First Rental Property

A common term that is used with real estate investors is ’emotional investing’

Emotional investing (in relation to real estate investing) can be defined as making an investment decision based solely on your current feeling, and not based on the financial analysis of a rental property. When a real estate investor purchases a rental property through emotional investing, they are not paying close attention to the analysis of the property. They might not analyze the rental property carefully in order to determine if it cash flows. Emotional investing can often ruin wannabe real estate investors. If a real estate investor tries to expand their real estate portfolio aggressively by purchasing many rental properties with emotional investing, they can get wiped out easily. If they are continuing to purchase rental properties, without analyzing them thoroughly, it will only be a matter of time until they cannot financially afford to maintain their real estate portfolio.

My fellow real estate blogger and REIN member, Chris Davies, discussed the emotional response experienced by some investors in his article, Four Steps For Better Real Estate Investing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsnyaElu5nI[/youtube]

For example, let’s say that a real estate investor purchases 5 rental properties over 5 years. Let’s also assume that each property that they purchase does not cash flow. In fact, each property is a negative cash flow property. This means that the monthly expenses on each rental property are greater than the monthly revenue from the property. In this example, let’s pretend that each property is negative cash flow, $500/month. Therefore if this investor owns 5 properties, this means that each month the investor is taking $2,500/month out of his or her pocket in order to feed these properties. There is only a certain amount of time that an investor can keep this up, before they start to run out of money. Sooner or later, when they run out of money, they could find themselves in a position where they will be forced to sell one or multiple properties. Feeding negative cash flow properties is especially dangerous for a couple of reasons. As mentioned previously, the real estate investor will eventually run out of money to put into these properties. In addition, since the properties are not in a positive cash flow position, there will be no change to replenish the repairs and maintenance budget, vacancy allowance, or reserve fund for the properties. As a result, if a property requires a big repair or if it goes vacant for a couple of months, there is no money to cover these expenses.

Emotional investing can be deadly, and has forced many wanna be real estae investors out of real estate investing entirely. Here is an exercise that you can use in order to detect if you are emotionally investing.

When you are excited about the prospect of purchasing a rental property, take a few moments, slow down and ask yourself this one simple question, “Does the property cash flow?” If it does not cash flow, based upon your analysis, and you feel that you are still attracted to this property for some reason, you are letting your emotions influence your judgment here. This could be due to the fact that you personally like the neighbourhood, city or town that the property is located. If the property does not cash flow, don’t even consider purchasing it, just move on to the next prospective property, and begin to analyze that property.

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I first became interested in real estate investment around the year 2003, just after I graduated from The University of Western Ontario.

Before, I begin my story, I would like to thank Stephani Davis for giving me the idea to write this article. Stephani wrote a similar article on the premier real estate social networking site, BiggerPockets.com. I really encourage you to read her article as well.

I made a lot of mistakes when I purchased my first rental property. However, looking back upon my experience I have learned from these mistakes. So much so, that I feel that I will never make these same mistakes again.

Mistake #1

I did not know why I was buying the rental property

When I purchased my first rental property in May of 2005, I did not know why I was purchasing it. I did not know if I was going to live in the property as my principal residence, or if I was going to rent it out. Not being clear on this caused mistake Number #2 to occur.

Mistake #2

I wasn’t sure if the property was going to cash flow

Because I did not have a focus, I had no idea if the property was going to cash flow if I decided to rent it out. I was just so excited at the fact that I was buying a property, that I did not even do my due diligence. At the end of the day, I figured that if it did not cash flow, the worst case scenario would be that I would live in the property for a set period of time and then sell it and buy another property. In my mind, I had things ‘planned’ out. However, as time passed and as I gained more experience and knowledge, I realized that it was not a very good plan.

Mistake #3

I was speculating, not investing

I purchased the property with the hope that the property would go up in value. It was my plan that the property would go up in value, and that I would be able to sell it shortly thereafter in order to make a profit. There is no guarantee that a property will go up in value.

Mistake #4

I took the wrong amortization period

When I purchased this property, I took an amortization period of 25 years. I should have taken an amortization period of 35 years, which was the highest amortization period available in Canada at that time. If I took a 35 year amortization period, this would have resulted in my mortgage payments being much less.

