First, I have a small disclaimer. As much as I think investing in small town, Ontario is a wonderful idea, it doesn't mean that investing in big city, Ontario is a bad idea. It's just different.
Purchasing Power
Here is my first point, and it's really simple. It's just that your dollars go further. Your purchasing power is more. So for example, you take the exact same two houses and you put one of them in the big city and one of them in the small town, you're just gonna be able to purchase that home in the smaller town for less money. So your dollars go further. And I know some of you are gonna say, yeah, but Cory, a big part of the value of that property is its location. And you're right, it is. And I'll come back to that.
More Income Potential
The second point that I think is worth making is that your rent actually isn't that different between big city, Ontario and small town, Ontario. In fact, they can be only marginally less than what you would get in the big city. So if you're keeping track, you've now bought a property for less money, but you're generating the same amount of income. So your dollars are doing more for you. Remember when I said I was gonna circle back to location? Well, here we are. I think it's important to pay attention to where you're going to invest. And investing in small town, Ontario is good, but it can't be too small. Or perhaps I should say it can't be too far away from the big city. You don't wanna buy out in the middle of nowhere.
In fact, when we bought our first rental property, it was just outside of London and we reaped the benefits of paying a lower price, but collecting similar rents to inside of the city. However, over the course of us owning that property path and progress has come out to us. People have begun to move into that small town more and more and it's disproportionately pushed the value of our property up compared to the big city. So all of this has allowed us to take that first property and springboard us into more investment properties, more in small towns, more in big cities as well.
Regulation
Although it may not be quantifiable by any specific metric. And it's regulation. The reality is the properties that we have in London just have a lot more regulation around them. The city of London makes us jump through a lot more hoops in order to comply, whether it's registering your property with the city of London, through paying a licensing fee, or they demand that you have the fire department come through, you don't see a lot of that in smaller town, Ontario.
In fact, they're just happy that you are providing housing for people that are looking. There's not a lot of rental properties in small town, Ontario. So the municipalities are generally very happy to see you providing it and we'll leave you alone for the most part, unless you're doing something specifically egregious.
One last disclaimer
Do your homework. Do the homework on the economics surrounding the town that you're looking to invest in. Is it a actual good spot to invest in? Don't buy out in the middle of nowhere where the path of development's never going to reach there or it's gonna take forever and ever for it to reach there. So do that homework. And if you don't know what that looks like, get in touch down below and I'd be happy to explain that a little bit more. So if you get the fundamentals right then you're gonna reap the benefits of disproportionate cashflow and disproportionate appreciation on that property that you've purchased.
If you're considering jumping into the investment game or you're looking for your next investment property, then I hope you'll consider small town, Ontario. Not only is it a market that is drastically underserved and you'll be serving that need, but it's also a great investment, which is a win-win for everybody. And I love when that can happen. So that's it for me until next time, I hope you have a wonderful day.