A month ago, I received a call regarding my current tenant and I gave my tenant a good reference. Shortly after, my tenant gave me a month's notice that she will be moving out of my rental unit. Even though she liked my unit, it was becoming too small for her and growing toddler. She offered to let me show the unit while she was out of town.
For over a year, I did not check up on her. Yes, I am a very passive and trusting landlord as long as my tenant pays up. I had no idea what condition the unit would be in. To my surprise, she has really good taste décor sense and the rustic furniture pieces fit perfectly in the unit.
After listing my unit for rent on Craigslist, I got a number of replies and scheduled showings for the span of two hours in one night. To my relief, a lot of good potential tenants were interested in my unit and I was able to secure a single tenant in five days.
Maybe my rent is on the lower side for a newer condominium that garnered so much interest. But I was able to raise my monthly rent by $100. Now I am break even in terms of rent coming in and mortgage/strata going out. Of course, this doesn't account to other expenses like insurance, property taxes, repairs and so forth.
I will be losing out on half month's rent in this process, but I was able to increase the rent and sign another one year lease with my new tenant. Not really looking forward to cleaning up the apartment though.
Location is key to finding a tenant quickly. My condo unit is in the suburbs of greater Vancouver area. It has shops and restaurants and public transit within walking distance. Hopefully over the years, I will get a decent return on my investment property. I have no idea if I am going to keep or not. Time will only tell.
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