The 5 Questions Podcast
Join us as we unlock real estate and business insights, one question at a time.
The 5 Questions Podcast
From Nursing to Real Estate: Brittany and Shawns's Journey to International Investing
Brittany and Shawn Louiseize share their remarkable journey from burned-out healthcare professionals to successful international real estate investors and coaches. They reveal how the COVID pandemic became the catalyst for their career change and how they're now helping others invest in high-return markets in Mexico's Riviera Maya.
• Transitioning from nursing to entrepreneurship after experiencing burnout during COVID
• Starting with a medical clinic as their first business venture before focusing fully on real estate
• Leveraging 20 years of healthcare leadership experience to develop their investment and coaching strategies
• Working successfully as a couple by maintaining clear communication and capitalizing on complementary strengths
• Identifying Mexico as a prime investment market with 10-18% ROI and 20-30% annual equity growth
• Debunking myths about foreign ownership in Mexico while highlighting infrastructural investments
• Developing an entrepreneurial mindset that embraces change, maintains consistency, and takes imperfect action
Reach out to Brittany and Sean to learn more about investment opportunities in Mexico or to get a copy of their book detailing their journey and strategies for success in real estate.
https://investingmexico.com/freeguide
That is my biggest fear in life.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we unlock real estate and business insights one question at a time. Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast. I am your host, mario Lamar. Our guest on today's show is a couple that built a successful career in business in nursing. They have now transitioned to full-time real estate investing not only in North America but also in Mexico.
Speaker 2:Brittany and Sean Luis-Aiz Brittany and Sean, welcome to the show today. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. The podcast the concept of the podcast is real simple. I ask five questions, either about business or real estate, and we get straight to the point. You ready, let's go Good, lay it on us. The first one maybe for Brittany. You've built a dynamic career blending real estate, business, coaching, nursing education. How did you first discover your passion for real estate investment and what motivated you to expand into the Riviera Maya market, mexico?
Speaker 1:Good question. I would say that real estate started as just something that we did on the side, just like extra cash or just saw the value and fixing up places we lived in or bringing extra value to properties. But I think it wasn't until later on that it became something that was a full-time aspect. So in nursing we just started feeling really burnt out, looking for a change, and I would say what really drove the change to say hey, we need to do something different now was definitely COVID as a healthcare worker. That was a lot to be in the system during that, and so that's when we really took a step back and said I gotta do something different with our lives.
Speaker 1:And that's actually when business became our first passion project that we started and we started our medical clinic and that's what really led us further down the line into into the more real estate. Um, because we saw, you know, when I am able to be a successful entrepreneur and I can bring in, you know, the effort that I put into my work and it actually pays off in the end. And now I'm seeing the benefit of working hard and and actually being able to create what I want out of that and the income level I want out of that. Then it was like, okay, well, now what? And so that's when real estate was like well, this is the next vehicle that we want to take that business aspect and now turn that into real estate. And nursing actually was what started us at looking at sunshine destinations. We had looked into travel nursing. I had actually gotten my license in Florida State and we were going to move to Florida years ago.
Speaker 3:I already did a placement down there as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but because of the young kids it just didn't work out. And so when we started investing and then started looking at more international investing and we came down to Mexico, we invested here and thought you know, why don't we work on bringing that you know and creating that life for us instead? And so that's the short version of a very long story, and that's the short version of a very long story.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and what I like about your story is exactly how it goes for a lot of real estate investors now is they add a pain point in their life. They wanted to make a change and real estate has always been a vehicle where people can trust and use for a better life. I can see right now. You're not in the snow, you're in a warm place You're in front of the pool.
Speaker 1:You can't see it because it's still sunny out. Exactly yes.
Speaker 2:Second question, and this one's for Sean Now, with over 20 years in nursing and healthcare leadership, how has your background in healthcare shaped your approach in managing real estate investments and coaching investors?
Speaker 3:Well, I think when we first met Mario a little while ago I think it's been close to two years now At the time we were slowly getting into real estate investing I had been a nurse educator for about 10 years and managing a significant amount of professionals and helping them learn advanced skills and so on and so forth, but also, like Brittany had just previously mentioned, starting a business ourselves and not knowing anything about business as nurses, always having that mindset that we wanted something more.
