Comments on: What Do I Do?

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:01:37 +0000

Hi Kelly, I do use a mortgage broker. As you probably know, any mortgage that's lower than 20% down needs to be insured. There are three players in that sandbox, CHMC, Genworth and AIG. The latter is a small player right now. CMHC is the biggest, and has a good program, but does charge significant premiums (3-8%). Genworth is another major player, and recently relaxed it's restrictions. A good mortgage broker who knows investment real estate (like Peter Kinch's office) will do better than your usual banker because 98% of bankers and brokers just don't know the programs.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:33:14 +0000

Chris,

You mention in your post that you borrow with between 10-20% down. How do you manage to get the banks to take 10% down on an investment property? Do you have to work with mortgage brokers to find alternative financing? thanks Kelly

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:19:17 +0000

Thanks Nick,

It’s tough to re-frame how we express what we do, but so useful to make sure we’re lining up with the language our ‘target market’ is using.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:04:49 +0000

I like your Personal Belize as it is very similar to my goals.

Just to add to what Bill was saying: Not that it is frustrating for me, but whenever I say, “Real Estate” people go straight into piling me with excuses to back out.

“Oh it is only good if you work in construction, otherwise you are going to lose it all.”

“House prices are too high, there are no more chances to buy.”

All of these referring to the classical buy-and-flip strategy. I hope that buying and holding becomes more popular in the coming years. I feel many people will benefit with the knowledge.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:13:19 +0000

Thanks for the comment Bill. It’s true, and so important to understand and empathize with other people so we don’t disappear into jargon right off the bat.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 15:33:49 +0000

Well said Chris, I run into the same problem where people just don’t understand what we do. To often we end up speaking in real estate language and people tune out. Positive Cash flow, ROI, leverage, amortization paydown and the list goes on.
You put it in great terms here, but one other aspect you should mention is freedom.
Freedom from working for someone else and controlling your life and schedule that is. You get to take full responsibility for your success or your failure and this is part of the freedom. The harder you go, the more successful you can become and the more free time you can generate!