All Forum Posts by: Benji Klassen

Don't let higher interest rates scare you away from locking in that next unit! You should be able to find great deals no matter if we are in a recession, or in calm waters. But, tread carefully when getting into your next deal on the financing/analytical side to make sure things make sense cashflow wise, especially with interest rates rising you should plan for rates to continue to rise so you can be ready for what's to come.

If you have any more questions please don't hesitate to reach out and ask - I'd love to connect more!

Best of wishes,

Josh

Thanks for the assurance @Joshua Messinger! Its a weird feeling when most of your friends and family are telling you to run the other way or wait! But the more I'm learning from other RE investors is that if you can find the right deals, there's no reason to hold back. Finding cashflowing properties in my area is proving to be mighty difficult though it seems! Rental prices really aren't caught up to house prices by a long shot.

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Quote from @Khai Hong:

Clearly, I need to up my advice game. Allow me to have another go at it. I second Chris' suggestion to talk with a broker. In fact, it's generally suggested that people starting out should talk to at least 3 brokers to find one they're comfortable working with and who can get them the best mortgage for their investment goal. A mortgage is more than just the rate. Keep in mind that each time a broker checks your credit, it goes down by 25, but recovers after 6 months. Try running the numbers for a few properties and have 1 or 2 ready to discuss with the brokers you're vetting. I haven't checked recently, but I think Kelowna is now out of the "healthy cashflow" radar, unless you go the airbnb route (in which case check the city and strata limitations). Or find one that's undervalued because it needs a lot of work, fix it up, then rent it.

Regarding the HELOC, I just found out yesterday to my unhappy surprise that it doesn't really matter how much a property's value has gone up, the main limitation is still going to be personal income level. That's with Scotiabank, I got way less than the "80% minus outstanding mortgage" that I had heard about. I'll be talking to some brokers next week. Happy investing.

Haha thanks for the reply Khai. Appreciate the advice on requesting advice, lol. I guess I was trying to start a general discussion to see if anyone had any red flags to watch out for.

Luckily I have an excellent mortgage broker who helped me get into the place I'm currently in. Definitely did some 'shopping' before I landed on this guy, and he's also got great market insight and is active in the Kelowna market with his wife as a real estate agent. My hope is to kind of do a hybrid of what you said, and find a fixer-upper, flip it/theme it out and put it up on Airbnb and manage it. Its actually crazy how expensive condos in the DT Kelowna region are, which is why I'm still pondering. Not sure how long you're allowed to shop in the market once you've had an appraisal done (seems like it wouldn't be allowed to get your condo appraised at a high value now, and then wait for the market to cool down in 6-9 months to purchase?).

Any BC areas you're looking at right now to jump into?

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Quote from @Chris Baxter:

@Benji Klassen @Khai Hong welcome to BP! When you refinance / get a HELOC, you'll have to qualify for the new loan amount. I would recommend that you connect with a mortgage broker to find out how much debt you can afford (at higher interest rates). Be conservative in what you think your can bring in with a vacation rental and make sure the numbers allow you to make ends meet.

Much appreciated Chris! I'm using the same broker I used when I got this first place (gave great advice and it really paid off). Honestly, he's trying to qualify me for quite a lot more than I'm actually comfortable spending, so I think you're right - it'll come down to some conservative math with the vacation rental to determine what price-point we should be looking at.

BTW - cool to see you're in Poco! I'm just over in Coquitlam Centre so we're neighbors :)

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Hey guys!

First time posting here - stumbled across this forum recently and what a great community!

So I was fortunate enough to buy my first condo in the Greater Vancouver area in 2020 for myself, and the property value has raised by approx $250K over the last 2 years based on comps in the same building. With that in mind, I'm in the motion of getting the property appraised and refinancing the mortgage to jump into our first short term rental condo in the Kelowna area (still evaluating!). Looking for something that will provide healthy cashflow via managing the rentals ourselves.

We were fortunate enough to lock a 2.3% fixed mortgage rate at the time, but I'm hoping to get some tips from other investors to ensure I don't over-extend myself when buying this investment property. With mortgage rates skyrocketing, and the possibility of renewing in 3 years at a much higher mortgage rate, I want to ensure I do this right and don't get slammed paying two large mortgage payments if things slow down in a recession.

Any tips or insight would be greatly appreciated!

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All Forum Posts by: Benji Klassen

Benji Klassen has started 1 posts and replied 4 times.

Post: Leveraging Equity to Buy 1st Investment Property - tips?

Post: Leveraging Equity to Buy 1st Investment Property - tips?

Post: Leveraging Equity to Buy 1st Investment Property - tips?

Post: Leveraging Equity to Buy 1st Investment Property - tips?