I've been keeping my eye out for a piece of undeveloped land in inner-city Montreal for the last few months because Habitat for Humanity is on the lookout for a site to build it's next project.
Habitat buys land and, using volunteer labour as well as funds and materials donated by corporate partners, build houses for people who might not otherwise be able to achieve the dream of home ownership. Each Habitat family must invest "sweat equity" in their home through volunteer labour. They also have to have the means to pay the mortgage once the house is built.
I wrote about Habitat's last build here.
I actually thought I'd hit the jackpot a few weeks ago when a 2,000-square-foot lot on a nice street in St. Henri came up for sale on the MLS. I quickly got the okay from H4H and raced to the owner's home to present the offer. The lot was right next door to their triplex, which was also for sale. I couldn't help but notice that the lot had a nice tree on it and thought how sad it would be to cut that tree down in order to build.
We came in at asking price and I did my best to pitch the merits of selling to a non-profit group already active in St. Henri. The plan was to build three units on the site. I had photos, brochures and a compelling story. It was all good. They didn't throw me out!
The next day the listing agent said that his clients' had received five offers on the property (after it had been listed for less than 48 hours) and had decided to take it off the market. I couldn't help but think that the owners tested the market in order to set a price for that piece of land. Their real hope was to sell it with their triplex. Whatevs.
Which brings me to today. Every morning I do a H4H search on the MLS. The criteria are specific. The price must be about $200.000, the land must be in an inner-city neighborhood with good public-transit access and local services. The lot has to be a minimum of 2,000 square feet, with the possibility of building three units.
This morning, I thought I'd hit the motherlode. A new listing for a lot in downtown Ville Marie borough popped up. Asking price - $42,000 plus QST and GST. Wow!
A closer look revealed that the listing was in fact for a parking spot in a downtown garage. There are 25 of them for sale. Imagine that, some people can afford to spend nearly $48,000 for homes for their cars, while Habitat is down amongst the sofa cushions trying to scratch up the cash to build houses for people.
I wonder if we could build a house in a parking garage. . .
Showing posts with label Habitat for Humanity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Habitat for Humanity. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Monday, September 20, 2010
Habitat for Humanity Montreal Unveils First "Green" Home
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| Front view of 5096-5098 Ste. Clotilde/ |
Habitat for Humanity is putting the finishing touches on its latest Montreal venture, a St. Henri duplex featuring two three-bedroom units. The address is 5096-5098 Ste. Clotilde St.
The build is a milestone for the local Habitat chapter because the property was built according to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards for energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.
To celebrate, H4H will be hosting a community party in Gadbois Park on Saturday, Sept. 25th, between noon and 3 p.m. There will be food and drink, games for the kids, a DJ and special musical guests. (I'm not allowed to say who, but trust me, if you like good music, you won't be disappointed.)
Visitors will also have a chance to tour the new building and get an idea of what makes it "green". You might be surprised by how doable many of the elements are.
The team behind the St. Henri project is hoping to win LEED Silver certification, meaning they hope to collect at least 60 points out of a possible 136 on an environmental scorecard. They won't know the score until the building undergoes a third-party audit once the house has been up and running for a few months.
Rob Miners, an architect and co-founder of the architecture firm Studio MMA, was the brains behind the design. Instead of fighting nature, he worked with what he had.
The day rooms and kids bedrooms are located at the back of the building to make the most of natural light from the south and southeast. Big old trees in the back lane will help shade and cool the building in summer. In winter, their leafless branches will let the sun in, providing passive solar heat.
The building has high-efficiency windows and doors that will reduce heat loss by 12 per cent. The building was built according to Novoclimat standards, which means that superior insulation will reduce energy consumption by 25 to 30 per cent.
Low-flow toilets will use 4.9 litres of water per flush, compared to the 10 to 14 litres a standard toilet uses. Water-saving showerheads will use 6.6 litres per minute, versus 14.
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| Rear view of 5096-5098 Ste. Clotilde. |
Architect Rob Miners said his goal was to show that it is possible to build green while also building affordably. His is the firm behind Montreal's innovative Mountain Equipment Co-op store in Marché Central as well as Abondance Montréal, a "green" condo project in Verdun.
All this to say that the official unveling will be a proud day in local H4H history. We'll all be very happy to hand over the keys to the Aabid-Ezzerouali family. They've put a ton of sweat equity into helping to build their new home. They are over moon about their H4H experience and with the knowledge that they will soon be the owners of a decent, well built house that they could never have dreamed of buying without Habitat's help.
