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"Explore the world of real estate, home ownership, Renovation & Construction with our podcast! From buying and selling tips to interior design inspiration, we cover it all. Join us as we dive into the exciting and ever-changing landscape of the housing market, providing valuable insights and expert advice to help you navigate your real estate journey."
Hello, everyone. Welcome again to another episode of the Real Connection podcast. I am Sean Santoro with TMG, the mortgage group. I am joined today by my cohost Dave McCall. Dave, say hello.
Speaker 2:Hello, Sean. How's things today?
Speaker 1:Oh, just rocking and rolling, buddy. My wife gives me shit for using that, phrase all the time. She's like, where are you even rocking and rolling to
Speaker 3:in the past?
Speaker 1:And that's what I say. I'm like, honestly, it don't matter, does it? Nope. But anyways, we are very lucky today. We are joined by Natalie Bourguin.
Speaker 1:She is a DIYer. She is a real estate designer. She is flipping properties. She has done Airbnb. She's got too many hats to wear when it comes to real estate, so I'm just gonna call her real real estate extraordinaire.
Speaker 1:So thank you very much, Natalie, for joining us today. For for people that don't know you, say hello. Give us a little glimpse into into who you are and, you know, how you've how you've built what you've built.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much, Sean and David. I'm happy to be talking about this. As you guys know, it's a passion of mine, so I'm so happy to be here. How I got started it. Honestly, it's I fell upon it slowly.
Speaker 3:And then I think it was, it hit me like a ton of bricks, like the love and the passion of the, you know, the creation process and designing and, you know, the whole when you kind of finish a project and you step back and you're like, I built that. I did this. Mind you, at the beginning, my my initial projects were kind of, you know, a little less, to the standards I hold now, but, we we all start from somewhere.
Speaker 1:Exactly. That's you know, I think there's very little expectation, and we have Mike. What's happening, Mike?
Speaker 3:Not too much. Sorry. I'm like, sideways or maybe it.
Speaker 1:You're sideways. Now you're flat.
Speaker 3:Okay. There you go. Oh, I'm good. I'm good. Sorry about that.
Speaker 3:I just moved. You see, we're all moving for yourself.
Speaker 2:That's okay. We're not we're not starting until 12 o'clock.
Speaker 3:Okay. So we'll come back.
Speaker 1:This is gonna stay. I'm not editing this out. I want this to stay. That's hilarious.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. On my own What's her address? Let me jump off here, and then I'll come back up.
Speaker 2:Okay. Sounds good, Mike.
Speaker 3:Alright. Thanks, guys.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Mike.
Speaker 3:Seeing your viewers didn't know you're gonna have a surprise,
Speaker 1:I guess not.
Speaker 2:We're we're
Speaker 1:we we always we always got surprises kicking up. Look at that. Yeah. 2 for the price of 1.
Speaker 2:But that's, like, from load pro. So
Speaker 1:Okay. Perfect. Sweet. No, that's, that's hilarious. I totally got distracted now.
Speaker 1:I totally lost my train of thought. So it's your gear change.
Speaker 2:That that's okay. That's okay. So, basically, Nat, like, when you first decided to, you know, jump into the, you know, flipping and everything else, that's a big thing to do. It's not just, it's not a small thing, you know, you're putting out money for the house. You're, you know, doing the work yourself to try, you know, and everything else.
Speaker 2:I gotta ask like, you know, what was your feeling when you bought that first house and you knew you had this huge project in front of you?
Speaker 3:So the initial house, my initial house, I was actually still in the forces. I was still in, you know, in the military, and it wasn't it didn't start out as I was planning on flipping it truly. It was supposed to be just a piece of, it was an investment property. And slowly, I was like, I need this design change and, you know, I got that champagne taste on a bare budget, right? So, you know, he's I
Speaker 1:love I love that phrase. It's hilarious. I love
Speaker 3:it. True. So, yeah, I know. Initially, I was like, oh, I would love to do this, and I would love to do that. But I have that can do can do attitude, generally speaking.
