EP 76 · 2024-10-16 · 52:51
How a Nova Scotia Realtor Built 8 Rentals by Doing His Own Renos (Halifax Real Estate)
A Nova Scotia realtor-investor on DIY renos, reverse selling, and family-first wealth.
CP
⟶ The story, written up — a sharp read with every fact on the record. Or skip straight to the moments that matter, as clips.
// CHAPTERS — TAP TO JUMP THE PLAYER
0:05Two timelines into real estate — Chris frames his path as two separate timelines: an HGTV-kid love of renovating since age 8, and getting serious about investing after his first son was born in 2016.2:31First rental before first home — Priced out of Vancouver in 2016, Chris and his wife bought their first rental in Nova Scotia before owning a home, launching the portfolio that exists today.5:22Doing his own renos with his dad — Chris explains why he does the construction himself: tangible progress that keeps him sane, tens to hundreds of thousands in savings, and cherished time working alongside his father.7:35The glass-ball lesson on family — Drawing on an online mentor whose father died of cancer, Chris shares the juggling analogy: family is the one glass ball that breaks if dropped, the rest bounce.10:20The entrepreneur's tension and risk — Chris describes nearly losing family time during a four-deal spring, and argues most people aren't cut out for the risk of running a business and that's okay.15:40The buy box and reading a property — Chris details his target buy box — properties he can immediately add value to via an unfinished basement or bad layout — and the renovation risk of hidden structural costs.24:17Why EXP and reverse selling — Chris explains EXP's cloud-based, agent-centric, revenue-share model and his coach's 'reverse selling' method: build trust by surfacing reasons not to sell, no commission breath.34:52The Halifax / Nova Scotia market — Chris reads the local market: insulated from a downturn, ~7% price growth, 2.5 months of supply, and a structural shortage of entry-level homes that mortgage changes will only inflame.40:52Buy, hold, then pay down — Against common advice, Chris resists selling for quick gains, aiming to fortify the business, hold the long game, and pay properties off for lifelong insulation.44:57Designing a life-inaire's life — Chris closes on taking leadership in your own life, deathbed virtues, the 'most important next step', and treating time as currency over a flashy realtor image.
// THE INTRO
Realtor Chris Pickup of EXP Realty walks through his two-track journey: building an eight-unit, five-property rental portfolio by doing his own renovations, and becoming a full-time Halifax realtor at the tail end of the 2022 market run-up. He shares a candid, service-first 'reverse selling' approach, a sober read on the Nova Scotia market (supply-starved entry-level homes, prices still climbing ~7% year-over-year), and a buy-and-hold-then-pay-down strategy that deliberately rejects the flip-for-quick-cash glamour. The throughline is a belonging/values message: family is the one glass ball you can't let drop, and building a deliberately designed life beats chasing a flashy one.
// THE LESSONS
See all 17 lessons ▸Doing your own renovations saves huge capital and keeps you mentally engaged through tangible daily progress.
“it saved me tens of thousands or hundreds thousands of dollars”
Hire out only electrical and permitting; self-perform the rest of the scope to control cost and quality.
“you said you get electrical and do permitting but you basically take care of most of the scope”
Buy on a defined buy box: properties where you can immediately add value, like an unfinished basement or bad layout.
“we look for properties that um we can immediately add value to basically something that has an unfinished basement”
Budget for hidden renovation surprises — structural cracks and foundation issues can add ten or twenty grand fast.
“it could be structural it could be a crack in the foundation it could be any anything where it's like oh there's another 10 grand”
Refinance an appreciated rental to pull out the down payment for the next property and compound the portfolio.
“we ended up refinancing it pulling it down payment out of that property which actually got us what ended up being our third property”
Reject the flip-for-quick-cash glamour; hold long-term and pay properties down so no one can take them from you.
“once you have them paid off he uses colorful language but basically people they can't mess with you like they can't take that away from you”
Pick a target number of homes whose rent funds your lifestyle, then stop buying and pay them off.
“figure out how many homes it takes where the rent from that property could fund your lifestyle and then he's like go and buy that many homes”
Sell by serving: 'reverse selling' surfaces reasons not to act, which builds the trust that closes the deal.
“his strategy is called reverse selling where actually I'm going in one with a service mindset”
Win trust by not having 'commission breath' — show clients you're serving them, not chasing a sale.
