True Patriot Love - Renaissance Man – Invest In Yourself Jay Martin with Sherard McQueen

00:00:00.000 good day everyone it's yours truly mr jay martin the renaissance man comedian laugh doctor all of

00:00:10.940 the above and i'm here on true patriot love with my first guest i'm proud to have my good friend

00:00:16.080 mr charard mcqueen how are you today sir i'm good and thank you for the kind introduction

00:00:21.220 uh mr renaissance man i want my own title you want your own title i the renaissance man sounds

00:00:26.200 so cool. I'm a real estate developer. What should my title be? I don't know. We'd have to come up

00:00:30.840 with something. The real estate man. I don't know. It's got an R in it, but man, dude, I'm so happy

00:00:36.760 to have you here on the show as my first guest. And the reason why I picked you is because this

00:00:40.600 guy is a charismatic real estate developer. And some people say, how did he do this at his age?

00:00:46.680 He looks too young. What does a real estate developer look like? How'd you get into this

00:00:50.720 business? Well, that's the whole thing. What does a real estate developer look like? Most of them are

00:00:55.100 behind closed doors. People don't see them. If you say, well, who owns Mattamy or who owns some

00:00:59.120 of these bigger houses, people don't know. And I thought I would democratize real estate and

00:01:05.100 people would know who I am. So I walk in on the street, I get people coming up to me all the time

00:01:09.480 talking to me. And it was, it was really born out of love for real estate. I've been licensed for

00:01:14.680 20 something years and I got into real estate development 10 years ago.

00:01:18.900 And when you got in there, I'm sure there's peaks and valleys and when it's a time that is to

00:01:23.260 develop real estate and get homes and lands uh right now i don't know is it a good time

00:01:29.900 this is the whole thing people always wait till the market's up and there's multiple offers and

00:01:34.220 it's all these things go in the market and then they buy but smart investors always buy when the

00:01:38.380 market is down and prepare from the market goes up so you have to really uh it's a little bit

00:01:43.900 counterintuitive and you have to have emotional control if you don't have that emotional control

00:01:48.620 you're gonna get fomo so when everyone's buying you're gonna buy and when you're really supposed

00:01:51.900 to be buying you'll be sitting on the sideline so right now is a perfect time to either do real

00:01:56.940 estate development or to be buying a property but people really have to um make sure they make the

00:02:02.860 right maneuvers and listen to the people like like us on this podcast the people who actually know

00:02:08.220 what's going on and not like somebody's uncle or someone's aunt who bought real estate 40 years ago

00:02:12.940 and doesn't really know what's happening right so the timing is now but i think as a comedian real

00:02:18.860 estate's really a joke because all i see is for sale for sale for sale for sale foreclosure floor

00:02:24.460 foreclosure foreclosure a lot of words but nothing's really saying sold like what is the

00:02:31.740 problem what's going on right now well the problem really is a lot of people bought real estate when

00:02:36.060 it's over inflated right right they didn't do the right things they didn't really research it's the

00:02:40.620 weirdest thing because people will research all these other things when it comes to real estate

00:02:44.460 they won't actually get the facts and that's why today we're going to demystify some of these things

00:02:49.500 about real estate and put people on the right track well let's do it let's get started like

00:02:53.420 tell me some of your developments some of the positives the negatives what you learned by going

00:02:58.300 through them tell me some of the some of the some things about that well listen we own a retirement

00:03:03.100 home uh we've we built it uh in 2016 so we've owned it about 10 years it's in aurelia we have

00:03:09.980 a hundred seniors residents so 100 people are living there plus some spouses and some pets

00:03:15.340 right and the biggest thing about that is we had to go through covet so it's a very challenging

00:03:20.460 time um a lot of other retirement homes independent residences had people who unfortunately passed

00:03:26.620 away they didn't have the correct uh procedures provisions right so it can be a very serious

00:03:31.820 type situation the good thing for us is my business partner's uh wife is a er doctor we

00:03:37.740 We were able to get masks, things of that nature, make sure we had the correct protocol.

00:03:41.960 And now we've come out of that.

00:03:43.440 And that is one of the bright, shining sectors right now in real estate is the retirement home industry.

