Newbie from Calgary, Alberta,

[Abi Carleigh]

Hello Everyone, 

My name is Abi, I am from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. I am really excited to join the Forum, I have been working on my goal for real estate investment and I am ready to buy a first single family home residential/investment property. I have seen quite a lot of posts and people I would love to connect with. I have seen  few options to buy but I am going with the least most expensive in a big expensive neighborhood here in Calgary. The house is being sold for relatively cheap but seller wants no inspection and it is currently tenanted. The tenant in the basement's lease would be up at the most end of 2022.

I have lots of questions to ask because I am doing this alone, the goal is to buy all the houses in the row and gut later, maybe 5-10 years down the line and do a big condo for tenants. I would be living on the main floor of this house and it is in a gentrified neighborhood, I am hoping I can build a rapport with current home owners on the street and let them know that I would be interested in these properties should they decide to sell.

This property was constructed in 1950s in a centrally located area in Calgary. I have almost 15% saved up but I am wondering if I can do 5% down instead, keep the rest and repeat should further opportunities present it self. I know it is a lofty endeavor. I am hoping that those who have walked this walk would be kind enough to help me navigate so that I do not fall in any hole.

I APPRECIATE you a ton.

Abi

[Cindy H.]

Hi Abi. We bought our first investment property (in Calgary) in Feb 2021 (1956 bungalow) and as people are saying most homes of this vintage have asbestos. That being said, if it's not disturbed, you don't need to worry about it (but this will add to the demo costs when you gut / rebuild. In our primary residence, we had the seller remove the asbestos in the attic as part of the contract because we knew the soffit venting wasn't sufficient and wanted to fix that. Regarding sampling - if you want to negotiate this with the seller, you can get samples but for attic insulation in Alberta, any vermiculite in attics for certain years it is ASSUMED to have asbestos and testing isn't really needed. However, if you are demo'ing on your own and can prove that your insulation is "asbestos free" then sampling can be in your favour. WISE ABATEMENT in Calgary (Jason is the owner) does great work.

In terms of the abatement process. Find a good abatement contractor, have them provide a scope / description of work to be done. Ensure you also arrange air quality sampling after the work is done to make sure their are no fibres present and a signed air clearance report should be provided to you. If you trust the company, they can do it or you might consider a different company to do the air sampling.

Regarding advice, really do not underestimate your montly / annual costs - especially for repairs (operating and capital). We did the full calculations with capital and operating maintenance expenses and although we've only been running for a few months, our cashflow is either zero or just below - partly because we have been trying to be pro-active about taking care of some of the important maintenance stuff up front. 

For your zoning, not sure if you plan to change from MC to residential but I would say leave your zoning as this has best future investment value? Most people want to move from single residential to multiple to commercial - seems like the property you want is already there.

Finally, if the property has been on the market for more than a week, insist on making the sale conditional upon inspection. Some properties are priced to the point where they are bought without inspections - but this usually happens within days (or hours) of it being listed. Hopefully you have a great realtor to work with who can help you negotiate an attractive offer that protects you. 

For our property, we were able to negotiate a significant reduction on our initial offer after the results of the inspection...

Good luck!!