Why Now Is the Best Time to Buy Real Estate in a Tough Market

Share via:

Subscribe via:

In this episode, Monika Jazyk shares insights on building wealth through real estate, navigating current market challenges, and leveraging technology for future growth. She discusses key investment strategies, the importance of understanding market cycles, and how financial literacy can help investors make better decisions. Monika also highlights how tools like AI can enhance real estate education and support investors in adapting to changing market conditions.

Resources and Links from this show:

Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

Monika Jazyk (00:00)
absolutely, absolutely. Like definitely now is the time to buy and if you are looking to buy real estate, there are so many opportunities available and that are out there and people will gladly sell you their homes for a very, very, very reduced price. And I think you’re actually helping some of these people because they are so scared and they just want to to get rid of this, this asset.

Michelle Kesil (01:59)
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, Monika Jazyk who is a real estate investor as well as a real estate coach, advising people specifically on investments in our current economy and mitigating risks. So excited to have you here today, Monika.

Monika Jazyk (02:26)
I’m so excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Michelle Kesil (02:29)
Yeah, let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your work yet, can you share what your main focus is these days?

Monika Jazyk (02:37)
So I am the founder of RPI Education, which technically stands for Real Property Investments Education. I am a real estate investment specialist and wealth builder. And our primary focus at RPI Education is to help people build wealth through real estate and alternative investments. So we have always really focused on different aspects of building wealth, but real

Real is the wealth builder that we have built our personal wealth from and we always sort of fall back even in our private equity investments. 90 % of those are also backed by real estate as well. So real estate has always been our investing tool of choice.

Michelle Kesil (03:25)
Awesome. And which markets do you operate in?

Monika Jazyk (03:29)
So we operate in several different markets throughout Canada, as well as the U.S. We like to focus now on A-class markets. And my favorite area is currently, I live in Toronto, Ontario. So we focus on Toronto, Ontario, as well as two tertiary markets in Ontario. We’ll do the Simcoe County region and St. Catharines. And also in the U.S., we love Texas.

primarily more the the Houston area. We love Arizona and we also love Florida. So we’ve we have great teams in all of those markets in those areas and despite everything going on in our current economy we are having great success in all those areas because people still want to live in those areas and we really focus on areas that have high economic fundamentals where people want to live.

need housing and we’ve always been there to provide the housing for them and to make housing achievable because everyone has to live somewhere. love like housing is one of one of our basic human needs shelters so everyone needs a house AI can’t even replace housing so we are always focusing on on those key fundamentals for sure.

Michelle Kesil (04:41)
Right?

Awesome. Okay, and what would you say are some of the main keys that have allowed your business to be able to grow and run successfully?

Monika Jazyk (05:47)
I think that just our willingness to persevere through these market conditions that we’ve experienced as real estate investors, although real estate investing is our prime investment of choice, it is a really, really hard time in the real estate investment industry. A lot of trainers are no longer operating. A lot of funds are no longer in compliance and performing. A lot of people are shutting down. Power of sales and foreclosures that are

on an all-time high. And a lot of investors who were really starting out in the COVID era have really been caught in a bad position because they were banking on low interest rates forever and they were buying at all-time high prices. Now the prices have dropped substantially and the interest rates have really, really increased and it doesn’t look like they’re going to go down anytime soon. And in the midst of all that,

people’s fear and uncertainty is also at an all-time high, not only because their personal expenses are so compromised, but everything that’s happening in the world today, from politics to global wars, with the whole economic climate, there’s so much happening at once. Now as an investor for over 16 years, we’ve seen a lot of these cycles and we’ve operated in these cycles, but when’s this going to end? We have never seen it.

go on so long before, which is really, really concerning because this has been over three horrible, horrible years. We had it pretty good there for a while where you couldn’t go wrong with real estate investing. And it was really the investment vehicle of choice and everyone wanted to do it. we were showing people how to do it the right way, which was really, really easy because when everyone knows real estate is the cool thing to do, they’re more inclined to say yes.

and do it. But talking people past the fear of investing and educating them on the fundamentals of why this is a good thing has always been the number one obstacle for people, even in the best of times. So when you’re trying to continue to spread this message in this sort of environment, in these times, our job is just that much more difficult. But like I say at the same time,

Wealth building never stops. In spite of everything, everyone needs money to live. Everyone’s suffering from lack of money or tightened, compressed financial situations. And there are solutions. People just need to take money, put it to the forefront, and really kind of learn very simple shifts and pivots that they could participate in to you know start improving slowly their situation.

