All Forum Posts by: Youssef M.

Finding the regulations is pretty easy. They are usually posted on every city's website. Look under development sections. Most should outline what they expect and require for legal suites. A word of caution, different development officers/inspectors from each city will interpret the national/provincial building codes differently. They will also put more or less weight on different aspects of the code. For instance, some of the smaller cities don't seem as concerned with the type of secondary heat source that is used for the basement suite. In bigger cities, they may limit you to only forced air, hydronic radiant, and/or electric radiant .....or any combination. The building code itself if like reading a legal document ...which I suppose it is. Not an easy endeavor for those not involved with trades ....not even easy for those who are!

I do my own development so that aspect saves me alot of money and headaches, but it takes me much longer than the average contractor since I am doing most of my own work. Screen your contractors like you will be screening your tenants. Get references and actually talk to them. The absolute best contractors usually fly under the radar and can only be found by word of mouth so get networking with the blue collar demographics! They can provide alot of insight.

Hey guys,

My business partner and I are currently incorporating for multi-family purchases, minimum 8 doors, most likely in the 20s or more for our first purchase.  I have been looking at a lot of place for learning about this stuff, so far, Podcasts, web videos and networking seem to be the key for me.  Then come the analyzing phase and all of its components.  If one of you would like to sit down and chat about how I do or analyze things, send me a BP-email, and we can even skype, facetime or zoom, whatever floats your boat.

It's nice to see some people from my hood in here!

I'm on the other side of the country in Alberta, but I've been developing the basements of my SFR's into legal secondary suites. Every city and province will have their own bylaws and restrictions, but if I'm going to renovate a house anyways, I will put in the extra time, effort, and cash into this type of renovation.

a) It increases the value of the house much more than a normal renovation would.
b) It allows me to pull in at least 30% more in total rent.
c) It's much easier to mitigate vacancies when a tenant leaves. You can clean and touch up one suite while still pulling in at least some rent.
d) Seems to be a better tenant pool for 2 or 3 bedroom house suites as opposed to an entire house, yard, and garage. Speaking of garages:
e) I also rent out the garage separately on all my split SRF's for more income.
f) I pay for the utilities in my properties, but they are much less than usual. During development, I can get in there and increase efficiency by replacing furnaces, water tanks, better insulation, better doors and windows, etc. This also increases the value of the property and makes it easier to unload. Many of the houses I buy need these improvements anyways. Some provinces offer energy rebates or tax vouchers on these kinds of improvements, so for me, it's a no brainer to spend that extra cash upfront.
g) Much more room to pull your money back out after development when it comes time for refinancing. I supposed it depends on where you live, but here it's the "legal" suites that get the best return. Non-conforming mother-in-law suites will get you part way, but not nearly as much.

Hey Youssef,

I am trying to estimate costs for build out and renovations. If you are ever interested in paying a contractor together to have a chat with us and understand how he quotes etc let me know, I am local to Montreal too. 

Hi Youssef and welcome!

Single Family Homes can definitely be hard to cash flow in major Canadian markets, but not impossible. High down payments or buying a deal with work needed can make them cash flow.

When I analyze, I know I’m conservative, so I’ll strongly consider anything that shows a monthly break even or better for SFRs. I’m comfortable with that because they’re fairly easy to offload and generally easy to add value to them through minor Reno’s.

Welcome Youssef!

I'm in Ottawa, looking at single-family rentals. Financing seems to be a bit different up here in Canada then in the US. I'm looking at a Purchase Plus Improvement mortgage with Scotiabank for the 1st investment. And I'm looking for a property I can BRRR in about a month from date of possession.

The specialist I found at Scotiabank is an investor herself and what an amazing source of information she's turned out to be.

Anyway, best of luck and feel free to connect!

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Jeremy