Prepare to navigate the complex waters of residential real estate with a sense of humor and a wealth of knowledge as I, Jacquie McCarnan, sit with Nina Ferentinos from Unique Accommodations. We're breaking down the specialized services in property management and tenant placement that make Nina's company a beacon in the industry, all while sharing a laugh over an unexpected encounter with Halle Berry. Beyond the chuckles, you'll uncover the nitty-gritty of what it takes to maintain transparency and professionalism, even when the unpredictable happens. This is the episode where the lighter side of real estate meets the hardcore facts you need to succeed as a landlord or investor.
The world of rental regulations and taxation can be as daunting as it is crucial, and that's exactly where we're headed in our candid discussion. Delve into the recent Supreme Court case that has left tenants and non-resident landlords alike scrambling to understand their new financial obligations. I'll be guiding you through the upcoming shifts in tenancy legislation that are set to shake up the Canadian real estate landscape come May 1st. Discover how these changes could affect your property's value and your pocketbook, and learn the essential steps to protect your investment in the midst of evolving rental rules and inspections. Tune in for an episode packed with indispensable insights tailored for anyone with a stake in residential real estate.
Prepare to navigate the complex waters of residential real estate with a sense of humor and a wealth of knowledge as I, Jacquie McCarnan, sit with Nina Ferentinos from Unique Accommodations. We're breaking down the specialized services in property management and tenant placement that make Nina's company a beacon in the industry, all while sharing a laugh over an unexpected encounter with Halle Berry. Beyond the chuckles, you'll uncover the nitty-gritty of what it takes to maintain transparency and professionalism, even when the unpredictable happens. This is the episode where the lighter side of real estate meets the hardcore facts you need to succeed as a landlord or investor.
The world of rental regulations and taxation can be as daunting as it is crucial, and that's exactly where we're headed in our candid discussion. Delve into the recent Supreme Court case that has left tenants and non-resident landlords alike scrambling to understand their new financial obligations. I'll be guiding you through the upcoming shifts in tenancy legislation that are set to shake up the Canadian real estate landscape come May 1st. Discover how these changes could affect your property's value and your pocketbook, and learn the essential steps to protect your investment in the midst of evolving rental rules and inspections. Tune in for an episode packed with indispensable insights tailored for anyone with a stake in residential real estate.
Hey everybody, welcome back to Keeping it Real, the Vancouver and area residential real estate podcast that aims to cut through all the what's another great word for baloney that also starts with bull. My name is Jackie McCarnan and I am your host for Keeping it Real. I am a North Vancouver, north Shore residential realtor, but I work all over the Lower Mainland and I know stuff about all over the Lower Mainland. So if you listen to this, you will also know stuff about all over the North oh, my God, lower Mainland. As always, to keep my managing broker happy and, by the way, I am absolutely going to have her here so that she can tell you all of the things that I have said that make her crazy Anyway, to keep my managing broker happy, I add this little disclaimer that says anything you hear on this podcast is my experience and my research and oftentimes my opinion. There are lots of different opinions about the research that we have in residential real estate and I welcome yours.
Speaker 1:
On this week's podcast, I have a special guest. I'm so excited. I love it when I have a guest because it's lonely being a solo podcaster. Anyway, my guest is Nina Farentinos. She is the owner and managing broker of Unique Accommodations. Now I could go to their website and read what Unique Accommodations does, but I think it's probably just as well if I let Nina explain what it is. So, without further ado, I am going to introduce you to my friend and colleague, nina Hi, nina Hi.
Speaker 2:
Jackie, thanks for having me. This is really different. I haven't done an in-person podcast before, so this is great. Unique real estate accommodations. So we specialize in residential property management and tenant placement for homeowners, condo owners, and we also offer unfurnished services, and both furnished as well. So we do both Okay.
Speaker 1:
So a couple of a couple of questions. I think the first question that I have is you do offer a unique service, so what makes unique unique?
Speaker 2:
For lack of a better word.
