She Gets The Money When Others Can’t | Rena Malkah on Hard-to-Fund Real Estate Deals

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Rena Malkah, the first female mortgage broker in Canada. Rena shares her inspiring journey in the mortgage industry, detailing her early challenges, her strategies for success in the U.S. market, and the importance of building strong relationships in business. She emphasizes the value of persistence and determination in overcoming obstacles and offers valuable advice on real estate investment. Rena’s extensive experience and insights provide listeners with a wealth of knowledge about the mortgage and real estate sectors.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Rena Malkah’s Website
    • Rena Malkah’s Email: [email protected]
    • Rena Malkah’s Phone No: (305) 525-9955

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Rena Malkah (00:00)
  I was the first woman to be a mortgage broker in all of Canada. That was in 1974. Things were a lot different back then. Then at that time, a woman couldn’t even borrow money unless a man signed for her. There were, yeah, you had to, if you didn’t have a husband or boyfriend or somebody to sign for you, you couldn’t get any money. And it was such a big deal.

  that in 1979 I was on the front page of the Toronto Star, which is the main newspaper there, saying, woman breaks into big bucks world.

  Quentin (02:03)
  Hello, everyone. Hello. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. Listen, today’s a special one. We so happen to have the first woman mortgage broker in Canada ever. She is the first mortgage broker that was in Canada, female that was in Canada ever. I’m excited about this. I’m excited. She has a long journey in real estate. She helped.

  finance deals and real estate. I’m excited for us to be able to see things through her lens for her to take us into her world. And so I just want to introduce everyone to Ms. Rena Malkah. Ms. Rena, how are you today?

  Rena Malkah (02:44)
  I’m very good, thanks Quentin. Thank you so much for inviting me on your podcast today. And I’m really excited to do this meeting today and looking forward to speaking to your audience.

  Quentin (02:57)
  Absolutely. Well, listen, listen, we we won’t dive right in this rain. I like, want you to take us into your world. want you to tell us what your main focus is these days. If you want to give us a little bit of an origin story, we love origin stories about, you know, kind of how you got started. And then also tell them what markets you’re operating in. I think that’s a key point to today as well. So the floor is yours, Ms. Rain.

  Rena Malkah (03:10)
  sure.

  Thank you so much. Well, as you mentioned,

  I was the first woman to be a mortgage broker in all of Canada. That was in 1974. Things were a lot different back then. Then at that time, a woman couldn’t even borrow money unless a man signed for her. There were, yeah, you had to, if you didn’t have a husband or boyfriend or somebody to sign for you, you couldn’t get any money. And it was such a big deal.

  that in 1979 I was on the front page of the Toronto Star, which is the main newspaper there, saying, woman breaks into big bucks world.

  And I subsequently joined the Mortgage Brokers Association. I was on the Legislation Committee. I brought in a two level licensing system. Before that, they just had to write an exam at the government office. They didn’t even have a course. I created the course when I was education chairperson.

  Half the brokers in the province of Ontario and Canada have my signature on their education certificate, which entitled them to apply for a license. I was also the first female president of the Mortgage Brokers Association, and I created the first conference and trade show, which was in 1984 and has continued to be an event every year thereafter. So I’m pretty well known in that market. ⁓

  Ontario, which is one of the provinces in Canada where we do residential, commercial, industrial financing of any type of real estate. And then ⁓ four years ago, I decided to open an office in the U.S., which is just north of Miami, between ⁓ Miami and Fort Lauderdale. And I’ve been ⁓ very happy that I’ve done that.

  economy is actually better in the U.S. than it is in Canada at the present time. And we also finance in any state nationwide, including Hawaii, Alaska, land acquisition, land servicing, construction, and any type of investment property, whether it could be a single-family dwelling that could be rental or Airbnb or multifamily and industrial office building, medical, self-storage, hotel.

  We just did a church, I just did a medical condo in California. So any type of property that has income and it makes sense, we can do it.

  Quentin (06:33)
  I love it. Wow. Thank you. mean, that was once ⁓ definitely an awesome resume of how you got started to where you are now. And I love everything your business is doing. Came here four years ago. Seemed like you just hit the ground running, you know? so, you know, you sell as you have years of success. And so I just want to on that experience a little bit. What are some of the key strategies?

  that keep you running smoothly, that keep what you’re doing running smoothly. What are some of the strategies you put in place?

