Hi there, I am new to real estate investing. We currently own a property where we rent out the basement suite and live upstairs. This is the first step we took towards achieving our real estate investment dreams! Looking for general advice from others investing in Calgary and surrounding areas.
Rental Property Investor · Edmonton, Alberta · Member since 2015 · 307 posts · 200 votes
6y
Congrats on taking that first step! We're investing in Edmonton and have found that in order to cash flow well, the property has to have at least 2 suites, so either a basement-suited house or a house with a garage suite, or bigger. I would expect it to be similar in Calgary. Keep adding those types of properties, one property at a time, and you'll do well.
Congrats on taking that first step! We're investing in Edmonton and have found that in order to cash flow well, the property has to have at least 2 suites, so either a basement-suited house or a house with a garage suite, or bigger. I would expect it to be similar in Calgary. Keep adding those types of properties, one property at a time, and you'll do well.
What about the full suited duplex? How do you like those? I’ve heard of them cashflowing $1500/mth in edm. Any idea what kind of income you’d need to be making in order to get yourself into one of those?
Hi Scott, thank you for the suggestion! right now property is breaking even, mortgage payment = rental income, but if investor comes in with 20% downpayment, they will make positive cashflow for sure. Even if property is cashflowing for me, I still want to sell since I plan to move out of country. I'm open to any ideas including AFS, since I just renewed my mortgage this year plus I have a great mortgage rate of prime - 1%.
It sounds like you don’t really cashflow tho atm if all your rent pays is your mortgage? An afs buyer would want to make sure they can get that to cashflow renting it out as a traditional buy and hold if that’s what it ends up having to be. What kind of shape is it in? You mentioned it was illegal, maybe there’s a chance a buyer could renovate and legalize it to increase cashflow and make it worthwhile? You also wouldn’t likely get any money I don’t think if you sold with an afs seeing as how there is no equity in the place. Is that something your okay with? Keep in mind I just started learning about this so take what I say with a grain of salt (I think what I’m saying is accurate..). I would like to see how you end up exiting this tho and I can help dig up any info you need that I could find in Barry’s course. Would make for a great learning experience.
Congrats on taking that first step! We're investing in Edmonton and have found that in order to cash flow well, the property has to have at least 2 suites, so either a basement-suited house or a house with a garage suite, or bigger. I would expect it to be similar in Calgary. Keep adding those types of properties, one property at a time, and you'll do well.
What about the full suited duplex? How do you like those? I’ve heard of them cashflowing $1500/mth in edm. Any idea what kind of income you’d need to be making in order to get yourself into one of those?
$1500/month doesn’t sound realistic. We’re building a brand new fully suited triplex (total 6 units) and its around $1400/month, after accounting for vacancy, repairs, PM, bookkeeper, everything. You might be able to find an older property with higher cashflow, but it’ll be eaten up by higher maintenance costs. Though it depends on the down payment too. If you have a smaller mortgage, you could bring cashflow up. We’re doing 15% down but our mortgage payment will be fairly low since it’s 40 year amm and 2% interest.
Yeah you’d need pretty high income to qualify for a suited duplex. Not sure what it would be. With the 6-plex, the building qualifies (no income needed), though you still need a certain net worth to guarantee the loan.
You gotta work with a mortgage broker that has experience working with investors, and make sure to lay out your long term strategy up front as it really helps with finding later on, he will make a plan on which lenders to use first, which to use later etc. If you are looking for someone I have one that is absolutely outstanding he is the only member of me "rockstar team" that I have not replaced, I can send you his info if you'd like.