I remember seeing ArcView GIS being used as an example in B-School to show how GIS systems are very useful for analyzing business problems. As I get ready for my next purchase I have been thinking about how I could leverage GIS technology to analyze properties and make profitable investments.
In the B-School demo it showed how Home Depot made their decision to place their next store. (As we know in business location, location, location... which is extremely true for real estate) The map that was shown was for things like income levels, traffic patterns, and proximity of population compared to the closest Rona store. From using GIS data they predicted that by placing the next Home Depot very strategically they could basically slice into Rona's marketshare... basically sandwiching them between two Home Depots. It was a very intriguing visual display of how GIS technology is used.
Now ArcView is a very complex program and I was not a GIS major in school =) Thing is I did find Google Earth has a lot of what I was looking for in a GIS system. You can even create your own layers using Spreadsheet mapper... like a layer for all MLS listings... another for all rentals.
I've just been doing manual entries for the moment. My current mapping strategy:
Translucent Polygons - map out specific areas/divisions/suburbs in a city. Green for Good, Red for bad
Folder of Placemarks for Rentals
Sub folder with number of bedrooms from bachelor to 3+
In each sub-folder placemarks and in the descriptions rent and other information
Colour coded based on rent in $100 increments (so $800 dollar would be yellow say, $900 would be light orange)
- This allows you to quickly see average rents in the city visually... you can also check on and off the number of bedrooms to see the rents of say just 2 bedroom rentals if you're looking at properties that are 2 bedroom.
Folder of Placemarks for MLS listings
Again same subfolders
colour coded placemarks based on List price in $10K increments.
- Again this allows you to visually see the average costs of properties.
By combining these two pieces of information... rent and price you can easily spot the areas with the most potential. If you also had access to crime rates, average incomes, etc you can refine your view even further.
Anyways I am just playing with it for now. Manually entering everything in does take a tremendous amount of time so at the moment it's just for experimenting sake... but I could see someone like a realtor with access to an MLS feed automating this and having it fed into a GIS system... then taking statscan data and data provided from the city and also pumping it in. Someone with some decent GIS knowledge could have a very refined tool for real estate investment. Maybe could even charge a subscription to the map for searching =)
I know I would probably subscribe at the right price ;)
Monday, September 6, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Reading your "local" newspaper
Been reading how it is very useful to keep to the pulse of the local city or community you're investing or planning to invest in. You get to know quickly of new developments on public transit or when a big company might be moving to town, etc.
Of course the reverse is true. You get to hear about plant closings and the general vibe of a city by what is in the news (rising crime rates, natural disasters...)
I am investing in Regina so the Leader-Post is quite a good newspaper to read daily. Finding things out like new railway hubs, BHP's Potash Corp bid, even just very local economic studies like vacancy rates, average wage increases, average rents... seem to come up fairly frequently in stories. I also check Real estate that's for sale and also rental listings to get a feel for rental rates in various areas.
I've come across a company called PressDisplay.com that has 1400+ newspapers from around the world online. You can purchase editions at like a buck each or subscribe on a monthly basis at $29.95 US for all newspapers.
But for a more Canadian feel CanWest has quite a digital package using PressDisplay's technology... I of course am subscribed to Leader-Post Digital... They have a 21 day trial if you wanted to just check it out. It allows you access to 11 regional newspapers (Leader-Post, Star-Phoenix, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, The Gazette, The Province, Vancouver Sun, Windsor Sun, Times Colonist) for a low monthly fee or increasing savings for a 3, 6 or 12 month subscription (not much savings... I would suggest the monthly route)
$9.99 a month and you get 11 different newspapers daily... of course read what you want... but even a regular subscription is not that cheap. And this digital format really makes it easy to read your "local" papers of all the cities you are investing in. =)
Of course the reverse is true. You get to hear about plant closings and the general vibe of a city by what is in the news (rising crime rates, natural disasters...)
I am investing in Regina so the Leader-Post is quite a good newspaper to read daily. Finding things out like new railway hubs, BHP's Potash Corp bid, even just very local economic studies like vacancy rates, average wage increases, average rents... seem to come up fairly frequently in stories. I also check Real estate that's for sale and also rental listings to get a feel for rental rates in various areas.
I've come across a company called PressDisplay.com that has 1400+ newspapers from around the world online. You can purchase editions at like a buck each or subscribe on a monthly basis at $29.95 US for all newspapers.
But for a more Canadian feel CanWest has quite a digital package using PressDisplay's technology... I of course am subscribed to Leader-Post Digital... They have a 21 day trial if you wanted to just check it out. It allows you access to 11 regional newspapers (Leader-Post, Star-Phoenix, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, The Gazette, The Province, Vancouver Sun, Windsor Sun, Times Colonist) for a low monthly fee or increasing savings for a 3, 6 or 12 month subscription (not much savings... I would suggest the monthly route)
$9.99 a month and you get 11 different newspapers daily... of course read what you want... but even a regular subscription is not that cheap. And this digital format really makes it easy to read your "local" papers of all the cities you are investing in. =)
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Independent Legal Advice Clause
Okay so I just finished all the last paperwork for the house (May 4th,2010). I got the papers emailed to me from my lawyer in Regina Monday afternoon (May 3rd, 2010). I emailed them off to my real estate lawyer in YK. I then took a quick glance at the paperwork and found two clauses that made me pause.
1) Insurance Confirmation to be completed by insurer on or before possession date.
2) Certificate of Independent Legal Advice.
I quickly emailed my insurance broker in Regina about this and she gave me a letter saying that a policy was on it's way, but that they don't create the policy till closer to the policy date. She assured me that was enough.
The second clause was a bugger for a couple of reasons. For one I was the one who put this deal together so I'm not sure why I'm the one needing to seek independent legal advice while my Joint Venture partner did not? This was written into the Scotia Bank mortgage. Next time I'm going to have to make sure that clause is left out. I'm not saying getting independent legal advice is not a good thing. I'm saying it should not be a clause that stops you from getting a mortgage. The second thing is that my real estate lawyer in Yellowknife was going to be our Notary Public (the guy that watches us sign basically) so he wasn't independent to the transaction anymore... so now I had to scramble to find another lawyer who would give me independent legal advice (which I didn't need). Luckily my Real estate lawyer was able to help me find another lawyer who could just run me through the basics and sign on the dotted line.
Basically...the "advice" was a mortgage means you owe money to the bank and have to pay them back. If you don't they can foreclose on you. Thanks, and here's $105 bucks for your signature. Ugh... then another $52.50 for the notary publics John Henry. (Though having a lawyer be your Notary is very useful here... he actually went through each clause with us as we signed to make sure we understood). There were 3 copies of the mortgage papers to sign. Many lawyers must get carpal tunnel.
This whole transaction was a bit rushed since the lawyer in Regina wanted everything back to them by the 7th of May (but only got it to me the afternoon of the 3rd)... since the closing date is on the 10th of May. Next time I think I'll make sure they get those damn papers to me more than just a couple of days before the possession date =P And from Yellowknife even with Priority mail it is only guaranteed to be there within 2 days. Imagine if my lawyer was not available right away? How about that independent legal advice trap? Anyways we did luck out... Learn something new each time right?
