I first met Melissa when we were working on a small landlord’s lobbying group (along with Christian Szpilfogel and Tony Miller); after working together on that, Melissa reached out to me for coaching. Working with Melissa I was able to shorten her runway to reaching some of her real estate investing goals, as well as provide her with some shortcuts in her education and to figure out what she wanted to do next in her investing journey.

Melissa was recently a guest on Erwin Szeto’s The Truth About Real Estate Investing for Canadians podcast. You can watch the full episode here: https://www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca/10-bed-rooming-house-microsuite-triplex-conversion-land-banking-in-belize-with-melissa-dupuis/

Melissa has a smaller, but diverse portfolio – she has a single-family home, a townhouse condo, a high-rise condo, some small multifamily properties, some land in Belize, and something that sets her apart from many other real estate investors – she has invested in a 10-bedroom, legal rooming house in Welland, ON. Melissa’s rooming house is vastly different than what I’m sure you are thinking of – this is much more of a co-living situation than many rooming houses that we think of in downtown areas.

In her investing journey, Melissa has learned with each property and learned to take on something different or something bigger as she grows. She has learned that sometimes the (potentially painful or stressful) choice to sell a property from your portfolio is the best way to help alleviate financial pressure caused by other properties in the portfolio or to help finance a major project or acquisition. She’s of the mindset that it’s not a failure if you’re mitigating a negative situation.

In 2019, Melissa started attending real estate investing events, travelling by herself from the Niagara region to places like Cambridge, ON, or even all the way to Ottawa! At these events, Melissa started to shed that “lone wolf” persona that many real estate investors tend to develop and has built many strong friendships with investors across the province.

Melissa is always willing to share learning experiences that she has had along the way, so that others don’t have to learn the hard way – including her “Flip, Flip, Flop” – from that she learned to ensure that every detail is understood, and sometimes extra research needs to be done about a property, including checking for any outstanding permits, especially when buying from a wholesaler, who may or may not have got the complete information from the seller.

Melissa is the founder of Athena Property Management, serving the Niagara region and Hamilton. The company currently manages small and midsize properties, but as you’ve seen from her story, Melissa is never one to shy away from a challenge!

Check out Athena Property Management on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athenapropertymanagement/

Check out Melissa’s personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eatsleeprealestaterepeat/