** Transcript Auto-Generated**

(00:00) happy Lunar New Year to all my listeners in Chinese we Sayo I’m can speaking sort of actually really bad KY speaking anyways uh which you’ve likely heard before you’ve likely heard gy before in all those Mandarin all you can eat buffet restaurant commercials now there’s one possible translation uh if you can be a little bit liberal uh quote unquote wishing you become wealthy which I’ve tweeted and simplified to I hope you get richer because honestly if you’ve been listening to the show especially if you’ve been with me since the beginning
(00:34) back in 2016 or if you’ve been following my blog as far back is 2010 you are or should be rich uh hopefully you’ve taken lessons tips and tricks from many of Canada’s Fest Real Estate Investors I’ve had on the show implemented many and implemented many of those uh tips and tricks and whatnot uh as such you should already be rich or you are already rich hence I hope I the term I hope you get richer along with all that other stuff about happiness and health from my family to yours goingo it’s the year of the snake and
(01:09) last year was the dragon uh though I think they were accidentally switched last year I think uh was the year to be strategic which would be which would which is the the theme of snake uh this year uh is the year to build wealth which would be more like a dragon some of my Canadian clients have already started they started early last year they are of course really happy uh they kind of got the timing pretty right as they bought in the US when they and now they’re quite happy with the US currency gains and they are of course enjoying
(01:38) that US dollar cash flow for example I sold some US dollars in my Scotia account Scotia love them and hate them they offered me they offered me actually no I took it uh I paid um sorry I bought Canadian dollars for 1.42 Canadian per US dollar that’s the most I’ve ever uh sold US dollars for have you ever been excited this so onto another different note have you ever been this excited for a federal election I haven’t because I’ve never had so much writing on this outcome provincial elections not so much I’ve seen the housing platforms of the
(02:16) of the provincial liberals and NDP if their goal was to make long-term rentals an even worse investment for landlords then they’ve hit the nail on the head uh for example the uh the Lial platform includes rent controls rent whatever policy similar to Manitoba Manitoba’s 2 2025 rental increase allowance is 1.
(02:44) 7% uh anyways uh back to uh government under under our current government both provincial and federal and Trudeau whatnot uh I know he’s gone but anyways uh housing affordability is historically bad uh I I’m not using the the last two years I’m looking at more a larger picture I usually look at real estate from like a 50 year 20 year 10e term 5e term whatnot uh not enough has been done for affordable housing I think most people know uh that the at some point in Canada we stopped investing in um in subsidized housing government housing back I think it was the 80s uh we’re in
(03:16) a recession uh in Real GDP terms absolutely and everyone’s feeling the pressure of the historic inflation uh the average rent in Canada is now $2,119 now you heard that correctly that’s across Canada $2,119 uh to give you a context that’s about enough to get you a house in Edmonton I like to talk to hoses because I’ve always grown up in houses uh now put yourself in the shoes of a young highly skilled Canadian because they do have choices I was speaking to a young electrician just last week uh in the in the germ region of Ontario uh and he
(03:51) told me all his co-workers are already talking about moving to the States now let’s dig into an example because I love examples and I love context I I often believe context everything Alabama one of the many markets that we service here at Sher uh and uh have we already have clients buying in Alabama Alabama would be the fifth poorest state in the US if Canada were to join as the 51st state uh and then Canada would in turn be the fourth poorest state it’s never Happening by the way anyways that same $ 2,19 Kon
(04:25) that gets you a host in emont would be enough to also get you a host in Huntsville Alabama a prime Investment location where NASA has a major presence employing 7,000 people plus down the road there’s another four 45,500 people working at the US military’s Redstone Arsenal including contractors from lke Martin and Boeing Huntsville population growth is expected to be tripled in the US naal average and do I even need to mention the difference in weather especially winter weather between Alabama in and in Alberta and then for fun for the cost of
(05:05) to for the cost to rent a one-bedroom condo or Vancouver you could rent an 1,800 squ foot house uh with a large lot in hun Alabama we my client our clients literally own a house just like that 1,800 foot house they paid 23 235,000 for it rents for $1,700 a month estimated annual appreciation 4.
(05:29) 3% cap rate for those of of you who are fixed no commercial investing 5.7% now the good news for Canadian Real Estate Investors this is a Canadian show after all uh the best reason news is I think you already heard it or seen it in the news the increase the capital gains inclusion rates hasn’t passed uh unfortunately the CRA is saying that we need to pay it for 2024 uh but if the conservatives win we we would likely revert back to the original tax rules before uh before former prime minister TR Justin Trudeau and Minister Christa Freeland changed them for me and my
(06:08) clients that means a much more profitable exit uh for our Ontario properties after tax uh all you investors out there I’m sure are excited about this and it’s not just investors it’s it’s so many people it wasn’t just us that were opposed to this uh this tax change uh especially doctors AC all across Canada now speaking uh of speaking of clients one of my most experienced investor clients who owns over a dozen rental properties uh is a professional proper manager as well and has been a landlord himself for over two
(06:40) decades he just called me with uh good news there’s there’s always a silver lining to all news his tenant after nine months of non-payment rent is finally getting evicted uh actually today uh she owes him over $30,000 in rent and uh plus damages uh as the belief is that she scratched the place uh Ontario’s broken landlord system so this tenant’s already been from of the landlord tenant board twice uh the first heating was mediated uh so there was a settlement for a a payment planned uh the tenant failed to pay after the
(07:15) second month of the payment plan so um the the settlement terms are broken um now so I was talking again I was talking to my client so I said oh great so you can move for eviction immediately because that’s how it used to be before covid now uh modern day landlord tener board the tenant appealed she got a stay to further delay the process and at the second hearing uh she presented her evidence that she has no money I don’t know why she got a hearing to to share that evidence uh but the adjudicator did rule for eviction and
(07:51) then there was a twoe wait for the sheriff as that seems to be how long it takes for a sheriff in Hamilton which is probably the best I’ve heard in Ontario eviction is today uh and the tenants belongs are still inside the house uh so we don’t know have an update yet on the condition of the property uh but it’s not looking good so meanwhile her rent was $3,300 per month and that’s in Hamilton it’s not the fanciest place in Canada that’s about again that’s about 50% more for than a house in Edmonton or that house in Huntsville Alabama our
(08:30) housing is expensive in Canada in general and and then if you factor in incomes it rents and prices here just don’t justify it uh Canadians are struggling I honestly weit for this country I weit for my country I weit for the younger generation there are tough times ahead there are many good things about being Canadian I am very grateful for the opportunity that I’ve had my parents have given me and the opportunities I’ve given my kids and the kindness of Canadians you know it’s it’s often it’s the leaders of countries that
(09:00) a lot of us don’t like it’s but it’s the people are generally just wonderful inflation has uh Honestly made things worse for everyone um everyone Mark rents have skyrocketed when you compare to pre-co uh many landlords are struggling out there as they can’t make their numbers work I literally have clients who have uh let their property managers go because they couldn’t afford the excessive negative cash flow they’re already negative they couldn’t afford extra being extra negative with having to pay property managers uh I a member of the small
(09:31) Ontario landlords uh group that’s solo for short small ownership uh landlords of Ontario solo for short and every time I check there is someone pleading for help uh so the one post that caught my attention today was uh to quote attendant didn’t pay rent for 12 months at the hearing he lied to the adjudicator saying he did pay now there’s another hearing so 12 months without rent uh for a small everyday investor that’s likely going to financially ruin them and they’ll likely never be landlords again uh bad tenants
(10:08) are gaming the system uh so and it’s sad it’s sad that some tenants are so desperate that they’re willing to commit fraud it’s like like the one that’s just mentioned uh today so why am I investing in the states well the the author of The Wealthy Barber uh former Dragon Den Dragon David Chilton from AO Ontario recently said don’t be a landlord uh there are alternatives that are better and this is his advice to Canadians I couldn’t agree more Life’s too short I want my investments optimal headache free I want my rental income to
(10:42) be predictable cash flow positive and backed by strong property rights what what investor doesn’t now on to this week’s show we have Kevin cosin who is the poster boy for reform being needed an Ontario as he’s doing something about it as the new chair of solo small ownership landlord of Ontario he’s fighting for the small everyday investor just like I do with this show he is the author of the book rent at ruin where he documents his ordal with his Tormentor the tenant living inside his house uh it’s an all too common story where an
(11:14) everyday house homeowner homeowner has a life change makes uh what used to be a financially pragmatic decision to rent out the house instead of selling it uh and what proceeded to happen is easily among the worst stories I’ve ever heard and that is not h uh for a sneak peek I fed the transcript of the interview to chbt and asked what crimes the tenant could have been charged with here’s the list arson vandalism theft fraud criminal harassment which is honestly the worst part oh and the victim was Kevin illegal drug
(11:53) cultivation so I’ve actually have links in the short notes as well for of Kevin walking through his burnout house with the CBC uh also on Facebook you can find solo landlord if you search solo landlord again I have links in the show notes if you want to prefer that and the website for solo is solo. O.