Hope you all learned from my experience and followup with everyone early on yourselves... no one cares about your transaction as much as you.
1) Insurance Confirmation to be completed by insurer on or before possession date.
2) Certificate of Independent Legal Advice.
I quickly emailed my insurance broker in Regina about this and she gave me a letter saying that a policy was on it's way, but that they don't create the policy till closer to the policy date. She assured me that was enough.
The second clause was a bugger for a couple of reasons. For one I was the one who put this deal together so I'm not sure why I'm the one needing to seek independent legal advice while my Joint Venture partner did not? This was written into the Scotia Bank mortgage. Next time I'm going to have to make sure that clause is left out. I'm not saying getting independent legal advice is not a good thing. I'm saying it should not be a clause that stops you from getting a mortgage. The second thing is that my real estate lawyer in Yellowknife was going to be our Notary Public (the guy that watches us sign basically) so he wasn't independent to the transaction anymore... so now I had to scramble to find another lawyer who would give me independent legal advice (which I didn't need). Luckily my Real estate lawyer was able to help me find another lawyer who could just run me through the basics and sign on the dotted line.
Basically...the "advice" was a mortgage means you owe money to the bank and have to pay them back. If you don't they can foreclose on you. Thanks, and here's $105 bucks for your signature. Ugh... then another $52.50 for the notary publics John Henry. (Though having a lawyer be your Notary is very useful here... he actually went through each clause with us as we signed to make sure we understood). There were 3 copies of the mortgage papers to sign. Many lawyers must get carpal tunnel.
This whole transaction was a bit rushed since the lawyer in Regina wanted everything back to them by the 7th of May (but only got it to me the afternoon of the 3rd)... since the closing date is on the 10th of May. Next time I think I'll make sure they get those damn papers to me more than just a couple of days before the possession date =P And from Yellowknife even with Priority mail it is only guaranteed to be there within 2 days. Imagine if my lawyer was not available right away? How about that independent legal advice trap? Anyways we did luck out... Learn something new each time right?
Hope you all learned from my experience and followup with everyone early on yourselves... no one cares about your transaction as much as you.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Why Regina?
I seem to get asked this question a lot. I did promise to answer this question on this blog so here goes. I don't think many people usually go and buy property outside their home town unless they have some sort of other connection to it apart from investment. (Family lives there, retirement property, used to live there). I generally give everyone a very quick and simple answer using the 3 F's. Namely Food, Fertilizer and Fuel. This generally describes most of Saskatchewan, but it is a quick way to answer this question that gets asked repeatedly.
What do I mean by this for those of you who still don't understand. All three (Food, Fertilizer and Fuel) are necessities for the people of the world. These are things the world will continue to need (and demand) for the foreseeable future and Saskatchewan has them in abundance.
Food: Saskatchewan being a prairie province is a major food producer with many people making their livelihood as farmers.
Fertilizer: It is also the location of a very large chunk of Potash deposits which is a fertilizer... the price of Fertilizer was bid up to like a $1000 a tonne before it came crashing down. Current spot price is about $400 a tonne... but still way higher than what it had dropped to ($150 a tonne)... at the end of the day farmers might be able to go a year or so without fertilizer, but eventually they need to fertilize to keep crop yields up. Potash Corporation was at one time the darling of the stock market and had the highest market cap of any corporation in Canada. They are headquartered in Regina. (Woohoo stable jobs).
Fuel: Saskatchewan also has oil, gas and uranium deposits. Oil from tar sands, but also from oil shales (Estimated to have about 25 billion to 100 billion barrels of oil in the bakken formation alone). Also Saskatchewan is currently the largest uranium producing region in the world. Think of all those new Nuclear power plants coming online in China and elsewhere in the world. While prices for all types of fuel are still on a major uptrend (apart from the hiccup for the great recession)
For those that have a little more time I also explain how Regina currently has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country. (In the May 2010 issue of Canadian Real Estate Magazine there is a quick write up on Regina in the "Top rental markets" section. 0.6% overall vacancy rate is what is listed there.) Of course that means you don't have much worry renting out your property and with lower vacancy rates also means rising rent (basic supply and demand) which will turn into better and better cashflows through the life of your property.
Meanwhile average house prices are still about $100K below Canadian average. Granted markets like Toronto and Vancouver tend to skew the average upwards, still there are significant deals to be found in Regina. Definitely much easier to cashflow on a cheaper property than a more expensive one.
Net in-migration forecast for between 0.5% to 1.8% in the next five years in Regina. New comers usually rent for awhile first before buying and an increasing population will keep demand high before new housing stock comes into play, putting pressure on rents to rise. Saskatchewan also seems to have a relatively lucky place in the age of their population with a nice little bump in the 15-24 age category that allows them to in a sense replace the baby boomer population a bit compared to the rest of the country. (Less labour shortages)
Other things going for Regina:
- RCMP Headquarters... again a stable workforce and amount of people
- Provincial Legislature. Public Sector again diversifies the workforce with another stable employer. (This contrasts with Saskatoon which is more tied to the resource sectors ups and downs)
- New 2000 Acre Global Transportation Hub that Loblaws and CP Rail will use which will provide construction jobs and permanent jobs as it gets underway
The question should really be... Why not Regina?
What do I mean by this for those of you who still don't understand. All three (Food, Fertilizer and Fuel) are necessities for the people of the world. These are things the world will continue to need (and demand) for the foreseeable future and Saskatchewan has them in abundance.
Food: Saskatchewan being a prairie province is a major food producer with many people making their livelihood as farmers.
Fertilizer: It is also the location of a very large chunk of Potash deposits which is a fertilizer... the price of Fertilizer was bid up to like a $1000 a tonne before it came crashing down. Current spot price is about $400 a tonne... but still way higher than what it had dropped to ($150 a tonne)... at the end of the day farmers might be able to go a year or so without fertilizer, but eventually they need to fertilize to keep crop yields up. Potash Corporation was at one time the darling of the stock market and had the highest market cap of any corporation in Canada. They are headquartered in Regina. (Woohoo stable jobs).
Fuel: Saskatchewan also has oil, gas and uranium deposits. Oil from tar sands, but also from oil shales (Estimated to have about 25 billion to 100 billion barrels of oil in the bakken formation alone). Also Saskatchewan is currently the largest uranium producing region in the world. Think of all those new Nuclear power plants coming online in China and elsewhere in the world. While prices for all types of fuel are still on a major uptrend (apart from the hiccup for the great recession)
For those that have a little more time I also explain how Regina currently has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country. (In the May 2010 issue of Canadian Real Estate Magazine there is a quick write up on Regina in the "Top rental markets" section. 0.6% overall vacancy rate is what is listed there.) Of course that means you don't have much worry renting out your property and with lower vacancy rates also means rising rent (basic supply and demand) which will turn into better and better cashflows through the life of your property.
