All Forum Posts by: Alex Lawson

Looking forward to it!

I'll be there. Looking forward to it!

Thanks for all the responses! Obviously there are some pretty big differences between what is possible on the Canadian and American side, but it is good to have a comparison of both to see the advantages and disadvantages of each side.

@Ming Lim :) yeah we are really looking forward to it! 

@Cheryl Crockett Thanks! 

@Rosston Smith Thanks! 

Hey @Ming Lim Yeah we are pretty pumped for the trip! Unfortunately we won't be hitting Koh Samui but we are doing lots of islands on the west coast so that should be good.

So who are development fees paid to? The city? 

Thanks for the response @Thomas S.! And just so I know, I assume my current duplex has to be 20% paid off by that point as well? 

Wow! I had seen some crazy numbers on the city website but I figured there was no way what we wanted to do was going to cost that much! THERE GOES THAT PLAN! Is it worth trying to apply as a minor variance to go to a triplex? Do you know how much a minor variance is? The city website seems to only the price to appeal a minor variance. 

I don't mind moving at all. My girlfriend will take some convincing but hopefully she will get there. 

Sorry, so we do have to have 20% off this house paid off before we can consider this plan???

Yeah, I am planning on coming to the next BP meetup. Hopefully the November one is later in the month since we are in Thailand until Nov 15th. 

Hey @Matt Geerts. Sweet! I was hoping that was a possibility, but I didn't know for sure! 

We haven't quite paid off 20% of this house yet (should have bought in a cheaper area than Wortely, but hindsight is 20/20 lol). Do we need to have 20% paid off before we make this plan happen? 

We are zoned for a duplex currently but there are lots of multiplexes in our area so I am HOPING that rezoning is a possibility. We can split the current house up so no addition is required.

From your response it sounds like we are going to probably have to try and put some money into this place and turn it into a triplex to get some more equity to work with...

Hey @Brent Coombs, I have seriously considered Investing across the boarder and I have specifically looked in Cleveland. The prices are amazing there and it's very tempting! But the problem is I don't know the market, which I think creates more risk since I could pick a neighbourhood etc. that is a bad investment, also I am not there to meet tenants, fix toilets or keep an eye on contractors. Do you think I am right in thinking this? Or do you think difference in price outweighs all the potential problems I listed? 

I have a couple connections to good contractors so I should be good on that front. 

So is it true that a bank or hard money lender will lend more to someone who has $40,000 in debt and $100,000 more in home equity, over someone who has no debt but their home equity is $100,000 less? 

Hey @James Orr. I am currently looking into that option but I think that it would only be available if we purchased a single family home that we moved into and rented out our current duplex. I am not sure if that will even work since the program that allows 5% down is meant to be for parents buying a student home for kids away at university and specifically not landlords. 

Any thoughts on the above 2 options? and which will give us the most to invest in a BRRRR?