Read Below to find out how to invest in the Ontario student rental market. The information below is intended to put you on a head start to becoming a student house landlord.
Research Rents
- Google, the name of the University or College area with the words: “off campus housing”. Most universities and colleges have a dedicated website for landlords to list their properties. Although you usually have to pay to list, you have a dedicated listing site for your target market.
- Look up the properties in the area you are looking to purchase in and find out what the average rents are. Find out if that rent includes utilities and internet. By researching properties in the area you are looking to purchase, gather up about 10 properties and take an average based on what is included. Example, one house may rent for $400 per room but not include utilities while other house can charge $600 per room and include utilities.
Find Average Asking Prices
- By using Realtor.ca, you can look up to see what rental properties are selling for in your target area. Keep in mind properties listed below what the average is may require additional repair to bring up to standards. Take look at why it’s important to have property with updated utilities from an insurance perspective.
Get Good At Excel
- Breakdown how much revenue you can get for each room. There might be 6 rooms in the house but basement bedrooms or smaller bedrooms may get less rent than one on the main or second floors. Once you have done this, you will have your total revenue that you may be able to earn. Next make a column and list the expenses, such as mortgage costs, water, hydro, insurance and don’t forget to add a buffer for unexpected costs which may occur. Typically a break down it could like this:
| Property Address | |
| Purchase Price | |
| Down Payment % | |
| Amortization | |
| Interest Rate – Stated | |
| Effective Rate (annual) | |
| Effective Rate (monthly) | |
| Mortgage Amount | |
| Payments (monthly) |
Start Up Costs
| Down Payment | |
| Inspection | |
| Appraisal | |
| Land Transfer Tax | |
| Legal Fees | |
| Renovations | |
| Buffer | |
| Other 1 time expenses? | |
| Total Startup Costs: |
Revenue (monthly)
| Room | |
| Room 2 | |
| Room 3 | |
| Room 4 | |
| Room 5 | |
| Room 6 | |
| Total Revenue |
Expenses (monthly)
| Mortgage | |
| Property Taxes | |
| Insurance | |
| Water Bill | |
| Maintenance | |
| Hydro | |
| Gas | |
| Any Others? |
Total Income Monthly:
Total Income Annually:
View Properties
- Once you have some numbers down, why not start looking at properties to invest in? Once you are ready to put an offer on, don’t forget to do a home inspection. This will give you valuable information on the house, and if the house may not have all the updates to important utilities such as electrical or heating be prepared to contact a licensed contractor to fix these things. Any updates required may also give you a bargaining advantage when putting down an offer.
Take a look at one of our earlier articles regarding updates to student rental properties.