AoG #6: The Jas Takhar Experience

Join us on this episode with Jas Takhar on his journey to achieve greatness. Jas is the Founder of From The Ground Up FTGU Media and REC Canada, he has over 14,000 hours of recorded video, he is an educator and leader in the real estate industry.
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Transcript

Fahad Farhat: 0:00

All right, my, my economic setup. It's not terribly economic. It's not at all actually good. This is this isn't one of those. Yeah, it's okay. Sorry. It works. It works for me. But do you have done that

Jas Takhar: 0:17

at all? Well, 300 what we call like featured ons when we go on someone else's podcast, and this is one of the best setups. All right, I appreciate it really well,

Fahad Farhat: 0:27

in my one man show,

Unknown: 0:28

and my crew knows Yeah, for you to do it by yourself. There's no fucking way I'd be able to do

Fahad Farhat: 0:33

I just hit the record button. And I'm like,

Jas Takhar: 0:35

I set it up a guarantee. Yeah, the

Fahad Farhat: 0:37

first time it took me about two hours and now we're at maybe 3035 minutes. That's awesome.

Jas Takhar: 0:43

Yeah, cuz, you know, okay, lights here. I'm gonna do this at the, I'm gonna set it up like that. You can see everything. That's awesome. Yeah, it's really, really

Fahad Farhat: 0:50

simple. And you don't need to spend the overhead 100% I feel like everyone's caught up on here's $1,000 ever. Yep, you can't do no time. Yeah, 200 up. Yeah,

Jas Takhar: 1:00

like, where I went is different. In terms of like, I put out so much content now that I needed, like my guys to be in house every day. 40 hours, like, there's so much content that I'm recording, ie this, where like, it would be too tough. Like I would be paying too much. On the other end in terms of if I were to, like outsource it. It just It wouldn't make as much sense for me. But at the start, like a no brainer, no brainer.

Fahad Farhat: 1:33

And you're also at a different phase. Right? I think a lot of people are at that. Let me build a brand. Let me build my business, make some money. You're kind of at that mogul phase where you've gone through that. Yeah. Let me do the full proper intro for our guys, so they know who we're chatting with. I'm very excited guys to introduce our guests today. I got I had the pleasure to meet him on clubhouse about two years ago. And I was blown away by the knowledge by the education by what he gives to other people and not for charging anything. He gives all this information for free. He's an educator he's a realtor, he's a father he's a mogul truly, he's the founder of from the ground up media. He has over 14,000 hours of video recordings. And a lot of these videos are online he's at 760 Something videos on YouTube 300 episodes of The Jas Takhar podcast so guys look him up and you should be following just hacker without further ado, allow me to introduce my good friend first time we've ever met but just face to face many times over club

Jas Takhar: 2:46

100% First and foremost I appreciate you having me on and it truly is an honor brother because you know there was a time where nobody wants to talk to me you know so it's kind of cool to to be invited to people's podcast for your viewers and listeners alike you gotta get this podcast have a HUDs out more because the amount of effort he's putting in and and you know, we were talking like for 13 seconds off air before we started recording. I've been on now I think a little over 300 other people's podcasts and and like online and in person, and the setup and everything that you're doing, man, it's just like massive kudos to you, man. Because we a need more positivity you brought up clubhouse. And that's the only time that like we obviously didn't meet each other face to face before. But what I realized so quickly, when I was speaking to you, and hearing you sorry, speak because the clubhouse for people don't know, it's an audio only app. I knew there was an energy about you. I was like, Man, I like this guy too. Like there's something about him. And obviously I can quickly search you up on Instagram get you know, put a face to the name and and put a face to the to the voice. But I knew that we were going to do some type of collaboration. Yeah, it took us two years to do it. But that's okay. And it's just it's really, really cool to see your progression and now you putting out a podcast. You know, when I walked in right away I said, like I'm sorry. I get so excited when people get into the world of podcasting because first and foremost when I started almost three years ago, yeah, three and a half years ago consistently putting out a podcast. I didn't even know what the heck it was, you know, if it wasn't for Gary Vee, I would have no clue what the hell what the hacker podcast is. I never imagined never imagined what it would mean to me in terms of my life, like not only my business, which for all the realtors out there, I don't care what profession you're in. If you're looking into wanting more in people's awareness period, podcasting is the way to go. But it changed the course of my life man like i i The people that I get to meet on like actual my podcast the The stories I get to hear from people in terms of Oh, like, Oh, I heard your guest story. And now I'm actually taking action. I got inspired even if they got motivated, we were joking about, you know, the difference between motivation and inspiration. Even if they got a slight motivation. They got slightly motivated for a day and a half, man, we changed someone's state and like, what other time in, in in, like, you know, human beings life? Could you put out content? That doesn't really cost much money? Like, yeah, you could get fancy and yeah, like, even your recordings, and your equipment is fancy. But I mean, like, if you had to put out a show 20, even 15-20 years ago would cost you millions of dollars. Like, you're gonna distribute this on Spotify, on Apple on YouTube and all these platforms, and it doesn't cost you any money. Like it's so cool, right? And so that's my long winded, kind of answered to not a question that you even asked, but I think your your viewers and listeners are going to quickly learn I like the sound of my own voice sometimes. But I think we both learned not far off. Are we hated when people started cutting us off? Like I got so much more, so much more to talk for days.

Fahad Farhat: 6:12

I think we're we're the perfect people to be podcasting. But I like asking the questions as well, that yeah, having the conversation finding out more about the guests. So what, what really made you start the podcast? Because I feel like we have, we have so many similarities. And you guys will see, and you don't know this yet. But I know how many parallels we have in our world from you. And I had the same first job, you and I had the same second job. You and I did the exact same things in the first like, five to seven years of sales. Oh, wow. It's fascinating. So yeah, as I got to learn more about you, I was like, there are way too many parallels. And we have a very similar mindset where we want to engage, inspire, educate. So that's kind of in a nutshell, what our podcasts aim to do. And without asking just cold questions, we want to hear the real stories

Jas Takhar: 7:03

guaranteed man, like I think, you know, to ask answer your question in terms of what got me started. So I've been in the real estate business now for coming up to two decades, 19 years to be exact at the time of this recording. And five years ago, my my mentor, an older brother, I have two two older blood brothers. But you know, this guy was like my third older brother, he was also my partner in the business and he passed away tragically, and and he was essentially like the face of the brand, like he would be the one because at that time, he was in the business for like 2829 years, really well respected in the industry knew his stuff, right? When we would go on stage and do doo doo doo events for our clients, and the media stuff like you know, it wasn't podcasting by any means. But at that time, like if he was on CB 24, any any news outlet, it would be him. He passes away. Now, myself and my current business partner are looking at each other. We're looking at our business. We're obviously like in a massive like cloud of of like, What the heck just happened? This guy passes away. What are we going to do? I start learning about content from Gary Vee. Just I just stumbled on this guy. Look at that, because this guy talking about like, what the hell is a podcast? Like, I've never heard this. So I Google it on like, audio only Oh, I really like this. Because talking about what I've done in my, in my in my past in terms of work, like I worked for about three years at CIBC for as a telephone kind of banking specialist. So like before online, not that anybody told me Yeah, you got the sexiest voice in the world. But it's not like someone's that you have the worst voice, right? And I just been in sales. So I've been on a lot of phone calls. And I'm scared shitless of the camera at this time. I'm like, There's no way I can do this camera stuff. I got tons of insecurities. I have no experience doing this. But this podcasting, like is kind of cool, because I can just speak into a mic. And on top of that, being of East Indian descent, I was told that it was all free. But my mom negotiates over apples, you know what it means?

Fahad Farhat: 9:15

They negotiate over everything. That's what I'm saying apples in general, right?

Jas Takhar: 9:20

And I'm like, this makes sense. Because now I can go out to the world. I can talk about whatever I want. Nobody can censor me. Nobody can just shut me off. Like I'm not going to talk about nonsense stuff where you should get shut off. But what I really liked is the fact that I can control kind of the narrative of what was going on in the real estate market, not even the industry at large from a realtors perspective. I had no ambitions at that time to even speak to realtors. It was nothing about realtors. It was about oh my god, I got at that time at a database of about 30 504,000 people. I was like, What the hell like who's going to be the person who's going to be speaking to these guys and gals? You And how am I going to do it? It was a podcast, I started to put out episodes about simple stuff man like a my story about like how I got into real estate, how my parents never really invested into real estate, but they bought their first property, yada yada, yada, as well as bringing on industry experts,

Fahad Farhat: 10:16

which that's a great short film, by the way, guys, look, his YouTube page up, watch that first short film, and you'll learn you'll actually learn a lot about Jas for I appreciate that. It's nine minutes. It's great. It's well shot, I

