u/Misguidedbuddy

I have a rental home listed for about $300-500 below comparable homes in my area.
I’m intentionally pricing it lower because I’d much rather find a clean, respectful, long-term tenant than squeeze out a few extra dollars. With Ontario’s landlord-tenant laws, one bad tenant can end up costing far more than the extra rent would ever make.

Right now I’m mainly using Facebook Marketplace, and that’s where I’m getting frustrated. Facebook says my listing has only 7 clicks, which I genuinely don’t believe. The photos are professional, the price is very competitive, and compared to what’s currently on Facebook, Kijiji, and even MLS, it’s one of the best listings available right now.
The few inquiries I do get are from people who immediately raise red flags, so I’ve been declining them. I’d rather leave the unit vacant for months than end up in a years-long nightmare with a bad tenant.

I also have the listing on Kijiji, but it seems like far fewer people use it these days, so it hasn’t generated much interest either.

As for real estate agents, after years of bad experiences, I’m very hesitant to use one again. The impression I’ve consistently been left with is that the priority is closing a deal quickly rather than finding a tenant who’s actually a good fit. They just want their money from the sale, knowing you’ll deal with the consequences after. The final straw was when one agent tried to convince me to rent to applicants made up of 5 unemployed adults (with no proof of income), who owned 9 dogs, and who also wanted me to pay for monthly house cleaning upon other extras. I had second-hand embarrassment listening to that sales pitch. I honestly couldn’t believe someone would shamelessly try to convince a landlord that this was a good idea. I cancelled the agreement, found my own tenants instead, and they turned out to be fantastic. They recently moved out, so now I’m back to searching.

I’m also not convinced it’s worth paying to list on MLS myself, since tenant agents have much less incentive to show my listing if the commission is lower and I’m a private landlord.

For other Ontario landlords:
Are you still getting good results from Facebook Marketplace?
Have you noticed your listings getting almost no visibility?
What platforms are actually bringing in quality tenants now?
I’d really like to hear what’s working for everyone else because right now it feels like my listing is being buried.

I ended up growing mint around the base of a maple tree.
I had some leftover mint roots and instead of throwing them out, I tossed them there almost like compost. To my surprise, they took off and now there’s a large patch growing in a circle around the tree trunk, it has garden edgings around it and hasn’t spread outside the edging.

This is great because that corner of my yard near the base of the tree had an insane amount of flies and mosquitoes, I couldn’t walk there, it was nasty (which I’m not sure why this is the case, it’s not even a fruit tree, the tree doesn’t even bear sweet sap).
In case it matters, The tree has a shed on one side and a chain-link fence on the other with a ravine behind the fence that’s full of shrubs and weeds. The other two sides are open.

From a distance, the mint looked really healthy—tall, lush, and bright green. Today I finally picked some to use, but once I brought it inside to wash it, I noticed that many of the leaves had black patches/discoloration.
At first I thought maybe it somehow bruised or darkened from the heat of my hands after picking it, but that seemed way too fast.

I Google imaged it, and a lot of the results pointed to water mold or fungal issues or poor air circulation and said it may not be safe to eat if that’s what it is.

A few things I’m wondering:
I assumed the maple tree would absorb a lot of excess moisture from the soil, so I didn’t think overwatering would be an issue. Yes it rained heavily but we’re also experiencing a heat wave.
Some articles mentioned poor air circulation, but it’s growing outdoors in an open yard, the shed and the ravine lot behind the fence is beside it but would that really affect it, it can still get wind from other angles…
I also noticed the mint seems to have very shallow roots. If I grab a handful, it almost feels like I can lift an entire mat of it off the ground.
Does this sound like a fungal disease, excess moisture, something related to the maple tree, or something else entirely? Is the mint salvageable, or should I pull it all out and start over somewhere else?
There’s also a lot of flies, spider webs, and ants on the mint itself, I thought it would repel?
Any ideas or experiences would be appreciated!

I just feel like the tree has something to do with it, I’m curious to know what. Because it was initially planted in the soil in another part of my yard and was thriving.

I’m just curious and wondering why this is happening.

I’ve been dealing with a cockroach issue at home due to former tenants, and have tried multiple products available in Canada, without success.

I keep seeing strong recommendations for Advion cockroach gel bait, but it doesn’t appear to be sold or readily available in Canada.

I’m trying to understand the actual rules around this. If I were to travel to the US or another country, would it be legal to bring a small amount back into Canada for personal household use in my luggage? I’ve read mixed information online about personal-use exemptions for pesticides and I’m not sure what applies in practice.

Has anyone actually looked into this or had experience with bringing similar products across the border (or had issues with CBSA)? Not looking for anything commercial - just trying to understand what’s realistically allowed.

Any clarification or firsthand experiences would be appreciated.

My former basement tenants moved out about two months ago. While they were still living here, they told me they had unpaid parking tickets in casual convo when I passed over their mail.

After they moved, mail related to those tickets continued to arrive at my house, and I personally passed the mail on to them.
The tenants still haven’t updated their address, and I continue to receive mail that appears to be related to the same tickets, based on the same sender name (i didn’t open the envelope).

Recently, someone from the MTO came to my door. I didn’t answer the door but I saw on the cameras.

Now that they seem to be facing penalties or probably enforcement action, they are accusing me of withholding their mail and are claiming that I stole or tampered with it, to use me as an excuse to avoid the penalties of not paying. They are making these accusations in writing through text messages and have even threatening to sue me for mail tampering.
They have also sent text messages claiming things like, “We’re at your door, open up and give us our mail.” These statements are completely false. I have security cameras covering the property, and they never came to the house. It feels like they are creating a false written record to make themselves appear reasonable or to support a future claim.

I have not engaged with the accusations. I simply told them that going forward, any mail addressed to them will be marked “Return to Sender” and that I will no longer make personal arrangements to pass on their mail.

My questions are:
-Can they realistically sue me or successfully accuse me of mail tampering based solely on these allegations?
-i have no proof that I previously gave them their mail. Could they try to claim that I never passed the mail along and somehow use the senders to verify that the mail wasn’t returned to sender, and use that fact against me?

Located in Ontario.