All Forum Posts by: Nathan Hillier

Hey Travis, 

I apologize for the late response on this thread. I have a great team in Dayton Ohio who can help with wholesaling, construction, and property management if you're still interested. Finding off-market deals are their specialty.

Please let me know if you're interested as i'd be happy to share my contacts with you. 

It is still very much the same process we are currently going through, although whether or not they will lend to Canadians is determined by your corporate structure. We have a Canadian S-Corp that owns our american C-Corp, and the C-Corp owns our LLCS. With this structure we have not been turned away from lender because we are Canadian, but have found an increased difficulty with refinancing our rentals with ARV of $60,000.

We have a couple more lenders we are talking with, and have determined that by packaging our two SF rentals together to create a combined value higher than $100,000, we have achieve refinancing. 

The next few weeks we should know for sure whether we can stick with this plan, or forced to re-balance our portfolio and acquire larger properties! 

Hey Sam, I'd like to start off by saying congratulations on graduating! I think it's really great that you have an accounting background right off the bat, along with past business experiences, and drive to self educate, you're well on your way to killing it in real estate!

to answer your questions: 

1) I don't think there's a direct answer to expedite your investing career, besides growing your savings so you can invest. You're clearly very knowledgeable, and savvy, so it's almost a sin to say go work for a couple of years a save up. I think between landing a good job, pursuing your side businesses for extra cash flow, and studying you'll be well on your way in no time to get into your first property. Learn how and where you can invest to maximize your ROI, and you can start sooner, compounding your wealth faster (I personally love Dayton Ohio for this)

2) From my experience, getting your realtors license can be good, and can be.. not worth your time. On one hand it's a full time job without any guaranteed pay, and what you'll learn probably wont help you compared to the research you'll do on your own time. If you invest out of state, you will most likely use a realtor in that market. But, the network you can gain will only help you in the future, and the people skills will only help you later in life. That being said, unless its a passion, and you are hoping that it'll create an opportunity to start investing sooner, i'd stick to doing what you're doing, keep reading and networking online. 

3) The hardest thing I had to overcome was networking, from Canada. Being a Canadian, and knowing I had to enter the US market to pursue an opportunity which would allow my family to retire, I had to network heavily to make things happen. It was scary, and I was bad at it at first. But I can honestly tell you that after 200+ phone calls, nothing feels betters than finding the individual you were looking for, and killing the call, and making new ground. 

4) My tips would be to read about David Greene's book: Long Distance Real Estate Investing. Great tips, all are which I use basically every day. Do your due diligence, on everything, and on everyone. Don't get caught up in over thinking, analyze the risks, the rewards, and go for it. Lastly, to Network, Network, Network. Join as many Facebook groups as you can, talk to people, engage with others, and try to talk to them on the phone. The things you'll learn after talking to someone on the phone compared to email is truly night and day!

5) I can honestly say the best part of investing was initially my greatest fear; talking to people and sharing information. There is nothing better than spending my day helping others by sharing information, talking about real estate, and getting to know someone I didn't know before. That, and of course finally selling a flip in Memphis after blowing the timeline by a few months! 

6) The top three things I would do right away: Research, and due diligence! My failing to research contractors resulted in me now being in the middle of a court case trying to get blood from a stone. I hate to say it, but everything I know now came from mistakes that actually set me up in a better position to invest. Not only did i learn a valuable lesson, but the mistakes actually pushed timelines that allow me to take advantage of loop holes that i initially didn't see, all because I f***ked up! Funny how things work out eh. but always get an inspection report, especially if you're out of state. 

I'm very glad to hear you're making the first steps to an exciting journey with Real Estate. If you keep working hard, focus on personal development, learn from your mistakes, study, and network.. man you'll kill it in no time! 

If you're interested in continuing the conversation, i'd love to be able to share with you more on the journey i've personally taken, the lessons i've learned, and the contacts i've gained! Please feel free to reach out and start asking questions! 

Good luck!

Nathan. 

Hey Eddy, and fellow Canadian! 

I wish I had more input to share, but after trying to BRRRR in Calgary, and finding this site, it didn't me very long to jump ship and build teams in the US. If you don't mind me asking, are you dead set on building in BC?

If you're curious about some US markets, i'd love to review with you my past experience investing down south, and the portfolio of rentals i'm building in Dayton Ohio. As well, the proper way to corporately structure yourself to protect against being double taxed i'd be more than happy to share. 

I'm sorry i don't have much to add in terms of actually investing in Canada, but anything you want to know about investing down south i'd be more than happy to explain to you and help out. 

Firstly I'd like to add that Jeffrey is spot on for the high-level planning that will help you greatly to understand how you're going to achieve your goal. 

If I could add to Jeffery's post, i'd say that the first steps i'd say is to always be learning, read and study as much as you can in your free time. I'd also go as far as saying study what is directly important to you, but never 

Second is to acknowledge the important of networking, and how sharing ideas and your goals with like minded individuals can open up a world of possibility and opportunity. I personally try to talk to as many investors as I can through email and phone calls as i can't actually network in specific markets since I live in Canada. 

Third is to know what you're trying to achieve, in the sense of becoming an expert on it. In this case, it's passive income, so know how to analyse rental properties very well. Know what market you will invest in to achieve your goal amount, know whether its SFH or Multi family, and how you will scale to achieve your goals. Set systems and procedures for yourself for both analyzing properties, due diligence period when closing, and when you're pursuing properties. Setting and sticking to Rules and Guidelines has help me tremendously.

