This year I’ve been dealing with an increasing number of clients from British Columbia. They love the west coast weather and lifestyle, but don’t like the prices of local investment real estate. In contrast to the $120,000 condominiums and $250,000 new single detached family homes available in Kitchener Waterloo, Ontario, prices in Vancouver are sky [...]
Archive | October, 2007
5 Skills That Will Make You Rich
The great Jim Rohn (he’s the one on the left in this picture) says “don’t wish things were easier, wish you were better.” Life is no walk in the park. We are all presented with challenges that we must overcome. Winter always comes. In order to succeed at a very high level you must develop [...]
How much is bad advice costing you? Too Much!
About a month ago I met a new client of mine, a very smart young guy. He bought his first real estate property 3 years ago for about $175K, put some ‘sweat equity’ into it, and it’s worth about $250,000 today. My mortgage broker Jeff Reitzel had an approval in hand to refinance the property, [...]
Investor Alert: Real Estate Opportunity
This morning I toured a two bedroom condominium unit with an identical layout to a unit we just purchased. The condo is vacant, and needs new flooring in most of the unit (maybe 600 sq ft of flooring) and could use a paint job and some updated lighting. It has all the characteristics of an [...]
Bach on Business Networking
Speaker and Author Josh Hinds recently interviewed me for his excellent site BusinessNetworkingAdvice.com. He asked me some great questions, including what ‘networking’ means to me, why I feel it’s so important, and even my thoughts on body language when approaching someone for the first time. Here’s a little tidbit. Josh: Benjamin, how do you define [...]
Leverage in Real Estate
Last month I was speaking with someone who is looking for an income producing investment property in Kitchener Waterloo. She has $250,000 in equity, and wanted to buy a multi unit property for cash – i.e. without a mortgage. She felt, ‘why take on debt if you don’t have to?’ My answer: to make more [...]
Understanding Real Estate Terms
Real Estate zoning and allowed uses can be a tricky subject. This week I have been dealing with small income properties in Kitchener Waterloo with a few clients who previously had been investing in single family properties. One property we looked at was a legal non-conforming triplex. What does that mean ? Is it a [...]
What real estate investment strategy are you using ?
A lot of people come to me talking about the ‘gross rental multiplier’ on a single family home, or about how important it is to get maximum cash flow, or how they won’t look at properties under a certain capitalization rate. Poor planning is the downfall of many would be investors. Maybe they don’t know [...]
Retirement Income – a quick primer
It used to be that you could work for a company for 45 years, and retire with a pension to meet your needs, and a gold watch to match. Nowadays, there is no such thing as job security, and and any pension or government funded retirement plans are likely not enough to keep you living [...]
