Former Investment Opportunities - The Bust

[Dave2]

First an apology to Rusty and Greg and Tracy; I missed your earlier posts as I got very busy (In a positive sense) in late August/September. You will note I am somewhat hot and cold in posting because I do not have a current residential rental building as I sold mine 6 plex plus 2 stores in Toronto when I saw the new legislation.

This was a true investment opportunity. Located in Marathon Ontario which is a small town north of Lake Superior.

First a Repeat of Earlier Posting:

Margaret:

Trust you closed your duplex. Are you or any one interested for a walk on the wild side. A 17 Unit (I believe all two bedrooms) Apartment building tenanted for as low as $67,510.38 (TOTAL BUILDING COST) in Northern Ontario I would add $20,000 allowance for Former advertiser to solve any possible problems.

Building is less then 20 years old. Anyone interested post a post and we will figure out how to get you the information.

Like many northern towns its employment is dependent on extractive industries and when the towns main employer (a pulp and paper mill) closed down the support service industries including apartment building were decimated.

The low price was the tax sale price which is an arena I am active in and a similar one had come up a year earlier. It sold above the minimum bid price but well below assessed value.

The problem with tax sales is it is sold as is where is with no right of inspection. The advantage is that all liens including mortgage are wiped out except those of a senior government.

Expected occupancy in this case was a major issue along with property management. This is one of those cases I wanted to handle personally and it is too far away to do effectively so I passed.

In this case I believe it was noted by a real estate agent and listed and sold before the tax sale for higher then the tax sale price but well below normal prices.

I personally got interested in this arena because I bought an existing commercial industrial plaza where the owner had significant property tax arrears and I shall we say got an attractive price when it came time for real estate negotiation. I still have that property with a partner.

[StudentLandlord]

Just reading these older posts, and this caught my eye. Lived in Marathon in 1998/99. The paper mill may have closed, but the majority of the money in the town comes from those who work in the gold mines up there. When we lived there, talk was that if gold went below $300 an ounce, there'd be layoffs. That said, I don't remember the expected life of the mines. Just found it funny that the piddly paper mill was considered the main employer.