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
Posted in Tales from the trenches | Tagged real estate investing, real estate investor | Leave a commentThis 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
Posted in Tales from the trenches | Tagged real estate investing, rental property | Leave a comment