Mistake #5

I got my mortgage through a bank, instead of a mortgage broker

Knowing what I know now, if I could go back in time, I would have got my first mortgage on my rental property through a mortgage broker as opposed to a bank.

The reason for this is because…

…I could have obtained a lower interest rate on my mortgage. Since mortgage brokers deal with many different lenders, they have a variety of interest rates and mortgage terms to chose from. By getting a mortgage from a bank, I was forced to taking the interest rate and the terms of the mortgage from that particular bank.

Despite making these 5 huge blunders, my first rental property has turned out to be the strongest performing property in my portfolio of rental properties.

In 2008, I had a bank appraisal completed, and the value of the rental property came in at $315,000. Bank appraisals are extremely conservative. As such bank appraisals come in well under the market value of what a property would sell for on the market.

As an example, in 2009, there were some comparable homes sold for between $330,000 to $350,000.

I always like to be conservative with my estimates, so even if we assume that the value of the property today is $315,000 as per the bank appraisal, that means that the property has appreciated approximately $65,000 in less than 5 years. If we take a look at what the market value of the property would be as opposed to the appraised value, then the appreciation level would be much higher.

I ended up renting this property out shortly after I took possession of it. For the first 3 years or so, it was a negative cash flow property. In 2008, I re-negotiated the terms of the mortgage. As such, the monthly cash flow on the rental property increased dramatically. This small change enabled me to move forward and purchase additional rental properties. I was able to do this thanks to the great advice of an outstanding mortgage broker, and friend, Kevin Boughen. Kevin specializes in investor mortgages, and works with real estate investors all across Canada.

Here is a short video, and quick tour of my first rental property taken in December 2009.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__fESpm7HAw[/youtube]

Social proof is a very powerful marketing concept that is used by many Internet marketers and bloggers.

I have been reading about this concept recently, and I am finding it to be a very interesting marketing tool.

In a nutshell, the most powerful influence over a person is other people. People often act like sheep. In the sense that they adopt a herd mentality, and always follow what others are doing.

Internet marketers and bloggers, who employ the concept of social proof effectively are easily able to influence their audience into doing something.

For example, there is a good chance that you have seen Feedburner feedcount chicklets on other blogs before.

Many bloggers and Internet marketers use these tools in order to increase the amount of subscribers they have to their blog.

Besides being a cool little graphic often in the top right hand corner of a blog, the Feedburner feedcount chicklet also serves as a social proof and credibility tool.

There is a good example of this social proofing tool on Yaro Starak’s blog
www.entrepreneurs-journey.com. Yaro is by far the best blog teacher, who instructs people how to build successful blogs. He has built an incredible blog with very valuable content and a large and loyal readership. I owe him a lot for the development of my own blog.

It is a common practice that many bloggers do not display publicly the Feedburner feedcount chicklet until they have reached a certain amount of subscribers. Once a blogger has reached a certain amount of subscribers, they begin to publicly advertise via this chicklet the exact number of subscribers that they have. The reason for this again is because…

The most powerful influence over a person is other people.

If a web surfer randomly comes across a blog while surfing the web and they notice that a blog has 500, 5,000, or 50,000 subscribers, they will perceive this blog to be of value, and they will be more likely to subscribe themselves.

On the flip side, if someone comes across a blog and they see that there are only 2, 3, or 4 subscribers to a blog, they will be less likely to subscribe themselves as they will perceive that the blog does not have value, although the blog could in fact be very valuable.

In essence, the feedcount chicklet is a social proof tool.

Remember that social proof is a marketing concept that takes into account that the most powerful influence over someone is other people.

Now, here is a real life example of social proof at work.

Yesterday was a very snowy day in Toronto Canada. There was a lot of snowfall on the ground just before the rush hour traffic hit the roads. As a result, when I was driving to work the salting trucks and snowplough machines were out in full force. It was also a very cloudy day yesterday, and with all of the salt on the roads, my car became very dirty on the drive into and out of work. At the end of the day, the car was a mess. It looked terrible.

Today was a sunny day. A sunny day during the wintertime is often a time in which people get their car washed in a drive through car wash. I went to the gas station to fill up some gas in my car. At this gas station there was an adjoining car wash. I looked at the adjoining car wash and I noticed that there was a long time up of cars waiting to get washed.

Seeing the incredibly long line up, I thought to myself that I would come back at a later time to get my car washed, as I did not want to wait in line.

