Welcome to the Edmonton Revenue Property Investors Monthly Newsletter

It's time again and the monthly association meeting of our group has arrived. For those of you new to this e-mailing here are the particulars.

            Once a month on the second Tuesday of each month a like-minded group of real estate investors meet on the second floor at Rosie’s Restaurant. Located at the corner of 105 St. and 80 Ave.  Arrivals at 6:30 and the meeting starts at 7:00 pm. You are cordially being invited to attend. Attendees are required to pay $10 at the door. There is no annual membership charge yet. All attendees and visitors are asked to buy $5 worth of food to support the use of Rosie’s Restaurant 2nd floor meeting room, and please generously tip your server, this helps to support our free use of the meeting room. Please bring a few of your used real estate or self help books that you no longer require to donate to our library or door prizes.  If you park to the east of Rosie’s in the strip mall parking lot, please pick up a free parking pass from the bar to put on your windshield. 

            Each meeting is different as we may bring in special guest speakers for each meeting. Each speaker is uniquely qualified in his or her own specific field of expertise. Even a seasoned investor will be pleasantly surprised with the knowledge gained from attending our meetings. We encourage all attendees to participate at the meetings by asking our speakers your pertinent questions. We need and appreciate your input at all meetings. Like-minded investors can and do learn and help each other to achieve success.

               We really do look forward to seeing you and please bring a friend to our next meeting. If you have a friend that you feel would like to be put on our e-mail list send their e-mail to me.  

Now a word from your President. 

News media, internet blogs and forum postings are swinging full force at local landlords. Terms like greedy scumlords, rent gougers and the like are being used to describe the providers of the majority of rental housing to the masses. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!!! If a homeowner has to pay market rate of $3000 per month for a house why shouldn't a tenant have to pay $1050 market rate for an apartment? (thats actually still below market). Rents have been depressed far too low for far too long and tenants have been living in an artificially subsidized marketplace on the backs of landlords. Now that the market has made it possible to bring rents up to market levels tenants are screaming to the media and to their MLA's that those greedy gouging scumlords are jacking the rents too high. Guess what, on the surface a rent increase of $400 per month on the surface seems excessive but wait... lets analyze the numbers. Average selling price of a 1969  1 bedroom apartment unit in a walk-up apartment complex in Edmonton as of May 2007 $130,000. Financing costs at only 6.5% over 20 years $969.25 plus operating costs of  average $241 per month equals $1210.25 Average rent of the unit is typically $650-$850. resulting in a loss of yield of $560.25 to $360.25 Billions of landlords dollars are sitting in Edmonton apartment buildings earning absolutely no income at all!!! Edmonton's rents are being subsidized by landlords every day with not a word of thanks from tenants or government!!! Tenants and opposition politicians are crying rent controls we want rent controls. What the hell for??? Landlords are already leaving millions in the hands of renters. Just whom is greedy? The Alberta Government is correct in absolutely not allowing the socialist name callers to get any form of housing destroying rent controls. The Government will rightly help granny pay rent with a government subsidy. The economy will chug along and when rents get high enough more apartments will be built. Remember that an awful lot of those condos being built and converted are being bought by investors that are in turn being put into our rental pool. All costs are going up. It is unfair to landlords to bear the brunt of economic expansion by limiting yield to far below a reasonable percentage of asset value. I was there in the late 1970's when the Alberta Government introduced rent controls and all that did is force me to sell every rental property I owned. Bring rent controls in again and I will condo sell every apartment building I own and I will move to greener pastures. Thank god the Conservatives have learned from past bad experiences, Too bad the same can not be said for the Liberals and the NDP.

---

Our guest speaker this month will be: 

GREG CHRISTENSON, P. ENG.      

Chairman of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce

Greg Christenson is President and Co-Owner with Peter Dirksen of Christenson Developments, one of Edmonton’s leading developers of Active Adult Communities.  Greg works for the long term interests of Canadian communities through industry associations. 

Greg is a past president of both the Edmonton and the Canadian Home Builders Association, and is currently the Chair of the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce.  Greg has served on the Alberta Building Code, the Condominium Property Act, the New Home Warranty Program, and on the Edmonton Task Force on Affordable Housing, the Property and Business Tax Review Committee, and volunteers to work on other issues. 

A graduate in Civil Engineering from the University of Alberta, Greg followed his father, Lloyd, into business in 1979, designing and building over 1000 rental units as Chris-Con Builders.  When Alberta real estate had its downturn, Greg went into the property management of foreclosed and investor owned properties.  Christenson Property Management currently manages over 3,000 units.  In 1989 Greg and Peter formed Christenson Developments to create new bungalow and apartment communities. 

Christenson Developments has a win-win philosophy and believes in sharing ideas with other like minded businesses, and with non profit and government agencies.  Greg promotes new concepts such as Urban Villages and innovative prototypes such as Aging in Place Campuses to respond to our rapidly changing needs. 

Christenson Developments has been the proud recipient of the Edmonton Builder of the Year, Grand Sam Award, for the past five years. Award winning communities include Railtown and Devonshire Village in Edmonton, Centre in the Park in Sherwood Park, Citadel Village in St. Albert, and projects in Leduc, Beaumont, and Lacombe. 

Greg makes his home in the Christenson Community of Creek Side, on the Mill Creek Ravine, in central Edmonton.

---

           We will also be talking about the real estate market, landlording, present housing prices and trends for Edmonton real estate, and many more topics. If you have any real estate for rent or for sale please make up some hand outs to give to any attendees and be prepared to stand up and tell us about your handouts. Please network and socialize with the other members and guests before and after the meeting. If you want to list your for rent or for sale real estate online please visit  Rentex Homes  and  Buy Sell Rent Ads ...register and post your properties.  Please visit our approved contractors site  Bookmark this list as it is not easy to navigate to it from our home page. If you know good contractors email me and I will add them to the site.  I am still looking for good south side apartment and commercial buildings, if you hear of any please contact me ASAP!!

If you have any questions at all please e-mail me at admin@rentexhomes.com or call me at 780-433-1481 regarding any of the above.

    See you all at the next meeting,

    Your cordial President, Les Michaelson  

About the Author: Les Michaelson has been an Edmonton Real investor since 1978. His interests are in the hands on operation of acquiring managing and selling of revenue properties of all types.