Meet The Real Estate Investor With 102 Tenants

Lots of you guys, that's Graham here. So, as some of you may remember, two years ago I flew all the way to London, Ontario, Canada, to meet one of the most frugal and strategic real estate investors out there, Matt McKeever. He began his career doing the typical nine-to-five in accounting, but soon after shifted his efforts towards real estate investing, where he was able to take his modest nine-to-five salary and grow that into a gigantic portfolio of over 100 tenants paying him every single month. This allowed him to quit his nine-to-five job and just invest in real estate full-time. And despite owning over a dozen properties, he still wears glasses that are broken on the side, as you can see from here. That is how you do frugality.

But given all of that was filmed almost two years ago, I think it's about time that I go back and we get an update on the situation. So, we got to find out how many tenants does he have, how many properties does he own, how is he able to do all of this, and how haven't you already smashed that like button if you haven't done that earlier? Most importantly, does he still wear glasses that are broken on the side?

So, I'm literally about an hour away from leaving to go to the airport so we can fly all the way to London, Ontario, Canada, just so we can find out firsthand. And when we get there, we're going to see every single one of his properties, and he's going to tell us how he did it. Enjoy!

So, we're on our way right now to meet up with Matt McKeever, and this is what we're going to be seeing today: 16 buildings, 58 total units, 102 tenants, and a gross monthly rental amount of over $60,000 a month. So, we'll get to see all of that as soon as you hit the like button. As soon as you do it, we're going to—okay, thank you! Let's go and see Matt.

Can't believe it's freezing! So, I'm from LA; like, we don't get this weather. This is nuts. Oh my God, man, good to see you!

So, it's best we just drove around the block, and this is the first one?

Yes! So, this is the second property I ever purchased. It's a student rental. I actually think we got one of the guys working on it right now. Okay, ended up because it's moving—moved out. Okay, so we can check it out if we want.

Yeah, you know what? Let's go in and see it really quick.

Okay, let's do it. This is the second property I ever purchased. We bought back in 2010 for $250,000, and it's worth now probably about four and a quarter. And so, you can see we're renovating right now; the last group of students absolutely trashed it. They trashed it every year. In fact, we actually— we put this—this is solid plywood just because every year they would punch this wall. So, because they're student walls, I never punched a wall in my life.

See all the drywall patches? One year, the kids literally punched a hole through this wall so you could see people on the toilet. We put in solid core doors so that they wouldn't break them.

Oh my—this is disgusting, man. I can't tell the stuff off your blood.

So, what is this renting for you?

So, $550 a bedroom. We got six bedrooms, so whatever that works out to, $3,300. That's a really good return.

So, the next place then is right around the corner from that?

That's right! So I kind of thought scales of efficiency—it's actually the third property I ever bought. So I really stuck to the same neighborhood, just tried to nail the basics in one market before moving on to another neighborhood.

Okay, so we're—this is it?

Yep, we go on this one. We can't—no students are still living there. So, but as we can see, they got tons of garbage out front. We bought it for like $215, I think now it's worth probably four and a quarter, and six bedrooms probably $5,525 a bedroom is what we're renting out for on average.

And what's with this spray paint on the stuff?

They're spray-painting—it’s light, son of them. Could we go and get that off?

It's not brick.

Yeah, no, I know. That's actually really—those kids. Damn.

So now, the third place is also in the same?

Yeah, exact same subdivision, just one street over—exact same design built just a couple years earlier, and we bought this one in 2012.

Okay, and does it also have spray paint on it?

I hope it doesn't, but we're about to find out because we're coming up to it right now.

So, the students are stealing this one as well. But again, very similar style and layout to the one we saw earlier. Again six bedrooms. I think this one's $500 a bedroom, so you guys do the math. I think that's $3,000.

So, before doing all of this, you were doing accounting, right?

Yeah, so I studied accounting in the university. That's actually where I read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. And that's what—yeah, that was the gateway drug that got me into the idea of real estate investing.

Okay, so while I was becoming an accountant, I was focused on just saving as much money as possible, living that frugal life, and focused on trying to buy property number one so that I could have Shack save up more money to go buy the student rentals, which we just checked out.

You did all of this while you were still doing accounting?

Yeah, so I was doing accounting. I started noticing the love our high net worth clients, all of them seem to own real estate. Some of them made their money in real estate, others made their money in other entrepreneurial businesses but then would pivot or transition into buying real estate as well.

So, I figured they probably know something I don’t, so I got into real estate and started focusing on cash flowing rental properties so that I could supplement my day job because I knew that I didn’t want to work for someone for the rest of my life. And at the age of 31, the cash flow from my rental properties was enough that I could quit, pull the trigger, and quit the rat race.

So, we're going to the fourth property right now. It's right down the street. What is this one number?

