Category Archives: Life

What I’ve learned from being a landlord

Posted in Life, Real Estate, Rental Property by

As of December 1, Kyle and I officially became the ecstatic owners of only one mortgage.

Back in October, the tenant in our townhouse informed us that her and her husband had purchased a house and would be moving in November. We understood; she was expecting their 2nd child to arrive at the end of November and space was limited. She gave us plenty of notice, and even though they took possession of their new house in mid-November, she paid the full month’s rent for that month to give her plenty of time to move and clean.

Our tenant’s decision to move out left Kyle and I with plenty of decisions to make. Do we rent out the unit again? Should we sell it? Do we temporarily move into it, selling our current home and find a bigger house? Every option was thrown out there and every angle was discussed, with much passion and frustration.

Ultimately, we opted to list the townhouse for sale. While we weren’t overly optimistic to sell it (there were 3 other units for sale that hadn’t budged for quite some time), we figured we’d give it a go and if it didn’t sell by the time the listing expired, we’d just rent it out again until the spring.

Low and behold, we had a couple of viewings and after one offer and a counter-offer, we had sold our townhouse!

No longer being a landlord and only having one property to worry about has lifted such a huge weight off of our shoulders. (Kyle’s more than mine.) We don’t have to worry about things like hot water tanks failing, appliances dying, or anything like that. With your own house it’s not so bad, but everything doubles when you own more than one property. It was especially stressful because we don’t necessarily have the finances to deal with something huge like a broken hot water tank too.

So, while we only rented out our property for 3 years, we still learned a lot. I thought I’d share some of those things with you:

I’ll first just put it out there that our tenant was awesome, and that helped in so many ways. We never received complaints from the strata board, her rent was always right on time, and the place was always tidy whenever we had to stop by. So, lesson #1 is to make sure you have an awesome tenant. (Easier said than done, I know, but it helps to have a husband who’s a good judge of character.) We provided her with a copy of the strata rules and along with our own personal restrictions (like no smoking and no cats), we never had an issue.

Lesson #2 is to not be invasive. We only ever stopped by to “check” on things twice a year – once in the spring to turn on the outside water and change the furnace filter, and once again in the fall to turn the outside water off. Of course, because of the Residential Tenancy Act, landlords must give 24hrs notice before entering their rental unit, but we never felt that we needed to pop in on our tenant. (A perk of having stellar tenants.) We also kept our “relationship” professional; while we were pretty close in age, we never became friends. Besides giving her son a couple of Nerf guns that we had lying around the house, we never sent Christmas cards or became “friends” on Facebook. There’s lines that shouldn’t be crossed, and I tried my best not to do so.

Another lesson (#3) is to hear your tenant out when then have a suggestion. Our unit had no dishwasher, while some of the other units in the complex did. While Kyle and I made it work (two people don’t use a lot of dishes), our tenant had asked us if we would consider having one installed. She also had mentioned that she was looking at other rentals that did have dishwashers, and since we didn’t want to lose her as a renter we said we’d look into it. As it turned out, it was going to cost us less than $1200 to have an apartment-sized dishwasher put in. Sure, we didn’t HAVE to have one installed, but it saved us from having to find new tenants. Kyle and I essentially bought the washer, dropped it off, arranged for the work to be done (which included millwork, electrical, and plumbing), and our tenant has happy. (A bonus is that the dishwasher also made it more appealing than the other units that were for sale at the same time).

Finally, I firmly believe that you should treat others the way you yourself would want to be treated, so lesson #4 is to be an excellent landlord. I’ve heard many cases where something has gone wrong at a rental property, such as a furnace breaking down, and landlords take their sweet time resolving the issue. I’ve never actually been a tenant, but it frustrates me when I hear about these things happening to people. There were a couple of instances when something had gone wrong (the washing machine died at one point, and the hot water tank stopped providing hot water at another), and instead of saying that we’d get to it when we could, we rectified the issues right away. (New washing machine, and the hot water tank was a simple call to our awesome plumber). Our tenant also had sent me a message saying that the neighbours next door were constantly having loud parties and keeping her 4-year old son awake at night, so I immediately contacted our strata president with the complain and advised her to do the same. The parties quickly stopped, especially since it was a complaint I had made when we lived in the unit. Instead of telling her to just talk to the neighbours, I just took it to the next level to make sure it was resolved. (I also told her to call the RCMP if she felt the need to and that I’d back her on that.)

In the end, I think Kyle and I would be landlords again in the future, but no time soon. One day, if we ever we have a little bit of disposable income, we may look into an investment property, but for where we are currently in our lives, we’ve ended that chapter. We’re now able to spend a little more on our own house, doing improvements here and there, without having to worry about something potentially going wrong at our rental unit. In the meantime, we can say we’ve “been there, done that,” but I don’t think we’d go as far to say “never again.”

Have you ever rented out a property? What were the biggest lessons you’ve learned as a landlord?
If you’ve been a renter, what should landlords know right off the bat?

