The US Foreclosure Market – Opportunity or Minefield?

Posted on October 1, 2010 by admin

It was only a couple of weeks ago that it was announced that Alberta is leading Canada with the dubious distinction of having more mortgages in arrears per capita than any other province.  The announcement stated that a whopping .74% of mortgages here are behind in payments versus .42 percent nationally.

Considering how much our properties grew in value from 2005 to mid 2007 it’s actually a testament to how stable our market really is that this as such a low number. Of course, I am using a bigger perspective when I say this as I have also been following some of the US statistics on foreclosures at the same time and all the accompanying noise following it.

Now it is a bit harder to get accurate statistics in Canada for mortgages and bank info than it is to find them in the US, mostly due to our rather restrictive privacy policies, but there are some interesting comparables to look at from what is available. The most important being the sheer number of properties going into foreclosure in the US.  Yes, they have a larger population base and the percentages are actually not that far off, but they are still in a worse situation due to volume. In August, California had 69,143 properties going into foreclosure, Florida had 56,877 and the entire US had 336,836 properties foreclosed on.

These numbers are overwhelming when you compare them with our local and national numbers. Alberta as a province has a total of just over 500,000 mortgages and Canada is sitting at just over 4,000,000 mortgages. Of these, Alberta only has 3,707 in arrears and Canada has 17,090 behind. Now don’t forget, these are properties in arrears which means they are behind on two or more payments, many of these haven’t actually entered foreclosure. Much less than half of these typically make it all the way through to foreclosure here, while the number is much higher in the US.

Unfortunately, though, part of the US foreclosure story isn’t being told. Many of the homes behind on payments are being left in the system due to an overwhelming amount of properties currently in foreclosure. According to James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac in the US, “The trend lines of decreasing default notices and increasing bank repossessions converged in August, with virtually the same number of new default notices and bank repossessions for the month – a clear indication that the clogged foreclosure pipeline is being carefully managed on both ends by lenders and servicers.”

He also mentions this is being done “presumably to prevent further erosion of home prices.” So the lenders and banks are effectively slowing down the amount of properties they are actually foreclosing on, while the numbers of actual delinquencies continues to increase. Short term this may slow down price decreases as the number of properties slowly enters the market, but in the bigger long term picture, it means the market will also be stuck with an abundance of foreclosed properties for potentially many years to come.

With this continual steady stream of properties entering the market for such an extended time period, this will provide steady pressure on home prices to remain flat or even continue to erode. For people looking to purchase some of these discounted properties at such low prices south of the border, this may not bode well for any potential property appreciation gains in the near future. So while there may be opportunity to purchase at extremely low prices, especially compared to local prices here in Alberta, there won’t be any immediate return on their investment, or potentially for quite a while!

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When Are The Banks Going to Take Responsibility?

Posted on September 23, 2010 by admin

Do you think the banks are getting away with too much profits and taking to little responsibility for their actions? Now I am lumping lenders and banks together and not all are created equal, but there are some financial institutions out there who don’t give a hoot about their clients, just their profits and their stock holders and I think this is a problem. Admittedly, I have a biased viewpoint on this one, at least to a certain degree, so it may be interesting to get some feedback from others.

This current scenario all revolves around this question at the moment,  “At what point is the bank responsible for the highly profitable, almost zero risk to them, 35 and 40 year mortgages that required 10% down or less?” The blame has consistently been on the property owners who have been over extending themselves, buying too much house, or simply getting caught up with the thought home prices never drop. But didn’t the bank loan them the money to start the ball rolling? If these were potentially risky purchases, shouldn’t the bank take some of the heat, they had no problem making all the profits?

Anyone with a low down mortgage, who purchased their property from mid 2007 to potentially mid 2009, is now likely in a situation where they owe more than the property is worth, or at the very least, it will cost them more to sell it than they have equity after realtor’s commissions, lawyer’s fees etc. Yet because high ratio mortgages are insured (and the borrower pays these fees, not the bank!), the banks have minimal risk involved. If we can blame the property owner for not being educated enough about the markets to understand values can drop, why were the lenders lending to them if they knew the potential outcome, surely they were educated enough? Is it possible they never had the homeowner’s best interests in mind?

