Well, Saturday morning in Calgary will find a bunch of people in a room with Russell Westcott, Don Campbell and a bunch of exceptionally successful real estate investors. I wish I could be there, meeting people, seeing what’s new and being inspired. It’s an ACREs (Authentic Canadian Real Estate Seminar) weekend, put on by REIN.

If it’s your first time at at REIN event (which will be most of the people there), here’s a selection of the over 300 posts on my site. It’s a mix of the most popular, most controversial, most useful and most personal. Enjoy!

My first ACRES/Quickstart weekend, my personal Belize (vision) and family.

• My Personal Belize – a vision statement, expressing what I want my life to be like in the future and how real estate will help get me there. It’s working out pretty well, as Megan and I have been in Ireland for the last two months…
• Kudos to my parents, who have been a major influence on my journey. And Mom and Dad enjoying a bit of their personal Belize.
• Accepting real estate’s place in my life and on this blog.
• A guest post from my younger sister. You’ll start to get the feeling that real estate is something that’s been baked into my family for quite a while (four generations actually).
• And a some words on picking a niche. Particularly apt with all the Ron LeGrande stuff going around right now: What Do I Do? and Define Your Investing Niche

Tips, Tools, Mistakes and Systems

• Six Steps to Finding Cashflow Creek
• The Black Triangle of East Edmonton Eats New InvestorsEdmonton’s Black Triangle Presentation
• The Top Ontario Rental Websites – Fall 2009
• Canadian Rental Website Rankings – June 2009
• Get Used to Scum
• Canadian Internet Marketing Resources
• 6 Things You Should Do To Your Mortgage When Interest Rates Drop

Property Management Experiences and Tips

• What to do with dead tenants
• Need a Property Manager? 10 Tips to Land the Best!
• Three reasons to put the phone down instead of calling your property manager
• Bugs in your Buildings? (Protecting your Real Estate Investment if you Self-Manage)
• How to Cut Vacancies by 50%
• Property Mangement Rocks!

Joint Venture Partners

• Five Ways to Flush $50k
• Six Reasons No One Wants to Buy Your F-ing Real Estate Investment

Business, Stats and Misc

• 20 Years of Detailed Edmonton Real Estate Prices
• Economic  – What Stats Do You Want to See? and everyone’s responses.
• Mike Rowe on Hard Work and Dirty Jobs
• 8 Essential Real Estate Investment Business Processes
• More Fun with Stats- Monthly Edmonton Statistics
• Edmonton Real Estate Prices Since 1962
• Why Real Estate Works in a Recession
• 8 Tips for Recession Proofing Your Real Estate Business Model

And some roundup posts:

• 2008 in Review
• Most Popular Posts of 2008

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This week’s SOW comes to us courtesy of my friend Vince, who shared it on Facebook. It’s a Medieval Chant of the Templars. It’s title is Antiphona: Salve Regina, and it’s actually 15 minutes long, but only the first 10 minutes fits on YouTube. Anyways, turn off your email, turn on the tunes, close your eyes and chill out for the next ten minutes.

I’m heading out on Sunday for France, back on Thursday. We’re going to hit up the Normandy coast; some battlefields, some monasteries and churches, and some good food. Enjoy your week, and if you’re a guy, make sure you’re taking part in Movember.

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This Song of the Week comes to us courtesy of my good friend Mike Landry. If you like Mario Kart and love, you’ll like this song.

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Advertising your vacancies on the right sites will save you time and money. What many real estate investors fail to realize is that between your property and the tenant comes an advertisement. The missing link is how they find your ads, and the answer is:

This whitepaper does the heavy lifting for you if you’re in the Ontario investment market.We’ve set out to rank the highest, most consistently ranked sites for the areas identified as the Top Ontario Investment Towns by the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN).

Since it’s release to 400+ members of REIN at the Advanced Landlording and Investing Expo, this report has helped investors fill vacancies faster and with less effort.

