About OREIO : Executive Team
Our Mission
To provide education, networking, and support to new and experienced Canadian real estate investors in the Ottawa and surrounding areas in order to grow their real estate portfolios.
Paul Blacquière, President
Paul Blacquière started his real estate investing education in his early 20s and has been an active investor since 2002. He has extensive experience with managing multi-family investment properties, major renovation projects, flips, joint venture investments, and private RRSP mortgage financing.
In 2004, he co-founded Spirepoint Properties, a real estate investment and educational company dedicated to making real estate investments easy for investors. Every month, he publishes the Spirepoint Insider newsletter with educational articles, investment opportunities, and recommended resources for real estate investors.
His professional career in the high technology field spans a 12 year period and includes experience in electronics engineering, computer software programming, technical writing, publishing, website design, and product development. In August 2006, he left his full-time career to pursue his dream of real estate investing and helping others achieve the same.
In 1991, he began his real estate education began by reading many books on real estate investing. The turning point for converting theory into action occurred when he joined a hands-on real estate investing course in September 2001. Before graduating from the course, he had already purchased his first investment property with a joint venture partner. In June 2002, he graduated as a Canadian Certified Canadian Property Consultant.
In April 2008, he was elected as President of the Ottawa Real Estate Investors Organization, where he has been an active member since the group was founded in 2002. He was also a member of the Ontario Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) since its inception in 2004 until early 2007.
Paul is single and lives in the west end of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, where he frequents many local coffee shops with his family and friends.
Keith Hawn, Vice President
Keith Hawn has been a Real Estate Investor since 2004 when his oldest daughter started her University studies. She came home for the Christmas holidays and asked her Mom and Dad to buy a house for her and her friends to live in the following year. Keeping an open mind, Keith approached his Banker for financing, and was delighted when the loan was approved. Keith became a real convert to Real Estate Investing when he discovered that instead of paying $5,000 per year to rent his daughter a room, that he is able to put $6,000 per year in his pocket every year after all expenses and debt service costs for the new house are paid. In addition, Keith figures that he has made enough appreciation on this property to completely pay for not just the oldest daughter’s 4-year education, but the youngest as well.
Keith’s long term goal as a Real Estate Investor, is to double his property holdings every two years with the intention of funding a comfortable retirement. With this end in mind, Keith joined O.R.E.I.O. in the Spring of 2006 in order to learn from other investors. He was elected Secretary of the Executive Board in 2007, and Vice-President a year later. Keith’s long term vision for O.R.E.I.O. is to see it become the primary supplier of information, products, and services required by the professional Real Estate Investor.
Keith Hawn earns his living as a Real Estate Sales Representative with Partners Advantage G.M.A.C. Real Estate, Brokerage, Independently Owned and Operated, Phone: (613) 836-3378. [This is not an advertisement, but a disclosure requirement of the Real Estate Council of Ontario.] Once Keith discovered how good an investment real estate was, he switched his real estate practice to focus on the needs of other Real Estate Investors. Today, working with investors represents the majority of his dealings in real estate. He works mainly with Buyers and Sellers of mult-unit residential buildings which vary in size from 2 to 20 doors. As well, Keith has recently started an initiative to show Senior Citizens how to access the equity in their homes through Sell – Leaseback agreements. Keith’s primary goal as a Real Estate Sales Representative is to help people fund their own Retirements, through buying and paying off at least one investment property.
Prior to becoming a Real Estate Sales Representative, Keith Hawn was a sought after Management Consultant who travelled more than 40 weeks per year for many years. He worked in every Province in Canada, many American cities, and the State of Victoria in Australia. In this role, he would show large Fortune 500 companies, and Government Ministries and Departments, how to increase worker Productivity and Quality results from 100% to 300%. To achieve these results, Keith has to become a passionate Master communicator, facilitator, negotiator and motivator. Eventually the travel and workload caught up with him and he suffered “burnout”. He left his consulting practice and decided to set up a coaching practice designed to help other “high performers” avoid burnout. It was a complete and utter failure, because high performers never think that it will happen to them.
Today, Keith uses the knowledge and skills that he acquired from both his successes and his failures to actively assist other people to reach their goals.
Joanne Beaton, Social Coordinator
Joanne Beaton has been involved in real estate investing since 2001 when she and her husband, Ken, purchased their first investment property in anticipation of their three daughters needing an apartment during their post-secondary education. They currently own both single-family and multi-unit buildings for a total of 55 doors.
