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3 years later - New house, new expenses
So it has been a long time. I sold my old place last year & moved into my new house in April 2015 (a 1,700 square foot bungalow). I decided to revive this thread to track my spending. Clearly there's A LOT of improvement needed to get this place making a profit like my old condo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65TUHAJLob4
April 2015 housing costs: Natural Gas - $134.21 Electricity - $116.95 Water - $95.25 Other expenses: Telephone - $39.97 Insurance - $143.43 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $1,083.08 Total April '15 Housing Costs: $1,932.69 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $732.69 ---------------------------------------------- I plan on developing my basement with 2 more bedrooms, so I anticipate getting another $1,200/month rental income once I get that up and running. My house also had Halogen lighting everywhere & I've recently switched to LED everywhere. And that fridge! Such an energy suck (1,300 KwH/year!). |
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I think you have real career potential doing late night product adverts. I'm not sure when this place was built, but maybe Disco music would be more fitting. Maybe this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX7MbG6MiQs Best, -AC |
Nice to see a condensing furnace in an existing home. When I was looking for houses and also when my brother was too, we were looking at houses of a similar size and from the 80s or 90s and every since one had the original 30ish year old furnace, many natural draft.
"Water Heater Rental - $9.63" ? Huh?? |
You're bang right on AC_Hacker with that Donna Summer song. The house was built in 1983 :)
The high-efficient furnace was definitely a bonus. The weird thing I noticed is that it seems to have variable speeds for the fan when using the heat. I'm not too sure why a low speed blowing is beneficial - I'm used to my old mid-efficient furnace of my old place where you could feel air almost at the ceiling whenever it was on. And yeah, it's very popular to rent a water heater in the city of Regina. It costs $115.50/year to rent, however the company services it for free: WHY RENT? - Heath Water Heater Rentals I bought out the existing water softener though - Culligan wanted $300/year to keep the rental contract when I bought my house. Now that's crazy :p. |
Glad to see you back Peakster! How are you liking the new place so far? If you answered this in the video, sorry. I'm at work and can't view them.
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Also, my wife and I's house is 9 years old and I am pretty confident (not 100%) that it is the original water heater. Quote:
Just for curiosity sake, I checked Lowes' website. They sell up to "12-year" electric water heaters and no less than "6-year" water heaters. That would imply that the manufacturer fully expects their water heater to last at least 6 years, probably with minimum servicing. I guess I just have a hard time understanding the benefits of renting, there is often very few. |
The company wouldn't do it if they didn't end up ahead. This reminds me of extended warranties for electronics, stuff never breaks in the first 3 years but they get an extra 25% more on each sale. I don't understand renting something that is permanently installed in a house that I own. Especially when 4 years of rental is the same price as buying one new. My water heater is 7 years old, I'll pull the anode rod an likely replace it and then check it again with an interval based on how the one I pulled out looked. Not too difficult or expensive.
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Daox: I'm liking the house a lot. The layout is really well designed & it has so many more features than my old place (central A/C, central vacuum, en-suite bath, fireplace, garage, etc). A lot more upkeep than my little 2 story condo I had though, that for sure. At least there's no more condo fees or 'special assessments' ;).
natethebrown: I didn't realize that water heaters can be fairly inexpensive to buy. A new 41 gallon natural gas unit is around $600: Moffatt G6 Water Heater, 41 Gallons | Canadian Tire. That's almost 5 years of rental fees. Electric heaters are 1/2 the purchase cost of gas but with electricity being is about $0.13/kWh it's tough to say if the higher electric bill would offset its price. Anyone have recommendations? I've read electric lasts a lot longer though. My old condo didn't have soft water at all, so now that I own my water softener it should add even more life expectancy to the water heater. |
Maybe buy an electric tank to use as just a tank and then build your own CHP setup for hot water and space heating?
