Dave (3:50)

No, I love go for it.

Mike Van Hout (3:51)

Like got up the system, right? I ended up coming here in Covid. I had a bunch of Canadian dollars, which right now is like as bad as the peso. But three years ago it wasn't that bad. I ended up buying a. I ended up buying five and a half acres on this. In this area called Guate. It's. It's a beautiful like Ozark style lake town and has like a huge rock and maybe you can put something up so you can see what that looks like. But it's a huge rock, like a massive rock. It'20 stairs to come to the top. I end up buying five and a half acres that overlooks this rock right through Covid when prices were fairly low to build sort of a boutique hotel. So then I started like hunt. In that one and a half year segment, I started to hunt for and like beautiful, like cantilevered, like, like Bali kind of style, you know, Because Bali really is like the epicenter of that stuff, right? So. And I started to hunt for like a developer to build this stuff and this. And I met this guy, younger guy, beautiful home he had. And I had my system just basically just do a walk around, film me just like I do with cars, right? Like that's how YouTube started. It was just like my curiosity just to share what. For those that don't know, I have a YouTube channel and I do car reviews. And in the last since COVID it blew up and it got me to 300k in terms of subs and about between 4 and 5 million views a month.

Dave (4:58)

Crazy.

Mike Van Hout (4:58)

And that's what. And so I did the exact same thing just for houses, man. I just had a grammar and I. And I. And because one like really important Lesson learned through YouTube is the power of editing and the amount of effort it takes to edit and do really high end quality stuff. It's just not scalable. So I wanted something like, I'm not here. How am I going to get my team to film these things? So I, I had her just walk through a house with the camera. I posted it on Instagram and it popped because people were like, well, what can you get for a million dollars in Columbia? And you guys know, right? Just being on socials, you know, like the more drama you get, obviously, like that's, that's the formula, right? Like the more drama you get, the more once I hate. But the more like controversy you get, the more things pop. And of course people are like, first of all, people spell Colombia with a U because it's C O, L O, M, B I, A, right?

Dave (5:39)

Yeah.

Mike Van Hout (5:40)

Not Colombia. They also think Colombia is full of drug dealers and narcos and all that kind of stuff. And for sure there's a big export business there. But in terms of actually being here, it's not like I walk around and people are funneling powder out of their nose, like shoveling that in their nose. So people are curious to know what that's like. And I think. And when you think about like larger scale stats, like 50, around 50% of Americans don't have Americans, but don't even have a passport, man. So. Which means they're all keyboard warriors and they're just pumping. They're just pumping their information, their data to, you know, like, you know, sheer brute power essentially. And that really pushes the algo. So. So that popped and then I realized there's something here and I started focusing on it, man. I just started. I started reaching out to real estate agents that were. That were. I wouldn't say dated, but just didn't have that, that skill set. And then I was like, hey, if you give me, if you just let me, let me film your houses and have my team film houses. And it's pretty much female dominant. So all my models or girls that I have, I have 22 girls that work for me and we simply just go around the country and we just walk through. And I hired different girls, different cities, but we just simply walk through three different homes, we film them, and all the leads I get, it goes to my, my setter essentially. And then from there it goes to an agent that's either provide me the houses or like my team right now. Right. Because it's grown in the last two years. So that's basically a little just about Columbia on what I do there. I sell houses, but I'm also a connector and I'm tied into lots of different things because the opportunity and the movement is, is pretty heavy. I think we have a, I think we have a very limited menu in, in Canada on what we can do. You know, I think the limitations of that menu is just a lot longer in other countries. The only unfortunate part is our dollars are so weak right now. And like, you know, it's. It's just if it's something cost a dollar in Canada, it basically costs a dollar here for Canadians and Americans have that, that upswing, you know. So.

Dave (7:25)

Yeah, of course. I think that's like. I know. No, I think it's.

Mike Van Hout (7:30)

You're.

Dave (7:30)

You kind of nailed it. Like, I feel there's so many opportunities for people in these countries to be some form of connector. And, and I, I think you have to think outside the box a little bit. Like you just said, my start in Mexico was almost identical. It's like I just noticed a lack of, of certain people doing certain things that I had a skill set for and I could help them get, achieve goals with my skill set. And that's kind of how I got into real estate.

Mike Van Hout (7:53)

The trust factor. Right, the trust factor. They know that you put. So I mean that's what I look at. So I'm the type to always just. I like to experiment and, and you know, I think that if you keep your life, you know, I think Daniel can attest this. I think like when you're in this, in the real estate space for a long time and then you have like your, your expenses set to a certain number, anything above that is just really fun. Play money, have a good time. And you know, none of us are trying to get at least. I mean, I'm not trying to get 100 foot yacht. You know, I'm happy with the life. I live a pretty simple life. And I think that's kind of like Mayworld's Canadian thing, I think. But yeah, but yeah, coming here, get that trust of what people think. And then, and also, you know, there's some interesting, like, I think we've all done this when you're younger. We go to Europe and we see like a technology there that's, that's, that's there. And you're like, man, if this was only in Canada or I can bring this down. Yeah, but we just don't have like the, the backing or the assets to kind of push that, that mentality. And now I'm like here and I'm like, man, there's so many, like so many gaps that you could fill from that, from that space. You know, I think that's a really good, good point. And the other thing about it is that people don't know this, but you can't finance it. You can. Yeah, there's no financing here. Yeah, it's only cash. Yeah. And you can at the bank. So the banks do finance, but the rates here are north of 13 to 13 and a half to 14 for Colombians. And they only get approved to like usually about 60 to 65 LTV, which means that opens up a whole market of, of like. I mean there's so many ideas to come to. The first thing comes to play is like, Canadians be happy with 8%. So now when I borrow money at 8 points through anybody's like arm's length stuff, pump it into Colombia, loan it up for just general market mortgages. That's on first at 13%. There's a spread there. And you know, and you know, just keep.

