All Forum Posts by: Luc Boiron

I have always thought that if I was to live in a multi-family with my tenants again, I would tell them I was just another tenant so they would go through the property manager for anything, and leave me alone. It would also give me a candid look at whether they are good tenants or not.

However, I believe in Ontario you actually need to give the tenants the landlord's information for service, so that might be a problem.

I think part of the reason you might hold yourself out to be the property manager is because tenants would treat professional property managers differently than owners. Many see owners as these rich people who make so much money and should be providing them with upgrades, while property managers aren't seen by tenants in the same way, and woudl liekly be treated more reasonably.

Good luck! Start putting those strategies into action, and I'm sure that when you find a good enough deal, the Buyers will line up.

 How is this working for you in Ontario? What do you do to get yourself in first position? DM? Bandit signs? I've been looking for lists for Direct Mailing, but i can't find anything useful other than perhaps mailing to certain age groups.

 Noise transfer is something you can take care of if converting a property to a duplex. If you have a property that wasn't renovated to actually be a duplex, you probably just have 1/2" drywall on the ceiling with empty joist cavities. There's probably quite a bit of noise transfer.

I converted a property to a duplex about a year ago. I took down the old 1/2 drywall (not fire rated, so wouldn't have been allowed to make a legal duplex). I first filled the joist cavities with sound insulation (Roxul Safe n Sound is good because it is also fire rated, there's also a pink insulation for sound that is cheaper but not fire rated). I then installed resilient channel, it's metal track that hangs off your ceiling joists and you screw the drywall to, this results in the drywall hanging off the joist, and significantly reduces the noise of things being dropped or banging on the floor above. I then used 5/8" drywall, which is thicker, and is necessary for fire resistance in two unit homes.

This helped a ton with the noise. One thing is that you still get noise through the vent pipes if you have central air. This can be a lot of noise transfer, and is the only reason you can still hear anything from above in the property I mentioned. It is much better than it would have been, but some people go a step further and install baffles in the vents which reduce noise transfer even more.

I probably went a little further than I needed to, but I figured since I had the ceiling open, it was the right time to do it. Noise between units leads to higher turnover, and animosity between tenants.

When the rent is short, treat it as if they didn't pay at all.

I have had bad experiences with tenants paying part of the rent. Accept the rent, then serve notice. 

I now explain to my tenants that I serve notice immediately, and if they pay before I file it with the court (Landlord Tenant Board here), then they won't be evicted and won't need to pay the court filing fees.

 It is probably a little more difficult to find renters, but there's no shortage of renters. I had a duplex outside of Toronto (don't own this one anymore). Before I converted the duplex, I rented the single family bungalow for $1,650/month + Hydro. I converted this bungalow into a duplex, with separate hydro meters, and was getting $1,450 for the main floor and $1,270 for the basement (originally asking $1,200, agreed to rent it for $1,270 because they had a dog).

Are the basement renters less stable? A little. I depends in part on your basement. If it's a nice space, tenants will be willing to stay a long time even in a basement. One thing you need to be careful of is the noise carry between the units, I did everything I could to reduce noise transfer, and that probably helped keep the tenants happy (even though it didn't stop all the noise).

It's tough to say what might happen. Prices are very high in Toronto.

However, there is currently high migration to the city, and the Canadian dollar is low.

With immigrants settling in Toronto, there is a strong demand for housing here, and it keep prices propped up. With the dollar so low, the Toronto market looks much more appealing for foreign investors right now.

Basically, it doesn't look to me like the market is going to crash anytime soon.

If there is a crash on the market, it will not be easy to predict. It will be something that scares foreign investors away from Canada and makes them sell their investments. It will also need to be a slowed immigration rate to Toronto. 

Currently, huge amounts of money are coming from Asia and propping up home prices here. For example, if the Chinese government stops Chinese citizens from taking their money out of China, it will slow demand for Real Estate in Canada.

The only problem with forecasting a bubble bursting is that it could be a month from now, or it could be 15 years from now when home prices are 3 or 4 times higher than what they are now.

If you buy for the long term cash flow, you'll be protected if house prices decrease. Don't buy for the appreciation, and you don't need to be as concerned. If you buy a house that cash flows and amortize the loan over 25 years, in 25 years you own it outright and the tenants have paid off the loan. Whether the house is worth more or less than now, you will own 100% of it.

Welcome @Tahric Finn

2 unit homes are definitely a better way to go for ROI, rents are so low compared to purchase prices in the GTA that it's hard even to break even with single family homes.

Good luck!