All Forum Posts by: Chris Baxter

@Benji Klassen @Khai Hong welcome to BP! When you refinance / get a HELOC, you'll have to qualify for the new loan amount. I would recommend that you connect with a mortgage broker to find out how much debt you can afford (at higher interest rates). Be conservative in what you think your can bring in with a vacation rental and make sure the numbers allow you to make ends meet.

@Scott Trench it would be pretty easy to put that together. The tool I referenced above is Excel based.

Since we have your attention, is there anything that BP can do to make it easier for folks to find the Canadian Real Estate forum? It a suggestion that I've made to the BP team a few times, but all the location-based searches omit Canada. Doing a search in forums for 'canadian real estate' returns posts that have these words in the title, but does not return the actual Canadian Real Estate forum category

@Charles Seguin welcome to BP! The BP calculators can be used for preliminary analysis (at least for rental properties). If you want to do a real deep dive into a property, though, I would use a calculator that references Canadian taxation and mortgage calculations. I personally use Landlord's Cashflow Analyzer Pro  (I am not an affiliate, i just think it is a very comprehensive tool).

@Stevo Sun location and age of the building will factor heavily into what mix you want.  If you have a new building close to the downtown core, you'll attract younger people and 1Bdr would be best. If you are out in the burbs and want to cater to families (this comes with additional noise and wear and tear), 2bdrm would be best.  Mirror what the condos in the area do... 

@Jefferson Mondragon welcome to BP and congrats for considering investing in real estate.  As mentioned by @Stevo Sun, you can make money in real estate in any market condition. When interest rates go up, more people turn to rental housing. Unfortunately, many homeowners are over-leveraged in Canada and the pending interest rate hikes will price people out of owning a home.  It may also force undisciplined investors out of their investments as properties where interest rate changes weren't anticipated in property analysis.  Stock and crypto are legalized gambling, as far as I am concerned and, like @Scott Trench, I am sure glad that my retirement is based heavily on real estate. 

We have a pretty active Canadian forum here on BP. Post some targeted questions and we'll be happy to help.  Good luck!

@Bill B. unlike the USA, most Canadian provinces have rent control with prescribed rates of increase. @Anthony Panepinto, I believe you meant to say that Ontario has rent control (it does) and you are now providing subsidized housing to your tenants as a result. There is nothing to reconcile... your expenses exceed your income and you are therefore cashflow negative. You can sell the property, offer cash for the tenant to move out, or move-in yourself to displace the tenant

Have a read through this... you still have an obligation to disclose previous rent paid and new tenant has the right to request a rent adjustment.  https://educaloi.qc.ca/en/caps... 

By my read, you could consider leaving the unit vacant so that it has no rent history in the previous 12 months... that would cost you $7200. Then you'd be free to set the rent to market. I don't invest in Quebec, though, so have no experience managing tenants there. Good luck!

Ref flags:  

"I tried to verify his creds and everything but no success"

"I was offered a fixed interest rate of 4.5% for the 25 years "... no private lender would do that.

Thanks for sharing your story so that others can be alert.

@Jamie Blair have you checked the actual zoning with the City (I assume Brockville)? https://brockville.com/index.c... MLS listings are notoriously inaccurate. Once you get the zoning, cross-reference it against the zoning bylaw for permitted uses and against the OCP (official community plan) for future uses.

Quote from @Sriram Kumar Bikkina:

Quote from @Eliott Elias:

Hard money is usually a higher interest rate. You want to use hard money generally only if you can't qualify for a conventional loan from a bank. Wether it's the property being distressed, or if you don't qualify personally. Hard money allows for cash offers and quick closes. 

 Makes sense Eliott, thanks for your inputs. The bank is not financing to the 80% mark due to my income. Private lender promised me to finance upto 80% but interest rate has not been discussed at. I will bring it up discuss with.

You need to have all the details on the loan before proceeding.  If the lender hasn't discussed this but has offered to finance, you are certain to get screwed on the rate.