Closing deals in a hot market

[Derek Kohut]

Hey BP,

I am in Niagara, Canada and have been looking at small multi family homes to add to my real estate portfolio but am in a very competitive market. Lots of money is coming down from the Toronto area and buying up properties at way over asking. Sometimes 50-80k over! I have offered on two properties in the last month and offer over asking for both and lost both properties by 20k and 35k. I don't understand how people are paying so much for these properties when CAP rates over 3 or 4% are rare. Are there any local investors out there actually getting decent cap rates?. I have considered investing on the east coast, but not sure I am ready for that yet. I thought I had my market narrowed down to small multi family but now I am bouncing all over the place , STR, out of province, etc. I Feel like I'm lost. Who else out there is having these types of problems? Any help would be gladly welcomed. Cheers