(12:15) C please enjoy the show do your research make real estate investing profitable [Music] again hi Kevin what’s keeping you busy these days quite a lot keeping me busy it’s been quite a week how are you doing irin just a week yeah well yeah you were just named chairman right I took over the position of uh chairman of the board at uh solo and that was January 1st 2025 and uh and my tenant just the day before passed away so that’s that’s crazy is that recent yeah it was it was really the timing was strange in a way it’s almost like a cosmic thing but um yeah and I we we had
(13:01) voted me onto the board the chairman of the board in April so this was that far ahead of time uh and uh yeah it’s been it’s been really kind of low-key with the holidays do you have a great holiday oh yeah wonderful holiday yeah I was I spent most of my time in a communist country fascinating to watch oh China yeah was it China I saw pictures of yeah that’s great that’s fascinating you have a good time there a wonderful time yeah as long as you’re not in trouble or successful entrepreneur I think it’s quite it’s
(13:33) quite comfortable in China what about the border at the border they I needed a Visa yeah and do they do they really like harass you at all or they’re pretty easygoing or yeah yeah one interesting thing was that very of so I’ve been to Hong Kong many many times so I’ve seen it before the pandemic before the Handover after the Handover back to the British so I’m used to seeing many non-asian while in Hong Kong and China and I’ve never seen so few non Asians in Hong Kong China really yeah it’s really fascinating yeah get scared
(14:12) off a lot of people well there’s stories but I uh I’ve only been to Singapore so haven’t gotten to that part of Asia yet oh it’s go I cannot recommend it enough just the uh so I’ve now I’ve seen it I personally visited at least three of the world wonders three of the seven for example I’ve visited corado in Brazil the Jesus statue so it is it is I know so it’s something to see right can you imagine people like with their like people with their bare hands got that up there right yeah I kind of I kind of felt stupid I got there I’m standing
(14:46) there I’m looking at it yeah and I’m like okay what do I do now yeah we take a picture like this well now imagine yourself at the greaty Wall of China which is 13,000 miles long and that was built by hand 600 years ago right so so this the scale is just you have to see it in person is there is there points where it breaks yeah in the chain or is it just one continuous there are some weaknesses in in it and that’s then if you read about history that’s how that’s how the wall Was Defeated because there are gaps they
(15:21) didn’t bother building that part they just kind of well it’s just like for uh just because of the train they couldn’t really continue it so it’s not completely continuous 13 Thousand Miles uh and then again it’s a funny thing about history was just and I love learning about the history because you know that’s saying uh those who fail to learn from history are do to repeat it so if you so the wall was famously defeated twice one was through one of one of the areas where they didn’t complete the wall because again the
(15:45) train and the other time uh simply the invading uh Army had already bribed the the the military that was guarding that door like in exchange for money or land or whatever you open the door for us makes sense the easiest way to get in is let you in right yeah thank you fire no bullets fire no arrows and and shed no blood like right so all that effort you don’t even need a trojan horse just walk in thanks buddy yeah well no you to give up land but it’s not your land you’re gonna the land you’re GNA give away during The Invasion and then yeah and
(16:24) then they were occupied for like 90 years after that but anyways so let’s talking about real estate yeah first sorry first off what’s Solo stand for and and what does it do well solo is uh uh well it stands for small ownership landlords of Ontario and we advocate for small landlords we’re we’re about small landlords we support small landlords we uh work to bring Justice to small landlords and we work uh pretty much seven days a week pretty much all waking hours the the the main board members we work just tirelessly to
(17:01) help small landlords in any capacity whether it be going to evictions to help them or answering phone calls uh we have a phone line that we answer it directly uh or lobbying we just we became a Lobby group and we went to Queens Park to to Lobby the uh mpps directly uh looking for change of course in the residential Tendencies out change in the LTB we directly connect to the LTB we watch for per performance indicators of the LTB you have board members actively sit during uh landlord tenant board hearings of course yeah we we observe hearings we
(17:36) have a legion of people landlords that also observe hearings uh you know we we track all sorts of LTB indicators we we keep an eye on adjudicators we have a adjudicator rating website we built rate th lb.com where people can you know go and rate an adjudicator and also in turn while you’re sitting there for three hours waiting for your adjudicator to get to your case you can look at rb.
(18:00) com and see your adjudicator and see what their their Tendencies are because people will tell you well this their tender friendly or they’re they tend to do this or they don’t you know they don’t keep things under control it’s good to know the knowledge in terms of what you’re dealing with gives you a little bit a little bit of an edge right when you’re dealing with the LTB so we really get into the LTB really into the Weeds on that um and also prepare for the LTB hearings of course and we have a Wiki uh like much like Wikipedia Med for
(18:29) landlords and gets into like observing preparing for hearings dealing with the sheriff going going after fraud and that’s on solo. CA it’s uh it’s in there it’s in the menu uh it’s on our members site though we have a membership site that actually um it makes me think we should make it easier to find but we have a membership site that actually uh we have our members sign up and we vent our members as landlords and uh then they get access to all of our content whether it be a Wiki page p uh or it’s our webinars we actually do a
(19:02) ton of webinars and all of the content is in there and available to our our landlords and it’s ever expanding we actually and we’ll talk about that a little later but some of the stuff in 2025 we’re going to really try to push that and expand it more uh and we do a ton of stuff for our members and it’s all about we’re you know and we do it all for free I should point that out we you know I’m a volunteer I am the chairman and I’m still a volunteer all of our board members and volunteers are volunteers right um and we just do it
(19:32) all for the small landlord and and and we’re all motivated in different ways but I’m motivated in a way uh so what happened to me doesn’t happen to others you know we want to try to avoid uh these sorts of scenarios and sadly uh they come to us when they’re in trouble because there really is nowhere else to go to uh because well there other places to go and I I wish it was more more resource for the landlord especially the small but it’s sadly it’s not as much for me when I was looking and I was troubled and I had a a tenant
(20:06) terrorizing me honestly it was just like everywhere I went give me money give me money and then I’ll help you I didn’t even know how they would help me but they wanted money first right solo one thing is special about solo is that we don’t ask for anything you come to us we’re going to help you right away we don’t have a membership fee there’s no cost to the landlord at any point right so we we we primarily want to that’s the mission right and I will say our clients come to us and we can help them pretty far but not everyone’s knowledgeable if
(20:36) you’ve never been at landlord it’s pretty hard to coach someone through this right you know the residential Tendencies Act is a myriad of regulations and you’ve got LTB issues got you’ve got interpersonal issues you’ve got you know all sorts of damage problems you got different uh laws and contract laws and things like that and at the same time we try to build this community that is as robust as possible and you’ve seen the Facebook group you you you see what kind of comes from this sort of idea where you you take
(21:05) like-minded people put them in a in in a space and then you you do your best to control the access to that space so we actually the Facebook group like more than 80% of people that ask to join we don’t let them in because we vet everybody that comes into that group right and so that it pretty expensive the questionnaire yeah right so we we actually have uh created a space thankfully that is you know when you ask a question you get a robust set of answers yeah and often you get really good answers from people that are interested and willing to help
(21:40) and want to help you know what I mean and uh that’s the kind of communities we try to build at solo the best we can it’s not perfect and it’s really it’s been a difficult Road sometimes but uh that’s what we work on and we’re doing a ton of other things that are you know working on a building a mailing list to we about all sorts of different uh thing working with landlords to try to get fraud charges for serial professional tenants which has become a thing now is in the news again yeah you see this uh and media we’ve done so much media work
(22:15) uh really interviews on every channel every every station CBC the national we’re just trying to get it out get the story out that you know landlords are are people too and we’re struggling and in fact uh in the case where you have a tenant that wants to take advantage of you the struggle is real and they have quite a lot of advantages that perhaps maybe shouldn’t be available to them you know and that’s um that’s some of the the stuff that solo is really working hard to do uh do you mind I share about some of
(22:49) the screening questions for members to join uh yeah for a member to join the uh we of course we want your name and email and all the rest but one one uh one question we we ask that is required is uh your uh your property address the unit that you rent out so we can go and vet that we check on GE warehouse and make sure that you know you legitimately own that property and in some cases we’ll we’ll call the phone number and talk to the person and we really really care about having our members be legitimate members uh again nothing is
(23:24) perfect but we we work hard to to make sure that that is a space where uh landlords that come to us and they need help they they get that help yeah right and we want to do more we we’re ever expanding this uh this thing and we ask other questions like they’re optional though where did you hear about solo you know uh other other things like okay well if you have a pin we want to know that because it helps us vet you easier uh you know um what your business like if you’re in real estate what is your business of course yeah what’s your
(23:56) Reco number if you’re a real estate agent or what’s your uh lso number if you’re uh we have sometimes paralegals that come to us and they register too so any kind of identifying information that we can vet but um the extensiveness is in direct relation to the fact that we actually look at it and you know uh read them and and vet the people and no nobody becomes a member with like it’s it’s a uh sort of an opt-in process so if we can’t verify the member they stay unverified until we verify them right yeah yeah and and for listeners benefit
(24:33) because we don’t want people in there that don’t belong in there looking just to create cause trouble take get captures and go well yes it’s that and it’s it’s it’s mainly also it’s a resource issue right like if everybody gets in there then you know what I mean there could be yeah quality falls apart too yeah exactly you want to just kind of um uh the use of resources and and and make it appropriate so these are the people that it’s appropriate for and in other cases like the Facebook group we just want to preserve the quality of the
(25:02) conversations the best we can and uh all of those things are just take the effort of sort of pruning and working it and vetting and you know we have we have thoughts of of even pushing the member system even further and so the vetting becomes still very important and valuable uh because we need to know that every landlord is a landlord yeah right so uh because a someone who’s not landlord shouldn’t be giving any advice at a minimum some landlords even shouldn’t give it yeah uh but I was going to those I’m on other all these other Facebook
(25:34) groups as well and I’ve seen some horrific advice given it’s true and it’s like pretty much the opposite thing to do like oh go take the door off thing right go take the door off it’s the internet right and what’s interesting is that when you’re in a space that is not uh like people bullying and harassing you find that actually someone will say that take the door off and then you’ll have 10 other people that will say very reasonable responses and so it kind of evens out my but I haven’t seen this like that on
(26:05) Facebook group it actually works no the advice I generally seen is quite good especially when I especially when I when I know who the good contributors are I usually see their viice is quite good and I have nothing to say after that we we have an interesting thing where now that’s not we can’t take credit for that but I find it’s really interesting and curious that people tend to police themselves enough to to help you know landlords and I think that’s what’s that’s what’s the point you if I’m a landlord and I’m trouble and I
