Bracebridge

[Frank]

I'll be interested to see what the two Fraserburg cottages bring in.

South Bay Road.....undersized lot next to a mosquito infested bog...cottage is a true tear-down.

Sherwood Forest Road....nice structure, but never finished, and now quite run down...possible raccoon infestation as portions of the eaves are missing.   Watch out for Crown Lien on this one....do your homework.

 

[Jayz]

Still available? Damn it, too late to put a tender in now. 

[Frank]

Still available? Damn it, too late to put a tender in now. 

You made money by not bidding.....it cost me a litre of gas and some bug spray.

[Jayz]

Still available? Damn it, too late to put a tender in now. 

You made money by not bidding.....it cost me a litre of gas and some bug spray.

Well, the South Bay Rd still went over 200k no matter how you "trash"-talked about it.  . I worried about my last minute tender of 100k - what if I won? ... Now I am relieved.  . But on a serious note, for that much money, I can get way better waterfront lot by just checking on realtor.ca or Kijiji.

[Frank]

The madness continues.  I have a 3.7 acre waterfront lot for sale right now for not much more than this. 

$210,000 with land transfer, etc....you can call it trash talk, but I was simply putting out warnings.  Cottage is a true tear-down, and the lot is undersized, so when you go in for a building permit to put up a new cottage, you will not be able to meet the septic requirements.

I think I will do better on my lot by not paying the taxes, and letting it go to tax sale. 

[Matt]

The madness continues in the Southern part of Ontario too.

Went down to Chatham to bid on a big one, and it got redeemed just hours before the auction.
What else is new  

Anyways, there was a small water lot in swamp, which is under water most of the year.  Before the auction, the city staff had mentioned or rather warned that the lot was a water lot.  Despite of that, someone still bought it.  What in a world would you buy a water lot in swamp?  Although I know there are lots of people who purchase lands on the moon..??

Madness continues..
or am I entirely missing something?  

[ErnestBidder]

  The worst thing you can do is tear down any building without checking exhaustively. In 1975, I spotted a "condemned" notice on a large lot with 1920 house, in the industrial area of an Ontario city; I called the RE  agent who had a sign on the property, and they wanted 21 or 22,000. Agent had no idea what to do to build; I called the building department at city hall, and was told the house had to be torn down, and a new one built with a new building permit.

  I walked away. Another local guy bought it, rebuilt the main-floor walls, one wall at a time, rebuilt the water-ruined second floor, rebuilt the second-floor walls, one wall at a time, rebuilt the roof, took out a permit for an addition, and moved his business in. Some 8 or 10 years later, he sold it for something in the $250-300,000 range. I was ill.

  Quite a number of municipal officials will give you wrong information, because, I suppose, they don't want to seem to not know their job, or don't want to say "I don't know", and are not willing to take the time to check & get back to you.

  I don't know if the rules have changed, but it used to be: If it's there, you can rebuild it. If it's not, it's just as if it was never there. I've refused to put in offers on property where the owner, on the advice of their agent, has removed the garage, barn, or something else.

  Don't believe everything you hear, ask to get it in writing, and read ALL the relevant municipal documents to make sure the letter you get is factual.

[Frank]

Ernesto is quite correct, in that Municipalities will usually let you rebuild what is still there....don't tear it down until you have a permit.  Also, while you can rebuild one stick at a time, most municipalities require permits to do any major upgrades or renovations, so they may get you there anyways.  My concern is that the lot may not be big enough to support a decent, modern, septic system which will be required.  The existence of a structure also frees you from having to pay those nasty development charges, however most municipalities allow you to rebuild within 5 years without a new charge...don't wait too long, and check on that time period....they do vary.  

There may be no advantage to allowing the building to continue to stand...check it out first.  Some of the northern municipalities have either no or vary small Development Charges.  The zoning may allow a new building in the current location or even in a better location anyways.  The building may be seen as a hindrance to selling the lot, as the purchaser will have the expense of taking it down.  As long as it is standing, the assessment will not change and you will continue to pay high taxes on a  useless building.