Podcast Transcription

Erwin Szeto [00:00:07] Welcome to another episode of The Truth About Real Estate Investing Show. My name is Erwin Szeto and this is the place where us lifelong learners and seekers of truth like to hang out and share. But what truly works when investing in real estate and not just real estate? Because I’m personally interested in all forms of predictable, repeatable investing as long as it’s morally and ethically done correctly. For example, I know many investor agents in my market and they promote non-conforming multifamily properties. So that means typically it’s a house that’s been chopped up into like two, unit three, unit four units. And there are legal purposes not permitted as they did the work without permits, nor is the use of the property grandfathered in. I personally know many of these investors who got left holding the bag. They bought these properties without understanding the risks involved. Then they had city inspectors and fire inspectors. They knocked on their door and asked the investors to evict some of the tenants. So that really hurts cash flow when you kick out tens or to redevelop the property to make the property safe. Now it comes with pretty significant renovation bills on top of the process to rezone redevelop the property. I personally don’t want that kind of liability in my own portfolio, nor for my clients. I couldn’t imagine if my tenant got hurt in a fire and I prefer to sleep well at night, sleep well at night. So instead of that stuff that keeps me up with all this rain going on, I’m more worry about my basement’s flooding. Anyways, my properties are renovated with permits where necessary. As I record this, we are in the first week back to school. My kids are back in person for public school as there is in my opinion. Again, this is my opinion folks, not doctor and not infectious disease doctor and not a Google doctor, but I have been in the rest a little for my kids. I’m satisfied with the safety protocols by our school and chair and I are fully vaccinated. My whole household’s vaccinated for those who are 12 and up. So we’re at little risk of being hospitalized. We’re pretty okay with the rest of all. And for any concerned parents like myself, the news out of Denmark is that they started school last month. Their r-value fell 2.7, which means that the rate of which people are being infected by COVID is falling, which is great news. As stats wise. The Danes are 80% vaccinated versus we are 77% for those eligible. Denmark is dropping all restrictions as a fast number 10th, so they have dropped all restrictions by the time you listen to this. And fingers crossed our situation continues to improve and will be along those same lines in Canada. This news gives me peace of mind. I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but Denmark I went they went back to school last month. So if history repeats itself, my kids will be safe and we won’t see any increased restrictions. Maybe we’ll even see reduced restrictions here in Canada. Ireland also has a similar story. Adults, there are 90% that are fully vaccinated and their restrictions end next month. Know my prediction is our own restrictions will end hopefully sometime this fall. And so Cherry and I can go back to hosting as many people as you want in person at our I win real estate and stock meetups. That way we can go back to supporting our community as best we can, which means meeting in person and networking in person. Plus, when we do our big conference, which we plan for to host over 2000 people, hopefully we’re legally allowed to do that. And we’ll will also do we’ll do for the time being at least. We’ll be simulcasting events; we’ll livestream and host events in person. I don’t have to do a Zoom update as well. So in the meantime, we’re currently allowed 25 people in person at our offices. So that’s what we’ll make do with for our monthly. The meetings and those will be available. Like I mentioned, we’ll doing them live and in person. So we’ll have a live audience and we’ll stream it via Zoom. So for anyone who feels safer at home or they don’t want to make the commute that’s available to you all as usual, all share the happenings in the world, both macro and micro economically, so that everyone’s armed with the information needed to make decisions with their investments. My team members Thami de Tomaso and Chris Hook will be sharing the latest market rents, prices, the latest tips and tricks in operating your real estate business, which usually means around screening tenants where lead times are for major renovations. Just recently my team was discussing about what window vendors to use because there’s certain many factors have lead time issues, so we ought to be talking about that stuff as well. Our keynote speaker for September is none other than the hottest speaker on the circuit in the real estate world. And that happens to be real estate accountant Cherry Chan S.p.a., who is sharing the best practices for bookkeeping for the real estate investor. Oct will be more of the same, except that you’re you will all be stuck with me doing the keynote talk, which will be regarding the four cash flow quadrants by explaining the theory behind it, and also what Cherri and I have found to be the best practices of progressing from being an employee and self-employed to becoming a business owner or investors. If you’re on my email list already, then you’re already getting my emails with the dates and links register. You don’t feel as though you have the choice to attend in person or to attend virtually. We really do like networking in person. So my preference, if you’re not on my email list necessarily, you can join the tens of thousands of Canadians already receiving our free newsletters and w dot ambassador training dossier. From there you can get access to my presentation that I gave at the last month Tiger Conference in front of 5000 people plus and that’s for free. Again, that’s that B WW investor training dossier. And soon enough I’ll have a link for you to get my book when you book. Before I forget, we did just return from the cottage that we rented a week ago and I left my laptop at home. So my only work device really was my smartphone. I don’t go far without it. And I still managed to stalk hack my way to an over $3,000 U.S. realized profits. That’s more than enough to pay for that cottage rental for the cottage rental costs. Past, of course, does not predict the future. But if you’d like to learn more about how this game changing skill that I learned largely over the pandemic and many others have, check out my final demonstration, free demonstration I’ll be giving on September 23rd. Again, it’s my final demonstration before we deliver our next Doc Hacker Academy, which starts October 1st. For beginners, we have with us bestselling authors Lee Lowell and Derek Foster from Ottawa, Ontario. And we hope to see you there. Onto this week’s show we have with us the lovely Kayla Andrade. Hopefully by now, you real estate investors know who Kayla is. She’s been running a not for profit grassroots organization called Ontario Landlord Watch to bring us landlords together to support one another and mobilize politically and to inform the powers that be the challenges that we small private investors face in creating more housing supply and to help the good tenants that are out there. Taylor shares why her family emigrated from Newfoundland to Ontario. I asked her to share this story because I don’t know if people understand how high in demand the hotspots in Canada are. Ontario, specifically the areas around Toronto, Vancouver, B.C., you know, share from someone else who have lived it. Their family picked up everything and moved to, you know, one of the hottest real estate markets in the world. But that’s not why they moved. They move for other reasons. I’ll let her explain. Explains the changes and policies that we landlords need to watch out for and how to escalate problems that we face at the Landlord Tenant Bureau. Plus, we chat about Landlord Credit Bureau, which is a service that helps tenants build their credit and hold them accountable to paying rent on time. If you’ve never heard of them, please check them out. These guys are a game changer. I’ve signed up and I wish I knew about this service years ago so I can told those tenants who roughed up my properties so I could hold them accountable. Please enjoy the show. How are.

Kayla Andrade [00:07:45] You? Good. How are you?

Erwin Szeto [00:07:47] I’m fine. Thanks so much for coming in today.

Kayla Andrade [00:07:49] Oh, I thank you for having me.

Erwin Szeto [00:07:51] And my question is, what’s keeping you busy these days?

Kayla Andrade [00:07:53] Everything. I don’t know if I have time small. You know what? With four kids ranging from 17, 12, eight and almost to having our own property management business that I started last year, I’ve been asked to do it for ten years and I finally caved with my good friend Jen and Greg just given me that extra nudge that I need it because I love helping landlords. I like helping them grow, I like protecting them, and I like matching good tenants with good landlords. So and then I became the national ambassador to Landlord Credit Bureau, and I’m also sitting on the subcommittee for Affordable Housing and Homelessness for the City of Cambridge to get a deep understanding of what they think the issues are, what their solutions are. And I can give an investor feel or expertize towards their thinking process.

Erwin Szeto [00:08:42] We will get to that. You said a mouthful and I’m tired just thinking about it.

Kayla Andrade [00:08:47] A lot of hats. Now, before.

Erwin Szeto [00:08:49] We were recording, we’re talking about your family’s story, how you moved to Ontario. And I think it’s an it’s an important story to tell because, you know, we have tons of people coming into the area and their story is not that different. So how did you arrive in Ontario?

Kayla Andrade [00:09:02] So I came at the age of 11. So prior to us arriving here in Ontario, my dad and my older sister came up to look for jobs while my mom and my two other sisters and my nephew actually stayed in Newfoundland until they found a house, once they found a nice little apartment. And in Preston and Cambridge they we got the call says to start heading on the planks there. We stayed with my grandmother at the time and it was great. We lived in Preston little, tiny apartment and then we moved into another bigger place while my dad was end up working for a flour factory and used to come home like he hated the job. He was covered in flours so bad.

Erwin Szeto [00:09:43] Oh, like wheat flour. Like roses.

Kayla Andrade [00:09:47] No roses. I’d be kind of a nice guy. And then he finally got a good job working as a welder, and that really gave us a good go to get us, you know, ahead in life, but still raising a big family. There was like six of us. So we were actually renting. At one time in housing. So we had government housing that my parents were living in just because the price of rent then was absolutely crazy.

Erwin Szeto [00:10:12] You were living in government housing when.

Kayla Andrade [00:10:14] I’m with my family. So as my family in Newfoundland. No, no. In Ontario. In Ontario, yeah. Even in Newfoundland, too. If you think about it, Newfoundland was really tough of a of a place to really survive and a lot of things.

Erwin Szeto [00:10:26] Yeah. The weather is trying to kill you.

Kayla Andrade [00:10:28] The weather is trying to kill you. It definitely is. And they also have the costs, the cost of living. So with their heating, it’s not we don’t have they don’t have gas heating. So the hydro is absolutely crazy down there for heating your homes and then you’ve got the price of food. So a lot of things are being shipped in and I still keep in touch with my best friend ever since kindergarten down there. And the price that they pay for food is at me. I’m trying to get her up here so bad, I’m like, just come on. But you can’t take an any food girl. You could take a girl off the rock, but you can’t take the nova out of the girl or how it goes. We can’t get her up there for the life of her.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:04] Just food getting expensive. Is it just worse out there?

Kayla Andrade [00:11:08] Oh, yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:08] Because like, I see like food prices, like by steak, for example, it’s easily 20 to 30% more like since the pandemic started, I never thought about these things, but heating like, what did you guys do for Heat in Newfoundland?

Kayla Andrade [00:11:20] Well, you go to work, you tend to put a little bit more socks on. But again, you get a couple of pairs of socks. But then again, it’s like when it’s cold, it’s not as cold as it is in Ontario. Ontario is like really to the bone cold. You get cold in Newfoundland, but it’s not as bone cold as it is in Ontario. Okay, well, I think we’re going for a road trip, aren’t we? Me and you, I’ve never been to.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:43] It’s a bit of a ways.

