Nancy Sackville. - Vancouver, BC:

I am a single mother with two children. When I moved back to my parents' basement in 2002 after divorce, I was devastated. I started to learn real estate investing in 2003. My first deal was a 2-bedroom condo in New Westminster at $80,000. I borrowed down-payment from my mother and my sister. I sold that condo in 2005 at $140,000. I paid off all my debt and started a brand new real estate investing journey. Now I have two houses. One is my dream home and another one is rental property producing good passive income.

Meghan S., a professional land developer, Vancouver, BC:

We purchased a seven acre property with a duplex house in Surrey in 2001. The property was listed at $339,000, but we paid $300,000. We had been holding the property until beginning of this year and we sold it for about $7 million to a construction company after it was rezoned and subdivided. It is so powerful to build wealth through real estate.

Paul Caldwell, a real estate investor, Vancouver, BC:

In December 2005, we found a house in Vancouver East listed for $430,000 on MLS. In winter it is hard to sell a property. The owner was motivated. We negotiated and bought the house for $383,000 in February. We had the house renovated at a cost of $15,000 and sold the house in April 2006 for 519,000. After all expenses, we netted $105,000 in just three months.

Holly Dalton, Coquitlam, BC:

I like to buy properties with low money down and assumable mortgage. I select properties with good revenue income so that I have good cash flow. Last year, I bought a three-story house in Port Coquitlam for just $5000 down and it cash flows $350/mon. Plus it does not have much work to do. Everything is in great condition. By now the house has appreciated by $20,000 or so.

Larry Lawrence, a real estate investor, Surrey, BC:

Before selling our primary residence we began looking for our new home on MLS in Surrey. We found a home we really liked. We made an offer with the realtor and bought it in two days. The house had an assessed value of $557,000, an actual value of $650,000 and we purchased it for $5270,000.

Julie Lobdale, Vancovuer, BC:

Last month, I found a property in Coquitlam on a for-sale-by-owner website. The property actually has two houses sitting on a large lot. A senior couple owns this property for 19 years and it is free and clear. Two tenant families live in the two houses, respectively. After negotiating with the owner, we finally bought it at a price $20,000 lower than the market value, with owner financing us $50,000 for three years. Most importantly, the large lot is sub-dividable. What a deal!

Don Murray, Langley, BC:

I am a duplex guy, and I just buy duplexes, triplexes, or fourplexes. I like duplexes because they have more suites and each half duplex is just like a house, but much cheaper. Plus all suites are legal suites. I just bought a duplex with 4 suites in Maple Ridge at beginning of this year (2007). The market value for the duplex was $470,000 and I bought at $410,000. It brings me $650 cash flow every month.

Caroline Walpol, Richmond, BC:

I am a sectary in a high-tech company. A few years ago I hardly had any money left at month end. My husband and I decided to change our life. So we attended a local real estate seminar. The first one we did was a lease-to-own. Three years later we bought this house. During the three years, my husband has improved the house value a lot before we owned it. Now the house is about $100,000 more than the price we bought.