How to Get Positive Cash Flow on a Freehold Property in Toronto

Andrew la Fleur:
On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about something that many people thought was impossible: getting positive cashflow on a freehold property in Toronto. Stay tuned.

Announcer:
Welcome to the True Condos Podcast with Andrew la Fleur, the place to get the truth on the Toronto condo market and condo investing in Toronto.

Andrew la Fleur:
Hi, welcome back to the show once again. Thanks for tuning in to the True Condos Podcast. Make sure that you’re getting our weekly email updates so you never miss an episode and you never miss a great investment opportunity. Sign up anywhere at truecondos.com with your name and email and you’ll be sure to start receiving our weekly email updates. You can always reach me as well. If you’d like to reach me about the opportunities discussed on this or any episode, you can reach me, andrew@truecondos.com, or you can call me, 416-371-2333. On today’s episode, as I said in the intro, we’re going to be talking about something that many people thought was impossible, and that is finding positive cashflow on a freehold. Not a condominium, a freehold property. We’re talking low rise in the city of Toronto. We’re not going to the far away reaches of small town, Ontario, small cities in Ontario. We’re talking right in the city of Toronto proper, the 416.

Andrew la Fleur:
We’ve got an amazing opportunity called Riverside Residences and it is just a phenomenal opportunity. I personally have invested in this project and many of my clients have as well. There’s a new release of units, specifically townhome units, coming up here right now at time of recording this podcast here in July of 2019. If you missed out on that first one or if you’re looking for something like this, this is a fantastic, fantastic opportunity if you’re looking for something with great cashflow that’s actually freehold, not condo, freehold, in the city of Toronto proper.

Andrew la Fleur:
On today’s episode I have a very special guest that I sat down and had a chance to interview and talk with, Sharon Florian, from Cityzen Fernbrook. Sharon was amazing to talk to. She shares her story how she got started in real estate, and you’ll definitely love to hear that. Talked a lot about her experience buying her first property, the mindset that she had. She got started very young. She just had an amazing mindset, which I love. I want to make sure that everybody pays attention to what she says about how she got into it and the mentality that she had at the time that she did. Just she’s done absolutely amazing with her own personal portfolio. Of course, now she’s running the sales and marketing for one of the GTA’s top developers. Just a great person to chat with.

Andrew la Fleur:
Also, of course, we dive into this project specifically, Riverside Residences, Lawrence and Black Creek drive in Toronto, and the amazing opportunity that it is and what makes it so special and how the numbers look. I’m very excited to share this info with you. Once again, to get all the details on this and any opportunity you hear on this podcast, just send me an email, andrew@truecondos.com, or call me, 416-371-2333. Without further ado, here is my interview with Sharon Florian. Enjoy.

Andrew la Fleur:
Welcome to the show.

Sharon Florian:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Andrew la Fleur:
Great to have you on. Excited to chat with you more about this opportunity. But first I just thought it’d be great to hear from you. I don’t know the story even myself, so I’d love to hear how did you get started in real estate? How did you get to where you are right now?

Sharon Florian:
It’s actually an interesting story. I bought my first condo. I always thought that real estate was something that interested me, but it was … I didn’t really know how to get into it or maybe was a bit nervous about it. I purchased my first condo pre-construction when I was 25. When I was signing the paperwork, I just happened to ask the sales person, “How is it that you got into this?” Just started to asking her a little bit about how she got into it, how she likes it, what she does, what it entails.

Andrew la Fleur:
What were you doing at the time?

Sharon Florian:
At the time, I was actually working for a computer software company in accounting, administration and accounting. I had started to take my license but really had no idea, it was on the side, if I was going to do anything with it.

Andrew la Fleur:
Are you from a real estate family?