Speaker 3:As you guys, have come to know over the years, I get an idea, and I'm like, let's tackle it. Why not? What's the worst that can happen? So, you know, ripping up tiles and and doing things like that. A little bit of a YouTube, I've become a YouTube master of sorts, you know, but, some videos and then some, you know, no give no shit attitude.
Speaker 3:I was like, if it if it ends up not looking nice, I can pull it out and then go to a more, you know, outsource or whatnot. But I found it to be very relaxing. I know renovations can tend to be a huge stress, factor for a lot of individuals. For me, demo day, I my palms sweat. I'm ecstatic during demo days.
Speaker 3:I love demo days. It's, like, my stress, stress relief.
Speaker 2:Just get it all out.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, yeah. Absolutely. Like, there's a lot of people, they find it quite therapeutic. Right?
Speaker 1:Because it's it's like a removal. It's like, you know, when when anybody was not that I go for a ton of pedicures, but anybody that's gone for pedicures and the I don't know why this is the first thing that's popped into my head to a good example of this, but when I'm getting my toes did, but they they take that like pumice rock and they brush off all your dead skin.
Speaker 2:And that's
Speaker 1:a good thing. It promotes the healthy skin to kinda come through. And that's why and that's why I personally like demo days because it's like we're getting rid of the junk. We're getting rid of the crap. The old, you know, 40, 50 year old just especially if it's you know, maybe you bought a place that previous smoker.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Hey, man.
Speaker 1:Like, it's just it's it just feels good to rip that drywall off and just It's hard to do. To the. Absolutely. Tons and tons of fun. Demo days are fun.
Speaker 2:Now that was when you were done demo day, okay, and you're standing back and you're looking at this basically destroyed room. Okay. And, you know, realizing, okay. You know, now now we got now this is mine. This is real now, you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I've gotta rebuild all of this. You know, did you have a plan? Like, did you take time to plan everything out? Or was it more just kind of like, you know, fly by the seat of my pants and I'm going to do this and this and that.
Speaker 2:And how did that work?
Speaker 1:I got a sneak yeah. I got a sneaking suspicion. She's, she's shot from the hip a couple of times.
Speaker 3:I did. I have numerous times, and and it's a it's a common frustration amongst my friends and family members or if I'm in a relationship or something of the nature. I people are like, would you just finish one room? Because then I get excited about, you know, another project, and I'll start demoing. Although I am getting better at it now, I can't say I've fully gotten over that.
Speaker 3:I am an ADHD individual, so I always have 20 projects on the go. And I'll get bored of 1 project, and I'll move on to the next. And the next thing you know, I'm like, oh, let's build a tree house. And then I'm in the yard, you know, and then I'm back inside, and I'm busting wall down and deciding to close doors and move them over and you know? So it it was before.
Speaker 3:At least now, though, I have the fundamental, like, know how, and I know what the project entails, and I know what to expect at this point now. So that's, I guess, the differential, and I'm leading with a lot more confidence and knowledge and skill base. So I could, with my eyes closed, kind of demo everything, and I'm like, oh, yeah. And I kinda know the gist of what to to what is expected. The first couple of times, I didn't have that base.
Speaker 3:So I was just like, okay. You know? And and then I was like, okay. Now everything's done. Shoot.
Speaker 3:Now I don't have a sink, and I don't know how to put a new sink in. And my dad's in another province because I was still in forces, you know, and I didn't so, you know, I learned, like, under some stressful situations at times, but it's it's relatively easy. And I know that to some people, that might sound a little crazy. I heard a woman once say, renovations is crafts just on a much larger scale, and I kind of feel like that's true. There's a lot of that, like building blocks and LEGOs, like your tiling, and if you have a very fundamental base amount of skill set or knowledge how to, you know, like painting or, like spreading a grout or an adhesive.
Speaker 3:You know? So long as you're doing it on a 45 degree, it's quite simple. Anybody could know how to do that. You push in the tile, remove your pockets, whatever. Relatively easy.
Speaker 3:Right? Honestly
Speaker 2:And you picked all of this up up from online? Like, you didn't have anybody come in and show you how to do things? It was just all, you know Nope. Hands hands on just you know? I'm I'm impressed because I've seen some of your work and and, you know,
Speaker 3:my work's definitely much more, substantial, like, much larger projects I've I've I've delved into. I I now only if I require some it's very rare that I have to hire out now. I bust concrete. I add new plumbing. I add new bathrooms.
