It’s Never Been A Better Time to Be A Woman

March 7, 2021/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Terrie Schauer

Yes, there are wrongs to be righted.
Yes, there’s still injustice.
Yes, gender roles are a subject of a lot of bad blood.

But instead of dwelling there, why not take a moment to celebrate?

Let’s do glass half-full.
What incredible luck to be born female RIGHT NOW!

We can choose who we marry, when we marry and if we marry at all. More importantly, we can choose
what we do with our bodies. If the boss or anyone else goes offside on us, we can take them to court.
We may not always win, but at least society has created mechanisms to address such wrongs.
We can walk the streets alone at night if we want to, for the most part in safety. We can drive, vote,
own property, start businesses, go to school, study anything we want, wear what we want. How
incredible, when you look at human history.

And that’s not counting the gifts of modern science!

Imagine: we have the pill, antibiotics, condoms, drugs for yeast infections, period cramps and
epidurals. We have the best gynecological medicine humanity has ever known. Women now rarely die
in childbirth and life is safer for our infant babies than EVER in human history.

We can be ballerinas, astronauts, UFC fighters, housewives, CEOs, national presidents, 5-star chefs,
doctors – anything!

Yes, there may still be glass ceilings.

We might not always get the recognition or the money we deserve.

Yes, it might sometimes be harder for us, but hell ladies – it’s never been a better time to be a women!

So this International Women’s Day, let’s say a fat collective “Thank You” for the sacrifices made by
our mothers, grandmothers and – yes – at times fathers and male ancestors. It’s because they fought and
protested and did research and wrote laws that our lives are so much better.

Let’s spend this International Women’s Day in gratitude and celebration.
It’s never been a better time to be a woman!

Interview with Alex Avery : The Wealthy Renter’s Real Estate Advice for Covid-19

May 8, 2020/16 Comments/in Interview, Investing, Real Estate, Uncategorized/by Terrie Schauer

Real Estate Advice for Covid-19: What The Wealthy Renter Has to Say About Investing Now

How Are You Using your Covid-19 Crisis?

Covid-19 Crisis has us transforming confinement-psychosis into new pass-times. Amateur bakers and hair-stylists are popping up all over the place.

I admit I’m going through a lot of flour these days, but I also decided to have as many interesting conversations as possible. My goal is to connect with people who have insights, especially on Real Estate investing during the Covid-19 Crisis. Last week, I spoke with a favorite real estate author of mine, Alex Avery. His book, The Wealthy Renter, changed the way I look at home-ownership.

Is this a good time to get into the Real Estate market as a home-owner or an investor? See what the author of The Wealthy Renter, Alex Avery has to say. Here’s some of his Real Estate Investment Advice During the Covid-19 Crisis.

Is Your Home an Investment?

Avery’s thesis is that home-ownership (in the principal residence sense) isn’t the “investment” it’s touted to be. He’s suspicious of the advice that we must all “stop throwing money away on rent”. When he unpacks this statement, it appears as questionable investment advice. Home ownership makes investment sense as a premise if – say – a savings of 2000$ or whatever per month on rent justifies using a large amount of seed-capital (read: down-payment) to then carry a (possibly larger) mortgage payment.

For an investor, the answer is often “It doesn’t”.

Use Your Capital Wisely

In investment terms, capital should be placed where it generates the best returns (correcting, of course, for risk – eg. betting on the horses might give you good returns, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a sound investment). If we use our hard-earned seed capital as a down-payment for a single-family-home, our returns will be sub-par.

What return does this so-called “investment” generate?

It provides no cash flow or dividends.
Maintenance- and interest costs are out-of-pocket and not tax deductible.
Home owners have a tendency to spend MORE money on maintenance, upgrades and extras than owners of rental properties.
The mortgage on our homes get with after-tax dollars (read: with 50 cents out of a possible 1$).
We don’t have tenants to help pay our mortgage.
Yes, a principal residence is an appreciating asset, unlike – say – a car or a washer/dryer set. But then rental properties appreciate too.

Your Home as Consumption Not Investment

Avery’s distinction can be summarized as follows: the money you put into your home – in the form of a down-payment, as upgrades or as mortgage payments – is basically a form of consumption. If you have disposable capital and cash-flow that you want to “consume” in a single-family home as a lifestyle choice, go ahead. Avery himself admits to being a home-owner. But it makes more sense to view a principal residence as an object of consumption and not as an investment.

