Real Estate Investing in Canada

Tren & Amy Join Forces With Amazing Results

Amy’s Story:

I grew up in a household where the belief was your home was your castle. At that time I didn’t really understand what that meant, but I sure do now. My family moved to Calgary in 1972 and my parents purchased a home in the middle class neighbourhood of Dalhousie. They paid a whopping $32,000 for a 3 bedroom, 4 level split with a single attached garage. At the time, the price was outrageous! I mean, people were only earning $7,000 a year and to pay that much for a house was insane. Little did my parents know that Calgary’s real estate market was about to take off and so were interest rates.

In 1980, my parents and I were out for a Sunday afternoon drive and we came across a few new houses being built on the Bow river in a community called Bowness. The next thing I knew, we were moving. My parents put our Dalhousie home on the market and it sold in a matter of weeks for over $130,000. In less than eight years, my parents had increased their net worth by $100,000! Once again, I really didn’t understand what that meant other than the fact I had to pack my room in preparation for the move.

I completed a BCOMM at the University of Calgary and started my first real job with Petro-Canada. I was immediately transferred to Vancouver. I became a first time renter and after 3 years of shelling out $740 a month on rent, I thought it would be a good time to buy my own place. But there was one thing that got in my way. No, it wasn’t money, it was FEAR! I was quickly convinced by everyone that owning your own home was the only way to go. I had almost enough for the down payment on a brand new 2 bedroom condo in Burnaby. My dad loaned me the rest and I bought my first piece of real estate at 25 years of age for $103,500. The asking price was $108,900 so I thought I had negotiated myself a pretty good deal.

As luck would have it, I was transferred back to Calgary 6 months after my new home purchase. But the real estate market in lower mainland had changed considerably. There was a boom happening and I was about to cash in. My condo sold for over $30,000 more than I had paid for it. In just 6 short months, my return on investment was 86%! I realized that I had made more in 6 months on my real estate investment than I had earned working all year. I think this is when I first started to understand the financial power of owning real estate.

Sharon’s (Tren) Story:

My real estate beginning is similar to Amy’s. I knew from a very early age that I did not want to be a renter. I grew up in a small fruit-growing town on the River Murray in South Australia. My parents rented until I was 12 years old. They then bought their first home in which my dad still lives at the age of 85.

I moved to Adelaide for work and after renting for a couple of years I had saved nothing and gained nothing. I purchased a town house and the help of other people’s money for the down payment. After a year, I decided it was time to upgrade to a bungalow. I placed an ad in the local paper and my town house sold in less than a week for double what I paid for it. Buying in the right town at the right time proved to be a big pay-off.

My next purchase was a bungalow in a seaside suburb that I recognized as having amazing potential for growth. Seven years later, I sold this home for triple the price I had paid for it. Once again proving that having patience as a real estate investor pays off handsomely. My R.O.I. was 1060% on this property. It was at this time that I decided to move to Calgary Alberta to stay with my Canadian friends.

Within a year, knowing that Calgary’s real estate market had all the signs of taking off, I purchased a half-duplex as an investment property. By this time I had met a few friends and one of them owned 5 houses. Being a little competitive, it became my immediate goal to own 6.

During this time, I worked full-time as a squash professional and coach at the Calgary Winter Club and as the Junior Women’s National coach, so my real estate passion took a back seat to my coaching due to time restraints.

Through squash I met Amy and we discovered that we had a mutual interest other than squash. We both had a secret desire to own real estate. It is no longer a secret by the way. As she will tell you our lives were transformed after attending a real estate evening hosted by Don Campbell and the Real Estate Investment Network with a very successful investor as the guest speaker.

Amy & Sharon’s Success Takes Off When They Form A Team

At this event, the guest speaker Tim Johnson, spoke passionately about real estate and shared his success story. He talked about real estate winter, spring, summer and fall and the value of surrounding yourself with like minded people. This resonated so much with where we were at that we decided to go into real estate investing with a passion.

Since making that decision we have accumulated substantial wealth through real estate. We would not have been able to do this without the simple strategies laid out in the A.C.R.E. System. We now have clear systems that we follow, access to vital information and statistics and are constantly surrounded by like-minded people, those who have the same passion for real estate we do.

We own property in Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton and Fort McMurray. Up until now, most of our investments have been single-family homes, duplexes, four plexes and a six plex.

One we are particularly proud of is a six plex we own. We responded to another three line classified ad advertising a six plex in Edmonton (three hours from where we live). We followed the system and decided that the location of the property and the motivation of the vendor perfectly matched what we were looking for. We bought the property, after completing our due diligence. We could not believe the deal we were getting, and this was in a super-hot market. We kept the property for 27 months and made a 1,700 percent Return on our investment!

The four plex that we own, came from another motivated vendor. The property had been on the market for several months. We viewed it one weekend and could not figure why another investor had not purchased it. Maybe they hadn’t seen the potential of the area, however we did. We purchased the property, it still has the original tenants, one of which manages it for us. Oh yes, it also creates positive cash flow, after all expenses of $800 month!

Sure we could have done OK in real estate by ourselves, however by following this system and being a member of REIN™ has allowed us to exceed even our wildest real estate dreams. We have a “Personal Belize” and we are working towards it everyday.

The best news is Sharon was able to quit her day job to pursue real estate full time in September 2003. My goal is to quit my job in November 2005!

Sharon Trenaman

Amy Strutt

Calgary, AB

Still Want More???
Click the links below to Listen to More Successful Canadians
Using Don R. Campbell's & The REIN™ Team's Leading Edge Information

Click the links below to listen to more Success Stories

Success Stories Part #1

Success Stories Part #2

Success Stories Part #3

Success Stories Part #4

Success Stories Part #6