Meanwhile average house prices are still about $100K below Canadian average. Granted markets like Toronto and Vancouver tend to skew the average upwards, still there are significant deals to be found in Regina. Definitely much easier to cashflow on a cheaper property than a more expensive one.
Net in-migration forecast for between 0.5% to 1.8% in the next five years in Regina. New comers usually rent for awhile first before buying and an increasing population will keep demand high before new housing stock comes into play, putting pressure on rents to rise. Saskatchewan also seems to have a relatively lucky place in the age of their population with a nice little bump in the 15-24 age category that allows them to in a sense replace the baby boomer population a bit compared to the rest of the country. (Less labour shortages)
Other things going for Regina:
- RCMP Headquarters... again a stable workforce and amount of people
- Provincial Legislature. Public Sector again diversifies the workforce with another stable employer. (This contrasts with Saskatoon which is more tied to the resource sectors ups and downs)
- New 2000 Acre Global Transportation Hub that Loblaws and CP Rail will use which will provide construction jobs and permanent jobs as it gets underway
The question should really be... Why not Regina?
Friday, April 30, 2010
Paperwork galore
There definitely seems to be a tonne of paperwork that must be done for an investment real estate transaction. I just thought I would list the things that have to have your john hancock that I can remember:
Before offer Acceptance:
- Agreement with Real Estate Lawyer to represent you.
- Agency Agreement with Real Estate Agent (I think there were a couple forms)
- Conditional Offer
- Removal of Conditions
- Cheques for all inspections (home, sewer, furnace)
After Offer Acceptance:
- Property Insurance
- Property Taxes Monthly installment plan with City
- Property Management
- SaskPower Landlord Agreement
- SaskEnergy Landlord Agreement
- Mortgage Agreement with Bank
- New Account sign up with Bank
- Pre-authorization Transaction/Direct Deposit forms (in place of a Void Cheque for Property management company, Insurance company, City taxes)
Still stuff to come:
- Possession and stuff with lawyer
- Renovations, etc.
Seems to be a storm of paper just for this one "simple" transaction. Signing your life away a little at a time =)
Before offer Acceptance:
- Agreement with Real Estate Lawyer to represent you.
- Agency Agreement with Real Estate Agent (I think there were a couple forms)
- Conditional Offer
- Removal of Conditions
- Cheques for all inspections (home, sewer, furnace)
After Offer Acceptance:
- Property Insurance
- Property Taxes Monthly installment plan with City
- Property Management
- SaskPower Landlord Agreement
- SaskEnergy Landlord Agreement
- Mortgage Agreement with Bank
- New Account sign up with Bank
- Pre-authorization Transaction/Direct Deposit forms (in place of a Void Cheque for Property management company, Insurance company, City taxes)
Still stuff to come:
- Possession and stuff with lawyer
- Renovations, etc.
Seems to be a storm of paper just for this one "simple" transaction. Signing your life away a little at a time =)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Scotia Bank - Good Mortgage, Bad Accounts
Sorry for being away for the past month. I was sick for most of April so didn't really feel like doing an update, but now I'm back for a week or two before my vacation in May. Guess I'll update you on what I've been up to. You might be wondering what the title of this post is all about. Of course that's what this post will be about.
I have a Scotia Bank Scotia Total Equity Plan (STEP) mortgage for the property I recently bought in Regina. It is a good little mortgage for investors because it allows access to anything over the 20% equity you have in a property right away... whether as a Line of Credit or another mortgage. It also looks like as long as you qualify you can have as many of these STEP mortgage setup as you qualify for. (But with the new mortgage rules good luck getting qualified for more than 3 properties...)
One thing about the STEP mortgage is that because it is for the lifetime of the property they must do an appraisal which is an extra cost that would not be incurred in other traditional mortgages. They must be able to show that the economic life of the property is 30 years or later. The appraisal cost $300, but I believe it is worth it for this very flexible mortgage. I also got a locked in 5 year fixed of 3.95%. (Won't be able to get that from them anymore as the rates have raised since). Anyways this was one of the top 3 mortgages for investors as detailed by the Canadian Real Estate Magazine. It allows easy access to your equity so you can start financing other deals without having to remortgage and doing all the legal footwork.
So of course the Mortgage is a good... even GREAT product.
Now for the accounts. Following something I read by Don Campbell of the Real Estate Investment Network I decided to make a new account for each property I buy so that all the accounting details are fairly easily tracked. My property manager disagrees saying that they just run everything out of one account and that all revenue Canada would need from me would be the monthly accounts statements they would send me. That's besides the point. I'll figure out what can scale and works. There are definitely pros and cons to either approach. I decided to open up an account at Scotia because my mortgage was there so I just thought it would be easier. My banker was able to get the account setup for me but I had to actually go to the teller to pick my password.
Anyways while standing in line to change the password on the ATM card we noticed that the tellers took a fairly long time with each client and that they seemed to always have to go to this cabinet or some other office to find files they require for the client to sign or whatever. Just all seemed rather manual... and it caused me to be late for work after lunch...
Later that day I was filling out my contract to the property manager and saw that they did not do direct deposits to Scotia Bank. Obviously this came as a surprise to me as I had just opened up an account at Scotia for just this purpose. Of course I asked why. So this was her reply:
"Actually, I do go to Scotia, but I try to encourage new clients to NOT sign up for the direct deposit with Scotia because Scotia does not actually do a direct deposit by computer like the other banks. I do have 4 long-term clients that I currently go to Scotia for and Scotia is THE SLOWEST, most tedious bank and it just takes up too much time while they hand-write a bunch of deposit papers and then they don't actually direct deposit it - they send it in a mail bag to the appropriate branch, which takes a couple of days (I've heard)... so for me, I prefer to just mail the cheque directly to the client and they take to their own bank. But if you really need a deposit (through their inter-branch mail bag), I can add you to the Scotia list, but as I said, I don't usually offer to new clients because there is no way I could do a hundred of them, such as other banks. So, please be aware, you will not actually see your money in your bank on the 25th, because of their system. So if you want, please attach a copy of the cheque with your contract."
Looks like they have a fairly manual process still for their interbank exchanges(amongst other things...) and as such I decided to just open up another account at my TD Canada Trust branch and close the account there. Please note that Scotia has a 30 day policy where they will charge you $20 if you close an account within 30 days. Fortunately my banker waived this for me.
That's the story of the Good Mortgage, Bad Accounts... don't have anything for ugly... so in short I recommend a STEP Mortgage with Scotia, but not opening up an account at Scotia for investment purposes.
I have a Scotia Bank Scotia Total Equity Plan (STEP) mortgage for the property I recently bought in Regina. It is a good little mortgage for investors because it allows access to anything over the 20% equity you have in a property right away... whether as a Line of Credit or another mortgage. It also looks like as long as you qualify you can have as many of these STEP mortgage setup as you qualify for. (But with the new mortgage rules good luck getting qualified for more than 3 properties...)
