Is anyone on here a landlord?

hondalrd · Jan 9, 2019

Hey, So lately I have been tossing around the idea of buying a second property as the housing market is very cheap compared to what it usually is here. Depended on oil prices. I am curious if anyone on here owns some rental properties? Just looking for some advice on pricing and utilities and some other things. I am fairly young (25) and would like to start earning some more money and set myself financially for the future.

Thanks

LUCKY 7 · Jan 9, 2019

I saw on the news the other day about a couple that rented out their house in Calgary after they had moved to Grand Prairie and the renters trashed the house. owners are out 20 grand

Bnorth · Jan 9, 2019

LUCKY 7 said:
I saw on the news the other day about a couple that rented out their house in Calgary after they had moved to Grand Prairie and the renters trashed the house. owners are out 20 grand

Wow that's helpful

lilduke · Jan 9, 2019

I rented out some places and they got trashed.
Lost money. I'd do it again, but not single family residence though. You need more doors simple as that. I'd like to get into apartment buildings with no less than 16 units. Need to have full time management. Can't afford that if you only have 1 unit.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

maxwell · Jan 9, 2019

seems to depend on the product you offer. We have had very good luck with our nicer more expensive rental properties. while our slum houses with low pricing get trashed or have high turnover/non payment rate. the pricing you have directly correlates to the type of renters you are going to get.

1 - do your proper background checks and references. what looks good in an interview quickly becomes ugly after a few phone calls.

2 - the old saying no news is good news...FALSE. make sure your doing yearly or even biyearly property inspections. i didn't hear from a renter for 3 years and they paid on time and never complained. the next month the up and dissapeared and what a mess they left

3 - government assistance. you might think WOW this person is gets 1500$ a month from the government thats a guaranteed rent payment. WRONG. Our government is so fawked that people on any sort of assistance can just spend there money how they please. no one is checking to make sure they are spending it on essentials like rent and bills first.

4 - become very familiar with your rights and responsibilities as a landlord. Everything is in the favor of the tenant so when things go south ( and they will ) you need to know the process of removing them before hand rather than looking into it and trying to figure it out as its happening so your not losing out on a couple months of income.

5 - a good tenant is pricesless. take care of them. fix things they complain about. buy them a christmas gift. whatever.

6 - turnover is expensive. cleaning/repairs/missed months/ time spent tracking down new renters. try and go with 1 year leases if they are up for it. will save you a pile of time

all that being said. a good running rental property with good tenants can be very prosperous and a good setup for the future. but be warned, if things go south you will ask yourself WHYYY am i doing this haha!

good luck!

NoBrakes! · Jan 9, 2019

Start small

I have a one bedroom condo downtown Edmonton. minimal upkeep and less systems to maintain. Condo board can sometimes help with keeping an eye/ear on the place. as stated, good tenants need to be looked after. empty unit for a short period easily negates any profit.

5% down required for a primary residence purchase, 20% for rental/vacation property. Maybe smarter to rent out your current home and move yourself into something new

I want to buy my neighbours house next, they're already legal for basement rental and I can have 2 garages lol

deaner · Jan 9, 2019

To me the risk/reward just isnt there. But I know some people who have done very well with it too. Personally, I wouldnt touch it with a 10 foot pole. BC is even worse than Alberta for all of the rules being in the renters favor. And for people that cant seem to do well in life, renters sure do know every word of the residential tenancy act! Not enough recourse and rights for the landlord IMO.

The only way I would get involved in rentals is if I felt the real estate market was undervalued and wanted to buy low, rent it out, and sell when the market goes up. Thats just me though.

hondalrd · Jan 9, 2019

Thanks for the reply’s guys. I have put some thought into a apartment/condo but I figured the condo fees which are close to 350$ a month for lost places I called would cut into the profit margin a lot vs putting that fee money towards the mortgage payment. I would rent my current place out but it is a acreage I have been building for the past 5 years and finally finished the shop so I enjoy it there haha. Seems like there is a lot of 3-4 bed room older houses listed for cheap was considering something like that. There is also a couple mobile homes in trailer parks that are cheap but there is the $400 a month park fee. They do seem to get rented out tho. Seen lots up for rent then not available.

lilduke · Jan 9, 2019

NoBrakes! said:
Start small

I have a one bedroom condo downtown Edmonton. minimal upkeep and less systems to maintain. Condo board can sometimes help with keeping an eye/ear on the place. as stated, good tenants need to be looked after. empty unit for a short period easily negates any profit.