Kayla Andrade [00:11:45] Oh, totally worth it.

Erwin Szeto [00:11:46] Well, what did your family do for a living? Living in Newfoundland?

Kayla Andrade [00:11:50] Well, my dad worked in the fishery, so my dad and my mom worked into the fishery. So once there was massive layoffs in the fishery, that is when times struggle. Times have happened for them. And that’s why they had to make the decision to stay there and to stay in need of assistance for not only for housing, but also food. You know, you had to call churches at that time to just try to feed us. Like that’s how it was when they got laid off and they said, okay, we’re not going to live like this anymore. And my dad had a brother up here in Ontario, so he was able to connect him to that job where they made flour. And then, you know, we had a good go sense and we’re lucky that they made the move because Newfoundland is still tough. Still tough.

Erwin Szeto [00:12:32] Well, they’re still trying to kill you. So your family’s story is not that different from the people that are coming into the area of like southwestern Ontario. While in Cambridge, people are coming from all over the world and all parts of Canada to find opportunity.

Kayla Andrade [00:12:46] Oh yeah. And Ontario has that and has many, many different opportunities and many different jobs that you can, you know, experience and get skills in. And the schooling is really well, too. And you have more, you know, government programs that can help you get that right. Newfoundland, not so much.

Erwin Szeto [00:13:01] So you’re a landlord and a property manager and you cover all your while to Cambridge?

Kayla Andrade [00:13:07] Yep. Cambridge. Kitchener-Waterloo.

Erwin Szeto [00:13:08] Sometimes Brantford and sometimes Brantford.

Kayla Andrade [00:13:10] Sometimes.

Erwin Szeto [00:13:12] So what jobs do these tenants have that are coming in? The ones that you’re seeing, the ones that you’re starting, or the ones that you’re signing, the ones that you’re seeing.

Kayla Andrade [00:13:19] You know what? I get in a lot of nurses, I get nurses, I get Pierce W’s. I get people who are software developers, who are engineers, like people who have some really good jobs that are that are coming. And you only get a few. I think of the people who are in a job that doesn’t pay a lot of money, but in a secure rental, they’re staying because they know that the price of the rent is really good. But yeah, we have a lot of people making really good jobs. And what I see, too, is that we have a lot of clusters. So a lot of people are just working professionals who are friends and they’re starting to live together. So we’re seeing 5 to 6 people. So I think this whole rooming house situation is starting to be a real part of an investment strategy in order to kind of curb that that affordability that people are looking for.

Erwin Szeto [00:14:08] So you have like five people come up to you and like want to rent a house?

Kayla Andrade [00:14:12] Oh, yeah. Sometimes seven. Seven? Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:14:15] And how old are these people? The kids are university age.

Kayla Andrade [00:14:20] They’re just out of university to study university. You’ll start to see that still. And honestly, some of them are with they’re, you know, coming over first newcomers. They’re coming. So they’re here doing the same thing like my dad did, you know, getting an apartment. And then it’s only the two of them, but they know they have family that is going to be coming. So now there’s more people that are going to be in need of housing. So they have to get the bigger units. And that’s what they’re struggling to find right now, is bigger units to rent. To rent, because we see a lot of single family homes now coming off the market and being either scooped up as a duplex, being able to create a duplex, or it’s being sold where the new owner is actually wanting to move into it.

Erwin Szeto [00:15:00] It’s tough times because no one’s. Building anything?

Kayla Andrade [00:15:03] No, it’s too costly. You see the price, a win over the pandemic. Well.

Erwin Szeto [00:15:10] It’s not even that. I think. I still think most developers would still build if they were if it was easier.

Kayla Andrade [00:15:16] It has to be easier. It’s and it is the red tape. It’s the red tape from different levels of government. And it’s the cost of obviously building supplies. And it’s going to be a struggle for them. So they are going to look in other areas. And then you have like cities and municipalities. I introduced landlord licensing with Hamilton just got hit. Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:15:36] That’ll encourage more rentals.

Kayla Andrade [00:15:38] Oh, let’s go there to Hamilton guys like come down here.

Erwin Szeto [00:15:42] It’s a small landlord. Want it?

Kayla Andrade [00:15:43] You know why they do it through?

Erwin Szeto [00:15:46] NIMBYism, mostly. I can’t imagine. It’s like if you’re the city councilor, I don’t know if it’s more work for you to have more because they’re going to hire like ten more staff to do this.

Kayla Andrade [00:15:56] It’s going to be a cost to run a program like this. And that’s 10 million. And we already have something, though, because if you have a tenant who felt that they have an unsafe apartment.

Erwin Szeto [00:16:05] You must call.

Kayla Andrade [00:16:05] They can call by law when them.

Erwin Szeto [00:16:07] Come out of the fire department. They’re very responsible.

Kayla Andrade [00:16:10] I know. Or they can call in, learn to make the call, the location.

Erwin Szeto [00:16:14] They can call property standards; they can call the health department.

Kayla Andrade [00:16:17] And what they did, they just really hurt their students, that student industry, because that’s where their pilot program that’s going to happen for two years is going to happen. So now we have students who are trying to get an education going in debt to get that education. Now they’re going to have to pay more for rent because landlords will incorporate what that fee is to license that rental unit. They have to incorporate it into the rent as the tenants relocate.

Erwin Szeto [00:16:39] But the NIMBYs don’t care. No, that’s not coming out of their pocket. No, there’s, you know, voting if the poor.

Kayla Andrade [00:16:46] Anything the government touches. Finish the sentence, guys. But do they do some good?

Erwin Szeto [00:16:52] Very. Some things are great.

Kayla Andrade [00:16:54] Then give me one here.

Erwin Szeto [00:16:57] Here’s one I want. I was going to mention I had the gentleman from landscape. They design laneway housing in Toronto. Great. So one of the nice things the Toronto government has done is you can have a laneway house by, right? Meaning you don’t have to put up signs or anything you just to get your permits, submit your drawings, all that sort of stuff, start building. You don’t have that your tenant, your neighbors can’t even complain that you’re playing, but it’s already started. But you can’t stop you. Right. Because you can have that by, right? Yep. And they’re saying hopefully within a year he’ll be in Toronto; we’ll be able to have garden suites by right. Meaning we don’t the minor variance, nothing. Right. Neighbors can complain. You’re doing it. You’re doing it.

Kayla Andrade [00:17:35] They’ve had that for in the works for a little bit changing that because it used to have a plaster sign on your lawn, sign in your house. Any tenant, any neighbors are upset about it. And same thing in Cambridge and they’re going to start to stop that. The city, your community members are not going to be able to stop you from doing it, but they still are also looking at a huge, hefty amount for the permit. Well, they’ve dropped that. So the permits a little bit cheaper. But again, it’s doesn’t stop the loops that you have to go through the requirement.

Erwin Szeto [00:18:04] You’re talking about building tiny homes in Cambridge.

Kayla Andrade [00:18:07] Tiny homes, secondary suites doing like that. That’s where I think the city of Cambridge is starting to kind of understand this is a supply and demand issue that we’re seeing with affordable housing. Well, we really need you to, you know, let us go. It’s more about if it’s C if it’s a build the way it is, if there was an inspection, you got to learn how to shut that down, if it was built improperly or on sheets. But if you’re yeah, if you look at the concept that they do it and they talk about affordable housing, they talk about our homeless population, well, what’s happening with our homeless population, they’re intense. They’re on the river, they’re at the shelters. They’re in emergency shelters, in motels that are costing.

Erwin Szeto [00:18:40] The football stadiums.

Kayla Andrade [00:18:41] $3,000 a month for a taxpayer to pay for one person to stay in a motel a month. That’s pretty good money for them to live in permanent. But again, this is just wasted money that is that is happening because they’re not getting to the real issues of how to address it.

Erwin Szeto [00:18:57] So then what’s Toronto has done is because Metro being the leading least affordable city in Canada, those who can’t afford are more have actually gotten to be more vocal than the NIMBYs. Right, which is what we need almost every city to get to that point.

Kayla Andrade [00:19:13] Toronto I find especially with us being about 45 minutes away from Toronto and KW see areas we have a lot of Toronto residents now able to work from home. So they are now coming into our what’s and it’s also driving up our rental housing cost of rents as well as houses. So you get to see how the pandemic really changed the world as it is. And with that happening and them allowing these the laneway houses and secondary suites and trying to make it a little bit easier for investors to invest, it’s definitely going to bring more supply. But again, we have more of the eviction bands that are happening. The RTA still a mess, the landlord tenant board is still a mess. Like I saw so many people who have these homes who can, you know, rent out their basement because it doesn’t make sense to downsize anymore. But they don’t because they see of the rules and procedures and. The lack of accountability is happening with our tenants. It’s not easy.

Erwin Szeto [00:20:07] Yet we’re landlords.

Kayla Andrade [00:20:09] We work hard. We work hard to make sure that it always feels like the tenants always have rights and the landlords don’t. And when we want to have rights than greedy landlords to try to ask for rights, that’s usually how it how it falls lately.

Erwin Szeto [00:20:23] Is that is that what the latest updates are as well? What’s new?

Kayla Andrade [00:20:27] Well, with the news, we got the new. They have a navigate tribunals Ontario. So this is a system that they created which is going to give deep education to either landlord or tenant who are on the site trying to navigate through their situation that, you know, hey, I’m a tenant, I’m unable to pay rent. There will be another window that pops up that gives them some recourse, like, okay, well, one here is a local service manager and local service managers is an agency where you can get rent relief. And this is something that I’ve I was I always talk about because this is something that we really asked the landlord tenant board to do because we’re landlords bringing our tenants to the landlord tenant board to evict them. And we wouldn’t have to, you know, if we just educated more landlords on how to educate their tenants on how to gain access to government funds in order to have that rent relief. So they were able to incorporate that in through navigate tribunals, Ontario. They also have a different forms that are happening. So landlords who are trying to take over their unit for the personal use of themselves or for buyers, and they now have to indicate if you give this type of n12 notice before in the last two years. So they’re going to start to track that at the landlord tenant board. So there’s a different L two application form that you would want to make sure that you fill out, because if not, they can throw that out at the landlord and tenant board at the same time. So I.

Erwin Szeto [00:21:53] Would say all.

