The Sell: a savvy couple use social media to sell their Parkdale investment property
The sellers: Jeremy Stewart, a 36-year-old designer and real estate investor, and Tyler Clark Burke, a 41-year-old artist and designer.
The place: A row house near Queen and Dufferin, divided into two units, both of which Burke and Stewart had been renting out since 2010.
The story: After bouncing between rentals for years, Burke bought the house in 2006, a year before she and Stewart started dating. When the pair decided to move in together in 2008, house prices were relatively low. Instead of selling Burke’s property, they borrowed against it to buy a larger home nearby where they could raise their kids: daughter Rooksby, who’s now 3, and son Hugo, 18 months. Earlier this year, with interest rates dropping and home prices soaring, they figured it was time to sell the rental property.
The prep: Aside from hanging a few mirrors, Burke, Stewart and their agent, Alice Kent of Bosley, did little staging. Instead, Burke appealed to friends on Facebook, posting a personal note about the property and expressing the hope that someone in her social network would end up buying the place.
The offer: Though Kent held open houses over two days—attracting more than 100 visitors— it was the social-media push that paid off. Of the nine bids they received, the highest came from a friend of a friend who’d seen Burke’s post on Facebook. After signing the offer back once, the couple settled on a sale price of $829,000—$130,000 over asking.
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