00:03:50.060 And then, of course, I have sites that are based on consumers buying, which are condo sites and townhouse sites in Niagara.

00:03:56.840 And I think Niagara is just the greatest market in the world.

00:04:01.040 I saw one of your posts on Instagram and you were like, Niagara, and then you had all of these stuff thrown around it.

00:04:07.480 what's so big about niagara like we've all grown up every family member that comes to visit us from

00:04:12.280 every country goes i want to see niagara falls and we go out there and go see it and so many people

00:04:18.040 go visit it why there why did you tap there what are the benefits that come from that well i have

00:04:22.840 a confession okay these are my confession yeah yeah so i'm from buffalo new york i'm american

00:04:28.920 so listen don't hate me it is what it is i can't change where i was born but i came over to canada

00:04:34.440 when I was 12 years old.

00:04:35.600 And the falls is one of the first things I saw.

00:04:37.400 Perfect.

00:04:37.980 And obviously, the view from Canada is a lot better.

00:04:41.460 Okay, that view from over there is a little bit different.

00:04:44.580 There's nothing you can see.

00:04:45.980 You're looking like through a bunch of...

00:04:47.340 So it was one of the first things that welcomed me when I came.

00:04:50.920 Niagara Falls has 17 million visitors a year.

00:04:53.500 The only other place in Canada has more

00:04:55.520 is actually the Sea and Towers, downtown Toronto.

00:04:57.880 Okay.

00:04:58.340 It's close to three international airports.

00:05:00.720 Yes.

00:05:01.240 Close to people who want to live there who do some trucking.

00:05:03.760 So international on that side.

00:05:06.680 So it just, and there's so many people throughout the diaspora who are moving there.

00:05:10.480 So it's a great location.

00:05:11.860 When you look at all these things, Doug Ford recently mentioned that he's going to turn

00:05:15.180 this into the Vegas of the North.

00:05:16.860 Okay.

00:05:17.480 Right.

00:05:17.900 So when you look at that, yeah, let Dougie do his thing.

00:05:20.840 So it has everything you need to be successful.

00:05:23.420 And when you're planning, you have to look at the infrastructure.

00:05:25.600 You have to look at the timelines and the political wins and make sure it's the right

00:05:29.400 place to build.

00:05:30.140 Okay.

00:05:30.960 So I got to ask the question.

00:05:32.540 people kind of curve around it i've never met a black developer oh are there a lot in your 0.99

00:05:39.840 business do you come across them are you the the great black north the great black hole 0.57

00:05:44.800 well just put it out there there's a few but again some black developers do commercial real 0.96

00:05:52.560 estate right so they're going to build plazas you may not have ever heard of them right because

00:05:56.540 they're not uh facing the consumer or if they build apartment buildings you wouldn't know who

00:06:00.940 they are. I'm probably one of the selected few, but at the end of the day, I don't really look

00:06:05.520 at it about a black and a white thing. I look at it as a competency. If you are competent in Canada,

00:06:12.080 you can really do the job that you need to do. So I'm not a guy who's sitting here beating a

00:06:17.800 drum saying, oh, I'm the black. I'm more someone who wants to be visible for anybody in our

00:06:22.300 community, however they resonate with us and give them an outlet and an understanding on how real

00:06:27.920 estate development needs to be done and democratize it so other people can do the same.

00:06:31.720 Okay, so supplies. We're going to hit supplies because I know that they say that Canada is one

00:06:36.400 of the most natural sources to supply for wood and building. How is that market that fluctuates

00:06:43.140 with what's happening in your previous country, America, with new leadership? How is that garnered

00:06:50.380 how we deal with lumber and all the stuff and supplies you need to be able to build the

00:06:55.260 structural houses that we need to last in our climate ah see that's the thing right now we do

00:07:01.520 have a lot of the materials we need they're not necessarily coming uh from south of the border

00:07:06.300 some of the supplies are coming from overseas and a lot of the stuff that is being manufactured here

00:07:12.300 right um so we're not as impacted but on the other side of it from the consumer standpoint

00:07:18.380 a lot of consumers are feeling the pinch because maybe they work for companies right that have

00:07:23.880 something to do with the states so that's going to restrict their cash flow or their purchasing

00:07:27.940 ability so from that side yes from the development side right now it's actually easier because a lot

