I'll try to keep this story brief, it starts 10 years ago, when my wife and I purchased our first home.

Money was tight, we were expecting our first child and right or wrong we didn't want to be raising our child on the west end of town, we wanted to buy but really even at that time we couldn't afford East side property.

We happened to walk by a home a block and a half from my in-laws shortly after beginning to think about buying, we grabbed a feature sheet that the seller had left for interested parties and we called the number to arrange  a viewing.

The home was perfect for our needs, it was a raised bungalow with 2 massive bedrooms upstairs and a basement suite to supplement the mortgage costs meaning that we could in fact afford East side living once we realized that the bank would consider potential suite revenues as part of our income when qualifying us.

Over the years we enjoyed this house, it was built by a local commercial contractor in the 50's as a retirement home for himself and his wife (whom we purchased the home from) after she moved to a nursing or care home. The house was very well built, with all the character of 50's plaster but built so well that there were no settling cracks that are so common for the period.

Over the years we made some improvements and updates, replacing the eaves, soffits and fascia, adding vinyl siding, replacing the existing water heater with a larger capacity unit to provide adequate supply for the suite and main floor, renovating the main bathroom to include pedestal sink and soaker tub, regular paint etc.

We brought home our second and then third son's home to this house before we started feeling tight, by which point with 8 years of mortgage payments heavily subsidized by the suite and market appreciation we realized we had a good chunk invested and decided it was time to find something a little bigger for our family. However with how attached we were to the home and factoring in where Saskatoon rent had risen to we quickly realized that our best plan of action was to pull our equity out as a down payment on a larger property and continue to rent the basement and begin renting the main floor.

This was a massive boost to our purchase plans as it allowed us to boost our income to a level that allowed us to get into a larger home that would have been possible in a sale scenario, leaving us with a revenue property that had an after expenses positive cash flow that now supplemented our new primary residence. 

Now with our fourth child born, our new house full, we are considering a relocation to further my wifes education, this means a move to Ontario. 

While it may be profitable to maintain ownership on both properties, we don't want to deal with long distance property management having watched how poorly it can be handled when you are not close by to ensure your property is looked after, so in the end, one at a time we are putting our properties on the market, the first of which can be viewed onviewsaskatoon.ca or an number of different for sale by owner sites.

If you are looking to become an East Side Saskatoon Home Owner but need that extra income to do it, this is the best house on the market for that purpose, I know that it supplemented us when we needed it, and then it supplemented our second home. 

At current market values, with todays interests rates this home is still capable of paying it's own carrying costs plus a positive cash dividend month to month, or to reduce your monthly cost of ownership to below that of renting a two bedroom apartment.

I don't suspect this property will last long on the market so if you are interested visit the listing at viewsaskatoon.ca, saskhouses.com, oodle.com, kijij.ca, craigslist.com etc. and contact us to arrange a viewing.