The towns we’ve covered in the whitepaper include:

• The Technology Triangle: Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge (KWC)
• Hamilton
• Simcoe Shores: Barrie – Orillia
• Brampton
• Durham Region – Whitby, Pickering, and Ajax
• Ottawa
• Brantford
• Toronto
• Vaughan
• Whitchurch – Stouffville

It’s 20-pages covering the backgound and methodology of the reports, tips and tricks for advertising online, and detailed results for these areas. It’ll help make your advertising choices easier, learn how to Google like a tenant and run your real estate like a business.

All we need is your name and email address! (As usual, your information will not be sold or given to anyone else. We respect and value your privacy)

Download Here:

These whitepapers take a lot of time to create, and your dontations help to make them possible. Please, give what you can. Come back and let us know how these reports have helped you.

Praise for the Ontario Ranking Report:

Chris, while you were in Ireland, you made a big difference for 400+ people in Toronto. Your Special Report on the Ontario Rental Internet-site traffic was fantastic and a huge hit at A-LIFE. THANKS! And that was before the Blarney Stone….. can’t wait to see what comes next.

- Don R. Campbell, President, Real Estate Investment Network

Thank you so much for putting that report together for ALIFE & sharing it here. It is BRILLIANT! It is now one of my most frequently used documents.

- Carla Johnson, Author of Magnetic Real Estate Photography

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This video is part of REIN’s Video Insider newsletter, and here’s some of my notes, plus the video.

Gregory Klump is:
- Chief Economist for the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA)
- Senior Consultant with CREA and CMHC
- Contributor to the Economic Research Committee

This is the 2010 Market Forecast and the 2010 Canadian Economic Forecast part of the presentation. The intro to the presentation starts at 1:20. It’s a recording and slide-deck from a REIN meeting.

Greg’s elevator pitch:
- The market is becoming more sustainable, with small increases but it’ll cause pent-up inventory to shake loose and dampen price increases.
- The interest rate is being kept low longer than expected. In part this is because of the high dollar hurting exports, and will help ensure that rates stay low.

Here’s the video from the start of the presentation. You can see Russ’ intro by clicking here.

The consensus Economic Forecast is around 2.2% (as best I can see from the graph), and it’s kind of shaped like a square root sign.

The question if this is a dead-cat bounce is how long it’ll stay airborne, but there’s good potential for a virtuous circle of rising consumer confidence increasing economic activity. That’s a big part of what’s helping the housing market; a rebound in consumer confidence. The introduction of the HST will take a shot at the consumer confidence in BC and Ontario (bigger in BC). Go figure, it’ll cause a decline after it’s taken effect, and push activity back into Q2. (Don’s quip – don’t try to get a painter or plumber in spring next year while everyone’s trying to get things done).

The speed at which people got back into the market was internet-speed as well, but we’ll approach the fundamentals pretty quickly. There’s a big hole to fill in (in terms of delayed activity) but it’ll get filled in.

Job growth won’t pick up until the middle of next year because businesses are on the defensive and job growth is always the last thing to pick up.

When you have a significant decline in markets that are expensive the national average will go lower. The high-market price cuts are done and prices are starting to creep up again. The new supply for August was at it’s lowest in 5 years, and now it’s improving marginally.

This is a good quick video, and it’s kind of typical of what you’ll see at REIN meetings. Wish I could have been at this one.

Don, if you happen to read this, it’d be handy to mention just what date things are. If you’re a remote-REIN member like me, it’s hard to know just what day they updated the graphs.

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After the success of the first rental website ranking whitepaper, I had a request from the folks at REIN to distribute it to the attendees at the Toronto Advanced Landlording and Investing Weekend. Always one to go the extra 10%, I wrote a special report just for the Top Ontario Investment Towns.

This 20-page special report will be made publicly available to all starting October 30th, 2009. It’s available by donation to keep it accessible to new investors, but also to reflect the amount of time and effort a project like this entails.

The report details the methodology, the role search engines play in tenant’s hunt for a new home and detailed results for 11 areas and four types of properties.

You can signup here to be notified of the release, signup for email or RSS updates or just surf back here on Friday.