 

Do or Die Essentials

Posted in Life, Lists by

A little while back I was contacted by Man Crates to see if I’d be interested in writing a post about my “Do or Die” essentials. Man Crates a new company that ships awesome gifts for men in custom wooden crates! At Man Crates, it is their mission to end the difficulties that have long been associated with buying gifts for men! I told them I’m be happy to team up with them, so I present to you now some things in life that I cannot just live without, especially during these hot summer months:

images via: 1 / 2 / 3 / my own / 5

 1) Sunglasses. I don’t wear them just to protect my retinas from the sun’s harmful rays. I have an enormously difficult time seeing in the sunlight. I don’t know if it’s my half-Asian genes that make the squinting worse, but I may as well walk around with my eyes shut if I don’t have my sunglasses on my face. Kyle was amazing enough to buy me a brand new pair of Oakley LBD sunnies for my birthday this year, and I don’t go anywhere without them on my face.

2) iPod Classic. I bought my very first iPod off of eBay back in 2006 (I think). It was a 1st generation iPod Mini (pink in colour), and I loved it to pieces. When it finally kicked the bucket, I was pretty sad, but then Kyle swooped in to the rescue and bought me a shiny new iPod Classic. I’ve had it ever since, and it remains loaded up with my favourite songs for in the car. I also semi-joke that if someone were to break into my car, I’d be more upset if they stole my iPod than anything else. It’s true!

3) Pedicures. My feet get super dry and cracked in the summer, so I try and get a pedicure at least once a month and then just micro-manage my toes at home in between. My all-time favourite go-to colour is China Glaze’s Four Leaf Clover, but I love all colours bright and fun for the summer months.

4) Iced Passion Tea Lemonade. I’m all for ice cold drinks in the summer, but nothing quenches my thirst more than a iced passion tea lemonade from Starbucks. And what’s even better is that during my Pinterest browsing I found a decent copy cat recipe. Now all I have to do is buy a tin of the passion tea and I can make it at home by myself! Generally I just buy lemonade at the store, but sometimes I’m spoiled and Kyle mades the real stuff for me. You can find the copy cat recipe I use here! (And pardon the name in the photo – they clearly misheard it when I told them!)

5) Kleenex. Allergies. I got ’em. And I seriously cannot go outside for the first few weeks of summer without having at least a half-dozen sneezing fits. Once a year I stock up on a multi-pack of pretty little Kleenex travel packs and call it a season. I’m definitely THAT person who every one thinks is deathly ill, but I swear, it’s just allergies!

So there you have it, my summer do or die essentials! What’s on your list??

Disclosure: I was contacted by Man Crates to write a post discussing my “Do or Die” essentials. I was not compensated in any way by Man Crates or any of the companies mentioned above. All opinions, as always, are my own!

 

I <3 Summer

Posted in Family, Isla, Kara and Kyle, Life, Summer by

First of all, I’d like to just give a little fist bump for my first official blog post here at my new space!! I had some issues moving my posts from Chatter over, but I’m more or less all there. Most of my trackbacks to other posts are still jumping back to my Chatter blog, but since I don’t plan on deleting it completely, it shouldn’t bother me too much. (I’m just letting the domain expire, and it will then just become chowschatter.wordpress.com.) Maybe one day I’ll get ambitious and change everything.

Anyway – this past week has been a fun-filled and busy one! Kyle has been on holidays and it’s been absolutely amazing spending time together as a family.

First of all – Isla’s birthday was on Sunday! We had originally planned on having her birthday at the splash park but we were unfortunately rained out. Luckily, we were able to get ahold of all her guests ad redirect them to our house. We fired up our barbecue for a little hot dog cookout and Isla had such a fun time with all her family and friends. She was certainly spoiled rotten and I’m so glad that she had so many people in her life who seem to love her as much as we do! Amazingly, she even blew out her birthday candle without spitting all over her cupcake – Go Isla!!

On Monday we made out way out to Little Shuswap Lake to visit one of Kyle’s oldest friends. We try to make it out every summer to see him when he and his wife (and now little girl!) are visiting from Alberta, and almost every year we have been graced with amazing summer weather! We puttered across the lake on his dad’s boat to a beachy area and spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun! Isla had a blast playing in the sand, and while the water was a little chilly it was the perfect refresher when the sun got too hot. Every time we’re at the lake if just makes Kyle and I dream harder about owning a recreational property some day. For now, we just feel so fortunate that we have such great friends who allow us to come out and be at the lake with them for the day!

Then on Tuesday it was Canada Day!! We didn’t have any grand plans for the day since we had spent the previous day at the lake and were a little worn out still. Since Isla had received a few fun outdoor toys for the yard, we decided to hang out at home in the yard. Isla played with her new t-ball set and sprinkler, which she loved.

On Wednesday we had originally planned on going towards Kelowna to visit the kangaroo farm (you can pet kangaroos!!!) but I wasn’t feeling so great so we decided to stick close to home. Instead, we decided to visit the local wildlife park just outside of town and Isla had just as much fun! She loved seeing the grizzly bears and petting the goats.

Thursday consisted of appointments and an afternoon at Kyle’s mom’s pool and today is about the same. We’re winding down our “staycation” and getting ready for Kyle to go back to work on Monday. It’s amazing how fast the week has gone by but it’s been so much fun spending time together. Kyle’s vacation time off of work certainly doesn’t mean that our “fun” time is over though; next weekend friends are coming to stay with us because the Highland Games are taking place, and then the weekend after that I’m off to Vancouver for my friend’s bachelorette party. Whew! Jam-packed indeed :)

How is your summer going? Tell me, tell me! :D (And Happy 4th of July to all my American readers!)