Scott Dillingham: 01:04

Welcome to the Wisdom, Lifestyle, Money Show. I'm your host, Scott Dillingham. And today, I have Alex Ciotoli joining us. He is an investment focused realtor from Windsor, part of Team Gore and REMAX. Welcome.

Alex Ciotoli: 01:14

Thanks very much, Scott. Thanks for having me.

Scott Dillingham: 01:16

Yeah. No worries. I'm so glad and so excited for this. Now one of the things actually that I start off with every podcast is who are guests. Right?

Scott Dillingham: 01:25

So who is Alex Ciotoli?

Alex Ciotoli: 01:28

Where you going? Story. I don't know where to start. I brought, I guess, born and raised in Windsor, Ontario here. Grew up, went to high school, university here, and then I was fortunate enough to go to law school in in Michigan.

Alex Ciotoli: 01:42

I taught a school. Came back and and worked for my parents' structural steel business. So I was born into that. My my parents my parents my parents were immigrants here to Windsor. Right?

Alex Ciotoli: 01:55

My brothers were born in Brazil. I was the last of the 3 born, and I was born here in Windsor.

Scott Dillingham: 02:01

Okay.

Alex Ciotoli: 02:02

But I was born into a structural steel family.

Scott Dillingham: 02:04

Nice.

Alex Ciotoli: 02:05

My dad immigrated here, worked for Ford as a truck driver, then got the opportunity to start making steel railings. And I don't know if you guys, remember Becker's stores here in Windsor and Toronto, Ontario.

Scott Dillingham: 02:17

Becker's, the convenience stores. Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 02:18

That's right. So he got, he got a he got a break from, a contractor. He was asking my dad if, if he could, make, a Becker's, you know, store structural steel. Awesome. He had no clue, how to do it.

Alex Ciotoli: 02:33

He was making railings, but he said yes. Forced through it and did well and ended up getting all the contracts in Ontario.

Scott Dillingham: 02:40

That's awesome. Yep. That's awesome. So Becker's I'm pretty sure Becker's was bought out is it Max Milk?

Alex Ciotoli: 02:45

Yep.

Scott Dillingham: 02:46

Okay.

Alex Ciotoli: 02:46

He moved on to Macs Milk as well after that. So that was sort of his story coming up and ended up growing the business to one of the biggest structural steel companies in Southwestern, Ontario.

Scott Dillingham: 02:55

Nice.

Alex Ciotoli: 02:55

So I I was sort of forged by steel in that business. Yeah. And, you know, learn from the ground up, you know, within the shop and office management and then progressed to project management and doing takeoffs and quotes. Right? Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 03:10

Which was, very it's a very essential tool in business, regardless whether you're doing, you know, manufacturing or Yeah. If you're doing pricing for whatever it may be, for instance, in real estate

Scott Dillingham: 03:21

That's it.

Alex Ciotoli: 03:21

Especially for investors.

Scott Dillingham: 03:23

That's it. And so and I love that too because you mentioned you grew up here, which I think is important because, you know, if you've just moved to a town, you've only been there a year or 2, how do you really know the ins and outs, right, where you've seen the city completely revamp, be rebuilt, and everything? So I I love that. And I mean, you've touched on real estate. So let's hear.

Scott Dillingham: 03:43

What's your perspective on the real estate industry right now?

Alex Ciotoli: 03:46

Phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. I think Windsor, like you're saying, that was the, you know, the ups and downs through the decades here. Like, growing up here, you see, like, 2008, what happened? And, you know, before that, it's it's cyclical.

Alex Ciotoli: 03:59

Right? Yeah. But with all of the investments coming into this, area right now, it's just the growth is explosive. Whether it be, you know, industrial, commercial, or, you know, single family homes, all the way up to, you know, multimillion dollar homes. There's there's growth and there's, you know, the Moore construction, he's a gentleman that owned, all the way from the expressway here back in the day.

Alex Ciotoli: 04:25

I was friends with my father, and he told me I was a little kid, but he's always but I never, you know, left my mind. Whenever you go into a city and you see craze in the air, invest in that city. Now there's growth in in, in progress. Yeah. So Windsor of it's it's it's dynamic right now.

