Take Pictures While you Can!!

If you have a long term buy and hold property, chances are you will have turnover….actually you can guarantee that you will have turnover.

For this reason, it is a good idea to take pictures while you can (ie. Right after you complete any renovations, painting, etc). 

There are several benefits to doing this:

-          You can continue to use those pictures over and over again whenever you have vacancy! 

-          No more tidying up to take pictures or asking your tenants to clean up after themselves prior to picture taking!

-          Gives you a chance to ‘stage’ the unit slightly to give your pictures that extra “wow” factor!

 Here are some pictures that I have taken of my basement apartment when I renovated last summer. It turned out very nicely and the pictures look quite nice!

Another tip is to save your Kijiji ads on your computer.  Either the “screen shot” of the ad, or just a word document that has the written information. This is a huge time saver, especially if your ads are as detailed as mine, as they can be used again and again.  And each time you make an improvement or think of something else you can just update the ad.

To everyone, the proof is in the pudding.  I recycled my Kijiji ad and used these pictures for this year’s student turnover and had a dozen hits on my ad in the first day, resulting in 5 showings for this week!  I don’t think I’ll have much trouble renting it this year J

Anyone else use this technique?

Please Look Past the Headlines

A couple of days ago, the Globe and Mail published an article entitled "Home Sales Plunge, Market 'clearly' in Correction Mode"

For the average Joe, looking at this headline without reading the details would likely result in misinterpretation, drawing incorrect assumptions and generally cause panic among homeowners.  

Again, this article focuses on “National” numbers.  As I have always said, the “Canadian” real estate market is non-existant….it is made up of tens of thousands of markets and submarkets.   Yes, other markets may feel a slight ‘domino effect’ resulting from neighbouring markets dropping in value, but the market in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, for example, will generally not be affected by a slump in the Vancouver or Toronto markets – an entirely different set of factors are at play in Yorkton namely oil, potash and other commodities that are the backbone of the economy.

For real estate investors and even the average home owner, this article should all be ignored – even if you live in Vancouver and Toronto (the 2 markets that are feeling the worst effects of the ‘correction’).   Again, focus on your own sub-market.

If you read further into the article, you find that, not only have prices not dropped….they have actually increased by 1.6% from December 2011!  But you won’t see that in any article headings – it’s not what they want you to see.  They want you to see the shocking numbers – the double digit declines – that will sell newspapers and cause panic among regular folk. 

While I don’t disagree that the market will go through some sort of correction over the next year or two, I understand that this will likely be restricted to the markets that are at the highest risk and have the highest inventory of high priced homes (Toronto and Vancouver).  For all other homeowners, please ignore this article and focus on your own market and submarket because I can guarantee that if prices are dropping in one area, they are going up in another.

Beans before Steak

The New Year is upon us and 'tis the season for resolutions that we have no chance of keeping!

While I won't bore you this year with my resolutions and goals, what I will say is that our entire nation...and most other nations need a hard dose of reality....maybe we can tie this into a New Year's resolution?

With consumer debts at an all time high, the "fiscal cliff" issues and entire nations hopelessly in debt...here is a quote written by Kevin O'Leary in his recent book "Men, Woman and Money".....

"Beans before steak"

Simple as that.  He speaks of an older gentleman in Winnipeg who immigrated in Canada in the 50s with nothing to his name.  Slowly, but surely he amassed a huge real estate portfolio of income properties by paying down the mortgages as fast as possible by saving as much money as possible.  In his own words he "ate nothing but beans for years".

How much truth is there to this story?  I don't know.  Can someone really survive on beans alone?  I don't know that either.

What I do know is that this quote can relate to everything in life.  Do you NEED that new car?  Do you NEED that new pair of shoes?  Do you NEED that new coat?....or do you WANT them?  If you save the money that you would have spent and invested it...will you be better off in the future?  The answer is probably yes.

Eat beans now so you can have your steak later.  Not only will you have much more steak to eat in the future, you will appreciate it that much more because of all the beans that got you to that point!