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May 27, 2025 16 mins

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David Van Der Ploeg shares his journey from starting with a VTB-financed duplex when he was broke to building a nationwide real estate portfolio including a 12-unit apartment building. Through creative financing strategies, community involvement, and continuous learning, he transformed his financial situation while gaining the freedom to travel the world.

• Started with no money by convincing a seller to provide $50,000 financing for his first duplex purchase
• Restarted his real estate journey in 2018 after joining an investment group that taught new strategies
• Transformed a condo using only a line of credit and $6,000 on credit cards
• Used 0% interest credit cards strategically to finance renovations without paying interest
• Scaled to larger properties by becoming actively involved in real estate investment communities
• Leverages real estate investing to fund world travel to destinations like Spain and Greece
• Combines business networking with pleasure travel for tax advantages and relationship building
• Credits surrounding himself with successful investors as key to learning creative strategies

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daver.v.d.Ploeg/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/david_vanderploeg/

Webpage: https://ploegrealestate.com/

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the 5 Questions Podcast, where we
unlock real estate and businessinsights one question at a time.
Welcome to the 5 QuestionsPodcast.
I am your host.
Mario Lamar, Our guest ontoday's show, went from broke

(00:25):
and resourceful to owning a12-unit building and investing
nationwide.
Today's guest started his realestate journey with a VTB duplex
and a toolbox that Trix learnedfrom his dad.
After years of trials anderrors and hustles, including
city shutdowns and solorenovations, he built a powerful

(00:47):
portfolio and a life of freedomwith his wife by his side.
I welcome David Vanderpleu.
David, welcome to the showtoday.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Hi, mario, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
David, the concept of the podcast is real simple.
I ask five questions, eitherabout real estate or business,
and we get straight to the pointyou ready.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I'm ready.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
First question I have for you came from, obviously,
your bio.
You started with a duplex usinga VTB when you were broke.
What gave you the confidence togo all in on that first deal?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Oh, that's interesting.
So my parents did own a lot ofreal estate when I was growing
up and I saw what it did forthem.
And when I came to Saskatoon Ijust started a job, just was
done university, and I looked atthe property going property
going, like, hey, this is a niceproperty, it's fairly big for

(01:47):
the time.
And I said, well, I either makeit or I have to declare
bankruptcy.
Being young helps I was 24 atthe time and so because I just
saw myself living there, it'sjust, I just see it, it's like
I'm going to live exactly there,which is strange because it was

(02:10):
sold when I first tried to buyit.
Oh really.
But the sale fell through.
So then I came back and therewas a lot of people lowballing
and I said, like, if you do this, if you lend me $50,000 to buy
a property, I will buy aproperty.
Lucky, I already had to put$40,000 down, so I actually got

(02:33):
some money in the bank accountto keep it up for a while.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
That's amazing and that's thinking outside the box
At 24 years old.
That's very impressive.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, that came from my parents.
They had recommended me, justask.
Worst I get is no.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Absolutely.
If you don't ask, you neverknow where the answer is going
to fall.
It's either a yes or a no, orthey'll figure out an
alternative solution.
That's very impressive.
So that got you started in yourfirst deal and maybe, like you
said, you were young and you hadthe guts to go all in, because

(03:14):
you maybe had time to remakeyourself if something went out.
Yeah, that brings us to oursecond question, and I want to
ask you what was different about2018 when you decided to
restart your real estate careerafter a 10-year grind of trying

(03:35):
other businesses?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
So once we got the property, we were living in it.
We had it as a four-plex whenwe originally got it
non-conforming suites,unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Then it says, okay, what else is there?
We were looking at the marketthat wasn't doing the best in
Saskatoon and I had all my moneytied up in it, so I had no
extra money to go do anythingmore and I didn't think of some
other strategies at that point.
So we tried to open a salon.

(04:11):
We had it open for a few years.
It did not really take off, sowe ended up selling that.
From that, we were still likeyou know, I was starting to make
more at work because I wasstill working at the time.
And then, about 2018, a realestate group came to town.
My wife had watched them.

