Free Workshop on Investing in Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate

As I just mentioned over at my Real Estate Investing blog, I’m happy to announce that I am opening registration of my upcoming Millionaire Real Estate Investment workshop to the general public. There are only 20 spots, and a little under half of the seats are spoken for already (translation: ACT NOW, SEATS GOING FAST).

If you’ve ever wondered about how you can get started investing in real estate, or wanted to know the best practices of Millionaire Real Estate Investors, you need to register for the workshop.

I will be talking about what you need to do to start your portfolio, the professionals you’ll need to grow your investments, as well as some specific opportunities in the Kitchener Waterloo region.

Anyone can do it, not everyone will.

WHEN: Thursday January 10th, 7:00-8:30pm

WHERE: Keller Williams offices, 871 Victoria Street North, Kitchener Ontario. You can email me for directions.

You must register to attend, and there is no cost for registration. You can register by calling me at 519 570 4447 or emailing me at Benjamin(AT)BenjaminBach.com

A $5 charge at the door will apply, but the workshop is free with registration.

See what others are saying about building wealth through real estate investing:

“Benjamin is an expert in the field of investment real estate. He is highly knowledgeable and a great speaker on this topic. He does an excellent job going through the process one on one and has worked very patiently with me. It doesn’t take long before you realize that he truly works hard to help make other people wealthy and successful…stays true to his life mantra. I strongly recommend Benjamin if you’re looking for person to help you build your wealth!”

Every time I hold a workshop, I help someone change the way they think about building and accumulating wealth. I’d love to help educate you on how you can become a millionaire and retire rich. Call or email me today and register for the workshop.

Kitchener Waterloo’s Favourite Real Estate Agent (Gold Award, Kitchener Waterloo Record Readers Select Awards 2007 - 200 wants to show you how Real Estate Investing can make you wealthy. Benjamin works with people from across Ontario and Canada, helping them build wealth through smart real estate investments.

Benjamin is a Sales Representative with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo and would love to answer any questions about buying or selling a rental, income or investment property.

You can reach Benjamin at Benjamin(AT)BenjaminBach.com or call him at 519 570 4447

The Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Investments blog has moved!

I’m proud to announce that the Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate Investment blog has moved to a new home @ http://www.Kitchener-Waterloo-Real-Estate-Investments.com\

Please update your links, and enjoy the information at the new site!

Want to invest in a great real estate opportunity ?

Originally posted at the new blog, http://www.Kitchener-Waterloo-Real-Estate-Investments.com

This morning I toured a two bedroom condominium unit with an identical layout to a unit we just purchased.  The condo is vacant, and needs new flooring in most of the unit (maybe 600 sq ft of flooring) and could use a paint job and some updated lighting.

It has all the characteristics of an investment I love:

• Investment property in a residential neighborhood
• Near a school
• Near major shopping centers
• Near the highway (I promise, this is a good thing in Kitchener Waterloo; if you’re near the expressway you can get anywhere in 15 minutes)
• Needs cosmetic work and priced accordingly
• Less than 20 years old

The unit I saw is offered for sale at $105,000, which is less than other main floor units have been selling for this year.  An identical unit in the complex we bought in is for sale right now for ~$118,000 - it is in better shape, but that’s only a new paint job and some flooring away

If you invest in this condo for $105,000 with 20% down payment - $21,000 - you will need a mortgage for $84,000.  If you get a 5 year fixed rate mortgage for 5.89% (that’s the rate I got in July, and in fact rates are a bit lower now) and amortize the payments over 40 years, your monthly mortgage payment is about $452 a month according to the mortgage calculator I’m using.  Condo fees are currently $210.00 a month, and taxes are a shade under $100  a month. Insurance should be under $20 a month.

$452 (mortgage) + $210 (condo fees) + $100 (tax) + $20 (insurance) = $782.00

If you rent your unit out for $825 + hydro a month, you have a great condo paying for itself each month.  All you have to do is collect twelve rent cheques each January.

Could your retirement portfolio benefit from the accelerated equity growth real estate can offer you?  Call me now for a free consultation about how you can start investing in real estate today!

What real estate investment strategy are you using ?

A lot of people come to me talking about the ‘gross rental multiplier’ on a single family home, or about how important it is to get maximum cash flow, or how they won’t look at properties under a certain capitalization rate.

Poor planning is the downfall of many would be investors. Maybe they don’t know what to look for in an investment property. Sometimes they don’t have their criteria nailed down. More often than not, they have a basic misunderstanding of wealth building.

