All Forum Posts by: Melissa Vass Scott

 Interesting! I take it you jumped right in and did the Boutique Hotel? We stayed in a boutique hotel in South Beach, originally a converted Apartment building, it was great to experience it first hand to see how well it operated.

I guess I should have been more specific by saying "water" it doesn't have to be ocean front, as a real estate agent I understand the issues with owning waterfront property on an ocean, costs for maintaining let alone purchasing.  We just want to be near water, the idea of buying on a lake would be amazing, but as long as we are within a short drive we feel that would be a good start. 
regarding "cashola" we have 200k to invest, as indicated we want to do a DSCR.

Regarding usage, for ourselves, it's really something that we like the idea of being able to use a few weeks a year for us, this is an investment for us not a second home. We would consider building a secondary dwelling unit on a property if we could find the right property with  conducive zoning. 
We are willing to start small!

We are definitely receptive, we would like to start with our first one being in the US. The goal is to apply for an E2 visa, we love the US. In my past life I had a manufacturing company and 50% of my sales were in the US, doing business down there is completely different than Canada! I've never owned a rental property in the States so we are being quite cautious with research and trying to drill down on location. We aren't firm on the above locations, the US is so vast, it's hard to narrow it down when you are just starting out. 

We had contemplated doing long term but I feel there is more opportunity with cash flow and value add in the STR market.

International markets would be phase 2. 

My husband and I are looking at buying our first STR, we are Canadian wanting to invest in the US market as its far more stable than Canada. I had an STR back in the day when Airbnb started, it was the basement unit in a triplex and I quite often had mid-term repeat guests. There is so much more available than back then and I am excited to take advantage of all the booking and pricing aps!

My husband is a contractor and I'm in real estate so we are wanting to do a value add, I do all his design work for his company. We both love the water, not really mountain people and we definitely believe in the philosophy of investing where we would like to vacation. I also would like to do 1 bed, 1 bath places as I feel this is a bit of an untapped market. We like to stay in properties nicer than our home when we travel and we always find it difficult discovering luxury 1 bed, 1 bath smaller accommodations and always seem to end up renting a 2 bed house that is far bigger than what we require just to get the luxury component.

We will be looking at a DSCR loan

So, if you were to start all over again, what advice would you give a Rookie Canadian investing in the US market. It will be our first time owning an STR remotely, so all advice is welcome! We love NC, SC, Georgia and Florida, it doesn't have to be the ocean, a large lake is fine as well. We are not interested in the West Coast. Our goal is to eventually do a land hack and then lead up to a boutique hotel.

Any and all advice you have is welcome!

Melissa

@Eric Martin hi Eric! We would love to get together and strategize! We are in the Burlington area, where are you located? We should organize a meet-up eventually!

Hello Everyone,

I recently heard that real estate investors in the US can borrow against stock investments for a mortgage? Is there anyone out there that has insight to this? We are Canadians looking to purchase a few rental properties in Ohio. If borrowing against stocks is an option, do they have to be stocks held within the US and/or do Canadian stock investments count as well?

Any insight would be most appreciated.

Hi Jaycee, 

We don't meet any of the three criteria you had mentioned. As I said earlier, this is strictly for investment purposes.

The property does not have to be turnkey, if there is room for improvement that's of no concern as we both have the skill set to invest in whatever upgrades are required. Always happy to increase appreciation in an investment property

Hey everyone, would value your opinions as we are working towards building a real estate portfolio in the US.  As much as we would love to invest in the warmer States it seems as if the MidWest is the place with the best returns. 

What are your thoughts between Cincinnati vs Columbus Ohio?  We would prefer to jump into the market with a duplex, triplex or quad as our first purchase.  More doors, one roof, easier to maintain. We live in Southwestern Ontario and currently it's a 6 hour drive to Columbus. We are looking to eventually relocate to the States so would like to start building our portfolio in a State that has consistent appreciation with room for rents to increase going forward.  After listening to many podcasts with Henry Washington it seems like the MidWest has the best performance overall.

Would love to find some seller financing as we would like to build our portfolio as quickly as we can.  On a side note, my husband is a contractor and I am a licensed realtor in Ontario.  I've owned long term, short term and commercial (industrial) properties in the past, but never anything out of Province/State.

Thanks so much! This is such a great community and we value all the comments!

Melissa

My biggest advice as an agent and investor is: don't get stuck in "analysis paralysis".  These guys always say buying your first property is the hardest, which I will attest to, it took me two years before I jumped in the ring back in 2005.

Start looking, pick your areas, network with people, I have a list of investors that I am always looking for, if something comes up I immediately contact them with the details to see if it suits.

Don't waste your funds on more courses, there is so much free information out there.

Give @Tyler Stiller a call, he is amazing when it comes to financing investment properties.