Kayla Andrade [00:21:53] Two, four is four. It’s up to four.

Erwin Szeto [00:21:56] It’s a.

Kayla Andrade [00:21:56] Two.

Erwin Szeto [00:21:57] What is it?

Kayla Andrade [00:21:58] You know, I mean, you got there, you have the end 12. So anytime you have like if you have an end for you got the L1 application. So that’s the AL forms are what the forms you would file at the landlord tenant board. The end forms are usually what you’re giving to your tenant. So once you file the end 12, the next step to that it will be the L2 application. And luckily for our real estate agents who are listening that if you have a situation for an end 12 that needs to be used because and it’s a firm offer or that and the homeowner who is going to be moving into it the new homeowner is going to move into the unit. They can actually get their hearing, expedite it at the landlord tenant board now. So that way that it doesn’t put the landlord in a spot where their deal falls through. And now that buyer could potentially have some, you know, legal recourse in order to take on that that buyer, because the tenant refused to move out.

Erwin Szeto [00:22:55] Because it does.

Kayla Andrade [00:22:56] Happen. So that was a success. I must say that I was shocked today. I’m like there listening because so many deals are falling apart. We’ve had landlords offer up to, I believe it was $50,000 to a tenant to relocate so that the deal would not fall through and the tenant refused to take the $50,000. So we have lots of opportunities for cash, for keys, but as investors now, we used to do it as a little trick, but now it’s becoming, hey, how do you negotiate cash or keys with your landlord? So I’m like, Oh, guy, yeah, you guys don’t be doing that anymore. Let’s in the system speeding up a little bit quicker. We went from 12 months waiting for a hearing to three months approximately in some areas. And we’re supposed to be at 4 to 6 weeks from filing by the end of the year, especially with a new case management hearing, our new case management system that’s going to take effect on in September.

Erwin Szeto [00:23:55] Now, on the other side, I have clients where they had negotiated the tenant ask for 10,000 to move out. Right. And my clients played me like $180,000 equity. That’s what they’re going to take away when they when they sell it. And I’m like, no underpayment, right? Derek Avery nuts. These are not heavy of a sellers, so it is a ticket for those other side of the story. Oh, and so my question is also, again, as a landlord and a property manager, what are the reasons you’re seeing that people cannot afford rent?

Kayla Andrade [00:24:29] The numbers are jumping high. We’re seeing a lot of turnover, turnover with buying property, and we’re seeing the turnover of now the units being empty and now they’re able to up the rent a lot higher. So if you look.

Erwin Szeto [00:24:42] So I’m sorry when you’re talking about and I’m here in rent.

Kayla Andrade [00:24:45] Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:24:46] You had much experience of tense not paying rent the last two years or so.

Kayla Andrade [00:24:51] Even for my tenants personally, you know, everyone’s been really, really good. Oh I haven’t with the cerb and pointed them where they can get. We had like one tenant that was. Two months and I pointed them right to the local service managers and was able to pay them that two months that he was behind. And then he’s been graded $0.04 or.

Erwin Szeto [00:25:10] Something from.

Kayla Andrade [00:25:11] Us. Well, let’s not talk about it or on the service.

Erwin Szeto [00:25:17] The same.

Kayla Andrade [00:25:17] Thing. That is.

Erwin Szeto [00:25:18] It is. It’s not maybe us. It’s our grandkids or grandkids. Grandkids.

Kayla Andrade [00:25:23] If you can build them, build tenants, own hardship situation where you can actually do the homework to make sure that it’s actually a hardship situation. You’re not just given it out willy nilly like this. It’s going to work and it’s going to work for a point. Keeping them housed and keeping them from being on the street, whereas taxpayers it’s going to cost us a lot more from shelters to police services to ambulance to hotels, emergency shelters. So you get it. It just has to be. I think that’s when the government goes back into that pilot program like that, that extra income, that universal basic income. We’re just going to just give you income, you know, just to keep you afloat. Not only do you know how many people actually take social assistance and they have a spouse who actually works and they don’t claim it, I’m like, there’s a lot of fraud happening within that system too. So if you do create a system, we have to make sure we create it with an iron ring that you know is well it so that it’s not it’s not being abused. And just like the landlord and tenant board right now, it’s being abused.

Erwin Szeto [00:26:20] Stuff that get abused always gets operated by government.

Kayla Andrade [00:26:26] Now I know why they’re cautious of people. People are already doing the COVID passports and manipulating them. So it’s great.

Erwin Szeto [00:26:36] You’re seeing that in your even your clients that are that you manage, you’re not seeing much nonpayment of rent.

Kayla Andrade [00:26:42] My clients that I’ve put in are all good. I’ve taken over a lot of properties where they have obviously refused to pay and that has been brought to the landlord and tenant born in which, you know, I think it’s a lot of that stuff has calmed down now from because of COVID. They got evicted so they’re now on the system worked. Yeah. Like it was oh yeah. It took a while. It took a while like seven months, seven months from, from the time of filing, from getting them out there. And then the landlord tenant board would say, you know, how much money can you make as a payment plus your regular payment? And they would say, Oh, I can make a thousand extra on top of my rent starting January 1st. And guess what? They don’t make it so now since they didn’t make that payment. Now you got to file the L three or the L four application. It’s l force you to file the L for application at the Landlord Tenant Board to inform them that the tenant failed to meet their agreement.

Erwin Szeto [00:27:41] And then how long at after that?

Kayla Andrade [00:27:42] And then then you have to wait for more papers to come into the mail to give you the order. And then once you receive your order in the mail, which there’s a massive delay at the landlord tenant board because of the order. So what is the delay of hearing? And then you have a delay of orders. So once they finally receive their order, then they have to take the order and bring it into the sheriff’s office and be on a wait time with the sheriff. And in Mississauga right now for my last talk, it’s about six weeks. All right. It’s still great for investigation. Scaring you’re the listener sorry from.

Erwin Szeto [00:28:19] When you get the order to when you actually have the sheriff shows up is six.

Kayla Andrade [00:28:23] Weeks. Yeah the wait time at the sheriff is a six weeks right now at Mississauga.

Erwin Szeto [00:28:28] And that’s healthy.

Kayla Andrade [00:28:29] Yeah. So because with all the eviction bans and then they always have everyone trying to avoid the eviction. So they apply to the board for a stay, which is just saying, oh, okay, it’s a stay, sheriff. Now put on hold. So once that hearing happens again, then the sheriff is notified and that in particular case is now put back up a little bit more on the roster and getting it back in as fast as they possibly can because they already had to put it back for a delay times. You know, I think it’s just about running a nice system that can help the people in need with the rent. If you talk to anyone that talks about being landlords and what’s happening with the tenants, it’s going to be nonpayment of rent. Nonpayment of rent is the number one application that tends to be at the landlord tenant board. So if we can kind of create that system to give them some help and some guidance and hold them accountable and not allow them to pay your rent first and then worry about the entertainment stuff they after. Because some people tend to do that first and then they are struggling with rent and then they’re on a downhill spiral.

Erwin Szeto [00:29:34] I wish the system would be more transparent cause if you’re a bit of a skeptic, you may think that the government is actually dragging things out. So we delay evictions and then we just for problems down the road a few months.

Kayla Andrade [00:29:48] Do you hit it right on the head?

Erwin Szeto [00:29:50] Be skeptical. I know I’m an optimist.

Kayla Andrade [00:29:53] Is it’s the dial I called it as a dial. You know, they had it really slow and they’re moderate and then they cut it off completely because that’s when there is no hearings happening. No evictions were happening. Then they opened up to online hearings, which now you got a little bit of movement. But again, the eviction ban was still on. And then now they opened it up a little bit more than they put another. So they are controlling what’s going to be happening within the housing industry in itself by preventing people from getting evicted. Because if they get evicted from private landlords rental units, then they become a problem for the municipalities and the regions. And they are now having to cover the cost in order to give some temporary shelter.

Erwin Szeto [00:30:35] It’s messed up.

Kayla Andrade [00:30:36] So you might as well keep them in the private landlords, then have them into the.

Erwin Szeto [00:30:41] The government is so short term minded because, you know, I fall I’m on the Ontario Landlord Watch Members group as well and you see the frustration and people celebrate exiting real estate and living as landlords are selling their rental properties.

Kayla Andrade [00:30:58] Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [00:30:59] And good chance some of them are bought by homeowners are going to move in. And then we removed the rental splash from the system.

Kayla Andrade [00:31:06] Completely because these properties are being sold for 300,000 over asking price for a semi in Kitchener. Now can you see that actually hitting the market ever as a rental? Never know. These landlords are literally free. They feel like I’ve cashed out at a hot market. I’m now going to live because it’s not about, you know, the toilets and the renovations. This is about the stress that some of these tenants do put landlords under. And I don’t think the government really sees that as a problem. Again, it’s an it’s a business, but a landlord should deserve some respect, just like any other business. And we really need the elected officials to treat private investors as a business. And then if they did, you might be able to see a little bit more love to the housing community.

Erwin Szeto [00:31:48] And you raise these issues at the Housing Affordability Committee that you’re on.

Kayla Andrade [00:31:52] When I said, like, I’m going on my tour, I’m going to be on Irwin’s podcast, and I’m like, I’m like, it’s an election year. I’m like, we need to get on as many year, election, month by month, month so quick, it’s like a surprise. Get to get your campaign out there. And I’m like, I’m going to be out there doing the exact same thing because housing is going to be at the top of everyone’s promises and a lot of changes are going to happen. And it’s not going to be in the favor of investors. It’s going to be in favor of the tenants because they believe that the tenants are the voters because they’re louder. But just like ACORN, you know, they have a tenant activist group who is very well supported by the NDP party and how they get their voices out there and trying to get protect it. But it’s almost like you talk to a big property management companies, which I do, because it’s all about getting my knowledge of what your issues are so that we can brainstorm our solutions together. And they would talk about the nonpayment of rent, they would talk about the screening, but they talk about pest control. And that’s where you’ll see landlord licensing coming in effect again, because you got a tenants who are complaining about, you know, bedbugs or cockroaches, but it’s the way that the tenants are bringing them into the property or B, not doing what is needed in order to treat the property properly.

Erwin Szeto [00:33:02] So bugs are difficult to get rid of. You need a lot of cooperation from the occupant.