Michelle Kesil (08:36)
Yeah, absolutely. What would you suggest to someone that is looking to start improving that financial situation that they’re in?

Monika Jazyk (08:45)
Oh my goodness. Well, I would really advise that looking at your current existing portfolio. One, if you already have a portfolio and you’re suffering from a certain situation, whether it’s personal or whether it is, whether it’s personal or whether it’s with an investment property to really look at where you’ve already started. Did you get caught with a high interest rate increase on your personal residence?

That often hurts more because our personal residence usually costs a lot more than our investment properties. And if you bought a property within the last five years, and a lot of our personal residences, most of them range between one to three million dollars, people are getting these properties at a low interest rate and they’ve overpaid for them already. A lot of properties are just going, being valued hundreds of thousands of dollars below fair market value. The value is no longer

longer there and the low interest rates are not either. So people’s mortgage payments are sometimes thousands and thousands of dollars more than they originally thought they’d be when they signed out plus the value is not there. That is just a huge problem that a lot of people are addressing with or addressed with. It doesn’t even have to do with adding or building wealth with more investment properties. It has to be dealing with the current situation that you’re currently with. So often when you have someone have a look at your

your

situation and can kind of see it from an outside lens. It really takes that fear and uncertainty away. There are ways that you can sort of get back in the driver’s seat and take control, whether it’s getting your property with another lender, whether it’s exiting the property for a sale. What we’ve been doing a lot with homeowners here is actually helping them turn their home into an income property while they’re still there, adding secondary suites into their unit or

further housing options so people can now really fill that gap because that’s what’s really really ⁓ hurting people. For other people who have not been affected so much, maybe they have a home, a primary residence, they don’t even have a mortgage on their property and they’re not stressed out at all and they’re sitting quite well, they have a very secure job, this could be a really great time for people to add real estate to their portfolio because in real estate

investing, we make money when we buy. And homes are selling hundreds of thousands of dollars below fair market value. So although it’s a time that yes, we have to make sure we’re okay financially, we have this job certainty where our expenses aren’t running rampant, once that’s under control, this is a really great time for people to add these valuable assets to their portfolio. They just have to learn three things. One, they need to know how to buy right and where to buy.

there is so much happening in all these economies. So we do, we help people do these economic analysis on these different areas to really make sure they’re buying in the right area and is there going to be a need? What is the likelihood of further house drops, ⁓ pricing drops happening here? What is the likelihood of people not even wanting to live there anymore? So really helping them do a thorough analysis in there of where they want to buy. And the second thing is what can we do

to increase the value of that property. So most properties no longer operate on a single family rental. You’d have to get your property very, very low. We could have some in maybe our US markets, maybe some in Florida, Texas, but you’re closer to cash flow neutral. We really have those teams in place to help people add value to the existing property. Usually we do add extra units so then we don’t just have one rent coming in. We have anywhere from two to five.

rents that are coming in, which really kind of help the investor to grow their property or their portfolio very easily and tightly. Maybe they all they need is one property that they can convert to five doors. That could be a tremendous wealth builder for you and your family. And the third thing is to really understand how to mitigate the risk and what are the potential things that could happen to jeopardize this investment.