Speaker 3:And every house clip that I do, I add bathrooms in the basement, so I bus up the concrete. I run all the water lines myself. I run electrical. I do framing. I tile.
Speaker 3:I I don't hire out very much anymore, like, unless it's, like, countertops. And I had a house that I did in epoxy flooring, like, a marbling through the whole basement. I had that professionally done.
Speaker 1:Yep. I wouldn't have definitely make sense.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I probably wouldn't try to do that by myself because it was a lot of work. It was a lot of work, and that poor guy was in there for, like, a good 3 days, and I was just like, no. That's not something that I can use.
Speaker 2:Not doing that one. Yeah. No. Now the designs, I mean, some of the houses, you've you've done I think you said you flipped like 9 houses. You know, the some of the designs that I've seen once you're done, it looks like, you know, somebody from New York came in and just, you know, it did all the where did you pick up the talent for design?
Speaker 2:Was that just natural, or was that a YouTube type of thing too?
Speaker 3:To be honest with you, that I don't I don't I'm not scared of taking, like, bold chances, And I I like to be creative with my spending habits, because at the end of the day, when you're doing a flip, it's all bottom dollar. Make it look as pretty as you can for the best dollar at the end of the day. I'm also raising 3 kids and, you know, and whatever. So, you know, pennies can and and just renovations, especially over COVID, really increased. So that was a big thing.
Speaker 3:So you learn to be more creative as you go. Like, in my the house on East Puce Road, the house that was one of my biggest flips, you know, that was a, you know, a few $100,000 profit in that house. But, you know, I felt Wow. Yep. So I did a marble look and tie it, like, through the whole back wall of my bedroom, for instance.
Speaker 3:And it was like a sticker adhesive, like, marble sticker from Amazon, and the packs were so cheap. And then I did a little bit of trim with a high gloss spray paint, to to trim around where any of them where the merging parts would be. And it looked like I had wainscoting and black marble, and that's tied into my the new en suite that I had built. And, you know, for a $100, I did this big, like, rustic looking wall unit for a TV and a fireplace and, you know, a big mantle. It cost me a $100, you know, and just put a little bit of materials and, you know Do
Speaker 1:you have a pic do you have pictures of those? Like, I don't expect you to show them right now. Can you send me some? Because I'm always on the lookout for people's cool ideas. I I have definitely not flipped even close to as many properties as you.
Speaker 1:I've done a couple, and I love it. Right? A lot of the things that you said, taking it from looking like this and making it look like that, that is my big one. I love looking back and saying, like, hey. Like you said, hey.
Speaker 1:I did that. But even more so, it's like, that looked like a solid 2, and I just made it a 9a half. And that's just it's great to make money. Don't get me wrong. But it's that self pride to be like, wow.
Speaker 1:I turned something that looked like crap into even as Dave, you say, you look at it, you're just like, holy cow. That is unbelievable. Right? There's a lot of people that do not have the ability to do that. And so that there's a major pride thing that comes with flipping properties.
Speaker 1:And every time you get a little better and a little better and a little better. Right? And it's and that's that's super, super cool.
Speaker 2:Now I do have to ask you though, Matt. I mean, there's always whenever you pick up a house, there's always something unexpected.
Speaker 1:No. It all goes to plan, Dave. Every single time. It's done under budget and ahead of schedule. Everybody that's on Flippus knows that.
Speaker 2:Well, let's pretend that in one of the cases, something didn't quite work out. What was the worst thing that happened, to you? I mean, I I I guess what we're trying to do is for the people who are watching and listening, it's like, you know, what's what's the worst thing that happened? What's the best thing that happened during one of your clips?
Speaker 3:It wasn't a surprise. It was an unfortunate happenstance. But the house on Isabelle three, like, I don't know if I should say a house number, but I had just finished renovating the basement, and then we had one of the worst storms. And there was, like, 1,000 and 1,000 of home in Windsor that had flooded. So that was kind of really frustrating because I was just about to list just about to list the house, and then it flooded.
