2020!! New Podcast & Project Updates

Welcome to 2020, I hope your 2019 was fabulous! Mine certainly was! I got engaged, sang my heart out at karaoke three times, traveled to Cuba, Mexico, Newfoundland, AND went to Shelburne about 75 times during my 'free' time to work on real estate projects (for those who aren't familiar, Shelburne is about 1 hour north of Toronto).

Before closing off 2019, I had the chance to share what I'm up to on the Your Life Your Terms Podcast .

You can catch the podcast episode and more HERE.

There is a lot of buzz out there saying that the Canadian real estate market will be hot this year as demand continues to grow and supply continues to be constrained. We will see what happens! To kick off 2020, I wanted to summarize and share what I’ve been working on at 218 Greenwood Street in Shelburne, Ontario (my most recent severance and development project) and how it relates to my previous newsletters.

Why Invest in Real Estate?

One of the main reasons I started investing in real estate is because I want to become financially free. In the past couple years, I’ve been able to meet lots of people that have become financially free through real estate, which has helped to demystify this goal, and make it seem more attainable. Real estate is a stable way to invest, typically more stable than the stock market, comes with tax advantages, leverage opportunities, and I’ve found it more simple to gain a competitive advantage than some other investment vehicles such as stocks. In stocks I found that you need an information advantage, something that I have yet to figure out. If you got the info - let me know... 

The specific way that I’ve found to have a competitive advantage in real estate is through the addition of new housing units. When investing, it is important to understand trends and the market in which you’re investing in. We have an opportunity now in southern Ontario because the population growth and demand for housing is increasing and there are significant supply constraints that don’t appear easily solvable. There is opportunity in infill development as the province has mandated it, municipal guidelines support it, and it is one of the only solutions to help mitigate the supply constraint issue. However, there are significant challenges and barriers to entry as development is capital intensive, can be risky, and the approval process is cumbersome. 

If you want to check out some of my previous blog posts that dive a bit deeper into topics discussed above click HERE.

218 Greenwood Street, Shelburne ON - basement apartment addition

218 Greenwood was a single family home on a large corner lot in town (Shelburne). Within the existing zoning, one additional dwelling unit was allowed. We then applied for, and received approval from the town to increase the existing house to three units, as well as sever the north portion of the lot - creating one additional lot. Complying with current zoning there can be an additional basement apartment in the new house. This is an example of how infill development can assist in closing the supply and demand gap by changing one unit into five units on the same piece of land. Furthermore, by using creativity within real estate investing to gain a competitive advantage, we can get one step closer to financial freedom! To see more on the 218 Greenwood project, visit our PROJECTS PAGE.

218 Greenwood Street, Shelburne ON - basement apartment snapshot after completion 

I hope 2020 is a great year for you! I’ll be continuing to work on improving my financial future!

Let me know if you're interested in learning about some investment opportunities. To book at time to connect and learn more, click HERE.

Visit our website to see previous blogs posts, our projects and more. Check us out at www.gobrownproperties.com.

Happy investing,

Spencer Brown Brown Properties www.gobrownproperties.com