Throughout our real estate life, my husband and I have
always rented out the basement suite of our house (5 tenants in total over 6
years). I feel that this experience has equipped me with much of the tools that
I need to successfully find and keep a good nanny (advertising the posting,
interviewing, relationship building etc). We took a more unconventional
approach with our tenants; rather than building the typical “business”
relationship based on transaction, we chose candidates for tenancy who would
“fit” with our family and contribute to a sense of community in our home. This
always worked out very well for us. Each time we would post our apartment for
rent, we would get some eye rolls from family and friends as we posted an in-depth personalized ad about our family, but each time, those personalized ads attracted
exactly the type of person that we wanted to rent from us. Similarly, we went
well out of our way to provide a welcoming atmosphere for tenants; we provided
a welcoming gift complete with lots of local artisan products, homemade baked
goods, and a map of the area, and we even drove our last tenant around the
neighourbood when she arrived from Montreal. She never forgot that and has
always told us to this day how much she appreciated it. Despite people
sometimes telling us that we didn’t need to do these things (my hubby once
drove one tenant to the airport in the middle of the night), we felt strongly
that we didn’t just need to do them, but we wanted to because generosity is the
foundation for sound relationship building. I will be taking the same approach
to finding our nanny and building a relationship with her. Check out the DIY
and Relationship Building sections of the blog where I’ll be posting stories as
I go about the ways that I’m connecting with our nanny and building that
relationship. 
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