98 Leuty Avenue

You know what I would do if I had three million dollars I could leverage? I would buy 98 Leuty Avenue.

It's a lovely old three-storey apartment building in the Beach, currently for sale for $2,980,000. There are 15 units, and from the pictures I've seen, mostly sympathetically renovated. Of the 15 units, four are bachelor apartments, six are 1-bedroom units, four are two-bedroom units, and the last one is a 2-bedroom plus office intended for the owners.

The MLS listing claims that the net profit each year is just short of $200K. That would just about cover the mortgage for it at current rates (although those are going up, of course). I'd split it into 15 co-ownership units and sell them off as they became available, keeping whichever one I liked best (probably one of the 2-bedroom units) to live in once there are no kids at home and my husband and I are tired of rattling around this big house.

It's hard to find comparable real estate listings to know what the units would sell for, since condos are not very common in the Beach, especially 80-year-old ones. Drive seven minutes west to the new live/work lofts at Carlaw and Dundas, and a 1-bed, 1-bath will set you back $354,900... but drive north-east to Victoria Park and Danforth instead, and the same size unit is only half that, at $178,000. In my scheme they would be co-ownerships rather than condos, and I also haven't quite figured out how much lower the prices are for those on average.

It's a moot point, since I don't have any seed money for this scheme... but I do enjoy thinking about it!