In our money machine seminars and as investors, the bulk of our attention has been focused on residential real estate investment. It’s the easiest to acquire, the easiest to finance and generally speaking the easiest to rent out and keep rented. After all, regardless of the economy we find ourselves in, people always need a roof over their heads. So, while in tough economic times, when many businesses are struggling, you might see a lot of ‘for lease’ signs on strip plazas and retail outlets, that’s not typically the case with houses and apartment units.
March 17, 2025
Buy one property a year for ten years. Never amortize for more than 15 years. Never sell. That in a nutshell is the basis of The Money Machine Seminar. I first rolled that seminar out in 1989. Unlike today, nobody was doing real estate investment seminars back then. Today with all the ‘nothing down’ ‘get rich quick’ schemes out there, people are jaded when it comes to courses on real estate investment. But back 36 years ago the room was packed.
February 15, 2025
Last issue we looked at the challenge of setting out to build an investment portfolio. We saw that while a multi-family building is a great place to start, regardless of the investors profile, there are a number of considerations as we continue to develop.
January 15, 2025
I had the opportunity over the holidays to spend some time with a good family friend. At one point the topic of investment real estate came up. He indicated he was thinking seriously about starting an investment portfolio and wondered what his first purchase should be.
December 16, 2024
When it comes to selling your property, be it your home, a ‘fix and flip’ or an investment property, there are a number of different strategies you can use. You can start high. After all, studies have shown that for most people the largest chunk of their net worth is in their real property. And so, you want to realize as much equity as possible from the sale. And of course, the mind set often is ‘I can always come down’. And who knows, even if you are overpriced, there is always the possibility that someone will come along who absolutely falls in love with your property and is willing to pay what you are asking or beyond. You might get lucky.
There is a housing crisis in Canada and it is impacting both prospective home buyers and prospective tenants. Simply put, there are more aspiring occupants than there are dwellings to put them in. Of course, the problem isn’t consistent in all locations across the country. Remote areas and areas with limited growth and slim employment opportunities aren’t impacted. But high-density urban areas, areas where population is consistently growing and areas within reasonable community distance of large centres are definitely feeling the pinch. And that pretty much encompasses all of Southern Ontario.
October 15, 2024
Pretty much every year they spend millions of dollars that they don’t have. Now I’m not saying that the money they spend is not spent on worthwhile endeavours. Health care, enhanced infrastructures, education. The problem is that every dollar they spend over and above what they take in adds to the annual deficit and increases the national debt. And that debt will have to be re-paid one day. And in the meantime, the debit will have to be serviced. The interest needs to be pa
September 16, 2024
In the last two or three issues of these Money Machine articles, we’ve taken a look at the growing problem between landlords and tenants especially when evictions, either ‘fault’ or ‘no-fault’ come into play. We’ve seen why economically tenants feel they are in the driver seat and why the Landlord and Tenant Board in many ways contributes to the problem. And while we outlined what needs to be done to remedy the problem, until changes are made, landlords need to be doubly sure that they don’t make a mistake that could have been avoided during the tenant selection process.
As we saw last issue, there is a growing problem affecting a large segment of the residential rental market. Pitting landlords against tenants. It’s come about because of the incredible increase in acquisition costs of residential rental property together with soaring interest rates and an alarming rise in maintenance and utility costs. All the while residential rents for existing tenants continue to be suppressed by rent controls. I maintain that at the heart of the problem is the Residential Tenancies Act and the approach taken by the Landlord and Tenant Board. These things need to be fixed, and they can be. Quite easily.