All Forum Posts by: Brianne H.

I am a sign language interpreter, mainly working in a grade 7-12 school, but I also do contract freelance assignments. My husband and I have house hacked/live-in flipped 3 houses and are hoping to purchase an acreage this year, which has been our dream and the main reason for doing flips so far. But since both my husband and I have gotten injured from our day jobs (carpal tunnel and repetitive strain) at ages 27 & 22, we've realized this is not what we want to be doing for the rest of our lives. So after the acreage, our focus will be on small multifamilies in the US. 

@Ben Wilkins if you don't mind sharing your spreadsheet(s) with me as well I would love to take a look at it! 

Great discussion, I am looking at purchasing out of state in the next 6-12 months, and likely looking at small multifamilies (2-4 units) but wondered some of the same things.  

$100 is more than reasonable to have someone come out and repair the fence. You're getting hung up on the fact that supposedly $100 is what the neighbour paid for the whole fence. Whether it was or not, you should be gracious and apologetic and pay the $100, and you ought to end up with good relations with the neighbour still. 

It doesn't matter if your dog is the sweetest animal, or how wonderful and friendly he is, or anything else about him. That's not the point. The point is, you are 100% responsible for him and any damages he may cause. It's not about being a sucker and paying for unrightful damages - your dog DID cause the damage, your dog HAS gotten out multiple times, and you ought to do more than the bare minimum to repair the damage, and do it without argument. That's part of being a courteous neighbour. She's not asking for an outrageous amount, she's not taking you to court, she's actually taking this very well in my opinion. She just wants the fence repaired and to ensure it won't happen again, hence the fence reinforcement. Find a solution to keep your dog contained (just as ANY dog needs to be contained), pay the $100 promptly, without complaint, and with an apology, and move on with your life. 

I am a dog owner as well, and no matter how sweet my dog is (lab retriever), if he gets out or damages anything, that's me that needs to pay for it. It's not fair for me to expect everyone else to love and put up with my dog, and it's wholly unfair to the neighbours if he's running around loose, scaring someone who is timid around dogs, and damaging people's property. Please, pay the $100, apologize, find a solution to contain the dog, and move on with your life. It's exactly what I would do. 

Hi @Account Closed, yes I agree BC makes it hard to invest in with the extra taxes, fees, and laws. I'm not terribly familiar with vacation properties and how profitable they are around here, but I'm sure the most high demand areas in AB would be Banff/Canmore, Jasper, and Waterton areas. Close to the mountains and National Parks for winter and summer activities.  Beyond that I'm really not sure what prices are like and how much demand there is. Have you considered doing vacation rentals in other areas closer to home? I've heard of people investing in vacation rentals in AZ or other southern states (and Mexico - though entirely new set of rules) and doing fairly well. 

What is your ideal strategy for this property? I don't think you can wholesale, as it's already at market value. Is it flippable? Or could you do BRRR?

What is the basement suite like? How many bedrooms/baths, and what sort of finishing? It's great it's already rented for $1050, but my concern would be that you may not be able to rent it again at that price should the current tenants leave. I had a basement suite rented in Marlborough (technically 2/1 but I rented as 1 bed + den as the second room was tiny) and could only get $725 with utilities included, and didn't get a whole lot of replies (and it recently was fully repainted and had new carpet throughout). 

Are you getting a new mortgage for this property? If so, I was under the impression that a new mortgage could only be a max of 25 years, but if it's refinanced, then it could be 30 years.  

@Neil Da Silva what is it that you'd like to do with this property? How long do you intend to have it? What are your plans for where you will live for the next 5-10 years? 

That CMHC/Genworth premium is a lot of money. And as mentioned above, you are paying interest on it. However if it's the difference between being able to buy a property and putting 5% and paying the premium, or having to save save save for 20% down, I'd pay the premium. But I don't know your circumstances. 

I'm not sure how CMHC/Genworth look at it if you are living in the property, but at a later time decide to move out. Since you did reside in it, and it was owner occupied at the time of getting the mortgage, how much do they care after that? I don't know, might be something to look into. 

Also remember the premiums are portable if you need to port them to another property. 3 years ago we bought a townhouse as our first house, and ended up doing a live-in/house hack flip that wasn't really intended when we bought it. We only had 5% to put down, so we paid the Genworth premium (the % rate was slightly lower at the time). We were able to port it to our second and third properties (that we were living in while flipping) and only paid a smaller top-up amount, which allowed us to still only put 5-10% down on each property and keep more cash available for renos and other things. 

@Jan B. If your goal is to have rentals, I would strongly reconsider doing rentals in BC. They are very left-wing tenant friendly. It's extremely difficult to get a sub par tenant out (not necessarily evict, but say if they were pushing things enough that you can't evict them but you don't want to renew the lease) because the laws are in the tenants' favour. BC also has some additional land transfer taxes that AB does not have (or a far smaller percentage) and you have an extra 7% provincial sales tax where applicable. They also have rent controls and strict rules on precisely which forms you must use to serve notices. There are several reasons why I personally won't invest in rentals in BC, too many risks and the law might not back you up. 

AB on the other hand is quite a bit more landlord friendly, and fair to both parties. I have heard Edmonton has better cashflow opportunities than Calgary, but I can't speak to that personally. Calgary is going to be harder to cashflow in as rents right now are still fairly low, but house prices are as well. This doesn't necessarily mean cashflow though. @Sean Kollee mentioned some prices; I think prices are quite a bit lower than that, I sold a pretty average townhouse 2 years ago (when prices were still higher than they are now) for $286k. I would say townhouses $250-350k, a modest single family in an older-ish area (70's, 80's) would be $350k-$450k, and rents $1300-$1500 plus utilities for a townhouse/mainfloor/small house type of rental. My property tax bill on a $350k-ish house is around $2000 for the year. If you want to invest here, probably the only way you're going to see cashflow is buying an older (70's) home in a more affordable area, putting in a suite (or fixing it up to make the existing suite acceptable enough) and renting top, bottom, and garage if it has one, and putting 20% down on the property. But you're still not going to be making a ton of money so most likely better to look elsewhere. 

Subbing in, I am also in Calgary and looking to invest in the US in the next 3-12 months. 

Hi Stuart, I'm also in Calgary and may be looking for another flip in the next couple months once our current one sells. Drop me a line if you find a good deal, I may be interested! 

About escrow and escrow fees - what exactly does escrow mean? Is it just a US thing? I haven't really run into this term being used in Canada.