11. Multifamily Real Estate Investing in New Brunswick

Today we chat about Multifamily Real Estate with Murray Massey, a Saint John Realtor® with a construction background. Murray shares how his family's property investment legacy shaped his path and his passion for multifamily properties. 

He brings a ton of insight into New Brunswick's untapped potential and affordability. Join us to bridge the gap between knowledge and action, opening doors to real estate possibilities you might have never known existed.

I'm your host, Micaiah Gosman and The MGR Podcast is where I talk with Real people, about real money and real estate. To connect with me you can visit my Website or follow me on Instagram or Facebook

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey, welcome back to the MGR podcast, where we talk with real people about real money and real estate. Today we got an exciting episode planned. We got Murray Massey, a fellow exit realtor, here with us today. We're going to be talking about a little bit of everything a little bit about who he is, some of his goals for the future. We're going to be talking about multifamily and commercial real estate, how you can get into it, how we can set real expectations, and a little bit about everything. So we're going to dive right in. We're going to get into it. We're going to have a good time today on the podcast. But, murray, we want to introduce you a little bit. Tell me a little bit about yourself, a little bit about what you used to do and a little bit about kind of what you're doing now and where you're from, and just a little bit about you.

Speaker 2: 0:40

Yeah, for sure. So I currently I'm a realtor in St John, new Runswick, uh, with extra realty specialists really enjoying that. It's a lot of fun. Um, so, micaiah, you're an exit too, so you know what it's all about. Oh, yeah, yeah, and I'm focused more on the like the multifamily and commercial space. Um, I still do residential, like there's no issue there, but my, my main, primary focus is on the multifamily stuff. Um, so I'm in a I guess you'd call it like an investing group it's called wealth genius very similar to something like Keyspire. So it's a real estate education platform as well. Yeah, so there's a lot of networking that goes on there and that type of thing, and I've gone to their events, spoken at their events as well, so that's been a lot of fun. So trying to stay as involved as I can in it. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 1:20

Yeah, so hand in it, yeah that's awesome, yeah, so so right now you're living in St John. Have you been in St John? Tell me a little bit about, like, where you were born and raised, what you uh background kind of?

Speaker 2: 1:30

do. Yeah, a little bit of background about you. Give me a little bit of info on that. Yeah, for sure. So, born and raised in St John, new Brunswick, I've always been there, like to travel around as much as I can, but always keep coming back home for some construction previous to being a realtor. So that was, uh, I was driving trucks, doing foundations, drain, tile, we did a little bit of work with septic systems and stuff like that. Kind of have a rudimentary understanding of that. Um, also have my first part of my crane operators ticket as well. So, yeah, pretty much anything heavy construction or construction related. Um, I did a lot of it myself too. So renovated my first home from the studs back kind of deal, and that's actually how I got into real estate.

Speaker 1: 2:07

Yeah, now is your uh, is your family like, have they been real estate investors or D? How'd you kind of get into uh like, where'd your interest in multifamily real estate investing come from?

Speaker 2: 2:16

Yeah, so my, my folks have a multifamily portfolio and, for those that don't know, that just basically means they have a bunch of apartment buildings. Yeah, yep, and I've grown up with it my entire life. So they've been in the business a long, long time, many decades, and since I was a little tiny kid, my first job ever was sweeping the hallways at the apartment buildings. So, yeah, no, I. That's what got me the knowledge in it as well, obviously, being with somebody that's like my dad, who's, you know, been in it for that long. Yeah, yeah, I've learned a lot about it. So I kind of had a bit of a leg up that way, yeah, and then just furthered that with being a realtor and also the real estate education side of it.

Speaker 1: 2:49

So yeah, yeah, no, seriously. So how long have you been selling real estate for?

