New Member from Hawkesbury, ON, Canada

[Edgar Soriano]

Hello from Canada!

My name is Edgar and I'm currently looking to start investing in Eastern Ontario and Quebec. I've done one buy, hold and rent in the early 2000's that I sold for a healthy profit but never continued opting to open businesses instead. The market in Montreal is significantly higher now as well as it is in Ottawa. Needless to say I've been out of the loop when it comes to REI. I personally love Eastern Ontario especially Hawkesbury, Alexandria, Glengarry and Cornwall in terms of investment. The areas are between two large Canadian cities, they have relatively low property taxes, the rents are not ridiculously low but property prices are low. Many of the homes are old and require TLC and some require extensive rehabbing. Personally they are close to my home town of Montreal and my family.

When it comes to the type of investing I'm not entirely sure what I want to focus on for the moment. BRRRR is what I'm leaning towards, but flipping is also a possibility. Wholesaling is possible but not what I'm looking to do.

I hope I can connect with other Canadians and learn from investors from around the world.  Even though I used to work in banking and the mortgage brokerage industry, planning for financing using non traditional lenders is a major objective.  In the US, it seems there are plenty, but I haven't found too many in Canada.  Hopefully the BiggerPockets community can point me in the right direction.

If you would like to connect, chat about Montreal/Ottawa or would like to know more about me, please feel free to send me a message.

Looking forward to connecting with the community!

[Edgar Soriano]

Hi @Craig Patterson,

The Greater Ottawa area I find is getting expensive.  Condo fees are really high, apartment rentals are high compared to Montreal and there isn't a lot of duplex/triplex styles for sale.  I've seen multi families for sale 6 units and up at decent pricing considering you can charge a lot for the rent, but they move pretty quick.  If you want to buy and rent high end homes, its a good market, but it takes a lot of time to get your money back it would seem.  I much prefer just outside of the city limits, Embrun, Orleans, Rockland, Carelton Place, Stittsville etc...  Finding value for a beginner is tough in Ottawa. You need to be creative and know the profile of the renter in the area.  You might be willing to pay a little more for a duplex or triplex if you know you can tweak the rental units to a certain demographic who would pay a higher rent for exactly what they want.  My 2 cents anyway.