The buyer: Heather Spence, a 31-year-old partner at Mass Tsang, a criminal defence firm.
The story: In 2008, while Spence was attending Osgoode Hall Law School, she squeezed into a 400-square-foot Annex rental. Six years later, she’d paid off some loans, made partner at her firm and felt ready to take the ownership plunge. Condos held no attraction—she knew too many people who had bought units and then quickly outgrown them. If she decided to have kids someday, she didn’t need the hassle, or expense, of moving again. She got approved for a $510,000 mortgage and started the search for a fixer-upper somewhere between Queen and Dupont, from St. George to Dufferin. She was willing to consider any house, as long as it wasn’t about to be condemned, and she still had to up her ante to get into the game. Even $556,000, she discovered, wasn’t enough to make her a bidding-war contender.
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Caroline Aksich, a National Magazine Award recipient, is an ex-Montrealer who writes about Toronto’s ever-evolving food scene, real estate and culture for Toronto Life, Fodor’s, Designlines, Canadian Business, Glory Media and Post City. Her work ranges from features on octopus-hunting in the Adriatic to celebrity profiles.