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Newsstand: November 19, 2009
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The Art of Not Knowing
Sold in April and refurbished this summer, Toronto’s smallest house is on the market again!
Built in 1912 and occupied for twenty years by Toronto contractor Arthur Weedan and his wife, the baby bungalow was originally intended to be a driveway.
Located at St. Clair and Dufferin, this little piece of prime real estate sold earlier this spring for a whopping $139,000. Given its spatial challenges—and its price tag—the 300-square foot house is a microcosmic representation of the Toronto real estate market. Over the summer, the house got a fetching facelift—a new kitchen and appliances, stone entrance, Murphy bed, and two satellite dishes—and is now back on the market for $179,900.
Interested in owning a small piece of Toronto’s history? Check the MLS listings.
Photo by Alexandra Samur.
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I'm really curious about that second floor window. No pictures. Is there a second floor?
Part of me really wants to live here.
This kind of reminds me of the bungalow behind our house near Dufferin and Eglinton that sold in July for $259,000 as a 'handyman's special' and was renovated all summer, and given a horrendous red woodchip and white rock lawn, and put back on the market for $411,000! Obviously they've seen one too many 'flip this house' shows and are just getting greedy. They've dropped it to $391,000 which is still kinda ridiculous, considering the detached two -story with nice kitchen and basement sold for $393,000 just down the street.
And yes, me and my wife are being way too snoopy about the whole thing.
Where -- and why -- does a 300 square foot house have two parking spaces?
more curious, though, is how much money CAN the tiny house flippers be making??
assuming they bought it outright and aren't wasting money on mortgage/interest, they can't possibly pull in more than $20k profit.
at the same time, at $179,000 the house is probably at its max value. the new buyer is going to have to stick around a long time to get any ROI...
Only two spaces? Expropriate that thing and demolish it so the Toronto Parking Authority can install another one!
It's a shed. A very expensive shed.
Why would you need two satellite dishes? Isn't one enough?
Why would you need two satellite dishes? Isn't one enough?
One dish is for a Canadian provider, the other is usually a grey market American dish.
@2: I imagine you're going to need a second car to stash all the stuff that won't fit in your tiny, tiny house.
@paigesix:
why does buying a house need to be about ROI? what ever happened to buying a house to, you know, live in it?
live? In a house?
How pedestrian.
:-) kiddin, I'm with ya, nib.
This is taking it to an extreme, but I notice when I'm in Canada, most of the houses are the perfect size. I have yet to understand why people here in America need mega-houses with 7 bathrooms and 40 closets. I live in an apartment, and I STILL think I have too much junk that I hang on to. Families are getting smaller, but houses are huge. I think this house is neat...if I had the money, I'd buy it...and actually LIVE in it. It's like the coolest fort in the world. "Whoa, my house is so small, I gotta go outside to change my mind, that's how small it is, I wanna tell ya"
Does it come with an EZ Bake Oven?
@nib:
property is probably the largest investment/expense you'll ever make.
there's nothing wrong with buying a house to live in, but there's a lot wrong with putting money into a property that's overvalued.
The premium on certain elements of real estate in Toronto is insane. I have a condo that doesn't have a parking space—which I chose not to buy way back then because I didn't have a car and the underground parking space cost $10,000 at the time (which would be a fire sale today).
Mistake! The same units with a parking space were reselling for way more than those without. When I was buying the condo I'm in now, the parking spaces were $30,000...I still don't have a car, but I bit the bullet and bought one anyway because it will help the re-sale later.
Permanent parking spaces in Toronto are the most expensive thing you can by per square footage, sadly. A third of the value of that little house is probably the two parking spaces.
I'd love to know where the bathroom is.
Here are some answers:
Parking: 2 spaces in tandem on the back part of the property, behind the fenced patio.
Second floor window: This octagonal window is decorative only at present, but it is possible to make a vaulted ceiling in the living room to open up the space more and to take full advantage of the window.
Sorry - there's no EZ Bake Oven - but it is easy to bake in the apartment sized oven.
The four-piece bathroom is located between the living room and the kitchen.
More pictures and information are available at the official website for The Little House:
www.thelittlehouse.ca