How I turned $3000 into $12 Million in Real Estate | Built a 75 Door Rental Portfolio While Working Full-Time

**Garret Wong** (0:09)
Welcome to The Landlord Pal podcast. After almost 30 years in the property management industry and posting thousands of smaller how-to videos, we decided to dedicate a single place where a landlord or property manager can find answers to common questions that occur when managing residential rental properties. This video is with those in the podcast industry called Episode Zero. It's an intro as to why we're choosing to record this content and who can benefit. Now, do you own a single family home, a small apartment block or even a larger high-rise with hundreds of units? Are you a do-it-yourself rental property owner or a property manager working for a larger firm? Or maybe you're a larger investor that uses a property management company, but you want to expand your own knowledge so you can ensure your property manager is doing a good job? You've come to the right place because we'll be posting answers to the most common landlord questions. But maybe I should start with a little bit about me and our group of companies to give you a sense that we actually know what we're talking about. My name is Garret Wong, and like most of you, I didn't start out in real estate. I came within six months of graduating with a PhD in molecular biology, settled for a master's degree, and started my original career as a research scientist studying viruses. I also spent a few years working for a large pharmaceutical company, writing SOPs, standard operating procedures and bringing different drugs to market while simultaneously growing my real estate portfolio. I bought my first rental property when I was 27 years old. It was a duplex C class property here in the north end of Winnipeg that had all of the plumbing stolen. It was boarded up for the previous three years. And I had to use a snow shovel for days to get rid of all of the pigeon poop in the living room. But I was exactly like you. I had no idea what I was doing. I hired and fired contractors. I picked up a paintbrush and I learned how to do everything there is to do in a rental property. And I've made every single mistake there is to make. But through perseverance and maybe a little bit of crazy, I grew my portfolio to 43 buildings, 75 doors, all while working a full-time job. I expanded my portfolio purchasing distressed C-class properties in really rough neighbourhoods. And using the Burr method, I fixed up the properties after I got off work, then leased out the properties and collected rent on the weekends. Oh, and not to mention, I did all of my own repairs. Now, why is it important to mention that these were C-class properties? Because C-class properties attract the roughest type of tenants. Not paying rent, skipping out, leaving a house full of garbage and furniture were very commonplace. These properties were targets for vandalism, squatters and random crimes. And many of these buildings were over 100 years old. Not to mention, we're based up here in Winnipeg, Canada, where we can go as cold as minus 40 degrees in the winter, and as hot as 40 degrees celsius. And for our neighbours to the south, that's 100 degrees Fahrenheit, hot and cold. That's quite a swing. So if there's something that can break, leak, catch on fire, get too hot, get too cold, I've literally seen it all. So this unique blend of learning, things the hard way, combined with my career path as a scientist, and working at a pharmaceutical company, gave me some very unique tools to operate and run a very successful property management company for the past 30 years. We have an SOP and a checklist for literally every single situation that could occur in a rental property, and we're going to be sharing with all of you each week. So let's talk about the format of this podcast. It's mainly going to be a solo podcast. That is to say, it will be just me answering a popular question once or twice a week, from how to choose great tenants to what do I do if my tenant brought in an illegal pet? Or the most common question of all time.
How do I evict my tenant for non-payment of rent? Occasionally, I'll bring on a guest from our industry, but for the most part, it will be just you and me. 10 to 15 minutes of me answering a how-to question and you getting the answers to your rental property problems. So do yourself a favour, hit that subscribe button, and don't forget to turn on your notifications so you'll know when a new question is posted and answered. And I'll see you in the next video. Thanks for watching.