All Forum Posts by: Shaidah K.

Congrats on the successful flip and nice chunk of profit!

A recent new article on a foreign company buying Vancouver real estate:

http://www.nationalpost.com/chinese+investors+snag+vancouver+biggest+real+estate+prize+four+towers+bentall+centre/11725989/story.html

In my municipality, easements are private agreements between 2 (or more) private properties with the terms outlined in the agreement.  Here, the City is a 3rd party to these agreements just to ensure they are completed fairly and at the time of development.  

Ingress/egress/regress is for surface access only.  A plan was probably attached showing the location of where the access is allowed.

You shouldn't put water service in on the neighbours property if it isn't previously agreed upon and the neighbour has the right to refuse your proposal.  Remember, everything has a price.  

What are your other options?  Where is the closest watermain in the City road?  Can a service be extended, or can the main be extended?  Will the City cost-share for a main extension?  If you voluntarily do a main extension, will the City allow a Latecomer Agreement (an agreement that allows a property connects to the main that you have extended, the City will collect their proportionate share of funds and forward them to you (here the agreements are valid for 15 years and increase 5% each year to cover inflation).  Latecomer Agreements are a good way to recover funds but you need to front 100% of the cost, and there is the risk that no one will connect.  Can you cost share with other neighbours to extend the main and they all get service connections from the fronting water main?  

You should price out the worst case scenario of you extending the water main, and try making a deal with the neighbour.  Example, if it costs $20K for you to extend the water main, then maybe your neighbour will grant the easement if you pay her $10K.  We see that a lot with development.  

Or you could try to buy your neighbours property. Maybe she wants to sell.  

Good luck!

Oscar,

I review a lot of easement documents for my job in Land development with a Canadian municipality.  If the access easement that was agreed upon doesn't explicitly allow water, then the neighbour has a right to refuse you from placing water main in the access easement.  I suggest you be nice to the neighbour and find out why she won't allow the water connection if a new easement document was drafted and agreed upon.  Also, you are probably paying the City for water in your City utility bill, so be sure to get them involved.  If this was happening at the City that I work for, our Realty Department would get involved and negotiate with the neighbour, or worst case scenario, they get our legal department involved and expropriate land for the watermain, or put in a new watermain within public land (road) which is our standard and do a cost share with City and fronting property owners.  

Good Luck!

Shaidah

Many locals have probably seen this article of a shack selling for more than asking price of $2.5M: http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2016/02/rundown-point-g...

You would think the market would crash sometime. With foreign money coming in and buying property, and with predictions of the Canadian dollar to stay at a constant value of ~$0.70USD, property values may continue to rise.   

I work for a municipality, working with developers to develop their land, reviewing the engineering side of things.  I have been working for 12 years, and every years is just as busy or busier than the previous.  I am not just saying this, our yearly stats support that development is not slowing down.  

I am in investor.  I have my home and a townhouse rented out, and am looking into expanding my portfolio but not in the lower mainland market.  

In October, I refinanced my home to change the mortgage so that I could have a HELOC. I bought my house for $418K in 2005 (built in 1980). In October of 2015, it was appraised at $910K. I live on a busy street in Richmond, BC. We bought this home with the intention of living in it until retirement. This is our first home and we are emotionally attached. We have put a lot of time and money into improving it.

A couple days ago, I had an agent call and tell me that he just sold 3 houses (all tear-downs, one already demolished) a few lots east of my property.  Each sold for approx. $1.5M and was wondering if I was thinking of selling.  

3 For Sale signs just went up a few lots over, west of us.  The properties are ranging from $1.85M (tear down) to $2.1 for a nice looking home.

I told the agent that everything is for sale for the right price.  But the problem is, we wouldn't be able to buy anything or much in Richmond.  We would have to relocate somewhere else.  We chose Richmond as it is central between where I work and where my husband works.  We also don't want to be the one who holds out and developers build townhouses/condos on all sides of us.  

I also don't want to kick myself in the future for not accepting $1.5M if the market crashes.  

I am just putting this out there for discussion, to get some thoughts from others.  What would you do?  We have been jokingly discussing selling and moving to Costa Rica...  Or we could sell and invest in several properties outside of the lower mainland.  But we would have to move and to be close enough to our jobs, we wouldn't be able to afford anything.  

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing what others have to say!

