All Forum Posts by: Sheldon Peart

Hi Everyone, i appreciate the responses. 

@Chris Baxter, do you currently have properties under a PM or are they managed by a partner? I do understand most PM's charge gross rents, but my understanding from the terms and conditions i have read so far was they collect a percentage of gross expected rent, so if there is a vacancy, they are still billing for their fixed percentage. This is most likely not true for all PM contracts, so i will have to review a couple more, unfortunately there are only a handful in town. 

@Chris Habets I am naturally leaning towards your view, I have been managing the properties for two years now and it has gone smoothly. The tasks that i really need help with would just be move-in/out inspections, contractor inspections if there are maintenance issues, and showing the unit to prospective renters when there is a turnover. I think we may be able to hire someone on an as needed basis. @Sam Abazari I do have some contractors that i trust and have used for the past 3-4 years on our own place and our rentals, and it hasn't been overly time consuming. Also since my background is Construction  Management i am able to understand their scopes and keep their costs inline, but that hasn't stopped them from trying to over bill, with very little success.

Thanks guys, i think i will get a hold of more terms and conditions to see if they have differing fee structures. If not, i may go with the software route and see how it goes, and if it becomes a hassle i will engage a PM. 

Sheldon

I’m sure the inspector is right in regards to structural integrity. It’s normal for concrete to crack, to a certain degree. It may be beneficial to put a drainage line around your foundation to catch that water before it gets to your foundation. If it was able to flood to the extent it sounds like it did previously you may want to try and intercept the water and whisk it away from your house not giving it a chance to find new or old cracks.  this can be done for a reasonable cost in most cases.

sheldon

Yea if it’s just one isolated spot digging up the dirt might be the right approach and fix it that way. If you take this route contact Sika, they have lots of products to repair concrete from just surface grouts to injectable grouts to repair deep cracks. 

How did the significant flooding happen previously? And can it happen again?

Good luck,

Sheldon

I am looking for some advice or feedback on how to go about setting up our rentals to be managed from a distance. I recently got a job offer that was too tough to turn down, so we are looking at moving in the next year, which is 8 hours away. We have two four-plex's side by side where we currently live and just do not want to give them up as they produce really strong cash flows. I am trying to decide if 1.) Do we hire a property manager or 2.) Do we use a software like Tenant Cloud to manage the properties and just hire someone to do things like showings, tenant turnover, and maintenance runs. I just don't have much to go by to compare the costs. 

I have not used a property manager before and am concerned that their incentives are not really aligned with ours, for example they get paid even if there is vacancy, or they charge a fee for filling a unit but not for renewing a lease. In anyone's experience how open are property managers to making changes their terms and conditions to better align our interests? I know we don't have a large amount of units, which means we don't have as much leverage negotiating but it would make more sense to me to incentivize the property manager in ways that are in our interest also.

The second option of managing through a software and just having contractors respond to the maintenance and issues that come up. Looking for feedback, or advice on this option and if it was worth the headache of being the facilitator essentially. 

Thanks for any advice or feedback.

Sheldon

Hi Russell, 

I am not familiar with your area as i am situated in BC. I spent the first 15 years of my career contracting before recently going into the engineering side of things and have dealt with water issues on foundations on certain projects before. If this was my property i would probably ask myself the following questions to determine if this is an issue or not:

- how much actually enters the basement, and how is it entering? 

- Is the concrete just damp and letting some condensation/weeping through, or is there concerning puddling on the floor? 

- Also does your basement have some sort of way to get rid of this water via a sump pump or another way?

- Where are the downspouts on the property and are they directing the rainfall from the roof away from the house. Preferably a goof 6+ft away depending on if you have soils that absorb water well. 

I would share the same concerns as DJ Martin above on if this water can cause mold in some material, or ground shifting. Water is extremely destructive if not dealt with, especially here in Canada where we have very large freeze thaw shifts with the seasonal changes. Maybe you would want to look at some kind of drainage system around your house to redirect the water when it comes down. I am currently putting a dry well system in at a four-plex of ours to control the runoff from the decks, roof, and parking area because we have poor soils (clay). 

Let me know the answers to those questions, hopefully i can help in some way.

Sheldon

@Todd Rasmussen

Thanks for the input and snapshot, we will be looking into these products to see if they work for us. 

Thanks again, 

Sheldon

@Shane Hale 

Thanks for the information Shane, i will look into both these products and see if they work for our intended usage. 

Appreciate the time!

Sheldon

Hello, We are looking to put security camera/system at our properties. We have two 4-plexs side by side, one has 4 separate garages, and the other four spots for carports under the decks. These decks are concrete but are supported by wood columns and i always worry of someone hitting a column and creating substantial damage. We are looking at possibly relocating about 6 hours away in the next year and I would like to place an exterior camera system in the rear where people park and also share an alleyway. 

My questions is: Does anyone currently use an exterior camera system, if so, what company/system. Would you recommend it and is it economical? We are located in British Columbia.

Thanks for any advice and guidance on this topic

Sheldon

Thanks 

Thanks alot guys, i really appreciate the input and advice. Our primary is a fixed rate also, which is why i found it confusing, but it has a slightly lower rate and it is not with RBC, that is with First National and i now know the big 5 do not have favorable terms. Unfortunately we do not have another property to port the mortgage to right away. Going forward we will go with other lenders like First National for future properties and will ensure we can break mortgages for much lower costs. We will be deciding this week if we bite the bullet or just hold till term and chalk this up as a learning curve.

Thanks again,

Sheldon

I am looking for a bit of advice regarding selling a property and the breakage fees associated.

We are looking to sell one of our properties that has a mortgage with RBC and we recently called to see what the cost is when we sell. We were very surprised at the cost $8100 for a 300K property, with about 25% equity in. The reason i found this surprising is because we are looking to pay off our primary mortgage and the fee was only $1600 with approximately the same out standing balance. The difference between these two is substantial. We are now contemplating if we should just keep it rented until term (basically 3 years to go)

My question is: Is there a way to avoid this breakage fee in the future? Is there some type of mortgage clause we want to have when we purchase future properties? Would the only way to avoid this be to keep the property until mortgage term is up? It seems odd to me that would be the case. Maybe there are lenders that offer a much more reasonable breakage fee, if so, please let me know who they are.

Thanks for any advice/insight into this issue.

Sheldon