I have a place where there's a small kitchen so we have a portable dishwasher. The tenants actually decided to move it out to the garage and prefer to wash by hand. Great tenants and the rent is $1647 per month plus utilities. I'd suggest that all things being equal though most people want a...

I know of a company that's interested in using sea containers for building lower-income housing in and around Edmonton. It's kind of amazing what they can do with these things. This company currently uses sea containers for building mock villages for military training, etc.

One of Thomas' arguments that no one picked up on is the potential for tighter mortgage rules. I think he's bang on and that we'll see tighter mortgage rules very, very soon. Like right around the coming federal budget. The finance minister seems to be musing about it in the media and I wonder...

Typically lenders want to see two trade lines with a two-year history. (a car loan, a credit card, a line of credit are all trade lines) If you have low credit limits or have only had the card for a few months you will get what's called a false credit score. This means your score may be high...

The move out cleaning checklist I give tenants says the fee is $50 per hour if they don't do a decent job of cleaning. I'm considering upping that to $75 per hour.

There are a number of lenders who have rebalancing mortgage/HELOC products. National Bank, Firstline are a couple.

The STEP can actually be set up to rebalance automatically but it's not the default set up. You have to ask for it to be set that way (or ask your broker to ask for it to be set that way) prior to signing at the lawyers. Also, it doesn't rebalance dollar-for-dollar like other products. I...

By those definitions banks and trust companies violate OHRC every day when they decline credit applications based on applicants' unsatisfactory credit and income.

A couple of thoughts since I look at credit bureaus daily. 1 - Lots of young people have thin credit due to being young. Get their parents to co-sign the lease or at least get the parents contact info so you can contact them if Johnny doesn't pay his rent. It's extremely common to see young...

I think the issue in Canada is unsecured debt, not mortgage debt. It's not uncommon to see clients with $25,000, $30,000 and more in credit card debt never mind unsecured lines of credit. Reducing maximum refinance limits to 85 loan to value just means visa and the banks make more on credit...

I'd largely base my decision on the town I lived in and if I was prepared to self-manage or hire property managers. Since I live in Edmonton I'm biased towards Edmonton and invest here.

A couple of issues you might consider before using TD for your mortgage(s). TD compounds interest monthly on their variable rate mortgages. Second, they require 35 percent down on rentals otherwise the deal must be insured.

Riverdale Elementary School - the one that was in the news this week about kindergarten being reinstated. QUOTE (Sherilynn @ Aug 26 2010, 09:06 PM) I must disagree with your sentiment about renting to another landlord in a second. I have rented to people who have own homes, managed properties...

My wife and I wanted to move to a specific neighbourhood in Edmonton so our oldest son could go to the community school in September. So rather than looking to buy we decided it might make more sense to rent an executive home and preserve capital for rental downpayments. We have two little boys...

i had a meeting with an ING business development manager yesterday and he mentioned these new accounts. They plan on being able to leverage the deposts and lend out more mortgages so that will be the profit centre. QUOTE (housingrental @ Aug 20 2010, 10:33 AM) What is there main profit...

There are better rates out there than that and TD requires 35 percent down for conventional financing on a rental Talk to your friendly neighbourhood mortgage broker QUOTE (ChristineKopr @ Jun 24 2010, 02:08 PM) TD Reduces Res. Fix Rate as of June 25 2010 The Toronto-Dominion Bank`s TD Canada...

Agreed! I bet we get a .25 increase in July because there`s so much pressure on Mark Carney because of his deadline. Then maybe another .25 in the fall. Then that`s it for say six months or more as they sit back and see what the impact has been. QUOTE (ThomasBeyer @ Mar 25 2010, 10:38 AM) I...

I just went through a similar situation. Just advertise the suite, get it rented and move on with your life. In my case I`m fortunate because I`m vacant for one night. QUOTE (investmart @ Mar 21 2010, 01:47 PM) Hi All, A tenant who moved in and signed a one year Lease 3 months ago, wants to...

Great post! I love the "many runs to the washroom" line. QUOTE (gwasser @ Mar 26 2010, 12:35 PM) When reading all those books on becoming rich there is one common thread. Unless you are the big aggressive `Donald Trump` type who gambles big time, getting rich is a pretty boring undertaking that...

How about a hybrid mortgage and split it 50-50 fixed to variable there are several lenders who are rental friendly and you can have different components within the mortgage. QUOTE (muskokalandlord @ Mar 26 2010, 10:05 PM) Sorry so what is your opinon?