All Forum Posts by: Mike Jakobczak

I've bought many properties abroad but always suggest to go to wherever you are buying to get familiar.  Over time you may depend and trust your people on the ground a lot more but still suggest to spend the plane ride and accommodation cost, as you will be parking much more money there over the next few months/years.  

Out of all the properties I've bought I've only never step foot in about 6 out of 60+ properties.  Also have full staff that handle a lot of my properties but still make my way over to put my 2 cents in on properties/rehabs 

Hey Everyone,

It's been awhile since I've been on but always enjoy the discussion I have on here. I just wanted to see what everyone else is experiencing in their local markets or just markets they are very active in.  

I've been focusing on my home town market, Toronto for the last 12 months as it's just become bananas in terms of 10-year low inventory levels. Which is obviously causing prices to jump.  We are seeing a yearly jump about 25% increase year over year right now. Which with an average home price of $888, 000 is high.  

I only follow a few other markets and wanted to see what everyone else wether it be Canadian or US are seeing in terms of their local markets. 

A big pet peeve of the Toronto market is pretty much everything under $2,000,000 is now being marketed as bidding wars and it's almost impossible to find anything not listed like that. Which is making pricing jump to even higher as buyers are becoming frustrating and paying much more then they should. As I am also licensed and help buyers out all the time.  Which is also frustratign for myself finding good flips or rentals that I'm not dropping big money to land the 'deal"

The market here reminds me a lot of when the foreclosures were on the rise and I was bidding with 10-20+ offers on properties in Atlanta, Ga. The only thing is here I'm not buying property for under $100,000. So it's pretty intense to see how many offers are going in on properties of much much higher value. 

Looking forward to hearing about your markets.

Cheers,

@Account Closed Yea we do.  I'm out of town until mid September.  Then I'm back out again a week later.  So it would have to be in Mid September or early October.  I'll try to put something together for mid-September and we'll see if everyone is on board.

@Account Closed Hopefully soon, I've been busy out of the province all month.  I'll be sure to keep you posted.  

Great to hear your doing well with your current assets.  Sorry to hear abotu the negative cash-flow but I think we've all been there.  Sometimes it's better to cut a lost and move on.

@Jarrod English Welcome to BP.  

I think starting out looking for a specific market is one of the hardest things.  Since many markets make a lot of sense from capital standpoints and overall economy standpoints. 

But 90% of Canadians just tend to not even go through this process as our minds are made up already, depending on where we live. West coast Canadians, either Phoenix or Vegas and East coast Canadians, it's usually anywhere in Florida.  haha 

Best of luck on venturing into the US.  Definitely make sure to touch base with cross border tax situation and specific laws that might obtain to your investing state.  

Keep us posted!

@Brandon Hall I'm not a big fan of buying into "cheap real estate"  You don't get rich by buying sh*t.  From my 8 years experience. I've always had better appreciation in buying in more desirable areas.  I know as investors we like to use formulas to help us evaluate but sometimes you just need to put everything down and look at the situation:  

Originally posted by @Brandon Hall:

It's a four-plex with 3 of the units being 2/1's and one unit is an efficiency with a kitchen, living room and bathroom. The first 3 units have been rented to the same tenants for 5ish years at $300/mo and they pay all utilities. The efficiency isn't currently rented but could be for $150ish/mo.

My purchase price would be $30,000 with 20% down at 3.25% on a 30 year amortization.  

With such low rents, you are really banking on this property coming up in value over the next 10 years.  Also 4 units has the potential of a lot of issues to come up and with 4 different tenants.  Any repairs that come up (and it will happen) will pretty much wipe out your profits per year.  So your main strategy will be to buy and hope this property goes up in value to make it appealing for someone to buy.  Just something to keep in mind

@Corinne Alconera Remember the deal is always in the buy!!  Having said that just because you are getting approved financing does not make anything a good deal.  

Fast forward 5 years, if the property values don't catch up to your purchase price you will be in a lot of pain trying to get a bank to buy into this situation.

I'd walk away with a smile on my face from this one.

@Jared Reynolds Welcome to BP!  Congrats on your first flip.  

I spent 8 years in the service industry and feel your pain!  Well how I got out of that problem was to partner up with investors and private lenders.  

I always found it easier to pitch a deal to a colleague then to try and win over the bank when they operate strictly on their template.  So my advice is exactly what you said and partner up.  Or get someone to start lending you money!  

Half the battle is starting which it sounds like you are already there.  Good for you

I have built up my portfolio with private money.  You will have a lot less hoops to jump through when going private.  But the cost is higher.  You can either give up equity or pay a higher interest.  

Find out what their ratio of their clients get refinanced after a certain number of months. I would say 6 months to a year.  Do they leave any equity on the table for investors?  Or are you paying retail for the area?