MontReal Estate

"Following Our Dreams Keeps Our Souls Alive."

2011-12-22T19:18:00.000-05:00

Simon Dale has built the cutest hobbit house for his family. Amazingly, the whole project only cost him about $4,800 Canadian.
Dale took on the project to see how well he could do following the principles of sustainability. This house is dug into a hillside on the country and so it blends in with its surroundings.
He used stone, wood and straw bails to build, cutting down 30 small trees to create the home's skeleton. It has a sod roof with solar panels to power the computers and other gadgets. A fireplace heats the space.
Verrry cool.
You can read more about how the project took shape and see more of his wonderful photos on Dale's web site.

Nude Nude All Nude

2011-12-21T17:36:00.000-05:00

Talk about your real estate porn! An Australian real estate agent put together the above video as part of his marketing campaign for a luxury home on Australia's Gold Coast.

The bottom (ahem!) has fallen out of the luxury market Down Under as it has in many parts of the world. This black and white teaser is designed to make wold-be buyers um prick up their ears, I guess. Nice house, but dude you really should put a towel down before you lift weights.

Pauline Marois Sells Her Ile-Bizard Palace

2011-12-17T18:16:00.000-05:00

La Closerie, 7 bathrooms, 3 powder rooms, 7 bedrooms, 'Nuff said.

It seems that Parti Québecois leader Pauline Marois has managed to unload her estate in the wilds of Ile Bizard. The 1.7 million-square-foot property known has La Closerie had been on the market since July, 2009.
The property was listed on the MLS for much of that time, though the last listing expired in December a year ago at $8 million. Chateau Marois is currently listed with Sotheby's Quebec, despite the presence of an offending apostrophe in the company name, Perhaps Mme. Marois chose to overlook that little linguistic transgression in the interest of a speedy sale.
The listing is now at $6.98 million. I guess it was priced to move, what with a provincial election looming in the not too distant future and Marois consistently placing a distant third in opinion polls. Hard to position yourself as Quebec's social democratic alternative to the corrupt Liberals and the right-wing arriviste Coaliton pour L'avenir du Québec when the school and property taxes on the house you own are more than what the average Quebec receptionist earns in a year. ($36,009 vs $34,919.)
Do you suppose she's now scoping out a little bungalow in Répentigny?

Montreal Resales Top the Billion Dollar Mark

2011-12-07T17:19:00.000-05:00

Montreal home sales rose by three per cent in October, the sixth straight month of sales increase in the metropolitan area.
The big news is that sales topped the $1-billion mark, a notable accomplishment in a market where the average price of a single-family home is in the range of $270,000 and the average condo just under $227,000.
Price hikes were seen in most parts of Greater Montreal, with the exception of the South Shore, where sales were flat and the nunber of active listings rose by 21 per cent.
For the record, only a modest part of that $1 billion ended up in my mink-lined pocket last month.

Manhattan's "Origami" Apartment. 425 sq ft of Multifuctional Space

2011-11-16T11:38:00.000-05:00

With the average price of a Manhattan apartment being somewhere in the range of $1.4 million, sacrifices must be made.
The owner of this Manhattan apartment mustered $235,000 for this 425-square-foot corner unit. Then he set about cleverly transforming it through the use of modular dividers, screens and hidden lighting.

They have organized the space with great economy and ingenuity. The desk folds down to create a screened window into the sleeping area, that the lighting is all hidden from view and that surfaces are clean and free of clutter.

I speak to you as a broken women. My basement is currently under renovation, a job that has been going on since August. Everything that once was stowed in the basement has been redistributed around the house. There's a dehumidifier in the kitchen, boxes of family photos, folding chairs, framed art and a set of dumbells sitting in the middle of the living room for now. There's stuff ev-ery-where. The idea of a living space that contrains only those things one needs - two bottles of wine and a plate of chocolate chip cookies, for example - is very appealing to me.

The apartment's owner says his aesthetic was shaped by the time he spent in Japan. He likes a pared down lifestyle, making choices and limiting the number of things he has. I don't know that we're all wired that way but it is nice to see that someone can live happily in the opposite of a McMansion.

When a Picture is Worth 1,000 Words. 'Yikes!' Being One of Them.

2011-11-01T20:19:00.002-04:00


What it looks like when Satan gets into cocooning.

Here at MontReal Estate central we like to goof around, particularly when we come across really dubious photos attached to real estate listings. You can check out some favorites by searching the key word "What?" in the topics to the right of this post.

