How to Invest in Real Estate When You Live in a Really Expensive City

Today I am going to cover a question that I hear often, which is how to invest in real estate when the city that you live in is really expensive??

So, I've been investing in real estate for about 10 years now and  I live in a really expensive city.  I live in Toronto, Canada.

When I first started investing in real estate I didn't know how to make the numbers work, or how to really get my foot in the door on such an expensive real estate market.

Essentially, my advice to you is, that you don't have to invest in the city that you live in.

In fact, you can invest anywhere, but what I would recommend, when you're first starting out and the city that you live in is really expensive, is to choose a city or town within a one, two, or maximum three hour drive from the city that you live in.

Naturally, when you have a large metropolitan center, all of the surrounding towns and cities outside of that metropolitan center reap the benefits of being close to that city due to the spillover effect.  If that city is growing at a fast rate, and all these amazing things are happening, naturally, all the cities and towns surround that are going to feel that effect, as well. You do have to do a little bit of research on which of those cities and towns to choose.

The overarching theme that you're going to want to consider when investing in a particular city or town, is growth. You're going to want to look for things like population growth, employment growth, infrastructure growth. The ways that you can find out these things, is by searching on the internet, searching on Google, but also, contacting the local economic board of that city or town, and talking to them. They may know things that are not public knowledge, as of yet.

You can ask them things like, "Are there major transportation improvements coming down the line? Are there any big community centres being built? Is there a hospital being built? Is there a college or university expanding?"

For me, I really was interested in places that had a large thriving hospital, with a big research department or a large, established university or college in the town. Those kind of factors made me realize that the town was going to be growing.  As long as the town is growing at a faster rate than the national average, then you will be able to reap those rewards by investing your money long term in real estate in that city or town.

Those are some things to look for. You don't have to invest in the city that you live in. If it's too expensive, and the numbers don't make sense, then, just look at the surrounding towns and cities outside of that city.