Toronto Real Estate Investing with Nicole
Real Estate Investing with Nicole is the ultimate podcast for anyone interested in the dynamic world of real estate in the Greater Toronto Area. Nicole Lopez is a seasoned realtor taking you on an exciting journey through the ins and outs of the thriving Toronto housing market. With a focus on real estate investing, home buying, and the latest real estate statistics, Real Estate with Nicole equips you with the knowledge and tools to make informed decisions.
Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, and Caledon are each known for their vibrant neighborhoods, diverse culture, and strong economy, offering a wealth of opportunities for both experienced investors and first time home buyers. Real Estate with Nicole taps into this real estate tapestry, providing valuable insights into the key aspects of the market that matter most to you.
Investing in real estate is a central theme of the podcast. Nicole shares her experience and expertise as a real estate investor, guiding you through various investment strategies to maximize returns in the Toronto market. From exploring different types of investment such as houses, condos, and condominiums, to pre-construction properties, Nicole breaks down complex concepts and real estate statistics into easily digestible insights for every investor.
This is also a podcast for first time home buyers, sharing essential tips and resources to navigate the home buying process in Toronto. From understanding current market conditions and interest rates to exploring the right neighbourhood for you, listeners gain the confidence to make informed decisions and find their dream home.
You also gain access to a network of professionals as the show features industry experts, including real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and legal professionals who join Nicole as guests to offer their unique perspectives and insights. Nicole understands the importance of empowering listeners to invest with confidence, built on a foundation of trust.
Nicole Lopez is a real estate agent with Royal LePage Credit Valley Real Estate, Brokerage.
Toronto Real Estate Investing with Nicole
Are Government Policy Changes Creating Real Estate Opportunities?
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Will government policies help unlock the door to your dream home?
Nicole sits down with David Rhodd, principal mortgage broker of Limitless Solutions Financial Group, to explore new legislative changes aimed at improving housing affordability in Canada. They look at changes affecting insured mortgage limits, 30-year amortizations, stress tests on mortgage renewals, and new refinancing rules for secondary suites.
David also shares the importance of financial literacy, offering practical advice on turning a home into a wealth-building tool.
Listen For
2:25 New Government Policies for First-Time Home Buyers
16:46 Refinancing for Secondary Suites: New Opportunity
29:29 Nicole’s Market Overview
34:10 What is a Real Estate Action Plan (REAP)?
Guest: David Rhodd, Mortgage Broker
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Contact Nicole Lopez
Real Estate Agent
Royal LePage Credit Valley Real Estate Brokerage
Email | Website
Nicole Lopez (00:01):
Welcome to another episode of Real Estate with Nicole. Today we'll be picking the brain of David Rhodd, investor, author, and principal mortgage broker of Limitless Solutions Financial Group. David's goal is to assist you or assist us in creating wealth and freedom through real estate. I've asked David to join me today in order to provide some insight into the recent legislative changes that were announced earlier this fall. In previous episodes, I've touched on the down payment dilemma, and today I'd really like to have David here to explain how these new rules may help us, especially with the down payment. So grab a cup of your favorite beverage and settle in as David helps us to unpack upcoming legislative changes, discuss the importance of financial literacy and address why having a real estate action plan is critical.
(01:30):
Hey, David, I'm so glad that you're joining us again today at the Real Estate with Nicole podcast. I'm really happy to have you here as there has been some interesting, exciting news, maybe confusing to some with regards to the recent announcement from the federal government. So mid end of September, the finance minister made some announcements with regards to affordability and home buying and things that would affect home buyers and home sellers and home investors. So I'm so happy to have you here and help maybe demystify and give us the scoop on a lot of this new legislation or new tools that are going to be available to us later this year.
