News   Nov 08, 2024
UrbanToronto Industry Updates: City of Toronto’s Rental Housing Push, Ontario Market Forecasts, and December's Buildings Show
 600     0 
News   Nov 08, 2024
Tricon's Birch House Welcomes Residents to the Canary District
 1K     4 
News   Nov 08, 2024
News Roundup for November 8, 2024
 526     0 

Mimico Village

G

general surfer

New Member
Member Bio
Joined
Jun 24, 2009
Messages
63
Reaction score
0
hi guys, the deal fell through on my last offer, seller think too low, and now i'm on my house hunt again, we find a bungalow in mimico village, anyone know that area, is it good? up and coming? and what about the re-sale value in that area, any idea and suggestion appreciated:)
 
general surfer said:
hi guys, the deal fell through on my last offer, seller think too low, and now i'm on my house hunt again, we find a bungalow in mimico village, anyone know that area, is it good? up and coming? and what about the re-sale value in that area, any idea and suggestion appreciated:)
Click to expand...

If we hadn't found anything we could afford in the Annette and Jane area :D we would have purchased in Mimico - somewhere on the streetcar route... Prices have already increased quite a bit in 4 years, and my guess is going up further, esp. if near transit.
My only reservation with house-hunting in that the area is that if you have/plan to have kids, watch out for which school catchment a potential purchase is in as I understand (second-hand) that they vary greatly in reputation/quality (?).
 
general surfer said:
hi guys, the deal fell through on my last offer, seller think too low, and now i'm on my house hunt again, we find a bungalow in mimico village, anyone know that area, is it good? up and coming? and what about the re-sale value in that area, any idea and suggestion appreciated:)
Click to expand...

we moved into mimico back in 98 to a 1.5 storey home on queens ave. got the house for a song and sold it for nearly double in 04. now we're two streets away from queens on victor ave and have no intention of going anywhere else.

it's a great neighbourhood, the people for the most part around here are quite friendly and there's a decent sense of community. most amenties are available by short bike ride/walk and if you drive, you're close to everything here including highway onramps, theatres, etc. plus the go station is a big plus.

waterfront is being restored and new restos are popping up. prop. tax base is lower here as well.

regarding schools - david hornell is a wonderful jr school that caters mostly to homes east of queens avenue to the condos. its small and feels just right... our two kids went through there. john english, a former highschool is the other jr to middle school which is larger and by some parents around here, not as highly regarded as hornell. that said if your kid is at hornell, grades 6-7-8 will be held at john english.

negatives - the apartments on lakeshore still have a bit of wierdness to them. traffic in the morning is getting worse getting to lakeshore over the humber - particularly with condo development.

realestate - some deals are to be found... just last week a vintage property built in the 30s, same owner, was listed for $330k on station avenue - had a 30x192ft lot ! was sold in one day.

resale is good if you fix up the property, sit on it for a bit and then flip it. one house across from us sold for 110% above asking and had 8 offers - this was around the time when realestate was out of control in the city. in otherwords, it's a good investment if you play your cards right. we figure our current home in 10+ years will be closer to a mill - which we paid $400k for in '04.

some streets to watch - primrose, victor, dalhousie, lake, eastbourne. bungalows on albert aren't that bad... cavall avenue currently has a bungalow for sale on it but he's asking waaaaay too much.

just message me if you want more info on the area.
 
thanks for the reply and advice, we did seen some small bungalow there recently, one has foundation problem,although the price is quite cheap, in the low 200, but since me and my hubby are not very handy, so i dont know how much would that cost to fix it up, upstair is not bad, minor facelift, but basement is pretty bad tho, leakage and moist can see on the wall, also on the outside you can see some cement are fell off too, so anyone know how mcuh would that be if we gonna fix it up? thanks guy
 
Personally I won't touch a house with foundation problems. Its just not worth the risk - you can never tell how serious the problems are until you try to deal with them. There are plenty of other houses out there...

