Comments on: Owning a House vs. Owning a Condo

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:36:43 +0000

Babysitters need privacy too! Buy them their house!

Some banks will do 25% for even self employed individuals. Here is an example:

http://www.cibc.com/ca/mortgages/self-employ-rec-mortg.html

As far as renting out a part of your home, that is the reason why many homes have secondary suites built right in. Renters are built right into the “Business Plan” of the house. If you don’t want renters, get an unfinished basement and finish it yourself. A nice home theatre or media room would be a great idea.

And yes, as I mentioned, if you lose your renters and tenants, you better be able to make those payments on your own. Otherwise, you’re feeding on your fat reserves and squeegying for your utitlities. Just because you can afford it now in the ideal scenario, does not mean you can afford it when they leave. A good plan must also have a plan b, c, and d.

By: John Chow

John Chow — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 19:15:16 +0000

The point at which you don’t need to prove income is 35%, not 25%. And the inlaws are my new baby sitters.

The idea of renting out part of the house is a really good idea to help someone afford a place. However, for a primary house this option should be viewed as a bonus only. In other words, you better be sure you can come up with the full $3,000 a month mortgage without renters.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 07:35:59 +0000

Oh… and most importantly…

5. I get to finally have a garage where I can build my power tool collection!

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 07:06:02 +0000

You and me, I could understand, but with the amount of money that John makes, he should be buying the neighbours house and moving them in there. Strange indeed!

My GF uses this as a business write off. She runs a consulting business out of the house. Business as usual…

If you think about where I live right now, I have a neighbour on top of me, and a neighbour flanking me left and right. I would actually have more privacy with only one neighbour stuck to me.

All in all, an upgrade for the following reasons:

1. A higher appreciating house value.
2. FEWER directly attached neighbours.
3. No more strata nonsense.
4. I only bug one neighbour when I want to crank my two subwoofers up while watching movies.

I dunno, makes sense for me

By: Carl

Carl — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 05:01:24 +0000

Well that’s different then I guess. I didn’t think you would actually charge your own girlfriend rent to live with you though…

Downstairs suite is separate, yes. But to me that would be unacceptable still… Just the way I am I guess; I don’t want strangers living in my home. Especially ones that are so poor they can only afford to live in someone’s basement.

Hey I lived with my inlaws for 2 or 3 years! There’s nothing wrong with it!