Home inpection

I have done another home inspection. This time, it is the neighboring property. Details to follow.

Neighbours are out...

The neighbours are out of the house next door. I've left a message with the owner. I should be able to report more in the days to come.

Real Estate Exam #3

This is the final phase that I have to complete before I am able to sign up with a brokerage and begin to buy or sell a home. I guess, at this point, if you are thinking of buying or selling, I could probably start pointing you in the right direction. There are many things to consider before buying or selling a house.

The reason why you would use me as your future real estate agent is that I have the knowledge from a tax and business perspective that will not only help you make the right decision, I will soon have the ability to get you the best deal possible for your home or future home. There are tax planning opportunities that you should be aware of, and these planning opportunities co-exist with your ideal home. It's important that you take advantage of these opprtunities because, for most people, a home is the single largest investment you can make in your lifetime.

As of May, I will also be looking for people interested in real estate investing. With interest rates so low, there are plenty of opportunities out there that people should try taking advantage of. I can bring many small investors together in hopes of finding properties that offer a safer and better performing investment opportunities than the markets are currently giving.

I guess I should mention my background for a change for those that do not necessarily follow my life too closely. I recently graduated Carleton University with Honours in Finance and Accounting with the co-op option. I have been working as an accountant since 2005, and received my chartered accounting designation this year. I have owned property since 2006, and I have two single family homes in my portfolio at this moment. During the last few months, I have been pursuing courses at OREA (Ontario Real Estate Assocation) in order to be a licensed broker. I should be licensed by the end of May, and I am looking to do business.

OREIO

Last night, I popped my OREIO cherry.

OREIO stands for Ottawa Real Estate Investors Organization. It's a group that meets about once a month on the second Monday of the month. They usually have guest speakers to talk about a variety of subjects relating to real estate. It's a great place to learn, and it's a great place to build up a good little network.

Last night was a freebie. I got to see first hand what a membership would be like in OREIO. It was a roundtable discussion about real estate from many different perspectives. Each session of the roundtable offered a unique insight into one aspect of real estate. Granted, at my level of real estate investment, some of the information was not relevant. I'm not quite prepared to jump into multi-unit buildings just yet. I like the idea of managing single family homes.

I know this post is not about taxes, but the main focus of the blog was originally supposed to be about real estate and sharing ideas and knowledge about real estate. I think real estate is more interesting for people, and it may prove to be a better investment given the economic circumstances that we are currently dealing with, and have to deal with in the near future.

The group meetings offer a new perspective for me. It's a chance for me to gain valuable insights into the world of real estate, and I will likely be able to share my knowledge via this blog. It's a new source of knowledge for me that will benefit anyone that needs information about properties for personal use or for properties for investment purposes. I no longer have to use my own experiences, but the experiences of others to ensure that actions are done with due diligence.

This post has been very vague in terms of offering anything new. I plan on sharing in the next couple of days some of the various knowledge that I received. It's a good excuse for more posts, and it also gets my mind off of taxes a little bit. If I get stuck, I'll put up a tax-related post, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.

2 new roomies

I've finally got a full house. Unfortunately, not in the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson kind of way. All of the rooms in my house have been spoken for. I originally had wanted to have 2 girls move in so that the house has a better chance to remain clean, but I decided to go with a friend of a friend instead.

Both people moving in appear to be mature, and hopefully respectful to my property. I'm going month to month with them as I need to be sure that I will get along and not necessarily committed to them for a whole year. There is one guy and one girl moving in. The girl is moving in this week, while the guy, next month.

I could have had another girl move in, but there was some comfort issues. First, I was supposed to meet her one night to show her the house. After 30 minutes, I decided that I would leave the house and go to the gym because she hadn't shown up yet. Graham, my roommate, happend to be home when she finally showed up and showed her the house. Graham tried to engage in conversation with the girl and was unable to do so. She then emailed me to tell me that she would take the place. I wasn't comfortable with this so I asked my new roommates to accept the rooms quickly. I feel a lot better now.

With two more people moving in, this means another $1000 a month coming my way. This is huge in terms of speeding up the renovations. I'm very excited. I'll probably end up getting some new furniture first though. The seating arrangements in the living room are not quite where I want them to be.

When hobbies get serious...

Over the course of my short real estate hobby, I have had many people ask me questions about the process, my experiences, and my thoughts on various things relating to real estate. I am always glad to help and that is part of the reason that I have created this blog. I try to share my experiences so that people can read and learn and figure out how to best go about purchasing a home for themselves or as an investment.

The problem is that the questions have started to become more pointed. They are no longer general inquiries, but questions relating to specific properties. Unfortunately, I do not have access to all of the information that is needed to make a proper assessment for people, and this frustrates me. I usually have to refer them to a real estate agent, so that the person can properly assess the situation.

Now, I've had a great experience with my real estate agent, Jeff, but I think its more prudent that I take the next step in my hobby. I'm going to start looking into becoming a part-time real estate agent. Weekends and evenings are usually showing times, so I should be able to manage my duties on a part-time basis. In addition, I'm going to be able to list my investment properties without the fear of losing 5% on real estate commissions.

Also, it's going to give me a better opporunity to get better information for people when they are looking at homes. If there has been one thing that I really like about real estate, it is that I gather information to help make a decision. How long has it been listed? What does a place like this rent for? What are the costs of renovations? Is it a bargain? Is it overvalued? What's the expectation for this area in terms of property values? Can I afford it? Where should I buy?

Chad meets Exit Realty on Monday.

Another whim...

Tonight I go and visit Jeff. I've convinced myself to try and sell my downtown property. What prompted this? Simple. Money!!!

