All Forum Posts by: Paul Mackay

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Hey Kito, 

I bought a set of flats in Dartmouth almost 2 years ago and have zero regrets. My area has a great feel to it, and people want to live here. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Investment Info:

Small multi-family (2-4 units) buy & hold investment in Dartmouth.

Purchase price: $300,100
Cash invested: $15,000

Rent upstairs flat as an Airbnb, live on the main floor.

What made you interested in investing in this type of deal?

Home ownership is expensive! Having a rental unit seemed like a practical way of reducing my living expenses.

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

Through MLS. From the listing cut, I felt the house was underpriced. I put in an offer $200 over asking the same day it was listed, having only my better half and my Realtor in the house.
Offer was accepted, and there were 2 back up offers on the table shortly after.

How did you finance this deal?

Mortgage Broker

How did you add value to the deal?

The upstairs of the house was a 2bed + den, with separate utilities, so the bones were there.
For the most part the reno was done by myself and father for about 11k, furnishing it was another 9k.
Currently working on the main floor bath, and am saving up for some foundation work.

What was the outcome?

A successful Airbnb business where we pretty well live for free!

Lessons learned? Challenges?

Give myself more time for renovations.

Did you work with any real estate professionals (agents, lenders, etc.) that you'd recommend to others?

Jonah Wright my mortgage broker. One word... efficient!

Jonah Wright/Mortgage Intelligence. 

Efficient and no nonsense. 

I agree with Neil on this one.

I’m on my way to see a 2bed/1bath walkout condo for the 2nd time, where the main entrance has an automated wheelchair accessible door. It’s been listed for a while, is a fair price, and is a well run condo. Very close to a bus terminal.

The bones are there, and it seems like an opportunity. I feel I just need a better understanding of the needs of people with mobility issues.

@Andrew M., 

Thanks for the shout out!

For me, having seen the short term regulations with Vancouver and Toronto, I had a hunch that out-of-country capital would move east, but at a more relaxed pace. My hunch was Montreal and Halifax. 

I posted an article on my facebook account that discusses Asian buyers gravitating towards Halifax, it looks like I can't copy the link onto here, but you can find it on CBC "Why Chinese house hunters are increasingly drawn to Halifax." To me it makes sense, with the high concentration of universities, foreign students, and being costal. 

In regards to your game plan with Antigonish, I think it's spot on. 9 months of student housing, followed by a summer of Airbnb is on my radar if/when Airbnb becomes too saturated in HRM.

Cheers,

Paul Mackay

I'm with Andrew on this one. The Halifax market is healthy and strong, you can see growth and change in the bedroom communities of Fairview and around Dartmouth as well. I live a block from downtown Dartmouth and it's been interesting to see exclusive listings with sold signs pop up out of the blue, as well as homes going over asking. 

I grew up outside Wolfville, and i've turned into the "valley guy" for my Halifax brokerage. Not only do you have a university in Wolfville, but you have a large demographic of retirees selling their city homes and moving to the valley. I'm not familiar with the Airbnb market in the valley, but with the strong tourism market in the area,  it will be something I will be looking into.

In regards to the Airbnb market in HRM, there has to be 50% more Airbnb rentals in the past year. A lot of these products are spot on, highly stylized rentals. I have one Airbnb, and performs 3x better than if I had it rented with a long term lease. 

I read city council notes regularly, and in my opinion there will be new Airbnb rules for the city. Will they be aggressive like Toronto and Vancouver? No. I sense they will want to regulate it lightly and tax it appropriately. 

Also on the council notes are discussions on the infamous "centre plan," it sounds like they're gonna promote making our city more dense and to facilitate an aging demographic by allowing in-law suites in R1 zoning. Is this set in stone? Not as far as I can see, but I get a very progressive open vibe to what i've been reading. 

For anyone who wants to dig in, I suggest going on Halifax.ca and searching Airbnb and In-law suites.

Paul Mackay

Winter is really uncharted territory for me. November had 14 nights booked, December has 5. My YTD is over 16k for 19 weeks and i'm confident spring/summer will be good as well. I think the unit would be worth 1100-1200 unfurnished plus utilities. Something I would think about is, Setting your place up to be a furnished suite. Rent it Sept to June to a NSCC student (I know someone in a unfurnished bsmt bachelor paying $800).

Then during the summer, rent it out through Airbnb. That was always gonna be my back up incase I had a hard winter.

I might have the Truro market wrong, but i'd like to know your thoughts.

Paul 

Thanks for the compliments! If I were you, I would watch the Bigger Pockets episode on Airbnb with Zeona McIntyre. Then I would spend an evening reading about Airbnb. 

I know my market very well, I know what hotels are booking for in HRM, I also know Airbnb comps in the neighbourhood as well as their ratings and bookings. (If you click on a persons listing, and then their calendar, you can tell pretty quickly how they're doing.

I just went on Airbnb in Truro, and there's only 5 listings for all of Truro. The one and two bedrooms list for $60-$75 a night. I also went on Expedia, and it looks like hotels are $100 and up in Truro. This could be an opportunity for you. 

Airbnb charges a 3%  booking fee, and you can create your own cancellation policy. It's like a Expedia for property owners. I've had about 30 bookings so far, and zero damage, parties, or horror stories. The unit has a pin pad on the door, so I don't even need to greet them at the door. I stock k cups , condiments, soap, shampoo, etc and between guests it usually takes 2 hours to clean. 

Oh and like you, I knew very little about Airbnb until about 8 months ago, during renovations of upstairs it was suggested to me. 

I hope that helps!

Paul 

Hey Jeremy , thanks for the message back. If you go on Airbnb and look up Dartmouth, there's a unit close to Lake Banook that has the headline "Refreshed 3 Bedroom Flat, Near Row Club/Dt" It has a crisp white kitchen photo as the main photo. Take a look, i'm quite proud of it, and feel free to ask any questions. 

I was a little concerned that we would not get bookings because it's in Dartmouth, but the neighbourhood has a lot of great things going for it. I think I was able to portray that in the Airbnb listing too. Bookings have been about 90% from when I started in July until November, which is running at 47%. I have a 2 night minimum on the unit, and have been charging between $150 and $220 a night. 

Good job on the house hacking, how have you found being a landlord and being a homeowner?

Paul