00:07:33.600 of people aren't building so when people aren't building that means the trade price has come down

00:07:38.280 and it's stabilized uh and it's allowing me to get more done faster and the municipalities you know

00:07:44.260 they're treating us a little better now because there's just a few people building right now so

00:07:48.860 that's really how it encompasses everything well you can build 100 spots you can build and build

00:07:56.940 and build but now that i see more and more people have less money in the comedy world my shows are

00:08:02.460 harder to get people to that flexible cash flow a lot of people got into some bad deals to begin

00:08:08.960 with yeah bad deals and their their credit bureau is taking a little hit a little lower than

00:08:14.760 unexpected. How are you going to get them into these houses if the market stays the way it does?

00:08:20.420 Like, how are people that made a mistake? Give me advice for someone who's made a mistake,

00:08:24.380 got into a bad deal and wants to recover and try to get into one of those houses that you

00:08:28.420 perfectly described. Well, some of the properties that we have, once we reach a certain point in

00:08:33.960 financing, which is called a liquidation point, which means for the amount of purchasers that you

00:08:39.780 have, if you didn't sell any more units, you could still pay off the loan. So there's a land

00:08:45.120 loan and there's a construction loan. So that's a liquidation point. Once you get to that point,

00:08:49.540 which is normally about 75% to 80% of the sales, the last 20%, you can sell with a more flexible

00:08:55.700 down payment and deposit structure. Therefore, right now there's one site in particular,

00:09:00.940 I have it at $1,000 a month that someone's able to get in. So it's 24 months, they would put down

00:09:05.860 $24,000. So it's something that's easily achievable. So that's one of those options

00:09:13.380 we have available. That's good. For individuals that are trying, again, you know, check out my

00:09:17.460 boy, you might have an opportunity. Because I see it all the time. People are looking for

00:09:22.020 properties and they're like, I can't, so I'm just going to rent. And what I'm finding is people are

00:09:26.820 paying the same that they do in mortgages. What's going on? But the biggest factor is,

00:09:33.240 like you mentioned it's the credit right and it's a down payment but the good thing about

00:09:36.680 pre-construction real estate is it allows us the time to build our credit because you have two years

00:09:42.000 to closing right and i find that people when you give them a fixed point a destination it's a much

00:09:47.560 easier to work toward like a weight loss goal or um when you graduate from university it's going to

00:09:53.360 be four years i'm gonna have a degree they could do the four years they just can't operate in a

00:09:56.760 vacuum so now it's 24 months we're gonna get you guys to you know after you put down your thousand

00:10:02.060 dollars a month we're gonna get you guys approved and you have time to build your credit so that's

00:10:05.980 all people need they need knowledge and understanding that's what the tpl network is about

00:10:10.020 yes for us to put them on game tplmedia.ca people you gotta make sure you log on and check it out

00:10:17.760 going forward your boy is here giving you nothing but facts to the dome um i gotta give it to them

00:10:24.340 i love the 90 references you gotta i gotta i gotta go with my hand bracket to the dome people

00:10:29.900 even know what to the don't mean well i pointed to it so hopefully they're like he pointed to his

00:10:34.380 head i guess he means the dog okay nice so here we are we're here doing this and why we do this

00:10:39.980 most of us do this for our children to leave a legacy uh and i find within our culture a lot of

00:10:45.500 us come from second generation uh canadians we're second generation canadians where where our parents

00:10:50.940 came from another place a lot of people are there that's the diaspora of our country how do we

00:10:55.820 educate our kids so that they don't fall into some of the steps that some of our parents did

00:11:00.540 we just kind of followed the route trudeau's the prime minister he said to do this but how can we

00:11:06.060 teach a narrative that gets more people to do what you're doing or know how to make sure their money

00:11:10.540 is sorted out for the future well i think that's the important thing with social media there's a

00:11:14.140 lot of downsides social media but one of them is it gives people access when i i don't know about

00:11:19.180 you but when i went to my guidance counselor when i was in when i was in high school she gave me

00:11:24.060 three jobs she did like you're a teacher you're a doctor or you're a lawyer it's three three and 0.97

00:11:29.420 and there's no other jobs so when someone was selling my parents house he pulled up in a toyota