I went into the gas station to pay for my gas, and when I came out of the gas station, the line up to the car wash was even longer, which meant, an even longer wait had I decided to join the line.

It was at this time that I realized that the line up of cars at the car wash, represented social proof. The fact that there were so many dirty cars already in line made other people feel that it was a good idea to get a car wash at that time as well. Everyone’s car was equally dirty due to the snowfall from the day before.

As a result, I decided that I would get my car washed as well, and I got in line. I fully realized that social proof had just affected me. It was also at this time that I knew I was going to write about this experience.

This example goes to show that just like the Feedburner feedcount chicklet…

…the more people are doing something, the more likely you will do it yourself. This is a classical example of social proof.

When we take a look at real estate investing, I can tell you with certainty that social proofing applies here as well.

Often times groups of real estate investors will be investing in certain geographical areas. In addition, within these geographical areas, these same real estate investors will be investing in certain types of rental properties.

I have seen many novice investors begin to invest in these same geographical areas as the veteran real estate investors. Novice investors do this because they see that veteran investors are already invested in a particular region. As a result, the novice investors perceive that, the geographical area must be good because people are already invested there.

This again is an example of social proof. Social proof examples come up everywhere. Keep a look out, and you will notice social proof in your daily life.

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Are you a sincere person, or are you as phony as they come?

Most people are pretty good at detecting if someone is genuine or if they are a ‘fake’ person. On the whole, I think that women are better than men at detecting whether someone is genuine or insincere.

In the above paragraph when I use the word, ‘fake’, I mean it in the context that someone is behaving very differently than how they would naturally behave. These fake people often tend to do this in social situations, where they want to project to their audience a sense of enthusiasm. Or, this phony act can be used in an attempt to impress an audience as well.

Unfortunately, the phony person does not realize that most people have the ability to detect this fake behaviour.

Now I could stand to be corrected here, and I would appreciate your comments if you see things differently. I say in the above paragraph that, ‘most people have the ability to detect…fake behaviour.’ I have always been able to detect insincere people, so perhaps it is not ‘most’ people who are able to detect it, rather, ‘some’ people. Either way, I would appreciate some thoughts on this in the comment section at the end of the article.

Since I consider myself to be a very sincere person, and I appreciate the sincerity of others, I have listed below some key points one can adopt in order to become more genuine.

1) Be Real

This is quite simple to do, but many people fail at it. When you are being real, you are behaving exactly how you would normally behave and you are not altering your behaviour in any way. For example, I am a very honest person. When I speak to people I tell them the truth if they ask me a question. I am especially honest if the question is unexpected. This sometimes shocks people, as they cannot believe the answer that I gave them. This is an example of me being real. Me being real here helps to contribute to my genuine nature. If I was being fake here, when a person asks me a question that I don’t really want to tell the truth about, I could lie. Lying in this scenario is NOT how I would normally behave. As a result, people can detect when I am lying here, and at this point, I would come off as very insincere. My honesty in this situation creates a sense of sincerity.

2) When you ask someone, ‘How are you?’ Be TRULY interested in their response

During the course of a single day, have you ever counted how many times you have asked someone, “How are you doing?” If you work with people, then perhaps you ask this question multiple times a day. If you don’t work with people, then perhaps you only ask this question of loved ones and/or family members.

This activity will only work with people that do not know if you are a genuine or insincere person.

When you ask someone how he or she is doing, instead of just ‘going through the motions’ of asking the question, take a different approach this time.

Listen for their response. Keep eye contact with the person. Let them tell you how they are feeling. Process their response.

Then ask yourself, “What sort of energy did that person just project towards me with their response?” Was it a positive, warm energy? Were they upbeat and smiling when they responded, or did they project a negative, cold vibration toward you with their response?

By taking some time to process the energy or lack thereof that they projected towards you, you will now be adequately equipped to respond accordingly.

When I respond to someone, after I ask the question, ‘How are you doing?’, I match the energy, and the energy level that they have projected towards me.

The benefit of doing this is to make the other person feel that you are truly interested in how they are feeling. It makes a big difference, if you take the time to practice this.

