All Forum Posts by: Chibuzor Alumba

Hi Shahrukh, I admire you laying all your thoughts out here clearly.

Here are my thoughts: 

1. Start with your goals. If you say your goal is to gain financial freedom, what does that look like to you? Do you need $5,000/month? $10,000/month? Find your number, and pursue opportunities that will enable you hit that number

2. Once you have your financial freedom number (FFN), there are two paths to take:

i. If you have enough money, invest into real estate properties (using a property manager, which leaves you with very little work), until you have hit your FFN, or

ii. If you don't have enough money, you can use some of the no/low money down strategies of REI to build up your cash reserves (i.e Wholesaling, flipping using hard money, etc), before going back to step 2-i. above

In essence, first determine your goals, then come up with a plan to achieve your goals, then you're done.

Hope this helps 

Hi Trent, great question. Based on all I have read and heard from the BP Podcasts and Forums, a low-cost way to get into REI is through

1. Driving for dollars (Go around your neighborhood, find vacant houses, reach out to their owners and negotiate a cheap deal to purchase their property), or 

2. Wholesaling (sending out yellow letters to absent landlords asking to buy their house, putting the house under contract (getting rights to ownership) for a cheap price, finding a buyer willing to pay more than your contract amount, and getting the amount difference after transferring your rights to ownership to the new buyer.

Any one of those methods can be used to get you an extra $10 - $30k that you can then add to your savings, purchase your first rental, and start the race to financial freedom (or keep doing 1. or 2. above and keep getting wealthier)

I wish you the best of luck

Thanks everyone.

Thanks @Samuel Velasquez. We do have a REIA here (I just found them right now and have already signed up). I will work hard to look at properties, learn about the neighborhoods in my city, and just educate myself on REI.

@Leona N. Thanks a lot for the information and helpful suggestions. I will be sure to reach out if I have any questions.

Thanks everyone for welcoming me to the BP community.

Hi everyone,

I analyzed the deal below and found out that if I had a property manager, accounted for other expenses, and put in an extra $20,000 for rehab costs, I will cashflow $270/month. 

Additionally, this property is close to the airport so there is a lot of potential to turn it into an airbnb hub, leading to more cashflow and of course, more management/cleaning time.

Long story short, would you take a deal with these parameters:

- Asking price $165,000 (pre-MLS price)

- Duplex consists of: 1 bedroom main floor and basement unit & 1 bedroom upstairs unit

- Total rent: $1600/month (tenants pay utilities)

Addendum: I just bought my first property with 11% down (before I found BP), so any suggestions (or links to forum posts/blog posts/podcasts) on creative ways to finance this deal, please let me know.

Thanks BP community.

Thanks for the link @Rachel N.

Hi @David Acosta, thanks for the encouraging words. My only blocker when it comes to working with a REA is that I worry about their commitment to my inquiries about seeing homes or the history of a home. Maybe I just need to lay all my concerns on the table as I speak to a REA, and find someone I can work with.

Thanks @Celena Lathrop. A question for you, isn't working with the selling agent considered to be a conflict of interest?

Thanks @Antoine Martel @Reed Huddleston for the input. I think I will end up looking for a realtor who is an investor because it costs about $2700 to become a realtor in my province in Canada, and I think what I truly need is not more knowledge (thats what BP Forums and Podcasts help with), what I need is more exposure to the real estate market here in Winnipeg.

To that end, I will focus more on going to Open Houses and networking with realtors, prospective buyers, and everyone I see.

Prince Soriano Simply amazing how you were able to purchase a duplex with your friends. I am also from Winnipeg so if you ever want to connect, chat and share ideas, feel free to reach out

Meghan Chomut Thanks for reaching out and thanks for smiley face :). I have already committed to analyzing at least one deal a day. 

Right now I have two things holding me back.

1. I cant decide if I want to go into Wholesaling (can start with little money down) or Rentals (need lots of money down or other people's money)

2. I cant decide what property type i want to focus on, and this is leading me to analyze all sorts of deals and learn very little about a specific portion of my market. 

Any advice on what niches or paths are good in Canada?