New member from Vancouver, BC, Canada

[Elisheba Kihara]

I am a complete newbie to real estate but I am very motivated to learn. With the sizzling housing market in Vancouver, I have recently realized that I will never afford a home of my own unless I take drastic steps.  I currently rent in an area (Edmonds, Burnaby) that is a wonderful 10 min commute from my work but given that new 1/2 duplexes here are about $1.2 M, it's not exactly affordable. Older homes are not much better because of the value of the lot. So I have accepted the reality of looking further and commuting.

I need to make at least one deal - for my primary residence and then I can take it from there. This is why I started to research and stumbled upon this incredibly valuable forum that is BP. 

I am eager to connect with local knowledgeable REI who may have advice on how to start out, where best to invest and how to make those numbers work. I know house hacking is a good strategy but I don't know how the numbers work because in my area, a fourplex (rarely found) recently listed for $1.5M can only generate $6,000 and yet, it was snapped up in one weekend.

Perhaps, I can connect with a joint venture partner who has acquired a lot and wants to co-build a duplex? I have saved a decent downpayment and have a good enough credit rating to qualify for financing.

I am open to any and all ideas so please send them my way. I would be particularly interested in local REI meet ups.

I am really inspired by what I have seen so far.  I don't expect to flip houses any time soon but I am confident that the BP community is exactly where I will figure out how to realize my dream!

[Peter Crisp]

Hi Elisheba,

I'm in Surrey and I understand what you mean. First, buy used or build and it's going to be hard to make something generate positive cashflow unless you have a lot of money down. I've thought about building duplexes myself using modular construction, and I probably will get there, but it doesn't make sense to build in the Lower Mainland vs. many other markets. Some thoughts:

1) If you are willing to go outside of the Lower Mainland, I'd look at Calgary, Edmonton, Regina or Saskatoon and maybe Vancouver Island (Victoria or Nanaimo). There are people on this forum who know these markets well. I just got back from Edmonton and there's a lot of pain, but I'd wait 6 months to see what happens to oil prices. If oil prices don't rise, there's going to be (more) pain - perhaps as bad as 1982 - and I'd consider any of these markets. I like Saskatoon and Regina a lot, but not now. Prices won't rise between now and then so you can afford to wait.

2) In the Lower Mainland, you could possibly go out further and get a house/basement suite, or even share a larger apartment if that fits your lifestyle. We rent out a legal suite and we own another income property in Surrey (a modified buy-fix rent - we lived in it first then rented it out later) and it's worked out well.

3) You may want to check into executive rentals (buy and then a firm manages for you). I do have concerns about AirBnB etc. attacking this model and we use AirBnB ourselves to rent, but it's worth looking into.

4) I'm also taking up Samuel's advice and I'm checking into local REI groups. Perhaps we can swap notes on this?

5) You can try to chase the hot markets and pre-sales but only if you have close ties to the real estate industry. It's not my route (to me it's more like speculation, not investing) but lots of people have done well with this. There's also investing in the USA - even Bellingham etc.- so you are close enough to visit.

Good luck with your investing plans!

Peter