How Sarah Coupland Is Rebuilding a Multifamily Real Estate Portfolio After Divorce

Sarah Coupland (00:00)
On the flip side of that, it’s also created a fabulous opportunity where I get to step back and I get to say, okay, I’ve been here and I’ve done that and I’ve built this wonderful thing. What am I going to do differently and how am I going to approach this going forward to be able to build it back? So I have a five year plan to build back my portfolio to where it took me 19 years to get to before. I’m fairly confident that I’m going to get back there within five years

Michelle Kesil (01:58)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Sarah Coupland, who is a real estate investor in the Canada area, working primarily on multifamily investments. So really excited to have you here today, Sarah.

Sarah Coupland (02:19)
Well, thank you for having me, Michelle.

Michelle Kesil (02:21)
course, let’s dive in. First off, for those not yet familiar with you and your work, can you share what your main focus is these days?

Sarah Coupland (02:30)
Sure, so primarily I invest in multi-unit transition properties. So I have a renovation company and we buy properties that need a little bit of TLC, have deferred maintenance. We renovate them and we do buy and hold. What I’m up to lately is I’m actually going through a divorce so I’m liquidating my portfolio through the divorce, which is challenging. We’re in a challenging market for that. But ⁓ as I’m letting go of that portfolio, I’m also restructuring myself to rebuild.

on my own so I’ve restructured my renovation company and my property management company to be able to ⁓ fully support building the portfolio and the way I look at it is I’m starting from experience not starting from scratch so working with joint venture partners again working with private capital again for a long time I was just using my own capital and my own means because I’ve been doing this for 19 years so ⁓ going back to how I started ⁓ and in working with other people

and it’s been a lot of fun so far. So I’m looking forward to ⁓ rebuilding my multi-unit portfolio and I also do small flips along the way as well. So I usually have the multi-unit transitions happening and then we cycle through some small flips as well. So it’s exciting times.

Michelle Kesil (03:47)
Yeah,

absolutely. And as you are in this phase of rebuilding, what is that process going to look like for you?

Sarah Coupland (03:56)
⁓ The process is very much, I think, going back to basics. ⁓ As I was building my portfolio before, over time, I started to buy and work on significantly more complicated projects that took longer, took additional capital, had additional risk, and they worked out really, well. ⁓ However, now, again, going back to basics. ⁓ you know, buying your typical ⁓ building that needs a tenant

turnovers, needs deferred maintenance, five-year plan to go through and do the renovations and increase the net operating income and then refinance, pull your money out and do it again and again and again. ⁓

Also going back to doing small flips, which I had sort of gotten away from, the small flips are great because you’re able to cycle your cash over and over again within a year. So it’s a great cash flow option while working on these longer transitional properties. yeah, having some really good investor conversations. As I said, I’d stopped working with investors a lot using my own resources and it’s really been

fun to get back into having investor conversations and talking to people about their goals and what it is that they’re looking for and getting them excited about the things that I’m doing and bringing them on board and ⁓ having these people to ⁓ go through these projects with.

Michelle Kesil (06:15)
Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything that you’re going to do differently than your previous investment journey this time around?

Sarah Coupland (06:27)
⁓

I’m going to be less involved in the management of my support companies. So before I had a lot of energy going into the investing side, but I was also managing the property management company and I was managing the renovation company and really divided my attention. ⁓ And with that, my supporting companies only really serviced my investing. ⁓ I’ve actually gone through every structured with business plan.

for those companies and I’ve hired people in management positions to take on the day-to-day operation of those companies to allow them to expand, to allow them to grow. ⁓ And that frees up my time to deal with acquisitions and investor relations and overseeing the big picture instead of being into the day-to-day, which I think is really ⁓ impactful this way. I got to a certain point in my portfolio where it was very, ⁓ you know, fairly self-sustaining and I had

⁓ You know a significant amount of free time and flexibility in my schedule and going back to grinding and ⁓ Rebuilding the portfolio from experience ⁓ not from scratch ⁓ I think really leaning more heavily on my team and having the developed team in place is What’s gonna be a game changer for me here so I can focus on on the higher level things ⁓ It’s also going to allow me to expand my geography as well. So previously

my entire portfolio was within 40 minutes driving distance of my house because I was so very much controlled in everything. was so very much involved in everything. Expanding my team and expanding those companies is also allowing me to expand geographically where I’m building the structure and systems to be able to remotely manage. I’m actually looking at like currently I’m looking at investing in Saskatoon which is you across the country and my team I believe is able to help support

that type of an investment ⁓ so I’m not limited geographically like I was in the past.

Michelle Kesil (08:35)
Yeah, amazing. And what do you feel have been some of the main keys that have allowed your business to be able to grow and run successfully?

