I have a brief question pertaining to development financing. Hypothetical situation: 1) I have a $10M project under consideration. Purchase of land/existing building is $6M and construction budget is $4M. The project is to take 1 year to complete. 2) I have $3M to invest, the remaining...

I have experience working with a tenant profile such as this. As Adam indicates, you need to have a PM with thick skin and have a good para legal at the ready. Also, when purchasing you need to adjust your metrics to reflect higher property management fees, higher vacancy loss AND higher...

Vague question, vague answer. Brilliant.

Michael, you should use one of the free polling websites online - no need to collect the result and create a huge thread here. Just set the poll up and put a link on this thread. Saves everyone time!

I'm wondering what people's thoughts are on offering washing machines with only cold water - ie. not offering a hot water cycle. There are obvious efficiency reasons for this as well as arguments that it is better for clothes. It is common in Europe to have only cold water machines (or...

I continue coming back to this forum for threads such as this one ... not threads where people are getting offended/not offended by silly jokes. Keep up the great content Thomas, Michael and Godfried!

Carrie has hit the nail on the head. Management is key to success with student rentals! You need to employ a bit of a different system then that with a 'classic' rental. Parental co-signing on leases is essential. So are more frequent inspections. Student tenants are generally all...

This is a bit of a tangent: I was once managing a condo tower that had in floor heating - via hot water pipes coupled to the hot water supply providing showers/taps with water. The building had outrageous energy bills and was always too hot. We had a hunch that the floor heating was running...

Rae Buchan from Context Realty Advisors is a pro. I've worked with him before "fighting" MPAC. You'll find his contacts at the bottom of this page: http://www.contextrealty.com/index.asp Good luck!

I second Andrew's comment of having parents/guardians co-sign on the lease. House rules will not save you from problems and are generally not enforceable. If this is your first student property - prepare for a steep learning curve. Student housing can be a very sound investment; but they...

I have to agree with Adam; that the value of these numbers is questionable. Statistically speaking, the raw data would need to be investigated to ensure that there is some sense of homogeneity (ie. outliers such as luxury units should be removed). As well, if you're using rent for 2-bedroom...

I haven't visited this forum for a while - but while reading this article, I thought about REIN. Any thoughts on this? CAN interest rates go up? Is it logical to think that the BOC will keep rates as low as possible for as long as possible given this risk...

@ Brett - I would never assume that a call centre could manage property. That would be a recipe for disaster...

I've searched past posts with no luck on this topic.... Is anyone out there in REIN world working with a call answering service? I'm looking for a reputable, established firm to handle my after hours maintenance calls - preferably with some ability to screen emergencies. Anyone have a...

I have what seems to be a simple question: How would I go about getting a copy of a survey/lot size? How would I go about getting a copy of such? Are these accesible in any public offices? I'm not interested in having the site owner aware of my endeavour ....

I'm 28 and have been in the Waterloo student housing market for over 5 years now. I'd be happy to meet you for a coffee and tour you around the prime areas for student housing. It CAN be great investment when done right.... PM me at bryansvoice (at) gmail (dot) com

I agree, an updated rating system would be a great on here. There seems to be a lot of shameless self promotion going on...

Thanks for the feedback! Some further questions: 1) When I determine what portion of a invoice is for commercial/residential, what is the most used convention? Is it based on square footage? Is it based on aportioned income? I can think of several ways that would be more beneficial to me...

A question for those with a strong (stronger than me) background in accounting: I understand that when dealing with commercial property owned under a registered corporation you can recoup HST (yes, this is Ontario). For example the HST I pay on renovation, utilities and professional services...

Agreed, I would argue that a monthly inspection could interfere with the "reasonable enjoyment" of a rental unit. Screen, screen, screen your tenants ... and then you've got to trust a little. I admire the intention though....