Kayla Andrade [00:33:07] So because of that it’s bad landlord so let’s do some landlord licensing. You know, they don’t really have a deep understanding. And that’s why not only of, you know, having a roundtable discussion, we need that roundtable discussion with landlords and tenants and property managers and realtors and accountants and you name it. Like there needs to be that roundtable. Besides the concept of big, big property management companies being able to have their voices heard.

Erwin Szeto [00:33:30] I recall seeing a presentation from bug expert especially to the presentation was around bedbugs, but the root issue is the person to who is living with the bedbugs is usually like ground zero for the bedbugs, usually as mental health issues. And so it’s not a bad landlord. It’s the person has problems. Right.

Kayla Andrade [00:33:52] I just talked to a gentleman today and he said, you know, when you look at how much it is to actually pay for any spraying of bugs or having a bug guy, just go out. He’s like, you know, we’ve take people who are needing assistance with who they partner with different programs. And what happens is that this person does have mental health issues and that there’s imaginary bugs, invisible bugs that this person sees. And then they call 311 and tell them about these bugs that are in this this unit. And 311 connects with the landlord to be like, how come you’re not treating these bugs? You know, and it comes down to the support of mental health is not there, you know, the support for the people who are in need of desperate need of housing, the people who are on the streets, they don’t have enough support. And if they did, we wouldn’t be seeing the type of behavior and the downward spiral, because this is getting worse. It’s not getting better. I’ve been doing this for over ten years and the system is getting worse. The rents are getting higher. They have more people who are becoming homeless. And you got people now trying to relocate out of the major cities in order to find a suitable accommodations. But until they start listening and respecting investors and working together, it’s not going to ever get better.

Erwin Szeto [00:35:02] So we’re not going to beat up on the government all day.

Kayla Andrade [00:35:04] Why not? There are some things. It’s an election year. Come on. We can do it like sometimes.

Erwin Szeto [00:35:09] It’s Friday the 13th.

Kayla Andrade [00:35:11] I know, right?

Erwin Szeto [00:35:12] Best guess is five weeks from today. Right. That’s the current rumor right now. Five weeks will have will be a voting.

Kayla Andrade [00:35:19] Anyone in Cambridge vote for Connie Codey. She is running for MP, so for the Conservatives. So she’s a really good friend of mine who has her head on straight. And I like seeing that and I can’t wait to see who is actually being elected. And I just hope that we have a new change because I think we need that.

Erwin Szeto [00:35:36] Yeah, I just had a michael Rasmussen show. He’s a real estate investor, he’s a friend and he has a good head on his shoulders. We know what the issues are. It’s just I don’t know why some people seem to ignore what our real problems are and how to three of the real solutions.

Kayla Andrade [00:35:49] You know it is too many hands in the cookie jar gets too many hands. We have like if you have committees and you have councils and you have the assistant to the Minister of Housing and you have the Minister of Housing and then all the people in their office. And you got to get through their gatekeepers. And by the time you get them and get to finally talk to them and tell them about the issues and give them some solutions.

Erwin Szeto [00:36:10] They’re changed mean you see.

Kayla Andrade [00:36:11] Yeah. It’s all about the opportunities for many different people in government positions and you know, you need to have someone that really can put a plan in place. But being on, you know, certain committees aside, you know, there’s always multiple different voices and it’s there’s a lot of talking, but no action. And there needs to be an action and a ten year housing plan when we have more and more people coming to our country every single year is not good enough. They need to do more.

Erwin Szeto [00:36:40] Way more. So I think it will be helpful to have likeminded folks in government. I definitely can’t hurt.

Kayla Andrade [00:36:46] How do you get someone in government? Like. Like for yourself. Like the people who are, you know, or are you going to run? You give me that. I’m going to get you to run before I run a.

Erwin Szeto [00:36:56] $970,000 to be an.

Kayla Andrade [00:36:58] MP. Now you see that. Now I know why people run. I’m like, why are they doing? Like, they really think about their community. I’m like, No, it’s the money. The money is the matter.

Erwin Szeto [00:37:07] So like, Michael’s taking a pay cut to do it. My friend is taking a pay cut.

Kayla Andrade [00:37:12] Oh, so what? What area?

Erwin Szeto [00:37:13] Mississauga. But he makes really good money, so if he becomes MP, he’ll take a pay cut.

Kayla Andrade [00:37:17] He’s like, I’d like a Donald Trump. How is he.

Erwin Szeto [00:37:21] Now? So unfair question to you because no one gets their questions in advance. Yeah. So we talk about some things. Before we were recording, like you said, you had an experience with the gentleman cutting the car quiet, smoke alarm. We talked about, you know, people being root causes of bedbugs and not helping resolve bedbug issues. Is that something I’ll he would help with? Landlord credit bureau? Is that something we can report?

Kayla Andrade [00:37:45] Well, it’s about the review process. So in reality is like whatever your review is going to be, it’s going to be shared with your tenant. So be truthful in how you’re leaving your review because your tenants will always have access to their tenancy records in which you report.

Erwin Szeto [00:38:00] Tenants snipped wired to their smoke alarm. That’s pretty factual, isn’t it?

Kayla Andrade [00:38:04] Well, you got to look at the concept of, you know, here’s my experience with this person. And the number one question in the review process is, would you rent to this person again? Right. And it’s not only made for like delinquency or troubled tenants, it’s also made for our good ones. Because if you have a tenant that pays on time every single month, even like a week before, you can only report that on the first of the month with landlord credit bureau. Well, inside of the review section you could say my person paid me a week in advance or they paid me five months in advance. Like you can put such a good review that when another landlord does the tenancy search or that landlord or that tenant wants to share that report to their next potential landlord, is that without a doubt you’re going to give that information and they’re going to accept them and secure their next rental unit. So I think that’s where it’s going to be made for it versus that they are absolutely horrible. No, that’s not the only thing, because they cut that wire through a building of 180 units, 500 tenants affected. And I walk through every single apartment, every butcher shop, my feet, and I wear heels that day. Not cool.

Erwin Szeto [00:39:15] So let’s just take a step back. Can you see? Because I still tell people, but like their credit bureau, they’d look at me like I’m crazy. They never heard of it before. It’s like saying, like, you know, I think it should be in the same conversation as like during a credit check. All right, you do a cut check your landlord credit bureau, like every landlord should be using it, in my opinion. But other folks are having a different experience. If you are, let me know.

Kayla Andrade [00:39:36] But no, you know what? With Landlord Credit Bureau, it’s a personal history what it is. So Landlord Credit Bureau is an agency or bureau that where you’re actually able to report your tenant’s monthly payment history to landlord credit bureau. So it’s good. If it’s bad, you can also leave a review. Landlords are able do tenancy searches so you can put the tenant’s name in there and you only get charged if you get a hit on your tenant. And when you do get a hit, you have that option to download it and to pull up that for. Within that information, you’re getting the tenants payment history every single month to show that they were able to make their payments on time. And it also gives you the bottom, which it gives the landlords email and the landlords names. So you know that it’s coming from a validated landlord because right now, as a reference comes to us, we have no clue who it is. Is it the landlord, the sister, the brother? So this way of.

Erwin Szeto [00:40:24] Centralizing turf and system.

Kayla Andrade [00:40:25] You’re able to firm these people by having them be able to tap in to actually see them because they got to get validated in order to report. And after that, you got their credit checks that are literally I can, too, but as I’m not saying it right now, that the credit checks are live, but they have amazing credit checks that are coming from Equifax that now landlords are part of. So we have to utilize landlord credit bureau right from the tenant screening because it’s not so much of the concept that, yeah, you have a bad tenant, let’s report that dilemma or credit bureau. We have to use landlord credit bureaus name within our rental ads because this is now going to bring serious tenants to you who are very serious about paying their rent on time. You’re also going to attract more good tenants in a way that you’re going to be able to report that to their Equifax and grow their score. And many people who are in rentals, they always have that dream of owning their own home. Yeah. So let’s get ourselves into informing them about it so that they can now get known and they can actually refer their next landlord. If it’s not you to report and this is where the concept is, is that we’re going to divide that by tenant and good tenants. We have to put ourselves in that. There is many and we need to reward them. And by doing that, you’re doing that with land or credit bureau. When I do my tenant screening and I have someone that’s inside of my rental unit and they’re coming in and they I said, it’s a one bedroom, two bath, whatever the case going on, they go, Oh, I love it. I want to fill an application. Emily Oh yeah. By the way, I also report your, your monthly payment history. Dylan The credit bureau. So this is going to help you grow your credit, but it also can affect it if you’re, if you don’t pay on time. But it’s not going to be you, though. You’re going to pay on time. I know you are. So here’s some more information about you delivered.

Erwin Szeto [00:42:01] Hello. You deliver it.

Kayla Andrade [00:42:02] And you see their face. I wanted to do like a video live broadcast from a tenant screening because when they get to see their face, when they when you know that they’re going to be behind on rent and they know what you’re asking from them, their face. Oh, look. And they’re gone. Stop. That application does not come back. I swear. I think they’re running to their car was like, hurry up, we got to get the next one. And you know what? We’re not trying to do this to be mean. We’re not trying to do this to be difficult. We’re not trying to do this to make the housing, the affordable housing and homelessness to be worse. But when you see that you have properties that are a lot of money and that you can see that you can lose a lot of money and your house and your own credit, you have to make sure you’re doing proper screening.

Erwin Szeto [00:42:45] And we’ll keep more landlords in the game.

Kayla Andrade [00:42:47] Oh, definitely. It’s about the accountability. We don’t have that accountability. And luckily for.

Erwin Szeto [00:42:52] Us, it’s just fair, isn’t it, that rent.

Kayla Andrade [00:42:55] Here.

Erwin Szeto [00:42:57] And I’ll just preface this by saying, like all my tenants, all my residential tenants, I rent them again, all right? So I’m pretty lucky. And then I like on my terms, I’d gladly give them a glowing review. And again, I’d rent to them again. Maybe not, for they’re paying me right now, but I have one basement and renting it for 1200 dollars because I that’s like one of the first legal basement apartments there. And like that. Yeah.

Kayla Andrade [00:43:20] It’s like they’re staying with you for, like, they’re never like.

Erwin Szeto [00:43:23] That’s okay, because this is what we agreed upon. Yeah, right. And she’s a.

Kayla Andrade [00:43:27] Nurse.

