Category Archives: real estate

It’s Ready To Be Rented, Any Takers?

And finally, after 8 days of dirt, grime, dusty carpets, bent screws, toxic fumes and sweat here it is. I fixed this place up in 8 days, start to finish and I am glad it’s over. I’m proud of how it came out, even though I never did the work myself I still think it came out pretty sweet.

I just posted it on Craigslist.com, so the phone should start ringing soon enough. Damn I’m tired. I’ll be happy when I’m doing internet marketing all day long again. I had fun this week, but labor work sucks after a while, for me anyways. It’s all done just in time for the weekend….

kitchen

living room and dining area

hallway & kitchen view

hallway

bedroom with sliding doors to patio

bedroom

master bedroom with sliding doors to patio

bathroom

master bedroom facing patio

shower/bathtub

hallway to bathroom

both entrances to bedrooms

front door/ kitchen area

view from patio

master bedroom, bedroom and living room all have sliding doors to the massive patio

view from patio

My 2 BedRoom Is Almost Ready

The Condo Is Coming Along

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I’ve been working on my laptop from my condo in Burnaby while it’s getting renovated. I made the mistake of giving student painters the go ahead to paint my rental house in Burnaby a few years back and they were so pathetic it made me sick. Now whenever I get people to do work for me, I bring my laptop, my chair and a small table and do my online business while I watch them work. There is a less chance of people trying to fuck you around if you are right next to them. Some people try to sneak the wool over your eyes any chance they get, but they can’t do that if you’re right there to point out any problems that you see. Having the Rogers Rocket Stick has enabled me to work from anywhere and everywhere, perfect for renovations!

The floors are now in, as well as the white baseboards and the painters started doing prep work this afternoon and they will be painting tomorrow and completely done by Friday. I did pretty good time on this quick renovation, since I only got the keys to the place last Thursday!

I could have done the laminate flooring myself I’m sure as well as the baseboards, but I don’t have the tools, so it makes way more sense to hire someone who does it everyday. Besides, the laminate floor installer is fast, reasonably priced and very reliable. The painters started today and they are awesome as well. I found the painters on Kijiji.ca, and they are reliable and came it at 1/2 the price of the other painters quote! The other painters quoted me at $3600 and this other company is doing it for under $1700, for the same amount of work! Always get at least 2 quotes for any job you plan to hire for.

I will be there watching them work so, there is no problems or any type of miscommunication (like painting the place the wrong color…).

I snapped some pics after I ripped out the carpets (I hate carpets big time!):

just painting the walls and the kitchen cabinets, no demolitioning here..

bare bones or what!?

laying down the sound proofing foam before the laminate gets installed.

my office on the patio..

I will post more photos after the place is 100% done. I’m not going all out, just new paint and laminate flooring but that should be enough to update the 2 bedroom with a fresh modern look. Buying old condos and fixing them to rent may not sound glamorous but people will always need a place to live in and I fill that gap…

C.V.

Friday Wrap Up – Las Vegas Condos & More

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The Friday wrap up! Oh yeah it’s the weekend, and the sun is shining. It’s been an eventful week and I am jumping back into the real estate game again with the purchase of a 2 bedroom condo in Burnaby in the same complex as this 2 bed room condo. The vendor was asking for $215,000 but I got it for $200,000, so not a bad deal. This unit needs some paint and maybe I will pullout the carpet and put some nice dark laminate flooring to give it a modern look to it. So another one under my belt which means more tenants to deal with, lol.[ad#ad-1]

Also I was checking out my favorite Vancouver real estate gurus site, Ozzie Jurock. And I saw some “hot properties” from Las Vegas. I talked about how I wanted to buy a condo down in Phoenix, Arizona because of the hot climate and super cheap deals. I never went through with it because even though the condo was cheap $150,000 for a 3 bedroom, it wasn’t cheap enough to buy down there. Well Ozzie Jurock posted about the amazing deals down in Vegas, and they are amazing.