Now that many real estate brokers are using smartphones equipped with quite good cameras it is easier than ever to get half decent photos. The new iPhone camera is basically idiot proof, with a high-definition setting that lets you sharpen the focus of any photo, not to mention correct the colour or add effects after the fact. I'm pretty sure that's what went wrong with the photo to the left. The room can't possibly be that red, unless Satan doth dwell there, right?

You have permission to pee in the bath tub.

As these photos plucked from recent MLS listings illustrate, if a good picture can help sell a house, a bad one can really keep people away.

It is a serious enough problem that the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board sends out a steady stream of press releases, tip sheets and video features offering brokers ideas on how to improve the quality of their photos, because bad photos are a disservice to clients.

Recently the board mandated a private company to examine the photos on the MLS for quality-control purposes. (My dues at work!) The result, 20 per cent of photos on the MLS are blurry, poorly framed or most likely, too dark. They didn't get into the fact that sometimes the pictures are INSANE, (see above) but I digress.

Crisp lines and even light. A total absence of clutter doesn't hurt.

I recently had a buyer client who kept sending me links to listings to give me an idea of what he liked. After a while it dawned on me that what he really liked was listings with high-definition photos with their bright, even colours and crisp lines. See how sharp this one is? Doesn't it make the condo pop? Exactly.

Sometimes when I'm in a hurry I grab my pictures for listing purposes. Mostly, however, I rely on a professional photographer to do the job right. Sharon Wilson takes great pictures. That's her work just beneath. Notice how she frames the shot to show the flow of one room into another. She gets the right angles, the right lighting and the right framing. Plus, she's reliable, good-humored and delivers her pix on time. For me, it is among the smartest money I spend to promote a property.

A Sharon Wilson photo. Nice!

I dunno if Sharon has every knowingly taken a picture of a portable toilet in a bath tub. I know that she always puts the seat and lid down if she's photographing a real toilet. Now that's attention to detail.

Zoocasa: When an Appraisal Isn't Worth the Paper It Isn't Written On,

2011-10-26T14:55:00.003-04:00

Big splash in the Globe and Mail this morning about a new function on Zoocasa.com's do it yourself real-estate search site. Now with a few keystrokes consumers can get an appraisal of their property.
Zoocasa, which is owned by media giant Rogers Communications, has partnered with Centract Settlement Services, an appraisal firm owned by Brookfield Residential PropertyServices. Brookfield, by the way, also owns Royal LePage and Via Capital.
As usual, the news story is full of quotes about how this service will deal yet another blow to rotten real estate agents who hoard information and then charge people money to access it instead of giving it away for free.
First off, pretty much any agent on the planet will give a homeowner a free valuation of their property as part of their sales pitch. We don't get paid until we sell the house.
Second, the Zoopraisal function is only an estimate, based on the sale of similar properties in the neighborhood. That might work in a subdivion where all the houses or condos are cookie-cutter, but it won't do you any good in a neighborhood where the houses are different. It also doesn't account for improvements or differences in location within a neighborhood. For instance, next to the crackhouse is almost always worth less than two blocks away from the crackhouse, right?
I took the service out for a spin, using it to appraise my own home. Punching in my address, the software next prompted me to choose a housing type but wouldn't let me choose "bungalow", only two storey, side-split or condo. Hmmmm.
I chose side-split, because the fun I was having was, you know, side-splitting.
Within a nanosecond the computer churned out a value, that was conservatively $100,000 more than my house is actually worth. That was the mid-range value. The low range was about $25,000 below, while the highest value was about $175,000 too high.
My house is worth X, give or take $175,000. Thanks so much Zoocasa for clearing that up.
If I were to put my house up for sale tomorrow, which of the appraisal website's proposed values would I use to price my house?
Never mind algorithms, the best way to price a house is to have someone who knows the market walk through and study the comparable sales in the neighborhood within the last 6-12 months.
The dinkus who runs the service says that "hoarding of information" is a "crutch" that has hurt agents. This from a guy who works for a media conglomerate that sells specialty television packages, cable TV service, cellular telephone and Internet services and a host of magazines, among other things. How come when Rogers charges for information it's business and when I give mine away for free it is "hoarding"?
Things that make me go hmnnnn.
As the old saying goes, Beware Greeks bearing gifts. By which I don't mean Greeks and I certainly don't mean gifts.

******
Later. . .

And another thing. Don't you think that if they wanted to they could have put a really good appraisal tool online? I mean, Brookfield has an in-house appraisal firm so it must be able to collate the data. Could it be that Brookfield prefers to "hoard" the information? @%#&ers!