How Do I Make My Real Estate Plans in the Covid Crisis?

Avery has a few points of advice on this question.

He advises that, if you have plans to buy a home, it may be wise to review how much leverage you take on. The economic downturn, he projects, will be more check-marked than V-shaped.
As an asset class, Avery sees residential rental buildings doing fairly well. Federal and provincial governments have launched stimulus plans that secure the minimum income of the vast majority of workers. As a result, he doesn’t see massive residential rent defaults in the cards.
Beware of commercial Real Estate. Commercial rentals were on a downward trajectory before the pandemic. Retail had begun to move online pre-Covid. Many companies were already running experiments in tele-work. The Covid Crisis will accelerate both of these trends, probably irreversibly.
If you want to invest, choose a market with “land constraints”. For example, Toronto is bounded by the Green-Belt, the island of Montreal by water, and Vancouver by the sea and the mountains. Avery sees these markets as being more “recession proof” than, say, secondary markets like Quebec City, Calgary or Kingston. In the American crisis of 2008, markets like New York fared better than, say, Las Vegas, where builders could keep constructing ad infinitum.

When Everyone Has an Opinion, Who Should I Listen to?

Covid or not, Avery’s last piece of advice turns on where we get advice on Real Estate investing decisions.

Your father-in-law who bought his home in the 70s and hasn’t been in the Real Estate market since? Probably not the best source.
Your real estate broker who makes commission on home purchases or sales? Also not the best source of advice, because there’s an obvious conflict of interest at work (he or she gets paid when you sell or buy ANYTHING, not when you make good investment decisions).
Active players in the real estate industry. Investors, economists, experts with established track records in their field, or professionals make money whether a transaction takes places (accountants, independent consultants, property managers etc.). They are probably better sources.

Want to Learn More?

Purchase Alex Avery’s book The Wealthy Renter here.

Or check out my book The Mindful Landlord.

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

Covid-19 for Landlords: Property Management in the 2020 Corona Virus Crisis

April 16, 2020/0 Comments/in Uncategorized/by Terrie Schauer

Why Corona Virus Doesn’t Have to Rhyme with Rental Crisis

If you haven’t read the Spencer Johnson’s famous book Who Moved My Cheese, now may be a good time. It’s short. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Go read it and then come back here 🙂

In one line, Johnson’s point is this. We have a tendency to become over-reliant on using the same strategies for getting our “cheese” (whatever that might mean, metaphorically, think gangtser rap $$$$). When someone or something moves our “cheese”, we panic, become angry, depressed, despondent, hungry, stressed, confused, you name it! When the most effective reaction might be to zoom out (using ZOOM right now maybe), and reconsider our habits in light of new circumstances.

I invite landlords, real estate professionals or anyone else, to zoom out and consider what might be happening to our cheese.

The New Normal

Situations in Quebec and across the globe are evolving rapidly. Depending on what sources you listen to – the IMF, our politicians, economists proclaiming the start of the next Great Depression – it’s hard to know which way the economic ball is going to bounce. Will Canada be insulated by early curve-flattening and smart financial stimulus packages, or are we really the tip of the tail of a very large macro-economic dog?

There is no shortage of opinions, and so it’s hard to come up with mental- and economic models that can guide our behavior.

This is perhaps the biggest challenge right now. We have no proper models on which to base our decisions.

Mindful Landlording Right Now

If there’s a lot of uncertainty around, let’s look at some of the things we do know. Perhaps if we focus on concrete, local and immediate problems (where is my cheese today), we can navigate our way, and make sure that at least we remain poised for the next few months.

That’s what I tried to do in this interview with the Real Estate Investor’s Club last week. My goal was to offer some concrete and practical ways of addressing the current situation with respect to issue that face landlords, property managers and investors right now.

Concrete Problems, Concrete Solutions: Covid-19 for Landlords

So, what are some of the issues landlords and Real Estate Investors are facing right now?

Rent Payment

Lay-offs, confinement, and business closures have posed serious financial problems for many residential tenants, many of who live paycheck-to-paycheck. In April, around 25% of the residential- and commercial tenants managed by my agency reached out to discuss some kind of rent relief.

