Pssst.... wanna buy a castle?

Needless to say, there are not a lot of castles for sale in Manitoba, or perhaps even Canada. Which is probably a good thing because most castles were built in the days before indoor plumbing and central heating, two things I consider essential.

There is however, a "castle" for sale right here in Winnipeg, at 494 College Ave. In around 1906, construction started on this epic building (no, I don't know details like that at the drop of a hat, there is a incredibly detailed 3 part blog post on West End Dumplings).

People have been writing about this gorgeous house since the 50s according to a piece written by The Times two years ago, AND NOW YOU COULD OWN IT!!!

Since I refuse to consider the neighbourhood to be a downside to this property (because, it isn't, get over it) I would say that the complete lack of a back yard would be the only thing that might keep you from running out and buying this. It does have a pretty great front yard though, and trust me, you meet way more neighbours in your front yard vs. the back.

According to the listing for this property, 494 College is currently divvied up into 6 suites and assuming you live on the main floor in the 3 bedroom suite, you get to collect $2275 a month in rent! To point out the obvious, that means you would be being paid to live there... (assuming you could get away with 5% down, which you actually probably couldn't because it's a rental, but assuming you could, your mortgage would be $1344/mo based on the current asking price of $299,000 - but it's now been on the market for a month so you could maybe even get it a little bit less). Personally I would slowly start reclaiming some of the suites as personal living space, but so long as you left one or two you could still basically live for free. In a CASTLE.

Living in this house would put you in great company, with some of these other notable homes in Winnipeg, as found here.

I should clarify...

342 Boyd

By no means do I think that renters can't make good neighbours. There is a house for sale near me that I keep saying things along the lines of "needs to be owner occupied" when I speak of it.

The reason I hold a current bias to it being lived in by the owner is this: in its current state (which, is technically unlivable due to the pipes being stolen, probably for drug money...) being advertised as a "Handyman special" it unfortunately will attract many of what we not-so-affectionately call slumlords. These are the folks who will do the absolute bare minimum to make the house "liveable" again and then throw tenants in there with empty promises of future renovations. One of the problems with the cycle of poverty is what it does to your spirit. The people who don't know their rights, who no longer have the energy to fight for themselves, who don't believe enough that they deserve better are the people who will most likely end up in a house like this.

Now, of course, there have been many well intentioned landlords who take a property that is in disrepair and actually bring it to a standard that almost any middle class person would be willing to live in, only to have it destroyed by bad tenants. I wish I could even say that this is the exception rather than the rule. However, if you take a property that will likely only be rented to people who are out of options, however well intentioned they might be, it's going to be hard as hell for them especially with whatever other struggles they may have, to help maintain that house.

Add to that that this house is in what I would describe as a "key location". It is in a cluster of primarily rental housing that teeters on the edge of volatility. People tend to behave in a manner that is appropriate to their surroundings - if it becomes apparent that no one in this cluster gives a f*ck then all of the houses are likely to suffer. Put one strong, community-minded homeowner (because no matter how good a landlord is who buys it, they aren't there all the time) in the middle who won't put up with garbage from the other rentals and you slowly get a shift.

In fact, the current owner, whom I'm told is being foreclosed on, is not a good neighbour and it's had an impact. So no, not even all owner occupied homes are "good".

The owners previous to the current one LOVED this house. I always felt like they got lost on their way to Wolseley and we were the lucky recipients. When I first moved to the neighbourhood nine years ago (as of March 1st!) they were the people I gravitated towards because their passion shone out of their house like a beacon. I have not had a full tour of the house, but assuming it hasn't changed much since my mother-earth loving people moved to BC (as you do when you're a full-on hippie!) it probably needs a few coats of a more neutral paint as a start; the kitchen was an interesting shade of mauve last I saw it! It might have been described as needing TLC even before the pipe stripping incident...

So. Much. Purple.

So, if you have a bit of an imagination, a bucket full of elbow grease and another one full of sweat equity you can buy a gem of a house for TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS less s than 5 years ago! Please don't let the neighbourhood scare you off, I will literally give you a run down of each and every house nearby to help you understand your new surroundings - we are only afraid of the unknown. As an added bonus, I will also come over and lend a pint or two of elbow grease to that bucket.

Look at that loft!

Oh, and if you do buy it as a rental, you can be sure I will let you know if your tenants are up to no good. Or, even scarier, if you have good tenants but you treat them badly, I will help them find their voice to fight for their rights because I value all of my good neighbours, tenants most definitely included.

*All photos from original listing from 2011 - I haven't had a chance to see the house but I get the feeling that you might need to go into it with some positive images in your mind.

(sorta) Famous North End houses for sale!

Well, we all know that I spend an excessive amount of time looking at the MLS, especially at houses here in the North End. Well, there are two houses of interest (ok, I'm stretching it here, but I need to share my discoveries with someone).

The first house may or may not have had Samuel L. Jackson inside. I don't know if he brought any of the motherfu$kin' snakes from the plane. I also can't say for sure if he was in the house because all the ad states is that his upcoming film "Reasonable Doubt" was filmed in the home, no guarantee he was in the scene.

See the listing for 255 Burrows here. $134,900 for a house that may or may not have been graced by the presence by Mr. Jackson seems like a bargain. Heck, I'm sure the sentence Go the F**k to Sleep has been uttered in this neighbourhood before, although probably shouted from one neighbour to another...