Montreal Resales Surge in September

2011-10-24T13:03:00.000-04:00

Eager buyers paced a surge in single-family home and condominium sales on the island of Montreal in September,with sales in each category rising by 15 per cent and 10 per cent respectively compared to September, 2010, according the latest stats from the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board.
That worked out to 324 houses and 510 condos sold.
The jump in those two categories offset a 5 per cent drop in plex sales last month. The number of two- to five-unit building sold totaled 213, compared to 225 a year earlier. Sales volume, or the amont of money buyers spent, rose by 6 per cent to $854.4 million in September alone.

The strong September results were the fourth consecutive month of gains for the Greater Montreal area, with the island leading the way.

Canada's 5 Priciest Properties

2011-10-13T12:21:00.000-04:00

Huffington Post Canada has a piece today about the five priciest residential properties for sale in Canada. Three of them are in Vancouver, a fourth on Toronto's tony Bridle Path and the fifth on Ile Bizard in good old Montreal. I've looked at this house and can't help but think that it looks more like a corporate resort than a place where flesh and blood humans live.
Check them out here.

Montreal's Urban Foxes

2011-10-04T10:58:00.000-04:00

I've seen three foxes since moving from the Plateau Mont Royal to southwest Montreal. Each time has been a treat, because they are so fast and so elusive.
The first one dashed across the road in front of my car near the Wellington St. off-ramp of Highway 15 North. I spotted the second at a distance while walking my dogs on the grounds of the Douglas Hospital and the third came up to our picnic table on a warm August night in LaSalle's Parc des Rapides.
OpenFile shares the skinny on urban foxes.

Treehouses for Grown-Up Kids

2011-10-01T18:38:00.001-04:00

I will never outgrown my love of trees or houses. The treehouse? Win-win! Trend Hunter has a gallery of some of its favorites, from Keebler Elf inspired to the poddiest of 2001: A Space Odyssey contraptions.

A Love Letter to Jean Talon Market

2011-10-01T12:43:00.000-04:00

My friend and former Gazette colleague Susan Semanak has just released a book, Market Chronicles: Stories and Recipes from Montreal's Jean Talon Market. It is a beautifully written and photographed love letter to North America's largest open-air market. Semenak is a gifted writer and has serious chops as a cook. She's also as nice a person as you could ever hope to meet.
Here's a Gazette video of Susan walking through and talking about the market. Go grab a copy in English ou en francais for $40. You won't regret it.

Montreal Heritage Home Tour - We're In!

2011-09-30T21:15:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow kicks off Montreal's annual Architectural Heritage campaign celebrating the best of the city's architecture.
The line of activities includes lectures, museum exhibits, as well as walking and bus tours exploring the city's many way cool neighborhoods. If I could, I'd do the walking tour of the Point tomorrow. Alas, it conflicts with my sprog's soccer practice and soccer practice wins.
The good news is that my listing at 276 May St., Verdun has been selected by the jury for this year's heritage tour. 276 May is one of the oldest homes in Verdun. We have deeds going back to 1891, when the land was sold to a Mr. May. He built his house in 1895.
Too bad that in the late 1950s some urban planning fool decided it would be a good idea to build the elevated approach to the Champlain Bridge about 100 feet from the building's front stoop. Here's the way I look at it, 276 May was there 70 years before they built the bridge and it will be there 100 years after the bridge is scrapped. It was built to last.
It has also been lovingly restored and updated by my client. I don't feel the least bit self-conscious in proclaiming it one the prettiest houses in Verdun. Hell, it is one of the prettiest houses in Montreal.
We've printed enlarged images of some of the original deeds to show during the open house visit from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 2 and again on Oct. 9. We're expecting a big turnout. Bring your cheque book in case you want to make an offer. At $339,000 it is verrrry nicely priced.
You can check out the other activities on between October 1 and Oct. 13 here,

