A Place to Hang My Coat

Today I sat down with my girlfriend Jill and a mortgage broker to start the process of spending the largest amount of money I ever have in my entire life. We are now in the market to buy a condo in our home town of Victoria BC, and even though the economy is in the tank, conversely this is the most ideal time to buy a home. Interest rates have bottomed out, and we are watching prices fall farther and farther every week.

Now, this might not look like a business venture on the surface, but for me, all this researching and house hunting is just practice for the big game. I've written about my passion for design before, but the other half of my entrepreneurial dreams lay in the world of real estate. In the near future I would like to purchase real estate rental property and possibly even start a property management company. I have a lot more to say on that subject, but today I'd like to talk about a great book. I have spent much of my time reading up on investing, and am currently reading a book by Don R. Campbell called Real Estate Investing In Canada - Creating wealth with the ACRE system.

ACRE (Authentic Canadian Real Estate system) is a means of determining a properties' investment potential by analyzing all of the factors that make a property a profitable investment such as location, the state of the local economy, the condition of the property etc. Don focuses on taking the emotion out of investing, and basing all decisions on following a structured plan of property analysis. With over 20 years in real estate investing, and more than 200 properties under his belt Don Campbell's experience is extensive. His belief is that if you understand that real estate investing is not a get-rich-quick scheme, you can take the appropriate steps to reducing nearly all of the risk usually associated with this type of investing.

Now, I am not quite ready to start making offers on investment properties, as I am still working on raising capitol for a down payment, but, I am in a position to start looking for a property to buy and live in myself. So, while Jill and I are searching for our first home, I am using this as an opportunity to practice my property investment analysis skills, find us a home that we could live in, and then a few years down the road, sell for a profit.

I am still working my way through Don Campbell's book, but the farther I get into it the more his system makes sense to me, and I would recommend giving it a read.

Here's the link to it on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Estate-Investing-Canada-Creating/dp/0470835885/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233225946&sr=8-1