(26:38) need to know how to fill it an n12 or I need to know how how long a sheriff is going to take in Brampton uh I I can go there and kind of you know get my answer and that’s that’s the and if somebody is bullying or harassing they’ll report it to us on the admin level and then we can take action and we do so it helps sort of preserve that that space whereas in other groups communities online I won’t say any names but it’s it’s a it’s a more of a harassment tone yeah you know and that’s the challenge with these
(27:13) like the that Facebook groups like 8,000 members yeah 80 8,300 is right now yeah so it’s that’s got to be tough to moderate it’s not it’s not so tough we have we have maybe six or seven people that they watch them moderate and they’re you know uh they’re they’re regularly doing it and it’s not so bad once once people are you know come in and they’re tuned to how the how it works and we have a Thursdays you can poost promotional stuff but no other day and once people figure that out and then it kind of it works out okay most
(27:50) of the time I’m going back to Facebook to to see what people are talking about not the moderate so that’s knock on wood that’s good really good uh so I’ve been again I’ve been in the business for a long time so uh landlord Health he Center for example was has been was uh was a massive help uh before the internet got really big uh and then they got then sadly like under they’ve been so much of their funding has disappeared from the provincial government even under conservative government that’s a shame right there’s such a great
(28:24) resource and there’s such a great uh uh tool so much great information on their site uh I’ve been to events that they run and they’re they’re spectacular my wife but nobody showed up well hardly anybody showed I was like wow this is incredible lot don’t know about them so for again for listeners benefits landlord self-help center they are a nonprofit funded by the provincial government even though it’s been declining uh and they have wonderful resources but they’re the the people that can service is very limited like
(28:55) the people that can actually handheld handhold and help mhm um because I believe you have to be at massive Financial Risk in order for them to for for you to qualify for them to work with you or something like like that yeah I don’t know what the parameters are personally it’s a very small short list I think you might have to live in the property or something yeah but that’s a very limited number and I I I think that should be expanded of course I think there should be money there should be Dr for uh for landlords you know uh or
(29:24) sorry there’s Dr at the LTB but there should be um U proo service like Legal Aid Services for landlords available there should be these kind of things for small landlords just as much as there are for tenants right and it and and the landlord self-help is like you say it’s it seems to be declining and it’s a shame because um we would hope that that is expanding and growing right that’s the wonderful thing about solo because I find it compliments where they where their services end solo kind of picks up like it’s it’s no cost you have a lot of
(29:59) really good people helping people who know their stuff helping people for free and certainly that’s not by Design and it would be great if that was more by Design in particular where one would end in one so we would not have any redundancies uh they do webinars we do webinars they maybe there are overlaps and uh you know it would be great if the resources were all you know uh efficiently used and we don’t coordinate with them in any any respect yeah it is a little like that uh and it’s it’s par for the course where the fact that
(30:33) landlord self-help would do what they do and of course we do what we do to try to help landlords so we’re you know we’re going to be kind of like that um and maybe in the future we’d have some level of connection I I know some people there and you know like I said I’ve been to events we’re keenly aware of landlord selfhelp and we’re aware of their mission and we obviously align uh in terms of our Direct commission although landlord self-help is perhaps they they would coordinate with larger landlords at different times
(31:05) depending on their content in their uh uh their mission whereas we are Solo the small is in the name right small landlord uh well the executive director of self help’s coming on the show in a few weeks so I’ll talk to her yeah those are good questions right and I’m eminently curious about how how they operate what their focus is how they you know of course having some sort of an alignment where we kind of uh connect collaborate all of these kind of things are are Solo is all about that kind of thing because we want to uh we there are
(31:41) only so many resources out there and we want to push for justice for small landlord and we all have to be on the same page to get there and that’s that’s a very challenging and the strengthen numbers of course all of that so um it’s my observation it’s a small land that’s at the most risk especially the ones who are really casual right oh I just go buy a condo and rent it out and then it’s usually them that don’t properly screen or they trust the wrong person to prop to and they don’t properly screen and they get because it was literally in the
(32:12) news I think the professional tenant owes like four different people different landlord’s money so that immediately means no one screened them at least three people didn’t screen them yeah it’s it’s a um it’s a case where now I think that the professional tenant or tenant looking to do bad things they actively go out looking for these folks and it’s not hard to find nowadays still you know landlords are becoming more Savvy just as much as tenants are becoming more Savvy but it’s still I think for a for a bad tenant who
(32:45) is made a career out of paying first and last and then riding out a year of free rent they uh they can find that that landlord that can be sucked in or gullible or they can get their friend to p as a real estate agent and passed them off all of these things are all on the table and they just happen with such regularity that it’s uh it’s it thankfully in the media it’s becoming more more known but uh uh it still it just happens way too often we we’re we’re so busy with this it should not ever happen but it’s it’s a Non-Stop
(33:18) barrage of these kind of stories and then the Act and the board protect these people as as you know let let’s let’s be clear though the tenants deserve to be protected just as much as anybody oh deserves to be protected but people that do bad things ought to be held responsible for that landlords too have this environment where they’re not being held responsible and there are little repercussions and you can get away with things and push it and push it that’s an environment for complete Injustice for everybody because
(33:53) that that professional tenant the one has news if that’s all true they should go to jail yeah for what part in particular I wonder though it’s stealing it’s band you know there’s vandalism and that tends to be a probation charge then there’s the the idea of stealing rent which not really many people have come around to that they always think that’s a civil matter and you know what I mean uh and maybe it’s a civil matter because there’s no potential violence involved like if you steal from a bank there’s potential
(34:28) potentially violence because you got to wave a gun around maybe but when you’re stealing from a landlord there’s no violence there or at least so people think so then that’s that’s a victimless crime as they say uh you know it we’ve got to sort of change this sort of perception of landlords not being human beings they we’re we’re people a small landlord is a person they have they rent out perhaps a condo or their basement or they rent out two units or they rent out their their home because they want to keep their investment they’re they’re
(34:58) human beings they deserve uh justice just like anyone else it’s not a it’s not a matter of asking for sympathy it’s a matter of asking for basic Justice right yeah you know when I when when people ask me what would you like the LTB to do I say do your job right you’re you know your standard for a a hearing is 25 days and you’re taking five months or or or four months to get to the hearing you’re not doing your job let’s start with that you don’t have to do any kind of Earth shaking uh changes to the RTA yet just start doing your job we can
(35:35) start there right so uh a lot of this is just uh a little absurd you know a little bit of a rage bait situation but at the same time it’s also just like if we just get down the business and and get it done we we we can get there we can we can find Justice for everybody tenants wait two years sometimes for actually their their standard for some of their t2s t6s they’re they’re up there a year or more maybe two years and they’re not getting Justice either right ESP including the tenant when the landlord is at fault here they’re not
(36:09) getting Justice either and we don’t we don’t know that until the hearing but uh you know they deserve to have their hearings in a reasonable amount of time you know everybody does right yeah you know i’ I’ve watched government for so long and I’m a pragmatist so it just irks me how government functions including the LLB and I’ve told you this story before I mentioned on the show so apologies for the listener just fast forward this part but Florida for example if you’re if you want to hear in for non-payment of rent you have to post
(36:39) the rent outstanding to the trust account of their version of the tenant board lant board prove you have the money right at a minimum here at the LTB screen capture me your bank statement prove to me you have the rent and you can have your hearing right if you just want a hearing because you don’t because you don’t have the money you don’t get a hearing hey that’s a reasonable approach and one other approach so easy we thought about okay you know change it up and say if you want to file a tenant application for whatever reason whether it be
(37:11) maintenance or other concerns you need to show that you’re gainfully paying your rent if you can’t prove that you’re paying your rent you can’t file a tenant application I think that is the case in some American states I think it’s Arizona maybe uh Satur yeah and that’s an incredibly reasonable approach why not you know what I mean yeah here’s my Remy like you you want you want Justice you have to show that you’re uh you know you’re up to speed on what you’re doing and you’re paying your rent you know a lot of a lot of applications for Te
(37:41) applications in Ontario would not happen if that was the case you had to streamline the process right and we’ve asked for um you know uh written evictions of course you know this idea of not having hearings at all if this is an uncontested matter or the tenant cannot prove that they’re paying rent then it’s a written written order and it’s just like an now4 X parte order and then that’s an eviction there should be no case in Ontario where a tenant who wishes to do bad bad things thinks that they can get away with it right do you
(38:15) know why we haven’t gotten back to inperson uh ten Port heing did they sell off all the uh all the tribunal facilities like they they have all of those there as far as I understand they still have them whether they lease or or own them I don’t know but they use them for office space but what has happened is that they’ve switched they bought a Sal Sports based uh CRM software for uh for running hearings and they implemented that over the over the uh Co and uh right in the late stages of covid so they were running through that implementation
(38:49) process which created backlogs by the way they already had backlogs they created more but they went through that entire switch of their internal systems that that really became online online filing online uh hearings and they just never walked back they never went back and I think that’s a cost savings to them in the end they see it as a cost savings they see it as a potential future costing us in service removing the physical offices and then you know having all the adjudicators working from home many of them are if you watch
(39:19) hearings you’ll see them actually blur the background but you’ll see that they’re in their living room right uh so then they would get rid of all this real estate and then they would you know realize a cost savings I think that’s the ultimate goal in the end and as we know from so many different places in so many different people in-person hearings are far more efficient far more efficient they are you know there’s no uh no roll call but for saying Hey Kevin are you in the in the are you in the room and on Zoom you you watch a hearing
(39:51) and it could take up to 45 minutes to get roll call done right and that’s all hearing time they’re not there 45 minutes early so we’re we’re in this case and and nonetheless uh maybe I think the stat was something like 20% or more of uh of matters get solved in like in the H hallway yeah people kind of people probably even higher there’s this sort of a scientific thing that happens that people when they’re behind a computer and sort of anonymous they kind of uh they they kind of feel more emboldened right more uh more Warrior
(40:25) well exactly they’re more willing to fight than they would be in person when you finally get in front of a person and you shake their hand and you look them eye eye to eye things change completely it’s a human factor yeah and you remove that complete human factor from uh it’s it’s like disembodied as they say right and when you do that um you you not only slow down the process you make it more inefficient but you embolden people to fight more right so I think that you know uh inefficient we don’t have anybody yeah we don’t anybody at the LTB
