Buying a residential investment property is a big decision and should not be done without first doing your homework. Here are 10 important things to consider before you purchase. 1. What Type of Property Do You Want There are many types of properties to invest in including condo apartment units, condo townhouse units, freehold townhouse units, semi-detached homes, single family detached homes as well as multi-family homes such as duplexes and triplexes. A condo apartment unit is probably... [read more]

When is the best time to sell an investment property? Given the price increases over the past couple of years in the GTA real estate market, many investors have most likely thought about cashing out of their real estate investment. While the strength of the real estate market is an obvious reason to sell, real estate investors must also consider the situation with the current tenant before listing their investment property for sale. Many landlords don’t understand the... [read more]

Real estate investors use a variety of calculations that can help them make decisions on potential investments. The most common calculations include Capitalization Rate (Cap Rate), Monthly Rental Factor, Gross Income Multiplier and Cash-on-Cash Returns. Cap Rate  CR = Net Operating Income/Property Value Probably the most widely known. It can be used to find the market value of a property if the market cap rate is known and the property has a solid verifiable income and expense... [read more]

Investing in rental properties can be very profitable but you have to be prepared to put the work in. Below are some of the challenges that property investors have to deal with on a daily basis. Dealing with Tenants: Perhaps the biggest challenge of being a property investor is that you need to deal with tenants. The more successful you become as an investor, the more tenants you have to deal with. Don’t get me wrong, most tenants are good people and most experienced investors... [read more]

Absorption Rate (AR) and Months-of-Inventory (MOI) are two very common statistics used to explain the general health of a real estate market. AR and MOI are calculated using the same inputs, the number of Active Listings and the Number of Sales. The number of sales is usually calculated as the number of sales in the previous month. For example, if there were 100 active listings in a market and 20 sales last month you would calculate MOI as 100/20 = 5 Months of Inventory. Conversely, the... [read more]