Looking to network and find mentors in Canada!

[Levi Rietveld]

Hello, I'm very new to biggerpockets.com and to real estate investing. 

Just like you I'm looking to grow and get residual income through real estate. If like me, you have value to share and some personal experience in the matter I would be more then happy to provide as much value as I can back. I'm very experienced in sales and perform exceptionally well.

I have yet to invest in my first property and I'm currently contacting listings in Calgary, AB in Canada. I am very interested in condos and duplexes... Before purchasing my first home what are some important notes to consider? Also, I wanted to ask what are some expenses I should take into mind other then mortgage and property tax? 

Thank you for taking the time to read through my post, any input is much appreciated! 

[Brianne H.]

@Hai Loc I just did a quick search and I found 56 houses in Calgary for under $300k (not condos). They're out there, but those are the C, sometimes D+ neighbourhoods. You wouldn't have been able to find that before oil crashed. The oil bust REALLY affected Calgary, our unemployment rate is still really high, and the economy and market hasn't bounced back yet. People are really bitter in particular about our current government, federally as well as the provincial NDP because every time it seems like things might get better, a new pipeline project gets cancelled. The news story of the week is the 3000 jobs lost in ON, but what about the 120,000 jobs lost in the oil sector, mainly impacting AB? That's about 1 in 3 people laid off that worked in oil and gas, and since Canadian oil is trading at $13/barrel, unless something drastic changes like a pipeline actually getting built, things are pretty bad. 

House prices went down, but rental prices also went down as well. I'm still not seeing a lot of numbers for rentals in Calgary that make sense.