00:11:34.940 sequoia okay you remember the car it was a sequoia who is this guy who is this guy and you were driving

00:11:42.140 a sequoia so this guy's rich what does he do right and i was i don't know early 20s my mom said well

00:11:46.300 he helps get a house right we're renting before i was like okay this is something that i really

00:11:50.380 want to look into right but that is how you got access before now there's so much information

00:11:55.580 right that if you don't have it you're kind of choosing to be ignorant you stepped into the

00:12:00.540 guidance counselor thing and a whole bunch of flooded memories came back and luckily for me

00:12:05.820 my guidance counselor was also my soccer coach and kind of like surrogate dad so he really guided me

00:12:12.300 he never told you that jay you're good to be a comedian no that wasn't on the board it was not

00:12:16.860 It was out on the board.

00:12:17.700 I actually was, I wanted to be a psychologist.

00:12:20.660 I went to go take psychology at university, sociology.

00:12:24.760 My drama teacher always told me to do acting.

00:12:27.020 I could never go to a Caribbean parent 1.00

00:12:28.920 and tell him I want to be a comedian.

00:12:30.060 You just can't do it?

00:12:30.900 No, I went to my dad finally,

00:12:32.320 after like three years at university

00:12:33.760 and said, I found my calling.

00:12:34.700 I know what I want to do with my life.

00:12:35.980 I want to be a comedian, which he replied, 1.00

00:12:37.660 you want to be a professional idiot? 1.00

00:12:39.520 So now I'm a professional idiot. 1.00

00:12:41.520 I'm sure he's proud. 1.00

00:12:42.720 He's proud when he saw me on TV

00:12:45.000 finally realize that people pay money to watch that but like i'm not glad because you're here

00:12:49.640 i swear to you if i could have redone it again i totally would have been a real estate agent hand

00:12:54.680 to god and i said not because you're here i would have went to humber at the time they had real

00:12:59.320 estate courses because of my charismatic kind of like yours uh personality i think i could have

00:13:04.440 persuaded and did well uh that wasn't the road i took but you would never listen as here you are

00:13:10.360 you're a much better comedian than you'd be a realtor like no but we talked before and you're 0.57

00:13:15.680 like there's only like three guys ahead of me it's like chappelle like we went through this

00:13:19.100 whole thing right so if you're top five you know are you gonna be really top five realtors in the

00:13:24.140 world no no no and for the record viewers i i might have said there are three guys ahead of

00:13:29.480 me i don't know if i said chappelle i meant uh canadian comedians but hey i am one of the kings

00:13:35.740 of comedy that if he said i'm gonna say it i'm not gonna hide from it don't hide no don't hide

00:13:40.020 i love how you put it though you are charismatic so give me something else before i would kind of

00:13:44.740 wrap up because i know you got a busy day and i really appreciate you taking time well listen i

00:13:48.340 got all the time we need right so well once i make my own hours once i drove down part of being a

00:13:54.180 real estate developer is you make your own hours right it's really not fully like that yeah but i

00:13:59.140 think that's one of the things so obviously uh people can link to me on social media which i

00:14:03.540 think is uh very important and i actually go around to schools i've talked in several schools

00:14:07.700 I talked at York University last year.

00:14:09.580 I talked about a school in Scarborough.

00:14:11.660 So if people want to invite me out for financial literacy, I spoke at TL Kennedy.

00:14:16.960 Yes.

00:14:17.400 So I'm always happy.

00:14:19.180 For these type of engagements, it's a no fee because I want to get the students engaged.

00:14:24.580 So if you're a student out there listening or you're an educator and you're saying, hey, listen, I want Sherard or his team to come out and speak to me about financial literacy.

00:14:32.780 See, it doesn't just have to be about real estate.

00:14:34.360 No, no, straight.

00:14:34.960 About gold or about stocks

00:14:36.540 or any way that you could really make money

00:14:38.400 and put people in a position to win.

00:14:39.760 I'm here and I'm available.

00:14:40.940 Good, good.

00:14:42.280 Let them know where they can find you.

00:14:44.380 Where you can find me is M5V.

00:14:46.660 So like the postcode for downtown Toronto,

00:14:48.780 underscore developments, M5V developments.