Here is an example:

I was out to lunch today with a co-worker of mine. We were at a local pizza parlor, and it was packed full of people! There was a huge lineup to order and the lady working at the cash register looked tired and unhappy with the current state of the restaurant. When we approached the cash register, I simply asked the lady how she was doing. In a quiet, defeated voice, she said, ‘Okay’. At this point, I almost got ahead of myself, and forgot to take the time to listen carefully for her response, and interpret her energy level. I had my mind on ordering my pizza to be frank!

After she responded with the answer of, ‘Okay’ to my question, I took a few seconds, looked at her and said, ‘That is good to hear.’ I didn’t just say this, but I meant it. She could tell that I meant it as well. This brightened her mood and after my co-worker and I placed our orders, she began to talk to and joke around with us, as we waited for our pizza. Her change in mood was significant from the moment we first approached her.

Clearly, by taking a few extra seconds, and listening to her, and matching her energy level, I was able in my mind to project a degree of sincerity, which she appreciated.

Here is the best YouTube clip on ‘being genuine’. This is brought to you by Russ Small, a Calgary Alberta Life Coach. Check him out.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZaZiXXptfo[/youtube]

So, how does this all relate to the topic of real estate investment?

I was asking myself this same question, the moment I thought of this article topic.

There is a strong connection between being genuine and real estate investment.

It all comes into play when, as a new real estate investor, you are looking to build your network of professionals around you.

In order to be successful with real estate investment, you need to associate yourself with a number of key people such as a real estate agent, mortgage broker, real estate lawyer and home inspector, just to name a few.

The laws of attraction would believe that you would attract to you those professionals that are similar to you in nature. As such, this could mean that you are drawn towards a real estate agent, mortgage broker, or real estate lawyer with the same values or beliefs that you have. You will be attracted to work with people that you are similar to you in some regard. In addition, you will be repelled away from those professionals that are fundamentally different from you.

So, by being real, as mentioned above, you will project to people the exact type of person that you are. As a result, those professionals that you are compatible to work with will begin to surround themselves around you, and you will begin to seek out those professionals as well.

If you liked this article and are also interested in the topic of real estate, subscribe to my blog. 

Best Regards,

Neil Uttamsingh.

In the words of the Great Vince Lombardi:

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.’

In 1959 at the age of 45 years old Vince Lombardi accepted the position of Head Coach and General Manager of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League. In the previous season in 1958, Green Bay had lost all but 2 of it’s 12 games (with one tie and one loss).

Lombardi created an absolutely punishing training regime and demanded absolute dedication from his players. As a result of this change, the 1959 Green Bay team was a significant improvement finishing with a 7-5 record. 7 wins and 5 losses.

In his second year, Lombardi led the 1960 Green Bay team to the NFL Championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles. However, in this big game Lombardi’s team came up short within the final minutes of the game, and ended up losing to The Eagles.

Lombardi was outraged at the defeat and vowed that this would never happen again under his command. This turned out to be Lombardi’s first and only loss in the post season.

Lombardi went on to accomplish an incredible record of 105 wins, 35 losses, and 6 ties as a head coach, while never suffering a losing season. This equated to a .750 winning percentage.

Lombardi led his Green Bay team to a still unmatched 3 consecutive National Football League Championships in 1965, 1966, and 1967, winning the first 2 SuperBowls and solidifying himself as arguably the all time greatest NFL coach in history.

Players under Lombardi’s command became winners primarily due to two reasons.

1) They had a strategy

Lombardi taught his players to start thinking like winners. In order to reach the next level as a Football team, the players needed to start thinking differently and start behaving differently. Lombardi taught that winners have a strategy and don’t get distracted by things that are unimportant. Part of a winning strategy is the dedication to always hone one’s skills, Lombardi would teach.

In addition to teaching the importance of having a strategy, Lombardi also spoke of:

2) Being consistent

Winners consistently execute towards their strategy. Practicing the same tasks and the same drills over, and over, and over again is what helps to create a winning mentality. Winners never lose sight of their objective because they are constantly focused on it. Consistency is the key to success.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4kWiRjLbGQ[/youtube]

As an aspiring real estate investor, it is vitally important that you as well have a strategy and that you are consistent.

Your strategy can simply consist of a time line that you have committed to yourself in which you are going to buy your first rental property.

If you have committed this, you then have to be consistent in executing towards this strategy.

