Transcript:

Jamie: Hi everyone, I’m Jamie and I’m a homebuilder.

Kelly: My name is Kelly Simpatico, and I’m a realtor.

Jamie: Kelly took us to this really cool spot, which is a gem.

Kelly: Yes, they call this a gem.

Jamie: Tell us about this house that we’re looking at behind us.

Kelly: Well first, I’ll tell you about the area. We’re in a neighbourhood called Linwood, which is west of 149th and south of 87th ave., so tucked away behind the ravine. This property is close to many schools and close to a farmers market. It’s close to the hospital in Misericordia, close to west Edmonton mall, which we knew from before is one of the three major employment centers for Edmonton. So we found this property, it was built in 1959 it’s had the same owners in it since 1965, and they’ve took very very good care of it.

Jamie: Alright so here’s the house and we’ve established that it’s a gem in the fact that it’s good value in a great neighborhood. But the question now becomes, “What can we do with this house?” And we think that with the dollar value of somewhere between $200,00 and $250,000 on this type of home, you can add a second story or you could add a major renovation to the back. If that was the case, and I think the house price is what $510,00?

Kelly: It’s $510,00, so let’s say we negotiate it down and make it $500,000. And put $250,000 into it, then we are at $750,000. And I think a home that is basically brand new but on old, very good bones in this case. How many square feet would it be?

Jamie: 2,200 square feet.

Kelly: 2,200, brand new top of line everything for $250,000 dollars.. I want to say high nines.

Jamie: Yep, so there’s a $200,000 equity pick up in this house if we do it right. So that’s the potential of finding a gem, doing a really smart build on it, and then just making sure it appeals to the right person.

Kelly: I think it’s important to talk about why this home is a gem. Number one, the people that lived here took such good care of it. Everything is in mint condition, that is huge value. So just imagine the same people are cleaning the eavestrough every year, maintaining the yard, just really really good value and good bones.

Jamie: And that’s what we’re looking for when we’re looking for the gems. You can tell this house has really been taken care of.

Kelly: It’s pretty much original everything, so lets’ go downstairs.

Jamie: Here we are in the basement, one of the cool things about this house is there was was never any insulation in this basement so you can see the actual concrete, here it is, and you can see that, first of all no water stains anywhere, this is the first thing as a renovator, that we’re looking for because it tells us that it’s good structure that we can go off without having to rip this stuff down.

Kelly: No musty smells, no efflorescence, no evidence of water.

Jamie: And something else that’s really unique with this age of home, is how high the ceilings are, so these are cedar beams, pure cedar beams, and when we were walking upstairs, no cracks. So we can leave that main floor as it is, we can leave the basement, we can leave the concrete floor, and just go up one floor or back however many square feet we want.

Kelly: Or both.

Jamie: Now let’s take you out the back, because this house is actually on a ravine. Here we are in the backyard, you know it’s a typical backyard, but Kelly, where’s the magic?

Kelly: It’s not really typical, because if you look back there where that picnic table is, to the right of it, is a small little path that takes you down to the ravine.

Jamie:That’s right, let’s go have a look.

Jamie: So, the magic to the place we were just talking about, is the fact that this is where the backyard is. This is a huge grassy area, its a ravine back here. And the thing that really excites Kelly and I about the mature neighbourhoods in Edmonton is the fact that you have this type of area that leads right to the River Valley.

Kelly: Yeah, this property is 667 square meters of self facing backyard. It’s 1.2 kilometers to Edmonton park, its 2 kilometers to the zoo, its 2 kilometers to a farmers market. Imagine the lifestyle you can have.

Jamie: So just to back up Kelly you’re telling me that within a bike ride I can go to the Fort Edmonton Park, I can go to the farmers market, every Tuesday, you’re telling me that I can get to the River Valley in like fifteen steps. And I can have a new house, if we do a major renovation to it?

Kelly: Yeah, for $750,000ish thousand dollars, but it would be worth more than that.

Jamie: We had a really cool experience, so we were sneaking into the back of their yard from the ravine, and this old couple came home, Tex and Peter, they’ve lived here for forty years did they say?

Kelley: I don’t know, since 1965.

Jamie: She was telling us about how the minute she walked in, however many years ago, and she walked into the backyard and it just sold it for her, and essentially thats exactly the same thing that’s selling it for everyone else today. Anyway, really cool stories, and really neat to meet these people, hopefully some lucky person in the eternets, gets to buy this home, put a renovation on it and have a beautiful home with great value in a great area.