Speaker 1:
What a great name, for lack of a better word what a great name.
Speaker 2:
Well, we do operate a little bit differently. First of all, we only specialize in property management. So, even though our brokerage is completely licensed to do strata as well as residential sales, we don't choose to wear those hats, and the reason for that is we really like to focus our efforts and our energy on servicing our clients to the next level for helping owners really find out what's important to them when they want to rent their home and, on the other side for renters, what are they looking for. So we can really be that great matchmaking service and we find that that makes a big difference.
Speaker 2:
So we can really be that great matchmaking service and we find that that makes a big difference, because we can really focus great answer.
Speaker 1:
So, because I'm mean, I'm gonna put you on the spot a little bit and I'm gonna ask you for a, a story. Uh, let's say, um, I don't know what's, what's your. What's one of the best stories you have when you talk about your business, like what's something that either went horribly wrong and you fixed it, or something went horribly right or somebody burned down a place, like I'm sure you have those stories.
Speaker 2:
Well, I do have a funny story People seem to enjoy that I've shared before. It is for a furnished client that I took out for Halle Berry when I Whoa what? Yeah, well, we do work a lot with the film.
Speaker 1:
My God, if I knew you were that cool. It would have been nicer to you at pickleball.
Speaker 2:
But it is one of the funniest stories because the day before I was scheduled to take her out and show her a few properties, I had a cyclist that hit my windshield over on West 4th, coming off the off ramp from the gravel street bridge and literally I went right up over my windshield. So of course that was very unsettling and I did not have my car for the next morning so I had to get to budget, rent a car. Make sure I rented the car to go down and pick Halle Berry up at the sun. So normally I drive a small compact, you know four-door sedan, so of course they give me an SUV. I'm like super.
Speaker 1:
Like a black Escalade. Halle Berry's like I'm used to this, this is fine, exactly.
Speaker 2:
Me not so much.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I love parking, not so much, oh no.
Speaker 2:
So, anyway, I pick her up, we get going, we go to the first house and, lo and behold, I was given the alarm code. So off goes the alarm, it's going. I'm calling the office. What's the alarm code? I'm so professional, right, and I'm so seeing the headlines. You know, reporter shows up. Oh, you know, real estate agent, real estate rental agent and Halle Berry break into Westside. I'm like great, this is going to look super.
Speaker 2:
So then the next house we go to we get out of the car park the car, get out, go in, do the tour, come back, jump in the car, look around, this is not the car. Oh no, Another black SUV parked right behind us that we just hopped into and we were seeing all the things in the dash and everything like OK, that's not our car. By now I'm thinking she's thinking wow, who?
Speaker 1:
did you go to short?
Speaker 2:
places. So finally we end up downtown. We're gonna look at a penthouse. I pull up, start doing the parking thing on pacific in yale town. Oh my god, get all parked, go around to open the door for her and she practically needs a ladder to get to the sidewalk because I parked so far. I'm like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:
Did you tell her like what had happened?
Speaker 2:
So, finally, when we finished the tour, we were driving back to the hotel I said you know what? I've got to be straight up with you. I feel like today's just been like a gong show. And I said I feel so bad. It's not my car, I had to rent a car. I hit a cyclist yesterday. I can't believe. You even came to pick me up and that was so sweet. You must've been so traumatized Like she was so great about it, you know, gave me a big hug at the end and said it was so nice to go out and she thought it was the best day.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's so nice to hear. Oh, my gosh, I'm glad she's nice, she's so nice.
