I agree considering your long-term plan is more important than the interest rate on one mortgage. If you can get a 2% interest rate with a bank that will do "unlimited" mortgages with investors, or a 3% mortgage with a bank who will only fund clients with 4 doors or less, you may want to...

I would not use a property tax assessment. I would rather pay the $250 for a professional appraisal. A primary residence is exempt from capital gains, so you want to be able to prove the value is as high as possible before converting it to a rental subject to capital gains tax. Most...

Here's the Canadian TVS login page: https://www.tenantverification.com/login.html We also do judgment searches at the Provincial Courthouse. Only $10 per search, and it shows all judgments in the province against the person. Handy if a person has been evicted but there is no monetary judgment...

If you email me at [email protected], I'll give you the name of my contractor. He's done a couple of legalizations for me and is very familiar with the process. He did the floor plans, attended the inspections, etc.. Nicely hands-off for me and the extra service was reasonably priced...

How could a 3-month trial period be predatory? The only way I can see it being predatory is if someone was illegally increasing the rent at the end of the trial period. If that's the case, that landlord should be fined. We ONLY work with fixed term leases because we like the fact we can...

I have a thorn in my side too, but there may be hope for you. This was the first and only apartment condo I will ever own. We bought a month before the 2007 crash and it has never again been worth what we paid for it. Plus the developer "spent" the reserve fund on repairs (with receipts...

I second the nomination for Chris Davies in Edmonton. :)

The only "sight unseen" rentals I do are for my short-term super-suite. For a 2 - 6 month lease, I can tolerate anyone and the tenant can be expected to tolerate the suite even if it isn't exactly what he hoped for. Otherwise, I won't do them. I have tried a couple of times with no success...

We use e-transfer as well as Visa LOC's. If you have a Visa or Mastercard attached to an LOC, then tenants can set up online bill payments or automatic bill payments to the LOC. Free of charge for both parties. Only consideration is it can take 3 business days to process, so tenants should...

Thanks!

Minimum amount of equity can also depend a bit on the market. We got started by buying properties with low money down, living in them, renovating the secondary suite, buying another property, and then renting out the first property. We bought with 5% down but this was in the 2006 boom in...

Greetings. We require wood fences built for three properties on the same street in Leduc. Posts are supposed to be put in by landscapers but aren't in yet. Any recommendations?

In Alberta we are required to have a physical address for service rather than a box number. Some landlords skirt this by using a manned post office - meaning there is always someone at the desk for delivery to an actual person. The address looks like a regular street address. You could also...

I could be mistaken, but I believe staging costs in Edmonton are upwards of 1% of the list price. And worth every penny in most cases because results like Cory's are common.

Correct. The bank doesn't need to know you have offered the tenant an option to purchase. The option has zero effect on your mortgage other than helping to determine the length of the mortgage term. The only bank that needs to know it is an RTO is the tenant's bank when he exercises his...

These are the people to whom lease options should never be offered. RTO should be used for responsible people who have experienced hardships bruising their credit. Divorce, medical issues, business failure, and job loss are good examples. RTO is also useful for people new to the province or...

Thanks for the helpful info, Matt! Suited houses do quite well in this area, so that's another option for development. They are very common here and sell and rent for a good price, but are less expensive to build. There is a mostly livable home on the property, so development isn't...

Do you know of anyone in Edmonton doing infills? A seller called us with what sounds to me like a tear-down on 119 Ave and 90 Street. He's asking $145k. Lot size is 367 square meters. (I have no idea what lot values are in that area.) I have no stake in the property and am not looking for a...

It is highly unlikely a second appraisal would be helpful in this case. Appraisals for refinance are always more conservative than appraisals for purchase, so you should expect the appraisal to be lower than what you would get if you sold the property. As for which appraisal is used, many...

It isn't too late to back out unless you are already unconditional on a property. If $30k total profit is your best case scenario, then I can almost guarantee $17400 total profit is NOT your worst case scenario. Your worst case scenario is likely zero profit (meaning you would be working for...