All Forum Posts by: Brianne H.

@Anthony Therrien-Bernard thanks for the info! I did find the number, very creative business name! 

I'm looking for an accountant who may be able to offer some creative strategies to help me turn a bad debt (unpaid to me) into something not as painful. I also have a real estate investment coming back to me in the next ~30 days or so and would like to be smart about how much I'll have to pay in taxes on it. Basically I've got questions, I know next to nothing about accounting, and most accountants I've talked to are either not particularly familiar with real estate, or only specialize in personal accounting. I don't know how much things change between provinces, but I am in Alberta (Calgary). Help would be very much appreciated :) Thank you! 

@Cole Black and depending on where you live, sometimes even less than half the year! (I'm looking at you, Calgary, with your snow this past weekend >:-( 

@Cole Black I recently heard (though unverified) that golfing is a dying sport/activity. Most players tend to be older and there aren't the same amount of young people playing as there were in previous generations. 

I'm new to note investing and have a lot to learn before I'm ready to buy my first one. However, before I get too far down the path, I would like to ask those more knowledgeable than me if there are any restrictions on foreigners buying US notes (Canadian)? Are there any Canadians that invest in notes in Canada - if so, how similar or different is it to the US note industry? I assume one major difference would be the much shorter term of <5 years on them. Or are notes a non-existent investment in Canada? 

Thanks! 

@Daniel Toy Yes the privacy and space is wonderful. Those are some good ideas for other money-making ideas and using the land. I've heard that sheep are fairly profitable, but for the price of hay last year, I just couldn't make the numbers work. Maybe if we had more space and they could graze more months out of the year we could do it. How many chickens do you have, and do you find them profitable? We currently have 7 Ameraucanas, just pets but everyone loves the multi-coloured eggs! 

You're right about finding a place out of the city. We got a really good deal on the land (and paid full asking price too, which I've never done with any previous property). $150k for 7 acres (and lake view, quiet, far from the highway!), when I've seen similar places around here go for almost double. I think we're right in that sweet spot of prices getting cheaper because you're further from the city, but still close enough to drive in. It appraised at 480k this year, but had we gone back 5 years before oil prices dropped and our economy tanked, it easily would have been worth 600k. If prices go back up again I could see the temptation of selling it, but this is the place we've felt is "forever-for-the-predictable-future" home. Before we moved out here, I did the number crunching to make sure we could afford it, and we can. However I'm feeling the creep of inflation and rising costs of living, the new carbon tax we have, and when gas prices jump 30% in a quarter of a year, I feel like although we're covering our bills, we're not able to save much to put toward other real estate investments, and having additional (ideally passive) income would go a long way to creating a nice buffer should something go south. 

@Muriya Bosch Hi there fellow Calgarian! We are just south of Strathmore. Unfortunately we don't quite have the picturesque landscape like Cochrane does, we're more or less carved out of a former goat pasture. If we had the right kind of unique dwelling, we might be able to do Airbnb. I remember once on Vancouver Island staying at this place where the units were balls suspended in the trees, Free Spirit Spheres. Really cool, and this was right before it became quite popular, and before everyone had heard of Airbnb. I see now they're booked fairly solid from now until October, and charging $300+ per night. I'm certain they must make a killing, so if I could figure out a cool nightly dwelling idea like that, I could see that as being profitable. Our place is nice because we're far from any roads so there's no traffic noise, but our neighbours are pretty close. 

We considered doing a suite in the garage when we built it this past fall, but ultimately decided against it as it would be a pain in the butt to hook it up to the septic tanks and field (on the opposite side of the house) and bring in water. Probably $10k+ just to do that, plus getting the proper slope for the septic would be quite challenging. But it would be a lot nicer renting a suite out of there than from the basement. 

@Vanessa Villegas I actually was wanting to do that if we ever get our DREAM property! There are so many people wanting rustic/country weddings, and if we had a nice looking barn, rolling pastures, more trees... yes we could EASILY get $3000/night. Unfortunately I just don't think it would work for our place right now :( Our house is right in the middle of the property, neighbours are also only on 7 acres so their house is quite close, and the other neighbours have a decrepit vacant mobile home with the roof half torn off that's pretty visible :-/ Thank you for the idea though, that could be a really good one with an acreage that even had a bit more tree cover.. unfortunately we're in the bald prairie and moved a few big trees, and our little planted ones are still tiny. 

Hello BP,

I’m looking for some ideas on how I might be able to make my primary residence bring in some income. Housing is our biggest cost, and we love the place and worked hard to build it up from a vacant lot 1.5 years ago, but I feel like the smart thing to do is find a way to get it to offset some of the costs, especially since we’re expecting a baby later this year, and it’s already been diagnosed that he’s going to have some medical problems. However, I don’t want to give up too much of the privacy and space that we’ve worked hard for. I’ve got that feeling like there’s something obvious staring me in the face, but I’m too blind to see it… maybe someone else will!

