About the anchor

I spent twenty years inside the banking system.
Streetwise is what I built when I came out the other side.

Lending. Strategy. Risk. Wealth management. From the inside, I watched Canadian investors get matched with the wrong product, the wrong structure, or the wrong lender, most of the time without ever knowing.

In 2011, I founded Streetwise Mortgages. Since then: over $2.0B funded, back-to-back Canada's Broker of the Year, and a team that's structured thousands of investor deals across the country.

The bigger question was why no one had put the Canadian-specific mechanics in one place. The tax code, the lender behaviour, the structuring decisions that separate people who build a portfolio from people who just buy houses.

2× Canada's Broker of the Year Dalia Barsoum, Founder and Anchor, Streetwise Wealth Dalia.
Dalia Barsoum President · Streetwise Mortgages
2×
Canada's Broker of the Year (CMA 2023 & 2024)
3×
Ontario Broker of the Year (2022–2024)
$2.0B+
Investor mortgages funded
20+
Years in banking & mortgages
Forbes
Finance Council member
The turning point

Here's what I realized after funding over $2.0 billion in deals, and watching too many investors learn the hard way about what nobody was teaching them.

Most Canadians trying to build wealth through real estate are well-read and under-served. The information they need is split across boardrooms, lender desks, and tax practices that don't talk to each other in public. They end up making decisions, sometimes expensive ones, without ever seeing what the full picture looks like.

The information existed. It was just scattered across Bay Street boardrooms, private lending circles, and the back offices of mortgage brokerages. Nobody was putting it together in one place.

Streetwise Wealth is the show and the community that puts it all in one place. Long-form conversations with operators, lawyers, tax strategists, and lenders who actually do deals in Canada. Just the mechanics of how wealth gets built here, explained by the people building it.

The philosophy
"Wealth is not just a figure on a ledger; it is the structural integrity of your future narrative."

Six questions, three minutes

No email gate, no preamble. A short diagnostic built to figure out where you actually are right now.

Mapped to the Wealth Map

You're placed on one of six stages of the Canadian Real Estate Investor Wealth Map, with the episodes and frameworks built for that stage.

Awards & credentials

The credentials, in full.

Canadian Mortgage Awards

2024
Canadian Broker of the Year
Equitable Bank Award, back-to-back national title
2024
Broker of the Year, Ontario
Three-peat at the regional level
2023
Canadian Broker of the Year
Equitable Bank Award
2023
Broker of the Year, Ontario
2022
Broker of the Year, Ontario
Inaugural year of regional awards
2019
Outstanding Customer Service

Education & Designations

MBA Finance, Dalhousie University
FICB Fellow, Institute of Canadian Bankers
AMP Accredited Mortgage Professional
CSC Canadian Securities Course
OREA Commercial & Residential certifications

Affiliations

Chair PIPCA, Property Investment Professionals of Canada
Member Forbes Finance Council
Network The Mortgage Centre Canada — DLC Group · Canada's largest mortgage brokerage network, originating more loans annually than any bank or financial institution
CSR 100 Brokers Who Care · Streetwise IMPACT Fund

Published

Book Canadian Real Estate Investor Financing: 7 Secrets to Getting All the Money You Want. Seven-year Amazon RE bestseller.
HBR Harvard Business Review / Ivey case study: Streetwise Mortgages: Growing More Efficient
What we believe

The three rules we work to.

01

Operator-grade.

We bring people who do the work in real Canadian markets and ask them to show numbers. The wins and the losses. The losses teach more.

02

Canadian context.

Our tax code. Our lenders. Our market cycles. A 1031 exchange doesn't exist here. Neither does a 30-year fixed. Every episode is built for the regulatory and financial reality of investing in Canada.

03

Real outcomes.

Members and operators on the record. We don't interview people who "teach" investing. We interview people who do it, then ask them to open the books.

The Streetwise ecosystem

The Streetwise ecosystem.

Streetwise Wealth is one of four companies built to serve Canadian real estate investors, over more than fifteen years.

Media

Streetwise Wealth

Long-form podcast, member community, and resource vault for Canadian real estate investors. Where you are now.

Lending

Streetwise Mortgages

Full-service mortgage brokerage. 15 years, over $2.0B funded. Residential and investor-focused.

streetwisemortgages.com ↗
Private lending

Private Mortgages Canada

Discreet private-lending platform for non-bank deals. When traditional doesn't fit.

privatemortgagescanada.com ↗
Capital

Streetwise Private Capital

Curated alternative-investment access for accredited Canadian families.

streetwiseprivatecapital.com ↗
In the press

Quoted in places that matter.

Financial Post (2025) Financial Post (2024) Toronto Star (2023) CBC (2020) Canadian Real Estate Wealth · Columnist Canadian Mortgage Professional Rogers TV

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