(04:32):
They was going to host on HGTV,quite well known.
A real estate group came totown.
My wife had watched them.
She was one of the hosts onHGTV, quite well known.
My wife said let's go.
I said, okay, I've always beeninterested in real estate.
I've always done some realestate since I moved here to
Saskatoon.
I went, I listened these aresome strategies I hadn't thought

(04:58):
of.
My parents had given me some,but these are some ones that I
hadn't thought of yet.
So I said, okay, let's go.
So I joined up in 2018.
And from that, I bought a condothat same year and I did some
negotiating strategies on thecondo.
So basically I had none of myown money in the condo from that

(05:19):
.
So that's what kickstartedgoing again.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
From what I can understand from your answer is
is you?
You started to surroundyourself with people that are
doing real estate, maybe for alonger period of time that you
have done, and you learn newstrategies?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yes, different people give you different strategies.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
So surrounding yourself with the right group of
people.
Are they actually real estate?
Other real estate investorshelped you to restart, or
kickstart your journey again inreal estate.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, yes, it did.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, this is what usually happens to most people.
If you surround yourself with,you know, whatever the field is
that you're trying to do In thiscase we're talking real estate
or business If you surroundyourself with people that are
doing it, whatever you're tryingto achieve, you will go to the

(06:19):
next level.
There's no question about it.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
That is so true.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
Yeah, I want to ask you the question number three.
I want to circle back to howyou transformed a condo, because
from when you started youmentioned you were broke, and
this question ties into a littlebit on thinking outside the box
.
You used a line of credit and$6,000 to transform a condo and

(06:52):
$6,000 to transform a condo.
Now how can you maybe help newinvestors think more creatively
like that, Because sometimes newinvestors, like you said, even
you when you started, did notknow strategies until somebody
else told you.
How can you or what type ofcounsels could you give to our
audience of new investors ofthinking more creatively?

Speaker 2 (07:21):
One is actually surround yourself by other real
estate investors, ones that,specifically, have done some of
the more interesting andcreative items.
Some of the more interestingand creative items.
I was talking to people that Ihad no idea to use a line of
credit as a down payment untilsomebody suggested just use your
line of credit.
Oh, okay, work on theflexibility of your financing.

(07:48):
So the reason I was able to usethe line of credit was because
I actually had set it up where,rather than having a traditional
mortgage, I had a smallmortgage but a big line of
credit.
Because of that big line ofcredit, I was actually able just
to take a big chunk out and useit for the down payment.
Right.

(08:13):
So there's other things.
I'd use the credit card for the$6,000, so basically, I'd
finance it over time.
Most people can get a creditcard of some kind.
If you can't, there are otheroptions is to meet more people.
Always look for more educationtoo.

(08:37):
Don't stop doing stuff, but dolook for more education, because
it's going to be good to havestrategies that you didn't think
of, or you can look atstrategies outside of real
estate that could maybe beapplicable in a certain
situation.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Yeah, definitely thinking outside the box.
You have to look at sometimesother industries and, like you

(09:19):
said, try to also can be creditcard companies, lines of credit.
There's all kinds of money outthere.
Obviously, you want to do it ina strategic way where you don't
put yourself in trouble orother people's money in trouble.
You have to do it in a smartway, but it is available.
So I 100% agree with you thatif you're surrounding yourself

(09:45):
with you know more people thatare doing it, that have done it
longer than you or and arealready doing creative financing
kind of ways, you're going tobe learning a lot faster than
trying to do it on your own.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
Yeah, one of the best ones is the MBNA 0% for like 10
to 12 months.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Yeah, that's a really good credit card If you can get
your hands on that.
You know it's basically a freeloan and you just make sure you
pay it back on time, you don'tpay any interest.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
I got three of them.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
Well, you know the tricks.
Now that brings us to ourfourth question.
I want to fast forward to now.
You own a 12-unit apartmentbuilding.
You've invested in Ottawa andEdmonton.
What do you think was the keyto scaling up from where you
started, or even doing solorenovations, to now multifamily

(10:48):
deals?

