Kitchen Remodeling For Dummies

What can you learn from four Canadian real estate experts who have 100-plus years of collective investing experience?

Whether you are a beginning investor or own a portfolio of residential properties, 97 Tips for Canadian Real Estate Investors, 2^nd Edition provides you with insights, strategies and success stories to build your wealth according to a proven system. Investors will learn about how to adapt to shifting market conditions, and financing and marketing strategies designed to improve cash flow and attract long-term tenants.

You’ll discover the challenges and pitfalls that investors experience and how to avoid them. At your fingertips and success strategies based on the Authentic Canadian Real Estate System. From understanding the principles and economics of Investing, to sourcing properties and financing, closing deals and becoming a landlord, 97 Tips is chockfull of great ideas for investors who want to achieve beyond their dreams.

Praise from Canadian Investors for Real Estate Investing in Canada and the Acre System

“This material was absolutely essential for getting my investing jumpstarted. Thank you!” –Marianne Malo Chenard

“To compare this system to other real estate investing educators is like comparing day to night. I get all the information on a proven system I need. I don’t have to pay thousands of extra dollars to get the ‘Next level’ of training.” –Michael Colson

“If you are serious about taking control of your finances through real estate, this book is the perfect starting point.” –Joe Iannuzzi

“Excellent advice on how to make profitable business decisions and how to know what the red flags are. –Kimberley Pashak

Special Bonus

You've probably seen TV shows like Flip This House and Flip That House, in which Real estate investors buy, renovate, and sell a house in a matter of weeks for tens of thousands of dollars in profit. They make flipping houses look so easy that you want to jump out of your recliner (during the next commercial, of course), run down the street, find a house for sale, flip it for a 50 percent profit, and run back home to continue watching the show.

I, Ralph Roberts, have flipped hundreds of houses, and it's never as easy as it looks on TV. People don't generally line up at your front door begging you to buy their house for 30-50 percent below market value. Renovation expenses always exceed estimates. And you can't always sell a house for what you think it's worth.

Flipping houses for a profit requires time, money, and what I like to call sticktoitism—dogged determination in the face of overwhelming uncertainty.

Not just another house flipping book

You can find plenty of books about flipping houses that claim "anyone can do it" and make flipping look easy and risk-free. Flipping Houses For Dummies takes a different approach—honesty. We don't claim that flipping houses is "easy" or "simple" or "risk-free," because, quite frankly, it isn't.

Flipping Houses For Dummies reveals the risks and rewards of flipping properties; helps you determine whether you have the time, energy, cash, and other resources to be successful; and then conveys the expert knowledge that those who wish to pursue house flipping need in order to minimize risk and maximize potential profits in a very competitive market. Did you know?

Most books on flipping houses gloss over the key factors that that make or break the novice house flipper. These are the very items we focus on in Flipping Houses For Dummies. For example, did you know:

• You should secure financing before you look at houses.
• As a flipper, you want dontwanners—houses that the owners obviously don't want.
• You make your profit when you buy the property. You realize your profit when you sell.
• Always plan on earning at least 20 percent after your total investment—purchase price, repairs and renovations, real estate agent commissions, and holding costs (monthly mortgage payments, insurance, property taxes, and utilities).
• Working with a top-notch real estate agent can save you thousands of dollars more than what you pay in commissions.
• You should choose a limited geographical area to work and then become an expert on the houses and property values in that area.
• Your goal when renovating a home should be to bring the property up to market standards, not exceed them.

Flipping Houses For Dummies speaks to the mom and pop investor, steering you clear of the gray areas, which tend to carry high-risks and low-returns, into safer, more potentially profitable areas. We encourage you invest in your comfort zone and take on bigger, riskier projects with higher profit potential only when you're ready.

In Flipping Houses For Dummies we stress that the first flip is the most important one, and we take the guesswork out of the first transaction, to lead you through a positive first experience on which to build a promising real estate investment portfolio.

WHAT CANADIAN INVESTORS SAY ABOUT REAL ESTATE INVESTING IN CANADA AND DONR. CAMPBELL:

"This is a great book. The information in just one of the chapters alone saved me over $28,000." - Michael Millenaar

"Full of practical Canadian content and presented in an organized and respectful system. It directly addresses how to get the money and financing you need to purchase real estate and achieve your goals." - Tamara MacLaren

"One of Don Campbell's great gifts is his near-genius ability to take something that appears complex and break it down into a simple step-by-step system that anyone can follow. I am convinced that everyone will thoroughly enjoy, and more important, benefit financially, by reading this book." - Russell Westcott

"The power of Real Estate Investing in Canada lies in the super simple, market-proven system that it offers you. It makes real estate dreams possible for any Canadian. If you are serious about learning the truth, cutting through the hype and being successful, this is your real estate bible!" - Valden Palm, MisterRRSP.com.