The real kicker to this is what recently happened to me and apparently is starting to happen to others as well. You see, under current mortgage laws, lenders are not required to renew a mortgage when it comes due. Once a mortgage does come due, they can simply request all their money back as per the multi-page legal mortgage contract you signed.  Since it is often in the lender’s best interests to not renew and reduce their risk, especially if values have dropped enough to make the mortgage value close to or below the property value, they are following what is best for them and it doesn’t matter what the mortgage holder’s history is. Even if a person’s payment history is impeccable, it comes down to profits.

I have experienced this personally with two rental properties now not being renewed. In my case neither had high ratio mortgages, one was a 25% down and the other a 20% down conventional mortgage! Unfortunately I’m not alone, I have also talked to several other property owners and they too are running into issues as well with lenders not renewing. So this isn’t an isolated incident, it is occurring more and more frequently.

On the positive side, the lenders who appear to be following this approach so far appear to not be the main charter banks like RBC or TD-Canada Trust, but rather the second tier lenders such as Exceed mortgages (who I would never recommend anyone use now!). Since a majority of all the mortgages are through these primary lenders, this should provide some security for many individuals (at least currently), but what kind of trend will the secondary lenders create and in the future will the main banks follow their lead if the economy doesn’t rebound soon?

Theoretically, if this policy of not renewing a mortgage spreads and the economy doesn’t rebound, it could lead to even more downward pressure on property values. Many property owners would be stuck in a situation where they are handcuffed by the lenders and are forced to sell. With the pressure of pending foreclosure against the owner, this could lead to a rush of motivated sellers in the market who would be essentially dumping their homes to protect their credit. If they have funds to even pay any shortcomings.

The other issue that occurs is that if a property has a mortgage equal to or close to the property value, Realtors are required to be prepaid their commissions which are held in trust until the sale goes through. If times are tough, you may not have $15,000 or whatever the commission amount is just lying around for the brokerage to hang onto.

Again theoretically, this type of setback could push more families and individuals into bankruptcy or near bankruptcy. The repercussions of this for many families could have implications for decades and ripple throughout the economy.

So while I am not advocating that home buyers are totally blame free, some of the responsibility of signing off on many of these mortgages prior to the downturn should still fall on the shoulders of the lending institutions. What are your thoughts? Should banks be entitled to their huge profits at the expense of the homeowners? Or should the homeowners have been better educated before buying?

You can contact me at bill@housez.ca with your thoughts.

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Alberta Mortgage Arrears Increase By a Factor of Five!

Posted on September 16, 2010 by admin

If you missed the headlines the other day, Alberta is now leading the nation in mortgage arrears with .74 percent of the mortgages in the province in arrears. Just to put that in perspective that means out of every 10,000 mortgages 74 are behind on their payments. Nationally the number is 42 per every 10,000 mortgages, or .42 percent, so you can see our numbers are significantly higher.

It creates an even bigger impact when you consider in June of 2007 that the number of properties in arrears for Alberta was only 14 mortgages out of every 10,000. That makes today’s percentage over five times higher than 2007.

Then again, we had just gone through three years of mind numbing growth in values, so it should have been exceptionally low. Now however, we are at the opposite end of the spectrum and are feeling the pain of the fallout. This is just another example of the highs and lows of a Real Estate cycle, but now affecting the next phase of the industry, the mortgage holders.

Does this signify the beginning of the end? Will Alberta house prices tumble in an effort to deal with these potential foreclosure properties and the repercussions? Perhaps it’s easier if we look at a couple of other facts that should be noted with these arrears.

