I have a new REIT on my watchlist, Vivmark Residential ($VMRK). The combination of AvalonBay and Equity Residential, this $49 billion market cap REIT seems like a unique opportunity in the multifamily space. With interest rates increasing, I believe those with scale will win. And, with interest rates increasing, I imagine there could be some further buying opportunities in the REIT sector, over time. Will be fun to watch this one. Anyone else watching $VMRK? (Disc: Not investment advice.)
Everyone is praising owning over renting, but let’s look at the actual math. After factoring in maintenance fees, property taxes, interest payments, and historically lower real estate growth rates, wouldn't it often be smarter to rent and invest the difference? I get that if you own real estate, you can leverage it to buy multiple properties. But most people don't pursue that path, they just buy one primary residence and stay put. Moreover, looking at long-term data in Canada: Housing: Last 50 years averages a compound annual growth rate of roughly 5.5%. S&P 500 : Last 50 years 10%–11% annualized. Am I missing something? If you don't plan on building a multi-property real estate portfolio, doesn't a traditional mortgage lose out when you can just invest the spread between renting and owning straight into a global index fund?read more
Every thread I read about cash damming argues about whether it is worth doing. Almost none of them explain what actually sets the pace, so I worked it out properly and the answer was not what I expected. Quick version of the mechanic for anyone who has not seen it. You own a rental personally and you also carry a mortgage on your own home, which in Canada is not deductible. You use the rent to make an extra payment against the home mortgage. On a readvanceable setup that principal re advances into the attached credit line. You then borrow from that line to pay the rental expenses. The rent paid the home mortgage, borrowed money paid the rental bills, and the interest on that borrowing may be deductible, when set up properly with your accountant. Worth being blunt about what that does and does not do. Your total debt does not fall any faster. You are converting the character of the debt, not eliminating any of it. If someone describes this as paying off your mortgage early for free, they have skipped a step. Here is the part nobody seems to write down. You can only convert as much as you borrow, and you can only borrow for expenses that actually qualify. So the ceiling on the whole strategy is your annual deductible rental expense bill. Your rent does not set it. Your equity does not set it. Your tax bracket does not set it. Running real numbers on a duplex with a $430,000 mortgage at 4.24 percent over 25 years, the payment is $2,318 a month. Year one interest is about $17,880. Add property tax around $4,800, insurance $2,100, utilities you cover $2,400, and maintenance $3,000, and the engine is roughly $30,180 a year. Two things fell out of that which I had wrong going in. The first is that the payment is $27,816 a year but only $17,880 is interest. The remaining $9,934 is principal, and principal repayment is not a rental expense. It does not go on a T776 and it is not part of the engine. I had been mentally running the whole payment through the strategy, which overstated my own projection by almost ten grand in year one. There is a more advanced treatment where borrowed money replaces that principal and the interest may still be deductible because the funds trace back to the original purchase of the rental, but that is a different mechanic with different paperwork and it is a question for an accountant, not something to assume. The second is that the engine shrinks. As the rental mortgage amortizes the interest line falls, from $17,880 in year one to about $16,071 in year five and $13,321 in year ten. Other expenses drift up with inflation and cushion it, but the biggest single line only goes one direction. The engine you size today is the largest it is ever going to be. The practical consequence is that two landlords with identical rent can convert at completely different speeds. Someone with a leveraged property and expenses they pay themselves has an engine two or three times the size of someone whose rental is nearly paid off and whose tenants cover the utilities. Same rent roll, very different outcome. This is real administrative work for years, not a one time setup. Borrowed money has to move through a dedicated account and never mix with personal cash, because CRA tests what the funds were used for, and mixing breaks the tracing and the deduction with it. It only applies to rentals held personally, not in a corporation. It does not create cash flow, it reroutes it. And if your expense bill is small next to your home mortgage, the arithmetic says the conversion will take long enough that you should ask honestly whether the ongoing effort is worth it.read more
Currently I have a FHSA thats auto invested with Wealthsimple at the highest risk rate. I will eventually max out the contribution limit of 40k hopefully by the end of 2027. The portfolio ia doing great +36.79% all time. My question to Blossomers, Can I transfer in-kind my FHSA (including the gains) into a trading FHSA account where I can then trade what I saved and earned for high performing stocks without getting taxed or penalties? At this point my total contribution and gains will exceed $40k Thanks in advance.
