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Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Larbi. If you don’t already know, Sarah is an incredibly experienced and successful real estate investor who specialises in homeownership in the Canadian sector. In just 7 years, from buying her first property, she has built a 7-figure portfolio and will be able to leave the job world and live comfortably in her mid-30’s by the end of this year while also becoming an accomplished speaker, coach, mentor and podcast host of the “Where should I invest?”- Real Estate Investing Podcast.
Let’s dive into Sarah’s story of how just jumping in and learning from your mistakes can help you elevate proactivity to achieve a boast-worthy portfolio and Nest Egg, as well as her advice on what should come next.
[00:01 – 06:30] Opening Segment
- I give a brief summary of what to expect in this episode
- I introduce our guest Sarah Larbi
- We talk about her credentials and success
- How she gained interest in the market and how she started learning
- Scaling up fast from the early days
- Started with a “Craiglist-like” market then moved on to buying and scaling up properties.
[6:30-11:25] The value of BRRRR Investment Strategy
- What is the BRRRR Investment strategy?
- Best combination of flipping and holding
- B – Buy
- R – Renovate
- R – Rent
- R – Refinance
- R – Repeat
- At first Sarah was ignorant of this concept but quickly realised this was the best way to get started
[11:25-19:14] Overcoming Analysis Paralysis
- How did you start to break down the “scariness” of Real Estate? (Analysis Paralysis)
- Just going for it, learn and make mistakes
- She talks about the state of mind you must have when you’re starting out and what you will learn
- Learning the value of long term
- Screen your tenants
- What and when to renovate: “what was your learning experience?”
- Example of learning from a “mistake” and making it profitable
- What to check before buying
- I talk about my personal experience with buying a property and what I learned from some mistakes I made.
- Don’t succumb to Analysis Paralysis
- People who make the mistake of waiting for the perfect deal
- Get out there and give it a shot
- Brief talk about risk and how to prepare for it
[19:13 – 29:53] What should your end goal be?
- Having control over your portfolio
- Building your nest egg
- Using your expertise in other areas and platforms
- Networking and how it impacts your business trajectory
- Your team makes or break your experience – Find the right people
- Turning a need into a want
- Collaborating on other channels
- How did you decide when enough was enough?
- Setting goals – What is it that you want and what will it take to get there?
- Working backwards in terms of your properties
- What is a Nest Egg property and why is it important?
- Talking about the benefits of Long Term properties
- What should you do with them while holding them
- How to pay them down
- The importance of value over the amount of properties
[29:53-33:56] The Focus Five Segment
- What book have you gifted most often?
- Anything by Don Campbell
- If you could get an hour of anyone’s time who would that be and why?
- Still Don Campbell again
- What is one thing you believe that most people disagree with you on?
- Ready, Fire, Aim
- How do you like to start your day?
- She talks about her morning routine
- What is the best place online that we can connect with you?
- See links below
- Final words from me
Tweetable Quotes:
“(At First) You’re not gonna learn everything, you’re not gonna have your perfect deal – buy something that’s good enough, and hold on for the long term and it will become a great deal over time” – Sarah Larbi
“People waiting for that perfect deal, when it comes, you don’t think that there are a ton of other investors that are much more experienced who are gonna jump on it right away anyways – you’re gonna be doing nothing for years.” – Sarah Larbi
“I don’t care about having 1,000 properties, I don’t… Just to say, what? I have 1,000? I’d rather just say I can do what I want, I’m young enough to enjoy it, and I have what I need…” – Sarah Larbi
Resources mentioned in the episode:
You can connect with Sarah personally on Instagram. Make sure to visit her website saralarbi.com to learn more about her and her other projects and coaching offers. Also, check out her podcast to hear from Sarah herself and receive some of the best investment advice the world has to offer.
LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who wants to explode their business growth by sharing this episode or click here to listen to our previous episodes.
Are you working HARD but not really moving the needle on anything? You should check out my POWER LIST and find out how you can get more done to move your business, project, or relationship closer to where you want it to be. Let’s go!
To know more about me and all the real estate opportunities you can find, check out my website at Hansstruzyna.com. Get the chance to talk with me for FREE. Set up a call using this link https://calendly.com/h-struzyna/15min
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Larbi. Sarah is an incredibly experienced and successful real estate investor from Ontario, Canada. She has built a 7-figure portfolio in just 7 years from buying her first property while also working a full-time job! Soon, Sarah plans to leave her 9-5 and just live comfortably with the income she gets from her real estate investments. In addition to all these, Sarah is also an accomplished speaker, coach, mentor and host of the real estate investing podcast “Where should I invest?”
