The 5 Questions Podcast
Join us as we unlock real estate and business insights, one question at a time.
The 5 Questions Podcast
Real Estate Freedom Through Creative Financing with David Van Der Ploeg
David Van Der Ploeg shares his journey from starting with a VTB-financed duplex when he was broke to building a nationwide real estate portfolio including a 12-unit apartment building. Through creative financing strategies, community involvement, and continuous learning, he transformed his financial situation while gaining the freedom to travel the world.
• Started with no money by convincing a seller to provide $50,000 financing for his first duplex purchase
• Restarted his real estate journey in 2018 after joining an investment group that taught new strategies
• Transformed a condo using only a line of credit and $6,000 on credit cards
• Used 0% interest credit cards strategically to finance renovations without paying interest
• Scaled to larger properties by becoming actively involved in real estate investment communities
• Leverages real estate investing to fund world travel to destinations like Spain and Greece
• Combines business networking with pleasure travel for tax advantages and relationship building
• Credits surrounding himself with successful investors as key to learning creative strategies
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daver.v.d.Ploeg/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/david_vanderploeg/
Webpage: https://ploegrealestate.com/
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, went from broke and resourceful to owning a 12-unit building and investing nationwide. Today's guest started his real estate journey with a VTB duplex and a toolbox that Trix learned from his dad. After years of trials and errors and hustles, including city shutdowns and solo renovations, he built a powerful portfolio and a life of freedom with his wife by his side. I welcome David Vanderpleu. David, welcome to the show today.
Speaker 2:Hi, mario, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:David, the concept of the podcast is real simple. I ask five questions, either about real estate or business, and we get straight to the point you ready.
Speaker 2:I'm ready.
Speaker 1:First question I have for you came from, obviously, your bio. You started with a duplex using a VTB when you were broke. What gave you the confidence to go all in on that first deal?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's interesting. So my parents did own a lot of real estate when I was growing up and I saw what it did for them. And when I came to Saskatoon I just started a job, just was done university, and I looked at the property going property going, like, hey, this is a nice property, it's fairly big for the time. And I said, well, I either make it or I have to declare bankruptcy. Being young helps I was 24 at the time and so because I just saw myself living there, it's just, I just see it, it's like I'm going to live exactly there, which is strange because it was sold when I first tried to buy it. Oh really. But the sale fell through. So then I came back and there was a lot of people lowballing and I said, like, if you do this, if you lend me $50,000 to buy a property, I will buy a property. Lucky, I already had to put $40,000 down, so I actually got some money in the bank account to keep it up for a while.
Speaker 1:That's amazing and that's thinking outside the box At 24 years old. That's very impressive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that came from my parents. They had recommended me, just ask. Worst I get is no.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. If you don't ask, you never know where the answer is going to fall. It's either a yes or a no, or they'll figure out an alternative solution. That's very impressive. So that got you started in your first deal and maybe, like you said, you were young and you had the guts to go all in, because you maybe had time to remake yourself if something went out. Yeah, that brings us to our second question, and I want to ask you what was different about 2018 when you decided to restart your real estate career after a 10-year grind of trying other businesses?
Speaker 2:So once we got the property, we were living in it. We had it as a four-plex when we originally got it non-conforming suites, unfortunately.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Then it says, okay, what else is there? We were looking at the market that wasn't doing the best in Saskatoon and I had all my money tied up in it, so I had no extra money to go do anything more and I didn't think of some other strategies at that point. So we tried to open a salon. We had it open for a few years. It did not really take off, so we ended up selling that. From that, we were still like you know, I was starting to make more at work because I was still working at the time.
Speaker 2:And then, about 2018, a real estate group came to town. My wife had watched them. They was going to host on HGTV, quite well known. A real estate group came to town. My wife had watched them. She was one of the hosts on HGTV, quite well known. My wife said let's go. I said, okay, I've always been interested in real estate. I've always done some real estate since I moved here to Saskatoon. I went, I listened these are some strategies I hadn't thought of. My parents had given me some, but these are some ones that I hadn't thought of yet. So I said, okay, let's go. So I joined up in 2018. And from that, I bought a condo that same year and I did some negotiating strategies on the condo. So basically I had none of my own money in the condo from that. So that's what kickstarted going again.
Speaker 1:From what I can understand from your answer is is you? You started to surround yourself with people that are doing real estate, maybe for a longer period of time that you have done, and you learn new strategies?
Speaker 2:Yes, different people give you different strategies.
Speaker 1:So surrounding yourself with the right group of people. Are they actually real estate? Other real estate investors helped you to restart, or kickstart your journey again in real estate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, it did.
Speaker 1:Well, this is what usually happens to most people. If you surround yourself with, you know, whatever the field is that you're trying to do In this case we're talking real estate or business If you surround yourself with people that are doing it, whatever you're trying to achieve, you will go to the next level. There's no question about it.
Speaker 2:That is so true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to ask you the question number three. I want to circle back to how you transformed a condo, because from when you started you mentioned you were broke, and this question ties into a little bit on thinking outside the box. You used a line of credit and $6,000 to transform a condo and $6,000 to transform a condo. Now how can you maybe help new investors think more creatively like that, Because sometimes new investors, like you said, even you when you started, did not know strategies until somebody else told you. How can you or what type of counsels could you give to our audience of new investors of thinking more creatively?
