VIPBDS-The Finale!

To start off my “investment answers” month I decided to write about the final chapter of my Vancouver Investment Buying Disorder Syndrome saga. As you may know from my other VIPBDS blogs I have been caught up in the chaotic experience of finding a place to purchase as an investment for my parents.

After finding an agent and figuring out what type of property I wanted I finally found a beautiful apartment that I wanted to buy. We put an offer in on the place and negotiated the price so that we could get the Canadian Property Transfer Tax back. There was a tax of approx. $8000 when I bought my property. If you are a first time buyer however, you can get the Property Transfer Tax back. Also, if you are buying new you may get a GST rebate.

Rule #5

Save money where you can! There are lots of ways to save money on your investment if you buy sensibly. For example, if your parents buy a place in your name they can save on the tax because it will be your first property. One way that I saved money is by giving the previous tenants an extra few days to move out after I paid for the place.

Rule #6

Do your research! Even though you may love a place you need to make sure that it will be a good investment. In order to find out if it will be a good investment you have to take into account things like:

• area
• price per square foot
• comparisons between similar properties

Now your agent will do most of this research but it won’t hurt for you to do it too. Prices in Vancouver are insane right now but like in any real estate investment what matters much more than the price is what others are paying for similar units. If people are buying similar places for that price then you should be in good shape.

Investing in real estate is a tricky matter but it can really work out if you work hard at doing it right, Some people argue that there are better investments than property and they might be right but when I think about how much I have learned and gotten out of my investment it was well worth it to go through all of the pains of VIPBDS. So don’t be afraid to go out there and take on the real estate investment market as soon as you can because before you know it you may be chilling in your new place living it up like a rock star.