Episode Summary
In this episode of Get Real Wealthy Season 2, Quentin takes on the question; ‘would you rather have 100% of $5,000 a month in cash flow or 1% of $500,000 in rents.’
Quentin says that the reason why we’re going through this is to give you a perspective of whether you invest directly in one to four-unit properties and build a portfolio over time or you decide to scale into a property and have an idea of what that cash flow would look like for you based on that portfolio. To understand this, really, you need to know about the debt coverage ratio, what cash flow is and agree on that. Then, look at the portfolio size, how that affects your cash flow and the returns that you get on a particular investment.
The debt coverage ratio is a way for the bank to determine whether they are going to fund your property or not. If you calculate your mortgage, utility payments, property taxes, insurance, and some variable costs, put them all that together, that is the debt on the property. So, If you are getting an equivalent amount of monthly rent to debt, that means you would have a 1.0 debt coverage ratio, and 1.2 would mean that you are earning 20% per month on that particular asset.
As for the one to four-unit property space, you are looking at proforma, which takes those same numbers that you use for a debt coverage ratio, but analyzes them from a cash flow perspective. Let’s suppose you have a cash flow of $200 from a property, and your goal is to generate $5,000 a month, you would need 25 doors to accomplish that. On the other hand, if you had portfolio size change because you decided to scale up and get into larger multifamily units, it’s easier to look at it from a debt coverage ratio perspective and get an idea of what your general rents are, you can come up with return you would be getting.
So, if you had $500,000 in rent, and you had that coverage ratio of 1.2, that means 20% of that is $100,000, which you would keep at the end of the month. If you had 50% of that as a partner, you would have $50,000 a month. Now being able to get to that scale in size takes time, but it depends on the size of the projects that you get involved in. However, other things also come into play when you scale, such as a much high mortgage payment, as compared to a smaller portfolio. Essentially, having 100% of $5,000 a month in cash flow or 1% of $500,000 in rents is going to depend on what your goals are and what you are looking to accomplish with real estate investing.
Important Links
Quentin D’Souza is the Chief Education Officer of the Durham Real Estate Investor Club. Author of The Action Taker's Real Estate Investing Planner, The Property Management Toolbox: A How-To Guide for Ontario Real Estate Investors and Landlords, The Filling Vacancies Toolbox: A Step-By-Step Guide for Ontario Real Estate Investors and Landlords for Renting Out Residential Real Estate, and The Ultimate Wealth Strategy: Your Complete Guide to Buying, Fixing, Refinancing, and Renting Real Estate.