Thanks for your input guys!
Life Situation: 29M, 1 year into career, girlfriend will move into my house in June.
Gross Salary/Wages: 28M: 63k/year +/- occasional overtime; work in healthcare. Approximately $1.25/hr increase per year worked.
Individual amounts of each Pre-tax deductions 401k, HSA, FSA, IRA, insurance, etc. - Nothing so far.
Other Ordinary Income: None currently. When girlfriend moves in she will pay $500/month in rent.
expenses: Mortgage $840/month (Property tax built into this), Hydro $70/month, Gas $70/month, Car Insurance $2275/year. Gas $60/month, Food $310/month, Cell phone $98/month, internet $80/month. My car is a 2010 Toyota Yaris that's paid off: Monthly expenses ~$1718/month. Approximately $1200 for city taxes (Garbage, sewer, etc). I don't know exactly how much, but budget $4500/year for vacations and other miscellaneous spending (tools, etc). Current cost of living is $26,316
Adjusted Gross Income: $36,614. $42,614/year when girlfriend moves in.
Mortgage Principal and interest - trying to contact the mortgage company to find out.
Assets: House bought for $200k with 60k down; Provincial assessments put it at $232k. Many renovations done since moving in: Both bathrooms, kitchen, all new paint, basement flooring + baseboards. 2010 Toyota Yaris. Set of tools worth approximately $5k. $15k in bank.
Other expenses: I have 2 leaks in my basement. It's not a ton of water: the water comes when we get heavy rain, which is not often, and when the snow melts. I've heard estimates to re-wrap the foundation from $10k to 17k to 25k+.
Specific Question(s): My goal is to own rental property. My current house doesn't work for me: I love woodworking and I don't have a shop or garage: I've utilized my basement as a woodworking space. Now that I've painted and installed vinyl flooring I don't want to use the space for woodworking anymore.
My recent plan was to put a 5% down payment on a house with a garage and keep my current house as a rental. I then learned about the 1% rule and my current house does not fit this criteria (bought for $201.4k; I suspect I could rent it for $1600-1800ish). Houses with shops or double-garages generally sell for around $350-400k, sometimes cheaper depending on condition.
My options:
1. Keep the house and find another inexpensive starter house (roughly $250-275k), with or without a garage, and reno it while keeping my current house as a rental.
2. Sell my current house, buy a longer-term house with a garage/shop, and look into buying an apartment (60-85k, rent for 800-1100) or townhouse ($140-180k; rent for $1200-1400).
3. Sell/Keep my house, buy a house with a basement & top-floor suite, and rent the basement out (approximately $900-1100/month).
4. something else?
Any questions let me know!