Daniel (9:18)

So are you lending, are you lending down there too?

Mike Van Hout (9:22)

I'm working. So the way, the way it happened, there's a fiduciary company, there's only two fiduciary companies in the country. And what they do is they just legalize your money. So they work with the IRS or Rep. Canada to make sure that the money coming the country is legit. There's, they're very, very particular where the money comes from. Which is the other. You think the opposite. You think like just funnel the money in here because it's like drug money or whatever, right? But it's the opposite. They are very, very particular on like, they're very heavy and they dig deep. You're basically applying for a mortgage application when you're trying to bring money in the country, even if it's like 50k. So what I'm, what I'm working with as this company, because I've worked in for two years now with clients and myself and all that stuff is to do this program where I can bring Canadian dollars into the country through investors and then buy a property. Because I swear, anything you buy and I bring guys, you know, I take 10Americans and Canadians every quarter. I spend one week with them and I kind of show them the system and it's a whole like mindset thing as well. But what I do is I, I show them and everything we look at has a minimum of 10 points. Like anything you touch, anywhere you put your money, you're gonna make 10 points. So when you have that mentality, especially like man in Toronto, you can't get anything at 10 points. You're not gonna get three, four, you know, you know, unless you're buying like, you know, whatever, smaller towns or whatever.

Dave (10:30)

So like the, the main buyers down there, like I, and I'm guessing the main purpose is for Airbnb. Is that kind of like the main thing to like and to invest or is it for themselves or like who's buying?

Mike Van Hout (10:43)

Yeah, so there's basically seven main cities in the country and the most lifestyle based or most in demand city is managing like the city, right? Just culture, lifestyle. But mainly it's, I mean it's, it's, you know, springs and sounds. It starts with females, right? I mean you have a beautiful population of females and that draws in dudes and druids that are like, I want to go to a country where the climate's perfect, which is this city is absolutely perfect. It's always between 19 and 25ish kind of deal. So there's a ton of single guys, but most of them are broke. They got no money because they want to come here and just like Flex, right? They're like, the Flex name is heavy, you know, And. And then they realize that they cash. And it's hard when you have to come and you got to pay cash for everything. So even if you're buying it, you know, I mean, how can you beat leverage, right? You can't. It's impossible. So you have to really want to be here. You want to diversify your money. Or you're a Colombian. So there's a ton of Colombians that are in US and Canada that have made in the last 15 years or they're second gen or whatever, and then they come back, invest in their hometown. So that's one of them. Okay. The second one is what Instagram has done, and you guys can speak to this in terms of socials is it has opened the door to being a celebrity. And when that happens, you get other celebrities, let's say, for example, that reach out to you because they feel like they're on the same level. And then people have, till the last year, people know how much money I've invested in the country of my own. My own. My own money, right? I'm not just. I don't rent. Everything I have is own. I go through the process. I show people what I've done. Like you, right? I mean, you put your money where you're, where you believe that you can speak from, and then that's what it is. But mainly first, first things first is usually single guys. That's like, usually the first one that's. That's the most curious. But they're the last ones to buy. They're always right. The first ones, they all come up with data. But there was last one. But the second one's families that are. That are Colombians. And the third one are investors. So, Daniel, to speak to your investor, portion of it is the investors that come to Medellin specifically want something they can buy, and then when they're not here, they can rent it out. But the rules, Airbnb are extremely heavy. Extreme, yes, extremely heavy. If you want an Airbnb, like everything you, any. Anything you buy here, you can rent for a minimum of 30 days. Anything shorter than that, you have to have an Airbnb license or the, the building has to be zoned for Airbnb and then those units are 40 more. And then we do the math. It's, it's not perfect, man. And you get wear and tear. You get the wrong kind of crowd because the crowd's only coming for the wrong reasons, you know, and that's stuff I don't kind of play with. But it, but it's like anything else. If you want to make real money, you have to have purpose built stuff. And that's in Medellin, but in other cities it's, it's open season. Yeah. There's no, there's no right or wrongs. You can just buy whatever and it'll work. But, but most people that want Colombia, they're coming to Medellin first. They're not going to capital Bogota or they're not going to, they might go to Cartagena, but Cartagena is fairly hot. So if you don't like heat, then yeah, you're kind of out of luck, you know, there. So.

Dave (13:20)

Interesting. Okay, so. And it's actually, so it's funny because Mexico is now currently trying to implement a lot of like short term rental license implications. And they're, they're like starting with villas and houses because they're able to access them and put like notices on the doors.

Mike Van Hout (13:35)

Yeah.

Dave (13:35)

So they're slowly implementing this whole new short term rental license thing. But I thought maybe Columbia would be the same. But so it's kind of the same as in Toronto that only like certain buildings allow it. So are people buying like with the villa space? I guess the villa space is easier, but to get an Airbnbs.

Mike Van Hout (13:52)

