Well, if you do, then you might be interested in reading this blog. I recently closed on a commercial, strata titled office/ warehouse property in Richmond, BC. Great property; only 5 years old, a nice sized warehouse on the main floor, and a small office on the second floor. To make it even better, I’m 99% sure that the last tenants used it as a porn studio. Since I’ve purchased lots of residential real estate over the past ten years, I figured that this would be easy. The lender only looks at the property, not the borrower in the commercial real estate world, right? Well, this is certainly what I was lead to believe by most people out there, but … Continue reading →

I get asked this all the time. “If you live in Vancouver, why do you invest in Alberta?” Surely, it must be simpler to invest closer to home. Less commute time, easier to manage, etc. The short answer is that it doesn’t really matter where you invest, as long as the fundamentals in the market are correct. This is mostly true, although accessibility is somewhat important to me as well. I like to be able to travel to my investment within a day, simply in the event of an emergency. That pretty much means that anywhere in North America fits the bill. The top 10 reasons that I like Alberta over BC; 1.     Economy. Alberta (and Saskatchewan), are the Canadian … Continue reading →

Like many Canadian real estate investors, I’ve had my eyes on the USA market for about 10 years now. The two particular markets that I’ve paid the most attention to have been Phoenix, Arizona, and Dallas/ Fort Worth, Texas. Why those markets you might ask? Phoenix for its in-migration (Baby Boomers/ Snowbirds) an escapees from the mayhem of LA, immigration from Mexico, low taxes, and attractiveness to major employers (cheap land, labour, etc.) Heck, there must be a reason it’s the 6th largest metro area in the USA now? I must admit, the weather, and having an excuse to travel down there didn’t hurt, either. Add to that a 3 hour direct flight from Vancouver…bonus! Dallas/ Fort Worth for the same … Continue reading →

Most real estate investors, even the “old-school” ones, now rely on electronic means to collect at least a portion of their rents. Gone are the days when most of us only collected post-dated cheques, or cold, hard cash. Although we still collect cash and paper cheques, at least half of our tenants pay us via direct deposit, or more commonly, via EMT (email money transfer). These EMT’s are offered through Interac, a secure, reliable system governed by the big Canadian banks.  It is not uncommon for us to deposit up to $30,000 on the first of the month in email money transfers. Well, as many people now know, on Oct 1, 2013, the system came to a screeching halt. Whether … Continue reading →

You buy a new residential rental property, and do your due diligence by hiring a home inspector to look over things and provide a report. Everything looks good, you remove conditions, and away you go! Well, did you know that home inspectors don’t check absolutely everything? Nothing against them, they are a critical team member to most successful real estate investors, but they’re not superhuman. What are some of the things that they don’t usually find? 1. Foundation issues. Most good inspectors can see if there is a large gaping crack in the concrete foundation, but what happens when no foundation wall is exposed? They don’t have x-ray vision like Superman, and can’t see what’s behind the drywall, nor are … Continue reading →

Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call at 7 am from my Dad, telling me that one of our rental properties had finally made the front page of the Edmonton Journal. Unfortunately he was correct, the photo below is one of our properties. I instantly recognized the house, and the people standing out front, surrounded by yellow police tape and speaking with the officer, were most certainly tenants of ours. The only fortunate thing was that our house was not the scene of the crime, only an innocent bystander in the whole unfortunate situation.  A young girl had been murdered in the duplex next door during a home invasion in the middle of the night. Simply an awful situation, … Continue reading →

This story is one of my favorites, simply because it taught me a good lesson. Hopefully you will learn from my mistake and not make the same one. My business partner and I purchased a rental property in Fairfield Island area of Chilliwack back in the spring of 2008. Typical BC box built in the 1970’s, 3 bedroom suite upstairs, and a two bedroom suite in the basement. My business partner went to school in Chilliwack and knew the area well, for me it was all relatively new. The numbers seemed to work, so we jumped in after having the property inspected by the pros. Within a year of owning and managing the property, the toilet and drains in the … Continue reading →

You hear the saying all the time; “Cash is King”. Well, in the buy and hold real estate world, cash FLOW is actually King. It is really the only thing that matters. I personally don’t care if the value of my investment goes up, down, or sideways (at least in the short term). The only thing that really matters is that the rental income covers all of my monthly obligations. This includes the mortgage payment, property taxes, condo/ strata fees, property management fees, and any maintenance required. I know that my money is made by paying down the mortgage over a period of 25-35 years, using tenant’s money to do so. If the value goes up, that’s a bonus. In … Continue reading →