This a blog about my 30 years experience of investing and living in the personal finance space of Canada. One of my experiences included an afternoon at a Real Estate Expo. Nothing has changed in decades. If you've been to one you've been to them all.
All that changes are the hucksters trying to take your money away from you. The pitch is the same. You can make a fortune buying and selling real estate with NO money down! Total bullshit. These people are vultures, nothing more.
If you like entertainment then it is that. If you are going to learn how to make money in Real Estate then just stay the hell away!
You won't learn any such thing. Many people go to these glitzy promotions and get sucked into paying for expensive courses hoping to get rich buying and selling real estate.
It's all staged and an attractive way of upselling you on higher priced products. Go to Youtube and plug in Tom Vu. He was the original real estate con artist of the 1980's. Well he was in Southern Ontario anyways.
Lots of hype, music, cheerleader type girls and fancy cars all adorned his promotional materials and boiler room videos. I attended one of his seminars in 1985 in Toronto. It was a night out and highly entertaining. Room was packed, I left and bought nothing else.
This is what you do. Look but never spend and buy. It doesn't work and won't work for you. Just ask the thousands who dropped 35K on a course at Trump University. It's the same thing with the latest Real Estate and Wealth Expo being promoted right now in Toronto. This time they are dragging Rocky back into the real estate ring to hype up the crowd.
Let's look at what's happening to real estate right now and why this is a terrible place to go to learn a lesson in investing.
Prices are High
All that you hear on the news these days is how high housing prices are in Toronto and Vancouver. Wealth taxes are being added to purchase prices to stem the flood of foreign buyers into the RE market. Even an empty dwelling tax is being introduced. Do you think these topics will be covered between sets of deafening music at the expo?
Why would you buy real estate now? Prices are at historical highs and interest rates are on the rise. That's the double whammy and at this time prices are too high to make any money.
Why would you buy real estate now? Prices are at historical highs and interest rates are on the rise. That's the double whammy and at this time prices are too high to make any money.
Tough Environment
Another hurdle to jump through here in Canada is called the stress test. This is to stop people putting in a down payment from the bank of MOM (BOM). Another 5% will be added to the amount you qualify for to see if you can handle the stress of buying in a rising interest rate environment. Gee, I wonder if the celebrity sharks will cover that topic. You not only have to carry the mortgage on your own but also have the money for a down payment plus more on paper.
This stops all the previous 5% down people and even worse for seminar sheep from buying houses with NO money down. It's all bullshit!
The Celebrity Pitch
Sharks, Dragons, Hollywood Hasbins and washed up disgraced sports steroid junkies are what will be hitting the stage soon.
What more could you ask for when you are itching to get into the RE market.
They will all be here explaining to you with sound and pictures how easy this is. It's so easy we had to hold a special event with pre-registration absolutely necessary.
What background does Stallone have in Real Estate? How much has he made buying and selling houses with NO money down? It's all bullshit, just my experience and all this for a measly $67. Will they stop there? Who knows.
What more could you ask for when you are itching to get into the RE market.
They will all be here explaining to you with sound and pictures how easy this is. It's so easy we had to hold a special event with pre-registration absolutely necessary.
What background does Stallone have in Real Estate? How much has he made buying and selling houses with NO money down? It's all bullshit, just my experience and all this for a measly $67. Will they stop there? Who knows.
Bitcoin
Just as an added bonus they are going to jump on the bitcoin promotional train. Why not flog an asset that is trending up and people have no idea how in the fack it works.
I'm sure they will all give you an education on Bitcoin and again how you can get rich selling houses and now what a great investment bitcoin is. Is this really happening?
You can buy Bitcoin now trading at 7K a coin (digital) but down from 20K just a few months ago. The best part is you can buy this through an app with a credit card.
Now there's an investment strategy. Buy digital fairy dust that has already blown up and pay 23% credit card interest rates to secure your purchase.
Please, just stay away from digital currencies even if Rocky tells you to do it.
I'm sure they will all give you an education on Bitcoin and again how you can get rich selling houses and now what a great investment bitcoin is. Is this really happening?