A Glimpse Inside Cirque Du Soleil

2011-09-23T14:18:00.001-04:00

I just came across this fantastic YouTube video about Montreal's own Cirque du Soleil today. It offers a peek at life in the Cirque's St. Michel headquarters/
"Headquarters" hardly begins to describe the depth and breadth of activity that goes on in that part of the world. World class athletes, world class costume makers, world class designers, world class . . . creators do their thing in an amazing environment. The building was designed so that everyone who works there can see the performers as they develop each act. There's no brick wall between the business and art.
They grow their own produce on their campus in St. Michel and recuperate rainwater for the bathrooms and such. They even have their own water-bottling plant which allowed the Cirque to reduce the number of water bottles it purchases annually from 19,000 to 120. (Access to clean drinking water is a favorite cause of Cirque founder Guy Laliberté.)
Gotta love the passion they put into what they do.
Watching the video made me realize that I have worked with three clients who work for the Cirque in the last year, buyers all. Funny how things happen. None of them know each other, so it isn't like one referred me to another.
I don't know what it means except that the Cirque is a significant employer in Montreal and its employees make a decent living and have the kind of stability and peace of mind that lets them invest in homes.
I tip my hat to the Cirque for doing Montreal proud all around the world and for bringing me three clients.

Just Listed, Classic Rosemont Duplex

2011-09-23T10:14:00.000-04:00

We've just pounded the sign in front of a classic Rosemont duplex - two bedrooms with an open living, dining and kitchen area on the ground floor and a semi-finished basement with a guest room and play area and exterior exit. There's just a shade under 1000 square feet of living space on the ground floor and a private yard with an above ground pool.

Upstairs there are two one-bedroom rentals with stable, long-term tenants who bring in a combined $800 a month.

The address is 5536 7th Ave., which is between Dandurand St. and Masson, the neighborhood's main shopping drag. If you don't know Rosemont, this is a nice neighborhood, quiet tree-lined streets with folks who sit out on their stoops and balconies keeping an eye on things.

Alot of the action on the overheated Plateau has pushed north and east to Rosemont where prices are lower and there isn't quite as much carousing and clubbing.

The asking price is $419,000, very competitive for the neighborhood. We don't expect this baby to linger on the market at that price.

Open house Sunday, September 25, from 2-4 p.m. Tell your friends. MLS # 8616074

No Gazumping Please, We're Canadian.

2011-09-21T16:53:00.001-04:00

If you're Canadian, chances are you've never been gazumped. It might sound like an obscure German sexual practice but no. Gazumping is a real estate term I'd never heard until last week when a client, newly arrived from the U.K. sprang it on me. First I blushed, then I asked her to explain.

In Quebec, a home seller who accepts a promise to purchase signs a legally binding contract. You can't just walk away because you've changed your mind. If the buyer fulfills the conditions spelled out in the promise to purchase within the specified deadline, it's a done deal.

Imagine my astonishment to learn that this is not the case in England, Wales and Australia, where sellers can change their minds right up until the very day of the closing.

By some crazy fluke of British law, a buyer's promise to purchase is not legally binding. It doesn't become binding until the seller hands over the keys and ownership documents, often 12 weeks after the original sale was signed.

I'm staggered to discover that sales routinely take three months to close in the U.K. In Quebec we can get a deal done in 30 days if all the documents are in order. I've had a few go through in as few at 21 days. Not in England, where the wearing of powdered wigs by lawyers and possibly real estate agents (note to self, check this fact) appears to slow things down substantially.

As a buyer, you can go through all the trouble and expense of a home inspection, financing and such only to get a last-minute call saying "Sorry old man, the owner has decided to accept another offer."

When you get that call, you've been gazumped and there's precious little you can do about it, short of throwing fistfuls of money (no Euros, please) at the vendor in the hopes he'll change his mind.

As you can imagine, there's plenty of gazumping during a hot real estate market.

When the market cools and buyers have the upper hand, reverse gazumping happens. That's when buyers can pull out at the last possible moment, or demand a price reduction. When that happens, it's called -- I kid you not -- gazundering.

Gazumping, gazundering. It all sounds like Anarchy in the U.K. to me.

Buy This House, Then Get Really Drunk.

2011-09-20T10:23:00.000-04:00

Here's another sign of the tough times in the U.S. real estate market. A Chicago area vendor is sweetening the pot for whoever buys her 3-bedroom home with a $1,000 gift certificate redeemable at the neighborhood bar. The watering hole is across the street from her house. Hmmm, do you suppose that has something to do with why she's having trouble attracting offers?
Read about it here.

What Were They Thinking? #12 in a Series.

2011-08-20T10:26:00.001-04:00

Imagine a condominium so horrible that the houseplants have slowly edged their scraggly way out the door to live on the dimly lit, unheated landing.
There were exactly four photos with this listing. Two exteriors, one of which makes it look like a Quebec prison in need of foundation work, and two photos of the houseplants on the landing.
There are no interior pictures. None. How bad can the inside of the apartment possibly be?
You will be surprised to learn that the condo has been on the market since mid May, 2011. That's right, about 100 days. That's an eternity in downtown real estate and more than enough time for the listing agents to get better photographs.
I wouldn't be so critical if I didn't pay a professional photographer good money to take beautiful photos of all my listings.