So the thing is the city's not really constructed like an Airbnb fair. So the thing here's, here's the thing is that this is a very family oriented city. You go to go to the malls, if you go to a Toronto mall, it's all singular, people watching. Maybe the new immigrants have family bases, but anything anybody lived in Canada for more than five, seven years, they're not going to their big full family. They don't meet at the mall. There's a very family heavy culture. So that family, every culture also wants to have a very safe, quiet place to live. And a lot of it's gated stuff. So you're not going to throw, you know, a lot of foreigners coming for the wrong reasons in a gated community throwing parties, man. It's just not going to happen. Right. You know, so you have to have very Specific spaces. So they're usually kind of rough, but they've always been heavily renovated. But those places are not up because they're cash cows for people. Right. Like, that's dollars coming in. Yeah. So it's. Medellin is just a. It's, it's a. Yeah, it's tough. So if you want to get something here, I think the uplifts in terms of like, let's make money here would be service businesses, because service businesses are crazy. The rental business is super strong, Very strong rents. Like, people want to come and just check it out. Right. So you have this influx in managing in other, like other studies is different. But. But yeah, just build, man. Build up is the only way. But I think services is good. There's like, there's a. There's a lot of good English speaking, great talent here. There's a lot. Tons of nomads. The escalation of the quality of people. Like, it's always like, if you could make. I mean, the theory, in theory, in theory is like, why would you come to Colombia when you make really good money in the US Or Canada, why would you come and live here? You know, it doesn't make any sense to do that. And I think that obviously, like, politics has changed. You know, strangulation of money has changed in our, in our home countries. Like, people want an option and that's kind of what this is. And I, and I and Dave, I didn't really pick Mexico and I was in Mexico, so I could have picked Mexico. I didn't pick Mexico, entered Costa Rica because I think that, well, Costa Rica, especially with Canadians, had that huge like, lift through Covid. Right? You know, like, like, exactly. I think, I think hype wise, man. Like, I think. I think I'm in the hype game. Right? I'm in the hype game.

Daniel (15:47)

Do you think like Colombia, Colombia has that now though, or. Or is that like kind of what you wanted to be part of or capitalize on?

Mike Van Hout (15:55)

Yeah, I think Colombia is getting it. I think that there's still, there's still. I don't say xenophobia, but I would say that there's still that, that, that disconnect. Being not Colombian, getting in like the right deals. Right. So you have to like, everything I buy, I put my staff up front. They buy for me. I don't put my face because the prices are different. So you still have to deal with that, like, mentality, which you'd probably have to. A little bit of Mexico.

Dave (16:13)

Yeah.

Mike Van Hout (16:14)

But people are speaking English and the quality of People coming here are getting better and better and better, which is nice because the community that I know or know of essentially is still fairly small. So it feels like a. It feels like a Toronto, Etobicoke kind of vibe. You remember back in the day, like 15, 20 years ago, like, you knew kind of everybody in Etobicoke and those were like the core people, or like, we didn't really know anyway. Pickering, our Ajax or Ravat, it was always like tobacco and Toronto a little bit here, you know, and then it became like, you know, then it kind of moved through enough. Toronto, such a big, huge space. So I feel like medicine is kind of like that. It feels still small enough. And I feel like, you know, if. If you go to a place, there's a ton of Columbia, so you can start like the two, three corners that are doing something and then they have groups meet up. So it feels like a family vibe where there's that gap. I mean, listen, there's. There's a ton of guys here come that country for the wrong reasons, but if they're deciding to put their money here, then they're great people, you know, so.

Dave (16:59)

Yeah, what's, what's the, like the rental market like down there, then? Is it super expensive? Like, if I were you to compare rent prices to, I don't know, let's just say, like, I guess it doesn't matter. But, like, what, what are average rent prices, like, for one bedrooms or two bedrooms? Like, is it.

Mike Van Hout (17:14)

Okay, so this. So the city has like two and a half million people. If you take the whole area. So it's basically in a valley. Okay. It's in a big long value on the, on the other side is like suburbia, essentially, where a lot of Colombians are. Are building like monster homes on the other side in like, it's called Donna Grande or Rio Negro, they're by the airport. And that's like, those homes are all. Everything varies like between seven for the most part. And there's probably 700,000 homes that have been built over the last two years to three years and continue being built. That stuff is all a million 700k US to a million dollars. I know, wow. So that's expensive. Yeah. So it's not cheap whatsoever. That's that. But in terms of being in the city, so the city, if you want to be in the area which is called the area, like it's called Poblado, basically, if you want to live in downtown Toronto, because that's what you call it, the rents are going to be for A one bedroom. About Canadian dollars, I'm scary, but Canadian dollars, probably around 1200 to 2 grand for something. Okay. I would say, man. Okay, so I lived, I lived on Orchard View, right at the corner of Young and Egg. Okay. So one block up where the, where the famous players are. The thing is, you can take the seat. I stayed there 12 years ago and my rent was 1380. It's exactly the same as, like that. So. So we're, we're basically like 12 to 15 years Toronto numbers then. Yeah, that's where. But in terms of getting food and stuff like that. Yeah, you can get, you can get food, man. You can eat like, like. So I get, I get chicken, rice, avocado salad, and I like a sugar cane drink. Let's call it. You can get it as low as $4, but if you go to a nicer place that's been heavily designed, it's like $25American.

Daniel (18:45)

So cost of cost of living is like pretty significantly lower compared by comparison. If you're making like Canadian wages, like, if you're a creator, digital nomad, whatever you're earning in, in CAD or USD.

Mike Van Hout (18:56)

Yes.

Daniel (18:57)

The cost of living is pretty low. Yeah.

Mike Van Hout (18:59)

Yeah. If you want to have a friend group. Yes. If you, if you, if you just want to be in isolate and you want to live in an area that just inhabited and there's, there's malls as well. Not a Walmart, but there's like, there's supermarkets, all that kind of stuff. You can live for a thousand bucks a month Canadian, if you'd like, if you want to. For sure. 100. But you couldn't do a travel, you know, unless you're living out there.

Daniel (19:14)

Yeah.

Mike Van Hout (19:15)

So. Yeah.

Daniel (19:17)

How's that for the locals? Like, one of the things that we've seen with Portugal is like a big issue where, you know, a lot of digital nomads are going there and it's pricing all the locals out of, of housing and making the cost of living so expensive. Are like the locals like starting to get pissed off by all of this and is it getting expensive for them?

