On Y-factors and Why

On Y factors

My old condo is finally empty of my rubble after three distinct, large moving sessions. The first involved a professional moving company which did the all the big stuff such as the stove, my desk, bed, and shelves as well as all the lesser items I’d had the time and energy to pack. The next bout saw a pair of friends move quite a lot of boxes down for the standard wages, i.e. pizza and beer. The third bout was done by Griffin and company. I’d hired him to repaint the old condo, and he offered to do the remaining moving.

I engaged the same realtor that sold me my current place for no reason other than it seemed simpler than sorting through the countless real estate agents out there. She had done a reasonable job selling me the current place. Also, I felt she would be a little more familiar with our condo association than a newcomer. 

The condo was listed a few weeks ago. I am not going include the links as they will become obsolete all too quickly, or so I hope. ;-) Some of the things that I do find interesting in the listing are the mobility scores. These provided me with a quantified version of something that I have known to some degree since I moved into my neighbourhood in 1998. The scores are out of 100 and represent metrics of something the Mango Moron’s sycophants and their ilk would deem woke, libtard nonsense. The walking and biking mobility scores are both 97! The former does imply a slightly greater ease of walking than I currently have, but then I am handicapped to a degree. Then again, what I consider normal would shock the majority of our Southern neighbours. (On a completely tangential note, one of the friends who helped me move, walked or jogged here from his apartment deep in NDG. His take on the mid-life crisis was to join a Canadian Army Reserve artillery unit and has become a bit of a fitness nut.) I suspect the bike score went up recently as a bike path was inaugurated on the nearest cross street with the last year. (Admittedly, I think said bike path is a bit over the top and could have been done in a simpler, cheaper and more flexible manner.) 

The public transit score seems a bit low at 86 as according to the listing, the Metro is only three minutes away. I wonder if the metric gives too much weight to relative distance of commuter rail facilities which are a fair distance away, namely the longest distance between any two adjacent Metro stations on the Island of Montreal. Then again, maybe the score has gone down in the last few years as the REM has shifted the transit picture in Montreal. I have also noticed that it doesn’t list the nearest Metro station but rather the next nearest one.

Perhaps revealingly, the listing does not give a car mobility rating. This probably for the best as there are no facilities for cars what so ever in my condo building. While traffic in the area is not quite so bad as downtown, I would not rate the neighbourhood as being particularly car-friendly. The times when I have had the use of a car, parking it has been a trial.

These factors are what I am going to refer to as Y factors as they are not the most obvious factors, but are significant. Of course, any sensible person buying my condo would likely be someone who would be sensitive to them. I doubt a bachelor with three motor vehicles would give my listing more than a cursory glance.

Another example of a Y factor would be something I bought last Friday, namely a folding cane. I have been able to walk without a cane to a degree for some time. However, I’ve been reluctant to go outside without my cane in case of uneven terrain or fatigue. I had made a point of walking while carrying, not using my cane. However, I found I would unconsciously revert to using it. By getting a cane I can fold away in my backpack, I gave myself a way make it mentally easier to not use a cane. Over the weekend, I found that I could easily go on shopping trips without the use of the cane. Thus I have bought something that is most use when I don’t use it!

On why

A question that has come up repeatedly is why I am selling the unit rather than renting it out? If I dug into my metaphorical piggy bank, I could pay off my mortgage and thus everything over property and school taxes, insurance and condo fees from the rent would be profit while the value of the unit would increase. Or I could use the rent to pay off the mortgage, at least in theory. However, the truth of the matter is I have no real idea about what the market rental rate for my unit should be, or what an honest rental rate would be, the two not being the same thing. My last experience as a renter dates more than two decades back, and that was a cooperative! And I while I have rented out a room on occasion to friends or acquaintances, I never been a true landlord. 

I have had the vague notion that my niece Désirée might wish to go to university and that I might rent to her should I not find a buyer for the condo by then. Indeed, I thought that one condition of the rental would that she have a meal with me once a week! However, I deem it unlikely that I would not have sold the old condo by the time she is goes to university, assuming she goes to university in Montreal.

In truth, I don’t want to be responsible for someone else’s home. My housekeeping is lax at best, so I worry about having to respond to another’s emergency. I am kind of lazy like that. I am also lazy that in that I don’t want to deal with the paperwork and other complications of renting out the old condo.

I also worry about potential strife with a tenant being somewhat conflict adverse. I fear I would be overly lax or unable to assert due authority. I have read a number of “horror” stories about landlords with irresponsible or even criminal tenants. Indeed, I have had issues with some of the various tenants in the only rented unit in my building. I have never had significant conflict with the other owners. Furthermore, despite what various tenants’ rights groups say, in Quebec, the balance of power is with the renter.

I also find that landlords have an adverse image as being money grubbing, capitalist, bourgeois enemies of the people, exploiters of the working class, etc. (Not that renting a  single condo would make me a slumlord!) Aside from the negative image, being a landlord doesn’t fit my self-image.

All this to say why I am trying to sell the old condo.