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May 2015 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $62.15 Electricity - $88.99 Water - $125.12 Other expenses: Telephone - $39.41 Wifi - $20.00 (contribution to housemate) Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $143.43 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $1,083.08 Total May '15 Housing Costs: $1,890.97 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $690.97 ---------------------------------------------- Water bill increased - turns out that front & backyard lawn irrigation uses 100 litres every 60 seconds! Wifi and Netflix bills introduced. |
June 2015 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $36.69 Electricity - $84.31 Water - $132.51 Other expenses: Telephone - $43.27 Wifi - $20.00 (contribution to housemate) Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $143.43 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $1,083.08 Total June '15 Housing Costs: $1,872.08 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $672.08 ---------------------------------------------- Water bill is getting up there. This point forward I've cut down on irrigation substantially. I replaced the 1300kWh fridge with a larger one that only uses 373kWh :) I've also converted to LED lighting throughout with exception of the main bath & formal dining room (finding a fixture I like is proving to be difficult for the bathroom & the dining room needs LEDs that are very colour accurate as it looks 'washed out' with regular LEDs). I'm also in the beginning stages of getting a permit to develop my basement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmxB26SmY0Y |
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How many gallons does $132.51 buy me? My bill shows 24.207 M3 so that's 6,395 gallons.
My city has a water base charge of $21.60/month, a base sewer charge of $16.80/month, a base storm drainage charge of $14.40/month, and recycling base charge of $7.50/month. So that's a bill of $60.30 before a single drop of water is even used. The usage charge is $3.26 for every 1,000L. Watering the lawn uses 100L every minute so it would be $3.26 (on top of the base $60.30) to water for 10 minutes. |
Eeaaugh...Saskatchewan...blah. Riders suck.
;) Just teasing you man. I love the music from that video though. You've got the personality for making video's. Can't wait to see what you do to the house. |
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Lol, I know how you feel nathethebrown - my friend lives in a small town 30 miles away & loves telling me about how his water is cheap like that too. I think his is a flat $140 every 3 months, regardless of usage.
The Riders - they really ARE sucking this year, Higgy. Don't even get me started on that stadium in construction - maybe that's where the money for the water charges are going... |
July 2015 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $31.92 Electricity - $112.84 Water - $125.92 Other expenses: Telephone - $49.33 Wifi - $35.75 (caved in and bought my own - 6 month promotional pricing) Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $143.43 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $1,083.08 Total July '15 Housing Costs: $1,911.06 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $711.06 ---------------------------------------------- Cut my water usage by 3500 litres (936 gallons) and the bill only dropped by $6.59 :rolleyes:. Still waiting for the city to respond to my basement development application as of this writing. |
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August 2015 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $31.92 Electricity - $88.58 Water - $116.26 Other expenses: Telephone - $44.95 Wifi - $35.72 Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $143.43 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $1,083.08 Total August '15 Housing Costs: $1,872.73 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $672.73 ---------------------------------------------- When my electricity bill came, the company estimated that I used 300kWh more than I actually used & as of this writing I still haven't reached what they guessed the meter to be. Looks like switching to LED and changing out the 1980s fridge to an Energy Star model is making a huge difference! We'll see how this translates next month. I've also finally got my basement windows installed. It's not 100% complete yet as they need to come back to put in the window wells & clean up. At least I'm that much closer to getting 2 more rentable bedrooms down there :) http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1443062439 http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1443062439 http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1443062439 |
September 2015 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $61.35 Electricity - $27.90 Water - $140.56 Other expenses: Telephone - $42.98 Wifi - $35.72 Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $143.43 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $1,083.08 Total September '15 Housing Costs: $1,863.81 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $663.81 ---------------------------------------------- Well, I'm convinced that I must have a water leak somewhere. $140+ for the water bill this time & there has been NO lawn irrigation this month (sprinklers were blown out early September). I'm going to keep a close eye on the basement meter. On the plus side I've installed the last of the LED lighting in the house & it made a big difference in electricity costs - the dining room chandelier was still incandescent because of the dimmer switch. I found some Phillips "Warm Glow" bulbs on sale and they are real nice. They turn warmer as the light dims. I'm down to using ~7kWh/day for the whole house now. Basement bracing is set for November at a ~$2,800 cost. The company I went with braces 50 homes a month in Regina so there's a bit of a waiting list. |
Yikes, $140 in water seems like a ton. I have well water but city sewer and pay about $55/mo.