While these properties are behind in payments, it doesn’t mean they have gone all the way through the foreclosure process and have become actual foreclosures. These statistics only talk about properties in arrears, you typically have to be in arrears for two or three months before the foreclosure process starts.The actual foreclosure process can take up to six months from beginning of the process until the end.

Now obviously the numbers have changed, but back several years ago, properties that actually went all the way through the foreclosure process after falling behind were less than 10%. The majority of the foreclosure proceedings were simply resolved by home owners selling or refinancing prior to actual foreclosure.

So given the worsening economy, tougher times and just to make the number scarier, if we say this number jumped to 50% of the properties currently behind going all the way through foreclosure, that’s still only 37 out of 10,000 properties ending up foreclosed. Looking at the MLS, one would believe there are considerably more foreclosures out there, but reality tells us that appearances can be deceiving.

While the MLS has significantly more foreclosures appearing in it than the averages above indicate, remember that a much higher percentage of foreclosed properties end up on the MLS than properties not in foreclosure.   A property that has been foreclosed either gets sold via the paper or listed with Realtors and as a result, a very high percentage of these end up on the MLS messing up the averages.

The problem in Alberta that arises (and for the most part Canada), is that if these properties haven’t been sold by the homeowner prior to being foreclosed, they most likely have very little equity and are typically high ratio mortgages. By law, all high ratio mortgages are insured which means the banks get paid the full mortgage amount, so there is very little incentive for them to sell the properties at a discount of any type. Hence, they often get listed at full market value and include restrictive sales conditions making them far less desirable to the informed buyers.

This is what corrupts the numbers. Many of these then languish on the MLS for ages, creating the appearance of more foreclosures actually being out there and available for sale than there truly are.  Since these properties are also not very often discounted in price, it really means little when it comes to affecting overall property values.

Compare this to the short sales in the US, where properties are often discounted significantly to get them off the books. These discounted properties affect values significantly, which is why the US still has some significant struggles ahead of them as our numbers are a fraction of theirs. This is another example of how our two markets differ and why we won’t see the free fall in prices that some are predicting.

In the big picture, it’s very true that the number of homeowners struggling with payments is increasing and this won’t go away soon.  However, it’s not as big a problem as it appears. So, as always, don’t get scared by the headlines, read between the lines and find out what is really going on. Or wait for me to explain it!

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Rising Interest Rates Indicate a Solid Canadian Economy?

Posted on September 9, 2010 by admin

With the current state of the US economy, the fragile state of several European countries and the general malaise of the world economy, the Bank of Canada is sending a strong signal out about how solid the Canadian economy is with another prime rate increase. Or alternatively they are setting the stage for us to get pushed backwards a few steps.

Shortly after the September 8th Bank of Canada rate increase of a quarter percent, the countries major banks quickly upped their rates as well, leaving the majority of the banks sitting at a prime rate of 3%.

This increase was expected by some and unexpected by others including myself. As I mentioned above and in previous articles about the Bank of Canada Rate announcements, with so much uncertainty around the economy, not just in Canada, but also around much of the world, it seemed a bit aggressive to raise our rates for the third time this year.

The down side to the increase is it will tighten up some of the use of credit currently out there as businesses and individuals will start to tighten their belts and reduce spending due to increased carrying costs when it comes to borrowing money. This usually leads to a general slowdown in retail sales and in my area of concern, Real Estate transactions.

For many of the homeowners with variable rate mortgages this will trigger a slightly higher monthly payment, although not really a substantial increase, and may push some to lock in their mortgages at a fixed rate further decreasing their disposable monthly cash. For the majority of homeowners with fixed rates, nothing changes, other than the concern that when they have to renew they will most likely be facing higher rates.

The upside of the increase though, is that is signifies to other economies around the world that our conservative policies are working. This has already been seen with the slight increase in our dollars value as foreign investors see the Canadian dollar as a safe refuge for their money. Extended over the next six months it may also provide a boost to our manufacturing base as foreign investment looks to Canada as a safe investment bet. Coincidentally most of the manufacturing is located in Ontario where the rates are set and the votes come from, hmmm.