Erwin Szeto [00:43:28] She did go battle proven in the hospital. Right. So that that reason the rent the person pays the rent on time. This was the agreement this will be agreed upon and it was I don’t raise the rent on her anyways. Where was I. Oh. And then I frame it, I frame whether curb your owed to my clients and my tenants that this will help you eventually buy a home, which is statistically you’re less likely to be poor if you own a home, right? I don’t believe anyone should be tenants for life. It’s why I do what I do best for my family. But then to me, that’s for the greater good. The sooner you get, you start paying your rent and you buy a house. I’m actually happy.

Kayla Andrade [00:44:02] Oh, yeah?

Erwin Szeto [00:44:03] Well, two ways, because you’re better off by tenant would be better off than no longer a tenant. And also I get a vacancy and I can re rent it for current market rents.

Kayla Andrade [00:44:12] So when? Now. The only thing is though that you do for you have your good tenants right now. Do you have any past tenants. Yeah. You can report them up to going back six years in Canada and seven years, seven years in the States. So no judgment, no consent needed. But if you had a tenant that was late on their rent, late on their utilities or didn’t pay at all, you can report that until then, their credit bureau as well, because actually.

Erwin Szeto [00:44:38] Literally, no, because when duplexes became like were there a new thing and I think I’ll still be didn’t know what to do with utilities. You know, you signed an agreement with a tenant that they’re responsible for what, x, y, z utility and then they don’t pay it. And then the utility company just charges you and then you have to take their small claims and stuff like that. But you don’t need to go to small claims and get a judgment to report it to. I’ll keep due.

Kayla Andrade [00:45:02] No, no. And this is something that actually is going to come back. Hopefully, I’m hearing rumors about council with the water billing. So as the water billing heads your property taxes, we used to be able to, you know, issue an end five, try to get the eviction that way. New changes with the landlord tenant board allow you to really detail how your utility arrangement is worked up. If it was a 6040 split, if it was over a usage cap within your utility and now you can utilize that and they will give you a judgment of it with the landlord tenant board. But hey, if you can have this part going, hey, I’m showing you through your tenancy record that I report it your missed payment for rent and utilities. This is going to follow you until the payment has been made. So this is obviously when you need a car or if you need a house, if you need you know, sometimes they end up getting rent to own stuff. They’re always doing like credit checks on you. So it’s really crucial, though. I never thought like when I used to work in collections back in the day, I think, Oh my God, it’s almost 17 years ago and I worked for Capital One and that was a lot in the States. And their credit was so important and we never really had that fuel I found in Canada at that time. And now your credit is so important these days. The higher the score of the rating, what’s on there like it is very detailed. And I think everyone needs to, you know, stop and breathe for a moment and do your own credit check to make sure that, you know, your identity hasn’t been taken on. But it’s definitely it’s definitely something that people are looking at trying to grow better because even though you might be priced out of your rental market where you live now, it doesn’t prevent you from relocating and finding a property that is in your price range and having a fresh start. Right. And you never know where the market’s going to be. Know a rental housing might drop a little bit too. So you want to be ready with good credit.

Erwin Szeto [00:46:46] And now, you know, people who’ve been able to collect rent from past tenants because they’ve filed they filed a report on their landlord credit bureau.

Kayla Andrade [00:46:55] Oh, yeah. Because they get notified right away. That’s the power I find with LCB. As soon as you create your tenancy record, you can put your tenancy email in there. So one, you’re informing them a what landlord credit bureau is all about and b you’re able to educate them how it’s going to help them or how it’s going to impact them. And then you have your concept of, Hey, Yolanda just reported you to be on paid. This is how it’s going to, you know, travel with you, especially if a landlord is reporting your delinquency as a collect, as a past tenant. You change them from a current residents to a former one. And now it’s being reported to landlord credit bureau and Equifax underneath collect. So it stays there until the payment has been made and they will get notified of it. And again, it’s going to follow them and they’re eventually going to want to move. And everyone’s doing credit checks and I’m proud of that now because, you know, a lot of landlords.

Erwin Szeto [00:47:41] For people who don’t.

Kayla Andrade [00:47:42] They have an, oh my God, that’s like it’s not a spit and a handshake anymore. You know, that’s you should see something. And I know that’s a new thing that.

Erwin Szeto [00:47:53] I have never.

Kayla Andrade [00:47:55] Known. No. And no one’s threatened with that with COVID now anyway. So it’s I guess that terminology is gone. But he’s he laughing at us? So now some of these contracts are coming to me and there’s like there’s no paperwork, there’s not even an application, or it’s just the application that was the actual lease. This was the back in the day type of investing and you get to see the back in the day type of investing and what they did and how we have our new bloods who are learning more about real estate and how to pick tenants and how to manage it and grow it. They are the ones that are now changing the industry of how people are getting accepted because they’re learning a lot quicker. And then the people used to use to actually invest.

Erwin Szeto [00:48:38] As we’re talking my credit reports, I remember when they made the news about some tenant who’s like swindled like eight landlords or something and they’re like, I remember one, he’s going to jail because of because he is he’s.

Kayla Andrade [00:48:50] In post today.

Erwin Szeto [00:48:51] I should know. This one was a while ago, but if you read the article, you see it’s near the bottom. Basically it says landlord did not do one credit checks like, oh, gee, these guys shot themselves in the foot.

Kayla Andrade [00:49:05] I don’t know how I don’t know how they don’t do it unless it’s about knowledge, right? When you give yourself into a program, it’s either you have many, many different type of places where you can potentially pull an Equifax or a TransUnion credit check. Now, are you taking trend junior or take an Equifax? I like Equifax. I find it to be a little bit more detail. But in order for you to start doing that, you got to be validated. In some places that take on your membership. To be able to pull credit, they have to go through their process that may not feel that you’re legit. So unless people know of these places and they’re out there advertising that they do credit checks, these landlords are not getting the information. They’re not getting the information of the different products and the different services that are out there to help them navigate through this crazy system and to protect themselves before it gets into to chaos. Right.

Erwin Szeto [00:49:54] And so I’ll say, in terms of private services, I think it’s never been better for the landlord.

Kayla Andrade [00:49:59] Oh, if there is a I got a. Couple of people I can’t wait to talk about, because you know why I’m doing that screening process? I’m getting to know them, make sure it’s legit if it’s allowed. But there are many different companies now seeing that there is this this need in the housing community of services, of protection. And that’s what I’m able to do in my advocacy. I like to know of these different products and services because a lot of my phone calls or emails or messages on Facebook, it’s people in hardship situations. So if I can help them navigate through the RTA or the LTB or connect them to a paralegal, I now have the option to know of different products and different services that also might be able to help them through their real estate journey.

Erwin Szeto [00:50:39] Yeah, the crazy thing is you do a lot of this for free, but I can’t convince you to run 470 grand.

Kayla Andrade [00:50:47] All right? I don’t think they would want me like you. See how they would. You can’t just say I’m going to run for MPP and the Conservative Party is going to be like, All right, she’s our girl right there. She’s going to be like, No, she’s like a ticking time bomb. We have no clue what she’s going to say when she has her entire life on Facebook for the last 11 years. We can’t clean that up. We can’t polisher. The liberals are going to go after her like she’s not well. Let’s not touch her. Like and you know what? Even if we’re turning this show into a comedy. No, I think of it. Look at me doing what I do for free and advocating and becoming that community leader or being kind of community leader with a paycheck would be nice at that type of money. I think they need a cut. Someone needs to pull back how much money these people get. But those councilors and those regional councilors and those MP, they have just as much trouble trying to stand up for their constituents as I am. Right. And they get paid to do it. I don’t. But you know what? I also am able to meet with different people and have that opportunity to do other type of businesses together. But we have to work together as a community to finally champion a good change of different rules and procedures that are making it fair. And luckily, if anyone is listening and if you ever had to go to the landlord and tenant board and you went through these type of delays, you need to contact the Ontario Ombudsman to make your complaint. The Ontario Ombudsman has been actively investigating them for well over a year. You can see a lot of the changes happening at the landlord and tenant board. Now I feel is because of the Ombudsman and because they’ve have an open door policy to connect with groups of stakeholders to get their recommendation and we have to keep that momentum up even though you called and complain once because of that one situation. But if you continue to keep having situations, we need them to contact the Ontario Ombudsman to make that complaint because the landlord tenant board is denying justice delayed is justice denied. And that is what’s happening at landlord tenant board. We’re being denied justice and it’s supposed to give justice to all parties, all users, and it tends to just favor the tenants because of the way that these adjudicators are ruling or how they’re trying to adjourn an actual hearing to give the tenant more time. And if you look at who they are online of the adjudicator, you see their past life. Whatever they did has obviously affected the way that they rule. So you always want to know who you’re up to bat with whenever you’re at the at the landlord tenant board.

Erwin Szeto [00:53:20] How does one get in contact with their ombudsman?

Kayla Andrade [00:53:22] So if you Google Ontario ombudsman in Ontario and.

Erwin Szeto [00:53:26] Maybe you.

Kayla Andrade [00:53:28] Don’t get started, I usually have a talk and text. So as a oh will you and D can we Google affects the ombudsman OMB you.

Erwin Szeto [00:53:43] Because I’m a remember chair you made a complaint to the Ontario ombudsman when I won’t name which bank but they had our posted checks from our tenants because there they would deposit them each month and they lost them. They did an investigation. They said they lost them again.

Kayla Andrade [00:53:58] So you’re dealing with the Banking Ombudsman? Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Erwin Szeto [00:54:02] So and we complain, I think within a week, someone pretty high up from that band called and they got involved and they were much more responsive than what we were getting at the branch.

Kayla Andrade [00:54:13] So I actually have a case that I’m helping a family member out with where there was fraudulent activity that was happening. So you have to go through the fraud department, then you got to go into the claims department, then you got to go to the TDI ombudsman. And then if you don’t get what you want there, then you’ve got to go to the banking ombudsman. So the banking system is one way of like you get to see their levels. But for us with the housing and the government, it’s literally just Google Ontario Ombudsman and you’ll be able to it’s like info at the ombudsman to get the email and they call you. So when you put your email in there and you give them the letter of what’s happening, they’ll actually call you to follow up on that because they want to make sure that you’re real and it’s clear and they call you a lot quicker than the landlord tenant board or your MPP will accept. My MPP is awesome Belinda. Carlos.

