All Forum Posts by: Colin Davis

@James Carlson and others:

I'm in a similar situation to OP, and wondering how to justify a low offer when I'm working with a realtor - obviously they would prefer me to offer higher and close faster. Should I present a list of needed repairs and make a guess on the ARV? Should a realtor be able to tell me the ARV? I'm wondering what I can do to convince the seller when I don't have direct contact to them, and only through my realtor.

Thank you @Jacob Perez very helpful!

First-timer buyer. Owner-occupied.

From what I understand in order to buy a 3-4 unit building with less than 20% down I must have CMHC mortgage insurance. I remember reading that one of the units could be commercial space as long as it is less than 50% of the building, but I cannot find any info about this on the cmhc site.

Am I remembering this correctly? Can I get a conventional mortgage with 10% down on a 3-unit building where one of the units is a commercial space accounting for half of the square footage?

Thanks

Great - good to know, thanks Jacob

Hey Jacob thanks for the info, I have another question for you. If you plan on doing the work yourself you still need a quote from a licensed contractor, yes?  What happens if the work ends up costing less or more than the quote? What about if the bank appraisal comes back as less than the expected amount?

Thanks!

I'm looking potentially at North Bay as a first time owner-occupied investment.  2-4plex.  Anyone with experience in North Bay know whether apartments outside of the student area are easy or hard to fill vacancies?

Thanks so much @Aditya Soma I will start with those two books for sure

I am born-and-raised in the incredibly expensive city of Toronto and am looking to buy my first home outside of the city in the next two years.  My initial thoughts are to get a second job as a labourer in some sort of renovation capacity in order to help build up enough for a down payment on a multi-family (3-4 unit) in somewhere like Pembroke, a small city with affordable multis and limited rentals available.

My partner is from Norther Ontario, so I wouldn't be opposed to going up North, which I understand is even more affordable.

Does anyone have any advice for Canada-specific first-time home buyers?  Any good books?  Is it still possible for us to pay 5% down on our first live-in multi or is that something exclusively American?

Cheers!

Colin