Jas Takhar: 10:29

appreciate that you did the homework on that. And so as my boy just fixes my mic anyways. So what we figured out at that time is oh, I can sit down with other industry experts, the home inspectors, the mortgage advisors, the lawyers and all that kind of stuff, and bring on my broker and economist and, and just talk about what's going on in the market. And at that time, there was very little podcast side note for the real estate agents who are listening, thinking, oh my god, I'm too late. Most people don't get past their like, I think it's the stat is 90% of podcasts don't make it past their first 10 episodes. Okay, so you might look, they might look like there's a lot of podcasts out there, but nobody, really not many people make it past their first 10 episodes. And that's when I realized on it, I'm going to continue doing this 1718 episodes I get I get a guy named Ryan serhant on my podcast, fly didn't fly to New York was supposed to fly and he was flight got canceled, I ended up taking a bus, I was just telling the story of my videographer on the way in. And that's when I put the camera on. But if anybody looks at that podcast talking about insecurities, I never look at the camera. Like because I was so afraid of the lens, so afraid of what people were gonna think of me, I have a little bit of a stutter. I sometimes my my mind, my mind is moving faster than my lips. I sometimes have a lazy wandering eye. And so all these things were coming up. But my team said, bro, we just got Ryan serhant We have to put this on camera. After going back and forth. I said no problem all allow you guys to have the camera, but I'm not going to look at it. And that whole 3738 minute podcast, I never looked at the camera, because I was insecure. And then over time, I started to realize Holy crap, when you record things on video, you can chop it up. And that's when the whole micro content out of the macro content. I saw Gary kind of explain it. He he actually was on my podcast about a year and a half later, from that time. So sometime in 2019, late early 2020 and sat down with his team, they showed me exactly how they take an hour podcast get about 30 to 40 pieces of content. I was hooked ever since. Yeah, it's the best content hack the 100% 100%. Because you don't have to, you don't have to create as much content. We're already having this conversation. You know what I mean? The cameras doing kind of the heavy lifting now, you know. And so now what you're able to do is not only rip out the audio, put it on the podcast platforms, but get at least you know, 812 Micro pieces in terms of videos, but then the stuff that you can do brother in terms of taking the audio putting that into a software that transcribes everything you say always you got a blog now. Now you got little captions that you can take out of the blog, let alone what chat GBT can do for you these days. But if you're looking for more awareness, specifically the real estate into it, just like professionals, mortgage brokers, starting a podcast is by far, one of the best lead generation tools. The only difference from sending out a just listed or just sold is that it's not right away. It's not direct. And nor should it be, in my opinion, because what you're building here is awareness for the long term. Hopefully you're doing it from an educational perspective, allowing the marketplace the buyers, sellers, investors to make informed decisions. Because the truth is if you're not doing that, especially your client base, your database, your network, or your sphere of influence, or whatever you want to call it. CB 24 680 News, CTV News, they're not nonprofit organizations. And so if you're not doing it, they're doing a great job putting out a lot of content. Some is positive majority of it, in my opinion is negative, because if it if it bleeds, it leads, and so and so, if you're not doing it, your clients are watching that, and they're just taking it at face value. And so they see which is

Fahad Farhat: 14:38

a lot of fear mongering right now. That's what it is

Jas Takhar: 14:41

because that's what sells right like horse. I always use the example that if we walked by I don't see any newspaper stands outside but you know if on the front of the newspaper, if it said it's a massive storm coming we all buy that newspaper, when it says it's a beautiful sunny day. People are like oh great, I can tell it's a sunny day. Nobody buys that vapor, right? It's the storm is the fear that we're like, oh my God, what's going to happen? Do I need to board up the house, whatever it is. And so, as a realtor, as a mortgage broker, somebody who's again looking for to grow their business, the best possible way to actually sell your product or service is that you first need to understand that you need someone's awareness. And in today's day and age, it's on seven to eight platforms on this device. And if you're not there, unfortunately, someone else's, and they're going to take market share.

Fahad Farhat: 15:31

And the other thing is, it's not just podcast that last 10 episodes, I think a lot of people get on video, start selfie recording, and then they stop, or they send out a bunch of flyers that one time that the twice, three times, and then they stop, or they do online lead generation. And after a month, a lot of newer your realtor especially will utilize any form of lead generation paid lead generation. And then they'll say, Well, I didn't get any results. It was it was shit. You know, these online leads or shit? Well, no your processes shipped, or the lack of process because you've only been doing it for a month. So I truly believe in if you're going to go down any route, whether it's geo farm, whether it's online lead generation, whether it's podcasting, you have to give it 12 to 18 months, and you're not necessarily getting the true ROI even then, but it's also focusing on the process. How quickly like speed

Jas Takhar: 16:27

to lead 100%? Yeah, look, when you said 12 to 18 months, I'm probably I used to say that a lot. And I don't like overall disagree with you, I probably would push it to 24 months fair. Now,

Fahad Farhat: 16:38

at the end, you have a lot more experience within the industry, seeing what you've seen. Yeah, like

Jas Takhar: 16:42

I think what you know, a magical thing starts to happen in and around that 18 month period to 24 months, which is you just get better, you get more confident, you tend to care less about what people are thinking, and then you're willing to try different things. And then the marketplace. And when I talk about the marketplace, I generally don't speak to the marketplace, at large from the perspective of like, you know, just the general public. When I speak about the Marketplace from a real estate perspective, and a realtors perspective, it's really the database. Because for me, and not to say that this is the only way to build a business in our industry. But I focused probably 95% of my efforts ever since I started 19 years ago, to like literally before I parked the car. It's all on my database. Like I'm just that guy that nurtures and nurtures and nurtures. Find, I've never done a Google Google Adword, bro. Like, in all my years, I have done some just listed just sold stuff. I tried a little bit of geo farming and putting out, you know, postcards and stuff like that. I did cold calling maybe for I don't know, man, like a month and a half. Not that none of that stuff works. All of it works. In fact, the only thing that actually works is if you stay consistent consistency is and will always be undefeated. If you just continuously do it, you'll get better, you'll get more confident. But for me, it's always been the database. Because I know that if I take care of one person, there's a very high probability they're going to tell someone else. For me, that's what I use content for. Like I very rarely look at any of my online metrics, that might be the wrong way to go about it. But for me, what I look at is my offline metrics. And the offline metrics for me is when I pick up the phone and call my client, do they answer my call? Do they want to speak to me? Or are they thinking I'm trying to sell them something? Right now in the back of their mind, they might be like, okay, Jas is gonna come around and try to sell something. And obviously, there's a, there's an aspect of of, of monetization that might happen, ie with them investing into real estate, because I work primarily with investors is but the at least they're wanting to answer my call, because they've seen me put out so much education. It's like, Alright, man, like, I kind of want to hear more from you. Right? And so for me, that is that is the most important and that takes time.

Fahad Farhat: 19:26

But you're also leading with value. I'm not actually asking for business or saying hey, do you have any questions? Yeah, that I could help answer versus when do you want to sell your house? Yeah, they're two different conversation huge

Jas Takhar: 19:38

man because I'll even take it further than that brother. Like, I don't think I've ever called anybody. I just want to make sure man, in case somebody's listening and say Nah, man you call 10 years ago, at least so after my first three years in the business, I have never called anybody and said do you want to buy or sell? Well we do is we call people and ask them if they need a plumber. All right, so for all the real estate agents listening here, like you're not ripping me off if I'm telling you to do it. So I want you to take this and literally call it the same thing. I call it run the pies big enough. I'm not worried about you taking business, okay? We call and we say, Hey, Alex, hey, way. Did you need a plumber? No, did you need an electrician? Now? Did you need a painter? No. Okay, I just want to let you know. And this is what the term that everybody who's watching and listening can take. We say we to our clients, we tell them that we have a real estate concierge service. It's absolutely free. Mr. And Mrs. person in my database, there's no cost for it. And it's a real estate concierge service. Like if you ask for a hotel, like, you know, we might be able to help. But that's not really what we're calling for. It's anything to do with your home, you might need somebody to do you know, work on your cabinets, you might need a second set of eyes on the lease agreement that you're putting into place on your own for the basement apartment or for your condo. We just want you to think of us when you think of real estate. Now that I have you on the phone, I am curious though, Mr. person that I'm calling what's where's your headspace at with what you're watching and listening to? When it comes to the real estate market. Now we've been using that line and that whole, like process script, whatever you want to call it for over a decade. And it works like a charm, not because we're trying to manipulate anyone, because our clients are like, You know what, I did actually need a plumber bro. Rather than me checking Google, can you just set me up with somebody? Right? And then that next lead in question of what was your headspace? Because majority of my guys are investors, which I think is by far the biggest whitespace in our industry. So if you're a realtor new, like 10 years in the business, 30 years in the business, and you're like really wanting to stay in this business for a long period of time, I highly recommend. And this is coming from somebody who 80% of my transactions every single year are investment sales

Fahad Farhat: 22:01

at 80%. Okay, exactly, I like it's the biggest whitespace I have, I have a few less deals on YouTube. It doesn't matter what the numbers are. But the percentage is the exact same. And so for somebody who's listening, and a lot of them are repeat, they come back, that's the best thing. Look, someone who's going to move into their home isn't moving to another home for at least seven years. Like on average, I'm giving you the average, seven to eight years is kind of the the odd person might be three, four years, but that's the odd person, seven to eight is pretty standard. So if you did the math and going back to your database thing, so do the math every seven years, someone's going to move. So one in seven people are moving this year. So you have 100 people in your database, do the math, how many people are gonna move? And of that? Can you gain the business? Exactly. It's just perspectives of starting to look at things differently.

