Crazy Real Estate Stories

Jessilyn Persson (00:32)
Today, we’re gonna share some crazy real estate stories. So in this episode, we’re sharing a collection of personal stories from our journey in real estate investing. Real estate requires a certain grit and sometimes a bit of what we call unreasonableness. So we thought it’d be fun and maybe insightful to talk about some of the wild unexpected things we found ourselves doing along the way.

Brian Persson (00:57)
Mm-hmm. So what’s the first story you would like to tell? I think I believe we decided it was your story first.

Jessilyn Persson (01:04)
Yes, I think we’ve shared some parts of this, but not all of it at some point in our journey. But back in 2017, you came home from work one day and you said, that’s it. I maxed out, no more real estate for us. And my inner dialogue was like, mm-mm, nope, we still have room. And so you went to Saskatoon that weekend because you were going to check in on one of our properties there.

and I did some mad Googling skills and I felt the real estate investment network group local to our community and I signed you up. And when you came home, you were not happy with me when I shared that what I did, because I did not get your permission. I just did it. But we’d already paid. So you begrudgingly went to the event. And what happened when you came home?

Brian Persson (01:59)
Yeah. And, and just so the audience knows, this is, this was the premier Canadian real estate networking group. ⁓ it was not a cheap signup. No, I think, I, I can’t remember what the membership fee was, but there was a monthly three or $400. Yes. And in that three or $400, you, more or less get one meeting, like one, one very, very informative and, and like, you know, action packed meeting per month, but.

You’re paying three or $400 for that. you better, you better use it. And here I am, Vaughan told that I, that, you know, one Wednesday a month, I’m going off to this real estate club. So it was different. Yeah. But, uh, the very, very first meeting that we, that I went to, I realized that I had walked into a room full of people who were already doing what, what we wanted to do. And we simply just didn’t know how to do it.

Jessilyn Persson (02:34)
Yep.

Brian Persson (02:56)
And all of a sudden I was surrounded by stories of, of, of literally everything I had experienced already and things I wasn’t going to even experience for, for years to come. And I was completely supported in that room. So I, I, you’re, you’re an early to bed person. Uh, and I remember we went out for a beer with, uh, a lot of the guys who had gone to that club and, and, and the girls. And, uh, we were just continuing to share stories, but I didn’t get home until.

one o’clock in the morning more or less and I shook you awake because I was so excited about what what ⁓ I had learned and who I had met and everything and I’m like guess what guess what guess what and you just were like honey in the morning yep I’m going to bed now don’t care I don’t care about what I did to you

Jessilyn Persson (03:47)
One that I didn’t care, there’s a time and a place.

Brian Persson (03:50)
Yeah.

Jessilyn Persson (03:51)
And that was my time for sleep.

Brian Persson (03:53)
But it turned a lot of ⁓ corners for us in our real estate career. It opened up doors, it did all kinds of different things. And I think the argument would have gone on probably another three or four months if you had asked me if I wanted to go to the club.

Jessilyn Persson (04:13)
yeah, you would have been a hard no. You’d like, I don’t know, I don’t need it, I don’t have time. I already told you don’t have time for more part. Like I just, I knew. And when I found it, I’m like, this one sounds good. Obviously I didn’t have experience with it, so I couldn’t explain it. all you could do is show up and see what it was like. And then your first experience was so incredible. But it showcased things that I knew were possible, but at the time…

I didn’t know how to explain it to you, right? And even if I tried, let’s be honest, I’m your wife. And you already felt maxed out and sometimes we just don’t want our partner to tell us we can do more.

Brian Persson (04:50)
Yeah. And, and I mean, ultimately that turned into part of our program that we teach other couples. And that is sometimes, ⁓ you got to bring in outside advice. Exactly. Your relationship is not an island and sometimes you need other people to say the exact same thing that you’re or what you believe is the exact same thing. And yeah, it’s often not, but rephrase it or reframe it in a way that somebody else has seen it. And that way your partner sees it differently.