So, this is a three-bed, one-bath single-family house. We were originally going to go see it, but it's actually a unique strategy on this one. We've converted it, and we're purposely using it for Airbnb rentals now. So, it's furnished. Actually, someone booked it last night, so we can't get in there. But, bought it for $75,000; we spent about $40-45,000 on it, got it reappraised for $175 just this year. We should be hitting closer to $2,000 and eventually $2,500 a month once we get that five-star rating.

So, the next one's actually just around the corner again?

I really like trying to buy the properties in the same neighborhood—just cluster them, scales, and efficiency.

Alright, so we're pulling up to this one now. Give us some details on this.

So, yeah, so this is a triplex. So we have a three-bed, one-bath in the front, a two-bed, one-bath on the top, and one-bed, one-bath on the back of the property. $1,300 for the main floor; the back unit's way under-rented right now. We inherited the tenant, and I think he's only paying like $500 a month. And the upper tenant is paying $1,200 a month, I believe.

Got it. So, I think that's $3,000 for this building. So, we're on the way now to the sixth place, and where is this one? How far away is this?

It's about two hundred meters, so just down the road, and this one is a sixplex. So it's three one-bedrooms and three baths. Units right now, I think the total rents for the building are about $4,900 a month, and that's broken down. The bachelors are kind of like in the $700-$800 range, and the one-bedrooms are $100 or $200 more.

So, now where's the next one?

It's just right down the street. We're actually coming up to it right now. This is like real-life Monopoly, trying to collect a lot of greenhouses right now. But soon we're going to upgrade to red. It's this, that, and the one beside it. We got 14 bachelor apartments, and then behind us those two properties—there are two triplexes.

And what I'm really excited about with this property is there's huge developments going on; the neighborhood's dramatically transitioning. We just had announced there's like an 18-story building going up across the street. I already had developers call me about this parcel, this corner. So, I think we just had painted.

We can walk through the hallway there—there’s a lot of smokers, I think everyone is smoking.

Okay, do you have any issues with the neighborhood and the quality of tenants? Because I'm looking at some of this driving down the streets here.

I mean, yeah, so definitely the neighborhood is transitioning. Since I purchased it, we've definitely been able to stabilize the building. So, we got rid of a lot of the bigger problems and issues, but there are still some lingering problems. So, like anything, it’s a long-term play but it’s going to really pay off in the end.

So, we are already at the next one, and what is it? What is this?

So, this one's a triplex. It's still currently under renovations as you can see. This property was the most infested with rats and mice I've ever come across, so we ended up just having to completely gut it back to the studs. We're redoing everything—so all new plumbing, all new HVAC, all new floors, all new drywall, new ceilings— it’ll be a three or four-bedroom on the south side, and that'll have two bathrooms. Probably, we should be able to get gross rents of close to $2,000 a month.

Nice! And then on the north side, on the main floor, we'll have a two-bed, two-bath, and again for rent, we probably should be able to get about $1,300-$1,400. On the upper, we'll have a two-bed, one-bath, and surely people get rents of at least $1,200.

Okay, so now we're on to number nine. Where is this one?

We're actually just going to turn here, and it's right there. So, this is a four-plex. The upper is a two-bed, one-bath, main floor two-bed, one-bath, basement one-bed, one-bath, and then there's a back addition—that's four-bed, two-bath—and then we got the garage as well.

I guess on average we're getting about $5,000 a month between the two Airbnb units. Then the main floor is $1,200 a month. The basement currently is under renovations, but once we’re done it should be rented out for $4,000 or more.

Alright, so now we're on our way to number ten. Where is this one going to be?

It's just like five blocks this way; it'll take us like four minutes.

Okay, so out of 102 tenants, then in a month, how many would not pay their rent on time?

So, that's a good question. I guess we'd probably average that maybe 10%. So, maybe ten tenants aren't paying right away, and then within ten days there's maybe two or three stragglers still. We're maybe doing an eviction once every two to three months.

So, this is the one where I first met Matt for the video two years ago. This is it. This is the one you're in!

Can we see it?

So, it's rented out, and we actually have tenants in the process of moving out. That's why we got some like moving boxes and a couch on the front porch. But yeah, so this is the one where Grant helped us do the demo, had the solids all out, slow-mo the shaking—all that good stuff. So, three units; this one's got six tenants, and we're renting it out for $3,000.

Alright, so now we're on to number 11, and let me guess, it's right down the street?

It's on the same street! Yeah, this one's a triplex, 610; it's $2,400 a month. Bought this one for $140, I think maybe $145, and it's worth $175 now.

In case you're curious, the next one's just around the corner, Corey.

Well, I was just about to ask! So there you go. I don't must be afraid that I'd be forgetting if someone paid their rent or not, but I guess you have like a checklist?

