Tales from the Trenches

Podcast Episode 136: “AFS Paperwork and Education.” About four months ago, I got a call from a client who wanted to sell his property by way of Agreement for Sale (AFS). Unfortunately, he had only a skimpy notion of the AFS concept and no actual education on how to apply the strategy. This blog post and … Continue reading Learn How to Write Agreement for Sale Paperwork in Canadian Real Estate

Podcast Episode 135: “Win-Win Real Estate Investing.” Here’s another success story from the lucrative Creative Real Estate Investing space. For would-be Canadian real estate investors, two of the biggest obstacles … Continue reading How to Buy Property Without a Mortgage in Canada by Solving a Seller’s Problems

Podcast Episode 134: “Wholesale Home Run!” For a change of pace, here is a positive Tale about a massive success in Canadian real estate investing. Longtime readers/listeners know that my … Continue reading How Much Money Can I Make Quickly in Canadian Real Estate?

Podcast Episode 133: “Foreclosure Timing Traps.” When searching for the ideal piece of real estate to buy, properties in foreclosure can be an interesting place to look. Are you an … Continue reading How Long It Takes to Buy a Foreclosed Property

Podcast Episode 132: “(Un)attached Goods, Defects, and Stigmas.” Negotiating an Offer to Purchase for a piece of real estate is about more than just the price. In this blog post, I’ll start by looking at two key points that must be worked out between buyer and seller: unattached goods and material latent defects. Then I’ll … Continue reading Three Issues to Negotiate When Buying or Selling Real Estate: Chattels, Defects, and Stigmata

Podcast Episode 131: “Renovation Heartbreak.” Dishonest, fly-by-night, or even inexperienced renovators can leave a trail of heartbreak. Buyers happily move into their newly-purchased, freshly-renovated home, but problems often don’t show up till later. Here are three recent scenarios from my real estate law practice in Edmonton, Alberta. First, I’ll discuss the problems, then I’ll talk about … Continue reading Renovated Basements Without Permits and Inspections Come Back to Haunt Buyers

Podcast Episode 130: “Third Flood.” Recently, some Alberta homeowners finally ran out of patience when their property was flooded—again. They lived on the lower end of a sloped street, and water flowed down the block from the higher end when it rained. The curb had slumped in front of their home, allowing water to run … Continue reading Third Preventable Flood at Alberta Home; Who Is Liable?

Podcast Episode 129: “Home-buyer’s Dilemma.” Seems like I’m always finding examples to write about regarding real property reports (RPR) and how they fit into a real estate transaction in Alberta. Land surveys, as RPRs are also known, should be simpler than they are. The standard AREA/MLS contract says that the seller will provide an RPR … Continue reading Should a Buyer Accept Title Insurance in Lieu of a Real Property Report and Compliance?

Podcast Episode 128: “Secondary Suite Grudge Match.” Would-be Calgary Landlord Builds Legally-Approved Secondary Suite but Gets Stifled by Restrictive Covenant on Title for Neighbourhood’s Single-Family Dwellings. And now for the main event! This Real Estate Regulation League title fight is scheduled for five rounds in the heavyweight division. At stake is the Secondary Suite Championship … Continue reading Real Estate Cage Fight: Restrictive Covenants vs. City Bylaws

Podcast Episode 127: “3×3 Permits.” This is the third Tale in my recent mini-series on Real Property Reports (RPR), municipal compliance, and building/development permits. Our first two Tales dealt with the maze of bureaucracy that surrounds permits and the dangers of not getting a clean RPR with compliance when buying real estate. As per usual, my examples … Continue reading Three Examples of Real Estate Woe with Permits, Surveys, and Compliance

Podcast Episode 126: “Trapped in a Permit Maze.” This Tale from the Trenches is the second in our ongoing mini-series on permits for real estate. You know, those sometimes-nasty bits of paper that towns, cities, counties, and other municipalities require before you can do certain types of work on a property. From my perspective as … Continue reading Rules and Regulations for Secondary Suite Permits Getting Stricter