Our approach was the following:

First, to sympathize (in the case where the tenant has always been responsible with payment in the past) and to turn things around. Many tenants called in asking: “What is your policy for rent this month?” To this, we answered : “How would you like to pay your rent this month…?” What resulted, in all but 5% of cases, were payment plans. Many tenants are now receiving government assistance. If a large lump-sum up front is difficult, we allowed them to design their own payment plans (paying by the week for example, instead of monthly), with the proviso that the total rent due needs to be in before the 21st (the magical Regie non-payment date). With this strategy, we’ve reduced out default rate to about 8%, when pre-crisis we were at 5%.

Help ! The Regie du Logement is Closed

Closure of the Regie and a halt to evictions, while understandable, has been trumpeted from the rooftops very loudly by both our provincial and federal politicians (thanks Justin and Francois!). This is a serious problem, because effectively there is no more stick with which to create consequences for non-payments, even as we may have doubts about whether tenants are using the crisis as an excuse.

What to do?

For those tenants who have not reached out to make payment plans, we’re on a “business as usual” policy. The rental board might have halted hearings and evictions, but the Regie’s online services to open non-payment files are working. So are the bailiffs, so is Canada Post, and so are the email services that allow you to serve official notices. (Ever hear of Pronotif ? It’s an online service that allows you to serve notice by email). In effect, we’ve explained to our defaulting tenants that they’re just delaying the inevitable. When the rental board does reopen, judges (I predict) will not look kindly on those who simply stopped paying their rent with no explanations, and who refused to open a dialogue with their landlords.
Consequences, I predict, will be delayed rather than erased. Unless banks and the federal and provincials governments begin talking about mortgage forgiveness instead of delays, I don’t see how missing rent will simply be “forgiven” as we return to whatever the new normal becomes.

What About July 1st?

In Quebec, we have a fairly serious up-coming issue. The Guardian estimates that about 10% of Montrealers move every July 1st. (The rate is still high, but probably not quite as high in the rest of the province). In April, landlords and property managers in the province are usually renting their soon-to-be-vacant units, just as tenants are out visiting looking for their new homes. The covid crisis has thrown a serious wrench into things. Tenants (rightly) are leary of allowing strangers into their homes. The Real Estate Board (OACIQ) has officially ordered brokers to halt visits. Do rental visits constitute an essential service? Francois Legault has decided for the moment that no, they don’t.

What to do?

First, we contacted our non-renewing tenants to propose they extend their leases until September 1st. Basically, this takes the pressure off. We don’t have to show units and they don’t have to visit. Problem displaced if not solved.
Some landlords have begun renting with virtual visits. Personally I don’t like doing this. I’ve had problems with a high percentage (over 50%) of units rented this way in the past. Our agency has rented to international students and arriving immigrants based on Skype visits before. Very often, something about the unit displeases them very quickly and they agitate to break their leases.
Wait. For now, there may not be a need to panic. As our politicians eye re-opening segments of the economy in the coming weeks, we will have to see what edicts will come down for the 10% of Quebeccers who usually move in July. My guess is that Legault and co. are waiting to see if we can all go back to business as usual in the next month, which would moot the issue of freezing all moves in July.

Imperfect Action is Better than Perfect Inaction

So said Harry Truman. I’m inclined to agree. As time moves on, those who will weather this storm best are those who will act. Better to be pro-active about where the cheese is now, rather than sitting around like a doe in the headlights watching the news.

My advice: read about past financial crises. Understand the dynamics of pandemics (click the link to see my favorite book on the topic, Spillover). Learn about past Real Estate- and stock cycles. Plan your actions carefully as a function of the data you have now. No one will make 100% perfect decisions at the moment. There is still too much we don’t know, and our mental- and economic models need to catch up. This will take time and more data.

A crisis is no time for perfectionism. It is time for considered action.

It is time to be our best selves right now, on a dark and uncertain day, because the day is dark and uncertain.

Photo by Ivana Cajina on Unsplash

Want to Invest in Real Estate? Not Sure How? Get Started in 5 Easy Steps

February 26, 2019/0 Comments/in Investing, Real Estate, Uncategorized/by Terrie Schauer

An Antidote to Confusion About Where to Start

Lao Tzu wrote: “The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.”

