Welcome back for another episode of I’m a Millionaire! So Now What?”, where I’ll be chatting to Dan Dore, a successful real estate investor with over two decades of experience and the founder of Dore Property Management and Dore Capital.
He matches the right tenants with the right units – and provides outstanding responsiveness to the day-to-day challenges that cause headaches for owners.
His team are on a mission to serve 10x the amount of people with their property management service, their real estate holdings, as well as their philanthropic efforts. He’s a 10 XeR and a great example of the hub and spoke driver in action. He came to realize that he needs to remove himself from the centre of operations to remove the bottleneck that was preventing the company from reaching its full potential. To grow Dore Property Group’s numbers and achieve greater impact, he needs to release the minutiae of control to his team and work in his zone of genius.
Dan reached out to me on LinkedIn looking for new partners and I asked him to share his story with you, members of the self-made nation.
“I come from humble beginnings. I was born and raised in Ottawa, with extremely supportive parents. In early adulthood, I became interested in purchasing my first house and my dad (who worked for the Canada Mortgage and Housing Association at the time) told me how you avoid large insurance payments with a large down payment. So, I set an unconscious target for myself – I had to accumulate a 25% down payment to buy my first house.
At about 17 years old, I became an Amway distributor, which was my first taste of business. And I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, by Robert Kiyosaki, and realized that an asset needs to put money in your pocket. So, I evaluated my liabilities and sold my Ford Mustang GT, bought a plow truck, and got plowing contracts. I realized that you can own stuff that makes money for you – which led to the house and rental income covering my living expenses.”
In this episode, I share my own sad story of missed opportunity when I was younger. Luckily for Dan, he was driven to own more property (even while studying), because he realized it doesn’t take much time to collect rent on a house you own. Then he started learning about leveraging property, getting equity out and finding cash flow properties. Discover why he decided to stay in residential rather than commercial properties and what drove him to switch to property management. And why having your feet on the brakes might be the result of a limiting belief.
On being the hub and spoke
“I started exploring why we weren't growing. I heard that I’m the linchpin because nothing can happen unless I approve it. While I trusted my staff, I needed to have a mind shift to be able to let things happen. At the time, I was getting coached and had about 600 or 700 units under management. Bruce Firestone, the founder of Ottawa Senators, sent me the link of a similar company in the US managing something like 10,000 units. And he says, you know that's possible, right? I said, I know. Okay, it is possible. So, what would need to happen to get there? he asked. When I thought about serving 10x the amount of people, the blood would rush through my body and I’d start sweating – we’d need to change everything, to have systems and processes and quality of people. And then I’m like, yeah this is where we’re going.”
Dan went on to found Dore Capital when he realized there was a demand for investments paired with property management – as long as he had some “skin in the game.” In the last few years, he’s hired people to take on the role that he was playing, what they internally call Dore 1.0, where you're soliciting a bunch of different individuals with smaller portfolios. “Now I’m having discussions with people where we’re going to have joint ventures partners, larger endeavours so we can scale. So, the next few years will be telling, for sure.”
Fun, frank advice?
“Never stop pushing. Even when you hit a certain point, just keep pushing, because life is meant to be lived. What else can you do? Who else can you help? When we talk about 10x, we want to serve 10 times the amount of people with our property management services, with our real estate holdings, and our philanthropic efforts. It's not just about making money, it's about serving people.”
If you're interested in learning more, please reach out. I'd love to add you to the distribution list as we introduce you to more of these concepts. I want you to have more time, more impact, and more freedom as you grow your wealth and attract acquirers. For a more fun, enjoyable life.
Are you an entrepreneur looking to exit, or at the helm of a thriving business or startup? I would love to talk with you about your stories! You can drop me a line here.
And watch this space for more details about future Elevated Conversations.