(40:59) that has come to this realization certainly not in government that has come to this realization and what we’ve asked for at solo is simply just run both at the same time if you have a a if you have the parties in a hearing that are willing to do it in person then have them check a box if you will and then we run it all in person and I think we would find that you know most people would probably want to run this in person uh the only people that wouldn’t want to run iners hearings is pargal because paral leals have seen
(41:27) their revenue jump rapidly gee from the ability to run Zoom calls multiple at the same time so their revenue has increased rapidly uh as a result of Zoom hearings so certainly their incentive is not to have uh uh you know not to have in-person hearings and of course there’s a cost factor of getting people to go to single locations Elm Street downtown that’s quite a trip to go downtown to uh to a place um so there there are those factors I I think that are are involved but I think you know if we care about actually getting to a place where the
(42:03) backlog has reduced to a point where they’re meeting their their set standard we have to do something that you know justifies the process it’s not a well pre pandemic we were usually about three four months for our hearing which is than the backlog with prepandemic the backlog was growing for sure uh but you go back perhaps a year and they were they were running the you know 880,000 hearings or 880,000 cases resolved every year for at least a decade you know they were running at a at a reasonable Pace it wasn’t perfect but it was perhaps a
(42:40) month well you have the data to prove it used to work yeah well yeah we have the data you know and and here’s the thing in in the ltb’s recent work as in like three to four three to four months but in their most recent like annual uh uh report if you will or their annual Zoom they’re like we have unprecedented levels of of uh of files that have been submitted never before seen you know ever all time but yet if you look at the numbers they released it’s like 83,000 files they received for prepandemic every year they
(43:15) were receiving between 78 and 81,000 files so this unprecedented is only 3,000 more than they’ve ever seen right like it’s not like yeah milon Canadians over the last few years yeah like it’s it’s just absurd in a way because I think that you know you don’t have to address it up they they’re not doing their job and they’re not doing it well and they’re not maybe perhaps they’re not broken and that’s a bit of a touchy subject for them but you know however long you keep this backlog going it it only proves how broken it is like you
(43:51) can’t we can’t make this the normal right we can’t some of these hearings for like l2s or uh or especially Blended hearings when you have uh multiple files at once like an L1 and an L2 for damages you you can see up to a year for that still today after three years three and a half years right what institution has three and a half years to fix a back government so I’m old school right so I’ve been coaching investors since 2010 and I been through it myself uh and then the best practice I found and what I talk to my clients was when you go to
(44:28) the LTB find a mediator find your tenant negotiate something you do not want to go because because the the hearings are priorities given to the easy cases anything that needs to be contested goes to the bottom so there’s a good chance you’re not being heard that day and need to reschedule well there are two things there you know the one thing is that that’s leverage and I’ve used that leverage in a hearing by the way as I represented somebody that the fact that you don’t want to go to a hearing that’s a piece of Leverage you can use at the
(44:59) point of mediation the second thing is that the LTB they’re Kryptonite and I know you’re like superheroes the ltbs Kryptonite is any kind of complexity yeah yeah not only do they not run hearings that are complex as you said they actually literally break down when you bring a very complex uh in-depth detailed yeah uh evidence when when it gets complex whoa they just grind to a halt these guys they can’t handle it it’s way more effort for them there’s way more materials for them to review before before the hearing and all that
(45:33) sort of stuff it’s way more work for everybody yeah they’re just not built for that and so you have uh you have cases where we have one tenant that was evicted uh her name is out in public I won’t say the name but point is that she actually commanded over many of her hearings 25 hours of hearing block time because of all of her little nit you know little things big things human rights claims she actually called the adjudicator racist it was just an on endless barrage of hearing after hearing after after adjournment after
(46:10) adjournment 25 hours of this and this is 25 hours of block time that is gone to hear other matters right so this is what we see at the LTB it’s just not equipped for this so if you’re a tenant want to do bad things I I’m I’m spilling the tea as they say I’m giving it away make it complex this you know the LTB should be better at this they should have adjudicators that can stop this in its tracks we could talk about the adjudicator his name is Ebner he he really didn’t do a great job of uh uh uh stopping it or shutting it down you know
(46:47) what I mean but the the this is the problem at the LTB it’s institutionalized um I feel like a bad word is appropriate in there somewhere but it’s definitely this sort of institutionalized thinking of like you know plotting along and you know yeah we’re doing great we’re reducing the the the uh the backlog but yet when you look at the numbers it’s something like seven files a week I think something in that range seven files a week when your backlog is 53,000 are we gonna are we going to end this backlog in like
(47:23) 2065 and and where we are today in January 2025 like the work from home thing is like really minimizing like almost every company’s requiring employees to come back to office but we’re not seeing any of that for the LTB no I don’t think not even day week I’m with you I think that’s I think that’s true I think you’re I I I would not be surprised if most of the adjudicators are at home running their hearings they might come in once a week Fridays tends to be the day that they they do write out orders maybe they’ll
(47:55) come in on Fridays but but while the private sector is going back to the office right I think I think that’s true it’s a lot I well you I don’t need to argue with you why I topped out now let’s talk about your own Journey see more people are are interested in tapping out well you know we want here’s the thing though at solo we recognize that uh landlords are tapping up and they’re leaving the business but we want them to be uh in the business we want them to be small landlords to thrive we want good tenants we want the housing market to be
(48:34) a good housing market at least a balanced housing market we you know we would like to be in a place where it’s not housing crisis every time you pull up a new story we want to be part of the solution right that’s what we’re after we’re not after you know trying to convince every small landlord to walk away which they tend to walk away I’ll be one of them I am one of them that walked away and what we see is that once a small landlord comes to solo they get their issue resolved yeah and then they walk away yeah because they’re coming to
(49:04) us usually because they’re in a crisis right and then they walk away and that’s one less house on the market perhaps bought like a by by a corporate entity or maybe bought by a family who takes over that single family home and that’s not a rental anymore yeah rental the Rental Supply is gone forever right yeah so we we want a good uh healthy housing market that’s what we’re after but you you put up my book there yeah shess promotion if you’re interested in becoming a landlord let’s talk about from rent to ruin yes yes um
(49:37) what happened how did you become a landlord I became a landlord mainly because my uh my fiance at the time she had uh she had decided to move out and I decided to move in with her and we moved to uh Hamilton at the time and so my choice was either to keep my home which I have a semi- detached house in ashaa the choice was to keep the home and continue my commitment to having a a property that I purchased or you know sell it off of course and so I decided to keep it and then I kind of financially Savvy for sure you know I I
(50:14) I wanted to keep the property I intended to keep it for my my life and and pay the mortgage so I would keep it I thought okay I’m gonna I’m gonna rent it out so I somewhat reluctantly decided to rent out the property and uh and I went through a very poor well I don’t want to say poor maybe I could have done I definitely could have done better let’s say yes I could have done better at the screening and uh and this person came to me as a tenant Barry and uh as I as I write in the book uh it’s just a a string of uh problems and
(50:48) issues and he terrorized me to no end and he threatened uh he even said at one point uh in November of 2022 he would get even with me and then by January of 2023 his his son and him they burn burn the house down they burned it out completely destroyed the house which had to be completely rebuilt over a process of say I think it was 14 15 months of rebuilding uh and so this this book just describes the entire uh entire process of trying to go to the LTB trying to deal with him the the beginnings of the strange things that he
(51:27) would be doing you know I had in the least don’t smoke uh and then he was smoking in the in the backyard to just a month after he yeah and I’m like he’s smoking right right inside like right next to the house I knew that he was going to float every every single rule I had in the lease and I knew that it was It was kind of coming and then tension would rise and rise and eventually the the fire uh but yeah that’s that’s just Chronicles uh and of course there’s there’s the bureaucracy and and that’s yeah that’s
(52:01) one of the rooms where where the son he uh had a ton of graffi um so you know it it just came to a point where I’m like uh your all there’s even more like there there was uh uh perhaps uh and this was maybe eight months before the fire but he actually had his car burned burned out completely there you go you see the carire and that you I came he call he sends me an email and then I I run to the house to look at the it looked my the front driveway you ran from Hamilton to asua yeah I had to drive out there to uh to Ashawa and the the front driveway
(52:42) looked like Beirut I’m like what happened here and he says uh I don’t know uh looks like I think the drug dealers next door did it uh and I said okay well all right your insurance your insurance will cover I don’t have insurance he said on the car he’s s his car is sitting in my driveway no insurance and he’s been driving it well I I only presume he was driving it I don’t know how he got it to uh maybe he just gave up under anyway this this all these bizarre occurrences and uh Madness and it was just like a it it took like upwards of yeah that’s
(53:20) I found that under the uh I found that under the wheel when I was when I came in and looked at the car and he he seemed surprised and he found it he said he was going to go to the cops with that evidence if you will cuz it’s clear evidence that somebody started the fire right um so sorry this is soul torch a lighter but this isn’t a regular lighter what kind of lighter is this looks like some kind of li like a butane torch it’s like yeah one of those bong you light a bong bong with it or something like it’s
(53:48) like a torch you you kind of smoking something you like would this be like a would it would that be a looks like a butane torch could be but I don’t know what kind of fuel is in it but you know people in the area they actually because I interviewed them after the the house fire the big fire yeah uh they this is a torch this isn’t like a bit lighter no you’re right and they described an actual like a exploding sound like they described the fire and it was getting worse and worse and something there was like something blew blew up and it’s not
(54:20) like the movies Cars don’t blow up right and I think that that that actual torch was close to where the fire was started and eventually it got hot enough and then that reservoir of gas probably blew and that’s where people heard that the blowing sound um and that that caused quite a lot of damage it melted the siding in the front of my front of my house and it you know obviously it could have started a fire on the house or next door could have started a fire and killed somebody right um and it’s it’s impossible to know who started that fire
(54:51) I I never knew I never found out he he said the the the drug dealers did it yeah he was was he high he was the thing with my tenant he lied and I didn’t know at the time that he was such a liar but he lied about everything really was what did he lie about during the anten and application process uh he he manipulated his credit rating his credit I don’t know what exactly it was but it was easily 300 more than what his real credit was uh he lied uh that’s a lot he forged signatures on 400 versus 700 cutting ratings a B I know yeah definitely he
(55:29) you know and he had to because he wouldn’t have gotten into my place if he didn’t Forge that I should have been more um you know I I I I could have screened better and I I I learned from my mistakes there but but he lied to he lied he right out lied and he lied about his former landlord he lied about the but he forged documents yeah like this is this is stuff you can bring to the cops it’s so difficult to hold people the police will not look at a m if it’s not a Serial offender if it’s one time and you can’t prove that it’s multiple
(56:01) different landlords it’s a hard it’s a hard goal of it to take that to the police now we worked on all sorts of these matters uh and we’ve had some success but if you’re just one landlord with one tenant that you know maybe you can prove it but you can’t uh prove it with complete certainty that they’re a Serial offender they won’t they won’t press charges so it’s a it’s a long string of events that lead up to the the house being burned burned out completely and how long was the process from like tenant moving into burning down the