  Rena Malkah (07:02)
  Well, when I opened in the US, it was a challenge because nobody knew who I was. I had to start from scratch. I I was well known in Ontario, Canada. And so I had to learn what all the lenders offer here. And there was some different terminology or lingo that I had to learn as well. ⁓ But I attended a lot of conferences, met a lot of lenders. ⁓

  we do have now a database of 6,000 lenders for all of the US. We have every bank, credit union, REIT, ⁓ life companies, pension fund, debt fund, hedge fund, ⁓ SBA lenders, hard money lenders, any kind of lender. ⁓ And we can do both institutional and private deals. ⁓ having the money is the most important thing, first of all. So that was good.

  The next thing is to have the clients who need the money. So I do a lot of marketing, both by going out to various conferences. Like today I’m sitting in a hotel where there was the Florida commercial realtors had a seminar, there was 1200 realtors here. So I go out to events to network. This evening I’m going to the…

  Quentin (08:21)
  Yeah.

  Rena Malkah (08:23)
  Asian Real Estate Association of America, even though I’m not Asian. so I will be and of course now I’m doing this podcast of various ways. We do emailing ⁓ and social media and phone calls and every which way to get clients and ⁓ the main thing we want to do is satisfy our clients to get them the best deal for their particular situation so that they will brag about us to their friends and

  relatives and business associates so we can get more referrals. a lot of the clients are builders, developers, they have projects on or investors, they continue having deals, fix and flips or whatever it might be. So we want them to be coming back on a repeat basis as well. So I guess that’s really the main thing, satisfying the clients and having the money to give them.

  Quentin (08:55)
  Yeah.

  I love it. Absolutely. Well, listen, I love it. I love everything you’re saying. I love the success that you have so far. And I kind of want to take people kind of on a journey from like the journey to success, right? Like, of course we can talk about the success where we are now, but I’m sure there has been a journey to it. So I’m going say it like this. I know there are times when things got real, maybe deals went sideways, times when you had to pivot fast.

  And so do you mind sharing maybe a story like that for our viewers? Because so many people are in different parts of their journey. And if somebody is stuck in something, maybe listening to how you overcame a situation could help.

  Rena Malkah (09:48)
  Sure.

  Sure. Well, you know, the market does go up and down. There’s been crashes like you had in the US in 2008, and there’s been other crashes as well that we’ve had in Canada. those times are very challenging. ⁓ So whatever it is that you’re doing, you just basically have to be determined and persistent and never give up. Because if you just keep going, it will…

  come through and you will succeed. So have a saying, if you throw enough, whatever, crap against the walls, things gonna stick.

  Quentin (11:02)
  Uh-huh. Yeah. Yes,

  ma’am. No, no, Yeah, absolutely right. You know, one of my favorite words is stick-to-it-iveness. That’s one of my favorite words. And sometimes, you you got to have that mindset. Like you said, we saw in the, it against the wall, making sure it stick, but you got to stick to it. You got to always be persistent. And so I absolutely love everything that you’re saying. Yeah.

  Rena Malkah (11:22)
  Yes. Another story. Recently,

  we had a client that was building, this is in Ontario, was building a house. And prior to coming to us, they’d been to four other mortgage brokers. And this still had been very heavily shopped because every lender that we went to had already seen it before. And we went to over a hundred lenders and we eventually got it done. And we were the only broker who was able to do it. We didn’t give up.

  Quentin (11:50)
  Yeah.

  Rena Malkah (11:51)
  Yeah.

  Quentin (11:52)
  Yeah, absolutely. Nope, I love it. That’s, that lets me know, you know, you’re somebody, you’re not a person that just dabble. You have stuck in this thing for the long term and it shows with all your years of experience. And you’re just giving us a peek on how you’re going to stay into the game for a long term. And so I really appreciate you saying it because you’re showing people how to keep this thing going for a long and consistent basis. so listen, yep.

  Rena Malkah (12:15)
  So we do care about our clients and we don’t want to disappoint them.

