We decided to rent instead of buy :)

[marina628]

As some of you know last year we were considering buying a condo for our daughter to live in while in school in the city.We looked at a few places but my husband and I were not crazy about taking on new debt ,property taxes and maintenance stuff.
Well we were looking at condos to rent ,secure building etc , I was looking at places I would be willing to live in and at 45 I have adjusted my standards a bit lol. Anyway my husband told me to let our daughter look herself since she will have to live there not us and reluctantly I did that.
In April we went to look at an apartment and my husband told me he will go in to look with our daughter and for me to stay in the car and look for 'weird people ' ha .They took an hour so i had many opportunities to see people passing through ,they came out and they were equally please .Last week we called and they had a unit available for Aug 1 which was 780 sq ft ,we assumed it was a one bedroom because of the size but when we got there it was a bachelor but what a beautiful apartment !The walk in closet has a double bed night stand and dresser lol .It has seperate kitchen with beautiful tile backsplash ,granite counter and nice cupboards with new hardware ,the present tenant did all that work PLUS put in a new floor in the kitchen.It is right on the lake ,street car runs outside and she can be downtown in 15 minutes.
We sat on the balcony and enjoyed the lake view and the sailboats for a minute then we went to do her application.
The guy has a queen bed in the main room and beautiful wood panels for privacy around the bed area ,he is willing to sell them to us for $220 so SOLD ,he has a big fireplace and mantle and leather sofas(two) lots of side tables and a huge dining room set all in this one huge room .The place is unreal and has beautiful hardwood floors too which tenant has installed over the 8 years he has lived there. I was giddy over it and Stephanie was over the moon ,the rent is $825 plus hydro ,phone and internet.The basic cable is included,heat and water and today we got $55 a month bundle package from rogers from the property Manager for home phone , internet and some extra tv channels.
We now have a home for our daughter and a crash pad when we want to go downtown , so excited!

[Young&Ambitious]

Congrats Marina

That sounds like a great find for your daughter (and you when you guys head downtown!).

[Spudd]

Wow, that's an amazing bargain! Your daughter is a lucky woman!

[Dopplegangerr]

Congrats! Good work. She is lucky to have parents like u two

[kcowan]

Congrats Marina. Looks like your daughter is getting the benefit of knowledgeable parents. Well done.

[marina628]

Thanks everyone I took her rent money from my Poker budget ,sacrifices a mother makes for her child

[Four Pillars]

Nice work! I never understood the idea of buying a unit for a student.

[marina628]

If we bought it would be for her and a room mate ,but now that we rented she told her friend she has to get her own place because hers is not big enough to share .So I am sure it would have been a short term roommate then she would be on her own lol.

[Eclectic12]

Four Pillars - buying for a student can work well or not so well.

The best I've seen is where the student is organised, handy to make a few repairs and acted as a landlord to other students. The town house that was bought had it's mortgage/expenses/extra mortgage payments funded by the other students rent. Since the family had a series of four kids going through university, there was also a reasonable capital gain when the house was sold after the last graduation.

Bottom line is that it became a side job for the student, in exchange for living free. Where there was overlap between siblings, the younger child was able to get used to the tasks required.


Then too, since the parents decided they had enough money by the time the townhouse sold, they split the profits between the kids as a reward for graduating plus the work put into the house, which gave them a great start financially.


The other extreme was where the student wanted to party but wasn't being honest with the parents. The result was a big loss for everyone involved.


Cheers

[Four Pillars]

Four Pillars - buying for a student can work well or not so well.

That's what I mean - lots of risk.

I know examples as well where it worked out really well. If fact Robb Engen (Boomer & Echo blog) who posts in here sometimes was a good example of where it worked great.

It's the downside risk that scares me - will the student look after the place and tenants? Will they stay at that school? What if the market drops in the time they are using it? There are probably some US horror stories about buying a rental unit for their kid and they can't get rid of it.