Norma Walton discusses how once you find what you love to do, financial success generally follows. In her case it involved real estate and fixing her first problem property. But the steps and tips apply to all endeavours.

1. Love What You Do and the
Money Will Follow
https://normawalton.blog/2018/01/30/norma-walton-love-what-you-do-and-the-money-will-follow/
By: Norma Walton

2. Table of Contents
Title
Early Interests………………………………………………………………………………….
Identify What You Don’t Like……………………………………………………………
Find Something You Love To Do……………………………………………………….
Find an Opportunity…………………………………………………………………………
Expect Challenges……………………………………………………………………………
You Need To Be Sure………………………………………………………………………..
Know What Is Important………………………………………………………………….
Know The Financial Details………………………………………………………………
Execute the Plan Despite the Difficulties………………………………………….
Keep on Track…………………………………………………………………………………..
Enjoy the Process…………………………………………………………………………….
Analyze the Financial Results…………………………………………………………..
Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………
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16

3. Early Interests
• Early in life I was told to find what you love to
do and the money will follow
• Back then, I loved to
play basketball and I
was good at it…by
London, Ontario
standards anyways
• Nonetheless, not being
male nor being blessed
with the ability to dunk,
the advice wasn’t
readily useful

4. Identify what you don’t like
• Then I went to university and studied law, met
and married my husband, and we opened a law
practice in the area of family law
• I met many wonderful clients and made steady
money practicing law but I never loved it
• Lawyers have one of
the highest rates of
alcoholism and are
one of the most
miserable of all
professionals

5. Find Something You Love To Do
• I enrolled in business school and all of a
sudden things became a little clearer
• With the financial skills
I learned there, my husband
and I were able to determine
that fixing problem properties
was something I would enjoy
and that may make us some real money

6. Find an Opportunity
• The first problem property we were looking at
was owned by a fellow who was having
challenges
• He had tried to sever the properties but
hadn’t completed the severance
• He wasn’t paying his mortgagee/partner
• His wife and he had separated and she was
suing him for child and spousal support and
was about to seize his assets

7. • In the face of all that,
he was still difficult to
deal with as a vendor
despite his desperation
• He ultimately ended up
fleeing to Florida
where he had another
property
• There he would
ultimately be charged
with arson because he
allegedly tried to torch
that property for the
insurance money

8. Expect Challenges
• The properties we were looking at were completely
vacant…of humans anyway although there were definitely
creatures living inside
• They were 13,700 square feet in size over two buildings
• They were connected by a Soviet era bunker/tunnel
whereby you could move from the front building to the
back without going outside or being seen
• It rained indoors
• The carpets were mouldy
• The walls were peeling off
• Everything was stained and dirty
• They were both in a glaring state of neglect and disrepair
• But, long before, they had been owned by Peter Monk’s
company and had bullet proof glass in parts of them…so
there was hope they could once again be beautiful

9. You Need to be Sure
• Our realtor asked us a number of times if we
actually wanted to purchase the properties
they were such a mess
• He wondered why two lawyers who had a law
practice making a bit of money,
very limited experience in real
estate, and seemingly not a lot
of resources would want this
money pit

10. Know What Is Important
With real estate, what was important to us were the following:
• LOCATION: The properties were on Hazelton Avenue in the
heart of Yorkville in Toronto, a top drawer location – you
couldn’t get much better
• SCOPE: The properties comprised enough square footage that if
successful, they could really create a ton of equity upon
completion of renovation
• FINANCING TERMS: The financial terms we negotiated
permitted us to purchase with a minimal down payment and put
the remaining money we had towards renovation
• CHALLENGE: The properties presented just enough of a
challenge that I thought we could successfully renovate
them…assuming we were frugal and got a bit lucky…and
refinance them in the planned amount of time

11. Know the Financial Details
• Purchase Price: $2.3 million
• Down Payment: $200,000
• First Mortgage: $1.3 million @ 8%
• Second Mortgage: $800,000 @ 11%

12. Execute the Plan Despite Difficulties
• The plan was to renovate as quickly and cost effectively as
possible
• We hired a crew of guys and a contractor who became and
still is a great friend
• We directly supervised them in ripping out everything that
was damaged and replacing it with anything we could find on
sale
• The front building was to be renovated first
• Once partially done, we moved our tiny little law firm into this
huge front building
• We then created two residential units, one above and one
below the law firm, that occupied quickly
• The residential tenant downstairs was a smoker – although
she claimed to be a non-smoker when we rented to her – and
the smoke infiltrated the entire building, making working
difficult
• We had to kick her out and replace her, which we did in time

13. Keep On Track
• When we tackled the back building, we went high
end residential rental with whatever nice
products we could find on kijiji, craigslist, the side
of the road, carpet ends, end run tiles, paint on
sale, kitchen items on sale, and surplus bathroom
items
• Money was tight and it was a necessity that we
were frugal and smart with our money
• We had more time than money,
so we spent time finding bargain
renovation items

14. Enjoy the Process
• We completed and filled one suite at a time in the back
building and we had some very interesting tenants over the
years
• One was a professional baseball player who changed his home
number every three weeks to avoid his wife meeting the
parade of call girls and women for hire that frequented the
place when she and the kids weren’t there
• We had a Buffalo Bill who refused to live in Buffalo and took a
limo every day from our place to Buffalo and back
• We had a fellow who made a fortune in the high tech industry
in Europe, became a pilot, and brought his former stripper
partner back to Toronto with him. He had babies with her
while continuing to frequent strip clubs here
• Those were just three of the very interesting clientele we met
and got to know

15. Analyze the Financial Results
• Within a year of purchase, we had renovated, severed, and
rented out enough of the buildings to justify an increase in
value to $3.5 million collectively
• When we were done, the Russian Embassy came knocking
because they loved the location, the underground tunnel and
the bulletproof glass, but no offer was forthcoming
• We thus refinanced each of the properties with traditional
lenders at much lower rates
• Due to the increase in value, we were able to
withdraw our initial down payment of $200,000
along with most of our $300,000 in renovation
costs, giving us the money to do it again

16. Summary
• That was our start in the world of fixing problem
real estate
• We bought in June 2001 and finished in June
2002
• For that project, it was definitely accurate that
when I found what I loved, the money followed