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
Posted in Tales from the trenches | Tagged Arizona, Phoenix, real estate investor, rental property | Leave a commentMost 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 commentYou 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
Posted in Tips for investors | Tagged real estate investor, reas, rental property | Leave a commentImagine 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
Posted in Tales from the trenches | Tagged real estate investor, rental property | 1 CommentYou 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
Posted in Tips for investors | Tagged buy and hold real estate, cash flow, real estate investor | Leave a comment