David Rhodd (02:25):
Yes. Well, thank you. Thank you, Nicole, for having me here. As always, always a pleasure to come on your podcast so that we can talk about real estate and stuff that make us excited. It might be boring to others, but we love to talk about stuff like that. So you're right, the government made some changes August 1st, I believe, and they all come implemented in December 15th. So all of these changes are targeted to first time home buyers. The reason why the government made these changes is because they see that there's a problem in the housing market right now. Inflation is going down and we're still not seeing the movement in the market that we're expecting for these inflation levels. It's just the housing prices are just expensive for first time home buyers and they're becoming or already out of reach. So the government tried to address some of these concerns that they've been hearing over the years, and these rules look like they're targeting first time home buyers and hopefully will spur some excitement in the market so that they can start getting into home and not have it as a dream that doesn't exist, but have it as a dream that they can realize.
Nicole Lopez (03:40):
I think that's good to know because they're trying to address that affordability question that's happening. We know that looking at the trend analysis, at least in the GTA, that over a 40 year period, you've seen on average 6.6 to 7% increase in equity in homes over that period of time. We know that probably the boomer generation and the Generation X, they probably saw lower prices, maybe a little bit higher interest rates, but there were more affordable, whereas now we're seeing prices edging up there on average, and it's becoming much more challenging for individuals who may not have the down payment or the millennial generation and the upcoming generation years in order to be able to afford purchasing a home. So yeah, I think the government taking an active role in helping to address some of those affordability issues I think is an excellent thing. However, why don't we try to break it down in terms of what some of these options and tools and changes may mean on an individual basis, so we can really dive in and understand what are these tools and maybe see what's something that would be applicable to one person or maybe another tool may be more applicable to another situation.
David Rhodd (05:07):
Yeah, definitely.
Nicole Lopez (05:09):
Okay.
David Rhodd (05:09):
Yeah, no, so one of the first major rules that had changed is they've changed a limit on insured mortgages. So typically as a first time home buyer, if you're trying to put less than 20% down, that's going to be an insured mortgage product is what we call it. So any house up to 500,000, you can put 5% down, and then any house from 500 to a million dollars, you can put 10% down.
Nicole Lopez (05:35):
Can you maybe just give us a definition of what an insured mortgage is, just so everybody's on the same? Yeah,
David Rhodd (05:42):
Of course. Yeah. So an insured mortgage is a mortgage. When you put less than 20% down on a property, that's the definition of an insured mortgage because what happens is behind the scenes that the lender, the bank, they insure the mortgage product so that in the event of default, the bank will get back their money. So there's a premium for this insurance mortgage product, which is usually added to the mortgage. So that's what you have to pay for, but it helps the lender to be more secure. Typically, people have to put 20% down, so the lender's only going up to 80%, but with a first time home buyer, they're only putting 5% down in a lot of cases. So the lender is actually lending up to 95% loan to value, which is very risky if you don't have insurance.
(06:32):
So the major rule that changed was that now we've increased the limit to 1.5 million. So now you can put 5% down on the first 500,000, any property, 500,001 to a million dollars, you can put 10% down. So 5% on the first portion, zero to 500,000, and then 500,000 to a million, it's 10%. So that's where we were consistently. So for first time home buyers, they would not be in the market to get a home for higher than $1 million, putting down that what they're putting down. But we're finding challenges finding properties for less than a million dollars. So this is where the government stepped in and said, look, okay, we understand that a lot of these properties are over a million dollars and that market is a lot smaller, so we're going to extend it to 1.5. So now as a first time home buyer, they can get into a detached property that they're going to stay in for a longer period of time that will grow with their family. So now they've extended that to 1.5. So meaning the first 500,000 is still 5%, but now from 501 all the way up to 1.5 million, now you can put 10% down, which is a huge difference, and as long as they income qualify for the property, then they can go for that 1.5 million, which is great.
Nicole Lopez (07:55):
That's awesome.
David Rhodd (07:56):
So that was rule number one. So what that is going to do is before properties over a million dollars, there were more for that secondary buyer or that buyer that had 20% down, which a lot of first time home buyers don't have that. So now that market segment is going to grow and be more attractive to first time home buyers. So for people that have been sitting on the fence and there's not that much traction for their homes over a million dollars after December 15th, when we can start submitting all those deals, those houses are going to become a lot more attractive. And I dunno if it's going to get to bidding wars, but there's just going to be a lot more eyes on those properties now.