(56:34) property like how long are you living with this nightmare well the the and then you have to leave after the house is built well he was there about two years but um so some indicators of this is it took I think about 14 months total uh for for the eviction to get to get that done but one thing it which I find is is most absurd is that the the house fire okay the house fire made the house completely unlivable of course all the utilities are off he has to leave he’s gone into Red Cross okay at that point I needed
(57:11) another eight months to get my house back he can’t even physically live in my house and yet with the bureaucracy of the LTB I needed eight more months to get my house back legally and he was still a tenant for those eight months even though not not living at it even though there while they were building if they had rebuilt and finished in six months he would have been able to move back in Legally and he was even taunting me he would saying you know why don’t you can you do you mind if you paint the walls gray for me because it goes great
(57:39) with my furniture like he would send me emails just taunting right but the reality is that he he still had another eight months of Tennesse legally until the LTB finally gave my house uh possession as they say gave it back so this just entire absurd process uh this fire would not have ever happened if they evicted in a reasonable amount of time uh without backlogs of course uh and then uh did you have to prove who caused the fire or was someone caught yeah so the the the person that um started the fire he was thankfully he
(58:15) was caught on the day on the evening so the police came uh I wasn’t there until later later at night but uh they they must have inspected or looked at the situation he actually had uh burglarized the car uh as well he ran over to a neighbor three or four houses down broke into that car stole something out of his vehicle um did something through threw it on the on the street or I don’t know what he did before he started the fire so it was a whole thing now he didn’t get charged with the theft or vandalism of a vehicle but eventually
(58:50) they charged him on the spot for arson and they they arrested him wonder how they got him for that I think it’s pretty obvious so I think that maybe they went into the house after the fire was they went into the house and they saw this you know uh and no doubt the tenant he was trying to pin it on me he was actually trying to say it was an electrical fire trying to say that it was my fault yeah yeah right to the end he was trying to pin it on me how’ they start the fire you well it was in the basement I think you know based
(59:21) on what I saw there because I went in once the police release the scene I I go in there and I look at the it’s in the CBC report I kind of the video of me walking around but there’s this like clump of like plastic stuff so I think it looks like car parts or it looks almost like it could have been like the side like the door panel the plastic door panel on it looks so it looks like maybe he lit some plastic a pile of plastic stuff it doesn’t seem like incidental accidental it seems more like it was this stuff He piled up and maybe
(59:55) started it on fire fire and let it burn and then eventually it started burning the drywall and then it got to the ceiling and started burning and the whole ceiling the beams and everything are all burned out everything was so it feels like when I look at that it was burning for quite some time it wasn’t just it wasn’t like a kitchen fire that got out of control right it looks like he was maybe enjoying it and that’s the thing that some witnesses described to me the tenant himself he was standing there outside the house just outside the
(1:00:28) front door standing there watch watching as the smoke and the Flames was just watching perhaps enjoying it he seemed like he hated you so yeah there it’s it’s it’s a strange thing you know what I mean I understand disputes get a little crazy and then there’s hate and there’s anger uh but it’s just some point I don’t understand stand you know this guy was fueled by something something else something else I can’t uh can’t describe and uh like I said he’s he’s passed away now so he’s he’s he’s died uh New Year’s Eve passed
(1:01:14) away so uh when the house is being rebuilt how did you pay the mortgage did you have was there business Interruption Insurance yeah oh so the insurance company actually was paying me right rent as well so they actually covered you had you had good insur you had proper insurance for rent yeah I I I I even described to people how ironic it was that the house had to be burned down to finally get rent because he had he had gone by that point uh nine and a half months without paying rent and so he finally had to leave the house
(1:01:46) because it was completely destroyed and then finally I was getting rent again strange and I his his rent amounted to his rear amounted to 26,5 26650 in a re but I’ll never see I’ll never see that again and your insurance and your insurance covered the entire rebuild and they paid your rent so that you could pay the mortgage right from that point they paid the rent and they they covered the rebuild they they covered the recover recovery which is a core part of this right one of the things was to uh early on they boarded
(1:02:27) up the house which in my mind it was to keep him out but smart they boarded up the house no I think it’s the right thing to do but in general but yeah so they boarded up the house and then they uh um then they put in space heaters to keep the house from freezing because it was in January that the fire happened uh in fact maybe a week a week from now it would have two two years two years now so uh that recovery process was crucial and and probably pretty expensive at the time uh and so they covered the recovery
(1:03:01) the uh and then the disposal and then they had to gut the house you saw pictures of it gutted they ripped out everything right down to the beams yeah because they have to yeah and um and they they covered all the rebuild and everything the contractors yeah well thank God you had business Interruption insurance so I believe that that needs repeating is you know if you’re landlord have the proper landlord insurance so that you have business Interruption because if you have regular homeowner insurance they they may not pay your
(1:03:29) your rent so true and then you’re still paying the mortgage a lot of landlords don’t know that there is a different kind of insurance that is you know as they sometimes they call it the um pent Insurance maybe it’s just called business interrup in my policy it’s business Interruption Insurance because it’s a commercial policy for rental property indeed and it’s I often say to people if it’s if it’s like $80 a month and you’re not it’s not the same it’s not the right Insurance like this is more expensive that’s how you know
(1:03:57) that’s way more expensive I’m like at least like 240 260 a month for my duplexes exactly I was like 250 a month so that’s how you know you’re probably on the you can zero Inn you’re covered yeah that’s that’s just the first stretch that’s the high level keep as you look at your policy and the rest but yeah a lot of landord don’t know that about that type of insurance and how how that’s important to have uh because it protects you from what I went through and uh you know I didn’t know either yeah you know uh thankfully I had
(1:04:29) that insurance but in the early days I didn’t know about that kind of insurance until I I learned could have been dangerous we all have to learn right could you could been months with our friend well I would have been ruined months more did that the ruin part of that book didn’t come true thankfully but I could have been completely ruined and I think he was banking on that he was banking on the fact that perhaps I didn’t have the right insurance I didn’t have insurance and then that would have completely ruined me
(1:04:56) you mentioned before we’re recording he had tenant insurance so he did yeah properly he should have canceled it first and then done it well perhaps but insurance didn’t really C like it I don’t I’m not an insurance expert but I don’t think that the insurance from his side even when he was declared at fault by the the company clearly they they they saw him at fault I don’t think it covered a lot of the rebuild part of the uh process I think it and then he also made claim to some of his belonging yeah so no doubt some of that insurance even
(1:05:29) covered that right so I don’t I don’t know what the ratio of his personal insurance and like I mentioned it was the same company so you know I was like and I even said to them well why don’t you just kind of Talk Amongst yourself and decide what covers what yeah you know you guys talk directly because my understanding of insurance is that your insurance will sue him his insurance because right the is liable right and they’ll Sue because he’s got insurance so they actually have recourse but I’m not sure they Su approbation or
(1:06:01) there’s like a a process where they kind of uh lock down your uh policy or something like that and they don’t release it until they’ve decided whether they’re going to sue and uh I don’t know what they did but that that was a part of the process and uh again what I don’t know how that like would would an insurance company Sue themselves or would they kind of Sue the person personally would that be a process like if you cause they just settle or they would just cut bait and they know that they’re not going to get
(1:06:32) anything right they’ve got a they’ve got to honor their policy but then on the other side they know this guy’s a dead beat and he’ll never pay up so why why just you know that’s why that’s why has Insurance um but so I’ve actually had this from from my clients as well is that one attendant caused a fire if um my my clients had tenants the upstairs who weren’t at fault for the fire they didn’t have tenant insurance but they didn’t have the money for a hotel so then they asked my client for funds for a hotel and that’s what tenant insurance
(1:07:03) is for that’s one of the things the tenant insurance covers so could you imagine if your tenant asked you as well Hey Kevin you put me up in a hotel four stars are better it’s in the book but I I texted him I I said okay this was the next day and I said who who started the fire and he he initially said I don’t know I got a lot of things to deal with so there’s some bad words in there but uh and I said you know you can tell me who you know who started the fire who started the fire and then his response was was it
(1:07:38) you like you were in the home without him knowing gu the worst the worst at this point his son was in jail for arson and of course I didn’t know at the time that there were charges no the police didn’t tell me nobody no the the I talked to the detective he didn’t tell me I I still didn’t know I didn’t know from the victim didn’t tell you these things uh the case that went to the courts I never I never found out how it ended I I was not notified at any point during this this case why wouldn’t they want you as a witness you’re the victim
(1:08:15) I don’t know but I had no involvement and nor did they tell me or or or share any information I had to go looking for it and I eventually did get I did get the information from the courts but it was a process it’s in the book but uh you know honestly it was not uh it was not uh it was not great to think that that something like this would happen and I would be left in the dark completely about what was going on you know even at the fire at the point of the fire they posted a cop there for like two days straight to keep everybody out of the
(1:08:48) house and that cop didn’t even tell me what was going on he did you know I show up right at the point where the fire happened and I’m there the same night and the cops like like well call the detective I can’t tell you anything but you can’t go inside now what are you doing with the house now the house is rebuilt I move back into it and uh I’m living there so that’s where I’m at now uh what comes next I don’t know uh don’t basement sweet it out I don’t know if I I can do that again I’m still not quite there but uh that’s really the
(1:09:24) only option sell the house or rented you know I think number one is the are you going to do any more investments in Ontario yeah perhaps it will happen you know we I’ve been looking at uh other other properties I’ve been looking at the maybe a property closer to the city I I I would I would do it again uh I just it’s you know I’m taking time to recover and you know like to be fair I I expected him to come back I expected to see him I expected him to consistently return and and to fight and to be a problem you know I I knew his car model
(1:10:06) and his plate number and I would you know I’d scan the plate of any car that I saw that was like his car I’ve only since started to just sort of ease up on the sort of the the sort of reflex things I used to do he came well he came to the house after the fire and he he he was you know he drove up he came to Hamilton from aswa no he came to my I was in aswa and he came to the house okay okay and I don’t know why I was there at the time but uh I was working on the door he had destroyed to the garage so um so I’m
(1:10:39) there and then he drives up blocks my car blocks like blocks my car in the driveway he comes out of the car starts screaming and hollering at me he brings two other guys out of a out of a Jeep he uh he kind of comes around my car and then he there’s a box there and he kicks the box at me you know uh which thankfully didn’t hurt that much but you know continued to scream and and and act violently and uh even said that he would uh he’d be on me like for another couple years that I couldn’t get rid of him oh please no no I didn’t but at some point
