If you’re struggling to find a deal that will cash flow in your area then it might be time that we let you in on one of the biggest secrets in real estate investing:
You don’t FIND great real estate deals – you CREATE them.
There are plenty of ways to create value and put together a great deal. We do it by mixing a variety of strategies from finding a motivated seller and solving their biggest problem to renovating right through to adding a legal suite to the property.
One of the biggest questions that we get is WHAT IS A LEGAL SUITE and WHY PUT IN A LEGAL SUITE vs an ILLEGAL SUITE.
A legal suite is when you add a rental unit to a property following the building codes of the city you’re in and doing everything from electrical to plumbing to framing with a permit. As each step in the process gets complete an inspection will be completed to make sure that it all meets the building codes for your area. An illegal suite is when you put in the rental unit without the permits.
If you aren’t sure what is involved pop into your city building permits office. In Nanaimo the city office has friendly and helpful staff who are ready to explain what is involved and what you need to do to get your permit.
It is definitely more cost and more hassle to put in a legal suite but there are a lot of reasons to do it. In the latest video from my series on adding a suite to a property I explain why we prefer to add a legal suite (and what all the other other suite types are form authorized to illegal).
Why We Add Legal vs Illegal Suites in Rental Properties
As I discussed in the video there are some really important reasons why we prefer to add legal suites to our rental properties. From risk reduction right through to better tenant relationships – we find it’s worth the extra expense. Another thing that is usually worth the extra expense when adding suites to properties is creating laundry facilities for each suite. Knowing that it’s the best situation to have in-suite laundry for each unit is simple but figuring out where to put it can be a little more complicated. I shot a different video in week 3 of our project to discuss how we solved the problem for both units in the house.
Where to Put Laundry in Rental Units
Every week I’m shooting a new video as we work on the suite. If you want to make sure you catch all the videos make sure you’re signed up for our Real Estate Investment Newsletter.