Speaker 2 (10:51):
I think one of the biggest things was actually
joining Wealth Genius andactually really get involved in
it and talking to more peopleand being more involved in the
community, because once you'reinvolved in the community,
people talk to you as well andreach out to you, which has

(11:11):
really helped me.
So I was actually able to see,like, oh the condo, while it did
make money.
So I was actually able to seelike, oh the condo, while it did
make quite, it did make money.
I was at the whims of too muchof the whims of the interest
rates, of if it's vacant or not.
Yeah, so that actually reallyhelped me.

(11:33):
See things from a differentperspective of sometimes more
units is better yeah and uh and,like you said, many people join
some communities.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
You know, like they, they join the real estate
communities and but then itstops there.
You said the key word isgetting involved, participating
in the communities, askingquestions, try to connect with.
You know zoom calls and groupcalls with other people.
So they, they actually knowthat you exist yes, uh, after

(12:12):
something local, go toal.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
If somebody put on an event, go to that event.
Start to talk to people thatknow more about real estate than
you.
Then you go to other events andnow you're the expert for
everybody else.

Speaker 1 (12:29):
Always try to bring value, share your knowledge,
take in the knowledge fromothers and then share it to
others after that.
This is the key of beingrecognized in a certain space,
in this case, the real estatespace.
If you're always involved, ifpeople see you in person or
online, you'll get the attentionand that's the key to growing.

(12:51):
That brings us to our fifth andfinal question for today, and
this I'm excited to talk aboutit.
I know you traveled.
You travel a lot, we'vetraveled together on some
masterminds and you travel toSpain, to Greece, to even join

(13:14):
the real estate investor Summitat Sea last February together.
How has real estate investingchanged not just your finances
but your lifestyle?

Speaker 2 (13:28):
Well, it's changing quite a bit, especially in the
last year when I started to getmore active.
I started to go look at, hey, Ican actually find a way to make
going to Spain, to go to Greeceyeah, that gets a tax write-off

(13:48):
.
That means I don't spend asmuch as I think I do.
Going on like REIC was afantastic experience.
You got to really connect withpeople deeply, but you also got
to see parts of the world Iprobably would not have seen.
So it's just really transformeda lot.
It's done to give me more andmore freedom.
It's just really transformed alot.

(14:09):
It's starting to give me moreand more freedom.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
And I hope to grow that even further so that I can
do more traveling and see moreof the world.
And a lot of those travels youknow, just to put a perspective
to people, the type of travelsthat you do decide to go on, you
can do travel and it's just youand maybe your wife, but a lot
of travels are also gearedtowards going with other

(14:41):
investors, so you can buildthose relationships as you
travel.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, you build them as you travel.
Yeah, you build them as youtravel.
And then there's certain taxadvantages that you also get for
doing that, because now you'reactually working but you're
enjoying the world at the sametime.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
And you know it's a lot of fun activities.
A lot of people say, oh, is itlike going to a conference?
You know, for some people it'sboring, it's.
A lot of people say, oh, it's,is it like a going to a
conference year?
It's.
You know, for some people it'sboring.
It's not boring at all becausebecause everybody is there on
the same uh, level ofunderstanding, or they're,
they're, you know when you'redabbling.
If, let's say, you go playbowling and you go in a bowling

(15:25):
league, you're having funbecause everybody likes bowling
there, well, it's the same thingwith real estate.
You travel and you go in abowling league.
You're having fun becauseeverybody likes bowling there.
Well, it's the same thing withreal estate.
You travel and you go to placesand you're there with people
that enjoy the same passion asyou.
So it's fun, no matter what youdo or where you go.
Yes, well, david, it was apleasure talking with you today.

(15:49):
You answered some key questionsthat really may be for some new
investors or investors that aredoing it for a little while but
are kind of stuck and maybeneed to start thinking
creatively for financing.
You gave some key answers andalso, looking at your life, now

(16:12):
some people might decide tostart traveling more, but with
people that surround them withthe same mindset.
Thanks again for being on theshow.
It was a pleasure to have youand I'm sure we'll see each
other very soon again.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for tuning into the 5Questions Podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to subscribe, like
and hit the notification bellon our YouTube channel so you
never miss an episode.
Stay tuned for more insightsand tips to transform your real
estate and business game.
See you next time.
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