Longer term this can only be good for our energy industries. As manufacturing improves, demand for energy also increases. Ultimately, this leads to more money being spent on large projects in our neighbourhood as profitability in that industry increases.

After seeing Augusts’ residential Real Estate statistics, we could really use some extra spending in the province to help stimulate the housing industry! Sales are down from last year and it looks like many home owners have been taking their properties off the market as inventory is dropping much faster than sales numbers would have them.

Once again, the current increase in rates won’t help the situation. So it appears as if the next month or two may continue the trend of a slow Real Estate market, but hopefully the steady economic numbers that are trickling out, along with the US’s latest expenditures on their new and improved stimulus package will help boost us up even more. So, sit back and we can all watch as we hope for positive news to eventually arrive from this latest announcement!

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Canada Housing Bubble – Really?

Posted on September 2, 2010 by admin

Will it ever end? The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives just came out with their report that states ”Canada is experiencing, for the first time in the last 30 years, a synchronized housing bubble across the six largest residential real estate markets in Canada.” You can find the full 24 page report at www.policyalternatives.ca.

The author of the report, David MacDonald, provides three different scenarios a) a market correction through straight pricing deflation of homes b) a deeper and longer crash over several years with prices dropping each year, or c) a rapid and steep decline similar to the US. The biggest problem I see with this report is that it is grouping all the cities together and all having the same issues.

Due to Canada’s size and diversity, what happens in one region doesn’t necessarily affect another. Alberta as an example always lags behind other provinces initially as overall economic growth increases. Then due to our energy based economy it surges above and beyond the other economies after the demand factor increases. Ontario on the other hand often starts strong due to increasing manufacturing. As for specifically Vancouver, it seems to operate under its own set of universal laws as there is no way people can afford to buy homes there, yet it continues merrily along.

Now, having said that, we are also all tied together with certain aspects, such as mortgage rates, which David also says will play a factor. I absolutely agree with him that if mortgage rates return close to historic norms too quickly it will have a dramatic affect on affordability. This is why I have been surprised by the previous two rate hikes the Bank of Canada already instituted this year. It’s also something that the finance minister is paying very close attention to at this point.

They are very aware that if they continue to consistently increase rates, even at a slow pace, it will dramatically affect the entire economy.  As I have pointed out in previous articles, Canada had been the only G7 country to increase rates and we were only able to do so due to our quick recovery from the global slowdown. This was predominately due to many of the economic policies Canada had in place along with our stricter lending practices. Many other mortgage rate watchers, as well as myself, believe that if we do see further increases they will be very minimal and rates will stay very close to where they are currently at for a while. The caveat being if the economy starts to grow like crazy, increasing rates will just keep everything in balance.

Overall, he makes many good points and provides several possible outcomes. The unfortunate points being he doesn’t look at any of the positive signs we see out there which point to the market possibly dropping still a bit more, but regaining strength as we move into the end of 2010 and into a positive looking 2011.

Just to close off, the same day the above mentioned report came out, a report from C.D. Howe also came out. It took the stance that there is no indication that Canada will suffer a US style housing crash. Also a good read, it just didn’t get much press because it may perhaps have been to positive and positive headlines just don’t sell!

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Canada’s Housing Bubble To Burst – What a Great Panic Headline!

Posted on September 1, 2010 by admin

It sounds like this headline is showing up all across Canada. Variations of this headline have been triggered by a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. In the report they talk about six major centers (two in Alberta!) that are in a precarious position. (links to the reports are at the bottom of the article!)

I was writing an article about this for my weekly Real Estate column at the Chestermere Anchor when I found the following video from Peter Kinch. Peter is one of the top ranked mortgage brokers in Canada, and in the video he presents his view on the subject.

