All Forum Posts by: Nicole Assali

So the city was changing some piping outside of the house for the collection of rain and they had a pump to take all the water to another location, in the meantime at one point the pump stopped working they got clogged and my tenant calls me and says there’s a flood in the basement they send me a bunch of pictures and what happened was that the water kind of backflow to the house we had about and 2 inches of water in the basement it wasn’t all over the place I would say about half of the basement was affected it was in the evening so I couldn’t call the insurance company and when I called the 24 hour line they weren’t much help, I ended up calling an emergency company they came to the house vacuumed and mopped up all the water they cut about 4 inches of the walls where the water has seeped under the walls, placed a few dehumidifiers to make sure things dry up. This morning i call the insurance company and explain to them the situation and how the city was at fault for this, They said I am covered to get everything fixed but they would obviously bring my premiums up they didn’t say how much the premiums would go up, I went to the house today and took a few pictures of the damage is not that bad I had installed some vinyl flooring directly on the concrete so that’s not going to be an issue it will dry out and it’s not going to swell up. Also because the walls are kind of like old-fashioned wood panels that you can’t find today the contractor suggested you could put a moulding like a baseboard to cover up the 4 inch that was cut off. So the insurance company said they would cover everything to get it all repaired my deductible is $500 we’re going to get an estimate to see how much it cost to fix it but again the premiums will obviously go up even if it’s the city’s s fault, they said they will sue the city to try to get some of the money back but usually the city won’t pay all of the money back specially if I didn’t have a check valve on the house to prevent the backflow, Just the emergency company that came to clean up will cost about $1000, i’m estimating it will cost me another thousand dollars maximum to get everything repaired, I’m just pissed off I have to spend this I didn’t need an unexpected expense and I would rather have the city pay for it, we pay enough taxes right, my question is is it worth it to have my insurance handle it and then get screwed over by having my premium raised for six years or cough it up and spending $2000, and then try to sue the city but I have a friend that had the same issue and he said that’s not gonna get you anywhere, I have another project going on at the same time so obviously it’s not fun to have to spend this money it’s tempting to just pay the $500 and forget about it, i’m actually very happy as it could’ve been much worse if I had laminate flooring it would’ve all swollen open I would’ve ended up maybe with five to $10,000 worth of work to be done and then I would’ve definitely went with the insurance, I guess I just want to know if the insurance company will really raise their fees and screw me over the next five years. Thank you all in advance!

Hi, 

Congratulations on your first deal ! I am also from Ottawa/Gatineau. I fully understand your thought process on looking across the river for cheaper properties, and i don't want to scare you, as i have invested on both sides, generally you get what you pay for, and i suggest you go see similar properties that are for sale and rented with tenants and see what it looks like and then decide if you have the stomach for that, after you buy you will be stuck with it, nice to know these things in advance, but my piece of advice is to try to get a clear picture of what you're getting into and if u like it go for it. People always talk about these properties that look golden on paper but differ in reality. 

@Priyanshu Adathakkar You're right, to some extent. We are trying to find a mutual agreement. Keep in mind our biggest risk is vacancy. These commercial units don't get filled within days, it can take months and up to a year to find a good tenant. If the building is paid for you can be patient but we had a year where we lost 40k because of vacancy and mortgage and taxes. I like your escape clause, only maybe put it from months 23-28, as they want to give the business a chance before they pull the plug on locations. We already asked initially for owner to personally guarantee the lease, she refused, you see with bigger tenants its hard to get them to do this, she has over 50 franchises, can she personally sign on all of em ? The company has been around for 25 years, in two different states, and was godsent honestly for the unit we had which has poor/no visibility. They are paying very good rent with no issues too, on time and above market value. Every single plaza or strip mall in my area has a for lease sign and vacancies are rampant, for some reason i'm feeling we are in the cycle where there is more supply than demand. Do you always play hardball even if you aren't dealt the best cards ? meaning do you not stray from 5yr/4%, would you agree to 5yr/2% for a really good tenant ? I'm afraid having this unilateral approach with an already struggling business is going to end up with a vacancy Thanks

@Priyanshu Adathakkar Lmao, im here for help man, please elaborate :)