One thing about the STEP mortgage is that because it is for the lifetime of the property they must do an appraisal which is an extra cost that would not be incurred in other traditional mortgages. They must be able to show that the economic life of the property is 30 years or later. The appraisal cost $300, but I believe it is worth it for this very flexible mortgage. I also got a locked in 5 year fixed of 3.95%. (Won't be able to get that from them anymore as the rates have raised since). Anyways this was one of the top 3 mortgages for investors as detailed by the Canadian Real Estate Magazine. It allows easy access to your equity so you can start financing other deals without having to remortgage and doing all the legal footwork.
So of course the Mortgage is a good... even GREAT product.
Now for the accounts. Following something I read by Don Campbell of the Real Estate Investment Network I decided to make a new account for each property I buy so that all the accounting details are fairly easily tracked. My property manager disagrees saying that they just run everything out of one account and that all revenue Canada would need from me would be the monthly accounts statements they would send me. That's besides the point. I'll figure out what can scale and works. There are definitely pros and cons to either approach. I decided to open up an account at Scotia because my mortgage was there so I just thought it would be easier. My banker was able to get the account setup for me but I had to actually go to the teller to pick my password.
Anyways while standing in line to change the password on the ATM card we noticed that the tellers took a fairly long time with each client and that they seemed to always have to go to this cabinet or some other office to find files they require for the client to sign or whatever. Just all seemed rather manual... and it caused me to be late for work after lunch...
Later that day I was filling out my contract to the property manager and saw that they did not do direct deposits to Scotia Bank. Obviously this came as a surprise to me as I had just opened up an account at Scotia for just this purpose. Of course I asked why. So this was her reply:
"Actually, I do go to Scotia, but I try to encourage new clients to NOT sign up for the direct deposit with Scotia because Scotia does not actually do a direct deposit by computer like the other banks. I do have 4 long-term clients that I currently go to Scotia for and Scotia is THE SLOWEST, most tedious bank and it just takes up too much time while they hand-write a bunch of deposit papers and then they don't actually direct deposit it - they send it in a mail bag to the appropriate branch, which takes a couple of days (I've heard)... so for me, I prefer to just mail the cheque directly to the client and they take to their own bank. But if you really need a deposit (through their inter-branch mail bag), I can add you to the Scotia list, but as I said, I don't usually offer to new clients because there is no way I could do a hundred of them, such as other banks. So, please be aware, you will not actually see your money in your bank on the 25th, because of their system. So if you want, please attach a copy of the cheque with your contract."
Looks like they have a fairly manual process still for their interbank exchanges(amongst other things...) and as such I decided to just open up another account at my TD Canada Trust branch and close the account there. Please note that Scotia has a 30 day policy where they will charge you $20 if you close an account within 30 days. Fortunately my banker waived this for me.
That's the story of the Good Mortgage, Bad Accounts... don't have anything for ugly... so in short I recommend a STEP Mortgage with Scotia, but not opening up an account at Scotia for investment purposes.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Conditions Removed On One Property
Monday was the deadline to remove conditions on the two conditional offers. Of the two conditional offers we made we only removed conditions on the one property and decided not to go ahead with the second deal. That means we have money to invest in a second property so we'll probably be looking at another property in the fall.
The property we didn't choose was not a bad property (obviously otherwise we wouldn't have made a conditional offer) there were just fairly long list of fixes that would need to be done: New floors in one room, bracing of the foundation, New Furnace, addition of more clay to the surrounding of house to change grading so water slopes away, Eavestroughs needed to be repaired and extensions added, handrails missing or needing fixing, stairs needing fixing, direct wired smoke alarm needed to be added, along with a few other even more minor things... but because we're not actually there to do the work and would have to hire someone to do it the costs would've been prohibitive and risky (After seeing enough episodes of Holmes on Homes... it's scary enough when you're there watching... if you're not... then what?!)... meanwhile the fixes were conservatively estimated between 5K and up to 10K (Though our real estate agent was doubtful it would be 10K). We thought 10K into a 150K house might be a bit excessive seeing as getting like 10 or 20K more we would have the downpayment for another house.
It was still an interesting learning experience to have one of each happen. With the conditional offer that we didn't go through with we had to sign a form that stated we would NOT be removing conditions on the offer and so they could put it back on the market(Notification Conditions Have Not Been Satisfied Or Removed In Writing). With the property we did take it was an almost identical form except the wording was different to reflect the fact we would be removing the conditions and that the sale could go ahead (Notice to Remove Conditions On Residential Contract Of Purchase And Sale).
Since the lady that owns the property we're buying is planning on moving back to Ontario and our property manager won't really have time to schedule fixes till almost Summer we decided on closing the property in May instead of earlier.
Some new things to teach. The City of Regina (like many other municipalities) allows you to pay your property taxes automatically and in installments. (I do this in Yellowknife and I'm assuming most other places have the same system in place) Regina's system is called "TIPPS" or Tax Installment Payment Plan Service. This is a must for out of town investors like me obviously since I won't come back into town just to pay for taxes and it's probably outside the scope of service for your property manager to do this for you. Also since it is automated you know it is done. Only problem is they need a chequing account and I was hoping instead to just use an ING account (higher interest than regular banks)... I'll get the details and see if it is possible to set this up with a non-chequing account.
I will also need insurance which I'm still working on... I might need a commercial package since it is an investment property (which is probably different rates than a residential) Again I'll keep you posted.
The property we didn't choose was not a bad property (obviously otherwise we wouldn't have made a conditional offer) there were just fairly long list of fixes that would need to be done: New floors in one room, bracing of the foundation, New Furnace, addition of more clay to the surrounding of house to change grading so water slopes away, Eavestroughs needed to be repaired and extensions added, handrails missing or needing fixing, stairs needing fixing, direct wired smoke alarm needed to be added, along with a few other even more minor things... but because we're not actually there to do the work and would have to hire someone to do it the costs would've been prohibitive and risky (After seeing enough episodes of Holmes on Homes... it's scary enough when you're there watching... if you're not... then what?!)... meanwhile the fixes were conservatively estimated between 5K and up to 10K (Though our real estate agent was doubtful it would be 10K). We thought 10K into a 150K house might be a bit excessive seeing as getting like 10 or 20K more we would have the downpayment for another house.
It was still an interesting learning experience to have one of each happen. With the conditional offer that we didn't go through with we had to sign a form that stated we would NOT be removing conditions on the offer and so they could put it back on the market(Notification Conditions Have Not Been Satisfied Or Removed In Writing). With the property we did take it was an almost identical form except the wording was different to reflect the fact we would be removing the conditions and that the sale could go ahead (Notice to Remove Conditions On Residential Contract Of Purchase And Sale).
Since the lady that owns the property we're buying is planning on moving back to Ontario and our property manager won't really have time to schedule fixes till almost Summer we decided on closing the property in May instead of earlier.
