Rental Property

[DBrown]

Hello all!

I was just introduced to this site from a friend of mine not too long ago and I am relatively new to real estate and real estate investing. My girlfriend and I just bought our first house last December with plans to put a suite in the basement. The whole house pretty much needed reno-ing and the upstairs is about 90% complete, which we are currently living in. The downstairs hasn`t been touched yet. It needs all new aesthetics, the bathroom re-done, and the kitchen put in. The plumbing is already in where the kitchen is going.

Now, our dilemma is whether to finish the basement and rent the whole house out as one. If thats the case we would be looking for a condo or townhouse to buy for our next property. The other option is to go ahead with the suite, and then live up and rent down or vis versa until we`e ready to buy another property. The two big things are obviously time and money. The suite would take more of both and we don`t have a lot of cash to put into it. Also, I don`t know what all is involved in the suite as far as codes and making it "legal".

Any information or suggestions would be great.

Thanks!

 

[SamPerren]

Hi,



In my experience, the more doors you can have in your property the better. I live in a city where the vacany rate is very low and the city tolerates "non-conforming" ie illegal basement suites because of this fact, but remember you are at the mercy of your neighbors in such a situation, too many complaints about noise, parking and you may be shut down quickly



Myself and my wife live upstairs in our primary residence and rent out the 1bdrm basement to a student who is paying more than 1/2 the mortgage, and this allowed us the cashflow to get into a second house that we also suited and are now enjoying positive cashflow from.



As far as renos go, it is frequently cheaper to hire an expert who will get the job done faster and looking better than I can do on the weekend, and use my time to work overtime at the job I have and am good at, or to educate myself. The best money I ever spent was $30 for Real Estate Investing in Canada which introducted me to a great system and network.



Good luck with your endevors!





Sam





PS Does anyone know how to use spell check or move the cursor in this forum? I try to click on a word I have typed and I am unable to change it like any other word processor, and have to delete a long string to get to the misspelled word. I guess I could type things up in Word and copy/paste it over.....






QUOTE (DBrown @ Sep 15 2010, 05:02 PM)
Hello all!



I was just introduced to this site from a friend of mine not too long ago and I am relatively new to real estate and real estate investing. My girlfriend and I just bought our first house last December with plans to put a suite in the basement. The whole house pretty much needed reno-ing and the upstairs is about 90% complete, which we are currently living in. The downstairs hasn't been touched yet. It needs all new aesthetics, the bathroom re-done, and the kitchen put in. The plumbing is already in where the kitchen is going.



Now, our dilemma is whether to finish the basement and rent the whole house out as one. If thats the case we would be looking for a condo or townhouse to buy for our next property. The other option is to go ahead with the suite, and then live up and rent down or vis versa until we'e ready to buy another property. The two big things are obviously time and money. The suite would take more of both and we don't have a lot of cash to put into it. Also, I don't know what all is involved in the suite as far as codes and making it "legal".



Any information or suggestions would be great.



Thanks!

 

[Thomas Beyer]

QUOTE (sjperren @ Sep 15 2010, 07:16 PM)
..

PS Does anyone know how to use spell check or move the cursor in this forum? ...


Use firefox as a browser ! It highlights spelling errors as you type !!

 

[housingrental]

Give a phone call in to development services at your city
They can give you a starting point on legalizing a suite

 

[jwilbrin]

QUOTE (DBrown @ Sep 15 2010, 06:02 PM) Also, I don`t know what all is involved in the suite as far as codes and making it "legal".

I see you have your location as Calgary so I`m going to guess this is where your property is located. If so, this City of Calgary secondary suite brochure should get you started. Here is the link:

http://www.calgary.ca/DocGallery/BU/dba/br...es_brochure.pdf

 

[DaveRhydderch]

QUOTE (DBrown @ Sep 15 2010, 06:02 PM) Hello all!

I was just introduced to this site from a friend of mine not too long ago and I am relatively new to real estate and real estate investing. My girlfriend and I just bought our first house last December with plans to put a suite in the basement. The whole house pretty much needed reno-ing and the upstairs is about 90% complete, which we are currently living in. The downstairs hasn`t been touched yet. It needs all new aesthetics, the bathroom re-done, and the kitchen put in. The plumbing is already in where the kitchen is going.

Now, our dilemma is whether to finish the basement and rent the whole house out as one. If thats the case we would be looking for a condo or townhouse to buy for our next property. The other option is to go ahead with the suite, and then live up and rent down or vis versa until we`e ready to buy another property. The two big things are obviously time and money. The suite would take more of both and we don`t have a lot of cash to put into it. Also, I don`t know what all is involved in the suite as far as codes and making it "legal".