Jessilyn Persson (05:17)
Yeah, so it was a great experience to showcase how I put you in a different space because what I knew I couldn’t articulate, someone else thankfully was able to and you got it, right? So like you said in our course where we teach other people ⁓ to use third party people to help explain your situation or support you or whatever it is. And this was a great example for us to have actually walked through it ourselves.

And then from there, just lent ⁓ great ⁓ advantage for me to know that sometimes I just know things and I since then have signed you up for other things. And it took some time for us to understand that relationship and that between us. But then we got to a point where you just trust me. Cause I don’t go up and sign you up for like everything all the time, but periodically throughout the years, there were certain things I’m like, you should try this or I’m signing you up. And you just, now you’re like, yep.

I understand my wife feels there’s a lesson in there and I’ll get it.

Brian Persson (06:19)
Yeah. And, and it’s the difference between probably feeling and knowing, like your gut says, Hey, this is the right direction. Let’s find someone else who knows and can explain it like logically and mentally in a way that, you know, someone else can understand. your partner. Yes. I was at a real estate event this last weekend and, I actually met a couple that was very similar to us in this operation. was, it was a realtor and ⁓ his wife had brought.

had come along to the event and also brought their two year old daughter. And, ⁓ I, you know, I was, was curious that, know, what, why here, like you guys are really, you know, sort of unreasonable and bringing your daughter, your two year old daughter to a three day real estate conference. Sounded crazy to me. And, ⁓ yeah, the, the realtor, the man he’s, he was like, yeah, you know, I, I do this and this, and this is my wife and she, she makes sure that I’m doing what I, what I, I’m supposed to be doing. And like, I got one of those too.

Jessilyn Persson (07:19)
That’s right, there’s a plan and we make sure you follow it.

Brian Persson (07:23)
Yeah, yeah. But that, but it really, as soon as he said that I could hear the roles that they played, right? And how they were distinct and how they, how they really fell into their roles and they, there was no grievances about like what role they were playing in, their relationship. It was just, I’m the, I’m the pusher, you’re the doer. Like, this is how we’re going to do it. This is, this is the way it’s going to get executed. And there was no, there was no like issues inside of the relationship. It was just exactly the way.

should be.

Jessilyn Persson (07:53)
Yeah. So it worked out well. Yes. ⁓ Let’s move on to another story. know we’ve got several since we’ve been in real estate for well over 15, 16 years now. ⁓ Years ago, the first time I got to see the property that you bought actually before we even met in another province, I was excited to see what this property was and this city I’d never been to. was looking forward to exploring it.

And then we get there and you found out there was an issue on, think the roof or part of the house. Yep. And then we went to the neighbors cause there wasn’t, not a big gap between the two homes. so you wanted to go into her house to see, ask her to go in her house to see if you could look at what was going on out her window into our space. And I remember you knocking the door and she answered and you were chatting with her and I was just standing there.

And I think you asked if you could come in or something.

Brian Persson (08:55)
I asked if I could come in. So to back up, this is an old ⁓ sort of wartime house in Saskatoon. And you’re right, the housing was quite close together. Like you could virtually touch both ⁓ exteriors of the houses. And there was some water damage coming in from what I knew, an open hole somewhere, probably a vent up in the ceiling. And so we went, I knew, I also knew the neighbor’s kitchen window pointed directly at my roof where that damage was happening. So I was like,

I need to get to that kitchen window. And so we knocked on the neighbor’s door and, and, yeah, it was like, hi, can I, you know, I just need, I would really like to come in and just look at, look through your kitchen window to see if I can see the damage on, my property. Right. And I had already, I had already met this lady before a couple of times. So she, it’s not like she didn’t know me and she’s, basically said no. And I said, okay. And walked on in anyway.

Jessilyn Persson (09:49)
You walked in, you took your shoes off, and you went upstairs, and I’m looking at you like, ⁓ my god, I would never.

Brian Persson (09:58)
yeah. Or. But to like, just for the audience, you know, it was, I was not rude about it. No. And, or, or like disrespectful in any way. And I, and, ⁓ you know, I learned earlier on, ⁓ that if you just really smother a lot of kindness and goodness onto people and just are super thankful, like truly thankful for what, you know, they’re, they’re providing you. Yeah. It can go a long, long way.