Consistent execution can consist of things such as building your team of professionals around you that will be helping you with the purchase of your first rental property.

Consistently work towards finding a suitable Realtor, Mortgage Broker, Real Estate Lawyer, or Real Estate Mentor.

Have a strategy and be consistent. If you do this, you are setting yourself up for success!

Take a about 10 seconds to reflect upon this first question…

Do you have confidence?

Now that you have reflected on this first question, ask yourself the following three questions:

How do you know for sure that you are confident?

If you have low confidence, do you think that people can notice this?

It has been my observation that most people do not have confidence in every aspect of their lives. People may feel confident in some areas of their lives, and not very confident in other areas. So if I were to make a sweeping generalization, (which I am), I can confidently say that most people do NOT have confidence.

I see this as a problem. As a result, I would like to share with you 3 tips that if you implement, can increase your confidence.

1) Identify people that are more confident than you

Surely, we all know people that fit this category. This person may be a friend, co-worker or aquaintence. We notice that there is just something about this person that makes them confident.

Perhaps it is in the forceful way that they speak or maybe it’s because of their posture, or perhaps it’s due to their ability to take risks. Whatever the case may be, take some time out of your busy day and identify at least 3 people that you know that are more confident than you are.

2) Identify what they are doing differently than you

You will have to observe closely here and pay special attention to everything that this person is doing. Look for things that they do differently from you. The key word here is differently. What are they doing different from you?

What things stand out in your mind? As mentioned in the first point, take a look at things such as their tone of voice, their posture, or perhaps even their overall outlook on risk. Don’t only look at these variables, rather, examine EVERYTHING about them that they do differently, that you wish that you could do.

Do they have an ability to speak in public, and have no fear? Are they able to approach a complete stranger and begin a conversation? Do they maintain solid eye contact with you the entire time that they are speaking to you, without looking away? If they are trying to ‘sell’ themselves to you, are they doing a good job at it? If so, why do you think that they are doing a good job?

Write all of our observations down, so you can review your notes at a later date.

3) Mimic the characteristics that you lack

This is the stage where you will have to take action. If you don’t take action, you will have no results. What characteristics or behaviours did this confident individual have that you can copy and incorporate yourself into your life? Before doing this, you have to know yourself what areas you are looking to improve upon. For instance, if you know that you maintain poor eye contact when speaking to people, and you always look away, mimic what you saw from the confident person. Perhaps you noticed that the confident person maintain consistent and unwavering eye contact. If so, copy this behaviour and have a complete conversation with someone looking them in the eyes the entire time, without looking away.

Confidence is just a behaviour. Anyone can have confidence. For some, it may take a little bit of work to build confidence, but do believe, it can be done.

For real estate investors, having confidence is the key to success. If you feel that you currently lack some confidence, then you must be diligent in putting together an action plan so that you can gain more confidence. If you feel that you do not have what it takes to build cash flow through real estate investment, you simply just have to study the habits of successful real estate investors. Observe what they did, and take notes. You can do it too!

Do you ever wonder how people end up making so much money through investing in real estate?

I used to.

At the beginning, I thought that the only way to make a profit in real estate was to buy a house, keep it for a really long time and then sell it for a higher price than what it was paid for.

There are many people who use this strategy and this strategy alone, but not Canada’s Most Versatile Investor, Mark Loeffler.

Mark is one of the leading authorities in Canada in the Rent To Own System of real estate investing. He was featured in the Canadian Real Estate Magazine not to long ago. It was this Magazine that dubbed him The Versatile Investor. This name has stuck since.

Mark and I met about a year and a half ago through the Real Estate Investment Network, also more commonly referred to as REIN.

REIN is a network of Canadian real estate investors investing in Canadian Real Estate. REIN has been said to be one of the best real estate investment networks in North America by real estate gurus such as Ron LeGrand.

Mark and I recently sat down for an interview. This article will be the first of many articles focused on successful real estate investors. Specifically I asked Mark questions about his first rental property purchase, and how his real estate investing career has evolved since then.

Here is my recent interview with the man himself, The Versatile Investor, Mr. Mark Loeffler:

Neil: “Mark, where did you buy your first rental property and what type of property was it?”

Mark: “My first rental property was a duplex. It was located in Newmarket, Ontario.”

Neil: “What year did you purchase it, how much for, and what do you think it is worth now?”

