All Forum Posts by: Marie Tai

As the girl in the real estate investing relationship, I can provide the point of view that my priorities are different than my husband's. However, our priorities both require some money to reach. So, maybe find out what motivates your girlfriend and approach real estate from that point of view.  

Does she want to help people? Making more money in real estate through house hacking can help her have money to help her family, friends and others one day (or start a charity!) She can also be the excellent landlord that people wish they had. 

Does she want to live in a beautiful home?  There's nothing wrong with setting aside a little extra money to make your suite a little nicer, but emphasize the perks of having the renters subsidize that cost. Maybe you can make each subsequent home nicer for her. 

Does she like to travel? Show her how this living arrangement helps you have more money to travel more often, or take her on a trip after each successful deal.

Does she want kids and to give them a good life?  Show her how this can improve your financial situation and provide a stable extra source of income. Maybe you can name each future property with what goal it's meant to achieve.

Basically, show her in real ways how house hacking can help her achieve her goals.  If you only emphasize money and she's not motivated by money, then it's meaningless to her and she won't understand the point of going through the hassle of living with other people or losing out on some amenities. However if you reframe the situation so that the money generated/saved helps her achieve her life goals, then she will work with you and get it more.

One more point, take her opinions into consideration on why she would choose one property or situation over another. Your renters might feel the same way so her opinions could potentially help to choose a property that is more attractive to renters or make an existing property better after renovations. Of course the numbers still need to make sense though. 

Also, some people will never like living with tenants. Maybe it's not for her.  Make a detailed list of pros and cons to house hacking vs single home to decide if it's really the right situation for both of you.  There are lots of ways to make money in real estate. You can always choose a different way. 

Good luck!

As someone who has also jumped from project to project and job to job in the past, I can relate with your situation. I admire your passion to find a job that will give you meaningful life purpose and enhance it financially as well. It's good that you're reaching out to this community for support. 

To reduce the risk of being unable financially to support your family while moving into a different field, you could consider househacking or buy and hold. 

You mentioned that your house is already paid off. That means you have equity that you can access to use as downpayment for a rental property or a house with a rental suite/multiplex. The 10K savings can act as deposit/closing cost/renovation money (depending on how much properties cost in your area). If you do your calculations right and get a good, cashflowing deal, you could increase your monthly income. Maybe your family can help you with renovating/cleaning/managing this property so that it's a family project. 

You'll still need a stable job in the meanwhile, but at least you know it's for funding your own investment properties now. The rental income will also give you a little more financial stability to jump careers or potentially to just own and manage multiple rental properties one day. 

You'll have to decide if it suits your personality and lifestyle more to work very hard on finding a deal, renovating it and getting it rented out and then slowing down to collect the rent long term (maybe your wife can help with landlording), or to flip the deal for small, short term profit and then do it again.

Good luck!

I think it's a pretty good idea that your Google phone account has all the information about your property and restrictions on it.  That probably does save you some time.  Maybe you can include a print out with information where you keep your rental sign up so that interested renters can read more about the restrictions and qualifications before calling you.

I like Bettina F.'s idea of a pre-written email reply.  I have these for my rental properties.  

I post online using Craigslist which lets me leave my email anonymous.  My ad usually has the main selling points and basic restrictions (ex. non smoking) so that I get the max number of interested people contacting me (just helps me measure interest and pricing).  I then send a pre-written reply that gives more information including what qualifications are needed.  This email says that if they meet all the qualifications and are still interested, they can call my number to book a showing.  This usually narrows down the applicants to only a few.  I have a pre-made list of questions that I ask on the phone and this usually screens out a few more people.  The few that meet all the criteria are given a showing.  If they like the place, they get an application form.

Something to consider is that if you get a lot of interested replies way more than normal, maybe you are pricing too low?

Welcome and good luck to you!

Hello!  I'm over in Port Moody, BC!

Congrats on your first deal!  Sounds like you did a great job, especially in not having to put down any money!  I thought not a lot of people from BC Canada were active on here either, but I am slowly finding more of them!

I'm connecting with a mortgage broker from TD too soon so hopefully he can help me with financing my next deal!  I currently have one rental property in Port Coquitlam.

Keep us posted on your upcoming deals!

Cheers, 

Marie

Hi Alex, 

I came across your post here as I was reading your profile.  What are you doing oversees?  Are you back now? And... you're an accountant!  Maybe you can help me with my taxes?  :D

Take care, 

Marie

Hi Ash! 

Welcome!  I'm new to BP and local to you too!  Good luck on the house hunting/house hacking!  There really were a lot of local accountants that replied to you, cool!  I happen to need an accountant familiar with real estate investing!  :D

Take care, 

Marie

Hi @Alex Butz!

Thanks for your reply!  That's great that you were able to turn your original home into your rental property!  Very wise!  It's a good thing that you read about real estate investing and the power of buy-and-holds at the right time.  Yeah, the Brentwood area is a very popular area, especially now that it has expanded so much.  I've seen so many towers go up in that area!  The Lougheed Mall area is going through the same development now and there are a ton of pre-sales going on for towers that they plan to build.  I'm keeping my eye out for any good deals there, but everything is super expensive!  I can't make the numbers work quite yet.

How exciting that you are looking for a second property! I want to do the same, but I am limited by my existing mortgage because the mortgage company I used doesn't offer a HELOC. I'm working with a mortgage broker to see what I can do about that. Hopefully, he can come up with some solutions so I can get back to buying! I'm still analyzing deals and watching the real estate properties that come up on my alerts though. Sometimes I see seller financing available! That gives me hope that maybe I can find a creative way to finance my next deal in case I haven't saved up enough money yet and can't take out a HELOC. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but who knows!

Keep me posted on your next deal!  I'd love to know how that goes!  I think both of us can only get better because we're in the game now and we have one deal's worth of learning behind us!  I know I learned a lot about what NOT to do from my first deal, so next time I'll be better.

Cheers, 

Marie

Wow, great work!  I am impressed.  I like how you got some seller financing in there to help with the down payment.