Nicole Lopez (08:43):
Exactly. I totally understand. That allows people a little bit more latitude in order for their selection, in order for them to get the home they want or the size of home they want and the potential neighborhood that they want to get into. However, as you did mention bidding wars, with the advent of that potential space, now you're going to have more people, as you said, more eyes on the properties that are available within that price range up to 1.5.
David Rhodd (09:16):
Exactly. Exactly.
Nicole Lopez (09:18):
So yes, you're going to have maybe a surplus of additional buyers, I'm not sure the number, and then the properties that are available now are going to generate even more interest and activity.
David Rhodd (09:32):
Exactly, and the government's been busy. So another rule that they came up with the same time
(09:39):
Is changing to 30 year amortization. So most typical mortgages have a 25 year amortization period. So what that means is that if you get a mortgage today, you're expected to pay that mortgage off in 25 years. Okay? So what the government did is they've now extended that to 30 years for first time home buyers and for those buying new billed properties. Again, reason for doing that is one, because now that the first time home buyers are going into these larger homes up to 1.5 million, the mortgage payments are going to be higher. So by extending it to 30 year amortization, it reduces the mortgage payment so that they can have a better budget also for new development, because new development is sometimes out of reach for a lot of people. They've also extended that to 30 year amortization as well. If you're buying a new development, what this will do is this brings more buyers to look for new development properties, which now encourages the developers to build more properties.
(10:38):
Because what we've seen happening is a lot of these developments have been stalled because one, things are expensive right now, and also there's not enough buyers scooping up all these properties. So then why as a developer would I build if I'm not going to be able to sell these properties? So now this makes new development, again, in the eyes of first time home buyers not out of reach. They can get a third year amortization, and it's just a win-win situation all around. So I like the changes that the government has made so far. It really looks like they're trying to boost back the economy, the housing economy. So it's really encouraging to see what's happening. We look forward to see what the results are going to be.
Nicole Lopez (11:26):
Yeah, I think both of these, both in terms of the insured mortgages and the limit, the max limit being increased to 1.5 million and the 30 year amortization, it's just going to allow people to be able to carry the mortgage. Of course, not only are you going to be able to come up with that down payment with the insured mortgage rule update, but also with that 30 amortization, the burden or the stress of having that as large a payment is reduced a little bit. So it's relieving some anxiety from some
David Rhodd (12:05):
Buyers
Nicole Lopez (12:07):
There in the market.
David Rhodd (12:08):
And the government didn't forget about everybody else. Those two were for first time home buyers, but they are looking at the people that already have a home, see the people that have a home. Typically what happened is there's a stress test, and the stress test just means that I have to qualify you for a higher mortgage than you actually get. And the reason why the government did that, they implement that two years ago. The reason why they did that is because in the event of something like this where interest rates have gone up, they wanted to make sure that you won't go into foreclosure into a power sale situation. You won't go into default on your mortgage. So that's why we had to stress test a mortgage. So realistically, if we were getting you a rate of, let's say 4%, we were stress testing you at maybe five or 6%.
(13:03):
So they did that in a protection, protection mode. What it did, the reaction to that, it lessened how much you could afford buying a property. So there was a lot of backlash, a lot of complaints about it, stuff like that. Now, when you already have a mortgage, if you're planning to renew your mortgage, typically before you'd have to go through that stress test again. So what we saw happening was when you originally got your mortgage, you may have been able to afford a $600,000 mortgage, but now that they've changed these stress test rules, you're only able to afford a $400,000 mortgage or 500,000 mortgage, and your income situation may have changed, but even if your income situation didn't change, that exact same income that you had would qualify for less. So what that did for the homeowner is it eliminated all possibilities of shopping around for another mortgage, right? Because if you're going to get less and you already have more, then you're stuck with your existing lender. You can't move.
(14:07):
And the lender knows that. And not to say they were targeting anyone, but the lender knows that. So they don't have be as, they're not incentivized to be as competitive on the rate that they give you for renewal. So that has changed. So now they've removed the stress test on renewals, so you don't have to go to that stress test anymore, which is excellent news. So now you can actually, if you qualify for a $600,000 mortgage, you can actually shop around for a $600,000 mortgage with another lender, and we work with over 60 lenders. So what that does is now that puts you back with that buying power, it puts you back in the driver's seat. Now you can compare rates, you can compare the quality, the product, the features of the product, and actually be just a regular consumer and jump around from mortgage to mortgage to get the best mortgage for you and your family.
