Any landlords or wannabe landlords out there?

[Bonam]

(assuming no appreciation/depreciation)

That particular statement was in regards to "if you had to sell back the property", as in, earlier than you wanted to. Like if you needed the money back quickly. The point was that it real estate is a very illiquid investment, and just to do one full round trip transaction you lose on the order of 10% of the net value.

Obviously if you hold real estate for the long term, there will be considerable changes in its value, but that was not related to my point above.

That entirely depends on the market but its not necessarily true at all.

For example... Between 1999 and 2004 realestate prices grew by 56%. The S&P composite index DROPPED 6% during that same period.

Yeah and between 2007 and 2012 real estate markets dropped about 37% while stock markets have had about a 0% return (with a dip in the middle). Cherrypicking a specific period doesn't say a whole lot...

The reality is that its really hard to tell if realestat is a better investment vehicle than stocks or vice versa. Theres a huge ammount of factors to consider.

True.

Keep in mind, theres other ways you can expose yourself to the realestate market that dont involve as much effort.

That's what I do.

Edited October 1, 2012 by Bonam

[dre]

That particular statement was in regards to "if you had to sell back the property", as in, earlier than you wanted to. Like if you needed the money back quickly. The point was that it real estate is a very illiquid investment, and just to do one full round trip transaction you lose on the order of 10% of the net value.

Obviously if you hold real estate for the long term, there will be considerable changes in its value, but that was not related to my point above.

Yeah and between 2007 and 2012 real estate markets dropped about 37% while stock markets have had about a 0% return (with a dip in the middle). Cherrypicking a specific period doesn't say a whole lot...

True.

That's what I do.

[TheNewTeddy]

I have been researching this topic for the past while. I'm debating on buying an income property to diversify myself a little bit. Does anyone have any experience with this? I wouldn't want to have a bottom of the barrel low or super high end income property but something in the middle of the range.

I know that recently the Government passed bill 140 which allowed for secondary suites to be legal across the board as long as they were up to current building and fire codes.

I'm a fairly handy guy and currently work from home so I have free time to address any issues that may come up from time to time.

I'd be interested in hearing anyone's experiences with this or if you've been thinking about it as well and have some insights to share.

There's a forum I stumbled across once for Ontario Landlords. A quick google should find it for you. They spend most of their time attacking tenants.