I personally bought recently because the market has been very soft, by looking at a lot of deals we eventually found a good one, there are significant opportunities to add equity and it was cheaper than renting in my area.

Thank you DanI cannot comment of the price because 3 hours in every direction from Toronto is a different market with different cap rates..I personally think building is always better if cost of acquiring land, utility servicing  construction and soft costs makes sense.

A home-run deal is when you can create 30% of equity in the building on the 1st lease up after renovations and recapture all of your hard and soft costs to repay the capital you have borrowed!  

As you cost out this deal be realistic of the soft costs created by time.I would recommend having some contingency $ stashed even if you coordinate this all with OPM.

Final items is the interest rate volatility is resulting in market softness that could further affect the refi appraisal. 

That'll give you some "soft" landlord experience, and hopefully enough equity by the time you graduate to hit it full bore.If college isn't for you, look into a real estate license.

In the valley a bath towel draped over the pipes outside will prevent the frost, takes more than that in the higher elevations.

I used to be soft but the last one cost $3,000 in lost rent plus the mortgages.

It is great to be able to Control and Roll, assign- flip or recycle without the use of conventional financing - don't you hate asking for money from lenders (hard or soft)?

But there’s no such thing as soft/hard.