“Today, you’re seeing first-hand a very similar market—it’s the sharpest incline in the shortest amount of time we’ve seen in recent history,” Jason Lam, VP of sales and marketing at , said in a recent webinar about 8 Wellesley Residences.

“What happens to condos? They catch up. As the price of condos increases, the gap goes down. For several years, condominiums became mainstream and we saw transactions increase and surpass low-rise sales. People understood the lifestyle, convenience factor, and the amenities. As condo prices went up, the price gap went down.”

Toronto’s condominium market is experiencing a rare lull in demand, but it’s sure to return with gusto when the COVID-19 pandemic begins receding. In fact, with multiple efficacious vaccines in circulation, the end could occur sooner than most people think.

However, the vaccine isn’t merely a panacea for the virus: it will strengthen market fundamentals that have been temporarily weakened. And with the end in sight, some of those fundamentals are already regaining their vigour.

“The best news we’ve received recently has to do with Canada’s immigration policy—the Trudeau government announced that [in 2020] we brought in 120,000 new immigrants, but what we’re finding out is over the next three years, 1.2 million qualified, educated individuals are coming in from around the world, and that sets us up for a huge boom because that’s a lot of demand we simply cannot meet. Nobody benefits from a very aggressive immigration policy more than the GTA’s real estate market, and this is paramount because this is an express highway to a pre-COVID market.”

The difference between the pre- and post-COVID-19 real estate markets is that the latter will have historically low-interest rates, which will bolster buying power and, as sales continue their torrid pace, valuations.

“2021 will be the ‘Year of the Condo,’” said Lam.

8 Wellesley, located on the northwest corner of Yonge and Wellesley Sts., is a 55-storey, 599-unit tower slated for occupancy in 2025, when the pandemic will have become a distant nightmare. In addition to a subway station located on the opposite side of the street, 8 Wellesley will have 21,000 sq ft of indoor and outdoor amenity space, including 6,000 dedicated to a state-of-the-art, 24-hour gym. It will also have a commodious lobby featuring a grand piano and a beautiful chandelier.

The real value, according to Lam, comes from the fact that around one in every 10,000 condo units in Toronto is located in the Yonge St. corridor, which happens to be the , if not the country. 8 Wellesley’s vicinity to University of Toronto and Ryerson University will boost demand by about 100,000 potential renters from those two post-secondary learning institutions alone, and coupled with the difficulty of building near the iconic street, the development’s units will retain their long-term value.

“You want to invest in something that’s scarce but that’s in increasing demand. It’s really hard to develop land in the 416, while the 905 is virtually limitless. Scarcity, when you’re trying to make money, is vital,” said Lam, adding that 8 Wellesley’s larger units are sure moneymakers. “Only 10% of condo units in the market are three-bedroom units and they do the best on the resale market.”

Neil Sharma

Neil Sharma is the Editor-In-Chief of Canadian Real Estate Wealth and Real Estate Professional. As a journalist, he has covered Canada’s housing market for the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, National Post, and other publications, specializing in everything from market trends to mortgage and investment advice. He can be reached at neil@crewmedia.ca.

But according to Linda and Keith Perrin, co-founders of All-Ternative Solutions, many investors new to real estate don’t realize the importance of creating a sound, business plan and investing footprint. It’s a situation they hope to change as they welcome a fresh crop of investors into their real estate training program.

“A lot of the people we come in contact with think ‘I want 1,000 doors in ten years’ is a business plan,” Keith says, “but a phrase like that is a dream or a goal, not a plan.” Without a proper, revisable business plan – which allows investors to chart their progress, tweak strategies and make sounder decisions about their properties – too many investors are just hunting in the dark, hoping to get lucky.

But novice investors with no business experience may find creating a business plan daunting and, ultimately, discouraging. That is why the Perrins make building a business plan and footprint central to their teaching. At their upcoming three-day training event, taking place in North Bay, Ontario, from February 14-16, all attendees will be leaving with a completed, fully personalized business plan that will put them in a position to buy their first property.

Attendees will also learn, in a small group setting:

• how to define what their goals are
• what questions to ask a potential realtor, property manager, contractor or lawyer
• the ins, outs and vocabularies of various profitable investment strategies
• what strategy is best for them
• how to source, fund and close deals in the US

Mentoring done right
Keith and Linda are no strangers to the disappointing returns delivered by many real estate training courses. Rather than arming attendees with practical information, these events are often little more than opportunities for the promoters to upsell their clients, leaving them to fend for themselves.