5% down required for a primary residence purchase, 20% for rental/vacation property. Maybe smarter to rent out your current home and move yourself into something new

I want to buy my neighbours house next, they're already legal for basement rental and I can have 2 garages lol

That's the thing about having 1 unit, if your tenant moves out you are at 100% vacancy. If you had 100 units 10 people could move out and you are still 90% occupied.

Obviously it's alot of money to get into a 100 unit building.
But just saying.

eclipse1966 · Jan 9, 2019

I have a couple places that I rent out. Best advice I could give is not to set your rental rate on the highest side of the scale. Ultimately, you want a good tenant and if rate is too high you will have more turnover vs a good rental rate where the tenant wants to stay. Usually, when a tenant leaves you will have 1 month vacancy until it gets filled. Thats lost revenue that can never be recovered. Always have the tenant pay for their utilities otherwise they will not care about cost savings. Good luck!

hondalrd said:
Hey, So lately I have been tossing around the idea of buying a second property as the housing market is very cheap compared to what it usually is here. Depended on oil prices. I am curious if anyone on here owns some rental properties? Just looking for some advice on pricing and utilities and some other things. I am fairly young (25) and would like to start earning some more money and set myself financially for the future.

Thanks

Frosty19 · Jan 9, 2019

Not a landlord myself, but do work for a land developer that has 100s of units they own and rent out through a property manager so I have heard or seen some things about how it works. Absolutely know the landlord/tenant agreement inside and out and get every little thing in writing, no matter how trivial it may seem at the time.

it will 100% depend on the tenant if its worthwhile, especially with one unit as was said because you're either collecting the rent or paying the mortgage yourself and fixing whatever was wrecked by the previous tenant, no in between. Depending on the person(s), you could be running back and forth to the house from your acreage every week for some "complaint" (we build new and rent out and some people call because their cabinet doors are crooked and need to be adjusted... and they'll annoy you until its fixed), or they'll stop paying rent and/or up and leave with the entire place trashed and your one month rent damage deposit won't cover s**t.
I agree with more units = better, buying two sides of a duplex or a house with a main floor and legal basement suite would be better than one 4 bedroom house IMO, (I have also seen whole new 4-plexes for sale here, if I had the cash I personally would lean towards something like that).
Also, if the real estate is cheap, I would think that leans towards the rent market being soft also so just make sure you know the market before you're tied down with two mortgages.

Just my thoughts, I dont want to be your financial planner by any means lol

Summitric · Jan 9, 2019

I have a friend who owns and rents out 10 houses... Doing very well, and he's monitoring all the houses on a weekly basis here in edmonton. I believe he is looking at an apartment building next

eclipse1966 · Jan 9, 2019

we just bought a condo for our daughter in Calgary as she is going to university there. Our condo fees are $600 per month. That is pretty high but after looking into what it covers is not that bad. Our property insurance is covered in that fee, snow removal, building maintenance etc etc. So, you may pay $350 per month up front but find out what it covers. You maybe surprised that it is not that bad.

On another note, be very careful to make sure Calgary condos (if thats where you buy) are in good standing order for strata fees/money in the bank to satisfy their obligations. There is billions in outstanding damages caused by the floods a few years ago. Most buildings did not have overland flood insurance so relied on fixing the buildings with the strata money but there was not enough in the pool. So, there are a lot of buildings in Calgary that are in trouble! Out of 38 units we looked at 26 had "special notices" because of this.

hondalrd said:
Thanks for the reply’s guys. I have put some thought into a apartment/condo but I figured the condo fees which are close to 350$ a month for lost places I called would cut into the profit margin a lot vs putting that fee money towards the mortgage payment. I would rent my current place out but it is a acreage I have been building for the past 5 years and finally finished the shop so I enjoy it there haha. Seems like there is a lot of 3-4 bed room older houses listed for cheap was considering something like that. There is also a couple mobile homes in trailer parks that are cheap but there is the $400 a month park fee. They do seem to get rented out tho. Seen lots up for rent then not available.

