All Forum Posts by: Philip Robbins

@Thomas S. please take it easy with this "worthless individual" type stuff. These forums have great support and info and it's not cool to have this kind of derogatory terminology. Sure, from a business perspective you may choose different customers...all I ask is that we keep these forums respectful toward everyone. Keep in mind, most recipients of assistance are single mothers.

Ya Barrie has everything going for it, very safe place to invest I'd say. I could be wrong, but don't think you can get a SFH to cash flow there. Probably has to be duplex or more. There's also Orillia. My accountant invests there and he says cash flow is good. I've been investing in Cambridge where there is also a serious shortage of rentals, but SFHs are now pretty tough there too.

Hi Larry, I've got a friend who's interested in US RE investing, and I noticed this meet up on the forums here. I hit the attend button so it's me plus 1 if there's room. Thanks, Phil

Hey Nicholas, if you don't mind driving then as long as the place you are investing has good economic fundamentals and population growth then I think it's a good idea. Maybe just make sure that there are a couple of good property management companies in the area in case you get tired of doing it yourself. And of course budget for PM in your analysis. I would even interview these PMs just to be totally certain you'd be comfortable with them if you needed them. Where are looking just out of curiously?

Hey Owen, I invest in Cambridge (I look at Kitchener too, but so far it's worked out to be Cambridge). My real estate agent, Mat Piche, is a good person to connect with. He specializes in SFHs but has knowledge about multi-family too. He has a YouTube channel and if you look for his "property of the week" videos he gives expense breakdowns that are conservative. btw, rents for semi detached (detached are too expensive now), SFHs that are nicely renovated (that part's key!) are approx $1550-1650 per month, and the current rental demand is very high. That's what I own, so all I can speak too.

Maybe you could pay them to terminate tenancy. Would depend on how much of a rent increase you could get, and amount they'd accept as payment whether it's worth it, but another possible option.

A couple thoughts based on Mike's post:

The book Secrets of the Canadian RE Cycle gives some pretty detailed info about drivers of the cycle. Of note, interest rates are an influencer rather than a driver (eg interest rates in the us were low at the time of the crash).

Their are a lot of purpose built student housing units being built in Waterloo so there could be an over supply issue with student housing there.

Edwin Szeto interviewed Tom Karadza on his podcast recently and he spoke about starter homes being less vulnerable to slumps because there is still demand for them and they go down in value less...thought that was an interesting observation.

Hi Ryan, it sounds like you've done a lot of research on analyzing deals and your analysis for this place is impressive! It's just that you're starting off your career with a slightly more advanced property. I just went through a similar process this week looking at 2 duplexes in Kitchener and making an offer on one, which was not accepted because I was very cautious with two of the things you mentioned, no lease for existing tenant and zoning/title. My advice, if you want to pursue this deal is to run it by your lawyer and mortgage agent, and also consult with your insurance company. I would think R4 zoning means 4-plex or less, and environmental assessments are if zoned commercially, but could be wrong. The pros I mentioned will know. Don't rely only on your realtor. Even if they have integrity, they can't help but be biased by their financial stake in the deal. The mortgage agent also has a stake, but if it's a messy deal to for them to sell to a lender it's probably not worth their time so they'll be more straight up with you - but the lawyer has your back 100%. My two cents anyway!

Just reading this post now because of Hai's recent reply, but had a question for folks based on something that Paul Gill wrote 8 months ago. He said that he factors in a potential decline of 25% in a property's value into his contingency plan. You hear a lot about making a sure a property cash flows to weather storms, but not as much about a threshold for % in decline in value. I suppose having 20% down covers a 20% decline, and anything over that would require cash reserves to weather (depending on amount of additional equity). What threshold are other's using for a drop in value "to be safe"? I'm newer to this so there may be some factor I'm missing here, but hey, I'm here to learn!!  Thanks

My neighbour sold his house a week before the new mortgage rules went into effect for 200K over asking and literally a hundred people went through it, and last week my friend put his house on the market (nice house, great area) and only one party made an off at asking price...telling perhaps, but would be interested to hear what realtors are noticing.