All Forum Posts by: Chris Habets

I'm not from Halifax - I'm from Ottawa - but I'm investing in Cape Breton. I haven't seen a lot of Nova Scotia investors on here but I'm sure there are few!

It's still tough to buy as an inexperienced investor without 20% down unless you're living in it. Some lenders will accept leveraged down payments, and almost all will accept leverage against your primary residence. The only other way to do it is to find a partner to bring cash as well. 

Is he living there or just storing his junk? If he's loving there the normal eviction laws apply. If it's just his stuff, my understanding is it's entirely commercial, and you need to give a month notice and that's it - as long as your contract (if it exists) says you can. Or didn't say you can't. 

You're also allowed to sue him for damages and the like, unlike residential.

Zoocasa will give you some for free, but with an account sign up. They'll also call you to try to sign you as a buyer but just say no. 

Hey, I have a student rental in Ottawa. In Ottawa, rooming houses (like you are proposing, renting by the room) are more strictly regulated. Instead, I rent the house. It's a 4 bedroom, and it's been full of students for 3 years now, with new students having just taken over in May. It's been great, to be honest. 

I ask everyone for a co-signor, absolutely. But it's on the normal Ontario lease, because I'm not renting a room, I'm renting the house. 

Our extra clauses were pretty minimal, but the Ontario landlord facebook community will tell me I'm an idiot for that. They have 24 pages of addendum.  

I have a few questions on this. I'm in the process of retrofitting my duplex in Ottawa - a relatively easy one, just adding some sprinklers in the furnace room (self install + inspection for ~$1000) and some drywall in a basement hallway.

First question - does the fire-retrofit inspection add value to the duplex, generally, in your experience?

Second - how much do people care about the fire-retrofit? It's legally required but practically every small multi-family on the market does not have one done.

Third - what kind of costs are you seeing to retrofit? Duplexes have different rules than tris and quads, right?

I'd disagree with Jaysen depending on where you live. You don't need to hit the 1% rule in some markets, I don't in Ottawa, Canada and returning nicely on my Duplex.

Depending on local laws, your basement better be legal to rent it out without living in the home.

When including closing costs and realtor fees, I often find it much better to keep any real estate I already own if it cash flows by any margin.

The people buying these properties are generally putting down all cash, no conditions offers. They're either contractors or "in-bed" with contractors so their one walk through is enough to get a very good idea of the renovation costs. Numbers ran, cash in hand, offer out the door same day. It certainly makes it difficult to get into those, as (if you're like me) you are financing and can't risk a zero condition offer.

Flipping in Smiths Falls I think would be a good choice. BRRR or buy and hold in Smiths Falls is a bit riskier - if you remember, that town used to be a one-industry gig that turned into a ghost town. Now it's a one-industry gig again, and that is always a bit concerning... Although this is a big industry that can't really move elsewhere due to legal issues.

Hey Brad,

Houses that need a gut in Ottawa are competitive to buy, be careful about overpaying! If they're MLS listed, expect them to sell the next day for 10% over asking price.

Smiths Falls is very interesting for this type of thing right now - lots of relatively well off people moving out there to grow weed. Lots of old homes that were well built and UUGLY or in disrepair. Are you planning on renting or flipping?

I only have one rental currently (duplex) that I manage myself, but I'm an Excel Guru and honestly can't see myself changing over. I've built the sheet so that each expense is categorized, it shows my cashflow expectations, my receipts are saved as photos with a simple code for easy reference, a nice summary page... I make a new sheet per rental when I expand, and at tax time I just sort and copy paste.