All Forum Posts by: James Brown

Hi all! 

Time to stop lurking and give myself a proper intro. 

I'm 28 and my fiancee and I recently moved to Dawson city, Yukon. We love it here but find the lack of opportunities a little limiting. I am working as an electrician but we're looking at moving to Victoria after this winter. I'm currently analyzing the real estate market there as I want to transition into full time investing. 

I haven't bought a house before and I'm looking to make my first deal. My goal right now is 5k a month in cash flow by the time I'm 35. 

I would love to network with investors in Victoria, or anywhere in BC. What do you guys think of the market down there? Also if you're ever in Dawson, look me up! 

I'm from Windsor as well, living in the Yukon now. I'm interested too to know what became of this place. 

I live in a very remote area with no RE club and literally one realtor. I'm finding it difficult to get started as there aren't many options or deals popping up. Does anyone have a similar situation? I'd love to chat with someone else trying to invest in real estate in a small remote town. 

There is a diesel plant in Dawson. I'm fairly certain the town's power comes from there, but you might be right. 

Do you think I'm getting in over my head by making an offer on this one?  

Perhaps 1800 is under shooting it a bit. It's heated with an oil tank and monitors right now. I'm also considering replacing that with baseboard heating if I buy. 

Up here the houses are built on pads. The porch pads need to be redone but the rest of the house seems fine.

All the windows need replacing, I've got a quote for this and taken it into consideration. 

The house was renovated in 1993. This included fiberglass insulation, new drywall, new vapor barrier. The plumbing was redone using pex pipe. 

I figure the heating cost is around 1800 a year. Not sure about the electrical. The waste lines I'm not totally sure about. 

Could you guys give me some opinions on this house? It's a 3 bed 1 bath (the living room could potentially be used as a 4th) with a bachelor suite attached to the back. There is also a large barn on the property that could be rented as storage or eventually renovated into another suite entirely.

I'm getting a LOT of negative feedback from friends and family since it's an old house, built around 1902. I have done two walkthroughs with the realtor and a contractor and I have a decent list of issues that need to be fixed, some structural, some cosmetic.

My main concern is that I buy this house and end up spending several times more than what I budgeted for repairs. I just can't get the opportunity out of my head because it seems like the house has tons of potential. The vacancy rate in my town, according to official statistics, is close to 0% as there is a housing crisis here currently, so I'm not worried about it renting, just worried about repair costs. This would be my first deal so I don't really want to dive in over my head on the first go.

They're asking $212k, but the house has been sitting on the MLS for almost 3 years and they've dropped the price down from $295k. I'd probably offer around $160k, as per the 70% rule. I feel like I've been a little generous on the analysis, but there's lots of room to decrease the ROI.

Analysis:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/brrrr-calc/179198.pd...

Thanks!

Looking into it further, I believe the heritage grants only cover exterior repair, since they're only really concerned with the exterior of the property. You're probably right, it's too bad though. If it was in better shape it would have huge potential.

Could you possibly give me a ballpark at what I'd be looking at for rehab costs based on what I listed?

Hi all, I've been looking at a house in the northern Yukon as a potential rental property / house hack, but this would be my first house purchase and I'm having a hard time convincing myself it's worth pursuing.

The house is a "heritage home" which means it was likely built around 1898-1902. It's a 4-bedroom, 864 sq ft with 1 bath. It also has a separate ~400 sq ft studio suite in the back that my partner and I would live in and eventually rent out. There is also a HUGE barn in the back that could be cleaned up and rented as storage space. There are government grants up here for heritage homes that can range from $7000-10000. This house would probably be eligible for at least two.

Obviously, the house needs a lot of rehab, and as a new investor I am not good at estimating rehab costs. As far as I can tell from my first walkthrough, the house needs ~5 new windows, the studio needs new insulation, parts of the exterior flashing need to be fixed, the roof eventually needs to be replaced (up here the norm is tin skirts). Also the bathroom needs to be redone as the tub has sunk and part of the floor is sinking.

Asking price is $212,000. This has been dropped from 239,000 since it has been on the market. The house is currently vacant and the owners don't live in the area. Comps in the area are ranging from 230,000 - 275,000. 

I fee confident I could rent the 4 bedrooms for about $2250 a month. We'd live in the studio for less than a year, and then that would rent for another ~$700. The barn could probably rent as storage for $200. 

Can you guys give me some advice on this deal? Is it worth looking into? How can I best estimate the cost of repair? What would you offer, if anything? Thanks a ton! Please let me know if any more info is needed.

Yeah, I'm not sure I'd pay for their courses at this point (or anytime) but it was nice to see I'm not alone in figuring this stuff out.