Discussions

Speaking from real life experience, buying a house while being a single parent. First get a job, if you don't have one. When you have a job, you wake up every morning and see yourself as a survivor no room to be a victim here. If you need childcare and don't want to pay for babysitting ... you become a babysitter in the evening (this could be your part time job) Adam offers a FREE CLASSIFIED section to use at your convenience. Thank you Adam. When your children outgrow their clothes you can sell on e-Brandon, go to mistint section at a paint store, buy a can of paint, purchase old small piece of furniture, re-paint and sell. Save money by not eating out, make your own meals. Use one of the many community gardens in town, use two if you want, can or freeze those vegetables. Maybe you can do baking and sell to people at people at work, etc. If you have children and are a single parent, let's assume you get a tax refund of $2400.00 back. Don't spend it use it as $200.00 extra dollars a month. Save $100.00 of it or $150 and re-invest into making more money with the other $50.00 or $100.00 and grow from there.  
Not knowing what your particle situation is I can only give general advice. But if you truly want to be a homeowner bad enough, you will quit blaming everybody and everything else and find a way to make it happen. Opportunities are endless!!!

S.V.S. said "Most people buy their own homes through blood sweat and tears. Landlords get their cake and eat it too. Be like if I rented my 40,000$ vehicle for the monthly loan payment plus some profit and all associated expenses then used that cash to buy a couple more, rent those and on and on. Sooner or later I end up with a fleet of FREE vehicles my leasers pay'd for. Bless the capitalists, land of freedom and opportunity. Dog eat dog and the rich get richer. "

if I rented your $40,000.00 car and paid the monthly payments on it for the 4-8yrs of that loan, would you allow me to have it for free after all the payments have been made? Will you keep the upkeep on the vehicle for free too? Why do landlords have to rent their homes for free and not make any money? I'm not understanding this mentality.  
Plus if you rent me your car, that means you need to get another car to drive around, cause I have yours, so off your little profit you are making off me, you will probably put that towards your next vehicle purchase, plus you will also need to have a back up, cause if the one I'm renting breaks you will have to have me another one to use till mine is fixed (just like how a landlord has to fix & put people up in hotels if the repairs are deemed to big to fix quickly).  
Sorry if your post was not meant the way I take it, but it's very easy to sit back when and type crap when you haven't actually experienced both sides. Heck, there are NO free places to live, even shelters are supported either by government or churches, so while maybe the people staying there aren't paying, the rest of the province is or the church goers are.

S.V.S. said "Most people buy their own homes through blood sweat and tears. Landlords get their cake and eat it too. Be like if I rented my 40,000$ vehicle for the monthly loan payment plus some profit and all associated expenses then used that cash to buy a couple more, rent those and on and on. Sooner or later I end up with a fleet of FREE vehicles my leasers pay''d for. Bless the capitalists, land of freedom and opportunity. Dog eat dog and the rich get richer. Bonus, 10yrs later the beater's worth 80g to boot. Roofs over peoples heads aren't like retail store luxury items marked up 1000% Rent guides don't apply past 1200. Some very decent fair landlords out their, and some that give the rest a bad name. Buddy got tired of the crap from poor tenants, sold all 6 revenue homes, retired @ 40.     Edited by S.V.S., 2017-03-24 10:18:28"

Where do you think landlords get the money to buy rental properties? Through the same blood sweat and tears! Yes I have a rental property. I worked hard for 30 years and still had to borrow the down payment and take out a mortgage to buy it. Its called an investment, no different from stocks or whatever. If you think I should take a loss on my investment every month so I can supply a cheap place for somebody else to rent you are dreaming! At the rate I'm going I could possibly use the profits from this house to buy another one….in about 40 years! You're living in a fantasy world.

life is what you make it, 37yrs toiling, million bucks plus to the good now from investments, good choices, and thinking ahead. Never had to avail myself to profit from others.

But has anyone considered the fact that since the increase in immigrants years ago that rent has been on the rise.  
 
Now if Maple Leaf or any other company that relies solely on immigrants to work, were to suddenly go out of business, rent prices would go down and so would housing costs. There would be an increase in forclosures and rent and house purchasing would reduce greatly.

why not pool you resources and build a few units to rent at a more reasonable price?  
 