Podcast Episode 125: “Hot Tub Trials and Tribulations.”This episode of Tales from the Trenches is shocking! A client had retained my legal services to help with purchasing her dream home in Edmonton, Alberta. The seller provided a brand-new real property report (RPR) to my client, who in turn sent the RPR to me for review. … Continue reading You Can’t Fight City Hall on Real Property Reports and Compliance

Podcast Episode 124: “Non-Resident Taxes Part II.”Like all things tax related, non-resident tax is complicated when it comes to buying and selling real estate in Canada. In February, 2016, I posted a lengthy blog on non-resident tax and how it can affect buyers, sellers, and realtors. Lots of liability and dangerous situations here, folks, so … Continue reading Negotiating Tax on Real Estate Deals when the Seller Is not a Resident of Canada.

Podcast Episode 123: “Creative Real Estate Investors Panel.”Special one-hour dive into the trenches of Creative Real Estate in Canada… and Africa! Barry has gathered a panel of experts, veritable rock stars of Creative Strategies, to share their experiences and answer questions from the audience. The essence of Creative Real Estate Investing is knowing strategies and recognizing … Continue reading Panelists Share Experiences with Creative Real Estate Investing – plus Q & A

Podcast Episode 122: “Water Is Coming”: Climate Change Preparedness for Homeowners and Real Estate Investors. Damaging floods are on the rise, whether as sewer backups, swollen rivers and lakes, rising ocean levels, or overland flooding. As a result, water related insurance claims have been rising, triggering changes to policies and premiums. If you own property—and … Continue reading Protect Property Against Flooding

Podcast Episode 121: “Subdivision Nightmare.” Across Canada, there is an ongoing discussion about the lack of affordable housing. In some areas, developers won’t build rentals because building condos is more lucrative, because there are rent controls, or perhaps a combination of both situations. Some Canadians are completely priced out of the housing market—especially in the … Continue reading Subdividing Property to Increase Density Can Raise Issues with Mortgages on Titles

Podcast Episode 120: “Property Management Nightmare.” I got an email recently from an unhappy investor about problems with his property manager in Edmonton. Real estate investing is all about relationships, and you need to be able to rely on the people in your team. Property managers are supposed to find tenants, collect rent, and deal … Continue reading How to Work with a Property Manager

Podcast Episode 119: “A Deal That Went Bad and the Lessons Learned.” This edition of the Tales from the Trenches podcast features special guest Arden Dalik, a senior advisor in the Calgary office of Global Governance Advisors. Her Tale concerns a real estate investment project in Alberta presented to the REIN Group by a REIN … Continue reading How to Avoid Bad Real Estate Deals

Podcast Episode 118: “Big Changes To The Standard AREA Contract.” September 2016 (with mild tweaks in July of 2017) brought numerous and meaningful changes to the existing 2014 residential purchase documentation approved by the Alberta Real Estate Association (AREA). These changes affected both the Residential Purchase Contract used for all homes and houses and the … Continue reading Get to Know the Real Estate Purchase Contract in Alberta

Podcast Episode 117. Real estate can cause all kinds of problems when a family member passes away. This Tale is about what happened when someone inherited a piece of property and almost went into foreclosure with it.

Podcast Episode 116. In August 2017, a buyer walked away from a real estate deal in BC and was sued by the seller when the house later sold for 28% less. Not only did the buyer lose his deposit, he was also on the hook for the difference in the sale price! Furthermore, the buyer was responsible for associated costs to the seller, adding to his loss.

Podcast Episode 115. In a hot real estate market, flipping properties by assigning your interest in the purchase can be lucrative. Just make sure to do it legally because the CRA is cracking down on so-called "shadow flipping" and undeclared income!

Podcast Episode 114. When real estate deals with friends and family go bad, you almost never recover your position. Because, what are you going to do, sue your friend or your brother? It’s often very easy to get into deals with friends and family because you know and trust each other. Actually, with friends and family, you have to do more diligence than you would with third parties just to ensure you are doing enough!

Podcast Episode 113. "Flipping" is when an investor gets control of a property by signing a purchase contract, but rapidly sells it to someone else for a profit. It is risky business, which a client of mine discovered the hard way...

Podcast Episode 112. Insurance adjusters are hired by insurance companies to make sure that any claim is covered by the claimant’s insurance policy. The reality is that the most successful insurance adjusters are those who produce the best results for their clients, the insurance companies. By best results, I mean the smallest dollar claims.