Alex Ciotoli: 04:44

Right? So there's a lot of money coming into this area. Yeah. Which ends up, you know, lending to, new house, sales and building and all kinds of stuff.

Scott Dillingham: 04:54

No. That's it. And that's awesome. And I heard that same quote too. And for the many years, I was discouraged because I was not seeing any cranes in Windsor.

Scott Dillingham: 05:02

And I'm like, what's going on here?

Alex Ciotoli: 05:04

Yeah.

Scott Dillingham: 05:04

But I gotta say probably 5 for the past 5, maybe 6 years, it's just it's really turned around and things are getting really strong.

Alex Ciotoli: 05:13

It's great. You know, it's great for for all sectors of business, whether it be manufacturing or real estate or, you know, the restaurant businesses. In Windsor, you see a lot of new ones popping up, which is great. You know, it's, it's fantastic to see all that. So a lot of new Canadians coming here as well.

Alex Ciotoli: 05:27

Yeah. Which, you know, led us to money moving around and being spent, and that's progress. Yeah. That's progress.

Scott Dillingham: 05:33

That's what we love. Absolutely. Now I do have a question for you because I've you know, we obviously follow each other online. Yep. And, I see, you know, the or the the branding, you know, Esquire Realtor.

Scott Dillingham: 05:46

So I'm actually curious. Is is it how you dress? Like, what is that? And then what's the difference between that and then

Alex Ciotoli: 05:52

Well, if it's if it's listen. If we're talking about Esquire Realtor, then then I must answer by, you know, Esquire Realtor. Right?

Scott Dillingham: 05:58

Fair

Alex Ciotoli: 05:59

enough. Prescription, but they're they're a gradient lens, but you can't really tell. Yeah. Yeah. Like, Esquire is the whole package.

Alex Ciotoli: 06:06

Right?

Scott Dillingham: 06:06

Okay.

Alex Ciotoli: 06:07

So it's I love

Scott Dillingham: 06:07

it.

Alex Ciotoli: 06:08

It's, you know, your first meeting with the client after you've progressively told them about yourself and what you could do for them. You really want you really want to, you know, show them what you could do. So Esquire is, you know, the elite of the elite with whatever it may be, whether you're an attorney, or you've been bestowed Esquire by by the queen. Okay. Right?

Alex Ciotoli: 06:31

Nice. So it's an experience that you have. There's a lot of realtors, and with whatever industry you're in, doctor, lawyer, there's, you know, there's good, there's okay, and then there's fantastic. So I wanna be on the fantastic side, and I try to, you know, do that for all my clients.

Scott Dillingham: 06:50

That's awesome. I love it. Cool. Yeah. I saw that.

Scott Dillingham: 06:53

I'm so

Alex Ciotoli: 06:53

curious about this. Thanks for thanks for sharing. Prompt responses. It's single, prompt, correct answers. You know, that's just, you know, shooting, from the hip.

Alex Ciotoli: 07:04

You wanna get proper analysis for your clients, whether it be an, an investor, at, you know, a commercial level, which, you know, they wanna know about exit strategies and all that. They want cap rates to be at a certain level. Or if it's the initial investor looking to buy, you know, their first, home to add to to their portfolio. Yeah. So there's there's different analytics that go into, you know, each sector, but I really try to, you know, talk to them, right, and and answer any questions they may have.

Alex Ciotoli: 07:32

And that that communication is key. That's mentioned always, on team board as well. I rate, team board as the number one team in Canada by far. I know that we're rated number 3 in residential home sale closings or whatnot and number 6, in the world. Listen, team to be part of, especially if you're a new engine coming into the industry.

Alex Ciotoli: 07:54

The training, and the focus on on, communication and the agents is is bar none. Mhmm. So I just wanna give a shout out to to team Gordon.

Scott Dillingham: 08:03

That's awesome.

Alex Ciotoli: 08:03

They're doing a fantastic job there. Go team Gordon. Absolutely. And I'm I'm glad to be part of that.

Scott Dillingham: 08:09

No. That's awesome. That's so cool. Now, you're right. You're right about the the connection with the clients.