Speaker 2:
So that's my funniest story. Okay, it's in 25 years. I don't really have any like really bad horror stories to say I don't. Well, how boring. I know what can I say? Yeah, nothing's burned down, nothing's flooded to death.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, nothing's burned down, nothing's flooded to death. How do you get your clients? I suspect you no longer have to prospect for clients, for leads, because you have lots of that. About 85% of our business is referrals.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, which I take as a huge compliment for what we've built. Our perfect client for the unfurnished is, you know, someone that has lovingly maintained their home or they've made a great investment it could be a newer home or just very well maintained because we are very picky about the properties we take on Right and someone that wants to hold it, you know, for a period of time. So we can find a great unfurnished long-term tenant. On the furnished side. It works really well if someone wants to only be in the home, maybe three to four, five months out of the year, and the rest of the time they're either traveling like snowbirds or those kind of yeah, people that have, or people that you know, want to rent it indefinitely but have a secondary home right, they're going to keep it furnished.
Speaker 2:
Maybe they have friends and family that come once in a while. But I don't encourage people who purchase an unfurnished property to put the money and investment into furnishing it up. The numbers just don't make sense. Like if they're never going to want to live in it themselves for any period of time, right, it's so much more advantageous if they just keep it unfurnished. Rent it unfurnished long term, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:
And they could do that through you. It makes more sense to do that through you than to have had a whole bunch of different people. And then, yeah, yeah, because that's a nightmare.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, we do offer like a tenant placement site which is for people who want that screening. They want us to go through that process for them and then we turn it over to them. They might do the day-to-day property management, you know, if they're local and they don't mind. Now, on that point, I think it might be a good time to talk about something that owners should be aware of, and so should tenants, right? Because we work a lot with non-resident owners and we have a requirement by CRA when we are collecting rent, we are deemed to be the Canadian agent, deemed to be the Canadian agent. Therefore, we are required to submit the 25% of the gross rent to Canada Revenue Agency and then at the end, when owners file their taxes the section 216, and they take off all their expenses against the gross revenue, then it'll bring it down to a net revenue and then they'll get money back between Right Between the gross and the rent.
Speaker 1:
I'm going to dumb this down just a little bit. Sure, because not everybody like if you don't own something you don't. A lot of people don't know this. So let's say I'm an American and I own a condo in downtown Vancouver and that condo is rented out. The rental income of that condo is taxed 25% to me as the non-resident, non-permanent resident or citizen owner. And that money, that 25% of that revenue, has to be remitted to CRA. It does, okay, so I just wanted to back that out one step. Yeah, that's a good explanation.
Speaker 2:
And the thing is is that how do you define whether you are non-resident or not? Is whether you file taxes in canada right or not.
Speaker 1:
If you do not file taxes in canada, you are a non-resident.
Speaker 2:
Precisely right this happens a lot in whistler yes, and some people can change their status. Yeah, you know, midway through a rental they might be working towards taking a job somewhere else, being relocated Right, and they've been asked to, you know, completely switch over to that country where they're going to be relocating to therefore becoming a non-resident.
Speaker 1:
Right and do you kind of do you, do you offer them referrals to tax lawyers?
Speaker 2:
referrals to tax lawyers. So they yeah, we actually do. Well, the, the company that does our corporate taxes, has a non-resident division, so we can't Perfect.
Speaker 1:
That's great, okay, so tell us about you and I were talking before about a Supreme Court case where this kind of became an issue.
Speaker 2:
Exactly so. It was a renter that was renting a property from a non-resident and paying the rent directly, so there was no management company involved. The tenant was just, you know, sending the money off to the owner in what they were actually in Italy. So sending the money off and unfortunately the owner was not remitting the taxes to Revenue Canada. Unfortunately, the owner was not remitting the taxes to Revenue Canada. So when this was flagged by Revenue Canada, they came after the tenant for the 25% that was payable.
Speaker 1:
How many years were they paying?
Speaker 2:
It was like five years. It was a long time Wow.
Speaker 1:
We're looking at like $100,000 and then 25% of that.
