investments. And then one thing led to another, my model is very much the same as it was when I was 19. I’m 90 to 95% based off of repeat business and referrals. And now I’ve grown to a larger team, I have six people on our team that are very efficient. It’s a well oiled machine. And we just passed our 10 year anniversary in business when I first got licensed, so it’s been a great 10 years great decade. And I’m excited to see what the next 10 years hold.
Shannon Robnett 03:43
You know, the thing that I’m hearing, Matthew is that, you know, there was an education process. And one of the things that I think, you know, I’m not going to just limit this to millennials, because I know some people that are in their 50s that are financially illiterate, right? They’re financially ignorant, and there’s a lot of difference between being stupid and being ignorant, right ignorance is you just don’t know. And they weren’t taught, they didn’t grow up in a household where that kind of stuff was practiced. They never read the books that helped them along the way, whatever, whatever. But, you know, I can imagine that part of your biggest business model is education. It’s about showing people why it makes it a whole lot easier to to give them what they really need that they don’t know they need if they know why the product exists, right?
Matthew Ablakan 04:32
Absolutely. And my background in education is teaching so I have my Bachelor of Education. I have my honours degree in law, that was my undergrad, and they’re sitting behind me on the on the floor of their framed. I have everything on the floor. It’s kind of like a loft in here in our office. But that’s the approach we bring to our sales. It’s an education based approach to sales. We want to inform our clients as best as we can, have all the information, let them make an informed decision. And I know there’s this whole thing people say ignorance is bliss. It’s really not, you don’t know what you don’t know. And sometimes you hear something or you pick up something that’s wrong. There’s a there’s an article circulating here in Ontario, where there’s a woman and her daughter, they’re facing homelessness after purchasing a rental property, and the tenant is being uncooperative and refuses to move out. But yet they’ve closed on that deal. It’s going viral, I posted a video, just yesterday about I’ve got 1000s and 1000s of impressions on it already on my Instagram. And when you read the article, you realize that the person bought the property unseen, did not buy it from a licensed professional, they didn’t go and even inspect the property, once even even on the closing date, didn’t didn’t look at financial records of the property, making sure that tenants have paid and are up to date with their rents. So now you look at this article that’s going viral, because you see a woman in her childhood unfortunately, risks at the risk of being homeless. And everybody else gets turned off about buying real estate, and buying rental properties. So ignorance is not bliss, you really got to understand what you’re doing. decide you want to do this real estate becoming a landlord is not a fad. It’s not the cool thing to do. You’re buying into a business, when you’re buying a real estate property, a real estate investment, treat it as a business because the IRS, the CRA, treat it as a business and tax you accordingly. Right. So you have to treat it as well. And that means surrounding yourself with the right people getting educated like you’re mentioning. And again, learning from your mistakes. It’s super important.
Shannon Robnett 06:35
Well, you know, and we hear this a lot. You know, real estate is not hard, but it’s not easy, right? It’s a it’s a rinse and repeat scenario. Buying one rental buying 10 rentals, buying 50 rentals, it’s the same process. Once you know your due diligence, that process is now something you can do every single time. And you can begin to automate that and outsource that to other trusted professionals. But if you don’t know how to do it, you can’t outsource it. Right. So you have to make sure that that education piece is is the cornerstone of that. And once you have people educated that, hey, you should buy real estate. Okay, I should buy real estate. I guess I have to wait till I save up money. No. Now let’s educate you about mortgage. So now we can educate you about mortgage and we can educate you about real estate, then comes the natural question of cashflow. Right, because you’re having this, this question of if I buy this and and I, my rents are 1200 a month and my mortgage is 1300 a month. This isn’t a good thing. Right? This is a very, it seems very basic and people laugh, but I’ve watched people do it over and over again. Right?
Matthew Ablakan 07:46
Yeah, what Jim Rohn says is that with the things that are easy to do are also easy not to do. And if you’re not buying real estate, or you’re not buying other investment types that you like other investment vehicles, because of inflation and all this uncertainty in the rising rates, guess what, you’re still making a decision to invest by not investing, because you’re leaving your money in the bank, they’re paying you next to nothing on the interest, you never really see any of that money, and your dollar and your purchasing power is decreasing. So you are making an investment by not going the real estate route not going other routes. I only recommend real estate, but I don’t recommend crypto or stocks or any of that other stuff. But I only recommend real estate but you’re making a decision by not getting into those. And it’s a bad one. And it’s only going to continue getting worse rates are going to continue to rise. But for every season, there is a strategy. And that’s where you have to understand, when people are greedy, be fearful when people are fearful be greedy. But you know, we’ll see how many people actually are going to live by all these things that they post and talk about on social media.