Scott Dillingham: 08:16

I had a realtor in the past tell me, you know, 4 years after he sold the home, the client called him and said, how do I get my washing machine fixed? You know what I mean? So, like, having that connection with your client, I think, is is so important.

Alex Ciotoli: 08:29

Yeah. I'm definitely not answering that question. I'm fixing washing machines, but I I would definitely, you know, refer them to a professional. For sure.

Scott Dillingham: 08:36

Yeah. But it's true. It goes it's the testament of you do a good job,

Alex Ciotoli: 08:40

and you're

Scott Dillingham: 08:40

gonna always be there

Alex Ciotoli: 08:41

for the company. You end up you know, these are these are expensive decisions, to say the least. Right? So Absolutely. Investor's going in, like I said, there's different, you know, levels of investing.

Alex Ciotoli: 08:52

But, you know, if you're a a prudent, pragmatic investor who's been doing it for years, you wanna know your cap rates, you wanna know what your exit strategy is, the dynamics of that city or what you're investing in. So there's different different levels of expertise and, you know, I try to focus on on my way, which is, you know, commercial, industrial, and, you know, even the entry level investor, getting them if they wanna do it. You know, a lot of new investors are coming in, buying a single family home and and converting that. Right?

Scott Dillingham: 09:21

Absolutely.

Alex Ciotoli: 09:21

For secondary, income. So you wanna make sure that they're in the right zoning, because in in Windsor right now, they're, section 1 and and 2, zoning of their their, the city's, implementing, their, inspector to go through. Right? So they wanna make sure that you're abiding by all the codes and you've got your proper permits in that. Just went through that with a client of mine, that bought a property and, the initial, property owner was starting to do conversions to an ADU.

Alex Ciotoli: 09:54

Did a pull permits, didn't do any of that, ran out of money, Ended up getting foreclosed on by the bank. And when we went in there, we saw the, you know, explosive the the types of that property there. Yeah. We knew that there was permits that had to be pulled. But after working the numbers, it works fantastically.

Alex Ciotoli: 10:13

We pulled the the trigger, and he got the property.

Scott Dillingham: 10:15

That's so cool. Yeah. That's awesome. And, you know, this is a bit random because I I know I didn't ask you this before, but I'm curious just from our conversation. So you touched on, you know, staying in your lane.

Scott Dillingham: 10:26

Right? And industrial and commercial style properties is sort of your niche. But then you also mentioned at the start, like, your parents, you were involved in all these commercial projects and stuff. So do you think that growing up with your parents into that stuff, like, that's what naturally allowed you to get into

Alex Ciotoli: 10:42

this? A 110%. You know, I've been doing takeoffs ever since I was 14 years old. Takeoffs, if you you don't understand what that is, folks, is, it's it's a quotation method. Right?

Alex Ciotoli: 10:51

And just breaking down your cost materials, your your, your labor, your contingencies, all that going forward. And and laying out, you know, the amount of time that it's gonna take, which is essential depending on the season that you're in. Sometimes it'll take more time in the winter time moving forward or or the labor force may not be up to, you know, your standards and and going that quickly, but you've got a those are a lot of analytics that have to be worked out. And and you wanna you wanna win, man. You wanna win for your client.

Alex Ciotoli: 11:20

You wanna win for yourself. And at the end of the day, if you're not winning, you're not working. So That's it. Winning is essential. Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 11:28

That's the objective all the time, and, I've yet to lose.

Scott Dillingham: 11:31

Absolutely. That's awesome. That's awesome. So no. That's great.

Scott Dillingham: 11:34

And so I wanna I wanna add some value to the listeners now. Right? So we we talked about you and and how you are and, just kind of your niches in that. But let's talk about the market a little bit. So, ideally, my vision is somebody who's listening to this, whether they're in Windsor or outside of Windsor who would consider investing in Windsor.

Scott Dillingham: 11:52

Let's talk about Windsor. So what's the market doing? Is it is it trending up or trending down? Right? Because in in Canada, everywhere is up and down depending on the location.

Scott Dillingham: 12:01

So let's talk about Windsor. What's what's Windsor doing?

