All Forum Posts by: Chris Baxter

@Karsten Madsen  welcome to BP!  I'm curious about your statement that having a second residence on your land would "mean a smaller pool of potential buyers." Why do you feel this is the case?  Over the past decade, we've seen urban home owners crave access to an income suite in their primary residence. I would personally feel that a second residence on your ample land would increase its value and attract buyers.

Have you explored whether the property can be subdivided?  

@Ryan Kenneth   from my recent experience, the CRA (see https://www.canada.ca/en/reven...) and accountants see it one way, while lenders can see it another. My accountant (and most Canadian real estate books) affirm that replacing like for like is NOT capex and should be treated as an expense (which is great from a tax perspective). This would include paining the walls, replacing vinyl floor with vinyl floor, replacing Formica counter top with Formica counter top. If you upgrade (to granite counter tops, hardwood floors, etc.) this would be capitalized. Unfortunately, when it comes time to refinance, all the expenses incurred to bring a unit up to market that aren't capitalized play havoc with your NOI, so you may need to wait a while to show stabilized expenses.

@Ted Osachoff Welcome to BP... I receive listings from Chris Davies at Re/Max commercial... they have a 'kitchen sink' list of deals that goes out regularly.

@Violet G.. Post questions here in the forums.  "Looking for a [insert market name] PM"  or web search the same

@Violet G. market before deals.... Have you identified a market? If yes, have you been there and met with realtors and PMs? They will be the source of your deals.  If you are simply looking to get practice analyzing properties, find a realtor that pushes listings out to their mailing list. You can then run numbers and learn what works in a given market.

@Violet G. welcome to BP. Your skill-set will definitely be an asset. Analyzing markets and properties is key to REI success. I personally enjoy the process of uncovering hidden gems through research and analysis, and in finding markets before they get 'hot'.

@Arthur Hau welcome to BP! It looks like we are missing part of the story... why is your bank only giving you 36% LTV on refinance? Is it due to limitations on income or are you carrying a ton of debt? If you can truly only pull $130k out, why would you put $50k of that into ETFs? You can accelerate your returns by leveraging that same $50k into $250k of real estate....

Not all markets are hot, and not all sellers use realtors. With due diligence, there should be no surprises.  

@Mack Giles welcome to BP.  Off-market deals come from either 1) your effort (reaching out to property owners that haven't listed but could be tempted to sell) 2) your relationships (with PMs, realtors, mortgage brokers).  Bother require effort... you can't pick up the phone and ask a realtor to send you 'pocket listings'.  Pick a market, go there, meet people, build relationships, demonstrate an ability to close and be explicit in what you are looking for. Good luck!

@David Mateo Camelo Corredor there is nothing creative required here... you should be able to refinance the property at 75% LTV, which would yield a mortgage of $435,000. This would pay off the balance of your existing mortgage, cover your rehab expenses, and leave money for a down payment on a new property (no matter where it is). Just make sure your Peterborough property covers itself with a new larger mortgage... @Julie Toh usually has excellent advice for BP folks that are looking to refinance.