Next is a fun one.

495 Dufferin doesn't mention its brush with fame in the ad, but that's why you have me around, to make sure you're up on the media attention that this house has gotten in the past!

You may remember this house from such media showings such as the Evening News! Now this supposedly formerly dilapidated home can be yours for only $83,900!

 

Of course the ad claims that the house has been totally re-done, but ever the cynic I am I figure that if I was trying to sell a super nice house that had just been gutted to the studs and redone I would include pictures in my listing. But that might just be me. Oh, and the fact that this house has been for sale almost constantly since the media firestorm last May also makes me a little skeptical. I'm going to suggest that this house is best bought as a tear down and that you build a shiny new house in its place - it would help to repair a black mark here in the North End.

There you have it; your chance to own some vaguely famous houses in the North End.

Just how hot IS the Winnipeg real estate market?

No, this isn't about how there were four or five listings that sold last month for over a million, although if everyone employed the following method, I can understand why.

Remember back in June 2011 (yes, that's right A YEAR AGO) when I wrote about the former bicycle shop on Selkirk Ave that was for sale? Well, at that time, it was $149,000. It is now a year later, an entire year that that property has sat there, unsold and now they want $169,000. Yup, $20,000 more.

Now, one could argue that real estate values in Winnipeg have gone up xx% in the last year and that the price increase makes sense blah blah blah. Sure, it makes sense if someone had've been willing to pony up the $149k last year. However since Winnipeggers are irrationally afraid of the North End known to be ridiculously cheap a touch frugal, do we really think that all of a sudden they will realize decide that this gem is worth $20k more simply because a year has passed?

Bonkers I say. So, to you prudent potential property purchaser of  prime North End real estate, let the record show that 354 Selkirk Ave will should probably take an offer of $149,000. Logic would dictate that at that price point last year it was over priced or it would have sold, so therefore whatever perceived increase in value there has been over the past year could perhaps reflect a purchase price of $149k to NOW be accurate.

It also appears as though 1070 McIvor has been sold - I am waiting for my invites to the final and first parties - clearly my blog was the catalyst for the sale.

The MLS is like my version of p0rn...

Dear me, this one is a doozy! My regular readers will know I have a bit of thing for trolling the MLS, it's such an amazing opportunity to see behind all those closed doors. I've discovered an amazing space inside a former bicycle shop on Selkirk Ave, a long lost piece of Winnipeg Girl art, and even managed to meet new people. This latest MLS discovery to be fair, did not come from my trolling, but rather that of another who passed me the link - houses built in 2005 do not generally generate a click-through on my part.

Completely unassuming looking house

This house is in Algonquin Estates, a neighbourhood I wasn't even aware of to be honest, although I think it might be to East Kildonan what a sub-neighbourhood like St. John's is to the North End?

 So, this completely normal looking house, holds a secret. Well, not quite a secret, Western Living magazine wrote an article about it in 2008, detailing the crazy freaking transformation of the basement into a Las Vegas style club and gameroom!

1070 McIvor is one heck of a house! Where to start? The roulette wheel dance floor? The 52 seats available? The poker tables? The separate gender multi-stall bathrooms?? I'm dying to know - have you been to this place? Someone who's reading this has, or at least knows someone who has (3 degrees of Winnipeg separation after all!). Now, I'm no expert at all as to property values in this neighbourhood, so I don't if the $599,000 asking price (dropped from $659,900 it seems from the feature sheet) is a good deal or not, but I'm thinking you could host at least a few nights down here and turn a profit before the authorities caught on!

If the appropriate people see this I would like to attend either the last hurrah for the old owner or the sure-to-be-one-hell-of-a-housewarming for the new owners!

Closed Doors - kind of like "Doors Open", but different

So hopefully a few of you had a chance to take in some of the great places on offer for Doors Open this past weekend. If you didn't, one local blogger, West End Dumplings can give you a little insight on his Saturday and Sunday right here. I was sad to miss out on the National Upholstery building - that looks right up my alley! I did make it the Sport for Life Centre, which I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed in. Don't get me wrong, if you need an office building with very little original character, they nailed it. It just seems to be a shame to have such a great outside and such a boring generic inside. The highlight for me was getting to go down a set of stairs in the back that still had the original banister.

So what is this Closed Doors I speak of? Well, this building isn't open to the public as such, but you could certainly arrange for a viewing. There is a property for sale in the North End, the former North End Bike Shop (forgive me if the name is incorrect - and if you have any pictures from it back in the day I'd love to see them, drop me an email!) or at least that's what everyone I show the picture to seems to exclaim.

So here it is:

So this gem is for sale and would make a great space for an artist or even another photographer and then we could kind of be neighbours! The link is here if you're more interested. But really, who would have thought that behind that shuttered exterior lies such a great space? Think of all of the stories that all of the buildings in this city could tell. Ok, fine, most of them would be boring, even in the older neighbourhoods and don't get me started on places like Lindenwoods (okay, this house might have a more interesting story than the others) but events like Doors Open or randomly trolling the MLS can show us a thing or two that we might not have known.

You're welcome for a post that did not centre on the return of the NHL to Winnipeg, but for the record, I hope they call them the Jets, I'm a bit nostalgic like that.