Alex Ciotoli: 12:03

Hottest market in Canada. Nice. I don't know what the actual number is. It's a 1000000 new Canadians coming in every year. The majority of them are coming to Ontario because of the, you know, the industrial growth.

Alex Ciotoli: 12:16

Yeah. Right? There's a lot of industry here, and there's a lot of potential. So I don't know, the exact numbers on, what the growth is. Like Okay.

Alex Ciotoli: 12:27

You have to look that up. But I know that, every sector that, you know, in real estate has been growing, whether it be, you know, commercial building leases, single family residential homes. A lot of them are being converted to ADUs. Like I said, there's, you know, mister mayor here in Windsor has, allowed, you know, that to happen, which is essential. There's a there's a house housing shortage here in Windsor.

Alex Ciotoli: 12:54

Right? And I think throughout Ontario.

Scott Dillingham: 12:56

Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 12:57

So, growth wise, I think, you know, if you're an initial investor coming in here or, you know, you're looking to buy and and grow, I think the city here is fantastic for that.

Scott Dillingham: 13:07

Okay.

Alex Ciotoli: 13:08

I think there's potential in, in moving forward. The next 10 year trajectory I foresee in Windsor, Essex County to be explosive. So the market right now, yeah, it was trending. So it, you know how it works, Scott. Interest rates, correlate to housing, pricing.

Alex Ciotoli: 13:25

Right? Not to not to mention, bonds. Right? So these are all correlated factors.

Scott Dillingham: 13:30

Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 13:31

We don't wanna get too technical here, I I think, but Yeah. Growth is like this right now. Yeah. I think it's plateaued a little bit in I mean, late April Yeah. Just because I think a lot of people are waiting for interest rates to see what's gonna be happening with that.

Alex Ciotoli: 13:45

You're very well aware with that.

Scott Dillingham: 13:47

For sure. They are. They're waiting on the sidelines. I have so many buyers that say as soon as the rate's lower, like, I'm I'm hopping in. So it's gonna be pretty crazy.

Alex Ciotoli: 13:55

Which is which is best if you think of it. Right? Because everybody's waiting for the rates to come down, so everybody's holding off to get into the market. Then when the rates come down, what happens? Everybody gets in the market

Scott Dillingham: 14:05

Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 14:05

Which is

Scott Dillingham: 14:05

And then bidding wars

Alex Ciotoli: 14:06

and Yeah. Like, so if you have the cash, folks, or if you're, you know, approved with, Led City, or your bank for that matter, get on to a good realtor and get in the market because your chances of getting the home that you want, or your dream home are fantastic right now. And you'll pay, you know, a considerable amount less.

Scott Dillingham: 14:28

Yeah. Right? No. That's awesome. Now for those that don't know the area or even those that do and are from Windsor, but maybe they just don't read the news, can we touch on some of the major infrastructure projects that are happening in and around Windsor right now?

Alex Ciotoli: 14:42

Sure. Well, the major one is the battery plant. Right?

Scott Dillingham: 14:45

Yep.

Alex Ciotoli: 14:47

Over 350,000 square feet of That's huge. Building there, which is incredible. Yeah. I think it's an, 10,000 new employees gonna be, operating in that, facility there

Scott Dillingham: 14:58

Yep.

Alex Ciotoli: 14:59

Which, is explosive. That little right there, that money that's gonna be generated just with the, you know, the the labor force

Scott Dillingham: 15:06

Yep.

Alex Ciotoli: 15:07

Is, is explosive. You know? These people need to eat. They need to live. They need to, you know, buy clothes.

Alex Ciotoli: 15:12

They need to shop and and I know

Scott Dillingham: 15:14

what you think.

Alex Ciotoli: 15:14

Absolutely. So there's a lot of growth there. A new hospital that's gonna be, up here, the mega hospital, off of 42 there. I think the, projections are for the end of 2025. Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 15:26

Amazon plant, the new Gori Hall Bridge. Yep. All kinds of all kinds of development and the plethora of new Canadians coming in. Right? I I see I noticed sorry.

Alex Ciotoli: 15:36

I noticed that the streets are a lot, more crowded, whether it be Monday to Friday with traffic, which is fantastic.

