We have done three pre-sales over the 14 years of real estate investing. One was in 2004, a rising market, we sold it after 1.5 years before the completion with 100% gain on the cash invested. One was in 2007 at the peak market time, we sold it after completion with very small gain. The third...

We recently experienced the Strata Wind up process in downtown Vancouver. The whole process started at the end of 2015 when Westend in downtown launched its new 20 years community plan. The Strata in the building proposed to engage an agent for a market research to see the saleability of our...

From global scale not just in North America, Vancouver is really not very expensive. I have university classmates from Beijing, China, currently working, living and investing in Australia and New Zealand. Their real estate price is at par with Vancouver if not higher, but the market in NZ and...

Interesting to know that some lenders start not to renew the mortgages. Do anybody know what is the rational behind their decision? Will the existing lender treat the renewal as a new purchase, meaning has to qualify the borrower and subject property? I used to have short to medium term...

Thomas, you are right. Being educated here in REIN, refinancing is always the optimal solution to take the equity out. Certainly, for 100% owned property, we will always take this approach. However, for JV property, we need to address the exit strategy at the end of the 5 year contract. The...

Thanks, Thomas. I think eventually we have to show to the investor that their net return on their money over the holding period. The focus is on their ROI.

Hi, Thomas, Cory and Matt, thank you for your thoughts. In this particular property, I am the property manager, we have a money partner. Our JV contract will expire next year, we have discussed the possibility to sell it. From my perspective, I would like to hold it for another at least 5 years...

Hi, Bryan, I have done your survey. I think it a great idea to have a club in UBC educating the student members about the real estate investing in Canada. I am an immigrant from China many years ago. When I started real estate investing since 2004, knowledge from REIN group is essential. Many...

Greetings to REIN members, I have a question regarding the proposal of JV buy out terms. When one partner offers to buy out the shares of another partner in a rental property, what costs are involved? I list the following estimated costs, please add on if I miss others. -Appraisal cost -Legal...

Thanks, David, Thomas and Kris, the property manager has visited 302, found nothing indicating leaking. Will do the "declog" on Monday, and then suggest 202 contact Strata to start investigation process from their end. To trace the root cause of the issue takes much time and analysis. I wonder...

Hi, REIN members, need your thoughts about this. My property manager received a call from the Strata Manager saying that unit 202 has a water leak problem. Our rental unit is 302. She went to investigate that, and sent me an email like the following: " With the fact that there is not a...

Great idea to collect rent on PAD. I thought years ago about this method, but never collected rent this way. How does it work? Do we go ask our bank about the PAD form, then send to the tenants for them to fill out their info.? Thanks.

Clint, different banks have different rules, a few lenders (TD and CIBC) that I deal with use DCR, but their ratio is different and their allowable rental properties financing varies too. For example, CIBC currently allows 5 rental properties using DCR 1.1, whereas TD allows 4 rentals. Check...

Hi, Clint, Don't know about your personal investment goals, are you going to invest more rental properties? If not, focusing on the capital appreciating will be fine as long as you can serve the loan and expenses, if yes, ideally you want to invest in positive cash flow properties, because most...

Ok, how do I start to research other sources? Do you have any suggestions? Such as books, links and blogs?

Thank you, Thomas, as always giving advices here. I am at the stage of stabilizing the income stream from the rental properties, more so than accumulating assets. (Not young, but not older yet either:)) Over more than 10 years of real estate investing here in Vancouver, through the learning...

Greeting to REIN members here. I recently refinanced a rental property and pulled some extra equity out of the property. It is not a big amount, close to $100k. Currently, it sits in the checking account, I wonder what will you do with this money. -investing in a savings account with 2%...

Yes, lots of moving parts here to think about. Will see how it goes with other potential buyers, stay put for now. Thanks, Thomas, for sharing your thoughts, as always.

Thomas, the problem is we only receiving one offer from the second buyer, the first one or few potential buyers will present offer in mid-December, if we accept the offer from the second buyer, we will not be able to talk to any buyers within 60 days after signing the contract. Therefore, it is...

Hi, Experienced rein members, Need your thoughts regarding the following situation. We have a few rental properties in a building in downtown Vancouver. Early this year, the council proposed to seek the possibility to sell the building at land value to potential buyers. (Cases like this...