Shannon Robnett 08:56
Right? Well, you know, social media, I mean, gee whiz, it’s, it’s been noted that for years people have been looking like this on the top with no shorts on right. But the reality is it like you say it’s very, very simple, right? If you’ve got positive cash flow, that’s a great investment. The market is not smooth sailing right now. Right? The market is choppy, but cash flow is what makes that a reality. If you’re going into it and you’re putting your last dollar into real estate, might want to make sure you’ve got some reserves because that’s the difference between being a buy and hold. Because you gotta have the ability to hold on right? Or being a buy and lose it realtor or real estate investor because you didn’t plan for that. Right. We saw a lot of that in the global financial meltdown. 2007 and 2008. People didn’t plan for a bad day. They didn’t plan for a two month delinquency. You just mentioned this young lady and her daughter who are facing homelessness because this gentleman is not paying alright. But at the end of the day, where was the where was the due diligence that were told her that and where were the reserves that should have been encouraged? But the reality is, there’s there’s books out there people can read, there’s so many sources for people to find this information. Why do you think a lot of people still don’t bother?
Matthew Ablakan 10:14
They’re lazy. They they don’t, they don’t care enough. You know, over here, we have millennials and Gen z’s. And I hope that there are some of your listeners and that are that are in this situation so that maybe they can wake up, but they’re living with their with their parents living in their, their basements, and they’re comfortable, their content, the amount of parents that I speak with, who say, Oh, if only my kid would buy a property and move out. So what does your kid do? Oh, they’re a teacher, they just became a teacher. And where are they living? They’re still living in their same bedroom. Okay? Okay, mom and dad, maybe it’s time for you to kind of, you know, encourage them and push them and make their life a little bit uncomfortable for their own good, it’s for your own good. I’m in Toronto, I’m in Ontario, I have a real estate business, I gain nothing from, you know, pitching this to your audience, except, you know, notoriety and, and hopefully some people learn about us. We’re not selling anything, we don’t have courses, we don’t have books, the book that I do have, I’m going to share with the audience for free. We don’t have any of that stuff. So it’s for your own benefit, nobody else’s benefit. And if you think that the government or somebody else is going to come along and take care of you, you’re mistaken. And just look at other parts of the world. Look at other countries. You know, China, we don’t see a lot of things happening in China, China’s their people are on the streets, or they’re either protesting on the streets, or they’re in severe severe lockdowns with drones flying around, you know, telling them that they must stay inside otherwise they’ll be arrested. You don’t want it to get to that point. Right. Create your own future, create your own destiny.
Shannon Robnett 11:53
Right. Well, and you know, the reality that is true. I mean, yes. You know, we’ve all heard the story that says, you know, my father walked 10 miles, right. Or my grandfather walked 10 miles, my father drove a Chevy, I drive a Mercedes, my son will drive a Ferrari, my grandson will walk, right. And that’s that laziness thing. That’s that. I don’t know how my dad made all this money. I don’t know how my parents afforded all of this stuff, you know, and we hear people talk all the time about how expensive a house is now, right. But if you look back, it’s just as expensive now percentage wise to our wage as it was then the finance ability of a house is higher now than it was then. Interest rates. We can argue that during the Jimmy Carter years, we were at 17% in the States, right. So we’ve seen higher interest rates, we’ve seen all these things. But I think we’ve lost that “shut up and do it yourself and quit blaming everybody else”-ness. I don’t know what you call that. You know what you call that? Matthew? I think it’s just I think it’s just adulting. Right?
