Peakster's House Efficiency

[MN Renovator]

I like the video, good explanation. I guess you are locked in with the water heater contract as you've mentioned before, but where I live, a top quality 9 year warranty water heater costs $500 and replacing the anode rod every 8 years or so and keeping a water softener full of salt will keep the water heater going for a few decades if the tank is also flushed yearly. I also live in an area with very hard water too but the water softener keep the tank in better shape for longer.

[Peakster]

June 2020 housing costs:

Natural Gas - $55.93 (107.919 m3)
Electricity - $160.85 (791 kWh)
Water - $170.09 (29,090 litres)

Other expenses:

Cell Phone - $84.53
Wifi - 61.00
Monthly Cleaning Service - $125.00 (top floor only)
Insurance - $118.12
Water Heater Rental - $9.71
Property Tax - $388.98
Mortgage P+I - $691.76

Total June '20 Housing Costs: $1,865.97

Rent collection from 4-ish housemates: $2,373.00

Month Profit: 507.03

Decent month considering a housemate moved out. A new one moved in at the start of July though.

[Peakster]

July 2020 housing costs:

Natural Gas - $52.87 (97.127 m3)
Electricity - $172.09 (857 kWh)
Water - $196.11 (33,168 litres)

Other expenses:

Cell Phone - $84.53
Wifi - 61.00
Monthly Cleaning Service - $125.00 (top floor only)
Insurance - $118.12
Water Heater Rental - $9.71
Property Tax - $388.98
Mortgage P+I - $691.76

Total July '20 Housing Costs: $1,900.17

Rent collection from 4-ish housemates: $3,009.00

Month Profit: 1,108.83

Much better month at 80% capacity. Fairly uneventful for once this year. Let's hope things sail well going forward.

[Peakster]

August 2020 housing costs:

Natural Gas - $43.78 (64.751 m3)
Electricity - $157.97 (774 kWh)
Water - $169.56 (28,939 litres)

Other expenses:

Cell Phone - $84.53
Wifi - 61.00
Monthly Cleaning Service - $125.00 (top floor only)
Insurance - $118.12
Water Heater Rental - $9.71
Property Tax - $388.98
Mortgage P+I - $691.76

Total August '20 Housing Costs: $1,850.41

Rent collection from 4 housemates: $2,954.00

Month Profit: 1,103.59

Another smooth month. Let's keep this up!

[Wanna Beco]

Sounds like you attitude and cash flow are both positive this month. (Don't take that as a slight, you are always positive.)Glad do see you have people paying up this month.

[Peakster]

September 2020 housing costs:

Natural Gas - $68.82 (153.784 m3)
Electricity - $103.50 (454 kWh)
Water - $177.13 (31,089 litres)

Other expenses:

Cell Phone - $84.53
Wifi - 61.00
Monthly Cleaning Service - $125.00 (top floor only)
Insurance - $118.12
Water Heater Rental - $9.71
Property Tax - $388.98
Mortgage P+I - $691.76

Total September '20 Housing Costs: $1,828.55

Rent collection from 4 housemates: $2,591.00

Month Profit: 765.45

Really struggling to rent out that 5th & final room. Lots of people have looked, but no one has committed to moving in. Not a huge deal since cash flow is still looking good at 80% capacity.

[Peakster]

October 2020 housing costs:

Natural Gas - $102.94 (275.193 m3)
Electricity - $135.32 (641 kWh)
Water - $195.08 (36,183 litres)

Other expenses:

Cell Phone - $84.53
Wifi - 61.00 (last month of it being this price, switching providers in November)
Monthly Cleaning Service - $125.00 (top floor only)
Insurance - $118.12
Water Heater Rental - $9.71
Property Tax - $388.98
Mortgage P+I - $691.76

Total October '20 Housing Costs: $1,912.44

Rent collection from 5-ish housemates: $3,142.00

Month Profit: 1,229.56

Expenses are a bit high but the 5th bedroom finally rented out (just temporarily though). The pandemic has definitely reduced the quality of housemates looking to rent here. Fortunately, so far so good in terms of rental income.

[Peakster]

November 2020 housing costs:

Natural Gas - $121.91 (342.642 m3)
Electricity - $132.71 (643 kWh)
Water - $176.40 (28,897 litres)

Other expenses:

Cell Phone - $84.53
Wifi - 119.20 (Providers switched. Still waiting for $55.47 refund from the previous provider)
Monthly Cleaning Service - $125.00 (top floor only)
Insurance - $118.12
Water Heater Rental - $9.71
Property Tax - $388.98
Mortgage P+I - $691.76

Total November '20 Housing Costs: $1,968.32

Rent collection from 3 housemates: $2,574.00

Month Profit: 605.68

Well, I sunk back down to 60% capacity. Honestly, after taking a trip to Calgary before Christmas & having fun there, I'm thinking of selling my place after nearly 6 years & making the move there. I'm planning to list my house for sale around March 2021. In the meantime I'll just keep treading water.

[MN Renovator]

Originally Posted by Peakster

{snip}I'm planning to list my house for sale around March 2021. In the meantime I'll just keep treading water.

What are you planning to do for your living situation? Whenever I look at it, if I were to buy a smaller house, there seems to be less value in smaller homes because the houses my size are slightly out of reach and smaller homes are less affordable making them into higher demand and therefore a higher price as everyone tries to 'jump into a house before they get "priced out" '.

I see the plan for hopping out at a potential market high, definitely a sellers market now. It seems rents are high though and to me the only way to get a true deal is to jump in as a tenant for a room for awhile and then buy back in when the housing price hysteria calms down, but there are risks in that. I just ended up figuring it's easier to stay in place, I know the mechanicals of my house are sound and it's all known factors to me. I suppose I could see the advantages of swapping to a house with maintenance free siding, windows, a more efficient house design(more square, easier to insulate attic, and better window positioning) and a newer condensing furnace since I know siding, windows, and a furnace are probably a US$20+k price tag and I imagine in 10 years I'll likely need to have all that work done. I find long term rental situation to be a losing game because generally rent rises year by year and the person owning the home is looking to always have a profit margin.

I guess I'm speaking from a US market perspective, but am curious what you plan to do for living if you are looking to sell.

[Peakster]

Originally Posted by MN Renovator

What are you planning to do for your living situation?

If I can sell my house for what I think it's worth, I should get a nice cheque of $160K. Then once I move to Calgary I'll rent a bedroom in a house share arrangement until I get a job.

From there I'm not sure if I would buy a house in Calgary (property taxes are way lower, but comparable home prices are a bit higher to compensate) or just invest the money & continue to rent (more flexibility with renting).

$160K at a 6% dividend is $800/month, more than enough to pay for a bedroom in a house share. Here's an example of how cheap renting is. My property taxes alone are almost the same!

The real allure is moving to Calgary. The city was once very costly (I remember in 2007 my employer's basic bi-level in Lake Bonavista was well over $700K) but prices have really come down since oil tanked (houses in that same neighbourhood are now mid $500K). Calgary is 6x the size of Regina, has no provincial sales tax, etc.

As a side note I've recently started to love boxing & I find way more opponents in Calgary than Regina.