This e-zine together with the articles and Blog postings at www.TheRealEstateRenegades.com form the backbone of the most current Canadian real estate investing guide and "how to" information.

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Thursday December 12th, 2008

In this Issue:

- Renegade Update: What are Tom & Nick up to? What the he!! is Lowe's doing in Hamilton, Brantford, Brampton and Maple?

- Featured Article: A Guide to Mortgages for Investment Properties

- Investing Strategy Tip of the Week: Bird Dogging, huh?

The next FREE Real Estate Training Workshop:

Our next real estate training class is on Saturday January 26, 2007 at 10am in our Oakville offices. In this class you will learn how to profit from Real Estate without having to rehab and renovate distressed homes and create steady monthly income for yourself.

You will learn about actual real life success stories of investors doing this right in your own backyard. To get all the location details and hold your spot (because we regularly fill the class!) visit: www.CanadianRealEstateTraining.com

If you haven't heard the Ontario government FINALLY completed a section of highway (the Red Hill Valley Parkway) that connects the Lincoln Alexander Parkway to the QEW.

Now this is big news because it will affect real estate values and increase economic activity in the area.

Transportation routes are the #1 reason population increases in various areas in Ontario. If you think way back to when the 403 opened in Mississauga you'll remember there were almost no houses north of the 403.

Now, you can't squeeze another sardine into that area. It's packed with people.

What do you think will happen to the Hamilton/Stoney Creek and even Brantford area with this new highway.

More people, more economic activity, more demand for the real estate.

These are the kinds of developments that should make you excited.

There's opportunity in those hills!

So we're cruising down the highway and we jump off one of the exits and see the excessively large new Lowe's about to open in Hamilton.

Now Lowe's is a huge U.S. company. They are Home Depot's main competitor and they're about to open a slew of new stores in Ontario.

Do you think a company of this size does it's demographic homework before plunking down a massive new store?

Yup, they do.

Whenever you see a new Walmart, Home Depot, Loblaws or now Lowes opening up it's a pretty good sign that the area has some future growth prospects.

When Home Depot opened up in Mississauga near Britannia Road and Mavis Road there was almost nothing up there. Now you have to fight through thick traffic at all times of the day in that area.

A quick search of the Lowe's website shows the store openings and their locations.

This provides you some great insight into areas that a huge company sees growth potential.

And funny enough, after looking at the list we couldn't agree with them more.

Brantford, Brampton, Hamilton, Maple are all areas with continued population increases.

Lowe's Ontario Stores (in order of opening dates):

Brampton
370 Kennedy Rd. S.
Opens: December 10th

Hamilton
1945 Barton St.
Opens: Dec. 10th

Brantford
215 Henry St.
Opens: Dec. 10th

Toronto
1300 Castlefield Ave.
Opens: Jan. 2008

North Brampton
10111 Heart Lake Road
Opens: Jan. 2008

E. Gwillimbury
18401 Yonge St.
Opens: Jan. 2008

Maple
200 McNaughton Rd.
Opens: Feb. 2008

These big box developments are signs the savvy investor picks up on early...watch for them. Real estate transactions are going to happen in these areas whether you decide to participate or not. This is a good time to select your strategy, pick your system and make your more.

Happy Investing,

Tom & Nick Karadza
"The Real Estate Renegades"

Real Estate Investing Step-by-Step:

To learn more about our investing approach and the system we use with our members you can request a copy of our FREE Report to be mailed to you. In it you will learn:

1. How you can turn 3 Single-Family homes into 24 homes without investing any additional money by having homes buy homes. EASY WEALTH!
2. How you can create Income for Life in just ONE hour of spare time a day! This means NO FIXING UP DISTRESSED HOMES!

To request your own complimentary copy of our investing in "Nice Homes in Nice Areas" report go to www.LeaveWorkOneDay.com and fill out the form at the bottom of the page.

Featured Article:

Have you ever tried to get details on a residential investment property mortgages?

Let me tell you, it's a real adventure.

Your local Canadian bank branch usually doesn't have a clue and ends up scaring you off from doing any residential real estate investing all together.

There are some excellent people in bank branches, you just need to find them.

Basically, bank branches aren't set up to deal with the questions investors have and they work on residential investment property mortgages so infrequently they usually don't know the details.

An experienced mortgage broker will usually serve you better in this area.

Some banks don't deal with mortgage brokers. BMO isn't using them right now and RBC has their own team of mobile mortgage representatives. I have experience with the Royal Bank ones and they have proven to be very good.

One thing to note that when you are dealing with a bank directly you are limited to the mortgage products that they offer and sometimes you won't even know other, better suited, options are available to you.

For example, there is a 5% down investment property mortgage program available to Canadians right now. If your bank is not offering the program they may not even tell you that this exists elsewhere.

So if you are using BMO or RBC directly, or for that matter, if you are using any bank directly for your mortgage, it's smart to check in with an experienced mortgage broker as well.

That way you've covered almost all options available to you.

I say "almost" because there are private institutions that will lend you money (Xceed Financial) and "hard money" lenders. We'll discuss this in a future article.

Know this...they are constantly changing and there are new mortgages for investment properties coming available almost monthly!

For the full article click here to continue reading...

Investing Strategy Tip of the Week:

Not a week goes by where something doesn't cross my desk that makes me go "huh".

And this week it's "Bird Dogging".

This is a term that has been used in the U.S. for years and refers to someone who scouts many properties until they find what they think is a "deal".

They then attempt to get the property under contract so that they can "assign" the contract to another investor for a profit.

In an ideal world it would work like this:

1. You go out and find a property for 25% or more under fair market value. (You will need it at least 25% or less under market value to make any real money on most deals).
2. You then lock up the property with a contract to purchase it.
3. You then "sell" or "assign" your contract to another investor for a quick profit. You make $10,000 and the other investor still gets a good deal on a property.

Sounds fantastic right?

Well I know a lot of people teach this strategy but I have yet to meet anyone who consistently can do this to make any money.

You may have a deal fall on your lap over the course of many years but to do this consistently and systematically is difficult, very difficult.

It's more like creating a job for yourself rather than actually investing.

When you add up the amount of time required to track down a property like this and then divide those hours by your profit you have probably created a minimum hour wage for yourself!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing this, just be aware of what it is all about.

If you run into a deal like this, take it! Just don't focus your entire day on tracking them down.

You will often hear this strategy taught at different investing boot camps.

It's often pitched as a way to get started in real estate if you have limited funds available to invest. Or as a way to "joint venture" with the trainers.

And I'm sure there is at least one person in any real estate training class who has pulled it off. But to be a true investor you want to use a system that creates wealth for you in a consistent, systematic way. This isn't that way.

My gut tells me that many real estate workshops train people about Bird Dogging so they have a pool of people running around bringing lists of properties back to the trainer which he/she will then shift through.

It's actually a pretty smart move on the real estate trainer's part. They create a herd of people working for them....for nothing!

There's a better way to go about this using "options" instead of writing a contract to purchase a property. We'll have that discussion in an upcoming newsletter.

Bird Dogging,now you know!

Until next time...

About The Real Estate Renegades

Tom Karadza & Nick Karadza run the Income for Life real estate investing system for their members throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

They have been called 'Real Estate Renegades' because they are implementing real estate investing strategies that were once thought to be impossible by many so-called 'industry professionals'.

They are authors of the book "Income for Life for Canadians", to be released in January 2008.

They also offer FREE real estate investing classes, FREE reports, coaching and mentoring, and other resources to help both beginner and experienced real estate investors achieve ultimate success. Learn more now at: www.TheRealEstateRenegades.com.

Copyright 2007 Karadza Publishing Inc.