Well, it's close to the Merritt, and if these city buyers are still commuting there, this location could be attractive, I suppose.

16 Hedgerow Lane was listed at $6.750 million and after 15 days on the market it was sold to the listing agent’s own client for $6 million.

I wrote abut this house last week when it was reporting pending but before the sales price was reported:

This strategy often doesn't work out, but it did here

Back in September, 16 Hedgerow Lane was put up for sale at $5.650 million, and the market’s response (and, probably, comments from colleagues of the listing agent) must have been overwhelmingly negative, because it was yanked two weeks later. Builders were called in, repairs made, and it was put back on the market in late March at $6.750 million, with this notation on the listing:

Extensively renovated 2024 (new roof, new floors, new kitchen, new boilers, new bluestone front and rear, updated exterior, systems, electrics, plumbing etc.)

That did the trick — it was under contract a month later, and now it’s pending. In my experience, an owner is usually better off lowering the pie-in-the-sky price of a house that won’t sell, rather than gambling that expensive repairs and improvements can be recouped with an even higher price, but this time that gamble paid off.

So, good for the seller, but I still wouldn’t advise it in the usual case, where owners simply want to sell their house and move on — better to leave the renovations to the next owner.

That opinion was based on the quick time between listing and selling, which suggested that the final price would be close to or even above the asking price. At $6 million, deducting an estimated 7% transaction cost, net proceeds were $5.650 million. Applying that same 7% cost factor to the original price of $5.580 would have yielded $5.254. The renovations surely didn’t cost $400,000, so the sellers did come out ahead, probably, but not by very much, and they were saddled for 10 months with a house they no longer wanted. I’ll stand by my original advice.