Mobile home parks.

[etobicoke_woj]

Hi Richard,
I've been lurking the forum the last few months and just recently signed up because your posts are something that I'm familiar with (landlord) and I would highly recommend AGAINST leaning towards low-income tenants, and mobile homes.

The reason I say this is that yes, they are also a source of income, and you can get the properties cheaper....however the quality of tenant is considerably lower than middle income / higher income tenant. These are also tenants who may cause the most damage, always be late on payment, cause you problems, and generally not take care of your property which will very easily eat up any type of profit.

Personally I would look for higher income tenants/properties, which will be tougher to purchase, but you will see a better ROI over the long term.

Also, in Toronto it's fairly difficult to evict a tenant for non-payment of rent...takes about 3-4 months depending on how you go about it. It's possible...but way more difficult than it should be.

G'luck.

[etobicoke_woj]

In addition to my post above, my personal experience in the first three days of this week were as follows:

- Monday - drain pipe from roof cracked due to age and had a water leak to 2 units (minor but still requires at least $1000 in repairs to drywall, insulation, and paint)
- Tuesday - found more wet insulation in one unit - tack on another $100-200 to add more insulation
- Wednesday - furnace gas valve failed in the morning and spent $500 in repairing it due to not having an HVAC license and not being able to purchase materials from the store

So these are the unexpected costs that you need to account for in your type of operation that you're considering. Add the fact that you want low income tenants, and you can see how the math may just not add up beyond the initial price of entry.

I am VERY fortunate that I have people I trust in my family that can help me with the above, but I also do not expect them to work for free, and materials need to be purchased. If you cannot do the work yourself due to either time, ability, or any other reason add more $ to the costs due to urgency...water leaks and broken furnaces on a cold day are NOT to be put off as you shop around. Tenants expect heat, water, and general standard of living to be maintained and the best tenant in the world will quickly become an enemy when the service they are paying for isn't provided.