Also of note, he brings up the other report that just came out from the C.D Howe institute report that says there is a low risk of a US style housing burst. Basically the exact opposite of the other report. Also strangely enough, the C.D. Howe report didn’t make much news in the headlines! Anyway here is the video and I will probably have my post about this up some time tomorrow.

**Give the player a couple of seconds to start after you click the arrow!**

Oh, one more quick note, the next Bank of Canada rate announcement is due out on September 8th, if you are keeping track!

Links to the Reports:

C.D. Howe : Not Here? Housing Market Policy and the Rick of a Housing Bust

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative: Canada’s Housing Bubble, An Accident Waiting to Happen

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Courthouse – Part 2

Posted on August 25, 2010 by admin

Want to know how to waste two hours of your time? Get subpoenaed as a witness and then discover that the officer neglected to update you that the court date changed, that’s how.

What a pisser as I had things I needed to get done and pushed them off to do the right thing. What’s more aggravating is this same officer never returned one of my initial calls or emails when this first started a year ago. It seems to be an ongoing saga.

I understand the police are busy, I understand they are often understaffed, but here we have a chance to put a deadbeat away who stole a vehicle at knife point and we’re screwing around. Anyway, I’ll have more updates after the 1st of September when I find out the new and updated court date!

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Bad Tenant – Off to The Courthouse!

Posted on August 25, 2010 by admin

Here Comes The Judge!

OK, just so you know, this isn’t even an eviction. I had a tenant “allegedly” steal a vehicle from another tenant last year at knife point. I know, I get to deal with great people.

Worse yet, this was part of my pilot project to help young kids get off the street by putting them in some of my shared accommodation properties. Now just to add some perspective to this, I am not Mother Teresa, or even close!, part of this was to help fill rooms and some was indeed to try and help people who needed it.

Quick recap on the project, out of 11 tenants, I evicted or assisted nine of them to leave, the other two will never be allowed back. These were 18-24 year old kids who wanted financial assistance, housing assistance and typically had problems at home. The problem with the system I see is they were never made accountable.

They didn’t have to work for their money, they didn’t have to show up for job interviews, they didn’t have to get up in the morning. Also since they didn’t pay for anything and new housing would be found for them, they also weren’t responsible for anything. No smoking, sure, whenever Bill wasn’t around, no overnight visitors, sure whenever Bill wasn’t around. Anyway you get the idea.

Anyway, I will post more either late tonight or tomorrow as the story unfolds!!!

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What’s Your Source of Real Estate Info?

Posted on August 20, 2010 by admin

If you follow the Real Estate markets or own rental property it is incredibly easy to get depressed about the current market situation. As you scan the Real Estate headlines and find out sales have dropped 41% from the last year. Or as you can talk to Realtors, who will tell you about the huge amount of inventory currently for sale or you can even talk to your tenants about how they feel you need to lower rents because there are so many vacancies out there. The last trap was the one I fell into with my tenants help.

With this many options and this many negatives, it’s easy to get worried and it’s important to understand where your sources of information come from. My mistake began with talking to a tenant of mine, who was requesting a rent reduction due to the changing market. I am aware there are more vacancies and I know the market is a bit more competitive, I also know what a headache it can be to move. But they were good people so I caved in and ended up offering her a $75 reduction, which wasn’t good enough for her. So I agreed to switch to month to month while they explored their options, without doing any rent reduction!!.So now, here is how the trap unfolded.

When I collected the last monthly rent check, I listened to her story about how she felt bad for landlords like me, since there were so many vacancies out there and so many choices for renters, I may be vacant for quite a while. It was all rather depressing really.

To help elevate the potential depression, I also had another property that was just getting some renovations completed and was currently vacant, plus two more vacancies coming up. It all looked rather glum.

Next, came the reality versus what I had been told by the wrong source, or at least a source with a different agenda. Late one evening as I stressed about how long I would have empty properties, I finally had my ads all written and proceeded to post them online with less than stellar expectations. Much to my surprise by mid morning, I already had my first viewing booked for that day. Then another one came for the following day. Then two more for the other property, then a friend’s son came out of the woodwork interested in the third.

