If you're really concerned, take the cash, stick it somewhere with some yield as a hedge, but keep it available incase your loan gets clawed back or you have to sell and pay it down some. A big wad of cash somwhere sure makes the balance sheet look good.

Has anyone actually built a garage suite? If so I'd love to chat about the process and your experience.

I've been working on several of these - they're huge work and lots of moving parts. It's MUCH easier if I approach it from the Sellers' side and there's some legislative changes coming into force that will make it easier to do. I'm confident we can continue to help bail out condo owners and get...

There's some folks in my office who have - industrial condos are a great conversion but you've gotta be cautious with pricing, consider the amount of yard space and how you'll handle common expenses. There should be fees.

Actual colours.

Anyone have a dark/light grey combo they like? We're painting a bunch of apartments and I think we need something more modern. Most of the units are getting LVP flooring so we can match the flooring to the paint.

Shameless plug for my book: Apartment Buildings That Outperform.

If you do go for cameras it's worth it to go for a web-enabled version and make sure you super-secure your recorder if you have one. Crooks are often smart enough to find them and take them leaving you with no pictures.

Parking is usually the primary issue, but there's a lot of HVAC and plumbing issues when you're retrofitting. A good question that combines office and residential real estate.

There's some broader questions around your situation too like age, family and community and their needs. You've got a fantastic opportunity to go in new directions and also to help develop those around you. If it were me I'd buy another farm ;)

That's been par for the course for a long time, same with selling a farm - only the house and the 5ish acres around it are exempt, the rest is capital.

Around here there's lots of great Facebook groups too. It's a tenants' market and lots of smart tenants are putting up a wish list and landlords respond to them.

+1

I resemble that remark.

There's a swath of the east side that doesn't allow secondary suites, typically east of 50th street. But Matt is right on about the permitting process and timelines.

One nice thing about boilers compared to furnaces - I've often seen boilers last 40-60 years with reasonable efficiency and some even older. Not that often you see a furnace last that long.

I've got some listing that match that criteria. Feel free to give me a shout when you've got time. I'm also going to be at ACRE this weekend if you're around. Chris 780-905-7562

Yes, it's a spam account. Not a very effective one. I assume spam links will come later.

Geoff Latham is one of my favorite inspectors and also runs a fence/deck building company. 780-720-4956

Thanks for everyone's advice! We're finally live and you can both see the winning cover and buy a copy through me directly or on Amazon. http://www.chrisdavies.ca/2016/09/new-release-my-apartment-book-an-ebook-and-im-still-alive/