All Forum Posts by: Justin Franz

Thanks for all the input guys! I wish I could get the kind of rental that you can get in Jersey, Scott. It's good to have a lot of options I suppose, its an exciting/interesting time to be a first time home buyer. It seems like buying a starter home with a suite to rent is probably the most common sense way to go. I think the 2% is almost impossible where I will be living, but its great to build up knowledge and be able to act with a bit of confidence when an opportunity does come around.

Thanks for all of the advice, I am obviously brand new. Both of the markets I am looking in are college towns with high demands for rentals. To buy a full duplex is not an option, I've never even seen one listed, to buy half a duplex would be the same ore more as a condo. To buy a house with a LEGAL rental suite is pushing $400k in both those markets. A two bedroom condo that would be desirable to renters down the road would be 180-220k. I am a bit of a handy man with lots of friends and family who are trades people so I am also looking to put some sweat equity into whatever I buy. Both my girlfriend and I will be making about 60k for the first couple years after I grad.

The interesting thing about Kelowna is that it is a big vacation rental market in Canada. A LOT of people rent out condos to students during the school year and do vacation rentals during the summer ($1000 or more a week). Is this an attractive option?

I guess after doing research until my head spins it comes down to buying a condo and paying it off quick, or buying a house with a suite and paying it off over a longer period of time, with the help of a renter.

This was my first post on this website after hearing it come up over and over again for the last month or so I've been doing research. I would like to thank you all again for the timely and helpful advice!

Basically I am a 26 yr old civil engineering student who will graduate by Christmas and my girlfriend is a high school teacher. We are going to be living in either Calgary, Alberta or Kelowna, British Columbia (Canada) I have looked at a lot of online listings and done a lot of number crunching but am quite clueless.

Does it make more sense to buy a condo that I can pay off in ten years or buy a starter home for about double the price and have a rental unit to supplement the mortgage? I will be graduating with less than 10k of debt and am very frugal, as is my girlfriend.

I am very ambitious and love out side the box ideas. I am also looking for this to be the first step of eventually owning my dream home.

I know this is on par with asking "How do I raise a child in 100 words or less?" but now that I am close to graduating, I am getting very excited about the possibilities

TL;DR: Am I better starting off with a condo or a house with a rental suite?