Real Estate

I’ve had a draft of this post sitting in the Four Pillars draft queue for over a month, and after a recent question by JN it seemed time to finish it and post it.  While I hope it gives a decent overview of finding, selecting and finalizing a tenancy for a rental property, please keep [...]

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In real estate there is a euphemism “this property would be ideal for a foreign buyer” which means that it’s overpriced and they need a buyer who is ignorant of local market value to pay that much for it. In smaller communities in Ontario a variant on this is “I’m going to try to [...]

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Valuation of real estate properties is quite difficult – in fact it can really only be done within a fairly broad range since in my opinion it is just too hard to try to accurately predict the sale price of a house.  The title of this post should have been “How to guess at real [...]

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In real estate there are listing which can be called “pocket listings“, “in pocket listings”, or “exclusive listings”.  In each case the idea is the same, an agent *DOESN’T* advertise the property in order not to share the commission with another agent (by representing both the buyer and seller) or to only share the commission [...]

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It wasn’t long after I’d bought my investment condo that I was called a slumlord for the first time (jokingly by a friend’s father).  I think most people who rent out real estate get called this at one point or another, and it’s a popular view of people in the business of providing housing.
A slumlord [...]

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I was in Tim Horton’s recently, and overheard two men talking.  One of them was saying “I got cash from him in the first month, but I haven’t gotten anything since then.”  Perking up at a real estate discussion, I casually eavesdropped.  They were on their way out, but I heard him continue saying “I [...]

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Dave Peniuk and Julie Broad from BC have been a part of the Canadian Personal Finance blog scene for about a year now, posting regularly and doing guest posts on real estate topics.  In addition to their blog, they offer a newsletter, and I predicted to Mike quite a while ago that they would eventually [...]

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Million Dollar Journey recently had a guest post about breaking mortgages that is a topic I’ve recently been interested in. As with many financial issues, there isn’t an easy answer whether you should do this or not, and it depends heavily on your personal situation and how much risk you’re willing to expose yourself [...]

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I’m gearing up to buy my second investment property. Now that I’ve been at the university for a year, settled in pretty well (it’s not looking like they’re going to kick me out) and know the area a bit better, it’s time to consider buying instead of renting.
My plan is to be here at [...]

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Rent-to-own (also known as lease-option) is a popular real estate strategy in the US and has been making its way into Canada in “get-rich-quick through real estate” circles.
This agreement, between a landlord and tenant, involves the landlord selling the tenant the OPTION to buy the property at a fixed price at some point in the [...]

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I recently enjoyed a post about a tenant referring her friends as potential new tenants on Single Guy and Money.  It might just be a specialized case of what I’ve wrote about before as “statistical karma” but I’ve found that being a good landlord to your tenants is a good way to help YOURSELF out.
My [...]

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I came across the idea of “Condotels” (also know as hotel-condos or Condo Hotels) a couple of years ago when a man was advertising them on craigslist Toronto. More recently a real estate club that I’m on their mailing list sent out a solicitation for people to invest in a Muskoka condo hotel and [...]

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I’ve written before about quotes being twisted for various purposes and being misleading.  One witticism for real estate investing which means what it says is “Buy land!  They aren’t making any more of it”.  The wisdom that’s supposedly encapsulated in this saying is that there is a finite amount of space on planet Earth and [...]

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It seems that doom and gloom is everywhere in the economic and real estate world.  US banks are falling like flies, US real estate is dropping like a rock – the only thing that is going up is foreclosures!  I was recently talking to a friend who is trying to sell a house and he [...]

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Go the first post in the 5 ways to make money with investment properties series.
I like to think that each of the ways I’ve written about to make money with investment real estate is real, doable and ethical. I feel the same about this way, but its the one you’ll be least interested in talking [...]

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My friend Christine has kindly agreed to write a series of posts on her experiences with buying a home for the first time which will be posted occasionally. See Part 10 – Home owner insurance.
 
Other bits and drabs

We were glad that as first-time homeowners, we did not have another property to sell before moving. [...]

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I alluded to this idea months back, but Telly didn’t like it, so I dropped it (whenever possible I like to do what Mike or Telly tell me). Recently its come up with a couple of friends, so I felt it was worth revisiting.
A friend is planning to move to another area, but she [...]

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My friend Christine has kindly agreed to write a series of posts on her experiences with buying a home for the first time which will be posted occasionally. See Part 9 – Closing costs.
 
Insurance of various kinds

In arranging insurance for our house, my husband and I were presented with other forms of insurance for [...]

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My friend Christine has kindly agreed to write a series of posts on her experiences with buying a home for the first time which will be posted occasionally. See Part 8 – Success!

In addition to the fees paid to a real estate lawyer for his/her professional services (approximately $1100 and up), you will also [...]

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My friend Christine has kindly agreed to write a series of posts on her experiences with buying a home for the first time which will be posted occasionally. See Part 7 – A close call.
Having inured ourselves to the speed-of-light pace of home buying in downtown Toronto, we had expected to be looking for a [...]

