Hovel Hunters International, Ep. 6. Executive Living.

# 99 Easy St.

From Lee Michaels, Blackburn News.

A Brampton-based property management company is trying to rid Sarnia rental buildings of drug-based crime, one unit at a time.

Safe and Sound Property Management Manager Rae Ostrander says they’re contacted by new property owners and then begin to service eviction notices to those who are not paying their rent.

They also collaborate with Sarnia police to determine if drug activities are known in the building and work to get rid of those tenants as well.

Link to the rest here.

Editorial Opinion:


So let me see if I got this right: you pack your buildings with the disabled, mental health/addictions people, working poor, single moms, people on Ontario Works and ODSP. 

Then you pressure the cops to crack down on drug activity in apartment buildings...

What, you got a for-profit jail in the works and all them beds need to be filled, eh...???

Yeah, I recall their ad in the paper:

“Residential apartments for rent in a clean, quiet, professionally-managed building currently undergoing policing operations for persistent drug activity. $700-$950.00 a month…”

The disabled welcomed with big smiles and open arms...and hands.

Especially since the province did away with the Moving Benefit.

Executive living bought to you by Safe & Smug in Brampton Property Management.

Just a general observation, but when property management does away with the live-in superintendent, you lose something in on-site presence. When I think of some of the simple noise problems I've experienced, and documented over the years, it would have been too simple to go down, knock at the super's door and say, "Hey! You gotta come up here and listen to this."

Quite frankly, it would have been nipped in the bud, very, very quickly, and not too many questions asked. On the other hand, the company probably does generate another $700-$950.00 per month in revenues.

Thank you for reading.

A Good Plan Demands Good Information.

Three on Stuart St. in the working class/south end of the city. The rail yards are a hundred metres away, and your bookshelves will wobble back and forth up to an inch when a train is leaving the yard. Yet these houses may be under $100,000.

So, our basic premise here at Hovel Hunters International is that if a person on fucking disability can pay $9,441.00 dollars in rent in a year, they can afford a small house. The big hurdle is financing--some kind of credible down payment and then a mortgage, which is problematic when someone's on ODSP at a rate of about $13,500 a year; including some small business and employment income. At least you're building equity, and you don't have someone on the other side of a very thin wall at both ends of the apartment. That's not to say you won't have an asshole as a neighbour because that is very likely to be the case. I calculated a $50,000 mortgage with ten percent down at around $228.00/month at the current rate, which is at a historic low. What we need is a plan, one that is long term and not something to be done on impulse. Once certain resources are in place, it is possible to strike when the iron is hot. Otherwise it's a big scramble, followed by the inevitable disappointment when you couldn't move fast enough. ODSP clients can have up to $7,000.00 in the bank, which very few of us do. We can also receive gifts, which happens sometimes. So, how do you save that seven grand...??? Or earn it.

"Fisbo" (for sale by owner.) Wellington St., central city. The side door indicates this might be suitable for a basement apartment/income property. In Sarnia, all basements leak, if someone tells you different, they are lying.

South Queen St. $89,000. Apparently it's three bedroom and the garage goes straight through to the back, or at least it did years ago when the step-grandfather owned it.