Matthew Ablakan 13:00
Yeah, I think I think there’s a lot of it’s a lack of accountability, a lot a lack of responsibility, a lack of drive and motivation. You know, you know, they legalize marijuana here, everybody’s lazier now. Like, come on, guys. It’s it’s not that difficult. And I’m a millennial, too. My parents came to the country separately, they met here at a local church, from Iraq during, you know, the Saddam Hussein regime, which is totally communist totally, totally totalitarian. And they escaped, and came here as refugees. They both have their stories and lots of people from that region have similar stories. They got married, they had a our problems are not their problems. No, they’re they’re the real pioneers that did that. Like, can you imagine picking up and leaving from where you are, it’s, you don’t want to imagine it. Now. They’re the pioneers. Okay. Now they came here, their credentials didn’t transfer over. They were both highly educated. So they became convenience store owners, we just sold their convenience store in 2022, that they’ve been operating out of for 25 years in hopes of my brother and I helping them to retire. So our problems are different. You got to we got to grind, we got to build a business, we got to get attention. We got to do right by people. I get it. It’s not easy. It’s not easy. You got to work hard. You got to work smart at the same time. But it’s really rewarding in terms of who you become. You become a person that’s more valuable to society, you become a better person. If you’re doing it the right way. You become a better person overall in every area of your life. But you know, a lot of people if they’re being discouraged because they’re looking at the $2 million single family detached home, where I’m where I’m currently operating from. Don’t look at that get in the market by getting into you know, an investment property, something that’s more affordable, get your foot in the door, build up your net worth, you know, sometimes sometimes you’re going to make compromises and that’s fine. 10 years into it. My wife and I just moved into our forever home we have no intention of leaving In the home, I sold my second investment property I ever purchased my only one that I ever sold, I sold that and I just traded it up for the primary residence, we didn’t want to rent here, there’s some laws here. They’re not too favorable for tenants. We just wanted the stability. So we bought where we live, where we live now. But if it took 10 years to do that, and to be honest with you, even years where we were making six figures of income, we were living at my parents house, because I had an investment property or a portfolio working for me, we didn’t want to jump into something that wasn’t our forever home, we said, if we’re gonna do it, maybe we’ll spend an extra year in my parents house horrible rents, where we’re living, which we did. And then when the finally the time came, that’s when we made that jump, and we’re better off for it so…
Shannon Robnett 15:49
well, and you know, there’s, there’s a time and a place, right, I mean, I remember my parents helping in that way, but there always had to be the plan. You know, my dad was very, very keen on giving me help. When I had the plan, you know, when I there was times in the business that I needed a little help making payroll, you know, my dad would say Okay, bring me your accounts receivable bring me your books. Let’s talk about it. How are you going to get me this money back? Well Dad payday hits here, you know, my draw requests are coming in on the 15th payday’s on the 8th, I need like six days. And you know, okay, well, what’s your draw request, he used to go through that with me, so that I knew why I was getting quote, unquote, approved for this. And all he was doing was preparing me to go to the bank, right. All he was doing was preparing me for the next step for my business, all he was doing was really teaching me that nothing was free. It wasn’t a handout, I had to earn it. If I didn’t have a if I couldn’t tell him where the money was coming from, I wouldn’t get it. Right. And there was a time there was a couple of times when I moved in with him for that exact reason we sold the house, we needed the cash to go build the new house. So we moved in with them, we built a new house, right? But those are the kinds of things where the standard needs to be held not only for from parents to children, or the second generation, but from that generation to themselves. And I think that really, Matthew, if we could boil down what you just said, there, I think that the biggest thing that’s missing is personal accountability. First, you know, personal accountability that says, Matthew, nobody cares, where you and your wife live, except for you and your wife. Right. And if you think that it’s my responsibility, or the government’s responsibility, or anybody else’s to take care of you, you’ll always be looking for somebody else to take care of you. But if you take responsibility for that, and you say, I’m going to do this, and I’m going to buy this rental property, and I’m going to do these things. And now I’m able to take care of something. I don’t need to wait on anybody else. Now I can have what I want. Not what somebody feels like deserve or what they’re gonna give me. Right? Yeah. And that came from your education. Right? Came from your background, it came from your grind, but without that education without that accountability, none of that stuff happens.
