All Forum Posts by: Travis Lucy

A mentor of mine has given me an electronic copy of her lease agreement, but I think I should have a different one to cover instances where I am house hacking. I want to be covered, so I think I should hire a lawyer and use that document as a template for house hacks.

What if I'm house hacking and then buy another property (I would house hack this one as well)? Would I need to sign a different lease agreement with the tenant in the original property?

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I'm probably in a pretty unusual position. My mom inherited this house when my grandma died a couple years ago. I'm house hacking it - along with not paying my mom rent - and I'm effectively homeowner but I don't have my name on the title deed. The plan is that I'll buy this house for $300000 when I can make a 5% down payment (the minimum in Canada).

Now - I think finishing my basement would jack up the house price, so I don't want to do the renovations until I've already bought the house.

I have a pretty small income, about $37000 including rent from my tenant, but I'm able to save about $8000 per year. With my income I'd qualify for about $200000 of mortgage right now. If we account for the $180 monthly extra cash flow after I build this bedroom and put a good tenant in it, my income would go up to $39000 annually.

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Originally posted by @Daniel Hennek:

Type "mortgage calculator" into Google. Calculate the actually increase. On a $200,000 mortgage a 1 percent increase will increase about $115 from today's rates.

You make a good point. Part of my nature is that I'm conservative-aggressive. I was wondering about this because of the sky high interest rates 40 years ago. As some of us may know, the economy in Canada and the US is not nearly as fundamentally strong as it was in the lead-up to the 1970s, so this would mean there's really no chance of returning to 20% interest rates by our respective central banks. There's also the fact that unions have much less bargaining power today than they did in the seventies, so that greatly decreases the risk that price inflation would keep up with monetary inflation. And without that price inflation (read "inflation" for most people) there is again much less need for very high interest rates.

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Also, does it typically matter to tenants how old houses are when determining how much to charge for rent? My house is 57 years old and I don't think it would be worth it to gut it and rebuild from the studs.

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I'm sure we all know central bank rates are quite low in Canada and the US, and I don't want to get burned if they go up in real terms at some point. When considering buying a property, do you make any allowance for interest rates to go up?

I'm house hacking now and considering spending around $20,000 to finish my basement and add a bedroom down there. So in my situation if my mortgage payment goes from $1,000 to $1,800 that would more than wipe out my cash flow.

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Hi all, I'm looking to get started with real estate by house hacking a duplex in Edmonton, Canada. I live a pretty simple lifestyle, so even on minimum wage I'm able to save almost $10000 each year.

I want to eventually use the brrrr strategy to buy several rental properties to provide an income supplement in retirement to what I'm able to save up (I'm 32 now).

it seems to me that my problem is that when I go to refinance my first property no lender would take on a minimum-wage homeowner. Am I anywhere near right?

I'm trying not to let my suspicion stop me - I'll deal with that when it comes.

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All Forum Posts by: Travis Lucy

Travis Lucy has started 3 posts and replied 6 times.

Post: How do you look for a good lawyer?

Post: What if interest rates go up?

Post: What if interest rates go up?

Post: What if interest rates go up?

Post: What if interest rates go up?

Post: Could I turn a house hack into a BRRRR?