Some new things to teach. The City of Regina (like many other municipalities) allows you to pay your property taxes automatically and in installments. (I do this in Yellowknife and I'm assuming most other places have the same system in place) Regina's system is called "TIPPS" or Tax Installment Payment Plan Service. This is a must for out of town investors like me obviously since I won't come back into town just to pay for taxes and it's probably outside the scope of service for your property manager to do this for you. Also since it is automated you know it is done. Only problem is they need a chequing account and I was hoping instead to just use an ING account (higher interest than regular banks)... I'll get the details and see if it is possible to set this up with a non-chequing account.
I will also need insurance which I'm still working on... I might need a commercial package since it is an investment property (which is probably different rates than a residential) Again I'll keep you posted.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
CREA Changes rules on MLS
Just saw some links from REIN (Real Estate Investment Network) about the new changes CREA (Canadian Real Estate Association) have made to the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) because of the competition bureau breathing down there neck.
http://www.reincanada.com/Video/TabId/74/VideoId/121/CREA-Changes-The-MLS-Rules.aspx?type=audio
http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip279614
What I would love as a buyer is to be able to data mine the MLS... most of these links are talking about sellers and listing on their own to save fees. As a buyer I want to be able to manipulate the data and figure out things like comparable sales (what did units that are comparable to what I want to buy selling for)... trends in prices (are people paying a lot under asking, mostly around asking or starting to pay 10's of thousands over asking... can see if market is getting over-inflated or is starting to take off)
Anyways just thought some of you might be interested in what the experts thought of the CREA suggested changes.
http://www.reincanada.com/Video/TabId/74/VideoId/121/CREA-Changes-The-MLS-Rules.aspx?type=audio
http://watch.bnn.ca/#clip279614
What I would love as a buyer is to be able to data mine the MLS... most of these links are talking about sellers and listing on their own to save fees. As a buyer I want to be able to manipulate the data and figure out things like comparable sales (what did units that are comparable to what I want to buy selling for)... trends in prices (are people paying a lot under asking, mostly around asking or starting to pay 10's of thousands over asking... can see if market is getting over-inflated or is starting to take off)
Anyways just thought some of you might be interested in what the experts thought of the CREA suggested changes.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Response: Why buying a house is a bad investment
I just reread this Canadian Business Article on Why buying a house is a bad investment and I agree with it almost totally. I read it online first, then I got my magazine finally in the mail and reread it again. It might sound weird for a blog that talks about property investment to be agreeing that buying a house is a bad investment. Hear me out and I'll explain.
The article is mainly talking about a persons primary residence. They have a wonderful quote by Adam Smith in the first paragraph ""a dwelling-house, as such, contributes nothing to the revenue of its inhabitant." When speaking of a primary residence this is very true... unless you also rent out extra rooms or your basement you get no revenue from your property and in fact it is faced with a large list of expenses (Property tax, fuel, maintenance, mortgage payments, insurance). At the end of the day your primary residence can be considered a liability... it is an ongoing expense to keep a residence that you will have to pay for until you no longer own the house.
As well, I do believe many Canadians are out there putting 5% down and buying the biggest house they can afford because of this mistaken belief that their house is an investment and that the outsized appreciation gains of the past decade are going to keep going ("real estate always goes up"). History has shown that real estate appreciation lags equity markets and while leverage can help in this regard magnifying the smaller gains... leverage can also have the reverse effect of magnifying your losses.
So why do I invest in real estate if it is such a bad investment? Well, buying investment property is different. Ya ya BS I can hear you all say. How is it different? First of all when you buy investment property you're buying it to rent out! REVENUE ... cashflow... passive income... whatever you want to call it... you are getting money from your tenants that is covering your mortgage and expenses while giving you a bit of extra cashflow as well (hopefully)
Of course like any investment you have to do your due diligence. Just like all other investment types you must do your homework and know what you're doing to be successful at it. AND just like any investment there are no guarantees. People have gone bankrupt investing in real estate (Just take the states as an example).
There are many things I love about real estate as an investment. The most important is control. You get to pick the city, area, street, etc. you want to invest in (you get to do the research and make your own choices about where the trends show you a good investment). You also get to negotiate... whether it is on price, terms, conditions or even things like financing (vendor take back mortgages, cashback deals). If a deal doesn't work for you after you've done your analysis you get to walk away. Again you make your money when you buy... and you get to decide when you do that, when the conditions are just right for you. Even after you've bought the property you have the ability to develop it further... whether you do something like subdivide a double lot and sell one... develop it... or just improve a rundown house so that it attracts higher rents(I love watching that show Income Property on HGTV where they show your expected rents after a renovation)... you have control over how you add value to your property or get value out of it. (You don't get this type of control over a publically traded stock... it's more a buy and pray... I do invest in stocks as well...I try and use the Couch potato portfolio... since I have no control over the market I might as well buy the market and make market returns)
Second is leverage. The banks are willing to loan you 5 dollars for every dollar you put down. Leverage obviously magnifies gains... if you put down 30K on a 150K house and this house goes up 10% you've made 50% because of leverage (15K). Of course if the house drops by 10% you also lose 15K... thing is if you're buying this property for the long term... AND you're renting it out for say 1100 a month... this easily covers your mortgage and other expenses and you're just looking at cashflow any appreciation is a bonus and not your primary motivation.
Quick numbers (Being conservative, all numbers rounded up, but coming from one of the properties I'm buying in Regina)
120K (150K - 30K downpayment) at 5% for 25 years is about $700/month
Property management $95 / month
Property Taxes $65 / month
Insurance $45 / month
Cashflow $195 / month
Yearly $2340 / year
Or about 7.8% cash return on your original 30K investment. You can of course get even more cashflow if you say locked in with a lower interest rate. (ING Direct Unmortgage is at 5 year fixed 3.89% reducing your payment to ~$625 / month with a rate of return of 10.8%) How about if you spread out your amortization to 35 years with that ING rate? ~$525 / month... rate of return of 14.8%(or $4440/ year). Again it is all under your control and it all depends on what you want... whether it is paying off the principal or keeping a high cashflow to supplement your income. At the end of 5 years you can relook at your investment... if the property has appreciated a lot... you might think of selling it for the appreciation value... if it hasn't moved you can keep it for the cashflow... or even if it has appreciated the cashflow covers the property... so in 25 to 35 years it will have paid itself off.
Meanwhile as long as rents keep up with inflation you have a passive income that is basically indexed to inflation. Your own Defined Benefit pension plan =)
So while your primary residence that you live in yourself IS a liability (though a fully paid off residence is useful to leverage the equity off of for investing... but that's for another time heh)... investment properties that are cashflow positive can definitely be a very good investment in my opinion.
What do you guys think?
The article is mainly talking about a persons primary residence. They have a wonderful quote by Adam Smith in the first paragraph ""a dwelling-house, as such, contributes nothing to the revenue of its inhabitant." When speaking of a primary residence this is very true... unless you also rent out extra rooms or your basement you get no revenue from your property and in fact it is faced with a large list of expenses (Property tax, fuel, maintenance, mortgage payments, insurance). At the end of the day your primary residence can be considered a liability... it is an ongoing expense to keep a residence that you will have to pay for until you no longer own the house.
