Ex-cop on patrol for big bargains

Every investor has heard of The Wealthy Barber, but what about the multi-millionaire cop?

No, Sunil Tulsiani isn't on the take – actually he's retired from the OPP and is now president of Brampton-based Tulsiani Investments – but he is, by almost any standard, a very wealthy man.

It started a few years ago, when his wife pointed out that, as a detective and the OPP's platoon sergeant for Port Credit, Tulsiani had little time left for her or their children.

"She was right," he said. "I was working 12- and even 14-hour days."

He'd managed to put away a few bucks, so he took an unpaid absence from the force and started looking for an easier way to make money. At first, he looked into buying a food franchise.

"But it turned out to be just as much work," he said. "And if you break even the first year, you're considered a success – it was too much like buying a job."

One day as he was driving around, he saw a new condo being built. He'd been interested in investing in real estate, but didn't really know how. So he went to a three-day investing course he saw advertised on an infomercial.

"I went into it a skeptic," he said. "But went out of it and immediately bought seven low down-payment properties and started making money from rent."

Before long, he was worth millions.

Investing in real estate is something of a no-brainer. As Mark Twain famously said: "Buy land, they're not making it any more."

But land is expensive, so many investors rely on rental income to support their equity.

And right now, with house prices dropping in most places, rental markets are hot as fewer people are buying, but populations are growing, especially in big cities that are attractive to new immigrants. A lot of smart money, like Tulsiani's, is being invested in real estate.

He got started by using his savings and his good name.

"I had a terrific credit rating and that was about it," he said.

"That's why I had to buy low down payment properties that were already making money from rent."

Eventually, he started looking farther afield, investing around the GTA and in Montreal before investigating Alberta.

"Everybody knows real estate is a wise investment, especially right now with how the markets are going and because prices are so low," he said.

"It's like Wal-Mart is having a two-for-one sale (right now). "And people still need places to live."

Tulsiani has a basic philosophy for which properties he'll sink money into.

"You look for properties that are undervalued, properties with a low down payment and properties with a positive cash flow," he said.

"Generally, if you have two of those three, you can do business."