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My First Multi-Family Residential Experience

MintRealEstate

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Apr 1, 2019
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1
I wanted to share an experience I had with my first multi-family residential purchase in 2014 in Calgary. I thought new investors might appreciate it.

I put out the word that I was in the market for a duplex building as a buy and hold play, and my real estate agent was able to find a good one. It needed a rehab in the kitchens and bathrooms, and I decided to finish the basements. There is a side entrance on these, so they could be rented with someone renting the basements separately while sharing the upstairs kitchen, or as a whole unit.

After a few month of having separate contractors in (electrical for the basements, mechanical for new water heaters and furnaces, general guys for framing and as a catch all, etc) and doing some of the work myself, I was at my wits end. I had not assembled a good team before I began with trades people I could trust, and was routinely disappointed by unreliable trades who would not show up or perform the work as described (mix of contract and verbal). As it neared the finish line, I found myself showing it to tenants with construction debris lying around, who probably expected to see a finished unit (surprise ).

All in all, it was a big undertaking as a first time investor, but too good a deal to pass up. Next time, I will hand off an entire project to a vetted PM to manage it all. It’s not a silver bullet for these issues but it’s important to stick to doing what you are good at.

I’ve also had a learning curve being a landlord and have even been dragged in front of the Residential Tenancy Board due to noise caused by the basement tenant. I now rent them as a whole since it’s unmanageable to cram separate tenants in this older building.

Once construction finished, I would also have benefited from using a professional management company from the start. That would have prevented my own frustration dealing with poor tenants.

This thing is stable now, with no ongoing issues and stable tenants. On to the next!
 

Cory Sperle

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Sep 1, 2010
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Good job! A very aggressive play for a rookie but invaluable lessons learned. Thanks for sharing.
 

kir

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Oct 4, 2007
Messages
201
Noise is a big issue when having mainfloor and basement suites.

Has anybody use the expensive acoustic drywall? I believe it cost something like 50 dollars a sheet ?? (not sure though)
It has multiple layers of gymsum and some acoustic sealant to dampen sound.

I usually just do multiple layers of drywall, which seem to work pretty good and sometimes add in resilient channels.



Kir.
 

Alvaro Sanchez

Ottawa-Gatineau Investor
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Jun 5, 2009
Messages
966
Next time try to focus on purposed build properties as they eliminate a lot of these issues that you mentioned. Yes, you might be paying a little bit more but worth the money due saving on time, stress. Most come with proper parking, separated meters, decent noise levels. etc.
 

Balbir Saini

Mississauga based CPA CGA & Financing Expert
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May 10, 2019
Messages
5
Very insightful. thanks for sharing


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