Mike Van Hout (19:34)

I think yes, for sure. I think Medellin. I mean, I remember reading an article like 7 or 8 years ago looking at cost per square foot, and Medellin was like half the cost of places in South America. Because for anybody that doesn't know or hasn't traveled to South America, just in general, like, Chile is expensive, Argentina is expensive. You know, Rio is expensive. All these places are expensive. Medellin was always the cheapest. Even Venezuela is expensive. For those that don't know, like, you want to go Caracas, you want good areas. It's expensive and it's named. Some people might go. But in terms of, like, being priced, all the locals remember, everybody's pay cash here. So how many people are willing to take cash from Canada and the US and actually plopping here to buy a place? Not that many, man. I. I mean, my inquiry, my. My hit rate compared to my infrared is like, I would say, like, if I had. If I asked my team, like, well, what are we closing? And we're like 1, maybe 2%. Like, that's like, dude, your closing ratio is terrible. Well, it's because people don't have cash. And. And the problem is that our mentality in North America is. Is let's pretend that we have money, but we really don't have money. You know? So when. When you. When you have that as a. As a baseline, how do you make it real?

Daniel (20:30)

So Miami seemed to build economy on that. I mean, I guess there's people with money, but there's a lot more. There's a lot more fakers over there.

Mike Van Hout (20:37)

I. Yeah, well, I. And you know what? I think the big drive with Miami is, is women in restaurants, man. And that's kind of the same thing here. You put beautiful women in restaurants, you build these crazy places, and guys want to, like, man up. Right? I think just the culture of dating and then the female, male dynamic is going to change. And that's kind of made its waves through every industry, man. Every industry from the Lord. But, yeah, but in terms of, like, locals being priced out, man, locals are thriving because foreigners are renting like crazy. They're coming here and they're spending dollars that. And they don't stick, you know? And it's economic growth, right? It's completely economical. That's why I said services are booming here, man. Like, malls are filled. They're packed. People are shopping. Yeah, things are. I remember, like. No, go ahead.

Dave (21:15)

Is it seasonal there? Like, is there. Is there high season, low season, or is it like, kind of all year round in Medellin?

Mike Van Hout (21:20)

Yeah, because remember, Columbia, I don't think people actually know this. Colombians have money. They do not need foreign money. They are wealthy Colombians. Like, a ton of wealthy Colombians here. I don't think people actually understand what Colombians are. I mean, they're. They're Europeans, man. Like, there's obviously. There's a Spanish side of it, which obviously are. But. But they're Europeans. Like, they're different than Mexicans. And they're different than, like, people from Chile. Yeah, it's just, it's very. I mean, Argentina is probably the closest. I would say, like, Argentina is very European based. You go to Argentina, then you go to, like, Madrid. Like, there's a huge, there's a, there's a huge back and forth between Madrid and Colombia. Right. Because they can go very easily. They can, they can do all the same stuff that they could do here, but the U.S. they can't. Like, Colombians can barely get in the U.S. i mean, I've had a ton of friends that got rejected to get a US visa, and I have a ton of friends like Russia get a Canadian visa right now as a Colombian, and they're charging 80 bucks to come here, you know, so, like, I don't think they're super friendly. The Canadian, Colombian, US Thing is not friendly, but the Europe is. So if they're not down to continue, like a ton of wealthy Colombians will always sell their, their kids to Madrid to study. Always. So Spain is a big deal, man. So. And the language is similar and there's a big sex appeal here, you know, that I feel like we just don't. I mean, Toronto has it for sure, but I feel like Canadians in general, we're not, we're not big on like, dressing well and looking good.

Daniel (22:34)

Yeah.

Mike Van Hout (22:34)

And being vain. Right. Colombians are kind of vain in that sense where Canadians are not. And Americans are definitely not. You know, I mean, maybe just Miami as like a point. But. But you talk to anybody in Florida, real estate's not blowing up right now. Like, it's. Yeah, it's. It's handbraked, you know, so I don't know if they'll have any ripple effects or whatever, but. Yeah, I mean, for us Canadians, I think that if we're looking for an out that's completely different than like an all inclusive with the family, then they're going to start going. They're going to go Mexico, Costa Rica, and then maybe Colombia. And I'm starting to see some saints come through, so it's kind of cool to see that.

Dave (23:06)

I'll go ahead. Dan.

Daniel (23:06)

Yeah, I was just gonna say, like, what. What's a compelling investment to make down there? Like, if, if somebody, like if you were advising somebody who's just like, I just want to invest in, yield and whatever, like, what's the best kind of deal somebody can do in Colombia right now?

Mike Van Hout (23:19)

So simplest, simplest way, what I did with this hotel that, that I didn't execute on yet is I just simply left money as he's. I go to two fiduciaries and invest. It's like I put in a fund that invests 98% Colombian services and it's yielded me always between 14 and 15% for the last three and a half years. So that's a very simple. Put your money, now it's time to peso. So you can say, well, the peso obviously like it's not the best, but if you look at a four year, three year chart of the peso, it's been fairly consistent, stable and money's coming in, man, I don't know that's the easiest way. Another way is obviously you can do something, you can buy property and rent it out. I mean, but everything else needs, everything needs a team in some respects. Right? I think hands off money is expensive to do unless you're in that space. So a lot of brands are coming here. I don't know, I'm just, I'm just so pretty much tied to housing and services, around housing and now social media. So there is, there is, it is like it is if you, if you can, if you can produce a product, a digital product and you want a place to stay that's like three, four months a year, that's, this one's not on the beach. Medicine's in the middle of the country. So it's not on a beach. But you want great climate, you want great food that's not like steroid based essentially. Like I can, I can very clean here, very cheap. You want like I have my, I have my apartment cleaned every Mondays. My excellent, excellent human. And it's $30 Canadian for the whole day. And dude, I can tell you she does everything from start to finish. She cooks, she, she does all my laundry, she sorts all my stuff out, she cleans my entire house for $30. I mean, I mean I know that you get that in Mexico, but you're getting that from a European lifestyle city. It's kind of different, you know, and, and for, and for guys like again, I'm, I'm divorced, I have a 14 year old son. So for me being in the same time zone are very similar, super important. I can't go to Bali, I can't go to Madrid, I can't go to, you know, Prague. I have to stay in the same time zone and what, where can I go? That's not a crazy flight. I can't sit on the Air Canada flight for 11 and a half hours to get to Buenos Aires or Rio. It's too far, it's too Far, you know, so the closest or furthest would be Colombia, you know, because you can't go to Venezuela. You're not going to go to like, Bolivia, Paraguay, you're not going any of these places. You're going up to Colombia. So that's probably like the general thought process.