Jas Takhar: 22:56

I mean, you say the, you know, used to be maybe about 10 1015 years ago, maybe every like four to five years, you're bang on with the seven by the way, that is the kind of the timeframe that everybody thinks about either upsizing, downsizing, whatever it is, with real estate investors, they're looking into purchasing five to seven times in a year. Yeah, I call it the best, you know, drug crack in the world. What is that once you get a like, once you do one investment property, you just want to do more and more 99% of people, there's a couple of horror stories, I'm sure it'll somebody bought a house in 1977. And then like, now, they never want to invest again. But once this, once an investor invest one time into an income property, pre construction, Multiplex, whatever it is, their only obstacle is how they're going to get more financing. That's really the only thing that my guys ever come across, and come up against. And sometimes you can't, most of the time, there's, you know, wherever there's a will, there's a way you do joint ventures. However, imagine you were dealing with clients that all they wanted you to do is help them find properties. Like it's amazing. It's amazing that when we call people and call them about the real estate concierge service, ask them where their headspace is at. They'll say to us like hey, what like what is the compelling buying opportunities out there right now? And the best thing is, is that it doesn't really matter what's happening with the market because when the markets like frothy or or you know there's it's a strong call it seller's market values are going up the media is talking about the fact that you know, there's there's there's 120,000 sales happening and all things are positive, while investors want to get in. When the market goes down, like a downturn that we just went through, and maybe still going through it, depending on kind of your opinion on it. The savvy investors know while when values come down real Estate just went on sale. Like that's the time to buy more. I'm not here to tell people who's you know, who's not a real estate agent that you should always buy, like, I'm not that guy. You got to figure it out for yourself if you're ready or not. But the savvy investors know, that's the time to buy because there's less competition out there.

Fahad Farhat: 25:18

And there is less competition prices are better. You can get deals on the buy side, the same stuff that was selling for 900,000. Might be 650. Right now. Yeah, like that. So that's a heavy sale on there. And look, guys, real estate long term has always gotten up. So I think it's the long term game. And I feel those people that are in it for that short term hole and trying to make a quick 100k over six months, and they weren't assigned something. That's those are the people that really get hurt. And that's speculative. That's no longer you're no longer investor. You're gambling. Yeah, you're you don't know what's going to happen in six months. But guess what, in five years, that real estate, even if you bought it at the peak, I firmly believe that that wasn't the peak of the market ever. Yeah, yeah. So last year, March was not the peak 1.3 million average price was not the peak of the market forever. 100, we will cross that at one point in time. I can't see if it's a year, five years, 10 years, 25 years. But I know over time, if you hold your properties, they're likely going to go up in value. And they always have historically speaking.

Jas Takhar: 26:23

So like back in 2007 2000. Yeah, right around 2000. Oh, sorry. 2010 is when I started to kind of get into the realm of helping clients with pre construction condos. And we did downtown Toronto Distillery District, it's an area called River City. Beautiful area, like Manmeet, like one of it is actually Toronto's largest manmade Park. It also has a it's Canada's largest underbridge Park, it has like some beautiful little area. And condos at that time, brother, were selling in that area for about 500 to $600 price per square foot. That was the first phase. And I still didn't know enough to jump in first phase, second phase went to about 650 price per square foot. And I just didn't have the money yet to do anything. So this time I knew it. But I didn't have the money. The third phase came in at 700. And I was like, I don't give a shit. I'm gonna beg borrow and steal this. I'm buying a unit? Yeah. Then I called my friends and family and said, Guys this time, like, I think we should, like I just did it. So you know, I have skin in the game now. And a lot of people looked at me, they said, bro, it's $700 price per square foot, like, this is not? Where do you think it's gonna go? I was like, I don't know. But I know they're building more. And that tells me that if the big builders guys who are dealing in the hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars, they know more than I do their research and development and research crack team. Like they're huge. They know a lot more than I do. I can promise you that. And they probably know more than us collectively, because they're not moving a couple of $100,000, which in itself is a lot of money. But they're making sure that they understand where's the bigger money even moving? Meaning where's the government? municipal, provincial and federal government? Where are they putting money in terms of infrastructure. The fourth phase came in at 850 price per square foot. Now I'm hooked. Now I bought one there as well. And I now my clients are starting to see it. But there was still majority of people are like this is it. There's no way it's going past 50 It makes no sense. It's a small, it's a shoebox, it's a 500 square foot condo, who's gonna live in here. Right now, at the time of this recording, you know, April 2023, that area trades at 11 to 1200. Call it 1100 On the low end on a resale value, but brand new in downtown Toronto, you can't find anything south of $1,500 price per square foot 15.

Fahad Farhat: 29:02

If you're lucky, if not the pre construction side, it's higher.

Jas Takhar: 29:05

That's what I'm saying. Right. And so and so this will to your point brother, the 1.3 at the peak of February, March of 2022. It is gonna go past that. It's just a matter of when I personally think it's always in a 10 year window. Because if you look in the Greater Toronto Area, and I know your viewers and listeners like right across the world and right across our country, but in the Greater Toronto Area, if you look in the last 100 years, so that's a massive sample size, every decade on average, just take the 10 year period. Prices double Yes. But see, it makes us sound like we're on some drugs. Because when you look at the average price point today being 1.1. Okay, and you tell somebody that was going to be worth $2.2 million in 10 years. They're like what the heck are you talking about? But guys, we just went through it. There's a silent Silent Killer The recalled inflation. And so bread is not going to be six bucks, whatever it is now that's going to be 10 bucks 11 bucks at that time. And so when you come to realize that real estate, I don't think it's necessarily the best investment in the world, I just think it's one of the best for sure. The best vehicles, when you realize that you can leverage and take other people's money, use other people's money, ie the bank's money. It's just, it's just a game changer. You just can't do that with a lot of other investment if

Fahad Farhat: 30:29

you gave the bank 2000 and ask them for an extra 8000 to go buy bitcoin, what do you think they'd say? Exactly? Exactly. Or to go buy stocks? Exactly. They're not going to do that. So when that property goes up, 10% and you've only put down 20%, you've actually doubled your money or 100%. Exactly. You've just gotten 100%.

Jas Takhar: 30:49

And that's what I love pre con. Not that that's the only type of investments we speak about. But I like that because exactly for that reason, right? Like if you put down it's usually call it 10% Every year, yeah. And find projects that would 5% a year, but say 10% a year, it's, you know, 60 grand on a $600,000 condo, we know that the builder, especially if they're doing another bill building, and if or if even in that one building that they're building, if they're, if they're doing to, you know, if there's 250 300 units, if you can get into that first access of pricing, you know, they're going to increase their price by 30 grand, they always say are minimal. Yeah, you just made 50% return on your money.

Fahad Farhat: 31:27

So when was your first investment? 2007 Eight,

Jas Takhar: 31:30

you know, my first one is 2010 2010 That was your first was my first invest. I still own it.

Fahad Farhat: 31:35

So our first one was as even as a family. We bought two units in 2018. Okay, that was our first one. Parklawn Lakeshore Oh, yeah. Can we serve a Tory group yet? Water's Edge? Yep,

Jas Takhar: 31:47

it's still not built. Got it? So 18 order yet? Wow. Okay. 18. September,

Fahad Farhat: 31:51

yeah, exact. Okay. And the prices at that time were$770 a square foot. And I looked at it at that time. It was trading at that downtown was at 1000. Yorkville was at 1200. Yeah. And my brother and I walked in, we were going to go halves on a condo. And then we ended up buying two lovers that I couldn't pay for afterwards, I had to get my parents to bail me out. Let me be completely honest about that. This happened. But I the bank. The bank of mom and dad. That's fantastic. Mom builds me that fucking like my Knucks extra $65,000 70,000. Yeah. And so you put your 20% down. And it worked out really well guess what they're trading at right now. Those same places.$1,400 a square foot all day. And one of those two is water facing as well. Okay, so you can't really go wrong over a period of time for

Jas Takhar: 32:44

sure. Now, that's somewhat possibly it could be a downside for people if they were going to live in it. Yeah, right. Like if they were going to be an end user, that's the term that we kind of use in our industry. But if you were actually going to be living in it, that was going to be your principal residence, that could create a problem because man, I was expecting it to be done. Like what is the expected closing date on the 2021 21? I figured

Fahad Farhat: 33:05

22 then now it's 24. Now,

Jas Takhar: 33:08

you know, COVID off obviously plays a part in that because everything kind of was shut down. And then supply shortage and all that kind of stuff. However, if you're an investor for me anyways, the reason I like those kinds of delays is because I get to I get to take advantage of that extra appreciation. But I also don't have to get a mortgage. Yeah,

Fahad Farhat: 33:31

I'd almost rather every project I've ever bought delayed get. Even if it's two years five, I don't get built. Yeah, get built, but delay. But that's where you have to buy with reputable builders, right? You're not sort of a group as huge. Yeah, they're good, great golf. Mattamy. Like there's the big guys, of course. And you deal a lot in the condominium side. Yeah. So

Jas Takhar: 33:51

we probably help a little over 150 to 200 clients a year with that type of investment. But it like for me, it's one of the best for savings plan for the younger generation as well. You know, like you, you you could have taken advantage of an assignment clause if you had it in place. I'm sure you did.

