I like letters like this.You should, too. — Garth

Garth,

I have read many of your books, columns and have also been following your blog on this site and your other site Garth.ca. The information that you have shared has been invaluable to me. I feel that because of your efforts I have managed  to get out of real estate a minute before midnight.

I was never savy enough to do that well with stocks…nor did I really have enough money to seriously play the game. I have always had a good eye for real estate and have over the last 12 years purchased great properties that needed to be fixed up. My husband is a carpenter/ contractor so fixing was never a problem.

We lived in most of our properties until we sold. This boom cycle has allowed us to make some good money. The reason we were able to make money was that we were willing to sell our houses. We were never “invested” in just one big trophy property, that we would find difficult to sell …like most of our friends. In the last 12 years we have owned a couple condos in Vancouver, a hobby farm and a cottage with a spectacular view on Kootenay Lake in the interior.

The cottage was the crown jewel in our real estate holdings. We purchased it for $200,000.00 and just sold it for $more than three times that. We also sold our remaining condo in Vancouver this October.  We probably could have sold our cottage quicker and for more money if we had listed it last year but I was thinking of retiring there in a few years. Reading your book and blog though, convinced me it was time to sell. We listed the cottage in June of this year and have been really fortunate to sell.  I was shocked that we managed to do this considering the current economic and environmental climate. I am really, really grateful for this sale. We now have no debts at all, a cute house we have rented where our dog and cat are welcome.

We have cash and some metals. I feel that if I didn’t have the benefit of your book Greater Fool, your corresponding blog and the input and links from some of your bloggers I would have missed the minute before midnight and been not nearly as aware or informed. Thank you.

I also am a reader of your web site Garth.ca. I became interested and involved in politics again because of your blog. I was very disappointed when you lost your riding and when Dion’s passion and policies  couldn’t inspire the country to make the changes Canada needs.

I just wanted to let you know that I am grateful for your courage to speak out and stand up for what you believe, and to let you know this makes a real difference to people like me. I have started collecting seeds and amo (sort of joking).

All the very best to you, Dorothy and now Bandit. I look forward to reading your new book.

Kind regards,
B.