Thank you REIN and Mac Gets $45.5M

Luv 97 Tips - I even have two copies 🙂

Hello Real Estate Investors in Hamilton Ontario!!

Big thank you to REIN, Don, Russell, Patrick, Melanie, Alyssa and the whole REIN team for allowing me the opportunity to share with the Ontario REIN members my knowledge of Hamilton and the Hamilton Mountain.

Thinking back, it was in January 2011 when Russell told me to fill out a check list of to-do’s before the next REIN meeting that I wrote “to speak on the REIN stage.”  Fast forward to July 5th, 2011, that goal has now been accomplished buutttt, my plan is for two more speaking engagements in the next six months.

Thank you’s also go out to the Hamilton Economic Development Department for aiding me with my research, specifically Sylvia Renshaw and Michael Marini.  Thank you to Patrick Francey for coaching me on my presentation and Thank you to Don Campbell.

For anyone who’s been to ACRE (or Quick Start when I first joined), Don always asks the audience to raise your hand if you are shy.  In April 2008, I did raise my hand… Don’s instructions to us were to pretend not to be shy, to act confident until you are confident.  Thanks to Don and REIN, I now confidently meet strangers on a regular basis including the executive staff at the Economic Dev Dept, Bob Young (owner of the Tiger Cats, founder of Red Hat), and Harry Stinson.  If you are serious about taking your real estate investing business to a higher level, I can not recommend REIN enough.

The Butterflies In My Stomach Are This BIG!!

For those of you who missed my presentation on Hamilton, here are the Power Point slides: the Hamilton Mountain.  Sorry there’s no audio and I so can’t wait to hear myself on CD (this me being sarcastic, it’s hard enough to watch myself on video… 17 minutes of me talking… I might have to have Maria transcribe it :P)

Also in the news… McMaster University scored $45.5 million from the province to partially fund a new, $60 million building for Liberal Arts and Social Studies.  You can read the full article here or read on for my summary and analysis:

• The areas surrounding McMaster are pretty hot, definitely a sellers’ market, especially Westdale where 6-7 bedroom student rentals go for about $20-30k more than the neighbouring Ainslie Wood North and East neighbourhoods which are adjacent to Mac
• Prices in Westdale will remain strong as its a nice pedestrian friendly neighbourhood and in close proximity to McMaster Innovation Park
• With interest rates being so low and parents being able to make minimum downpayments of 5% for a house for their child to live, the current trend of parents buying instead paying rent for their kids makes sense to me (if I were a parent)
• This new building will allow McMaster to add an additional 1,275 students in addition to the already 24,000 full time students enrolled at Mac
• Nice thing about Mac vs. Mohawk student rentals, Mac having so many more students (24,000 vs. 7,400) there is heavy demand and not much supply of decent properties.  Done right, a decent property should be fillled with 12 month leases signed in one weekend of showings in January.  Again, if done right, expect minimal vacancy with only one weekend’s effort.
• FYI – once I free up some capital and if I can find the right property, student rental is for me.  Much better cashflow than a small multi-family

Till next blog post – happy investing everyone!!

Erwin | MrHamilton.ca

PS: If you would an on-the-ground tour of Hamilton and select investment properties please let me know (email Maria and she’ll set it up: Maria (at) MrHamilton.ca)

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