It has been 5 months since we closed on the deal, and we thought it would be good to give a bit of an update on where we stand with the project. Since, we have taken possession of the building, we have started work on 3 units. The first 2 tenants have moved out in March, and the third in April. We expect to have the next 3 units to become available between May and June, which will give us a total of 6 out of the 9 units, to renovate and bring up to market rents. When we were

We had just purchased a 9 unit building in Kitchener, Ontario. Its so nice to finally have this deal wrapped up. It seems like it took us forever (approx. 120 days) to lock up this place. There were a couple times when we faced both challenges and opportunities from our lender, the seller, and insurance broker but somehow, we ended up on top. Usually, it takes quite a bit of time to set up the lending for commercial deals hence we started working on financing as soon as the o

Our goal over the last 2 years has been to purchase a purpose built 8–16-unit apartment buildings. In our opinion purpose-built apartment buildings are easier to manage and tend to scale better. There are economies of scale when you get into these types of commercial units. For example, there is 1 driveway, 1 lawn, 1 furnace, and 1 roof. If you were comparing a 12-plex to 6-duplexes – well guess what? Now you have 6 driveways, 6 lawns, 6 furnaces, and 6 roofs to worry about.

Last month we were asked to present to 200+ people about real estate investments. This was by far the biggest audience that we have every had for real estate investors. We were very honored to be on, but also humbled by the moment. The hardest part about the presentation was that we only had 1 hour. We started thinking to ourselves, what will bring the most value to the audience? How do we get them excited about real estate and what steps should they take if they were just st

With this example we are going to go all the way back to 2016. We thought it would be a good idea to show an example of how a property can continue to pay dividends not only during BRRRR but also throughout your hold. This was the second property that we had ever owned. Although it was 5 years ago, it seems like it was just yesterday. At this point in time of our investment journey we did not know about the BRRRR strategy. In fact, we were sort of in the discovery stage – try

Whenever we come across a new investor, the first thing we ask – have you considered house hacking? This is probably one of the easiest, best entries into the real estate investing world. It also allows you to try it out before going all in. There are pros and cons to every strategy so we will try to cover them all but first we will explain what house hacking is, and our story on how it helped us propel in our real estate investment journey. WHAT IS HOUSE HACKING? This is whe

We bought this property right when the Covid-19 pandemic started. This property was purchased of MLS – but did not receive much traction. There were a couple issues with how it was put on the market. First, there was an open house that was cancelled due to family emergency. Second, the sellers’ agent did not have an offer date – which is the norm for a hot market. This will ensure there are multiple offers [and hopefully a bidding war]. We were fortunate to view the property

This was an interesting purchase simply because the property was on the market for quite some time and it was not selling. The original list price was $550k. There was a bit of a lull in the market during that time of year [Aug’19]. In addition, the property was not well positioned when it hit the market. The seller was forced to lower the price, but it was still not generating enough action. We looked at this as a huge opportunity and decided to put our offer in. After much

One of the key questions that investors ask themselves prior to starting is whether they should manage their own properties. We are groomed to think that real estate investing is truly passive, but it depends. In fact, you can make it as passive or as active as you want. That is the beauty of it – you get the choice of how you want you want your investment portfolio to look like. There are of course pros and cons for each one. We will run you through our experiences and what

It is the New Year - it's time to reflect and think of goals that we want to achieve over the next year. There is a sense of satisfaction when we achieve our objectives and cross the finish line. Good goals should always excel our performance. They should also answer the following questions: 1) What are we really trying to achieve? 2) What is the final output that satisfies our hunger? 3) What will make us not simply happy but ecstatic about the outcome? We should always be a

There are multiple revenue streams when investing in real estate that most people are not aware of which is why we decided to cover this topic. Our strategy consists of “buy-renovate-rent-refinance-repeat” and we hold our properties for the long term. Depending on the strategy that you chose some of the below revenue streams might change but the overall fundamentals will remain the same. Cashflow For buy and hold investors this is one of the most important revenue streams. Ge

We were probably taught at a young age that debt is bad. We should always pay down our obligations and put some money away in our savings to make sure we are financially sound in the future. What if we were to tell you it depends? Debt can be broken down into 3 different categories the good, the bad, and the ugly. There is a big difference between the three. If used properly debt can be a powerful tool in business and in your real estate investment journey. It can provide the

There are 3 main ways to get involved in Real Estate investing. The option you choose will solely depend on how involved you want to get, and your risk tolerance. REITs The simplest way to invest in real estate is through REITs [Real Estate Investment Trusts]. There are plenty of options here. You can invest in sector specific properties like retail, hotels, resorts, hospitals, industrial, and residential. REITs are generally large corps with extended market reach – [national

The question we get asked sometimes is why do we invest in real estate – why not stocks, bonds, or RRSPs? The answer can be broken down into two sections: Risk and Reward. In fact, when purchasing any investment, the balance between risk and reward is something that always needs to be considered based on your own personal goals. Risk: We often hear that real estate investing has a lot of risk. This blanket statement is no different than someone saying that all RRSPs have risk

Location, location, location…. you have probably heard this many time before. This is one of the most important aspects of real estate investing. You cannot screw this up, you must make sure you do your homework here. We concentrate on 5 main attributes: population, employment, real estate price, vacancy rates, and transportation. Population: On a macro level we want to make sure that the city your considering has steady population growth over the next 20-30 years. The best r

As buy and hold real estate investors its important that we ONLY purchase positive cash flowing properties. This will not only secure your return on investment but also protect you against any market fluctuations in the future (interest rate increase). Depending solely on market appreciation is not only risky but speculative in nature. Calculating cash flow is quite simple: CASH FLOW = [REVENUE - EXPENSES] The revenue is essentially all the money flowing in from your rental p

The hot topic that the whole world is talking about in Q1 2020 is Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This pandemic has created turbulence in the markets around the world and has put a choke hold on the global supply chain. Thursday March 12, 2020 the Ministry of Education announced that all Ontario publicly funded schools are to remain closed from March 14 to April 5, 2020 in response to COVID-19. This is just one of many pre-cautions taken by many government, private, and publi

Delta opened in 1924 and was Hamilton's oldest operating high school until it closed its doors in June 2019. The high school has been protected under the heritage designation since 2014. Delta was one of three inner city schools that was classified as excess by the HWDSB (Hamilton Wentworth District School Board). The newly built Bernie Curtis High School will now service the kids in the Crown Point neighborhood. The first phase of the property disposition enables the city an

Prior to purchasing your property its important that we spend a significant amount of time looking at the market rent rates in the area of interest. This will then be used to calculate our cash flow from the different deals we are going to observe. As a starting point – you should have a pretty good idea of what a 1, 2, and 3-bedroom unit rent for in the city you’re looking to make the purchase. I would then start looking more in depth at each specific neighborhood – you will

Before Anton and I moved to Hamilton, Ontario we happily lived in the busy city of Mississauga. We both worked in Mississauga and most of our friends lived in or around Peel. Eventually we decided that we needed to find a bigger home. This began our search for our current home. Anton suggested we look in Hamilton. I remember the day we drove up to our current home. It was an open house and I thought the street was so pretty with all the mature trees hanging over the street li