All Forum Posts by: Jack Young

I haven’t been to interested in Alberta yet, but I am curious to know how you came across it.

Very interesting, Ive been asking over the years and have never made it to that point! I would think they give it to a realtor because it will be sold at the market price, making them as much as they can get out of the sale. Did you let them know you are an investor and are looking to buy? What happened?

I have been spending the majority of my time now focusing on streamlining everything, I have made great leaps in this and it's starting to come together and come online!! This will make everything I do much easier and I'm still working on it.

I'm starting to work with an accountant to see if she is the best for what I need.

I have yet to get going on a business but that's next

I'm sharing my ideas with others and being sure to ask for help and advice, I need to keep doing this and make it a bigger priority

I missed the last deal I found, it had great cash flow potential and I should have set my priority higher when I found it... not going to let that happen again!

Pushing to bring my software project to full use this summer!!

I found the owners of the second house and it turns out they are the same as the other vacant house I found. I cant understand why a housing society needs empty houses for such a long period and maybe they will want to sell. Would it be best to try marketing to them some how or do a little research and cold call?

So I’ve passed a couple houses now and then that continue to look vacant, after keeping my eye on them I’ve been trying to look for any signs of movement but have yet to see anything. I’m not sure these are motivated owners or not and I wouldn’t want to come across as someone preparing a low ball offer and end up pissing them off. How should I go about marketing to these people for the best chance of getting these properties at a favorable price. One is owned by a housing society and they are currently building a large apartment style building. I haven’t seen any activity in this house for a longtime and I can see it needs updates for sure but it looks mostly just out dated. I can’t see them needing this house when the building is finished and I can’t see them rehabbing it for sale either. The second I think is a rental but has been vacant for at least a little while, there hasn’t been any work, cleaning, or showings that I can see and I drive by it almost daily. It too needs updating, probably some maintenance but I’m not sure how deep the rabbit hole goes. What kind of advice can I get from the marketing and wholesale community to get their attention and make this happen for the right number?

5 or so years ago, I had been subscribing to a foreclosure list that would automatically be sent to me, it included a lot of properties in spreadsheet form and organized by area and city. For the life of me I cant find a list like this again, but everyone seems to want to send me this info. The problem is they are only sending me one property at a time, but there must be one central source for this information. Where do I find it without having to go through these 3rd parties?

Originally posted by : @Thomas S.

If you really want to build a hedge against rate increases don't put the extra money into dead equity invest in a income fund in a TFSA or any vehicle. Dead equity earns next to no return. As it grows it reduces your ROI where as putting in in a investment fund will generate higher returns, 8 - 12% easily, and be available when and if you need it.

If you are going to park cash as a "hedge" at least invest it somewhere that it will earn it's keep till you need it. Real estate is the worst place to bury your dead dollars.

This is something I have thought long and hard about, it also relates to my reply above and I'm not sure I would call it "dead" as it can still be a reliable place to go for your deals. A secured line of credit can be an extremely useful tool with low interest rates and ease of borrowing, while saving you an equal amount in interest on the property your paying down. This is one subject I have been struggling to know exactly how I will go about dealing with in the future.

Originally posted by @Roy N.:

We've been able to cut repayment amortization drastically and save 40-60% of the interest which would otherwise be paid while not stifling our cash flow ... during the term of a 5-year closed variable mortgage.

Can you elaborate on this a little more? 40-60% is HUGE and when you mention cash flow this flies right in the face of all those investors out there that keep telling me, at least in general, maximize your cash flow as much as possible. I've always liked the idea of paying things down, but that does not mean your loosing that money at all, its just sitting somewhere else and giving you a safety net at the same time.

@Roy N. 

Driving for dollars seems to be about the only concrete thing that finds anything off market, I would love to get tips from you sometime.

your deals are definitely inspiring @Roy N., this sounds like something you would buy in the states, or are the opportunities that good in eastern Canada? Either way I've been spending a lot of time looking for ways to find off market deals in my part of the world and it is a daunting task, anything that pops up on MLS isn't going to be there long.