Category Archives: real estate

543 Pacific Avenue, Winnipeg After The Arson Fire

I got these photos from my realtor in Winnipeg, thought I would post them for the hell of it. This was my duplex that was arson damaged. The duplex was built in the late 1800s if you can believe it. Now it’s sold as of July 1,2008. Farewell and Thank God.

543 Pacific Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba

shot of the outside

543 Pacific Avenue arson fire

notice all the booze bottles on the counter………

Arson fire Winnipeg North End

totally destroyed property because of the selfish acts of arsonists

My arson damage is the result of one thing, First Nation people who are unemployed and have no hope in the future. Is this their fault? Honestly I don’t think so. Being suppressed for so many years and having their people killed by white settlers hundreds of years ago has left the First Nation people as angry as ever. This is the end result hundreds of years later. Drunk Indians, unemployed, creating street gangs and now they are killing each other in Winnipeg ghettos. It’s not their fault, but they pay the price every single day of their lives and so will their children for generations to come. I have no answers, I was just a passerby in their community, and it costs me $50,000. I wish them the best in the future. I do not blame them, if I was living were they do I am sure I would be in the same vicious cycle as them…..

If You Had $300,00 Would You Buy A Lamborghini?

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Saw this orange Lamborghini in Yaletown, where else right? The going price for a Lamborghini is about $300,000. If you had the money would you buy a Lamborghini? Even if I was really rich, I don’t think I could spend $300k on a car. Hell, I have a hard time buying organic food cause it costs a bit more. I still feel like I’m making $17 per like as a cabinet maker. It’s hard to get out of the worker mindset. In one way I think it’s good because I don’t really blow my money. The only dumb thing I blew cash on was my Escalade, but I bought it used for $50,000 so I saved about $30,000 of a new vehicle price. I need to buy an SUV or some type of mini van for the family so it wasn’t completely out of line.

Orange Lamborghini In YaleTown

Orange Lamborghini in YaleTown, Downtown Vancouver, B.C. June 15, 2008

For me personally I like to reinvest my money into real estate, so then I don’t have to worry about a real job ever again. Once you have $5,000 monthly or more coming in from real estate, then you don’t really need a job anymore. You are definitely not rich but that $5k is $60,000 per year, enough to live off of for for sure.

Toys are cool but they won’t get you financial freedom. Once you have financial freedom then buying toys is ok. Iv’e seen lots of people make big money and buy all these toys, then they loose their job or income stream then they are basically screwed. Once you have money rolling, I think you should buy a place for YOU to live. Rent is complete waste of money, once you buy your own place instead of paying $1500 for rent you pay a $1500 mortgage on a condo that will appreciate in price. That is probably the number one rule, buy your own home first! And if you are renting and can’t buy a place are you get the cheapest possible rent? If you can rent a cheaper place for $800 instead of $1000, then you can save $200 per month, that works out to $2400 a year. If you do that for $5years, it works out to $14,400! With $14,400 you can put down 5% on an apartment,and then pay a mortgage on the condo instead of paying rent. It’s amazing how saving $200 a month can add up to $14,400 in only 5 short years. And what is $200 really? If you put $200 every month in a shoebox you probably wouldn’t even miss it. 5 years later you have $14,400 to drop a down payment on a used condo. Not too shabby right? Then you will be set, your own place, that you OWN forever. That is how financial freedom begins. Easy but powerful tip that anyone can use to make big changes in their life. Control your own destiny, don’t let destiny control you, put yourself in the driver seat.

PS:The dude who owns that Lamborghini probably owns his own home, if he’s renting then he’s a complete moron.

How Positive Real Estate Cash Flow Can Turn Into Negative Cash Flow

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I have sold my properties in Winnipeg but the closing date is the end of this month and in the meantime I am still getting bills. This is a great one, I got a nice bill for broken windows. All I can say is Thank God that money pit is sold. You would think you could make good cash with a 4plex you bought for $108,000 that rents for $2200 right? No………….. If you buy real estate in the wrong place all your profits go into fixing problems, such as broken windows, drywall damage. So your positive cash flow can turn into negative cash flow really damn fast. Learn from my mistake, sometimes cash flow numbers are deceiving. I recommend buying in local markets unless you have a TRUSTED source that can give you honest information about the area you are buying into. If these sources lie or skew the information, then you are into problems when you own any property out of town.

Property managers are a another problem. They are there to take care of your investment. Usually they get 10% of gross rental income. Here is the problem, they usually do repairs when your building needs fixing. This is another way they make money off of you. So, it is in their best interest to have repairs to do on your investment property, they make more money this way. So I don’t really trust property manager 100% for that reason. And……… You have to go on their word, if they are lying about damages how do you know? For all I know they could have gotten friends to break windows or damage drywall. Then they need to fix the drywall and windows using their own people to fix these repairs, and they can get cash kickbacks for choosing certain contractors to fix your property. You will never know, so trusting your property manager is important. Obviously not all property managers are the same, but you can see where the problems can happen. Your investment income can go down the hole if you run into greedy property managers very quickly. You can always switch managers, but you need to find out who the good property managers are and that seems pretty tough if you don’t live in that particular city.

Oh well after this month no more broken windows bills. I have spent almost $5,000 on broken windows in a 1 year time span, is that insane or what? I am just grateful both properties have been sold, very, very grateful. Now I can focus on building my real estate portfolio once again, but here in Vancouver for now.

New West Condos, Here I Come – The Road To Riches

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[ad#ad-1]I’d like to welcome back Rob, who was a way for a 3 week breakation. You got back for the good Vancouver weather, lucky for you. I was on Mls.ca this morning and there are tons of older, NON LEAKY condo apartments in New West that are for sale under $200,000. Actually you can even find condos in Burnaby for around $200,000, obviously they aren’t brand new but some paint and laminate flooring and they look brand new. Some of the condos come remodelled. I just need to check rents and see how it will cash flow. Seems like it should cover the rent with 25% down on the condo. Time to start doing some research and I will be calling my local Vancouver realtor today so we can get the ball rolling.

I really want to get those 20 investment properties, I expect to pick up at least 2 or 3 before the end of this year maybe even more. But, I don’t want to go too fast, it’s better to be safe than sorry right. With prices dropping and a very low vacancy you can’t go wring with buying investment condos in the Vancouver area. Obviously they don’t cash flow as good as Winnipeg, but when you factors all the repairs my properties in Winnipeg had, then actually Vancouver cash flows better than Winnipeg. Especially when the property gets fire damaged. Renters in Winnipeg seem to LOVE to vandalize. All those Winnipeg street gangs, such the Manitoba Warriors are great to have in neighbourhood….

Anyhoo….. Time to work on my Google AdWords campaigns to make some more cash to buy more real estate.

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random Yaletown pictures