Speaker 3:So, taking all those and putting it all together was, you know, the realization that we need to start doing this in real estate and start helping others and learn what we're learning at the same time. And, of course, during that time, we've learned a lot about investing in, you know, canada, us, and we had always been working on what we're doing down here in Mexico. So, you know, the education piece was how can we start giving back to investors that we work with, how can we start providing value in what we do, not only helping ourselves, but how can we help investors see that there's other avenues other than Canada and the US? And so that's what's motivated me specifically, or Brittany and myself, to get into helping, coaching, giving back. We uh at the event. We wrote a book just previous to that about our struggles, our pain points, uh, what we've learned and how we can start providing that value and giving back to individuals that we meet and work with.
Speaker 1:And I think that, like just to add to that, like for the education piece, like we always, we always saw the need for like more like to add to that, like for the education piece, like we always, we always saw the need for like more like to to, especially when we first, like, came into real estate investing full time. It's like like I want more, I need more knowledge, more education and more support, and so like, if we can give that back to anybody, then then that was what we wanted and how it's helped us is it's kept us motivated to continue to learn all the facets about real estate investing, not just, you know, BRRRR strategies or fixing and flipping.
Speaker 3:We have 12 years of experience doing fix and flips, but we've learned every single strategy, and intensely enough so that we can pretty much master it even though we don't use those strategies, but be able to use that in what we're doing here and formulated in a process where we can start giving back and helping others and maybe help some people that do want to use those strategies for their portfolio, and because you studied them, you have the knowledge and you can guide them through it.
Speaker 2:That's a very nice journey. I love the story. Like I said, you transitioned from one domain, one career, into a new one, and you now want to help others do the same. So kudos to you guys. Brings us to our third question, and now it's for both of you. You both work together as a power couple in real estate and coaching. What's one key piece of advice you would give other couples who are maybe considering working together in these businesses?
Speaker 3:So I'll start first Rule number one. Mario, you should know you just got engaged, congratulations. Rule number one is always listen to your wife. I say that though it's the honesty of me being able to listen to my significant other, my partner. We've worked as nurses collectively for around 20 years together, nurses collectively for around 20 years together. She's always been my boss, my mentor, the person I look up to, so to be able to have that clear communication back and forth and being understanding and opening to each other's point of views and working collectively on our strengths and weaknesses. I'm pretty open and creative and Brittany's more analytical and to the point, so to be able to bring that together it's kind of like a dynamic duo, if that makes sense.
Speaker 3:So that's kind of my point on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean I think I would have to agree. Actually I laugh because I actually have been his boss in many different roles and jobs that we've worked in in hospital.
Speaker 1:But I think that's the key. I mean, your work and relationships are basically the same thing. Right, you need to be able to have communication. You need to actually be able to like talk about what's going on and strategize. But I think before anything, before anyone goes into business with their spouse or anything like, you guys have to sit down and decide what is the goal of this, because if you're not going towards the same goal, then you're going to have conflict throughout the whole process. So, really, kind of getting a clear idea of what your goal is and also what each other's strengths are, so that you're not spinning your wheels and you don't have somebody who you know isn't a good communicator trying to be, you know, the person who's doing all the frontline stuff with your clients and then you have somebody else sitting in the background doing numbers who is terrible at it. So, being able to play on each other's strengths and understand who has the skills in what areas, and being able to just talk about who's going to do what and divide and conquer.
Speaker 2:And maybe to dig a little bit deeper in the question, without going into personal things, but is there things that you do or or say that you decide to leave out, not to get too many, too much of the emotions when you hit a roadblock in a project or how? How, working as a couple, what pieces do you leave out? What pieces do you bring in? Maybe you know when you go back home at night and where do you draw the line bring in.
Speaker 3:Maybe you know when you go back home at night and where do you draw the line? I'll start, yeah, I'll start with that. I don't leave any pieces out. I'll be honest with you. I'm honest with everyone I talk to and I'm honest with my wife all the time, and I think that's what is a key to our success.
Speaker 3:Working together is that I don't sugarcoat things, I don't hide things.