Podcast Episode 111. My entrepreneurial client had found a 30-unit apartment building in Alberta for a very decent price, organized 15 people to put up the money, and closed on the deal. He did get a decent Joint Venture Agreement signed by all parties and then started managing. Fast-forward to seven years later and it looks like it’s time to sell. Sadly, one of the investors passes away. The deceased investor’s estate is now not nearly as cooperative as the deceased investor had been...

Podcast Episode 110: One of the seller’s classic mistakes was to take any tenant who came along. If the proposed tenant could pay the first month’s rent and the security deposit, then the seller would rent to him. He didn’t even have an application form. That lack of training and lack of paperwork led to my client’s issue.

Podcast Episode 109. This Tale is about taking good notes when you appear in court as the buyer of real estate in foreclosure. My client was a creative kind of guy and he found a property in Alberta where the mortgage payments weren’t being made. The seller was still living in the home but trying to sell and get out from under the foreclosure. After some conversation, my client put together a creative deal that the seller and the seller's lawyer both liked.

Podcast Episode 108. In this post we are going to focus on the commercially reasonable requirement for RRSP mortgages in Canada. If the CRA decides to audit your RRSP, will you be onside or offside their rules?

Podcast Episode 107. The notion of doing or accomplishing your own Due Diligence is what allows you to make a buying decision. Will you buy or not buy? In this Tale, a deal falls through because of a lack of diligence regarding financing conditions.

Podcast Episode 106. Are you looking to buy a property with a secondary suite? Ideally, you want to buy properties with legal secondary suites. But guess what? A Real Property Report doesn't prove a suite's legality in Alberta.

Podcast Episode 105. For a quick review, probate is the process whereby an executor of a Will, usually through a lawyer, makes application to the Probate Court here in Alberta for what is known as a Grant of Probate. The application process involves the executor gathering in all the assets of the deceased, figuring out whether the deceased owed any money, filling out the paperwork, and then waiting for a response from the Probate Court.

Podcast Episode 104: “Sellers, Are You Guaranteeing Title?” Wow, a recent bombshell of a legal case from the Ontario Court of Appeal is causing huge ripples in the Canadian real estate world. In the Courts and in the world of precedent there is a pecking order. The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court … Continue reading Guarantees, Title Insurance, and New Legal Precedent in Canada

Podcast Episode 103: “Unpredictable Seller Motivation And Agreement For Sale Magic.”   An investor recently showed up in my Edmonton law office with this absolutely marvellous Tale about a unique property seller in Alberta and the magic of having the right real estate investing strategy for the job. Download the audio file HERE. Download the … Continue reading Rare Investing Opportunities with Creative Real Estate Strategies

Podcast Episode 102: “Corporate Matters Matter.” Here at RMLO Law LLP in Edmonton, Alberta, we are the corporate registered office for many corporations. We get lots of letters addressed to those corporations because that’s part of being registered office. Anyone who wants to send something official to a corporation can send it to the registered … Continue reading Struck Corporations, Land Titles, and Tax in Alberta

Podcast Episode 101. Houses with legal suites or houses zoned for legal suites are all the rage in Alberta. Easier to do in Edmonton, though. In Calgary, secondary suites are only allowed in certain areas.

Podcast Episode 100: “A Tale of Real Estate Investing Success.” I’ve been doing Tales from the Trenches for 15 years. These are amazing stories from real estate investors, mostly from Alberta, Canada because that’s where I practice law. Tales began as a segment during meetings of the Real Estate Investment Network (REIN), which I continue to … Continue reading Success with Buy and Hold Real Estate Investing

Podcast Episode 99: “Happy Assumptions & Corporate Rollovers.“ This episode of Tales from the Trenches contains two stories about transfers: one is about transferring mortgages and the other is about transferring property. In theory, many mortgages are assumable, but in practice lenders in Alberta (and elsewhere) have been tightening up on their regulations. Some lenders … Continue reading Assuming Mortgages and Transfering Property to a Corporation