The house next door, which I once considered purchasing, is now listed on the market for $249,000. Now, I believe that my house is in better shape. Therefore, I think I should be able to get a decent return on my original investment of $200,000. This is a nice little chunk of change. There are many costs on my end that I need to worry about, but I am going to discuss this with Jeff and we're going to see if the numbers are going to work for me.

There is still a strong chance that I keep my place. I'm thinking that I will offer my home up in the hope that an investor would be coming along that wishes to purchase both halves of the semi. If that's the case, I'm hoping that he's going to pay a slight premium and that I will have made some money without actually doing anything to the property except hold it.

If I sell the place, I think I will go with a condo centrally located. Realistically, I do not really want to live with anyone. I'd like the privacy that I get with a condo. The place would also be smaller so I wouldn't have to spend a fortune on furnishing the place either.

This is my latest whim, but I expect that not much will happen from it. I have set a short timeline to help gauge interest, but if nothing happens too soon, I will continue to look for renters and move in September 1st.

Howdy Neighbour

OK. I've had another brain wave. I have to thank my real estate agent for this one. Jeff called me the other day to let me know that he has recently sold one of his properties. He had just purchased it, but decided to flip it as he was going to turn a nice little profit.

The downtown market is still hot. There are parts of the city where housing prices are certainly cooling off, but the downtown core is where it is at. This is where the brain wave comes in.

I'm going to visit my neighbour. The home that I purchased is a semi-detached and it yields a nice return on my investment. The rental income is great. I even end up with some positive cash flow on a monthly basis. This is fairly rare in the real estate world. Real estate is very cash hungry. It takes a lot of cash to make any money.

I want to visit my neighbor to see how much he is willing to sell his half of the house for. I'd like to know because having the whole building will be much better than just one half. If I wanted to do some work to the exterior for example, I will not have to consult with my neighbour about performing the repairs.

Now, I know I do not have the money right now. I'd have to sell my house in Stittsville. Although I've had it pretty good with the tenants, I want to maximize my investment by getting deeper in the downtown market. I'd hope that I could sell the house in Stittsville and use the proceeds to purchase the house downtown. There are a lot of steps required for this to happen, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to at least communicate with my neighbour about the possibilities of him selling. I think it is simply another rental property, so hopefully he doesn't mind taking some profits off of the table.

US real estate

With the American housing market in crisis, the Canadian dollar at near parity, and foreclosures at an all-time high in some of the southern states, Real estate is becoming a very attractive venture for Canadians. I hadn't really thought about US real estate at this point in my portfolio, but it certainly appears as if this is the time to be acting.

There are quite a few risks to consider when going into real estate in the US. At this point, I am probably just posting this as a reminder to myself to look at some these risks in further detail. There are different rules for estate taxes. There is currency risk. There are higher property taxes for non-residents. There are a slew of things to consider.

On the other hand, if you had owned an ocean-side property, in say Florida this past winter, you would be smiling as you would have been able to take a mini-vacation at a very reasonable cost. US real estate may not be everyone's cup-of-tea, but under the current circumstances, this may be the chance to take advantage of the weak American economy.

My latest scheme

I have caught the property bug fever. With interest rates at great levels, I just want to keep consuming property. I am constantly trying to figure out ways where I can continue to buy more property. In order to expediate the process, I need more help. I'm thinking that I could jump in as a partner on my next property. If a partnership was created, the level of risk for everyone would be shared, including costs. I understand that most people do not even have enough money to purchase their own home, but I know there are people out there that should be looking at investing in something.


The thing I like about the Ottawa housing market is that it is very constant. The property values rarely boom or bust due to the nature of our government town. People aren't losing jobs or gaining them in huge cycles. This makes for a relatively safe investment, but real estate is not a very liquid investment. By that, I mean that once you are in, it is not as easy to get out.

With my current financial situation, I do not see myself being able to invest in another property for awhile on my own. The only exception would be if I sold one of my current properties, and at this point I cannot see myself doing that.

This is what I want to do. If there is someone interested in buying a property on their own, I want a piece. I want to find somebody willing to sell me a smaller stake in the property. If that does not work, we could find other investors that are willing to buy even stakes in the property and jointly own the property. I'm guessing the bank would want about 35% down payment for a investment property for a jointly held investment.

If there is anyone out there that is interested in this kind of thing, please let me know.

Tenant issues

Yesterday, I had my first issue with the house at 75 Arlington. The tenants had called me last night while I was at work to tell me that the furnace was not working. When I bought the house, the home inspector had indicated that the furnace was quite old and that there would be a good chance that it would need to be replaced in the near future. I didn't think it would be so soon.

I called Direct Energy to come and check out the furnace. Unfortunately, they wanted me to pay the service man the day of the service, so I had to attend. They told me over the phone that it was going to be anywhere between 8-12 in the morning. Being an accountant, I was not thrilled with this appointment. This meant that I would have to leave work at some point or be late for work. It means that I will have to work a couple of nights pretty late to make up the time.

Thankfully, the service man called me pretty early in the morning, so that I was only minimally late for work. I called to say that I was going to be late, and I bet they understood, but I would have certainly preferred not to be late.

When everything is running smoothly, being a landlord is a great way to make money. There are very few headaches when things are running smoothly. On the other hand, it just seems like the bad things always occur at the worst times. When I had water issues with my Fringewood property, my parents were out of town, so I could not rely on them to help me out. It was my property anyways, and I would have done the work myself, like I had, but it would have been nice if someone like my dad was able to check on things during the daytime while I was at work. It just helps to relieve the stress a bit.