Matthew Ablakan 18:04
I made a lot yet I made a lot of mistakes on my first property. I still own it today. It’s the only one I’m a little bit emotional about because it was my first one, right? But guess what? Before that one, I invited a realtor over. I looked at a project, I invited a realtor who I knew over the house out of respect for my parents, because we’re very family oriented. It’s in our culture. And my mom said to me, everything sounds good. They weren’t helping me financially with it. I was using part of my student loan bursary, and part of the money I had saved that a couple of restaurant jobs and some some jobs, odd jobs I would do in high school. And she said, just saved your money, though, let it build. So I did, I didn’t move forward with the purchase. The realtor called me back about four weeks later and said, Oh, you missed out, the prices went up 15 grand. And at the time, that’s all I needed to get in. So it was a 100% ROI on paper. And I said this is all the money in the world. I was so upset at my my mom. But I didn’t go up to her. I didn’t say anything to her. I kind of internalized it and learned later that they lost everything coming to the country. And so they just want to be conservative. They’re happy with what they’ve got. They’re just happy to be here. They don’t want us to go through those struggles. So I understood that. But however, this is not the same landscape that I’m growing up in that they grew up in. So I decided to make the decision, the decision for myself. So the next opportunity that came up, I bought it. I went home I had the paperwork in hand and I said mom, I bought a condo she freaked out at me. But I said you need to relax. I know what I’m doing, whatever. Fast forward 10 years later, they’re obviously extremely proud. But they get motivated to they see what we’re doing and they get motivated to because it’s it’s helping them break a lot of their own blind spots that they have and idea of how things work because of how it worked. where they came from. So that’s interesting.
Shannon Robnett 20:02
It’s interesting, you’re in a different dynamic than most, you know, I mean, I grew up listening to my parents and having to understand that my parents were a lot smarter than I gave them credit for. And I had to kind of grow into that whole realization, you’re having the opposite happen, you’re having your parents understand that Matthew is actually smart. He’s actually doing this, we actually should listen to Matthew on these things. And, and, you know, I’ve seen as, as I’ve grown, but it’s been in my late 40s, that my parents and I have kind of switched roles. And now they look to me for advice. Whereas you know, you’re doing that from a younger age. And I think that goes back to the same thing we keep coming back to is the conversations that happen around the educational piece right around that part that says, I needed to learn more so that I could be more, you know, and so when you’re looking at, I think that the US real estate market and the Canadian real estate market, by and large, are similar. Can we make that assumption?
Matthew Ablakan 21:06
Yeah.
Shannon Robnett 21:07
Okay, good. So as we’re looking at the next six months, interest rates have been rising here in the States, they’ve been rising in Canada too, have they’ve been doing about the same as what they’ve been doing in the States?
Matthew Ablakan 21:19
Yeah, we always are, like, trailing behind you guys. But we, you know, we had an announcement, you know, earlier, and they just raised it again. So they’re gonna keep…
Shannon Robnett 21:28
What are your interest rates up there?
Matthew Ablakan 21:31
So if you get up… so we have a lot of variable rate mortgages. And the way ours work, the lending side works a little bit differently here than it does in the US. Like you guys can lock in your rates for 10, 15 years, 20 years…
Shannon Robnett 21:45
30.
Matthew Ablakan 21:46
30 years, we can’t do that. So the most commonly sold mortgage product is a five year fixed rate, or five year variable rate mortgage, and then it comes up for renewal. So if you get an adjustable rate mortgage, which is the variable rate mortgage, those are sitting at about five and a half today, and then if you get a fixed, they just went up a little bit there. They’re five and three quarters for a five year fixed rate, and your payment will never change for five years. So now we’re going through that whole, What do you do? Do you go adjustable, you go? Right, fixed? We don’t know. But the Bank of Canada, our central bank has signaled that there will be more hikes to come.
Shannon Robnett 22:26
Yeah. So as we’re, as we’re going into this, and this is what everybody wants to know, right. And this is what has kind of been the theme for the last month and a half, because we’re all in, you know, a different place than we were a year ago with interest rates being lower. We were had we had supply issues a year ago. Now we’ve got less supply issues, but more constraints on the other side. As far as interest rate, but you know, the reality is if a cash flows, if you can afford it in a cash flows, that’s the deal you do. That’s the deal you do if rates are 8%, that’s a deal you do if rates are at 12%, that’s a deal you do it with rates are at 4, right? Because the reality is if we look at what’s happened, historically, rents have to rise, because landlords have a cost of doing business, and there’s no landlords on the planet, anywhere on this planet that go into the business to lose money. So if the price has to cover the mortgage, and has to be kind of you know, what everybody else is unless you’re as long as your rate and everything is working, and it does it now. Isn’t that what you believe to be a good deal? That will, that will, that will be a good deal? Now, it will be good deal. Next year? It’ll be a good deal the following year.