Sharon Florian:
No. not whatsoever. No. Not whatsoever. But I ended up with getting an interview with the manager of the site where I’d bought. It was actually Canalfa’s Liberty Village. It was stacked townhomes. I interviewed there with the manager and almost immediately I was working, working weekends, doing tours for them on their existing inventory buildings. It was actually good for me twofold because I was 25 and I had almost no money in the bank and I had to figure out how I was going to come up with these structured deposits. Then, in addition to that, I was very interested in real estate and my goal was to head in that direction. For the next almost two years, I’d say, I worked seven days a week.

Andrew la Fleur:
Two years.

Sharon Florian:
For two years. I worked seven days a week and I lived off the money I made doing real estate on the weekends and I put my entire salary towards the down payment, because I bought it saying, “I know this is going to be a good investment. I know it’s going to increase in value.”

Andrew la Fleur:
How did you know that at such a young age?

Sharon Florian:
Because real estate is the one thing …

Andrew la Fleur:
What were you thinking? I want to get in your mindset at that time, because I find that so interesting. One of the questions I was going to ask you, you’re answering it with your answer already, but I wanted to hear about your first purchase and what were you thinking at the time? I always find that interesting to hear what …

Sharon Florian:
What I saw at that time was that I could make and save money at a certain rate, and the real estate market was increasing at a rate much higher than my pay or my ability to save money was increasing. I knew that I had to get into the market somehow and that a really good way to do that would be the pre-construction market. I can buy it today at today’s price and then it’s going to force me to do whatever it is I can to make that deposit, to make those deposits, or save the money to pay off the line that I got to make those deposits, and it’s the imminent deadline. Then, at the time of closing it would be worth more than what I paid. Definitely the equity in the property was more than I would’ve been able to save. By saving just for the deposit, I had equity that was for an excess of that.

Andrew la Fleur:
Is that like you know that in hindsight, or at the time that’s actually what you were thinking? Because that’s, for somebody who’s never bought before, that’s a rare mentality to have. It’s absolutely true. But so many people who haven’t bought before, who haven’t invested before, they don’t understand that. How did you understand? Did you have a mentor?

Sharon Florian:
No.

Andrew la Fleur:
How did you figure that out at such a young age?

Sharon Florian:
I think I just inherently knew that. We had moved around a little bit. We lived in North Toronto and then we’d moved to Richmond Hill and then we came back. I think probably through my parents’ mistakes is where I saw this. In their moving around, they probably should have just bit the bullet and maybe gone to … My father especially was always very cautious. My mother was more of the risk taker, but my father always won out. They always were very cautious with their moves and even with their investments and with things like … What am I trying to say? They wouldn’t go to the end of their budget. They wouldn’t buy to a point where it made them uncomfortable. He always liked to be comfortable.

Andrew la Fleur:
Conservative.

Sharon Florian:
That’s it. I always, especially in pre-construction, and I’m actually going to tell you a story because I again listened to somebody else and it was not the right choice. I always like to go to the edge of my limits when it comes to affordability because by the time you actually get into that, you’re going to easily afford it. Your life always changes. You’re always going to do better. You’re always going to need a little bit of a bigger space or a little bit more. I like stretching yourself a little bit, making yourself a little bit uncomfortable. That’s where I feel you’re going to make money. When I say higher the risk, higher reward, I’m not trying to say go out there and risk everything. I’m just saying you can always just live a little bit uncomfortably and you’ll reap a better reward from that.

Sharon Florian:
A perfect example is in the condo that I bought, the stacked townhouse, I wanted to buy the two bedroom. At the time, the difference between the two and the one plus den was I think about $15,000. In today’s rate, that’s marginal. But at 25, $15,000 is a lot of money. At the time, I was convinced to stay in the one plus den and I did. In the two years until it was done, I was engaged and I worked from home partially at that time, and there was so many reasons why a one plus den was just not going to be enough for us. It might’ve worked for the first few months, but it would have been a temporary solution and we would have wanted to move rather quickly. We ended up, at that point, the developer allowed me to change to a two bedroom, but he made me pay current day price for it.

Andrew la Fleur:
Wow.

