All Forum Posts by: Filipe Matos

We are, after all, living in a society that the first instruction on a folding baby stroller is "Remove Baby". Need we say more about how people place blame on others before themselves?

Ryan:

Only in the U.S.A. ;-)

Many years ago, I brought back a VW vehicle from Europe. Before I could bring the vehicle back to Canada, I had to take it to VW to be fitted with a North American "kit". Much of the "kit" was things like replacing the halogen taillights with the dimmer NA versions, adjusting the radio for the difference in frequency banding, etc.

One thing that did stand out, was the North American version of the owners manual. It was twice as long as the original and much of the new content was inane CYA messages ... my favourite was "do not lay in front of vehicle when it is running".

Microwave instructions in USA: Do not dry your cat on the microwave

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Originally posted by @Roy N.:

Originally posted by @Colleen F.:

A snow shovel for our student tenants. Sometimes salt for the driveway. Other then that they are on their own.

Colleen:

One of our student tenants called last week as it seems one of two shovels we left them at the beginning of winter had "disappeared". When I stopped to drop off new shovels, I decided to widen the walkway to the front door ... guess what I found buried in the snow :-) We reaffirmed with the {student} tenants that snow shovels are best stored vertical if you ever plan to use them again.

All:

We provide all our tenants with a "Welcome package" which includes small plastic caddy filled with cleaning supplies under the kitchen sink, along with a toilet brush and plunger. The package also contains coupons for local community businesses.

Those tenants in SFHs we also leave a snow shovel and bucket of de-icer (we no longer use NaCl). We use to leave furnace filters as well, but have moved to having our own people go in every 3-months and change the filters ... it gives us another opportunity to inspect the property.

Our student tenants also receive a "Take me home" card which they can use with one of the local taxi companies to get a lift back to their house. In its original form, it was only intended for the first {party} month of the school year to ensure our tenants always had a way home if they had been out clubbing. It proved so popular, that it has become a permanent fixture.

OMG Roy, I want to be your tenant :)

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Originally posted by @Richard C.:

Toilet plungers. You're insane if you don't leave them toilet plungers.
Also fire extinguishers.

Not enough , i had to buy them a Toilet auger ! Actually, I mean, I charged them for the toilet auger but I went to the store and delivered to them for free.

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Originally posted by @Allison Shepstone:

Toronto market has been doing pretty well actually. A bit of a slow down, but by that simply meaning there aren't crazy insane bidding wars with $100k over asking, but there are still multiple offers and most properties moving within 30 days. I focus mostly in the GTA and we are looking at investing next in the states.
Mike-we actually owned a property in Hamilton once-not a great investment ad took forever to get rid of it. Actually glad to have it off our hands, but that was just one property, there are definitely some good areas out there.

Hi Allison, what kind of properties do you buy in Toronto -how many units- and which neigbourhoods ?

I have been buying in Little Italy and Portugal Village

Filipe

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My plan is:

- buy and hold forever the best performant properties

- keep refinancing as long they are cash flow positive and enjoy life, and enjoy the boring and steady cash flow.

- I do not need to be stressed if I have sufficient retirement funds, cash flow will be my retirement fund.

Another option would be to sell everything and provide second mortgages at 12%. You will still get steady income from interest payments.

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Originally posted by @Duncan Taylor:

Originally posted by @Jerry W.:

Ah @Duncan Taylor , I see now. You took the sneaky route to avoid taxes. You took advantage of the tax laws that you can only use once, then educated your children so they know how to do the same. Very sly, I hope the government doesn't try to close that loophole.

One of the few advantages of having a Congress full of millionaires is their long term goals are very safely in line with mine regardless of party affiliation. ;-)

well said:)

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Originally posted by @Bill Gulley:

Originally posted by @Greg Rulfs:

I've heard Robert Kiyosaki say that ideally he would never sell, rather, build equity, refinance and buy more properties. He would be referring to buy and holds. I like the idea in theory...
I can't speak to the tax/estate implications.

Not really wise advice from a guru. That can be a good way to get underwater, rents fall, cash flow goes down, caught with long term debt. If you look up most of the gurus, you'll find that those that didn't go to jail have been in bankruptcy, some have done both. Time is a factor. Buy, refi, repeat is a good strategy early on, later on you'll have other factors to consider. Can't really assume that in 50 years your third or fifth mortgage will be working well for you or your heirs. :)

I do not entirely agree, it does not matter if it becomes cash flow negative. The objective , like it says above is to invest in more properties. Just make sure the total cash flow increases after investing the refinanced money.

