Housing prices in MTL are pretty high so it's pretty impossible to get a positive cash-flow. 

Almost impossible to find a rental property that cash flows without paying cash for it.

The city recently passed memorandum making it impossible to evict a non paying tenant for any reason including an expired lease. 

They typically charge a larger commission, around 45% as Michael mentioned, plus they have worse contracts that limit your use and make it impossible to exit.Look for buildings that allow for self-management and/or for you to pick your own management company.

Tougher to flip but not impossible, the renovation costs on some of the older structures eat into profit. 

Having said that our market is extremely hot right now and to find a single family home in a good neighbourhood will be near impossible for 150-200k.

I love your plan, but in today's market it might be tough (not impossible) to find an affordable duplex in a nicer area for you to live in and house hack.

Hello all, My wife and I live in a place where it's next to impossible to own a SFH (the place is SF Bay Area haha) However, with our hard earned savings we want to start our journey into RE, and so we thought perhaps a SFH a little away far the Bay Area as a buy and hold (10 year horizon) might be a good idea. 80% chance we rent out the place forever, but 20% it turns into our primary residence if < 3 hour drive from the Bay Area.

Things you may find second-nature may be impossibly foreign to others. 

The agreement was for 15 years; paying the $400k back wouldn't negate the agreement making it near impossible to cash flow.6.