Nicole Lopez (15:01):
That sounds awesome. And one thing I like that you pointed out, yes, shop around for the rate, but rate is not necessarily the only thing. Exactly. You could have the lowest rate possible, but there's a clause that says if you break it or need to want to shop around, you have to pay a penalty. There could be those kinds of things that exist. So it's really important to understand truly the whole product and to really be working with someone like yourself so you can help to explain what the product or what the features are and what may work for you and what may not be suitable for
David Rhodd (15:40):
You. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so that rule comes out in November, so we're just a few weeks away from that rule coming out, which is awesome. And I have one last rule because I said they've been busy. So this is also for people that already own a home coming in January, 2025. They're allowing you to refinance up to 90% of your home if you're going to build a secondary suite. Again, this is for helping homeowners deal with the current mortgage interest rates and the current budgets. So by building an income suite either in the basement or sometimes they're building a laneway home in your backyard, something like that, then that will bring extra income into the family's household and also provide more housing and shelter for people. So the government's really trying to get people to a, find homes and have more homes available for people, for living spaces, and they're also trying to help people get into a home.
(16:46):
So stop renting and get into home ownership if that's what you choose. So like I said, really excited. We've been waiting for these rule changes to come. We've had a year of expensive interest rates, higher interest rates, so a little bit of doom and gloom. So this actually is going to spark this real estate market. So in my opinion, if you're looking to buy something, I would start putting everything in place to get moving because I think the energy that's going to come out of this market from all these changes from now till next year is going to be something that we're going to look forward to.
Nicole Lopez (17:27):
Awesome. So we're looking forward to an end of the year bonus or present or holiday gift from the government.
David Rhodd (17:34):
That's right.
Nicole Lopez (17:36):
And I really like the 90% loan to value that's coming up because it's going to allow people to not only have the secondary unit, but a legal secondary unit. So that's something that's so important that it is legal, that it has approval from your particular municipality, et cetera, because critical to ensure that the spaces or living spaces being provided are things that are comfortable and up to code or our everyday citizens.
David Rhodd (18:10):
Yes, exactly. Exactly.
Nicole Lopez (18:13):
Awesome. Okay, so you've talked a little bit about the changes and really looking forward to coming to fruition, and I think once everybody has a better understanding of these and how it affects their situation, I think there's going to be a lot of activity in the market. However, before we even get there, I think one item that's very important for people to understand is financial literacy. And I know this is something that is near and dear to your heart. I know you've written a book, you've given seminars, you've appeared in several places talking about this, and I really think it's important for people to really have the basics of financial literacy because it's really important when it comes to owning a home. Owning a home is one of the biggest purchases and investments in your life. So having that strong basis, can you maybe give us some tips, tricks, not even tricks, but things that we should really understand and know.
David Rhodd (19:14):
Yeah, definitely. I love talking about financial literacy. So I mean, really this is the time when people should get involved with blogs, videos, hang around this podcast that you're listening to get more informed because there's a lot of changes that are happening. And although some of these changes are exciting, they have pros and cons to them. So let's go into one of them. So for example, the pro and con of changing to a third year amortization. So typically mortgages last for 25 years if you're not doing anything else to pay it off earlier, but now they're extending it to 30 years. You have to think about this. If I'm purchasing a house when I'm 40 and I'm going to go on a 30 year amortization, if there's no expectation for me to pay this mortgage off faster, that means I'm going to be paying a mortgage till I'm 70.
(20:11):
So what does that mean? Does that mean that I'm working till I'm 70? Because usually people retire at 65 or early retirements at 55, right? Do you want to have a mortgage when you're 70? Right. So a lot of times we sign on these documents and we don't think about the ramifications of them. And I'm not saying anything's wrong with the 30 years. What I'm saying is if you keep in mind you add 30 years to whenever you're purchasing the property, why not look for solutions to figure out how you can pay that mortgage off faster? So take the 30 years so that your payment is lower, but figure out opportunities. Maybe your tax returns, maybe your bonuses, maybe just budgeting, putting an extra payment every year. There's so much different things that you can do that's not going to hurt your bottom line that much.