So, come on down to the party and have a hot dog with me and the rest of the Habitat crew. The organization is always looking for volunteers. You don't even have to know how to use a hammer. Trust me. I've never lifted a hammer for Habitat, though I have laid down a coat of paint or two.
Habitat for Humanity Family Day in Gadbois Park
5845 Chemin de la Côte St. Paul
Buses 36 and 37.
Saturday, September 25,
Noon to 3 p.m.
Rain or Shine.
(If it rains, we're heading into the community centre.)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
On Volunteering, Bluffing and Pie
Habitat for Humanity put out a call for volunteers last week, which is how I found myself bright-eyed a bushy-tailed outside a huge storefront on Notre-Dame St. W. in St-Henri at 8 o'clock in the blessed a.m. on Saturday.
I wasn't alone. About 15 volunteers and assorted HH crew leaders drifted in over the next half hour. Our task was to prime, paint the ceiling and put a top coat on the walls of what will soon be Habitat's new ReStore location.
ReStore is the retail end of Habitat for Humanity. It sells home improvement materiials donated by corporate partners. The biggest of these is Home Depot. Makes sense, since both organizations have roots in the region of Atlanta, Ga..
The goods were piled on pallets lining the walls of the store. From what I could see there were boxes of toilets and pedestal sinks, chandeliers, blinds and curtains, dented gallon cans of paint, small electric and hand tools, doors and windows. You get the idea.
The store, at 4399 Notre-Dame, near the corner of Ste-Marguerite, is tentatively scheduled to open on September 8. But first, the volunteer army has to get it ready.
We were led by a ridiculously handsome and charismatic man named Ernesto, whose main job was pointing us in a general direction and leaving us alone to work.
I grabbed a roller and a telescopic pole and, working with two others began laying a top coat of eggshell paint on the walls for six hours. Today, a little like John McCain, I am unable to raise my arms above my shoulders. Totally worth it, though. I'm not complaining.
The paint went on this institutional greyish beige, a shade I quickly came to think of as creme of field mouse soup. It was a vast improvement over the chalky white primer, but still. . . By the middle of the afternoon, it had dried to a warm off white, vellum or linen colour. Nice.
It was cool to see how all these volunteers, most of whom did not seem to know one another, went about getting the job done without anybody telling them how or what to do. Two women, strangers to each other, spent most of the day on a scaffold rolling paint onto the 20-foot ceilings. One said the experience gave her a new appreciation for Michelangelo. He spent seven years on his back painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Had it been me, I would have applied a coat of eggshell and been done in an afternoon. I guess that's the big difference between me and the Renaissance's greatest artist.
By the end of the day, the ceiling was done, and the walls had a first coat of eggshell. The volunteers wrapped the rollers and paint brushes in plastic for the next day. Many of them were planning to be back again on Sunday to continue.
**********
My cell phone rang in the middle of the day. An agent was calling to tell me she had received an offer on a house two of my clients were planning to bid on. If we were still interested in the house, she needed our offer by 7 p.m. No pressure, eh?
I called Amy, my partner in all things including real estate. She phoned the clients and began to prepare the offer, filling in the Promise to Purchase, Annex A (financing) and Annex B (other conditions). Covered with paint, I finished my shift with HH at 4 p.m. Time to get home, shower, change and zip across town to the Plateau to meet the clients at 5:30, go over the offer, do the math one more time, sign all the documents in quadruplicate and then race to Pointe-Claire to present the offer to the other agent and her client at 7 p.m.
It's always a gamble when you learn there's another offer on the table. Is the agent bluffing or are you really in competition with someone else for this really interesting Plateau property? Do you make your best possible offer from the get-go, or do you try to to low ball in the hopes of getting it for less?
I was pretty sure the other agent was BS-ing me. It seemed unlikely that an 11-th hour buyer had materialized. I didn't blame her, she was doing what she had to do to get the best price for her client.
Still, I couldn't take a chance. The clients and I talked it over. We decided to come in $3,000 higher than the offer we had originally settled on. They were still well within their budget.
I met the agent and her client in a Rockaberry's pie shop. (!!!) After five minutes of pleasantries, we got down to business, including a spiel about what outstanding citizens my clients are, how much they love the house, how they plan to turn it into a happy home for their five-year-old boy.
