Oro-Medonte, Ontario · Member since 2015 · 24 posts · 18 votes
11y
Hi Jeff,
No basement will definitely tend to limit the potential pool of renters. Is there a high water table in that area? Are most other houses in the area built without basements? Is this in an area of mainly seasonal rentals and cottages? If you are looking at utilizing it as a seasonal or cottage rental I don't think the lack of basement will have much effect. If you are looking to rent it out as a full time residence you will be limiting your potential number of renters. You can always explore having the house raised and a full basement installed, however the cost would need to be justified by the additional rent income.
Oro-Medonte, Ontario · Member since 2015 · 24 posts · 18 votes
11y
Hi Jeff,
No basement will definitely tend to limit the potential pool of renters. Is there a high water table in that area? Are most other houses in the area built without basements? Is this in an area of mainly seasonal rentals and cottages? If you are looking at utilizing it as a seasonal or cottage rental I don't think the lack of basement will have much effect. If you are looking to rent it out as a full time residence you will be limiting your potential number of renters. You can always explore having the house raised and a full basement installed, however the cost would need to be justified by the additional rent income.
Rental Property Investor · Fredericton, New Brunswick · Member since 2013 · 7k+ posts · 4k+ votes
11y
While basements are the "traditional" norm in much of the country, there are places where building on a slab makes more sense. If you are located on shallow soil with lots of bedrock, building with a basement is both costly (drilling, blasting) and unwise {water often does not drain well from a rock bowl). If you are located on sandy soil with a high water table, a slab may be preferred to a basement.
As Darryl indicated, have a look at other houses in the area. Are many on slabs, crawl spaces or posts, or do they all have basements?
Rental Property Investor · Concord, GA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
11y
I live in Georgia and basements are uncommon here. It's a regional thing. What kind of foundation does the house have? ie, slab, crawl space, built on timbers?
If this is the only house around without a basement, then it may be an odd duck and thus wouldn't be a good investment. See what you can find out about the area.
Investor · St. Catharines, Ontario · Member since 2014 · 18 posts · 3 votes
11y
Thank you all so much for the feedback!!! It turns out that there is a high water table in the area, which makes me reluctant.
The house is a wartime, and actually had a basement, block, and it leaked, like 40 years ago, so the owner was told that filling it in was the best idea. So he back filled it by hand (took him over a month).
So i am going to do some more research o the water table, turns out my father works for a gov't watershed, so i have a bit of an inside info guy on what it can and will do to houses in areas like that.