Niagara Region Ontario Investments

[Wayne Alward]

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Port Colborne.

Purchase price: $100,000
Cash invested: $20,000

Duplex, 2 X 3 Bedroom 1 Bath Unit. 1 Renovated and Rented the other with existing tenant and not renovated.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

I needed a plan for retirement. I was on what I call the freedom 99 plan as that would be the age I could retire. Investing in real estate or playing the lottery were my 2 choices and Investing in Real Estate was the obvious choice (although I still by a ticket every now and then LOL)

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Found through a local realtor and the MLS system. It was a bank sale and I was in the right place at the right time. Bank sales in Canada are not like in the US. In Canada the bank has a responsibility to get the maximum value from the house.

How did you finance this deal?

Traditional financing with 20% down.

How did you add value to the deal?

By renovating the unoccupied unit I was able to increase the value of the property

What was the outcome?

In 1 year I was able to pull out all of my investment and then some (40K in total) as the property was re-evaluated at $150000.

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Be ready. Good deals do not last because they are good deals!

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

I worked with good agents but found a lack of true investment centric real estate agents in the area so I became one.