All Forum Posts by: Dominika M

Hi Ghazal,
welcome. I think Belinda D on BP is working in wholesaling from Oakville. She educated me on some of the legalities. I suggest her as a good first resource.
Dominika

Hi all,
When i search homes on mls.com in Buffalo and sort from lowest price to highest, there are several pages of houses for $1000. What's up with that?
I understand that there's a large number of houses slated for demolition in Buffalo - I guess these may be such houses. But people on BP seem to do wonders buying very run down properties and doing gut flips. So i wonder why 5 of these at a time aren't snapped up for a big project.
Please give your thoughts on areas that are not investable. How bad is too bad.
Thanks all,

Hi Francis, welcome. There's a few Canadians here, which is nice because our starting out strategies are different than for newbies from US (the prices are a tad different here). Also many people in early 20s!
Dominika

Hi all,

I really enjoy the high level of conversation here and especially people's take on personal freedom and the issue of the "family unit".

@Jon Holdman thanks for commenting. I do see that my house is a doodad and does cost more than renting, but when the time came to turn into a family unit, I did what I was conditioned to do - I bought a house and started baking to make it smell like home. I guess I was underappreciating people's need for freedom.

@Dawn Anastasi - you mentioned that people would rather save for a TV rather than a $100,000 house. But I also get the idea that family-type properties in your area are approx 30,000. Would you care to comment on what type of people you have as tenants - students, retirees, singles or families? Do you think it's freedom they want even though they could have some walls to call their own for $3000?

Thanks Michael, Chad and Jay,
I can understand the people in transitional life stages. I suppose I might be underestimating the number of people in student debt, and general debt.

Hi all,
Newbie question: since there seem to be many areas in the US where houses cost $20-100,000 and there are several government financing programs that let people put down very little as downpayment (less than 10%), why do so many people rent rather than just buy?
I'm from the Toronto area in Canada. Toronto has average house/condo price of $550,000 and many people can't afford to buy at those prices. I honestly don't understand the psychology of the masses of renters in US. The reason I go out on a limb with such a naive question is because not understanding the psychology is seriously holding me back from investing.
There are obviously people who have various life problems (criminality, poor credit, poor life skills) who might not have it together to buy a house. But most of BP landlords don't want to rent to those people anyway.
There are some who need to frequently relocate and can't settle down. But there are millions of family people with the American Dream of owning a home who rent. Why?
I probably have some wrong preconceptions and a world view limited by my own experience. Go easy on me and share your view point.
Thanks,

I was thinking of residential investments. I would prefer to be on the documents so that I could prove my stake in the property. I just wondered if that would hurt our ability to get US conventional financing.

Commercial RE, eh... Gotta look into that.

And Ali, thanks for your take on it.
Dominika

@Eddie Kilburn ,

welcome from Brampton, Ontario.

Hi Canadian investors in US and US partners,
It is difficult for Canadian investors in US to get conventional financing or to refinance to get cash back out. Is there a way to partner with someone in the US (so they could get financing) and to do this legally? I imagine that if i partnered with a trusted relative and just kept my name off any documents, then I'd be doing some tax evasion. And also potentially exposing myself (if relative shouldn't have been so trusted).
Thanks for help,
Dominika

Roy,
I was hoping you'd reply. Thanks a lot,