Speaker 3:And then I was like, oh, hello. You know, that was one thing, but,
Speaker 2:I mean, have you ever pulled open a wall and went, oh my god, or or, you know, you know, got in the middle of something and something's just tube
Speaker 3:tube stuff, maybe, things of that nature. I've I've done things where I just worked so late at night and my head was, like, half off, and I finished a project and, you know, I turned on the water supply to the to the to the house again, and then I had forgotten. I was on East Puce Road, that one. I had forgotten that I had not yeah.
Speaker 1:What was that?
Speaker 3:It was a bad so I woke up to water dripping, and I was like, what the heck is that? And it it went through the upstairs new bathroom into the drywall, and the drywall above the kitchen. And then on the main floor, it you know, and then it was just it was a mess. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That
Speaker 3:was that was one, thing. But no. I mean Tip
Speaker 2:tip number 1 for people listening, make sure everything's connected before you turn the water on.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That it was like 4 o'clock in the morning, and I I was exhausted. And I had done, like, I I had opened the walls and I was tiling the shower, and I was, you know, installing this brand new beautiful, like, LED blue light cool, like, spaceship looking, shower unit from Amazon. And and, anyway yeah. No.
Speaker 3:I I went to bed. I was like, I crawled up the stairs that day. My back was just done. And yeah. Anyways, I was, it was bad.
Speaker 3:It was, but, yeah, it does. Things like that has happened. But if you look at if you do your proper research looking into a home, you'll be able to tell, like, okay. It's this many years old. You'll expect a certain type of insulation or a certain type of electrical to be had there.
Speaker 3:So those things, I guess, it doesn't come to as big of a surprise to me anymore. Right. But, yeah, it's,
Speaker 2:Now what what's on the opposite spectrum, you know, what was one of the best things that happened to you? You know, you're working on a project and whether it be, you know, you got way more than the price you expected or maybe something you were trying you know, you know, something just what what what's kinda on the positive side here?
Speaker 3:Well, for myself yeah. No. Exactly. Yeah. So I'm a bargain girl.
Speaker 3:K? I'm a bargain girl. I love big deals. I I get excited. Like, I get so I when I go to Home Depot, I'm in there.
Speaker 3:I'll go to both Home Depots, and I'll just wander up and down the aisles. They all know me. You know, like, everybody you know? But I'll go at the end of the aisles because everything is always, like, 50% or more. You know?
Speaker 3:Exactly. I got yep. And I go I go so often. So a lot of times, you'll see shower units and and and basins and and the vanities and faucets. And I buy them, and I keep them on hand when I see a really good deal of something I know I'll use.
Speaker 3:I'd rather pay $10 right now than a $100 in a couple of months. You know, I'm that girl. So I've you know? But I get really excited because, actually, in this current house that I'm flipping right now, my the vanity was a $600 unit. I got the $450 in the back and, you know, my my basin and, you know, like, I just when I get good deals and I know where to look, you know,
Speaker 2:Now do you ever go to Habitat?
Speaker 3:I do. I do. I and I have. I've discovered a new love for Habitat. For a while there, it was different.
Speaker 3:But, actually, right now, my theater room is mainly, sponsored to you by Habitat.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Brianne and I call that place, Restoration Hardware.
Speaker 3:Oh, more than enough.
Speaker 2:And for and and for those who are listening or watching who aren't sure what we're talking about, it's called Habitat for Humanity. It's also there's also the ReStore.
Speaker 3:The ReStore.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yep. And basically, it's a place where they get donated, items from other homes and buildings, and then they resell them with yeah. And Or
Speaker 1:knew exactly. They got smoke and deals there. Like, there's tons of times you can go in there and, like, I saw an egg, and it's always surprises me. It's just, like, random things kind of show up there. And so one of those Gardena, hose reels.
Speaker 1:I still have yet to see this deal ever come back again, and I kinda regret not buying it. But at the time, I was just, like, $70, like, whatever. But it's, like, a 100 foot Gardena hose reel on the thing that comes, like, out of the track. It it you just mount it to your wall and you take it, that's a $150 hose reel any day. Like and they're awesome because it's just, like, universal attachment, spray, whatever.
