All Forum Posts by: Stevo Sun

Thank you very much, both Anthony and Stevo. I am currently located in Fredericton, NB. I would look to begin buying here, but prices have been so high in the maritimes recently that I’m unsure if it’s the best place to start. Also, my partner is not a huge fan of our current location so we were interested in moving, which is why I wanted to ask about the ideal markets because we would be willing to move anywhere in Canada if it meant being able to start our portfolio in the best market possible. That being said, if Fredericton or somewhere else in the maritimes is a worth while market, we would be willing to put our desire to move aside and begin investing out here.

Hi everyone, my name is Max. I’m new to bigger pockets and I am an aspiring real estate investor. Now, I was wondering… given how tough the real estate market in Canada is these days, does anyone have any recommendations for specific markets/areas to look at when trying to start my portfolio? I know this is a bit of a general question, but any information/recommendations on some of the “best” areas/markets (where you can still get in quite cheap and the place has good growth potential) in Canada to start my investing journey would be much appreciated. And whether you have recommendations because of personal experience/success in those areas, or if it’s your own personal opinion, I’m all ears.

Lastly, I want to apologize in advance of this question bothers anyone. Yes, I know it’s general, might be hard to answer, and ultimately is a very beginner type of question, however I am a complete beginner in the real estate world, and everyone needs to start somewhere. So, any info on where to start looking for properties would be great… oh and also, would you recommend trying to buy a single or multi family home as my first property? Keeping in mind that I am hoping to hold it for the long term and have it be the first property in my portfolio!

I am going to take possession of a pre-sale condo in Burnaby, BC in August. It is one bed, one bath, "luxury", around 600sq ft. Purchase price was $380K, similar units are now selling at $650K so I have built up some equity already. I am trying to work out if MTR would generate positive cashflow. For a LTR, I could probably get $2500-2800 per month. Is it worth the investment into turning it into a MTR? I am thinking of using a home staging company for furnishing and have a budget of $10K to work with. I am estimating mortgage to be around $1900 per month ($2500/month including condo fees, utilities, property taxes, insurance).

For some background... I am currently living in a condo in Kitsilano, but I am mortgage free for my primary residence. I work full-time in STEM and make a low six figures, so I can tolerate some volatility in the rental market. 

Thanks!!

Hello folks. Just made the commitment to get into Real Estate investing 2 weeks ago. There is a BP podcast on the BRRRR Strategy with David Greene in which he gives a hypothetical example of two investors, Tom and Mike. I'd like to consider myself Mike right at the start of his journey. I'm based in Calgary Canada so would love to connect with other investors here in Canada.

@Stevo Sun thanks for response. I fat fingered my question. I want to sell multi-family home in US and trying to find out if i can do a 1031 exchange for a property / land purchase in Canada ? 

Hi Fellows, can I use 1031 exchange to sell a multi family property in India to buy land in Canada

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 Hi Stevo,

Thank you for taking the time to leave me feedback, I will keep looking for deals. Would you say that if the average rent for a similar house around the area is higher than what I would be paying monthly even with the high rates that I should hop on the deal? In general, how much ROI are you looking for when investing in rentals in Alberta?

Hello folks,

I am 27 living in Canada and make roughly 53k after taxes.

I have been living in my condo (Purchased for ~159k) for just over a year that I put 20% down payment (~31800) on and I am looking to purchase another property (preferably detached home up to 350k but another condo would work).

I have ~82k in my investment portfolio tied to ETFs that I could sell to use towards a down payment but I prefer not to touch them.

Inspired by the BRRRR,

My current plan is to use my parent's HELOC to fund my 20% down payment for a fixer upper around 250-300k and mortgage the rest of the 80%.

I plan to reno the new property, remortgage on higher assessment, pay back my parent's HELOC, live in the new property and rent out my condo

Or,

I plan to reno, remortgage on higher assessment, pay back my parent's HELOC, rent the place out and remain in my condo.

Could a better option be to pull out my ETF investments to fund the down payment? 

Would it be a better idea to purchase 2 condos as rental property?

I am not afraid of the risk I take on however I am cautious because my parents would be involved although they are supportive.

If there are any experienced investors willing to put in feedback for the scenario or just advice in general to a 27 yr old that has been reading and studying investments/RE investments and preparing to dip my feet in the water, it would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Hi folks. I would love to hear your thoughts on the current situation we are in.

My wife and I purchased a primary residence in May 2022 in Ottawa for $510K. Our mortgage was $2K a month when we first purchased but now it’s about 3.1K due to the aggressive rate hikes and being on a the variable rate mortgage (hindsights 20/20 and of course we should have locked in at a lower fixed rate). We were not educated enough, we didn't have an investing mindset and we weren't thinking long term, which was our mistake. 

Since we have become extremely interested in real estate investing, we want to house hack our next house purchase but we don’t know what to do with our current property. We can probably rent it for about $2.2 /2.3K but the delta between the mortgage and the rent would be still be around $900/1K+. We will would be cash flowing negative right out of the gate and that doesn't include other expenses.

My question now is, do we wait on the side lines for the next 6-12 months to see what happens with the rates before taking any action or do we continue to purchase a second property as a house hack and if the numbers work, we would eat up the negative cashflow on property #1 and pay our portion of the mortgage for property #2 for the house hack.  We can see if a short term rental would work in our area to improve cashflow for property #1. Selling would not be an option as we only purchased the property last year. For arguments sake, lets just say we would be comfortable in covering the remainder of the mortgage for property #1 and we’d be comfortable in paying our portion for property #2. 

I should mention that we are pretty risk averse in general. We obviously don't want to take on more risk and leverage but we also don't want to have to wait on the side lines for too long. We are both 30 years old so we have a little bit of a run way. We want to buy and hold properties for the long term and we don't plan on quitting our jobs anytime soon. 

I'm constantly thinking about ways to figure this out but I would love to hear peoples thoughts / feedback. 

Thanks in advance. 

 I agree, but I'm not the one who posted the question. :)