While a number of these hopeful new investors do wind up buying properties, that is only one part of the battle. Without a support structure in place, many of them will still struggle to realize their goals. That is why the Perrins also offer their clients a wide range of mentorship services.

But don’t call it a program
“’Program’ implies that it’s the same system for everyone,” Linda says. “But if everyone is an individual on their own path, how can a trainer ethically tell every investor to follow the exact same steps regardless of where they live or what their situation is?”

Instead, Linda and Keith offer affordable, ongoing mentorship ($250 a month for six months) that puts them in direct touch with their clients. From combing through the fine print on an offer to answering questions about what the best investment neighborhoods are in, for example, Dayton, Ohio, investors who align themselves with the Perrins are granted access to a wealth of expertise built over the course of thirty years of flipping and house-hacking (Linda) and decades of commercial property sourcing and team-building (Keith). The Perrin’s have also built an extensive list of contacts – which has proven to be a lifesaver for more than a few clients – and teach investors how they, too, can build their own valuable network of professionals.

“We show people how to build their own teams of building inspectors, realtors, lawyers, and contractors – proper ones, not people who picked up a hammer and said, ‘Hey! I’m a contractor!’ – in a number of highly profitable US markets,” Keith says.

“We give them the information they need to get started and to build connections,” adds Linda, “and we hold their hand through the entire process. We teach people enough information so they can purchase their own properties, but everyone learns at a different speed. If someone needs more help to be comfortable with investing, we’re here for them.”

Download this white paper to learn more about Keith and Linda Perrin and their company, All-Ternative Solutions. To sign up for their upcoming seminar, February 12-14 in North Bay, Ontario, call (705) 474-4794 or email allternatesolutionslinda@gmail.com today.

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The Go Get It team has seen many of the people pass through their program become successful real estate investors in their own right. Investors like Prince Soriano, who has acquired three properties since entering the program.

“We signed up with Go Get it in January 2018,” Soriano says. “Since then we were able to acquire a Triplex and a duplex (renovation in progress). GGI gave us access to their business systems and their network of valuable professionals such as lawyers, accountant, GCs, tradesman, etc. Our mentorship with GGI gave us confidence and motivation in taking action; especially in starting our real estate business. We are looking forward for more business opportunities with them through wholesaling and help us grow our business together.”

Theo Patrick Brown met Ratna at one of Go Get It’s seminars, where he learned a step by step strategy to flip properties and buy rentals with zero money down. “I was blown away by the value that as given in just two short months after joining the mentorship programs,” Brown says. “I was able to wholesale a triplex for $10,000, all with zero of my capital.”

Brian Jarimilla became a Go Get It student in the winter of 2017. He was prepared for real estate to be a “scary ride” but the knowledge he gained made the process much more manageable than he expected. “Their knowledge, tools and systems are very valuable,” he says. “They are very hands on and I love that they are in the local market. I would definitely recommend working with Go Get It Real Estate.”

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“If you don’t follow a proven system, you are going in blind,” says Nam Ratna of Go Get It Real Estate. “A lot of people purchase a property without even determining properly what the after repair value is by studying comparables and properly budgeting for repairs. It’s a grave mistake and something that costs investors a lot of money.”

As well as teaching investors strategies for analyzing properties, a leading mentorship program will also prepare people for all of the issues that come into play that are often forgotten, such as permits, behind the wall issues, contractor issues, and project management blunder stories.

“A lot of it boils down to the price they bought it for, which is why your purchase price is where you make all of your money,” Ratna says. “If you understand the need to purchase 60 – 70 % below the market value to make a profit, you can generally make a solid return on an investment property. Back in the day, you could cut corners, put up a bad place up for sale and people would buy it. You cannot do that anymore if you want to be in business for a long period of time.”

Learning modern marketing skills is another area that leading mentorships programs help investors. With most of the bargains only available before a property hits MLS, investors needs to be able to get in front of people before opportunities hit the market.

“Consistency with marketing is crucial. 80% of transactions happen between the fifth and twelfth contact but very low percentage of people even make the second phone call or send out the second letter,” Ratna says. “You need to be able to track and analyze what you are doing and then continually adjust.”

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“Taking the right mental approach is very important and is something we teach in our first session,” says Nam Ratna of Go Get It Real Estate. “We discuss everything needed to create a growth mindset, including fear or failure and placing too much importance on what other people are saying – both things that prevent investors from achieving the goals they’re going after.”