As a long term value investor, I rarely make trades but this was an arbitrage trade I couldn’t pass up. I had no intentions to sell $SGR-UN. It was one of my favourite holdings and I knew how valuable their properties were. So when they announced the dividend suspension that sent the stock tumbling, I was rushing to buy more shares. Why? Because this was a rare occurrence where we saw a complete disconnect between what these real estate holdings were worth and what the market was pricing them at. It was only a matter of time before someone out there with deep pockets swooped in with a buyout offer. And honestly, I didn’t expect it to happen this fast. What a day! Happy investing, @deepvaluesharkread more
🚨 BREAKING: HOUSING MARKET OPPORTUNITY FOR BUYERS! 🏡📉 Home sellers now outnumber buyers by a record 57.9%, according to Redfin’s August 2026 estimates. That’s a massive shift in negotiating power, and buyers should be paying attention! I’ve said it before: Too many buyers are sitting on the sidelines waiting for mortgage rates to drop, while overlooking the opportunity cost of waiting. This is the market where you negotiate the best possible purchase price, leverage seller concessions to buy down your mortgage rate when possible, and build equity over time. Remember, when rates fall and buyers flood back into the market, competition heats up, bidding wars return, and sellers regain leverage. You can potentially refinance your mortgage rate later, but you can’t renegotiate yesterday’s purchase price! My advice? Don’t wait for the perfect rate and miss a great buying opportunity. Negotiate aggressively, buy smart, and take advantage of today’s buyer-friendly conditions where they exist. Make sure the payment works for you today, even without refinancing. US10YR | Housing Market | Mortgage Rates #HousingMarket #RealEstate #MortgageRates #HomeBuying #WealthBuildingread more
Why renting a house is NOT "throwing money away." Everyone says buying a home is the ultimate Canadian investment. The math tells a different story. Here is why you might actually be better off renting... 🧵 Let's look at the real numbers for Toronto right now. The median rent for a condo apartment is roughly $2,500 per month. The average payment for a new Toronto mortgage is $2,817 per month. But the mortgage is just your absolute baseline cost. ⬇️ When you buy, you are hit with massive unrecoverable costs. Add in Toronto property taxes, condo fees, insurance, and maintenance. Your true monthly carrying cost easily jumps to $3,800. These are sunk costs that build absolutely zero equity. ⬇️ Let's compare the two paths. The buyer is paying $3,800 a month to live in that condo. The renter is paying $2,500 a month for a comparable unit. The renter now has a massive $1,300 cash flow surplus every single month. ⬇️ This is where true wealth is built. The renter takes that $1,300 difference and strictly invests it. They put it into a low-cost index fund. Historically, the broader stock market has returned an average of 10% per year over the last 100 years. ⬇️ Over a 15-year period, that compounding liquid wealth will often outpace the homeowner's locked equity. You are not throwing money away. You are trading a housing asset for a highly liquid, rapidly growing financial asset. ⬇️ To be clear, I am not anti-homeownership. Owning brings incredible psychological stability, emotional benefits, and a true sense of home. If you have the mindset to stay for 15+ years, it can absolutely pay off. But it is not the only way to build generational wealth. ⬇️ Renting is an amazing solution that significantly helps you save and invest. You can rent, invest the difference, and fund a very happy retirement. Don't let society pressure you into becoming house rich and cash poor. Run the opportunity cost for your own life.read more
The rich do not. The rich hold investments. The rich put no more than 15% of their assets into a home because it’s a poor use of money. If a home were a good investment, that allocation wouldn’t stay at 15% - it would grow to 80%. But it doesn't. And if a home were a good investment, someone worth $20M would sell their $2M house and upgrade to a $15M one. But they don't do that. We live IN a home. We live OFF investments.
I thought interest rates were headed to zero. I was wrong. I sold my holdings in BRT Realty today. They are a residential apartment REIT which is based in New York but most of its apartments are located in the South Eastern USA. As with most REITs, they have high borrowing costs as there is roughly a 4:1 debt to equity ratio, so their funds from operations will likely be impacted as interest rates go up. I bought them thinking interest rates will go down and reduce the impact of their debt on their cash flow.
"I will forever believe that buying a home is a great investment. Why? Because you can't live in a stock certificate. You can't live in a mutual fund" If someone wants to buy a home and mention it on this app then I will always tell that person to go for it
"The strongest homebuyers aren't just approved, they're prepared." I like this quote. If you are going through the process of getting your first home or thinking about it then Keep your paperwork organized, Keep your down payment in savings & Reduce high-interest balances for better buying power
Hi everyone, Has anyone had any experience with Wealthsimple Mortgages? I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience, including the application process, rates, customer service, and anything else you think would be useful to know.