Fahad Farhat: 34:12

It's out there. It still we weren't. There is an assignment clause. Well, look what I assign when you can hold exactly if you don't physically need the money. So my brother Kane syndrome, let me share this. Yes, brother comes to me about two years ago. He's like, bro, I want to sign I need it. I'm like, Why do you want to sign? He's like, I could use the cash in my business. I'm like, do you need the cash? Are you dying for the cash? is like no, not really. I have money. He's like, I've got access, but he's like, it would be nice to have and this during COVID. Right. So he's like, it would be nice to have the access. I'm like, is it worth the access to lose potential II appreciation and be now you're getting taxed at a 50% clip. So in understanding those things, that this is now business income, and no longer capital gains, and also I think being educated is so important. because a lot of agents will not tell clients this, they'll be like, great. Well, the sign up for you know what? They get paid again. Yeah, exactly. So let me charge my tune up. And I try to walk people through them like, is it worth it? Does it make sense and I've convinced so many assignment clients to say, you're better off holding, you are better off holding it makes more sense. And it's appreciated since

Jas Takhar: 35:23

Now imagine if, you know, in your brother's situation, if it was ready to close, and he did close on it, and then all he had to do is refinance it, you know, depending on your risk tolerance, and I'm not here to tell anyone that they should do something that doesn't help them sleep better at night. In fact, I'm the other guy like the other way, do everything to help you sleep better at night. It just, it's just better that you you're not stressed, you're not anxious, you're nicer to people, all that. And then there's that ripple effect of positivity that happens, because you're in a good, but oh man, when you can refinance. And yes, your cost of monthly obligation for your mortgage payment goes up, I understand that. I also understand that the rental income might not even cover the expense, and I'm gonna touch on that in a second. But if you can pull out 80%, sometimes you can pull up as high as like, like every dollar that you put it, right, it's 80% of the loan like loan to value correct. But that could equate to your downpayment.

Fahad Farhat: 36:23

It's normally more than that. Normally more, but it might be different.

Jas Takhar: 36:27

Let's just say now you own a condo at in South tobiko Parklawn, in Lake Shore, with none of your own money. And let's just say that you had to talking about the fact that the rental income maybe didn't cover its expenses, let's just say you had to put in 300 bucks a month, for argument's sake, call it even on the higher end, 400 bucks a month, depending on what you do, as in terms of a day job, at $400 a month, that's$5,000 a year, you're writing that off, as in terms of a loss. But just think how quick we would spend about 200 bucks if you and I went right down the street right now. And it's a beautiful area that you have, there's tons of restaurants here, if you and I have a drink, have some appetizers have some dinner, boom 250 bucks with tipline taxes is gone. He's nobody thinks about that. Right. But yet, when you're taking out of your left pocket and putting into your right pocket, that extra 500 bucks a month, 5000 a year, whatever number we want to use per month is actually paying down your mortgage principle pay down principal pay down my car payment, and it's not a fancy car or anything and not that there's anything wrong with people that do. But my car payments more than that it's a liability, it loses me money, where this is going to actually start to make money over time. So I think people just have that portion of it. I think they have a twisted like I you need to think more long term with real estate because you just can't day trade it, I get the 5000 You know, 400 bucks a month $5,000 A year that you're losing.

Fahad Farhat: 37:54

But if you can not losing your invest in your head back into your own pocket,

Jas Takhar: 37:58

and you'll see if I just don't think most people don't see it. So we we've got

Fahad Farhat: 38:02

one we're losing probably around 800 A month right now, but it's well worth the 800. That's $9,600 a year, I think it's worth it. I still do Yan worth it?

Jas Takhar: 38:13

Well, because you also have a day job that is not going to like look, if you don't have a job, and that's what you're retiring on, obviously, you're not going to be able to afford it right. And so I think in your situation, my situation and a lot of people situation, they can afford it. Like it's not that big of a deal, especially when rates come down again, which they're going to and rents are going to continue to go up. Yeah. When we were talking about we don't really see an end in terms of what's going to happen with values. And I noticed a bunch, you know, two Realtors speaking on two red couches today that, that that that were like people like obviously you're gonna be talking about No, like, Listen, man,

Fahad Farhat: 38:48

we planned this out, trying to convince you, you know,

Jas Takhar: 38:51

it's black and white values go up. Most importantly in the GTA rents go up and we saw it right now we're finally not only back to pre pandemic rents in the Greater Toronto Area we've we've exceeded exceeded them yet. Right. And it only took us two years after the one biggest lockdown health crisis in the last century, whatever it was like nobody knew what the heck we were going through. And our we

Fahad Farhat: 39:20

still don't know what we went through. We will go down a different podcast or a different time. We'll leave that one out. That was a little crazy. Didn't happen. Funnily enough for you and I wouldn't ever met because I don't think clubhouse would know or it wouldn't have taken 100 years did 100 Like it did and there's so much value on that platform.

Jas Takhar: 39:37

I agreement. I agree. I haven't I haven't been on it recently. So I don't know like are you wanting like going back at all? I needed soap as you would like. And I'm like he went like I'm a human touch guy. And like, you know, we were laughing This is the first time I saw you but I knew how you loved you all the time. And when I saw you at the door I was like ah, this is so much better. Like yeah, clubhouse was great, but I needed to see people's on the second day. things opened up. I could tell like my time went from 80% on clubhouse because we had nothing else to do to like five. And now I haven't been on the platform for probably about a year and a year and

Fahad Farhat: 40:11

a half yet we were on there every day, every day for hours, running rooms, hosting stuff, teaching people how to do things. I think I came home with five rooms like I was making rooms like frightens, because what else could you do? Yeah. Good times. I've had all the time in the world. So yeah, so we have so many parallels with clubhouse. So our first job funny enough for those who don't know what Jas and I did. We went door to door for newspaper subscriptions. I used to get paid cash for people that sign up. Yeah. And you get like, I can't remember if it's 20 and 30 or 2535 per subscription for a full year. Yeah. On the Toronto Sun and the Toronto Star. Yeah. So when

Jas Takhar: 40:55

I was doing it was$2.50 it was $2 a month. Okay. It was $2 a month. Yeah. Like it was 252 50 a month or something like that. Yes. I

Fahad Farhat: 41:04

was 13 When I was I was a total would have been on 2000 So 1000 2000 that I did it.

Jas Takhar: 41:10

Oh no, man. Okay, so I'm 41. So I did that in 1992 90.

Fahad Farhat: 41:16

How old are you? I was 12 years old. Exactly. I was 30

Jas Takhar: 41:20

has told us. Yeah, I was 12 years old. Exactly. In 1992. Because I know where I moved. Yeah, it was. You know, I jokingly say, but I don't think I'm really joking. Man. There was a time the first time I got paid from that that paper wrote, I thought I was gonna sell papers my whole life. Because I I just didn't understand. I was like, holy shit. I got paid to knock on people's doors. And I had a blast doing it. You know, as a kid, I kind of had a fear of dogs, so maybe that was the only time that I was a little

Fahad Farhat: 41:50

bit by a dog. I never did the only by a Chihuahua. I had to kick the Chihuahua. And no, I don't regret it. I have no problem with dogs. I actually really liked it. came out well. Chihuahuas are aggressive animals. Yeah, little shits. Yeah, little a little bit. Yeah, little one. So one came out bit me while I was knocking for church and I have to kick it. I've gotta be honest with you. When I see the Beware of Dog side. I never knocked all those doors. Like I will say I just I just had a fear of dogs. Like it's not in our culture. We don't grow up with dogs. Realtors now have a fear of human. That's life right now.

Jas Takhar: 42:30

But I'm so glad I'm sure you attest to it, man like that. Probably like calling people for me was never a problem. I'm sure you're the same. Because if you go back, it was probably that job. The

Fahad Farhat: 42:40

biggest fear for calling people is dialing the number and hitting the green button. So that is what I found myself doing when I started. But when I get them on the phone, it's it's like butter. Like it's it's it's actually my favorite easy. I enjoy talking to people I enjoy leading with value. I don't think I'm trying to do anything. And I always even tell clients that I meet. Say, guys, I'm not here to sell you anything to sell. I'm here to help you when it is that you're ready. I'm not here to force you to get ready today, or tomorrow. But when you're ready, same way. 100 When you think of real estate, come to us we'd love to help you we'd love to transact do whatever it is we lead with value. We're not here to sell your house. We're here to find the perfect

Jas Takhar: 43:24

Yeah, I think you're at that stage too. right bro like where you're, you're sorting now like you're seeing who's who's going to be ready now who Who do you need to kind of follow up with and who dislike doesn't like your style. Like you're okay with that. It's all good. Isn't it a nice place to be.

Fahad Farhat: 43:41

I'm unapologetically myself just like your Sondra, for your you in your hoodie. I thought about wearing the hoodie. As like 100% Jas is gonna wear sleeves coming because of the weather is covered by you. Right like and I love it t shirt, hoodies whatever it is. And you can't be afraid to be yourself.

Jas Takhar: 44:00

Yeah. And you know what's important to that brother for especially for the people that are listening right now is you're going to lose business because of it. of certain things about you. Like I know I lose business because I throw F bombs. I wear the hoodie. I talk about creating wealth in real estate, but I do it in a hoodie and a T shirt. And and the wreck still always comes out in me like in terms of just not being formally educated, like English was not my, you know, my best grading in terms of high school. I barely passed High School. I

Fahad Farhat: 44:34

think I was in ESL? Oh, I didn't know that. I moved here when I was 10. But I was an ESL. And what's funny is I'm probably like, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but especially for my siblings. Yeah, let's just compare that I was the only one in ESL. And at this point, I'm probably the best spoken the best written the best communicator and what

Jas Takhar: 44:53

was it Did you just start practicing a lot like did you like what I don't know? I was seriously did you enjoy it?

