Cat allowed vs. smoking inside refinery... As landlords, we often confront cases beyond "black and white" that has no simple guide to follow. How do you handle them? In this post, I will share such a story and how I handled it by drawing the wisdom from my past seemingly unrelated experience. Firstly, a brief summary on what had happened - A tenant called a few days ago, he asked if his girlfriend can join him for the last month of his lease (He will move…

In a regular visit in a home, I noticed that there was a irregular noise out of the furnace in the utlity room, so I took a look and made a video. See https://youtu.be/PORm-vU-iMY After asked our maintenance staff check and fix the issue and here is what he shared. (see pics link below) https://photos.app.goo.gl/x8S41gZkbA8PSZzy8 the diagnose by the maintenance staff is as this  the cooling fan on the inducer fan motor was broken  what is the cause, and how to prevent it from happening in…

What would happen if I change my mind after lease signed? Recently a young couple applied one of our rental homes and got approved. They signed a fixed-term lease, paid the security deposit and the 1st month rent in full, and were happily ready for the move-in one month later. Then the bad news: they were being told by their employer that they have to be relocated out of town soon. The following question was raised naturally: " Can I simply back out the lease and…

P407, Airbnb - Is it a good fit? The good, bad and ugly... A question comes up quite often is should one turn the current rental(s) into Airbnb? My personal view on this is quite simple: No. More accurately, I don’t recommend this option for the city I am currently living in – Edmonton. The reason? I can sum-up it in three words “Good, bad, & ugly”.  In this post, I will share with you what are these reasons in detail and why Edmonton, in my…

P405, I can't reset the breaker A few weeks ago, one tenant called that he couldn't reset the breaker. It kept tripped off and to make things worse, the fridge is on the same circuit. He was worried about the food would go bad soon, if it were not be fixed...", In this post, I will share with you how we followed up and resolved the issue and what are the 4 things we learned from this experience: 01). Be aware of "one side story" 02). Channel the…

P403, Instead of sublet, do this... In this post, I would like to share with you a true story happened recently. It touches the topic of sublet. Via this story, I will explore the following01). Why sublet is to be avoided02). What is a better alternative03). Lesson learned from this case.Let's get right into it.  The story Back to May 2020, a young couple in their late 20s applied a townhouse from us. They are both engineers, witty, polite, with excellent income, great credits, fantastic references…

A small piece - a huge price... In this article - I will share with you the lessons we learned via a mistake that costed us 1-month of wasted time after numerous showings with no result, and the rent loss of $1145.00. In addition, you will also learn how it only took 5 minutes and $0.01 to fix this "small yet expensive"problem, once we figured out the root cause.  The story went like this.... After the previous tenants moved out, we went in this 2-bedroom condo,…