Four things to consider about this house:

1) It is priced at $549,000.
2) It will sell for significantly more than that.
3) It needs $150,000 worth of work.
4) It is an excellent investment…

Just ignore those ugly green shutters for a moment.  It’ll take $30 worth of paint, and one hour of your time to fix that anyways…

Welcome to Leaside, specifically, North Leaside.

Leaside consists of about four thousand homes, 2500 in South Leaside (south of Eglinton) and 1500 in North Leaside.

The area constructed during the post-war boom to house workers for the surrounding industrial plants has now become one of the most sought after “family neighborhoods” in the city.  And as real estate prices trend upwards, so to do the noses of the people who inhabit Leaside.  Just consider why the area has been nicknamed “Stepford Wives“…

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of doing an open house at 145 Divadale Drive, which is priced at $549,000.

145 Divadale Drive is a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom, semi-detached house on a 27 x 135 foot lot on a very quiet street just one block from Northlea Public School.

This house, for lack of a better description, is old.

The kind lady who lives here purchased the house some FIFTY years ago, and the house shows its age.  Just looking at the pictures, you can see the mustard carpet, lime green paint in the basement, 1970’s kitchen, and of course the twin beds in the master bedroom…

But it’s not just the decor of the house that needs updating; it’s everything, especially the mechanicals.

The house has it’s original oil tank, and a very old and out of date boiler system.  There is knob-and-tube wiring, asbestos, and radiant heaters throughout.  There is also no air-conditioning.

Simply put, this house needs about $25,000 worth of work on the mechanicals alone, and then about $75,000 minimum to bring it up to 2008 standards.

But this is not a negative, in fact, I think this is the most attractive feature of the house!

Consider 145 Divadale Drive to be “a blank canvas.”  Why purchase something which is half-done or has undergone some renovation, when you’ll either have to undo some of the changes or pick up where the last owner left off?

145 Divadale drive is a “complete gut-reno” to use a term that most people are familiar with.  In fact, I was told by a girl of no more than eight years old at my open house, “This house is a GUT!”  Seems she has been to quite a few open houses with her parents…

Currently, $549,000 is the cheapest house available for sale in the Leaside area.  This is entry-level to this market, and I’ve witnessed first-hand people buy the worst house and fix it up, only to have it brought up in value by the more attractive houses on the street 

I ran into many people at the open house that smirked or even went as far as to argue with me about the price of the house and the value of buying a semi-detached in need of a gut-reno for $549,000.  But consider this:

The average sale price of a semi-detached house in Leaside:
2005: $435,130
2006: $495,049
2007: $544,753

Show me another area of the city where semi-detached houses have appreciated an average of twelve-percent per year for three years running.

“But the house around the corner was selling for $589,000 last weekend, and it was completely renovated,” was what one gentleman told me.

Sure, but that house sold for $670,000 in multiple offers, and not only did it have NO driveway (Divadale has a private drive), but the lot was smaller, and the street was less desirable.

“HOPE” is a four-letter word in real estate.

Those that sit around complaining about the market and how “outrageous” prices are, will continue to rent in the area they dream about owning a house in, while watching prices continue to rise.

“I’m waiting for a miracle,” is what one woman told me.

There are no miracles in real estate.  There are no houses that are missed by 99.999% of all buyers, only to be scooped up by YOU at a dream price.  This is not the world we live in.

Is it inconceivable that a decade from now, semi-detached houses in Leaside will all be over a million dollars?

As far as investment goes, I don’t see anybody buying this house to renovate and flip.  But the value here is in the “blank canvas” approach whereby the purchaser gets to create his or her dream home by using this property simply for the location, land, and four walls of the house, and instituting every single feature and finish that he or she wants.

Offers are tonight at 4PM.  I think that $549,000 asking price is a good place to start…

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