We are dedicated to helping good tenants get into good property. www.rentalberta.info is our own listings website that allows for online applications, and viewing of property.

If anyone knows where there are any websites that are dedicated to helping tenants find rentals please let us know as we always have available rentals for good tenants.

I am beginning to venture forth into/onto a new frontier in my business. We are putting on a seminar that will highlight how as a 'Bird dog' for our business someone can make extra income. It is a step I must say out of my personal comfort zone as I am not a public speaker. I do feel comfortable and passionate about real estate and my company.

It will be a referral system for people to earn extra income as well as get involved with investing in real estate. It is a big step out of a comfort zone for me and I hope it goes well. I remember years ago revealing my ideas and structure to another RE investor who promptly stole and borrowed things to structure his business and has done quite well for himself. I as a bit of a perfectionist didn't think the time was right for us as I want it to go big or go home. I think the timing is better and as we have hired on our first dedicated sales person we have the team to make it work. Fingers crossed...lol

The seminar will be this May 13th at 7pm Contact my office for details. It will be a success on many levels and if anyone local reads this feel free to pop by as I believe the information we are giving away will truly make you millions. A decade ago I myself thought that making big money was difficult and hard. Now I feel that making little money is what's hard. The point that I am trying to make is that the information and knowledge is all around and you can get it from someone like me or anyone else that has had some measure of success, it is how you use it that counts. This seminar might just be the stepping stone you need to launch you on your success journey.

One of our most unique marketing ideas came in fortune cookies. We had marketing messages made up and put into fortune cookies and then gave them out as a snack. They were an instant success from the point of getting noticed but it took some time to actually attract clientèle.

The long term thing was that we were remembered for a long time as the fortune cookie guys and that were creative. If thats the purpose of marketing then mission accomplished.

Keenan

I went to a marketing seminar put on by a fellow activerain member in the morning today. It was great to actually meet someone from this site, outside of this site, for the first time. I'm not sure if I should or could give anything away; Walter & David had good content and presentation.

I will reveal just that having an industry expert confirm that our underlaying attitudes and beliefs in our marketing plans are solid is reassuring. Some of the market trends & dynamics they presented were inspiring and interesting. Niche marketing, especially on the internet as they showed has the potential to be very effective. As our company institutes some of their suggestions we'll fill you in on how we are doing.

I was great to have 5 of my staff there to soak it all in. It was the first seminar that we took staff to and at the staff meeting tomorrow I get to debrief them on what they got out of it.

Keenan

One quote that comes to my mind whenever someone older, like my mom, complains about where society and kids are going(in her option downhill) is a quote that you'd agree with if you felt the same way. It goes something like this:

"Our youth love luxury; they have bad manners;contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love to talk in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter a room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up their food and tyranize their teachers."

Sounds true depending on your circumstances and experiences. Believable and a current issue. Then when you find out the quote is attributed to Socrates you wonder if thats how its always been. One generation to the next; age and youth facing an ongoing timeless challenge of transition, growth pains.

Keenan

There are 3 different ways to use RRSP money to invest in property.

1. Home Buyer's Plan - you borrow from your own RRSP to buy your first home, withdrawals must be repaid over no more than 15 years, the catch on this one is that it must be paid back yearly by at least 1/15 of what you borrowed or you pay tax on that portion. Many, and I mean most people get caught in having to pay the extra tax each year because they do not re-invest money back into their RRSP account.
2. Non-Arms Length Mortgage - you borrow from your own RRSP or that of a family member, money is borrowed in the form of a mortgage and must be insured by CMHC, which is fees to borrow your own money basically and pay yourself interest if you want or not if you don't want, you must qualify as with a normal mortgage (CMHC's guidelines)
3. Arms Length Mortgage - you borrow from someone else's RRSP (must be unrelated) or lend yours to someone else(unrelated), money is borrowed or held in the form of a mortgage, no insurance or qualification is required

As you can see, each method is quite different. There are rules laid out but CRA and CMHC that guide you as to what you can and cannot do.

Keenan

Typically in Canada the financial institutions refer to January and February as RRSP Season because everyone procrastinates their contributions to the very last. Some places stay open till midnight just to take care of those late late stragglers.

The truth is that you can purchase RRSP's year round. The benefit to January and February contributions are that you have the option of declaring them in the current tax year or the previous tax year. If you are selling your home or a client of yours is selling their home and it isn't selling as quick as you'd like consider the benefits of utilizing your RRSP contribution room to not only make the home sell but get more for it than you thought you would.

Keenan

Realtors in Canada should be utilizing there RRSP's contribution room as well as sales commissions creatively to make that extra sale. Yes I said extra sale. I guarantee that you as a realtor will sell at least one or two more houses each year if you utilized the technique. I you got good at it and you worked with your clients using the technique you could sell more houses.

My company is in the process now of developing the educational tools to teach realtors how to take advantage of this under used market niche. I will keep you all posted as things develop.

Keenan

"It's not timing the market its time in the market", but tell that to the recent retiree who is counting on his RRSP investments to carry him along in an early retirement. He probably wishes he would have timed the market!

As a person gets closer to retirement they need to continually re balance their portfolio to reflect their changing needs. Real Estate investments should be a part of that re balancing.

Now everyones risk tolerance is as different as their knowledge levels and that is for another discussion. If you are looking for a safe consistent return in your RRSP's or a steady regular payout in your RRIF's then you need to consider hold mortgages. There is no reason you cannot get 8% to 15% return on your money with mortgages.

Now if you are a realtor you should be using mortgages to aid your clients in buying and selling their homes at least once or twice a year depending how many homes you sell. It is more vital and profitable for high preforming realtors as you can utilize your RRSP contribution room to save on taxes.

Keenan

Although the vacancy rate in Edmonton is low that doesn't mean that it is easy to rent, especially to the best of tenants.

In an effort to bring the best tenants into our properties(owned and managed) I was hoping to get some feedback from the people on Activerain about what they have done to attract good quality tenants and keep them?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Keenan