The response took me off guard as I was expecting a disappointing response, but it quickly became better and better. Now the key from my viewpoint is as follows, we like to keep our properties well maintained and updated and this is an example of this tactic paying off. Here we are not even a week later and I have all three properties lined up with new tenants. One will be vacant for less than 24 hours!

When chatting with the actual tenants looking for new places, the real view of the market emerged versus the one I was fed by the current tenant. Yes, there are a significant amount of rental properties out there, many at very low monthly rates. However, it appears there is a reason many of them are languishing on the market and steadily reducing rates and it has nothing to do with an over abundance of vacancies. Rather it has to do with tenants having options of where they want to live and they don’t want to live in dumps!

Resoundingly the tenants informed me that a majority of the “cost effective” properties were not places they would choose to live if they had options. During the economic boom earlier in the decade, people took what they could get, now the landlord and property owners that took advantage of tenants and just pocketed all the profits are feeling the results of their decisions.

So the real message behind this article? You really need to talk to the right people to get the real answers. The neighbour, or the tenant or the Realtor may have an opinion, but you have to do your own research to find out how valid their opinion really is and what is actually happening in the market.

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To Keep Receiving Updates Please See Below

Posted on August 17, 2010 by admin

In further efforts to streamline the process and to ensure I can get posts out more efficiently I am making a few changes again to the way I send out the posts.

Unfortunately it does require everyone to re-register, fortunately I have a simple form that will make it quick and easy.
 

 
To make sure you are rewarded for having to re-register I am putting together some more great information to send out to all the subscribers that register through this form. My apologies for the extra steps you take, hopefully the free info will make it all worthwhile and you should see it in your inbox over the next few weeks.

Remember this info will only be available initially to the newly subscribed, so please register just once more!

Thanks,

Bill

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Calgary Top City for Investing in Canada?

Posted on August 10, 2010 by admin

In a report by the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN) in early August, Calgary was ranked the number 1 city in Canada for Real estate investments. With the slower and shaky economy, the high price of home ownership, forecasts for a slowdown in housing prices increasing interest rates this has come as a surprise to many people.

So where does this type of report get its basis from? First off, the group is basing its pick of Calgary from now until 2015. So while presently it may seem less glamorous to look at Real Estate as an investment, it’s over time that it shines.

REIN bases their decision on several factors that directly affect the value of property. These key factors are population growth, job growth and increasing average incomes. Whoa, you might say! Isn’t Calgary losing population, hasn’t there been layoffs and how could average income be increasing?

This is where the long term five year view comes into play. As the global energy markets continue to stabilize over the next several years and the US continues to increases its dependency on the “dirty oil” coming directly from the Alberta oil sands, Calgary will see its economic stability ramping up. Of course as the energy industry thrives so does the rest of the provincial economy.

Although we are currently seeing a slowdown in inter provincial migration, as more jobs become available and the economy grows, this will once again turn around. Now we aren’t talking 2005/2006 out of control growth, but definitely stronger than we have seen the last three years.

Now the majority of people first moving here are not likely to be home buyers. They tend to be renters who are initially more intent on getting a good job and less concerned about buying of they are unsure how long they will stay. This is what many people who are disregarding the report are missing.

From a home owner’s standpoint, with an average price of over $450,000 for a property that may not be able to increase much is not be a good investment. On the other hand, a $300,000 suited bungalow in a rental neighbourhood that generates $2,200 a month in gross income versus a $1,070 monthly mortgage payment could be a great investment from a Real Estate investor’s viewpoint.

What are your thoughts? Is Don Campbell going out on a limb or does he have a firm grasp on what’s happening out there?

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Revelations Part 2

Posted on August 3, 2010 by admin

Revelations – Realizing how lucky you really are.

Definition from Bill Biko

Since yesterday there has been quite a few fun little stories pop up, but let’s touch on my definition of revelations first.

