All Forum Posts by: David Steinbok

If you have money but no time to look for real estate deals, just  go to any real estate seminar or group in the gta. Stand up and say,  i have money, and there will be a line of 20 people approach you, asking you to jv with them on a deal they are working on. Good luck. 

Hello, sorry I just got your message.  I was away on a deployment for a few months. Hope all is going well with your property search. 

Hi. I've done a bunch of duplex conversions in oshawa. 12 to be exact. The city is great to work with. If you have your drawings and all of your forms in order, it takes about 2 weeks to get a permit issued. If the city doesn't accept what you send in, or you need revisions, then it will take longer. Once you receive your permits and start construction, you will have a few inspections along the way. I used to book these well before I was ready because depending on how busy the city was, it would take a few weeks for an inspector to be able to come by. And I really didnt want to be held up waiting for an inspection. 

I found on average, from the time I closed on a house, to applying for a building permit, doing the renovations on 2 units, the basement being a full new construction, to getting all my final inspections and passing, to moving in tenents, took me about 4 months. 

Hope that helps. 

Responding to hai loc. I recently worked on a sales center at hwy 7 and warden and they were charging $1000/sqft. And at avenue rd and Lawrence I did that sales center, and that builder wants 1800/sqft. 

I'm a numbers guy. If it costs me $100k for a 20% downpayment on a 450k apt I need it to cashflows buy 8000 a year. That's not likely going to happen. There are so many better ways to invest my 100k$ than that. I could buy hockey or basketball tickets and sell them for more than an 8k$ profit. Just as a ridiculous example.

I worked in construction for almost 20 years, mostly in the condos. There is a paper taped to the window in each unit, it's an upgrade colour chart with the name of every owner. From my experience I'd say about 75% of Toronto condos are owned by people with Asian or Indian names.  

Condos can be good investments. Everything cashflows if you put a larger down payment like 50%. Some people park their money in condos, as canadian real estate is relatively safe, and we have a good banking system compared to other countries. So they buy a new condo and price goes up as its built. You get rent and some appreciation. So as a % return on your money, it's better than buying mutual funds or a g.i.c. 

But if you put the minimum 20% then you cant cash flow, and the carrying costs will eat away at you day job pay cheque. 

I look for cash flowing property. 

Rent>mortgage+tax+ins+$200 is my rule. 

It's a starting point, then you add in maintenance, vacancy, management

And my cash on cash yearly return has to be between 8-10%. Meaning if it costs me $56k to buy the house, then if it cashflows 400$/month I make $4800 a year after expenses witch is about 8%. The mortgage paydown and appreciation is an added bonus but I dont count on it, because even though its raising my net worth, I can use it to buy groceries. 

This is the way I was taught and it's worked for me. There are lots of properties that fit the strategy, you just have to find them. Or in my case, I make the house work by renovating it into 2 apartments 

I worked in a sales center today at leslie and Shepard. There are 15 new buildings going there. I asked the lady for a price list. The smallest apt is 385sqft for 420k. Now I dont know what you could rent that for, but off the top of my head, I know that with a 20% deposit, that property wont cash flow, and I can find way better investments with my 20% deposit money. 

If you are ok with paying out of pocket every month, and speculating that the market will continue to go up 15 to 20% a year, thenit's perfect. You may even be able to buy 2 of them. 

I also thought about becoming a re agent and then decided against it as well. For similar reasons as you. I didnt want to give up my evenings and weekends, as I have 2 young boys and I wanted to be home with them. Also, as an investor, I use agents who are well respected and knowledgeable in the area they work in and have years of experience.  So why as a new agent, would I think that I'm more knowledgeable than they are. I dont know Edmonton, I dont know ottawa, so I use an agent that does. I have 20 years experience in other fields. Funny enough, one of my take aways from reading Rich dad poor dad, is that I dont have to wear every hat. I can hire an accountant, I can hire a plumber and I can hire an agent, who would be way better than I ever would be. And I can focus on what I do best. 

No. I did all my house deals before I discovered the bigger pockets website. 

Man, I wish I could take my 500k and buy 10 rental properties, but it doesn't quite work like that. Jacob is right in what he is saying. Sure on paper, it says you can buy a house with 20% down, but you need credit history and a stable income to pay for your mortgage on the house. Then based on your income and debt ratios, the bank decides how much is the maximum mortgage debt you can have. Let's say you make 100k a year at your job, and can qualify for 1mil total in mortgages. Then you can get 4 houses. Great.  The banks also only could rental income as passive income, and only count a % of that. Not sure exactly what it is off the top of my head. Then there are some banks that only allow you to have 5 or six mortgages at a time. Also as others on here can confirm, in southern Ontario you will be hard pressed to find too many houses for 250k. So your 500k will more than likely get you 3 or 4 houses. Dave

For all my rentals I use affordable kitchens .ca in Scarborough.  Talk to Jelena. They build inexpensive white cabinets, perfect for rentals.  If it's for your personal house, then you are going to want to go somewhere fancier.