As well, I do believe many Canadians are out there putting 5% down and buying the biggest house they can afford because of this mistaken belief that their house is an investment and that the outsized appreciation gains of the past decade are going to keep going ("real estate always goes up"). History has shown that real estate appreciation lags equity markets and while leverage can help in this regard magnifying the smaller gains... leverage can also have the reverse effect of magnifying your losses.
So why do I invest in real estate if it is such a bad investment? Well, buying investment property is different. Ya ya BS I can hear you all say. How is it different? First of all when you buy investment property you're buying it to rent out! REVENUE ... cashflow... passive income... whatever you want to call it... you are getting money from your tenants that is covering your mortgage and expenses while giving you a bit of extra cashflow as well (hopefully)
Of course like any investment you have to do your due diligence. Just like all other investment types you must do your homework and know what you're doing to be successful at it. AND just like any investment there are no guarantees. People have gone bankrupt investing in real estate (Just take the states as an example).
There are many things I love about real estate as an investment. The most important is control. You get to pick the city, area, street, etc. you want to invest in (you get to do the research and make your own choices about where the trends show you a good investment). You also get to negotiate... whether it is on price, terms, conditions or even things like financing (vendor take back mortgages, cashback deals). If a deal doesn't work for you after you've done your analysis you get to walk away. Again you make your money when you buy... and you get to decide when you do that, when the conditions are just right for you. Even after you've bought the property you have the ability to develop it further... whether you do something like subdivide a double lot and sell one... develop it... or just improve a rundown house so that it attracts higher rents(I love watching that show Income Property on HGTV where they show your expected rents after a renovation)... you have control over how you add value to your property or get value out of it. (You don't get this type of control over a publically traded stock... it's more a buy and pray... I do invest in stocks as well...I try and use the Couch potato portfolio... since I have no control over the market I might as well buy the market and make market returns)
Second is leverage. The banks are willing to loan you 5 dollars for every dollar you put down. Leverage obviously magnifies gains... if you put down 30K on a 150K house and this house goes up 10% you've made 50% because of leverage (15K). Of course if the house drops by 10% you also lose 15K... thing is if you're buying this property for the long term... AND you're renting it out for say 1100 a month... this easily covers your mortgage and other expenses and you're just looking at cashflow any appreciation is a bonus and not your primary motivation.
Quick numbers (Being conservative, all numbers rounded up, but coming from one of the properties I'm buying in Regina)
120K (150K - 30K downpayment) at 5% for 25 years is about $700/month
Property management $95 / month
Property Taxes $65 / month
Insurance $45 / month
Cashflow $195 / month
Yearly $2340 / year
Or about 7.8% cash return on your original 30K investment. You can of course get even more cashflow if you say locked in with a lower interest rate. (ING Direct Unmortgage is at 5 year fixed 3.89% reducing your payment to ~$625 / month with a rate of return of 10.8%) How about if you spread out your amortization to 35 years with that ING rate? ~$525 / month... rate of return of 14.8%(or $4440/ year). Again it is all under your control and it all depends on what you want... whether it is paying off the principal or keeping a high cashflow to supplement your income. At the end of 5 years you can relook at your investment... if the property has appreciated a lot... you might think of selling it for the appreciation value... if it hasn't moved you can keep it for the cashflow... or even if it has appreciated the cashflow covers the property... so in 25 to 35 years it will have paid itself off.
Meanwhile as long as rents keep up with inflation you have a passive income that is basically indexed to inflation. Your own Defined Benefit pension plan =)
So while your primary residence that you live in yourself IS a liability (though a fully paid off residence is useful to leverage the equity off of for investing... but that's for another time heh)... investment properties that are cashflow positive can definitely be a very good investment in my opinion.
What do you guys think?
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Finding Properties in Regina
When I first started looking at properties in Regina I used the Realtor.ca website. It links to the other Regional Multiple Listing Services around the country (and it looks like maybe other parts of the world). The Front page has the option of looking at Residential and Commercial with the commercial site linking you to ICX.ca.
The Commercial site can be used to quickly find multi-family properties that might not be listed in the Residential site. Great for 4-plexes and above.
The Residential site gives you a number of options to narrow down by number of bedrooms, bathrooms, price range and number of storey's . You can even search in a particular "MLS Zone" if you know the name of the zone. (I tried Broders Annex and it brought all those up). Also I just found you can limit your search to newer listings specifying a date. It's a pretty decent starting search.
At the end of the day though it pales in comparison to the SaskMLS.ca website that realtors have access to. This is where having a buying agent comes in handy. They can do a quick search of all MLS in the city... narrow it down by regions... or exclude certain regions (The more rundown shadier regions) and do all the rest of the filtering that I would love to be able to do on my own. Data on sold comparables can be found, regional data on number of listings sold in an area or the whole city... price sold versus asking... volume... etc. Basically a stats geeks dream... and everything you would need to make a competitive offer.
For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sites are becoming more and more popular in Canada and two in particular seem to have established themselves in Regina SKHomes4Sale.com and Property Guys. I found it was more difficult to contact FSBO sellers and many of them seemed like they were just posting to see what interest they would get and weren't really serious in selling. Thing is though these sites are less trafficked and less competition on these listings. They also don't have the treasure trove of MLS data to use to glean a proper sales price giving the possibility of a good deal to be found. One of the properties I bought was originally a FSBO but they later hired an agent to represent, I originally found it on the SKHomes4Sale site. You do have to have patience when dealing with FSBO because most of them have day jobs and some of their properties have tenants...and it seemed difficult to arrange times to view the properties.
I just really wish the MLS was opened up so that data geeks like me can mine the data for good properties in a more efficient manner. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be in the cards.
Happy House Hunting!
The Commercial site can be used to quickly find multi-family properties that might not be listed in the Residential site. Great for 4-plexes and above.
The Residential site gives you a number of options to narrow down by number of bedrooms, bathrooms, price range and number of storey's . You can even search in a particular "MLS Zone" if you know the name of the zone. (I tried Broders Annex and it brought all those up). Also I just found you can limit your search to newer listings specifying a date. It's a pretty decent starting search.
At the end of the day though it pales in comparison to the SaskMLS.ca website that realtors have access to. This is where having a buying agent comes in handy. They can do a quick search of all MLS in the city... narrow it down by regions... or exclude certain regions (The more rundown shadier regions) and do all the rest of the filtering that I would love to be able to do on my own. Data on sold comparables can be found, regional data on number of listings sold in an area or the whole city... price sold versus asking... volume... etc. Basically a stats geeks dream... and everything you would need to make a competitive offer.
For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sites are becoming more and more popular in Canada and two in particular seem to have established themselves in Regina SKHomes4Sale.com and Property Guys. I found it was more difficult to contact FSBO sellers and many of them seemed like they were just posting to see what interest they would get and weren't really serious in selling. Thing is though these sites are less trafficked and less competition on these listings. They also don't have the treasure trove of MLS data to use to glean a proper sales price giving the possibility of a good deal to be found. One of the properties I bought was originally a FSBO but they later hired an agent to represent, I originally found it on the SKHomes4Sale site. You do have to have patience when dealing with FSBO because most of them have day jobs and some of their properties have tenants...and it seemed difficult to arrange times to view the properties.
