The Blog.

You’ve purchased your first investment property, congrats! Now it’s time to get to work! Beyond the immediate required repairs, your first job is to try to maximize the cash flow. What is cash flow? In laymen’s terms, cash flow is the money you have left after deducting all of your rental expenses including mortgage payment, insurance, property taxes, vacancy, maintenance, management and repairs (don’t forget about HOA/strata fees if you own a condo). It may also include hydro, gas and water if the rent is inclusive of utilities, plus any extras like snow removal, garbage pickup and lawn care. Hopefully you’ve bought a property that is cash flow positive in its current state (we always

When we talk about due diligence, most people think about a property inspection. And we agree, a property inspection is an absolute must during the conditional period if you have not already completed one prior to putting in your offer. Alternatively, have a qualified General Contractor (GC) complete your inspection so you can also get quotes on the required work. You might also want to book other trades in during your inspection so you can have estimates for all the work needed on the property. Going beyond the home inspection, we need to talk about financial and legal due diligence. If you skip these parts of your due diligence, you may end up with a

So you’ve analyzed numbers, done your property walkthrough and the property meets your standards. Now it’s time to consider gathering your team and putting in an offer. For this stage, you’ll want to be working closely with your mortgage broker/lender and your real estate agent. Mortgage Broker/Lender First off, you need to make sure your financials are in order. You’ll want to let your mortgage broker/lending agent know you plan on putting in an offer and have your pre-approval in hand. You also need to have your money in order including the cash deposit, 20% down-payment and closing costs (typically 1-2% of house value). We have an interview with a local mortgage broker coming up