How would you feel about living in the same vicinity as a fire station?

How about  down the block?  Across the street?  Or right next door?

From a real estate perspective, shouldn’t these houses be inherently discounted?

In the summer of 1997, I took a part time summer job down the street from the local fire hall at a Sunoco gas station.

That’s right – I pumped gas!

I prefer the term “pump jockey,” but either way, I checked under the hood, read the dip stick, and don’t even talk to me about the lube, oil, and filter…

I made $7.00 per hour and I loved every second of it.  I worked outside, and starting at 6AM meant I was off at 2PM every day!  I had weekends off, and I basically worked alone and had nobody to answer to.  How can you go wrong?

But when I think about that summer, one of the things I remember the most was the incessant sound of the fire engines humming down Laird Drive several times per day.

I guess in theory, firemen just sit around and wait for their turn to slide down the pole, and somewhere in between, they find the time to pose shirtless for the”Hunky Firemen Calendar.”

But in practice, they do exactly that – practice.

Most fire stations run the same practice drills along the same routes, and during the summer of 1997, I worked down the street from the Leaside firehall and I saw those three red rockets blaze by every day at the same time.

I guess I got used to it eventually; about as much as you can get used to the screeching noise and the dust kicked up by forty over-sized tires.

But it’s not something I would choose to experience every day.

A few months ago, I was showing houses in the Bloor West Village area to a couple of my clients, and we thought we’d hit the jackpot!

There was a house on Deforest that came out at $599,000, and we couldn’t believe that with the red-hot market in full swing, we might be able to get into the coveted Swansea neighbourhood for under $600,000 – and it was a detached home to boot!

On paper, it looked like a phenomenal deal.

I might go as far as to say that I rushed through the other homes we saw in order to provide for more time at Deforest.

Turning south off of Bloor Street was like driving through Pleasantville for my clients, and we turned right and headed down Deforest with great anticipation.

But alas, when I pulled up in front of the house with the giant “FOR SALE” sign, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a fire station directly across the street!

Imagine that!

On a quiet, quaint, residential street where there was nothing but single-family homes, there was a giant fire station with doors for three trucks.

Suddenly, this didn’t seem like such a “quiet, quaint” street after all.

And subsequently, this didn’t seem like a deal after all.

The house was just ‘okay,’ but none of that mattered anyways.

I told my clients, “There’s no way in hell you want to live directly across the street from that eyesore.  Your lives will be turned upside down.”

I know our city isn’t ripe with arson, 24/7, but firemen regularly practice their duties, and trucks pull in and out of fire stations with sirens blazing every day.

Would you want to live next to that?

It’s like living in a condo where your next door neighbour is running  a marijuana grow-op.  Would you want to live next to that?

Would you want to be in an old apartment building, with thin walls, where the old lady in the unit next door has no hearing left and has to crank up the television to 100 decibels?

Would you want to live in a loft that’s above a recording studio?

Anything that interferes with the “quiet enjoyment” of your house or condo is a massive red flag, but the red fire engines across the street take things to a whole other level.

I thought that the siren on a fire engine was cool when I was seven years old, but I certainly don’t want to hear it six times per day.

Imagine finally getting your newborn baby to sleep after several sleepless nights yourself, and then having the guys from Ladder 49 sound the alarm and put the pedal to the metal on three trucks as they come careening down the driveway and past your front lawn.

Not for me, thanks.

I looked at a fantastic house for sale on Bellevue Avenue last year, but it was three houses down from Toronto Station #315.

The house was a gorgeous Victorian with a ton of original character and charm, and located only steps from College Street.

The area is fantastic – with Kensington Market just a three-minute walk south, but I couldn’t look past the fire station.

Don’t get me wrong, if a property is significantly discounted due to the proximity to the fire station, then I’m interested, and I would advise my buyer clients accordingly.  But that discount would have to be “significant.”

If a house was selling for $899,000 on Bellwoods Avenue, just north of Queen Street, then what would the exact same house be worth one street over on Claremont Street, right next to the fire station?

If you try and tell me $870,000, I’m tuning you out.

If you tell me $850,000, I’m walking away.

How do you put a price on inconvenience, and constant disruption?

Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe it’s not such a big deal.  Don’t forget – every buyer is different.

I had a conversation with a client just last night about “the perfect house,” which we’ll likely never find for them at fair market value, that is still affordable and within their budget.  So I asked, “What would you rather have – the perfect house in a less-than-perfect area?  Or an A+ location with a house that needs work?”

I think the buyer pool would be split 50/50 on that one.

The adage, “Location, location, location” certainly applies, but can’t you make due with an off-the-beaten-track location if the house truly is your dream home?

Maybe that’s a bit of a tangent, but the point I’m trying to make is that what might seem like an obvious answer to you could be the entirely wrong answer for another buyer.

And in my opinion, I would never want to live next door to a fire hall, at any cost.

I mean, if the house was $100,000, then fine.  But realistically, do you know what I mean?

If that house on Claremont is $800,000, compared to the same house being priced at $899,000 on Manning, I still don’t want to live next to a firehall!

Same goes for across the street, and maybe even down the block.

I already have enough disruptions in my life when a hippie mistakenly knocks on my door at midnight and asks, “Heeeeey man, can I get a pound of Northern Lights?”  Sorry, next door over…

Adding a fire engine once or twice a day isn’t ideal, and if I can avoid it (which any buyer can), then I’ll gladly do so.

You may come across this situation yourself one day.

Perhaps it’s better to give it some thought now than to find your “dream home” while browsing MLS and then pull up for a visit and see eight shirtless hunks winding up an 80-foot fire hose across the street.

Okay, wait, maybe for some of you, that’s not so bad….