Sarah Coupland (08:46)
⁓ Again, it comes right down to my team. ⁓

doing everything yourself is ⁓ in a way rewarding and being able to do everything in your business I think is rewarding ⁓ but really having a team that you can trust and a team that backs you and and just because you can do something doesn’t mean you’re the best person to do it. Like I have I was going towards an accounting specialization in university and I decided not to and there was a reason for that so I’m not the best person to be doing my accounting. I’m not the best person to be overseeing

my books. There are people that I can hire who can do that much better than me and my time is not best spent doing that anyways. My time is best spent talking to my investors and doing acquisitions and analyzing deals and you know working that side of the business. So I really feel like my team like I’ve got a really great set of people on my team and ⁓ you know as we’re bringing more people on we’ve got really wonderful processes outlined and training manuals and we have the capacity to bring people on and up to

to be able to support. So really leaning heavily and having the right people in place is so valuable and being able to scale ⁓ and also provide myself some sense of stability and sanity in all that I do too.

Michelle Kesil (10:44)
Right? And what opportunities are you most excited about right now?

Sarah Coupland (10:50)
I’m excited about ⁓

I’m excited about bringing other people along with me. started out, ⁓ when I started out, I quit my job and went into real estate full time and the bank no longer liked me. And so I sort of got into working with joint venture partners and private money at that point. And it was a game changer for me back then because I was able to do multiple deals and I was able to do more than what I could do on my own. And it’s interesting how things transitioned because as I became more successful, as my portfolio grew, as I

able to grew my own capital, I got away from working with investors. ⁓ I find it so rewarding though to have those conversations with people about their goals and having conversations about what ⁓ I provide them with investing and what that does for them in their lives and for their children and their families and ⁓ you know I was a financial advisor at CIBC before I went into real estate full-time so I’ve had those types of investing

with people and I understand how things work at the bank level and it’s really exciting to me to be able to have those conversations with people and be able to help them with their goals and their dreams and be able to put plans and action in place and you know I develop friendships with people along the way so working with people in that capacity again is really exciting to me.

Michelle Kesil (12:16)
Yeah, absolutely.

and what have been some of the biggest obstacles or hurdles that you’ve had to overcome in your investing career.

Sarah Coupland (12:28)
Well, right now I would say my biggest obstacle is my divorce. And like I built the portfolio that we have and I had not intended to sell the properties that I’m currently selling.

And I’ve come to terms with that. I’ve come to terms with, you know, that, you know, being able to like in particular, like the buildings that I have, like, like one of them, like I’ve ripped it right back to the brick and like reframed and insulated and new plumbing. Like everything in the building is brand new. And it’s like you go through that process and like it’s it’s a building and it’s an investment. But there’s also pride in it.

and it’s a great building. Cash flows well and you know go through the effort to get it to a certain point where it’s fabulous and you want it in your portfolio and now I have to sell everything. So I’d say that’s the biggest hurdle in particular here in Ontario our real estate market is down. ⁓

I’m selling in a down market, right now is a great time to buy. In Ontario, it’s not a great time to sell. So even just reconciling the difference in valuation and the challenge of ⁓ liquidating in this type of a market, things are taking a little bit longer. People’s expectations are ⁓ maybe not aligned with what I would like to be receiving on the selling side of things. So navigating this whole process ⁓ unexpectedly

has been a bit of a challenge. ⁓

On the flip side of that, it’s also created a fabulous opportunity where I get to step back and I get to say, okay, I’ve been here and I’ve done that and I’ve built this wonderful thing. What am I going to do differently and how am I going to approach this going forward to be able to build it back? So I have a five year plan to build back my portfolio to where it took me 19 years to get to before. I’m fairly confident that I’m going to get back there within five years

because again,

coming with experience, I’m able to like my network and my relationships, like the amount of people that I have that I can work with, my team’s very different. So

The biggest challenge I’ve had to encounter is also, think, providing the biggest opportunity for me as well. And I have no issues believing that in five years I’m gonna surpass where I was at and it’ll be exciting and wonderful and the whole journey is gonna be a process that I am finding joy in.

Michelle Kesil (15:42)
Yeah, amazing to take something that’s challenging and make it a gift for yourself.

Sarah Coupland (15:49)
Yeah, yeah, I think it’s all about how you look at things, right? And I am really enjoying the process. I’m enjoying lifting my team up to take more responsibility. I’m enjoying the investor conversations. I’m enjoying going and looking at properties again and restructuring how I do things. It’s a lot of fun so far, so I’m looking forward to it.

Michelle Kesil (16:10)
Yeah, and how do you find the deals and like properties that are best suited for you?

Sarah Coupland (16:17)
So there’s a number of different ways. ⁓ I do work with a number of different realtors in different areas. Like I’m in a small market here and so ⁓ I have investment specialized realtors for various different things. Like I have this fabulous realtor right now who is ⁓ liquidating my portfolio and she’s taking care of that side of things. But like just today I have ⁓ one of my realtors. She’s on a number of different wholesale lists and, cause for me,

time to go through and sort through all the wholesaling information that comes through. So I’ve got people on my team who are, you know, not employees but work for me and help me source and find deals. ⁓ So within the last day I’ve had a few deals come my way through various different realtors and connections that I have. On the property management side I manage a number of buildings for other investors as well and that portfolio under management is growing so as they’re looking to sell I’m the first person that they connect with so we have conversations about that which is really nice too.

