All Forum Posts by: Dave Fairb

There is one other thing to this one. And that is, that the zoning may change soon. In which case it would be up for a taller building.

We already tried to assemble the block, got a long way and had a solid offer that was close to a million over what our houses would sell for. 

Then some of the neighbours got carried away and wanted even more money. The developer walked and the deal fell through. 

Now things are in this limbo land, where it's become a question of,  'do I sell and take my 650k and be happy with that'. Or do I wait.... and perhaps wait and wait forever.... or maybe it's just wait another year or two... nobody knows.  All I know is that in Vancouver BC, arterial routes nearby transit are up for taller buildings. And I'm on an arterial route and though Im close to transit, I might be a block the wrong side of the cut off line for tall buildings. 

I'm talking to a realtor that specializes in land assemblies this afternoon. 

Numbers can be crunched. But what about the other factors of life? 

I have a house and about $650k in equity. House is going to go up some more. But how long to hang on to it? 

House is 70 years old and it's been a giant pain in the *** a lot of the time. Is a lesser pain in the *** nowadays, mostly due to me living on site in part of it. 

I'd have to continue landlording, which I can do, but it's work and I'm kinda tied down by the house in it's current set up. 

I can't pull anymore equity out of it, as I'm business for self.  It's my only property at the moment, all my money is tied up in it. 

I'm feeling stalled with it.  Like I've had it for 12 years, and there's always been this carrot on a stick of the value of the house going up. 

But how long do you chase that carrot around ?  After all it is just a carrot on a stick until you get a hold of that equity/carrot. 

The fun things I'd want to do with that equity/$, like adventure travel, see my daughter more often.. she's across the country, hiking, convert my van into a camper and road trips etc...      Those things are only available for so many years. 

You know, like the equity in this house will likely go up... there's factors indicating that.  But I'm 58 now and if I hang on to it for another 12 years I'll be 70. 

I'm thinking to sell the house, put 20% down on a new condo in a nearby up and coming town called Squamish. Rent out that condo, and just rent a place for myself down by the beach for a while. Do some travelling, covid restrictions, but can still travel to places. 

Get my bearings as to how it is without owning this house and see where I want to go/do.

My house has made me a lot of money IF I sell it. But to be real, it's been like a bad marriage for 12 years... the kind of marriage where you're constantly wondering if you should have done it. I think I'd have regrets if I lived with those doubts for much longer, I think they'd become regrets when I look back. 

Hi Colleen, yes Canada. Vancouver BC 

I have a similar window in my house. I live in the house and so what I did was put a heavy duty clear plastic shower curtain over the window. I trimmed the shower curtain to about 10 bigger than the window. Never had a problem with it since and it cost my just a few bucks. 

Thanks Colleen, you're right. Me being too 'nice' about things is a problem I've identified. And letting her have her bf over when others can't has created a situation. I'm not quite sure how I should rectify that one, but I guess I can change things back to how they were. 

With them being in a sharing with the landlord (me) situation, there is no official lease agreement that I have. They aren't covered by the landlord tenant act here is it's a place where they share kitchen and bathroom with landlord, and officially that's what we do. 

Anyway, as I say I'm reading the how to landlord book today and I'm figuring some things out about my style of landlording and my mistakes made in past etc.. 

I have a house that I live in, I live on the middle floor and rent to 3 people upstairs. Air Bnb in basement. 

My middle floor is mostly private from upstairs, but, as far as the landlord tenant act is concerned we 'share' the space. And as such it's considered 'roommates'. 

There's one person upstairs who has lived here for 5 years. Originally she told me she was a student from Korea. She'd answered an ad I had on a bulletin board for international students. 

5 years later and she's still living here and still a student? And I've learned that she's a young looking 40 years old, and the cut off for international students visas is 32. So she probably never did fit into the category of international student in the 5 years she's lived here. 

When she first moved in, she had a guy bringing her bags and boxes up the stairs. I later found out that she'd had been living just a few blocks away. The guy carrying her boxes was her boyfriend as she put it , and that she's been living in a share house situation with him. He was another renter there and was in a relationship with the homeowner. But the 2 of them had had an affair and the homeowner kicked her out when she found out. Boyfriend moved away to east coast soon after. 