Matthew Ablakan 23:44
Yeah, that’s a no brainer deal. And the other thing is, you have to keep in mind, the only people who lose are the ones that have to sell and they bought at a high number and they have to sell. The people who come out ahead during these times are people who are really getting in, they’re taking advantage of the market, there’s a good deal, and they’re keeping it for the long run. with respects to the landlord’s conversation and rental, rental prices. We’re seeing double digit across Canada, these rents are going up and here’s for the millennial listeners and Gen Z’s are hot on crypto and stocks. A lot of pump and dump schemes. Listen to me very carefully when I tell you this: real estate offers utility. The utility is very simple. It’s a place to live. I mean there’s you know other other things that you can use real estate for place of business, place of worship, etc. We’re sticking with housing for now. It’s a place to live during economic recessions and difficult times or times where interest rates are going up, which is causing housing to become more and more unaffordable, not more affordable, because prices are coming down a little bit. No, it’s becoming more and more unaffordable. Guess what people still need a place to live and they turn into the rental market that’s going to drive prices up and, you know supply, we have a major major supply issue, we need 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years, just to keep up with current demand, we build, if we’re lucky in Ontario 30,000 homes a year, that’s being delayed because of lots of municipal red tapes with our local cities. It takes few years just for a developer to get through the approval process and planning process with a city here, and they have to then sell the project, then they can get their construction financing, and then they can start tendering out everything. So we’re gonna imagine how much more of a supply issue we’re gonna have in the next three to four years. So if you position yourself properly as a landlord, whether that storm a little bit, if you have to put a little bit more money down, figure it out, and let the property cash flow, build some equity, and hopefully in the in the next few years, rents are going to continue to skyrocket and we don’t have rent control in our province after if a property is built after 2019. Everything else is subject to rent control. So I strongly recommend people look for those new properties where there is no rent control.
Shannon Robnett 26:05
Yeah, well, and you know, that’s the thing, too, you know, you mentioned that we have a supply problem. And that was one of the places that you made money early on, was in pre construction, pre development, you know, how did that work in where you were able to benefit from realizing that there was a, there was a lack of supply. And the basic laws of supply and demand said that the lower the supply, the higher the retail price, how were you able to identify that, and then profit from that.
Matthew Ablakan 26:33
So pre construction, real estate, works very differently here than from the United States. So number one, our government backs up all of your deposit monies. So you’ll never lose your deposit money that you give to a licensed builder here. Worst case scenario with a pre construction deal. If a project gets canceled for financing reasons, zoning reasons, whatever the case may be, which typically a lot of those things are already addressed by a developer ahead of time. But if it does get cancelled, you unfortunately lose the time that you were in the market that unfortunately, you didn’t get the product. So you get your money back. But it works very differently. So the way I saw it was, you buy something now it’s going to be ready in four years, let’s say you’re buying in a condominium, complex condos are very, very popular here. You’re buying a condominium, it’s going to be ready in four years, you’re locking it in at today’s price. Now there’s going to be speculation to whether that price appreciates or not. And over the last 10 years, they’ve appreciated but you also… it’s not really speculation, because when you’re looking at the need for housing and that shortage, if I’m buying something now it’s going to be ready in four years, I have no more warranty, which is very, very strong here, I have a there’s a home warranty program here from our government, it’s really, really strong, I don’t need a mortgage at the time when I buy it, I don’t need a down payment at the time when I buy it, I can get in with just paying the deposit whatever that payment plan, the builder is the builder gives me, then I can kind of almost guarantee that I’m going to make some money. Now. Even if there is no appreciation because there’s a recession or something happens, we just talked about it, rents are gonna go up. So if I’m a buy and hold kind of guy, which I am, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna hold these properties for 10, 15, 20 years, what do I care what happens in the market, I lock in the debt, a lot of people went variable and adjustable rate mortgages here, because the rates are typically lower than our fixed rates by 50 basis points or so. But I understand a concept that I learned from my fellow Americans from Ken McElroy, which is your debt is an asset if you know how to get the right debt. And so that concept of locking in your rates, we locked them in for five years, like most of my portfolio is sitting at two and a half percent, right? How can you go wrong, I get into real estate one of the reasons I get into real estate is because I can access debt, I want to go open up a restaurant, the bank says show me a business plan and even then chances are known especially after these last couple of years with all the lock downs we’ve had. We’ve had very strict lockdowns here. So getting into real estate for the purpose of accessing capital is huge. And these are a lot of things leverage and all these other things people miss out on as some of the benefits of investing in real estate.
