Birmingham has grown into a multi cultural hub, with a great diversity in employment industries, a fantastic university and teaching hospital, and a great growth in the tech and healthcare sectors.

You have the benefit of knowing Edmonton somewhat and Alberta is likely to be a fantastic place to invest (depending on the petrochemical sector health of course) so if I were in your shoes, I would use my knowledge of Edmonton and my friends and connections there to invest there while you live in the magnificent city of Montreal. 

Also, the real estate sector is not as organized as in the US.

Just thought this might be interesting for everyone to see how we all got started..I started out by moving from one industry sector to another.

Originally posted by J Scott:So, there's evidence that there is at least a short-term recovery going on in some sectors What sectors?

No rain = no problem for other jobs sectors like tech, government, and hospitality.

Investors know other investors who in turn share their networks of those already established within the sector.

@Joseph Guzzardi Jr Value adds assets in the multifamily sector are what we are looking at for some forced appreciation and stabilized cash flow in year 2.

Bay Area is a highly cyclical momentum driven market just like the tech sector.

(BTW, "wholesaling" a term copied from the personal property business sector, but whatever):)