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Why I Don’t Believe Tenants and What I Do Instead
It doesn’t take much digging to find complaints about landlords: the guy’s a jerk, doesn’t ever repair anything, doesn’t respond to my calls, only cares about money and so on. Some landlords really do...
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How I’m collecting from an ex-tenant who owes me money
I can non longer count the number of times that tenants have bailed on my rental units, leaving unpaid rent balances. In the past, my management company would chase them for a bit and, when they got...
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Are rent-to-own deals still a good investment?
Last month, my business partner and I sent out an announcement saying that we are no longer accepting rent-to-own deals. The reaction has been interesting. Several of our referral partners told me...
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When should you walk away from an investment?
A reader of my blog, Jim*, reached out to me for advice. Several years ago, he got a good deal on a house that needed significant repairs, both inside and out. Off to work he went, demolishing the...
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How one government decision can increase your investment risks
If you are the kind of person who shrugs with boredom whenever governments send you an update on policy changes, you might want to take a closer look the next time one lands in your mailbox. Earlier...
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How to Burn Your Mortgage in Three Years
No, that’s not a typo – I do mean three years. And that’s precisely what Sean Cooper did: He bought a house in the Greater Toronto Area at the age of 27, and by the time he was 30, it was paid in full...
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Claims about Rent to Own – What can you believe?
It looks like the hype about Rent to Own is back. Housing sales aren’t the only part of real estate that goes in cycles. Ten years ago, everyone was saying that Rent to Own was a scam. A few years...
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Not All Dollars are Equal in Divorce Settlements
Tim and Connie decided to call it quits after more than a decade of marriage. There wasn’t a big crisis; it’s just that they grew apart. While one of them wasn’t entirely happy with the decision, they...
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When It Makes Sense To Rent a Home Instead of Buying
When I published my last blog post on the fact that it does not always make sense to keep the matrimonial home in a divorce, I received emails from people heading into a divorce for whom that issue was...
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Investing: On Ownership, Volatility, and Teenagers
Welcome to Part Two of Investing’s Two Basic Options. In my previous blog post, I looked at the first option in investing: lending money. Today, let’s tackle investments in which you become an owner....
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