Yeah, that's why I got Katy and Sharon.

So, we just got here. Tell us a little bit about this one.

So, yeah, so this one's six units, nine tenants, and we're renting it out for $4,800 total a month. This is very cool! I've always really focused with real estate investing on getting cash flowing properties. And so, in my market in London, Ontario, the best cash flowing strategies are going to be Airbnb or student rentals. It used to be student rentals, but now we're actually seeing more opportunity with Airbnb; hence, I'm transitioning a lot of my units over to Airbnb.

Okay, and you're not worried about the management or the time aspect because you hire all of that out there?

Yeah, so outsourcing it all. And with Airbnb, it's really important that you get amazing cleaners. You'll find that, like, the cleaners is what's going to make or break your business on Airbnb. So, make sure that they actually understand what Airbnb is about, otherwise, they end up spending way too much time cleaning or not enough, and it’s all about that five-star rating.

So, my very first property was a student rental I bought and house-hacked. I don't think you ever actually made it out to it, but essentially just have a bunch of roommates move in with me and lived for free.

Alright, so here we are! We got another four units, nine tenants, and we're renting this out for $3,950. Actually, we got two laneways here because it's a double lot, and so this one is the one I was telling you that's got the shed that we're renting out separately, and we're renting the shed out for, actually, believe it or not, we're still negotiating, but it's either gonna be $100 or $150, and they'll get access just to this laneway for that. Plus, this laneway, they got a little bit of electricity—think about storage; you can park your car, your work trailer here, and that’s at least—that's got to be another hundred bucks a month. You can sleep there; that's another unit right there.

Okay, so for anyone watching this and who wants to start replicating what you're doing and get to this level, what is your recommendation to them?

First of all, if you're starting out, you need to gain as much knowledge as possible. Rich Dad Poor Dad was the book that kind of opened it up for me, but as well I’d recommend you watch as many YouTube videos as possible, listen to great podcasts like the BiggerPockets podcast. I think it's amazing, especially if you go back to some of the older ones. The older ones have a lot more guests that feel attainable, right? Like they have smaller portfolios. I think it's a great resource.

And then once you've learned some real estate knowledge, then figure out a way to live for free—whether that's buying a house and living in it and house hacking, or maybe you're going to rent hack and literally just rent out a property, sublet some bedrooms, and you get to live for free, or maybe rent it out and then rewrite it on Airbnb. There are a lot of different investment strategies you can do in real estate, even if you don't have a ton of capital, as long as you're willing to put in the time and effort to learn and execute.

The other piece of advice I would give you is take action. Way too often I see people get caught up in the house paralysis; you know, they become seminar junkies or spreadsheet junkies where they run numbers every day, but they never actually go and look at property or they never actually write an offer. And like the biggest tip I can give you is you'll buy zero properties if you make zero offers. And I think that's something some investors—aspiring investors, I should say—never really realize.

Okay, we're headed to the last property now; it's a duplex with three units right now for $2,000 a month, and there's a garage at the back of it that I'm currently thinking about. Can you guess what I'm thinking?

You're gonna rent it out?

I'm thinking about renting it out.

So, we just went and saw all the properties. So, this is what we have so far: we got 16 buildings, 58 total units, 102 tenants for a total gross rent right now of $63,200 a month.

Matt, how does that feel?

Huh, actually sounds crazy when you lay it out like that. It doesn't necessarily feel that big, but again, it's just you buy a property at a time, you keep building your portfolio, you find a deal and execute on it. It's just that consistency in their approach—so you know, learning the basics and then going out and actually taking action.

So, I really do believe that anyone can do this. It's taken me nine years to do it. Had I actually had resources like Graham's channel and BiggerPockets and all that great stuff we talked about in this video, I think I could have actually done it faster. So, I think anyone can do it as long as you're willing to learn, put in the work, and then actually take action and go out and do it.

That's awesome!

So you guys, thank you so much for watching! I really, really appreciate it. But before you click out of the video, I just have to say a huge thank you. We got Jeff Why Bow driving here; he's been our show for the entire day! I'll link to his channel down below in the description. We also got Peter here, the Hungarian Experiment, who did all the filming for us today. So, I will link both of their channels in the description. If you wouldn't mind, if you enjoyed this video, at least just go to their channels, show them some amount of love.

They're not getting paid for this or anything like that; I mean, they're doing it out of the kindness of their hearts. So, if you guys appreciate it, make sure to do that. Make sure to smash the like button, subscribe, check out Matt's channel in the description, add me on Instagram—I post pretty much daily—so if you guys want to be a part of it there, feel free to add me there.

I have no idea how long this video is going to be, so I try to end it here. Thank you again for watching, and until next time, thanks!