Happy Holidays

I’d like to wish everybody a happy and healthy holiday. I’m certainly going to enjoy myself, I’m expecting family and I’m babysitting my sister’s dogs while she goes to Florida. There’s plenty of good cheer and I’m grateful.

Make sure you read to the very end of the Carnival… there’s a sur-prize...

As usual I have an interesting cornucopia of excellent real estate articles from great Canadian real estate bloggers.

Wade Graham has written a handy guide to About When to Use and When Not To Use A Realtor. Selling a house is hard work especially during the holidays.

Dave Peniuk tells us all His Secret Weapon for Real Estate Investing. I was kind of hoping for a gift giving guide…

Thomas Beyer explains what to watch out for in his post Real Estate Syndications – 8 Mistakes to Avoid It’s a great idea to follow his advice and do your due diligence. Still I really want a guide like 8 ways to keep your three year old away from the Christmas Tree.

Mark Loeffler discusses a holiday gift from CMHC in his post about Rental Rates and Vacancy. A foreshadowing of better times to come for investors.

Garth Turner weaves a tale of real estate woe in his post Lost It makes me sad when the inevitable results of financial mismanagement come to their inevitable conclusion. It’s a happy holiday indeed if this isn’t you.

VREAA asks some great questions of a reader who is wondering if he should Buy or Rent in Fort Nelson. I’m not making any predictions anymore…especially not about how full the shopping malls are.

Next Potato, who is completely sick and tired of snow (with pictures) and who has drunk large bottles of Nyquil due to what seems to be a serious case of possible pneumonia or even tuberculosis wrote about how his landlord reimbursed most of all his expenses for house maintenance. The best part is the links in that post. An expose about buyer’s agents, a serious trouncing of MPAC and more. Be cheery Potato… spring is only 4 months away.

Next my hubby sent me this link to a Special Report at Reuters about the trials and tribulations of getting an appraisal in the USA right now. I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that. Aren’t the appraisers supposed to be the experts? Good thing you’ll have to pay cash for a house in the USA. Why should you worry about fluctuating property values?

I want to remind every one to go visit the Canadian Personal Finance Carnival so you can save up your money to buy more real estate to make more money so you can save more money to buy more real estate. The carnival should be up later in the day.

The next edition of the Carnival is the New Year Edition… and to celebrate the New Year, there will be some prize winner’s announced!

New Year’s Contest !

1 – I’m giving away a copy of the RESP book by Mike Holman over at Money Smarts Blog

2 – I’m giving away an Art Print by Morris Chisholm. Morris knew me when I spent most of my days hanging out at the Sault Ste Marie mall food court and he even helped me move. These prints make really great gifts as well. You get to pick which 16 x 20 one you want.

3 – I’m giving away 2 tickets to TRON on behalf of my husband who takes care of our son everyday and has begun referring to himself as the Blog Widower. He’s awesome and funny and keeps all our computers going.

4 – Finally I’m giving away a $100 email money transfer. Yep I’ll just send you some dough.

This is how you enter

Everything you do gets you one entry.

1 – Go to the top right corner of the blog and sign up for email subscription

2 – Send me a free ecard from Morris’s blog at rachelle@landlordrescue.ca

3 – Add Rachelle Berube to your Linked In

4 – Like Landlord Rescue’s really sad Facebook page. (I’m working on it)

5 – Follow me on Twitter

6 - Write a comment below telling me why you like this blog

7 - Enjoy the holidays and do something nice for someone who needs it.