Erwin Szeto [00:55:02] When’s the provincial election?

Kayla Andrade [00:55:04] Oh, next year. Okay. Yeah, not once next year. Okay. But the conservatives kicked her out because she didn’t want to stand with them. So that’s why I like her and Randy Hilliard like all the other one. It’s like all the misfits going to be able to pull them all together, and that’s going to be the new party that we need to really represent the people.

Erwin Szeto [00:55:22] It’s messy.

Kayla Andrade [00:55:23] It’s at all levels. It’s sad. Like, I think they worry about trying to get people to come out and vote. And, you know, they’re like, hey, look at the how sad our voter turnout is. I was like, well, when you just are giving them lip service, like, what do you think is going to happen? Like, a lot of people have lost their faith in their government that they’d rather not vote at all. And the only ones that are voting as people who are involved heavily with the parties. Right. And I think that’s where, you know, you’re growing your membership crazy, but, you know, a lot more needs to be done to really try to engage your community into voting. Besides, hey, we want to give you some roads and we want to try to give you some free money. And your baby bonus is like, thanks.

Erwin Szeto [00:56:00] We’re going to build an apartment building.

Kayla Andrade [00:56:02] Yeah, that is a lot more money than you just giving me the money. And I can create a much cheaper project for you guys.

Erwin Szeto [00:56:10] I even want the money. And you don’t need to give me the money. I’ll go build my garden suite if you give it to me by. Right?

Kayla Andrade [00:56:15] Yeah, I give it to me by rea give it to me without jumping hoops and create that system that I need. Because right now they give us a tool bag, but there’s no tools inside of it. So we’re going to be our own people and bring our own tools in there.

Erwin Szeto [00:56:27] And they put some brick walls in front of us.

Kayla Andrade [00:56:29] And some like fire breathing dragons.

Erwin Szeto [00:56:32] And you know what we barely talked about on tear land or y.

Kayla Andrade [00:56:38] You know what that group is going really strong with over 6100 members in that group. We have 2500 members. I’ve been letting them in, but they keep on coming. And it’s great because I just I have to go in so many times throughout the month and I like to screen people before they come in. And I definitely if I’m on a podcast or if anyone’s listening now and you’ve heard and you want to be a part of this group and you like the mission that we’re on, say that you been where you heard of Montreal and there’s more so I can get them in quicker. But we have to be very careful because we’re not here to bash tenants. We’re here to know the issues, know the solutions, and follow with our elected officials who are in the group. And landlords support landlords support the good tenants. And I help tenants on the phone all the time. You know, they think I’m the landlord tenant board or like this is the landlord tenant board. I’m like, No, it’s under Yolanda’s watch, but I’m here to help you. What’s going on? Right. And I can guide them and give them the tools that they need. And the members are so knowledgeable. They’ve been in our group for, you know, well over ten years now. So they got to learn so much by other landlords mistakes. Sadly, it is. But we’re all learning together and we’re able to help navigate and again, you know, support. There are celebrations of getting out of the industry at the same time. So in the group in itself is that we have that momentum because as people are getting help with the day to day operation, they’re understanding how heavily involved the government is and they’re making their calls to the ombudsman, they’re making their calls to the MPP and the regional councilors and trying to fight and the news gets to travel quicker. And that’s what I love about it, because I had no clue how to get my little petition that I it to in 2010 out there I was traveling to just to the landlords associations that just taught you about the system of, you know, what you should be doing and here’s a program and I had to travel there and be like, Hey, you want to sign my petition now? And, you know, they didn’t know about it when I was telling them about the water billing. And now this time when a landlord licensing of water billing, if, you know, Safe Toronto program comes into effect or an eviction ban comes, the news is out there instantaneously. We almost created our own little media source because just because of 6100 members there, there’s other groups out there. And that message gets spread very quickly.

Erwin Szeto [00:58:53] And the members know about Hamilton toward one and they put the licensing pilot.

Kayla Andrade [00:58:57] Oh that was that blew up right off the bat. Soon, as soon as that came out, we knew and again we had landlords knowing about it when it was in their thinking process and they’re going down and they’re trying to fight it. And that’s why elected officials were like, okay, let’s do a pilot. You know, we’re not going to freak everybody out. We’re just doing a pilot, and it’s going to be inside of the university section, which is just going to cause the rents to increase, discriminate. Yeah, yeah. We’re going don’t discriminate, guys, okay? We’re discriminating because we know we give you guys the money for some, you know, your student loans and stuff. So let it come back to us somewhere. But yeah, they definitely they were trying to fight it and now they’re doing the pilot for two years and then every landlord in Hamilton start talking about it, start figuring out what we have to do to fight back for when this comes up in two years. And they realize that what has happened, you got to keep track on, you know, collect some data to find out how much the rents have increased in that area because of it. And did it actually work? You know, talk to the tenants, get something on writing to say, hey, here’s my tenant. You know, obviously their rents have increased, but this program did nothing. And for them because they knew they still had the protection through by law, through the Residential Tenancies Landlord Tenant Board and the fire department.

Erwin Szeto [01:00:08] And sustained property standards and the Health Department. And there’s lots of help.

Kayla Andrade [01:00:13] Oh, everything. There’s lots of it. It’s just it’s a great it’s a game for them. It’s another service is another way for them to gain some money. And I think that’s why they don’t lose money. Oh, so they’re I think they’re going to they’re going to lose money based on the operating cost of it. But I think when you look at what maintenance calls could come in, if the landlord doesn’t complete it, then the city can come in and complete the work and build that way. They’re like the maintenance team, I think, of the housing that they’re trying to become. I don’t know if you want to get inside their head as like, what are they thinking? It’s like that.

Erwin Szeto [01:00:45] Ticktalk I do have one friend. They are property standards called on them for a chimney and they didn’t get to it in time. The city fixed it and they actually said he actually fixed it for cheaper than the courts there. So there was a win.

Kayla Andrade [01:01:01] I had a guy he the neighbors call that is grass being long and it’s an empty lot and they are just.

Erwin Szeto [01:01:06] A well that’s usually bad.

Kayla Andrade [01:01:07] $700. I’m like, oh my God, man. I just I kind of free for 100 bucks. Are you. So you get to see how different municipalities and it’s a different feel every municipality’s different. Some are very investor friendly and some are like, Oh my God, how are you going to have housing and how are you paying? Your people are not going to be able to pay taxes to you if you don’t have people coming to your city.

Erwin Szeto [01:01:30] Well, here’s an unintended consequence, because if they for example, if they restrict bedrooms so they’re restricted to like four bedrooms, for example, then they’re going to force students to go further away. And so they’re gonna sprawl out to other words, that’s this reality, because they’ll need to seek affordability and there’s not enough supply.

Kayla Andrade [01:01:49] That’s why they are. Why are you looking at landlord licensing and making sure that it’s not overcrowding, but it’s the affordability of housing for people to live on their own and supply is not there. So they do have to move in together with multiple people, even though it’s a basement and the windows are not big enough. It’s an unsafe environment. What do you expect them to do? So you got to build a supply up and you have rules, you know, your first year you can live in residents. After that, they tell you not that you can’t live in residence. So you know, the rules and the regulations of what they’re doing with the school can also affect this. And if they how come no one’s telling the universities to build more so that people can live in residence? So I don’t know. It’s again, I think it’s there’s a manipulation to it. And you got to get inside their head to figure out how, because it’s going to cost you a lot more money to run the program and itself. And knowing that you’re just doing duplicates of services and that’s what’s happening. We have duplicates of services, just like property standards, landlord licensing, and it’s the same thing. But the only thing is, is that they usually come when they’re cold, not like, hey, let’s go around and knock on these doors today and let’s see if they’re licensed or not, you know, like what’s the main goal here? Because it’s not keeping people safe. It’s actually just going to cause the rents to increase and cause more of a population, ah, population to become homeless and more people to struggle and try to get ahead in life.

Erwin Szeto [01:03:11] Give me and say what the, what it’s going to be in Hamilton, but what the pilots going to look like, what they’re going to restrict, what they’re going to enforce.

Kayla Andrade [01:03:18] I haven’t gotten that down pass on my memory that they have given some tidbits out there of how it’s how it’s because they’re all looking at each other. They look at each other from city to city, region to region. And they also now look from Ontario is famous for looking at other provinces. And they are now, you know, obviously trying to represent, you know, B.C., the way B.C. handles their overall dispute resolution program. I wish they did it as Newfoundland, because Newfoundland’s a lot simpler. They have the landlord, they have the tenant, there’s no paralegals, and it’s $25 to file. So you get to see that they will eventually just it’s going to be all the same. MINOR It’s sometimes it’s the whole entire city, sometimes just school. But it’s in like Waterloo. It’s the inspection for plumbing, it’s the extraction back the age, back inspection, and then it’s per room and they’ve actually just increased their fees in, in Waterloo. So I’ve actually had a few landlords now get out of their single family home as a rental because they’ve increased it because of the rooms and now they’re getting out of Waterloo and looking into other investor friendly cities.

Erwin Szeto [01:04:22] And then the house usually is bought by homeowner. Yep. So then the rental supply is gone.

Kayla Andrade [01:04:26] Oh yeah. It’s a domino effect. We call it the mass exodus, but the max exodus where you’re not going to really quite notice it right away, the field because people cause capital gains rate. So a lot of people are just doing is getting rid of their supply slowly, but a lot of people are trying to maneuver out of that.

Erwin Szeto [01:04:45] Here’s a little crazy part because like you said, why doesn’t the schools build more residents sort of master? They bought like all their houses across the street from mine and they’re going to build, I think, eight storeys or something like that. And the neighbors all fought it as well.

Kayla Andrade [01:04:58] Yeah.

Erwin Szeto [01:04:59] We don’t want more student. Okay. Well, hang on. We’re getting them out of the neighborhood into one building.

Kayla Andrade [01:05:06] We’re containing a problem.

Erwin Szeto [01:05:08] That’s due to.

Kayla Andrade [01:05:08] All that.

Erwin Szeto [01:05:11] Is basically saying no to everything.

