All Forum Posts by: Victor Menasce

It depends on each college campus. Get to know the local market for a specific university. For example, near Temple University in Philadelphia, you're looking at about $450-$600 per bedroom. It used to be higher, but the university built their own residence with 1,200 beds which created an over-supply of student housing. Some universities are growing and others are shrinking. You want to assess the supply / demand balance in the local market. Some student housing offers a lot in the way of amenities. For example, there are a number of new projects in Arlington Texas, close to the UT campus that offer swimming pools, fitness, etc. This is despite the fact that students have access to excellent facilities on campus only 4 blocks away. Many of these rooms rent for about $700 per bedroom. But note that most cities will reclassify your place as a rooming house (that's bad) if you put separate locks on bedroom doors and sign a separate lease per bedroom. They want to see a single lease for each apartment. You generally want a single lease with multiple tenants, each with joint and several responsibility for the lease. So if one person on the lease defaults, they are all still responsible. We also get tenants to include parental guarantees for the lease.

Agree completely. Toronto continues to add 125,000 population a year. Demand exceeds supply by a wide margin, but rental prices have not increased to reflect the higher purchase prices and higher development costs. The city is trying to regulate short term rentals and shift some of that inventory back into the permanent housing market. Wait a little to see how that settles out. There are some strategies that are working in Toronto, but straight up rentals are not it. 

The problem with rentals in Montreal is that the properties are relatively expensive, rents are relatively low, and the legal environment heavily favours tenants. The low vacancy rate is a reflection of the fact that there is very little new product entering the market. Demand has exceeded supply, but rental prices have not risen to match the increase in demand. If it was a great opportunity, investors would be flocking to the market and building new apartments. We have a very similar situation in Ottawa. Only select segments of the market make sense financially. You will find that older condo's are selling at much lower prices than new ones. They can make a good rental. But the lower prices are a reflection of the fact that they weren't selling. If you do the analysis properly and include all the expenses including maintenance, reserves, you will find that the cash flow is weak unless you borrow a very low ratio. 

Getting good deals usually involves helping people out of sticky financial situations. There's no need to violate local bylaws to accomplish this. So who are these people, and where can you run into them? 

1) Landlords who have just evicted a tenant at the landlord/tenant tribunal

2) People who are getting divorced.

3) People who are in trouble with the law, own property, and might be facing prison time. 

4) People who are behind on their property taxes.

5) People facing a foreclosure or power of sale.

House hacks in Toronto vary widely. The biggest obstacle to new construction in Toronto is the $84,000 in development charges that are levied by the city for a new single family home. If you take an existing home and redevelop it by turning a bungalow into a two story home, you can do a lot of construction for $84,000. The growth in population exceeds the growth in supply by a wide margin. That makes an extreme house hack a better bet than just paint and carpet.  

Matt, I'm a developer and investor in Ottawa and also run the Ottawa Real Estate Investors Organization. Seller financing can be a great source of low cost capital for a project. The key is in finding a solution for a seller's problem. The Ottawa market right now is very hot and many properties are selling with multiple offers. Cash offers are even in the mix in many cases. But if the seller is looking for a way to delay a large capital gains tax bill, a seller financing, properly structure could defer the tax and provide an ongoing source of income for the seller, without the headaches and responsibility of owning the property. Where is the property located?

I've used them in Philadelphia for years. There are two concerns with them. The first is whether they have the efficiency to heat on the coldest of days. The second, is whether the cost of electric heating is OK compared with natural gas. 

1) I make sure to install those units that also have a resistive heating element to supplement the heat pump for heating. 

2) You need to check your local electricity rates and perform a comparison to see if you're comfortable with the costs as against natural gas. Gas prices are very low right now and I expect that gas will win the comparison. But mini-split systems are much less expensive to install compared with conventional fully ducted systems that require a furnace and an air conditioner.

The other advantage is that you get more localized temperature control in each room. 

Why only 25 doors? You need to learn how to raise capital. Purchase properties with sufficient cash flow and margin that the properties will be able to refinance and still meet your debt coverage ratio with zero cash tied up in the property. You can then redeploy the capital into other projects. It's all about creating sufficient value that you can refinance early in the life of the project.  

If you make a claim for a small amount that's just above your deductible, you'll pay for it many times more in higher premiums. If you suffer a large water damage loss ($20-30k) then I would definitely consider making a claim. 

Could you clarify your question? What do you mean by infrasrtucture to turn the contract? What do you mean by "do the deal"? What's your objective for the property?