Dave (25:21)

Is there. Is there like. Like, for example, Mexico right now, it's dead, you know, no one's really going to Mexico in August. Is there. Is there like a tourist time or like, does the city get busier and less busy? Is there seasonalities there or is it just kind of like flat, like always busy throughout the year?

Mike Van Hout (25:39)

Yeah, definitely. All year round, man, all year. If the, if the Colombians don't pick it up, the tourists. The tourists don't come here for. They come here to speak. I think the key to punish is Mediterranean specifically. They come here to be a cooler person. Like, if they find they're missing that void in their life, they just want to be cool. Like, I think every. I think all Canadians, man, we've done the whole Vegas thing, partying day, beach clubs, we've all done that. I think we've done the whole tulum, you know, getting priced out of drinks. We've done all that stuff. Then we. Then we do too much of that and then we go to, like, isolation stage where we're like, let's go to an island that's nobody's there and spend money on getting like fried fish on the beach. I think once you've done that or you've done like the Turks and Caicos thing like once or twice, then like, what's the next move? You know, then big city. So like Mexico City would be a great one to go a lot of people, because the food is excellent, you know, that's, you know, that. And then. And then the second one would be like flying in a Bogota, because as Canadians, we are. We're willing to travel far and wide, but we kind of want a plane ride that's like, not that crazy, right? Because we only have two or three weeks a year that we can mess with life. And that's been Colombia now is going to be that place. And that's kind of why I came here three years ago, right? To kind of just be just on that, like, outlying edge and then plant myself as like the. The plug essentially, or the guy. So are there across the board? Yeah.

Dave (26:50)

Are there like, restrictions? Like, say somebody does want to come down there and buy a house for themselves, they just want to have a little retreat. Are there restrictions? They have the Cash, that's not a problem. Are there restrictions on foreign home buyers? Like what's the loophole? How do they do that?

Mike Van Hout (27:04)

Yeah, so there's no. Absolutely none. So you just have to prove the money is legit. And you. So I'll tie that in with a visa, part of it, right? Because you can only stay in Colombia for 90 days. You can't come for it long. So you come, your stamp, you get a 90 day like pass and you can come back and forth, back and forth. It's, it's generally fine because right now it's open season. But again, because South America still is tied to some politics and I mean North America's becoming that way as well. You, most people will buy an investment. So there's a minimum investment. So it's 300 times the minimum. The average or minimum rate? The average, sorry, the minimum wage per month. So right now it's about 115k US do when you buy property, then you get, then you get this like real estate visa that lasts for three years. So you apply for it, you get it for three years. Then after three years you can say, I still have this investment and then you apply for another three years. So you can, you know, three or game essentially. But at the five year mark you can apply for like full time residency. So a lot of people do that. And then from that point then you can apply for the passport, but they have to speak Spanish and there's a few things that's tied to that, but super easy. It's. Obviously there's paperwork to it, but I think the biggest thing that Canadians will like flare up and Americans be like, there's no way I'm doing that is when you're giving a deposit to, to a, to a seller, you're not giving it to an escrow, you're not giving it to a lawyer, you're paying the guy directly. So I'm giving you the money. Right. And you know how that goes. People like, what? Yeah, man, they get freaked out about that.

Dave (28:24)

Yeah, I get it. Is there like as a, let's say as a Canadian or American, you can actually own the property under your personal name? Because like the issue that I face in Mexico is they have to open a trust. So it's like through a trust that's in Mexico, so they can't own the property under their personal name. It's through a Mexican trust, which like, isn't that scary? But I, you know, any sort of roadblock as you know, it's like just the extra.

Mike Van Hout (28:49)

Yes, yes, yes, Well, I mean, yeah, there's nothing like that. You, if you want to get the visa, you have to bring the money from. So how it works is it's basically like for us, for example, it goes td you wire it to a Citibank account in New York and then from there, as soon as it gets there, you, you can see the money in your Colombian account. Basically that's how it's done. And you, if it's personal, you can get the visa. If it's, if it's your company, then you cannot because it's just a different part of it. Right, but in terms of roadblocks, man, I mean look at Dubai. Like Dubai has 99 year leases and people are investing and buying that stuff there, you know. And so I think it's just, I think it's like, it's the same. It's a sheep, it's a sheep drama, right?

Dave (29:21)

Yeah.

Mike Van Hout (29:21)

Like 10 sheep do it, then the next will follow, right? So I think right now Columbia's stigma of keeping it dangerous, it's just, it's just, it's an, it's an amazing thing. I love it. People are like, it's dangerous. It's a dangerous. And I'm constantly like educating people, is it dangerous and dangerous. I think Toronto's dangerous, man. I watch, I watch social media about Toronto and I'm like, I'm like, I'm scared. Just, I'm scared in Colombia.

Daniel (29:40)

I know that's one of the things, right? Like a lot of people have been, you know, criticizing Latin America, you know, Central America, other places in the world, even Europe, etc, acting like there's a safety issue. But now you're seeing like public safety being a huge concern in North America. That it's like, okay, you know, you get the same hand regardless of where you are. You might as well go somewhere with nice weather and a more affordable cost of living living and all the other things that you highlighted, right?

