Have ever heard a real estate “guru” preaching that you can become a real estate investor with “no money down”?

If you haven’t already, stay in the industry long enough and you most definitely will.  

Typically that claim is followed by a sales pitch offering to teach you the secret formula for some ridiculous price, and only for a limited time…..act now!  

These types of tactics are what end up washing a lot of people out of the real estate investment industry, and ultimately rob them of their dreams of passive income. It’s a downright shame.  

 So let’s set the record straight. Is real estate investing in Canada possible with no money down?  

No….mostly.  

You see, the vast majority of books made on the subject are written about the U.S. market. It’s a different country, with different rules. Though a lot of the strategies and tricks they use do translate to the Canadian market, the no money down tactic doesn’t. You need money to become a real estate investor. That’s the bad news.  

The good news?  

Once you get started, it’s pretty easy to keep going. Truly the sky is the limit. Once you have the right team in place, getting good properties, good tenants, and the right financing in place is so much simpler.  

Of course there are exceptions to every rule, and we do talk about one of those exceptions that exist here in Canada, on today’s episode of the “Investment Property Income” podcast.  

No money down is possible in Canada, but it’s a rare and very niche thing to find. 

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Do you remember the golden era of pension plans in Canada?  

A time when folks went to work, raised their families, and generally enjoyed life without worrying about their retirement, because they had a company pension?  

Careful, your answer to those questions will show your age.  

Of course I’m being a little cheeky, but it’s true. Most people under 35 or so, don’t remember a time when all the best  jobs had pensions. Now contract work, internships, and employee turnover are the norm.  

A lot of older folks want to say that the younger generation is lazy, or they can’t keep a job long enough to become a career, but the same incentives aren’t there for them either. Why should anyone spend 20 or 30 years working at a job that gives them nothing when they retire?  

That’s why so many younger folks have opted for business ownership. They’ve made a shift in thinking that a whole lot of older folks haven’t. They realize that if they ever want to retire, they have to generate increasing income, and save as much of it as possible, so they can become investors.  

Young folks these days don’t have the same ideals of buying one house, paying down the mortgage and living there forever. They want to make a profit off of their investment. Yes it’s a home, but it’s also a means to creating greater wealth for their retirement. Especially since the government, and most employers, aren’t going to do it for them.  

It’s this critical shift in thinking that’s making all the difference for families today.  

The realization that real estate investing is a way of setting up your own pension plan. A way of generating an asset that not only grows in value year after year, but also creates a monthly income for you later in life.  

The best part is, it doesn’t actually take that long, it just takes the right strategy.  

Today on the “Investment Property Income” podcast, we’re talking start to finish, how to create your own pension through real estate investing.  

Check it out here.  

The sky truly is the limit once you get started. 

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Inspiration can be a double edged sword. On one hand, it gets people motivated, and dreaming of things they never thought possible for themselves. On the other, some tend to dream too big in the beginning and can get very discouraged by the reality of things. 

That’s not to say that big dreams aren’t possible, they totally are!

It’s easier though, to start out small, earn your chops, and build your dreams as you grow as an investor. 

I field a lot of calls from beginners that have read a couple of books about real estate, and think they can go out and buy a large apartment building. They can, but not right away, at least in most cases. There are always exceptions to every rule, but the vast majority of real estate investors start out small. 

You see, lenders don’t want to risk their money. They don’t evaluate deals by the amount of zeal in the investor. They want cold hard numbers. Money, credit worthiness, years in the industry, and collateral. All of these things, and a whole lot more, help the lender mitigate the chances of losing their money on a real estate loan. 

It’s far easier to borrow smaller amounts of money, on properties that are easier to market. A single family detached home, especially in today’s market, has a much larger pool of prospective buyers than a large apartment building does. In real estate lending, it ultimately comes down to what happens in a worst case scenario. Is the lender able to recover their investment?

Starting small is just plain easier to get started. 

On today's episode of the “Investment Property Income” podcast, we are talking about the different levels of experience in real estate investing, and how to match property types with experience levels. 

It’s important to keep in mind though, just because you start out small, doesn't mean you have to stay small. 