Jessilyn Persson (09:59)
And it turned that

Brian Persson (10:27)
And, ⁓ you know, she, she ended up allowing me into her house and I didn’t realize, but she had a special needs child, ⁓ with ADHD or autism. I’m not sure what it was, what it was, but, and, that’s part of the reason why she didn’t want me in the house was that she didn’t know if I was going to upset the child. Yeah. Yeah. So looking back, maybe wasn’t the smartest of, of plans, but at the same time, you know, that the

real estate investor unreasonableness in me said, this is the clearest, most direct solution to my problem. Right. And all it requires is me looking out of a neighbor’s kitchen window and like that should not be, that should not be a huge leap.

Jessilyn Persson (11:11)
Yeah, and it did go well. We were in and we got to chat and we met her daughter and she was fine. She actually caught along with us and we chatted for a bit and you were able to help her at other times throughout the ownership of our property. But still, just to think back, if that was me, I would have just been like, okay, and I would have walked away. Whereas you just went right in and I was like, whoa.

Brian Persson (11:32)
And that’s what most people do is when they get a no, they just, they just shut that avenue down. But as a real estate investor or even as a, you know, just a good sales person or a good negotiator, when you’re buying property, you can’t, you can’t accept no. You just have to know how to navigate around no. And that might look like, you know, being super, super friendly and, maybe like scratching their back a little bit in order for them to scratch your back in the negotiation.

whatever it might look like. that’s basically what I did is I was just like, making sure I was very non-offensive, but very clear on what I needed to do. Very clear on how long I wasn’t going to be in the house, which was on the order of minutes. Yeah. Yeah. So, but you, but you got to do it. You got to, you can’t take no sometimes.

Jessilyn Persson (12:18)
Yeah, you gotta be willing to do things that can be uncomfortable. Yep. Or something you might not have considered prior to. And I know you shared a great story the other day about a couple who drove here three hours. They dropped their kids off at daycare, you said. They drove here, which was three hours, for 45 minutes to view a property, to drive three hours back to be able to get their kids from daycare. I’m like, wow.

That is six hours of driving for a 45-minute viewing, but that’s what they had to do for them to see that property knowing that they had children that you don’t want to be bringing on this drive. And with the exception of having to find other care for them if they couldn’t have gotten back in time, they made it work.

Brian Persson (13:07)
Exactly. Yeah. And they were looking at me, like I was unreasonable because they’re, they’re fellow real estate investors. They’re, looking for a multifamily, like, like we, like we hunt for a lot of the time. And, you know, that’s what they had to do, but they were looking at me, like I was unreasonable because I had no interest in this property. had no reason to like, to come to the viewing, but I wanted to help them out. And so I took time out of my day, you know, sandwiched in between meetings and, and like,

made sure I got myself there and I ended up coming to this property way too overdressed because I had a business meeting after that. Yeah. But ⁓ like they were looking at me like, you know, the extra 30, 40 minutes out of my day where I only had to drive 15 minutes was unreasonable. And here they are driving three hours to like go view a property, right? So it’s, there’s very, there’s shades of unreasonableness when you, ⁓ when you become a real estate investor, people look at you differently depending on what you’re doing.

Jessilyn Persson (14:05)
Yeah, and ⁓ I don’t know if you’re this quite as unreasonable as somewhat necessary, but the time when you had to do three move-ins and outs in one of our properties in 24 hours.

Brian Persson (14:19)
Yeah. So similar to walking into that house in Saskatoon, was sometimes you just act and then you think later. Yes. Like you, you know, for you, when I walked into that house in Saskatoon, you’re like, ⁓ my God, like you were, you were thinking I, I wasn’t in a think, a think mode. was in an act mode. So only after we got out and we started chatting out of that house and you were telling me what I did, I was like, yeah, I guess I did that. Like I, you know,

I didn’t actually rewind the tape and figure out what I did. I, and this is the same thing with these three move-ins and three move-outs is I run my prop, my personal properties, I run really hard, ⁓ because they’re all in the local area and I can, I can manage them very well. And so I, I make sure that there is pretty well no vacancies. That’s one of the things that I do with ad properties and what was happening in this property, cause all of our properties are

are a suited property, so they have basement suites and a main floor suite. the upstairs tenant was looking to move downstairs and save some costs. And so what ended up having to happen, if you can visualize this is that, ⁓ upstairs had to move, sorry, would have been downstairs had, would have had to move out. The suite would have had to got ready for the upstairs tenant to move down. And then the upstairs suite would have had to be ready.

for the new tenant to move in upstairs. three move-ins, one house in basically 24 hours.

