Beginners can leverage Canada’s fluctuating housing market to invest

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In the Canadian real estate market, home prices have been rising for years. Many potential homeowners are moving away from cities toward small towns and rural opportunities, and a lot of prospective buyers have been priced out with a critical scarcity of affordable housing. This adds up to mean unsavvy investors are at risk of losing money on their properties, though that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities. For beginners, investing in real estate in Canada right now means doing more research and planning more carefully before taking any action.

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One way to get started is with online research, but that can be overwhelming. Alternatively, curated online training programs, like the Fundamentals of Real Estate Investment Bundle, can be a more manageable jumping-off point. This 17-hour series of real estate investment training courses can help build your foundational knowledge and gain confidence for investing in residential or commercial properties. There’s no sure thing when you’re investing, whether in the real estate or stock market, but preparing well may mitigate some risk, and the five-course e-learning bundle is a good place to start. 

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In a time of flux, learning the basics of real estate investment may be intimidating. There’s more to it than finding an attractive property, throwing money at it, and waiting for your ROI. Learning to calculate a property’s value over time is complicated. You have to consider what the property will be used for in the long and short term, whether it will generate consistent revenue or be sold when it has appreciated in value, and how your property fits in the context of the greater Canadian real estate market, among other things. For beginner investors, there’s a lot to learn.

Growing your foundation as a real estate investor

Good news: You don’t have to be a millionaire to start investing. There are many types of real estate investments, and the right one could act as a continuous supplement to your income as you build up the capital to invest more. Cash-flow investing, purchasing an asset that provides income at regular intervals, is a popular approach to rental properties. You can collect rent — ideally covering all the costs of the property and then some — while holding the investment long-term. If your asset appreciates in value over time, you could sell it for a profit that’ll provide more capital for higher-value investments. 

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One method for managing a cash-flow investment property is to turn it into an Airbnb. Who better to learn about rentals from than Symon He? He is one of the authors behind Airbnb for Dummies, and he is a co-founder of LearnAirbnb, a consultancy and education blog for the home-sharing economy. 

Finding the right property for your first investment can be a challenge, but the lessons included in the bundle can point you in the right direction. In Pre-Investing: Before Investing in Real Estate, he discusses identifying the value of a property, understanding the market in which you’re investing, and how to value a property. You’ll also get to see an example of rental income property analysis for real-world application. 

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How to be realistic about making money in real estate

Real estate is not the lottery, and you probably won’t make money overnight. Current predictions are that Canadian home prices may fall up to 25 per cent in 2025 as inflation returns to normal levels. Online courses like Fundamentals of Real Estate Investment Analysis may help you get a sense of making good investments and avoiding bad ones. As you learn more about your investment goals, that change over time could drive you to plan for cash-flow investments less impacted by changes in market prices, or it could tell you that you’ll have to hold onto your appreciating assets longer. 

The shifting of the market or your own financial shifts may indicate it’s time to work with an investment partner. If you can identify a lucrative investment, then a split profit is still a profit, so it would be wise to learn the practicalities of working with a team, as presented in How to Invest with Partners in Real Estate. 

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Other experts feel that the expensive Canadian housing market will remain until there is large-scale government intervention. If that proves true, you may want to learn more about finding or creating wholesale deals, which is also covered in these online courses. Buying and selling on a wholesale deal — one of the only viable short-term investment models in real estate — could help you build capital fast. Guidance on pitching a property to investors and understanding a property’s repair value are all covered in He’s lectures.

Canadian investment properties are waiting for you

For beginner real estate investors, the stakes are high. Whether you’ve arranged a wholesale deal, worked with investment partners, or secured your ideal cash-flow property, there’s no guarantee that you will make a profit. However, you can increase your chances of earning money by making sure you’re informed about the investment process, staying in the know about recent and current real estate happenings, and being ready to jump on a great deal when you find one. For $32.99, the Fundamentals of Real Estate Investment Bundle can provide you with essential tools for becoming a savvier real estate investor.

Prices subject to change.