In demand rental areas?
 

What areas of the city are hot for rentals for detached houses? I'm slightly entertaining the thought of buying a detached house and renting it out for future retirement or income but my budget is low, $175K max prefer $150K max.

Is the area around Ottawa North becoming more and more trendy?

I have had good luck in the General Hospital / Mary St. district. Think proximity for an EMPLOYED person. There are a TON landlords around here who think there best best is the 'guarantee' of disabilty or employment cheques coming their way vs getting stiffed. My routines is (...and I never said I knew everything, but so far so good): Students = no jobs and alot of maintanance, but could pay well if you put in time and money, nitty-gritty areas in the industrial areas have some chasing of cheques and eye opening roughness happening. The guy I bought one of my fixers off of had its sod stolen after he planted it!! In a perfect world, get a house with a driveway or even better a garage, for a renter with a car, who needs it to get to his job. Think close to transit or future LRT lines! Close proximity to arteries to get to and from work! Good luck!

I have rented and subbed out rooms in a few areas in Hamilton. Durand is very easy to rent and to find good tenants. In my 5 years there I never had an empty room for a month. I'm now in Central near James, and it is almost as good. The area is starting to be desired by students, which in my experience are good tenants. They have OSAP and / or money from parents, savings or part time jobs. Some of my best tenants have been students. I have seen people do well in Corktown and Stinson as well. The rougher areas in my experience are not a good value because the lower cost is more than offset by the difficulty of finding good tenants, and the absolute nightmare that occurs when you get bad ones.

Thanks guys, great information. I can't believe the great information I get from this forum, and I really appreciate it.

One question and a dilemma:

Can you give me an idea of how much in general say a 3 bdrm 1 bath 2 storey brick home would rent for in these areas? And what if it were duplexed?

A problem we have, which can be solved possibly with hiring a property management company, is that we won't be living anywhere near Hamilton (we live two hours outside Ottawa) and I don't want to be an absentee landlord. My brother who lives on Rosslyn North is willing to handle the property to a certain degree, and I have contact with a well known paralegal (Jeff Shabes) in case we need to do any evictions, so we may be okay, but I am not really sure. Any comments or advice on this?