All Forum Posts by: Steven Silman

@Raul Velazquez

Congrats on deciding to do something proactive to create a better future for yourself!

BiggerPockets website is good for the American market (mostly) but you will also find lots of Canadians on here and some good info on the Canadian market just by searching.

There are worthwhile local West Coast resources for learning real estate investing in general and the Canadian and Vancouver markets in particular. Regarding a book, I learned a lot from Location, location, location by Ozzie Jurock and he has quite a bit of free content on YouTube and his website. He also had an investors group which I think is run by someone else these days. Don't expect to agree with everything he says and be aware that no one is always correct. As in most things, It's best to draw from a number of resources to get different points of view. 

Another is the podcast The Loonie Hour, which addresses investing in Canada in general as well as real estate - one of the "three amigos" on that podcast is a local realtor. 

As others here have said, the Vancouver market is expensive and you will likely have to look further afield to find something that cashflows. Even if you are focussing on appreciation, having a property that cash flows will help when the expensive surprise problems happen.

Can't stress enough to take your time, learn as much as you can, and be cautious with your first investments (but try not to get analysis paralysis). It's hard to know what you don't know when you are starting out! Sometimes you do everything correctly and things still go against you. Other times you make multiple mistakes and your investment goes up anyway. 

It's a long-term learning process, but an interesting and often profitable journey - best of luck to you!

Although I've been investing in and improving multifamily properties since 2000, I decided to go back to school and get a Bachelor's Degree in Construction Management from BCIT (I already have my Red Seal in Carpentry). The final part of my degree involves a capstone project, and a requirement of the capstone project is that it be overseen by an industry mentor. For the project I plan on creating a system to address every aspect, step-by-step, of increasing the value of multifamily properties by making improvements that increase each property's net income. Pretty straightforward project but extremely useful for my investing career going forward. 

I am reaching out to see if anyone in my area would be interested in exploring the idea of mentoring me for this project. It typically takes 4 to 6 months to produce on a part-time basis and my intention is that it will be of value to those in the industry, including me and a prospective mentor. I believe the amount of time required from a mentor would be relatively small, but is something for further discussion. I would encourage anyone interested to take a look at my presence on BiggerPockets and LinkedIn and I would love to receive feedback and answer any questions.

@Michael Hill, I've come across this one as well. Double-check that it's legal in your area but if it is, it's an excellent one to include in your subjects/clauses. Especially useful if the seller is friends with any of the tenants. 

@Tay Huang - for an investment of this size, you definitely want to seek professional advice. Unless you've done this before and can perform it yourself, professional, experienced project management is a must. If it's presented as shovel-ready, you still need to run through every aspect to make sure there isn't some significant element you're overlooking. Even experienced developers will sometimes turn to consultants to ensure they're not missing something, unless they perform risk analyses in-house. There are so many moving parts to a project of this size that it's impossible to evaluate in a forum like this. You may be on to something with this but careful, professional evaluation is absolutely essential before taking on what would be a significant amount of risk.

@Oscar Adams it's challenging to start doing but there are many Canadians doing this in different areas. There isn't really a blueprint for the US - each state has different rules and regulations, along with levels of appreciation, cashflow, etc. I'd suggest doing research to establish a handful of markets that fit your criteria (level of risk v reward, landlord friendliness, etc) and get to know each one well. Then make connections with local REI professionals and amateurs and starting building a team for that area. Wherever you decide to invest, you'll need locals to help, as detailed in out-of-town/out-of-state investing forums and books - many are on this site. You could also consider different towns and provinces around Canada - once you get out of Vancouver and Toronto, cashflow is usually better and it will be more straight-forward for you to do, especially you can value-add.

Is it in a low-income neighbourhood - not a lot of those in Courtenay - or is it a low-income building? A strategy many have used, including me, is to buy the worst property on the block and improve it up to average. When you're done, it's no longer low-income. That's not such a good approach if the whole neighbourhood is low income.

Where is the property located? Lots of experience with low income housing.

@Calvin D. It may be challenging but, given that you have the clause about house maintenance issues, you have a decent chance of successfully charging them for it. Collecting is another question but it could potentially come out of the damage deposit when they leave - understanding that you may have to go to the BC Rental Tenancy Board if the tenant doesn't don't agree. If you haven't spoken to RTB already, I'd suggest you phone them and see what they say about the situation.

If the tenants threaten to move out I would be inclined to let them go - the rental market is tight right now and, based on their lack of awareness about household issues, they may very well cost you more money down the road from some other issue.

Yes, it's a lot like a regular purchase but a judge will have to approve the purchase contract and you likely can't have any conditions.

@Cody Slevin It really depends on what needs the most work. If the yard is a disaster, spend some money on that. Same goes for the exterior front, bathroom, kitchen, etc. You're generally going to get tenants to the level of your worst space. Once you bring things up to roughly the same baseline, then start looking at the cheap but noticeable renos - paint (walls and possibly cupboards), window dressings, etc. As others have said, you really want to focus on the things that will increase the rents. Usually that means dealing with the spaces that are noticeably worse than the property's and/or neighbourhood's average. I'm in Vancouver as well and have owned MF in Winnipeg - feel free to DM me and I can take a look if you like.