Terrie Schauer is a real estate investor and property manager who has a passion for residential rental properties. She’s been working to make small- and medium-sized investment properties profitable for twenty years, in Canada’s major markets (Toronto, Vancouver, and now Montreal) as well as in Marseille, France.

For Terrie Schauer, investing in real estate is not just about the money, it’s about financial freedom as a way of life. This is what inspires Terrie to manage properties for others, and to – more recently – build real estate coaching programs for investors who want more time and more freedom.

Terrie Schauer speaks regularly about landlording for-profit and peace of mind and she is also an author, she wrote the book: Mindful Landlord.

Terrie is also a competitive fighter. She practices Jiu-Jitsu and competes regularly.

If you are tying your financial future to the amount of hours you will have to work, you will end up loosing out at the end.

Where to find Terrie Schauer

• LinkedIn

Related Posts

1. 082 Rob Walch; The ins and outs of the podcasting business
2. 080 Daniel S. Hamermesh; Spending Time: The Most Valuable Resource

Many people think real estate investment is an easy way to get rich quick for those who are willing to take big risks, borrow as much as they can and make as many deals as they can before their cash runs out.

But Montreal investor Terrie Schauer sees it differently.

In her new book, Mindful Landlord: How to Run Rental Property for Profit and Peace of Mind, she paints a different kind of picture of the business of real estate investment. For Schauer, the goal of investing in real estate is less about making money than freeing up time to do what you love.

“One of the things that bugs me about traditional real estate gurus is that there’s a lot of money-hungry, bigger-is-better thinking,” she said. “That’s really doing a disservice to the small ways people can use real estate as a complement to what else they’re doing in their lives.”

For Schauer, what she loves is kickboxing and Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She has won two bronze medals at kickboxing world championships, and a 2018 world title in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It is being in the business of real estate, she said, that has allowed her to spend hours every day at the gym so she could compete at that level.

Schauer began her career as a property manager in college when she became the manager of the student residence she lived in. Later, she rented rooms to other students in her own (rented) apartments and worked for property management companies in Vancouver and France, which helped her save the money she needed for a down payment on her first property 13 years ago.

Today she owns five buildings in Montreal, including her own home. Three of the investment properties are triplexes, and the other is a mixed-use building with 10 commercial units and one residential unit. Four buildings are in Hochelaga, and one in Verdun. She has continued to manage other properties as well as her own and is a licensed realtor who specializes in coaching other investors.

While her book includes detailed information about the business of being a landlord, from tenant screening and contracts, to the basics of property management and maintenance and an overview of the essential math investors must know, a good two-thirds of Mindful Landlord reads more like a philosophical self-help guide.

Schauer’s perspective is strongly influenced by authors like Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), Eckhart Tolle (The Power of Now), Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist), and Tim Ferriss (4-Hour Workweek). She writes about the power of seeing yourself as the hero of your life’s story, and how this can help you focus on what is essential in your life, how to cultivate mindfulness, and why success is better measured in happiness and life satisfaction, rather than dollars.

For Schauer, the key to success in real estate investment is to know who you are, what you are good at (and not), and identify what you really love to do. After that, the business of real estate investment comes down to education, problem-solving, people skills, business-savvy, and spreadsheets.

Schauer said new investors need to consider how much maintenance property will need, what kind of tenant it is likely to attract (and how much work they may be to deal with), build a network of go-to contractors and real estate specialists, and put the work in to do the math to evaluate potential investment properties.

For newbies, she said that means making sure you really understand how to calculate cash flow, return on investment, and profit and loss statements. But although it is hard to quantify, she said it’s also essential to factor in the other impacts property ownership will have on your life.

“If you are only thinking financials you’re not going to be thinking about how being a landlord will affect your life on every level,” Shauer said.