Regina Single family strategy

[ryanlake]

I have 2 single family homes in the general hospital area in Regina that i bought in 2009. Since then, rent has gone up $400 (both included) since last fall. I know single family homes have gone up a lot since then. One of my mortgages is up for renewal in January and my plan was to get an appraisal done on the house to see if I could refinance some equity out of it to get into another property in the edmonton market. I doubt I will have enough that i can refinance with so I am looking at other options.



My overall scheme was to build up enough equity to buy a multi family unit (4-plex), so now I am thinking I should just ride the amazing prarie wave for a couple more years and take advantage of the rents I can squeeze out of the investments and put more money down on an open mortgage to build equity.



or i could refinance the equity to fix up the house a bit and then get another appraisal and see what I could do then.



Any pointers would be helpful!



P.S. I bought one of those properties for around $140,000 on 1800 block Toronto St...now my painter claims houses are selling for around $200,000...could anyone else tell me some truth in this?

 

[tj3311]

This tough to advise on without seeing the property as in that area you have some houses going for $150k and some going for close to $300k. If your house is in need of major repairs I would probably not waste the money on renovating unless you were looking to sell or unless you can increase your rents to justify spending the extra money. You may be spending more money and time renovating to not make it worth while. Also, with such a hot rental market you can demand high rents for your place pretty much regardless of the condition it's in.



Like I said without seeing the property it's tough to tell as it could be an expensive, long full gut of the house or it could just be some lipstick. I would suggest that you wait to renovate as most likely the clientele you are dealing with on 1800 block Toronto will not care for your reno's as much as you do.



It may be worth talking to your banker and seeing what he/she recommends.



Taylor

 

[Thomas Beyer]

Refinancing is a great way to get more properties as long as the rents cover all your additional interest expenses. More debt = more risk, but also more assets and more upside potential and more rent. SK and AB will do well for decades, so no need to unload anything unless you have to as anything will be worth far more in 3, 5 or 15 years !