I'm curious if anyone here has any experience converting a church, a school, or other building that is zoned for institutional use to residential/commercial use? I'm not talking about the physical conversion, but the issues related to rezoning, financing, etc. This is total blue-sky thinking...

Hi everyone, I've been watching the market and saving for a down payment for a couple years now and I'm getting to point where I might be ready to start making offers on my first duplex or triplex. When the time comes to visit the bank I want to look as prepared and professional as possible...

I emailed a realtor to ask about utility costs for a duplex where the landlord currently pays all utilities. This same duplex was on the market for several months earlier this year and was then taken off the market. It reappeared on MLS last week for the same asking price as before. The realtor...

Hi everyone, I've been looking at income properties (mostly duplexes or triplexes, but some single family homes as well) in my hometown in southern Ontario (pop: 70,000). Most of the properties that have been on the market over the last year are priced around $100-150K. At first glance, these...

Hi everyone, I'm still learning about real estate investing and have some questions about refinancing after a renovation. I've heard a lot of people talking about buying an income property that needs repairs, rehabing it to add value, and then refinancing to recover their initial cash...

I started a new thread yesterday (Does “$20 per sq. ft.” rule work in Canada?) in the Real Estate Discussion, but when I try to view the thread I get the error message below saying the page has a redirect loop. I'm not sure what happened, but hopefully a moderator can fix it. I did post a link...

I was reading this post by an American house flipping blogger who says a quick way to estimate repair costs for a standard cosmetic rehab is to use the “$20 per sq. ft.” rule. "For example, if you are buying a house that is around 1,500 sq. ft., you can plan on spending right around $30,000 for...

Hi there, I've been building spreadsheets for a few properties and I'm wondering if there is a way to estimate annual insurance costs? I've looked at a couple online calculators, but they seem to be for owner occupied properties. I know there are a lot of variables, but is it possible to make...

Hi there, I'm in kind of a unique situation and hoping I can get a bit of feedback and/or advice from some of the members here. I live in Toronto and I'm currently renting an apartment for $1100/month. I'm 51 years old, divorced with no kids, earn $40K a year, and I'm debt free. Before taking...

I just calculated over 3 years of water bill history that the per apt water consumption in a 24 unit 1970's era building I have is between 975 - 1100 liters per apt per month, 700-800K liters per month on the building. There are only 2 appliances in each unit, no dishwashers, and the laundromat...

Hello again to the readers and frequent poster Thomas, I've suddenly found myself with 250K in RRSP funds available in June and have decided to use them to diversify into Albertan RE with a trip out to AB to look at the assets underlying different LP's as part of the due diligence to pick 1-3...

By summer time my wife and I will have 250K in RRSP's and at least 200K in cash following a refi that was posted about yesterday (and kindly responded to). I had been thinking of putting $$$ in 1-4 RE LP's in Alberta RE to diversify away from the East Coast but adding these numbers up made me...

I have a multi-family building under contract that was in a competing offer situation. The vendor is facing a 56K payout penalty on their mortgage based on the difference between current rates and the higher mortgage rate so I offered to assume the mortgage instead of raising my price. She took...

Hi, I have a multi family that is being refinanced this summer. I expect a good sized check as there has been over 3K/month in rent roll growth. If I put this money in a separate bank account and don't touch it, and then use that to buy another investment property, then my understanding is that...