All Forum Posts by: Phil Gardner

@Ian L. As others here have mentioned, the perks are primarily US based. 

Things like investment calculators, once you have a solid understanding of investment fundamentals can be replicated on Excel, and tailored more to our markets. 

That being said, BP blogs, forums and podcasts have been an amazing resource for me for education as I was first learning. Remember to set up keyword alerts for your market and any niche you're interested in learning in.  The forums are also a great tool to help connect with those actually taking action in your market, meetups, coffee meetings, etc. That's ultimately where the real learning will come from. 

I second that, it was very nice to meet everyone and see where people are at on their journey & what backgrounds they're coming from! 

@Peter Pham Thank you for taking the initiative, RSVP'd on Meetup, I'll see you all there! 

Hi Alshan,

There are many people on here investing in Ontario, myself included. Those duplex, second-suite, and small multi-family type opportunities you'll find all over the place, some of the more popular markets are Barrie, Kitchener/Waterloo, Hamilton, Windsor, Oshawa/Durham Region etc. Many shy away from Toronto but the cash flow can be great here as well if you can stomach the buy-in price. 

In short, Ontario has lots of options for investors, it just depends on what you as an investor are looking for. 

Also very interested in taking part in a meetup or even just coffee/drinks with a few people to get a meetup off the ground.  I'm in Liberty Village, but could meet wherever. This would be a great opportunity to see what everyone is doing in our market. 

I love this idea! I recently bought a house that a massive garage at the back with a loft, man door, and an electrical panel. You could tell the previous owner had a plan for it like you do.  We'd liked to have finished it and used it as another unit, but unfortunately Toronto isn't quite there yet.  I talked to my architect who's really on top of new Toronto developments. He let me know that Toronto is pretty close to normalizing laneway housing, so that you don't need to go to such lengths to have these types of renovations approved. From my understanding one of the stipulations is that it must actually be on a laneway though, so separate access I suppose.

More important than a good contractor, I think you should find a really good architect to give you some deeper insight into the project. Most general contractors should be able to handle the construction side of the project sufficiently.  

I'd love to see this and more creative housing in Toronto take off. Someone managed to get a shipping container house built recently near College & Lansdowne, I don't see why you couldn't make this work! 

@Jessica Labos When doing the numbers I find people tend to seriously underestimate the rents in Toronto when compared to other markets. With minimal alterations a lot of homes in certain neighbourhoods can have a 4bed upper renting for $3k, and 1 bed basement for $1300+. Even on MLS we typically see these homes bought around $700k.
Let's say your mortgage rate is 3%, thats a: 

$2350 mortgage payment.

$550 average heat/water/hydro

$300 taxes (high)

$100 insurance

 $344 management fees (based on 8% gross rent if you don't self manage) 

That leaves you with about $650 to cover vacancy (extremely low in Toronto) and maintenance. 

Totally off the cuff, rough numbers, but that's a fairly average example. 

It really is the massive rent prices that help carry the ownership of Toronto homes in my opinion. And we're seeing these rents more dramatically every year! 

Hi Jessica, welcome to BP! 

Given your husbands background in construction, I would personally consider looking into a small multifamily (2-3 units) detached or semi-detached property in the city, that needs some work. Or a single-family that could be converted into 2-3 units. This way you can force in some value up front, save money on construction and if you're lucky/buy right could refinance to take all of your money back out within a year. 

We've had a great year buying in certain pockets of Toronto due to the relief in the market combined with the massive increases in market rent over the past year or two. I'm sure you've read up on the BRRR method on the blog/other posts, I've found that works really well for our market.

Cheers! 

@Account Closed Yup! That's a bit of an extreme case, which is why I bought it of course! lol But we have lots of clients buying in the same neighbourhood seeing 6+% cap rates. 

I don't think the GTA is as hard to cash flow as many people think. My entire management portfolio is small multi-family in Toronto and I can say pretty confidently, barring any high cap-ex years, they all cash flow well. The Toronto rental market is absolutely nuts and the extremely high rents & the rate of market rent increase keeps the numbers working here.  

I recently finished a light reno on a 2-unit semi in Toronto @ Rogers & Caledonia. Purchase $590k, rehab $35k. Gross rents $4800/mth. It may not meet the 1% rule but it does cash flow VERY well. 

You could consider house hacking a similar style of property since you're within the city, it would help out with financing since you'll be living in it, and if you lived in the cheaper of the units in a lot of cases you'll live for free or very close to it. Just some food for thought! I'm a big fan of Toronto rentals, and keeping your portfolio close to home as you start.