How We Make $1800 Per WEEK on a Rental

My second real estate project! This new build was the main reason I moved to Saskatchewan. Before this, I was living the dream in Whistler for four months over the summer. My best friend Haley and I had the greatest time! Somehow we scored on an apartment paying only $350 each for rent and this included ALL expenses, incredible find considering how expensive Whistler is!!

Outside Our First Apartment :)

I left the 19-year-olds dream life partying in the mountains to move to the prairies. I was excited because my mom had the perfect plan. She bought double lot Saskatoon in 2008 for $120,000. There once existed a tiny home on the lot but we completely demolished it ourselves because our vision was a lot bigger than this tiny house.

Before & After

My mom became the general contractor for this project. She hired all the trades herself and my brother and I would go along with the tradesmen and assist them or even do it all by ourselves and figure it out as we went along.

This SIGNIFICANTLY cut down costs.

We ran all the lines for the plumber and installed the in-floor heating system. My brother and I did all the tin work ourselves, unassisted. Tacked all the wires and put electrical boxes on for the electrician. We tied rebar for the concrete and ran all the concrete with wheelbarrows for the basement floor. We did most of the insulation and vapour barrier. We did all the finishings, baseboards, interior doors, painting, tiling, flooring, siding, shingling, installed all the hardware and fixtures!

Insane learning experience, to say the least.

Peeling logs to use as a railing in the duplex

We spent a lot of time on Kijiji looking for deals and this was another way we cut down a lot of costs. My favourite deal we found was at an auction. We got GRANITE counter tops in our kitchen for ... ?! Guess guess!

$300!

These counters right here ^ ^! and they fit perfectly, another incredible find. (Not the clearest pics, sorry) We also got this fridge brand-new for $400, it got dented in the back corner when it was being moved at Home Depot, you can't notice the dint at all!

You never know the deals you will find if you look hard enough. However, it takes A LOT of time to find deals like this. You have to value your time as well and it might not always be worth it to search for hours if you have other things on the go! Mom and I are deal hunters, though. I love a good deal :) plus I'm young now I don't have kids, I have the time to put in searching around on Kijiji, at auctions or habitat for humanity!

All in all the duplex cost $140,000 (per side) to build. We put one side of the duplex in mine and my brothers name, we got it appraised in 2013 at $395,000! We got a mortgage to pay my mom back for $195,000. No down payment required. :)

Here's where I tell you how we make $1800 a WEEK on this building!!! $900 per side.

We fully furnished as soon as everything was completed with the build. We bought tons on furniture on Kijiji for an awesome price, we'd even find full bedrooms sets! It is the perfect property for a short term rental! We are super close to the airport and downtown, great location for work crews who are flying in and out. Actually, it's funny because we have repeat renters, they're pilots from the Czech Republic! They are the NICEST guys and they've come back two years in a row now. They fly with sun wing back and fourth from Saskatoon to the Caribbean! They always bring us presents (rum, chocolate etc.) and are the best tenants! They will continue to rent from us as long as they continue to be based out of Saskatoon :)

We label it as a "short-term" rental but generally people tend to stay for months at a time and the vacancy rates don't seem to have too much of an increase from a normal rental. I usually use a day or two to clean but other than that it is the best rental situation! Plus I've never had to worry about late rent, people usually pay even a few months in advance!

This strategy may not work for everyone.. Again it comes down to TIME. You have to place a value on your time. Because of the high turnover rates from tenants you end up having to clean more often advertise more often ect. It definitely doesn't work for every situation but if it works for you I would highly recommend it!

So far my real estate ventures have been a huge success and I am SO EXCITED to move forward with this!!!! I want people who are skeptical about this to see it is possible. I hope to inspire you and if you have ANY questions or are curious about anything I'd love to help!

We are actually doing this SAME build in a town called Rosetown Saskatchewan, this time my partner is my boyfriend Scott! We bought four lots in a row for $10,000 each. We have already started the process, we have all the pre-planning done and after we get back from our vacation to Iceland July 11th we are going to start to dig. The duplex will be put on two of the lots and since the other two are small and with a few restrictions we will be building a large single family home with a basement suite on the other two lots :)

Sign up for my blog in the "contact" section so you don't miss out on the step by step process. I will post videos as well of the build as well as some cool side projects along the way, such as the barn board inspired feature walls! We just took down our first barn last weekend (pics below) Can't wait to show you guys how all this is done!

The Beautiful barn we took down to use as feature walls in our new builds! I will do a few projects with this stuff on the side and post a "How-to" with videos :D