Learning to take the emotion of out of real estate investing is a vital skill that many investors never learn. Taking a considered, objective view is one of the fundamental aspects of a healthy investing mindset, although for some people it is easier said than done. “If you don’t have that strong mindset – a strong foundation – as soon as you hit an obstacle you are going to be stopped. That’s why setting a proper mindset is so important for sustaining long-term success.”

Another important aspect of mentorship programs is learning the skills, systems and negotiation skills needed to acquire discounted properties. In the current market, most of the attractive opportunities are gone before they hit they MLS, so learning how to buy properties at the right price off-market is a major skill to possess.

Learning how to raise capital is another important thing for ambitious investors to develop, Ratna explains. “If you don’t have the money, you need to be able to go out there and raise capital, and there are certain skills and systems that you need to have in place to do that,” he says.

“Also, if you are planning to flip properties, you need to develop a process to manage your contractors and hold them accountable, manage payment milestones and create a scope of work, all of which we help our students with. If you are renting a property after fix it up, you need systems to attract the right kind of tenants to maintain the property, to manage the tenants without you having to go there. A proper system so you can essentially take yourself out of the business.”

Ratna encourages investors to only partner with a mentorship program that educates on all of the above area. He also urges investors to make sure that the people running the program are full time investors themselves.

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“An investor who takes that approach is going to lose money; either the money they have invested or any capital they have raised,” says Nam Ratna of Go Get It Real Estate. “So many investors lose money because they didn’t have the proper skills to analyze a property, asses a budget, or to determine what the after repair value is going to be.”

Ratna encounters many real estate investors who are suffering from making some basic errors. A common consequence for investors without the adequate knowledge is being stuck with a property they had intended to flip. A successful flip should be done in 3 – 4 months, but some investors are still holding their properties three years later.

“It generally happens because the investor didn’t analyze the property – they overvalued it and under budgeted for their repairs,” Ratna says. “These are two of the biggest mistakes investors make and they can be mitigated by partnering with an experienced mentor, someone who has been there and done it. So many investors don’t know how to study comparables and then under budget their repairs because they are either trying to cut corners or trying to justify the deal because they were not able to negotiate the right price.”

In addition to the financial problems that arise from investing without the right guidance, those investors are also likely to suffer mental strife, which can be even more damaging.  When people get into the industry without mentorship and support and then lose money, they often lose faith in the opportunities that real estate investing presents when it’s done properly.

“Going about it the wrong way and having a bad experience can seriously halt someone’s ability to secure the life and retirement that they wanted,” Ratna says. “Having a mentor helps people find ways to avoid that happening. It helps them deal with obstacles and develop the right mindset.”

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Not only is this type of approach misguided – and slightly arrogant – it also means the investor is more likely to build an unprofitable portfolio. For a real estate investor who wants to grow a sustainable, long-term portfolio, finding a mentor is an important first step.

“It is so crucial for investors to educate themselves and learn the fundamental skills, systems and philosophies that you need to properly invest in residential real estate,” says Nam Ratna of Go Get It Real Estate. “It is a given and has been going on forever in all industries – learning from mentors to get the new skills necessary to succeed. Real estate is no different.”

Ratna believes that the current market conditions make finding a mentor more important than ever before. Back in the 80’s, 90’s and early 2000’s, real estate was an easy place to achieve solid appreciation. Most investors could buy any property, hold it for a while and then make some profit. But in the current environment, with tightening rules, stagnating incomes and rising prices, it’s more difficult to find attract investment opportunities. 

“There are many different variables to take into account when going into the real estate investing game,” Ratna says. “You need to connect with someone that has been through the gauntlet and is still going through it full time and has proven systems. That is going to protect you and give you a good idea of what is going on in the current market environment. You need to connect with mentors who have updated skills for the market. Some of the things people were using in the early 2000’s are not as relevant now.”

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Get Digs™ is a digital service designed to improve the way renters and landlords pay and receive rent payments. Renters can pay their rent by the method of their choosing: credit card, VISA Debit, Debit Mastercard, Interac e-Transfer, or cheque, and can set up alerts to make sure they never make a late payment. Landlords get the assurance that they will receive their rental income on time every month from Get Digs, even if their tenant is late with their payment for whatever reason.

It was only launched in May 2018, but Get Digs is already making waves among Canadian landlords that have signed up.

For landlords, Get Digs has a feature called RentSteady, which ensures they get paid on time even if the tenant is late paying their rent*,” says Rachael Carswell, Co-Founder at Get Digs. “It helps remove the negative impact on cash flow associated with late rental payments and gives the landlord a security and peace of mind that has been missing for so long.”