Speaker 3:I don't do it, it's just hey, this is what I'm thinking Now can I get your point of view on this, because she has a different point of view than I do and taking those and molding it together to one common goal.
Speaker 3:So I think that's kind of the key that we have is that we don't hide anything from each other when it comes to business. We don't leave anything out, but we do keep our personal relationship and our marriage outside of business. Business is one thing and then our personal relationship is another thing. And, being nurses and working together for such a long period of time and her being my boss, we were able to develop those strategies and those skills very early on in our careers years, so that now that we're in, when we're in real estate or working with investors, we're still able to keep that professionalism and keep those common goals in front of us but be able to, you know, relax and unwind, like we did at the REI investor at sea, and spend time with others where they can actually see who we are, other than the professional people who we are on a regular basis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would say that, um, I I would say it's hard, I mean it's almost impossible to like just say you know, no, we're not going to think about business anymore.
Speaker 1:and now, it's just life, but I think that comes naturally with when you're doing something you actually enjoy as well.
Speaker 1:And so like, uh, I mean, whether it's, you know, working with a friend or, or, or, or your spouse, like I, uh, it's a job and it's a, it's a career choice and a and a profession that we love, and what we're doing we love to do. So I don't think there's, there's never really a it's kind of a gray line. I wouldn't say there's ever a stop to the end of like, there's no like end of work day kind of thing 's. Just, you know, as things come up, and I think that's what also builds the strength of it is that it is something we enjoy, you know, and, and I mean you just gotta engage when you, when you're with somebody who you love and they're your best friend, you, you want to be around them, you want to have these discussions, you want to do these things, so, so I think that um wouldn't say that there's a time where it's like shut off. It's just, you know, making time to do things outside of work would be the skill there is.
Speaker 3:At 3 am, when I'm poking her, I put you to sleep and I say hey, I got a business idea. She does tell me leave me alone.
Speaker 1:So there is a time, there's a time, but that's at nighttime.
Speaker 2:Other than that, there's still time. Yeah, don't interrupt my sleep. Well, that brings us to our fourth question and, as we mentioned, you are right now in Mexico. I want to ask you you both emphasize international investment opportunities what makes Mexico such a strong market for Canadian and American investors a strong market for Canadian and American investors and how does the real estate landscape differ?
Speaker 1:from North America? Well, maybe.
Speaker 1:I'll talk about how it differs. I wouldn't say that there's a huge difference. The process of buying is very similar to that of Canada or the US, especially, you know. I know a lot of Canadians have looked to the US markets to purchase, so buying in Mexico is not very much different. There's definitely, you know, areas that you want to focus on. There's different areas that will bring you different returns.
Speaker 1:So that, yeah, the biggest difference, I would say, are just the myths that people hear. I think those are the things that we spend the most time addressing. Just as an example, I got a question today that well, I heard that Canadians can't own land in Mexico and that's not the case. You can absolutely own property here, just like you would own in Canada or the US. So I would say that the differences are insignificant. Really, I think it's just a matter of maybe the actual profession of real estate is where things differ. There's differences with licensing and brokerages and different aspects like that. So here, especially in the Mayan Riviera, there is a lot more push to have licensed agents who are knowledgeable in real estate. But I think that's one of the biggest differences is that for the longest time, you didn't require a license here, so you were getting you know everyone and their mother selling real estate without any knowledge of actual real estate. So I think that's probably the biggest difference.
Speaker 3:I think that there is one big difference here is that individuals from Canada and the US need to source out individuals like ourselves that they can like, trust, know and know the market inside out, due to the fact that there are certain developments, for an example, like pre-construction, where I've heard some investors that have reached out to us personally and said you know, I invested all this money in this development. Now what do I do? They're not going to like, they're ready to deliver it, but I want to finance the last portion and I can't finance it because I don't have the deed and title. What am I supposed to do? So the due diligence is very different than Canada and US. I would say that you need to know individuals like ourselves that work with trusted brokers, trusted developers, trusted mortgage brokers. Similarities you can get a mortgage here, just like you can in US. 20-year amortization anywhere from 10% to 14% interest Seems a little high, but, again, here, you only pay 1% property tax, so it kind of balances out. There's all kinds of options here, though there's short-term rentals, there's BRRRR strategies, there's mid-term, long-term. All the same strategies that you would use in a market in Canada and US are available here.
