First time Investor from Ontario, Canada

[Alessandro Zamai]

Hey Folks,

I am a Product Manager for a large Telco based in Toronto, but working remotely from St. Catharines, ON. I own my townhome with my partner and will have it paid off by November of 2017. I've been a long time lurker here on BP and will be bidding on my first Buy and Hold property and am looking to take on more responsibility with my families other investment properties.

While I don't have much experience with Real Estate, my family has been involved in it for 2 generations. My grandfather incorporated and built 3 commercial properties in Quebec, and rented them for 40 years. After he passed we sold them and purchased residential units all within the same town house complex in St. Catharines, ON. Since then my parents have purchased 5 other units personally in the same complex. All purchases have been doing either with cash or by using their HELOC. They are really fortunate to have no debt and are looking for more properties but are having trouble as they are only looking at this one complex.

I've always been interested in real estate but my parents aren't the best teachers. They are great a finding new tenants and screening them, but in many other respects, they are pretty unorganized. For example, my dad spends 1-2 weeks a year logging income and expenses and doing the company books, rather than tracking transactions as they occur. They are very lenient with their tenants, don't charge late fees, only raise rent every 2-3 years, and happily allow leases to roll onto monthly terms once the 1st year is over. 

I finally stepped in and helped them start using TenantCloud for basic monthly accounting, as well as a way to help track leases and equipment warranties and maintenance. and am looking to take on more responsibility soon.

Looking to learn as much as I can to help manage their investments, improve their cashflow, and understand how to evaluate a property for myself as well as for my parents to help them diversify their portfolio with properties outside of this complex.

Thanks,

Alessandro

[Matt Geerts]

@Thomas S. please comment on this: My lease was written by the lawyers hired by the LPMA (London Property Management Association, which represents landlords of approximately 30k units). My lease states that the rent is equal to 4% greater than the number written in the blank, but if rent is paid on time then it will be discounted to that number. So where I write 1200/mo that is the discounted rent. If they don't pay by the first then they forfeit the discount of 4% which is $48 and will owe me the "full" 1248.