All Forum Posts by: David Steinbok

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 Your wife is not "family". If you are married, you would understand that you and your wife are 1 person. If you own something, then she also owns it. If your wife is not on board with you investing in real estate, then I'm sorry to tell you but it's probably not going to happen for you. Unless you owned the property before you got married. Then that's another issue all together. My wife and I work together. And you will find alot of successful investors on b.p. are husband and wife power couples. 

I'm going to be brutally honest with you. I only read the first line of your post that said you want to invest with your brother and I laws. My tip is dont do it. Money and family dont mix. Ever. Find away to invest on your own. Even if that means going to a smaller market, or buying a cheaper property. I will repeat myself. Dont invest with family. Ever. 

Hey. 

I'm not sure if I like that deal. I would instead suggest that you treat your partner/brother as if he is a tenent and have him pay fair market rent to live in the property. You are after all investing in the property, and if he wasn't related to you, you would have a tenent. Then I would split the d.p, closing costs, and and repairs 50/50. Now you are equal partners. When it comes to selling, or refinancing then you can split the earnings evenly and he will get most of the rent he paid over that time back. And you both will get back your portions of d.p and closing costs. And I would make up a j.v. agreement.  Good luck 

Cash flow is money left over from rent after all your expences are paid. That includes mortgage payment. If you are borrowing your downpayment and that is an expence, then I would definitly add that into your calculation as well. The purpose of buying rentals is to not use any of your paycheck money to carry the house.  So if you have to borrow the down payment as well, then your house should pay for that. Otherwise to me, that is still a bad investment. 

You think too much, and you are motivated by a hatred of your day job. So you dont have the right mindset and are bound to fail. 

take a step back. Breath and relax. Stop setting criteria, like no brrrs, until you've done 15 transactions. That's rediculous. You should do as many brrs as possible. 

you want to be a real estate investor? Go buy a house, paint it, and rent it out to a nice family. After 1 year, I guarantee you'll have all the experience you can handle. 

Hi, I have converted 12 sfh to legal duplexes in oshawa. It is a very easy process, and the city is very helpful. They key is buying the correct property. All the bylaws, building codes and fire codes can be found on the city website. Most important is lot size, and basement  ceiling height.   From there everything is workable. 

You have to be creative. I would use j.v. as a last resort, but that's just me. Others will say to 100% use other people's money. 

I worked and worked and worked to save up for my first downpayment. And then for my second down payment. In the time that I was renovating those 2 houses, they increased in value, and so I refinanced my first property. Now I was at my credit limit based on my job income. So I couldn't buy another using a mortgage.  So I had money from my refinance, and I bought a small cash flowing house for 100% cash, in a secondary market. Way cheaper. I fixed it up, and increased its value. Now with the added rental income, I qualified to refinance house #3. And I used that money to buy 2 more,  with 20% down. And from there, its snowballed. I force appreciate the house value, add rental income, and use refinanced money for downpayment on the next property. 

But now,  I've finally reached my limit and have a hard time getting residential mortgages.  I was lucky to be able to refinance in December.  So now I'm going to switch to commercial property, like the gentleman who commented above me is doing.  

Oh I have 1 more thing to add, american and canadian , mortgages, laws, taxes, purchase prices and alot of other things are different. So just be aware of that. Also when you hear gurus say buy real estate and quit your day job. Well I can tell you from experience,  once you quit that day job that you worked at for 20 years with a steady paycheck, it is very hard to qualify for a mortgage. And it gets even harder when you havent had a job in 5 years, and have over 10 properties and banks dont like that you have so much mortgage debt. So you still need that day job to keep buying, or to actually refinance your existing properties. Just saying

This is a very interesting topic, very broad and over reaching. I'll chim in with a few points. It's kinda like saying, hey I want to be rich, how do I do that? But then not having a quantitative goal to actually define what rich is. Like others have said, do you want to quit your job? Well that is easy... replace your current monthly income with rental cash flow or with profits from a big flip. If you earn 100k in your day job, that's a bit more difficult than replacing a 40k a year job. Do you want financial freedom? Well that's different for everyone, you may want a 13000sqft house with an infinity pool, and a garage full of Lamborghinis. I feel like I have financial freedom, and I dont have any of that stuff. But I can go snowboarding with my friends on a Wednesday,  or spend a month in Barbados if I wanted to. So is freedom having 2 million in the bank. Or 10 million.  You may be looking for generational wealth building, so you can leave your kids something. Or pay for their schooling, or a house for them. 

So there are so many opportunities in real estate investing, and different ways to get there. Everyone's situation and experience is different. It's hard work, and a little bit of luck, I'd say. You just have to find what works for you. Good luck. 

Oh, I also grew up in Mississauga,  but I now live in Scarborough