My first landlord was named John.

I even remember his last name, but I don’t need to share it.  I remember quite a bit about John.  I remember his thick Greek accent, his massive hands, his never-ending supply of white short-sleeve dress-shirt, and the cologne he seemed to think needed to be poured so thick onto his skin that it actually eeked into his soul…

I was living on King Street in Hamilton while attending McMaster University.  It was 1998.

I paid $575 per month to live in an apartment that was one of five in a building that had a storefront out back, four apartments up top, and one apartment on the main floor at the back of the building.

John owned a restaurant in Westdale and that’s where I would meet him when I had an issue, needed to provide rent cheques, or that one time he gave me something called “Drano” and told me to pour it into the sink.  I was 18-years-old, what the hell did I know?

John was extremely hands-on, but I only know this now, looking back.  He was always at the restaurant and was easy to reach, as this was before email and text messages.  He was also a problem-solver and he took landlording seriously.

When I was in second-year university, the apartment below me was leased by three girls who were always loud.  They partied every single night and I would look out my window and see them drinking and sitting on the hood of a car.  Every single night, without fail, until well into the morning.  And as much as I enjoyed “Say My Name” and “Genie In A Bottle,” I didn’t want to hear it at 1:30am.

After three weeks of this, I finally went and saw John at the restaurant.  I told him that I was sleeping on my couch because it was on the other side of the apartment and it was moderately quieter, and the noise from the ceiling fan drowned out the sound as well.

I remember John saying to me in his thick accent, “The girls.  Their parents.  They all say they good girls.  They respect the apartment.  This and that.”  Then he took his glasses off, rubbed his eyes with his palms, and said, “I take care of this.”

I never heard a peep from those girls again.

I have no idea what he did or said, but I didn’t so much as see them for the next seven months.

That apartment served me well for the first three years of university, but after my Toronto internship between 3rd and 4th year, I went back and found that John had sold the building.  The new owner put a dividing wall in the living room of my old apartment and turned it into a three-bedroom!  I ended up renting an apartment down the street in a 30-40 unit building and the property manager was this nasty old woman who lived on site.  She was obsessed with Elvis…

Nowadays, it seems that most tenants don’t care who their landlords are.

The rental market in Toronto is so competitive that it’s the landlords that do the choosing.  It’s the landlords that ask the questions.  Not in a million years would a prospective Toronto tenant think to say to the landlord, “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions about your experience?”

But the truth is, they should.

Toronto is filled with investor/landlords that take the first part seriously and refuse to acknowledge the second part.

Consider a unit that is owned by an individual overseas.  That individual usually hires a crappy agent to lease the unit, and this agent acts as the go-between.  When the dishwasher breaks, good luck getting somebody to fix or replace it.  Most tenants in this position end up paying for it themsleves, or simply going without a dishwasher for the duration of the lease.

The new “Ontario Standard Lease” was supposed to clean this up, by providing contact information for the landlord, but a basic email address doesn’t really help if your landlord is on the other side of the Earth.

I’m always impressed when a cooperating agent asks me, “Can you tell me a little bit about the landlords?”  It’s a great question, and I respect those who ask it so I always provide a bio of the landlords.

A great landlord is hard to find in Toronto, and as some readers mentioned in blog posts earlier this month, a property management company might be too “by the book” for your liking at times, but they’re always professional.

A recent article in the Globe & Mail noted that Vancouver is leading the country in what they call “mom-and-pop” landlords.

Have a look:

“Vancouver Leads Country In Mom-And-Pop Landlords”
Globe & Mail
November 18th, 2022

From the article:

Recently released statistics show that Vancouver has the highest percentage of mom-and-pop landlords in Canada, which may not come as a surprise for anyone with a mortgage to cover.

Statistics Canada said 11.2 per cent of Vancouver home owners reported income from a rental unit. In 2020, 7.9 per cent of Canadian households overall reported rental income. The data only includes small landlords, not trusts and corporations that manage buildings.

The report says the growth rental income from small family-owned properties coincided with low interest rates, which had enabled people to buy second investment homes or homes that contain a suite. The most common of these small property owners, who some observers have called “artisanal landlords,” are couples living in big cities. Close to half are between 45 and 64 years old. Two out of three earn a regular income as well as income from their rental sideline.