Hi everyone, So i just bought this commercial retail building and one of my tenants is a driving school. The lease is coming up for renewal and basically this is what they are asking for : 1-Changing the lease by adding a clause that allows them to walk away from the lease after 6 months notice if the government changes the law and makes the driving classes (classroom theory) non mandatory. (they currently are mandatory) They said they would go bankrupt anyways if they couldn't walk away from the lease. Is this reasonable for me ? Better to get paid for 6 months and find someone else vs maybe not getting paid anything ? 2-Giving them two months free of rent as business is bad and the increase in labour costs/minimum wage and also the limit they have on charging for their classes set by the government has them operating at a loss at this location 3-No price augmentation for lease 4-They will commit to a 4 year lease, with option to cancel after 2 years only if they decide to leave the region/close their locations in our town. They are very good tenants otherwise, always paid on time with postdated checks (less headaches than our other tenants) they have the worst unit in the building with low visibility, would be hard to find other tenant of same quality for that unit, they took it because we are beside a high school. They are a franchise and have 50 locations. They wanted another of our unit which is occupies by a hair salon currently, the hair salon does give trouble with late payments sometimes, but we are keeping them there as we know it will be very hard to fill the unit of the driving school. Are we better off kicking out hair salon (lease ending with no renewal) and putting driving school there for better long term outcome ? We also fear loosing driving school if business stays bad for them Also i have this situation with my other tenant: In the lease it says they need to give me postdated cheques, but they dont, i asked for them many times, they say they will but never end up doing so, im always running after them every month and it's getting exhausting, don't want to cause issues with them neither, business is going soso, they pay but cause me a headache Also my last question was : is there any benefit in getting leases published ? What are the advantages ? Banks will lend easier ? Doea anyone ask for proof of insurance from your tenants ? Like copies of actual insurance documents ? Thanks in advance !

We've been expecting a correction in Canada since the 2008 Crash in the USA, and still nothing happened and prices kept going up.

Hey Mike, Don't get me wrong, i know properties appreciate over time, and you can't pay today what you paid in 2003. However, you remember when you had the bubble in 2008, people were doing crazy things just because real estate never goes down. Then the bubble burst. I mean there must have been some investors in the US saying hold on a second, this property sold for 140k couple years back now 400k, this is unsustainable long term? or maybe im getting in at a very high price, afraid to overpay.......

Hey everyone,

New investor here, i'm looking to purchase my first rental property and my main issues are :

1-Like most places the market i'm in is very hot now, the numbers are not adding up very well and there's no way in hell to find something that will make 10+% cash on cash.

2-The only "cheaper" better performing stuff will not be the beautiful brick and mortar, 4 or 6 plex, you know the one that was built for that purpose. Instead it will be a house transformed into a triplex, a large duplex transformed into a quad. Long story short these properties don't have the best curb appeal. You don't look at them and say wow i'm proud of owning that or i can brag about it , not even i would be shy almost to tell people i own that. But it makes money. I'm talking about the house transformed into 4 x 1 bedroom appartements, with weird separate entrances but all legal.

So my questions are, for those of you who are experienced, which property is better long term ? The nice normal quadruplex at a higher price, it breaks even but no real cashflow, vs the house converted into a quadruplex ?

Have you started with these similar cheaper properties and as you grew realized you should have bought the nice looking purposely built quadruplex instead?

Am i better to look for 2 bedroom appartements or 1 bedrooms are ok ? People are telling me the 1 bedrooms attract a different kind of clientele, they are unstable tenants long term ?

I am finding properties for sale today for 399k but were purchased for 140k in 2003. I don't know about you but it feels terribly wrong to be paying that much more in such a short amount of time.

It feels as if i just missed the golden days of real estate investing. Is this just a feeling all investors go through? I mean in 2003 when everything was cheap were people also thinking oh my god it's so expensive we just missed the golden days? was there actually a time where people said hey this is dirt cheap i want to buy as much as possible? it feels like we're never going to get that same opportunity...

Thank you in advance!

Hi Joe, I just saw your post and there's one thing I'm having a hard time understanding, it's the third reason for having a partner: 1 - ...because they do something that is needed that you can't do. (AKA HAS MONEY) 2 - ...because they do something that is needed that you don't want to do. (AKA MANAGEMENT)
...and last, but probably most important,  3 - ...because they do something that is needed that you Shouldn't do.  Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. Doing repairs ? You shouldn't do them even if you can? Other than that i don't know what it can be ? How do you agree with your partner on what is fair? Does he put the down payment say 50K and you find the deal and then it's 50-50 going forward? would partners actually agree on putting the money and you putting no money down?

Thank you all for your quick replies !! i really appreciate it. I talked to the lawyer that did our transaction and she said there would be no fees, she wants to clear things with the seller and us so we don't end on bad terms. I sent her copies of the refund/credit and basically explained to her what you all said, that we would split it based on the time they owned the home, still waiting for her to get back to me, i will keep you guys posted! Thanks again :-)