All Forum Posts by: Danielle Leo

 Hi Devin, curious to know if the banks will continue to lend residential rates on 5- and 6- plexes in the future? CIBC no longer offers this in Quebec. If all 5- and 6- plexes are forced to go commercial one day, would it significantly reduce their market value? Thanks!

Thank you so much for your reply! This is really good advice; I understand more french than I speak, but I'll try to join those meetings and trainings. 

Some of my investor friends limit their portfolios only to smaller plexes: duplex, triplex, 4-plex at maximum. I know 5- and 6-plexes are kind of in a "grey zone" of residential vs. commercial properties, and only RBC and Desjardins are willing to lend on residential rates. It's a decision I have to make now: do I want to start buying 6-plexes and scale faster, or do I also restrict myself at smaller plexes for safety, like my friends (it's a market I'm already comfortable with)?  Is there any major risks that I'm not seeing? What's the chance of the banks all forcing 5- and 6-plexes to take commercial loans? And what would be the impact on the market prices then, given that there are so many 5- and 6-plexes in Montreal?

Hi Everyone, I'm a beginner in RE investing from Montreal, Canada. I'm very excited to have found this community of like minded people!

I started a few years ago with two small condos that didn't need a lot of management (and also didn't generate a lot of return). Then about two years ago I purchased my first triplex in a good neighborhood. Over two years I increased total rental income by $12k a year through renovation and replacing tenants, and the triplex appreciated by 1/3 in a hot seller's market. I absolutely loved the process but also realized that this model is not sustainable if I'm managing everything by myself while holding onto a day job. 

My goal is to steadily grow my portfolio by 6-20 doors per year for the next few years, whichever my financing allows. Me and my husband are both young professionals holding busy corporate/business jobs with good income, and we don't plan to quit either job to do full time RE just yet. So far, the only strategy I'm familiar with is: buy a property with sub-par conditions and price-->clean up and renovate-->charge higher rents to new tenants-->buy new property and repeat. However, I find the initial process after the purchase is a real bottleneck for me: 

1. Difficult to rehab long term tenants with low rent (local law very protective of tenants);

2. I haven't found a general contractor that I fully trust to entirely outsource reno projects;

3. Majority of the offers on the market are marked up and the profit margin is very thin if no rehab/reno is completed. I have a good broker who's looking at off market deals for me, but those are hard to come by. 

4. I should find a property manager to manage the on-going maintenance and tenants turnover. I don't have one yet. 

 My other option is to buy something off flippers that's already renovated and ready to rent, but most often the prices are already jacked up and the appreciation potential is limited. 

So my question is: what is the optimal strategy to quickly grow my portfolio if I can't, or am not willing to, devote too much time in the renovation and maintenance process? Is the "buy and hold" model the only strategy I can use if I only work on this on a part time basis (evenings and weekend)? Are there other options? 

On the financing side, we have decent borrowing power now based on our income, but when will we hit a wall? 50 door? 100 doors? we have friends who are in similar situation as us and they can no longer borrow from the bank through refinancing and HELOC after a few years of buying. I'm not a mortgage specialist so I don't when that will happen to us, too.

Any suggestions and advice is much appreciated! (this was originally posted in the RE strategy forum but I'd love to hear from a Canadian esp. Montreal perspective)

Hi Everyone, I'm a beginner in RE investing from Montreal, Canada. I'm very excited to have found this community of like minded people! 

I started a few years ago with two small condos that didn't need a lot of management (and also didn't generate a lot of return). Then about two years ago I purchased my first triplex in a good neighborhood. Over two years I increased total rental income by $12k a year through renovation and replacing tenants, and the triplex appreciated by 1/3 in a hot seller's market. I absolutely loved the process but also realized how exhausting and time consuming it would be to do everything by myself while holding onto a full time job. Now I'm ready to make my next multi-family investment, but I'm struggling to figure out the best strategy if I want to grow my portfolio in a healthy and sustainable way that doesn't impede my work and personal life. 

A bit of background information: my and my husband are both young professionals holding busy corporate/business jobs with good income. We have enough liquidity (through HELOC and refinancing) to purchase another multi-family with the price range of ~$1.5M, so approximately a 6-12 door property in my city, depends on the area. The only strategy I'm familiar with is: buy a property with sub-par conditions and price-->clean up and renovate-->charge higher rents to new tenants-->buy new property and repeat. However, the time, cash, and energy that I spend on the reno projects are real bottleneck for me. I've worked with several contractors and they are either too expensive (the good ones) or not quality enough (the cheap ones). Even if I outsource the labor, I still find myself spend too much time doing the design, shopping for materials, and managing the schedule of several sub-contractors (removing current tenants is another pain in the neck, both time-wise and emotion-wise). My other option is to buy something off flippers that's already renovated and ready to rent, but most often the prices are already jacked up and the appreciation potential is limited. It's also difficult to find a good property manager that can manage the on-going maintenance and tenants turnover.

So my question is: is there an optimal strategy to quickly grow my portfolio if I can't, or am not willing to, devote too much time in the renovation and maintenance process? My goal is to grow somewhere between 6-12 doors per year, whichever my finance allows, and optimize revenue. But I don't see how it's feasible if I have to repeat the process above every year. 

Any suggestions and advice is much appreciated!