All Forum Posts by: Erwin Li

Thanks for all the great input everyone. I've gone ahead and reached out to some mortgage brokers to see what I might be able to do with my current situation.

Looks like I wont be able to refinance (isnt the preferable options anyways) so I will see if it is possible to get into a deal with my reserves. If not I will need to put off my idea of purchasing my second property and continue to save up some capital.

Hello everyone,

It has been almost 1 year since purchasing my first deal and I'm planning on looking for the next one middle of 2023. 

I am curious on how the lending works if I have my townhouse fully rented, does my debt to income ratio go back to 0 if the rent covers all the running costs of the property? 

The property has ~30% equity in it and I plan on keeping the equity in the property. I will have ~$90k for a down payment on the next property if I buy by middle of 2023. 

Looking around I am hoping I can find a SFH around $500-550k. The question would be should I continue to save until I reach the 20% down payment and push my purchase out one year, put a 5% down payment for an owner occupied loan, or pull equity out of my townhouse to make up the missing down payment amount to get the 20%?

In the perfect world I would be able to qualify for a loan that is 4x my income ($460k) plus my $90k down payment allowing me to purchase a home around $550k price point.

I am looking for homes in central BC, not Vancouver BC.

Thanks for your perspective. I've decided that I will go ahead with this deal even with the huge run up last year. 

As long as the property cashflows no matter what the market does either goes up, down, or flat I can hold the property for the long term. Any appreciation is the cherry on top.

I've realized that real estate investing is a marathon and long term investments will be the way to build wealth. I'm excited to finally be started on this journey!

 Hey Chris,

Great questions.

1) The TH was built in 1994 so ~27 years old. The strata seems to be well managed and there is a good sized contingency reserve fund of ~$300k available.

2) With the property being vacant I should be able to get market rents for it of around $2700 per month, but I do know that will be low increased over the years.

3) I have started looking at other markets, but since this is my first and there would be tons of learnings from self managing my first rental I would like to stick to buying in my town.

4) I have factor PM fee in and it would leave me with a smaller cashflow or at the least it would be breakeven. I would like to self manage it though.

5) That is the second option. To hold off and try to get into the market with a SFH and either live in the basement or main depending on my living situation. The thing is that the SFH market is tough to get into with families and investors both bidding to get those properties whereas this townhouse I was able to secure an accepted offer with slight overbidding. It may have been that the deal was done over the holidays so less competition.

Hello everyone,

This is my first post and I have been learning about real estate investing for the last 6 months. I am ready to start my journey into real estate investing and I have started to make some moves.

Currently I have a 3br 4ba townhouse under contract and working through my way to close on the deal. This townhouse should be able to cashflow $300-500 per month with an initial investment of $97k. It is in an ideal area with tons of amenities close by.

I am having cold feet on this deal because of the type of property it is. The property is a townhouse in a strata complex and I have worries around if this is a good option for my first property. Reading through the forums many investors say that a SFH is a better option.

Part of me wants to hold out and see if I am able to find a SFH with a basement suite as my first investment property, this way it allows me to potentially live in one suite and rent the other or rent both.

The other part of me thinks that I shouldn't worry about getting the best deal, but rather get into the market. Especially with how much the 2021 assessments came back I am worried about being priced out of the market in 2022 if I wait too long to purchase.

To give some idea on prices in my area 3br townhouses are going for around $400-550k and a SFH with suite potential will run around $650-800k.

My investment goal is to find something that will cashflow, but also something that may help me in the future to purchase another property. Ideally I would like in 5-7 years to have one primary residence and 1-2 rental units. I love my day job so anything more than 1-2 rental units may take up too much of my time to manage.

Thanks!