I completely agree with you. This blog gives the ability explore why here and why not here.

This is exactly what I envisioned with this post…good discussion like this challenges us always.

I think that opening yourself up to other people’s opinions shows confidence and security in yourself and indicates that you are growing and that’s actually a much harder thing to do that you would think.

I find your idea here quite interesting because I think that people should question why here, why not here.

I think the information that REIN provides is fabulous, but my belief is that you need to look at the core of the concept, not the specifics, ie, learn to fish, don’t just let Don and the others give you a fish. It’s great that they provide all the economic fundamentals in a pretty package that you can present to a jv partner, it saves a lot of time, but you do need to understand how to do the analysis on your own.

There’s a lot of value in doing city level analysis, both because it’s where the best information is available, and because we all have to start somewhere. It makes no sense to be geographically tied to the area you live in if the fundamentals are better elsewhere. That said, I totally agree with you about the difference between neighborhoods; analysis to the neighborhood and property level is a major part of REIN’s ACRE system.

Are people really paying for research when that information is available for free?

The information is free, but the analysis is the important part. There’s always value in other people’s analysis. In this case, it’s a hell of a lot of work to analyze dozens of different cites and towns, let alone drilling into neighborhoods. There’s also the question of how much more value the experts can bring. Compared to pretty much every other real estate investment club out there, REIN’s membership fees are far more reasonable and the quality of the materials is far higher. I’ve paid for their analysis in the past and I’ll buy it in the future.

Are people really paying for research when that information is available for free?

To recommend towns like Brampton, Oshawa, and Markham is silly, and almost meaningless. They are geographically huge areas. Brampton alone runs form 401 up to countryside rd and from 427 out to Georgetown. The fundamentals in Castlemore are vastly different than Springdale. And there are a dozen more “towns” in Brampton. Of course, proper due-diligence will reveal that.

I think Chris raises a good point…in the end you and you alone are responsible for your financial success. Don always tells people do their own property goldmine scorecard. While some people have fantastic results just following the top 10 towns..I think presented a some evidence that people still must do their due diligence to maximize their returns. Think if you picked the wrong street in Pickering, you would have missed out on huge appreciation numbers over the past 4 years.

It’s absolutely impossible for Don to monitor every street in every neighborhood…perhaps an idea for a future blog would be neighborhood comparisons within a city.

Agreed, and there are some pre-builds which make sense if you’re going to buy them and hold for a longer term. I’ve gotten a couple emails from developers looking to sluff of a couple units, and those make sense. I agree with you about being responsible for your own DD.