First investment property

[John Ibbits]

I want to preface this by saying that I already own a small commercial building for my business and my personal home, so I understand what owning a property and required maintenance can look like. But I’ve never had an investment property.  

What would be a good place to start? In the GTA, I was thinking about getting a SFR home in a good school zone and having the basement turned into a separate unit. Im not really looking for cash flow per se but long term capital appreciation.

If I should be looking at other kind of housing (condos, multi family etc) I’d appreciate any tips as well. 

TIA

[Ronan Donnelly]

Hi @John Ibbits, and congrats on recognizing the value of real estate as a wealth generation engine. 

I'd suggest taking a step back to think about the specific outcome you'd like longer term. My own journey started with buying my own home which I rehabbed, then I moved into buying SFH's as investment properties. This worked in terms of generating cashflow and appreciation although it was difficult to scale without it becoming time inefficient.

I found my own investing sweet spot by investing passively as a limited partner in a syndicate where I get all of the benefits of real estate investing (cashflow offset by depreciation, leverage, appreciation, long term capital gains, ability to 1031) and in addition I get to leverage a professional team. 

I don’t think you will go too badly wrong whichever route you take and I’d encourage you to think about how your strategy works for you as it grows. 

Good luck,

Ronan