Speaker 2:One is actually surround yourself by other real estate investors, ones that, specifically, have done some of the more interesting and creative items. Some of the more interesting and creative items. I was talking to people that I had no idea to use a line of credit as a down payment until somebody suggested just use your line of credit. Oh, okay, work on the flexibility of your financing. So the reason I was able to use the line of credit was because I actually had set it up where, rather than having a traditional mortgage, I had a small mortgage but a big line of credit. Because of that big line of credit, I was actually able just to take a big chunk out and use it for the down payment. Right.
Speaker 2:So there's other things. I'd use the credit card for the $6,000, so basically, I'd finance it over time. Most people can get a credit card of some kind. If you can't, there are other options is to meet more people. Always look for more education too. Don't stop doing stuff, but do look for more education, because it's going to be good to have strategies that you didn't think of, or you can look at strategies outside of real estate that could maybe be applicable in a certain situation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely thinking outside the box. You have to look at sometimes other industries and, like you said, try to also can be credit card companies, lines of credit. There's all kinds of money out there. Obviously, you want to do it in a strategic way where you don't put yourself in trouble or other people's money in trouble. You have to do it in a smart way, but it is available. So I 100% agree with you that if you're surrounding yourself with you know more people that are doing it, that have done it longer than you or and are already doing creative financing kind of ways, you're going to be learning a lot faster than trying to do it on your own.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the best ones is the MBNA 0% for like 10 to 12 months.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a really good credit card If you can get your hands on that. You know it's basically a free loan and you just make sure you pay it back on time, you don't pay any interest.
Speaker 2:I got three of them.
Speaker 1:Well, you know the tricks. Now that brings us to our fourth question. I want to fast forward to now. You own a 12-unit apartment building. You've invested in Ottawa and Edmonton. What do you think was the key to scaling up from where you started, or even doing solo renovations, to now multifamily deals?
Speaker 2:I think one of the biggest things was actually joining Wealth Genius and actually really get involved in it and talking to more people and being more involved in the community, because once you're involved in the community, people talk to you as well and reach out to you, which has really helped me. So I was actually able to see, like, oh the condo, while it did make money. So I was actually able to see like, oh the condo, while it did make quite, it did make money. I was at the whims of too much of the whims of the interest rates, of if it's vacant or not. Yeah, so that actually really helped me. See things from a different perspective of sometimes more units is better yeah and uh and, like you said, many people join some communities.
Speaker 1:You know, like they, they join the real estate communities and but then it stops there. You said the key word is getting involved, participating in the communities, asking questions, try to connect with. You know zoom calls and group calls with other people. So they, they actually know that you exist yes, uh, after something local, go toal.
Speaker 2:If somebody put on an event, go to that event. Start to talk to people that know more about real estate than you. Then you go to other events and now you're the expert for everybody else.
Speaker 1:Always try to bring value, share your knowledge, take in the knowledge from others and then share it to others after that. This is the key of being recognized in a certain space, in this case, the real estate space. If you're always involved, if people see you in person or online, you'll get the attention and that's the key to growing. That brings us to our fifth and final question for today, and this I'm excited to talk about it. I know you traveled. You travel a lot, we've traveled together on some masterminds and you travel to Spain, to Greece, to even join the real estate investor Summit at Sea last February together. How has real estate investing changed not just your finances but your lifestyle?
Speaker 2:Well, it's changing quite a bit, especially in the last year when I started to get more active. I started to go look at, hey, I can actually find a way to make going to Spain, to go to Greece yeah, that gets a tax write-off. That means I don't spend as much as I think I do. Going on like REIC was a fantastic experience. You got to really connect with people deeply, but you also got to see parts of the world I probably would not have seen. So it's just really transformed a lot. It's done to give me more and more freedom. It's just really transformed a lot. It's starting to give me more and more freedom.
Speaker 1:And I hope to grow that even further so that I can do more traveling and see more of the world. And a lot of those travels you know, just to put a perspective to people, the type of travels that you do decide to go on, you can do travel and it's just you and maybe your wife, but a lot of travels are also geared towards going with other investors, so you can build those relationships as you travel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you build them as you travel. Yeah, you build them as you travel. And then there's certain tax advantages that you also get for doing that, because now you're actually working but you're enjoying the world at the same time.
Speaker 1:And you know it's a lot of fun activities. A lot of people say, oh, is it like going to a conference? You know, for some people it's boring, it's. A lot of people say, oh, it's, is it like a going to a conference year? It's. You know, for some people it's boring. It's not boring at all because because everybody is there on the same uh, level of understanding, or they're, they're, you know when you're dabbling.
Speaker 1:If, let's say, you go play bowling and you go in a bowling league, you're having fun because everybody likes bowling there, well, it's the same thing with real estate. You travel and you go in a bowling league. You're having fun because everybody likes bowling there. Well, it's the same thing with real estate. You travel and you go to places and you're there with people that enjoy the same passion as you. So it's fun, no matter what you do or where you go. Yes, well, david, it was a pleasure talking with you today. You answered some key questions that really may be for some new investors or investors that are doing it for a little while but are kind of stuck and maybe need to start thinking creatively for financing. You gave some key answers and also, looking at your life, now some people might decide to start traveling more, but with people that surround them with the same mindset. Thanks again for being on the show. It was a pleasure to have you and I'm sure we'll see each other very soon again.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me. 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.