And you know the wholesaling I do find a lot of opportunities with wholesalers and keeping a breast of sort of what’s going on with them, but yeah, I’ll Sometimes I’ll do yellow letter campaigns ⁓ You know I’ve bought lists of contacts of people who own multi-unit buildings in the areas that I want to invest and you know I’ll do a mail out. I’ll do a marketing campaign. I’ll reach out and try and connect I find one of the best ways is just to get to

know

people and get to know the people who own the buildings and the areas that you want to buy and you know I go to landlord meetings and investor meetups and things like that and if you just build relationships with people and they know that you want to buy and you know that they have something that you might want, private sales can happen as well.

Michelle Kesil (18:07)
Yeah,

absolutely. Relationships are everything in this space.

Sarah Coupland (18:11)
Relationships are everything.

Michelle Kesil (18:15)
Yeah, so you mentioned you have that five year plan. What are the goals for that?

Sarah Coupland (18:22)
The five-year plan, I won’t go into specific numbers, but ⁓ for my PM company and my Renault company to be ⁓ independently successful on their own, like I’m their biggest client and my deals and my business are what mostly floats them. ⁓ So for those companies, I want them to grow independently of my own portfolio to, you know, as standalone companies be successful.

Michelle Kesil (18:26)
short.

Sarah Coupland (18:52)
and hit certain revenue targets. ⁓ On the investing side of things, I’d like to get back to ⁓ the asset value that I am currently selling. ⁓

and ⁓ I’d hit a certain net worth where I was at, so I’d like to get back to that goal as well. ⁓ So currently right now, just getting back into things, like I’ve done a few flips and I’m working on solidifying some more ⁓ and getting offers in on some multi-unit buildings. ⁓ Looking at different markets, like as I mentioned, I’m looking at investing in Saskatoon, which is an interesting market to me, so exploring and being able to build out my system.

in other areas as well is part of my five-year goal. Yeah, so getting to where I was before is my main first piece of it.

Michelle Kesil (19:47)
Definitely. What advice would you give to someone that’s early on in their investing career looking to just dive in?

Sarah Coupland (19:58)
⁓

Education and mentorship are the two things that really helped me ⁓ really grow my portfolio in my business. So I started investing sort of, I’m not gonna say accidentally, but not on purpose. Like my first investment was a shitty little duplex and I bought it because the bank said that I needed additional income to buy a house. And so I bought a duplex and my dad and I renovated it. He taught me how to do all the renovations and we

⁓ I refinanced it and I paid off of my student loans and it was I was like, holy like this is an amazing thing I’m gonna do this again ⁓ But I actually did a few projects before I even realized that there were investor education events that there was so there’s a particular event close to home that I started going to monthly and I learned most of what I have used to build my business at those events I learned about joint venture partnerships and RSP mortgages and I learned about creative

financing and how to find deals. So education is ⁓ super important and being ⁓ part of some sort of group where you can pull on other people and their knowledge. ⁓ The other thing is coaching. So I hired a coach ⁓ later than I maybe had thought. Like looking back I would have probably benefited from hiring a coach prior but I kind of thought I knew everything and I was successful and I was doing

everything really well so I didn’t think I needed one. And then a coach reached out to me they had been talking to somebody from my real estate mastermind and said hey you know let’s have a conversation because I think that I can help you scale and then I was like ⁓ okay you can because like you are doing what I want to do ⁓ on my next part of my path and and I hired a coach and that was very instrumental as well in me upping. So those two things education and mentorship. like I

I coach ⁓ not necessarily newbie investors. ⁓ I’m more so more adept at people who have started out and then don’t know how to get to that next level. And I think that’s one of the best places to start to look at having somebody help you build your vision and build your goals and execute your plan. ⁓ So yeah, definitely education and coaching. Sorry, I just ramble. I could just talk forever.

Michelle Kesil (22:28)
Yeah,

no worries. That’s so unpoint and amazing that you’re now in the other side and helping other people.

Sarah Coupland (22:37)
Yeah, and it’s a lot of fun and I think it is what of it is like

Number one, I do get paid for it, but at the same time for me, it is very much a giving back because I do feel that the people that I encountered and I got advice from and who I networked with and in my coach when I hired him ⁓ was so instrumental in helping me level up and scale and really get a handle on building my vision. ⁓ I look at it as a way of giving back to other investors and helping bring people up and along with you. So yeah, and it’s fun.

Michelle Kesil (22:43)
Sure.

Sarah Coupland (23:11)
It’s different from my day-to-day kind of activities that I’m doing.

Michelle Kesil (23:16)
Yeah,

amazing. Well, before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more, where can people find you?

Sarah Coupland (23:25)
Best place is just to go to my website. It’s sarahcoupland.ca. ⁓ S-A-R-A-H C-O-U-P L-A-N-D dot C-A. ⁓ Yeah, through there, connecting through there for the most part. ⁓ There’s a contact form or on LinkedIn. I’m on LinkedIn and Instagram. Yeah.

Michelle Kesil (23:45)
Perfect. Appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Sarah Coupland (23:49)
you’re very welcome. Thank you for having me, Michelle. It was a pleasure.

Michelle Kesil (23:52)
And for those tuning into the show, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Sarah who are building real businesses and we’ll see you on our next episode.