Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am buying a house to rent out.  I am working on getting started investing in the real estate market.  Real Estate here in Vancouver, Canada is booming and a good time to buy with so many houses on the market to choose from.

I would love to hear other experiences with regards to income from rental properties.  The good, bad and better sides ;)

Hi Tawnya,

    Buying real estate is a great way to create wealth!  Especially when you use very little of your own money and use the power of leveraging to your advantage. Just make sure that if you cannot find a tenant or they do not pay, you can afford to carry the payments for a while.  Pre-screen your potential tenants carefully.  Best of luck with your real estate investing.

Hi Gags and thanks for your response.  Screening people is what I do best in business so hopefully it will work for me in this area too.  My plan is not to be dependent on the rental monies.

We own several rental properties, but it`s a lot of work when you operate rentals. The best way is to hire a management company to handle it, unless you don`t mind not having a life.

Right now, we`re in an investment property buying phase. Got tracts of land in Washington and closing on some in Alaska. These are strictly for investment purposes and we may not even develop them and just sit on them for awhile, although we definitely going to build on one in Alaska as a retreat and then retirement home.

With the times right now, at least in our economy, almost seems like a much safer place for our money than the banks.

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Danielle Keister, The Relief Virtual Assistance
Administrative Support Services for Business Consultants and PR Professionals | Founder, Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce

Our family has been buying and renting houses for about 30 years. We usually buy when people think things will never change. It`s a little dangerous to be buying during a boom .... why?

1. When there is a housing rush people will do anything to get out of renting in order to get into a house. Meaning all the good renters are leaving the market.
2. landlords are willing to let rents float downward, even if its no longer profitable (on paper) to charge so little. Say you buy at 500K ... but your competition bought their houses at 250k. They can hold out much longer than you can when rents are low, and the those landlord are also looking at their appreciation, so they`re not hurting too bad.

A big plus you have on your side is that Vancouver is an international city, and new people are always flowing in, pushing rents up. This is a huge advantage.

One renting tip: If the renter is sort of checking you out to see if you`re a good landlord, you`ve got a good one. If they walk in saying how much they love your house and how they`ll take such great care if it ... run for the hills.... 

Tawnya,

Some time has passed since you announced you were buying a rental property. Can you update us as to how things have worked out so far?

I have been an investor for over 20 years with rentals in both the US and the UK. A long time ago I managed the property but these days I use property managers.

Definitely!  Well, I bought a gorgeous 3,500 square foot home on a quiet culdesac here with good resale value (walking distance to public school, ocean and even the US border as I am just 1/2 mile from there.  It is also close to new mall being built - Walmart, Home depot, etc and great park all around so feel it is a good investment).  I have been hard fit to find in the papers something comparable for the price I got this place for.  It also has a 1 bedroom suite that rented out practically the day I bought the place for $850 a month so great mortgage payment boost ;)

My plan is to live here for 5 years, until son is done highschool, then rent out my wing of the house and buy again.  With Olympics coming to our area, it always floods the lower mainland with new people wanting to live here.  Expo brought many here to visit and many never left ;)  There is little area to build in Vancouver now and we have to go up now instead of out so homes are holding their pricing and usually do here even in down market times.

I had moved 10 times in 10 years renting and this is like heaven.  With the added rental suite bonus, my mortgage payment is only about $200 higher than my rent and now it is an investment.

As you can tell, I`m very excited and happy with my investment :)

Thanks for the update.



It sounds like it has worked well for you. Having a property that produces
an income from a separate unit is many times a real winner.

I have been a RE investor for long time (US & UK). For my first home I
rented out 2 of the three bedrooms so I could keep the out of pocket
expense down. In my case it was slightly less than renting though I did
not have a child at the time (more rooms to rent!).

Well done and good luck going forward. `Steady as she goes` should be
the plan. Let a good investment run!

Houses and cars are liabilities. You should not see it as an investment.

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Seo Consultant | Rattan | Microsoft Dynamics Nav | Autism Singapore | Industrial For Rent | Business Park | Gallbladder Surgery Singapore

Vacation properties are never a "good investment."

The first rule of thumb is whether you can afford the mortgage, taxes, etc., without counting any income you think you may collect by renting it out. The reason is that you're covered if you're not able to find any renters, or if you only find a few renters.

The second rule of thumb is whether you're actually going to enjoy the property. Sometimes people get tired of going there because it's too far, or they exhaust possibilities in the area, and it becomes a drain on their income.

And then, if you do rent it out, you may be the one that gets called in the middle of the night to go fix something. Also you have to work out who is going to clean the vacation home between visitors.

There are other considerations, but those are the main ones. Really give it a good think and do the numbers to see if you can afford it.

 

 

Glass Curtains

 

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