All Forum Posts by: Luc Boiron

IMO moving from Class C to B is more of a personal investing philosophy than it required for the growth of an investor. Other investors might start with Class A properties and eventually move to C because they find their strengths are better suited for that type of asset.

You can change you investing preferences over time, but you don't need to. If your strengths play better into investing in Class C, then keep buying Class C and be the best at it. If you think B will be better for you, then do that.

As a side note though, "Even when all my tenants are paying well" might actually be the best time to sell.

Real estate is my favourite addiction! 
Are all those properties in Binscarth? Did you move there or are you renting that house out?

@Ralph Noack Sorry you're going through this. Have you tried contacting the police?

They may help by speaking to the ex tenant and telling him not to contact you anymore.

If not, or if that doesn't work, perhaps a restraining order of some sort is an option.

@Ryan Kucey our privacy laws are much stronger. There are some lists that exist in Canada, but they don't have any of the useful information like there is in the US such as equity percentage, delinquent taxes, etc.
You typically can get the owner's mailing address from a house even if they don't live there by going to city hall and looking at the tax rolls, it works in Ontario but not sure about Atlantic Canada.

Hi Joe,

I own MontrealHouseBuyer.ca

A small percentage of people are actually better suited to sell to us than to sell on the MLS.
Most of the homes we buy end up with a combination of seller distress (no money for repairs, divorce, depression, etc) and property distress (cluttered, dirty, foundation cracks, roof leaks, or just very dated). Sometimes it's one or the other, and very rarely it's neither but the seller prefers the ease of transaction.

Some examples of sellers who have sold to us:
- Embarrassed sellers. They may be hoarders, or they don't know how to maintain a house and it has deteriorated around them, or it's just dirty. These sellers are embarrassed to have people walk through their house, to feel judged by people, and often don't have the money or time/ability to fix it up and get it back into presentable shape. They quietly sell to us.
- Sick family member. We've had sellers who are overwhelmed taking care of a sick or elderly family member, and also feel like they don't have the time or energy left to prepare their house for sale. They sell to us and move in with the family member they are taking care of.
- Inheritance. Someone inherits a house that is very dated or needs some work, doesn't want to deal with it or doesn't know how. They call us and sometimes they don't even want to empty the contents, so we'll deal with the junk removal.
- Animals. Someone may be embarrassed of how they live because they let their cats or dogs pee and poo all over the house. Or they have aggressive dogs and it makes it hard to show the house. Or one seller, she had a dozen cats and was afraid that if realtors would show her house, a cat might get out and get hit by a car.
- Adult children - we've had a few sellers sell to us because their 30+ year old kids won't move out of the house and they want a quick sale, then they'll downsize and force their adult child to find their own way.
- Sellers who need money upfront to sell - we've given $50k mortgages to sellers between the time of purchase and closing so that they could use that money to put as a deposit on their next home (since deposits are usually held by realtors or lawyers in trust for closing and the seller otherwise doesn't have a deposit for the next house). We've also paid first and last months rent and moving costs for sellers who wanted to move into a rental, but again couldn't access their equity without moving out and couldn't move out without money.
- Tenants. This has been more of an issue with evictions halted during the pandemic, but we've been seeing more and more small landlords who have problem tenants, can't get them out, and just want to get rid of the headache.
- And many more valid reasons.

There are lots of reasons why a seller chooses to sell to us. Some of the reasons above, they could have sold through a realtor, some of them they couldn't on the same terms. Either way, we deal with the small percentage of the population that are grateful to have us as an option. We're not looking to deceive anyone and we're not trying to convince people to sell to us who shouldn't.

Tricky question. Is it actually foreclosed? In that case, the previous owner no longer has any rights to sell you, and so you can't assign anything.
Is it a Power of Sale? If it's a power of sale, and the lender has taken possession of the property, the previous owner should retain the right of redemption all the way until the sale to the end buyer is completed. Which should mean you can wholesale that property, and the buyer would need to close on the property prior to the lender selling and closing on the sale with another end buyer.

As I said, tricky, and the details will depend on the specific situation. I would get all the paperwork you can from the lender and confirm what you can do with a lawyer.

On the tax perspective, the highest US federal tax bracket appears to be 37%, whereas the highest tax bracket in Alberta is 48%. To be taxed an average tax rate of 40% would be at a $400,000 income in Alberta, and the average tax in Florida for the same income would be around 31%. So definitely makes a difference, but it's not a 40% difference. 

I agree that you're never stuck. I have 2 American siblings with dual citizenship. 1 chose to live in the US as an adult, and 1 chose to live in Canada. 
For what it's worth, the high income earner sibling who lives in the US and can live anywhere chose Scottsdale, after living in Tennessee, Delaware, and Irvine CA. 

You mention your husbands tax in Florida would be 0%. You seem to forget federal income tax.
I live in Toronto. My average tax on my salary that I pay myself is about 30%. In Florida, the federal tax would be 24%. So I wouldn't find it worthwhile to move for a 6% savings. But wait! I would need to pay self-employment tax in Florida, which doesn't exist in Toronto. In addition, the CCPC income tax rate on active business for the first $500,000 of net profit in a tax year is only 12.5% while left in the company (or borrowed out to buy rentals...)
And, I own a good amount of real estate. Now, with depreciation, insurance, interest, etc, I don't need to worry about paying very much in income taxes on rental properties anytime soon, and capital gains are only half taxed here.
Income taxes being lower are probably not a good thing for RE investors. It means that either you live in a dangerous ****** place because the government doesn't have enough money to fund basic necessities, or property taxes are very high. High property taxes are not good for buy and hold investors. 
So if you're talking about a low income tax place as being good to build a rental portfolio, I don't really agree. If you want to live there and own a rental portfolio elsewhere, sure. Or if you want to live there and run an active business, sure. 
Personally, I'm sick of traffic in Toronto as well. I bought a house in Ottawa on 3 acres for less than half of what my townhouse in Toronto on a 15' wide lot is worth. I'm ready to go there and enjoy some peace and quiet.
I plan to spend my winters somewhere warm, it may be Florida this year but I hope to spend winters in the Canary Islands in future years. The culture there is lovely and there's so much less poverty and violence.

As for where you should move in the US - real estate doesn't need to have anything to do with it, invest where it makes sense and live where you want to live. I personally love the ocean and want to spend winter by the ocean so that would limit the options for me, and I'd want to live far enough south because I don't like it being freezing outside.

Welcome to BP Alessandro!

Awesome Veronica, that's great to hear. Good luck!