At the start of today’s episode, I’ll talk about our “Room by Room Review” book and how it can help you prepare your home for sale.  Your two options are to do it yourself, or get customized advice about preparing your home to sell.  The most successful sellers choose the latter option.

Then I’ll loop back around and talk about toilet seats, kitchen appliances and staircases, and how they relate to getting top dollar for your home.

But probably the highlight of today’s episode is a look at the numbers behind an investment property. My theory is that Milton is a lovely place to raise a family and live, but it’s not always my favourite option for cash-flow positive investment real estate.

See my analysis of the numbers on Woodward in the video. Where I see it being a fantastic option is living in one part of the home and renting the other. Then the NET expenses are lower than most one-bedroom apartments – and it becomes a pretty sweet option.

If you want a copy of that spreadsheet I showed in the video, let me know.  A good rule of thumb right now is that the property should be making AT LEAST 0.5% of the value of the home in rent each month.  So a $500,000 home should be clearing $2,500 in rent before I would even consider it as an option.  And there are many places outside of Milton that can get up to 0.7% or higher… that’s when you’re really making money every month.  That’s not the only analysis you should use, but it’s a quick way to find the “short list” of opportunities.