Post #2

The Background Story

We currently own a triplex that we purchased a few years back. The previous owner had rented the units out for nearly 15 years with nearly no maintenance or improvements. We moved into the two apartment unit upstairs and rent the two 1-bedroom apartments on the main floor. Over the past few years, we performed minor renovations for big impact in order to improve the condition of the triplex. Minor renovations would include paint, new kitchen countertops/sinks, new flooring, new low-flow toilets, new showers, tiling, etc. We did everything ourselves (with the help of his parents) and managed to avoid having to hire contractors.

I (the wife) decided to return to school for more education and a career change. Unfortunately, this means that I would have to move out of town. My husband decided that he would like to keep busy in my absence, so the idea of purchasing a new property to work on started forming.

This time, the idea is to improve the property to a higher scale. We would still look for deals and sales, but would not compromise (too much) on fixtures, floorings, or anything else. The first step was to find a property that required improvement. We hooked up with a real estate agent and gave specific instructions, including a price range and our purpose.

We knew that it was probable that we’d up purchasing in one of the older, rougher neighbourhoods. This was fine with us since the specific neighbourhood we were thinking of was experiencing some renewal with older people passing away and younger professionals coming in to rejuvenate outdated properties. The proximity to downtown and the main district of the city adds value to many of these properties.

I’ll admit—the first dozen houses that we viewed were very discouraging.

We feared that we set our expectations too high and our price point too low. We saw houses that were basically tear-downs. We saw tiny houses at the top of our price range that we would never consider buying. Conversely, many properties that we were extremely interested in were purchased before we could even view them.

After a few weeks of intensive searching, we came across two potential properties. The first property was an immaculate, little one and a half story ‘mamere’ or ‘gramma’ house in a neighbour that was in the already in the midst of renewal. The second property was a duplex in a neighbourhood with mere stirrings of rejuvenation.

After careful consideration and second viewings, it was decided to put an offer into the duplex property for several reasons:

• Duplexes (income properties in general) better retain value against swings in real estate
• Potential income while renovating
• Proximity to our current triplex for reduced travel time during renovations
• Proximity to our current triplex for unit showings, as we would eventually move into the duplex

We’ll post a full set of photos in the next blog!