Kayla Andrade [01:05:12] We have a big development trying to come in right on the river in Cambridge. And people were, you know, we’re complaining about our homeless population and we talk about, ah, supply or drug use that’s happening within the city. But now that someone wants to come in and try to build 900 units and it’s going to take down some trees and it’s going to be in the way of our, you know, our beautiful river that we walk on. Communities live it and they don’t want it. Right. And then they go, well, is it really going to be affordable? And what they consider affordable is really not affordable, but it’s still going to be affordable. And they designate only so many units. So as a way for them to push their development through, they have to try to promise some affordable units within that development, and that usually allows it to kind of get pushed a little bit further. But the community’s really up in arms with it. They’re like, No, no, no, no. Like, Well, we need to build somewhere. You know, I don’t think the country is going to be a good place for us to be building right now.

Erwin Szeto [01:06:06] This doesn’t go.

Kayla Andrade [01:06:07] There. The bus doesn’t go there. Our services don’t go there. So it’s got to be in the downtown core and where more people don’t want it or like it’s not Toronto, this is our little, small city. And heritage like the heritage is crazy. The movies that come in to actually record there is phenomenal because of the character of that city. So I get that. But at the same time, they block the entire downtown when they’re recording. I want to get downtown because it’s more important. It’s and I think it’s been neglected for many, many years and decades.

Erwin Szeto [01:06:40] And it’s not just the government’s fault, it’s the voters as well.

Kayla Andrade [01:06:44] For voting for a certain party.

Erwin Szeto [01:06:47] I vote in people who will help create more housing.

Kayla Andrade [01:06:50] It’s about trying to figure out what’s important to the voter. Right. And that’s what they always do through their campaigns. That’s why they knock at your door and they find out what’s important to you. And if you say, you know, I want cheaper taxes or I want, you know, more parking downtown or, you know, and then you stop the development. And people don’t have that concept, the knowledge of who’s who, you know, you have one, you have municipal and regional and provincial and federal government. People don’t know what each level of government does. So it’s really hard for them to choose the best candidate that’s going to represent their needs or the needs that they think they need. But there is an overall goal of running government like I like a family. And that’s where you have, you know, your housing, you have your food, you have your bill, your utilities and your necessities. And anything left over is extra. You know, I find that our city, you know, where we went to put $15,000 for a rainbow sidewalk. 15,000 is the most horrible.

Erwin Szeto [01:07:43] To tear it out and put a new one.

Kayla Andrade [01:07:44] In and came in, like, say this without laughing because the sidewalk was just paint. It is paint. It was just paint. And then we looked at another city and their rainbow sidewalk was beautiful and ours was like, what happened? Like, looks so bad. But they spent 15. They paid a security guard. I think it was like $2,000 to guard a bridge of blankets, you know, and like, are the homeless taking the blankets? Like, give them the blankets. It’s nice artwork. Take some pictures. Let’s remember it. But if someone wants to take a blanket, you know, why are we hiring? So it’s a lot of the wasted funds, lack of priority. And it’s more of the concept that we have to look at the major issues that we have here. You know, I hate the fact that we get a pothole, you know, and the roads need to get done. But we have people who are dying on the street. We need more services for people who are struggling for mental health, people who are struggling with addiction. And that is now the new wave of from the pandemic is people who are addicted through drug use as well as mental health. And there’s not enough support there. I was just at a protest myself, you know, trying to stop a safe injection site from coming in right into a residential area. And the people are like, you know, the community to get together and to fight and to walk from one potential site to another potential site with councilors as well. This is something where they think that it’s that it’s like a putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. Right. That’s what they’re really trying to do here, because even though you create a site for people to consume safe, illegal drugs, you’re enabling their behavior. You know, you’re not trying to protect them. But we have a wait list of well over, you know, 11 months getting into rehab. But you are going to give them place to inject drugs safely, like the backwardness is like you should want to get them off of it. It’s not a put your money into getting them off of it instead of just enabling it. And they do that with housing and like the way that their thinking process is. I don’t know, I, I would run him around my head around I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t want to run for council, but I would love to see how the mechanics work, like who is actually calling it, because I don’t think it’s not even in the councilors, you know what I mean? Like we all think like. Oh, about. Councilor. You’ve got to look at city staff. You got to look at the staff who are behind the elected officials because they can’t be everywhere. They can’t get the knowledge; they can’t do the reports. So you got to sometimes I wish they could train change up their staff as well. We’re getting all over the topics today here.

Erwin Szeto [01:10:19] I’m glad I can’t make these decisions. I don’t.

Kayla Andrade [01:10:23] Understand it. It’s all linked, you know, from housing to mental health to drug addiction. Like we all feel that. You know, I think that’s where we get into the advocacy and trying to fight for landlords rights, because when we try to help people and we get burned and it takes us years, a year to get someone evicted who is struggling and there’s not enough support for them. So that’s why when I when people ask me like, oh, you know, why are you talking about homelessness or affordable housing or mental health or drug addiction? I’m like, it’s all linked. It’s a whole puzzle that we should be looking at here to solve versus just one thing at a time. It all needs to be simultaneously if we’re really going to make an impact and change the community for the better.

Erwin Szeto [01:11:04] Here’s one model that works. But sorry, I want to say I can’t say if it works, but it’s actually pretty good. In Hong Kong, for example, they have over a million people in government subsidized and subsidized housing, over million in a city of 7 million. And how they do it when the developer wants to build something like you mentioned, a developer. Developer you mentioned in the story, they had to create a certain amount of affordable housing. Well, think of it. Where in Hong Kong, for example, everything’s at least 30 storeys. Mm hmm. So, first of all, Brazil have to build as tall as he wants or taller, but government to say no building next to more floors. And I’ll make that all affordable housing developer will do it.

Kayla Andrade [01:11:42] Oh, yeah, right.

Erwin Szeto [01:11:43] Because they don’t build to make their money and probably handsome. And they’ll get in. They’ll be able to afford some affordable housing for the community.

Kayla Andrade [01:11:50] Yeah. And you know what, when you look at like sometimes we have problem areas, right? So if you have people with complex issues, I don’t think it’s a good thing to congregate them together. You know, it’s the crazy part.

Erwin Szeto [01:12:01] The crime rates in those housing is actually very low.

Kayla Andrade [01:12:05] Right? Yeah. Okay. We going to Hong Kong. Yeah, we’re going to Hong Kong. We got to go. We got to figure out exactly how true.

Erwin Szeto [01:12:13] His family grew up in there. And you your family spent some time in government assisted housing as well. Yeah. You guys were criminals, were you?

Kayla Andrade [01:12:19] No. But you know what’s happening now. I think there’s that loophole that people found within that system to get in. Like, I have a I just moved into one of the areas in Cambridge and there is a government housing complex right by my house. And I have nicer cars than me. They want nicer cars than me.

Erwin Szeto [01:12:38] Yeah. One of our tenants of measure stuff.

Kayla Andrade [01:12:40] And are they visiting like and you know what? I no friends. I have friends who are in housing as well. And I’m telling you, like they have a spouse, the spouse doesn’t live there and no one has it on record. But they make money. Right. And they have company trucks, you know. And you know what? They have a fluctuation because it’s not all low income. They also have income units that are rent geared to income or it’s like market rent. So they’re actually getting paid, you know, really good money from the people who have really good jobs, who actually claim their money. But many people do tend to abuse it. And there’s not a system that really helps them determine if someone is in government housing who really shouldn’t be there. And it is. And do we really need people who are just struggling to pay rent, you know, just someone who needs a little bit of a top up, you know, to pay rent elsewhere in normal, you know, private housing. So government housing could be there for people who need that wraparound system because we have affordable housing and we have supportive housing. And then we have like our us over here with, you know, high end, you know, we have different high end type of rental units. So that’s where we like to see getting to understand what’s happening in government housing, what the waiting list is like for government housing. I just know that it’s 12 years wait time for someone with a disability to get into housing. Terry That’s because of lack of assessable their need accessible housing. Now if you’re a landlord or government, it should be like, well, let’s get a program. Let’s get a program that if you are willing to make your unit accessible, we’re going to give you X amount of money in order to make that rental unit accessible so that we can create more accessibility for people in need. But now we have people who are living in shelters because they have an elevator living, not living at the shelter because they can’t find assessable housing. So we really want to look at how they’re running their own government housing because everyone’s seen many articles about, you know, places needing a ton of renovations because it’s not about building it, it’s about maintaining it and supplying it and subsidizing it. We have landlords and investors who are very good at what they do and create can create secondary suites within months. Why don’t you just give them the tools and the support that they need to continue to keep doing that, but instead they like to just. Poke their nose in our business, but not look at what’s going on behind closed doors for them and how much it’s costing them to run it.

Erwin Szeto [01:15:06] It’s not easy.

Kayla Andrade [01:15:07] It’s different to make your heads think about. It’s like a clock, you know? Everything is. It makes everything else move. And, you know, even with, you know, this water building that we started, I said, now we have people being evicted from it. You see it as a great way for the city to make money from water bills. But what just happened is that you’re now as a city, you pay more money for shelters, emergency shelters and helping people to get it off the street because they got evicted because they fell behind on a water bill. So doing something for a short term gain and having long term pain to it is as what’s the struggle?

Erwin Szeto [01:15:45] So are you still investing?

Kayla Andrade [01:15:47] Not right now.

Erwin Szeto [01:15:47] Are you divesting?

Kayla Andrade [01:15:49] No, I’m comfortable. We bought these properties that we bought for from 2004 all the way up until a good two years ago. And now the market just kind of went crazy. So my husband’s at the. I’m not competing. I’m not competing. And he finds a good deal. And, you know, it’s off market. You know, I’ll look at it. He is looking at something potentially off market, some type of 39 units. And they found out about it like last year. And I guess this year is supposed to be the year that he’s now or next year, 2022. So he’s kind of looking at that. So he’s got a lot of equity. We don’t really do the BR. We actually hold on to the equity in the property right now because we bought so much with just saving up the down payment and then buying it again. So we got a lot of equity within our property. So we’re just waiting for the, the, the bigger one to come. But I do like my duplexes and triplexes and five plex is like there and I like the quality of, of tenants that I’m able to choose from when I get to offer that type of rental unit versus apartment, apartment buildings or just a different style of living.

Erwin Szeto [01:16:51] Right. So for the novice, like, what is the difference in the tenant profile between a small multi versus a 39 to consider pretty big?

