Caught in Cross Border Chaos

[Stephen Leslie]

2020 was going to be the year of expansion. I was going to expand into an undervalued marketplace and build up a portfolio capable of replacing my full time income.

I had researched an area that I fell in love with, I had connected with people who are actively doing what I wanted to do, and I was in the process of getting my hands on the capital I would need to invest.

After a couple trips to check out ideal properties, I had found the perfect spot, as well as a partner to invest with me. Everything was working out well, and even the few concerns I had seemed to be a pretty easy fix.

We closed February 10th, and right away got started on cosmetic renovations to bring the house in to this century. All the while, finding a great team to look after the property and bigger renovations that we needed done, as we could only go down for 3 days a week.

And then, a month later, everything was shut down - including the borders - and the Canadian Dollar tanked to 1.46 of the USD. From a Forex point of view, it was incredible for our investment. From a BRRR point of view, we didn't have enough funds transferred over to start paying for others to do the renos for us, so we opted to wait.

In doing so, not only did we lose our spot with our contractor, but we also couldn't find a replacement. And to top it off, the property management company we had hired stopped all communication with us. Luckily, we had a back up property management company that has been absolutely incredible.

To top it off, working in the swimming pool industry, we were absolutely swamped, so much so that I almost had a heart attack on 2 separate occasions because of the amount of stress.

I had elected to focus on work until things slowed down. Partially because I couldn't take on any more stress, partially because I had no idea what the next move would be. Who would have thought COVID was going to shut down the world for so long?

So now, I am trying to figure out the next move and looking for ideas. With our capital continuing to decline each month, continuing to hold the property for another year is basically out of the question. Here are a couple ideas:

1. Sell the property at a loss and walk away.

2. Find a US based partner in the area who can look after the renos it needs done in order to get it rented out.

Any other ideas would be welcomed.

Thank you,

Steve Leslie