very, very conservative at our PI education in regards of area, in regards of buying correctly, in regards of making improvements, and staying on budget for time, as well as for money. So those are the sort of things that we help advise on. People adding to their portfolio, but also people sustaining their current portfolio if they’re affected personally. And then there’s people who have all those questions, what should I do in this

situation someone came to me a couple days ago and asked what am I going to do about this condominium that I’m supposed to be closing on in two months and I have to I don’t know how much it’s even worth anymore and I said well how much did you pay for it and the buying price for this condominium was over $800,000 so this is just a small little condo and our condo market is completely insane so it really is to

really walk them through the pros and cons of walking away versus the risk of walking away versus actually closing on the property or assigning the property or different things that they sort of have available. So there’s a lot of different things that we’ve done over the past 16 years and we’ve operated through a variety of markets. So as a consultant who’s been there and done that, I think it’s just that second set of eyes to help people.

you know, stop making a bad situation worse.

Michelle Kesil (15:59)
Yeah, absolutely. think that’s such helpful and important and relevant advice. Is there something specific you could suggest to someone that is looking to get started as an investor like in this current time right now?

Monika Jazyk (16:17)
absolutely, absolutely. Like definitely now is the time to buy and if you are looking to buy real estate, there are so many opportunities available and that are out there and people will gladly sell you their homes for a very, very, very reduced price. And I think you’re actually helping some of these people because they are so scared and they just want to to get rid of this, this asset.

So definitely.

Make sure you’re buying in the right area. need to figure out first of all what you could qualify for with these interest rates. You definitely need a great mortgage broker. We always advise people to get pre-qualified before. Pick a great area where people are going to want to live, preferably one that is close to you. If it’s not close to you, you definitely need to have a team built around you to help you manage your property, help you manage your investment, help you add repairs if that’s what you’re doing.

And you definitely then need to match it to a strategy that’s going to help you reach your goals. So most people that we help people at RPI Education, they want to do one of three things. They want to make more money every month. They want to build a multi-million dollar retirement. And they want to be able to help their kids out. think most people who have kids, they want to be able to help them become homeowners or fund their university education.

Those are the sort of problems that we are always helping people solve at RPI. And we are able to help people do that through real estate and alternative investments for many, many years. But just by being able to buy right in the right area and really knowing what they’re doing it for in the first place.

Michelle Kesil (18:04)
Absolutely. And what would you say your biggest focus is now on what you’re solving or scaling to next?

Monika Jazyk (18:12)
So I think our biggest focus or where we’re scaling to next is we’re really sort of shifting to AI. I think the AI is just huge and it’s taking over everything. so I’m learning to replicate a lot of our advice, a lot of our information from our wealth immersion program, from our real estate investing one-on-one courses, all that information. We’re looking to take that and replicate that through an RPI education helper, which is exciting.

to help enhance financial literacy information to help fill the wealth gap. So all this information can be accessible to people through an app. And if they’re not inclined to have a coach or they’re not inclined to go online and do a course right away, rather than just going on YouTube and piecemealing your information together, we’ve always been trying to get all of our information because we operate in systems and proven systems and proven formulas.

which has always been definitely another one of our strengths and putting that together into this RPI education helper which will like pretty much serve people to give them advice on their current situation so they can actually get that assistance before having to take the next step and do a course or come to a coach.

Michelle Kesil (19:30)
Yeah, amazing. And what does your coaching and course library look like for those that are looking for support?

Monika Jazyk (19:40)
So our main product really is a seven module wealth immersion program. We help people, although real estate investing is very, very important and we do have a six course real estate investing one-on-one bundle, our wealth immersion program, which is the majority of the information, which will be transferred over into the helper, really focuses on the seven keys to building wealth, like the top 2%. So when we say the top 2%, a lot of people get confused with that, or it’s thrown around that word a lot.

But we really kind of look at what are the world’s wealthiest families doing, you know, in order to to make money and keep money, because we also have to keep it. Now, we’re not saying you have to be like the world’s wealthiest families, but we like to emulate the behaviors of the ultra rich and make it accessible to everyone because it is accessible. And most people think it’s not. So that’s one myth I love to dispel. So in our wealth immersion program, our first module is all about real estate investing, everything from

from.

getting started to getting joint venture partners and doing multi-billion dollar developments if that’s where you want to take it. It has all the information in there in the real estate investing module. But there’s six other important modules that most people don’t like to focus on so much and most courses and trainers don’t teach. The second one really is all about strategic leverage and mortgages. So we have our team of mortgage specialists really talking about leverage, mortgage options.