Speaker 2: 2:53

So coming up on two years now so it was February 2nd I guess, and it's been been awesome, really enjoyed it. Haven't looked back at all from the construction side. It's a lot easier on the body too. You're not bouncing around in old trucks and breathing fumes all day and concrete dust and everything else. All the concrete dust yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:12

So no, it's it. It. I found what I want to do and it actually blends very well. So, if you know, like the terms blue collar, white collar so I never thought that it would actually blend that well. But having that prior knowledge, especially on the investing side of things, if people are looking to do like a flip, like you know, or fix a place up value add strategy, it's a. It lends itself very well to it, cause I can speak directly to knowing, okay, this is a massive ordeal or no, that's a really easy thing to fix. So, yeah, yeah, it's a. It positions me in a kind of a unique way, I guess.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Yeah, you know multifamily commercial real estate, um, we chat a little bit earlier about you know why you kind of got into multifamily, but what is it? What is it that you enjoy about multifamily? Now, you know before I say this for all of Murray's clients and all of my clients that we do residential work with. We love you, but what is it that you love about multi-family versus residential? Um, over residential and sales and stuff like that?

Speaker 2: 4:15

so I think the the thing about it is and I don't mean to sound like unemotional by saying this, but it's a very like clinical business, yeah, and what I mean by that is that either your numbers work or they don't work, you know, and we'll get into cap rates and all the other stuff later but basically it's a business decision and there's not a lot of emotion involved in it and for one, one way or another, it's not that that's better, it's just that it's simpler, I guess in a way.

Speaker 2: 4:40

So it's like here's the numbers, here's the facts, here's the figures, you know, here's what it could potentially be worth later on. You factor all those things in is good investment? And then it comes down to a yes or no, that's it. There's no gray area, yeah, you know, and I mean some investors, sure, they might get a little bit emotional about it, but the professional investors, guys that are doing it all the time, it's just this works or no, it doesn't, yeah, that's it so yeah, and that's why I say like, that's why I say, like you know, like all of our residential clients, like we love you, but it's like it is.

Speaker 1: 5:07

It is, it's not even like that. We don't enjoy like the emotional side of res, like selling residential homes, cause everybody's got their memories or everybody is moving for a different reason, buying for a different reason. We love that side of the business and we love all our clients for that. But the multifamily stuff and the commercial stuff, like just the way that we're both wired, like we're kind of the same, of that, it's just like, like you say, say it's, it's not as emotional, it's a numbers game, you know, it's everything's there. Like it's like you say it makes sense or it doesn't and um, and you know, like, like you said, we can get into cap rates and stuff later.

Speaker 2: 5:45

But yeah, um, the other thing I'd add to that just before I move on, if you don't mind, oh, yes as well. It's the type like and again, I don't mean to sound crass or anything by saying this, but it's the type of people you deal with. So business owners and business minded people, yeah, and generally it's kind of like a it's a bit detached, I guess. Right, yeah, yeah, but it's the networking side of it too is something I really enjoy. So getting to new people and you know successful business owners, how can I emulate them? And then how can I turn that into helping my clients a little bit better too?

Speaker 1: 6:13

yeah, yeah, yeah now okay, so let's kind of go back into that. So you you've attended a couple, um, a couple like networking events, like like you just mentioned. Tell me a little bit about, uh, some of your favorite ones that you've. You've done what, what events you've gone to and what you've kind of gained from those and kind of what kind of relationships and stuff, and why you found it's important.

Speaker 2: 6:33

Yeah for sure. So so I, like I said I'm part of a group called Wealth Genius and it's basically they offer real estate investing education, I guess is a good way to put it, and I don't mean to sound like I'm promoting it or whatever. Like choose whatever you like, but it's one that I was introduced to by a friend and he's had really great success with it. He's actually started his investing journey because of it kind of deal. So I went to actually to one of their I guess it's now a sort of biannual event. It was held in Niagara Falls and I got to speak there in front of 500 people somewhere around there.

Speaker 1: 7:06

Awesome, yeah, I was completely fine for nerves until they called my name and then I was like I was really fine for nerves until he called my name and then I was like, let's go, let's go Murray messy.

Speaker 2: 7:14

No, no, I'll be honest, I was really nervous. No, it was good because it pushed me outside of my comfort zone and it introduced me to a lot of more seasoned investors, I guess. So, and that's kind of a thing is, there's people that are just starting to learn and then there's people that are in it for more of the networking side. Yeah, because they're already experienced. They already know how to do the deals and everything. Yeah, so I really enjoyed that part of it. But what I get out of it, I think, is the networking more than anything. Yeah, having grown up with the, you know real estate investing not to say I know everything, not by any stretch, but it's just I'm very familiar with it. So it's more so.