If you’re a blogger interested in an advance copy in return for a mention on your blog, please drop me an email: chris at chrisdavies dot ca. I’ll be sure to return the favour.

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Tom and Nick Karadza run a Toronto area real estate brokerage that does a lot of investment-related work. They’re investors themselves and I know that some REIN members out east know them reasonably well. Some of their stuff is a little too over-the-top, but they sure know their stuff.

Nick makes the good point in this video (orignially posted here) that if your business is investing in real estate, your customers are you tenants.

His experience (like mine) of going to the Apple store to look into buying a Mac is a great introduction to the extraordinary customer service they offer.

What type of atmosphere or culture are you creating in your real estate business? Do you work across a big intimidating desk? Do you work side-by-side with your tenants? What types of things are you doing in your renovations that creates that type of environment?

Nick, buy a MacBook pro! I did, and I wouldn’t go back in a million years. Then again, I haven’t gotten VM Ware to work yet, so I don’t have Windows running on it yet.

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We’re back this week with a tune from a great 90’s band called Deep Blue Something. This SOW is called Breakfast at Tiffany’s, which popped up when I had my iTunes on shuffle. It’s been quite a while since I heard it, so I thought I’d share.

Monday is a bank holiday here in Ireland, so we’ve got a long weekend to play with. We don’t have any plans yet, except possibly taking in some of the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. Enjoy your weekend!

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One of the most important things you do as the manager of a rental property is communicate with the tenants. For things like rental increases, evictions, major repairs and the sale of a property you have to serve official notice, and you must follow the notice periods laid out in the Residential Tenancies Act. The most important rule, for both tenants and landlords, is this:

On the first of the month for the end of the month.

This is important for a whole bunch of situations where this is important, but one came up on myREINspace last week, so it’s  a good time to walk through it.

The actual paragraph from the Alberta RTA is this (as of October 2009):

Notice to terminate monthly tenancy
8(1) A notice to terminate a monthly tenancy must be served

(a) by a tenant on the tenant’s landlord, on or before the first day of a tenancy month to be effective on the last day of that tenancy month, or

(b) by a landlord on the landlord’s tenant, on or before the first day of a notice period to be effective on the last day of the notice period.

(2) In this section and section 10(2)(b), “notice period” means a period of 3 consecutive tenancy months.

Now, there was recently a case on myREINspace (only available to REIN members) of someone who had sold their property, but gave the tenant 90 calendar days notice, instead of ninety days from the beginning of the month, like they were supposed to. Here’s their story:

We have an ‘interesting’ scenario that we need some advice on. We sold one of our homes in September and agreed to a December 15th possession. We and our Realtor asked a local property management company to verify the notice period for tenants to vacate as the buyers asked for vacant possession. They said 90 days and we confirmed 90 calendar days. They said yes. So, we gave proper written notice, 90 days and confirmed they had to out by December 11th. Our tenant has just informed us that he doesn’t have to be out until December 31st because we didn’t give him proper notice and that the 90 days must be 3 full tenancy months. OOPS! He’s right. The buyers are refusing to move the possession date and our tenant is being a ‘jerk’ and saying ‘I’ll move when I want to move and that may or may not be before December 31st’ because he knows we are in a pickle. We have had a good relationship with him so this is somewhat surprizing.

Anyway, we are looking for advice on how ‘bad’ can this become if the tenant refuses to vacate and the buyer refuses to move the possession date and ANY advice on how to get this sale back on track.

So, the short story is that they missed the boat on when to submit the notice. The correct time would have been on the first of the month. By serving on the 11th of September, requesting possession for the 11th of December, was in fact, incorrect. The next step would have been to almost instantly serve them with a notice dated October 1 for a December 31st/January 1 possession. Then you can approach your buyers about moving the possession date.

In this case the buyers did end up offering to move the date, at some cost, but the tenant also may have changed his mind. The thread was updated earlier this week:

Right now we are waiting patiently for a notice letter as the tenant is ‘tentatively’ leaving next week now. Talk about a rollercoaster ride. First he threatens to stay until Dec 31 and now he’s bolting early. We’ll take the early vacate over the other one so it’s looking positive. However, until we have it in writing and the walk out is done, I’m making sure we educate ourselves on our options.