Speaker 1:I haven't seen it back again, but it's crazy the deals you can get there sometimes.
Speaker 3:Well, actually, my shower, I'm still working in, in one of my ongoing projects is my shower area in the new en suite area converted one of the bedrooms. It was a 9 by 9. Didn't have a closet. It was small anyways. So I closed it off from the hallway, and I busted an a door opening from my master.
Speaker 3:So now I've got a 9 foot by 5 foot walk in closet as well as an en suite. But so and that's the one that my, my basin was in, the vanity was from. But at restore, I bought my glass shower doors. It's a $1200 set. It was missing bolts.
Speaker 3:So I got it for $200 at restore. $200 and I jumped it. So I don't buy the shit. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I don't go buy it. Okay.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, we can swear
Speaker 3:for shit. Well No. No. No. No.
Speaker 3:And lighting. Pictures. Yeah.
Speaker 1:They can say whatever you want.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. And lighting fixtures is a great spot for that too, but I love good deals. And, of course, the marketplace is always a beautiful spot and you know? And yeah.
Speaker 3:Anything that that's a good deal, I'm like, beautiful. Oh, actually, you you you talked about a mishap. So when I purchased this current house, I saw that it was hardwood floors underneath. So I was like, beautiful. I'm gonna list all the carpeting, the ugly yellow, and the ugly pink carpets, and every room is a different color.
Speaker 3:That's gonna be gone, but it's hardwood underneath, so beautiful. And from the corners where I lifted, it was in pristine condition. Lift a little further, and it's, like, rotted in some areas. So then I was like, oh, that's there goes that plan. Then another 4 or $5,000 for flooring, but that was one.
Speaker 2:Well, I've happened in the house that I had. We we pulled up the carpet. Right? And underneath is just gorgeous hardwood, you know, and and it's in great shape except for around a couple of events. Right?
Speaker 2:That there was just, like, I don't know what what they've done there, but it was just kind of like your regular, you know, pine board. So what we did was we went into the closet and we pulled out some of the wood out of the closet, and we used that wood
Speaker 1:This is patch pieces.
Speaker 2:To to replace the other the other pieces there. And then we just put in some, you know, another flooring in the closet and the tiling. So you had the same style and sort of the same aging of the wood, and we were able to patch things up a bit.
Speaker 3:Awesome. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's all sorts of neat things you can do. If you if you have to pull pieces from, you know, from some other place, you can do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I got a question, Natalie. What's the hardest part about flipping a property? Is it finding the property? Is it physically doing the work and making sure that you can make margins?
Speaker 1:Is it balancing trades in the event that you're not doing it yourself? Is it financing? Is it you know, what's what's what's been your take being that you've done it as many times as you have? What's been the hardest part of flipping?
Speaker 3:Luckily, I have a really good team. Like, I used Rasha and Grotta a lot. I need a younger gentleman. Alex was really helpful in his last flip. There's a lot of, like, options out there.
Speaker 3:For myself, being that I also have children, a lot of times, the move is difficult. And then and shifting a new school district, that could be something that I say I'll struggle I've struggled with. I love the renovations. I do do it by myself. So one of the things though is I live in each home for at least a year to also avoid the capital gains.
Speaker 3:So, you know, it's we live in it for for a while, so then there's no rush. I mean, ideally, you would wanna have a flip. You only, you know, hold on to it for a few months and it's gone already. Right? But, for me, the offset, especially once when I was getting into flips where it was a couple 100,000, you know, like, it was getting larger flipped.
Speaker 3:I didn't wanna pay taxes on 50%. And so living on it was definitely an offset. You know? Like, it it was the better it was a smarter option. Renovations, of course, like, my back is injured from the forces.
Speaker 3:So sometimes, like, you know, that can take a toll of tiling on me. Like, for me, when I tile, like, you know, I can't move for 3 days. So sometimes there's a little bit of a, you know, for sure. Mhmm. But I love I love the process, though.
Speaker 3:I love doing, like, my ROI calculations. Like, I love having 2, 3, 4 properties that I've got interest in. And you look at the market cap, the ceiling cap of properties in that neighborhood or on that street. You look at, you know, the initial investment, like, what they're truly looking for. It made it frustrating when we were doing the whole, like, multiple offers.
