Hello Investors of Hamilton Real Estate!
I trust you’ve all enjoyed your summer!! I know many of you weren’t investing as August was a very quiet month for us yet somehow we still manage to fill the Mr. Hamilton Inner Circle Meetings! Â So thank you to all the devoted investors for taking the time out on a beautiful Saturday morning to further your investment education.
For those of you who made it out, I hope enjoyed our presentations on the Tax Files and The Anatomy of a deal.  You should have learned some brilliant tax tips to potentially save you hundreds if not thousands and learned how to properly analyse a deal when it stares you in the face and not let it slip away as some novice investors recently did.
Mark your calendars for the next Mr. Hamilton Inner Circle Meeting on Saturday, September 27th, same place and time where we’ll be covering the toughest tax question: to incorporate or not and we’ll break down how James recently RE-filled a Rent-to-Own investment property. Â Plus of course the regular structured networking so you get to meet other area professionals, experts and investors.
The 3rd annual SUPER Crawl is in the books! Â Check out the pictures from the event:
photo credit The Hamilton Spectator
photo credit K. Dickson
You can read all about the all weekend event that drew an estimated 150,000 people to an area of downtown even some of the locals would not be caught dead in after dark here: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4859301-super-party-at-supercrawl/
What’s interesting about Super Crawl to me is how this area of north Hamilton is now one of the most happening places to be in the city for the arts, entertainment, dining, and cafe scene. I recall one client of mine, a former McMaster University student 10 years ago told me he was afraid of James North after dark and now cannot believe the transformation. He’s not exaggerating either about how bad the neighbourhood was as even just four years ago, the area was frequented by drug dealers and prostitutes.  Today, the people of Hamilton, particularly the music/arts scene and generation Y, have taken back James North.  At a Young Entrepreneurs networking meeting, I met a Hamilton Police Sergeant of the ACTION team whose focus in the higher crime areas.  The Sergeant told me how it is the people who create change to neighbourhoods and not the police, by driving traffic.  You see, the undesirables (drug dealers, prostitutes) want to operate in the dark corners of the city where people would only go if they were patrons of such undesirable practices.  They do not want to operate under the lights and definitely not in an area that draws 150,000 visitors over a weekend.
So what does that mean to the investor?  James North and West Harbour are by no means perfect, it’s not Yorkville however this neighbourhood is possibly the hottest in Hamilton due to walkability, affordability, proximity to downtown and beautiful lake front parks (Bayfront and Pier 4). Want to know how desirable the area is? Condo developers are already scooping up land.
The area is great but there are landmines. Â Historically, the area was lower income hence you see smaller homes on smaller lots with limited driveways. Â Garages are almost unheard of. Â The area is one of the oldest as well so lots of century homes and all the infrastructure problems that come with a century home. Â As is true with lower income areas, the owners may not have the disposable income to property maintain their homes (e.g. foundations, windows, roofs) so expect significant deferred maintenance. There are multiple offers everywhere and generally, people who will live in the property will get emotional and outbid most investors. Â Some food for thought. If you want to learn more about investing in Hamilton and surrounding areas, I suggest you register for an upcoming Boot Camp event by clicking here
Till next time – Happy Hamilton Investing Everyone!
Erwin |Â MrHamilton.ca
PS: If you are just starting out investing, start by investing in yourself by getting training by Clicking here for FREE Training on “How to Invest in Nice Homes in Nice Areas”
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