Podcast Episode 98: “Don’t Wait, It Only Gets Worse; Discharge That Caveat.“ The first part of this Tale is about an Alberta landlord with tenant problems. The renter usually paid on-time, but then the rent started coming late. The tenant’s girlfriend left him, and when our landlord went to check on the property it appeared … Continue reading Disappearing Tenants and Vanishing Buyers

Podcast Episode 97: “Mortgage Fraud.“ The simplest way to avoid committing mortgage fraud is to fully disclose everything about a deal to your lender. If they are satisfied, then you’re probably okay. But what happens if someone else is defrauding you? In Tales from the Trenches, you usually hear second-hand accounts of the trials, tribulations, … Continue reading How to Avoid Mortgage Fraud

Podcast Episode 96: “RRSP Mortgages.“ In Canada, it is possible to use money held in a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) to fund mortgages. While this strategy can yield a nice steady return on investment, there are rules in place that can make it a bit tricky to get into. One of those rules is … Continue reading Interest Rates on RRSP Mortgages

Podcast Episode 95: “A Couple on Due Diligence“ I talk a lot about due diligence because it is one of the most important aspects of achieving success with real estate. This is a two-part Tale, showing a couple different examples of problems to look out for when doing one’s due diligence. The first example is … Continue reading Due Diligence Fails

Podcast Episode 94: “Removing Conditions—Should I or Shouldn’t I?“ Conditions on a real estate purchase contract should only be removed once the due diligence is complete. But what if the conditions are sort of met, but not completely? Should you still remove conditions if the property seems good, the numbers appear to work, and due … Continue reading Removing Conditions on Purchase Contract

Podcast Episode 93: “Inspection Reports & Multi-family Diligence.” Under Alberta’s Residential Tenancies Act, an inspection report must be made whenever a tenant moves into, or out of, a rental property.  But what happens if you buy a property and can’t get the in/out report? Similarly, building permits for multi-family dwellings specify their maximum number of … Continue reading Property Inspections, Reports, and Permits

Podcast Episode 92: “A Few Quick Tales.” Here’s some great stories about people buying and selling real estate in Alberta. These five quick Tales from the Trenches are short, but they show a wide range of different issues, problems, and successes. In a joint venture, it’s always nice when a more experienced investor can help … Continue reading Joint Ventures, RRSP Mortgages, Due Diligence, & More!

Podcast Episode 91: “Keys & Cash.” Here are two quick Tales from the Trenches: 1) tips on keeping a property buyer motivated and 2) contract language to fix the cash portion of a real estate deal. Our first Tale shows one reason why a real estate deal can close late. Even when investors have good … Continue reading Giving Keys to a Buyer and Fixed Cash Deals

Podcast Episode 90: “Diligence Pays Off.” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when you’re buying a property, never remove conditions on the purchase contract until you’ve done due diligence. A real estate lawyer like me can protect your interests and help you negotiate a better deal, but I can only work with … Continue reading When to Remove Conditions on a Purchase Contract

Podcast Episode 89: “Transfer of Land.” A Transfer of Land is a document that allows the Land Titles office to register a property in the name of a new owner. In rare circumstances, you might be able to get this done without seeing a lawyer. In this Tale, our investor got a Transfer of Land … Continue reading Transferring Property Without a Lawyer

Podcast Episode 88: “I Ain’t No Ho!” As a landlord, you need to be proactive about what is happening with your tenants. Be concerned if you suspect that a renter may be running an illegal business out of your property! This Tale is short and sweet because our investor took action as soon as they … Continue reading Tenant Running Illegal Business

Podcast Episode 87: “Fun with Mortgage Payout Math.” Paying off a mortgage early can result in penalties. However, there are ways of minimizing the financial repercussions. In this Tale, Barry works through some mortgage math that could save you money. Download the audio file HERE. (control click or right click + save as) Buying and/or … Continue reading Mortgage Penalties

Podcast Episode 86: “Joint Venture Blues.” Partnering up can be a good way to buy more property, but you still have to be careful. As with everything in real estate, due diligence is essential in joint ventures. In this Tale, you’ll hear about the all-too-common mistake of not getting an inspection. You’ll also hear about … Continue reading Personal Responsibility in Cooperative Investing