7kwh per day is pretty great. My best ever month was 6.6 kWh, during summer running basically nothing. I average just under 12/day since owning the house. I can hear the off gridders laughing, but once you get under 10 it seems a lot more difficult to find the big-uns. |
I'm definitely going to keep a closer eye on the water meter as something feels amiss. My water bills at my old condo were around the $50 range on average. I pulled out a February 2014 invoice & I only used 16,400 litres (16.4m3) that month & the bill was $44.41. This time in September I somehow used 27,579 litres & it was $140.56.
Now, prices have gone up - that's for sure. Back in 2014 water+sewer in my condo was $2.56 per unit with a $2.43 base charge. In Sept 2014 it's $3.26 per unit with (get this) a whopping $51.04 in base charges!! Maybe it's based on roof surface area? Oh, & there's a $7.25 curb side recycling fee too (but I'm ok with that). I'm pretty pleased with the ~7kWh/day. The old 14.8 cu.ft. fridge alone used ~3.5kWh so getting my 18.0 cu.ft. energy star model that uses ~1kWh/day was an awesome improvement :) EDIT: I just found a November 2013 water bill - I used 27,200 litres that month & the bill was $74.21. Clearly it's just the pricing that's changed in these 2 short years. |
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October 2015 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $84.41 Electricity - $83.21 Water - $75.77 Other expenses: Telephone - $39.97 Wifi - $71.45 (6 month introductory pricing expired) Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $143.43 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $1,083.08 Total October '15 Housing Costs: $1,910.11 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $710.11 ---------------------------------------------- Basement bracing is now completed so I'm ready to start framing the 2 extra bedrooms & basement bathroom addition. Water bill decreased significantly - I think it was from a slow leak in the ensuite toilet which is now fixed. Electricity was estimated this month so I've used less kWh than what the city thought. It should correct itself the next time they do an actual reading. Attachment 6302 |
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That's actually a real good idea :) I'll try that. The worst they can say is 'no', right?
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November 2015 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $124.17 Electricity - $72.90 Water - $88.81 Other expenses: Telephone - $40.78 Wifi - $71.45 Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $143.43 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $1,083.08 Total November '15 Housing Costs: $1,953.41 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $753.41 ---------------------------------------------- Natural gas bill is starting to rise with the colder weather (although it's still pretty mild for Canadian standards). Still have to call the wifi provider about the higher bill - just haven't got around to it yet. On an unrelated note, I had my rotting back deck replaced just before the snow hit & did some more designing of what I want the basement plan to be like: Attachment 6422Attachment 6423Attachment 6425 |
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EDIT: Don't forget Craig's List for building materials, like "pinballlooking" did. |
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December 2015 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $168.05 (Cold Canadian weather!) Electricity - $59.11 Water - $94.81 Other expenses: Telephone - $44.10 Wifi - $40.93 (went down a speed rating & saved money) Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $123.45 (cancelled the disability insurance on the mortgage) Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $717.31 (decelerated my mortgage to the original 29 years, 2 months amortization & focusing the extra money on the stock market right now. Buy low!) Total December '15 Housing Costs: $1,576.55 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit:$376.55 ---------------------------------------------- Lots of changes with my finances lately. I was going hard on the mortgage but I've decided that I want to use my funds elsewhere as the mortgage is only at 2.69%. Nothing to report with renovations right now. It's been crazy busy at work & I've had no time to really do anything. |
January 2016 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $144.42 Electricity - $93.65 Water - $93.33 Other expenses: Telephone - $39.41 Wifi - $60.45 Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $123.45 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $717.31 Total January '16 Housing Costs: $1,600.81 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $400.81 ---------------------------------------------- Pretty basic month. Currently I'm having 1 housemate struggling to pay February rent in full, but I'm optimistic that they'll pull though. The weather is turning nicer and the daylight hours are getting longer. I'm looking forward to spring basement development (which is still on hold, for now). |
Big Rant - Ran into a major road-block
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After months of planning & ensuring everything is good with the city in terms of developing 2 extra bedrooms downstairs to double my rental income, I find out that Canadian residential home insurance companies absolutely refuse to insure more than 2 rented rooms under a regular homeowner policy. My home insurance is $1,354 annually & only $75 of that is the cost of having $5M in liability coverage for the 2 renters. However when someone has 4 rented rooms they need to get 'commercial insurance' as it becomes a rooming house.