(21:04):
That can reduce that 30 year mortgage back to maybe 15 years or 20 years so that when you retire, you can comfortably have no mortgage. So this is where financial literacy comes in because like I said, we don't just want to sign away because signing for 30 years if we know how much interest you're going to be paying, that is to the profit of somebody else, right? Not you. So we understand that our home is our greatest asset, but it can also be a liability if we're not using it properly. So homeownership is great. We love ownership. We think that's one of the best ways for you to create wealth for yourself, generations and your family. But we also have to be mindful and we also have to have wisdom and figure out how can we turn this liability into an asset? And we do that by paying the mortgage off faster. We do believe in boring to invest when it's the right time from your home so that it can probably buy another rental property or do some sort of investment so that it can help to pay the mortgage off completely on your home. But that's part two, that's for later down in the road. What you need to just understand is that these options exist and just have a curiosity to start looking for some of these options.
Nicole Lopez (22:32):
And is it maybe asking questions because I'm just going to come from a bank perspective.
(22:39):
So working with the bank, the bank is going to give you this. They're not necessarily going to provide you with potential options for what you may or may not want to do. I'm just going to go from a personal experience. Yes, my father, my parents were in real estate, so I had guidance from them, and the person who helped me purchase my first home with my father was another real estate agent who was just very helpful and knowledgeable and really wanted to help educate you in terms of the decisions that you make. So I was lucky to work with a mortgage broker, and I was provided with several different options of what I might want to do. The first thing we needed to think about or we thought about is affordability. What can I afford? Okay, done. We know I can afford this. This is now current.
(23:36):
However, I'm the type of person that doesn't want to have something going on and on and on and on forever. So I was asking the like, and maybe you can provide some additional questions. So if I wanted to pay this off in this amount of time, what does that schedule look like? What do those payments look like? If I want to pay it off in this amount of time, what does that look like or what are the options that I have? Granted, I'm always asking questions. It can be annoying, but sometimes asking these questions, you get more information. So you're informing yourself so you're prepared. So maybe you can maybe talk to us and give us some tips in terms of what kinds of questions people can be asking when they're working with someone like you.
David Rhodd (24:20):
Yeah, so definitely it's always good to look at what is the long-term plan, as you said, is this the right fit mortgage for? Because there's so much more to a mortgage than just the interest rate. There are certain mortgages that have features that allow you to prepay them, meaning put lump sum payments on the mortgage that you can pay it off faster. There are certain mortgages that allow you to dump your entire paycheck into the mortgage so that you're saving on all your interest costs. There are different features. And if you're only going to one institution, in my opinion, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage. And that's because if you go to one institution, they can only offer you what that institution offers. So if that institution doesn't offer all the mortgages that have the features that you're looking for, well then it's not to your full benefit.
(25:13):
Why don't you come to an all you can eat restaurant where you meet with a broker and the broker works with 60 different lenders or more, and that includes all the major banks as well. So it's like an all you can eat. So in that situation now, I'm now speaking to the client and I'm saying, what is it that you're looking for? What's important to you as a family? What's important to you in paying down your mortgage? And then I can say, okay, so you want this, so we're going to take that from that shelf. You want this or we're going to take that from that shelf, and then I'm going to put it to a mortgage and I'm going to say, okay, which lender offers as much of these features as possible? And then once we get that, then I start going to that lender.
(25:59):
So the questions you should be asking is, how do I pay off my mortgage faster now that I'm in the home? Now that I'm in the home, how do I pay off my mortgage faster? Right? Because we don't want a mortgage for 25 years if you don't have to. And there are many ways to pay off faster talk to a broker, but there are many ways to paid off faster that are not going to hurt your bottom line. How do you protect yourself while being in the home, making sure you have the proper insurance, whether it's life insurance or house insurance, these are major things that you need to know. And then once you're settled, what's next? How are we going to change this house into an asset versus a liability? How can we use this house to make us more money and build generational wealth?