Speaker 2:
That's not nothing, no, nothing, no, no, no, it's sizable, I mean, and the thing is um. So where we want to lend some insight into this is, if you are a renter, you do have to be mindful of who you're paying, right, if you're not working through an agency, when you're working through a property management company, they are ensuring they're taking that money and you know, at some point, when that owner goes to sell the property which you can probably address more succinctly than I can, but they do need they will have to pay those taxes because there's a form that they have to get from the government.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, what other questions did I have? So you follow all the residential tenancy branch rules and I think that things are getting stirred up quite a bit right now. So there are some new things that are coming out as of May 1st. For example, if you're an owner, you cannot evict the tenant for owner use. Well, you can evict the tenant for owner use with two months notice, but you now have to live in the property for one year before you can re-rent it.
Speaker 1:
Scenario where we have somebody who owns a condo in North Vancouver and they have never lived there and they've been renting it out for the last couple of years, but maybe for due to circumstances like COVID, maybe they just never bumped the rent up and they didn't keep up with the cost of living rental allowance increase. So now that that unit is really under rented, it's a one bedroom and it's rented at 1500 a month and they could get 2500 a month for a one bedroom now in North Van, and so this is an extremely unattractive property to an investor. So you knock out half the possible buyers when you list a place like that, and so the only and so the only people that might want to buy it would be somebody who is going to live in it. So what is this person supposed to do? Well, they could evict the tenant, but now they need to live there for a year before they can. I'm going to do a fact check on that, because we just stopped the recording, as you can probably tell. But for sure they have to live there a year, but it might be that they have to do four months notice.
Speaker 1:
So I'm going to do a quick fact check on that, um, after I send Nina on her way. Um, but cause I don't want to make her sit here while I'm fact checking on the internet. Um, cause that's just mean. Um, but anyway, so there are. It's interesting because the so that that landlord, for example, he has a very under rented, undervalued unit he's not going to be able to sell it unless he sells it to somebody who wants to live there and he's not getting enough rent. So he's probably, if he was on a variable rate mortgage three years ago when he bought it, he's probably paying out of pocket for this, which is a drag. So learning understanding the residential tenancy branch rules is such an important thing in our business. I know a lot of realtors don't often take on the knowledge of RTB, but they really ought to, I think, in my opinion. Sorry, managing broker, for saying that.
Speaker 2:
Well, I will say that there are many pitfalls that owners can come across when they are self-managing that they're not aware of. So whenever we work with a client that only requests tenant placement, we really educate them and we hold their hand and we guide them.
Speaker 1:
That's perfect. That would avoid problems like this, because what happens is owners they're like oh, I've got a great tenant, I'm not going to up the rent. Oh, there's such a great tenant. And then four or five years down the road Cause, I think, cause people don't understand what compounding means a lot of times, but four or five years down the road they find that they're like so far under rented that now the value of their home, the rental, is so low that they can't sell it.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, no, I mean that that can definitely happen over a period of a long time. I mean the increments, now that the rent can be increased annually are not going to probably catch up something that from 10 years ago that's been so well priced?
Speaker 1:
That certainly will not, but if you keep up with it when you buy a place, yes.
Speaker 2:
If you keep up with it annually? Yeah, exactly Cause you can legally increase the rent every year. Yeah, should you choose to.
Speaker 1:
And I think having that conversation with your tenants right at the beginning, say, listen, you know, every January or every anniversary of your tenancy, I'm going to send you a note saying that I'm going to increase the rent by X amount permitted by the government on this date. Yeah Right, and that will be your new rent from there. And you know, here's a schedule of how it might look, but it's not written in stone because we don't know the increase amount every year.
Speaker 2:
Yes, exactly. So I mean we also check in with each of our owners every single time, four to five months prior to the anniversary of the one year, so that they can decide.
Speaker 1:
Oh, regardless of whether they, they do the, do the long term, like the whole management thing with you, or uh, no, okay, once we manage.
Speaker 2:
Okay, just, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, just the ones we manage. So, um, we are always making sure that we bring it to their attention that you know we need to serve a three-month notice to increase the rent, right? So therefore, we're reaching out about five months in advance, just you know. Are you interested in increasing it by the allowable amount that the government has set, or do you want to just you know carry on with letting them rent it for another year at the same rental rate? But one of the biggest pitfalls that we see is sometimes, you know, owners don't meet the tenant to do a moving condition inspection. And that is so important because if it's not noted the condition of the premises prior to the rental and at the time they move in, they can trash it.