Ah, but which step? There’s the rub! Start with the wrong one, and you may travel 1000 miles in the wrong direction!

It’s precisely this fear that kills dreams in their infancy. Don’t let this confusion end your real estate dreams!

Here are some really simple steps you can take to begin your journey.

Educate Yourself

This doesn’t mean talking about your project to Uncle So-and-So who once owned a duplex, or Aunt Thingamajig who wrote her Real Estate exam, unless they were successful at what they did in a way you’d want to repeat. Seek out resources who have a proven track record. Before launching a networking offensive, either read some books, watch some videos, or take a cheap online course. With a base level of knowledge about Real Estate Investment strategies you’ll have more useful conversations.

As you branch out and start shaking hands and making calls, you’ll be happy that you took the time to understand some basic concepts and terminology.

One caveat : expensive Real Estate courses, while often of some value, sell information and coaching at a very, very high mark-up. If you’re willing to apply a little discipline and do some work on your own, you can easily educate yourself without signing five-figure cheques or paying thousands of dollars for mentorship or classes. Why spend your down-payment money on Real Estate classes when the information is available at a very low cost? Try these resources first.

Where to seek affordable education?

You can check out the Recommended Readings on my website. Pay particular attention to the “Real Estate Investing” section, where you will find good “starter” books.
Consult online education platforms like Teachable or Udemy. Both have Real Estate sections. Online courses sell for a either tens- or a few hundreds of dollars. They’re easy to follow and are usually consumed on demand. You can go through the material at your own pace, in the comfort of home, and even follow a few different subjects that outline the major strategies for making money in Real Estate (Flipping, Buy-and-Hold etc.)
Organizations like the Real Estate Investors Club sell in-person/classroom or webinar training for a few hundred dollars.

You really shouldn’t pay any more that this.

Book An Appointment With a Banker or Mortgage Broker

Your mortgage banker or broker is a bit like a general practitioner in medicine. He or she will be able to give you a general bill of your financial health. Is your credit any good? What’s your borrowing capacity based on your current revenues? Very few of us know the answers to these questions, especially when we start out in the real estate game. Before defining your project, it may be a good idea to have a professional analyze your file.

Even if you’re sure you won’t qualify right now, it’s best to know what you need to do in the future in order to obtain financing. This will allow you to build a plan to get there. There are a million strategies! But, like that fateful visit to the doctor, if you don’t know where you stand, it’s very hard to move forward. Don’t let fear of bad news stop you! You need to know your starting position in order to plan your journey.

Bad credit? No down-payment money or insufficient revenues for conventional financing?

Okay. In this case, AFTER you’ve spoken to a conventional financing person and they’ve told you what you need to do to become creditworthy, go back to Step 1. There are a ton of resources out there to learn what’s called “Creative Finance”.

Network With Other Investors & Professionals

Remember what I said about Uncle So-and-So and Aunt Thingamajig?

Talking to them about their Real Estate debacles is NOT networking. If you want to succeed at something, learn from someone who is where you want to be.

I’ll repeat myself because this is really important: Take advice only from people who stand where you want to be! If you don’t yet know such people, no problem! It’s time to leave the house and start building your network.

You can join my Meet-Up to attend networking events in the Montreal area. The Real Estate Investors Club also hosts monthly networking events.

If you want to learn more about how to network effectively, check out my blog article on How to network effectively.

You could also check out anything by author Ivan Misner, founder of BNI (Buisness Networking International).

Find A Mentor

A few months ago, a woman approached me at one of my workshops. She offered to take me to lunch.

“I want to learn from you,” she told me. Naturally I was flattered and I accepted. We went to lunch, and as we were chatting, she had another interesting offer.

“Let me work for you for free for some months,” she proposed. “I’ll do anything, I just want to learn the business.”

What do you think I said?

This situation is now a total win-win. Instead of paying thousands of dollars for private mentorship, my new intern has access to me 24/7. Her boots are on the ground meeting tenants, seeing construction problems, talking to every real estate professional around: contractors, notaries, mortgage people – everyone who is involved in my business.

Do you think I’ll give her free advice on her own investment decisions now? Of course!

