Niagara’s Rental Blog

Pulled from the St. Catharines Standard, October 25, 2007

Before geologist Andy Panko started his thriving new company, he cleaned up sites for other people dealing with environmental messes.

“We were basically undertakers,” he said Thursday night, after being honoured as the Entrepreneur of the Year by the St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce. “We were only called to a site if there was a problem.”

Panko is finding more satisfaction now, buying contaminated brownfield sites and not only cleaning them up, but building on them.

“When we’re done, they’re not only clean, but we’ll see our model going up,” he said.

The 2007 Business Achievement Awards also honoured nominees for excellence, innovation and technology, volunteerism, new business and young entrepreneurs.

The awards were handed out at Quality Hotel Parkway Convention Centre.

St. Catharines-born Ken Fowler received the Lifetime Achievement Award for a multitude of real estate, hospitality and entrepreneurial activities that include being chairman of West 49 and Fairmont Hot Springs Resort and director of S.I.R. Corp.

The chamber awarded Panko for Associated Brownfields, a company he runs with business partner Tony DiFruscio.

They acquired a 40-acre contaminated property in Thorold, formerly home to abrasives manufacturer Exolon, and are conducting an environmental rehabilitation. The site will become a housing project.

They’ve also bought sites in St. Catharines off Woodburn and Oakdale avenues to turn into neighbourhoods.

Panko and DiFruscio started the business in 2004 when the province created the Brownfields Act, which offered incentives for community improvement.

While they’ve been busy in Niagara, Panko said they’re expanding their sights to other parts of Canada.

“The Niagara region in general is pretty far ahead in this brownfield stuff,” he said. “There are a lot of communities that haven’t turned an eye on this.”

Niagara Falls Review - October 20, 2007

When Jackie Lessard’s young daughter began complaining of severe headaches and stomach pains, she made a doctor’s appointment.

Various tests, including a CT scan, failed to turn up the cause of the 11-year-old’s pain.

“She’s always healthy, so I couldn’t understand what was happening,” Lessard said.

When her 10-year-old son’s asthma medication seemed to no longer control his wheezing and watery eyes, the concerned mother made another medical appointment.

Again, tests were unable to pinpoint a cause. And Lessard herself wasn’t feeling so well, either.

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Niagara College Student shows off his small room in the Campus Residence.

Here is a video I found on You Tube of this apartment building for rent. It looks like it is still in the process of being built. Does anyone know what street this is on?
Update: I had not noticed the street signs the first time I watched this, but I know where it is now.

By Bernard Pragides

Identity theft is a real concern these days. Sometimes it seems like the amount of information a potential apartment tenant has to reveal is somewhat unsettling. A landlord who is worth leasing from is going to ask several personal questions. He will want your name, address, phone number, salary, social security number, a list of your current and past employers and he will probably let you know that he will check your credit report. The reason he is requesting this information is because he is taking a risk by turning over his property to someone with whom he is unacquainted.

He needs to know your salary to determine whether or not you can afford the monthly rent. He needs your social security number to run a credit report. Our credit reports tell a lot about our character and our spending habits. He may be able to determine pretty quickly that you aren’t a worthy risk if you are habitually late making payments to other landlords or on bills in general. He will probably call your current employer to verify valid employment.

Although it is unlikely that a good landlord will steal your identity, here are a few tips for someone who is interested in leasing an apartment.

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http://www.rentrankings.com/vote.php?site=223&city=St.%20Catharines

By Kinan Beck

If you are not at the point in your life that you are looking to buy a home or a condo, you are likely looking for a great apartment that you can call home. Once you find a great apartment, however, there are a few things you need to keep in mind before you sign a lease and officially accept the apartment as your new residence.

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By Kevin Kiene

Eviction is one of the most dreaded parts of property management. These legal proceedings are contentious, time-intensive, and costly, and are best avoided if there is any reasonable alternative. However, at the same time, landlords are businesspeople, first and foremost. If a tenant has dishonored their lease agreement, it’s important to take any means necessary to protect your investment.

Still, the situations and circumstances that can merit eviction are not always cut-and-dried. It can often be difficult to determine whether it’s the right time to begin eviction proceedings. Use this checklist to help you make the best decision.

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By Amelie Mag

As exciting as the thought of being a student is, during this period of your life problems don’t seize to appear. It’s true that being able to obtain an education and to benefit from a chance for a good future is a dream come true, but it doesn’t mean the student life lacks worries and doesn’t need a mature personality to handle it. Because one of the major problems for students is student housing we hope to give some useful advice on how you can handle a situation like this one. You need to learn how to find an apartment when more and more people engage in a chase for off campus student housing.

Being a student means the beginning of your absolute independence. No rules, no nagging parents, no strict schedules – it’s the kind of life you long for. In reality, much of it depends on the people you choose to live it with. Both on-campus student housing and off campus student housing have their pros and cons you should be very much aware of when making your choice. Moving in, with all the bags and stuff from home, will seem easy compared with choosing a room, your roommates or, worse, finding a decent house at an affordable price.

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By Charles Hebert

Everywhere we turn it seems we are bombarded with the notion that buying a home is always preferable to renting. We hear statements like, “Young people need to build equity” or “Rent is just throwing money away” or “It is never better to rent than to own.” The key point to take from this is that any time you hear the words “always” or “never,” red flags should fly up and alarm bells should go off! Just remember, “never” is a very, very long time.

Making a Fair Comparison
In order to fairly evaluate the individual merits of owning a home versus renting, we must first place the cash flows required on equal footing, and then we can evaluate the future value of each option. For example, let’s say you want to buy a house that will require a monthly cash outlay of $1,000, which includes mortgage payment, basic fire insurance, principle mortgage insurance, neighborhood association dues, property taxes, basic maintenance, etc. The rental you are considering will cost you $500 per month, which includes rent and rental content insurance. To make a fair comparison, we would have to add an extra $500 in cash flow to the rental option, which we will invest into a stock index mutual fund returning 10% annually over the long term. If we estimate to live in the home for 10 years, we would next calculate what the value of the stock market investment would become, and then calculate the equity we will have built in the home, accounting for principle payments and price appreciation. The option with the largest total wins!

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