(26:50):
I'm going to do a plug on my book. It's House Rich Cash for No More on Amazon. You can get it there. And I talk about some of these things. So yeah, feel free to read it and see if you can get some knowledge from there. But these are the things you have to just start questioning what's happening out there. Go on certain YouTube channels that talk about home ownership and talk about owning a home and rentals and real estate and stuff like that. And just get informed. And when you're ready, speak to an expert, build your team, talk to a real estate agent, find out what's happening in the market, talk to a mortgage broker, find out what's next, how can I do this, right? Start connecting with these professionals and then they'll connect you with their team, and then you don't have to go out this alone.
Nicole Lopez (27:37):
Awesome. Thank you so much for that, David. Excellent. Any other tips with regards to financial literacy that you'd like to recommend?
David Rhodd (27:47):
I would say stay glued to this podcast where Nicole is bringing people on and we're getting the latest news and stuff like that, so you understand what's happening in the market because they always say you can't time the market. It's more time in the market. So the longer you're in the market, the more beneficial it's for you. But I mean, I'm with that. Nicole, can you tell us, we are in October, 2024. I'm going to put you on the hot seat here. I'm going to turn it back to you. You are goodness. I know. Can you tell us from a real estate perspective, we have all these rule changes coming out. I'm bringing the good news. Can you tell us what's happening? What are you seeing from your side in the market?
Nicole Lopez (28:29):
Okay, so first of all, I am happy you are bringing the good news and we're bringing it early because I want people to really understand what's going on over the past month. So yes, we're in October, but over the past months since from spring, we didn't have a spring market that we typically have in real estate. Things have been, in a sense, slower. We were in a really hot seller's market moving into, I guess earlier, late last year, we were really into a seller's market. There was bidding still happening. It might not have been bidding like 25, 50 homes offers on property, but we still had periodic bidding happening on well-priced homes in areas that were highly desirable. However, over the past several months, we've seen more inventory coming onto the market. So more homes are on the market for sale. They're not selling in seven days, or the majority of them are not selling in seven days.
(29:29):
We have homes staying on the market for 30, 40, 50, 70 days. It's more, we kind of transitioned from a balanced market into more of a buyer's market. So there's much more inventory on the market, not a ton of inventory, but more inventory on the market. However, we still see buyers on the sidelines a little bit with the market affordability, as David was explaining, is a concern. And people really want to be able to not get in over their head and understand they can afford a property when they actually get into it. So we have been seeing more of a buyer's market, but there are homes out there for sale. In addition to that, I know I have some clients, oh, it's talking about getting a deal. There's a lot of information or reports that mortgages are coming up and people aren't going to be able to afford their mortgages, and there's going to be all these power of sales coming up. And that may be a case for some people. However, as David had explained before, there was a stress test that maybe people grumbled with the stress test when they got into their home that they had to be approved at 2% higher than the interest rate that they were getting. But ultimately, in hindsight, this was maybe good for some of those individuals. So as maybe interest rates were going up and now they're slowly coming down, so hopefully this month we'll hear another
David Rhodd (31:09):
Decrease. Yes,
Nicole Lopez (31:12):
We're anticipating that. So as those coming down, we may not see these massive power of sales that the news tends to be reporting. I was at a recent town hall and the corporate lead, we were discussing this, and there are over 5 million mortgages across Canada from a lenders, and based on the data, I think there were between nine and 10,000. I don't have the specific number in front of me, but only between nine to 10,000 were power of sales. So just think about it. That's a really small number. So if people are really anticipating seeing this burst of power of sales, I don't know. I think we need to really temper our expectations knowing that the stress test was something that was in play when people purchased. And knowing that interest rates are coming, they're on the way down. We're seeing some improvement for sure.
David Rhodd (32:17):
Things are tight, but Canadians love their homes.
Nicole Lopez (32:20):
Exactly. And people are being creative in terms of trying to, if they can hold onto their property, there's creative ways. Some people are working with their banks, they have a really strong relationship. They're finding solutions in order to be able to maintain their properties. So in a sense, my comment on this is it's currently a buyer's market in the sense that we don't see the competition as strong as in past months and years. However, as people understand these new rules, as they become active in December and through January, I anticipate that we'll be seeing much more activity, especially up until the 1.5 million range. So that's something just to think about that we are anticipating an uptick in the coming months with regards to the market.
