First Rental Property

Do you ever wonder how people end up making so much money through investing in real estate?

I used to.

At the beginning, I thought that the only way to make a profit in real estate was to buy a house, keep it for a really long time and then sell it for a higher price than what it was paid for.

There are many people who use this strategy and this strategy alone, but not Canada’s Most Versatile Investor, Mark Loeffler.

Mark is one of the leading authorities in Canada in the Rent To Own System of real estate investing. He was featured in the Canadian Real Estate Magazine not to long ago. It was this Magazine that dubbed him The Versatile Investor. This name has stuck since.

Mark and I met about a year and a half ago through the Real Estate Investment Network, also more commonly referred to as REIN.

REIN is a network of Canadian real estate investors investing in Canadian Real Estate. REIN has been said to be one of the best real estate investment networks in North America by real estate gurus such as Ron LeGrand.

Mark and I recently sat down for an interview. This article will be the first of many articles focused on successful real estate investors. Specifically I asked Mark questions about his first rental property purchase, and how his real estate investing career has evolved since then.

Here is my recent interview with the man himself, The Versatile Investor, Mr. Mark Loeffler:

Neil: “Mark, where did you buy your first rental property and what type of property was it?”

Mark: “My first rental property was a duplex. It was located in Newmarket, Ontario.”

Neil: “What year did you purchase it, how much for, and what do you think it is worth now?”

Mark: “I bought the duplex in 2003 for $205,000. Comparable properties are selling for nothing less than $270,000 now.” (Interview took place on January 5th 2010)

Neil: “What was your reason for buying your first rental property?”

Mark: “I bought the property for cash flow“.

Neil: “At the time of your purchase, did you know of anyone else investing in real estate?”

Mark: “No”

Neil: “Did you purchase this house yourself, or did you have any partners that you
purchased it with?”

Mark: “I purchased this house by myself.”

Neil: “What was your biggest fear about buying your first rental property?”

Mark: “I was afraid that I would not be able to find any tenants.”

Neil: “How did you come up with your down payment?”

Mark: “I used my savings. I put $5,000 down as my down payment.”

Neil: “How did you get your first mortgage?”

Mark: “I got my first mortgage through the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)”

Neil: “Who managed the property for you?”

Mark: “I managed the property by myself.”

Neil: “What is the current state of the property?”

Mark: “I still own the property, and it is rented. A couple of years after I purchased the property, I brought in a partner who joint ventured on the property. As a result, I was able to take out some equity.”

Neil: “What did you do with this equity?”

Mark: “I reinvested the money into real estate. I did a couple of flips in Toronto. The money that I made from the flips eventually went into Rent to Own real estate investments.”

Neil: “Where are your Rent to Own homes located?”

Mark: “Across Canada. In Ontario and Alberta.”

Neil: “Why did you decided to invest with the Rent to Own strategy?”

Mark: “I decided to invest using the Rent to Own strategy because of the increased cash flow. There was also less maintenance with Rent to Own. Also, flipping was getting too tight.
Also, it was around this time that the Government changed their policy regarding the 100% financing rule when purchasing a home. This created an opportunity for me, this allowed me to change strategies and invest using RTO. Also, I found it tough to find good property management for small units. You don’t make your money managing, you make your money buying.”

Neil: “What current projects are you currently working on that you want to let people know
about?”

Mark: “I have a new book out called, Investing in Rent To Own Property: A Complete Guide to Canadian Real Estate Investing. I also have a Rent To Own Course called Rent To Own Made Easy. You can take the course from home and it has a 60 day e-mail mentoring component. The course takes you from A to Z and it shows you how I run my
business and how I find tenants. We take a tenant first strategy. We find people that
can’t qualify for a mortgage and we help them purchase a house. We do between
3 to 5 of these types of deals a week.”

So there you have it, a one on one interview with The Versatile Investor, Mark Loeffler. Mark and I have chatted about doing subsequent interviews for my blog, and he is agreeable. So stay tuned for some more great content from Mark Loeffler, The Versatile Investor. In fact, we may even get him on as a guest blogger!