Small time landlord looking to grow.

[Haydn Baggaley]

Hello

I'm from Abbotsford, BC Canada but plan to move inland to Penticton, BC in the near future. I have two apartments at the moment. One I live in and rent out the room and other is fully rented out.  Both are in the same building of which I'm currently the Strata President.  The building is currently in the process of some major renovations and I plan to sell and move shortly after the renos complete. I am also doing renos on my units I'm doing most of the work my self as I am learning skill which can save me I lot of money down the road.

The money from the sale of my apartments should give me the down payment for a small apartment building in Penticton (a much cheaper city).  If an apartment building is out of my reach I'll go for a quadplex or something of the sort.  Hard to say what the real estate market around here will do right now, so it's hard to estimate how much money I will have to spend.

I think Penticton is a great investment area as it is a popular and quickly growing retirement area for Canadians as well the surronding area has a strong tourism, wine, and natural resources industries.  Abbotsford has better growth potential due to it's proximity to Vancouver but I want to move closer to my aging parents as someone will need to be around to look after them soon.

My goal is to have at least three separate income sources with atleast two of the large enough that I could subsist on one alone protecting my self from disaster should I unexpectedly lose an income source.  The end goal to be to free my self from a regular job making more time for travel, family, hobbies, and other personal projects.

From this site I hope to learn more about investing of all sort but especially stocks.  I would love to meet people that can help me realize my goals, help me learn anything that people on this site have to share, and benefit from their experience.

I hope that I can help other reach there goals, share what I have already learned, and share my experiences.

Thanks

[Roy N.]

Originally posted by @Kris Mcfarlane:

@Julie Toh

Regarding 15% down on an apartment building. 

use an example purchase price of 1.5M. 

What would the owners declared income need to be? 

Traditional financing would require the buyer to make declared $300k annual income. 
Dose the general rule of thumb "declared income multiplied by 5 equal maximum loan amount" 
Cash would than make up the difference. 

Ms. Toh is referring to a set of CMHC products for commercial apartment buildings.  They allow for smaller down payments and vendor-carries, but bring their own set of requirements with them - mostly things you should be doing anyway (reserves, experienced/professional management, residency certification, etc).

Commercial real estate is financed differently than residential real estate (1 - 4 unit properties) and is based upon the performance of the business (you are buying a business not a property) and the health of the asset rather than your personal income.