Last lesson. You now hold the full framework: income pricing, scale math, building literacy, the financing, the full costs, the compounding mechanic, and the levers. What’s left is the practical question — when you eventually decide to buy, what actually happens? This lesson walks it plainly, including what it costs.
The process, end to end. A well-run acquisition moves through six phases: defining what you're buying (your capital, markets, and criteria — the Modeler session you’ve already done is most of this); sourcing (listed inventory plus the off-market conversations that never reach a portal — in this segment, relationships surface buildings that listings don’t); underwriting (Lesson 3, done professionally: rebuilt operating statements, verified rent rolls, market rent evidence); the offer and negotiation; due diligence (the weeks of inspections, environmental work, document verification, and financing execution — where deals earn their price or die honestly); and closing. From serious start to keys, months, not weeks — mostly because the financing from Lesson 4 involves a federal agency, and thoroughness is the point.
What a principal-led team means. In this segment of the market, you’re not handed to an assistant after the first meeting. The people who source the building, underwrite it, and negotiate it are the principals whose names are on the practice. Our team is a father and son — one of us has been doing this in Eastern Ontario for over forty years; combined, we’ve closed more than $200 million in career volume, over $100 million of it in multi-family, land, and commercial. That matters in due diligence: knowing which expense line is a story, which environmental flag is routine, and which building is priced on hope.
What it costs — plainly. Brokers are paid by commission on completed transactions, and in most purchases the commission is paid from the seller’s side of the deal. Consultations cost nothing and oblige nothing. There is no fee to talk, to ask questions, or to have someone look at your numbers.
And the closing note. Most people finishing this course shouldn’t buy a building this month. What we’d suggest instead: keep your Modeler scenario alive and revisit it when your numbers change. If you want the deeper treatment of everything this course introduced, the Builder’s Guide is the full-length version, free like everything else here. And when your numbers and your timeline say it’s real — whether that’s this year or in five — talk to us. We’ll still be here, doing the least clever strategy in real estate, the way our family has for three generations.
Thanks for taking the course. Reply to any of these emails, anytime — a person reads them, and the conversations are the best part.
Education, not advice. Commission structures vary by transaction and are confirmed in writing before any engagement.