All Forum Posts by: Kris Mcfarlane

Builder beige my building brothers, how's that or a tongue twister. For any Canadians, Rona sells 20 letres of recycled paint for maybe 80 dollars if that. Careful when you wash the walls because the paint will come of with it! 

For all the negative Nancy's out there let us turn that frown upside down. A wise man once said opinions are like your rear end, everyone has one. :o 

@Pawan J.

Great post and I love the enthusiasm. I couldn't agree more with what you said and you either jump right in or wished you had 5 years earlier.  My wife and I say that if we go belly up we can always liquidate our assets, move the Manitoba, buy cash and enjoy the sunsets and cold weather! 

Sounds good, thanks for the heads up. There will be two of us attending; my wife and I. I look forward to putting a face to a name and hearing about different markets in the GVA. 

Greatings from a fellow Canadian, were few and far between my fellow Canadian. 

Stained concrete is great, you can also do a diy which is an acid wash to open the pours, roll on a stain, roll on your sealant and voo - laa. All done with a low low cost. 

Vinyl plank is great, when you buy it there are two types, one where each piece overlaps the over typically in a 5mm and than ones that but into each other which is better as you can just replace that one typically found in a 3.5mm and lower. (mm is  millimetre for my neighbours down south that may not know.)  There may be other types, don't quote me on that but just from my experience that's what i suggest and prefer to use. 

Just throwing it out there but you know what may give you a return without all the head ache, renting out the three car garage to someone that may need the storage. Obviously you wouldn't get the return an apartment would rent for but you don't have to invest the capital either. If this was in my market. To put in a suite/inspections/etc 35 000, it'd rent for 900 a mo. 35 000/900 is 38 months until it pays for its self. Secondary do future owners of this property want a three car garage or another unit? 

Hopefully this helps, just an idea any ways. 

Cheers Kris

@Cynthia Hartleyundefined

From a Smart car owner I am envious of your Prius, I can only imagine the savings you must have in that thing! 

When ever I have had contractors give me a price, I just introduce my self as the property manager in my clean blue jeans or board shorts, driving around solving the worlds problems in my 2005 Smart car. (Insert the cool sunglass emoji here.) I either get a great price or the price is sky high as what trade person drives a smart car. 

That is the exact contractor you do not want to work with and glad that the BP community came to the rescue just in the nick of time, not that you couldn't handle it yourself. 

Cheers, Kris

I hope you know what B.C. stands for . . and it no longer means bring coat, the new motto is bring credit. 

Compared to the Edmonton market I would say there are pockets that are affordable east of Langley, if you have the dream of working downtown and living 20 minutes from where you work thats may be a little unrealistic. If your idea of affordable is below 500 ish, I'm just basing that off of what you can buy a house in Edmonton for, and don't mind driving 30-40 minutes for work its a very viable place to live. 

Its possible as a trade person to break the six figure mark in the lower mainland if you have the credentials, I just started working in the GVA after coming out of Fort Mac for 7 years and have found the wages similar to Fort Mac although not every position has the over time obviously. 

@Sylvia Dong

I feel for your situation, I have been there many times my self. I am by far the easiest going landlord I know, but after a few years I've learned if you give an inch they take a mile. A good compromise may be to take the damage deposit as payment to square everyone up, than advise her she should find a new place to live and  just make the best of a bad situation and move on.

Maybe even get her an appreciation gift and a thank you card for her tenancy. Just so you don't look like the bad guy, even though she's in a rock and a hard place I'm sure she's a wonderful person or at least hope she is. 

At 26 I broke the 7 figure mark for mortgaged real estate, and at 21 I bought my first house priced at 500k, obviously I had these properties mortgaged but I never drove a vehicle that was priced over 5000 dollars. I've gone through contractors, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, banks, etc that tell me there kids are older than me. I pay in cash when the contractors work is completed and always have a hot meal for them at lunch time and a case of beer when there leg of the work is completed. 

I truly believe actions speak louder than words, when I wanted to be taken seriously I started making offers, had all my paper work in order, knew my  numbers and market in my area. My team has been built through trial and error, which has been very humbling throughout the process.  

Reading your portfolio if I, a blue collar carpenter, can pull this off you won't have an issue. You just have to believe in your selfie and be very persistent, very . . . very . . . very persistent.