Sandy Mackay has bought over 300 units and closed more than 2,500 transactions in the last 15 years. When he says a certain plan is the best combination of programs he's ever seen for someone starting out, that's worth fifteen minutes of your time.
Here's the plan. It stacks four moves into one purchase, and each move makes the next one easier.
Move one: buy where the seller actually needs to sell
Right now across Hamilton, Burlington and Niagara, a specific group of sellers is stuck. They own small multifamily properties, duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and those properties need work. New roofs, updated units, deferred maintenance. Turnkey buyers won't touch them. Cash investors are being picky. So these properties sit.
That's not bad news for you. That's the opening.
A seller who has been carrying a tired triplex for months is a seller who negotiates. Not just on price. On closing date, on inspection terms, on who pays for what. You don't need to be the highest bidder. You need to be the credible one who's still standing when the property that needs work has scared everyone else off.
Move two: finance the renovation instead of paying for it out of pocket
This is the part most first-time buyers have never had explained to them properly.
Under a purchase plus improvements structure, you buy the property, and the cost of the renovation gets built into your mortgage. You're not saving up separately after closing and living in a half-finished unit for two years. The lender holds back the renovation funds and releases them in draws as work gets done and verified. CMHC's Improvement program allows amortization up to 25 years, so you're financing that work at a normal mortgage rate over a normal mortgage term, not a personal loan rate or a credit card.
The part that trips people up is contractor pricing. A renovation quoted in March can drift by the time work starts in July, and a loose timeline turns a six-week reno into a six-month one. That's the actual failure point in most purchase-plus-improvements deals, and it's why we run this through a construction partner who locks pricing and timeline before you go firm on the property. Our first buyer through this structure, which we call Ready Home, went firm with both locked in before removing conditions. That deal closed this week and the renovation starts within weeks, not months.
Move three: live in it and let tenants cover the rest
This is the house hack. You buy a property with two, three or four units, live in one, and rent out the others. Your tenants' rent goes toward your mortgage, not someone else's.
The common assumption is that a triplex or fourplex automatically means a bigger down payment than a single-family home. That assumption stops a lot of people before they even look. What actually opens up for owner-occupied small multifamily properties is a different conversation entirely, and it's worth having with a mortgage professional before you rule anything out based on what you assumed from a Google search. Don't let a number you half-remember from somewhere else talk you out of a property you haven't even seen yet.
Move four: build equity before you've spent a single night there
Here's the piece people underestimate. When you buy a property that needs work at a motivated-seller price, then finance a renovation that brings it up to market standard, you're not just fixing a place up. You're closing the gap between what you paid and what it's actually worth, before move-in day.
That's equity you built through the deal structure, not equity you're hoping to earn through five years of market appreciation. In a market where buyer leverage above roughly $1.5M is real but most first-time buyers aren't shopping in that range, this is one of the few ways someone starting out can create real value on day one instead of waiting for it.
Why August is the month to start looking
August inventory skews toward sellers who genuinely need to move. The less motivated ones pull their listings this month, let the property sit quiet, and relaunch fresh in September with a new photo package and a reset days-on-market clock. What's left listed right now, especially in the small multifamily category, is disproportionately owned by people who actually want out.
That window narrows fast. September brings fresh competing inventory and buyers who were waiting on the sidelines all summer. If you're planning to run this stack, the properties sitting today, tired and unloved, are your best shot at a seller who'll actually negotiate.
You can see what's currently available across the region on our full listings page, and if Hamilton is where you're focused, our Hamilton investment properties page is a good place to start narrowing down candidates for exactly this kind of purchase.
What could go wrong, and how to avoid it
The honest risks here aren't hidden. A renovation without a locked price and locked timeline can eat your budget and your patience. A tenant screening process done in a rush can cost you a bad year. And insured mortgage financing isn't available once a property's value hits $1.5M, so this plan works best in the price ranges most first-time buyers are already shopping anyway.
None of that makes the plan weaker. It just means the details matter more than the headline. That's why the renovation piece runs through a construction partner with pricing locked upfront, and why the whole thing gets built around your actual numbers with a mortgage professional, not a rough estimate from a blog post.
The takeaway: buying a property that needs work, financing the fix into your mortgage, and living in one unit while tenants cover the rest isn't a workaround for people who can't afford a normal home. It's a legitimate strategy that builds equity faster than waiting ever will, and right now the sellers who make it possible are more motivated than they'll be by October.
You can read more about how we think about this market on our blog, and if you want the fuller picture on Sandy's background running this exact plan for 15 years, his page has the details.
Figures on renovation financing referenced here are verified as of August 2026. Confirm current eligibility, terms and amortization details with a mortgage professional before making decisions.
Ready to see if this plan fits your numbers?
Every buyer's situation is different, and the details of purchase plus improvements financing depend on your specific price range, down payment and property type. The best next step is a plain conversation, not a guess. Book a call with our team and we'll walk through what this stack could actually look like for you.