Any information or suggestions would be great.

Thanks!


This REALLY depends on where you are. What part of the city are you in, and what is the zoniing on your home?

 

[RedlineBrett]

You`l learn a lot by calling 3-1-1 and asking for the development and planning department for the part of town you live in. Plan to spend some time on hold but that person will direct you to the pages on the city of calgary website that are relevant to your decision or even (gasp) send you to a real live person to break it down for you.

Considering that you are a homeowner that will be putting a suite into your own property while you continue to live in the upper level you are the exact person that the city wants to give money to help do this. Again, ask the people at 3-1-1 about this. Developing a legal secondary suite with permits is no small task and approvals are very slow as it is quite a contentious issue. Relevant factors will be the type of property you have and the current land use designation assigned to it.

 

[DBrown]

QUOTE (RedlineBrett @ Sep 17 2010, 08:01 AM) You`l learn a lot by calling 3-1-1 and asking for the development and planning department for the part of town you live in. Plan to spend some time on hold but that person will direct you to the pages on the city of calgary website that are relevant to your decision or even (gasp) send you to a real live person to break it down for you.

Considering that you are a homeowner that will be putting a suite into your own property while you continue to live in the upper level you are the exact person that the city wants to give money to help do this. Again, ask the people at 3-1-1 about this. Developing a legal secondary suite with permits is no small task and approvals are very slow as it is quite a contentious issue. Relevant factors will be the type of property you have and the current land use designation assigned to it.

Hey guys. Thank you all very much for the responses and great information. In reply to some of the questions and comments, our house is located in the Beddington NW area. The block that we are situated on is what I think is perfect for a rental. About 70% of the homes around us are rented duplex`s and right across the street are 4, 6-plex low income housing buildings that are currently being renovated to be sold. I think our area is what we call a neighborhood in "transition". So disgruntled neighbors are not really a concern.

I checked the zoning of our house online, and its currently zoned as M-c1 d100, multi-residential contextual low profile which I think permits a suite?

I checked the brochures online, and our place already meets most of the requirements. The only ones I`m concerned about are the separate heating and ventilating, and our exit because it will be a shared common exit which I`m not sure is allowed.

Some other questions I had were if anyone knew of some contractor names that has experience with "legal" basement suites and are reputable. Just to see if I can get an estimate.

Also, does the income from the suite get claimed as extra income and therefor get taxed? Are you better off to register as business so you can claim your expenses? I`m just not sure how the stuff works.

Thanks!

 

[DBrown]

Does anyone know if that zoning is good for a basement suite or not? I can`t seem to find it anywhere on the city of Calgary website. Thanks

 

[bizaro86]

QUOTE (DBrown @ Sep 25 2010, 05:30 PM) Does anyone know if that zoning is good for a basement suite or not? I can`t seem to find it anywhere on the city of Calgary website. Thanks

That zoning is good for a basement suite. The link here: http://www.calgary.ca/DocGallery/BU/dba/br...es_brochure.pdf has a table of permitted zonings. Page 5 has a list of zonings, and MC-1 is on there. Obviously you still have to meet all the other requirements.

The d100 portion of your zoning is a modifier, which means that the permitted density on your lot is 100 units per hectare instead of the normal 148 units/ha for a MC1 lot. That shouldn`t affect your basement suite.

Michael

 

[DBrown]

Hey thanks Michael.

I found the information regarding zoning finally on the website. I think we should be good as far as our property goes.

I`m trying to find a good, reputable contractor with experience developing basement suites so I can get an opinion and estimate. Does anyone have any contacts for the Calgary area?

 

[bizaro86]

QUOTE (DBrown @ Oct 3 2010, 02:50 PM) Hey thanks Michael.

I found the information regarding zoning finally on the website. I think we should be good as far as our property goes.

I`m trying to find a good, reputable contractor with experience developing basement suites so I can get an opinion and estimate. Does anyone have any contacts for the Calgary area?

No problem. An MC-1 lot is actually a great zoning to have, lots of options into the future. As for contractor`s I`ve never done a basement suite myself, but I believe Redline has a renovations division, might want to get in touch with them. Contact info is in Redline Brett`s signature above.

Michael

 

[DBrown]

QUOTE (bizaro86 @ Oct 4 2010, 08:16 AM) No problem. An MC-1 lot is actually a great zoning to have, lots of options into the future. As for contractor`s I`ve never done a basement suite myself, but I believe Redline has a renovations division, might want to get in touch with them. Contact info is in Redline Brett`s signature above.

Michael


Thats really good to know Michael. Thanks for the info. I will contact Brett and see what he has to say as far as reno`s go.