Quote:
Originally Posted by NumberFive
Appreciate the thoughts... it's something I've considered, but having started reading some of the things that one needs to do, started to think there's a better place for investment, considering it wouldn't be a full-time job for me... just an "income on the side". Heck, even the apparent paperwork required (contracts, notices, etc) seems like more headache than I would like. But I wanted to see if anybody here had their own advice or experiences.
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Never done it, but I've had many friends who have and back when I rented, I used to chat with my landlord a lot about it. I think he wanted a sympathetic ear to whine to more than anything else, and whine he did.
Let's just say the part of your comment that I bolded made me laugh out loud. I don't know any landlords who do this on the side.
What inevitably happens is you start with one property, that's "money on the side" but you find yourself having to run around a lot to do all the work involved, which eats into your "regular job" time. So, you pick up another property, because what the hell, if you're spending this time away from work you might as well kill 2 birds at the same time, and also you need the money as your regular income is starting to suffer.
Repeat until you're a full-time landlord. I've seen it dozens of times.
Now, if you were smart enough to pick up 7-10 properties in say the mid 90s (like my last landlord had), and sweated it out for a decade or so, you stood to make a KILLING in Calgary when selling them. At one point he had well in excess of $2 million in equity, keeping in mind what happened to property values here. That's plenty of money to pay off any conceivable personal debt, and live quite comfortably for some time, with some part-time work thrown in for extra spending cash. All for a decade of work, so not bad.
Of course, the idiot didn't sell any of his properties because like most real estate investors, he got greedy, saw nothing but dollar signs, and assumed the market was going to go up forever. He's currently still a full-time landlord as his property values have sank enough that while he'd definitely make money, it's nowhere near enough to retire on and he's been away from work so long that it's all he knows how to do anymore.
Also, contrary to what the renters on these forums would have you believe, the rent:property value ratio in this city is freakishly low, ie: rents are way too cheap here. Well, or property values are way too expensive but until we see large numbers of defaults I'd argue that one. So you won't make the money you think renting, and then it's DEFINITELY about the investment - and do you really think your property values are likely to double in, say, the next 10 years?
All in all, this is just about the last place I'd invest in rental properties. Low rent + low value increase for the forseeable future = bad investment. You have to love being a landlord (and I've known some that do).