One of the first things you need to do before you build your real estate portfolio is determine whether or not you should be following the Growth model for investing, or the Income model for investing.

Which model you choose will depend on a number of factors, mainly the size of the gap between how much equity you have, and how much equity you’ll need in retirement.

As we discussed yesterday, the income you receive in retirement is directly tied to how much equity you have. Your income is based on the return you make on your equity. The more equity, the more income.

In the Growth model, you are trying to accumulate as many assets as you can, in order to benefit from the appreciation and principle debt reduction over a large portfolio. In the Income model you are primarily investing your equity in order to receive cash flow to live on (or use for other business ventures).

What this means is, unless you already have a few million in equity, you should focus on Growth, rather than Income.

If you only have $100,000 in equity, it would be detrimental to look for an investment that will maximize your cash flow. What I would do is leverage that 100K into a portfolio of real estate in the Kitchener Waterloo area that is positioned to appreciate over the next several years (and your individual situation will determine the holding time).

In real estate, you benefit from owning more real estate, not from owning more of one piece of real estate. Leverage, used in combination with due diligence and a solid educational base, will allow you to accelerate the growth of your equity considerably.

Call me now @ 519 570 4447 for a free no obligation consultation about how your equity can be growing faster.

Benjamin Bach is passionate about helping people build wealth for an abundant retirement. He works with investors from across North America, helping them Retire Rich, and earlier than they thought possible!

Call or email Kitchener Waterloo’s Favourite Real Estate Agent (Gold Award, Kitchener Waterloo Record Readers Select Awards 2007 - 200 today to learn how you can start your Real Estate Investment portfolio.

Benjamin is a Sales Representative with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo and would love to answer any questions about buying or selling a rental, income or investment property.

You can reach Benjamin at benjamin(AT)benjaminbach.com or call him at 519 570 4447. More info on Benjamin can be found at http://www.kitchenerwaterloorealestateinvestments.com/

Retirement Income - a quick primer

It used to be that you could work for a company for 45 years, and retire with a pension to meet your needs, and a gold watch to match.

Nowadays, there is no such thing as job security, and and any pension or government funded retirement plans are likely not enough to keep you living the lifestyle you’ve become accustomed to.

During the typical working career, you go to your job and are paid for the work you do, or the time you put in.

If you go to work and do your job, you get paid. You are living off of the income you produce.

When you retire, you no longer go to work everyday to produce income - you now need to live off the income (or cashflow) your assets produce.

If you want to have a retirement income of $100,000 a year, and your investments generated a 10% rate of return, you would need to have $1,000,000 in assets. The more assets you own, the greater your potential retirement income.

Do you have a plan that will leave you with seven figures in assets by the time you want to stop working ? Call me at 519 570 4447 for a free consultation, and I’ll work with you to develop a plan that will allow you to reach your dreams.

Benjamin Bach is passionate about helping people build wealth for an abundant retirement. He works with investors from across North America, helping them Retire Rich, and earlier than they thought possible!

Call or email Kitchener Waterloo’s Favourite Real Estate Agent (Gold Award, Kitchener Waterloo Record Readers Select Awards 2007 - 200 today to learn how you can start your Real Estate Investment portfolio.

Benjamin is a Sales Representative with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo and would love to answer any questions about buying or selling a rental, income or investment property.

You can reach Benjamin at benjamin(AT)benjaminbach.com or call him at 519 570 4447

Kitchener Waterloo’s Favourite Real Estate Agent and Brokerage …

Thank You !

I am humbled to to tell you that I have been awarded Gold in the 2007-2008 Kitchener Waterloo Record’s annual Reader’s Select Awards for Favourite Real Estate Agent, and my brokerage Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty has been named the 2007-2008 favourite Real Estate Brokerage in town!

Thanks to all my clients and friends that nominated and voted for me, and for helping me grow my business. I can’t do it alone, and I can’t do it without YOU!

Shout out to my friends who won, in no particular order:

Morty’s (favourite sports bar, wings, & pub) , Lois Raats (favourite coach), Bonnie Toggs (favourite children’s wear store), and Gascho Motors (favourite used car dealership)

WARNING: If you think an RESP will pay for your baby’s college education, you’re wrong

Last week at Toastmasters, our club president gave a speech about Registered Education Savings Plans (RESP).