A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature. The novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Carton is a dissipated English barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife. The 45-chapter novel was published in 31 weekly installments in Dickens' new literary periodical titled All the Year Round. From April 1859 to November 1859, Dickens also republished the chapters as eight monthly sections in green covers. All but three of Dickens' previous novels had appeared only as monthly installments. The first weekly installment of A Tale of Two Cities ran in the first issue of All the Year Round on 30 April 1859. The last ran thirty weeks later, on 26 November.

Book the First: Recalled to Life Mr. Jarvis Lorry and Miss Lucie Manette travel to Saint Antoine, a suburb of Paris, and meet Monsieur Defarge and Madame Defarge. The Defarges operate a wine shop which they use to lead a clandestine band of revolutionaries; they refer to each other by the codename "Jacques," which Charles Dickens drew from the Jacobins, an actual French revolutionary group. Monsieur Defarge was Dr. Manette's servant before his incarceration, and now takes care of him, so he takes them to see the doctor. Because of his long imprisonment, Dr. Manette entered a form of psychosis obsessed with making shoes, a trade he had learned while in prison. At first, he does not recognize his daughter; but he eventually compares her long golden hair with her mother's, a strand of which he found on his sleeve when he was incarcerated and kept, and notices their identical blue eye color. Mr. Lorry and Miss Manette then take him back to England. Book the Second: the Golden Thread "The Golden Thread" redirects here. For the legal judgement, see Golden thread (law). Five years later, two British spies, John Barsad and Roger Cly, are trying to frame French émigré Charles Darnay for their own gain; and Darnay is on trial for treason at the Old Bailey. They claim, falsely, that Darnay gave information about British troops in North America to the French. Darnay is acquitted, however, when a witness who claims he would be able to recognise Darnay anywhere is unable to tell Darnay apart from a barrister present in court, Sydney Carton, who looks almost identical to him. In Paris, a wheel on the despised Marquis St. Evrémonde's carriage hits and kills the baby of a peasant, Gaspard. The Marquis throws a coin to Gaspard to compensate him for his loss. Defarge, a witness to the incident, comforts Gaspard. As the Marquis's coach drives off, the coin thrown to Gaspard is thrown back into the coach by an unknown hand, probably that of Madame Defarge, enraging the Marquis. Arriving at his château, the Marquis meets with his nephew and heir, Darnay. (Out of disgust with his family, Darnay shed his real surname and adopted an Anglicised version of his mother's maiden name, D'Aulnais.) The following scene demonstrates Marquis's thoughts: "Repression is the only lasting philosophy. The dark deference of fear and slavery, my friend," observed the Marquis, "will keep the dogs obedient to the whip, as long as this roof," looking up to it, "shuts out the sky." That night, Gaspard, who followed the Marquis to his château by riding on the underside of the carriage, stabs and kills the Marquis in his sleep. He leaves a note on the knife saying, "Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from JACQUES." After nine months on the run, he is caught, and hanged above the village's fountain. In London, Darnay gets Dr. Manette's permission to wed Lucie; but Carton confesses his love to Lucie as well. Knowing she will not love him in return, Carton promises to "embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you". On the morning of the marriage, Darnay reveals his real name and who his family is, a detail which Dr. Manette had asked him to withhold. Dr. Manette reverts to his obsessive shoemaking. His sanity is restored before Lucie returns from her honeymoon and the whole incident kept secret from her. Lorry and Miss Pross destroy the shoemaking bench and tools, which Dr. Manette had brought with him from Paris. It is 14 July 1789. The Defarges help to lead the storming of the Bastille. Defarge enters Dr. Manette's former cell, "One Hundred and Five, North Tower". The reader does not know what Monsieur Defarge is searching for until Book 3, Chapter 10. It is a statement in which Dr. Manette explains why he was imprisoned. As time passes in England, Lucie and Charles begin to raise a family, a son (who dies in childhood) and a daughter, little Lucie. Lorry finds a second home and a sort of family with the Darnays. Stryver, who once had intentions to marry Lucie, marries a rich widow with three children and becomes even more insufferable as his ambitions begin to be realised. Carton, even though he seldom visits, is accepted as a close friend of the family and becomes a special favourite of little Lucie. Book the Third: the Track of a Storm