Mark: “I bought the duplex in 2003 for $205,000. Comparable properties are selling for nothing less than $270,000 now.” (Interview took place on January 5th 2010)

Neil: “What was your reason for buying your first rental property?”

Mark: “I bought the property for cash flow“.

Neil: “At the time of your purchase, did you know of anyone else investing in real estate?”

Mark: “No”

Neil: “Did you purchase this house yourself, or did you have any partners that you
purchased it with?”

Mark: “I purchased this house by myself.”

Neil: “What was your biggest fear about buying your first rental property?”

Mark: “I was afraid that I would not be able to find any tenants.”

Neil: “How did you come up with your down payment?”

Mark: “I used my savings. I put $5,000 down as my down payment.”

Neil: “How did you get your first mortgage?”

Mark: “I got my first mortgage through the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)”

Neil: “Who managed the property for you?”

Mark: “I managed the property by myself.”

Neil: “What is the current state of the property?”

Mark: “I still own the property, and it is rented. A couple of years after I purchased the property, I brought in a partner who joint ventured on the property. As a result, I was able to take out some equity.”

Neil: “What did you do with this equity?”

Mark: “I reinvested the money into real estate. I did a couple of flips in Toronto. The money that I made from the flips eventually went into Rent to Own real estate investments.”

Neil: “Where are your Rent to Own homes located?”

Mark: “Across Canada. In Ontario and Alberta.”

Neil: “Why did you decided to invest with the Rent to Own strategy?”

Mark: “I decided to invest using the Rent to Own strategy because of the increased cash flow. There was also less maintenance with Rent to Own. Also, flipping was getting too tight.
Also, it was around this time that the Government changed their policy regarding the 100% financing rule when purchasing a home. This created an opportunity for me, this allowed me to change strategies and invest using RTO. Also, I found it tough to find good property management for small units. You don’t make your money managing, you make your money buying.”

Neil: “What current projects are you currently working on that you want to let people know
about?”

Mark: “I have a new book out called, Investing in Rent To Own Property: A Complete Guide to Canadian Real Estate Investing. I also have a Rent To Own Course called Rent To Own Made Easy. You can take the course from home and it has a 60 day e-mail mentoring component. The course takes you from A to Z and it shows you how I run my
business and how I find tenants. We take a tenant first strategy. We find people that
can’t qualify for a mortgage and we help them purchase a house. We do between
3 to 5 of these types of deals a week.”

So there you have it, a one on one interview with The Versatile Investor, Mark Loeffler. Mark and I have chatted about doing subsequent interviews for my blog, and he is agreeable. So stay tuned for some more great content from Mark Loeffler, The Versatile Investor. In fact, we may even get him on as a guest blogger!

If I was given a number of those cool gold looking statues seen at the Academy Awards, I would waste no time in putting them to use.

I would hand them out to a select number of bloggers. Not just any blogger though. I would give them out to bloggers that blog on the topic of real estate investment and who have written an article that I have enjoyed reading this past month.

Fortunately, there are a number of very well written articles that I have read over the past month.

The purpose of my article that you are reading now, is to send a ‘shout out’ to these bloggers. I would like to draw attention to their articles and thank them for creating such quality content.

I also encourage you to check out these articles. There is value in all 5 of these articles.

The Oscars go to…

1) John Fedro, Mobile Homes Contributor of the premier real estate social networking website, BiggerPockets.

John, also known as J-Fed invests in Mobile homes in the U.S.A. According to some of John’s writing, he purchases a mobile home, pays off what he owes on it in 10 months, and then the remaining incoming payments that he receives is profit. I find this topic interesting so I am going to follow more of John’s writing.

You can read John’s article on Moblie Homes here.

2) Peter Kolat, Online Marketing Contributor of the premier real estate social networking website, BiggerPockets.

Over the past month, I have been studying blogging and internet marketing in greater detail. As a result, I found Peter’s article a timely read.

You can check out Peter’s website here, and his awesome article that he wrote for BiggerPockets here.

3) Chris Davies, Edmonton REIN member and real estate investor. Chris wrote a humor article on Property Management and the fear of finding dead bodies. I am enjoying Chris’ humor. Check him out.

