[Z3guy]

Originally Posted by Hehe

I'd say probably not much assuming that amount of money was invested elsewhere.

In 2012 (when the thread started), USD:CAD was roughly at par (slightly higher for CAD throughout the year as a matter of fact).

My family investment fund (my parents and my 2 uncles put together their money to invest in US) bought a commercial property for 3.5M USD in Texas in mid 2013 that generates 300k in rent NNN per year, or around 1.2M in the 4yr period. They sold it earlier this year in late Jan for 6.3M. So total earning was 6.3(sold price)+1.2(NNN rent)-3.5(original investment)=4M USD gain, or at today's rate, 5.2M in CAD.

So, for the same 3.5M CAD in 2013, if we bought a house in West Side, we probably had doubled in CAD term if lucky, so 7M CAD today. Assuming we could rent it out for 5k per month (and I'd say it's generous), that's 60k per year in rent, minus roughly 10k for taxes, insurance and maintenance cost, we are looking at 7.2M CAD. 7.2-3.5=3.7M CAD gain.

My point is... open your mind a bit... it's not just Vancouver RE that's going up in value. And when it comes to investment, pick wisely.

Thanks for the insight, but you don't comment about getting the money back into Canada. If you keep the money & profits in US, that makes sense, but if you want to pull it back into Canada, get ready to raked over the coals by the US govt and both taxmen......