He determined that the cost of a 4 year post secondary degree, away from home, will be well over $100,000 in 15 years (he estimated as high as $180,000, but that may have been a US statistic). The RESP he was ’selling’ would cover less than half of that cost. How can this be?

While the RESP is billed as “a clear choice for families wishing to save for their children’s future education costs,” the reality is that the lifetime contribution is maxed out at $42,000, and annual contributions are maxed at $4000 a year - hardly enough to grow to a six figure sum by the time little Josh goes to university.

What is the alternative ? Invest in real estate, and benefit from leverage and having someone else paying off the loan .

Imagine you did this: Take $12,500 (from savings, home equity, stocks etc), and use that as a down payment on a real estate investment property. In this case, we’ll purchase a 2 bedroom 2 bath condominium in Kitchener for $125,000.

Since you have a $12,500 downpayment, you now need a mortgage for $112,500. We’re going to use a 20 year amortization period, and we’re going to make payments on the mortgage every two weeks - making the effective amortization 17.2 years. At a 6% interest rate, the bi-weekly accelerated payments would be $400.50 every two weeks, or $801 per month. Condo fees are $200 a month, and municipal tax are about $100/month.

Assuming the unit is rented for $950 a month + hydro, there is a negative month to month cash flow of about $150 a month. When you compare this $1800 a year against the $4000 you would be contributing to an RESP, it is a much smaller figure. In fact…

Your annual contribution is 55% less than it would be under a traditional RESP plan

If the condominium does not appreciate one penny between now and 17 years from now - which is when you’ll need the money for Junior’s college tuition - it will be completely paid off and worth $125,000. Great return on your investment !

That will cover most of the cost of tuition, and it’s about double what the value of the RESP will be.

The condominium market has appreciated ~8% in the past year, and if it continues to appreciate, even at 5% a year, your Real Estate Investment will be worth north of $150,000.

The smart choice is to buy an asset with borrowed money, and have someone else pay off most of the loan. That’s the opportunity real estate offers you.

Call me for a free consultation. We will look at your needs - retirement, education, a second home - and develop a plan to get you where you need to be.

Are you interested in how you can start investing in real estate, but not sure where to start ?  Do you want access to proven systems from millionaire real estate investors? Come out on September 20th to a FREE workshop.  All the details are at http://www.kwinvestments.com

How Real Estate Can Make You Rich - FREE Workshop

Real Estate has created more millionaires than any other investment vehicle in history. Are you ready to join them ?

Join me for a look at investing in real estate. We will explore proven models for building wealth and acquiring a large real estate portfolio that will generate passive income - allowing you to pursue all of your dreams.

You will learn how Millionaire Real Estate Investors have built wealth; how you can exceed your retirement goals; see the long term difference between investing in stocks and real estate; learn how to maximize your profits in the condo market; and yes, we’ll talk about flips!

When: Thursday September 20th 7-8:30pm,

Where: 9-871 Victoria Street North, Kitchener

Cost: FREE if you RSVP to me at benjamin@benjaminbach.com or 519 505 1310

When investing in real estate, use professionals !

An interesting situation came up recently while I was pursuing an investment property for a client in Kitchener Waterloo, Ontario.

Sally is from out of town, but she has recently started to move her equity into the Kitchener Waterloo area in the form of real estate investment property.

She had a mortgage broker she used when she bought her house a few years ago, and she wanted to use the same broker.

I have a ‘rule of 1.’  If my clients have a preferred vendor (like a lawyer or a mortgage broker) that I haven’t worked with, and my client’s are completely confident in that person’s ability to close the transaction, I’ll let them work with them.

The ‘rule of 1′ refers to the number of strikes they get - one.  If they mess up a deal for my clients - and if it happen it’s usually because they don’t deal in investment real estate but figure, what the heck, it can’t be that hard - that’s the last time I’ll participate in a transaction they’re involved in.

Usually, even when their is a problem, I’m able to have one of my Wealth Building Team members step in and help resolve the situation (as I did last month when my client’s lawyer decided a week prior to closing not to handle the transaction).  This time, I wasn’t able to save it in time.

Sally’s mortgage broker had gotten her an ‘OK’ loan for the first property she bought this month, but when she went to invest in a second property,  the mortgage broker was unsure if both loans could be approved.  She couldn’t say yes, she couldn’t say no. She kepy saying ‘who knows.’