Sharon Florian:
At the time, for me, it was worth it, but that whole-

Andrew la Fleur:
It was more than $15,000.

Sharon Florian:
Absolutely. At the time, it was still worth it for me. I lost the equity gain that I would have had. However, on the resale market, the two bedrooms did very, very well because, as you know, in downtown there is a need for larger units. People are getting sized out of things and there’s not as many two and three bedroom units.

Andrew la Fleur:
That was your first hard learning lesson in real estate as well as your first good experience at the same time.

Sharon Florian:
Yes. Absolutely. From there, I’ve actually since then bought and sold numerous properties. I’ve bought and held numerous properties. I still like to purchase, I still have some pre-construction condos that have yet to close. I actually personally have purchased a unit here at Riverside as well.

Andrew la Fleur:
Awesome. So have I. We’ll talk more about Riverside for sure. What was your first … I guess you didn’t finish. Maybe finish the loop in terms of how did you make that shift fully into real estate and into the world you’re in then? You were working full time for two years, the two jobs at the same … Seven days a week, not full time. Double full time. Seven days a week for a couple years. You’re pushing yourself, you stretch yourself to make those payments, to get your foot in the door of the market. That’s I think one of the common things people talk about today is it was the same when I first bought as the exact same when you first bought. It’s not easy to get into the market for the first time. People have this, I think, misconception, don’t they? That it’s so hard today. It was so much easier then. Sure. It might have been easier in some ways. But for every generation that is starting out, it’s always hard, isn’t it?

Sharon Florian:
Absolutely.

Andrew la Fleur:
Whether it’s 2019, 2009, 1999. It’s always been hard to get your foot in the door.

Sharon Florian:
Absolutely. It’s all relative. When I was working in admin and accounting, my salary was in the 20s.

Andrew la Fleur:
Wow.

Sharon Florian:
Exactly.

Andrew la Fleur:
You bought a property-

Sharon Florian:
I still manage to buy a-

Andrew la Fleur:
… with your salary in the 20s.

Sharon Florian:
Exactly.

Andrew la Fleur:
At age 25. You figured it out. You hustled. You worked seven days a week, two jobs. You figured it out.

Sharon Florian:
You make it happen.

Andrew la Fleur:
You make it happen.

Sharon Florian:
Then, the equity you have in that property … The more properties you have, that’s what makes it easier, because you have equity and you can leverage different properties. Your first property you leverage a bit to buy your second and vice versa. Maybe you’re able to retain your first and leverage it or maybe you sell it and take that equity and buy your second. But eventually you are in a position where you do not have to sell, where you can hold, which is the ultimate goal I think.

Sharon Florian:
But to continue on how I actually got into real estate full time, I initially went directly into the new home market where I am today. I was working weekends. Then, when a position opened up in admin for a new condo sales office, I took that. It was offered to me and I took that position, which was a leap of faith because I was going from salaried with benefits to hourly and one site ends, you don’t know if you have the next. There wasn’t as much security I’d say. Then, after doing admin on that site for maybe three, four months, they were launching the next phase. At that point, I was offered to be selling at the site. That’s where I began selling on site for a condominium development. Then, shortly after that, I actually was managing for the marketing company that I was employed by. I was there for two years before I moved to the developer side of things, where I am now.

Andrew la Fleur:
Your role right now, just so people know, is?

Sharon Florian:
I’m the vice president of sales and marketing for Fernbrook Homes and Cityzen Development Group.

Andrew la Fleur:
A little bit about Cityzen Fernbrook for people who aren’t familiar with them. What should we know about them?

Sharon Florian:
Fernbrook has been developing the low rise world for years, over 30, 35 years. Then they joined forces with Cityzen back in 2004 when they launched the Marilyn Monroe or the spiral buildings in Mississauga.

Andrew la Fleur:
Was that 2004, that was?

Sharon Florian:
I believe it was.

Andrew la Fleur:
Around there.

