New Member from Ontario, Canada

[Quang Nguyen]

Hi BP members,

My name is Quang Nguyen and live in the Greater Toronto Area. I found BiggerPockets actually from an interview from another Podcast The Top Entrepreneurs. After that I started listening to the BP podcast and trying to learn as much as I can. There's a whole wealth of information here and I hope to make my first investment property using my RRSP using the Home Buyers Plan available here in Canada.

The real estate market here is crazy and prices are super high. I'm planning to buy my first investment property by March 2017 and will probably be 2hrs from where I currently live because the prices are just way too high here. I currently work full time and going to school part-time getting my BBA and I'm researching if I should get my real estate license as I've heard from the podcast and other sources that it's a good to have to have access to MLS listings.

[Matt Andrews]

Hi Quang, welcome to the community! The Home Buyers Plan is definitely a good choice, and you're completely right about the Toronto market. I currently invest in Windsor, ON, where it is not uncommon to find great cashflowing properties at a 8cap or higher - which will give you a way better ROI than anything even close to the GTA.

I'm not sure what your budget is, but you may be able to start investing even sooner if you did decide to move further from the GTA. We currently own 3 properties in the Windsor area, 2 triplexes and a single family home. These are the numbers on a triplex that I purchased 2 years ago:

Cost: $255,000 

Gross Income: $36,000 + utilities

Net Income: $27,000

Cashflow: $15,500

Cash on Cash Return on $56,000 investment: 27.7% per year

As for getting your Realtor's license - it sounds like that may be a bit much to take on that on top of working and going to school. If you are interested in checking out the numbers on some properties south of Toronto, my partner can send you some deals - she's a Realtor and works with investors from out of town. I'm a mortgage agent myself and can get you pre-approved for an investment property. We also do property management if you wanted to make it a hands-off investment (being an investor is definitely a second job). In any case, it is important to work with professionals that invest themselves, as there is a lot more to real estate investing than meets the eye. 

Again welcome, and if there's anything else I can help you with let me know. 

Cheers,

Matt