Jessilyn Persson (15:52)
and in hindsight you’re like

Brian Persson (15:54)
Wow.

And I booked it and I thought it was awesome. And I’m like, look at this, like no vacancy, right? And then, then like, I think it was about a week later. went, wait a minute, what did I just do? ⁓

Jessilyn Persson (16:04)
That was a lot that day.

Brian Persson (16:06)
But the, you know, I, ⁓ as soon as I realized it, I just went, okay, you know what? I made this decision. What can I control? What can I not control? How can I put contingencies in place that like, if there’s things that go, you know, sideways and the biggest thing would have been cleaning. The biggest thing would have been cleaning. If, if either tenant wasn’t properly cleaned in that 24 hour period, then I would have been in some trouble like to try and get it clean.

Jessilyn Persson (16:31)
Clean

her in and cleaned and tied. Yeah.

Brian Persson (16:34)
Exactly. Yeah. But I have, I have strategies for that too. ⁓ because very often I, I try to save some cleaning costs, cause most of my tenants are clean and I end up, more or less just in, ⁓ doing, doing a deal after the fact with the tenant. If it’s not quite to their cleanliness standards, I either offer them to have my cleaner come in and do it after the fact, rather than having to like stress out about what.

I’m going to get a cleaner in within 24 hours and all the move-ins move out. So yeah, it was just a matter of like understanding that you need to put contingencies in place. ⁓ the funniest part is that I act, I did it twice. I know the first time I was ignorant and the second time I actually had done it before. then I’m, and then I ignorantly booked it again, doing the exact same thing. I’m like, my God. Like, did I not learn from this?

Jessilyn Persson (17:26)
Well, it obviously worked out, so regardless of the lessons, we were willing to do Take the Ring.

Brian Persson (17:32)
Yeah, yeah, and I was like, you know what worked out a time before I’m pretty sure I can do it twice And I imagine the time in the future. I’ll do it a third time. Yeah

Jessilyn Persson (17:42)
Yep.

And that’s just being unreasonable, which is definitely a part of being a real estate investor. I think another crazy story ⁓ that we did, again, looking back, hindsight, it’s 2020, wouldn’t change it. But I mean, most of us are raised, like, when you grow up, you get a good job, you buy a house, you pay off the mortgage. That’s kind of how most of us were raised. And that’s what

many people to this day do. Their goal is to pay off their mortgage. And we were two months shy of being completely mortgage free. And we then decided to completely refinance our home, pull out all the equity and buy two more properties.

Brian Persson (18:32)
Yeah. so talk about the universe, like lining you up. ⁓ we, bought into that Kool-Aid of, of paying off your mortgage, you know, like our parents have done. Yep. And, yeah, two months, two months free. And then we, then you signed me up for that real estate club. Yep. And in that club, they’re like, yeah, debt’s great. Like, you know, like you should use debt as much as you can, cause it makes you money. And then in, in that two…

short two month window between almost paying off our mortgage, joining that club. Like imagine if we had paid off the mortgage or hadn’t joined that club, you know, two months plus or two months minus and the, the, the short window of difference that it would have made in our life. It would have been, it’s incredible that it lined up in that, in that type of a time span.

Jessilyn Persson (19:21)
But you know, they say when you put it out in the universe, the universe will make it happen. And it was short. Like I signed you up, I think in August for your first event in September. And we would have been paid off by the end of January, the following that. So a few months later, and we instead refinanced, bought the first property in April and the second one that fall. Like it was like bang, bang, bang.

Brian Persson (19:42)
Yeah, then a third one the next year and next year because we refinanced the other two properties we just bought.

