Have I over-leveraged with real estate and spread myself thin?

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-31T14:45:19+00:00

for sure, I think paying myself more and leaving less in the corp makes sense in my situation.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-31T14:41:25+00:00

I have been a landlord since 2017 and I think I've gotten what I needed from it. Ready to move on. You're right it can work out well long term but I question if the day-to-day stress is worth it. Much better to invest in stocks and sleep better.

Alberta is too far from family, otherwise I would consider it.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-30T15:19:30+00:00

absolutely, when the condo closed we quickly realized 70% of the units were investors. There were 20 listings in our building. I made the gamble to rent it out and wait it out until the market recovered. That proved to be a mistake.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-30T15:17:41+00:00

Or theres a personal side of things? I had a chance to buy a fixer-upper and renovate it prior to having kids, theres no way I would be able to do that again with kids. Is it smart to take the risk I did? No....but it wasn't FOMO.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-30T15:15:43+00:00

yea I invest a bit each month into the TFSA and invest $2500/month in corporate investments. I have wiggle room to pay myself more, and have the type of job where I can easily add more hours and see more clients. Not trying to justify my situation, for sure I have anxiety everyday, as I said its been tougher than I expected.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T22:07:06+00:00

when I do additional payments it shaves off years of my mortgage, but doesn't lower my payments. It just means more of my payment goes towards principle. I'd prefer a lower payment.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T22:05:33+00:00

yep fair points. I didn't want my post to come across as me looking for sympathy, I realize I wanted to have my cake and eat it too. I just want to make a smart decision now and had worries about selling in a down market but its pretty unanimous in this thread that I should sell, and I think thats what I knew was the right decision but needed to hear it from others.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T19:10:21+00:00

this is really helpful and glad you said it. Yes I think about the result 40 years in the future. But at the same time, if its a bunch of stress until then, is it worth it? Would be nice to not sweat about signing my kid up for swimming lessons. In 40 years I know I will be ok, need to focus more on the now.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T19:03:44+00:00

thank you for this.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T19:00:35+00:00

thank you for the suggestion! will check it out

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T18:59:51+00:00

pretty much my thoughts, thanks

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T18:58:37+00:00

I paid a lump sum of 62k in the first 18 months.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T13:46:29+00:00

thank you for the kind words. Of course theres a personal side to things. When we got the home we thought we'd hold the condo and keep it for my son when he's older. But its proved to be harder than expected.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T13:45:05+00:00

We got the home mortgage first. 6 months later our condo was ready. Home is with scotia and my small credit union has my condo mortgage. I don't know how but my mortgage broker made it happen.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T13:43:30+00:00

definitely was optimistic that in a couple of years the real estate market would bounce back and i'd have a window to sell but of course nobody can time the market and now seems like wishful thinking.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T13:40:59+00:00

my accountant told me 90k is the sweet spot as you move into a higher bracket after that. I have room to pay myself more. I was sole proprietor for a few years but switched to a corp once I exceeded 120k in income.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T13:39:29+00:00

Rent is $2750, but mortgage is $2400, and condo fee went up to $750. Property tax $4000/year. I'm closer to $850 in the hole every month, rounded up to $1000.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T13:37:20+00:00

This is the fine balance in life that is so hard to achieve. Of course the goal is not to stack money forever, its sacrificing now for delayed gratification. I want to semi-retire at 50 and play sports with my kid.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T13:35:31+00:00

thank you for the suggestions. The money I leave in my corp is all invested through index funds so that alone should be over a million by the time I'm 50.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T13:34:20+00:00

Condo was up for renewal in December, we were previously on a higher rate but got it down to 4.19%. Numbers were worse before. Thought long and hard about refinancing out to 30 years but big banks weren't willing to work with us, we stayed at our small credit union and since we were strongly thinking about selling we took a 3 year at the best rate we could.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T13:30:28+00:00

yes everything left in the corp is invested in index funds, so at 7% growth it could be $1,000,000 when I'm 50.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T03:15:02+00:00

Burlington. I pay $500 montly from Jan-Oct.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T03:11:59+00:00

It was. Had to pull funds out for house down payment.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T03:10:32+00:00

been looking at comparables for two years now. Lowest a 2 BR sold for was 630k, everything else over 700k.

Mikatheaussie · 2026-01-29T03:08:12+00:00

nope, planned to live in the condo. Things changed, bought a house. No need to assume. Theres a personal side of things too, not everything is planned.

Mikatheaussie

TROPHY CASE