Mike Van Hout (30:09)

Yeah. I think the win is always make Canadian dollars, US money and live somewhere. I mean, like, you know, arbitrage is always, is always going to be forever. Friend groups are hard to break, man. As, as Canadians, we just love our friends even though we don't see them often. We want our neighbor half the time. But that like that comfort feeling and to make that change, it's difficult for a lot of people. But I think co kind of stem that. And now with like crime coming up and, and there's a pretty crappy narrative around Canada, man. It, you know, and it's, and it's our jobs to be like, I don't know, I don't believe it. I don't believe we can isolate ourselves and. But Canada's getting a little bit difficult at times, so I still love the country and I'm obviously back and forth, my son is there, but I think in terms of just like opening your eyes a little bit more, I think people are starting to look a little bit deeper maybe, and hopefully they look deep enough and then they can say, okay, that's, that's, that's an option for me now, which wasn't the case before. You know.

Dave (30:54)

I, I get it all the time. Like, I get people. Like right now One of my TikToks is blowing up and I just, it's just constant. People. You know, for example, the, there was like probably seven shootings last week, probably more in Toronto and there was two in the last two months in Tulum. And people send me those articles and I'm like, yeah, yeah. But yeah, you know, like, look at where you're from. You know, if you guys, if you.

Mike Van Hout (31:19)

Guys can give me like a, like a 10 second spiel on your, on your thought process of what you, what you think or what you knew about Colombia. So like, whatever. Yeah, like, what's your, what is. Like when you think about what do you guys think of? What do you hear?

Daniel (31:29)

I just think about narcos, man. Like, honestly, like, that's the, like, and I think that that's the, that's the brand that it's trying to, that it has to break. Right. Like, it's like people think. Yeah, they think like cocaine, right. Like, they think that the industry. And I, I know, I know it's changed a lot since then because I've had a lot of buddies who have like, lived in, in Colombia and stuff. But yeah, if you think for the most part that's the brand that. That is battling.

Mike Van Hout (31:52)

Yeah. Yeah. Dave, what do you think?

Dave (31:54)

Yeah, same. I've actually been to Colombia quite a bit, but it's like before, I think I would say the same as Fosh. You know, people think about it being dangerous. People think about it being so crazy and it's like lawless and, and all this sort of police corruption. And that's kind of what I think. That's. That maybe like mainstream narrative would be maybe. Which I know is not true, but.

Mike Van Hout (32:17)

Yeah, well, I mean, listen, man, it's obviously you go to certain cities and you. Dude. I mean, like, we've got a drug crisis in, in Canada, but it's.

Daniel (32:24)

Yeah.

Mike Van Hout (32:24)

Across the world. Don't think there's anything change. It's across the world. And I think that the more you travel and the more you open your eyes to life, you realize, man, like, everywhere is great. I mean, like, people say it's dangerous, but, like, the pick. Like, I don't. The pickpocket in capital. The world is not in South America or North America. It's in Europe, right? You know, like, drug trafficking happens everywhere. I mean, everywhere. Like, the whole world is crazy. But I think if you stick in your pockets and you're comfortable with that, and I think Colombia is a. I think Medellin is specific, you know, And I'm. I mean, my team is across seven cities now. And as an entrepreneur, if you can have. If you can see growth and you can see. You can see vision and people want to get somewhere, and you've got this thing, mentality. Okay, I'll give you this. So the whole, like, Pablo Escobar thing, so it's 25 years old, right? That. That story is 25 years old. So you got to think about the mentality of people in general. If their families have lived through it, let's call it live through it, you know, because not everybody actually went through it, but let's call they live through it. Imagine the mindset of those people now. They're like, oh, my God, our country's killing it. Like, let's all put this firepower forward, whereas we don't have that mentality in Canada, man. We're all like, okay, well, how do you use the fire. Firepower to make money today? How do we scam people to. To see if we can make it work? How do we get programs and push dirty paperwork to get a home? How do we. Like, how do we figure out the system to get rich so we can buy this car? Like, I mean, like, the. It's just, man, the priorities are wrong. We have the wrong priorities in our country right now. And I think it's our jobs as like, you know, all of. All three of us to just push that. That narrative that men, like, Canada is a beautiful place. We've got really good systems. They're tainted a little bit here and there, and they're tainted all over the world. But how do we just keep the core of that so we don't lose who we are growing up? Like, all of us grew up in Canada, right? So we kind of feel that way. But opportunity, we have to move where opportunity is and then come back home and may make that change, you know? So I don't know, that's how I feel about Canada. It's like, wow. It's like, come back, man.

Dave (34:07)

Come back.

Mike Van Hout (34:09)

I think.

Daniel (34:09)

I think it can be fixed, right? Like, it's just young people actually need to be politically active, like, rather than just complaining about it on social media. Like, honestly, though, like, people. Everybody's just constantly whining about how bad things are. But then youth voter turnout at the last election was horrible, right? Like, it was up. It was barely up, and people are upset that the boomers handed them an election outcome. It's like, well, you get what you vote for, and if you don't vote for anything, then you get nothing. So there you go, Right?

Mike Van Hout (34:36)

Exactly. You gotta blast them, like, five years in advance, I think.

Daniel (34:39)

Yeah.

Dave (34:40)

You know, I think we're getting close. Honestly, I feel like there's a shift happening right now, and I feel like maybe it's. It's coming back a little bit, but I. Yeah, I don't know. I also get why you're doing what you're doing. Like, I did the same thing. I think there's tons of opportunity. I think people. That's why we kind of created this podcast. We want to have guests on, like, you. To, like, open people's eyes, to, like, it's possible to do what you do, you know?