Speaker 3:And so it made it very difficult to have any sense of where, like What things what is my fair figure? Like, what am I actually going to end up paying? And that was a little frustrating. I'm glad that that we've kind of, like, shifted markets a little bit from that. I love doing the calculations and the planning.
Speaker 3:But yeah. No. Like, I enjoy renovations. I don't mind living in a little bit of that chaos. I've got I've become used to it or desensitized rather.
Speaker 3:So, honestly, I would say the hardest part for myself is the the the moving and switching school districts and whatnot. Financing, there are there's so many. Christie, actually, Malco is an incredible Mhmm. I
Speaker 1:know Christie. Christie's awesome.
Speaker 3:She's an incredible, and she's determined, and she puts her heart and soul, like, her heart and soul into every deal. She'll call you at 11 o'clock at night to be like, you know, what about that, you know, like, you see she's working and she will make sure she gets you the best deal and you walk away happy and, you know, she's awesome. But there we got a lot of good people in our in, you know, in our area that will work for you to make that any deal work for you, whether it's an a or a b or a c lender. You know? So financing is, you know, I could imagine
Speaker 2:an issue.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I could imagine dealing with various trades. That could be a very stressful process, but I really never have. I've never had to deal with that. But I I could imagine from, like, the the stories I hear of other people, you know, the plumber won't do this until the electrician does that.
Speaker 3:But he's saying this has to be done first, and now he's on vacation. And now this guy won't lay the floor until the kitchen is in. I can't I couldn't do I think yeah. I would I would
Speaker 1:That domino effect would just yeah.
Speaker 3:That would drive me like, I I think I'm, like, having, like, some, like, some palpitations here just, like, thinking about doing that. I'm like, man. I'm like, man. I'm like, man. I'm like, man.
Speaker 3:I'm like, man. I'm like, man. I'm like, cut. Cut. Cut.
Speaker 3:Yes. I couldn't do that. No.
Speaker 2:Well, now now, Matt, we got a few minutes left here, and I just wanna touch base on the, the Airbnbs. Yeah. Because that's something you've also done.
Speaker 3:Airbnb is a monster.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay. So can you can you talk a little bit about it? You're like, good good, bad. You know?
Speaker 3:Yeah. No. I I do know it's I I do know that it's frowned upon for anybody that doesn't do Airbnb. But anybody that's been, like, in the vicinity of or has hosted or has a friend that hosts, they love it, and they are sold. And it's only a growing beast.
Speaker 3:And it doesn't have to be that you need to have a second house or a cottage on the water. And if you have a bedroom that you're not using, you know, and maybe has a bathroom that, you know, your guest could the the guest could have themselves. And that's what I had, The house on East Peace Road, I had one side of my house where it was just there was a bedroom and a bathroom, and I made over $3,000 a month on a bedroom. It paid my mortgage. And the people that to meet were travelers from around the world.
Speaker 3:Actually, one of them, they're coming back. He's from Greenland, but he's coming back to come visit in a month and a half ish. But I met some incredible friends that are still on my Facebook today, and they're they're they support what I do. Some older Asian couples that were finally retired wanting to travel Ontario and sightsee. You meet the greatest people.
Speaker 3:The liability is incredible.
Speaker 1:Do you do you ever have any trouble, and again, I guess it depends on the properties that you had because I know I I know there's a lot of people that they would love to do their basement.
Speaker 3:However, you
Speaker 1:know, maybe they've got an older house and it's, you know, side entrance. So they're like, you know, that's perfect because I could just segregate it off. They have their own side entrance, this and that and the other, but they struggle a lot with the ceiling height. Have you ever
Speaker 2:had any, you know, people that have also done Airbnbs or maybe even yourself that
Speaker 1:have had a similar situation, but still been able to make it work? Like, I don't even know if there's a criteria for ceiling height with Airbnbs. I don't know.
