Typically, the local municipality controls tree cutting and creates bylaws for removal and retention. One thing to note is that your front yard may not extend a close to the road as you think and the tree may actually belong to the City. If there is a sidewalk in front of the house, the road...

I have been working in the land development industry for over 20 years and the most problematic thing now is the rules, regulations, and the process to get the job completed. The numbers quoted above are in the ballpark of the costs I have seen recently - quite a range because of so many...

Rear yard catchbasins can be troublesome. Being someone who designs them, I can tell you that there are numerous problems that could occur. Costs to repair, clean or maintain could be quite high. I agree with Don here – get your lawyer to investigate what you might be responsible for. I have...

ccameron, A friend of mine bought a house that had to be raised in order to replace his foundation. It was a two story 3000 sq.ft. house. The cost was something around $35-40,000. As an irrelevant aside, I have also used the same contractor to move an old stone house to a new location...

Marek, We had a very similar situation with a fourplex that was listed as a duplex. As stated earlier, the difficulties can arise if the City finds out. In our case, the tenants were not happy with each other, leading to a number of interpersonal issues. Some of these got out of hand and the...

Garth, One of the nicer local restaurants is the Charcoal Steak House. Here is a link: http://www.charcoalsteakhouse.ca/charcoal.html Enjoy (I always do) Steve

ccameron, My wife Carla and I purchased a property with four units in it about two years ago. It was noted only as a duplex. What happened to us may not happen to everyone, but we had some major problems with the tenants - a huge long story with a huge lesson learned. Bottom line is that the...

Have we got a deal for you! We have an accepted offer of $119,500 on a property in Southwest Kitchener. Other units in this complex have sold recently for $130,000. Bottom line: we are looking for someone to invest the downpayment and closing costs (roughly $35,000) with an expected return...

Chris, As someone who has been working as a civil engineer in the land development industry in Ontario for over 17 years, there are a few thoughts I have that you may want to consider. Even if the land has sufficient area for a house, there may be a more significant problem trying to fit a...

Ok, as a self-professed techno gadget junkie, I have been researching this ever since Don mentioned at the REIN meeting that there was a device that could track your mileage. I could not find anything that appeared to have the capabilities other than the Navigon (see above info posted by...

One amazing thing our property manager has done for us is how she handled the Tenants From He$$. When we purchased our first property, there were a number of things we could have done better, one of which was screen the current tenants or ask for the place empty. Expensive Lesson learned...

Dear REIN Members, The Region of Waterloo has been busy trying to collate a lot of information in relation to the health of the Region. This report has broad based reviews of work, safety, health, housing, rich vs. poor gap, unemployment and a host of other issues. The report includes the...