New to Real Estate Investing - Need Direction - Ontario

[Santesh Jaggernath]

All,

My wife and I currently reside in Etobicoke and have generated substantial equity in our primary home.
For the past two years we have house hacked our primary home by renting the basement. Now we are ready to make the next move and purchase our second property to generate more cashflow and have it appreciate.

To do this, we refinanced our primary mortgage and pulled out equity ($300k) to cover the down payment and renovation costs. Prior to refinancing I did speak with a couple of real estate agents to confirm if our target purchase price was achievable ($500k-600k), both said we should be able to make it work. Then we spoke with a mortgage broker and confirmed that we should be okay for an approval within that range and possibly more due to our high employment income. Ideally, we would purchase a single family home for $500-600K max, put down 20-25% down and the rest of the funds will cover renovations to convert to a duplex and cover holding costs.

Now finding this property seems to be like finding a needle in a hay stack. Properties are going almost $200K over asking and when I run the numbers at these prices, I wouldn't be able to cash flow or have enough cash for the renovations, holding costs, etc.

We have been hunting around Hamilton, Brantford and London so far but to no avail. I am trying to keep my composure and not over pay for these properties but its getting tough. Now I am sitting with a load of cash and I am worried we took out the funds to not even be able to use it especially with inflation staring at my bank account, ha. I am open to investing in Windsor and St. Catherines. Also open to Kitchener and Barrie but my price point is probably too low.

Anyways, sorry for the long winded post but I thought I would give BP forums a try to get some tips, direction, connections, encouragement, anything helpful really.

Look forward to hearing your responses and thanks for reading all!