All Forum Posts by: Marshall Magnus

@Gurjot Grewal

I have seen some of your other threads. Congratulations on taking action and looking for a realtor. Unfortunately I can’t really help you in that front, but I have formed a good relationship with a mortgage broker that I would recommend, let me know if you are interested. And good work!

@Gurjot Grewal

That would be great!  I regularly here on the podcast that a person is the average of the five people they spend the most time with. At this point I am pretty sure that in my case all five of those people are authors. I love a good business or investing book but I am pretty sure all my friends are tired of talking about books. I will have to move this one up in the line so I can properly follow this thread.

When it comes to Edmonton I have a bias, I love this city. It is quite possible that I turn a blind eye to its flaws or economic problems. I really don’t know how the future will oil prices will affect the local real estate market, I have a lot to learn about markets, cycles and the larger economics of real estate. There is a good chance that once I do know more the most beneficial path will be more clear. Until then, my stance on making a decision when the choices are many and varied has alway been, if the answer is not clear then the choice is not important. Whether it is a boom or a bust, the best house on the street will be rented. This may be naive but I really do think that the quality of the house (and the margins on the deal) will hold up independent of the local or larger markets.

That was a very long and rambling way of saying I don’t think a person needs to worry about the future of Edmonton as much as they need to worry about the quality of their deal. And I look forward to talking about the book with you!

@Gurjot Grewal

I have not read the book but I am always looking for the next good read. I will take a look at this one, thanks. As for areas I have not ventured out past my home town of Edmonton but I can say that there is plenty to be had here. The more I read about others on this site, there locals, and strategies the more I see Edmonton as a place of interest. 
I am sure you will find something worthwhile anywhere if you focus in close enough. 
good luck!

@Charles Carillo

That’s great to hear you you were able to switch from self managing to hiring a property manager. Did you have the handyman while self managing or was that in combination with the property manager afterwards? I did budget that house to be run by property management but I plan on self managing until it begins to be a bottleneck for me. How many properties did you have when you switched to a full time property manager?

Here in Canada we would just get together  apologize to each other over some pancakes and maple syrup..

I kid but that is an unfortunate situation to find yourself in. If there is any beauty to see in the nature of a problem like this, it is that very few things present this level of a challenge. To be the one who deals with it makes you a bigger person for having done so. This is not easy and you could feel proud to overcome the adversity.

 
And if all else fails, you can try the pancakes and maple syrup route? Works every time. 

Hello friends!

I have been a landlord for only a short while but I think I have stumbled onto something that makes self managing more manageable. Pardon the pun.
So there I was working out the details of how I might go about managing my first rental property, when my furnace died. That was inconvenient but not unexpected, so I googled furnace companies and got “Reliance the furnace company” on the horn. They offered to fix the furnace but I opted to replace the whole mess instead, as the current 60 year old model sounded like a freight train residing in the basement (not relevant to the story). When they were finished they asked if I was interested in their plumbing protection plan. My mind went straight to managing the rental property. If there is one thing I must have heard more than any other as a reason to reconsider getting into rental properties, it was that I was surely to spend my life waking up in the middle of the night to go plunge my tenants plugged toilets. As little credit as I gave this (a truly un-noteworthy amount) I didn’t want to have to do that, yet I also was not ready to go the full property manager route. Well this seemed like the answer, and after a short seasoning period (quite short) I think it is. You are a busy bunch of people so I won’t bore you too much with the finer details of the agreement, but the nature is that for $15/month they will send a licensed plumber to diagnose, supply parts, and fix most plausible plumbing concerns. There is quite a long list of things that are and are not included but the nature of it is that they will diagnose any problem and they will supply parts and fix most things related to any kitchen or bathroom plumbing situation as well as much of the stuff buried in the walls, supply and drain. To me the best part was that I do not need to be involved at all as long as the tenants have the phone number they can call Reliance to come and look at anything at all and it will be viewed and assessed by a licensed plumber for no charge. If it is something that they can fix within the agreement, they will fix it right there and I never even have to know about it, until an email shows up saying that they did a repair. If it is something that they Think I would want to know about or which would not be covered then they will call and ask how to proceed. And yes they will even plunge a plugged toilet.

The service has been put to use three times now and I would highly recommend it. I’d like to know if anyone else in the community has found any tips or tricks like this (or unlike this)?

Thank you and keep being awesome!

Congratulations @Heather M Auclair

I really can not help you with and practicable advice, but I would like to say it is really impressive how you seem to have went after it! That sounds like a really cool circumstance you found yourself in, maybe a dream deal of it turns out to workable. Can I ask how you were able to track this down? 
Good job and good luck!

Hi @Xavier Pinkett

I am with the group on this one. Though I don’t focus on STRs in general, this seems like the margins are too thing to make a sustainable and scalable business out of. I like the direction but I think this deal would be an example of good plan, bad execution. Probable best to keep looking. 
Good luck!

@Jeremy Heaman

Wow first off, Great post! 5/5. Captivating and informative. This is an entire demographic that I would not have considered. I am in Edmonton and still quite green as far as real estate investing goes, so gazing out into these sort of fringe markets probably would have escaped me. I really like the way you are looking to get in front of a likely trend and especially one being initiated by the government. As a land surveyor I am constantly working with local municipal governments (the list is many and varied) and provincial government on projects. I can say that in my experience when a project moves against the grain of the government plan you can get locked in a bureaucratic labyrinth, but when your goal aligns with theirs it is smooth sailing. I don’t have much specific input on your post aside from saying I think you are in to something. 

Good luck!