All Forum Posts by: Roy N.

Justin Silverio:

While we are not in the business of flips, we have allowed tenants to select paint colours when we are undertaking a renovation prior to their taking up residency.

With the tenants we make it clear to them that they are responsable for the cost of repainting the unit back to our 'standard' colour palette when they vacate. You could sign a letter with your buyer that is similar ... if the deal falls through, she is responsible for the cost of repainting the property to your palette ... you could even have it deducted from her deposit.

Steve:

Sorry I did not get to this last evening as I committed ... it slipped my mind.

In our neck of the woods, we have a standard government lease (called Form 6) which, while it is not obligatory we use it, any lease you draw-up yourself cannot deviate or contradict the standard lease ... so most folks use it.

The standard lease allows the landlord to attach their own Schedules to the lease ... most notably Schedule A - Additions to the Standard Lease ... this is where your "house rules" are to be found.

In our Schedule A, we have a section on Alterations to Rental Property which contains the following clauses:

While not in "legalease" you could have your Council or paralegal translate it into formal clauses for inclusion in your lease document {we purposely try to keep our Schedule A in everyday language, but did have it reviewed by our Council}

We have yet to install any photovoltaic systems - mostly because the reverse metering/buyback policy of the local power company makes it financially unfeasible.

We do have solar-thermal hotwater at one of our properties ... and while the utility savings is appreciated by the tenants, it has not allowed us to command additional rent. This was a trial project for us and we are still undecided if we would do it again {an air-to-air heat pump water heater is more cost effective to purchase and operate}.

I'll also share James Vermillion's view. We have different properties in different areas. The area does dictate the tenant population and expectations, but the state of our buildings/units dictates how we perform in a given area.
viz.
a) Our student properties are a basic level of decore: clean, solid/indestructible, and easy to maintain. We have learned that students, in general, care little about the external appearance of their building, not about high-end finishes within. They do care about amenities (Internet, a deck w/ BBQ) and operating efficiency (limited budget). This year we tried something new and advertised one of our student properties inclusive of a weekly visit from our maid/cleaning service - we had 10 applications in the first day.

b) We have a property in a working class neighbour hood. Here our objective is to be the best building on a mediocre street to ensure we get the pick of the tenant population. No high-end finishes, but all units have dishwashers and en-suite laundry (a big selling feature) and we are close to both a park and grammar school. We are now looking at acquiring the adjacent 8-unit building to push the other end of the tenant population (drug trade, dead beats) a little further down the street {my partner jokes that we should buy a different building at the other end of the street - as it would be cheaper - and explicitly target the other end of the local tenant population ... I'm not sure that I'm ready for that}.

c) Our "young professional building": this is an older building (120 years) in which we are gradually giving a complete upgrade. The building is walking distance to everything (walk score of 92) and on the edge of the "hip" part of town. Here we are using higher end finishes and adding items such as light tubes, electronic apartment monitoring {software my other company is developing} and door locks (tenants can open the door w/ their phone).
In this area we are in the middle/lower end of the buildings - there are a lot of furnished, executive flats here which are rented to government ministers as we are 2-blocks from the legislature - but we are specifically positioning our building for the younger generation (the assistants to the ministers living in the upper-end, furnished apartments).

Jordan Lives:

All has been said .. and normally I would site quietly on the bench, but it does sound like you are thinking too much about this financing offer. Ron Climer is right ... the deal goes down like any other property purchase, the *only* difference being the Vendor will be the mortgagee rather than the bank.

I love vendor financing and often pitch it to the vendor as the win-win scenario it is. Yes, I may pay one to two points more in interest {but quite often not}, but there is no bank bureaucracy ... specifically the deal does not count towards that imaginary number the bank has about how many mortgages one person/company should really hold ;-)

From the vendor's perspective, they get an interest rate on their money that is better than they could in a bond or money market fund and, at least here in Canada, they have an opportunity to defer a portion of the capital gains realised on disposition.

Mike:

It really depends where you are. In our area - almost diagonally opposite to you on the continent - Kijiji has great traction and has been the main on-line source for rental advertisements and Craigslist "sucks".

I will concur that the eBayization of Kijiji has not been entirely positive. In this new move, the will apparently permit 3 free real-estate advertisements and will then charge 29.99 for every additional advert. This will undoubtedly cause traffic to move to another site.

@Steve Might

We always record the tenants insurance policy information and make a copy of the proof of insurance. This allows us the opportunity to file a claim at a later (though we have never had to do this).

Here we also collect a security deposit that is the equivalent of one months rent (the limit under the law), which is remitted to the Provincial Rentalsmans office.

We conduct both an entrance and exit inspection of the property with the tenant prior to them moving in and after they have moved out and cleaned the apartment. Both the tenant and landlord sign the inspection form following each inspection.

Any damages identified during the exit inspection (that were not present during the entrance inspection) will be addressed at the expense of the Tenant; they agree to this - and provide a forwarding address - when they sign the exit inspection form.

We also have 7-days following the end of tenancy to notify the Rentalsman that a claim will be filed against the Tenant's security deposit ... in the event the Tenant has abandoned the apartment or we are fairly certain they will not honour their obligation to pay for the repairs.

Rocky Li:

I've only been involved in one deal with an estate (it fell through) and probate is quite likely different in Ca then CA ;)

However, we treated it like any other property deal w/r to due diligence.

Jerry Skeens:

Sorry to say, I cannot impart any first hand experience with purchasing a foreclosure, but there are lots of folks on here who can.

I understand dealing with the bank/agency in these matters can be lesson in patience.

When renewing my lease prior to commencing my last year of university, I convinced my landlord to strike a purchase option with me on the property.

It's similar to a call option on a corporate stock. I paid the landlord/vendor a fee {the option price} for the right to purchase the property at a predetermined price {the strike price} within a given timeframe (2 years in that case). In my case I also paid a premium on top of the rent over the next 18 months which accrued to be my downpayment on the property at the time the lease option was exercised.