All Forum Posts by: Joel Sherlock

@Brad Fournier This winter has been only getting hotter, still nothing to rent in the downtown areas.

@Sam Perren Great resources thank you for sharing those!

@Brad Fournier I have a number of doors in Kelowna and have looks at Kamloops a few times, the healthy job, population and income growth in Kelowna has kept us focused here. Kelowna does have less then 1% Vacancy. So we have no problem at all with filling vacancies, often we need to remove the ads days after we put them up as we get so many applications.

I would look at how much exposure they are getting on their ads and where the manager has it posted. Also could be good to call a few other managers to get a 2nd opinion on the speed of temperature of the market.

I have had success with this only once, unfortunately not in St. Louis so it could be totally different.

We had to make 2 applications to the city planning department and also to the emergency service (fire, ambulance) they both had request forms and we needed approval from both prior to being able to move forward.

I hope that helps in some way. Good luck!

I stumbled into the Real Estate world, I was a finance student and ran the numbers. Do you buy or rent? Of course the purchase was the best option. I found a friend and we scrapped together $5000 to make a down payment on an $89,000 condo in a not so great neighborhood, then maxed out or credit cards to do a $2500.00 reno, simple paint and laminate floors. 

After a few months, he met a girl and wanted to move out and live with her, "why don't you buy me out" he said, I checked the couch for some hidden fortune but alas it was time to sell. We sold in 6 days at $145,000. I thought to myself "what an inconvenience" 

I went out and bought another unit to reno again, at least this time it would be mine. As soon as that reno was done I thought "I wonder what I can get for this?"

Then I was hooked, 15 years later I still love it!

I would agree with @Chris Muller Kelowna is a great market for investment, it is getting more competitive but we are still able to find deals that meet our requirements. 

I have also been watching the Victoria market and it seemed that prices were slightly higher and on the rise a little faster then the Okangan. 

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on Victoria. 

Cheers
Joel

One of the markets we invest into in BC's interior currently (Kelowna BC) has less the 1% vacancy rate, the city is going to be opening up the rules for adding a carriage house (or lane-way house) thus giving us a great opportunity to add another rental unit onto an existing property.

The banks however will be happy to lend once the project is done but leaves us with a short term cash challenge to get the approx 200k to get the project up and complete. 

The current homes are worth about 450/unit, the row house will cost about 200 and add about $1750/ Month in rent, when done we are looking at a new value of 675-700. So we would love to add one to all of our homes.

The current plan is to leverage 2 properties to build one row house then refinance and build the next, continue until all of our rentals in this market have a carriage house.

We would be able to save some $$ if we were able to build them all at once. Does anyone have any great ideas? We have looked at costly private funds and the cost of that capital did not outweigh the savings.

Thank you !

I am very interested to learn who else is doing this. For years we have been keeping our eyes open for properties and owners that we are interested in selling and finding out what they are looking to buy. 

For example a home in need of a reno with owners looking to sell, spend more and buy a more renovated home. We would then propose a you buy mine, I buy yours scenario. Getting  a sale and our next project in one transaction.

This has worked well for us on the investment side also selling a 4 door complex that had an 6.5 Cap and buying a 12 Door complex that netted us a 8.2.

It is a simple yet powerful strategy. Anyone else working with trades?

@Victor Zhou As many of our colleagues have mentioned there are some options in the outlying markets. You mentioned Kelowna and we have been very active in this market as the demographics lend themselves to strong growth. The city is one of the fastest growing in the country, great job growth and income growth lead us to believe there will be a solid flow of great tenants creating consistent rental rate increases.

While the market here has been very hot there are still opportunities (more in the SFD with rental suites then the MFD)

We are waiting with baited breath for the new infill zoning amendments that could make some significant changes to density opportunities in the downtown. Feel free to DM me and I can share some more detailed.

I agree with Jay above, I believe it will drive some of the US second home buyers, including UK and European buyers to other markets like Kelowna and Victoria. 

Re a huge sell off in Vancouver I don't see it, the tax may slow down the appreciation slightly but in other markets it has not kicked off a massive sell off in prior instances. Australia for example implemented a larger tax for foreign investors and the results were not catastrophic. 

Vancouver unfortunately remains "affordable" on a global scale, some international buyers will continue to buy and pay the tax as needed. I do hope it stifles the growth slightly as it is becoming increasingly impossible to afford a home for those who want to live in Vancouver. 

However there are many markets in global cities where home ownership is not looked at like a right, many in New York or Hong Kong accept that the prices and the market may lead them to be renters.

Only time will tell what the Vancouver market will do as it seems to continue to baffle even the smartest economists. 

Is anyone else using this strategy to massively increase their response rates? 

I was introduced the concept by a mentor, sometimes the simplest strategies are the most effective, after a meeting or even just in an area we would like to acquire a new rental we will hand write 20-40 notes and deliver them to the suitable homes. 

We started with printed letters but when we moved to the pen and hand written card response rates went up 25x

Yes, my hand writing is terrible (much like a Dr.) but the point is that these notes are always read! Thus getting the sellers to at least read and consider possibly selling.

I hope this helps someone, please feel free to share your success below.

Joel