Fahad Farhat: 44:59

You know what One of my teachers told me in grade eight before you go to high school they asked you if you want to do academic or apply he said go applied because you'll feel English if you go academic. I swear his name was Mr. Stevens. What's up Mr. Steve? chip on your shoulder. I don't know what it was but I've always had this thing I like proving people wrong on it. I like going out there and doing stuff that they see that I can't do. And then it was also just trying to learn and get better, right i It just happened over time. But I also think the seals experience of knocking on doors of getting into retail where you and I once again, I worked for the older group for eight years. I started shoes. Yeah, shoes. So you sold shoes. You athletic shoes, right? Which company were you at Sporting Life sporting life.

Jas Takhar: 45:47

So funny. You were talking about Sherway about office spaces. I

Fahad Farhat: 45:50

worked in Sherway as well, but Square One Yorkdale Bramley but started off stocking shelves in a shoe store under exactly the same as you know, is I did Co Op, okay, so you can imagine

Jas Takhar: 46:02

what they do to to co op kids, like I was the student, free labor, all they did is make me stock those shelves. But man, it's weird. Like, it sounds weird going back as somebody, nobody's really taking me back to the shoes, kind of sales part of my life. I, I all I used to do is show stock those shells and just think to myself one day, they're gonna ask me to come to the floor. And I'm just going to show up and I'm gonna, I'm just gonna keep coming and going. For me, that was the most excitement I had in that job was the first time I got to go to go on to the showroom floor and actually speak to a customer. It was nerve racking. And I was 15 years old at that time. 1516. But man, I would never trade that experience like you must have

Fahad Farhat: 46:48

loved it exact same 15 years old. So I was stocking shelves for maybe six, seven months, I had this manager that brought me on and I really wanted to go on the floor. I wanted to go sell and try to sell and I knew the back room off the top of my head it was easy to grab shoes. So because I used to stock the shop, like not the shop but in the back. Always in the back so you know where everything is. And you'd like you didn't use the ladder you climbed on the shelf, grab the sheet box, sometimes the boxes get smashed, and I would come in dressed up in dress pants and a button down to do stock. Yeah, so they would ideally put me on the floor which never happened for a while. Yeah, then my manager ended up getting I don't know she got transferred. I had another manager that came in Nancy Martin's love this woman that I worked with. And I still I haven't spoken to her in a few years. But shout out to Nancy. She was like my first real manager who taught me a lot of things. And I used to come in try to finish stock early so I could go on the floor. So I was like you're giving me four hours. Let me finish my stock in two and a half. Let me get an hour on the floor for some on the floor. Top sales and I just knew how to run low get get choose as fast as I can. And I ended up spending eight years Wow, the CIO went from stock person to sales associate to full time sales. keyholder, Assistant Manager, the store manager of the biggest store was going to be nominated for manager the year the year I left one club elite like five years, which is your top top associates from 1500 stores. But they take 15 Part time 25 full time 25 assistant managers and 25 managers out of 1500 stores. So I wanted us part time full time assistant manager and those up for a store manager. So it was just such a fascinating experience. But that is what I would probably accredit a lot of my salesmanship for sure and learnings because the foundations that you get from those places, of asking questions, determining needs, meeting the needs, overcoming objections, and overcoming objections, it's the more you do the better you Hunter per se, like so all those things or transfer

Jas Takhar: 48:57

100% of it. It's all luck. And you'll attest to this for sure. It could be selling a chessboard a bottle of water mics, cameras, lights, what real estate shoes.

Fahad Farhat: 49:08

It's kind of all the same. Yeah, it's just a commodity that it really

Jas Takhar: 49:12

is. It's the biggest thing is, in my opinion, is how easy Are you trying to make it for the person on the other side? Like, are you removing the friction in doing the business and what I mean by that is that we've all been into retail stores, picking out shoes, and the salesperson is just a deck. Like they're having a bad day. Maybe they're having a bad day, maybe their attitude just sucks. Maybe they're not running to be there. And it there's just like so much friction in doing business with them. Where I could I could just I already know coming into your store, maybe aside from a couple of moments that you might have had. You know, like a bad day or whatever. You were always smiling and you were ready to

Fahad Farhat: 49:58

smile approach Every client didn't matter, approach everyone on the floor.

Jas Takhar: 50:03

That's it. And that's what every state is now. And that's what cars was for me like, it's all the same. It's a matter of are you willing to take some notes? Because it doesn't matter how what you were selling the new, how many doors did you knock on and get knows, like, get out of here.

Fahad Farhat: 50:18

It wasn't the shoes, it was like the shoe care that you sell. That's where it's the that is the harder stuff to sell it was the handbags that you have to sell, like, how do you get those other KPIs?

Jas Takhar: 50:31

So at sporting life, in all fairness, I didn't have to go down you had up at all we had was just well, we weren't even commissioned based in exporting. Like we were not commissioned based there. So which, which definitely at that part of my life played a big role for me, because I was never, I was taught not to be pushy, because they didn't, I didn't need like, it wasn't commission based. So I was like, everyone's hired here, do your thing. But I was only in the footwear department. And so I didn't have to do any of the other stuff. Like I can imagine. Although now like, yeah, they have their handbags, and their belts and stuff. They're the only thing that they ever asked us to do was to sell the shoe protection. That's it, like I just mentioned on the way now, when I went into car sales, to me, that's one of the industries that have such a negative stigma. And I completely understand why. For me, it was easy because I was like the fucking bar so low, it sets a low, like, Who the heck likes a car salesman, and I get why they don't, I'm just not going to be an asset to them. Like, I'm not going to be pushy. I'm going to tell people people to walk in I'll say, when whenever you're ready. I'm in the corner here. I don't want to bother you. Like wave me down yellow my name, throw fucking car at me. I don't care. Get my attention. I'll be here waiting for you. Where everybody else in the industry so pushy, right? So real estate, to me is the same thing. 76,000 agents in in in a 75 kilometer radius, throw a friggin rock out here. There's an agent that we're going

Fahad Farhat: 52:00

to hit my uncles and Agent my cousin's an agent. And they're

Jas Takhar: 52:03

part time, a lot of them. I don't blame them, you know, each to their own. But the bar set low again, like people don't get back. agents don't get back to the public. They don't answer questions. They might not tell them about the negatives of doing an assignment at the time when they're purchasing the condo because they just want them to get past that 10 day due diligence period, right. So the bar is not set that high man, you smile, you bring positivity to people, they'll they'll want to do business with you and then tell their friends and family.

Fahad Farhat: 52:34

But I also find the landscape for a lot of these places has changed drastically. I feel like even from a retail sector you go out people don't even look at you smile and say hello, I the I don't end up in the mall very often. But I was there with my sister maybe a couple months ago. And we walk in and people don't even want to make eye contact. They don't approach you. They don't look the luxury stores. They will because it's a different service level. You go to Harry Rosen Holt Renfrew, you will get greeted most of the times. But a lot of times,

Jas Takhar: 53:05

New York just started to cut you off like at at Yorkdale at one at the Harry Rosen. And I was just looking for like a dress shirt. Because after a wedding.

Fahad Farhat: 53:14

Let me guess nobody approached you. It's so Yorkdale is so I used to shop at Yorkdale okay, then I was a Rosen's customer at square one. Yeah. And then at Yorkdale when I go wearing flip flops, shorts and a T shirt. I'd never get approached. So I wasn't never went like that. Yeah, but I get it. You don't go and approach and yeah, that's the thing. They judge you and this is like, this isn't today this like, Oh, is it okay? Even today, it's the same thing. It's based on how you're dressed? And a lot of talking about these start judging. Yeah. And I think that's to their own detriment. Because guess what, you can't tell how much fucking money someone has in their pocket, by the way they look, you don't know how many investment properties Jas owns, you don't know how much. And the people that usually dress up to the nines and all the labels. They're really the ones that have the least cars and they're fine. The All kidding aside, but

Jas Takhar: 54:04

um, yeah, you know, I learned that in car sales the hard way. Because I at the start, did do that not knowing. But then I just like the first time it happened where I didn't take you know, in car sales. It's called like, when a customer walks in, you take an up because you got to get up. And so I just didn't thinking about what the car that they came in with. And they learned and I was like, okay, never again, like that's just not going to happen. Because you come to learn really quickly. You don't know how much friggin money this person has. You have no idea and then you'll be surprised to your point. Like sometimes people used to walk in they would buy two cars like one for themselves, one for their wife, one for their kids, whatever it may be. So I mean that that obviously. Yeah. Because that happened to me a couple of months ago at Yorkdale. And I was pretty shocked man. I was pretty shocked.

Fahad Farhat: 54:51

Yeah, normal occurrence. Interesting. Interesting. Nothing against Rosen's. No crates nothing against your yeah worked at your For a number of years,

Jas Takhar: 55:00

I'm more of a showy gardens guy. Sure we got Yeah. Because I work there.