Speaker 3:No. But you can be, you can be very so now that we're moving into a more, like, organic or even like that industrial look where, you know, when people spray paint their entire ceilings black, including any piping. So it does make so you don't have to box, frame, and and drywall and, like, really bring in that. Keeping things maybe exposed could be a really good way to go about, like, going around something like that. And
Speaker 2:then a little bit more modern feel.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And then exactly. Designed to fit that that whole thing, but people need it. There's 80% more travelers than there are, like, available. So people are desperate.
Speaker 3:And you could put a bed in the middle of a and charge $40, and you'll probably get it. Some people rent out their sheds. They just made little string lights and a bed in their shed, and they are renting these places for, like, $80 a night, and they are getting it. They're getting people. It's it's insane.
Speaker 3:Buy a little camper. Throw it in your backyard or an ADU, and slap that on. You want a retirement plan? That's you know? Honestly, it
Speaker 2:I'm already looking at the ADU. So
Speaker 3:Yeah. Okay. Yeah. No. It's incredible.
Speaker 3:It's ADU is Airbnb is just such a beast, and then people that worry about, what about my stuff if it gets broken? There's a $1,000,000 liability on every booking. Right? So when people book, they have to have their driver's license, their passports. So they get ID'd and they get verified.
Speaker 3:Right? So you're not getting random strangers. But even if they break a mug, you put us you submit a claim, and you they don't pay it, Airbnb will pay it. You know? So you're you have this backing and that you know, where you can be rest assured that, you know, your your your stuff is protected, whether it's a stain, whether it's anything that happens.
Speaker 3:You know?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you would you would you've had no bad bad problems at all?
Speaker 3:1. 1.
Speaker 2:Okay. 2.
Speaker 3:That one was my, Yeah. So I had a waterfront cottage on East Pike Creek. It was right on the water. And, like, I mean, like, it was on the water. There was, like, a 10 foot deck.
Speaker 3:If you were to take another step, you'd be in the water. I had a little pedal burrow yeah. Serenity Creek College. Do you guys or cottage. Do you guys remember Serenity Creek?
Speaker 3:I posted a lot of the Yeah. Yeah. That's true. So, yeah, actually, my friend purchased the place, and they they maintained the name Serenity Creek Cottage. That was another DIY project of mine, and it was quick, and it was awesome.
Speaker 3:Just a little bit of paint, some big copper, tiling and PO glue, and it was relatively inexpensive to redo that. A little bit of the course, slapped it on Airbnb. I was making 7 to $8,000 a month on that.
Speaker 1:Nice. You know?
Speaker 3:So one of my bookings, it was, it was a party, and they must have had 30 something. I didn't know. So that was a learning curve. So doorbell, video camera, necessity. You know?
Speaker 3:Right. So that was a learning curve for me, but they they definitely they liked it trashed. They had dropped cake, but that icing that has the the coloring stained the, you know, the carpets, and there was food everywhere. And then they had left one door open, so water had gotten in because it rained. What do you know?
Speaker 3:I got $5,000. I submitted the card to
Speaker 1:Airbnb. Yeah?
Speaker 3:Yep. Yeah. It took me, like, a week and a half, 2 weeks, but I got, like, almost like, it was 44100 that I got. 44 something from Airbnb. I submitted a claim on everything.
Speaker 3:Like, everything that was damaged, everything that had been broken, the flooring, like, I submitted, you know, my carpets, everything. And they were really, like yep. Within within like, as soon as the people declined to pay for any damages, Airbnb started their own, like, commencement of payment, and it got directly deposited in my account. It never, tanked my ratings. It didn't affect me as an Airbnb host.
Speaker 3:Nothing happened after that. We'll continue
Speaker 1:to That's awesome. Nice.
Speaker 3:You know? It's viewed honestly, truly, but Airbnb, whether you're a retired couple, a young couple, you just or, you know, some of my friends are still looking for a house or an apartment. And I'm like, if you can't afford it, get that second bedroom even if you don't need a second bedroom. Get a 2 bedroom apartment Swap the other bedroom on Airbnb. You'll have your apartment paid for and then some.
Speaker 3:You'll make money. You know? It's,
Speaker 2:there's no
Speaker 3:upfront cost.
Speaker 2:Yeah. This is always a good thing for people because, I mean, I I know as as things are getting more and more expensive, you know, some people are trying to figure out, well, how how are we gonna get a house? How are we gonna keep our house? You know, that, you know, that type of thing. So, you know, this is great information.