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Dave, who is in the process of buying a house asked the following question in the comments recently
I would appreciate some advice as far as asking price and renovations.
We are currently looking at purchasing an older home that will require 80K. The current owners did nothing (and I mean nothing) to the house and have [...]

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Apparently new home owners here in Canada haven’t learned much from their American counterparts because 40 year mortgages are getting more and more popular.
According to a TD bank representative about 60% of first-time home buyers are opting for a 40 year mortgage which indicates that they are having a hard time affording the house and [...]

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Now that we are in the sub-prime era, it has become very fashionable to declare that home owners that bought houses with little or no down payment are a big reason why foreclosures are at record levels. I have to respectfully disagree.
In my opinion, when buying a house, it doesn’t make a big difference [...]

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NOTE: All software linked to in this post is NON-AFFILIATE. We don’t make any money off of any of these, I’m just linking to them because I think they’re interesting. The Reflexive games allow one hour of free play before purchase.
A few months ago I posted some ideas for a real [...]

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My brother has to travel constantly for his job. While he was in North America, he and his girlfriend owned a Mazda3. As they were getting ready to leave North America they wanted to sell their car (instead of paying for it to sit in storage). A bunch of his co-workers were [...]

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Algonquin sky
I’ve been reading some “sky is falling” articles lately regarding underwater mortgages or upside down mortgages, where the amount owed by the house owner is greater than the value of the home. Just read the first line of the post if nothing else to get a sense of the panic.
Maybe I’m missing something, [...]

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Toronto Life had an excellent article some time back on mortgage slaves. The Canadian Capitalist has linked to this article before, and I think its an excellent question: is it worthwhile being house poor?
My ex-girlfriend and I discussed buying a place together a few times, and her feeling was always that to live [...]

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If you watch late-night infomercials, or attend the “free real estate investing” seminars, a popular element of the sales pitch is grinning people talking about buying property with “built-in equity”. They talk about getting a property, pulling $100K of equity out and going on a trip to Hawaii.
I’d like to get $100K and a [...]

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It always drives me nuts when people recommend a specific investment, give a bunch of reasons to buy it then finish with “of course, do your own due diligence before buying”. As I’ve written before, it always feels like such a cop-out. Often books which specifically claim to help you learn how to [...]

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Return on investment (ROI) is a popular, useful way to evaluate an investment. Simply, it’s the return you get from an investment, divided by how much it cost you. E.g. you buy a GIC/CD for $1,000, a year later they return your $1,000 and give you $50 in interest, you’ve got a 5% [...]

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My tenants are coming off of the end of their first year’s lease, and happily they’re going to stay. Landlords always have strong opinions on the subject of rent increases (and rent decreases – most are dangerously, stupidly opposed to them).
One school of thought is that property is an investment, and in order to [...]

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Dan from Toronto wrote to ask:
I noticed you’ve purchased an investment property that you rent out. I’ve recently purchased a new home, re-financing my existing condominium to help pay the downpayment on the new home, and also renting out the condo. The rental income from the condominium covers quite evenly the operating cost of the [...]

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One of the things every “Starting With Real Estate Investing” book or information source says is to get insurance. Obviously having your investment burn down or getting hit with a multi-million dollar lawsuit would suck. I’ve written before that I’m not a huge fan of insurance (and I really believe if you start [...]

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My friend Christine has kindly agreed to write a series of posts on her experiences with buying a home for the first time which will be posted occasionally. See Part 8 – Condos and Taxes.
Several months into the Search
After a few months of searching for a house, what have we learned about ourselves and what [...]

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My friend Christine has kindly agreed to write a series of posts on her experiences with buying a home for the first time which will be posted occasionally. See Part 7 – A Close Call.
Condo Show
After a dismal period of viewing unappealing and expensive properties, we decided to attend the Metro Toronto Condo Show just [...]

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It’s no secret that Mike and I aren’t big fans of real estate agents. A couple times when we’ve gotten together, it’s been clear that the value of agents is a running debate in the Pillars household, and I was delighted to throw my support behind Mike (at least when his wife was out [...]

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My friend Christine has kindly agreed to write a series of posts on her experiences with buying a home for the first time which will be posted occasionally. See Part 6 – Week One with a agent.
As the weeks went by, the house hunt took us to a nicely renovated semi with rental potential. After [...]

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My friend Christine has kindly agreed to write a series of posts on her experiences with buying a home for the first time which will be posted occasionally. See Part 5 – The Search.
Of four houses that we were to view, two were unexpectedly taken off the market that day. In one case, a [...]

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I’ve often thought that an interesting game would be a simulation that takes you through a few decades of a real estate investor’s career. Yes, yes I’ve heard of monopoly, you’re very funny!
What I envision would involve analyzing properties, determining the cash flow, and dealing with unexpected changes in market conditions and interest rates [...]

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