Mike Van Hout (35:02)

For sure, man. For sure. Especially as a Canadian, I don't think you'll realize this, but especially as a Canadian, you have the ability and opportunity and choice. And choice. The choice that we have. We are super blessed, you know, to do it, to get. Get on a flight. I mean, it costs. I mean, you know, the deal. You can get as low as 5,470bucks to get a return flight from Toronto to Bogota and then a flight from Bogota, or you want to take a bus, whatever. It'll cost you as low as 20 bucks or as high as, like, $65 Canadian to get here. And then you can stay at a hostel for $11 a day if you want to, and you can experience it. I mean, you can do it. So it's just that people are lazy. People are lazy. And we're like. We're. We're. And I don't know if you guys feel this crazy, but when I go. When I go. When I go back to. When I go back home and I eat food, for some reason, I get so tired. I get so tired. I'm like, what is in this food, man?

Daniel (35:52)

Dude, it's like that in. In, like, Europe, too. Like, you can go eat a bunch of, like, pasta and stuff in Europe. And it doesn't like weigh you down. Like, I don't, I barely eat carbs. Carbs in Canada because I just find I'm the same, like, I literally can't move for. And the US food's even worse.

Dave (36:06)

Way, way worse. Yeah, the US food is exactly. It's like the same.

Mike Van Hout (36:10)

Yeah, I know, I know. And why is that? It's like these traits that we just like, it changes our body and then changes like physiology of what we think, you know, I don't know. It's just. Yeah, it's a tough one for sure. So we just gotta, we just gotta. I mean, the blessings we have is when we have options and sometimes when you have too many options, you can't make decisions and choices. But I think there's enough things that are positive in both countries where you can see one thing on this side, one thing on the other side and make things work, you know, so. But I do feel like we have to increase our strength, our Canadian dollar, I think, Dan, how would we change that? Like from your perspective, how do we make Canadian stronger?

Daniel (36:41)

I mean, you got to make. You have to have a better, more diverse and strong economy. Right. And then eventually, I mean, like, eventually our rates and bond yields need to come out because our economy is strong. Right. And it's growing. And then if our currency becomes in higher demand than the USD. But the challenge is like the bigger threat for us right now is, you know, is trade, war and tariffs. And you, if you still want to be competitive, you need to have a lower Canadian dollar to, to trade goods with the U.S. right. So that's, that's kind of like. Yeah, So I don't know, man. It's. It's a very, very dangerous and complex. I'm glad I'm not a central banker right now, I'll tell you that much for free.

Mike Van Hout (37:23)

So I have two properties coming up for refi, obviously cmx, mli, but. And they're probably going to crack and they're going to crack the rate in January. Do you see the rates going down or up in Canada between now and January?

Daniel (37:34)

Probably, probably down by January. I think rates. Rates around the world to be coming down by January, but towards the end of next year, I think you'll start seeing impact of lower rates. Plus, like there's a ton of government spending across the western world. Well, all over the world, right. China, the US with the big beautiful bill, Canada with, you know, Carney's spending. And so that spending will eventually start materializing in inflation. And that spending also Means that governments need to raise money, which means that they need to sell bonds and bond investors can. Can basically dictate the price. Right. And so they can ask for a bigger yield and that'll push rates back up in like end of 26, early 27. At least that's the forecast. Unless we see like a really deep recession and rates have to stay low for a long time. But it doesn't seem like that's the case right now.

Mike Van Hout (38:22)

Well, and I'm curious, if you had. So if you had 100 grand, let's call it, where would you. Where would you put your money? Whether it could be anything real estate globally or it could be like anywhere, where would you buy? You, man, you can buy supercars, dude. You can buy like 3, 3 9, 11 HP, 3 RSS, whatever you want to do. Where would you put your money?

Dave (38:38)

I'm going Italy.

Daniel (38:40)

I mean, real estate wise, it would be. Yeah, real estate wise, I do. I think Italy is like, it's. I like it. I think it's a really good market, to be honest. I would say that.

Dave (38:48)

And then are bullish on Italy.

Daniel (38:51)

Yeah.

Mike Van Hout (38:51)

All right. Easily.

Daniel (38:53)

I. To be honest, I think that I'd actually be waiting to tell you the truth. Like, this is probably one of the few periods of time where I'd be comfortable sitting on cash because inflation's coming down, it's pretty low. You know, I mean, maybe resources and like, electricity is probably the big thing. Like, I think nat gas is going to go. Is going to run. Like, look at the electricity consumption in the US because of all this data center stuff. It's like they're about to be at like a crisis. Right. And you know, you can, you can burn that gas and get cheaper electricity. So, like, I'd probably be putting my money in like Enbridge or something like that, to be honest. I'm already like, pretty long in. In Enbridge. But like, yeah, I mean, in the short term, but that would, that would just be like me because they pay a dividend that's like as close to cash as I'm going to get. And then I'd be waiting for a better opportunity because, like, I don't know, the equities market's insane right now. Real estate markets across the world are just starting to rol. So, yeah, I mean, I probably. I'm actually comfortable kind of just like sitting on cash, to tell you the truth.

Mike Van Hout (39:49)

And you're not worried about you? I mean, man, I don't. Dude, sometimes when you. As I said, man, sometimes you get options in life, I think one of the hardest things for entrepreneur like us, when we get this, like, when we have money, we're like, where do we put it? How do we do everything? It's like shiny green object, right? Everything's beautiful and amazing. But as crazy as it is, man, I've been using, obviously all of us have, using chat a lot. So I try to, like, just jam as much data in chat and see, like, what is it gonna give me out, right? You know, so for me, because I'm in the real estate space and I still think very big experimental time for my mind and in my life, I do, I do buy a bunch of properties in different cities here in Colombia. And I do, I still do flips in Canada. I mean, I always usually have between two and four flips on the go all the time just because I built that base over the last 20 years. But here I buy small apartments for like anywhere between 30 grand, 34, 35 grand, us to like 60 grand, renovate them and rent them out at a yield of like 14 to 22 points. So that's kind of like my little stick that I have here.