Jessilyn Persson (19:50)
But again, being unreasonable to be like, we could be mortgage free or we could refinance our house, but have two investments that are going to give us long-term wealth, but also monthly ⁓ cashflow, nevermind like mortgage pay down, and absolutely would do it in a heartbeat over and over again. And we actually are. But on that note, I remember ⁓

What was it, two or three years ago, we went for your parents’ 50th ⁓ anniversary celebration. We went on a big family vacation and we were chatting about our mortgages and with your sister and brother-in-laws. And I remember you just nonchalantly saying, what our outstanding balance of mortgages are and me thinking, that’s no big deal. Yeah. What happened?

Brian Persson (20:43)
Well, cause the whole family was talking about how they were almost paid off their mortgages and they only have like $200,000 balances and, what have you. And, and I was like, yeah, I think we have like, you know, two and two and a bit of a million dollars in, in, ⁓ mortgages. and like, just remember my, my brother-in-law’s both of them, kind of just choked on whatever drink they had.

Jessilyn Persson (21:06)
And

then one actually spoke up and said, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t sleep at night. exactly what he said. And in my head, I’m thinking, ⁓ you just don’t know the power of it.

Brian Persson (21:17)
My head was like, no, like if I had six or eight or ten or a hundred million in mortgages, that just means more money for me.

Jessilyn Persson (21:26)
I think you actually verbalize that afterwards like, well, that’s only like two and some million. Like, we want more.

Brian Persson (21:31)
Yeah, it pays us. The two million dollars pays us.

Jessilyn Persson (21:34)
And they were just like, ⁓ nope, couldn’t do it. They just couldn’t get past that debt and the concept of not paying off their mortgage.

Brian Persson (21:43)
Yeah. And I mean, if we hadn’t gone through our own experiences, I totally would have not, I would not have understood their mentality. Of course. But like, we went from a, a few hundred thousand dollars in, in mortgage debt, zero on our personal residence and just, you know, a couple condos and that town, the house in Saskatoon to like two and some million dollars of mortgage debt within six months.

And then we rolled that out at that time. You we had had that debt for years. And so for us to have that amount of debt was like just a fact of life at that point. And we were looking for more.

Jessilyn Persson (22:22)
Yeah, and we’re little…

Right? Because we know how that debt now is paying us to build our wealth.

Brian Persson (22:30)
Oh my God, it’s paint. Like the last three years, just based on how we positioned our portfolio and how the Alberta market is turning out and a lot of things are starting to happen. That debt is making us more money than we’ve ever made in our entire 15 year real estate career. So imagine if we didn’t have that debt, where would, where would that extra money be coming from?

Jessilyn Persson (22:59)
Oh, well, we wouldn’t have the extra money, period. And we wouldn’t have the assets. we would have been mortgage free. But great, it’s not making us money. It’s not building us wealth. So what are the important, what’s the most important takeaway, I should say, from what we discussed today? So for me, I’d say if you’re going to invest in real estate, which you should, there’s going to be ups and downs. So enjoy the lessons you learn, the laughs you have.

Brian Persson (23:01)
Exactly.

Yay, yay-

Zero Margo’s doesn’t pay you anything.

Jessilyn Persson (23:28)
and the ride of the real estate investing world because it is a ride. And we talk about the ups and downs and the in-betweens. And while we’re sharing some crazy stories today and some of the great returns we got from it, we share it wasn’t always this way too.

Brian Persson (23:43)
Yep. The key takeaway for me is just that investing in real estate takes a bit of unreasonableness. And so start building that into your personality, stretch yourself a little further every day and, and do things that you maybe think that, ⁓ that you shouldn’t do. Not criminally, but like just stretch yourself so that you’re consistently stacking on your own personality.

Jessilyn Persson (24:07)
Thanks so much for tuning in. Listen for more real estate investing stories in the next episode of the Light by Design podcast.

Brian Persson (24:14)
Before you go, don’t forget to visit weekendwealth.ca to take our quiz and discover what type of real estate investor you are. We release new episodes every two weeks, so be sure to hit the subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. Thank you for joining us on this journey to create your life by design.

Jessilyn Persson (24:31)
Thanks again for listening, it’s been a pleasure being with you today.