There was some great discussion about other ways to get the tenant out early, and a reminder that breaching the sale contact could be an very expensive proposition. It’s be cheaper to encourage the tenant to move out sooner, say with a $5,000 cheque. That always plays well before the holidays.

Important rule, great example, and a wonderful thread. This is one of those times where I’m glad I’m a REIN member.

Photo Credit:

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Back in the spring I was contacted by  friend and an Editor for Canadian Real Estate Magazine who was writing a column on the Edmonton neighbourhood of West Jasper Place. that’s a neighborhood I’m very familar with, and between Brent and I, we were able to answer her questions. I’d mentioned this before, but CRE has finally started publishing full-text of some articles online (great SEO move!). Now I’ve included the article below for interests sake.

I’m also a big fan of the magazine, but I don’t think they’ll ship to Ireland. :p

Alberta: West Jasper Place

Situated in the western end of Edmonton CMA, West Jasper Place is a residential community with a population nearing 60,000.

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April 22, 2009 – Situated in the western end of Edmonton CMA, West Jasper Place is a residential community with a population nearing 60,000. In-migration has slowed slightly, but Economic Development Edmonton expects people to continue moving to the city due to job opportunities.

The average household income is more than $68,000 and major employment is in the oil and gas industries, as well, employers include the West Edmonton Mall and government. About two-thirds of dwellings are owner occupied, while the other third is renters.

Unlike other parts of Edmonton where vacancy rates are rising, West Jasper Place is seeing a decline to 2.8% in October 2008, from 4.1% in October 2007, the CMHC says. This is a result of improvements in transportation, making for the area more accessible for commuters. One example is the North Edmonton Ring Rd., which connects Anthony Henday Dr. from Highway 16 in the west to Manning Dr. in the east.

As well, reasonable rental rates compared to other neighbourhoods in Edmonton are contributing to rising rental demand, which in turn is causing rents to climb slightly. The average rate for all units in October 2008 was $1,022, up from $983 the previous year.

“Rents have been doing fairly well over the past couple years, but now they’re in an environment where they’re a lot more competitive,” says Richard Goatcher, senior market analyst at Prairie and Territories Market Analysis Centre, CMHC, Edmonton. “While rents will continue to move upwards, it won’t be at the same rates we’ve seen in the past.”

Meanwhile, prices in this neighbourhood dropped to $330,543 by year-end 2008, from $356,632 in 2007, according to MLS. Unit sales declined during this period to 366, from 385, due to shaken consumer confidence. Listings are down slightly, with investors taking their units off the market and choosing a buy-hold-rent strategy instead, says Goatcher.

Bill Briggs, broker and owner at Re/Max Real Estate, Edmonton, says condos are a popular choice for investors looking for cash flow, since typical renters are singles and newly married couples who seek the condo lifestyle. Rents, specifically for condos, average $1,050 and vacancy is sitting at 2.4%, notes CMHC.

“Our marketplace has apartment style units that have been converted to condos starting under $175,000,” says Briggs. “The average reselling price (for these condo conversions), though, is in the order of $240,000 and we’re anticipating that the marketplace will remain very stable up to that level.”

Some brand new condos just coming online now may be available at a discount. According to Chris Davies, local investor, and Brent Davies, broker at Davies Management Realty, Edmonton, investors who bought pre-builds in 2007 and are taking possession in 2009 are finding prices have dropped. Some are forced to sell below their original purchase price.

The list price for these brand new units varies from $185,000 to $300,000, but buyers may be able to negotiate a discount up to 30% from motivated sellers, Chris Davies says. Though the average rent for a condo is about $1,050, these units, because they are new, can rent for a premium at $1,300 for a two-bedroom unit with underground parking. Typically, a first-year positive cash flow of $100 to $200 per month is easily attainable, he adds.

From the April 2009 issue of Canadian Real Estate

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