Well, we just closed a deal on a townhouse just off the Gorge not too far from Spinnakers (west of Victoria downtown for non-locals) and I am simultaneously thrilled and terrified. Possession date is August 31/17 so we'll both be out in Victoria for that, until September 10th. For the moment, we're staying in Edmonton while my husband commutes. The new place has a 1 bed suite on the main floor which my husband will use as his commuting home base, but there's an 1100ft2 2bd/2bath suite on the upper level that we'd like to find long term renters for. Any suggestions?
If anyone is around prior to the official MMMmeetup, I'd be delighted to have a chat over drinkies and nibblies. Now, back to my obsessive 'to do' list writing!
Congrats on the house! The Gorge is a lovely area.
DH managed his family's rental house in Vancouver when it became too problematic for his mom. We also have a house with a suite and when we rented it I just used the BC Residential Tenancy agreement with a couple add ins:
1. A section where the applicants have to agree to let me run a credit check. I found simply asking for this info scared off anyone who already knew their credit was crap. The good thing about high rental rates and low vacancy is that it's easy to rent your unit. However, the tricky part can be finding a tenant who can afford to pay the rent every month.The res ten act makes it time consuming to evict for non-payment and nearly impossible to evict for other troublesome behaviours.
2. A section where I disallow them from moving any extra people into the unit without our consent. See above about low affordability of Victoria rentals.
Read the BC residential tenancy act. It's very tenant friendly. Make sure you know how to evict problem tenants. Have a plan for dealing with rent increases. I believe you can only increase the rent 2%/year. If you end up with a really long term tenant, it won't be long before you're stuck with rents that are well below current market rates.