Speaker 2:
Well, you can't do anything about it. Well, that's right. Because, at the end. If you have not done the condition inspection report at the beginning and noted the condition and signed off everyone signed off an agreement you have no way of holding them accountable and you might as well not have taken a security deposit at all.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, exactly, I think that those two points the rental increase and the move-in inspection what happens is this is such a good example of how real estate is both business and personal Right. It's always like this in real estate. There there is always this personal personality thing where you, as the landlord, you meet somebody you're like, oh, you seem awesome, you would never do anything to ruin my home. And then and then so they don't bother with the move in inspection and they don't bother with the rent or bringing the rent up, because they don't want to be mean whatever. So that's the emotional side that is counterintuitive to the business side. Exactly Right. And then, and then people end up you know you always have a great relationship at the beginning.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, exactly, yeah. People end up. You know you always have a great relationship at the beginning. Yeah, oh, exactly yeah. And then, if something starts to go sideways, if you haven't, you know, crossed the t's and dotted the i's and done it with some formality, you have no grounds to all of a sudden start to document and start to want to take legal ramifications.
Speaker 1:
I think, another thing landlords don't know, and you see, this is why it's so important to have somebody like you come in and help them, because there are 50 million things you don't know. You don't know, and one of the things that I think a lot of landlords don't know, particularly if they are new landlords, is that they cannot refuse to give back the damage deposit.
Speaker 2:
Exactly. That's the next point I was going to make. So at the end of the tenancy, even though you may want to hold them accountable for certain things, and you're noting it down, maybe you've done a really good job. You did the move-in condition inspection at the beginning and you've got it there with your tenant at the end. You're marking down. You know, inspection at the beginning and you've got it there with your tenant at the end. You're marking down. You know, like this hole wasn't in the wall before I rented it to you, or you know the carpet's been very badly stained in this one area from a plant you overwatered. This will need to be reconciled. If they don't agree, that's too bad. You then have to file for a dispute resolution in order to come to the agreement. You you must return their security deposit.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and if you don't? If you don't, you can, the tenant can be awarded double.
Speaker 2:
I think if you do not return it within 15 business days from the time, they give you the forwarding address in writing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
That's a shoe, that's just a. Then you get double. That they can just apply. And a lot of them will look at the rules and regulations and a lot of them are, you know, professional renters, so they know what the gig is, right. Um, however, once you filed a dispute resolution and you've said that this is in dispute, then you file to keep it until the dispute is Because good luck getting it back after you go.
Speaker 2:
So you do get to file to keep it, but you must file within those 15 business days or you must return it Right right. Those are your only two options. There's no gray area. And another thing we always let owners know when they're going to self-manage is go in and inspect. Go in and take the time. I mean we inspect in the first three months that we place a renter for all of our management.
Speaker 1:
Oh, you mean, go in after they've moved in. Yeah, oh yeah, good idea Do regular inspections on your property.
Speaker 2:
Often, you know, we'll find out that we'll work with an owner who had a renter They've never gone in and inspected and then they were horrified to find the condition of the unit three years later. You know, cupboards you know that had you know were falling off and things were just could have easily been addressed. Right Right, renters don't want to bother you, that's it, yeah. And you look around. You're like, oh, you know, we see that this needs to be repaired. This isn't working. This has gotten damaged somehow. Let's get someone in and just keep up the maintenance of the property as the tenancy goes along.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think that's very, very good advice. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, I think that's very, very good advice. Yeah, yeah, oh well, that's all very exciting. Is there anything else you want to tell us about unique accommodations?
