It’s the proverbial Hallowe’en House. The one you’d never dare approach on a dark and dreary late October evening. Or any other evening (or day!) for that matter. The house is really old; I’d guess built in the 40’s. Up until this past year the huge deciduous trees in the front yard obscured not only most of the run-down house, but also a decrepit late 70’s or early 80’s Jeep pick-up with a canopy. It had been backed into the front yard, presumably after spitting out its last breath.
Strangely enough, the first time I saw the house’s lone occupant I didn’t realize he lived there. He was cleaning the wheels on a pick-up truck in front of that house. I certainly don’t mean to categorize the man, but he really did (and still does) look homeless. He’s got long greasy grey hair, he’s very thin, he’s walks with a limp and he dresses poorly. Embarrassingly on my part, I honestly thought he was going to ask me for money as I passed, but he seemed intent on his task at hand. Quite some time later I realized he owned the pick-up, as I saw him driving in the neighbourhood.
After that I saw him driving a different vehicle, a late model SUV; then an ‘80’s full-size station wagon. I’m a car nut by nature so I tend to recognize vehicles quickly. I noticed that all 3 of his vehicles were parked on the street within about ½ a block of that residence, all currently licensed. And the strangest part of all is that all three vehicles were packed to their roofs with collected, used items. Quite recently he’s added another truck to the fleet, a mid-nineties crew cab pick-up with a canopy. It’s gradually filling up too.
The blinds of the house have never been opened or raised each time I’ve walked past. A single lamp illuminates a corner window beside the front door. I can only imagine what the interior must look like. I envision narrow passageways through all the rooms lined with stacks of hoarded items. Perhaps it’s not even possible to enter some rooms for all the clutter. And what about the basement? It’s the kind of place where you wish you could remove the roof, like taking off the lid of a shoebox, prior to entry, just to see what you’re up against. The thought of entering that place just gives me the creeps.
I blogged about this house a year or so ago when, probably due to neighbours complaints, the City came by and cut down the backyard-full of brambles. And lo and behold if they didn’t uncover a collapsed wood frame garage! This is only a standard 33’ x 100’ lot we’re talking about, so to be able to obscure an entire shed structure is quite a feat! It shouldn’t be too surprising that this garage contained two cars. The City crew also towed the old Jeep around to the back yard, next to the other two.
Since then the back stairs have collapsed under their own weight of rotten stringers and treads.
Upon this stellar pedigree, up pops a For Sale sign last Spring. On my obligatory dogwalk I was simply stunned. My first thought was that the poor man had died. Although I know nothing of the man’s personality, not the least of which would be his personal demeanor, I can’t imagine the neighbours would be sad to see this property change hands. We bought our house with a similarly neglected adjacent property with hopes that it would soon be re-developed. It since has been.
However, no sooner had I told my wife that the house was on the market…it was off the market. At that time a few months ago, the single detached housing market was still red-hot in Vancouver. I assumed someone had snatched up the property as a build lot. Usually within 2 months following a sale you can expect to see some sort of change to a property; vacancy being one of them. Nothing happened this time. Eventually my wife and I attended a local Open House of another property close by; we do that sometimes just as look-ee-loos. It was the same realtor as had been listed at the hoarder house so I asked him about it. He said the owner was very unrealistic about what it was worth, and he soon severed ties with the realtor.
That brings me to this past week. Again, passing by with my dog, I noticed a small For Sale sign nailed to one of the big trees in the front yard. It’s the kind of sign you’d buy in any Dollar Store. Mostly covering the first sign is a piece of cardboard with shaky white lettering (looks like white-out) stating that the house is listed at $1,039,000! Firm.
The neighbours need not worry about impending construction noise for the next while. At over a mil this lot-value property is over-priced by about 250K. For comparison purposes, I'll post later what $1,050,000 bought last year about 4 blocks west of this address. There really is no comparison.
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