All Forum Posts by: Charlotte Adams

Hey smart money people and people with way more experience than us.   I am wondering if anyone wants to give us some pointers. 

   We live in Ontario,  We own one home with at least $300,000 equity, and a second duplex of which we currently have estimated $135,000 equity.   Our income is only $60,000 combined.   Rental income (we rent half the house we live in as well) is $3150 monthly and our fixed expenses for both houses total around $4000 monthly.   

What we would like to do is start flipping houses as we have learned through our last house that this is something we enjoy doing and are actually pretty good at. We wanted to do a modification of the BRRRR strategy, where we buy, flip, rent, refinance, sell after a year and be flipping another while the rental term is being completed. We would also be wanting to purchase multi family units as our long term/retirement investments and using the money from sales to cover living expenses etc. ( I hope I explained that clearly enough)

   We have also tossed around the idea of living in the property we are rehabbing and renting our side of our home (which we want to keep) to help with the financials. (could rent for $1700 easy).   We could happily be a young gypsy family for the next few years until children are in school. 

   The issue I have is getting going with our first approval, we are thinking of refinancing the duplex to get our available equity (up to 80% gives us $74k) but dings our approval value.   We DID just have someone I have been working on the side for, approached me after hearing of our real estate investment drive and said he too wants to invest but financially.... is this the answer to our prayers?   He will invest between $50,000 and $100,000.  My question is.... How does this work? We have only ever done real estate purchases through traditional mortgages.  How does one do a house flip, potentially selling the property in 6 months using an investors money?  What is the going rate of interest? How is that charged?  This is completely new for me. 

   We are also open to Any suggestions anyone may have as to financing this venture? I am sure once we make the money on the first few flips we wont have any issues with approvals but right now this has been a month long battle. 

    This is my second post and I was just over whelmed at the knowledge and advice we were given.  I am so thankful for any answers and suggestions. 

Hi Brian!! This is exactly our situation.  We have it grandfathered in :)  GREAT!!!   Nice to meet you, seeing as you are so close to us :D

Deanna you may be right. That is what my realtor says.  We won't be turning to single family anymore. It was the plan if it came up not legal non-conforming but now the plan is keep, slightly update, refinance and hopefully have enough equity to purchase a flipper!  Fingers are crossed. We now need to start looking for that special house to flip!

Well!! We had good news.  Mid 1900's the NDP passed bill 120 back in the 1900s and that has enabled our duplex to be grandfathered in!! 

   Amazing to have this off my shoulders! Now to figure out refinancing it to purchase another :D:D  I'm hooked!

Right there with you Nick and I was so excited seeing Norwood as we are in Norwood too but Norwood Ontario.  We are wanting to do a combination of buy and flip and buy rentals for longer term investments. I am struggling with getting any finances to move forward. Banks are not helpful, neither is the broker we have used in the past for our homes.      I agree with following any inkling you may have to start to consolidate ideas.  There is a wealth of information out there and information overload happens very fast and leaves you in a spinning mess.  Try and write out a plan too, something to follow step by step. 
   Best of luck! 

Hello everyone!! Thank you so much for your time to respond to my questions. As Brianne Chard mentioned, I am a major play it safe person and I couldn't imagine it coming to light after an injury.   I wish to do things properly that way, however I feel comfortable moving forward with it as a legal non-conforming verses trying to make it legal. 
The real estate agent can only track it back as far as MLS exists which takes me back to it being a duplex in 1994. I have been in contact with the city and they are giving me the run around to tell me what year the zoning laws were imposed. Its a second floor two bedroom (whos tenant has been there for 15 years and pays almost $500 below market value, but she is blind with no family and if I evict her she will have no where to live until low income housing takes her in, hence why she is still there and causing us a lot of headache with moving forward) and a main floor one bedroom with a partially finished basement.

    I am waiting also on a call back from the lawyer that did the deal.  Something has to come to light soon!  

  Thanks again for sharing your expertise with a newbie!    
     

Hello everyone. This is my first post and I'm looking forward to hearing any suggestions.  My husband and I have owned a duplex in Peterborough Ontario for 5 years and recently it has come to light that it may be zoned single family. We were told when purchasing that it was a legal non-conforming duplex. We would like to make it a legal duplex but are unsure of how to find out how to do so without opening a can of worms and potentially being shut down.  Where would I find this information? Is there a way to find out of it is for sure a legal non-conforming?

 Also, we are wanting to get started on house flipping as we did this with our previous home and made a good profit. So we have been thinking that if all else fails with keeping the duplex as a duplex we could turn it into a fully renovated single family and sell as it's in a spectacular neighbourhood.    

We are very open to any ideas and suggestions that people may have as we are going crazy wondering what the best route is to take.  

  Thank you for your time!