Sharon Florian:
Yeah, 2004. 2003, 2004. End of 2003 into 2004. That was their first venture together. Then, since then, there’s been a number of notable projects, Pier 27 right on the water, The Shores in Oakville, L Tower, Backstage. Many of the projects are done together and some are done separately.

Andrew la Fleur:
It’s two separate companies that do some projects together.

Sharon Florian:
That’s correct.

Andrew la Fleur:
That’s how they operate.

Sharon Florian:
That’s right.

Andrew la Fleur:
You help out with the sales and marketing for both sites.

Sharon Florian:
For both. That’s right.

Andrew la Fleur:
Great. What was the first property? Can you tell us about the first property that you bought that was purely just an investment, that you were buying it … The first one you described before was you were planning on moving into it. It ended up being that launching point for your real estate portfolio and your career as well. What was the first property you bought just, “I’m buying this purely as an investment, as a rental”?

Sharon Florian:
The very first property that I bought, which was not … It wasn’t for a rental. I actually bought it and assigned it. The very, very first one that I bought was at the first project that I worked at, which was Absolute. I did buy and I assigned prior to closing. Then that gave me some equity to then begin to purchase and hold. Right now, I’m going to say the first one that I have, it was … We’ve had it for a number of years now. It’s at Dupont and Lansdowne, that area. When I buy and hold, I like to invest in areas that aren’t necessarily the hottest areas right now, not necessarily the downtown core where I’m paying the highest price per square foot. The Dupont and Lansdowne area, I often say, my husband and I often say we should have bought more. We only bought one. I wish I’d bought more. The rents across-

Andrew la Fleur:
Is that a condo or is that a freehold?

Sharon Florian:
It’s a Condo. It’s a condo. It does very well. It’s not a headache.

Andrew la Fleur:
That area was ridiculously cheap.

Sharon Florian:
It was. I’m going to say it’s still relatively under-priced, in relation to the rest of the market. I would buy there again. Again, if I am looking, those are the types of things I’m looking for, those areas that are up and coming, maybe not the hottest areas. It’s close proximity to transit, close proximity to great amenities.

Andrew la Fleur:
A little bit of sketch still.

Sharon Florian:
A little bit. That’s exactly what you want to look for. Right now I live in High Park Junction area. When we moved there, there was more than a little bit of sketch.

Andrew la Fleur:
Junction, yeah. Junction is red hot right now.

Sharon Florian:
Exactly.

Andrew la Fleur:
Everybody wants to live in the Junction. But, five years ago …

Sharon Florian:
Everything’s moving a little bit north and a little bit west. If you can get in just before that, that’s what … You want to look for those pockets that are just on the cusp of a turnaround. Like I said, at the Dupont Lansdowne condo that we have there, it’s done beautifully. I wish I had more of them. The tenants are no problem whatsoever. It’s very easy to rent. It’s very easy to keep tenants. We’ve been very, very happy with that.

Andrew la Fleur:
You continue to grow your portfolio from there. What’s your take on the market right now? What are the things that jump out at you as you look at the market as a whole? You have an interesting perspective where you are, because you really have great exposure and experience both on the low rise side of things as well as in the high rise side of things. Curious to hear what … How do you see the market right now?

Sharon Florian:
There’s two things. With regards to the high rise side of things, where we’re focusing and where I think things are actually doing well again are not quite downtown core where the price per square foot is quite high at the moment. I think that agents and buyers are looking at those areas, whether it be the Dupont and Lansdowne, whether it be just outside of the GTA, Vaughan, a little bit further west, even a little bit further east, or in pockets that are actually very, very close to the core but just still undervalued. You see some going up along Weston. You see some going up along just north of the Junction, just east of the Junction. I think that’s where both developers are looking to go and also I think that’s where the buyers are looking, because it’s about affordability at this point in time. That’s for the high rise.