(1:11:18) like I had to just kind of keep my cool I was angry and yelling too uh but you know I I I expect that to reoccur like that was like a month and a half after the fire I expected him to continue that sounds for a harassment yeah and he was scream where’s my chair where’s my where’s my uh he doesn’t even live there anymore he went where’s my rubber mats he had rubber mats in the driveway and he was screaming at me for rubber mats you stole my propane tanks well whatever is here is here you got propane tanks go
(1:11:48) get them so he told his buddies that he came that came in the Jeep and they went to the backyard and got the propane tanks because he was a big growop Enthusiast but oh yeah he was running a growop in my house as well so he had this little like one of the bedrooms in the four-bedroom house and one of the bedrooms he had this uh sort of hydroponic tent that filled the entire room and he was growing all sorts of a legal amount or well obviously a legal amount because he that that tent was probably filled with all sorts of plants
(1:12:22) and he had all this paraphernalia for growing and sting and all this uh uh uh that’s why he really bed at a lot of my inspections I didn’t know at the time but he would really got bent out he destroyed the house when I tried to inspect the house uh and that that ultimately I would learn later because that really put him out because if I inspect the house and I see this big grow up in the house that’s that’s bad for him and he had to clean that up shove it all in the in the in in the in the closet so you know I learned after
(1:12:54) the fact a lot of the really a lot of this act you know a lot of this Behavior where where sort of stem from you know what I mean he was in the wrong and he’s giving you a hard time well yeah you know sometimes you just don’t know why you know I in a lot of ways I thought his behavior was very erratic and I didn’t understand at the time okay I want to inspect I got in there I left it it took me about 20 minutes 30 minutes you don’t have to go and destroy the back sliding door he smashed the window and he smashed the door to the
(1:13:24) garage he smashed he you know he he uh he smashed the garage door sh he filed off the handle off the like you don’t have to go that far it seemed very erratic and overblown so uh yeah at some point I was um I didn’t understand that but that that that understanding would come over time when I started to fill in the blanks with some of this and writing the book kind of helped as well a little bit in a way of like okay well help help in the blanks you know it sort of prompted me to talk to people like neighbors talk to
(1:14:01) uh you know working with other people that were sort of like the the fellow that uh the vehicle he was um burglarized his vehicle before the fire he started the fire but just before that he went into that vehicle and stole um um it was a fishing electronic fishing gear thing uh so anyway I eventually managed to talk to him and we had a long discussion about what happened and what kind of played out and uh and why he wasn’t charged for that for theft and then you know Barry is the tenant but Barry eventually actually gave him a a
(1:14:37) personal check to pay for the for the device and the cops Let It Go in the moment so you know a lot of this was a process of trying to fill the blanks in right for me when when you’re like blind to all that’s going on and just trying to understand uh after the fact you know you try to understand where where does this come from how does this happen why why are those folks like they are you know I do get into a little bit of this like why what do I know about these people why would they be like that why would he be
(1:15:12) like that you know what I mean so uh it’s a it’s a process of discovery and uh I just wanted to know more and so that’s part of what the book’s about as well I want to Chronicle the experience but I want to to understand things better because a lot of it I was in the dark like you know one day there’s there’s a house and the next day it’s burned completely destroyed what you know uh for me it’s hard to just sort of accept you know I want to know I want to know more right and then you were on the CBC discussing this in your property yes of
(1:15:51) course the CBC um you bring it up uh the CBC interviewed me on the national that’s uh that’s me going into the basement so this is post fire how how long after how long just after the fire so you see all of the that’s the drywall burning and then the the beams were all burned out it primarily went out actually oh just briefly you see the uh that clump of plastic whatever this we believe the Fara started and that’s yeah it seems obvious where that oh there it is so all of the sort of clump of plastic uh burned like it seems like that he
(1:16:30) kind of made a pile of some plastic something and maybe it started that way or maybe he had a like look like that right there see see that uh it looked like maybe the piece of a car in a way but it’s possible maybe that he dropped a uh uh a candle or something or it and then it started to burn and you never really kind of stopped it or noticed it right I don’t really I can’t well end of the day they were they were convicted is that the term or they were charged with arson right so the sun was charged with arson
(1:17:08) now uh I like I said I don’t know the outcome of that that charge so weird but I feel like um and he’s in an asylum or something yeah I feel like he was committed to a a mental uh what do they call these folks the places a mental institution or something like that uh and I I would presume that you know they considered him a danger to society to society so they they they wouldn’t even let him out on supervised visits but even more strange or perhaps interesting was that the ARs inch charge came with a uh peace Bond against his
(1:17:44) father so he was ordered not to uh not to be anywhere near his father who who they live together right the father is the fellow on the book on the cover but He was ordered not to be anywhere near his father for a certain amount of time and also ordered not to be at the house so not only is the LTB taking eight months to get around to give me possession of my house legally the tenants at least one of the tenants wasn’t even legally allowed to be at the house but still was a tenant legally so it’s just all you would think that it’s
(1:18:20) you would think that if there’s a peace Bond on somebody that legally doesn’t allow them to go to that prop that that’s enough to just and the tency yeah terminate the tency it’s over nope nope do you see why I’m scared you should be I am I’m sorry to say but uh you know I don’t want to I don’t want to freak out but uh there are is a bit of a Minefield right now and you know we really want to improve this environment for everybody involved and uh same here for the betterment of our society yeah you know love to see
(1:19:02) there just needs to be basic Justice and uh and incentives need to change and we need to just you know change the behavior you know we need to uh make sure that people if they think about doing something bad they think twice so let’s start with what what are the lessons what could have been done differently with the screening What would would you B if if fast forward to today’s times because technology today is better than ever and for tenant screening tools what would you do differently today and you’re a tech guy indeed I am
(1:19:36) um first thing I would do differently is number one uh don’t just trust what people say honestly I I I I think I I’m trusting perhaps to a fault but I think that you know I don’t always just accept that people will say something and they’re not going to lie to you so I think that that was first and foremost a lot of the stuff that he showed or said I just trusted it on on on face value and people will lie to you when that happens and I think that we you know trust but verify as they say right and I didn’t do as much verify as I did
(1:20:14) trust so that’s that’s number one I think two I I would have made use of uh the the the screening tools that were available even then and there are some great robot screening tools that are available out there now anything from rent Panda to single key to front lobby they do their own sort of screening rent check all of these tools are out there and were out there at the time uh to you know take advantage of of of screening better I I accepted the um the credit report from him directly and you should never ever accept the tenants credit
(1:20:50) report you go to a you know go to a reputable place go to eifax go go somewhere and get the report on your tenant yourself and get it directly from an institution that you trust uh so that that is everything G be photoshopped of course everything assume everything has been photoshopped so how would you how would you operate differently right manipulated anything can be manipulated so all of those things also I’ve also looked at his former landlord and uh often they say go two landlords back or even sometimes even further uh and I I
(1:21:24) you know I left it at that and so there was a glowing reference and that was that was it so that’s another thing I perhaps would have done differently or or tried to improve the process uh some of this is just low Tech you know what I mean one of the one of the biggest things I could have done differently was just trusting my gut you know there were things that he did that were unusual but they serve to move the process along faster right he was eager to rent even I think in the early days in in the first initial contact he was ready to sign the
(1:21:57) lease before actually seeing the property now I you know uh I was adamant that you need to see the property and eventually he came to see the property and he for a local person that’s really odd right so that that that should have set off red flags and you know my gut was feeling something unusual about this but in in my infant landlord stage I didn’t really you know I didn’t know better but that kind of thing is like trust your gut when something feels odd don’t you know stop and think about it stop and and and figure out what you
(1:22:30) know uh so there’s these little red flags that he he kind of had to tell me told me that okay maybe there is some uh uh uh something going on and it’s totally a low Tech situation you know what I mean look at look inside their car try to go to their their property and and see how they’re living now you know what I mean meet their landlord at where they live now to verify that they’re you know what I mean do these things and sort of trust your gut you know um and that’s one thing I perhaps I could have done better you know talking
(1:23:02) to the landlord reference we did that and it went well of course you know uh another thing I I I think I I should have done better uh is get ID get get more details I I kind of left I you know I understand the idea of feeling you’re intruded upon by providing all of this information but I should have at least gotten a driver’s license photocopy or something you know what I mean that’s standard practice and I I didn’t do that so I just came back from China I feel like they’ve seen me naked I hope not to to give context uh
(1:23:37) every pretty much any uh any my train ticket uh to get into any major attraction to buy the ticket they had they required my passport and then my passport became my uh like my entry my my use how I entered so they’d had devices to scan my passport and then they that’s how they verified I had a ticket the ticket itself was useless what about the scoring system they have some sort of a score I’m just a tourist so I don’t think I so they didn’t actually affect you in any way or did you see people being scored or did you have a sort of a
(1:24:10) score attached to you somehow while you’re moving around again I’m not a citizen so I don’t think they maybe but again yeah maybe if I if I did some sort of wrong I’d start a file oh hopefully that’s not the case yeah you know but there there’s cameras everywhere interesting yeah cameras and so from like for for like that Society ask someone for their picture of their passport no right here I have it on me at all time yeah you would get in trouble I guess if you didn’t uh produce yeah in China you’re required to carry your
(1:24:39) passport as a as a non-resident yeah I think I think that’s part of the reason why they they require your passport for entering any any sort of very like for example for a Canadian if you’re going to the C the analogy would be if you’re going to the CN tower you have to have your passport if you’re a non-citizen like the citizens had their own smaller card but again they’re using their anation card to gain access to train to to the to the major trains and the uh major tourist attractions so yeah really weird a lot of uh so asking for ID is
(1:25:09) like no problem for me implications there you know tracking people and you bring all that information to the top and then they know exactly where you went every every moment they know where you are imagine your 10is social score now though I can only assume it’s low but uh yeah so those are some of the main things I would do with screening but they um and our our Wiki databases has a ton of screening uh uh screening processes that come from all different places from different uh we actually bring together a lot of different uh
(1:25:45) people that are known in the industry like a fine uh rent Panda has a really great screening heart har togman who runs rent Panda he great insights about screening and how to approach that um you know a lot of this stuff is just like trusting your gut and trusting when you see something that doesn’t fit doesn’t make sense and being patient I think what what tenants do that are when they’re professional or they’re looking to do bad things they want that process to go fast fast and you screening yes you want to slow it down you want to run
