Buying an Investment Property in Brantford

Here’s what you need to know about investing in the Brantford real estate market:

• Make sure you’re aware of all the responsibilities that come with being a Landlord. It’s not a walk in the park, in fact, quite the opposite! Are you able to do minor house repairs and maintenance? You certainly have the option to hire someone to do these things for you but, many landlords hope to do these small maintenance and repairs themselves. Constantly paying a contractor or handyman can quickly eat into your profits.

Know Your Numbers

• Take the time to run all the numbers and make sure you’re comfortable with them. I provide all of my investors with a full analysis of each property they are interested in. Scroll to the bottom to see a sample or Click Here to download a PDF version. This allows us to work together to evaluate the feasibility of the purchase. Ideally, the property will have positive cash-flow immediately, but it’s often not the case these days. Sometimes units are vacant & and many times rents are well-below market rates.

Make Sure You Have the Down Payment and a Back-up Fund.

• Investment properties usually need a higher down payment than your average home. You’ll likely need at least 20% down, depending on your lender. I can recommend a great banker to get started on your path to investing. Not only that, but some tenants can be hard on properties so your wear and tear costs will be higher. If you get a bad tenant and need to make significant repairs prior to re-renting, it’s important to make sure have the capital to absorb those losses.

Choose a Low-Cost Investment Property (for your first investment property)

• For first-time investors, it can be a daunting task to purchase the first property in your portfolio. For minimal risk, it might be wise to choose something on the lower end of the market. But there can be some cons to this as well, and is something we can discuss. I can also help guide you with tenant selection, credit checks and best practice methods to minimize the chance of problem tenants.

Fixer-Uppers

• Multi-Family fixer-uppers can be a great way to build some equity and increase rental rates, if you’re willing to put some sweaty equity in. If you have family and friends in the trades, even better! But, you don’t want to get in over your head and you want to keep your profits as high as possible.

Use the Right Agent

Hey, that’s me! It doesn’t matter if you’re buying your first income property or 10th, I would love to help you through the process. With knowledge of building, design & construction, along with many years of real estate experience working with investors of all types, I have no doubt we could work well together.

If you’re ready to start building real estate wealth through investing:

Consider Getting Familiar with Residential Tenancies Act.