Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

[Mark Polan]

So I’m new to Bigger Pockets and I do not have any rentals at the moment. Currently reading and researching and preparing myself. I own my home and live in a very expensive city. I paid $200,000 (with a 2.49% interest rate ) for a townhouse with no garage and parking lot style parking. I pay $400 a month in condo fees as an example.

To find any type of single family homes that you would even come close to buying cash, you are driving a good hour easily out of town and will barely find anything under $120,000. In the city, single family/duplex’s, etc are going for $350,000+ easily. So traveling for my first purchase is a must but also not ideal since I would like to know the area I’m investing in.

I understand you need to have professionals help you to find the deals, but until I’m ready to pull the trigger I am not ready to ask Agents to start looking for me. Rents don’t come anywhere close to the 1% unfortunately. For example, I wouldn’t be able to rent my house out for more then $1,600-$1,650 at the moment.

Main question is, is there anyone here that is family with the Ottawa,Toronto/Montreal surrounding area that have had to deal with more expensive housing to start off? And if so, how did you go about it?

Thanks,