“having them discover you don't have commission breath like you're not just there trying to to get a sale”
What separates owners and CEOs from equally skilled employees is their comfort with and analysis of risk.
“the real difference is their comfortability with risk and their approach to it and their analysis of it”
Most people aren't cut out for entrepreneurial risk and are better off investing on the side of a salaried job.
“the number of people who are actually cut out for the risk required to run a successful business is very SM very small”
Family is the one glass ball — drop business balls and they bounce, drop the family one and it breaks.
“if you let the family ball drop that one breaks so don't drop the damn ball”
Nova Scotia's housing problem is supply of entry-level homes, not demand; cheaper mortgages only add fuel.
“we don't have a demand problem in Nova Scotia we the problem has been supply of firsttime buyer type homes”
Builders chase higher-margin move-up homes, so the entry-level bungalow supply stays starved.
“what Builders are are preferring to buy when they're building single family homes are higher end homes obviously because you can make more money”
Read the market by months of supply: 2.5 months is a seller's market; six months is balanced.
“there was two and a half months of of Supply on the market... a healthy Market under a typical definition is like there would be six months”
First-time buyers should lock and load a 5% down payment and abandon the dream-home-first expectation.
“come up with that first 5% down payment exactly get the 5% locked and loaded get your finances in order”
// CLIPS FROM THIS EPISODE
Emotional · 8:54
“That's something that I had a big realization from one of the guys I've learned the most from”
Framework · 11:41
“The analogy that best described it for me was that life is like you're juggling four or five balls”
Hot take · 14:00
“If you're an entrepreneur or a business owner and you don't go to work you just don't get paid”
Hot take · 17:14
“There's a lot of pressure to where people feel like they almost should become an entrepreneur”
Framework · 19:06
“The real difference is their comfortability with risk and their approach to it”
Framework · 20:03
“There's that adage that all the information is out there for everybody to be fit, happy and wealthy”
Story · 21:17
“The first one we knew from the very beginning it was going to be a long-term hold”
Framework · 22:26
“Basically all of our other properties we've bought knowing we'd need a pretty serious renovation”
Exchange · 25:44
“They've integrated some multi-level marketing strategies so if you recruit people they become your downline”
Framework · 31:06
“The coach I found, his strategy is called reverse selling”
Story · 33:40
“He endless realtors who called him kept saying you're not going to be able to sell it on your own”
Hot take · 35:28
“It's very up and down, it's really an odd dynamic”
Hot take · 39:02
“What concerns me is realtors celebrating the recent mortgage changes”
Framework · 43:26
“To reference Thatch Win, his strategy is figure out how many homes it takes where the rent funds your lifestyle”
Emotional · 46:36
“On a personal level, start with designing a life that you actually want to live”
All 17 lessons from this episode, on one page.
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// FEATURED BUSINESS
// FACT-CHECKED ✓ web-verified, with sources
✓ VERIFIED
Nova Scotia has approximately 2.5 months of supply on the market, versus 6 months for a balanced market.
Multiple 2024 sources confirm Halifax/Nova Scotia had approximately 2.5 months of supply through mid-2024. The 6-month balanced-market benchmark is a standard industry figure. Both parts of this claim check out.
SOURCE ▸✓ VERIFIED
Canada introduced 30-year amortizations for first-time home buyers, which will add demand-side fuel to a supply-constrained Nova Scotia market.
Verified. Canada rolled out 30-year amortizations for insured mortgages in two phases: first for first-time buyers of new builds (August 1, 2024), then for all first-time buyers regardless of property type (December 15, 2024). The policy concern about demand-side pressure in a supply-constrained mar…
SOURCE ▸✓ VERIFIED
Chris Pickup's 'reverse selling' method is a legitimate named sales framework taught by a real estate coach.
The 'Reverse Selling' method is specifically associated with Brandon Mulrenin, a real estate coach and author of 'Reverse Selling: How Real Estate Agents Can Turn Cold Calls Into Clients' (2021). The core concept — surfacing reasons not to act, using Socratic-style questions to build trust — matches…
SOURCE ▸// COMPANIES & ORGS ✓ verified
eXp Realty (subsidiary of eXp World Holdings, Inc.)Christopher PickupBiggerPocketsMichael ZuberThach NguyenDavid Chilton
// PROJECTS NAMED
Lower Sackville duplex (Lisaqualon)
SOURCE: podscope · public episode data · pUl8f8p4los