Fahad Farhat: 55:04

I did. So I opened up the Saks Fifth Avenue there. Oh, cool. So that was recently town. Yeah, I used to be the director of operations for a second. Okay. Yeah, that's what I had done. So really worked my way up in the retail

Jas Takhar: 55:16

entrepreneur. And it's helping them now. Yeah, all those things

Fahad Farhat: 55:19

kind of transferred into this, which is the podcasting, the sales, the building a team helping agents and hiring agents. So

Jas Takhar: 55:30

is that something that you're looking into doing now in terms of hiring agents, so I've just

Fahad Farhat: 55:34

been appointed managing director of the agency, okay, for authorized relations. Thank you, thank you. It's been kind of hush hush, we haven't really done a big post anything about it. So I'm already in charge of the entire associate base, all the hiring that way for all the agency offices in the Toronto area. So we've got downtown office opening, we've got ideally Yorkville opening soon. And then we're working on another one that I can't mention, which I mentioned off camera already. So as those open I'm in charge of that, and then one of those will ideally be

Jas Takhar: 56:03

my office. That's awesome. That's awesome. And so, um, so yeah, really

Fahad Farhat: 56:08

looking to build the team build a brand, not just a team, but build a brokerage 100%, then I once again want to lead with value show people that we're not just a luxury brand, but we also want to provide value to realtors and help their business grow. I've probably said no to 80% of people that I speak to, but it's just a matter of are you right? And I'll tell them, Look, guys, this isn't for you. Maybe you need to go to this brand. Yeah, and this brand might be better because of where you're at in your career. And it's just not the right fit. Or if you're part time. Does it make sense? Yeah, I agree. A bit too expensive for you. If you're part time, and if you're not 100% in the business, I just don't think this is the right place.

Jas Takhar: 56:47

I agree with you, man. It's okay. 100. Look, I think I think being at it, and we talked, touched on it a little earlier. Like, when you're in a place where you can just sort and you don't need to convince, I think it's I think it's really the epitome in our industry. Like it's, you're at the top of your game, because now you can give people that type of education. And you're not convincing. You're not selling them on something. It's like,

Fahad Farhat: 57:17

here's I'm telling them to join the other brokerage. Exactly. I think this brokerage might be better for you, because they've got what you need right now.

Jas Takhar: 57:25

But how good does that make you feel? Great. I mean, like, you're not trying to you're not trying to wrong somebody, man. No, I think it's

Fahad Farhat: 57:32

great. Sure. We'll take on every agent and we'll take your fee of X amount of dollars per month, we'll make the extra five grand a year. But really, what's that doing for sure, we can bring on 100 agents, and now we've got$500,000, but

Jas Takhar: 57:47

it's not worth and they don't stick. So I know out of experience is not worth it to fit. So it's been 19 years. So in the first seven years, we grew to about 52 agents. And man, it was all our fault. We over promised and under delivered. And for good reason people left as they should have. Because we were taking on everyone. And we were just like, well, this is how to do it.

Fahad Farhat: 58:15

Because that's that old school brokerage mentality. But that's the only thing that existed back. Yeah, it was like the REMAX or that and nothing against REMAX or century 21. But the the big box brokerages will just you don't interview them, you're just really walking in and they're like, Hey, you're just like, come on. No, they're trying to wine and dine. Yeah, to bring you like, come on come on board. We're a little bit different than I think you now with experience. Yes,

Jas Takhar: 58:42

right, for sure. We started to make sure this time around that we were asking more questions. And to like what, how you're going about it, that's how I just know you're on the right track. Because now you know, out of the 6465 agents we have, I'm gonna say like 50 of them are superstars. And the others are on their way. And there's a couple of people that maybe this is not going to be the right fit for them. But it it really once we started to ask the right questions, really make sure that our culture was what we wanted it to be, which has to be positive. And it has to be inspiring. We have to have to come from the the the mindset of collaboration, because as I said earlier, the pie is big enough. So if you have a scarcity mindset around us, it's just it just you're not going to it's not going to work well. Like it's just not and we're so positive that we kind of just turn people off. They're like how could you be that possible? Like we have so much to be grateful for like you know, myself my business partner I mean, my father in law taxi drivers whole life factory worker, my mother her whole life grade four grade eight education, my business partner in the real estate company. I mean, his met him at the bus conference. Fantastic. Awesome. Yes, he's just he's an amazing amazing So his parents, you know, own the pizza shop, like, like they work their asses off. And like for us to have six, we shouldn't have 65 age we laugh after half the time because we're just fun people like what we like to make sure that people come into our wheelhouse you got to be positive. And we'll let you get away with a couple of days. Because we all have that. But like day four, day five, you're getting pulled in and we're having a conversation, let's go for a walk, like, what's up? How can we help like what's going on? Because if it's if it's, if, if it's not like something big in your life that's happening, then we're probably not the right fit. Because we just we, you'll bring us down. And we're very protective of the crew. Definitely our leadership crew. Because they've been with us through like, thick and through thin kind of thing. And so for us now it's

Fahad Farhat: 1:00:54

really about culture. Yeah. And attitude is everything. Yeah, hire

Jas Takhar: 1:00:58

over all hire attitude over skill, every single thing because, you know, way skillful, he's kind of behind the cameras right now for me but skillful guy. But if he even if he didn't have for the some of the skills that he doesn't have, he's learning how long you've been with me away. close to a year now, the guy that is in front of me now completely different in terms of his skills, because he picked up on it. But the reason he's been here with me for a year, and he hopefully he'll, you know, I would want him here for a decade, or whatever it is. It's because of his attitude. That's why he's around here. You know, he's always smiling. He wants to learn, he knows when he could do better, but he doesn't put too much pressure on himself. Some days he might but you know, we we can easily help you get the skill. You cannot teach people a positive attitude, know what can happen, the non negotiable 100 or so things like through osmosis, they can become more positive. But if they're coming in with a fucking negative attitude, and they just come in with a lot of cynicism, that's hard to change. It's very, very difficult to change.

Fahad Farhat: 1:02:07

But I also think there's agents out there that now want to join your team. Well, what have you done in the last year, and I'm not seeing money wise or GCI wise, action wise. And then agents will come in and bash their brokerages. And I hate to say there's no brokerage. That's bad. There is no brokerage. That's but you have to take your business into your own hands. We're entrepreneurs. We're not fucking employees. We don't work for other people. We work for ourselves. Yeah, look, I

Jas Takhar: 1:02:32

mean, like I mentioned a couple of times, it's been 19 years. But if you ask my father, I don't think he knows what company I'm with. Like, for real? You just might hear his story. Here's really like a real data point. It's already see Canada's my team name. But that's not our brokerage. We're licensed under royler payroll a paycheck? 95% of my clients, they have no idea that were even with Royal LePage and ask them, and they'll say, no, they're with our EC Canada. So the brokerage name doesn't even mean much. It's you personally, like, what is your brand? And I'm not talking necessarily like brand from like an online perspective, or, or like, what's your logo and all that kind of stuff? I'm talking about? What's your reputation,

Fahad Farhat: 1:03:22

that's all secondary. And I think so many people are focusing on business cards, websites, you got to focus on how you're building relationships, because word of mouth database, going back, goes back to the gecko, right? database. Now we've got a brand where the agency is recognized, we've gotten really close. So that helps, but at the same time, it will only go as far as you can take it. And if you can't share value, it's not just strong enough to help you get business. If you're not educated on the market. You can't help answer questions. It goes back to personal knowledge, and what value are you providing? And now you're representing our brand. And how do we or the RTC brand for so how do we want that represented? Are you the right person to go in front of a client? And to be honest and truthful? Because I push? That's yeah, I think that's more important don't lie to people. Like just just tell them straight? It's okay, if it's not a good investment. 100% Okay,

Jas Takhar: 1:04:21

they'll they'll actually, you'll actually have them for life. Yeah, you know, the amount of times I've told people not to invest. And I always tell the story more of like the amount of times I go into speaking with a seller that wants to list their property and I begged them not to list like I'm saying don't sell your property don't sell your property. And the reason is, is because I've just seen so many people kick themselves and said, Oh my God, I wish I just kept that i wish i i Didn't my parents don't like so many people. And that is difficult for a lot of agents and I completely understand why because they're like ship dude, I need the freaking commission because if I get the commission Should I gotta pay my bills, I completely understand. But if you can get to your to a place where your expenses are not that much, now you don't have to make rash decisions, you can base your decisions more from a long term perspective, you can build that relationship that we're talking about. And then that client you'll have for

Fahad Farhat: 1:05:19

life. Yeah. And they'll come back to you, they'll call you when they're ready. If you help them create

Jas Takhar: 1:05:23

wealth, game over, like, That's it, they'd love you. They'll majority of people even understand, okay, the values do go down, but then they come back up again. That's why maybe we're coming full circle. That's why I think working with investors is such a massive opportunity. Because all you got to do is figure out how you can help them create some wealth. And the cool thing with real estate is most people are not looking for the short term wealth, most like savvy people, and I'm not talking about like, you have to be super educated. Most people get it like, Okay, I'm not gonna buy a house and just do like, you know, put some flooring and then I can sell it and, and then make a couple of 100 grand. I gotta hold on to it. That to them is creating wealth long term, and they'll remember you as the person who's done it.