Multiple insurance companies that I've checked over the weeks refuse to give a quote for this type of insurance until I'm 'ready to rent out 4 rooms'; I'm getting the impression they just don't want the hassle of dealing with underwriting unless it's completely necessary. However, one broker gave me a ballpark figure that the premium would be about $8K a year & the coverage would be less (no replacement cost, less perils covered, etc)! Talk about a ripoff. You can't tell me that having 4 grown adults living in my house is an exponentially higher risk than, say, if I was a single dad with 4 teenaged kids living in the house. The only difference is that my housemates are not family & I collect money in exchange for living with them. To put it into perspective, that's $80,000 in insurance premiums over 10 years (that I'll never get back). Who even knows if insurance would even pay if I had a loss? Insurance companies won't tell you their adjudication practices & qualifications for specific types of claims because it's 'proprietary information'. I even know of one immediate family member still trying to collect on a significant property loss that they were 'covered for' but even after 2 years, he's still dealing with rejections due to 'fine print'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbPiqeAjicg I attempted to think 'outside the box' too. I asked if I had 2 housemates rent 1 room (I can easily make a receipt show that each housemate rents 1/2 a bedroom, and where they choose to sleep is up to them really). Nope, there's a limit of 2 'families' that I can rent out to. Meaning unless I rent 1 room to 2 siblings, or a legally married couple, I'm out of luck. I even asked if I could have 2 insurance company insure the house - one for the main floor, while another separate company covered the basement only. Nope, that doesn't work either. However, I did confirm with my current insurer that I would still be covered if I "had a non-family member visit me, and was sleeping in one of the basement rooms at the time of a loss". So I'll see what I can do with that. I guess I could just keep the 2 rented rooms at $1,200/month. It isn't $2,400 - but it's still pretty decent. Still, $2,400/month would be an extra $144,000 over 10 years. There's always an option of making a pet sitting business too :p. Cat owners would probably be thrilled for their felines to have a 150 square foot bedroom all to themselves. February 2016 housing costs: Natural Gas - $126.54 Electricity - $86.97 Water - $97.31 Other expenses: Telephone - $41.07 Wifi - $60.45 Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $112.83 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $717.31 Total February '16 Housing Costs: $1,571.27 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $371.27 |
March 2016 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $115.08 Electricity - $35.60 Water - $89.32 Other expenses: Telephone - $44.10 Wifi - $30.63 (downgraded from Platnum to Gold) Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $112.83 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $717.31 Total March '16 Housing Costs: $1,473.66 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $273.66 Pretty uneventful month. Didn't do any extra work to the place (busy at my 9-5 job) but I investigated as to what other homeowners that rent out rooms do for insurance & I have a few leads now. We'll see what happens :) |
big improvement from last year
April 2016 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $80.70 Electricity - $96.57 (an estimated reading - consumption was considerably less) Water - $125.16 Other expenses: Telephone - $41.34 Wifi - $49.45 (yup, this is how much 5.0 mbps costs monthly in Saskatchewan) Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $112.83 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $717.31 Total April '16 Housing Costs: $1,552.15 (compared to $1,932.69 last year) Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $352.15 Another lethargic month. Still haven't done much with the basement or investigated further with insurance for 3+ housemates. Time to make progress with the basement development. |
Home insurance situation is finally resolved!