Kirk

Considering Brandon is a retail town with a fair number of people making min. wage or slightly above it, proportionally speaking, yes, housing and rent is high. It will likely stay that way until a certain business on the east side of Brandon pulls out(just a matter of when) . What's the solution in solving this ongoing problem is another story?

My husband and I have owned a 4 plex for 9 years. We lived upstairs for part of that time. We have raised rent ONLY once but only for 2 of the suites. With the cost of hydro and water going up, I'm afraid we will have to raise rent soon. (But the gov't will regulate that). We have only had 2 nightmare tenants. One wanted to "try" having a dog in our brand new suite that we added on. The $400 damage deposit sure didn't cover everything we had to replace and fix after the dog did a number on that place. I realize there are responsible pet owners out there, but unfortunately it only takes 1 person to ruin it for everyone.  
 
The other tenant was constantly behind in rent, had other ppl living with him in the bachelor suite and was on drugs 90% of the time we tried to reason with him. He smoked in the suite MULTIPLE times and unhooked the smoke detector (big no no!) We contacted the landlord/tenancy board and we couldn't even do anything. If we wanted to "take action" it would've taken 3 months just to take him to court. We even had him sign papers twice saying he had been smoking in the suite. We couldn't kick him out and the police said they couldn't do anything either. So tenants definitely have more rights when it comes to stuff like this. I can understand that it is frustrating for ppl out there who may be going to school or single parents, but like the previous post said, renting is a business. We end up owing the government (CRA) around $4000/year for our rentals, because it is "tax-free"' money. Our profit margin definitely gets smaller every year. And we are "on call" 24 hours a day. This past December one of our tenants had locked themselves out of their suite one evening...it just happened to be my husband's Xmas party. He texted us multiple times while we were out (for supper and drinks). He did not stop texting or calling my husband until we got home around midnight then stopped by our house to get a key. We couldn't drive for obvious reasons, but he didn't want to call a locksmith in the mean time. (He has since gotten an extra key cut - thank goodness!)  
 
Luckily, we've never had a vacancy in one of our suites, but if landlords do, they still have to cover the mortgage. We try our best to "upkeep" the place and some of our tenants do help as well. We give them a bit of a discount if they take the garbage/recycling bins out every week, keep the sidewalks clear in the winter and mow the grass in the summer. We supply the gas for the lawnmower or salt for the sidewalks, etc. But it can be very hard to find good tenants. We always tell our tenants to let us know ASAP if something needs fixing or replacing. They do the basics like changing lightbulbs but if their toilet or sink is clogged or something, we want to know soon before things get worse. All landlords are not out to "get rich".  
 
I agree with Adam...tenants should make themselves "stand out" from other tenants. Treat your first encounter with the landlord almost like a job interview. If you're late showing up to see the suite or your references don't give you a great review, guess what? You're probably not going to get the suite.  
 
Just my two cents.

A look at costs at a number of markets in Canada. On one hand a whole lotta $1300s for 2 bdrm places.... on the other property values in a lot of the places noted are quite a big higher than Brandon:  
http://globalnews.ca/news/3347669/canada-rental-costs-infographic/

$220,000 (2 bed/2bath 1000sq ft Condo). 5% down payment $11,000.  
25yr Fixed Mortgage Rate of 2.6%  
Property Taxes $265.00/month.  
Hydro (Summer/Winter) $70-$175/month.  
Condo Fees $200/month (i:ncludes water, yard maintenance, window cleaning).  
Insurance $330.00/year.  
 
To the people complaining about high rent in Brandon. Please, tell me what I should rent this Condo Unit for? I would prefer my budget not to be in the negative so you can live more comfortably...  
 
People it is about prioritizing needs/wants. To the people of Brandon complaining about high rental rates save your money by budgeting for what your income allows you to afford by necessity not your wants. Having a car, internet, cell phone, makeup, dining out, extracurricular activities etc. are not necessities these items are wants. Live by necessity only for a year and you will be shocked by how much money you can save!!!  
 
Quit complaining about your rental price situation and be your own change (buy your own property).