Lessons learned from my 18 years as a landlord can be summarized into 10 areas. New and existing landlords require a large body of knowledge to run a residential rental business and this blog outlines the ten cornerstones needed to build a residential rental business foundation. Laying the foundation Before you start shopping…

How do you handle a hoarding tenant? When Skip Byrnum of Texas, USA, a regular fixture at meetings and church, went missing, friends called the police. Rescue workers had to cut holes in the roof to get into his cluttered property. …

BC Landlord Resources is a regional overview of organizations that support landlord knowledge and education in British Columbia. This listicle is a continuation of the promised provincial resources for landlords that I started last week with Alberta Landlord Resources. …

Technology has permeated every aspect of our lives, and property technology or PropTech has found a solid foothold in the property management sector. According to Deloitte, PropTech start-ups have already raised over $43 billion in funding worldwide since 2012. …

Although tenants may think all maintenance issues are an emergency, they aren’t. There are definite differences between the type of maintenance that can wait till the next day and those that require immediate action. Emergency Maintenance Emergency maintenance issues impact the safety or health of your tenant or put your building at…

Landlord liability is a real threat. Owning a rental property, if done right, can provide cash flow and, ideally a nice profit when you sell. …

Alberta Residential Landlord Association (ARLA), resource Trade show — this was a great event for building relationships, networking, and bringing it all together. I’ll share a condensed version of my ARLA tradeshow takeaways in this blog. Standouts Four business services stood out as a special highlight: Enercare, MrPayment Services, COINAMATIC, and LocNest Holdings. Enercare This service blew me away. I had no idea you could lease a water heater, furnace, or air conditioning equipment. With…

If you want to know what not to do in real estate — don’t do what I did with my first property! Do the opposite and you’ll be a raving success. Over 20 years ago, I invested in a 25-year-old duplex. The plan was to live in the top suite…

In a recent poll with my Facebook group — Real estate Investment Resource Network, several members mentioned their three favorite tenant screening tools: 1. Judgments 2. Search of criminal records 3. Credit checks Credit checks have been a standard in the property management industry for decades, but judgments and searches…