Sharon Florian:
With regards to the low rise market, and we touched on this a little bit earlier today, I see that it’s on the cusp of taking another leap right now. The prices for high rise have grown such that the gap between the two is very small, if any. That really leaves nowhere for low rise to go but up, because everybody who starts to look at, “Well, I could buy this two bedroom condo for the price that I could buy that house.” They’re going to start moving to the housing. Therefore, that’s going to start moving in an upward direction.

Andrew la Fleur:
The past couple years has been a big shift, hasn’t it? Where in 2016 if we were having this conversation, maybe early 2017, it would be very different. We’d be saying, “Well, the average house is 1.2, 1.3. You can buy a great condo for … a great two bedroom condo for 600, 650k. Now the two bedroom condo now today is 800, 850, 900k, and the low rise market has been pretty flat over the past couple years since the Fair Housing Plan and everything else. Like you said, the gap was at an all time high two, three years ago, and now that gap has shrunk a lot. It’s still big.

Sharon Florian:
It’s closing.

Andrew la Fleur:
But it’s closed a lot, hasn’t it?

Sharon Florian:
Definitely.

Andrew la Fleur:
That brings us to the opportunity we have here and now, which is Riverside. You’ve done something very unique, very different with this development, so I’ll let you take it away. There’s lots of townhome developments, there’s lots of low rise developments around the GTA, but you’ve done something very unique here. I’ll let you explain what that is and why did you do it?

Sharon Florian:
Absolutely. First, a little bit about the project and where we are. We are actually located just on Lawrence, between Jane and Black Creek, and we’re on a ravine, which I don’t think there’s very many areas in Toronto where you’re going to be able to find homes that are situated on such a beautiful piece of land on a ravine. We’re close to transit and highways and we’ve got all the amenities, close proximity to the Junction, to High Park, to York University. We’re directly north of the Mount Dennis LRT station, which is going to be the first stop in the new crosstown LRT. This checks all those boxes that I was discussing earlier in that you want to go into those areas where they’re not quite realized yet. But the potential for growth, the infrastructure here is amazing. There’s nothing you would want for in this location.

Sharon Florian:
What we’ve done is we’ve got this community of townhomes, we’re releasing 40 town homes, and the pricing here is pretty spectacular. If you look at the price per square foot of any one of these towns, you’re somewhere between 450 and 500, depending on the various options, depending on what it is that … if you have the finished basement, et cetera. I don’t think that condo prices have been there for years.

Andrew la Fleur:
No.

Sharon Florian:
The value there on its own is impeccable. For the same price that you might pay downtown for a two bedroom, small two bedroom condo, you’re getting a home. Now, the very special thing here, the different thing we’re doing, is the introduction of legal secondary suites. In all of our homes, you can actually select to have the option of a secondary suite put in. It’s, again, proper fire separation, insulation, everything that you need to make-

Andrew la Fleur:
Separate entrances.

Sharon Florian:
It’s separate entrances. Exactly.

Andrew la Fleur:
Completely separate.

Sharon Florian:
Completely separate unit.

Andrew la Fleur:
Completely separated, physically separated units.

Sharon Florian:
That’s correct. The way this is, it’ll be the ground level and then the lower level become a one bedroom secondary suite. Then you are left with the main floor, which would have your kitchen, your living, and your dining, and then the third level, which has your three bedrooms. The first living space and then the secondary suite is the lower suite. There’s a number of options here. You can live in the top unit in the whole house and rent out the bottom to subsidize your living expenses. If you do that, your costs are, depending on the house, in and around $2,000 a month. That includes property tax. It includes maintenance fees. That is all in. Your mortgage. Everything. $2,000 a month to live in a traditional three bedroom townhome in the city with two parking spots.

Andrew la Fleur:
That’s brand new.

Sharon Florian:
That’s brand new. You cannot find that anywhere. You can’t. You can’t rent that.

Andrew la Fleur:
One bedroom condo downtown averages 2,200, 2,300.

Sharon Florian:
Exactly.

Andrew la Fleur:
This $2,000 a month is your cost to own a whole home and you’re living in a three bedroom unit.