Darnay, being called by a former servant who has been unjustly imprisoned, decides to come back to France to free him. But shortly after his arrival, he is denounced for being an emigrated aristocrat from France and imprisoned in La Force Prison in Paris. Dr. Manette and Lucie—along with Miss Pross, Jerry Cruncher, and "Little Lucie", the daughter of Charles and Lucie Darnay—come to Paris and meet Mr. Lorry to try to free Darnay. A year and three months pass, and Darnay is finally tried. Dr. Manette, who is seen as a hero for his imprisonment in the hated Bastille, is able to have him released; but Darnay is immediately arrested again. He is put on trial again the following day, under new charges brought by the Defarges and one "unnamed other", soon learned to be Dr. Manette, through his account of his imprisonment. Manette is horrified when his words are used to condemn Darnay. On an errand, Miss Pross is amazed to see her long-lost brother, Solomon Pross; but Solomon does not want to be recognised. Sydney Carton suddenly steps forward from the shadows and identifies Solomon Pross as John Barsad, one of the men who tried to frame Darnay for treason at the Old Bailey trial. Carton threatens to reveal Solomon's identity as a Briton and an opportunist who spies for the French or the British as it suits him. Darnay is confronted at the tribunal by Monsieur Defarge, who identifies Darnay as the Marquis St. Evrémonde and reads the letter Dr. Manette had hidden in his cell in the Bastille. Defarge can identify Darnay as Evrémonde because Barsad told him Darnay's identity when Barsad was fishing for information at the Defarges' wine shop in Book 2, Chapter 16. The letter describes how Dr. Manette was locked away in the Bastille by Darnay's father and his uncle for trying to report their crimes against a peasant family. Darnay's uncle had become infatuated with a girl, whom he had kidnapped and raped. Despite Dr. Manette's attempts to save her, she died. The uncle then killed her husband by working him to death, and her father dies from a heart attack on being informed of what had happened. Before he died defending the family honour, the brother of the raped peasant had hidden the last member of the family, his younger sister. The letter also reveals that Dr. Manette was imprisoned because the Evrémonde brothers discovered that they could not bribe him to keep quiet. The paper concludes by condemning the Evrémondes, "them and their descendants, to the last of their race". Dr. Manette is horrified, but his protests are ignored—he is not allowed to take back his condemnation. Darnay is sent to the Conciergerie and sentenced to be guillotined the next day. Carton wanders into the Defarges' wine shop, where he overhears Madame Defarge talking about her plans to have the rest of Darnay's family (Lucie and "Little Lucie") condemned. Carton discovers that Madame Defarge was the surviving sister of the peasant family savaged by the Evrémondes. The only plot detail that might give one any sympathy for Madame Defarge is the loss of her family and that she has no (family) name. Defarge is her married name, and Dr. Manette does not know her family name, though he asked her dying sister for it. At night, when Dr. Manette returns shattered after spending the day in many failed attempts to save Charles' life, he has reverted to his obsessive search for his shoemaking implements. Carton urges Lorry to flee Paris with Lucie, her father, and Little Lucie, asking them to leave as soon as he joins them in the coach. That same morning, Carton visits Darnay in prison. Carton drugs Darnay, and Barsad (whom Carton is blackmailing) has Darnay carried out of the prison. Carton has decided to pretend to be Darnay and to be executed in his place. He does this out of love for Lucie. Following Carton's earlier instructions, Darnay's family and Lorry flee Paris and France. In their coach is an unconscious Darnay, who carries Carton's identification papers. Meanwhile, Madame Defarge, armed with a pistol, goes to the residence of Lucie's family, hoping to catch them illegally mourning Darnay, an enemy of the Republic; however, the residents are already gone. To give them time to escape, Miss Pross confronts Madame Defarge and they struggle. In the struggle, Madame Defarge's pistol goes off, killing her; the noise of the shot and the shock of Madame Defarge's death cause Miss Pross to go permanently deaf. The novel concludes with the guillotining of Sydney Carton. As he is waiting to board the tumbril, he is approached by a seamstress, also condemned to death, who mistakes him for Darnay but, upon getting close, realises the truth. Awed by his unselfish courage and sacrifice, she asks to stay close to him and he agrees. Upon their arrival at the guillotine, she and Carton are the last two and Carton comforts her, telling her that their ends will be quick but that there is no Time or Trouble "in the better land where ... [they] will be mercifully sheltered", and she is able to meet her death in peace. Carton's unspoken last thoughts are prophetic: "I see Barsad, ... Defarge, The Vengeance [a lieutenant of Madame Defarge], ... long ranks of the new oppressors who have risen on the destruction of the old, perishing by this retributive instrument, before it shall cease out of its present use. I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss, and, in their struggles to be truly free, in their triumphs and defeats, through long years to come, I see the evil of this time and of the previous time of which this is the natural birth, gradually making expiation for itself and wearing out." "I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more. I see Her with a child upon her bosom, who bears my name. I see her father, aged and bent, but otherwise restored, and faithful to all men in his healing office, and at peace. I see the good old man [Mr. Lorry], so long their friend, in ten years' time enriching them with all he has, and passing tranquilly to his reward." "I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both." "I see that child who lay upon her bosom and who bore my name, a man winning his way up in that path of life which once was mine. I see him winning it so well, that my name is made illustrious there by the light of his. I see the blots I threw upon it, faded away. I see him, fore-most of just judges and honoured men, bringing a boy of my name, with a forehead that I know and golden hair, to this place—then fair to look upon, with not a trace of this day's disfigurement—and I hear him tell the child my story, with a tender and a faltering voice." "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." Lucie and Darnay have a first son earlier in the book who is born and dies within a single paragraph; it seems likely that this first son appears in the novel so that their later son, named after Carton, can represent another way in which Carton restores Lucie and Darnay through his sacrifice.