Speaker 2:
Well, we also work a little differently. Our team is actually separated into four divisions, which we find works very well for again delivering a little bit higher level of service and focus for each area. So, basically, myself and two other team members, we go out and we interview new owners. We, you know, describe the process for them and find out what their goals are, try to make sure that it's a good fit for them and it's a good fit for us to work together. And then, once we take a property on, we have a rental team. So that team they field the inquiries, they do the showings, they get the application, they do the qualifying, but they're not the same people that then manage. They're not running around having to do blame people that then manage right. They're not running around having to do everything from start to finish, which we find, you know, if you, if you have that much responsibility as a solo property manager where you're having to do everything from start to finish, sometimes different areas, you know you just don't have enough attention to apply to them.
Speaker 1:
Also difficult to set boundaries. Because right, because then you are getting calls about everything, all the time Getting calls about everything, and you may not be that great a salesperson, but you might be an amazing property manager, right, you know.
Speaker 2:
So at least our team are picked on their qualifications for the areas that they service. Smart, I mean, we're all cross-trained, we can all do everything.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I love your team. They're great fun. Yeah, do you have a nice team? Yeah, hand-picked. Yeah, um, well, that was wonderful. Thank you so much for coming and talking to me today and talking to our my 22 listeners. I'm laughing, you know it's crazy. There's no's been like like I'm almost at 500 downloads so so far. So, yeah, I'm quite I'm excited about moving forward with this podcast and providing. It's just about providing information, right? You know, I want little snippets of information you can listen to on your drive home and sound really super smart at the office.
Speaker 2:
Thanks so much for having me, Jack.
Speaker 1:
You're welcome and we I'll see you on the pickleball court, oh good to be Bring it. My A game.
Speaker 1:
You wonderful folks know that one of my favorite things about having my own podcast is that I get to promote my friends and colleagues, and anybody I think is worthy of promotion. That doesn't mean that people who don't appear on here are not worthy of promotion. It just means that they have not flown into my circle of influence. Not the right word. This week's promotion is the Squamish Women's Hockey Academy that is owned and run by my good friend, evelyn Schellenberg. Evelyn is also a realtor with Remax Masters and a close colleague and kind of killing it, to be honest, but she kind of kills it at everything she does, including the Squamish Women's Hockey Academy, which is this super cool thing that she started in Squamish for women, obviously, who want to play hockey. And I, having played hockey in my 20s and 30s in Whistler and the inaugural Whistler Women's Hockey League, I know how important it is for women to have a safe space to learn how to play the game. A lot of us did not grow up with the opportunity to play hockey. I certainly didn't. I'm, you know, too old. They had ringette, but even that was kind of not super encouraged, I guess. I don't know, but I always wanted to play hockey and so when I got to Whistler and they were starting a new league it was it was great. I got to go and try it. And also, just fun fact, evelyn is a goalie and I was also a goalie. So there you go. No wonder we are such kindred spirits.
Speaker 1:
Do you guys do Wordle? Do you do the Wordle? Did you get into the Wordle in during COVID, I absolutely got into the Wordle. What's your first Wordle word? Mine is ought O-U-G-H-T. I have many people tell me how stupid that is, so that's great. Then I started getting into connections. Have you done the New York Times connections? This stuff it's tricky, it's very tricky and you feel super dumb when you don't get it. So for anybody who wants to feel dumb, check out New York Times Connections. All you have to do is Connections, nyt on the Google search and it'll come up and you can play it just like Wordle. That's all for me this week.
Speaker 1:
Folks, I really want to thank my guest, the wonderful Nina Farentinos from Unique Accommodations. I think we learned some stuff on this podcast. Certainly I did, and I hope you did too On next week's episode. I stumbled over that six times, so now I just said it really slowly. I am planning to do a, an episode on something that is super near and dear to my heart and that is downsizing. But it's not like, oh, you should do this, this and that for downsizing. I'm going to give you some real tools on how and why you might want to think about downsizing, particularly in the market we are about to come into. So if you want to hear all about that tune in next week, want to hear all about that tune in next week. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe on Spotify or Apple podcasts or anywhere you get your podcasts, or you can head over to my website North Van Home Sales slash podcasts. See you next week.