Sharon Florian:
That’s right. Of course, that is taking into consideration the rent that you would get to rent out that lower secondary space, which is great. Just to bring it back to my story again, so when I moved from Liberty Village to the Junction area, I moved from a 900 square foot, two bedroom condo, into a four bedroom house that I still lived in less than 900 square feet because that’s all the furniture I owned. We had most of the house empty. I didn’t know what to do with it. But it had a basement apartment.

Andrew la Fleur:
That was the first house you bought.

Sharon Florian:
That was the first house I ever bought.

Andrew la Fleur:
It had a basement apartment.

Sharon Florian:
Yes. The tenant wanted to stay, and we didn’t need all of this space so we were like, “Why not? That really helps.” My cost per month actually went down buying a house with the tenant renting the basement. My overall costs were less in the house than it had been in the condo.

Andrew la Fleur:
You get more space, you own a freehold home instead of a condo, and your cost goes down.

Sharon Florian:
That’s right. Over the years, we’ve had a nanny and then we’ve had it not rented. But now we rent it again, not because we need that to subsidize the overall cost of home at this point in time. But we found we didn’t use the space. If I can make a couple thousand dollars extra a month, you can use that to invest in other properties. You can use it to go on that great vacation. I’m not going to say no to money. Essentially I have a bank in my basement.

Andrew la Fleur:
You’re funny like that.

Sharon Florian:
Exactly. It’s an amazing secondary source of income that I don’t need. Now my mother is in a house. When we renovated it for her, I insisted she put the basement apartment in. She was like, “I don’t know how I feel about someone living down there.” Now she would not go back. She’s so grateful because, again, it’s just that income that you can, that disposable income, you can do whatever you like with. On one hand, you can use it to subsidize so that you can afford to be in something that maybe you couldn’t otherwise or it can help you to save for other things. Then, later on, when that’s no longer the need or the drive, you have this amazing income that you can just use to-

Andrew la Fleur:
It gives you that flexibility to … Like you said, you can use it for yourself. You might use it for a nanny. You might use it, a in-law suite. You might use it for yourself. You rent it out. You have all those options.

Sharon Florian:
It’s great. It’s great flexibility to have. I think with the market the way it’s going, if you look at it this way-

Andrew la Fleur:
How much of this … Because you could have just done normal towns like any other builder and just not had this secondary suite thing at all. But you guys purposely went out and did that. How much of this decision was driven by the affordability side of it and just wanting to give buyers an option that otherwise-

Sharon Florian:
100%.

Andrew la Fleur:
… you just can’t get into the market. But with something like this, you actually can.

Sharon Florian:
That was a huge driving force or a huge factor in developing these secondary suites. It’s not just us. Legislation is headed that way. The city wants higher density, so they’re making changes. Their framework is being arranged so that it’s easier for developers and it’s easier. They’re coming up with laneway housing. They’re coming up with so many different options for more housing, for multiple dwelling units within one. We took it and we ran with it because we thought it was such a great idea. But it’s all about the affordability really. That’s the number one driving factor. Again, you are getting, if you want to look at it like two condos, you’re getting two condos for under a million dollars. You’re paying on average 450 a square foot, maybe 480 a square foot, depending on the layout you’re looking at. Your actually your living cost to live in a large, I’m going to call it a condo because that’s what we’re comparing it to. But for all intents and purposes, over 1,500 square feet, 1,400, 1,500 square feet of living space for you or you and your family.

Andrew la Fleur:
Very livable space.

Sharon Florian:
Very livable.

Andrew la Fleur:
For a family.

Sharon Florian:
For $2,000 a month. When everything’s taken into consideration. It makes it extremely affordable.