Shannon Robnett 29:26
Well, and one of the things I want to highlight here is that you know, you’re you’re looking long term, right? I mean, you’re looking at it going I don’t see demand being satiated in four years. I’m going to have brand new product in four years. I’m investing today for four years down the road. Right and Kenny McElroy is exactly right. Right. That is that is debt that is an asset to you. Because now you are in control for the amount of your deposit. You’re in control of that asset for the duration right so You’ve got something that you’re four years out on, to have something brand new, that maybe up, maybe down, maybe sideways, but you still have tenancy. And we’re not solving the problem around here as far as how to get that to get more housing built in that same time period. Because everything that started this year is going to be finished in four years, everything that starts next year is going to be five years from today, right? So you can always kind of look at that and see what’s going on and be able to judge that. And then you’re sowing the seeds for the future, knowing that I can go in with my deposit. Now. I can I can be involved in that. But the biggest thing that I’m seeing here, Matthew, is that you’re planning ahead, right? You’re planning for the future, you’re planning for five years from now to start getting those rents four years from now to start getting those rents. But if you’re looking at it, if you started that four years ago, that means every single year, you’re pulling a new product or a new new asset online. And then you’re going to accelerate that, oh my gosh, now I have this new asset that’s giving me money, plus the one that came online last year, and I got another one next year and another one. So you’re really putting yourself in a position where you’re maximizing what’s available to you. You’re going into the marketplace, you’re analyzing the market, you’re saying this is going to be a strong place of demand for a long time.
Matthew Ablakan 31:21
Right. Yeah. And the other thing to mention is, we’re very much in the business of equity takeouts and we don’t want to have any of our skin in the game. And we understand the concept of infinite returns, right. And so with these types of projects, and again, my portfolio has a number of different types of properties. But for pre construction, by the time it’s ready, we see so much appreciation here in Ontario, right? We do an equity take on right on closing from day one.
Shannon Robnett 31:49
Yeah. Which allows you to put down to payment on the next project over, right. I mean, and that’s the beauty of it. And this is I think the thing that, you know, everybody thinks real estate is a get rich, quick and it’s not right. We all know anybody that’s been in real estate knows that, yes, you can get wealthy, you can get your time back from cash flow, that’s going to free you up from having to show up somewhere to pay the bills that you have every day in your life. But at the end of it all, it’s not get rich quick, but it’s really the only alternative that most people have, other than being involved in in a crypto runaway or, you know, having a cousin who wins the lottery and you know, whatever. There’s just there’s a lot of reasons why that’s not going to be that way. Right? So, you know, one of the things that that I that I’m hearing you say that I love and is that, you know the education piece, it’s a planning ahead piece, it’s a knowing what your strategy is, so that you can get good at it and continue to do that. And you know, when you’re, when you’re going after, obviously as your businesses continue to grow after 10 years, you’re you’re you’ve modeled that toward Millennials choice, because that’s the demographic that you best identify with, with those charming good looks of yours and that young face. But the reality is at the end of the day, that’s the demographic that needs this message the most.
Matthew Ablakan 33:15
Right? Yeah. And not only that, it’s it’s there talked so bad about all over the media and all over the news. And it’s a play on our marketing and whatnot. And, yeah, we are Millennials Choice, you know, we’re but we don’t we don’t discriminate against age or anything like that. But that’s the market type that, like you said, I identify with, and they’re forever going to become millennials and they’ll have kids. And, you know, I think there’s some really up and coming Gen Z’s out there that are, they’re killing the market too. And they’re doing very, very well a lot of Surprisingly, a lot of my newer clients are actually in their early 20s. And they’re part of the Gen Z. So I’m helping them out. And they’re buying investments. We have clients as young as 16 years old, who bought investments in 2015. They were ready four years later. So by the time they turned 20, they flipped one deal, one deal that they’ve now translated into seven or eight deals, they have a thriving business, and they’re now 23 years of age turning 24 very, very soon. So these are people that we’ve helped them really change their lives by helping them change their mindsets. And that’s how it starts number one you got to decide to take action it’s something that you want to do so you got to decide that then you got to get educated then you got to surround yourself with the right people and you got to take that leap of faith and learn from your mistakes rinse and repeat you said it earlier and then do it again.