Speaker 3:The difference that we're seeing here, though, is the ROI. The return on investment here is increasingly growing day by day. We see the percentage creeping up. Right now you're looking at about anywhere from 10% to 15%, sometimes 18%, sometimes 18 percent. Equity in properties here go up from 20 to about 30 percent annually. So if you think of those strategies that you use back in canada, the us, where you're cash flowing, you know a hundred dollars a door and you want to go back to refinance at the bank and take out that 80 percent loan of value, the values aren't there anymore in canada, the us not getting that increase.
Speaker 3:Here in mexico, when you're getting 20 to 30% increase in value on a property in US funds because everything's in US here just think of that money that you're putting back in your pocket or that you can take and now increase your portfolio and buy multiple properties and cash flow. So the difference is increase in cash flow, the ROI is a lot higher, equity on property is higher and, again, the difference is working with trusted individuals. I mean, like Brittany had mentioned, there's so many salespeople down here that are like used car salesmen. All they want is commission. We're not focusing on that. We're focusing on making sure that the investors that work with us win and get successful in doing what they're doing building their portfolios. If they win, then we win and we can build that trust and continue moving forward. And that's, I think what we're trying to do and change here in Riviera Maya is make sure that people can work with Canadians like ourselves that are changing the way that real estate is done down here in Mexico, making it just like home.
Speaker 1:And to address the why the international investing and, specifically, why Mexico? I think that you know it's really important to understand that there's been a lot of changes here in Mexico for the good and in order to really see it, I always tell people you should come here, you need to come see it. There is developments everywhere. There's so much growth in the country, but it's because the country is investing back into the country. They're investing in infrastructure.
Speaker 1:We just drove through Cancun today. They're investing billions of dollars to create a new overpass to stop the influx in traffic through the hotel zone in Cancun, to be able to bridge the peninsula, to make it easier for travelers back and forth to the airport, to the hotel zone. They've invested in the Mayan train, which is basically a train that goes around the Yucatan Peninsula, so it makes it easier, so you can go everywhere, from Merida all the way down to Bacalar, so you can see the infrastructure being built up in these areas. And they've revitalized a lot of new airports. So the country itself is investing a lot of money into everything that has to do with the tourism industry, and so if you're looking to come here and invest, this is the opportunity now. This is the point in time. I think that you're going to look back in 10 years from now and be like man. I wish I would have gotten in then, because it's going to quickly get priced out of what people are expecting.
Speaker 3:One fact as well, mario the increase in the airports, tulum's airport, the increase of flights that are. Every day they're getting more and more flights, thousands, or sorry, millions of passengers in both Cancun and Tulum. And the GDP here, like Mexico, is not a third world country like Canadians think or Americans might think it is. The GDP in Mexico is actually higher than the GDP in Canada.
Speaker 1:It's grown more than the US and Canada over the last five years.
Speaker 3:So it's a very stable market, very trusting market.
Speaker 2:And you're right. One thing that you said if people are interested in investing in a market that they don't know necessarily well, reach out to a team like you guys, but also make it a vacation and go visit, and I'm sure you guys organize tours and the different development projects you guys are working on so people can actually see from their own eyes what they would invest in the last three days we were on tours.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the last three days we were on tours down in.
Speaker 1:Calgary. That's why we're in Cancun today.
Speaker 3:We're in cancun today, we're in cal cancun today. We're checking all these different developments because, again down in mexico, land here is a huge opportunity buying land within residential communities and planned developments, the increase in sometime with the land, within six months they double in returns. It's crazy. Once the shovels hit the ground, you're talking another 25K to 50K increase in equity in the property as soon as electricity and plumbing is brought to that land. So just the opportunities here are just so vast. And we explain it this is Bitcoin before Bitcoin blew up and that's why we're down here and we made the move from Canada to be in this market just for those reasons.
