New letter to the editor.... rentals

[alanjh595]

What would be wrong for a homeowner to continually re-finance their mortgage term after term to prove that their costs to service that mortgage were justified to charge higher rents?
The owner could pocket the profits/appreciation and re-finance to keep the mortgage high enough to increase the amount charged to meet the addition mortgage rates/costs or the increased taxes, inflation, and/or repairs and maintenance costs as the home gets older.
Instead of sitting and waiting for the big payoff in 25 years, the owner could take the profits out every year and reinvest them in either another property or Bitcoin.

[Even Steven]

We live in a free country.

If you want to rent out your place at cost and make no money but be all warm and fuzzy that you're doing something good for renters - by all means, do that.

Or you can actually make money from your venture that you've invested your time, your life, and your money into to, money that you can improve your life and your family life and be warm and fuzzy about that.

I'll take my family's comfort over strangers anytime.

But it's a free country, do whatever.

[seewood]

[

Even if majority of rental properties were purchased 20 years ago and have very little overhead now, ie mortgage payments and are more than likely paid in full. You need to remember that they still have insurance, property tax, maintenance (as the home is now atleast 20 years old). Yes it was also mentioned how much the value has increased on this rental property in the last 20 years. Look at it this way in 1997 the house was purchased for $200,000 (just an estimate) now its worth $650,000 (also just an estimate) The owner has a nice increase of $450,000 and is making let's say $2200 a month on rent. Out of that $2200 they have to deduct insurance, property tax, maintenance, and risk of damage. Then the government gets their portion which will vary.
Now what if the owner decided that the NDP rules are too much to deal with and its not worth it decides i'm gonna sell this property for "Fair Market Value" $650,000 and take that $450,000 profit and simply invest it into an income trust and get 6.5% on it with no overhead. They're now getting $2347.50/ month and only have to pay the government and not worry about rental rules and regs, tenants, and government rules. Suddenly you have less and less rentals on the market.
Even if you bought your rental property 20 years ago your assuming more risk to rent it and making less profit than just selling it and investing the cash.[/quote]

Spot on. Although 6.5%...but get your point. Even at 4% net, no hassles, no RTB, no maintenance...way to go in my opinion unless like a few I know, have terrific tenants ( 10 years for one, 8 for the other) and no issues. They did mention when the tenants do move, the house is going up for sale.
Rentals in desirable places to live with work remuneration somewhat lacking in some instances is a tough go.

[vegas1500]

Some rentals are "mortgage helpers" some are investment properties where landlords rent the entire house.
Why would anyone invest in a house unless they made a profit????
That's called a charity or government subsidized housing.
Housing is expensive to buy in the Okanagan so rents have to be high to afford a rental property. If no one bought rental property there would be way less rentals and rents would be even higher.

Housing is expensive to buy now. It wasn't so bad 10 years ago when I bought. Or 20. I highly doubt the majority of rental properties were purchased recently. If noone bought rental property it would drive prices down. We'd have more owner occupied homes and less renters. That's a good thing.

Viewing rental properties as a business is a big problem in our society. It reminds me of health care in the US. Housing is a need, not a want, and we are gauging people for it. Prices are artificially inflated and people are working their butts off just to keep a roof over their family's heads. Nevermind taking some time and having an actual life. It drives down the quality of our communities.

It is a business......and can be a very lucrative one. That’s whats great about our society....someone with some initiative can go out and do whatever they want....and if charging market value is gouging, then I’m guilty.

[alanjh595]

Buying a property to rent to others is a much better investment with much less risk than buying a franchise jeans store in the mall. It's a lot less work than a pizza joint, and is better collateral than a pizza oven and a cash register.

[rookie314]

I'm just curious - I've never been a landlord, but have been a tenant. If a landlord has an excellent tenant, always pays rent on time, keeps the yard/house in a presentable fashion, doesn't complain consistently, informs the landlord of any issues, isn't the landlord more apt to keep them in their residence? Is it only the not so desirable tenants that are having an issue? If that's the case, maybe they should tune themselves up so their landlords aren't trying to find ways to remove them and find good tenants.

Just a thought.

I have a reasonable rent and therefore have great tenants. In fact in 12 years I have never had an issue with tenants and I hope they say the same about me.