NoBrakes! · Jan 9, 2019

our tenants cover the mortgage and I pay the taxes and condo fees... this sounds like a loss but I'm paying 300$/month and they're paying off my 1200$/mo mortage for me so its really not that bad. 8 more years and they will be payin my house mortgage for me. I'm not getting rich off of it, that's for sure. I just couldn't sell the condo when we bought the house, so I kept it.

Summitric · Jan 9, 2019

A property management company might help too, with collecting rents and dealing with tenants and references etc ....eg: Homestreet property management

Bnorth · Jan 9, 2019

I would be leery buying in Calgary, that market has been flat/gently softening for years and there is nothing economically to indicate that will change soon. That may be fine for you if the place is cash flow positive but if you end up like NoBrakes you're counting on the market to rise to earn any investment income.

We have a basement suite in our house. First tenant was an idiot and we got to deal with evicting him at the same time my wife was giving birth to our first, good times. New tenant is amazing good job, quiet, courteous everything you could hope for. We keep rent a bit lower than peak market and give him a bit of a break on it at Christmas every year to keep him happy. My wife stays at home raising our son so we are a one income family but the goal is once she is back to work to get into an acreage and rent the main floor of our existing place as well. Trying to keep the acreage relatively close to town so we can add an income suite/loft/carriage house or the like to that place as well. We looked at getting into a place at a ski resort but the monthly fees / management fees are huge on the less expensive places and anything else was out of our budget.

As said above the tenant unfortunately has more rights than you and any delay in working through the process works in their favour so document, document, document. A bad tenant is not worth it so don't be in a rush to get one into the place. You're better off having it sit empty for a month or 3 waiting for a good fit than dealing with a loser renter.

freeflorider · Jan 9, 2019

I’m with lilduke and dealers comments in the first page. I had problem after problem with renters, thousands in damage and a mess to clean up afterwords. Had property management and that didn’t go so well because they took to much off the top and still had issues with people. Lildukes on the right track with multiple units and run it like a hotel (business) deaner so right on rules in BC, your better off to be the renter then the landlord.
im seeing more people doing the short term rentel thing. For us over here to have a room over the garage and rent it out for weekends or short stays for skiers or sledders at a premium. Or the lake front cabin at $2500 week, no different then a vacation for a week in Mexico, if you could pick up 2-3 months in the summer that would help you coast through the winter on vacation rental...just a thought.

kanedog · Jan 9, 2019

If I was to be a landlord I would own a ****ty house. That way, when the tenants start to play games I would simply light that bitch on fire when they were at work. Haha squat on this pile of ash and you have no home now!

FastFarmer · Jan 9, 2019

lilduke said:
That's the thing about having 1 unit, if your tenant moves out you are at 100% vacancy. If you had 100 units 10 people could move out and you are still 90% occupied.

Obviously it's alot of money to get into a 100 unit building.
But just saying.

You’re on the right track with this thinking, however it’s not the revenue it’s the asset and the “rent” ensures your asset remains valuable and increases consistently. I can say that the expense for professional fees alone for owing an apartment building can be a yearly cost equal to what some people make in a year. Another avenue is share investment into residential or commercial developments, you are surrounded by intelligent people who have a solid foundation and with the right partners it is a positive relationship. Personally I would reccommend a commercial property to invest in, put in some elbow grease and you will know why I say that....mail money is a good thing.

lilduke · Jan 9, 2019

FastFarmer said:
You’re on the right track with this thinking, however it’s not the revenue it’s the asset and the “rent” ensures your asset remains valuable and increases consistently. I can say that the expense for professional fees alone for owing an apartment building can be a yearly cost equal to what some people make in a year. Another avenue is share investment into residential or commercial developments, you are surrounded by intelligent people who have a solid foundation and with the right partners it is a positive relationship. Personally I would reccommend a commercial property to invest in, put in some elbow grease and you will know why I say that....mail money is a good thing.

I know some big players in the commercial real estate game in Alberta (through my dad, hes a smart guy) I just need the coin and I can get in on some good things.
Just didn't want to make the post all about me, some times I'm bad for that haha :beer:

Is anyone on here a landlord?

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