My primary goal for 2018 is to fix up my rental suite and have it occupied by good tenants. Two weeks ago a nice young couple, feted by my property manager, took possession of the suite. They signed a 1-year lease for $1,400 a month and 50% of utilities (gas and electricity). I am excited as this completes this project which has consumed much of my attention this year.
At the beginning of the year the rental suite at my house was in disrepair. I was finding it difficult to find a competent contractor to renovate the suite. Here are some pictures of the suite in January 2018:
My rental suite had been taken apart by a previous tenant who envisioned renovating the suite himself. However, the only thing he did was take apart the suite. It was a lesson for me to not give tenants free reign to change or renovate the suite because they often won't finish the job or do it very well. I was naive in letting the suite get into such disrepair but the hard part was still to come in putting the suite back together.
I was lucky that I have a few friends that know about construction. My friend James Miller came to my rescue and though there is a lot he doesn't know, he made up for that with a passion to try new things and work hard. His drive to do things as well as he could resulted in the finished suite looking as well as it did.
The renovation of my rental suite is very important to me in that it makes the economics of owning this house worthwhile. Last year I earned very little rental income from the suite and the loss of that income strained my finances even though I had a fairly good year in making $150,000 through work. I am happy that I was able to get the suite fixed up and occupied and I look forward to other rental opportunities now that I have a few years of experience being a landlord and feel confident that I can be successful at it.