So for the last 5 years she's paid her rent and been cordial but somewhat standoffish. That's OK, it doesn't have to be anything other than that. 

About a year ago, 2 of the other student renters when leaving told me that they found her to be quite cold towards them. Which I noted. 

Then I noticed she was leaving 'notes' for the others telling them to do this and that around the kitchen. 

About 3 months ago I heard this heck of a banging noise coming from upstairs. So I went up and she was furiously pounding on one of the other roommates door. The other roommate was doing an online class at the time. 

When I asked what was going on, she told me that the roommate had put the toilet plunger in the wrong place, so she had put the plunger on the bathroom counter next to the girls things (gross) , and the girl had put it back in the 'wrong' place again on purpose!? So she went ballistic and hammered on the door. 

OK, so I got things calmed down and the other girl had already given notice to move, maybe because of Korean Roommate? It's not clear. 

But now I was having my serious doubts about the Korean women. 

I had to talk to her about something else. She had been leaving her bedroom window open all last winter when she was out, she says for fresh air. So it was January below freezing and her window was open and the heat on, and it's electric baseboard heat, expensive. So I talked to her about it, and in a reasonable and professional manner. She shot me these glaring dirty looks. And I had to really press to get her to say that she'd agree to keep it closed. 

I also checked the baseboard heaters at that time and noticed she had plastic drawers and a cardboard box right up against the heater. I told her she cannot do that! It's a fire risk, and again repeated 'why' it's a bad idea and that she cannot do it. 

But I noticed as of last week she didn't move them. 

I had to talk to her about something else and she just ignored me, looked at her computer and just blanked me. I was shocked. I just looked at her and said "Oh, I see. I understand" and I got up and went downstairs. 

I've seen her once since then, it was outside in the garden and it was just 'hello' from both of us. 

It's got now that if she hears me coming upstairs she seems to quickly leave the kitchen up there and head to her bedroom. For me I feel uncomfortable going up there. 

Her rent is a deal for her and no way would she rent a room for what she's paying, and I've been really quite reasonable. 

Not sure what to do for best. 

Edit

I should add to this, that as it's a roommate situation, I have a no 'boyfriends over' rule. But she was very nice in asking if I'd make an exception for her to have her new boyfriend over once every now and then. Which I agreed to as she'd asked in a reasonable way at the time. 

I'm seeing this pattern of her being charming when she wants something, a (Beep) when she doesn't like something, and she's kept her head down for 5 years and has only had 2 small rent increases and has a deal. 

I've recently tried AirBnb and VRBO. I made my place really nice and got great pics. 

I got a weird first guest, booked by someone claiming to be his mother. But wasn't the case, guest was homeless person, a strange person too. Then a sex worker wanted to book it. My friend who's done short term in the past figures there's no international travellers now. 

I have a good guest at the moment. 

I've recently tried AirBnb and VRBO. I made my place really nice and got great pics. 

I got a weird first guest, booked by someone claiming to be his mother. But wasn't the case, guest was homeless person, a strange person too. Then a sex worker wanted to book it. My friend who's done short term in the past figures there's no international travellers now. So best not to do it? 

I have an 8 bedroom house, and I've had it for 12 years. 

I did a similar thing, where I made the living room into an extra bedroom. So 9 bedrooms then.

It was quite a zoo, and always always something to deal with. 

in the end, about 6 years ago now. A Venezuelan women who said she was a lawyer lived here, got pi8sed off for some reason or other and moved out. But before she went she called the city and said 'too many people live in this house' 

So the property use inspector came over (I took the extra room out). He decided my basement suite is unauthorised, as are about 98 percent in this city.. but if I wanted to keep it I had to get it authorized... this was a giant pain it the ***

Improve this and that... some of which I'm glad I did like hardwired interconnected smoke and CO2 alarms, couple of fire egress windows..etc..

But someone way back, probably in the 80's had rigged the electricity and bypassed the meter, and so my electric bill was half of what it should have been for years.

