Property SIX

Our Sixth Property Purchased: London Ontario Duplex Aug 2006.

The $60,000 is an inter-alia mortgage that was done by a private lender who took equity from both Property One and Property Two. This was our down-payment for This sixth property. This duplex has been zoned as a duplex and has had a long-term tenant in the upstairs unit who pays all cash each month. We bought this when we first lived out West and negotiated a great deal on this place, mainly because the main floor was vacant at the time. Also, it was a good deal because apparently there were some nightmare tenants in which one died in a horrible accident within the house. The seller had enough of property, the management, and the tenants & wanted a quick sell.

This property is great for student rentals and is within walking distance to downtown and is on a quiet street. The idea of managing students made me sick, so I hired a property management company to properly manage it instead. Student rentals get excellent cashflow in London if one is ok with having to fix up the home after they leave (the above market rental income usually pays for it easily). We lived out West at the time anyways, so hiring a management company was the best move at that time. It was right before school started and London was crawling for students looking for a home. According to my property manager, they were looking everywhere but our duplex.

It sat vacant for 3 months. We were burning cash. It was a horribly stressful time.

I kept pressing the management company but got nothing but excuses in return. Finally, after making the permanent move to Ontario, I drove up to it and took my first look at the home's condition. It was disgusting. The lawn had grown so high that it was covering the windows. The place looked like it was falling apart. Weeds were all over the place. A latern on the front porch was broken and dangling upside down. Anyways, I spent the week hiring painters, landscaping it myself and adding curb appeal.

We rented it in no time and the tenants were so excited we got a multi-year lease. Need less to say, we fired the awful management company. It felt great to have control over the stressful property ourselves and steer it back in the right direction.

Since then we've been in business with this home and very happy with the property and the way it fits into our portfolio.