Solutions to Issues & Challenges - Investing in Nova Scotia
The purpose of this post is to create a localized source of knowledge to provide solutions to the issues and challenges faced when investing in Nova Scotia
One such problem of mine is finding affordable single family homes in Halifax to flip. To help with this issue, my business partner and I have created a team of bird dogs to canvass neighborhoods in the HRM. We then do a direct mail campaign to ask the homeowners if they are interested in selling their house - private sale. This technique has been successful thus far.
I'm also interested in any kind of networking/zoom call/meet up. Looking to connect with other investors as well as contractor, tradespeople, and an accountant
Hello everyone, am a new investor in HRM, looking for single family or a duplex around Halifax and sackville. Looking to contact with investors and contractors in the area.
And am very much interested to join the zoom meetup.
Hello, that's great to hear that your canvassing and direct mail has been working out for you! I'm looking to do a similar thing pretty soon. Would love to connect and chat about it and time.
Re: Builders and Permits
Hey Eri,
John is the owner at Lloyoll Prefabs. I toured their facility a little while ago. He is really nice, knowledgable, and accessible. My emails or messages on Instagram were promptly answered. They let me stay in one of their builds for a night, great quality. There is a price estimator on their website and they also help with permitting.
https://www.lloyoll.com/
Originally posted by @Eri Bastos:Thanks @Derek Cavanaugh @Joshua McEvoy. This is good information, though I don't understand all of it yet. I need to educate myself a little more.
Some background information: I own my home in Halifax, but I am currently living in Ontario, so I have it rented and a property manager looking after it. I touched based with them asking for advice what kind of houses are mostly sought after and what features people would be willing to pay a premium for, so I could have a little higher rent.
They may be off, but I was told smaller units for young families or people downsizing, open concept and garages are winners. Rents would be anywhere from 1400~1800.
The next thing I started doing was researching and reaching out to builders. My own house is a pre-fab (Kent Homes), so I started with modular home builders. Sent a bunch of emails, but to no one's surprise people in Nova Scotia are mediocre when it comes to replying email, so yesterday I left voice mails with a bunch of them. Hope to hear back during the coming week.
Your information that permits are hard to get is a little disheartening, as I can see this as an extra challenge with me being so far away, but I will keep poking around a bit more.
I have another question if you don't mind, please. I read somewhere that I need at least 20% down for mortgages on income properties. Is that really the case? I am not planning to use a company, just my own name.
Thanks for your time!
Hi everyone!
I am fairly new to NovaScotia Market. I am looking for cash flowing small multifamily properties for investment. Any thoughts on it?
Also @Derek Cavanaugh, I like the idea of zoom meeting where everyone can give and get knowledge of the market and their own experience. If you have already started the zoom meeting like this, I would love to be part of it. Let me know. Thanks!
Hi Derek,
If there is another Zoom meeting, can I be added please.
Thanks,
Hello Fellow Nova-Scotians! I just moved back out east from Toronto this past summer (August, 2021) with the intention of putting down some roots! Been listening to the Bigger Pockets podcast for 3 or 4 years now but never made any real moves. I am a professional musician (Bass player/recording engineer), but also and Handyman/Carpenter. I really want to be able to run a sort of music retreat/recording studio out here, surrounded by nature but still pretty close to the city. Part of the plan involves have several cabins that go up on Air Bnb to help fund all the other activities. Definitely interested in some small multi-unit rentals as well.
What I'm looking for today, is a lender who can help me buy a piece of raw land to start developing.
The following is my plan. Let me know if this makes sense and if you want to be involved!
I am confident that I have the skills to make this work and I am highly motivated to make this happen.
I would start by getting at least one off-grid cabin up and running to help offset the holding costs. This would involve making sure there is parking available on site, which could cost between 5k-10k to put in, or possibly less depending on the land itself. For the first build I would basically camp out on site and try to get it up and running as quickly as possible. There is also a cool newish app called Hipcamp that is like Air BnB but for campsites that would be really quick to get off the ground if we're thinking about short-term defensive strategies. Depending on the initial cost of the land and the insane price of lumber, It should be possible to have the property cash-flowing well within the first year with 1-2 cabins. Once the property is at least sustaining itself from the short term rentals I can start building out more of the permanent infrastructure like more beautiful walking paths on the property, look-off areas and a dock, not to mention a well to make it easier to maintain and service the rentals. Adding these extra touches to the property should allow me to increase the price of the rentals enough to make it really start to make sense. Once the property is making a healthy profit I will begin working on building my own primary residence and then after that, the recording studio.
Now, I know it makes way more sense to just buy an existing house that has a decent amount of land and just skip the part where I need to put 20%-35% down but I already found the most gorgeous property that would be absolutely perfect except that there's no house. I went to see it the other day and I can vividly see where the different little getaways would sit on the hillside overlooking the cove. Beautiful views and enchanting pathways to get there. It's quite a steep hill so I would probably put in some boardwalk bits that wind around the boulders and natural beauty of the land and line it all with little solar powered lanterns. It would be stunning. The property is currently listed for 250k but I think they will probably drop it since they tried selling last year for the same price and ultimately dropped the asking price to 200 before cancelling.
Anyone interested in investing in my writers retreat cabins destination recording studio homestead on the water? Even if not,I'd love to chat!
Looking forward to meeting all of you!
-Peter
I’m very new to the real estate investing market. I’m currently interested in wholesaling and I’m curious it can be done here where I live in Sydney Nova Scotia. I notice a lot of off-market properties everyday and just want to know how I can go about wholesaling them if it’s even legal here.
I’m open to other opportunities/options other than wholesaling as well such as rental properties in my area or possibly managing the property.
Just looking to connect with others and see what knowledge I can gain and if I can offer any.
Hello All!
I'm super curious to hear how have you guys been navigating through current market and how's your investing journey in NS been so far!
Yuan
Hi! Thanks for creating this group. I also did a private sale for my second rental and I think that helped to avoid some of the inflated costs that come from blind bidding.
I’m curious about how you financed your 3rd rental property. I have two duplexes now and a lot of my cash are tied up in them. I’m not sure how to go about buying my third. Did you pull out equity or re finance your properties to buy the 3rd?
Thanks!