Date: March 29, 2023

Financing is the SINGLE BIGGEST CHALLENGE facing real estate investors.

We strive to solve problems, so we’re bringing in a titan in the industry, Hugo Dos Reis. Hugo is a partner at VINE Group, one of the top mortgage brokerages in Canada. They fund billions (that’s not a typo!) in mortgages every year and have the expertise to handle complex investor and personal portfolios.

Following on the heels of our January Meetup where we identified Toronto real estate investment opportunities, financing is the next step in the journey to start or continue real estate investing!

Hugo will cover a broad range of topics relevant to both novice real estate investors looking to take action, and sophisticated investors seeking opportunities to take advantage of market conditions and expand real estate portfolios.

Here’s what we covered:

• Headwinds and opportunities – What should investors do in 2023?
• Proposed OSFI changes (e.g., HELOC regulations) – update on new policies and insights
• Industry changes and risk appetite – impact and updates on lender rules
• Reverse mortgages – how and when to use them

—————————–

Access the FULL recording and slides below.

Own A House In Toronto For The Same $$$ And Monthly Carry Cost As A Condo

Date: February 1, 2023

Seems like a fantasy, right?

Every newspaper headline you read these days is talking about how Toronto is so unaffordable for the average Torontonian, and how the next generation of Millennials and Gen-Z’s are priced out of the housing market. Far too often, we hear that aspiring homeowners feel that they can’t afford to buy a home in Toronto, or North York, or Richmond Hill, or Markham, or Sauga, or wherever they wish they could live. The odds are simply stacked against them – even if they have enough for a downpayment, they can’t afford the monthly carrying costs! Instead, they move out to Hamilton, Windsor, St. Catherines, purely because of affordability.

Volition is blazing a trail forward, creating solutions for the unaffordability issue, and to show you how owning and living in a house in Toronto can be reality, not a fantasy! Definitely, GTA is more expensive than outside GTA – there is no question – and yes, not everyone can realistically afford a home in the GTA. That said, we will offer a different perspective on how to “afford” a home in the GTA, and offer practical solutions and strategies on how to “make GTA work”.

In fact, we touch on some of this in the article that HGTV.ca wrote about Volition entitled: “Expert Tips That Will Help You Become a Homeowner Before 40“. But in this Meetup, we are going to go much much deeper into actionable strategies & tactics that you can employ… and more importantly, HOW to do it.

Sure, it’s not easy. Sure, it might take a bit more work. Sure, it still won’t mean that you’ll live in your “dream home” right off the bat. But for those who are resourceful, purposeful, and willing to do what it takes, Volition’s Advisory & Realty services may be able to help turn that dream of home ownership in the GTA into reality.

And yes… all of our Investor Realtor expertise and insights are relevant here. Tenant profiles, rents, renovations, real estate development, gentrification, transit, infrastructure improvements, etc. Bringing an investor mindset allows you to think differently about your Primary Residence, and gives you the ability to turn your biggest liability (yes, your Primary Residence is a liability… it’s actually a luxury!) into your biggest asset. And in thinking about it in these terms, it could help you actually “afford” you buying and living in the GTA.

We’ll also be showing you examples of the types of houses you would be able to buy and execute on this strategy.

Most importantly, we’re going to describe the conditions under which this works. But you might need to light a fire under your butt and take massive action NOW… this is a small window of opportunity, and it could slam shut at any moment.

We are venturing out to change mindsets: if you ever dreamed of owning a house in Toronto, but didn’t know how to afford it, THIS MEETUP is your starting point.

Here’s what we covered:

• Boosting mortgage qualification
• Reducing carrying costs
• Strategic Financing
• Case Studies
• Where this works
• Why this works
• What is required
• Who this is for
• How Volition’s models have LOWER cash requirements, LOWER mortgage qualification requirements, and HIGHER Equity Growth & ROI
• How Volition Advisory & Realty can help
• (Sneak preview keyword: “Primary Residence Plus”!)
• BONUS: We will be also showing an investment business model for INVESTORS looking for profitable, risk mitigated real estate investment solutions that make sense in today’s high interest rate environment!

—————————–

Access the FULL recording and slides below.

Our Biggest WHY: Intergenerational Wealth Planning for our Kids & Aging Parents

Date: February 15, 2023

Over the past 7 years, our Meetup has focused on teaching the ‘hows’ of real estate investment to over 4000+ investors – the economic fundamentals, strategies, and business models. In this session, we will switch gears to help you connect your ‘hows’ to your ‘whys’, starting with arguably the biggest reason we seek to build wealth: to support our families – young, old, and future.

Many of us are part of the “sandwich generation” with children and aging parents or loved ones whom we hope to support through our investment strategies. With Toronto’s uniquely challenging context (high costs of living, childcare, education, health/elder care) planning with and navigating toward this goal is an incredibly tall order for most.

This session will feature a recent Volition client and how she leveraged a combination of Real Estate and Private Wealth Management to provide the best housing/care option for her parents, both living with dementia. Our interactive panel session will feature her “Dream Team” of experts/service providers (including Care & Aging Consultants, Real Estate Experts, Private Wealth Management) to share how they used an Integrative Approach to devise and optimize a real estate + financial plan to support her parents and her young family.