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Today’s episode of the “Investment Property Income” podcast is an unusual one. It’s not often that you’ll find a mortgage broker, and a mortgage specialist from one of the major banks, on the same show… and getting along. 

Mobile Mortgage Specialist, Nancy Dass, joins us again today to discuss the differences, pros, and cons of working wit an independent broker, versus a bank employed mortgage specialist.  

This is a great conversation.

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So.... this was a bit of an eye opener for me.  

Jim Rohn famously asked, “Why does a goose fly south for the winter?  Because it’s a goose!”

Humans however, are not geese, we have the ability to change our direction at any time.  

Where am I going with this?  

Rent to Owns.  

In the past I’ve met Rent to Own companies that have left a bad taste in my mouth. For many years I had a less than favourable opinion of the entire Rent to Own industry.  

I’m proud to say though, I am not a goose. With new information, I have  formed a new opinion, thanks to Rent to Own expert, Nancy Dass.  

Nancy has been working with both investors, and tenant-buyers for nearly a decade. She knows the business inside and out, and has enlightened me to the fact that there are good RTO companies out there.  

Just like any industry, there are a lot of so called professionals who are completely predatory in the way they do business. Nancy, is not one of them. She educated me on the business, and I now definitely see it as a viable solution for the right person. Both as an investor and a buyer.

You can tell when Nancy starts talking, that she really knows her stuff, but more importantly her heart really comes through.  

Check out today’s episode of the “Investment Property Income” podcast. I hope you find it as enlightening as I did. 

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Something I’m certainly starting to see a lot more of these days is folks trying to buy properties out of province... especially the east coast. 

Call me conservative in my investing mentality, but I’m not a huge fan. 

Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand the appeal... especially living in Toronto. The prices are a lot lower, the properties are bigger, and then of course the romanticism of beautiful locales. It’s hard not to fall in love with the idea. The truth is, it’s worked for a lot of people. 

There’s been a lot of folks in the last year or two that have sold their homes in Toronto and moved to the east coast, bought a larger place for next to nothing, and seem to be living happily ever after. 

There’s a reason for this, a particular set of circumstances.

First, they’re selling a home in Toronto. I’m not even sure if there’s any homes left in Toronto that are less than a million dollars (of course I know there are, I’m just trying to illustrate a point). So they sold a highly valuable property in a hot market, and got top dollar. There’s also a good chance that their work situation has changed, and they’re either retired, or telecommuting. Lastly, the prices of homes on the east coast look ridiculously low...at least if you’re coming from a market like Toronto. 

The thing is, for that person, that strategy works. 

What I see a lot of however is very different. Folks want to buy an investment property out of province. Here’s why I’m not a huge fan.

Unless you’re an experienced investor, owning an investment property out of province adds a level of risk that I would never suggest people take on. You can’t visit the property regularly, the laws can be somewhat different in other provinces, and totally different in other countries, and you’re not as familiar with the market. 

Here’s the thing, if the price is low... there’s a reason. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fatalist. I’m not saying you can’t overcome these challenges, educate yourself, and make it a profitable investment. I’m just saying that it’s more challenging, and it’s easier to cut your teeth on a property much closer to home. 

All that being said, if you still want to buy something out of province, we’re talking about exactly that on today’s episode of the “Investment Property Income” podcast. 

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When I was first introduced to the strategy of buying “pre-construction”, I had no idea how vast the subject actually was. 

Here’s the craziest thing I learned about it…..

You can make a ton of money investing in pre-construction, without ever closing on the property. 

I know that sounds too good to be true, but it is. Of course there’s a number of nuances that you have to understand before you can do this, but it’s totally possible...especially in today’s market. 

In fact, a colleague of mine recently made $160,000 off of an $80,000 investment. Right place, right time, right strategy. That’s why it’s so important to understand multiple strategies in real estate. A lot of them depend on timing and market conditions. 

All of the real estate strategies work, otherwise people wouldn’t do them, but there are climates that are better suited to certain strategies. Today, with the barrier to entry so high in most existing homes, pre-construction offers flexibility in the up front payment structure, and different exit points, depending on your strategy. 