(1:26:22) you know you want to take a piece of paper like a a pay stub or something like that I should have verified his income better as well by the way but you want to take that and you want to just stop and look at it and take your time look for inconsistencies look at the date is it really out of date look at look at the uh look at the address is it the same address as the address he told you was his last you know on and on and just slow it down and focus you know what I mean yeah and call the employer yeah and call the employer of course and
(1:26:51) call and verify and you know always trust and then verify or verify then trust depending on who we talk to I just I just put everything in the hands of folks like Ren Panda all uh Hart’s been owner of Ren Panda’s been on the show Hart uh Viller has been on the show twice already and waiting for him to come back a third time Zach kilum is a good old friend of mine from front lobby yeah and they’re all great and the idea with these Services they’re amazing and to use them as a as a part of the process is important I always say to the
(1:27:25) landlords don’t really ever uh give up that active process you know what I mean use these services use your tools use open room.can the tenants but do take an active process with this you know what I mean because when you combine it all together when you have rent pan to screen your tenant or you have single key screen your tenant and then you are actively involved in screening them as well and then all of that tied together it’s going to be very difficult for a professional career professional tenant to get past that sort of uh wall and
(1:28:05) sadly the way it is now though it’s not a guarantee that they won’t get there right you know we’re still seeing people that do all the right things and still these professional tenants are finding ways to you know what I mean so we have to be extremely diligent all the time and use all the tools you can like there are there are such great tools now like rent check does some uh background checks on on people they can do that you can do criminal checks I think um is a front lobby but some of these Services now they they they offer a more in-depth
(1:28:39) criminal check and they do uh other background checks on people that can really kind of uh uh surface some things that you might want to know especially if it was an RS in charge right and things like that so you know um yeah you know use the available tools you can and then you know be actively involved you know I do want to add though that with my from my experience especially my including my clients it’s not the we uh I can’t nothing comes top of Mind where any of my clients were Expos had a had a professional tenant it was more more of
(1:29:14) the problems came from a tenant who broke mentally or health during the teny right so the story I’ve been sharing is U my client in Branford the tenant’s Health C basically just fell apart uh they were uh stuck in a bed plugged in on life support no rent was coming in uh wasn’t paying utilities but the the Utilities Company knew they couldn’t shut they couldn’t shut it off because if they shut it off he’s dead and but again now we have the private landlord bearing like Bas paying for this person to be there yeah that’s tough and
(1:29:48) there’s no and and uh and that’s what this that’s what the systems become it’s on it’s on the private landlord to support for those who can’t protect themselves right and that’s certainly a bigger conversation but it’s true it’s it’s the environment now that it’s the the the the work of social Outreach and and even uh you know housing social housing is has been put on the private landlord uh to a certain degree to extreme degrees and it’s a you know it’s a burden that ought to be footed put by the different levels of government but
(1:30:23) they have they have sort of sh their responsibility in that uh and and and even more sort of absurd as the government has started to get into you know meddling with private yeah uh the private Market interests you rent eviction bylaws and things like that whereas when when they should just stay in their Lane and focus on social housing and increasing more beds and more more uh more properties and more robust systems that allow landlords that um that are frankly just running their business allow them not to go and be
(1:30:53) ruined by an event that is unexpected don’t meddle with the private when when like you mentioned Singapore you were in Singapore I was in Singapore I think Singapore has somewhere around 200 mli sorry two around two million public housing units where the average rent is about four or 500 a month for an apartment Hong Kong the average rent is about 3400 a month for uh for a government assisted uh supported building and they have about 2 million citizens in those in those units right and why can’t we be like that why can’t
(1:31:23) we have our government all levels of government focus on social housing and then provide beds for people as as is their directive versus making us a political problem of course um but again like you know for me I’m just exiting the environment just going to an easier playing field and a lot of this is all like multiple levels right you’ve got anything from the shelters to the hosts to the uh uh the social beds to the to the temporary housing of of like hotels you’ve got the more long-term housing you got subsidized housing you got all
(1:31:56) these levels of social hotels yes all of these levels refugees in hotels and then you got the Peter BR style like um uh small sort of ouse type of houses that are transitional housing all of these things are all on the table and the government could rightly just focus on that and then do that well and become more like now certainly Singapore is not an ideal uh in a lot of ways but to be able to get to the point where we could have you know every single person we we the government has enough money from taxes it would be to get it to get to
(1:32:30) the point where the government actually is doing their uh jobs and and providing for people that need supports for housing to to get them supports for housing so then you know the the private landlord is not having to yeah don’t make us do it support freeloaders for for six eight months or 12 months you know I mean like uh we we see AAR now go over $100,000 and it’s uh uh it’s it’s crazy that the LTB is still their jurisdictional limit is 35,000 where it’s not long now to get the 35,000 even rents are dropping but it’s doesn’t take
(1:33:06) long so um that’s enough money for a house or two in the states to buy you know I I I can imagine that some professional tenants are taking that money and buying houses with them that’s not encouraged them so Kevin let’s talk about uh I think every Ontario landlord should be a solo member would you disagree yes I I I I do agree and I think that also that every past landlord should be a solo member and every potential future landlord should be a solo member so there’s a ton of home there that are possibly going to be uh renting out
(1:33:46) their basement or renting out of property or investing in a property everyone that is uh likely to in involve themselves in rentals ought to be a member learn about how our environment is in Ontario yeah and know before you go and do it you got to know as much as you can that’s so important so I appeal to anyone whether it be a homeowner or not whether it be a former or future landlord we want to have uh everybody that’s that’s that’s involved in this and has a stake in this right and we have upwards of 4 million I think uh
(1:34:20) homeowners in Ontario right now uh I think north of 600,000 landlords uh perhaps so there are a lot of landlords out there period anyways um yeah and and really just to get to the point where we can be actively involved in in in changing the course of this this Justice conversation because the government it’s been said is often uh uh worried about the tenant population because of their numbers but what’s important more voters amongst them there are way more voters that are homeowners a ton more voters they should
(1:34:57) be worried about people that own properties that could rent or will rent or might have rented in the past that is a constituency that is the powerful constituency and if we built that fear for that group of people in the government there may be a point when they start to take notice and start making real change right it’s power in numbers so regardless we we just ask uh our our our landlords or anybody that would like to register with solo to learn more about this process learn more about the RTA learn more about anything
(1:35:28) you want to learn um go to members. solo.cup you can get into our Facebook group you can get into discussions you can get into uh webinars Wiki we we do a ton of educational content and try to uh uh try to just learn from our experiences you know what I mean every single part of my experience not only went into a book it went into uh every part of everything that I learned from my experience went in you know was injected into solo and so what we have is this sort of this thing that is growing and it’s growing fast but it’s every landlord’s
(1:36:11) experience is just being brought into the solo Collective and we try to pass that on to every landlord oh you’ve got fraud charges well pass that on or you’ve you you know you built an Adu in the backyard well pass that on learn about how to do that oh you you work with the sheriff and you got possession of your property pass that knowledge on you know it took 14 weeks to get peeled to come out to uh do an eviction a possession Handover pass that on that information you know what I mean yeah so like a cloud of knowledge it’s just a
(1:36:43) very uh a growing group of people that is is building that idea of just building knowledge within the group Source knowledge and that’s yeah that’s that’s what we’re after you know we’re after landlords that come to us we help them the best we can and they come back and help us help others because through all those experiences we learn so much right I’m not saying people should only join solo I think there’s so many great organizations I think it’s just one of um and I believe every landlord should get themselves educated because they
(1:37:14) saying I I don’t know if I got it from someone else let’s assume someone else got it because I’m not not a smart but the thing was uh you either learn how TB RTA works or the tenants going to teach you which you would which would you prefer right right that makes a lot of sense and it’s it is true though you’re G if you don’t learn it that way you’re G to learn the other way and the other way is hard way the hard hard way and then the cliche a pound an inch of uh what an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the Cure and and you
(1:37:46) know so joining solo would be prevention using these screening tools you recommended would be prevention and that’ll prevent you from the tons of pain course and you know people only have so much time in the day yeah and it’s understandable you know what I mean and we can’t we can’t learn everything in a minute and we only have enough attention span for yeah x amount of information passive we we we’re very directed in what we do and we really try to hone in on what people need to know the best we can and provide you know a
(1:38:18) lot of people learn in different ways you know someone might learn by watching a video where others might learn by reading information or maybe people like to read a book or I’ve never made an audio book yet but maybe that will come people want to hear the book but at some point uh we try to offer every kind of way that people can actually get themselves into a more learned position because I often hear from people all the time I’m thinking about renting out something or I’m thinking about this or you know um had a bad experience with
(1:38:48) renting how is it how are things right now you know what I mean my friend went to lb uh uh I could I could rent my condo out I was thinking what what do you think is imp possible or a good idea all of these questions come up all the time and it’s the prevention aspect it’s the taking a little time learning a bit more learning about the market learning about your you know the environment of Ontario and learning about the risk that you you face you know there’s a lot of this Doom and Gloom but understanding really understanding the risks involved
(1:39:21) and making an informed choice you know more than anything you know you if you choose to do something I made a choice that was not an informed choice you know I rented my property and I did not inform myself in any way shape or form so when you know and then you can decide you can make a better decision you can say maybe I don’t want to do this or maybe I do want to do this I can accept the risk I can you know I got I got a little bit of savings I can you know I got a little bit of a buffer maybe $20,000 savings I can I can handle to
(1:39:54) wait for the LTB I can embark on this uh you know so each to their own but making that informed choice is just a safer for everybody in this environment right now for listeners interested in helping out solo for example it’s it not for example it is a nonprofit no charge membership right if someone wanted to help out how can they help yeah so they can get in touch with us there are several ways there’s a ton of information on the website about uh uh you know um about us and how to how to contact us maybe getting on the mailing list but
(1:40:28) more than just that you can perhaps email us at solo solo.con teers we’re always looking for people that have you know skills in particular Industries you know in in Tech or in other other avenues that can bring bring that to the table you know we’re always looking for volunteers so just open the conversation say hi you know uh I saw you on on a podcast and in the CBC or exactly so so you solo solo.