The landlord receives an e-mail notifying them that the tenant is late paying the month’s rent, and the RentSteady service means the landlord still gets paid. Get Digs handles all of the follow up associated with late payments and continues to send weekly notifications to update the landlord of the renter’s payment status.

“We continue to follow up with the Renter to attempt to recover the rent owed and get them back on track with their payments” says Carswell. “If the renter defaults, the landlord will continue to be paid on the first of the month – for up to four months of consecutive non-payment”.

“There are other products in the market that attempt to protect landlords   in the event of non-payment of rent by their tenant, but our belief is that they simply aren’t effective enough. They add more tasks and processes on top of what the landlord is already going through and they do not solve the main issue of being out of pocket for the rent owed. It’s clearly a win-win for both landlords and renters, and with the backing of RBC Ventures, Get Digs has the tools necessary to ensure it has a long-term impact in the Canadian market.

“Get Digs is a part of RBC Ventures, a subsidiary of RBC, which is focused on going beyond banking to create meaningful solutions that touch every Canadian,” says Rachael Carswell, Co-Founder and Product lead at Get Digs. “We want to offer Canadians services and products that make their lives better, and this is what RBC Ventures is set up to do.”

As well as providing financial backing and industry know-how, just having the RBC name attached to the Get Digs project provides some crucial benefits. It provides a legitimacy and peace of mind that other products may struggle to replicate. The RBC brand represents trust and stability, two attributes that are crucial for Canadian landlords.

Download this white paper to find out more about Get Digs and how it’s changing the game for landlords and their tenants

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Launched in May 2018, Get Digs™, a new venture from RBC Ventures Inc., a subsidiary of RBC, is already making waves with landlords and real estate investors in Canada. The digital platform is changing the way renters and landlords pay and receive rent payments and although it’s still early days, Get Digs’ founders Rachael Carswell and Megan McQuillan are excited by the positive feedback they’ve received from landlords and renters who have used the product.

However, despite the successful start, Carswell and McQuillan are determined to continue improving Get Digs and adding new innovative features. “There are numerous pain points in the rental market today, so as well as improving the payments aspect, we also want to provide more value and features to this community,” McQuillan says.

 “The process of setting up viewings involves so much back and forth,” she says. “The landlord lists the unit and then has to deal with an onslaught of emails and phone calls to try and book appointments to see the place. We want to eliminate that hassle.”

Just launched, the new free appointment booking feature will enable landlords to set the available time slots for rental viewing on an online calendar. The renter then selects the time and date that works for them and that’s it, the appointment is booked.

“The online calendar generates a unique URL that the landlord can send to potential viewers or insert in the listing details itself,” McQuillan says. “When a potential renter clicks on the links, they land on the calendar and are able to easily select a time slot and book it on the spot. It eliminates all of the back and forth that existed before, and is similar to booking a reservation online for a restaurant.”

Get Digs is also planning to create more features that help streamline the rental process and eliminate cumbersome steps that exist today. The company’s leaders are excited about playing a pivotal role in the evolution of Canada’s rental market.

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As CREW has discovered this week, a new online payments platform looks set to revolutionize the rental market in Canada for both landlords and their tenants.

Get Digs is a digital service designed to improve the way renters and landlords pay and receive rent payments. Renters can pay their rent by the method of their choosing: credit card, VISA Debit, Debit Mastercard, Interac e-Transfer, or cheque, and can set up alerts to make sure they never make a late payment. Landlords get the assurance that they will receive their rental income on time every month from Get Digs, even if their tenant is late with their payment for whatever reason*.

Get Digs™ is a part of RBC Ventures, a subsidiary of RBC, which is focused on going beyond banking to create meaningful solutions that touch every Canadian.

“Get Digs is offering Canadians a service that makes their lives better, and this is what RBC Ventures is set up to do,” says Rachael Carswell, Co-Founder and Product lead at Get Digs. “As part of RBC Ventures, we work closely with our trusted partners at RBC to leverage the bank’s payments expertise and financial management knowledge.”

It’s clearly a win-win for both landlords and renters, and with the backing of RBC Ventures, Get Digs has the tools necessary to ensure it has a long-term impact in the Canadian market.”

*Get Digs will continue to pay the landlord rent up to 4 consecutive months of non-payment by renter, after which time the service shall be terminated.

Download this white paper to find out more about Get Digs and how it’s changing the game for landlords and their tenants

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