As I mentioned, I’ve been getting more irritable for a while now due to myriads of minor and major headaches. These range from a partnership that has been going through a split for over a year and a half, another partner who is managing a property in Lacombe who hasn’t been able to provide any details on the property for over two years and may now be going into foreclosure, being forced by banks to sell properties in a market not conducive to sales, tenants who seem to be more concerned with their welfare than mine and I could probably go on for another thousand words with all the headaches and complaints I have.

All the pressure, all the worrying about everyone else, well it’s just worn me down. Because I have been looking at it as ongoing problems that will never subside and I think that is where the revelation comes in. This all comes back to Tony Robbins new show again, the Breakthrough. Now I quite enjoyed the show as it’s great to see people over come what obviously completely changed their lives, but what I didn’t realize is after the show Tony posts a video explaining some of the background info that gets omitted due to the show’s 44 minute time frame.

It was watching some of this post show video yesterday that I started to realize how lucky I am. Yes I have some big challenges in front of me, but some are transforming as we go along. Last week the year and a half split finally was complete, we received some very positive reviews of the property we are still trying to sell, I’m getting more calls on the vacancies we have, my new business while slowly growing is starting to get some nice results and some referrals, my family still loves and adores me (well maybe adore is strong, especially with how pissy I have been lately, but they still love me!), I have a great home and there is plenty of positive out there.

When I look at the story from the Breakthrough and how the fellow became a quadriplegic who was stuck in his house, afraid to go outside, yet has transformed his views and has become upbeat, positive and enthusiastic about his life and future. Then I compare at how I have started to look at all the negatives without seeing the positives it was a bit of a wake up call.

So while there are no guarantees I will be 100% happy all the time, I will start working on remembering the positives, the good things that are happening and try to let more of the negative wash away.

So with that in mind, here are a couple of developing stories since yesterday. Last night the police stopped by and I was subpoenaed for a courtcase later this month!!

Not against me just in case you were wondering! This relates back to my tenant from last summer who stole another tenants vehicle, cell phone and wallet at knife point. Apparently he and his buddy were caught in Ontario five days later sleeping in the car. I get to show up to confirm he was a tenant and help put him away hopefully for a long time.

The two guys who pissed me off Sunday, well this morning there was an apology text message on my phone. Apparently they are sorry about the misunderstanding and they wish they had taken my place and the fellow who wanted the discount may be interested in coming back at regular price.

I just received a referral yesterday from one of my very happy web clients, not sure how it will turn out, but after a quick look there seems to be plenty I can help them with.

On the slightly negative side, people don’t comprehend ads very well, I have been getting quite a few calls on a rent to own property and another one for a live in manager for another and it’s apparent that I need to write them with more clarity. Obviously including prices, how it works and everything comes across confusing (see look at me finding a humorous bright side!).

There’s been a lot of economic doom and gloom and it’s probably not going away for a while. If you haven’t the time, or had it thrown in your face, about how really good you may already have it, perhaps now is a great time to do so. Happy revelations!

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Revelations

Posted on August 2, 2010 by admin

Revelations – Something revealed, especially a dramatic disclosure of something not previously known or realized.

Definition from Answers.com

I was talking with a friend this morning (you know who you are and thank you!) about how angry I am with people lately. Last week I had a former tenant send me an email who discovered a $1,295 judgment on his credit. He stated that I had lied to put this on his credit and he had witnesses about black mould in the property and was considering consulting a lawyer. It pissed me off a bit, so I suggested he go ahead and proceed as I would then have his current address and could go after all the additional charges I didn’t have in the judgment.

It irritated me that he tried to get out of paying originally and when it finally caught up to him, he was still trying to get out of it.

Yesterday I met with two guys from out East who were here to do some promotional work with the Calgary Herald. They called last week and wanted me to hold two rooms for them. They were persistent and very concerned that I had to hold them, so I did. They were supposed to call Saturday to confirm time of arrival, but of course they didn’t so I didn’ t expect them.

