$8 + Friday, Jame 2, 1989 - North Shore News RENTAL HOMES FOR INVESTMENT Select correct tenants SELECTING TENANTS takes planning. By LIONEL NEEDLEMAN Contributing Writer There are three types of tenant: students, adult singles, and families. Which group you choose depends on the location of your unit, the parking space available, the month in which the unit becomes vacant, and how you trade off the extra rent that students and singles will pay against the bother that they may cause with short- term leases. Few students have cars, and most therefore insist on living within a mile or two of their university or college. A parking space or two, then, is usually adequate. Most students will want accommodation from the beginning of September to the following April, and you will have difficulty in renting to them at other times. So you need to check that your Student tenants plan to re- main in your unit during the summer months. Working singles have a steadier pattern of demand, but as each of the three or four persons sharing the unit is likely to have a car, they need plenty of parking Space. Families are the easiest eS group to satisfy; they want accommodation all year round, and their parking demands are more moderate. They usually maintain the property better and stay as your tenants longer than the other two groups, but they will only pay two-thirds to three-quarters as much rent. You find tenants by advertising for them, but because the three groups have different requirements and pay different rents, you must direct your advertise- ments at the particular group you wish to attract. To reach students, get in touch with the housing office of your local university or college, preferably in June or July for accommodation that will be available in September. First-year students tend to be less responsible than the more senior students. The best place to advertise for families and singles is in the classified section of. your local newspaper. Make your message informative, attrac- tive and brief. You can get an idea of what to include from other notices in the section. Give the rough location of the house, but not the address. You do not want appli- cants bypassing you and bothering the departing te- nants to show them around. List all the main features, | 980-8585 (24 hrs.) $349,930 eS SY: P ALE AREA EXECUTIVE ADULT ORIENTED 4 BEDROOM VIEW HOME : This home is on a large 60°x150' architecturally landscaped view lot. 3 full bathrooms, 2 fireplaces, formal dining room and huge kitchen with skylights. This home is the ultimate in gracious living. 4020 St. Mary’s. DUPLEX WITH A PARTIAL CITY VIEW Great assumable financing. 50°x140' lot, good rental potential. You could even live in half and rent the other haif out. and remember that anything major that is not listed wili be assumed to be absent. State the monthly rent, excluding utilities which the tenant pays, and give your telephone number. Following the publication of your advertisement, tele- phone calls will come flooding in. Since showing the house is one of a landlord’s most time-con- suming activities, use the telephone conversations to select your shortlist of te- nants and to screen out the others. An important decision is whether to accept pets. Most landlords don’t — for very good reasons. Pets can be noisy and messy. A carpet on which a cat or dog has urinated sev- eral times may not be cieanable, and may have to be replaced at a cost of a thousand dollars. And the best safeguard against getting bad tenants is to require cast-iron refer- ences from former fandlords whose reliability you can check. Lionel Needleman, an economist, is the author of BUY RENT SELL; A Step-by-Step Guide to Mak- ing a Fortune in Canadian Reai Estate. BERKLEY ESTATES 2439 BERTON PLACE VIEW This beautiful architecturally designed 4 bedreom 3 bathroom view home is ideal for the family who needs lots of room. Its huge living room with bay windows, vaulted ceiling and win- dow seats have a view of the city as well as a beautiful brick floor to ceiling fireplace. The large kitchen with built-in eating nook is finished with solid oak cabinets and ceramic tile counters and floors. TWO FO THE PRICE OF ONE! “Serving the North Shore and the Sunshine Coast” Specializing in income tax reduction through real estate investment both residential and commercial. The Homes section of the Friday News features a zoned map of North and West Vancouver and it makes your house-hunting easy. © Zones on the map are clearly rumbered, 1 to 35 from Horseshoe Bay to Deep Cove. © Individual ads throughout Homes section may include the zone number of their location — the number ap- pears to the left of the headline. © All ‘Open Houses’ including price range and the page ~ number of the complete ad, are listed beneath the map. | © All homes that are new on the market, including price, and page number of cornplete ad, are also shown under the Zone Map. Prepare your tour of North Shore homes: © Use the map and the list of ‘opens’, make a list of the ‘opens’ that you want to visit. © Use the advertiser's index and check the complete description of the ‘open house.’ . . © Use the Zone Number that appears on advertised pro- perties in the Homes section. Make a list of any other iomes along your route or in the same zone that are not open but that you can check as your drive by. Pager: | 645-3346 (24 brs.) SUNNY HARBOUR VIEW 1164 CLOVERLEY 3 bedroom 2 bathroom large family home with view of harbour and Mt. Baker. Lovely granite woodburning fireplace in the cazy living room. Very bright dining room and updated kitchen. Huge 21'x25' deck, double carport, lots of parking and a dance-floor _sized ree room with wet bar. dry. 160 Wost 12th St. re’s the fastest route to an open house north shore ° SUNDAY Display Advertising 980-0511 i TOW! LARGE FIN. REC ROOM This 2 bedroom, 3 level, 1300 sq.ft. townhouse is immaculate with features like new carpets, new paint, 1% bathrooms, woodburning fireplace, new appliances, 2 patios, insulte laun- 2 WEDNESDAY + FRIDAY PRIVATE WATERFRONT ESTATE BOWEN ISLAND ~— $499,900 This 3 level architecturally designed 2 yr. old home is the’ ultimate in gracious living. Its 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, family room, den with loft — and the formal dining room opening on- to a beautiful sunken living room —— accord a Juxurious type af living second to none! It's situated on 1 acte of waterfront property with a panoramic view from Lions Bay to U.BC.