Property 1 was cashflowing +250, after refinancing starts losing 50 a month, if the new property cash flows +500, your new total cash flow is now +400, almost double than before, I would do this any time.

Also, its preferable that you buy properties that cash flow or at least break even with 100% financing, that is now one of my parameters on my investments, it forces you to be patient and wait for the best deal possible, it makes the investment safer even if something goes wrong. This way your properties at 80% LTV will hardly ever be cash flow negative.

Robbert might be a Guru and good salesman (he tries hard to sell his training courses), but until now most of the stuff he says makes sense. I did not read any of his books , but I can only say good things from the youtube videos he posted.

I wished most of the authors were like him. When you have guru's talking about getting rich fast you should be afraid of them, Robbert does not talk about getting rich fast.

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Originally posted by @Greg Rulfs:

@Gary McGowan have you looked at the student housing market in London? It's an area I became interested in while living there for about 8 months and would be interested to hear any thoughts on it.

I have looked at them, but the numbers never seem to make more money than with my multi family strategy (buy big space and rough, clean up and rent).

But he guys in Hamilton Mountain swear by them.

I think its a very good strategy if you just compare with sfh rental or duplexes/ some triplexes. Instead of renting to a family you rent to 5 or 6 students , at around $500 each.

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Originally posted by @Roy N.:

@Mary Joe:

This is true, but some of the taxes withheld by the IRS are rebated on our Canadian taxes due to tax treaties between the two countries. You would receive similar treatment as an U.S.A. Citizen investing in Canada.

Now ... is it really worthwhile ... in some instances, yes.

We are looking at a 6-unit property in Texas with scheduled rent of $3150/mth, {claimed} operating expenses of $1484/month with an asking price of $180K.

We just purchased a 5-unit property here at home with scheduled rent of $3390/month {$4250/month once we get rents to market and bring a 6th unit on-line}, operating expenses of $1584/month; and the asking price was $389,900

That is why it can be worth it :)

Sweet numbers :)

Funny, I just bought a book about investment in apartment buildings and the author's main market is Texas.

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Originally posted by @Allison Shepstone:

Im an investor in Toronto, both flips and income properties. The market in TO has become increasingly difficult due to low supply. This has forced most decent homes to end up going in bidding wars, which as an investor is a nightmare. Anyone else facing this problem and had success around it?
We have begun to look at investments in Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta, but on a recent trip we saw a lot of potential in flips. The idea of managing one remotely and the international struggles seem a bit daunting though....anyone have experience and advice on this?

I have been successful until now, 75% of my income properties have been purchased on bidding wars in crazy Toronto. I only buy properties with best possible future , one property a year. I am closing on my last one this month.

Now I am out of Toronto since I do not do flips, I ran out of money. I always need 200K to buy and renovate a income property, and I do not make 200K Net a year :).

if you flip, the bidding wars may be good for you, since you buy low and sell high on a bidding war :)

There is still houses that do not attract bidding wars, you just need to be patient e negotiate. I bought the last one 50K below asking because the seller was overpricing the property.... but still had a bidding war to deal with at 50K under asking, funny isn't it :)

I have properties in Portugal and I do not love to leave 100% of the management to the property Manager. For me it's only worth it to do it if you really get a lot more than where you live, maybe 50% more.

You have tax implications and accounting expenses to deal with.

Another thing to deal with is financing. I do not know how financing works in US for Canadians.

I was researching Detroit Downtown for apartment buildings, very risky, but who knows it can be good in the long run.

What is the cash on cash return you are seeing in US?

In Canada my minimum cash on cash has to be 15%.

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All Forum Posts by: Filipe Matos

Filipe Matos has started 9 posts and replied 113 times.

Post: What do you supply tenants?

Post: What do you supply tenants?

Post: What do you supply tenants?

Post: New Member from Toronto

Post: Buy and hold in perpetuity vs exit plan

Post: Buy and hold in perpetuity vs exit plan

Post: Buy and hold in perpetuity vs exit plan

Post: Canadian Investors

Post: Canadian Investors

Post: Canadian Investors