Real estate agent for rental unit..what are they responsible for?

I was wondering what is the job of a real estate agent for a rental property?...are they suppose to check on references,credit history of the potential tenant?..if there is issues with the tenant do they assist the owner?... 

 The buyer agent is responsible for bringing the seller agent a client. Both agents ensure that both parties are happy with any reference checks or whatever. The value added is just a series of very minor paperwork and gathering of documentation like credit report and drafting the agreement etc. Surely advice is thrown around somewhere.

Do they assist owner? Probably not. After they collect their commission, they'll probably never want to talk to you again. This is why most people prefer to have a friend or relative as their agent.

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What a real estate agent does will be highly variable. The minimum level of service is very minimum: they'll put an ad on MLS, and help you find a tenant if they've got nothing better to do.

Good agents may also take pictures of the property, put ads up on other sites and/or in the newspaper, show the property to tenants (or let a buyer's agent bring tenants by), and if you're really lucky, they may help you do a credit check or swing by staples to pick up a lease document for you.

Bad agents (and I've seen many) will put the ad up on MLS and then not even return phone calls from prospective tenants -- and if they do, they may just try to sell the tenant on buying, not owning, so they can get a buyer's agent commission, and not a month's rent from your rental ad.

I don't think any will help you out with the ongoing stuff like collecting cheques or dealing with issues down the line. For that you want a rental agent or property manager, not a real estate agent (though sometimes a rental agent who will help with that also happens to be a real estate agent).

If you're in Toronto, some people I can recommend 2nd or 3rd hand (don't own a rental myself):

http://landlordrescue.ca/service/

Rogers wireless phone plan cancellation penalty...

Hi there,

Just wondering if you anyone had experience with cancelling their wireless phone contract with Rogers...
I still have 2 years left with my 3 year contract with Rogers, and they are charging me $400 for the maximum monthly penalty and on top of that $100 for the data plan cancellation. They said the only way to avoid the penalty is to transfer the plan to someone else.

Does anyone know other ways around this hefty cancellation penalty?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Thanks. 

- If it's for the sake of iPhone 4, you will need to wait another year before you can get another subsidize phone from Rogers (and extend the contract by 3 more years).
- If it's for affordability, call retention and negotiate an affordable plan.

If you really need to get rid of it.
1. Get Rogers retention plan.. to make it attractive.
2. Post your plan in kijiji, craiglist or RFD - FS section.

2 years contract will be a hard sell. You might need to add some cash incentive... Better than paying $500 to cancel it.

if your plan is good, u can convince someone to take over your contract, and that way u'll not need to pay anything (assuming that the person is not asking for money to take over your plan).

Declaring wire transfer cash to/from foreign country over $10k

I am aware we are suppose to report transfer of funds to other countries over $10000. When we wire cash, does the bank automatically report it?

I am in a situation where I used Citizen Bank (used to be a subsidy of Vancity Credit Union) but they went under. I used citizen bank to wire $30K - lending my funds to my relative in Hong Kong and I did not report it.

My relative is ready to return my cash but I dont know how the records will look like. Since Citizen Bank is no longer active, I will need to use another financial institute to receive the cash. Will the CRA be up in my case since I dont have proper record of lending the money out in the 1st place? 

Yes, the bank reports it. I can confirm as I work for a bank in the wire payments unit.
The reporting is not done manually. The banking system automatically identifies accounts with combined transactions of $10K or more per day. And reporting is nothing to be afraid of unless the source of your money is illegal or the money is used for sponsoring illegal activities. Combined transactions of more than $10k per day can consist of $2k withdrawal, $2k cheque deposit, $2k outgoing wire transfer, $2k internal transfer to another bank account, and $2k email transfer received into the account, all on the same day.

Even if your combined transactions per day is not more than $10k, your account may still be flagged and/or reported to the government if anyone in the bank from tellers to account internal audit people think your activities are suspicious.

Gold Jewelry as Collateral

Hi Guys,
I need some advice regarding putting the jewelry as collateral. Can someone let me know as to what is the best way to use jewelry as collateral for a secured line of credit or loan. Any idea as which banks offer this product or what the good offers (in terms of interest rate or % of value given) might be?

Thanks. 

No bank will take Gold Jewelry as Collateral. Maybe gold ingot... but that's a long shot.
What you're looking for is a pawn shop.

New Ownership Costs

I just received my first utilities bill today from Ontario PUC and there was a charge for 'Home Occupancy' - $30.00 and 'Deposit' - $200.00! I'm a bit stunned by this because I wasn't expecting to pay a $200.00 deposit, and I don't even know what it's for.

I bought a new home (re-sale) about a month ago so this is all new for me especially all of these 'Administrative Charges' for changing my name to the new address. I had to pay the City of Oshawa $10.00, and another $25.00 to Hydro to change my name to the new address. I think it's a bit ridiculous to pay all these administrative fees. It's not cheap. They add up - in my case, $65.00 just to change ownership!

Does anyone know what the $200 deposit is for, and do all new owners have to pay this?

Thanks.

When I bought my house, both the gas and hydro companies required a deposit. However the gas company waived the deposit if I signed up for pre-authorized payments, and the hydro company waived the deposit if I provided a credit report.

They're not trying to screw you, they just want to protect themselves (ie: you use a lot of utilities over a period of 3 months and don't pay, they could be out a lot of money).

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Ontario Hydro (Hydro One - EDIT) told me that I have to pay a $200 security deposit but I would get it back at the end of the year with interest. They just want to be sure you don't default on your payments or anything like that.


The only way I was able to get out of it was by doing pre-authorized payments and equal billing. I chose to pay the $200 bucks as I don't like the fact that Ontario Hydro could potentially have $100s of my dollars sitting in their bank account collecting interest instead of mine. I'd rather leave it at $200 and get it back next year.