Not only is she learning for free and building her own network in an organized way, she works maybe two evenings a week and an hour or two on the weekend. If she was taking a (paid) class, she’d have to devote the same time and IN ADDITION pay.

You’d be surprised how accessible successful- and knowledgeable people are when approached with a little flattery. An offer for lunch or a coffee might be all it takes. Try it!

Fail Forward

Above all – don’t be afraid to look silly or make a few mistakes. Everyone who’s built success over many years remembers how little they knew at the beginning.

I tell my clients this, when they’re shy to ask what they think is a silly, basic question.

“We all start in the same place! With a dream and no bloody idea of how to make it happen.”

Anyone successful who’s acting puffed-up is doing so just because they want to feel big, NOT because you’re somehow unworthy or stupid. Don’t feel ashamed to be where you are.

“The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.”

Giving Back to Hochelaga-Maisonneuve: Holiday Food Drive

November 23, 2018/0 Comments/in Investing, Property Management, Real Estate, Uncategorized/by Terrie Schauer

Charity does not decrease wealth

– Hadith

I’ve been managing properties in the Montreal district of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve for over fifteen years now. The district has been good both to me as an investor, and to my clients who own rental units in the area. Property values have appreciated and gentrification has raised our rents.

These changes are not without their consequences, especially for poorer residents in the area. Hochelaga has become more diverse as higher-income tenants have begun to move in, and the amount of affordable housing has decreased.

Many of Hochelaga’s low-income residents have not benefited over the same time-period. 32% of households were considered low-income by the latest Canadian census. Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is also one of the districts with the highest rate of elementary school students living in poverty.

A Complex Issue

I’ll be honest: I don’t have a magic-bullet solution to propose to these problems.

Real estate investors have done well in Hochelaga. The area is close to downtown. As rents in the downtown core have appreciated, the rental market has changed in HoMa. Foreign- and local students have moved in. So have young families and young professionals fleeing the now-expensive areas of the Plateau and Rosemont. Investors have been all to happy to accommodate them: renovating crumbling properties that were in need of some love and increasing the rent accordingly.

These profits haven’t been shared with many of the local residents. Gentrification has changed the types of stores that serve the area: fancy and expensive cafés and local fruit markets have replaced pawn- and discount shops. Low income tenants now have less places to shop. The number of affordable apartments is decreasing every year. Given the choice, landlords move out low-income residents when they can, raising their profits in the process and avoiding many social issues common with very low-income tenants.

It’s not easy to know what to do with this if you want to have a social conscience and make money in real estate.

Analysis-Paralysis

Is the solution to somehow stop investing in Ho-Ma? To impose tighter rent control? This will discourage investors and perhaps gentrification, but it will have the same effect as rent control more generally in Quebec. The Regie’s policies for raising rent creates disincentive for property-owners to invest in maintaining their units. As a real estate professional working in Quebec, I can tell you this unintended consequence of rent-control is ubiquitous. No owner will invest to redo a unit to see a 10$ increase in rent. It makes no economic sense. The result is our buildings crumble, and low-income tenants live in ramshackle and decaying apartments that no landlord will invest to fix.

My gut instinct would be to say we need more social housing and perhaps higher municipal taxes to help finance them. This might increase the overall standard of housing available and benefit everyone – investors and lower-income families – alike. But I’m no sociologist.

Give Back to Ho-Ma’s Low-Income Families

Just because we don’t have a magic bullet doesn’t mean we should do nothing. That’s analysis-paralysis. Politics and large-scale, top-down solutions are important, but we don’t have to stand by while the politicians create them. There are simple and politically uncomplicated ways to make a difference. This holiday season, we’ve chosen to support CAP St-Barnabé, a charity organization that aims to fight poverty and increase the standard of living of theHo-Ma’s low-income residents. CAP St-Barnabé has a year-round food bank and special initiatives for the holiday season.

You can send cash donations here: https://www.canadahelps.org/fr/organismesdebienfaisance/carrefour-dalimentation-et-de-partage-st-barnabe-inc/

This holiday season we’ve set up donation-points for non-perishable food items that will go to their food bank. You can find the drop-off boxes at our two locations before December 13th :

3835, Wellington Street (Verdun) & 3965, Saint-Catherine Est (Hochelaga-Maisonneuve) during office hours.

Just find these boxes & drop off your donations.