Okay, I have to tread carefully with this one because I really don’t want to get sued!

I’ve been keeping an eye on this house – this failed renovation project, for quite some time.

It was all but a certainty that the house would eventually make MLS headlines, but even I was surprised by the severity of this situation…

“That is the worst design I have ever seen,” I thought aloud to myself when I first passed by this half-built house in Leaside near Trace Manes Park.

I actually jammed on my brakes to get a better, second look at the house the first time I saw it, and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

There was a garage; at least I think it was a garage, that jutted out from the front of the house but didn’t seem to be connected to the dwelling itself.  In Leaside, or most North Toronto neighborhoods for that matter, a garage is either below-grade with a sloped driveway to an underground garage, or it is “built-in” to the front of the house on the main level.

But this house had a garage that stood alone in front of the house, and not only that, there was a cheap front door that didn’t roll upwards but rather opened side-to-side like you’d expect to see in your back shed!  It was closed with a clasp and a padlock, yet the two doors hung slightly open as they were clearly installed incorrectly.

Not quite what I would expect in a $1,400,000 house…

I saw the “FOR SALE” sign and went and looked at the history of the property.

The bungalow that originally sat on this 27 x 133 foot lot was purchased in July, 2006 for $535,000 in a multiple offer situation.

On September 6th of 2006, with the bungalow removed and a massive hole in the ground, the “developer” listed the to-be-built house on MLS for $1.4 Million.

The MLS listing read: “House to be completed by January 2007.”

Here we are, over two years later and the house still hasn’t been completed…

I always find the prospect of purchasing a house that isn’t built yet to be quite the risk/reward proposition.  In Leaside, if you purchase from Castleton Homes or another reputable builder, they can show you a portfolio of one of a hundred houses that they have built in the neighborhood for their happy clients.

But to purchase a “site” that will one day have a house on it, and enter a contractual arrangement for $1.4 Million with a person or persons who claim that they have the expertise necessary, yet lack the evidence to back it up, is taking on a serious amount of risk!

And as history shows, I’m not alone in my thinking, since this “house” never sold.

So instead, the developer went ahead and constructed the house believing that he could sell the finished product on the open market.

As I mentioned above, the listing started in September 2006, and the house was slated for completion in January of 2007.  But to my knowledge, construction didn’t begin until well into 2007.

And it was such a bizarre looking house!

That damn garage made me look twice every time I drove by it!  I just couldn’t figure out who designed this house, and who thought that this shed-looking-garage would add curb appeal to this so-called $1.4 Million house.

Let’s fast forward a couple of years, as 2007 became 2008, and the house looked as if it were half complete.

I drive past this house every time I go to pick up my drycleaning, so I have probably seen it fifty times in the last two years.  I’m not sure at which point it first occurred to me, “I think that house has stopped construction,” but eventually, the building process came to a halt, and the house sat there unfinished for well over a year.

In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that this unfinished house has gone through two harsh winters.

Which brings me to the current predicament.

The house is now owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia, which means that the owner/investor/builder was foreclosed on.

So sad…

So when this “house” came onto the market for $829,000 this past May, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me!  Isn’t $829,000 a steep drop from the $1.4 Million they were asking two years ago?  What’s the catch?

Well, the catch is pretty obvious: the house was never finished, and that has created some serious problems!

Here are some excepts from the listing:

“BUYER TO CONFIRM ALL MEASUREMENTS, LOT SIZE, & REALTY TAXES.”

“USE ‘AS IS’ CONDITION”

“NO EXTRAS.  NO SURVEY.  NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ARE MADE OF ANY KIND BY VENDOR OR AGENT IN REGARDS TO THIS PROPERTY.”

Now here is the serious issue:

“BUYER TO ASSUME ANY OUTSTANDING WORK ORDERS OR PERMITS OUTSTANDING AGAINST THE PROPERTY.”

I rather enjoyed this one here:

“NO KITCHEN”

But the biggest issue, and the one that puts this whole predicament into perfect perspective, is this:

“PRESENCE OF MOLD IN HOUSE SUGGEST PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT PRIOR TO ENTRY.”

Oooooo-kay…

So the house is filled with mold, you say?

Actually, they wrote “mould” on the listing, so maybe there is a small art-school inside where we can make clay pigeons from moulds and then paint them all the colors of the rainbow?  Or maybe I’m just a stickler for things like correct grammar and spelling, despite my incessant use of “…”

Anyways…

So in a nutshell, what happened here?

1) A speculator, qualified or not, purchased a property to build a house on
2) The speculator tried to sell the house for $1.4 Million before construction, and eventually began to build it.
3) The speculator encountered trouble along the way, and construction was halted.
4) The half-finished house was forced to sit through two winters, and the house became infested with mold.
5) The bank foreclosed on the speculator, who either ran out of money, or walked away from the project.
6) The bank is now trying to sell this house, “as is,” for $720,000.

That’s right – $720,000 for a half-finished house of a very poor design, which is infested with mold.

The original lot cost $535,000 in 2006.

What is the lot worth now?

Because that is exactly what this property is – land value only.

This house is a ticking time bomb, and nobody in their right mind would keep the structure in tact and continue to build when it could harm their long term health.

This house needs to be demolished, and somebody has to start over.

But at what price can that happen?

The price drop from $829,000 to $720,000 was a significant one, but perhaps now this property has a certain “stigma” that is helping buyers to look elsewhere?

Or maybe the lot is only worth $650,000.

In any event, this is one for the story books.

I just hope the Bank of Nova Scotia doesn’t happen to read my book on a daily basis and find fault with my story-telling abilities…