Andrew la Fleur:
A great analogy. Think of it as you’re buying one house, but it’s like you’re buying two condos. A brand new house, it’s like you’re buying two condos for around 450, 500, 550 per square foot. If I said to you, the condo investor who’s listening right now, I have a brand new condo for you that you can purchase in Toronto for $500 a square foot including parking, you wouldn’t even bat an eye. You’d be all over that. You’d jump on it in an instant because you know that you’d be able to rent that thing out no problem for positive cashflow at $500 a square foot. Of course, those days are long gone. The average price in Toronto is $800 a foot. Probably the average price downtown is much, much higher than that. To get something at $500 a foot, even if you just think about it like that …

Sharon Florian:
It’s pretty amazing. You actually just mentioned something about cash flowing.

Andrew la Fleur:
Let’s talk about cash. What do the numbers look like?

Sharon Florian:
We keep talking about, if you were to live in one and you were to rent the other.

Andrew la Fleur:
Then it’s very cheap to live in a nice big new home.

Sharon Florian:
But then there’s also the option of having the secondary suite and basically owning two investment properties and renting both out.

Andrew la Fleur:
Like a duplex.

Sharon Florian:
Exactly. In any of those cases, depending on the rents, you’re looking at immediately, with 20% down, conventional mortgage, all of these homes are cash flowing about a $1,000 to $1,500 a month. $1,000 actually is-

Andrew la Fleur:
On the low end.

Sharon Florian:
It’s actually on the very low end. You’re probably looking around $1,200 to $1,600 a month, all costs considered.

Andrew la Fleur:
It’s insane.

Sharon Florian:
It is insane.

Andrew la Fleur:
It doesn’t exist.

Sharon Florian:
It doesn’t exist anywhere, and it hasn’t for some time. Even when prices were much lower, that didn’t exist.

Andrew la Fleur:
Again, this is why I bought one. This is why you bought one. It’s really a no brainer. You can buy a brand new, it’s actually pre-construction, it’s even before brand new, if you want to call that, freehold home in the city of Toronto, in the 416. This is not in the 905. This is not in the outskirts of the GTA. A brand new freehold home in the city proper that’s going to give you positive cashflow. Not just $100, $200, barely breaking even cashflow, but actually significant real income that you can’t get anywhere unless you’re buying, I don’t know, maybe quadplexes or something in Hamilton. Show me where you can get $1,000 or more positive cashflow a month on a freehold property, let alone a brand new one.

Sharon Florian:
You can’t.

Andrew la Fleur:
I’m not aware of anything. If you’re out there listening to this and you’re aware of something, please let me know where that is because I’d love to buy one of those. It’s a no brainer.

Sharon Florian:
Absolutely.

Andrew la Fleur:
It really is a no brainer. I love what you guys have done. It makes just so much sense. Like you said, if you’re thinking of buying a home for yourself in the city, it’s a great option. You live in the bigger unit, or maybe you’re a single person or maybe you’re a couple, you don’t need a lot of space, live in the small unit. Rent out the big one. If you do the numbers on that, your cost to live there is maybe, I don’t even know, like $1,000 a month or something like that probably.

Sharon Florian:
It’d be quite low. I’d have to run my numbers backwards, but it’d be almost nothing.

Andrew la Fleur:
It’d be almost nothing. Obviously a lot of the people looking at it just strictly from an investment standpoint, renting out both units, and enjoying some massive cashflow there. Anything else that you want to highlight? I think we’ve touched on a lot of great features about this, but anything else you want to highlight for investors out there listening who are wondering about how they can get in on this opportunity?

Sharon Florian:
I think we’ve touched on most of it. How they can get in on it is that they need to reach out to you and move pretty quickly. There are only 40 of these. I do anticipate they’ll go pretty quickly. It’s a great opportunity. It is a great neighborhood. I’m in the Junction. I’m only seven minutes from here myself, so I know the area very, very well.

Andrew la Fleur:
Talk about the GO … We talked a little bit of location, but in terms of transit, that was the big thing that I like about it is the the GO train and so could you just touch on that for people who aren’t familiar with this?