Welcome!  My husband and I have been looking outside the lower mainland to expand our portfolio, but even Abbotsford, Chilliiwack and the Island are getting out of the question.  My parents just sold their home in Surrey.  It was on the market barely 3 days and offers came in from 3 real estate agents so it didn't even make it to the public yet and they got more than asking price.  Good luck and I am looking forward to hearing about your deals!

Hi Adrian,

Not sure I understand your reply. 

• Asking price is $549k, we offered $500k, they countered with $542k
• We were planning $100k from our heloc and $20k from our savings for the downpayment and closing costs
• That would leave us with $400k mortgage, payments of ~$1500/month (30years), with $375 for property tax, $50 for insurance, with interest only payment of our HELOC of $266, we are at $2191/month.
• Incoming rental income is actually $2347

That left us with $156.00/month.  We would be comfortable making $100/unit ($200/month) for repairs/maintenance/vacancies.  

Maybe my post needed more clarity.

Thanks.

This is my first post to the forums.  Here is some quick background:

I live in Richmond BC. We bought our house in '05 for $420k, and had it recently appraised and it came in at $910k. We did the appaisal so we could get a HELOC in order to use as downpayment for multiple properties. In '10, we bought a townhouse (~$200k) in Surrey with a partner that makes about $100/month. At the time, hubby and I thought we would try to buy a property every 5 years.

Now 2015... we have saved some money for a downpayment but not enough for what we want to buy, hence the HELOC. After researching through BiggerPockets, and listening to podcasts (I am in the 40's and promise that I will go to itunes and give the 5 star review this week!), we want to buy more real estate. We don't want to wait 5 years between properties.

Here, it is next to impossible to find anything where the rent is 2% of the purchase price, even 1%.  Even up to several hours away... and if I wouldn't want to live there, or even go there, then why invest there.  I hope this background gives you some idea of the market here.  

We spent a week fishing in Campbell River on Vancouver Island.  Salmon capital of the world, Dam/energy station construction and a new hospital coming soon.  We thought we would check into some property in this growing city.

Ocean front Duplex, asking $549:

http://www.realtor.ca/Residential/Single-Family/15...

• Rent is ~$1200/month for each side, =2400, currently rented to tenants who want to stay
• Property tax is $4400/year

Assuming purchase price of $500k:

• closing costs of approx. $20k (including ~$10k of property transfer tax)
• Min Downpayment of 20%, $100k 
• Downpayment + closing = $120K, $100k from our heloc
• min. heloc payment of $266/month, interest only.  
• Variable mortgage rate of prime (currently 2.7%) minus 0.5 = 2.2%

Anyways, without getting into way TOO much detail, we would make about $100/month and have the HELOC paid back in 35 years from just the rental income. We would definitely pay back the HELOC sooner from our primary income, but wanted to run the numbers so the property would sustain itself.

Yesterday, we made the offer of $500k.  They countered at $542.  We could go to $505k but then we are really stretching ourselves thin.  

Unfortunately, we are going to have to walk away from this one and continue our search.  

Thanks for reading!

Hello,

I am still going through a lot of the posts and listening to the podcasts.  I am learning a lot!

I wanted to get out and introduce myself: 

Hi!  I'm Shaidah (pronounced Shy-da).  I live in Richmond, BC where my husband and I have been living for 10 years and have almost paid off our home.  My goal was to have it paid off before we turned 40.  We have 4 years to go and know we can do it, but not sure if we should...  With rates really low, I wonder if we should be investing additional funds in new property instead of paying off our home.  In 10 years, our appraised value of our home has doubled.  Similar homes in the area are selling for more than double what we paid.  Real estate here keeps going up.

In 2010, we bought a townhouse in the neighbouring City, close to where I work.  My husbands brother is a 50% partner, who lives on the east coast.  The townhouse is tenanted and we have a positive cash flow.  We have been lucky to have a single middle aged male tenant who has been there for the full 5 years so far.  

I work for a municipality as a Civil Engineering Tech.  I work with developers and their engineers to ensure that their proposals meet the City's requirements for everything within the road allowance.  My husband works for a lab and does research on blood.  

I am always looking at real estate and am mentally ready to buy another place, but not financially ready, without dipping into the equity of our home.  

I think that is enough on me for now!  

Here is a link to a property I am really interested in but am not financially ready for... It doesn't hurt to look, right?

http://macdonaldcommercial.com/sale/2699

Thanks for reading!

Shaidah