Finally. The whole home insurance/renting out to roommates situation is solved:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtUkLcztHcI May 2016 housing costs: Natural Gas - $53.51 Electricity - $91.92 Water - $128.75 Other expenses: Telephone - $47.71 Wifi - $49.45 Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $112.83 - last month of a former insurance Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $310.17 Mortgage P+I - $717.31 Total May '16 Housing Costs: $1,530.27 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $330.27 Time to get the motivation to do the basement as planned! :thumbup: |
June 2016 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $34.89 Electricity - $44.03 Water - $111.45 Other expenses: Telephone - $86.28 (caved in and got a new phone with a data plan) Wifi - $49.45 Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $87.75 (new insurance carrier) Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $316.56 Mortgage P+I - $696.19 (cancelled mortgage disability insurance) Total June '16 Housing Costs: $1,445.22 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $245.22 Costs are coming down in some expense areas - starting to look good. I'm currently insulating the basement bedrooms & hope to have them rentable by the end of the year :) |
July 2016 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $32.73 Electricity - $81.96 Water - $111.02 Other expenses: Telephone - $83.62 Wifi - $49.45 Netflix - 8.99 Insurance - $87.75 (new insurance carrier) Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $316.56 Mortgage P+I - $696.19 (cancelled mortgage disability insurance) Total July '16 Housing Costs: $1,477.90 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $277.90 Keeping up with the cleaning of a 1,700 square foot house is proving to be a challenge. I can do vacuuming and minor stuff like that, but starting next month I hired cleaners to do the heavy stuff (cleaning bathroom grout, washing cabinets, etc.). That will be an extra $125 a visit, so we'll see if it's worth it. At the insulating stage for the bedrooms downstairs, so they're still not rented out yet. |
August 2016 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $33.45 Electricity - $80.12 Water - $125.11 Other expenses: Telephone - $81.11 Wifi - $49.45 Netflix - 8.99 One-time Deep Cleaning Fee - $480.00 Insurance - $87.75 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $316.56 Mortgage P+I - $696.19 Total August '16 Housing Costs: $1,968.36 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $768.36 The new house cleaners are AMAZING. They spent 8 hours for the initial clean - they washed walls, cabinets, bathroom grout, etc. It was pricey, but worth it after living here for a year. Going forward will be the basic monthly cleaning. Basement is coming along nicely - but I took down existing basement drywall and there's some more diagonal cracking that will need bracing. |
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September 2016 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $50.63 Electricity - $74.64 Water - $83.16 Other expenses: Telephone - $99.30 Wifi - $49.45 Netflix - 8.99 Monthly Cleaning Fee - $167.46 (includes one time cleaning product purchase) Insurance - $87.75 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $316.56 Mortgage P+I - $696.19 Total September '16 Housing Costs: $1,643.76 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $443.76 Pretty standard month. Bracing is complete & new skylights are installed. Slowly developing the basement still & I expect 2 more rooms to be ready to rent by January 2017. Attachment 7321Attachment 7322 |
October 2016 housing costs:
Natural Gas - $85.56 Electricity - $76.46 Water - $100.77 Other expenses: Telephone - $101.74 Wifi - $15.02 (called the provider and they put me on a 4 month promotion) Netflix - 9.99 (Netflix went up $1.00) Monthly Cleaning Fee - $125.00 Insurance - $87.75 Water Heater Rental - $9.63 Property Tax - $316.56 Mortgage P+I - $696.19 Total October '16 Housing Costs: $1,624.67 Rent collection from housemates: $1,200.00 Monthly Deficit: $424.67 Got a cheaper price on Wifi for the next few months. I also added a new housemate (they're taking the master bedroom) last weekend, so that will help a lot! Maybe even bring this place to a profit. |
Wow, your water is expensive. It is more than Natural gas and electricity.
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