Speaker 1: 7:50

It's not even. It's not that, like a lot of times when you hear about the networking events, like it's always like in Ontario or out of New Brunswick, and it's not that there's no, no New Brunswick investors that are worth kind of networking with, it's that one, a lot of the ones, a lot of the people that are already here like investing and stuff they already have, kind of people you know, people you know, and so it's we, you know we go to Ontario, we go to Toronto and all these bigger cities to kind of meet new people and bring them into um, into New Brunswick and show them you know the development opportunities, the, the investing opportunities, you know the multifamily commercial opportunities, and show them like the growth that we've had through like immigration and whatnot, um and then I'll segue into that.

Speaker 2: 8:32

Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I really enjoy that, because my whole goal is to bring people to New Brunswick. A lot of people have said New Brunswick's a have-not province. I've heard that a lot and I'm kind of on a little like mini mission to change that. I guess you know I want to show people that New Brunswick has a lot to offer. We have an incredible lifestyle here. We're a very affordable place to live. I mean, I know the world's tumultuous right now and everything, but in the grand scheme of things, St John in Brunswick was actually rated as, I think, the most affordable city to live in Canada.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Yeah, so yeah, I mean I believe that I do a lot of research on like Moncton, fredericton, st John, like average rents and stuff like that and like average cost of living and stuff and like, yeah, like frederton is like one of the most expensive monkton is, you know way up there. And then like when it comes like major, like if you want to move to buck tush or yeah, marimichi or bathurst or something like that out of the middle of nowhere, juniper or something like that, and yeah, your cost of living might. But if you're trying to get like the, the cost per what you're getting like in saint john is yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 9:33

It's incredible, yeah, and some of the opportunities down there. So St John's the oldest incorporated city in Canada. You've got a lot of old, gorgeous real estate. You know big old Victorian homes and things like that and really great opportunities. Now you have to know which ones are good and which ones are bad, like a nation's bad or whatever.

Speaker 1: 9:49

But yeah, the opportunity to add value in St John, I think, is Now and like so, in Fredericton like the big industries are like IT government you know, and then obviously we got a big like student population with like UMB and St Thomas, and so what are kind of the big industries there that are kind of you?

Speaker 2: 10:11

know running Big drivers in St John's. So we have an oil refinery, a really, really large one at that. So there's all kinds of skilled labor that's there, you know. So everything from plumbers, electricians, pipe fitters, boiler makers, crane operators I used to run a crane in the refinery for a short term so, yeah, I mean lots of skilled laborers, and those are all very well-paid jobs, often all unionized jobs, obviously.

Speaker 2: 10:33

So we have that just heavy industry in general. So we've got a pulping paper mill, we've got a drywall producing plant, we've got a drywall producing plant, we've got a tissue mill, yeah, um, and then the sort of all the ancillary jobs that come around that. So there's a lot of, you know, suppliers and sales guys and everything else all in that big industrial complex. So, yeah, that's kind of our main stuff. And then we also have a really large port that was just expanded recently too. Yeah, that's right, got, I think it's four, four container cranes now instead of two, and that was a massive undertaking as well. So, yeah, lots and lots and lots of skilled labor. So that's our demographic that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 11:07

We need more of that. We need more of those folks around here. Man, it's impossible to find trades, people and like skilled laborers and stuff to do stuff around here. It's it's tough. It's tough everywhere. People don't really yeah, I don't know what it is that people just aren't interested in the trades like they used to be. But, um, but they are a very crucial, uh, part of of our industry and stuff, absolutely Especially here in New Brunswick. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you have any questions or want to learn more, feel free to check out my website at gosmanca. Wherever you're listening from, leave me a five-star review and let me know what you'd like to see in future episodes. Also, if you're a buyer or a seller and looking for some guidance in this ever-changing real estate market, I want to work with you. So get in touch today through my website at gosmanca or you can search Makai Gosman Realtor on Google and get connected with me through any of my social media platforms. Thanks so much. We'll catch you on the next episode.