Unlike a regular city house, we live on an acreage. The lot is 7 acres, 105m x 270m, flat prairie grasslands. Location is 13 mins from town (14k people), and 35 mins from the city of Calgary (1 mil). It’s still a commutable distance (my husband and I both work in the city, 45 mins and 60 mins respectively), but right on the edge of how far most people are willing to drive if they must work in the city. The house is a 3/1.5 1236 ft2 bungalow, unfinished basement. We also have a triple oversize garage, 30’ x 38’. It’s fully fenced, and there are also 2 horse pastures about 2.5 acres each and 1 horse shelter.

The property was appraised at $480k in February, and we have 20% equity with a mortgage of $384k. While we aren’t exactly close to the city, what I could see being the most attractive feature would be if we were to rent one of the pastures to someone with horses, as finding reasonably-priced rental accommodations with space for a couple horses is VERY difficult around Calgary, as that was me just a few years ago.

A few ideas I’ve had: (and I should mention that we’re zoned to allow either a secondary suite or a second dwelling.)

1) Finish the basement and turn it into a suite.

Pros: It already has a seperate entrance from the back.

Cons: We’d really like to use part of the basement for our own personal use, and would like to develop at least a spare room in the immediate future, and ideally the rest of it for personal use in the next 5-10 yrs. Cost would likely be $25k - $30k to finish it without having to do the work ourselves. And we’d be giving up a lot of privacy by having someone immediately below us. And we’re going to have a baby in the house.

2) Put a mobile/modular home on the property.

Pros: Easier/cheaper foundation to do. Easier to get rid of if we don’t want it there in the future.

Cons: Costs to bring over electricity, water, and install another septic tank and tie into the existing field, my guess is around $20k. County rules say it can’t be older than 10 years. Negative stigma attached to mobile homes, though they are fairly common around here.

3) Move a stick-built home onto a new foundation.

Pros: This is what we did with our house in 2017, I know the process and the costs involved. It often works out to be cheaper than buying a new/newer modular house. Stick built appraises better than modular/mobile. A smaller, cheaper bungalow (2/1) might be better than larger to limit number of tenants.

Cons: Still quite costly, tying into utilities was a larger expense than anticipated on our main house, plus a LOT of rewiring, new plumbing, and new HVAC was required. Costs could easily be around $30k just for that, and likely around $40k for house and moving. Plus cost of doing a basement or crawl space at a minimum, $12-15k, plus any additional reno costs for the house itself. Also once it’s there, it’s there for good, so I would feel obligated to rent it out rather than let it sit empty, even if future circumstances changed and I didn’t really want tenants living that close to me.

4) Something else entirely? I don’t have quite enough space to do RV/trailer storage (and don’t really want the eyesore of it either since we have sparse trees).

With any of these dwelling options, I would also rent out the front pasture for them to keep 1-3 horses. As I used to be a renter who had a horse, it was my dream to be able to live in a place with my horse(s) so close, but I couldn’t find anything for under $1800 + utilities, which was more than I wanted to spend on rent, so that’s probably going to be my target tenant, and I could see them being long-term.

My other concern is that if I add a separate secondary dwelling, the property won’t appraise for any more than it’s at currently because my lender only counts 1 house, 1 garage building, and up to 10 acres in the valuation, even though everyone knows that 2 houses are going to be worth more than 1.

So after this long-winded explanation, I’m open to ideas and opinions! Thank you! 

@Jeremy Johnson welcome! Not sure I'm much help for hard money since I've never used it myself,but I do have a few tips on getting the most unsecured credit you can with banks. 170k might be a little bit of a stretch but it may be doable. 

Make an appointment to set up an unsecured line of credit at multiple different banks and credit unions. Do this all in the same week. At every appt (and it sounds like you have a wife or partner - joint applications always look better to get more cash if they also have an income and good credit and they're willing to get on board), bring your pay stubs/letter of employment/tax summary if self-employed to do the application right away. They'll check your credit, but because you are doing all the applications the same week, it only reports as one hit to the credit bureau because they assume you're rate shopping (or so I'm told). Also when they check your credit, any newly approved lines of credit aren't going to show up on your credit report, so your debt to income ratios aren't going to be thrown off. Ask for as much as they'll give you, tell them it's for home renovations (technically true, but do not call it a business) and hopefully the money availability should start rolling in. If you've got decent credit, Scotia will grant up to 25k without asking too many questions, anything more than that and it's a more in depth application. My husband and I did this and it ended up funding the last project we did - buying vacant land, moving an older 60's bungalow onto a new foundation, renoing it, etc. Between the 2 of us, we were able to get 62k from TD, 66k from Scotia, 20k at ATB, 30k at RBC, and if you also combine our credit cards as well, that was 53k... so all together, up to 231k in unsecured credit (at various interest rates... my LOCs are between 5.5% - 9% at the moment, with Scotia being the best rates.) Good luck!