Kayla Andrade [01:17:00] I say it’s like a new. I think you get the new investor. The new tenants are the new tenants who are just moving out on the first time, like just need a house like they’re inside of the apartments. Or you got people from the big city, you know, willing to move into the apartments. But I like the people who are looking at, you know, paying their own utilities. And, you know, it’s like they live in their own home. You have a door, you control your own heat, and they’re just happier people to deal with because you’re giving them what they want. They have an area where they can barbecue. You know, you’re not outside and they’re in the field barbecuing. So you’re giving a little bit more quality of a home, right. By being able to invest in those type of properties.

Erwin Szeto [01:17:38] In the tenant has to be an affordable or I imagine the tenant has to afford more for a small multi versus being in an apartment.

Kayla Andrade [01:17:44] Building. Yeah. The apartments tend to be like of those tenant apartments are creeping up in price for sure because utilities are all included and it’s not really like you can do a utility cap on there. So those type of properties that I have, definitely you can work yourself into, hey, you pay for your own utilities, you’re doing all the all the increases. But if you do have that where it’s plus hydro and the water and the gas is included, then you can put yourself into a utility cap within your lease agreement and making sure that it’s a fair, reasonable cap so that if it does go over, it just really exercises the concept that you need to conserve the utilities and you can’t invite everybody and anybody in here to do laundry. And you’re not going to use they’re going to think twice before you allow someone to come into your home and live with you. Because in Ontario, unless it’s overcrowding, we can’t do anything about it.

Erwin Szeto [01:18:34] What do you cap utilities that.

Kayla Andrade [01:18:36] Meanwhile with the water and gas only, it’s usually around the 300 mark and if we have all three in there, then it’s usually around the 400 mark.

Erwin Szeto [01:18:44] Good tip prices have gone up.

Kayla Andrade [01:18:46] When you got the city increasing your taxes and your utilities through the pandemic. But you tell me I can’t raise my rents through a pandemic. Yeah, we have to find different ways to be able to make the numbers work, even from parking, charging for parking, charging for, you know, air conditioning, window systems and those prices, you know, obviously increasing as well. So you have to get people are switching out their coin operated the washer and dryer for like duplexes if there was like a common area people are switching out for coin operated just to help out you know. Times have changed. Tough. They are tough. We’re lucky. We’re lucky. But I feel so bad for people who are forced to deal with the effects of the market and the involvement of different rules and policies changing. Mm hmm.

Erwin Szeto [01:19:35] I don’t think people understand that. As investors, we want more. Not sorry. Not at all investors. But for myself, I want to see more housing. Like, I would like to see rents and prices come down. I’d like to see more housing supply.

Kayla Andrade [01:19:48] All right.

Erwin Szeto [01:19:49] Like, all these restrictions are actually good for us existing landlords.

Kayla Andrade [01:19:53] You want to see the supply because of the supply, then we don’t have to pay so much now for government housing because we have to pay for them. So we do need to see an influx and it’s going to be good. But a lot of landlords too, when they’re buying up a property that they just bought and it’s crazy, crazy numbers, you know, you see the numbers, how much these houses are going for. So they have to put the rent as high as it is to try to even break even, you know, now even, you know. And then they wait for the appreciation on it. So for us it’s more like we need to put it to that. And in order to how do you control that market of stopping houses from selling at this type of crazy cost? And people are coming in now still in this market asking for giving firm offers cash. And I’m like, why people don’t do cash it just call firm, isn’t it? I wouldn’t be able to do it, but we do have to create that supply. But there’s so many different things that need to be fixed before we can kind of create that supply. And they have to come up with the proper messaging, proper messaging from the proper people who have a deep understanding. Because I find no disrespect if he’s actually listening because he might listen to this, but the minister of Housing is Steve Clarke. He’s I think he’s more on the minister of Municipal Affairs. He’s not so much of the housing side of him. I think he’s really good at the whole minister affairs. He’s one of the youngest mayors that he was before he was, you know, in his position. But I don’t think he has a deep understanding of the housing needs or the solutions for the housing needs, the issues and the solutions. So that’s why I do what I do and get on Facebook lives, meet with people, talk to people, you know, go and be a part of the stakeholders, meeting with the landlord tenant board. And as the election coming up, because that’s when everyone wants to hear from you is when there’s an election. And even though it’s federal, it’s still they have their national housing strategy. And, you know, it’s always about here’s some money to the province. The province passes it to the region, the region goes and gives it to all these people. And unless they’re giving it out to the right people in the right places, that’s where you’ve got to look and see what the problem is there. Because I would love to have like a National Housing Bureau and aware that it’s one location it’s in your city. You get to apply for housing if you need it, apply for government assistance, if you have a housing unit that you want to fill and put it on there, their bulletin for people, you know, it’s going to be a central hub because we have the mental health association that has its own housing list. You know, women who are abused, you have your own housing allowance, people who are on disability or needs accessible. They have we need a hub to see a how many landlords do we have in our area? How many units do we have? How many people are coming into the city every single, every single month or year? We need to know we can accommodate. And what areas do we need growth in? You know, that’s the part that they don’t know. And they just wait for someone to come to the city and say, I like this area, I can buy this property area, this land, and I can develop, you know, are you going to let me you know, that that’s what they wait for. They got to be savvier as a staff and go look for it and go and try to sell the city shelter.

Erwin Szeto [01:22:59] We’re running out of time. How can people follow and or support what you’re trying to do?

Kayla Andrade [01:23:04] One is they can join Ontario landlords, watch Facebook Group. It’s free. Everyone can come in and get to know the members. And of course watch your Facebook lives there they can email me at oh LW landlords at gmail.com and you know support the movement bringing know awareness to landlord credit bureau everyone can you know get on to landlord credit Broadcom then start see hey if you’re in the Canadian area and register, you know, this is our community that we are throwing ourselves into so that we can protect each other and reward our good tenants at the same time. Because my motto has always been bring in a fair and balanced housing system to Ontario for good landlords, good tenants and taxpayers. And I think as long as we continue to keep educating ourselves on the rules and the procedures and getting to know other landlords and tenants needs and understanding them, we can create the solution, but we can only do it with the government’s involvement and their help. So if they want to see this, you know, get better, they can call me.

Erwin Szeto [01:24:04] I in the final words.

Kayla Andrade [01:24:06] This is great. I love this. This is like this is like.

Erwin Szeto [01:24:10] I know you love to.

Kayla Andrade [01:24:11] Talk. I love to talk as the new. For me, that’s the new thing. When you’re away from the kids and you got four kids at home and you’re just like, you can hear yourself speak. It’s like, keep going, keep going. But I want to thank you for doing what you do because I love your posts and your motivation because I, I can come on here and be like a Debbie Downer and tell you about the horror stories and how it’s in chaos a bit. But you know what a really good industry is still to be in. It’s a great way to teach your tenants because even though those tenants may not be able to get their own home right now, that does not stop them from potentially renting a home and renting out rooms in that home, and they become the landlord themselves to get ahead. You know, it’s about that education to them to get them a little further in life as well. And we don’t have enough education. Enough education on how. You be in real estate? How to grow in real estate or how to work the residential intensive sector. Landlord Tenant Board. Education is the key and communication is the key for any success story for the rental housing. So it’s just about getting that format. It put it all together in one hub. And I think I think there is hope. We just need to hope. We have a change in power and.

Erwin Szeto [01:25:21] I hope a school vote.

Kayla Andrade [01:25:24] We got into a little.

Erwin Szeto [01:25:25] I don’t know what to do. Such and such a mess. Thank you. I want to thank you for all that you do. You started on Tell your landlord watch just a grassroots level just to support landlords at the grassroots. Like there’s issues when they get together. Right. And that’s one of the things about W that’s great is that we need to get together because their voices are louder that way. Right. And then, like you said, communicate. So we we’re all aware of the issues. Hey, this city’s introducing licensing. Yeah. All right, we all need to know this because it’s all cities. Look at other cities, and they’ve copycat.

Kayla Andrade [01:25:59] Oh, yeah. They’re back for copycatting each other. And it is. It’s like we’re bringing the landlords. The property managers are real estate agents and the paralegals and even are some of our landlords are actually tenants themselves and the group. So you get to see that by bringing all the voices together. The part is missing. And that’s why our goal is now to, you know, host another online, a conference. We usually do it in person, but we’re going to have the five major regions, the director of housing for five major regions come to this conference. We want them to tell us what they think the number one housing issue is, what the solution is to that issue. And I want them to explain a government program that encourages a developer or a private investor to invest or a government program that is there to help tenants through a hardship. That’s my challenge to them.

Erwin Szeto [01:26:48] What is this.

Kayla Andrade [01:26:49] That I’m hoping for? October seven, but life has been absolutely crazy. You have two out of five regions who are willing to take part in this. They are. There’s no forcing them. As soon as I explained to them, this is what I want you to come and talk, we obviously we have other regions within the province of Ontario, and they can certainly reach out to the person, to the region, the director who I want to speak, to make sure their voices are heard as well. But they’re all going to be invited to this online conference in order for us to connect ourselves together with the elected officials, because we have a heard. We’re not here to just keep evicting people and ask for faster eviction. We’re here to really make Canada great and to make sure that we’re looking out for one another. We’re building that housing community even stronger.

Erwin Szeto [01:27:36] Awesome. Thank you.

Kayla Andrade [01:27:37] Thank you.

Erwin Szeto [01:27:46] Before you go, if you’re interested in learning more about an alternative means of cash flowing like hundreds of other real estate investors have already and sign up for my newsletter and you’ll learn of the next free demonstration webinar I’ll be delivering on the subject of stock hacking. It’s a much improved demonstration over the one that I gave to my cousin Chubby at Thanksgiving dinner in 2019. He now averages 1% cash flow per week, and he’s a musician by trade. As a real estate investor myself. I got into real estate for the cash flow, but with the rising costs to operate a rental business, it’s just not the same as it was 5 to 10 years ago when I started. Never forget the cash flow reduces your risk. The more you have, the more limbs you can absorb. And if you have none or limited cash flow, you’re going to be paying out of your pocket like I did on a recent basement flood at my rental in St Catherine’s, Ontario. If you’re interested in learning more about Stitcher for free from my newsletter at WDW DOT Truth About Real Estate Investing Dossier, enter your name and email address on the right side will include in the newsletter when we announce our next Free Stock Hacker demonstration. Find out for yourself with so many real estate investors are doing to diversify and increase our cash flow. And if you can’t tell, I love teaching and sharing the stuff.

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