All Forum Posts by: Jami Kloet

Hi everyone, it's been a few years since I've posted. I have a question and I hope this is in the right spot. 

We are a Canadian family with a small real estate portfolio (9 doors in Ontario). 

We currently have an accepted offer on a home in Florida. We were pre-approved by RBC for a US Mortgage, so felt confident in our offer/purchase. Fast forward, when we went to do the paperwork, RBC said we were maxed beyond five properties, so they couldn't provide us with the mortgage. No wiggle room, end of story. (Properties are full occupancy, full rent paid and have been throughout the pandemic.)

So now we're exploring other financing opportunities, and just curious if anybody has any suggestions. We can provide a sizeable down payment, but as investors, would prefer to mortgage what we can.

We have a phone call in with TD and have reached out to another broker referred via a mortgage professional we know, but I am wondering if anybody has any other suggestions for lenders? 

We are willing to walk away if needed, but just trying to explore other opportunities we might now be aware of. 

Thank you. 

We are heavily considering renting to International students with our next purchase. 

I work in PSE and on average, approx. 85% of International students have a prior degree, so unlike domestic students, they aren't direct entry from secondary school. They're here to advance their skills and education. They also have a year round need for housing, so no need to reduce summer rates or worry about summer vacancy like with domestic students. 

International programming also has September, January and May intake for most programs, so there's a year round cohort of students arriving, if you find yourself with a vacancy.

In my experience, they are also very unlikely to go the LTB route. They're here on a study Visa and don't want to anything that could compromise that. I think with the right business model, this could be a very worthwhile renting plan. 

@Michael Nelson thank you for that feedback! It's really helpful, I didn't even get as far as rental laws and insurance, so I will look into that. Yes, it would appear the business would be purchased and the space would be rented. It's very early stages, but I am going to dig a little deeper. 

@Jaysen Medhurst that makes sense - thank you. I always assumed the smaller operations would be owned outright, but so many businesses rent their spaces, I don't know why I didn't consider it an option.

I've wanted to enter the vacation rental or hotel market for a while, and this particular business is located in a popular tourist destination nearby. I figured if I were going to enter the market, this is a good region for me to test the water. 

I apologize if this is in the wrong section - I thought there used to be a hotel investing section. 

I've seen a lot of discussion of sub leasing rentals for AirBNB purposes lately. 

I was recently poking around a business opportunity for a small hotel (21 rooms) that rents its space in a large commercial unit. 

Essentially, a large portion of the commercial space is rented to an indie hotel operator - I guess just like any business that rents from a commercial owner. The hotel business is for sale, and buyer would assume the lease agreement. 

I'm sure it's been done before, but what would be some things to consider if purchasing a hotel business that doesn't own the land it operates on? 

I can't decide if this is a fantastic formula or a faulty one, but it's something I would like to explore a little deeper. I always just assumed a hotel purchase would include the land/building it operates on. 

The commercial plaza it is in is also for sale, though isn't something of interest to me, but wondering how that would play into the investment. 

Just looking for some thoughts from those who have experience in hotel investing. I've always wanted to get into vacation rental or hotel investing, and this is just something I haven't come across, though I am sure it's not new. 

@Daniel B. We went through this exact scenario in the summer. Is your property in Sarnia by any chance? It was also a triplex, being rented as three residential units (owner occupied), and we had to proceed with commercial loan to purchase it. We did end up finding a commercial lender, and I believe it was going to require 35% down. 

We ended up walking away due to some other headaches with the seller, but we did a lot of due diligence with the property during the process of our intent to purchase.

I believe it would have cost something like $3K to apply for a rezoning with the city - and that's just to apply, no guarantee that it would have been approved. However, we also spoke with a local group that is working on the revitalization of the area, and they said they would have supported our rezoning request. 

I'm actually still a little sad we walked away from that property. I had big plans for it. 

This was a great deal, I ended up buying three of the books I had on my Audible list - can't beat $4.99 for an audiobook (even with our low Canadian dollar). 

@Chad Carson Do we have an update when this book will be available on Audible (Canada)? I've been patiently waiting and just curious. Really looking forward to reading this one. 

I just asked about this in one of the Facebook groups and I got some really great insight. Lots of good advice, and perspective from both sides. I think we will eventually move forward, but we are in the investigative stage right now, and also need to find a good real estate lawyer and accountant with experience in this area. 

To throw another wrench into the situation, I read something the other day that said for the time being CMHC rules remain the same and lenders plan to treat any pot plant growing as a grow-up. For now, the legalization has no effect on these rules and any house with pot plants will still be a latent defect and will require a remediation report and electrical inspection.

I’m sure this will eventually change, but that can only happen if real estate counsel changes their current property disclosure rules.

I haven’t done my own due diligence to look deeper into this, and verify for myself (so maybe somebody else can shed some light?), but this is something to consider for anybody planning on selling in the near future.

I'd be interested in chatting more about student rentals. I'm not interested in Windsor, but am really curious about formulas to run student rentals, and how people work leasing agreements, bylaws, etc. 

We have one student rental, but we purchased it that way and plan to sell it in the spring. 

However, my city also has a huge boom of international students, and I'd really like to give student rentals a go because I know there is a demand.