Scott Dillingham: 15:43

Yeah. We were we were talking about that, and I'll add another piece of value here, but we were just talking about that literally today. So ever since so Lens City has been opened as a location for 4 years. And, you know, we went through COVID and all that, so there's been very little foot traffic of people coming in off the street, but that has absolutely increased. And so, like, now we're like, okay.

Scott Dillingham: 16:04

We need, like, our sales team in the building because our our team is very, like, remote because they can work from home. Sure. Or they're out at Tim Hortons meeting a client or at their work. You know what I mean? But now we we literally need people in the office because it's just, yeah, the foot traffic.

Scott Dillingham: 16:18

So you're right there. The other thing I wanna say too is if you look at Detroit. So for those that are not from the area or, again, those that are but just don't know, Windsor and Detroit, because it's a border city, they very much mimic each other. So if Detroit has, you know, downtime with business, Windsor tends to have downtime as well. And you wouldn't think that because it's different countries, but they're so connected that they do.

Scott Dillingham: 16:44

But if you look at Detroit right now, just like Alex said, there's cranes. Right? They're building buildings. They're making moves. There's things going on.

Scott Dillingham: 16:51

They're revitalizing the community there, and it's, it's really impressive when you go over there compared to seeing it a few years ago. It's night and day difference.

Alex Ciotoli: 16:58

Yeah. So Not to mention the real estate market in the United States is booming as well. Right? Yeah. So Canada tends to mimic that.

Alex Ciotoli: 17:05

We're a little behind. Our population is a lot less, obviously, but, very correlated, which is is great.

Scott Dillingham: 17:12

Yep.

Alex Ciotoli: 17:13

Exciting times coming.

Scott Dillingham: 17:15

Yep. So just a little bit of, FYI for the investors listening here. So, okay, so let's let's talk about the out of town investors. So what is the best advice that you would give to somebody who's not from Windsor who wants to buy in Windsor? What would you what would you give?

Alex Ciotoli: 17:31

Well, for 1, if they're not part of an investment, group, whether it be Ontario or or wherever, get in contact with, myself, or a fantastic mortgage broker that that does those dynamics. For instance, Lendly City, you guys have a lot of different groups that investors are a part of. Right?

Scott Dillingham: 17:50

Absolutely.

Alex Ciotoli: 17:51

That would be, you know, the your start of the vetting process there. Yep. Do your due diligence, ladies and gentlemen. Do your due diligence with whomever you're gonna be involved with that's gonna be spending your money, on investments and grill them. You know?

Alex Ciotoli: 18:05

Give them the gears. Make sure that they know as much as you do, if not more, moving forward. Right? Because, it's, you know, it's a process. A lot of people, you know, I I see you know, this industry is crazy, you know, getting into it.

Alex Ciotoli: 18:20

You know, there's a lot of realtors that have just come from, you know, selling t shirts and now they're selling houses, and they think it's the same thing. And they're supposed to be professional. It's it's just mind blowing on on the level of professionalism that you can find. But the key factor here is, drill them, do your due diligence, and, vet them for yourself. If not, get someone that you trust or like, give me a call.

Scott Dillingham: 18:47

Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 18:47

I'll let them or or grill for you or you could use me. I'd love to help out, add value.

Scott Dillingham: 18:52

No. No. That's awesome. And I know just from the clients the mutual clients we had together, the reviews on you were were very high, so I can I can say that? Now I know you we kinda touched on a a bunch of things here, but I just wanna make sure there's nothing that we're leaving out.

Scott Dillingham: 19:06

So we talked about many of the good reasons of of why someone would want to invest in Windsor over another town. Was there anything that we might have missed, or do you think we we did it all?

Alex Ciotoli: 19:17

I think there's a lot to talk about. I don't think we could cover this one segment, or podcast here, but, you know, it depends on how much if you if you have an exit strategy, if you're looking to get into a, you know, commercial building or, you know, a multi unit building and have an exit strategy in 5 years and have, you know, a certain rate that you wanna, you know, clear out. If you have investors that are part of your group that are going into this, I can work that out for you. We can work it out together, you know, provided that, you know, your your, your goals are, realistic. Right?

