1049 HWY 2, JUST EAST

OF DOWNTOWN KINGSTON

I don’t know of a more striking house and property. Limestone and sandstone mixed, just 3.5 km east of the causeway, a million miles from the ordinary.

We removed the staging recently. It looked great in there, but I began to feel the look was limiting, that there are many different ways of living in the house. It felt to me that a blank slate was required and I’m pleased with the results. It feels more open-ended now, and there are no more books lined up solely because of the colour of their bindings.

634 FLEET ST - SOLD

Well that didn’t take long. A four-bedroom side-split in Bayridge South. An attached garage, hardwood and shag pile. A majestic pine tree that scrapes the clouds. A realistic price, given the plans you’ll make and what they’ll cost to execute.

THE VIDEO:

The video for this lovely mournful, regret-full song, a favourite this year, was filmed in the basement of my new listing on Fleet St in Kingston’s west end, is not a true statement, though it feels distinctly possible, given how the mood, and the light, and the panelling is identical in both. The lime shag on Fleet is just a bonus, because I’m generous that way.

Dove Ellis’ album, Blizzard, is a marvel, by the way, and you should let it soundtrack whatever’s left of winter.

MORE ON 1049 HWY 2 EAST

There are three ways to price a house.

You can price too high, and argue that a house is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. It’s an effective way to get listings, and to have your sign sitting roadside for months on end.

Or you can price too low and hope for multiple offers that drive the sale price up to at least market value. In this still-soft market that’s quite a risk, but it does move inventory and lower carrying costs for agents and sellers. I don’t like it, but there are times when a seller needs to move in a hurry and so you dust off the strategy and hope for the best.

The third option is to price properly, at a value the data suggests is appropriate. To make the price defensible, reasonable, honest. It’s the method I prefer. And that’s what happened when we began at this lovely heritage stone home under 4 km from downtown Kingston. That starting price months back was $935,000. The comps supported it; I believed in it. But here we are today at a surprising $875,000.

It’s a head shaker. I put it down to the fact that this is still pretty rarefied air - most of the houses moving quickly are in the 500s and 600s. And it’s winter. And Trump is doing what Trump does, and people are scared to spend their money, to make a move unless it’s into a bomb shelter. I get it. It makes sense. But so does buying the home of your dreams when prices are at bottom, which (barring an orange apocalypse) they seem to be. I see signs of a slightly more enthusiastic shuffling into the market from both buyers and sellers. Things seem, ever so gently, to be coming to life. A spring thaw in mid-February.

HERE’S A THOUGHT:

I’m really fond of these signs.

I take my work seriously, and I’ve gone through a few different For Sales over the years, but this most recent design hints most directly at my history as a writer. It feels like a book cover to me, and that intersects nicely with my belief that every house has a story to tell, and also that if all its systems are working well, in mechanical and aesthetic harmony, a house can be a pretty complex and glorious machine for living in (a term stolen shamelessly from Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French architect/planner).

What I’m getting at - and it’s really not complicated - is that I think one of these would look mighty smart planted nice and upright, out front of your place, don’t you, if you decide to sell this year?

The write up will make you proud, I promise, and might even have you wishing you didn’t have to move.

RECENTLY SOLD

MUSINGS