City of Montreal Offers Cash Incentives to New Buyers. Some Strings Attached

2011-08-15T12:29:00.002-04:00

Did you know that Montreal offers financial incentives to encourage tenants to become home buyers? The incentives are even better for households with at least one child under the age of 18. You don't have to be a first-time buyer to be eligible, but you must prove that you have not owned a property for at least five years.
As with most government programs, this one is more than a little complicated. Still, it might be something worth investigating if you are looking at buyung either a single unit or a revenue property where you will reside.
Single Units, How Much?If you buy a newly built unit and are the first owner of that property, you can collect a rebate of $4,500, $10,000 or $12,500 depending on if you are a childless single buyer, two buyers, or a household with at least one child.
For a single buyer, the rebate is good for the purchase of a new unit costing not more than $200,000, taxes and extras like kitchen upgrades or a parking space included. (if my math is correct, that means a condo or house priced at not more than $175,554. Ce n'est pas beaucoup ça!)
For two-buyer households, the limit is $235,000.
For a household with at least one kid, the limit is $265,000 or $310,000 if the unit has three bedrooms.
The city will also refund 40 per cent of your property transfer tax (the hated welcome tax that you will be hit with about 30 days after you take possession.)
The welccome tax refund is 100 per cent for households with at least one kid.
This program has the twin aim of encouraging developers to build family-affordable housing in the city and encouraging young families to stay on the island instead of fleeing to the suburbs.
Revenue Properties, How Much?
If you buy a duplex and live in one unit while renting the other, the city will refund 40 per cent of your property transfer tax, as long as your duplex does not cost more than $400,000 (There's no sales tax of resale duplexes, so that $400,000 is a real market price.) If you buy a triplex, the maximum is $450,000.
For households with children, the maximum purchase price remains $400,000 for a duplex and $450,000 for a triplex but the city will refund the entire amount of your property transfer tax.
This program was designed to encourage owner occupancy. It has been proven that revenue properties where the owner lives on site are better maintained than those with absentee landlords.
As with any government program,there's a lot of fine print. For example, you have to commit to owning the property for three years or else you have to pay the money back.
You have to pay your property transfer tax up front and then apply to for the rebate.
This is a program partially funded by the Quebec government, so it lasts as long as there's money in the kitty. When the envelope is empty, as they say in French, ze program she ends. I can't see anything on the city website to indicate that the program has run out of funds.
You can find out more by visiting the City of Montreal's housing site and download the application form. You have six months after the purchase of your property to apply for the rebate. You can also visit your local borough office to find out more.

Now We Gotta Worry About Dinosaurs?

2011-08-13T20:22:00.001-04:00

It used to be that my biggest headache as a realtor was people who thought they could do better selling their houses themselves. (Generally you can't.)

Now it seems I have to worry about fetishists who might be willing to trade their property for one year of service from a "personal dinosaur". How do I compete with that?

At left is an actual Craigslist real estate ad that I picked up from Regretsy, a website usually devoted to handicrafts and DIY gone terribly wrong.

I would love to know how it turned out for the would-be dinosaur. Sadly, the original posting has expired.

Here's the Regretsy link.

A Page from Montreal History

2011-08-08T12:11:00.001-04:00


Original handwritten deed dating from 1891 for the sale of what is now 276 May St., Verdun.

Sometimes I get to brush up against history as I go about my business as a real estate agent. The vendor of the property at 276 May St., Verdun has a stack of deeds going all the way back to when the land was originally subdivided into building lots back in 1891.

The spidery cursive has faded somewhat over the last 110 years, but it is still legible. If you read all the deed you get a sense of the evolution of a neighborhood, because each deed has the name and occupation of both the seller and the buyer. This property passed through the hands of a career military man to a mechanical superintendant and later from shopkeeper to a mechanic and from him to a labourer and then to a nurse's aide and so on and so on.

What I like about this particular deed is all the names, probably obscure in their time, that now have deep roots and resonance in Verdun and neighboring Point St. Charles. I quote:

On This Sixth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and ninety one. Before the undersigned Public Notary for the Province of Quebec, in the Dominion of Canada, residing in the City of Montreal Came and Appeared John Samuel Knox of Rozel, Ryde, Isle of Wight, England a Lieutenant-Colonel in Her Majesty's service, in his capacity of sole Executor of and universal legatee under the Last Will and Testament of the late Robert Knox of Rushbrooke, near Coleraine, in Ireland.