Either than that, just do it, and stick with it. Please feel free to reach out if you have any more questions or concerns, i'd be happy to share! 

It's all about networking. Talk to as many investors, real estate agents, property management and wholesalers as you can! 

Where are you looking for deals? 

@Ryan Brocklebank I think you can shed some more light on investing in the Maritimes. 

I agree with Marc Winter, get a good property manager and they should have contracts with local contractors, and pay them to oversee the project. 

You can also network and find a local investor willing to be your boots on the ground, paying them a small fee to take photos and check up on the work being done. 

One of the ways to vet a contractor is to network - find what people are recommending for contractors, and if you get multiple people pointing to come company, then consider inuring with them further. Call them and have the conversation: How busy are they, recent jobs completed, ask for a copy of license and insurance and photos of past work, as well as professional recommendations (What other companies would recommend using them). 

Hoped this helped! Building teams can be a long process, stick with it and continue to network and hopefully things will work out. Feel free to reach out and talk more if interested. Best of luck!

Hey Jason, welcome to Biggerpockets!

I'm personally an out of country investor, from Calgary Alberta Canada. How we go about reviewing properties that we cannot personally walk, is done with our teams we have setup in the market we invest in. Between wholesalers to find us properties, general contractors to give SOW, property management companies to review neighborhood location and ARV, as well as projected rents, and home inspectors to review the property for us.

Our first steps (Assuming we have teams already established) is to review the subject property with our property management company. If they like the neighborhood, and can confirm the rent quote given to us by our wholesaler, we place an offer to get it under contract. This step is also very important, as you can really see true colors of the wholesaler you're working with and if they are providing you with accurate information. If we find repetitive errors, they are red flags telling you not to work with that wholesaler. 

Once we are getting it under contract, we ensure we can opt out of the property by placing a contingency on the inspection report and SOW that will be pulled by our contractor and home inspector. This allows us to walk from the deal if our findings does not come back the way we want it to. 

Now that it's under contract, we get our home inspector to go in immediately (Giving him warning that you may have a home needing inspection before hand is great) as well as getting our contractor to walk the property and draw up a SOW. 

*Pro tip - if you are able to walk the property before getting it under contract, line up and meet your property management company and general contractor at the home with you, to review and walk the property - this gives you a better idea of the home, and rough numbers, as well as giving your management company a better idea for the quality of rehab and better communication in general to further help with qualifying rents..etc. 

After you have all the information, purchase price + rehab, compared to monthly rent minus expenses, you can see where you stand realistically. At this point in time, i always assume that these numbers are best case scenarios, and i will most likely be just under the returns i've just calculated +/- 10-15%. After considering everything, if the deal still looks great, and i know the ARV for refinancing possibilities, than i close the deal and begin rehabbing.

My actual process is very similar to this, depending on the situation. Personally, we work with a large personal network of investors and connect them to our teams we use in the markets we invest in. By doing so, we increase the volume of work for our teams, and straighten our relationships with the companies we use - further increasing our personal security through great contacts, and pass the benefit onto our investors. Through this, we have been able to scale into multiple markets including Dayton, Memphis, Montgomery, Toledo - and expanding to Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Cleveland. 

Feel free to personally reach out to me and continue the conversation! I love networking, and talking anything real estate related. 

Best of luck! 

Hey Joe, glad to see more Canadians on Biggerpockets! It feels lonely sometimes and is refreshing to talk with a fellow Albertian. 

I'm currently investing with my Father, and we are from Calgary Alberta. We started our real estate journey in 2018 exactly in the same boat as you, using BP information and applying it to Calgary/Edmonton. 

What I can say is that the BRRRR strategy is one that requires the perfect deal, it is very hard to find that perfect deal even in the best markets throughout the US. As well, to refinance out at a heavy LTV ratio, you get your cash out to continue investing, but you also kill your cash flow which is very important for long term buy and hold security and asset protection. Personally, for our rentals we like to keep a 50-65% LTV ratio - so we can get most of our cash out, but still have great cash flow as to not worry about future problems.

The problem with Edmonton and Calgary - is the same problem many California investors are running into... As their rental investments are based off principal pay-down and appreciation. Because of this, we are opted out of Canada, and are now investing in Dayton Ohio, Memphis Tennessee, Montgomery Alabama, NJ, and Indianapolis, where we can find rental properties all based off returns on investments and cash flow - No consideration on appreciation, or speculation when running our numbers. (Ex. the total money invested, compared to our monthly rents minus expenses). Not to mention we are able to find deals for under $60k, renting for $800-$1,000/month - being able to diversify into more deals, in multiple markets, compared to one Calgary Rental. 

I understand taking the leap to invest in American Real Estate can be challenging, but it is very possible to do so - and is very straightforward with the right team. I would love to share with you my contacts i use to for cross-border accountants and lawyers if you're ever interested. 

I also understand the difficulties of investing out of country, which is why my father and I do not do it alone. We work with a large network of investors across North America, and connect these investors to our teams we have established in the US. By doing so, we gain the benefit of power in numbers, giving more work for the companies that produce quality work, and straightening our relationships for personal security and our investors. 

Please feel free to reach out and talk with me, as i would be happy to continue the conversation with you! My phone number is in my Bio if you're interested, i'm free to talk anytime during the week. 

Hoped this helped, best of luck!