Daniel (40:44)

I mean, that's a business, though, right? Like, and that's like, that would actually be my actual answer to the question is like, I would be doing the same thing like, or I am doing the same thing. Like, all of my cash goes towards my actual businesses because that's the best return on investment that I'm going to get. Like, it's better than my ability to invest. I'm not a good. I'm not a great investor or saver. I will be at some point. But, like, right now, the highest, the highest ROI that I'm going to get is taking my money and putting it back into the businesses that I have, which is the real estate brokerage that I have with Dave and a couple other guys. You know, the, the podcast, the content platforms, the coaching. Businesses like that, to me, is the best return on investment that I'm gonna get.

Mike Van Hout (41:20)

And when you think about, I mean, a lot of. I'm not in it, but there's guys that are heavy on crypto and the belief of the blockchain also. I mean, us real estate guys are kind of. It's hard for us to even think about it sometimes, right? Like, what does that look like?

Daniel (41:32)

I've been in crypto for a long time, since 2016, 15. And mining. I've always been into mining bitcoin. I feel like that's the safest way. It's kyc Free. You put it in a cold wallet, nobody knows that you own it. That to me is the spirit of bitcoin. I think that the spirit of bitcoin has been destroyed by governments taking ownership of it. People like Sailor, no offense to all of his disciples, but going levered long like creating all of these super high risk debt instruments around crypto, that to me is the decentralized and safe nature of bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies is gone. So the one thing that appeals to me a little bit is zcash, which a lot of people have been talking about lately and naval's on it and it's kind of more of the original spirit. But otherwise. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I think a lot of that stuff I've dollar cost averaged into, into Bitcoin for like since 2015. So I'm doing fine. But, but like I'm not, I'm not like go. I'm not as bullish on it as most of these people you see, you know, Trump trumpeting all over Twitter. Right.

Mike Van Hout (42:43)

Like, I know, yeah, I think Miami. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think comes with age. I think that, you know, there's only a handful of people we all know in our lives that have been rich 15 years ago and still rich today. Right. I think that it's like there's these two, three year old rich guys come and they're gone. You never see them again, you know, so we always get this like, type of like richness and I feel like it's hard to like filter it sometimes mentally. So I think that just like staying in what, you know, sort of makes sense, you know.

Daniel (43:09)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100 anyways.

Mike Van Hout (43:12)

Yeah. I mean it's, it's funny when you look at the, the humans that walk in these places. I mean I don't people know this, but managing specifically is like, I wouldn't say plastic surgery. Everybody has a nose job, by the way. Like no job is like, they're like okay hair for dudes, perfect teeth. I think that's. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like aesthetically speaking, it's just a, It's a whole new world, man. It's a whole new world. So I don't know if Canadians will start pushing nose job. Like it's a normal thing, but there's like, there's different packages that females can get like the nose and you know, they get the program essentially like 15, 16 years old. So you have like all these 15, 16 year old females walking around with nose jobs. It's Crazy, like tape, you know, and it's just a whole new world, man. It's a whole something that Canadians are not used to, you know, So I spot it up and people from all the world come because it's cheap. It's like, perky for hair, but here for noses, you know, so. And plastics.

Dave (43:58)

I. I know when I went there, there was like, you go like a. The. A restaurant and the, you know, like, the server would have, like, perfect teeth, perfect hair. Like, it's like. And it's like a. The equivalent of like a McDonald's. But.

Mike Van Hout (44:11)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I think the strategy is different. I think the. The strategy, I think even for, like, us guys, right, like, it used to be like, go out there, be successful, have a good job, make good money, and then, like, you could. You could get a good partner. But I think that that world is completely blown open and that's not the case anymore with, you know, relationships and how the, you know, male, female dynamic. And I'm really excited. I like, I love that stuff, you know, to just have humans work. I think the whole, like, the narrative of how relationships work is completely different. And I see it here. I see, like, how much investment people do on what they look like to find the best partner or have that, you know, those bills paid or whatever. Whatever the case may be. Also just funny, but I just look up, I'm like, oh, my God.

Dave (44:48)

I know.

Mike Van Hout (44:50)

So funny.

Dave (44:51)

What's. What's, man, first of all, we appreciate you coming on the show, dude. Like, what a. What a pleasure. And especially being from London, Ontario, all the way out into Colombia. Now, for anyone that listened to this, like, where. Where can they find you if they want to reach out to see whether it's a Realtor looking to get your help with whether selling one of their properties or it's an investor looking to reach out to you. What's the best method for them to find you?

Mike Van Hout (45:13)

Yeah, Instagram and Instagram. Mike, John, out is always the way. It's just super easy. Obviously, whatsapps and we all have school groups and all that kind of stuff. But just my. Just send me a message. Just the most important thing is you cannot finance here. I think that people need to know that because my DMs are always flooded with can't finance. Can't finance anyway. I can't tell people off the bat on my Instagram, can't finance because then they won't message me and then I won't get the algorithm. I have to keep that door open all the time, you know, of course. But yeah. Mike Van Hout. And then in. Yeah. So and so in London it would be like. And I'm in London. So I'm in London for two weeks of the month and then I'm managing for two weeks of the month and yeah, sure. To help for anybody who has questions about Columbia or investing in Canada as well. Right. Because I love what you guys do and I appreciate for having me on.

Daniel (45:52)

Yeah. 100, man. We're gonna do an event in November actually about for Canadians buying all around the world and more for realtors who want to like help clients buy around the world. So I'd love to hit you up for that. I'll. I'll give you the timing and hopefully a year in. In town at that point.

Dave (46:04)

Yeah, that'd be huge.

Mike Van Hout (46:05)

Sweet.

Daniel (46:05)

Okay.

Mike Van Hout (46:06)

Awesome.

Daniel (46:06)

All right. Amazing. Thanks, guys.

Mike Van Hout (46:08)

Thanks, Mike. Thank you.

Daniel (46:09)

Have a great one.

Mike Van Hout (46:10)

See ya. Yeah.