It doesn't matter about the lipstick, but a house has to have good legs ;-)
 
urbandreamer said:
Why not just yank it down and put a prefab on site while you wait for property values to increase over the next 20 years? You can get a nice modern-style prefab from Royal Homes for under $120,000.
Click to expand...

hihi , thanks for your reply, can i ask where can i get the prefab house and also do you know how much to tear it down the property? since our budget is a bit tight, please advice me!:)
 
I've lived in Mimico for the past 12 years and for now I have no intention of going anywhere else!

We bought a condo at Grand Harbour in the mid 90s for about 225 000, today that condo is worth upwards of 550-600 thousand depending on the finishes (reno'ed kitchen, etc.). When we wanted to move up, in the late 90s, we bought a townhouse in a new development across the street for 220 000 (!!!) today it is worth, also near 600 000 after renos). Today we rent out the condo at Grand Harbour for $2500/month (the lake views are a HUGE bonus). The area's property value is increasing very rapidly because of its location. Technically, by car, downtown is less than 10 minutes away. It's the TTC that is a pain in the neck for everyone living here. Streetcar waits can be very long and the ride even worse. Queen St is the worst possible route for that streetcar (adding over 30 mins to the commute). The lake promenades are gorgeous and the area is chock full of parks. The Mimico 20/20 design charette envisions Toronto's finest lakefront community and the thankful demolition of many of the apartment buildings on Lakeshore just west of the condos.

I went to John English, which was a decent school, imo, and if your kids are in French immersion the education is far better. Also, your home high school for French immersion then becomes Richview CI, which is considered one of the finest public schools in the country. It has a great roster of graduates, including our current PM.
 
general surfer said:
thanks for the reply and advice, we did seen some small bungalow there recently, one has foundation problem,although the price is quite cheap, in the low 200, but since me and my hubby are not very handy, so i dont know how much would that cost to fix it up, upstair is not bad, minor facelift, but basement is pretty bad tho, leakage and moist can see on the wall, also on the outside you can see some cement are fell off too, so anyone know how mcuh would that be if we gonna fix it up? thanks guy
Click to expand...

agreed - i wouldn't touch a home with visible foundational problems unless you're willing to spend cash to repair. moisture in the basement = mold. at minimum you're looking at $8-$10k (average price) to excavate the foundation around the house, inspect and waterproof. also it could be other things - ie. the downspouts that are a problem or water not sloping away from house properly.

depending where this property is, yes you can drop it, put up something new and sit on it to flip later on. other spots in the area might take longer to recoup what you put in.

or at a minimum, fix the place right up, waterproof, upgrade electrical, fixtures, etc - upgrade the kitchen with something from ikea and you can flip it in a year or two for something else in the neighbourhood. it's amazing what a coat of paint and some touchups will do when flipping a property.

if you drop it - take into consideration the cost of the purchase, the cost to drop it, the cost for architectural drawings, permits and construction. so, on a bare minimum say $225 for property, 10 to 20k for drawings, 15k for permits and demo, 150k for construction + whatever costs for appliances, fixtures, finishing (stucco/brick/stone/tile/hardwood/etc) - you're up to 400k. you should also take a look at royalhomes.com and have them give you a rough cost idea based on the size of property what you can / can't do. you'll still be upwards of $350/$375 however factoring in your property purchase... which really isn't bad since most new construction homes are listed upwards of $550-$750.

when comes time to sell you want to ensure you're not the most overpriced property in the immediate area that won't sell because you've overdone it.... unless you're overdoing it for your own enjoyment and use, not immediate future resale. case in point, a property at the corner of queens ave/stanley ave here in mimico. it was a small bungalow that was transformed back in '01 into a massive stucco palace. in '04 they tried to sell it for $800k. off the market and back on the market again - by '07/'08 they dropped it to $550k and it still hasn't sold. it's off the market again.
 
Last edited:
yes, thanks for your reply again, the main thing is we can only afford up to 250k in total, so is a bit hard for us to do all this and that, so we are trying to find something not so bad and spend maybe 20-30k to renovate and start from there, but is just so hard to find nowadays. thats why we are just looking at the small bungalow. we know the market is still up right now, will you guys think winter buying will be better or shouldnt make any different?
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top