While each client/family’s goals and needs are unique, the session will illustrate the immense value of an integrated and empathic team of experts, especially when serving a family during its most challenging transitions. We will show how our team strategically used different investment products (e.g., real estate, structured notes) to help meet her family’s near and long-term goals of high quality care + housing and intergenerational financial sustainability.

Here’s what we covered:

• My aging parents own their home free and clear, but do they have enough savings to pay for future health/care costs?
• At what point should I encourage my aging parents to downsize from their house to a smaller/safer place? What should they look for when “downsizing”?
• How do we plan/invest for uncertainty (e.g., health diagnosis/prognosis)?
• I want to keep my aging parents / loved ones in their home for as long as possible … but what if they (eventually) need help? What kind of help might they need, and how do I plan for it?
• Elder care isn’t covered by OHIP?! So, what are our options? What can and can’t we afford?
• How do I help my parents while preserving my financial stability for my own/future children?
• I don’t want to burden my children when I’m older or need care. So, how do I plan ahead?

Our hope is that everyone will leave this interactive session empowered with better foresight and motivation to action on their intergenerational wealth planning.

Case Study Panelists

Kerseri Scane – Volition Client – Mother, Caregiver Daughter, Part of the Sandwich Generation

Amy Hwang – Aging/Care Researcher and Consultant, Togethering (togethering.co) – Helping intergenerational families live, care, and age well

Ming Lim – Head of Realty, Volition Properties – Real estate experts providing coaching & realty services in order to help investors “Live Life By Design; Not By Default”

Patrick Ross – CFA, CFP, Wealth Advisor – CIBC Private Wealth & CIBC Wood Gundy – Strategizes & executes financial plans for clients

—————————–

Access the FULL recording and slides below.

Street Smart Tours: Laneway Suite and Fourplex Edition

Date: October 22, 2022

We’ll be touring properties that are at different phases of completion and walking through the plans, high-level financials, and opening the floor to your questions. We will be joined by one of our contractor partners, Kyle Springer from 2×2 Construction, who will be leading the tour through a laneway suite designed by Lanescape.

You’ll learn first-hand what we look for when analyzing and evaluating a potential investment property so you’ll have that extra advantage as you make your future strategic investments!

Here’s what we covered:

• The business model and why it makes sense
• High-level financials
• What we look for in a property and the key physical aspects that make a property a good candidate

We will be touring the following properties:

A fourplex that is starting construction in Little Italy
A laneway suite nearing completion in Christie Pits

—————————–

Access the FULL recording below.

Meetup Discussion

Laneway Suite Tour

Fourplex Tour

Everything You Know About Investing in Toronto Is WRONG!

Date: September 28, 2022

“Investment Properties don’t work in Toronto”
“Cashflow doesn’t exist in Toronto”
“You have to go outside Toronto to find good properties”
“Investing in Toronto means that you are buying a condo”
“Toronto is too risky”
“Toronto is expensive”

At Volition, we would agree with, at most, ONE of these statements. Can you guess which one?

Just because you live in Toronto or GTA, doesn’t automatically make you a Toronto investment expert. At Volition, we have been debunking myths about the viability of investing in Toronto for the past 14 years.

Yes, we understand that the current environment is nothing short of unprecedented: there is a lot of concern about the market due to interest rates and inflation.

This is why, following hot on the heels of “The Property Show”, this Meetup will be a much deeper dive and a more comprehensive overview than the condensed version of the presentation Ming & Matt delivered as the Keynote Speakers at “The Property Show” on Sept 17) where they were presenters and expert panelists.

We will be going deep into the execution of the Volition multifamily business model, answering questions about WHERE to invest and exactly WHAT to invest in, and WHETHER viable investment properties exist in Toronto.

**And as a bonus, we are going to teach you a sophisticated cashflow boosting technique that Volition investors use when buying properties in order to boost cashflow by almost $500, without hardly having to lift a finger!**

We are going to let T.I.M.E. guide us as to whether this is the right time to invest in Toronto… and determine what’s more important: TIMING the Market, or Time IN the Market.

In this presentation we’ll also cover:

• Market update: increase in listings, more activity, Fall market came “early” this year
• Interest Rate hike update
• When/how long it takes for shocks to the market to get fully priced into the on-market properties
• Update on rents (case study), rents are back on the rise
• Is this the best time to invest in Toronto in the past 15 years?
• Long term outlook horizon in order to mitigate risk of short term fluctuations
• Is this the bottom? Does it matter?
• Getting back to cashflow
• Ways to boost cashflow
• Returning to the office post COVID
• BRRR model – Triplex conversions, Update on Development Charges
• Rising interest rates vs. lower pricing (matrix comparison) vs. cashflow
• Volition Investing Fundamentals
• Resiliency of Toronto – What constitutes a “strong” portfolio?

—————————–

Access the FULL recording and slides below.