I just really wish the MLS was opened up so that data geeks like me can mine the data for good properties in a more efficient manner. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be in the cards.
Happy House Hunting!
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Regina Investing Lessons Learned
Much of Regina is basically built on clay and old swamp land. Unlike Yellowknife which is on the Canadian Shield... so nice solid rock foundation. Also the city is very old with a tonne of older houses (some 100+ years old). It is very different inspecting property here in Regina than what I'm used to in Yellowknife. (with houses usually only like 30-40 years old at the max and no real shifting apart from regular settling that will occur)
The basement/foundations in Regina that I've seen are mainly concrete or block. (Blocks of poured concrete it looks like) Concrete is preferred as it is one solid piece unlike block where each block can and will move. Concrete is much easier to "brace" using steel bars placed about 4ft apart on each wall. Block basements need to be placed about 2 ft apart and to be safe another concrete pony-wall also has to be poured after bracing (pricier obviously and taking up more of your useable space).
From the sounds of it all houses in Regina will be subject to some movement and foundations will crack so bracing is something that will occur at some point in the life of the house. Some areas are worse than others obviously, but one of the big things to watch out for is Do It Yourselfers trying to make fixes to their foundation. We found houses whose bracing was not standardized... some steel braces were 2 ft apart... others were like 4ft on the same wall... another house looked like they were trying to use 2x4 as a brace which would never hold.
Another thing to watch for is of course the roof. Peeling shingles, missing eavestroughs, icicles being built up do to moisture not probably being dealt with.
If you are an out of town/province investor remember you will need an SK lawyer and you will have to meet with the lawyer in person so they can verify your identity. Remember to bring two pieces of ID that they can photocopy (I used Drivers license and my Visa card). Your Real estate agent will also have to verify your ID. If you are buying remotely and can't see these people in person you will need a Notary Public to sign and verify your identity.
The city of Regina will charge a disbursement of $3 per $1000 purchase price to change land titles, but there is also some other fees that I can't remember ($150 and $100 I'd have to ask my lawyer again what those are) so for a $200K house expect to pay $850 in Disbursements. My own lawyer charges a flat fee of $950 + $95 (GST+PST). So for a $200K purchase legal will be $1895. If the owner has a Real property report (otherwise called an Surveyor's certificate) then you don't necessarily need Title Insurance as it should show all buildings are within the property lines of your property. Though for $200 to $229 it might be a good idea anyways.
Our real estate agent told me that in Regina your deposit amount is key to your sincerity. Remember to bring your chequebook AND have $5000 to $10000 in your account for the deposit. Also budget about $350 for a house inspection. If the furnace is old another $80 to $95 for a furnace inspection. A Septic/Sewer inspection is also recommended for those older properties as tree roots can start getting between the joints of pipes and block up the sewers. Remember to ask for the Property Condition Disclosure Statement (Basically what the owner self declares and knows that there are possible problems with)
Hope that was interesting and educational. Happy Investing ;)
The basement/foundations in Regina that I've seen are mainly concrete or block. (Blocks of poured concrete it looks like) Concrete is preferred as it is one solid piece unlike block where each block can and will move. Concrete is much easier to "brace" using steel bars placed about 4ft apart on each wall. Block basements need to be placed about 2 ft apart and to be safe another concrete pony-wall also has to be poured after bracing (pricier obviously and taking up more of your useable space).
From the sounds of it all houses in Regina will be subject to some movement and foundations will crack so bracing is something that will occur at some point in the life of the house. Some areas are worse than others obviously, but one of the big things to watch out for is Do It Yourselfers trying to make fixes to their foundation. We found houses whose bracing was not standardized... some steel braces were 2 ft apart... others were like 4ft on the same wall... another house looked like they were trying to use 2x4 as a brace which would never hold.
Another thing to watch for is of course the roof. Peeling shingles, missing eavestroughs, icicles being built up do to moisture not probably being dealt with.
If you are an out of town/province investor remember you will need an SK lawyer and you will have to meet with the lawyer in person so they can verify your identity. Remember to bring two pieces of ID that they can photocopy (I used Drivers license and my Visa card). Your Real estate agent will also have to verify your ID. If you are buying remotely and can't see these people in person you will need a Notary Public to sign and verify your identity.
The city of Regina will charge a disbursement of $3 per $1000 purchase price to change land titles, but there is also some other fees that I can't remember ($150 and $100 I'd have to ask my lawyer again what those are) so for a $200K house expect to pay $850 in Disbursements. My own lawyer charges a flat fee of $950 + $95 (GST+PST). So for a $200K purchase legal will be $1895. If the owner has a Real property report (otherwise called an Surveyor's certificate) then you don't necessarily need Title Insurance as it should show all buildings are within the property lines of your property. Though for $200 to $229 it might be a good idea anyways.
Our real estate agent told me that in Regina your deposit amount is key to your sincerity. Remember to bring your chequebook AND have $5000 to $10000 in your account for the deposit. Also budget about $350 for a house inspection. If the furnace is old another $80 to $95 for a furnace inspection. A Septic/Sewer inspection is also recommended for those older properties as tree roots can start getting between the joints of pipes and block up the sewers. Remember to ask for the Property Condition Disclosure Statement (Basically what the owner self declares and knows that there are possible problems with)
Hope that was interesting and educational. Happy Investing ;)
Friday, March 12, 2010
Regina,SK - 2 Conditional Offers Accepted!
Decided to start a blog and document my learning experiences of investing in Real Estate. This is my first entry. Just got back from the Real Estate agents office (currently about 9pm). Put in offers this afternoon on two properties after looking through about 8 properties.
A little background. I am not from Regina, SK but am investing in properties there because of the amazing potential for positive cashflow AND appreciation from the whole Saskaboom(They have what everyone needs food, fuel, fertilizer). I am actually an investor from Yellowknife, NT.
Coming from out of town I basically had to build my team here from the ground up, finding people through the internet, magazines and word of mouth.
Of course to properly evaluate the value of a property you have to know the potential rents of various areas you will be buying in. For that I found a property management company that seems amazingly competent and through the references they gave me I'm confident they are a company that is experienced and has integrity. After getting an idea from them that rents vary from $800 to $1400 at the highest(for 2 to 3 bedroom homes) I knew that for single family homes I would have to stick to under 200K in order to have a chance to cashflow.