David Rhodd (33:21):
So that means no Christmas holidays this year, right?
Nicole Lopez (33:25):
Oh my God, I have to get my sleep now. Exactly. Yeah. All in all, I really feel positive, energized. I think there's hope for people out there in terms of affordability because there's solutions. And even with that, David, I know there's one thing that you probably know I love and that's a reap,
David Rhodd (33:50):
And
Nicole Lopez (33:52):
I just want you to kind of explain why I love a reap and why given the current market situation and what we're anticipating to happen with this legislature becoming ineffective, what is a reap and why does Nicole find it really important?
David Rhodd (34:10):
Yes, yes, yes. Okay. Well, Arif is a real estate action plan for those that don't know. So real estate action plan is really, it's just sitting down and looking big picture, looking five years from now, and not being reactive, but being proactive and saying, look, these are my goals. This is what I would like to accomplish. And sitting down with Nicole and saying, look, Nicole, can you help me accomplish these goals? I mean, in five or 10 years, I want to purchase three additional properties. How can I do this? So that's what a real estate action plan is, right? Because then Nicole can bring her team of experts and surround you so that you're not going through this alone. We spoke about this earlier in the podcast, right? So that's what a re is, sitting down and saying, Hey, let's plan for the future. I'm confused.
(35:06):
There's a lot of changes happening. I'm going to be vulnerable because I don't know it all, and I just want help. I just want to help achieve my goals. And I think that's important for first time home buyers. Even getting into your first home, you may think you're jumping the gun by talking about owning five or 10 properties or two properties in the future, but you're not, right? Because that's really important, because if you're planning to own more than one property, then we should probably put you into a specific mortgage for your first property that will allow you that opportunity when you're ready to purchase the additional properties for that person that already owns a home, sit down and talk with a reap because maybe you're sitting on a lot of land and we can put a secondary dwelling in your backyard or a laneway home, or maybe finishing the basement to bring in more value or maybe pulling out that equity to purchase another rental property. All these options are available to you, but you just have to have some vulnerability, have some curiosity to understand, look, how can I make this happen? I have the idea and I want to make it happen. Nicole, can you help me pull the team together? So that's why you're so excited. I think you're so excited to replan.
Nicole Lopez (36:33):
And also, it's about working with a professional, working with a subject matter expert, working with a trusted advisor, people who you can trust your mortgage broker, bringing on a lawyer, having an accountant. If you're planning to retire and you have investment properties, speaking to an accountant or a tax accountant to understand, when should I retire? If I want to sell these properties, what's the strategy I should use to liquidate if that's your plan? So really thinking big picture and understanding how to mitigate your tax implications or it's a strategy, how to exit strategy. Also, not just to enter strategy, but how do I exit in a meaningful way that it's not stressful, and from a financial perspective, let me put it that way, you're not paying a ton of tax.
David Rhodd (37:29):
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Awesome.
Nicole Lopez (37:33):
Well, David, thank you so much for taking the time to join us here on Real Estate with Nicole. Really appreciate your insights and giving us that inside scoop in terms of what's going to be happening on December 15th and in January. So thank you.
David Rhodd (37:51):
Thanks always, Nicole, for having me and exposing me to your community. I'm always here to answer any questions for you and your community and see you all at the top.
Nicole Lopez (38:01):
Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of Real Estate with Nicole. I trust some of the upcoming legislative changes will encourage you and provide or open up a door or pathway toward making an investment or enhancing your current investment. Since the recording of this interview, the Bank of Canada reduced their prime lending rate by 50 basis points. This is really encouraging. So all these pieces seem to be aligning to stimulate the real estate market and to address some issues related to affordability. Let me know of any other topics that may be of interest to you as it could be the subject of a future episode of Real Estate with Nicole. I appreciate you. Until next time, this is Nicole Lopez signing off. Stay informed, stay proactive, and take care.
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