Knox, Rozel, Ryde and Coleraine are all names of nearby streets in the Point. Mr. Knox sold the land to an Edward May of New Brunswick. In turn Mr. May gave his name to the street on which he built a string of stout and respectable stone and brick houses. The house I'm selling is near the corner of May and Rushbrooke.

The things you can learn if you just stop to read the fine print.

By the way, the original deed of sale specifies that the buyer cannot build a slaughterhouse, tannery or soapworks on the premises. I guess NIMBYism - Not In My Back Yard - is not a 20th cerntury invention.

Friday Night During the Recent Heatwave.

2011-08-04T22:00:00.000-04:00

The lampglow caught my eye as a I was driving home one recent Friday. We'd had a long string of humid heat and everyone was trying to cool off however they could. This woman on Desmarchais Blvd. had turned her front porch into a living room and was flaked out with her iPod and a good book.
She was a little surprised when I asked if I could take her picture and a little alarmed when I told her a small skunk was frolicking in her garden just beyond the lamp's cosy light.
Not bad for an iPhone photo.

A Second Chance for a Verdun Beauty.

2011-08-04T21:33:00.000-04:00

Have you ever seen the movie where the guy walks right past the girl without noticing her just because she's wearing her hair in a bun and has oversized glasses?
You know the drill. Fast forward to the next scene when the girl shows up in a party dress, her hair down and the glasses stowed away in her clutch purse, Not only does the guy notice her, he falls head over heels.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have the real estate equivalent of that girl for your cosideration. Welcome to, 276 May,Verdun, an old-fashioned Victorian beauty ready to dazzle all comers.
Amy Barratt and I listed this house for sale earlier this year. There was one big problem - a house full of university tenants had turned this gracious property into Animal House. No, that's letting them off too easy. It was like Animal House crossed with an episode of Hoarders. Beer bottles e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e. Overflowing ashtrays, dirty clothes, kitty litter boxes that had never been changed. The place was grotty beyond compare. It was so grotty that we couldn't get good photos of the interior.The tenants were so uncooperative that we had trouble getting in for showings. When we did get in, we lived in terror of opening a door and finding goodness knows who doing goodness knows what.

Valiantly we pointed out the building's good bones, its high ceilings, elegant staircase and generous proportions. We sang the praises of its six-foot-plus basement and its solid stone foundation. All buyers saw was filth and disorder. They fled.
Our vendor decided to take the property off the market at least until the slovenly tenants were gone. She was convinced she could make the place sparkle if she just had a little time to apply soap and water and take care of a few renos. I was a little discouraged and skeptical.
Well shut my mouth. The students left July 1, leaving only four pick-up trucks worth of empties, broken furniture and garbage in their wake, Our vendor spent three weeks cleaning, painting and doing touch-ups. She upgraded the kitchen and bathroom, did some rewiring, tore out laminate and replaced it with new hardwood. It is hardly the same place at all. And yet it is.
Voila 276 May, priced at $345,000. You can see the full listing by entering MLS # 8587771 at www.realtor.ca .
This is a spectacular house and certainly the best-priced four-bedroom in southwest Montreal. It is a two-minute walk to the LaSalle metro stop (green line), around the corner from Wellington St. and the Maxi grocery. It is also super close to the Champlain Bridge, for better and worse.

Ah yes, for better and for worse. You will you enjoy quick access to the bridge from May St., the last street in Verdun before you duck under the viaduct into Point St. Charles. May St. faces that viaduct and traffic approaching the bridge passes a little above the second storey window though about 60 feet across the way. Hey, I hear the Champlain is coming down one of these days.
If you'd like to read my previous blog rant on the filthy tenants, click here.
We are having an open house Sunday, August 7, 2011 from 2-4 p.m. Please drop by. Sunday's no good? Give me a call at 515 978-6522 and we'll arrange a visit.

What Were They Thinking? #11 in a Series

2011-07-26T13:12:00.000-04:00

Add caption

The listing calls this a solarium. Three litter boxes says cathouse to me.

How Much is a Real Estate Commission?

2011-07-14T16:12:00.000-04:00

A Gazette reader sent in a question to the paper's popular Open House web page. I was the poor sap tapped to answer.

Read all about it here.