Expert advice, market reports, and tips from the Niagara Region real estate professionals.
The Money Machine concept is really quite simple. Buy one property a year for ten years. Never amortize for more than fifteen years. And never sell! Simple yes. But not easy.
Many years ago, when I was in my early twenties and living in Montreal, I had a friend, still at home, whose parents were renters. They had always been renters. They always would be renters. One day the dad made a rhetorical statement by saying to me “you take a paper and pen and show me how anyone is ever better off owning than renting.” Of course, he didn’t want to be shown. His mind was already made up. But let’s take his situation and look at it for a minute.
They say that purchasing your principal residence is largely an emotional decision while buying an investment property is a matter of logic. And while there is a certain amount of truth to that, it isn’t the whole story. Or at least it shouldn’t be. One element that should be prevalent in both is the pride of ownership. Let me explain.
Whenever I teach the Money Machine seminars, send out video updates, or council investors, I encourage them to do an annual net worth statement. Basically, it’s a yearly report card of the strength of your assets and it’s easy to do
When you are looking at acquiring an investment property, there sometimes is an avenue for financing available that might not be as available when buying an owner-occupied property.
Purchasing your first home. It’s an exciting time and a moment you’ll never forget. But it’s also a tremendously challenging time with the price of houses these days. Even with the downward slide in prices, residential real estate has doubled in price over the past six to seven years. And with the rapid increase in mortgage interest rates of late, carrying costs are significant.
Last issue we looked at building your investment portfolio and saw that a great way to do so was to mix up the type of properties that you invest in. We began by looking at single-family homes, semi-detached and multi-family buildings such as duplexes, triplexes, and beyond. A good investment portfolio will contain a mixture of these types of properties to be sure. But there are a couple of other types of properties that should be considered. Condominium and commercial properties.
If you’ve ever taken one of my Money Machine Seminars, you’ll know I espouse a very simple plan for real estate investment: Buy one property a year for 10 years, never amortize for more than 15 years and never sell. A good many of you have over the years followed that simple plan, and in fact have gone far beyond that 10-property template. The first one or two properties are by far the hardest to acquire. It gets simpler as you go along. Your equity grows. Financing gets simpler. And quite frankly growing your portfolio gets addictive. But it raises the question, especially when you are just getting started of what to buy.
People often ask “can you sell a property that does not comply with current fire retrofit requirements?” The simple answer to that is yes, the building can be sold, but it is important that the buyer be aware of what he is getting and the possible ramifications that can arise down the line if the deficiencies are not identified and remedied.
When we talk real estate investment, especially Commercial and Industrial real estate investment, there are a lot of factors at play when determining value. There is interest rate, and tied in with that there is rate of inflation. There is capital appreciation one can expect over time and of course there is net rent, or return on investment. And in some ways ‘cap’ rate ties it together.
