All Forum Posts by: Stevo Sun

I'm keen to try and want to invest in Edmonton. I wanted to connect with locals (I'm Canadian living overseas now) and to learn about the housing market there!

Cheers,

Fiona

I'm in Calgary AB, but I wanted to suggest maybe look into the US. In my opinion, if you are going to be doing long-distance investing the US has better opportunities than Canada. My first suggestion is to do local, but if you are already out of the country then you will face all the long-distance investing challenges anyway so maybe try to get more pay off in the US.

Thank you, Stevo! Where in the US would you recommend investing? I'm not too familiar with the States that's why I'm looking into houses in Canada. Are you also investing in US mainly?

I don't invest in the US as I invest locally in Calgary. But there are a lot more information on US on BP than Canadian information. BP is geared towards the States so you shouldn't have a lot of issue finding information.

0 Votes

Edmonton, Alberta

Quote from @Fiona Li:

Hi here,

I'm new to BiggerPockets and joined this community after reading the book about rental investments.

I'm keen to try and want to invest in Edmonton. I wanted to connect with locals (I'm Canadian living overseas now) and to learn about the housing market there!

Cheers,

Fiona

1 Vote

Edmonton, Alberta

Quote from @Cody Adams:

I was recently reading an article related to house flipping in Canada, there is a new law that states that any profit made on a home which is "flipped" will be taxed in the same tax brackets as employment income. From what I was reading it seemed as though this only applied in the first year of ownership. I would like to know if anyone has come across this issue in their ventures in Canada? also curious to know if anyone my have a better suggestion as to where a person could find more in depth information related to this new law? the article i read on it was not about this law specifically, it was just a mention in one of the paragraphs

The law isn't really new. They are just been very explicit about it now. To simplify your profit will. Basically be taxed as a business (aka. active) income under one year, over one year it could be taxed as capital gain (which currently is a 50% inclusion).

link below:

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/programs/about-canad...

1 Vote

Edmonton, Alberta

Quote from @Cody Adams:

a little bit about myself, My we are currently in our early 30's with 2 children both under the age of 3. We've been extremely fortunate in having had the help and ability to pay off our home here in Edmonton. I work a full time, semi flexible job that requires heavy involvement during the spring, summer and fall months but it quite a bit more relaxed during the winter. My wife is currently on maternity leave and will be for the next 10 months, but she will likely be returning to her job as well which is full time. After years of talking about getting into real estate investing ( BRRR Strategy ) my wife has finally accepted my outlook and is open to the idea of it. I've done some research into investing and found a lot of tips and tricks along the way but now that the gates of opportunity have opened up for me I'm looking for the best information related to starting out. We are located in Edmonton Alberta and ideally we would like to make investments nearby so that I can manage them efficiently. I've signed up for a few REI meetups here locally and am looking to network with some people who are in the industry. although I can not offer any benefit to the real estate side of things, I do have a decent level of personal credit experience because I was once a Finance manager for an RV sales company. my job was to read credit applications and submit credit applications to banks to try and get people approved for RV loans so I would say I am versed in this type of knowledge and can assist on recommendations for credit repair and how to acquire more credit. In addition to this I am also a certified Red and Blue Seal Heavy duty mechanic I can most definitely help with automotive questions relating to anything with an engine and associated electronics. My last skill is Sales. Previous to working in the Finance department at the RV store I was a salesperson for 4 years working under a person whom i would consider to be one of the best sales managers/ mentors that I've ever come across, my issue with working in sales was that i had no belief in the product I was selling, not based on the fact that the product was poor, but simply that I thought that purchasing a new RV was a terrible investment. I'm not judging either way but my conviction and belief was not 100% there. regardless I still managed to Win a trip to San Diego, California for placing 2nd amongst all the finance managers in the group for grossing the most on each sale ( large group which involved approximately 50 dealerships including cars ) I am a great salesperson but just did not have a great outlook on the product i was selling.

That is a little bit about me, my goal is to have 10 units multifamily or single family homes which collectively cashflow me $10,000 monthly. This is a floating goal but it is a place to start. My proposed pathway forward is this: #1 I will be attending NAIT for the year 2024 seeking to acquire my home inspections license. This education I assume will give me the information I need to know when I inevitably make the purchases which will lead me to my goal. #2 start a home inspections buisness. namely for the hands on experience which will benefit me when it comes time for me to make my first purchase, but additionally the personal tax strategy of having a company . Also this will be, in my mind a great way to network and get to meet some of the people in this industry so that I can make contacts and have a skill or service to offer. This way I can meet agents and hopefully contractors that can be reliable when the time comes that I need to use their services. #3 around the middle of 2025 I will be seeking to buy our first property. This may be a round about way to get into investing but I really don't have much groundwork to start on. My in-laws have one rental property which they view as more of a burden than anything, and my brother has one rental property that he and his wife also do not look favorably upon. This has been one of the concrete factors in my wife's hesitation to get into the industry. all the negative things she hears about investing has put a bad taste in her mouth but recently she's met a couple through her moms group that is running a successful real-estate investment buisness and her mind has been changed THANK GOD!

anyhow sorry for the long post but I'm looking for your thoughts on this plan and I would like to know any recommendations you may have! With all that being said I would just like to introduce myself and pre-emptively thank all who respond to this post!