Fahad Farhat: 1:06:10

100% Alright. Hopefully by got some value today. No, no, we brought a lot of value

Jas Takhar: 1:06:16

to your chess player. Whether I do play chess, or you. I am I am. I'm not that good. But I'm trying to play more and more. I mentioned my nine year old and seven year old. So my nine year old is he's getting pretty good. He's has a passion for it. I always played it. I'm just like, I'm not like you might, you know, wipe me off the off the board pretty quickly. But I really liked the game. I like

Fahad Farhat: 1:06:41

it. It's fun. So I used to be good. When I was in middle school. grade six. I was the middle school champion chess champion. And then I didn't play it for years and years. Then I picked it back up maybe a couple years ago during COVID. Oh, wow. Yeah. Just picked it up on my phone. Yeah. And I would play it a little bit on lead chess and then more recently chess.com I bought this as a Christmas gift. It's funny. I bought it for Peter Torkan who's are their managing partner. And first game my blunder my queen on the fourth move, got it. And I ended up losing okay. And he's talking a lot of shit. But I knew from like, just my mindset. I knew. I was like, I'm better than he is for sure. Mistake you just Yeah. And I couldn't recover from it. If you blunder clean on the fourth move. It's hard to recover. Yeah, it genuinely is. So I couldn't recover from it my fault either. We lost. And then he wouldn't give me a rematch for like a month and I went away. We came back and then finally had a rematch. He lost like the next eight times. It got pretty bad. He's like, Whoa, I let you in. For ATAR I think we're like 12 into now. He wants another one. Yeah, a bit later, but I'm okay. I'm I'm not the best chess player. I'm probably an advanced beginner. Yeah. But everyone thinks that means different things. So I was I was like, Go place in Markham. And I met this random guy started playing pool with him. And he's like, Hey, do you play chess? And I'm like, Yeah, I'm okay. I'm a good beginner is what I would consider myself. And he's like, Oh, I'm really good. And he wasn't good at all. And I asked him what your E low is any low in chess as you're reading? Yeah. Where do you rank? And he's like, 700. I'm like, 700 is like, absolute beginner level, you know, how to how the pieces move? Yeah, much. Yeah, there is a much strategy. So I'm about a 1400. Okay, which is, intermediate players are around 1600. Got it. And that's when you really know the openings. I'm not there yet. So what is that Grandmaster grandmasters would be 2500 plus 10,000 plus or like the really good like IBM's 23 And you're saying you're at 14? I'm 1400 You know, like the gap between the gap is massive if I played a 1700 Okay, the 1700 would probably win nine out of 10 Good got it. You got a 10 games here's

Jas Takhar: 1:09:08

a question for you. That's 1700 Are they gonna win? In like eight nine moves?

Fahad Farhat: 1:09:14

No, no, no, God I wouldn't lose anything I'm gonna even to like a grandmaster it's highly unlikely that I have enough understanding of the game sure to not lose an eight or nine move got it. It will last to that 2025 ish moves. Got it. But at the same time if I played a grandmaster Yeah, 100 times out of 100 I'm losing Oh, if I play an im, it's Yeah, yeah. There's he told me different. You're talking shit. skill gap is man. There. Yeah. But it's such a great game. from a strategy perspective. If you're Santa teacher, kids that are even problem solving. I think you get so good at thinking ahead, thinking 510 moves

Jas Takhar: 1:09:55

for me. It reminds me like in business. I'm very patient. Like I'm a patient. Same person, I'm not in a rush to like, take over the world. You know, the joke around our office when people ask us like, what are you going to do? Like, what's what are we going to do today? It's always like from the Animaniacs, when, when when the brain says to Pinky the same thing we tried yesterday to try to take over the world. And I failed for 41 years, and I failed, you know, but I feel like today still, I know there's some, there's some hours left in the day, I still have some time to do it. Very patient. This reminds me to be patient because I'm generally in a rush to finish a game. And you can't be Yes, like, you got to sit there, right. And so that's what I like about the game. But I'm learning man I'm getting I want to get better because again, you got to strategize. It's not checkers. Yes. No, no, no, no.

Fahad Farhat: 1:10:44

And the other thing is, instead of the guys that are playing chess, instead of playing Five Minute games, go play 1015 25 minute games, right? That way, it's easier to go shorter on time. Yeah, once you understand it, then to go longer on time. Yes, I struggle in a five minute game with like people that are rated around 1000. So when you play a five minute game, it's five minutes each, each each five minutes. Okay? So five minutes. Like if I start thinking about strategy s, Mike, I'm probably around on the 1100 and a five minute 1800 in a 10 or 15. Right. So when I start playing different timelines, but you also get a different understanding of the game. Sure, for sure, then you have to just know what to move. So you're not really thinking as much about each move. I prefer no time and you just sit there you enjoy. And that's where you learn. Yes, for sure. Then go chess.com You can go back and you can actually look at each move where you made the blow cool. So what was the best move to me and just pretty cool. Okay, and go down the route. Yeah,

Jas Takhar: 1:11:46

no, I haven't downloaded the app. Like I have a board at home as well. Like I said, I pay with my kid.

Fahad Farhat: 1:11:53

My kids would enjoy it.

Jas Takhar: 1:11:55

Oh my My nine year olds, even if you

Fahad Farhat: 1:11:57

get them one subscription that they can just play on and just the they learn it's such a good value add and delete other people their level under percent then they'll get better over time. Better

Jas Takhar: 1:12:09

than some of the YouTube videos. Sometimes they sneak Yeah.

Fahad Farhat: 1:12:12

Some of those YouTube videos. You got 700 of them. You're about 760 More than I have. I'm at five. Right this is episode number six. My kids I've seen I don't know maybe about 2025 videos of mine. Now. They're bored of like that. That's good enough. I'm good. Like you're not Steph Curry. That's fine. Are you big Ball fan? I'm a huge ball. All right. Let's talk basketball for a quick second talk to Lee talk to me this year. Let's go this year and then let's go way back.

Jas Takhar: 1:12:39

So this year for me I actually like I'm a massive, you know, which will probably take us way back as well. I'm a massive Laker guy. Okay. All time not to think like I don't think he's the goat. I know. I really, you know, believe who the goat is. And I know who the code is. But my favorite player is always been Kobe. Okay. I was a Kobe fan. Even when, like he like once he came out of high school when he had the bad rap. Like I was like, I still like this because there's something about him. yatta yatta yatta. So always a Laker fan. So this year, I actually think they have a really good chance to kind of completely agree.

Fahad Farhat: 1:13:15

Did you watch the game lesson? I actually just thought the highlights I stayed just kind of watch that fourth quarter I saw the older game. I saw

Jas Takhar: 1:13:21

the leafs game. And then I was just exhausted. And so I watched a little bit of the game but not not not I didn't get into the overtime. First thing I woke up in the morning today went straight to YouTube. Got my highlights. I saw them Yeah. I actually think they have a very good chance of coming out. Obviously, I think Phoenix is going to be there. They're the team that they go up against. Because I think they're going to finish off the Clippers very soon. Yeah, they played tonight. I think well, they're

Fahad Farhat: 1:13:47

up three one out there also. Especially if Kawhi is not playing in 100%. Which is unfortunate because I really like why when because I think we have Kawhi and Paul Georgia healthy. They can win.

Jas Takhar: 1:13:58

Yeah, I think he'll come back from the three one. No, I don't think so. Not against KD Booker. Exactly. Right. And so I think this year is going to be out of the West. I'm hoping and I actually think because the way the LeBrons playing he's playing such a facilitative role and ad you know, knock on wood. He doesn't get hurt. There's nobody that can really defend them. Yeah, like their best chance was the Defensive Player of the Year on Memphis anyways, and he's having trouble right? Yeah, so who's really going to defend him? I can't see that happening. The east to me is funny. I don't know who's going to come out of the east. If there's a good chance obviously that it's going to be Philly but for some reason. I just think Boston is going to do it again. I think say there Philly or Boston I think Boston just I don't know maybe you think this is his you think the

Fahad Farhat: 1:14:46

Bucs are done?

Jas Takhar: 1:14:48

What happened last night with the Bucs they lost so that three one Jimmy Butler drove 56 Exactly in the money for I was getting my hair cut actually. I was watching the 20 I watched that one. I was like What the I was watching that game 24 In the first quarter something like that he had

Fahad Farhat: 1:15:03

I love Jimmy I think the Bucs torch does so when he was on Chicago, and every time

Jas Takhar: 1:15:10

when he went to Miami, I'm happy for Kyle to let them get somewhere like get far but I just think I think Boston is gonna still come out of there. And then if it's Boston and LA, I don't think Boston is gonna win.

Fahad Farhat: 1:15:21

So I've historically got I've historically hated Kobe Bryant. Yeah, but there's a reason for that. I was always a Boston Oh, I was a kg Rondell. Wow. Allen fan. So I Boston hat Jersey as like those finals. Every balloons I did not think I love I went to his last game in Toronto, his final season. like mad respect for him and rest in peace. Kobe Bryant. Such a has such a phenomenal competitor. Yeah,

Jas Takhar: 1:15:54

it put me in all honesty, it shut me up for a whole day. Like I was. I'm not a big, outside tear kind of guy. For whatever reason. I'm just not in I was torn inside that whole day that I I think I said maybe four words.

