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From the monthly archives:

December 2009

Three Suggestions for Your New Years’ Resolutions

December 31, 2009 Real Estate

Family is very important to Megan and I. In particular I worry about our future kids and their education. My degree cost somewhere around $35,000 for just classes and books. These three ideas are part of a New Years’ resolution from two years ago. 1. Get your personal and family finances figured out. Do a [...]

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Finding Dead Bodies

December 26, 2009 Property Management
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While I’m taking some time off at Christmas I’m recycling some of the best old posts here. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas! The hardest part of investing in real estate is property management. Sometimes it’s more tenant management than property management, but either way…. Next to concerns over cost and market projections, dealing with tenants is [...]

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Idiot-Proofing Home Appliances – Some Funny Pictures

December 23, 2009 Real Estate
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Yesterday Megan and I went looking at houses for a new principal residence. It’s always fun to look at houses, and I always seem to find something really entertaining. This time I found it in the laundry room. On the washing machine: (The stickies say stuff like ‘cheer normal to medium line’, ‘Fleecy use about [...]

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Talk is Cheap – Fear is Abundant

December 22, 2009 For Real Estate Investors

One thing I’ve been able to do quite a bit of lately is catch up on some great blogs, but there’s also some real stinkers out there. Some of the negative/bad/bubble blogs are important for me to read because they bring up the questions I have to answer from potential investors, but there’s often an [...]

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The Canadian 12 Days of Christmas

December 21, 2009 Song of the Week

It’s only 4 sleeps until Christmas Morning! I’ve already enjoyed the first of three turkey dinners this holiday and it’s so nice to be home with my family and friends. In particular it’s great to hang out with my 4-month old nephew Robbie and my parents. Ireland was a lot of fun, but I’m not [...]

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The Great Famine – 21st Century Style

December 17, 2009 The Economy
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North America is home to a generation of people who have never experienced a recession in their adult lifetime. They’re between 20 and 30, much like myself. I remember when I was very young, my dad being laid off from construction during the recession which hit in 1984. He’s mentioned it before, but he was [...]

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Continuous Improvement – Personally

December 14, 2009 Personal
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In about 48 hours I’ll be getting on a plane and returning to the Great White North, which gives me cause to reflect on the past 3 1/2 months. I’ll be doing some more of that in the next few posts (as I’ll have a lot of time in airports to write them), but I’m [...]

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