Cheers!

Cody

Good luck Cody! My wife more or less just let's me do real estate and she kind of just look the other way. Over the years, specially with recent inflation, she has started to be more bought in on real estate as a defensive play.

I'm in Calgary, but would be happy to touch base. BRRR strategy is getting harder these days due to the higher interest rate. As well housing in Canada is typically more expensive than the US which also makes it harder to cash flow. Hitting 10k of cashflow on 10 doors is challenging unless you have high amounts of equity in the deal (which is the opposite of BRRR).

2 Votes

Edmonton, Alberta

I will DM you the link!

0 Votes

Quote from @Opinder Dhak:

Quote from @Stevo Sun:

I think it's a fine line people are trying to thread here. You can climb the property ladder by buying primary at 5% down and then moving on and upgrade to another property later on. I think it's a timing and intent thing.

I know a lot of people climb the property ladder buying primary with 5% down on a condo and later upgrading to a house at 5% down. I think the one thing I will caution people is that when you refinance at the end of your mortgage term, you would have to tell the bank or lender that the property is no longer a primary residence. IF on renewal you do not let them know the property is no longer your primary residence, this could be considered mortgage fraud.

Oh one other thing to add, CMHC (and other insurers) can deny your insurance if they see you already have insurance with them for primary residence. So you might be force to do 20% down in order to get financing.

Thanks Stevo,

Here are couple things:
1. Dealing with same bank for both mortgages, and they're aware of the rental(at the time of renewal) and primary.
2. CMHC was involved in both properties.
3. Not really looking for upgraded property like first 2. May be a downsizing and keeping 1 and 2 as well.

So I see that your best suggestion would be to move and buy with 20% down.

The 20% down is the 'safest' route where no one can question it. If the banks are aware and CMHC signs off you are probably good to go. It's really the insurance piece you want to be cognizant of, because you hit a 20% down payment amount then insurance is not involved so it becomes a question between you and the lender. It will be the lender's underwriting team making a decision and as long as you are truthful about what you are looking to do then you should have no problem. Circumstances change so you are not locked into one thing or another in the future, but your initial intent is important.

0 Votes

Quote from @Lianne Ottaviano:

Hi everyone, I have a property for sale and I've just been asked about seller financing. I do have some mortgage left on this property. Is it possible to do this in Canada? Do I continue to pay the bank and just collect payments from the new buyer? any insight would be great. Thank you.

I would your mortgage. Typically the mortgages in Canada has a clause if you transferred title/sold the property without paying back the loan you could be in technical default.

In your case, maybe look at agreements for sale/rent to own.

1 Vote

0 Votes

Quote from @Michael McKinty:

hi there, I have a question to anyone in Canada is there a equivalent to the bigger pockets, where I can find tools to help me with finding out of a house is a good purchases for a rental property. any help will be great thanks. and help with bar and house hacking.

Also just as a note, real estate is extremely hands on. I can tell you two properties on the same street could have drastically different outcomes. Speaking from experience, I have two properties side by side. I'm about to drop 13k on one to replace windows and the other one doesn't need that repair. So one is deeply cashflow negative and one is break even. No online tool can tell you that. You need boots on the ground for real estate, so please avoid thinking you can desktop this. This hopefully will help anyone new avoid costly mistakes.

2 Votes

Quote from @Michael McKinty:

Unfortunately the Canadian market is quite different than ths US and there are no equivalent tools because the rules/privacy/other legislations are different. You have to piece together everything you need.

1) listings can be found on Zillow/Redfin/Realtor.ca/HouseSigma etc

2) rental rates will depend on where your market is. Each province will have a different site thats popular. AB for example is RentFaster. Some other sites are Rentals.ca/Zumper/Facebook/Kijiji.

3) financial calculations are the same regardless of location so thats pretty universal as long as you don't forget something that is unique to your market. For example, if you are projecting rents into the future some locations have rent control while others might not.

Good luck!

1 Vote

All Forum Posts by: Stevo Sun

Stevo Sun has started 12 posts and replied 311 times.

Post: Looking for a property mgr/ agent/ investing mentor for property investment

Post: Looking for a property mgr/ agent/ investing mentor for property investment

Post: Fix and Flip in Canada

Post: Finally convinced my wife to come out of her comfort zone!

Post: Resources for investing in Canada

Post: Can you buy multiple properties at 5% down in Canada?

Post: Seller financing with existing mortgage

Post: Can you buy multiple properties at 5% down in Canada?

Post: Bigger Pockets Canada

Post: Bigger Pockets Canada