Investing in the Niagara Region

[Jadon Kaiser]

Hey there, I'm relatively new here and have been interested in REI for a couple of years now. Unfortunately, I've only recently had the opportunity to actively pursue real estate, but with the current state of the market it seems harder more now than ever. With the average house prices in St.Catherines, Welland, Niagara, etc being so high, I've been having difficulty in finding a sufficiently cashflowing property, or even one to house hack and live in with others. Even the prospect of seeing a positive cashflow seems difficult unless you're creating multiple units from a SFH, or assuming a multi-unit building. I'm not sure if the 1% rule still applies, but with current market rent it seems to be closer to 0.5%.

I've seen some of the more experienced investors buying SFHs and creating legal duplexes or triplexes but since I don't even own one property and have never been a landlord before I wanted to gradually build my way up. I'm willing to put the time and effort in a reno, but don't personally have the skills and experience so I'm not sure of the cost and time horizon for one of these conversion projects. I'm also looking for any networks or communities (beyond bp) for discussion of how they approach investing in this region (if there still is opportunity of this nature). I'm currently working with a realtor but I dislike how passive they are in my pursuit of a property (just automated listings). Is this normal, or anyone local have a recommendation for someone who is willing to aggressively pursue a property with me?