4) Sheldon Johnston and Sara MacLennan of the Edmonton Real Estate Blog recently published a great article. From what I have read thus far, Sheldon and Sara really understand the real estate profession. They take a very responsible and pro-active approach in educating newcomers into the business. I wish more real estate brokerages had the foresight that Sheldon and Sara seem to have. Read their recent article to figure out why I am so thrilled with them.

5) Stephani Davis, Real Estate Wholesaling Contributor for the premier real estate social networking website, BiggerPockets.

Stephani wrote a recent article titled, Four Easy Ways To Increase Your Productivity in 2010. I liked the article as it was short and to the point. I picked up a few good tips from her article.

Also, she has a pretty cool website that I was just checking out. Cool colour scheme and all!

So there you have it. 5 bloggers who I would give an Oscar to for their outstanding contributions. Keep up the great writing guys and girl!

If you have no idea what RSS is, have no fear, because you are not alone!

I suggest you start off by watching this video by Yaro Starak and Gideon Shalwick from, BecomeABlogger.com.

Definitions

The terms related to the syndication of content can be very confusing, especially if you have not heard of or seen these terms before. Again, have no fear we will take it one step at a time. With the help of our good friend, Wikipedia, when I was learning this concept I took the time to read the following definitions. This is a good place to start. The definitions are, XML, RSS, Web Syndication, and Web Feed.

The Basics

Simply put, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is used to syndicate or subscribe to the feed of a website. Not only can you use RSS to syndicate or subscribe to a website, in addition, you can use it to subscribe to blogs and any other digital media on the internet, such as audio and video.

Once you have subscribed to the feed of the website, blog, or digital media, you no longer have to return to the original website to receive the latest content.

This is where feed reading software comes into play. You use this software or a website to read all of this latest content.

Syndication is a very significant concept. With Syndication, you no longer have to go back and visit your favourite websites any longer, as you are now able to collect all of the feeds of these websites in the same place.

Think of how amazing this is! You are now able to consume (read all of your favourite content) without jumping all over the internet and visiting different websites.

Therefore, it can be hypothesized that the main reason that Syndication was introduced was to make consuming (reading) information much more efficient for the web browser (you and I).

If you are really confused right now, don’t worry. Some people get this, and some people do not. I am not going to lie, I have a pretty difficult time getting my head around all of this as well. Note here that XML mentioned earlier is the formatting language that software and websites use to distribute content to your feed reader. The important point to take away here is that XML is the coding language that makes syndication work.

Now, let’s take a look at how I use RSS. Hopefully with some practice and examples, it will become more clear to you.

Feed Reading Software

I am currently using Google Reader. To date, I have found Google Reader quite user friendly.

Web Based Feed Reading

There can be some limitations with Feed Reading Software. As a result, people can chose to have a Web Based Feed Reader. The most popular of these is, Bloglines. Because Bloglines is entirely internet based, you can access your syndicated feeds from any computer, anywhere on the internet. Whereas with Feed Reading Software, you are limited in the sense that you may only be able to access your feeds from the computer that installed the software on. Browse our , with a variety of options to suit every taste and budget, available to buy online.

Therefore in my opinion, Web Based Feed Reading such as Bloglines is much better.

Subscribing to a Blog

In continuing with my example, you would be correct in assuming that I subscribe to my own feed, the RSS of this blog.

At the top right hand corner of my blog, you will see an orange RSS feed button.

To subscribe to my feed, you copy and paste that link into feed reading software or a web based reader like Bloglines.

You may also have to name the feed, and if you do, the name of my feed is “First Rental Property.”

The RSS feed link for this site looks like this – http://feeds.feedburner.com/FirstRentalProperty/

Also note that I use a special third party service called, Feedburner. This service adds extra features to my feed output, however most importantly, it provides me with statistics as to how many people are subscribing to my blog.

The Future

RSS is designed to make your internet life easier. As time goes on, it is going to become more popular, and you are going to be seeing a lot more of it. Big companies are fully utilizing the RSS button and syndication currently. The more familiar you become with it, the less frustration you will experience down the road because RSS is here to stay!

Hola,

Me Llamo Neil y me gusta real estate. Vivo en Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Okay…

That is about all the Spanish I can remember from my high school Spanish teacher! (Sorry Miss D)

Unless you have a good working knowledge of the Spanish language, most of you probably read the heading of my article as well as the opening line, and had no idea what it meant.

