All Forum Posts by: Theresa Harris

If you are in a market that relies on international travel from certain countries, international students or seasonal workers, then you may find it harder.  A number of countries have issued travel advisories (eg Canada, UK, Germany), but the US is a large place, so start changing your marketing strategy to target people who are already in the country and looking for a vacation.

I think it depends on what your goals are.  If you invest in long distance rentals, you need a really good person who you trust to look after your rental.  If your local area is not diversified (ie reliant on a single industry), then finding rentals elsewhere may be a good idea in case things go south with that industry.  Or perhaps you are planning on retiring in another area where the market is quiet different than where you live (ie prices are increasing faster), then buy there now.  Or maybe your area has a high vacancy rate and it would be hard to find good tenants.

I have rentals in another area as I plan on retiring there and house prices there go up faster than where I currently live.

It will vary depending where you are, but often a well cared for lawn (eg fertilizer, watering) will keep the weeds at bay.  You shouldn't have to spray them intensively all the time, but will need to spot treat.  Talk to your lawn company and ask for alternatives that are more eco friendly.

To me this isn't deep cleaning, this is regular cleaning and part of the tenant's responsibility.  If it was something like getting the drier duct cleaned, that would be on the landlord.

Make the eviction notice for the tenant and all occupants-then it doesn't matter if the person isn't who they said they are.

With $10k, I'd put it in a high yield savings account and save more until I had enough for a down payment.  $10K isn't enough to get started.

Two options-increase your rent based on how much your expenses have increased (ie if your property taxes went up by $100-add that to their annual rent) or look at the rate of inflation.  Some of my rentals are in an area where there are caps on rent, so I increase the rent by the maximum amount allowed (last year it was 3.5%).  for me that worked out to about $50 depending on the rental.  That still doesn't keep up with market value.  I had a vacancy and the rent was $1600 (they'd been in there 4 years) and going to be $1650 at renewal, but they left and it was re-rented at $2000.

Honestly at this point if it is just dirt build up (ie no damages like holes), the damage is done.  Your PM should be doing regular inspections every 6 months and should have mentioned this before.  It is up to them to give the tenant notice and tell them to clean it if it is going to cause problems.  They (the tenant) can hire a cleaning service-they are used to dealing with all sorts of stuff.  Go ahead and raise the rent the amount you were going to.

I think it depends on the person.  For me, anything structural for sure.  electrical, plumbing or HVAC would depend on the type of problem and the amount of effort and $ needed to fix it.

I think if it happens, it would help diversify the economy, but as Stevo said a lot of Edmonton and Calgary are dependent on the energy sector and what they do, real estate tends to follow.  Just look over the last 20 years and you can see how housing has fluctuated.