Let’s dive into Sarah’s story of how just jumping in, NOT waiting for the perfect deal, and learning from your mistakes can help you scale your real estate business and help you achieve your goals faster!
[00:01 – 06:30] Opening Segment
Before she was a real estate investor with a 7-figure ten properties investment portfolio, according to Sarah she did not even know what “assets” and “liabilities” were. She really just started googling and eventually, got hooked to learning about passive income, what do wealthy people do, and how she will be able to retire early.
Sarah mainly learned about real estate investing from books and podcasts so to also help other people, she now also hosts two podcasts and sometimes holds classes about real estate investing.
[6:30-11:25] The value of BRRRR Investment Strategy
Sarah is a big fan of the BRRRR investment strategy which for her is the best combination of flipping and holding. BRRRR stands for Buy, Renovate, Rent, Re-finance, and Repeat.
She also shares that while most people prefer not putting their friends and family members in their rentals, this is actually how they got started! Her very first tenant in her very first property was her sister-in-law. The rest is history. Listen also to Sarah and her husband’s strategy of looking for tenants first before actually looking for the property to match them to!
[11:25-19:14] Overcoming Analysis Paralysis
A lot of people, investors most especially, often get stuck in analysis paralysis. However, Sarah shares that she does not really experience being stuck because she has a totally different approach—ready, fire, aim!
If you’re one of the people who loves to analyze things and are wondering what would happen if you also do ready, fire, aim…Sarah also shares that she made some mistakes because of this strategy. What’s more important to her though is that this mindset/strategy helped her get to where she is now because she did allow herself to just be stuck overanalyzing things.
Regarding mistakes they made and what they learned from it though, listen also to Sarah’s sharing about why they’ll never buy a property again with an attic access that has been shut closed or which has no attic access at all. (Spoiler alert: this mistake cost them $20,000 initially but the good news is they now think it’s still worth it!)
[19:13 – 29:53] What should your end goal be?
Aside from the BRRR strategy, another strategy Sarah makes use of is to have both nest egg and quick cash properties. The nest egg properties are the properties she plans on keeping which will generate the cashflow she is looking for when they’re finally paid off.
She also shares a few other tips/techniques to be able to pay off these properties quickly. At present, Sarah works “backward from her goals” and still works a full-time job until she’s able to make sure that she has already built a portfolio that she has 100% control over.
Lastly, Sarah shares her thoughts about what she really thinks about setting goals: “I don’t care about having 1,000 properties just to say that I have 1,000. I’d rather choose being able to do what I want while I’m still young enough to enjoy it.”
[29:53-33:56] The Focus Five Segment
The FOCUS FIVE are five questions I ask every guest on my show. Keep on listening to find out what book Sarah gifts most often; who would she talk to if she can get an hour of any person living or dead, and why; that one thing she believes but most people will disagree with; her morning routine; and lastly, where are the best places we can connect with her online. (See the links below for Sarah’s social media links!)
Tweetable Quotes:
“(At First) You’re not gonna learn everything, you’re not gonna have your perfect deal – buy something that’s good enough, and hold on for the long term and it will become a great deal over time” – Sarah Larbi
“People waiting for that perfect deal, when it comes, you don’t think that there are a ton of other investors that are much more experienced who are gonna jump on it right away anyways – you’re gonna be doing nothing for years.” – Sarah Larbi
“I don’t care about having 1,000 properties, I don’t… Just to say, what? I have 1,000? I’d rather just say I can do what I want, I’m young enough to enjoy it, and I have what I need…” – Sarah Larbi
Resources mentioned in the episode:
You can connect with Sarah personally on Instagram. Make sure to visit her website saralarbi.com to learn more about her and her other projects and coaching offers. Also, check out her podcast to hear from Sarah herself and receive some very valuable pieces of advice about investing.
LEAVE A REVIEW + help someone who wants to explode their business growth by sharing this episode or click here to listen to our previous episodes.
A few last words
Are you working HARD but not really moving the needle on anything? You should check out my POWER LIST and find out how you can get more done to move your business, project, or relationship closer to where you want it to be. Let’s go!
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