4 minute read
REAL ESTATE
REAL ESTATE Hot-market hunt leads to heritage home
by Carlito Pablo
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Calla Evans is home.
After years of living in Toronto, the North Vancouver–born and Kelowna-raised woman has returned to the West Coast, for good.
“I always thought I’d come back to the mountains and the water and a lifestyle that’s a little bit more connected to nature,” Evans told the Straight in a phone interview.
Evans left for Ontario to study. She eventually started working there and met her future husband, Adrian Ellis.
“We were able to buy our first house in Toronto, which was like a dream, and we just sort of set our roots down there,” she said.
But B.C. always beckoned.
Evans is a researcher at the University of Guelph. She is also in the middle of a PhD program at Ryerson University. She didn’t think it would be possible to move back until she had finished her postgraduate studies.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened and everything went online, opening up the possibility to relocate. As well, Evans’s husband, who is originally from Ontario, got a job in Vancouver, which made everything perfect.
“So, yeah,” Evans said, laughing, “we drove across Canada with a car full of stuff, and now we’re here.”
That was in the fall of 2020, about six months into the pandemic. Before leaving Toronto, the couple sold their house.
“We ended up coming out okay,” Evans said about that real estate transaction, “so that made it possible to purchase something in Vancouver, which is, compared to the Toronto market, even more wild and insane.”
She recalled that their old home in Toronto was built in 1911. It has a yard, and the couple had nice neighbours.
“Older homes are far more common out East,” Evans said, adding that she and her husband love the character, history, and quirks of such properties.
In Vancouver, they were interested in knowing what it would be like to live in a condo, so they bought one in Chinatown.
“We were excited to give condo living a try and not have a yard, and not to worry about and not have as much maintenance,” she said.
They discovered pretty quickly that they are not condo people, especially now that they have a pet dog.
The couple also wanted to have more space, and they started looking for a new home in the fall of 2021.
They plunged straight into a hot Vancouver real estate market. “My heart goes out to everyone who’s doing the house hunting right now, because we definitely had a lot of heartbreak in multiple-offer situations,” Evans said.
Evans is thankful for their property agent, Lindsie Tomlinson of RE/MAX Select Realty, who guided them through the process.
As an example, she said that they placed an offer (over the asking price) on a Vancouver townhouse at 732 Hawks Avenue in Strathcona. The property received seven other offers. It sold in February 2022 for $1,307,320, well over its listing price of $999,000.
“It was beautiful, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Evans said about the property. “And I remember our realtor [Tomlinson] saying to us, ‘There will be something better.’
Later in February, a listing came up for one of the oldest heritage homes in Vancouver. It was for 728 Jackson Avenue, a detached home also in Strathcona.
A Vancouver Heritage Foundation website notes that the house was constructed before 1895. The foundation relates that the home’s first occupant was Arthur Hortin, an engineer.
“The house is a fine example of an early ‘Pioneer’ frame house, complete with beveled siding and decorative shingles for the apex of the front gable,” the VHF notes.
The 728 Jackson Avenue property was listed for $1,499,000. Evans and her husband got it for $1,479,000, which is exactly the home’s 2022 assessed value.
They’ve also sold their Chinatown condo and are moving into their new home at the end of May.
“We’re so happy to be taking care of a little piece of Vancouver history,” Evans said. g
Calla Evans and Adrian Ellis bought an 1890s heritage home. Photo by Giulia Ciampini.
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