Aside from agreeing with most of what others have said that I won't echo. Note also the opportunity cost of removing equity in your home to invest.
This carries interest costs of course, instead that money COULD be invested in a low cost ETF portfolio inside of an RRSP or TFSA which COULD outperform the equity increase in the home. Either way, this is called leveraged investing which in and of itself is risky.
As a landlord for over 10 years, currently with three sets of tenants. It can take on a life of its own. Luckily my wife is much better at handling tenant headaches than I am. We have had virtually every situation you could imagine.
Damage beyond what the deposit was. Tenants leaving without paying rent. Inviting others to live with them unanounced. Parties. Floods. Leaks. Damage to appliances (you'd be shocked at what even seamingly rational tenants can do to appliances), particulary dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers. Breaking a lease is standard operating procedure, home owners have virutally no cards to play, the government's lease agreement isn't worth the paper it is written on for the landlord. But for a tenant, they can quickly fashion themselves an arm chair Lawyer when something happens, the victim card WILL be played.
I had one guy flood one of our basement suites, call me at 11pm on new year's eve citing all sorts of stuff from the tenancy act. Turns out, he is a roofer and some bits of flashing and nails jammed up the washing machine causing the flood. Still didn't matter, I had to put him and his live-in GF up in a hotel for 3 nights while we changed the flooring, baseboards and bottom foot of drywall. We replaced the laminate floor with tile in some areas to avoid this in the future, they complained that it was too hard on her knees to walk on tile. So they got to leave, without paying rent.
We managed our properties to 'cover themselves' but realistically, we always wound up subsidizing something. Rents went up and down in that time, sometimes it was leaner than others. Strata on the a condo we own changed (never downwards) special levies etc. Costs of electricity spike a few years ago and that stung. Costs of landscaping increased. Sometimes rental rates increased enough to cover, sometimes not. The only constant is change.
Man...I could write a book. If I was to do it again, I probably would have stayed diligent and invested all the money into the markets. The problem is the diligence part. Once you are a landlord you become more vested in making things work, and the mortgage paydown is a sort of 'forced savings'. It is easy to get off course when trying to invest on your own, harder to do when you are focused on not missing payments and protecting a home.
That said, our Kelowna rental house in the Black Mountain area is 7 years from being paid off, this low rate environment we have been on for the last 10-12 has really helped us take down the principal. The house still pretty new and in great condition (walk out rancher which may be handy further down the road). Could very well be our retirement home if we sell out in Langley and walk into a free and clear home...That part can make all the headaches worth it.
