Floor coverings
Avoid low-grade laminate flooring because the seams puff up easily when liquids are spilled on the floor, causing permanent damage.
Try vinyl tile, as opposed to vinyl sheet. Replacing damaged vinyl tile is easy. Ceramic tile is excellent as well.
Do you own a suite or apartment? Be aware of potential sound transfer issues. Your strata or condominium corporation may regulate the type of floor coverings you may install in your apartment.
Tenants don’t want to live on 20-year-old carpeting. Aim to replace wall-to-wall carpeting every 10-12 years. Try an economical commercial-residential hybrid (with the emphasis on residential). Try for $1.50 per square foot.
You can save significant money by removing the old carpet yourself. It’ll be easier to handle if you use a box cutter blade to cut it into four-foot wide strips before you roll it up and take it away. Consider reusing the old underlay, but if it’s full of pet urine stains or other stains that smell, forget it. Always use a professional installer to lay carpet. Never lay carpet without underlay.
You can have 900 square feet of carpet replaced for $2,500, $5,000, $7,000 or more. Never mind the carpet salespeople who recommend the carpeting with the 25 year warranty. Ask professional carpet installers what they’d install in their own home. You may be surprised how many would choose the $2,500 package first.
In my opinion, installing expensive carpet, even if it is advertised as long lasting, is too risky. When I started out landlording, my odds of choosing bad tenants were unacceptably high. I remember the pain I felt when my new “bad” tenants spilled a jar of indigo ink on the brand new carpet. Twenty-five-year warranty or not, no carpet could withstand that kind of abuse.
Kitchen/bathroom
Revitalizing a kitchen or bathroom doesn’t have to be prohibitively expensive. Have your skilled painter paint the cabinetry. Then replace the hardware, knobs, etc. Your kitchen or bathroom will look as good as new!
Your home renovation store carries very affordable plastic laminate countertops of various sizes and in attractive designs. Some modification might be required to make them fit your kitchen or bathroom, but it’s nothing a good carpenter or handyman can’t handle. Unless the rental is very high end, forget about granite countertops. Tenants won’t expect granite countertops, but they will have other expectations.
Make sure your kitchen has a built-in dishwasher. Tenants love dishwashers. No room for a built-in? Before starting any major changes to the layout in your kitchen, ask a few good carpenters for their ideas. They’ll know how to solve your problem most economically.
In-suite laundry
If your rental doesn’t have in-suite laundry already, perhaps it’s structurally impossible to do so. Or, if your rental is part of a condominium or strata corporation, odds are the corporation bylaws prohibit the installation of in-suite laundry.
It remains a good idea to assess whether or not installing in-suite laundry is possible. It’s a great renovation that will pay for itself in increased rental income many times over.
But don’t go overboard
Landlords select low-cost and durable materials not only to save money, but because returns on high end renovations quickly diminish. If you spend $4,000 on new paint, carpeting, and appliances, you might be able to raise the rent from $750 to $900. On the other hand, if you spend tens of thousands upgrading your rental with granite countertops, porcelain tile, and wood floors, it probably won’t be possible to rent that $750 home for much more than $950. Obey the law of diminishing returns by keeping your renovation plans to the essentials only.
While you may select low cost materials, that doesn’t mean the workmanship should be of a low quality. Always bring in professionals to do the job. Tenants can tell when a renovation was done by a “weekend warrior.”
On hiring tradespeople
Screen your tradespeople. If you hire the wrong people, you’ll waste time and money correcting their mistakes.
Any tradesperson you hire should be licensed, bonded, and have liability insurance. Check with the Better Business Bureau to see if there are any complaints on record. Insist on references for costly projects.
Receive several quotes. The larger the job, the more quotes you need. Insist your prospective tradesperson break down the quote. If a painter quotes $2,000 to paint your rental property, ask how long the work will take and how many others will be working on the job. Ask for a breakdown of expected material costs then, do the math. You might be shocked at the results. Your painter might be charging more per hour than your dentist!
Don’t buy the claim that it’s impossible to break down the quote. Tradespeople who say such a thing are often trying to hide the fact that they’re overcharging. Tradespeople who know how much the total cost will be know how much labour and material will be as well.
For larger jobs, you should enter into a written contract before letting your tradesperson start work. Small claims courts across Canada are inundated with lawsuits involving contractors and landlords who sue each other due to disagreements over oral contracts that could have been avoided had the parties put their expectations in writing. While an oral agreement may be enforceable in a court, it is poor evidence of a contract because the contractual terms are easily forgotten or misinterpreted. A good contract describes the work to be performed in a way that a stranger can read it and have a good sense of the work to be performed. A good contract also anticipates that the work to be performed may have to be changed, and it will provide a procedure for the contractor and landlord to follow to change the work so that neither party is caught off guard. A good first start for a construction contract might be found through forms offered by Self-Counsel Press.
If your tradesperson provides you with a contract to sign, then it obviously should be reviewed carefully. Keep an eye out for unfair contractual terms. For example, an increasingly common practice is for a contractor to insert a clause into the contract providing that a dispute about the contract must be taken to arbitration. Such a clause is intended to take away your right to sue the contractor and to force you to use private arbitration, which is commonly far more expensive than starting a small claims court action. Unfortunately, clauses like these can be difficult to recognize and so if you are involved in a particularly substantial job, consider asking a lawyer to review the contract before signing.
Chapter 2
SECONDARY SUITES: PREVENTING PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY START
In this chapter, you will learn to:
• Plan in advance to address common secondary suite problems.
• Ensure your space is livable (and large enough!) before deciding to rent it out as a suite.
• Soundproof between units: Install insulation and carpet, and include noise reduction practices in the rental agreement.
• Be clear about the use of shared facilities and common space; include terms for its use in the rental agreement.
• Make a contingency plan if the electrical panel, hot water tank, or furnace are located within the secondary suite: The need may arise to access them.
• Contract out property maintenance such as lawn mowing and gutter cleaning: Do not make this a tenant’s responsibility.
• Include the cost for utilities in each month’s rent: Serve a tenant notice about reasonable utility use in case use gets excessive.
Secondary