Hi Everyone,
I hope you are doing well.
Resourcefulness is an important skill to have if you are considering buying your first rental property.
If you take a look at the general population, there is a very small percentage of people who own investment real estate. Due to the fact that there are very few people that own investment real estate, very often, it is difficult to obtain information on the topic of real estate investing. Especially when it comes down to finding out information on the legal side of things.
For example…
…If a tenant decides to not pay rent on the day that it is due….what do you do? If you are a new real estate investor and you are dealing with this particular situation, you may have no idea what to do, or who to go to, to ask for help.
Fortunately in most places, there is a set of rules in which Landlords and Tenants need to abide by. Where I am from (Ontario, Canada) this set of rules is called the, Residential Tenancies Act, 2006
The reality for most real estate investors is that when you first start out and when you first buy a rental property, you have no knowledge of the Landlord and Tenant rules. You will have no knowledge of the rules because you will have no need to at this point in time..
There are lots of blogs that tell you that you need to understand the Residential Tenancies Act relevant for the area that you live in. In theory this is true. However, in reality, 99% of new real estate investors do not do this… They do not do this (take time to understand the Landlord and Tenant rules) because at the beginning, nothing may be going wrong with your rental property and with your tenant.
The Moment Things Change…
The moment that things change for real estate investors is the second something starts to go wrong with you rental property, or with your tenant.
When this occurs, the Residential Tenancies Act for the city that you live in becomes extremely valuable to you. It becomes valuable to you because it is the ‘rule book’ of the do’s and dont’s of Landlords and Tenants. When things are going wrong with your rental property, you as an investor have to follow all of the rules in order to ensure that you are doing everything by the book, and that you are not ‘breaking the law’.
For example, if a tenant decides not to pay rent, there are many uneducated landlords out there that think they can take this matter into their own hands and ‘ask the tenant to leave’. Unfortunately in many cities, it is not this easy. In situations like this, there is a long, drawn out process that you need to follow step by step in order to collect the rent that is owned to you…
There is a reason why there is a rule book in place. It is there to ensure that people behave themselves and don’t take extreme measures when trying to rectify a problem.
Best Regards,
Neil Uttamsingh
ps: First Rental Property will be making a HUGE announcement later on this month. Stay tuned!
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