Finally I had to step in and have the owner of a local mortgage brokerage contact my client.  With only a few days to go, the deal was almost saved, but in the end we would have needed an extra day or two to make the arrangements necessary to go with the new loans.

Sally sent me an email after this happened.

“Lesson learned…  Go with the pro’s from the get go.  If I handed this of to Jeff earlier, I’m sure this would have worked.”

Next month when we go shopping for property, she will be using a mortgage broker who has experience dealing with investment real estate.

When you invest in real estate, make sure the professionals you’re dealing with are specialists in investment real estate.  Ask them if they invest in real estate personally.  If they don’t, why would you take advice from them on investments ?

The lawyer I use owns investment property. The mortgage brokers I use are investors. My inspectors have a real estate investment portfolio.

This means that you’re getting advice from professionals who actually know a thing or two about investing in real estate.

Call me at 519 570 4447  for a free half hour Wealth Building consultation.  We’ll take a look at how your plan is working so far, and if it’s getting you to the sunny, warm retirement you’d like.  If your current plan isn’t, let me show you how to get where you want to be.

Benjamin Bach is passionate about helping people build wealth for an abundant retirement. He works with investors from across North America, helping them Retire Rich, and earlier than they thought possible!

Call or email Benjamin today to learn how you can start your Real Estate Investment portfolio. Benjamin is a Sales Representative with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo and would love to answer any questions about buying or selling a rental, income or investment property in the Greater Waterloo Region

You can reach Benjamin at benjamin(AT)benjaminbach.com or call him at 519 570 4447

Is your portfolio ready to reitre ?

Back when I was working in a large financial management brokerage (which means I was working with a team of stock brokers), I remembered being shocked at how small people’s portfolios were when they approached retirement.

A very common situation was:

Married couple, sixty years old

Making $100,000+ year combined

$500,000 in RRSP and other stocks, bonds and mutual funds

Retirement at 65

Expecting to continue living their (relatively) expensive ($75,000/yr) lifestyle in retirement

A simple calculation shows that they can live off of their savings for 7 or 8 years, that’s all.

They’ll be BROKE by 75 if they continue to live like they do now. Goodbye snorkelling, hello winter.

Does this sound like where you might be heading ? If you change some numbers in the above story (say, change 60 years old to 50, and change $500,000 in savings to $250,000) does it describe you ?

I’ve found that it describes a large cross section of the people often thought of as ‘upper middle’ class - large income, nice toys, low savings. What happens is that when these people retire, they often turn from golfer to caddie. They have not built up enough assets to live the lifestyle they want to live.

A Financial Future Focus can help alleviate the symptoms of a poor retirement.

If you’re unsatisfied with the traditional strategy of ‘pay off your mortgage, invest in your RRSP, live mortgage-free on a small fixed income in retirement,’ you owe it to yourself and your family to see how investing in real estate can help you build equity and cash flow for an abundant retirement.

I remember talking to a colleague of mine in January, the day before I flew out to spend the weekend with my grandparents in Miami Beach. He told me how lucky my grandparents were to be able to spend the cruel Montreal winters in Miami Beach.  Alot of his parent’s friends of the same age were lucky to be able to spend their first three or four winters of retirement in Florida, but after that… the funds dried up, and they spend summer and winter in Kitchener.

It doesn’t have to be like that.

I just started working with new clients. They’re young, just started their family, and are committed to doing the work and developing the disciplines that are neccessary to building their wealth.

They have bought two investment properties in the last month - one at $130,000, one at $122,500 - and have plans to continue building up their portfolio. Thanks to the magic of leverage, they have purchased over $250,000 in assets with less cash than they would have needed to buy a low yielding $50,000 bond.

They also managed to purchase assets where someone else will pay off the bulk of the loan used to buy it.

They also purchased assets that will provide great cash flow and continue to appreciate in value.

Here is how their retirement will look:

Let me know which option works for you.

For all the hard work you do, you deserve a great retirement - and you can have it.

Benjamin Bach is a Sales Representative with Keller Williams Golden Triangle Realty in Kitchener Waterloo. He is passionate about helping people build wealth for an abundant retirement. He educates investors from across North America, helping them develop a Financial Future Focus of where they will take their portfolio.

If you are interested in how you can start your Real Estate Investment portfolio, have any questions about buying or selling a rental, income or investment property in the Waterloo Region, or are looking for a tip on a great book to read, please email Benjamin at (benjamin(AT)benjaminbach.com) or call him at 519 505 1310