My ideal property is one that cashflows at 6.5% interest with 20% down and a 25 year amortization. This would give me a safety net (since interest rates are less than 5% for a fixed rate 5 year mortgage... I think ING has a 5 year mortgage for 3.89%?)... unfortunately I really couldn't find any properties that were in good condition that met this criteria in the short amount of time I was here (one week). There were a number of sketchy properties that had what looked like amazing cashflow... and they are still available for sale. Below is my analysis:
2041 Edgar Street ($111,500 asking)
This property looked amazing on paper... priced to sell, previous tenant rented at $875. However the foundation looked like it would need work, even though it looked like it had been braced... our agent wasn't sure it was professionally done since the bracing was uneven... though it was within the 4 ft per brace it should be. This was a somewhat major fixer upper which someone with the right contacts and skills could take on, but being a remote owner I prefer a more move-in ready unit.
119 Osler ($140,000 asking)
Currently renting for $1200 per month. This again obviously cashflows, but it was very suspicious that the owner signed a lease for 2 years AFTER listing the property for sale. Still cashflow is cashflow. So we took a second look at the property with our soon to be property manager. He pointed out a few things such as the fact the block basement would probably have to be braced soon (You could tell cracks and heaving on some walls) and though it looked like one wall was possible already reinforced because of the very thick windows... we couldn't be sure how good a job was done since it was all covered by the drywall which was not 100% "true"... Plus the eaves troughs were missing from half the house and the other half was frozen up with icicles (possible condensation). With a family staying here it would be difficult to do basement work... and refinishing would be expensive.
During this week, 2 of the properties we were scheduled to look at had conditional offers placed on them. Meanwhile in all of Regina there are only about 400 listings... only 362 single family homes excluding condos... only 299 properties outside of the Washington Park area... and of those there were probably 12 properties in the price range I was looking for.
I excluded Washington Park from our search because our soon to be property management company does not manage properties in that area. Sketchy part of town. Also General Hospital Area and downtown core. It's funny how in Regina one street down can make all the difference. Anyways there are a tonne of properties in the Washington park area for sale at rock bottom prices (that's what originally attracted me to Regina in the first place... looking at the MLS and seeing all these under 100K houses and knowing the average rent in Regina is like $863). If I actually lived in Regina and could afford to manage them myself I probably would check them out, but if the professional agency doesn't want to manage them I'd have to take their word for it that it's more hassle than it's worth. (Another agent told me there are other companies that would manage this area, but I agreed that it wasn't worth the hassle)
Anyways real estate is starting to pick up again in this city. Some listings are already getting multiple offers and selling within a day. Meanwhile there is almost no supply at the moment, though our agent expects listings to pick up here in Spring and Summer. (Normal is around 800 to 1200) There are after all about 300 agents... at the moment that means it's like 1 or 2 listings per agent... sparse.
Starting to build a good team.
Real Estate Agent - Check
Property Manager - Check
Lawyer - Check
Mortgage Broker - Check (just the bank)
Now I need an insurance agent. Would be nice to have a general contractor on the team and also a real mortgage broker who deals with multiple lending agencies. I can still work with the team I have though... and just build as I need.
I'll discuss my reasons why I chose Regina specifically in another entry. I'll also do a breakdown analysis of the properties I bought once all conditions are waived. If I don't get sidetracked and never write again... then this would become another of the blogging worlds one entry blogs. =)
A little background. I am not from Regina, SK but am investing in properties there because of the amazing potential for positive cashflow AND appreciation from the whole Saskaboom(They have what everyone needs food, fuel, fertilizer). I am actually an investor from Yellowknife, NT.
Coming from out of town I basically had to build my team here from the ground up, finding people through the internet, magazines and word of mouth.
Of course to properly evaluate the value of a property you have to know the potential rents of various areas you will be buying in. For that I found a property management company that seems amazingly competent and through the references they gave me I'm confident they are a company that is experienced and has integrity. After getting an idea from them that rents vary from $800 to $1400 at the highest(for 2 to 3 bedroom homes) I knew that for single family homes I would have to stick to under 200K in order to have a chance to cashflow.
My ideal property is one that cashflows at 6.5% interest with 20% down and a 25 year amortization. This would give me a safety net (since interest rates are less than 5% for a fixed rate 5 year mortgage... I think ING has a 5 year mortgage for 3.89%?)... unfortunately I really couldn't find any properties that were in good condition that met this criteria in the short amount of time I was here (one week). There were a number of sketchy properties that had what looked like amazing cashflow... and they are still available for sale. Below is my analysis:
2041 Edgar Street ($111,500 asking)
This property looked amazing on paper... priced to sell, previous tenant rented at $875. However the foundation looked like it would need work, even though it looked like it had been braced... our agent wasn't sure it was professionally done since the bracing was uneven... though it was within the 4 ft per brace it should be. This was a somewhat major fixer upper which someone with the right contacts and skills could take on, but being a remote owner I prefer a more move-in ready unit.
119 Osler ($140,000 asking)
Currently renting for $1200 per month. This again obviously cashflows, but it was very suspicious that the owner signed a lease for 2 years AFTER listing the property for sale. Still cashflow is cashflow. So we took a second look at the property with our soon to be property manager. He pointed out a few things such as the fact the block basement would probably have to be braced soon (You could tell cracks and heaving on some walls) and though it looked like one wall was possible already reinforced because of the very thick windows... we couldn't be sure how good a job was done since it was all covered by the drywall which was not 100% "true"... Plus the eaves troughs were missing from half the house and the other half was frozen up with icicles (possible condensation). With a family staying here it would be difficult to do basement work... and refinishing would be expensive.
During this week, 2 of the properties we were scheduled to look at had conditional offers placed on them. Meanwhile in all of Regina there are only about 400 listings... only 362 single family homes excluding condos... only 299 properties outside of the Washington Park area... and of those there were probably 12 properties in the price range I was looking for.
I excluded Washington Park from our search because our soon to be property management company does not manage properties in that area. Sketchy part of town. Also General Hospital Area and downtown core. It's funny how in Regina one street down can make all the difference. Anyways there are a tonne of properties in the Washington park area for sale at rock bottom prices (that's what originally attracted me to Regina in the first place... looking at the MLS and seeing all these under 100K houses and knowing the average rent in Regina is like $863). If I actually lived in Regina and could afford to manage them myself I probably would check them out, but if the professional agency doesn't want to manage them I'd have to take their word for it that it's more hassle than it's worth. (Another agent told me there are other companies that would manage this area, but I agreed that it wasn't worth the hassle)
Anyways real estate is starting to pick up again in this city. Some listings are already getting multiple offers and selling within a day. Meanwhile there is almost no supply at the moment, though our agent expects listings to pick up here in Spring and Summer. (Normal is around 800 to 1200) There are after all about 300 agents... at the moment that means it's like 1 or 2 listings per agent... sparse.
Starting to build a good team.
Real Estate Agent - Check
Property Manager - Check
Lawyer - Check
Mortgage Broker - Check (just the bank)
Now I need an insurance agent. Would be nice to have a general contractor on the team and also a real mortgage broker who deals with multiple lending agencies. I can still work with the team I have though... and just build as I need.
I'll discuss my reasons why I chose Regina specifically in another entry. I'll also do a breakdown analysis of the properties I bought once all conditions are waived. If I don't get sidetracked and never write again... then this would become another of the blogging worlds one entry blogs. =)
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