Shannon Robnett 34:40
Well and you know that’s funny because I was kind of chuckling there a minute ago because I’m I can just see the headline now: “Millennials Retiring” right? It’s gonna, I mean time marches on right? But there is there is that that strong, strong need for people to learn and to people to replicate and people to teach other people. So, you know, Matthew, I really appreciate you swinging by and dropping these huge gems on us. You did mention earlier as we were talking that you’ve written a book, tell me a little bit more about your book.
Matthew Ablakan 35:10
Yeah, so I co authored a book with Kevin Harrington, one of the original sharks from Shark Tank, and Robert G. Allen, is a big real estate guru out in the States. And so they pushed it, they promoted it, they made it a best seller. And if your audience would like a free ebook version of that, they can just visit financialfreedomclub.ca/ebook without a hyphen, and I’ll share that link with you, Shannon. And if you want to share it in the show notes, awesome. That’s yeah, it’s it’s, it’s awesome. It’s full of great authors, great content. And like you said, people need to be educated, but people also have to, they want to be educated and they have to make that choice. It’s not difficult play the long game, you plan on being here for quite some time. So play the long game, there’s no point in taking shortcuts. And I’ve seen it in my life I’ve seen in many, many of my clients lives in real estate has really changed their change our lives for the better.
Shannon Robnett 36:04
Well, and you know that that’s true. And you know, the reality is, it’s about the long game, and it’s about playing with strategy. And that’s what a lot of people don’t always do. But, you know, Matthew, I just want to thank you for coming on the real estate rundown, and dropping this, this knowledge on us. And guys, if you didn’t catch that, you can get a copy of his book, just shoot me an email [email protected]. We’ll connect you with everything that Matthews got on the collateral side and we’d love to chat with you. But anyway, don’t forget to like, share, subscribe to this channel. Wherever you get your podcast from. We’d love to hear from you. Leave us a review. And once again, Matthew, thank you for stopping by the real estate rundown.
Matthew Ablakan 36:49
Thank you for having me, Shannon. I appreciate it. And I look forward to coming back on the show. Awesome.
Important Links:
- Show – Real Estate Syndication Podcast Past Episode
- Podcast – The Real Estate Syndication Show
- Spotify – Robnett’s Real Estate Run Down
- iTunes – Robnett’s Real Estate Run Down
- Instagram – Robnett’s Real Estate Run Down
- YouTube – Shannon Ray Robnett
About Matthew Ablakan:
Matthew Ablakan’s journey began at a very young age where trading Pokémon cards began to teach him a variety of skills such as how to Negotiate and the importance of Demand and Supply. As he entered High School, Matthew began to sell Jansport Backpacks, Hair Straighteners and Dog-Tags to his peers. He began to dabble into Mutual Funds on a small scale and began learning more about Investing.
Upon entering University, Matthew worked part-time jobs as a cook, waiter and manager of a couple of restaurants in order to help pay for his tuition. Chuck E Cheese, Johnny Rockets and Lucky Strikes taught Matthew many valuable lessons in communication, hard-work, honesty and transparency. It was in those early years that Matthew began to learn more about Real Estate and Invested in his first Pre-Construction Condo at the age of 19 with zero help from his immigrant parents, using a flexible deposit payment plan and part of his student loan.
Matthew is the Founder & Owner of the Millennial’s Choice Group of Companies; a Real Estate, Mortgages, Insurance and Education brand. To better benefit his clients, Matthew has earned numerous degrees including, a Bachelors in Education, an Honorary Degree in Law & Society, a Real Estate Brokers License, a Mortgage Brokers License, & a Life Insurance Agent License. Education & Financial Literacy are important facets to the success of Millennial’s Choice. Matthew’s track record exudes his professionalism, experience, & most important, his persistent care for each and every one of his clients.