Speaker 2:That brings us to our fifth and final question for today. I want to circle back into, maybe, your experience as leaders and educators in both business and healthcare. What do you believe is the essential qualities and I'm sure there's more than one of a successful entrepreneur, and how can someone develop these qualities even if they're just starting from scratch?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll start with that. So number one I don't know if it's a quality or more of a process mindset. The mindset is huge, as we see in real estate. We're part of many groups where there's 95% of individuals that would like to do what we're doing and the 5% of us that actually take action and do that. I'm a big buff on a mindset and positive thinking and positive affirmations and those qualities are huge. Just to get over that fear that maybe a new investor may have when they come into real estate investing. It's quite scary. You're dealing with high numbers, you're dealing with other people's money, you're dealing with certain situations where you might not feel comfortable or feel confident enough to do so. But to be able to have that positivity and that open mind and that drive to move forward and to learn as much as you can and move forward, that is the number one quality I think that somebody needs to focus on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I would say that you know along those lines, you definitely, as an entrepreneur, you need to be consistent. I think consistency over everything else. You know you can have motivation, you can have determination, you can have all these things, but you need to be consistent. You need to consistently do the things and take that action in steps. The things and take that action in steps, because I mean I can say with certainty that every day the motivation is there.
Speaker 1:If you're relying on motivation to make it big and get you through, it's not going to do it because it's only the consistent action that's going to continue that. So I mean people talk about it all the time. You know just 1% better every day. You know just doing something to move you forward, because if you stop and you wait for you feeling good about it or being certain about things, it's just never going to come. And I think a perfect example of that is when we started in business. We started in healthcare and we were seeing clients, mobily and we just started. We didn't have anything. We had enough tools that we needed to just go and do it. We didn't have business cards, we didn't have a website, we didn't have a logo. We had nothing.
Speaker 3:We had the last $2,000 in a bank account and it was like that's it we're going to rent a clinic and let's do it.
Speaker 1:And I see it so many times. I see business owners. They want to start up a business, you know, whatever idea it may be that they have, and they're like well, I don't have a website yet, I'm trying to make my business cards, I'm trying to do pamphlet, I'm trying to do all these don't have clients or you don't have the product or service, so so don't worry about the business cards, like things like that will come, like you just need to go and do it. And that's where that that aspect of taking action, like don't just get through the fear and take the action and do it, and consistently do it every day. It doesn't have to be perfect, because it never will be.
Speaker 3:Last thing I want to add is change. Don't be fearful to embrace change. I was like that before I started working on my mindset. I would get into these you know depressions where, oh, I can't change what I'm doing because if I do, there's going to be some fear or something might go wrong. And I lived in this world where I was living in my head too much. After that I started to embrace change and when you embrace change, things start to move forward. You don't get growth if you don't change Even our careers. We've changed from one career to the next or one hospital to the next to get to where we got to today, and we've always said that we never wanted to be stagnant in doing what we're doing and stay in the same place. So being open to that change has gotten us where we are today and I'm just so grateful that I'm now. I've changed the way I look at change. If that makes sense, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think my biggest fear, like when I remember starting, nursing and and within the first couple months you know I was working on a unit and I like to ask people questions about their career, all that and and somebody had told me that they had been working in this unit on this same spot for the last like 35 years. It was like before I was even born they had been working there and I thought that is my biggest fear in life, like I can't even imagine being in one small spot for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:That, like one of my mentor always says, you cannot expect different results if you do the same actions. So you're 100 right.
Speaker 2:Uh, you know changes is is what is going to bring you from one point to the next point, uh, and all the other qualities that you mentioned. So thank you so much, guys, for being on the show on the podcast today. Uh, lots of knowledge, lots of ideas where people could invest in different areas where they're not used to, such as Mexico, and we will put your links in the description of the video to make sure that people can reach you if they want to reach out to maybe get a tour in Mexico.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, we even have a we'll share a link as well with a book that we wrote. So we wrote all about our journey, how we got to where we are today, the strategies we use some strategies that you guys can use or any investor out there can use to replicate what we did to be just as successful as what we're doing. And then, of course, we're always here to reach out to anyone. I mean, anyone wants to reach out to us any time of the day. That's what we're here for.
Speaker 2:So yeah, again, guys, thank you for being on the show and we'll talk soon. Amazing.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Thanks for tuning into the 5 Questions Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, like and hit the notification bell on our YouTube channel so you never miss an episode. Stay tuned for more insights and tips to transform your real estate and business game. See you next time.