One of the big topics while I was in town over the weekend, was an idea Jordan had about a transitional option to sell my great aunt's house to us. This isn't something I've talked a lot about before, but I've written about it a few times.
Jordan's idea was that we renovate and move into the basement and do a rent-to-own scenario. We would want to do a proper legal suite and would have to ensure that her smok(ing) wouldn't get down into the basement. Pluses in the space is that it's already plumbed for one bathroom and has a bedroom.
This would work for both parties in a number of different ways. We would be able to get a head start on renovating, we wouldn't have to rent anymore (in the rent-to-own scnario, the 'rent' would be going straight to principal). We would be there to provide support to my aunt. This is something we do anyways, it would actually be easier because we wouldn't have to drive accross town.
This is something I'm likely to start writing more about as time goes on, investigating the different ways this could play out and the steps we would need to take.
Has anyone ever renovated a secondary suite?
A Home of Our Own
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Hi Jessie,
ReplyDeleteI'm in the same city as you ... recently there was a story on the CTV news about a poor fellow who spent a ton of money on renovating, got his neighbours to agree to having a secondary suite in their neighbourhood, and in the end the City denied approving the suite, so I guess the moral of the story is to get the City to approve everything first. The fellow in the news was very upset because the City had been promoting secondary suites to ease the housing crunch and he thought he had done everything right, spent a lot of money, and still got shut down at the end.
@ Anon - thanks for the advise!! I would hate for that to happen.
ReplyDeletehttp://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100426/CGY_haysboro_suite_100426/20100426/?hub=CalgaryHome
ReplyDeleteThis is the report.
We basically live in a ground floor suite, and although it's small, we're happy with the quality of everything. The one thing is that I wish there was more between the floors - we can hear them walking around upstairs, and when it's quiet, even hear the phone ringing!
ReplyDelete