The data line up with previously released StatCan statistics that showed one in five homeowners own a second or third property in Vancouver. Region wide, the figure is 16.4 per cent, similar to Toronto.

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This got me thinking: what is the “typical” profile of a Toronto landlord?

It’s a good question.  Er, I mean, I know I just asked it, but I wonder why more people haven’t?

So I had this idea: why don’t I share the profile of all the landlords I have represented this year, and we can look for a common theme?

At the very least, it will provide some colour on who’s renting out condos and houses in Toronto this year.

A lot of our rentals are handled by other members of my team, so we could probably flush this out to 25-30 landlords, but for now, let me detail the few that I represented personally as the exercise might otherwise feel repetitive.

I’m leaving names and addresses out, so we’ll just look at the property type, size, style, and price.

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Detached, 4-Bed, 3-Bath, $3,945/Month

These property owners bought the house in 2010 for $450,000.

They were a young family with one small child, buying their first home in Toronto after having lived in multiple places around the world.

Since they purchased the house in 2010, they have lived in the house off and on, with work commitments taking them from Toronto to Calgary, back to Toronto, and now to Vancouver.

They had rented this house for a period of three years, from 2015 through 2018, then moved back for four years.

Yet another move for work has now taken them out of the house again, thus the rental in early 2022.

They had contemplated selling the house in 2015 when they first moved out west and I told them, “Do not sell this house.  You’ll want to come back at some point, and it’s also not a bad place to have your equity.”  Thankfully, they listened, since they came back three years later, although they had to live in temporary accommodations while they waited for the tenants to finish up their lease.

Are these “mom-and-pop” landlords?

Not really.  This is actually their home.

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1-Bed, 1-Bath, $2,295/Month

This client’s rental journey pre-dates me, as they had owned this property well before I met them.

This is the very definition of an “investment property.”

I rented this property for them in 2017 for $1,950/month, then in 2018 for $2,350/month when we had multiple offers.  That tenant stayed for four years.

This time around, the property sat on the market for quite some time and we ended up leasing it for $2,295/month to an individual on an international job transfer.

Are these “mom-and-pop” landlords?

Yes, by definition.

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2-Bed, Den, 2-Bath, $3,295/Month

This client’s rental journey also pre-dates me as they had owned many properties before I met them, but I have since sold them several properties for investment and I have leased out several as well.

This is also the very definition of an “investment property” but these aren’t one-off landlords.  They both have full-time jobs, and this is a “side hustle,” but they’re damn good at it, and they’ve been doing this for a long time.

I leased this property for them in 2017 for $2,800/month, then in 2021 for $2,950/month, then again this past spring for $3,295/month.

We went through a dozen candidates before we settled on one.

These are the type of landlords that would rather have the unit sit vacant for a month or two than pick a tenant that isn’t absolutely perfect.

Are these “mom-and-pop” landlords?

Not really.  They’re not professionals, and yet, they kinda are.  I’m not sure how you define these folks.

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1-Bed, 1-Bath, $2,195/Month

These clients are one of my favourite stories.

They purchased a condo for investment in 2015 for $306,000.

Then they purchased a second unit in 2017 for $370,000.

Then they purchased a third unit in 2019 for $549,000.

I have leased these condos for them a combined nine times.

They have seen a substantial return on their investment with all three units, not just in terms of the appreciation but also the amount of the mortgage that has been paid down over the years.

But they’re incredible landlords.  They’re very hands-on, they often put work into the units that other landlords wouldn’t, and they were sympathetic during the pandemic when two tenants had to move out.

Are they a couple of Richie-Riches?  Nope.  Just two “normal” folks.  Working hard, raising two kids, and investing their money where they can.

Are these “mom-and-pop” landlords?

Owning three properties means they’re not a one-off investor but they’re also not a small business.

They actually are a mom-and-pop, so I suppose they fit the bill.

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Detached, 4-Bed, 4-Bath, $4,895/Month

These clients didn’t expect to become landlords.

As has been the case many times this year, and will continue to be through 2023, these were folks that decided to keep their property and rent it out rather than sell after the market had declined.

It’s been said, “This is a form of gambling,” but I don’t think it is.  On a long enough time horizon, their property value will return to where it was.  But how long must they be landlords for?