⁓

and teaching more about that. The third one is self-directing registered funds. So this goes more into the alternative investments. Most people think they have to invest their money in stocks and mutual funds. We educate people on really getting becoming the bank and looking at different aspects where they can actually take their hard-earned savings and utilize it to invest in real estate or invest in private equity, invest as private lenders. All these different things that most people didn’t know they’re able to do.

We also show people how to invest in insurance. So insurance could be a huge, huge wealth builder. And we focus on insurance using the infinite banking concept. So you’re able to actually use this money when you’re alive. You don’t have to wait until you pass proper corporate structures. So we have a module on proper corporate structures. How do you buy your real estate? How do you structure your wealth? And we do all of this for our main areas of operation. have Canada, the U.S., UK and Australia.

because we have teams of experts in all those markets.

And then we focus on accounting, because what’s point of making all this money if you’re going to lose it all in taxes? So a huge module in accounting. And lastly, estate planning. After you make all this amazing wealth plan that’s going to serve you and your family and really help you build your why in this world and live the life that you really want, we want to prepare you to not lose it all in taxes, in probate, help you sort of form those structures or

or educate you on options of ways that you can really pass down your wealth to preserve your wealth, not just one generation, but ideally two generations, three generations, four generations.

as much as you want. So we really cover all those sort of things from buying a property to figuring out what you’re going to do with your exit strategy of your new wealth plan when you’re passing that down to your heirs, to your estate, and all your aspects of your wealth.

Michelle Kesil (23:17)
Wow, amazing sounds like you guys are covering all grounds. love that.

Monika Jazyk (23:22)
And it’s not just us, it’s our team, our amazing team of wealth experts from across Canada, across the US, across Australia, across the UK. We’re so blessed to have some amazing individuals that, like us, are dedicated to helping people learn how to build wealth. And each one is such an expert in their own field. And we really believe that focus is really, important. So the premise of

the education, the materials is not to tell you what to do, it’s to teach you what you need to know. So then you can go to the team.

or even your own professionals and you’re able to carry on a better conversation with them about your wealth. You’re more in control and in the driver’s seat rather than just being like a parrot and repeating something like you learned or worse off like we were when we started out just listening to whatever anyone told us in regards to these these areas of expertise because if you don’t know and you’ve never been educated in financial literacy or in these different

Michelle Kesil (24:22)
Right.

Monika Jazyk (24:30)
different components. You really don’t know what questions to ask. You don’t know what options are available. And you really don’t know how it’s going to serve you. And this is what most people in society are fed. They’re fed information from their parents, are fed information from their parents, or from whatever it is they learned. And hopefully the schools teach us something. But even the information that we’re taught in school in regards to financial literacy,

Michelle Kesil (24:51)
Yeah.

Monika Jazyk (25:00)
very, very limited and unfortunately traditional financial planning no longer works. We need to reinvent it and do it a different way and that’s what we’re trying to make accessible to everyone.

Michelle Kesil (25:06)
Right.

Yeah, amazing. Thank you for sharing all of that. So before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, and learn more, where can people find you?

Monika Jazyk (25:25)
rpieducation.com.

Michelle Kesil (25:27)
Perfect. Well, I appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Monika Jazyk (25:32)
Thank you so much for having me, I appreciate you.

Michelle Kesil (25:35)
Of course. And for those tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators like Monika who are building real businesses and we’ll see you on our next episode.

Tags:

Investor Fuel

Why Now Is the Best Time to Buy Real Estate in a Tough Market | Monika Jazyk

Show Summary

Resources and Links from this show:

Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

Tags:

Ready to take your business to the next level? Take the next steps below