In English it reads:

Hi,

My name is Neil and I like real estate. I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Now that I have got your attention, here is the point wholesale lemon tart e liquid flavour concentrate diy vape juice 0mg of this article:

People new to real estate investing often cannot understand the language that experienced real estate investors speak.

There are a lot of terms, and some acronyms that are very confusing to new investors. Sometimes when I am speaking to someone interested in real estate investing, I forget sometimes that they do not know all of the terms that I know, and what happens is that I will use a word or a term that will completely confuse them. This is when they will stare at me with a blank look on their face.

So let’s cut to the chase. I have put together a little glossary of some key terms that I feel that all beginning real estate investors should take the time and learn. Here they are.

Hasta Luego! (See you Later!)

LTV or Loan To Value – When someone says this phrase, they are referring to the ratio of the loan in comparison to the value of a property. For example, if I say, “My rental property has a LTV of 80%” This means that the loan (more specifically the mortgage) is 80% of the value of the home. In this case, if my rental property was valued at $100,000, since my loan (or mortgage) is 80% of the value that means that my mortgage amount is $80,000.

First Mortgage – People generally understand what a mortgage is, however, when you throw the word ‘first’ in front of the word mortgage, this can cause some confusion. Simply put, the first mortgage is usually the largest mortgage (in terms of dollar value) that is placed on a property. A large institution, such as a bank or credit union, often issues the first mortgage. The mortgage is in first position, which means that upon the sale of the rental property, this mortgage has to be paid back FIRST before any other debts are repaid.

Second Mortgage – If you understood the concept of the first mortgage, then you should understand the second mortgage as well. The second mortgage is usually smaller in dollar value than the first mortgage. A private finance company, or a private individual can offer the second mortgage usually. The interest rate of the second mortgage tends to be higher than the interest rate of the first mortgage. This is because vaporesso osmall replacement pod cartridges the lender that offers the second mortgage is taking on more risk that the lender that is offering the first mortgage. There is more risk to the lender because upon the sale of the rental property, the second mortgage lender is in second position. This means that they get paid back after the first mortgage has been paid back. They are lower on the food chain, compared to the first mortgage lender.

Lender – This phrase can refer to any institution or individual who lends funds in the form of a mortgage or loan. Examples of lenders can be major banks, credit unions, private lending companies, or private individuals.

Mortgage Broker – I have noticed that people do not understand the difference between the services offered by a mortgage broker, and the services offered by say, a major bank. A mortgage broker represents their customer (you or I), and deals with many different lenders. When they are working to obtain a mortgage for your rental property, your mortgage broker will speak with many different lenders in order to find the mortgage with the right terms and conditions for you. A mortgage broker has a network of lenders that they deal with.

Amortization or Amortized – This phrase refers to the life of a mortgage. In Canada, it is very common for mortgages to be amortized over 25 years. This means that if you consistently make your payments over the next 25 years, once 25 years is up, you will have paid off the entire balance of your mortgage. Real Estate investors often amortize the life of their mortgages over 25 years in order to maximize their monthly cash flow. Currently, mortgages can be amortized in Canada up to 35 years.

Market Rent – This phrase refers to the estimated rent that a rental property should be able to get. For instance, let’s say that you are looking to rent out a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom townhouse in your hometown. Over the past 6 months, there have been 10 townhouses similar to yours that have rented out between $1250/month and $1350/month. Therefore, the market rent for your townhouse would be between $1250/month to $1350/month. This is because it is the estimated amount that you think your rental property will end up renting for.

Actual Rent – This phrase refers to the actual rent that you collect on your rental property. If you are looking to rent out a rental property and the market rents for your property are between $1250/month and $1350/month, and you end up renting your property for $1200/month, this means that $1200/month is your actual rent.

Cash Flow – This phrase has many definitions, however, in the context of real estate investment, someone might say, “My rental property cash flows.” What they mean by this is that their total expenses on their rental property are lower than their total revenue on the property. This means that they have a surplus of funds available. Real estate investors often refer to the cash flow on their rental properties on a monthly basis. For instance, if real estate investor says, “My first rental property has a cash flow of $500 a month”, this would mean that after subtracting the total monthly expenses on the rental property from the total monthly rent on the property, there would be a surplus of $500/month.