Fahad Farhat: 1:16:09

Every time I saw

Jas Takhar: 1:16:10

a photo or a video of him and his daughter. I have a daughter I know. And I was just I can't even Yeah, I had I had tears casier imagine. can't even imagine but but he was I just loved his his work ethic. I like how he broke it down like he he really you know, he would take 1000 shots. Which in itself is crazy, but it was the 1000 same shot. Yes. That's what like we've all heard people really putting in the extra hours and stuff and he ended like I still think him in maybe Jordan who I really think is the goat by the way. Okay,

Fahad Farhat: 1:16:54

that's that's the guy. How far off Is he from? Is LeBron from him?

Jas Takhar: 1:16:57

It's funny, man. I was thinking about in the shower today, bro. If LeBron wins this year,

Fahad Farhat: 1:17:03

I don't know what happened. I think everyone's got to shut the fuck.

Jas Takhar: 1:17:06

I think I think I think that's just growing up. I was never a Jordan fan. Okay, fair. I just wasn't back then. For some weird reason. I was a Dominique Wilkins when I was

Fahad Farhat: 1:17:16

young. So we moved to Canada when I was one in 97. So this is at the end of his rally. Okay, right. Like the final? Yeah, the final Yeah, we did watch that. And we were getting into basketball. We weren't really as caught from So are you saying right now LeBron is the goat? I think LeBron. I think there's a really good argument. He's the goat Yeah. Now I think there is a good argument. I think the old heads are stuck on Jordan and the six unknown, but I don't understand why LeBron gets flack for getting to the finals. It feels like him getting to the finals is more of an issue on his legacy app or a stain on his legacy then him than Jordan losing in the first round so nine and he's won with different coaches. Yep, different to give you all that he's taken different teams to the fight. He took fucking Sasha Pavlovich to the finals. Yeah, and eagles kiss like yours Yeah. And also crazy. Like in understanding that and then the historical aspect of points the whole nine he's clutch and people still say he's not clutch he's the Lord I

Jas Takhar: 1:18:25

think it is one game. Game seven. Who you take game seven finals one game.

Fahad Farhat: 1:18:34

LeBron see where I would go? But LeBron historically in game sevens is like fucking 40 Point triple they know what

Jas Takhar: 1:18:41

the thing is for me in that situation. He

Fahad Farhat: 1:18:43

doesn't want shots. Okay, if you're asked I'm not talking about no okay, then I take Jordan see the thing with Jordan? Yes. One just one shot. Got it. Now Jordan is more clutch than LeBron. No, but I'm thinking job part. Okay to next one. Game one. game seven in their primes? Yeah, I here's what I'll say. I think if you get down to the final couple possessions, and it's super close, Jordan kind of edges out LeBron there Yeah. But throughout the game, the we LeBron can dominate the floor and help his teammates is greater than what Jordan could do. Jordan could score with the best of them. Is it better than the best of them? So sure, Jordan, I think mid range, the scoring, the tenacity, the Will the 63 point games against Boston, the flu game all it was whatever it was Jordan could do. Yeah. I just think I think they're very close. I think they're head to head. I think if LeBron wins this, I don't think there's even an ROI.

Jas Takhar: 1:19:42

So when you're 1920 a year and whatever 20th year

Fahad Farhat: 1:19:47

or to average 26 points 27 points in your 20th year nobody has ever done that. Oh, that's gonna be very, very so I think longevity and it also depends how people look at the NBA as a whole and what they value more Do you value the six and oh more? Or do you value the 10 finals? And four championships? Do you value winning with different coaches? Different teammates? See, I think there's so many I think there's arguments to both

Jas Takhar: 1:20:10

100 For sure. Yeah. You know, when I think in all honesty, and I'm not just saying it, like I said, Man, first and foremost, I was never a Jordan fan. I just complete like, it's it's mean Tom Brady, for example, I'm a Dallas

Fahad Farhat: 1:20:21

Cowboy fan like Brady, the goat

Jas Takhar: 1:20:24

I would be an idiot to say that he's not the goat bucking hated his game. Like

Fahad Farhat: 1:20:32

I hated Kobe, because he beat my team, every person 100%

Jas Takhar: 1:20:37

X actually, because of the Patriots, and the SAT I was never saw that like, I'm never a Boston fan. And then the Bruins always do what they do to the leafs. And so anyways, what I what I was gonna say is when it comes to Jordan, and we're talking about game seven, what I actually think that LeBron has more than anyone else is the fact that he can play every single position and guard every single position. We just never have seen that ever in history. But what Jordan said is, is something that I always like, that kind of makes sense. When he was asked like, Are you the go? Yeah, well, the way he answered the way that he answered it, he's like, You can't compare. What do you want me to do? Compare it you're gonna compare me to like, like Magic Johnson was coming to the end when we played at the finals. Larry was definitely coming to the end. But how do you like how, what about wilt? What about Bill Russell?

Fahad Farhat: 1:21:31

And the game has evolved hundreds. I think this position less basketball today versus what it was like in the 60s or the 70s. Like you go Bill Russell wilt? Yeah. And in their own rights, their goats have the gate 11 championship? Who's beat so with that championship argument?

Jas Takhar: 1:21:50

Then you go Russell, the 100% you got to put them in there.

Fahad Farhat: 1:21:53

And a lot of people put Kareem up there but I've never watched green play so I it's hard for me to Yeah, make an art. I just know

Jas Takhar: 1:21:59

highlights and documentaries and stuff. Like I'd never I've never seen Korean player but I also

Fahad Farhat: 1:22:04

think there's this nostalgia about MJ. They're there. It's driven. Yeah. It's also media driven narrative like he's,

Jas Takhar: 1:22:11

I mean, he put the NBA really truly Oh, yeah, man, his rice,

Fahad Farhat: 1:22:15

his shoes. The brand like you were everyone wants a farrier. Every kid well, I don't know, Jordans. Yeah, never have I've never been a Jordan guy. I don't even own Air Force One. Yeah, I just never bid I like my Adidas three stripes. Gotta gotta gotta gotta Yeah, pick up different you know, yeah, Your vibe attracts your tribe. It just, it is what it's okay. For the Tom Ferry line. Your vibe attracts your tribe. Yeah, it's true. That's awesome, buddy. I love this. Let's see what happens. That was it. It was fun. But I liked the Lakers. I think the Celtics Lakers would be

Jas Takhar: 1:22:49

wow that's great. Yeah, I mean that last one for me was probably the favorite my most favorite series playoff series to watch period in all sports. And for me I'm more of an NFL guy like that's my real sport to watch but Kobe our test Gasol verse, your guys there. game seven. Yep. Lakers at home. That series was like big

Fahad Farhat: 1:23:18

perk got injured. Came seven years. Yeah, yeah. Last game he missed.

Jas Takhar: 1:23:24

So that's what you say.

Fahad Farhat: 1:23:29

No, no, I don't think I don't think big Birkin is too fucking good. Yeah. But he talks a lot Rondo I never liked ever except when he came in want a championship? Rondo I liked because of Boston. A 101st. Now I like the Lakers. I think they're fantastic. Yeah, but I got a shot. Minix is the only real threat to them in the way

Jas Takhar: 1:23:53

Yeah, and I looked at I mean, I really want the Lakers to win period. But if there's a team that I would not want mine to watching when because of Chris Paul would be the scene. The suns because I

Fahad Farhat: 1:24:06

like I like crystal. Yeah, like

Jas Takhar: 1:24:08

I want it the guy that would like I think he's gonna get into the top 25

Fahad Farhat: 1:24:12

Easily. He's considered a top top

Jas Takhar: 1:24:15

point guards top 10 point guards of all time. Some

Fahad Farhat: 1:24:17

people call him top five point guard do that. Yes. I heard that. I've heard that too. Yeah, I don't know. Because there's obviously Isaiah. Yeah, but I'm gonna put magic magic magic is number one. Yeah, hurry 100 And does curry go above Isaiah?

Jas Takhar: 1:24:34

I have to say right.

Fahad Farhat: 1:24:36

I think curry is above Isaiah. But I yeah, like because for championship days.

Jas Takhar: 1:24:41

Yeah, it didn't change the game game right. Curry chief. So my boys play and

Fahad Farhat: 1:24:48

all of them but isn't AI better than CP AI led his team to the final a love there. Yeah, even won that first game. I love the Tyronn Lue step on it. I call Connor I just need a photo of that song. Alright guys, hashtag ball is life. To ball bay we basketball, die hard ball job Die Hard. You're the first guest has spoken about basketball too easily, but I enjoyed this. So where can they find you? Where can they follow you? Oh, not hard, they'll I'll beat your legs there. Well, they'll Oh my name okay, it will be in the details below. Thank you Jas for your time, and for sharing your greatness with us. Thank you. I absolutely loved every minute of it. And I feel like we've known each other for you 100 It doesn't feel like we've met for the first time.

Jas Takhar: 1:25:40

I am really excited to see your growth row. Not in the business because you're doing your thing. And you know, like, you're gonna do that. I think what the content allows you for allows you to do is now touch other people that you don't even know who's watching and listening. And I'm really excited to see that for you.

Fahad Farhat: 1:26:00

Thank you, man. Congratulations, mad love and appreciate it and we're gonna collaborate some more on some other stuff. Who knows what Take care guys, you know what to do, like, follow Subscribe and follow Jas on all his details below. Take care and we'll see you on the next one in a couple of weeks.