All Forum Posts by: Stevo Sun

I was saying that I would NOT be claiming it as my primary residence and asking if there are other tax benefits to living there. In terms of the mortgage is there an amount of time you do have to live there? surely they can't make you live there the entire time. If i was to airbnb for part of the year and live there part of the year would that qualify?

Hi. I am a Canadian first-time home buyer and have just purchased a fourplex. I am trying to decide if I should live in one of these units vs. renting all 4 and continuing to rent at my current house. For context, I am a doctor with a stable income and was able to put 20% down comfortably to avoid insurance. If I can make more income from renting the unit at my new fourplex compared to what I pay now in rent what are the downsides of not living there? My mortgage has been approved saying that it would be owner-occupied though my broker told me there is no real consequence of just not living there once it's already been approved. Other than having a quarter of the property (purchased for $850,000) qualify as my primary residence are there other benefits, tax or otherwise, are there of living in the property? Everyone seems to advocate for househacking but why would you do this when you can get rent cheaper somewhere else nearby? I have been looking everywhere for this topic and have not found any advice on this.

tldr. Why would I live in my rental property when I can rent it for more than what I am paying for rent now?

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

Hoping to get some advice on a risk/reward scenario in BC Canada.

I have a property just outside of Vancouver and Victoria BC Canada. I am just completing the subdivision off of a parcel. 

In discussions with planners on what to do with the property, the idea of rezoning for a purpose built multifamily rental has come up. It would likely be in the 40ish unit range and would not be above 56 units. 

The cost to rezone could be around $150k. (CAD) There are 3 aspects of the rezoning process with the possibility that the re-zoning does not complete. If I were to give a percentage chance of failure to each I would say 20%, 30% and 35%. 

As for post-subdivision value of land there is essentially no other comparables and the area is notorious for the inability to rezone. There is one property that has been listed for 4.4M and has been sitting on the market for years. It has a disaster of a trailer park on it and the listing realtor openly says the value in the property is to build the allowed 28 single family homes on it. It is not zoned for a multifamily build and the height is limited to single story. The 2021 cap rate at that price was 3.5% though I expect lower now with issues and current expenses. The land size is almost the exact same as my new lot. (3.75 acres). 

My property is currently only zoned for a house, cottage and outbuildings and has a barn that is currently rented for $1300/month. 
If I were to list for sale as is, I could probably get $550k for it or $500k if I wanted to sell quickly. 

The cost to re-zone would be everything I have- and considering I have loans that exceed this -it would technically be leveraged. 

I have also gone as far as possible running numbers on completing a build, without actually having a building designed and priced out. At 39 units, using today’s rents and conservative values the cap rate could be as low as 4%. Increasing unit number or using less conservative, or increasing rent numbers or lowering vacancy rate could be close to a 6% cap rate.

The area is known as a tourist destination, is geographically constrained, has a massive housing crisis and isn’t expected to ever build enough housing to meet demand.

There may also be the opportunity to sell the property or a completed building to the local government. 

What do you think? If this was yours would you take the risk? 
I’m looking at it as a great opportunity but worried about taking on so much risk given where I’m at.

Hey there,

I'm a newer investor in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, and I am just finishing my first flip project which I am excited to share in the coming weeks. I'd like to next buy a duplex/triplex and step foot through the multi-family investing door while continuing to do single-family house flips.  As I run the numbers on local listings, I'm curious to see if anyone has any advice on estimating insurance costs on small multi-family in our region. For other variables such as tax rates and heating costs, I find it easier to get a good evaluation. But, I haven't been able to get a decent ballpark on insurance costs. Is it all property-dependent? Is there a certain cost per unit I can expect to pay based on the condition of the building? From what I've read, insurance is a bit more complex than costs to rebuild, when it comes to multi-family. If anyone has any advice based on their own experiences or can point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated! Thanks. 

Hi folks, 

I recently moved to Canada and I want to start investing in real estate. I am interested in cash flow positive properties but not sure where to start. I am open to investing anywhere across the globe. For now I've been looking at a few locations in Canada outside BC and ON and across europe. Would love to connect with folks who have some insights into these markets.

Hello,

So finally after just reading forums about RE investing, I finally jumped and do a house hack in Edmonton Alberta. The new single family home will have a legal basement suite which will be done by April 2024. My question is for anyone who is in similar situation in which the utilities is hooked in one meter for the house, how to split the water and electric bill? I am thinking of 70/30 split. Also, does Telus do two connections in one house? I would prefer two routers for privacy purposes.  Also, does short term rental works here in the westside Secord area in edmonton? Thank you.