Sharon Florian:
We are fronting on Lawrence, so on the east and the west side of our project there are bus stops and going east and west. Going west, I believe it’s less than five minutes to get to the Weston GO station by bus. Then, once you’re at the Weston GO, it’s about 15 minutes to Union Station right on the Weston GO. You’re looking at 20 minutes altogether to get to Union Station, which is phenomenal. Then, I believe from Weston GO on the UP express, you can catch the UP express there, and it’s 10 minutes to the airport. You’re 15 minutes to the airport and you’re 20 minutes to Union. Then, if you go take the bus in the other direction, you’ll end up at Lawrence West subway station and you can hop on the subway and stop at any of the stops north or south along the way. As far as transit goes, it’s absolutely phenomenal.

Sharon Florian:
One other thing that’s really important is, and I think I mentioned this earlier, we are directly north of the Mount Dennis LRT station. This LRT station will have, I believe it’s 50 different bus lines running through it. It’s the first stop in the new crosstown LRT. It will connect to the subway line, et cetera. Once you get to Weston, that five minutes to Weston, you go directly south to the Mount Dennis station. If you needed to go east or west, let’s say you’re working in the east end, you could just hop on the crosstown LRT as well.

Andrew la Fleur:
Yonge and Eglinton.

Sharon Florian:
Exactly. The minute that crosstown LRT comes in, which, like I said, is directly south of us, we’re so close to it, all the property values are going to change. Everything’s going to change around here. When you read about the Mount Dennis station, if you Google it, people are comparing it to Union Station. That’s how big a hub it will be in the city, second to Union Station only. That’s pretty important. Then if let’s say you drive as opposed to taking transit, literally three minutes is what it takes you to get to the on ramp to the 400 or the 401, and then we’re not that far from the access to the 427. It’s actually, in my opinion, preferable to living right in the downtown core because good luck getting out of there by car with that kind of traffic.

Andrew la Fleur:
If you drive. You live in the heart of the city. I used to live in the heart of the city. In real estate we do a lot of driving. It’s brutal getting around the city right now in a car. If you’re in the core of the city versus if you’re here, like you said, you can get to any of the major highways, five minutes or less. But you also have the transit options as well right at your doorstep.

Sharon Florian:
You can get into the city so easily and so quickly, but you can equally get out of the city and around the city very easily. Then we’re close to York University. Like I said, we’re close to the airport. We’re close to some great malls. There’s really every amenity here.

Andrew la Fleur:
I love the GO train connection. Just like you said, it’s 20 minutes from your door to Union Station. Again, let’s do a comparison. If you’re taking the subway 20 minutes, you can’t even get to Union Station from say Yonge and Eglinton. It’s probably more than 20 minutes. Say Greektown on the east side or High Park on the west side, it’s more than 20 minutes.

Sharon Florian:
That’s right.

Andrew la Fleur:
Way more than 20 minutes. I used to live east end, Danforth. To get to Union, it was about 45 minutes. 45 minutes on the subway. That was in the heart of the city. More and more I think people are, they’re measuring their commutes not by distance but by time.

Sharon Florian:
That’s right.

Andrew la Fleur:
How long it takes. It’s like, “I don’t care where I live. I just want to know how long does it take me to get to where I need to go?” Obviously, Union Station, Financial District, that’s where the majority of people are going every morning. 20 minutes, and you’re GO train. You’re not dealing with the subway.

Sharon Florian:
That’s why it’s quicker. Far less stops.

Andrew la Fleur:
It’s more civilized.

Sharon Florian:
Way more civilized.

Andrew la Fleur:
The GO train versus the subway. Obviously the preferred way to travel. If you use Pearson, if you use the airport a lot, like you said, 10 minutes to the airport. I think it’s even like eight minutes or something from stop to stop. It’s a great, great spot to be for getting around. Obviously I’m sold. You’re sold. We both already purchased here. I’m excited to work with more investors who are interested in purchasing here too. Thank you so much for your time today. Really appreciate it.

Sharon Florian:
No problem. Thanks again for inviting me.

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