The electrical inspector saw this and made me put a utility pole outside with meter on it. Ah well, I guess that was fair enough. 

Nowadays I live on site in the house, and it's way easier! Before, yeeah I had the cash flow, but I needed it for beer and ulcer treatment due to the stress. 

My first post here and maybe just a bit more of a vent and looking to get clarity. 

I have a house, 3 levels, has 3 separate entrances, kitchens, bathrooms.  

Current set up is; 

me on main floor 

3 international students on top floor paying 600 each per month. Not much trouble from them. 

Basement suite which is 2, could be 3 bedrooms. Currently doing short term rentals. 

For 4 years I was renting out rooms in the basement to international students. Also at 600 each, it was going well and then Covid came along and hard to find international students now.

So I fixed up the suite, made it look really good. Professional pictures and put it on AirBnb and VRBO. I got a bad first guest. The place was booked by someone sayings its for her daughter. Turned out not to be the case, it was actually booked by a lawyer who advocates for homeless people, and guest was a mess, and made a mess and broke stuff etc... 

Then I got a booking from someone that seemed OK, had good reviews. But a quick google search and she's a porn actor and has only fans account. After the homeless person I really couldn't be bothered to find out if she was OK, or was going to use my place to 'make movies'

At the moment I have a couple staying in my airBnb that are good, and I'm relieved about that. 

But, 2 duds and one good one is not a good start though and has me thinking short term rentals, particularly in the time of covid is sketchy. 

A good friend who is a landlord gave his opinion that short term rentals are not a good idea at the moment as no international travellers. So he figures rent out the suite. 

He's actually pretty good at picking tenants and landlording. 

I on the other hand could have picked better in the past. Also I got into landlording by buying a triplex in a dodgy area, and I inherited the tenants. I just couldn't get decent tenants there. Trust me it was a tough one to rent out. So after 2 years I sold it. But I had to go to 2 tribunals for landlord tenant act and boy was that ever a pain in the ***. And it completely put me off renting out month to month. 

That's how come I ended up renting to international students. It's a bit more work in some ways, but they are usually friendly and I find it's easy to overcome problems with then should they arise. 

My current house, with the basement suite that I'm considering renting out is in a good area, vacancy rates are really low. So there's potential for picking from lots of quality applicants. Unlike my triplex I sold, where I had a tough time. 

If I rent out to students, I can rent 3 bedrooms at 600 each. The 3rd bedroom is an extra room next to the laundry room, it's a real room with a window, smoke alarm etc..  But, would be hard to rent that as a 3rd bedroom if I rented it as a suite/month to month. But the students don't mind at all. 

So in my area a 2 bedroom suite is around $1550 Canadian. If I rent to students at 600 each its 1800. (but they aren't around nowadays, when are they coming back? no one knows) 

Another good thing about the students is that I can say it's 1 person per room etc... So I know there's only 3 people down there, and I can set fair and reasonable share house rules. 

With a month to month, I guess I can say how many people on the lease. But they are allowed to have people stay for up to 2 weeks etc.. 

And that raises other issues, as we have 1 hot water tank and we've got by with it for 12 years with 3 up, me middle, 3 down.... but if I rented suite, I think I'd have to hook up an on demand gas water heater too. 

If it was family of 3 that rented, then inlaws come to stay, that'd be say 5 or 6 down, me in middle and 3 up is 9 or 10 people in one house. It can get a bit crazy in this 8 bedroom house. 

Financially; my mtg and utils, insurance etc is in the 3200 a month range. so in past with 6 students, I collected enough to cover my bills and maybe improvements. 

I have about 650k equity in the house, it's gone up a lot since I bought it. Has recently been rezoned to allow 6 story building. But need neighbours onboard for that, and that! is a whole other story. 

Prices are rising and I could sell and maybe have 750k in my pocket by next spring. I'm late 50's and I think I'd just rent a place for a while and find out what I want to do, travel and see family, enjoy life in a different way??? Hard to say as I've done what I do for so long and I actually think I'd miss it.