Investing in Winnipeg and using the BRRRR strategy to your advantage. Today Realtor, Jennifer Queen, talks about how she has used this strategy to her own benefit.
#InvestingInWinnipeg #FlippingInWinnipeg #RealEstateInvesting

Now we just want to preface this with we ARE NOT investment advisors! We are merely here to share our experiences with you in investing in the Winnipeg Real Estate Market. Keep in mind that my husband and I are both Realtors, and super comfortable in dealing in Real Estate, but our situation is not everyone’s situation – so please do your own research, talk to your own accountant, financial planner, etc. to figure out what would be best for you.

Part of our initial desire to explore this space was just to gain the experience. It turns out, that Real Estate is incredibly attractive to invest within, for a few reasons:
-Passive Income – the majority of people make their money through actively working – essentially trading hours for dollars. With Real Estate, someone is living within your property and paying you to do so. We have chosen a property management company to handle our rentals, even though it means less cashflow at the end of the month, because for us, the peace that comes with handing that task over, was worth it.
-Appreciation – There are going to be ups and downs in any market, but in general, held over a long period of time, the value goes up. We are not short term investors. We have bought these properties to hold for many years to come.
-Forced Appreciation – this is when the value of your property increases substantially because of an improvement you made to it. Again, this is something we are very comfortable assessing and knowing what “value add” projects are.
-Increasing Rent combined with principle pay down – It is linked to appreciation, but I think it is something people often forget to consider as part of the whole equation. Rent continue to climb every year, while the mortgage payment shrinks. Your net income should only widen every year you carry the property.
-Leverage – so yes, you can buy stocks on margin and use leverage in other markets. BUT, and correct me if I am wrong in the comments section below, I know of very few investments that you can purchase where you can use 80% of other people’s money for extended periods of time. We have only needed to provide a 20% down payment for each of these mortgages, with the exception of one that needed substantial foundation repair where the bank asked us to come up with a larger down payment. You can also leverage people’s time – having property managers handle tenants, hiring contractors to make your improvements.

But here is a point of leverage where I think I need to stop. Because I find so many people get hung up on it seeming difficult to figure this process out, but after we owned our first rental property we said “Wait, what. That’s it? It’s that easy!?” And really, it is. This was ALL we needed to get started:
A 20% down payment
Decent credit
A proposed monthly rental net-income
That was it!

Now I know what you are thinking – Jen, this is all fine and dandy, but it takes a LOOOONNNNGGGG time to save up a 20% down payment with home prices these days. It’s not something that can be done quickly. And yes, the first time of saving it up could definitely be a struggle. But getting back to the leverage portion, let me now give you an example of just how far you can stretch your dollar with a real-life example. Watch the video to see how we have only had to come up with this money, once (and we own multiple rental properties).

So we invested $36,000 with our down payment, the additional $20,000 in renovations. The rent went up by about $800 per month, if you can believe it, as we now had a much more attractive property to rent out, and it is in a GREAT area. But the best part, is that $56,000 we put into it, is now available to be reinvested in the next property (see video for details). If you do this process, and repeat it again and again, over time you can amass quite a large portfolio.

If you enjoyed this content today, let me know as I am always happy to delve a bit deeper into the topic, but only if it’s what you guys want to hear! Also, if you are interested in investing in real estate, I highly recommend the Bigger Pockets Podcast, as that was what first got me thinking about the BRRRR strategy (Buy, renovate, rent, refinance, repeat).

Again, this is not financial advice, this is just an example of what is working for us in our investment journey. Even though we invest heavily in Real Estate we still believe too in diversifying through other investment vehicles too – stocks, RRSP’s, etc. But Real Estate is always going to be my personal favourite!

And if you are looking to invest in Winnipeg Real Estate, please reach out. We are always happy to help!

The Jennifer Queen Team
RE/MAX Professionals
(204) 797-7945
[email protected]