Hi folks, rambling on a bit here. So if no one gets to the end of this post and replies it's OK.
I own a house in Vancouver B.C. my setup for the last 2 years has been to live on the middle floor, rent out some rooms upstairs to 3 international students, and rent out separate basement suite to 3 more.
Generally speaking the students are not much bother, occasionally something will get irritating, but on a scale of 1 to 10 it's a 3 or a 4, so not too bad.
The rents I get from them cover my mortgage and other expenses, and so I live here for no money out of pocket and my mortgage is paid down each month.
I've owned the house (had a mortgage) for 11 years.
Lived in the house for about half that time, lived in a rented place down by the beach for the other half.
I lived down by the beach before I bought this house ... when I bought this house I realised just how boring I find the area the house is in compared to down at English Bay and all the interesting things to see there. (kind of a rookie mistake)
I almost sold the house about 7 years back, glad I didn't as the house prices shot up dramatically since then (up about half a million +!)
My house is on a busy street and over time it's become more and more likely that the allowed density will increase here, busy arterial streets being favoured first by the city.
But it's also become clear that it's not that easy to get the neighbours together to agree on selling and assembling together in order to get big bucks, so much so that I tried and abandoned the idea.
The city of Vancouver are now working on a new city wide plan and will announce this new plan sometime over the spring.
It's called the 'making room plan' and the idea is to change what can be built on a single family lot in order to accomodate all the people that are moving here (about 25 thousand new households being formed each year) and also to allow more to be built on the expensive land here in order to make homes more affordable.
There's talk of allowing a 3 or 4 plex to be built on what is currently a single family lot. ( that's what I have) And that way there'd be no need to try to assemble with my neighbours which has proved to be difficult (one side is an older guy who's in no hurry to move, other side recently spent a lot! on totally renovating)
Here's my thing, in the summer of 2018 I went back to the U.K. which is where I'm originally from, I had a really good time and I'd really like to spend some more time there. I'd also like to spend some time in Toronto where my kid lives. And I'm totally done with living in the area my house is! Also I'd like to be able to travel a bit in winter.
So now for me would be a time to change my living circumstances, but... the markets flat and to sell now would miss out on whatever rezoning may (or may not) be announced by the city this year.
Of course this waiting around for the governments to do things can be frustrating and take forever, but it does seem like there's a definite timeline that they are on with and urgency behind it as it's considered a housing crisis.
I'm wondering how to get some enthusiasm built up so as to stay the course for a year or two more, but not just be mildly miserable for next couple of years.
If no one else lived in my house it would be easier to get away, but it's an old timer and with 6 other people living in here, none of whom can honestly change a light bulb, it's challenging.
And it ends up being that the thought of going away gets over ruled by the thought of what might happen while I'm away. So I tend not to, which is another reason I'm ready to sell!