All Forum Posts by: James Ma

Books have been the #1 resource for me

Sorry for your bad luck. It is not uncommon to not have another walkthrough prior to closing on the contract as the agreement states that the property should be in
the same condition as the walk through. Usually after the walkthrough, its weeks before you complete and take possession so that is not uncommon either.

Unfortunately it has nothing to do with your realtors, this is between you and the seller. I've had similar situations where I ended up getting an apartment which hadn't been cleaned well after their moveout (which was one of the conditions on the agreement) and the realtor said to be honest it could've been worse if they left a ton of stuff behind as its not really worth a lawsuit over... the realtor did offer to complain to the other realtor about this to see if they'd do anything but most of the time the sellers don't care or will send a small e-transfer as compensation.

Your only option is to pursue a lawsuit or accept the offer. His offer doesn't sound too bad as they could've easily washed their hands of the situation and said too bad its not our fault either.

That's part of the reason I'm looking at putting a syndicate together - to enhance the ability to scale faster and generate more passive income and reach financial independence quicker

Hi Riley,

Some things to consider...

- No downpayment and only a $318K mortgage? So where'd the rest of the cash come from to cover the rest of the 420K value? Technically there is a "downpayment" here somewhere unless you paid for it with a loan in which case you could just add that to expenses.

- $5K for a house does not sound like enough for a rainy day fund alone, I'd put away $100/mo of that cash flow to cover things like new appliances, roof, hot water tanks, etc.

Your mind is in the right place thinking about opportunity cost... before selling you should always have a plan in mind of where you can take that capital to generate a higher return

You can list your neighbourhood or a neighbouring address if you're worried about your place being targeted by criminals, if its an apartment building then its even less of an issue. However, I am not sure how much crime there is targeting empty homes? Doesn't seem like a good return lol

I dont mind putting down my phone number even in the ad for people to reach out to me but you can do only email contact if you prefer as well and they dont get your email info as it is routed through craigslist

Why not craigslist? I find most of my tenants from there or FB groups

Ask for a cosignor if you are concerned. Personally, it would depend on the circumstance and their occupation. If they're moving here and they're a doctor or teacher then I'm not worried.

If they're moving here to open their own business, much more risk and I would want more reassurance through cosignors.

Greetings from British Columbia! If anyone wants to connect to chat real estate and share some experiences and learnings, feel free to send me a message :)

Purchasing your own home tends to be the end of banks willing to give you mortgages lol as usually the place that you want to live with your family (or future family with kids) is going to be a nice one and costly but will save you the efforts and having to move again when you have kids  and can be more of a forever home.

Of course being able to buy something that is nice enough for you to be happy in and not extravagant or lavish is ideal since it is money and leverage that wont be working to generate any income and is essentially a liability for you barring appreciation value. Many people make the mistake of buying way too nice of a place thinking their house is an asset so why not splurge and they end up paying a ton in property taxes / maintenance.

I dont think renting outweights the benefits of ownership unless you're able to have an investment strategy in mind with strong enough returns to cover your rent cost (ie. you can easily generate income for downpayments of cashflowing rentals. Then you can quickly build your portfolio before saving up for your primary residence). But if after buying a rental property, it is going to take you many years to save up another downpayment for another rental or home then its likely not worth it.

One strategy you could deploy to give you a bit of best of both worlds is to buy a home with the ability to rent out the top or bottom so you can have a tenant providing you income in your primary residence.