Investor from Alberta

[Glenn Thompson]

Hello everyone,

My name is Glenn, I'm from Canada specifically Edmonton, Alberta.  I'm 26 now, and currently travelling the world playing online poker for a living, looking to start investing in real estate more actively in the upcoming months.

I've been investing in real estate on a very small scale since I was 19.  I bought a townhouse in Edmonton at the time, it has 3 bedrooms upstairs and a dungeon of a bedroom in the basement with no windows.  I was going to school at the time to become a teacher and wanted to live rent free while doing it.  I rented the top three rooms individually during that period and lived in the basement, after paying all my utilities and taxes I was clearing $500 CAD a month at the time.  I remember thinking to myself this is awesome.  How can I do this again and again?

I was still quite focused on getting my degree at the time and I was making some money playing poker on the side but then I wasn't as successful at it as I am today but it was still a good living compared to others my age at the time.  It took me a while to get my second place though it wasn't until I was out of school and teaching for a year that I was able to buy my second home.

This place was a 2 bedroom bungalow in a small town 10 minutes outside of Edmonton.  It was built in the 50s and already had a basement suite in it, although as I've quickly found out it was probably better it wasn't there. :D

That being said it's functional and I was able to rent that as well as the extra bedroom upstairs again and live making a profit of $500 a month again.  After that year I quickly realized teaching probably wasn't for me, playing poker on the side had become far more lucrative than teaching and had been for 2-3 years now so I quit my job at the end of the 2nd year and travelled the world with some friends of mine as a poker player.

That has gone very well this past year and I was able to invest in a software company related to poker that is also doing quite well.  I'm wanting to spend more of my time and money focusing on my real estate business now which has been a goal of mine since I started with my first place back 7 years ago now.  I love the passive income and being able to live a lifestyle I want, I also really enjoy renovating.

So I've worked on putting my team together, I believe there are three parts to making up a good real estate team.

1) Investors
2) Maintenance / Property Managers
3) Borrowers

Right now, I really fall into the first category, my best friend is quickly becoming very good at doing renovations, taking courses to learn all the rules of the Landlord Tenant Act, courses on building bylaws, and watching pocket fives podcast to not make the same mistakes I did at first and many others have.

I'm just looking to soak in all the knowledge I can on these forums and hopefully build some good friendships with the community.

Cheers,

Glenn