My first house hack in Mississauga, Ontario

[Mohamed Mahmoud]

Hello everyone.

So I'm thinking of diving into my first real estate deal which is a house hacking strategy.

I live in Mississauga and the numbers aren't really impressive, but here it goes:

It's a 4br/2ba condo townhouse plus a 1br/1ba basement. My wife and I would move into the basement and rent the upper rooms.

Purchase price: 560,000

Down payment: 31,000

Rehab: 5,000

Closing: 10,000

Rental income: 700-1,000 per unit.

Total income: 2,800-4,000 per 4 rooms

Mortgage plus operating expense: 3,650

We're currently renting a 1br/1ba apartment for 1,850

So based on the numbers above, we would be saving 1,000 to 2,200 in living expenses.

Sounds great I know, but here's the catch:

To convince my wife to downgrade from a spacious apartment to a much smaller basement, we might have to have the in-laws stay in the upper units for around a year, and then we would probably all move out, rent the house and repeat the process in a new home.

The thing is, would it be a wise decision to have the family pay rent instead of regular tenants?

Also, they might not end up paying as much as normal tenants would and we might not save on living expenses but rather bank on refinancing after a year and go from there.

One more note: my sister-in-law has her own apartment and would come live with us. So I'm thinking of managing the property for her to get experienced in landlording.

What do you all think? I apologise for the long post.

[Roy Cleeves]

Managing the Sister-in-law property for experience is a good idea as long as she will be patient with you as you grow.

The nice thing about renting to the in-laws is that they will take good care of the property. The bad thing is that they are right upstairs (maybe good and bad- LOL) and that they may pay less.  Perhaps you will have to be upfront with them about paying the market rent.

Either way, you work this - it is a good house hack and a great way to start in the market.  Congrats!