We found them an excellent tenant: somebody who lives in the area already and is building a house, so there’s an exit date in place.  Not only that, when you rent your family home out to another family from the area, you feel a bit better about who’s living there.

So far, I haven’t heard from either the landlord or the tenant.  That’s typically a good sign.

I think the tenants got excellent landlords here, and the landlords got excellent tenants.

A true win-win, and that’s not always the case.

Are these “mom-and-pop” landlords?

Absolutely.

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1-Bed, Den, 2-Bath, $2,550/Month

Here’s another case of somebody who never intended to be a landlord, but it just sort of happened that way.

If you own a condo and you’re looking to buy a house, what do you expect to do with the condo?

I remember when I sold my condo in 2018, people kept saying, “Why did you sell that?”  Or, “You should have totally kept that place.”

Umm, yeah, sure.  But I kinda needed the money to buy my house!

For those that don’t “need” the money, they often keep their existing condo and rent it out.  I have two sets of buyer clients at the moment who intend to do exactly that.

These folks bought a house through me in 2018 and they decided to keep the condo because they felt it would be a good investment.

But through four years, we’ve had four tenants, paying $2,400, $2,100, $2,300, and most recently, $2,550.

You don’t expect to have four tenants in four years, but that’s just our luck here.

They do own one other condo, as they came into the relationship each owning a property.  They kept them both.

Are these “mom-and-pop” landlords?

Yessir!

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1-Bed, 1-Bath, $2,200/Month

This was an interesting one.

We had this listed for sale, and it looked beautiful.  It was cleaned, painted, staged, and well-marketed.

But when the owners decided to keep the unit and rent it out, rather than sell for far less then they would have, could have, should have achieved months earlier, we ended up with the nicest rental in the city of Toronto.  Seriously, how many rentals have virtual tours?

We ended up with something like eight or ten offers on this unit and it was one of those crazy situations where a tenant offers the full year’s rent up front.

These folks never intended to be landlords, and yet here they are.  Just like the folks two properties ago who leased out their house, both of these situations involved people are betting on the market making a comeback and who can afford to carry both their new homes and their existing homes.

Are these “mom-and-pop” landlords?

Yeppers.

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Detached, 4-bed, 3-Bath, $4,700

This is a similar situation to the first one atop our list.

These home-owners moved out of their primary residence and relocated due to work.

They may come back to this house, they may not.  But they’ve moved around quite a bit for work, having been back-and-forth to their previous property, which was also rented out once.  So it makes perfect sense that they would keep the house just in case they return to Toronto in a year, or two, or five.

These folks have experience as landlords having rented out two different condos previously.

Are these “mom-and-pop” landlords?

Since this is their primary residence, and they will probably return, I don’t consider them to be in the same category as the folks who own one or two condos for investment.  But since these guys have owned condos for investment, even though this is their primary residence, it sort of puts them in the mom-and-pop category.

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1-Bed, 1-Bath, $2,425/Month

I sold this condo to my client in 2014.

In 2019, she purchased a second condo as an investment property.

Earlier this year, she and her partner purchased a house and sold the condo they had purchased in 2019, but kept the one that they had purchased in 2014.

That was where they actually lived, so perhaps the reason to keep that one over the newer one was based somewhat in nostalgia.

Nevertheless, they used the proceeds of that condo sale to fund the house purchase, and to keep some skin in the condo market, they leased this other unit for $2,425/month.

So now they own a house, in which they live, and they own a condo, which they rent out.

Are these “mom-and-pop” landlords?

Yes, this is exactly what the Globe & Mail article refers to.

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Count ’em up, and that’s nine of my existing clients who leased out properties this year.

Two were leasing out their primary residence, aka “family home.”

Two wanted to sell but kept the property because the market had declined substantially and they want to try again next year.

Four are owners of true investment properties.

One is the owner of a former primary residence, turned investment property.

While I don’t work with companies who own apartment buildings or purpose-built rentals, so I don’t have those stories to tell, I do think that the above is a good example of what you might expect to find in the central core when individuals are leasing properties out.

Having said that, I don’t believe the quality of landlord out there in the rental pool is anywhere close to what I’ve described above.  Every person on my list above is somebody I would trust as a landlord, but that’s far from the norm.

As a tenant, you should be asking questions about your landlord before you sign a lease.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it, and don’t let anybody try to convince you otherwise…