While buying your first home can be a scary, expensive, experience, today many first time home buyers are finding a peace of mind and paying off their mortgages faster by settling in homes with a secondary suite.
As this trend of additional income via renting a suite in your home becomes more and more popular, the actual number of legal secondary suites remains quite low.
Focusing on Saanich, BC, real estate agents say that despite the increase in buying power secondary suites offers, legal secondary suites are still uncommon. It seems if people want a legal suite, they will either move to Langford or downtown Victoria.
In fact, of the estimated 9,000 secondary suites across the District of Saanich, less than 100 of them are legal. Yet at the same time, as many as nine out of 10 of his buyers don’t care if it suite is deemed legal or not, since most are not.
Although Saanich council legalized secondary suites south of McKenzie Avenue in June 2010, four years after that, only 98 homeowners had received a permit for a legal suite. One advantage to having an authorized suite is you don’t need to fear being shut down. For a lot of homeowners, that rental income is necessary to pay their mortgage.
There are certain features home buyers should look for when buying an income property:
• Separate entrances to separate levels of the home
• Ceiling heights of 7ft or more
• Close to shopping and public transportation
• Local rental rates
• Enough space for living/kitchen/bathroom/bedrooms/laundry/storage
• A sizeable window in the bedrooms
• Proper fire alarm wiring throughout the residence
• Parking for you and the tenant
The Auxilium team takes a comprehensive approach to make sure your mortgage fits your lifestyle. We want to make sure you're able to own the home you want, with enough flexibility to enjoy the good things in life. If this sounds appealing, call us for a free consultation with one of our brokers: toll-free 1-855-590-6520 or visit us at 307 Goldstream Avenue during regular business hours. We can also arrange an appointment evenings or weekends to work with you.
