The Truth About Financial Independence for Canadians
Are you a Canadian real estate investor looking for real Canadian Content? You've found it! Since 2016, this weekly show has helped Canadians cut through the BS and uncover the truth about how to most effectively invest in real estate. Ranked as high as #81 globally in iTunes' Business category, host Erwin Szeto is a real estate investor and 4X Investor Realtor of the Year, with just under $500M in income property transactions. Erwin interviews top investors and wealth builders, sharing strategies that worked and didn't work. This is your blueprint for long-term wealth through real estate.
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One $800k Bungalow Became Four Houses Worth $4.5M & NO Tenants
<p>What if one $800,000 bungalow could become four homes worth $4.5 million, without dealing with tenants?</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode, Erwin sits down with Daniel Zimberoff and Ming to explore condominiumization, missing middle housing, and how developers are creating more housing options in Toronto. They discuss turning a single property into multiple ownership units, the economics behind walk-up townhomes, development risks, financing, construction costs, and why this model could be part of the solution to Ontario's housing shortage.</p><p><br></p><p>Whether you're a real estate investor, developer, or simply curious about innovative housing strategies...
Investing for the New AI Generation With Only 25% Down Payment
<p>Erwin Szeto sits down with Sadaf Chowdhury, Director of Investment Sales at Equitable, to discuss how Canadian investors are looking beyond rentals. They explain professionally managed stock funds with insurance features, estate planning, annuities, investment loans and how AI is changing professional fund management. </p><p>What a 25% down investment-loan strategy means </p><p>How professionally managed stock funds can include estate-planning features </p><p>Investment loans versus traditional margin accounts </p><p>Why Canadian investors are looking beyond rental properties </p><p>How AI is changing stock selection and portfolio management </p><p><br></p><p>📌 Connect with Sadaf:</p...
Turning a 22-Foot Lot Into 5 Units | Victoria Suen
<p>Victoria Suen bought her first investment property at 19 years old. She couldn't qualify for a mortgage on her own, so her sisters signed for it. Sixteen years later, she's a licensed architect and the founder of BuildEx Design, helping investors turn some of Toronto's tightest lots into 4 and 6 unit buildings. </p><p>This episode is a crossover. Erwin's wife and business partner, Cherry Chan, CPA, sat down with Victoria for her Real Estate Tax Tips channel, and the conversation covered ground worth sharing with the full TAFI audience. </p><p>Victoria walks through the missing middle: the duplexes, triplexes, fo...
He Exited His Ontario Real Estate & Podcast To Build REI Businesses | Andrew Hines
<p>Andrew Hines spent 5 and a half years building one of Canada's top 3 real estate podcasts. Nearly 1.3 million downloads. Then, at its peak, he shut it down. </p><p>Andrew is the co-founder of multiple US-based real estate acquisition companies operating across Florida, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. His teams run house flips, land investments, creative finance deals, and direct-to-seller acquisitions. He also owns Grotto Getaway, a glamping and cottage resort near Tobermory, Ontario, that did $655,000 in sales last year. </p><p>In this conversation, we cover: </p><p>Why Andrew shut down one of Canada's top real estate podcast...
The 3:1 Investment Loan for Real Estate Investors | Mozzie Chleilat, DUCA
<p>Real estate investors understand leverage. 25% down, 75%from the bank, let the asset grow. But what if you could apply that same principle to the stock market, with no tenants, no tribunals, and no 2 a.m. calls? </p><p>Mozzie Chleilat is an Account Manager Business Development at DUCA Specialized Lending, one of Canada's leading credit unions. He works with financial advisors and their clients to structure investment loans into professionally managed stock funds. The core product is the 3:1 loan: put 25% down, DUCA loans you 3 times that amount, and you're invested in a $100,000 portfolio from a $25,000 starting point. </p><p><br...
60-Hour Weeks for 25 Years. Then 10 Hours a Week. Then an 8-Figure Exit | Byron Darlison
<p>Byron Darlison founded Rise Vision in 1992 in Toronto and ran it for 30 years without raising a dollar of outside equity. For 25 of those years, by his own admission, the business was unfocused, unpredictable, and running him. In year 25, he hired a Metronomics coach and installed a business operating system. In the 5 years that followed, profits went from break-even to 20% sustained net margins, his work week dropped from 60 hours to under 10, and the business grew to serve organizations in over 100 countries. </p><p><br></p><p>In year 30, he sold Rise Vision for an 8-figure exit to a Taiwanese industrial di...
A Hall Pass to Go All In and Build 200 AI Agents Across 7 Divisions - Mike Schwarz, MyZone AI
<p>What does it actually look like to go all-in on AI? Mike Schwarz, founder and CEO of MyZone AI, negotiated a hall pass from his wife, adjusted his medication, and spent 3 to 4 months working until 2, 3, and 4 in the morning to find out. The result: 200 plus autonomous AI agents running across 7 divisions of his business. </p><p>Mike has 25 years in tech, from building nightlife social networks in 1999 before Friendster existed, to running a full AI solutions company out of Vancouver today. He coaches CEOs and speaks at Entrepreneurs' Organization and YPO events. And he says the window for getting ahead...
From Factory Worker to $300K Realtor | Milena Simsic
<p>Milena Simsic made $300,000 in commissions in her first year as a realtor, without any prior real estate connections, using nothing but TikTok and Instagram. She had no social media presence before she got her license. She figured it out in public. </p><p> </p><p>Milena is the founder of WindSocial Realty in Windsor, Ontario, and the publisher of the Windsor Real Estate Insider, a newsletter and magazine that grew to 9,000 subscribers in under a year. She also runs Windsor REI Social, a 3,000-member community that fills events with 100 to 200 investors. She is currently switching brokerages from EXP to Real a...
Buying a 25-Year-Old Bookkeeping Firm | Ming Lim & Bryan Ma
<p>In January 2026, Ming Lim and Bryan Ma closed on AccounTrain, a 25-year-old bookkeeping firm based in Ottawa with clients across Canada. They beat out five other offers. They paid 1.3 times annual revenue. They spent almost two years searching for the right deal. </p><p>Ming is the managing partner of Volition Properties, where his team has helped Canadians transact on more than $300 million of Toronto investment real estate. Bryan spent 20 years in Canadian financial services. He's a CPA, a CFA, and holds an MBA. He worked at three of the biggest professional services firms in the country and most rece...
20 Years in Canadian Finance, Now He Only Buys $70K Cleveland Duplexes | Carlos Rodrigues
<p>Carlos Rodrigues spent 20 years in Canadian financial services. Mutual funds, life insurance both levels, and a full mortgage broker with five agents under him. He tried to start his own fund. Canadian compliance costs killed it. </p><p>Now he drives 4.5 hours each way from Hamilton to Cleveland, Ohio to buy duplexes for $70,000 that appraise at $170,000 after renovation. </p><p>In this episode, we get into: </p><p>The $70,000 duplex near the Cleveland Clinic with a toilet falling through the floor </p><p>How Section 8 rentals pay 20 to 30% above market, with one tenant paying $14 of her $1,400 rent </p><p>Why 100...
