How A Home Inspection Can Help Homeowners Manage Their Rental Suite

With the emerging real estate trends and increasing interest rates, home buyers are exploring affordable alternatives. To reach financial independence or earn extra income, they are purchasing a home with a rental unit or adding a rental suite to their new house.

As qualified home inspectors, we ensure that the property you’re investing in is safe, properly installed and worth your money. We identify deficiencies within specific systems and components of your home before you or your tenant moves in. This gives you an opportunity to repair faults or errors in your house, and build a more professional relationship with your tenant.

Keep reading to learn how a home inspection can help homeowners manage their rental suite.

The Challenge: Adding a rental unit to your new home.

While a house with a rental unit can help reduce a large mortgage, it brings along a set of issues and responsibilities when you become a landlord. For one, you need to get acquainted with the tedious legal process associated with adding a rental unit to your home. Next, determine whether the rental property requires renovation or updating. Spending labor and money into improving your rental property can yield healthy returns in the long run.

You also need to find the right tenants who can look after your rental property and pay rent on time. The selection process can often be difficult and time-consuming. As a landlord, it is imperative to not only be aware of your rights but also the rights of a tenant. Besides this, you need to follow safety and health codes, repair damages, maintain insurance, manage issues with the tenant, collect rent, and other tasks.

The Solution: Follow precautions.

Before purchasing a house, get a property disclosure statement. This will help you discover any previous problems with the house and is the best opportunity to learn as much as you can about the property. Also, try and verify if proper permits were issued for any additions or previous alterations. If there are any modifications needed for your rental unit, consult a qualified contractor.

While a home renovation consultation is not included in the Home Inspectors Association British Columbia (HIABC) scope of inspection, a home inspection will reveal defects about the house that might prevent you from adding a rental unit to your home. There are even occasions when rental suites installed by the previous owner are left incomplete.

Purchasing a house with a rental suite is an ongoing issue, and the solution depends on the age of the building, building materials used as well as those in charge of the installation.

The Bottom Line

The only way to eliminate possible threats to you and your family, and avoid costly surprises in the future is by enlisting the services of a home inspector.

If you need a home inspector to identify problems in your house before you get tenants on board, reach out to Advanced Home Inspections. As the best home inspection services in Campbell River, Comox, Courtenay BC, we have sufficient experience to handle any job. We are also a member of Consumer Protection BC and HIABC.

To get started, get in touch with us by clicking here. To learn more about how we can help you, please click here.

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