Then they called Sunday to say they were here, the rooms weren’t quite ready, so Karen and I had to rush over and prep them before they got there. When they did show up, they didn’t have the money with them for the rooms, and they wouldn’t be able to get it all since they had to withdraw money for traveling earlier that day and had daily limits. Yep, this irritated me too, especially since we had the conversation about costs a week earlier.

So they ran to the bank, came back and wanted to talk to me, in private. So we go outside and they tell me they thought it was too much. They wanted a discount of about 30%. They explained if they ended up staying longer they could rent as apartment for less. So to recap, I held two rooms, rushed to prep them for them, gave them the benefit of the doubt and was letting them only pay part of it up front and now they wanted a further discount. I was furious. I suggested they go get an apartment and walked away leaving them to drive off.

What I’ve been noticing over the last month is I’ve been letting incidents like this get to me. It’s just been a series of little pin pricks that get more and more and more and more and more annoying. The phone call this morning was part one of the revelation that this was happening.

You have to wait until tomorrow for part two!

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Secondary Suite Rules Relaxed in Calgary?

Posted on July 28, 2010 by admin

Just noticed a story out of the city council meeting last night where the council has erased zoning restrictions on secondary suites designated for narrow properties. So what does that mean?

For some reason if doesn’t change anything for older districts that have the nice large lots (the example they use is Haysboro and University Heights) which are more suitable to add secondary suites. It does however affect areas where they cram homes in like Martindale, certain areas of Tuscany, McKenzie Towne, in all about 18% of Calgary homes.

These areas can now have legal basement suites. There are still certain rules to follow, but it cannot be denied due to zoning for these areas now which should take some pressure off landlords hoping to not get reported.

The rest of the story is available on the Herald’s site, Alderman relax suite rules

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Tony Robbins, Rental Properties & Getting Things Done

Posted on July 27, 2010 by admin

Just going to throw a few quick thoughts and items out.

Tony Robbins

Tonight (Tuesday July 27th) is the premier of Tony Robbins new TV series. I have long been a fan of his books and audio packages. If you are having some struggles in your life, want some positive reinforcement, or just want to see some stories to make you feel good, check it out tonight.

Here is a link to a behinds the scenes story about the show, Tony Robbins – Breakthrough

Rental Properties & A Lesson

Been a busy week, Karen, the kids and I have been working on a vacant property in Forest Lawn. We are trying to teach the kids the value of working hard and getting paid for it, so our 10 year old learned to paint walls yesterday. She put in a solid two and a half hours and we will reward her for it.

It’s her lesson about life and earning money as she is constantly asking us how she can make money, now she knows and we are taking them back today to finish up!

Getting Things Done

I was up until 2:45 the other night, couldn’t sleep, so I went and worked on some of my web projects. It didn’t hit me until today that I keep falling into the same trap all small business owners have. I’m busy working in my business (as I prepare to go paint again at a rental property), rather than working ON my business.

Most of you aren’t aware I started another business up now as I need something to fill my time.  I have done a ton of research on how to market websites, products and information on the internet over the last few years as I sat on the sidelines and waited for the Real Estate market to settle down. Now I am leveraging that knowledge to help small businesses and a few charities get some exposure on the internet.

You can read a bit about some of it on my new site http://www.billbiko.com.  I do everything from creating blogs for people and companies, http://www.keepingthecirclestrongcalgary.com,  http://www.erelogistics.com, to creating short videos to promote products ERE Logistics Portable Scissor Bridge, or even creating lead capture promotions for companies Granite Countertops Calgary. If you know someone looking for some online promotion let them know about me!!

With so many things on the go, it’s important to get things done! If you don’t get things done, you cannot move forward. This is why it’s so important to take some time to work on your business! Sometimes you just have to block off half an hour to review what needs to be done to get ahead. Anyway, I’m off to get things done now so I can come back and work on my business later!

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