You can buy Bitcoin now trading at 7K a coin (digital) but down from 20K just a few months ago. The best part is you can buy this through an app with a credit card.
Now there's an investment strategy. Buy digital fairy dust that has already blown up and pay 23% credit card interest rates to secure your purchase.
Please, just stay away from digital currencies even if Rocky tells you to do it.
The Hype of Easy Money
That's what this is all about, selling the sizzle and NOT the steak. Telling you through celebrity mouth pieces that you can get into the real estate game with no money down and buy and sell houses like real pros.
Don't get fooled by the glitz and hype. If it was that easy, they would teach it in high school or even have RE college courses as personal interest only. It's not easy and best left to professionals only. This can be said of a lot of investments people end up buying and have no clue how they work.
Creating wealth for you by buying houses, becoming a landlord and then invest the proceeds in bitcoin. It's pure snake oil sales pitches.
Don't get fooled by the glitz and hype. If it was that easy, they would teach it in high school or even have RE college courses as personal interest only. It's not easy and best left to professionals only. This can be said of a lot of investments people end up buying and have no clue how they work.
Creating wealth for you by buying houses, becoming a landlord and then invest the proceeds in bitcoin. It's pure snake oil sales pitches.
My Last Takeaway
My mechanic says he only needs two things and he can fix anything.
Time and money.
Time and money.
Take your time building wealth and let your money build slowly with compound interest and growth.
If you want an education on the Real Estate market in Canada just start reading what Garth Turner has to say over at greaterfool.ca. He is the foremost guru on all things RE and I'm also a big fan of his globally diversified portfolio approach to investing.
If you want an education on the Real Estate market in Canada just start reading what Garth Turner has to say over at greaterfool.ca. He is the foremost guru on all things RE and I'm also a big fan of his globally diversified portfolio approach to investing.
Never get sucked into taking shortcuts by attending seminars or wealth expos that tell you different. It's not different and you will not gain value for your ticket which is $67 for the VIP rate.
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Very good reasoning here. I'm in small town BC that's stupid expensive, real-estate is trending very high right now, and a supply/demand problem is driving prices out of reach for locals, (No I'm not even near Vancouver or the Okanogan, I'm close to Alberta) Non of it makes sense, locals don't have incomes to support it, just a ski town and everyone wants a recreation property here. Not sure when it'll correct since there's some big construction projects starting that will make the housing shortage even worse. I'm getting pressured to buy but am apprehensive, hard to know if it'll skyrocket further, reason says no, but home buyers aren't reasonable. Garth says no big US style crash in Canada, but I don't see why it couldn't happen? Canadian household debt is higher than americans, people here are stretched beyond belief, new cars, houses toys ect. Problem is, when there's a housing shortage, people are forced into the market weather they like it or not. Landlords are taking advantage of this and gouging making people buy because it's the same price as renting and your not "wasting your money on rent" Hope this ends, but don't think it will here anyway, very soon
ReplyDeleteHi Terry, my daughter rents in Kelowna and it's brutal for RE out there too. The main problem is wages for working people have not kept up with the cost of living for at least 20 years. This makes home ownership for the working poor impossible. $15 an hour in Toronto gets you a room in a basement. How do you eat never mind afford to even think of buying a house.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is living off debt and working paycheque to paycheque. With interest rates melting up slowly many will be roadkill. I think rates are the key and I hope they hold here. Thanks for dropping by:)
Yes, I agree, even if it takes a little more time, this has to correct, and the longer it takes, the uglier it'll be. Canadians are in worse shape than Greece. I'm wondering about interest rates, if rising rates in the US drives the CA dollar lower, it could makes things even more expensive here. Also, how is the petro-yuan going to affect things in the US now? drive their interest rates higher? this will be an interesting year
ReplyDeleteHi Terry, there is no doubt here in Canuckistan that rates are going up. It is also a good bet that they are going up in the States too. Home affordability for the average family in the average neighbourhood are over. Also, those flippers buying condos as rentals are losing big time. Negative cash flow is the new norm there.
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