Real estate agents will work hard to make a home look as presentable as possible in order to convince someone to buy them.
Some properties can’t be prettied up no matter what. In today’s Burnaby real estate market, however, it doesn’t always matter.
Take a property on Ethel Avenue in Burnaby’s Edmonds neighbourhood. It just sold for $2,155,000 in a single day – more than $156,000 over the original asking price - despite being cramped and claustrophobic – with photos in the listing looking like a nightmare.
The home is 53 years old and sits on .18 acre. It’s also a duplex, which means that it has excellent revenue potential as a landlord, although the lot looks big enough to build an even larger house on it.
This is what we’re seeing in Burnaby these days as the real estate market is scorching hot.
According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), in Burnaby there was a big jump in sales in February, with 459 in total – way above the 314 in January. In Burnaby, the average price for a detached house was going from $2.2 million, up from $2,062,000 in January and way up from $1.7 million in February 2021.
Another home, on North Warwick Avenue, is 64-year-old and tiny – just 2,400 square feet – and just sold for $1,750,000 or $230,000 over the original asking price. And this house was only on the market for two days.
A house at 4666 Highlawn Dr. in the Brentwood area is 68 years old and just sold for $2.1 million – after only six days on the market. The house, which is only 2,300 square feet, actually sold below the asking price of $2.288 million – most of the houses selling lately are going for well above the asking price.
A house at 8691 – 11th Ave. just sold for $1.830 million after just six days. It’s 68 years old and sold for well above the $1.699 million asking price.
A house on 13th Avenue in East Burnaby sold in mid-March for $1,630,000, which was $231,000 over the asking price. The house had only been on the market for only four days. It’s 75 years old and 2,500 square feet on a .18-acre lot. The listings that were posted online only showed one or two exterior photos so it appears to be destined to be torn down with a new home built in its place.
And another house that is older than 60 years just sold for $1.6 million 8326 – 17th Ave. – well above the $1.5 million asking price. It’s only 1,600 square feet.
So clearly it doesn’t matter how old a house is, it will still sell quickly as people look for properties where they can tear down the structure and build a much-larger house to either live in or flip.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
