An Interview with Enza Venuto and Maureen E. Smith
How does one get started with real estate investing in Canada?
It you are a Canadian homeowner and you own real estate right now, then you’re in the game with an added advantage—you have already started investing in real estate. Although often overlooked, one can take their current real estate holdings with their home equity and begin building on it. How you actually start doing that is by using the equity in your home right now, allowing you to buy another property, if your passion is to build on real estate.
There are certain things you need to know when you are building your real estate wealth, and you need to set up some strategies that will allow you to continue to build on that wealth. Here is what you need to do:
Take equity from your home, with the understanding that this can bring you the down payment and the funds available to buy a second property quite easily. From this, you will to be able to grow and see how much equity you can take out.
Do your homework in order to understand your numbers and then decide where you actually want to invest. How will these locations fit the type of investment you want and your lifestyle? You can start with single family homes, multilevel homes, commercial properties and/or industrial units. A single family home will allow you to generate passive income for long-term growth.
Understand you will also need to have a very strong team on board, helping you through the process.
Do additional research. Look at some real estate groups and join one (such as Rein), consider real estate meet-up groups in your local area or other real estate investment clubs. Also, you must understand yourself and your own needs with regards to your financial goals. Know where your passions are and the locations in which you would like to invest.
Next, you must build a team of trustworthy people who will also have an interest in helping you grow your wealth in real estate. These include, first and foremost, yourself, a good mortgage broker, a realtor who is based in the locations where you want to invest and a great accountant. This team will also help you strategize in terms of building your wealth, helping you grow your portfolio.