(1:41:02) con say I’d like to help out and then we can have that conversation and you you have opportunities for sponsors because we at share are a proud sponsor yes of course uh we have recommended professionals and our recommended professionals we do we do vetting of the professionals but we we welcome this you know what I mean and you get in front of our small landlord community 8,300 of them yeah of course and so you you know we do some vetting and then uh you know of course you can uh sponsor and be on the website and uh you know be part of the recommended professional list
(1:41:33) anything paralal we’re always expanding that list the pargal collection agency screening tools on and on and on and we have a lot of deep Integrations that we you know we’re trying to build even more on that concept because this is really what support solo at the end of the day we really you know we want to keep the lights on and obviously we have to do that with uh uh W with money and so these are avenues that we have um to to make that possible any inperson events for planned for 245 oh yeah we have uh you know uh we have
(1:42:05) an annual Gala that we run and we run that in the fall and that will uh there will be a third annual Gala we do meet and greets all the time we were looking at doing it in Ottawa uh perhaps again Niagara Falls we did one in Niagara Falls so we try to do little gett togethers as well we don’t actually have it on the on the table as as far as the date goes but we we might do two of those in in a year uh maybe more depending on if there’s local landlords that want to get together oh there are right uh High friends call yeah we do
(1:42:37) that we we love to do that and then our our board will try to get out there wherever that is you know um and we do we do events that are smaller local associations so I’ve spoken at Peterborough Landlord Association we’ve spoken at the Brampton Landlord Association so local local associations we go out to their events and anytime they have uh they they welcome us to speak or they they want us involved so we work hand in hand with those guys and we support them the best we can um and yeah we uh we’re we’re lobbying the
(1:43:08) government so we have uh Lobby days at Queens Park we did that U last last November looking to do more of that although that’s not a public uh public thing um and yeah we we in the past have done protests we don’t really see a protest happening this year but it could could come up that we’ll protest maybe a federal one well you know that’s that’s that’s what I wanted to point out that this year seems like a very uh political election year we’re obviously going to get a federal election but it’s entirely possible that Doug Ford calls an early
(1:43:41) provincial election they’re a sort of ride on the uh coils of the PC party right especially if they’re on the ascendency in the federal level so we could see to dominate yeah we could see a federal and provincial this year which would sort of be uh kind of a big transition year for political interest and especially for landlords um and what what is it going to look like uh uh Pi PF uh in the federal level will he uh will he improve the lot for small landlords or not so you know looking at that and understanding what what those policies
(1:44:18) are what you know what ramifications they are they they almost can’t get worse but yes they can get you know if Pier does nothing but kill the new capital gains inclusion rates that’d be massive I think yeah maybe you sent that to me but yeah I think it’s likely yeah it’s it didn’t pass it’s not gonna he’s going to kill all that stuff and you know you know what great news that is it it is great news you know what I mean uh less tax is always great news and uh for landlords yeah you know we’ve already had a rough go I I I just um
(1:44:54) I don’t know yeah it’s it’s it’s good it’s good news because on sh landlords are pretty much only in it for Equity gains so capital gains right so if then then you’re going to tax us so you just took away some of our benefits of being a landlord right yeah there’s been talk of like uh unrealized gains Tex this idea where they would go after won’t be under po be assessed unrealized gains but obviously PV would never do that so yeah um that can be down the road for the next govern you don’t know right you never know right PF could come in and
(1:45:26) maybe it’s not a landslide he was thinking and then you’re another minority government and then NDP is now you know holding the sway of Power with pev and maybe that Dynamic looks even more weird so you have dental care and other things that NDP is pushing just to keep him in power like you know the the unrest is the sort of the challenge I think on the federal level right anytime there’s this sort of transition time where they go back to like uh Joel Clark and you know ascending uh or uh until there’s some sort of like a
(1:46:00) normalization and then I think you had uh Mo Rooney come into the into the mix and then kind of stabilized but this sort of uh transition period where one guy leaves and another guy and then you have maybe a temporary uh person comes in like uh Kim Campbell or Paul Martin comes in takes over the spot and then he kind of loses and then that kind of unrest and uh in the environment really I think yeah spells trouble for a lot of things you inaugurated right and we have a lot to deal with we have usmca is coming up to be re renegotiated the
(1:46:34) possible tariffs there’s a lot of you know things that need to be tended to that kind of will they or will they not but this this unrest at the federal level can spell some challenges so I just hope for you know a resolution people will vote you know waiting till March I don’t know if that’s a great idea a but they will vote they will put somebody in power you know and then it just sort of normalizes the the environment where you know they can focus on dealing with the problems and dealing with what what has to happen
(1:47:06) right and then based on the current polls The New Normal is looking like the opposition party will be the block back claw and that’s not a first not a first that’s definitely interesting because their agenda is really different it’s very unusual that they don’t have a national interest agenda exactly one party is is got so much power but it’s not uh um it’s not new of course but it’s it’s kind of sad see the Paul because that’s not new yeah it would it would take everything to the right you know what I mean like every single um
(1:47:38) everything is right laning at that point NDP is like Niche the Liberals would be completely destroyed and then you know it’s a whole new candidate it’s it’s good still it’s good good though it’s good change has to happen um Kevin you’ve been really generous with your time or over time uh any final words you like to leave for like a newer investor or someone considering entering the market yeah you know I would say most important just take your time you know uh really look at what you can learn out out there in
(1:48:17) the market you know talk to people uh join solo reach out to any of us you can call our phone number 6477 N2 4951 it’s on the website just really learn as much as you can about what you’re embarking on and uh and then and then go for it you know what I mean there is uh there is no shortage of people here at solo that will do anything we can to help out whether you’re a landlord in crisis or you’re a landlord learning to be a landlord or you’re a landlord that is somewhat reluctant we’re here to help mhm so uh reach out there there a still
(1:48:56) lesson from Mo Buffett that I’ve always referred to he was actually answering Tim baris’s question about uh about being a stock investor and and Warren’s answer was uh if you’re not willing to invest 15 hours a week in researching stocks uh then you are a thus and amateur invest in the index go back to your life right and I think for someone who’s going to get into real estate investing I think is no different you should be investing at least 15 hours a week to research or else you’re going to run into into a
(1:49:26) lot of problems I agree it makes a lot of sense you know what I mean you’ve got to take on that responsibility and take it seriously right uh I perhaps maybe didn’t take it as seriously as I could and I’m not the first to share this you know we will tell you the same right the take it seriously take the time you know stock investors too take it seriously is it 15 hours or a week or 15 like just take the time to take it seriously because the the ram ifications could be catastrophic if you go wrong so just uh
(1:49:58) yeah it’s a great it’s a great thing to be guided by you know even if it’s Bitcoin even if it’s gold take 15 hours a week for a while before you get into it yeah there’s no um some people are in precarious situations maybe they’re in a in a bit of a hurry but I think most people when they’re looking at investing they’re not they’re they’re only rushed by their own personal you know need for something or they feel that the econom is in going in different directions fomo or formal foro yeah so you know don’t you don’t have to rush take your time
(1:50:28) learn understand read a few books I’m sure you have many book recommendations but you know learn learn what you’re embarking on and getting into and it is still good it’s a good environment it’s a good uh Ontario is a great place to invest you know you can be a landlord you can be an investor you can be an owner and live in your property and there are Equity gains in real estate real estate’s still really good to invest in um so uh we want a healthy market and so that’s that’s what we’re after and we just hope people take the
(1:51:00) time and take it seriously I like chat gb2 chat GPT as well for research Source I was actually messing around with it BEC after the whole uhh Trump trolling Trudeau about Canada being the 51st state and then the new y New York Post came up with an article like absolutely not we don’t want Canada some of the points where you know our lack of our we have very low GDP we’re our GDP per capita is about 70% of an American so we we we earn our revenues per do per Canadian much lower 30% less than an American um and what was it uh if Canada
(1:51:38) became a state it would be the fourth poorest state in the of the 51st 51 states below Alabama now factor in that so we’d be the fourth lowest yet our average home price in Canada is just under 700,000 Canadian Alabama’s average home price is 225,000 American it’s wild but if that were to happen hypothetically I don’t think in a hypothetical we become the 51st state do we get richer or do we get poorer those with hard assets will win it’s always the way they’ll you will if you with hard assets will definitely outperform
(1:52:20) outperform those without so this be devastating for yeah you know I uh you know we’re we’re a branch plan economy in the end economically we we’re so tied to the US in in a lot of ways we are kind of another state even though we’re not obviously we’ve we’ve struggled with our own identity as a Canadian whatever culturally you know our Reliance on on on immigration while good is is often uh been challenged by a lot of people our country especially at the top I think Canada is you know in need of an identity and to uh you know
(1:53:01) uh we always often look to our Southern neighbors for uh monetary whatever or Identity or uh or cultural interests you know what I mean all this stuff tends to bleed into us in un unusual ways we send all our comedians to them so we you know I um I don’t I think this would be in a way you could make the case that this is often just a symbolic thing he trolling because it is a trolling move because it’s mostly symbolic as a North American environment we’re so directly intertwined with 1 Point whatever billion trillion dollars of goods that
(1:53:40) go back and forth that we our our supply chains are like one big entity in in the end anyway we’re very much like one other states if you look at the amount of trade that’s done yeah exactly I’m I I’m I’m a Nexus card holder I can walk across the border like it’s like it feels illegal yeah you know what I mean largest undefended border in the world yeah exactly so you know this this environment is uh we kind of you know uh we’re we’re we’re we’re missing the real point of how you know our sovereignty sort of uh rears its head how do we how
(1:54:12) do we culturally uh abide by our own uh set of rules and how do we find our own identity within this environment where we’re overpowered by the Captain Americas of the world you know what I mean there’s no Captain Canada that is you know overtaking the US right so well there’s a captain conu I think but anyway you’re right at the end of the day I think we’re you know these are these are distractions from our real questions of you know sovereignty cultural identity identity in the end what what do we do about Media news
(1:54:42) interest what what stories are we telling ourselves what are what are we as a country what do we want to be as a country those are the real questions the the the fake questions are these you know uh pictures of you know Trump in front of a a Switzerland he’s got a picture of him on a mountain next to the Canadian flag with the freaking mountain is in Switzerland what’s he looking at not Canadian so this is often I think uh where where we’re at in the world in our sort of discourse where we’re often distracted by you know uh distracted by
(1:55:21) shiny yeah squirrly things but agree it it keeps us from our our real our real questions which are are you know fundamental like if if PF comes in and and defunds or uh disbands the CBC we have a lot of sort of cultural uh questions to have to answer yeah I’m gonna watch my hockey net in Canada well of course that’s already been bled bled into sports net and it’s starting to look like uh whatever you know you think that they’re just on the precipice of charging people no longer making accessible even on Saturdays but you
(1:55:55) know we have some very serious cultural implications that might come from losing CBC but then is it a state-run operation or is it not you know these are Big questions right so uh my hope for the future of this stuff is just so we we have those those kind of conversations unless the you know uh all the people are saying that we’re going to take over Canada at end of the day I think we all need to uh rely on ourselves to build our wealth and take care of our families absolutely of course that should always be Priority One over what what Trump is
(1:56:30) saying yeah you know it’s important to trust yourself because you know you know what’s right for you and your family and don’t let other people tell you what uh uh what’s right for for you what’s the right amount of free speech what’s the right amount of phone time you know a lot of the conversations about whether kids should have a phone until you know whatever age you know a lot of these questions are very person for for you I think the Americans going to ban Tik Tok soon so we don’t have that choice it’s it’s likely it’s going
(1:57:00) to happen but uh you know I I tend to think these things will always backfire so people will want it more and they will get it more and they’ll side load Tik Tok left and right and it will be even worse for people but one never knows right Kevin thank you again for doing this well thank you irin I appreciate you having me taking the time and uh it’s been great thank you so much solo.
(1:57:41) por show for Canadians hope you got as much out of this one as I did remember that whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned investor there’s always something new to learn and it’s always about building that practical knowledge base that gets you closer to Financial Freedom if you found today please do us a favor and leave us a review or a rating share this episode with a friend or better yet join our community of Real Estate Investors who are taking action and making moves and hey if there’s a topic you want us to cover or have uh there’s a certain guest
(1:58:05) you’d like us to have on the show drop me a line my DMs are open on social media reply to this email that this have arrived on I’m not hard to find uh you know we’re all about getting you the unfiltered truth to help you on your journey thanks again for tuning in and we’ll see you in the next episode until then stay smart SM stay curious and keep building that future catch you later

On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/truth-about-real-estate-investing…/id1100488294

On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6Z8yd37AQfQI5DK0J0Xwzz

Amazon Music:https://music.amazon.ca/podcasts/40fe627d-dec7-4f5d-b7e5-90a550fffe46/the-truth-about-real-estate-investing-for-canadians

Audible:https://www.audible.ca/podcast/The-Truth-About-Real-Estate-Investing-for-Canadians/B08JJS91WR

Youtube: https://youtu.be/jJmY6SX_zVc