Real Estate Investing in Canada is a fine start to general familiarity that real estate is very locally driven and that over the long term you can safely make money at it.
As you learn more from first hand experience, I think you will find that a lot of the "real estate investing" books out there are built on the concept of information a mile wide and an inch deep.
I have read stories of new investors that have bought 4 or more investment properties in one year.
The question I always have for these guys is the sort of yield they are actually making. (Yield = NOI / property value) I'm not sure of where you are in Alberta, but in Edmonton, this is between 4 and 6% if you are looking at apartment
or SFH. If you are promising an investor a return greater than that 4 - 6% range you are in a negative leverage situation where you pay your investor more than the productive ability of the property to make money. If you do an equity position without a set percentage split then you are promising some overall % profit position which is based on whatever appreciation number you want to pull out of the sky...just none of it is guaranteed. This is where you get guys like Brad Lamb advertising a 24.3% return on the new Jasper House condos where 3/4 of the profit comes from property appreciation and you live with negative cash flow for 5 years. (
Details on the Jasper House condo "returns" here). Because if the market does not appreciate the
yield is what you will make. That is the cash you can take home.
Where I have seen people run into trouble is when their newfound real estate confidence is so money hungry that all they have is the confidence to sell people on "real estate always goes up" and have little operational or investment experience. Selling friends on a better retirement is not difficult.
The other point that really irks me about some get rich quick communities is that the focus is on the number of doors you own. What would you rather have: 5 properties that cash flow $1,000 / month each or 20 that yield $50 / month? (The answer here is not black and white either) You need to have patience to learn how to execute and then you can grow your portfolio from there. If you can't survive a 25 bps increase in real estate, you are living with too much stress in my books.
Finally, this is a business with ongoing client care and concern. Long term relationships are not going to be fooled by gift baskets or birthday cards, although both may be good touches. You need to deliver quality housing at the right price, to the right market, in the right mix. If you are not customer focused then why real estate? Unlimited ways to get rich. Why choose this avenue?