Speaker 2:Now, we do have to get going here. I don't want to hold you up all day. What do you have coming up? What's going on next?
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for asking. I am I'm actually currently planning. We're preparing a golf tournament fundraiser. Nice. As you know, I'm a veteran, so it's going to be to also benefit our veterans because I know firsthand sometimes how under supportive they can be, and also for our Legion 261, who at the moment are in despair.
Speaker 3:They need the community to step up and to support them and to help out. And it's insane to me because they, you know, they have the cheapest beers in the entire city. You know? Is that's the Tecumseh and Les Brown's branch. So, anyway, so this golf tournament is gonna be held August 22nd at Oxley Beach, golf course.
Speaker 3:The tickets at the moment for the early b, early bird b is a $100, but includes a round of golf, lunch buffet, premium cigars. As you know, I'm a huge cigar lover. In our swag bags, we're gonna have a bunch of stuff in there. And so far, I've I've got a secured a $10,000 hole in 9 hole in 1 at the 9th, at the 9th
Speaker 1:Nice. Hole.
Speaker 3:Hole. So 10,000 grand prize dollar grand prize. And, you know, we're getting really, really, really good prizes so far, like, date nights at General Gun for a bunch of rounds of shooting with different guns and other you know, really good prizes from a lot of people right now that were coming in. So, we're looking for golfers and sponsorships. Just let me know.
Speaker 1:That's perfect. And, sorry, what date was it?
Speaker 3:August 22nd. So that falls on a Thursday. I
Speaker 2:think she's always into something. Always into something.
Speaker 1:I didn't even know general Gunn does those kind of date nights. That's super cool.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's awesome. So are you gonna come and win that prize?
Speaker 1:Hey, miss.
Speaker 2:I'm sure the wife's not pissed off at you at the time. That's
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Make sure you're sweet as pie the days leading up to you.
Speaker 1:I mean, I have my r pal, so we could go have some fun. I'd I'd I'm assuming if they do a date night like that, do you need to have your license?
Speaker 3:Nope. No. You can bring your wife from home. If you have yours, you can bring her right now anytime you want.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. Well, no. She has her own as well. We we're both licensed. Don't break in.
Speaker 1:Don't break in here.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not bad. Wrong place.
Speaker 3:No. Yeah. It's awesome. So, yeah, they're, I'll show you it. But, yeah, they they give me, like, 7 different, different guns to play with and a bunch of rounds, and you you get to sample a a crazy amount of them.
Speaker 3:I won't say what I was gonna say. Well, yeah, I know. It's awesome. I'm the
Speaker 1:host. I can do what I want.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I love it. I love it. Yeah. Havana Palace is also a great sponsor for this one.
Speaker 3:They're doing, like, 100 like, a really big beautiful basket, and and he's giving me a really good deal on some premium cigars that I'll put in every swag bag and Perfect. You know, that's gonna be good.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Nice. Fantastic.
Speaker 1:Great. Well, thank you. That's awesome. So thank you very much, Natalie. I appreciate, your time.
Speaker 1:We appreciate your time and the insight and all the cool little tips and whatnot on on on flips galore and even the Airbnb stuff because there's a lot of stuff in there I didn't even consider. So that was, that was awesome. So, appreciate you coming on. Thank you very much. Dave, as always, buddy, always good to see you.
Speaker 2:Always a great time.
Speaker 1:Always good for a conversation. And we even had a bonus guest today that wasn't even supposed to be here. How well did that work out, Mike? Mike. Mike, thanks for stopping in, buddy.
Speaker 1:Till next time. But, anyways, thank you guys both very much. To our listeners and viewers, appreciate you guys. Thanks very much for tuning in. I'm Sean Santoro with TMG, the mortgage group, and Dave McCall, my wonderful cohost.
Speaker 1:And today, we were joined by Natalie Bourbois. Thank you very much for your time, Natalie. You guys take care. Enjoy the rest of your day, everyone.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it. Thank you. Bye.
Speaker 1:You betcha.
Speaker 3:Bye bye. And hold.