00:14:52.520 DM me there and I will personally get back to you.

00:14:55.360 Thank you.

00:14:55.860 Before I let you go,

00:14:56.580 a lot of people are telling me

00:14:58.760 about some abroad real estate investments.

00:15:01.580 investments abroad second properties uh retirement properties your thoughts in that direction

00:15:10.220 you hit the landmine i hit okay you hit the landmine and i don't want to jump on this because 0.89

00:15:15.020 of the political times that we're in right now right right which you see what's happening in

00:15:18.860 dubai yeah it's in the middle east things have gone wrong people were buying real estate over

00:15:23.740 there my number one thing for everybody is always buy real estate close to home okay so if you're

00:15:28.380 in canada buy real estate in canada you have to understand the laws now you had people who are

00:15:32.300 buying real estate in florida and now looks what's happening in florida because of the

00:15:36.940 new administration we'll call it over there getting to your property now they're saying

00:15:41.180 you might not be able to be in florida for a certain amount of days this these are things that

00:15:45.420 are easily um telegraphed predictable they're very predictable people didn't want to look at

00:15:50.620 the signs i'm not sure why real estate why the grass is always greener why real estate is sexy

00:15:56.540 over there is sexy and you know what, but over here, it's very mundane. So that's the number

00:16:01.440 one rule. Buy close to home. I like to stay within an hour. And if you want to have something abroad,

00:16:06.020 just go rent. That's what Airbnb is for. That's what vacation rent is for. It gives you opportunities

00:16:10.620 to go to different places, even in the same area. So if I'm going to go to Italy, I don't have to

00:16:15.640 stay in the same house. And it decreases your carry costs. When you start looking at how much

00:16:20.400 it costs to carry a vacant property or to manage it, it just doesn't make sense. So that's some

00:16:26.140 sound advice that you guys should really take that well i heard it all people are like well i'm

00:16:30.680 getting it in the dr i'm getting it here and i'm like so who takes care of it who okay when a

00:16:35.780 hurricane happens what hits it what's your insurance yeah i i asked those questions they

00:16:40.960 were like oh you're just i'm like look i do have a property abroad and i love it because that's

00:16:46.620 going to be my retirement right so you have a plan i have a are you saying that you're gonna

00:16:50.600 move you're leaving are you telling people right now you're leaving canada never never but when

00:16:54.700 said retire are you going to go back there full time never no one in their right mind would do 0.97

00:16:58.540 that i go back and forth you want healthcare all right you i want my healthcare you crazy 0.73

00:17:03.500 i'm going to be healthy and medium uh the reason why i say that is because the winters the winters

00:17:09.100 we have are brutal you're a little you're a little listen be clear let me tell you something that's

00:17:13.980 it's not true because the funny thing is you're people from from canada traveling to bc traveling

00:17:20.060 that aspen yes what you have to do is change it's a paradigm shift to change your mindset embrace it

00:17:25.580 i would love to see you on a pair of skis i i love the weather when i'm in it enjoy get in it

00:17:30.940 get yourself a scarf telling you as i become older and my injuries last oh your knees starting to

00:17:36.780 quake whatever happens like that i want to sit in the sunshine i'm just saying for those people that

00:17:41.340 are out here uh again see a professional when you're thinking about your retirement or properties

00:17:46.940 because it's so important like you make the wrong move these are your life savings your earnings

00:17:51.740 you retire for that you want to be able to be somewhere where are all these things we think

00:17:55.740 about people just like look at the goal light be like follow the bird follow the bird and go wherever

00:18:00.780 you don't know where the bird's going the bird right so you have to make sure it has different

00:18:04.620 senses so no i appreciate you and appreciate your time and of course we let everyone know where to

00:18:09.420 find us so if they need me i'm i'm available i spoke at tmu the other day as well so nice

00:18:14.700 whatever it is people need i'm here i'm available i'm available for you as well so let's get it

00:18:19.180 well people you've heard it here with your boy mr jay martin the renaissance man

00:18:23.020 my first guest on tpl stay locked make sure you subscribe and we'll see you next time thanks

True Patriot Love - March 19, 2026

Renaissance Man – Invest In Yourself Jay Martin with Sherard McQueen

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