Sale of the Week: The $1.7-million ex-bungalow that shows the economics of flipping a house on Bloor West

Address: 878 Windermere Avenue
Neighbourhood: Bloor West Village
Agent: Kathy Essery and Pavlena Brown, Sage Real Estate Limited, Brokerage
Previously sold for: $703,000, in 2015
 
 
 

The property

A renovated former bungalow that took a couple tries to resell.

Here’s the living room:

The dining room:

And the kitchen:

There are three bedrooms on the second floor. Here’s one of them:

And another:

And here’s the master bedroom:

The master bedroom’s ensuite bathroom:

The basement is finished:

And here’s the backyard:

The history

The sellers, a husband and wife team, bought the 90-year-old bungalow in 2015 specifically to gut and flip it. They added a second story and redid the interior completely, even digging out the basement so they could add two extra bedrooms. About $400,000 later, they were ready to list.

The fate

The buyers are a large family who had been searching for a spacious home for quite a while. They liked that the basement bedrooms were roomy, with built-in closets and a new bathroom.

Here’s one basement bedroom:

And here’s the other:

The sale

The house was originally listed last November, but the federal government’s new, tighter mortgage rules made for a nervous market. The sellers pulled the listing and waited until this spring. The wait paid off: after 53 showings, there were 16 offers. The sellers chose the winning bid on the first round: $452,000 over asking, with a speedy, 30-day closing.

By the numbers

• $1,701,000
• $3,626.45 in taxes (2016)
• 2,736 square feet
• 7 days on MLS
• 5 bedrooms
• 4 bathrooms

The Hunt

Food & Drink

What’s on the menu at Prequel & Co. Apothecary, a whimsical new Queen West cocktail lounge from the owner of BarChef

Just don’t call it a speakeasy