All in all, pre-construction has a lot to offer, and the more you learn about it, the more opportunities it presents to make money. 

That’s exactly what we’re talking about on today’s episode of the “Investment Property Income” podcast. 

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You know, sometimes it’s really hard to make a topic relatable. Some topics are just not interesting to most people. Today’s discussion is one of 'em… insurance.  

A long time ago, when I was first learning the business, I was taught that “facts tell, stories sell!”.

Meaning, if you want to explain a topic to folks, and have it be relatable, you have to tell it in a story. People are far more drawn in by stories, than they are by pie charts and graphs. 

So...on today’s episode of the “Investment Property Income” podcast, Geoff shares a story that’s very personal to him. Not only does it explain the importance of insurance, but also gives us a relatable, real world example of how it can help people in times of hardship. You don’t want to miss this one. 

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Geoff and I take a bit of a divergence from the standard financing topics today, and get a lot more personal with some of our investing and business experiences. 

A few days ago Geoff was having a conversation with one of our colleagues, and she mentioned that she prefers to work with people who have “weathered the storm”, so to speak. 

This began a whole conversation about the “fear of loss”.

Probably the most common thing that stops most people from beginning their journey as a real estate investor is the fear of screwing up and losing money. All sorts of people train you on how to avoid pitfalls, strategies to minimize risk, and ways to protect yourself. 

But what if the worst happens?

What if by some random twist of fate or circumstance you lose money?  What happens then?

This is the real meat of the conversation. 

Here’s the thing, people who’ve lost money, think differently. They’re more calculating in their decisions, and they have both positive and negative experience to draw from. 

There’s an old saying… “When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience leaves with the money, and the man with the money leaves with experience.”

Losing money is not altogether a negative experience. Yes, it sucks in the beginning. It feels like your whole world is ending, but then you start to gain some perspective. You realize you’re still breathing. You may have been broken down for a while, but if you’re strong enough to recover, you come back better than you ever were. 

Losing money is not the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new one, like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. It’s metamorphosis. 

Most of the successful business owners that I know, have lost a great deal of money at some point in their career. But here’s the most important part... the person they became in the process. Once you’ve become someone who can make enough money that it hurts to lose it, you can make it back, and avoid the same pitfalls next time. 

It’s also great to get around people like this because when you start to compare battle scars, yours will probably diminish in size and severity when compared to what some people have experienced. 

Today’s episode of the “Investment Property Income” podcast is about loss, and more importantly, recovery of your investment adventure. This one is important!

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Sometimes the hardest step is anything is the first one. The fear and trepidation can cause folks to procrastinate indefinitely, or worse, not get started at all. 

This is why an entire industry has sprung up around teaching people how to invest in real estate. 

Folks spend their hard earned money on seminars, books, and courses learning how to become rich by investing. Of course there is always value in education, as long as you aren’t substituting education for action. 

A lot of people fall into this trap. 

The ultimate goal of education is application. Knowledge without action is useless. In the beginning, whether out of fear, or great marketing, a lot of people become seminar junkies. They attend every meetup, every event, they know the material inside and out, and yet somehow they still haven’t moved from student to investor.

It’s been said that the antidote to fear is education. While that  is correct, it’s incomplete. 

If you look at action as having a before, during, and after, or beginning, middle, and end, education is just the middle, or during part. The end/after is the result, in this case, becoming an investor, but where do you actually start?

You must begin with intention!

Here’s what I mean, you absolutely must begin with the end in mind. Where are your investing goals going to take you? If you don’t know why you’re becoming an investor, it will be far too easy for you to get derailed by fear or setbacks.

Having a long term plan in place gives you something to focus on and get excited about when things don’t necessarily go as planned. Stuff always comes up, how much focus and attention you dedicate to it determines how big it is. Having your goal on the other side of it means the difference between a speed bump and a wall. 

On today’s episode of the “Investment Property Income” podcast, we break down the steps to becoming an investor, talk about some of the emotional pitfalls, and ultimately how to take that first step toward your goals. 

I hope you get as much out of it as we did. 

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