She is Secretary/Treasurer for the companies she owns and operates with her husband and eldest daughter, ARCA Property Management and ARCA Real Estate Investment. They concentrate their efforts in property management, buy-fix-hold investment properties, joint ventures, and their most recent project includes "lease-to-own" opportunities for people who don't yet qualify for a conventional mortgage.
She has learned about real-estate investing through hands-on experience. She has attended multiple courses including various Cashflow Events hosted by Darren Weeks in Toronto and Ottawa and several Whitney Canada courses. Both she and her family are CD and book junkies and devour the information taught by Rich Dad's Robert Kiyosaki, to a name a few. She has found the information available through OREIO to be invaluable.
By day, she is the VP of Corporate Services of IT/ net - Ottawa Inc., where she is involved in the day-to-day operations of a successful management consulting company.
Zydra Gestautaite, Publicity
Under the leadership of her mother, Zydra bought her first property in 1996 in her home country of Lithuania. She then sat back and watched her property increase in value by 2000% and her parents portfolio triple.
She has since moved to Canada and obtained her Masters in International Economics at Carleton and moved into the Canadian real estate market. Since her graduation here she began following her parents lead on investing in real estate. Beginning with business courses and real estate coaching with Peak Potentials in US, she then joined OREIO in April 2007 and had an opportunity to learn from local experts Joanne and Paul from Spirepoint Properties. Since then she has invested in a multi-unit rental property and is looking for new properties.
Her professional career in public service includes extensive experience in project management, policy analysis in the areas of correctional justice system and health.
In April 2008, she was elected as Publicity Director of the Ottawa Real Estate Investors Organization.
Outside of her real estate activities, Zydra loves to hit the dance floor to Latin rhythms. When not dancing a hot salsa you can find Zydra exploring new countries through outdoor travel trips that allow her to integrate into the different cultures and meet fascinating new people each year.
Jason Annable, Webmaster
Jason is an active real estate investor looking to build up his portfolio. He started his career in real estate after studying material from Robert Kiyosaki, Mike Summey, and others. He purchased his first rental property in early 2007 and is looking to build his portfolio while learning more from others.
He joined OREIO in October 2007 shortly before giving the organization a website upgrade. Since then, Jason has also completed hands-on training with local professionals, Joanne Beehler and Paul Blacquière from Spirepoint Properties.
Jason graduated with a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science from Carleton University in 2005 and has been a database developer since 2003. With an obsession to detail, Jason is pursuing a full-time career purchasing real estate.
He's always looking for a great deal so feel free to drop him a message.
Albert Boudreau, Privacy Officer & Forum Moderator
Albert Boudreau is a real estate investor, Property Manager, and owner of IDEAL Property Management Inc. which provides management services of rental and investment properties. Albert joined OREIO in May of 2004 and has been an active participant since. Albert is also a member ofthe Enlightened Wealth Institute.
Mr. Boudreau has been managing properties since 1982 where he began in Nova Scotia for a real estate investor managing 20 units in five separate buildings. After moving to Ottawa in 1987, Albert started various small businesses while working in the Ottawa Hi-Tech industry and then purchased his first investment property in 1992. He also served four years on the Board of Directors of a Condominium Corporation in various positions as Treasurer and Vice President. Managing all aspects of a 110-unit condominium and his experience with his own investment properties gives customers a wide range of experience and comfort that their properties will be cared for by someone in the real estate business themselves. Albert now owns 13 of his own rental units in Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley and professionally manages more than 125 rental units for investors living in Canada, United States, Europe, and South America.
Prior to becoming full-time in real estate, Albert Boudreau spent 24 years in the hi-tech computer field as an application manager and project manager for large internal systems. His experience in managing project as well as dealing with internal and external customers provides him a lot of experience when dealing with property owners and tenants.
John Walsh, Founder
John started OREIO shortly after buying his first cashflow positive, nothing down 4-plex deal in downtown Ottawa. His intention for starting OREIO was to share his experience with other like-minded professionals in the Ottawa area and learn tips and techinques from other investors. His experience, both good and bad, cover the full range of investments - from single family homes to large commercial buildings.
John is currently a mortgage broker working with Capital Mortgages. His goals as a mortgage broker is to focus on multi-family residential and commercial in order to assist as many folks as possible at OREIO. If you need financing for your own home, John can assist with that as well.
His background is in software engineering and he graduated from Carleton University. He worked at Nortel until the tech bust in the early 2000's.