Alex Ciotoli: 19:49

Typically, a lot of, of the investors that I'm dealing with that are, from, the GTA, man, they like to see a 10% cap rate. You know, they wanna see a strong number because there's always contingencies that pop up with properties, whether it be commercial or multi units. Roof needs fixing or all of a sudden, you know, something goes, hard left and it has to be tended to. So they wanna see cash flow. Right?

Alex Ciotoli: 20:12

They wanna see cash flow and, you know, having a a realtor that knows the ins and outs to look for, and pricing those, schematics moving forward, it makes the investor feel a lot more comfortable. Yeah. And when you deliver on that, they're yours.

Scott Dillingham: 20:29

That's awesome. I love it. I love it. Now, again, I I don't wanna, like, ask the same questions, but I know, like, we're we're getting to the the end of of the segment here. And, I know we touched on many of the benefits of of working with you, but I'd like you to, talk a little more about yourself if there's any other benefits.

Scott Dillingham: 20:49

And then lastly, how do people get in touch with you to move forward if

Alex Ciotoli: 20:53

Sure.

Scott Dillingham: 20:53

They're interested? Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 20:54

Sure. Listen, I've been involved in big business, whether it be with through a family business or or moving forward with, the things that I've done. I've worked, abroad with a senator and a doctor in in the Caribbean, with, you know, professional, professional, the better professional medical field. Let's say that. Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 21:16

So I've got contacts that I've dealt with all over, whether it be Europe, Caribbean, here in North America, business that I've started and sold, which is always a great thing when you're looking to, find someone that's gonna be doing your investments. Right? They understand the ins they understand the ins and outs of, what it what it takes to, grow a portfolio or even what a portfolio is. You know? You're not gonna just, pass over, you know, you know, your hard earned money or your group's money to someone that you haven't vetted.

Alex Ciotoli: 21:51

Right? So this is a process, and it's, a matter of getting to know someone, initial meetings. You know how it goes.

Scott Dillingham: 21:57

Yeah.

Alex Ciotoli: 21:58

To testing your, you know, testing your first project and see how it moves forward. Because talk is cheap and, delivery is everything on that. So, the objective is to to win, and I don't like learning. So they you know how they have that saying? Either you're, winning or you're learning?

Scott Dillingham: 22:15

Yep.

Alex Ciotoli: 22:16

No. I just wanna win. That's it. That's it.

Scott Dillingham: 22:19

That's awesome.

Alex Ciotoli: 22:19

That's more than enough.

Scott Dillingham: 22:21

How do they how does everybody contact you so then everyone else can win too?

Alex Ciotoli: 22:25

Sure. Absolutely. You can contact me through, you can call me on my on my, business line Okay. Or my personal line. You can reach me at 226 350-5165, or 226-773-0060, or you can email me as well.

Alex Ciotoli: 22:42

Alex.c@remaxcare.com, or call the office .

Scott Dillingham: 22:48

That's awesome. Well, again, I appreciate you. Thanks so much for coming on. It's nice to see an interview and have people here that I I do see working with investors in the in the neighborhood and community. And, we hadn't talked about Windsor for a long time, so I'm glad to have you on so we could.

Alex Ciotoli: 23:03

Thank you very much. I look forward to doing more of these. You know what? I think there's a dynamic here that we could, educate and and pass on some great, knowledge. He's got a plethora of things to talk about, I'm sure, as do I.

Alex Ciotoli: 23:15

Yeah.

Scott Dillingham: 23:15

Sounds great. We'll do it.

Alex Ciotoli: 23:16

So from, Scott and myself, mister Esquire realtor, we're out.

Scott Dillingham: 23:21

See you later. If you're serious about real estate investing and you wanna take it to the next level with the least amount of time and mistakes, then you're going to wanna sign up for our Real Estate Investor Hub. Visit canadianrealestatenework.com and hit the blue button or banner that says free investor resources. Inside, you'll have access to real estate investing courses, networking opportunities, webinars featuring industry professionals, as well as dedicated chat channels to share and get access to unique properties. I look forward to seeing you there.