All Forum Posts by: Gary McGowan

There are many great Investment strategies. I have never invested in condos. There are certain areas where this does make sense and other areas like Toronto where you would never have positive cash flow.

It also comes down to your investment strategy and I also believe you should start with what type of tenant do you want to attract and work backwards from there.

In the past I have used www.cstonecanada.com to purchase mailing lists.

Unfortunately in Canada we can not get pre-foreclosure lists due to the privacy laws. I do recommend talking to mortgage brokers as they sometimes get asked by the motivated owners to find them a new mortgage...

To label any market with broad strokes is a mistake. You need to look at markets by neighbourhoods and types of properties. There are certain areas that are leading the Toronto market but those locations would not be great investments areas however great areas to live in.

I feel you need to look at the micro market and compare that. You should never refer to any market as the "Canadian Real Estate Market" is about to tank. The fact is I don't know anyone that invests in the Canadian real estate market. I know investors that invest in Multi family properties in Barrie or I know investors that invest in duplexes in Whitby bungalows. Very Specific....

Durhram region, Barrie, Northern parts of York Region, parts of Hamilton and Kitchener/Waterloo are decent GTA investment locations. There are cities like Brampton and Vaughan which I would be very cautious because they are having issues with trying to enforce rental licensing. Both cities are so confused with it at the moment that they are not giving out licenses.

Cities like Newmarket, Aurora and Stouffville which have rental licensing are great. It does sound backwards to invest in a place where this is enforced. However it adds value to your properties and it is very easy to upgrade a property that does not meet the min requirements. Which actually follows the Ontario Build Code. If your properties do not meet the code you asking for fines anyways....

A great book to read which covers Canadian Real Estate markets is Real Estate Investing In Canada by Don Campbell.

It is very important to listen only to those that have been there done it and are willing to share their failures.

Let me know if you have any questions. I own a number of properties in the GTA and have made some great choices and some not so great... :)

Great post @Roy N.

I would also add, We use Joint Ventures partners to qualify for the mortgages and provide the capital to invest. This is how we continue to buy properties.

Olympia Trust is a great Trustee company for RRSP mortgages.

Let me know if your looking to place some seconds in the GTA.

I trust he did his research before following up with the course....

The course needs to be Canadian and only Canadian...

@Roy N.

To each their own, Not sure about you but when looking at Investing in Canada I find it very important read Canadian content.

What authors do you like to read?

@Account Closed When we met last week I mentioned the GTA market very difficult to do Wholesaling. I have done about 15 properties this way although the time and effort was at a cost. For Wholesaling to work their needs to be some fluctuations in the market which produces VERY motivated sellers and properties with deferred maintenance. The GTA just hasn't seen that. When a property does come up like that the sellers know it is better to take it to the open market and get the most for it. The last true Ugly house I helped sell as a Realtor had 42 offers and sold for 123.3% of the asking price... We were able to market it to our Rehabbers list and we knew there would be buyers.

On the flip side when I was wholesaling I learned a ton...

@Dominika M ,@Simon Lloyd As for a meetup I would be happy to host one. Let me know and I can arrange it!

I can recommend a great book in Renovating for profit.

Ian Szabo is a local Toronto investor and has written a couple of books on the topic. He also runs a program called www.flipshcool.ca

His book is called From Renos To Riches. It can be found on Amazon and in Chapters.