Suite Showcase: Ranchlands Calgary

Introduction

Welcome to our second Suite Showcase! In these posts, we connect with a homeowner to learn about how they added a legal secondary suite to their house and share the finished product.

This week we connected with Chris Hughes to talk about the first home that he and his wife Michelle purchased in 2012. Chris is an airline pilot and at the age of 30, he and Michelle purchased their first home with the intention of adding a legal suite to the property. Chris had been interested in investing in rental properties for a few years before he purchased their first home, and spent a few hours each week reading about property investments, and looking for homes on MLS. After about a month and a half of searching with a realtor, they were able to find their first house in Ranchlands.

The house is a 4 level split home. Chris and his wife Michelle lived on the top 2 floors of the home, and renovated the 3rd floor as the basement suite, and the 4th floor as the mechanical room and common space/shared laundry.

When they purchased the home, an illegal suite had already been started on the property (the plumbing was already completed), and Chris realized that it would not take much work to bring the suite up to code. “It’s not worth the risk to own an illegal suite. If there is a fire, you could get sued, and your life is ruined. It’s not worth a couple of bucks of rent,” said Chris. He added, “Having an illegal suite gives your tenants leverage through the fear of having them report you if they don’t get their way, and I wanted to sleep soundly at night.”

Chris had a small amount of construction experience, and decided that he would try his hand at framing, drywalling, and painting, and ended up only needing to hire an electrician and HVAC expert to support him on the project. When Chris finished a day of flying, he and his wife would work on the basement. It took 4 months of hard work, but Chris was able to finish the suite, get a final inspection approved by the city, and a renter in his basement.

The experience was so positive for them that within 18 months Chris and his wife had purchased a second home in the SE of Calgary where they also renovated the basement to add a legal suite. When I asked Chris how he could afford to do this he told me that they refinanced their first home and put 5% down, which freed up the funds to invest in a second property and renovations.

Related: How Much Money Should You Put Towards a Down Payment of a Rental Property?

Q&A

We asked Chris a few questions about the overall suiting process:

Q: Was your plan to always suite your home?

A: My wife and I had lived in basement suites and upstairs suites before we bought our first home. I had been interested in investment properties for a while, and knew that I wanted to own a home that could provide income. My wife is a teacher and has a pension plan, but as a pilot, if I get injured and can’t fly anymore then my pension could be gone. I wanted to have a property that would be an investment for my retirement.

I spent a lot of time researching and learning about investment properties before we jumped into buying our house. My wife and I wanted to make sure that our home could be an investment for us.

Q: Were there any challenges that you were not expecting to come across when suiting your house?

A: Some of the building code requirements at the time were an extra challenge. A lot of these have become simpler recently, but there is still some confusion on a few of them. For example, the code says that there needs to be “adequate ventilation”, but what does that even mean? There were a lot of windows in the home, so I thought that maybe that would be enough, but it turns out you either need to have a separate furnace that can blow the air or if you installed baseboard heaters like me, a HRVsystem to move the air around. The only way that you could get an actual answer was by talking to an inspector directly, or calling 311.

Q: Was there anything that was simpler than you expected?

A: The whole process was simpler than I imagined it would be. Looking at the itty bitty details can seem daunting, but when I look at the big picture everything went well.

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Q: Is there anything you wish that you had done differently?

A: Ultimately, time is money. I spent a lot of time working on this project and my wife did not get to see me that much while I was working downstairs. I might have hired more of it out to get the rental finished faster.

I would have liked to have lived in the basement instead of upstairs so that we could have gotten more rent.

Sound is the number one complaint that I hear about when renting a suite, and although I added soundproofing insulation and drywall, I wish that I also added resilient channels to bring the noise down even further.

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Q: Would you recommend other people suite their homes?

A: Absolutely. With a few caveats however. You need to do your research first. You shouldn’t just watch a TV show or two and think that you can jump in. Spend time looking online, and take your time finding the right home. There is nothing worse than buying a home that you find out later you can not suite.

If you do not need all the space of a full house, then it is really silly not to do it. Especially when you crunch the numbers. I am breaking even on my property in Cranston, and am cash flow positive with my Ranchlands house. These homes have been a great investment.

Related: Legal Basement Suites: Calgary – The First 4 Steps

Q: Do you have any advice that you want to give people who are interested in suiting their homes?

A: Start slow. Do your research. Head to the City of Calgarysite and read about the steps. The site does an amazing job spelling out the steps that you need to take. If you are unsure what to do next then pick up the phone and give the city a call. See if other landlords are willing to chat with you about the process. I find that most people are more than happy to share their knowledge.

A lot of people think that being a landlord can be scary. Don’t forget that you can always hire property management companies to run the suite for you, even if you live upstairs!

In Conclusion

Chris and his wife are true believers in the value of legal secondary suites. They are using their properties as long term investments, and through effective spending, were even able to purchase another home with a suite with it within 18 months. We hope that Chris’s story and experiences inspire you to follow down this path as well.

Please feel free to share your stories below, and if you have a suite that you would like showcased click the link here! We can’t wait to see what you have done!

Related: Suite Showcase: Silverado – A Cautionary Tale of Illegal Suites