  So we really do try our best, but that doesn’t mean of course that we can do every deal. Some deals are not doable. And also if we know from the beginning that it’s something that we’re not going to be able to do, we won’t waste somebody’s time either.

  Quentin (12:30)
  Yeah.

  Absolutely. Nope. I hear it loud and clear. So listen to me, actually. What is the, what are you most focused on solving next or scaling next? Like what’s the next real goal for you?

  Rena Malkah (12:41)
  Well, ⁓ it looks like one of our lending partners from Canada is going to be partnering with us ⁓ in opening a hard money lending company in Florida. So we actually will be direct lenders, not just doing brokering. So we’re looking forward to setting that up. That’s the next goal.

  Quentin (13:06)
  I it. I absolutely love it. So I know, you know, throughout your years coming from Canada, coming to the United States, I’m sure you’ve built a lot of very good business relationships, probably good personal relationships too. But I want to talk a little bit about relationships in business. How do you value relationships? How did building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you when it comes to that regard?

  Rena Malkah (13:31)
  Well, I think it’s very important to have good relationships that the people that you deal with know that you’re honest and that you’re hardworking and that you’re working on their behalf. ⁓ Otherwise, they’re not going to want to deal with you in the future. ⁓ And it’s very important to have good relationships with the lenders. ⁓ Otherwise, they might cut you off and not work with you anymore. So, yeah, so basically that you’re

  that everything is above board and straightforward and they know that they can rely on your word that you’re a straight shooter.

  Quentin (14:09)
  Yeah, Absolutely. know, honesty, integrity, being authentic, that’s so much value within business, business transactions. And like you said, when you’re looking for referrals, when you’re looking for partnerships, when you’re looking to build a robust network, presenting yourself in your best light possible as the most honest version of you is definitely a great thing. So people know just what they’re getting. And so I appreciate that. Listen.

  Ms. Rena, is there any kind of other maybe encouragement, any kind of maybe advice maybe that you want to leave to people? If there is, I would love to hear it and I think people would love to hear it from you if there’s any part in words.

  Rena Malkah (15:30)
  Well, I still believe that real estate is a great investment. ⁓ And if you haven’t already invested in real estate, it’s something that you should look into, whether it’s a single family home or commercial building. And it’s something that even though there are ups and downs in the long run, they do hold their value.

  ⁓ And maybe this is a good time to buy because in some areas the markets are a bit soft. So, you know, they say buy low, sell high. So this is, I think, a buyer’s market. And yeah, if you need any money, you can give me a call. Let’s see why our funding. Yeah.

  Quentin (16:10)
  There

  she go. Yeah, no, so yeah, that’s I was about to say. Before you rap, before we rap, how can someone reach out to you, connect with you, get in contact with you? Give them all the details on how to get in contact.

  Rena Malkah (16:21)
  Okay, well, if you’re in Canada, my cell number, I can put it in the chat, is 647-838-5061. That’s 647-838-5061. Or in the US, it’s 305-525-9955. That’s 305-525-9955. Or you can email me at Rena, my first name, R-E-N-A, the number one, at C-Y-R.

  funding, which is the name of the company, dot com. So rena1 at cyrfunding.com. And, you know, feel free if you have any questions, even if you don’t need any money, you just want to ask a question. Need any advice? I’d be glad to help you.

  Quentin (17:03)
  Absolutely. Well, there she is, y’all, Ms. Malkah. Listen, thank you so much. Thank you for your time, for your story. Thank you for your persistence. You know, we know everything that went on behind scenes, but you powered through and you’re here. And I’m so glad because I’m sure our listeners are going to take a ton of value away from this conversation. So thank you so much for being here. It was a pleasure.

  Rena Malkah (17:26)
  Thank you so much, Quentin, and you have a great day. And I’m looking forward to watching this podcast when it’s released. And I wish you all the success.

  Quentin (17:30)
  Absolutely.

  Absolutely. But listen, y’all helped. Y’all heard Ms. Rena. You got the value. ⁓ Listen, just go ahead and subscribe. That way you can make sure you can get the updates when we keep bringing on just amazing people just like Ms. Rena. And so thank you again so much. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.

  Rena Malkah (17:55)
  Thank you. Have a great day.