All Forum Posts by: Myles MacMillan

@Roy N. Do you happen to know if you can have more than one insured mortgage if you use one of the different insurance companies like Genworth or Canada Guaranty for your second or third property? I suppose even if this is legal and possible, you would still be in violation of the lenders contract by renting out your home when you signed to say that you wouldn't?

Does anyone have experience with approaching a lender to rent out your home? Do they typically put up a fuss or is it a non-issue? I'm assuming this is most commonly done during renewal time.

Brilliant information Roy, thank you! I figured that was the case but wanted to make sure. This forum is a great resource. 

Hello All,

I'm a Canadian, living in Winnipeg who is just starting out into the REI world and looking to get into buy-and-hold single family homes. I'm excited to get started, however coming up with the 20% down payment is going to take some time. My realtor suggested that I buy a property now and move into it with 5% down (which we can do in Canada), live in it for a year then rent it out and buy another for 5% down. I'm not sure if this is good advice for a couple reasons. The first of which is that I want to do everything "above board" and when we bought our current home a few years ago (for 5% down), I remember there being a clause in the mortgage paperwork that said the home had to be "home-owner occupied". Is anyone here savvy with bank-financing contracts? I would like to know what the implications of following my realtors suggestion would be in the eyes of the bank? I doubt I would have 20% equity into the property after 1 year which is what you normally need to get a rental property mortgage here in Canada. I also like the idea of having at least 20% equity in a property incase something happens in the market or personally and I need to sell the home. I would like to know that when I sold, the sale price would most likely cover the loan which may not be the case with a 95% LTV mortgage.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you Roy, I will check that out!

"Hello all,

I'm a newbie investor in Winnipeg, Canada. I've been trying to analyze buy and hold single family properties for cash flow to the best of my abilities and for the most part, I think I have a good understanding of how to run the numbers but the one issue that makes it very difficult for me is when it comes to estimating rental income. Estimating how much rent I might expect to get based on the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, area and finishes seems to be an art form. As far as a know, "rent-o-meter" is a good tool used in the US but there aren't a lot of data points on the Canadian side that can give me a good starting point to work from, but maybe I'm wrong? I've been using Kijiji to look for comparables but there isn't always a lot of data to compare against for the specific type of home and area I'm looking in.

Do any fellow Winnipegers, Canadians, or anyone for that matter have any tips for me? I really appreciate the help!