You can get 1500 square feet 3 bedroom 2 level condos/townhouses for roughly $75,000 to $85,000 US. So that works out to about $95,000 to $105,000 Canadian for a 3 bedroom condo in Vegas!! Oh and these places are brand new! I contacted the realtor in charge of the Las Vegas condos and we spoke last night. He sent me a bunch of word docs with all the pricing of various condos, from 2 bedroom for $55,000 and 3 bedrooms going up to $85,000. The photos are sweet, I have one at the bottom of this post. I figured with such low prices they would be out pretty far (30 minutes from the strip), but they are 15 minutes away from the Las Vegas strip, so that was wicked. I’m to a gambler or anything, but a nice warm climate is what I am seeking. The great thign is Vegas is only a 2 hour flight from Vancouver.

I am seriously tired of the weather here in Vancouver, especially the rain in the winter. This will be my second home, especially with these discounted prices. Prices in Vegas have dropped roughly 66%!!! These deals are completely unreal, anyways I am very excited and can’t wait to get my ass on a plane down to Las Vegas to see them in person. And the temperature in Las Vegas was a smoking 32 celsius yesterday!

It will be damn nice to have the option to jump on a plane when the weather turns to hell here, and chill in Vegas for a month or so. Obviously you can rent them out as well for some great cash flow. Anyways, I’m getting ahead of myself and all hyped up.

vegas-condo

This is only one of them, I’m too lazy to upload all the pics. All the condos are in gated communities and come with community swimming pool, close to mountains and walking trails etc. Really nice photos the realtor sent me of the condos, but I will be seeing them in person to see how great they really are. Who knows they may be right next to a nuclear power plant! It’s always smart to go visit these places in person. I learned my lesson the hard way, lol…[ad#ad-1]

I also took a bunch of photos this week:

I hate wolf spiders (but the pic is cool)

I hate all spiders..

Nephew running away..

Closeup of rose thorn bush

mother in laws garden in the back yard

Cool flower closeup

my mother in laws lasagna from my son’s birthday

Bruschetta from my son’s birthday

That’s all for now folks. Time to get ready to bike ride to the Metrotown library.

Phoenix Arizona Could Be My New Vacation Home

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It’s always such a joy to comeback from 30 degree weather to -1 temperatures and snow falling on the ground! I almost thought I went away for a Christmas vacation, then I remembered it’s March! Didn’t the scientists say there is global warming happening? Hmm, not here. I was hoping to comeback to warmer temperatures than I left with, and I get this. Even funnier is the fact that I got a cold along with the rest of my family while in the Dominican, weird huh?

Anyways I contacted AMG Investments to see if they still had some condos left in Phoenix and they do. AMG Investments is a real estate company run by Ralph Case, Ozzie Jurock and some other people. Most of you guys reading this probably don’t who these characters are, so let me tell you. They are real estate investors that are from Vancouver. Ozzie has great advice and I have been following him for about 5 years now I think. He is on Global TV news every second week if I remember correctly. He is the one I learned all about cash flow investing from.

Because of Ozzie Jurock I bought and sold 2 condos in Prince George for a $50,000 profit in under a year if I recall correctly. I also purchased those 2 other condos late last year because of his motivation and advice.

He’s buying down in the USA and he has some deals in Phoenix, Arizona. You can get a 3 bedroom 1000 sure foot condo for $150,000 Canadian, to me that seems like a smoking deal. 3 bedrooms is perfect for me and it will probably be something I will keep for a long time. No more all inclusive vacations, for me.

Whenever I feel the need for a vacation then I can hop on a plane and relax in the warm sun of Phoenix, Arizona. I haven’t bought the place obviously but I did go to their presentation a few months ago. I’m going to look into it further, do some research and take it from there. But what can you buy for $150,000 here? Go look and get back to me.

And the great thing about buying a vacation getaway is that it will go up in value, it’s a win, win situation. With a regular vacation you spend $5,000 then you come home to the cold, with a chunk of real estate you can go back to it again and again.
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I’m not saying I will buy this condo, but doesn’t the thought of having a hot place to go when the weather turns to hell here sounds appealing? It sure does to me, any day of the week.

Below is the floor plan for the 3 bedroom:

check out the image/video gallery through this link.

That’s all for tonight folks, I still have this damn cold and it sucks to be low on energy. Keep it real…

C.V