Ten minutes later, after some phone consultation with family members, our offer was accepted.
Ding-ding-ding!! Jackpot! Winner-winner-chicken-dinner! It's the best part of being a real estate. When you get to phone your clients and say, "Congratulations, you have just purchased a home."
Only I didn't. Instead, I purchased a raspberry crumb pie (they mentioned it was a favorite) and drove back to the Plateau to give them the good news face to face.
There was hugging, dancing and jumping up and down. We had pie and milk, as I urged them to contact the building inspector ASAP and to double down on their bank to get the financing squared away. By 9 p.m., I was headed home. It was a full day, and like the raspberry pie, a pretty good one, no matter how you slice it.
I wasn't alone. About 15 volunteers and assorted HH crew leaders drifted in over the next half hour. Our task was to prime, paint the ceiling and put a top coat on the walls of what will soon be Habitat's new ReStore location.
ReStore is the retail end of Habitat for Humanity. It sells home improvement materiials donated by corporate partners. The biggest of these is Home Depot. Makes sense, since both organizations have roots in the region of Atlanta, Ga..
The goods were piled on pallets lining the walls of the store. From what I could see there were boxes of toilets and pedestal sinks, chandeliers, blinds and curtains, dented gallon cans of paint, small electric and hand tools, doors and windows. You get the idea.
The store, at 4399 Notre-Dame, near the corner of Ste-Marguerite, is tentatively scheduled to open on September 8. But first, the volunteer army has to get it ready.
We were led by a ridiculously handsome and charismatic man named Ernesto, whose main job was pointing us in a general direction and leaving us alone to work.
I grabbed a roller and a telescopic pole and, working with two others began laying a top coat of eggshell paint on the walls for six hours. Today, a little like John McCain, I am unable to raise my arms above my shoulders. Totally worth it, though. I'm not complaining.
The paint went on this institutional greyish beige, a shade I quickly came to think of as creme of field mouse soup. It was a vast improvement over the chalky white primer, but still. . . By the middle of the afternoon, it had dried to a warm off white, vellum or linen colour. Nice.
It was cool to see how all these volunteers, most of whom did not seem to know one another, went about getting the job done without anybody telling them how or what to do. Two women, strangers to each other, spent most of the day on a scaffold rolling paint onto the 20-foot ceilings. One said the experience gave her a new appreciation for Michelangelo. He spent seven years on his back painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Had it been me, I would have applied a coat of eggshell and been done in an afternoon. I guess that's the big difference between me and the Renaissance's greatest artist.
By the end of the day, the ceiling was done, and the walls had a first coat of eggshell. The volunteers wrapped the rollers and paint brushes in plastic for the next day. Many of them were planning to be back again on Sunday to continue.
**********
My cell phone rang in the middle of the day. An agent was calling to tell me she had received an offer on a house two of my clients were planning to bid on. If we were still interested in the house, she needed our offer by 7 p.m. No pressure, eh?
I called Amy, my partner in all things including real estate. She phoned the clients and began to prepare the offer, filling in the Promise to Purchase, Annex A (financing) and Annex B (other conditions). Covered with paint, I finished my shift with HH at 4 p.m. Time to get home, shower, change and zip across town to the Plateau to meet the clients at 5:30, go over the offer, do the math one more time, sign all the documents in quadruplicate and then race to Pointe-Claire to present the offer to the other agent and her client at 7 p.m.
It's always a gamble when you learn there's another offer on the table. Is the agent bluffing or are you really in competition with someone else for this really interesting Plateau property? Do you make your best possible offer from the get-go, or do you try to to low ball in the hopes of getting it for less?
I was pretty sure the other agent was BS-ing me. It seemed unlikely that an 11-th hour buyer had materialized. I didn't blame her, she was doing what she had to do to get the best price for her client.
Still, I couldn't take a chance. The clients and I talked it over. We decided to come in $3,000 higher than the offer we had originally settled on. They were still well within their budget.
I met the agent and her client in a Rockaberry's pie shop. (!!!) After five minutes of pleasantries, we got down to business, including a spiel about what outstanding citizens my clients are, how much they love the house, how they plan to turn it into a happy home for their five-year-old boy.
Ten minutes later, after some phone consultation with family members, our offer was accepted.
Ding-ding-ding!! Jackpot! Winner-winner-chicken-dinner! It's the best part of being a real estate. When you get to phone your clients and say, "Congratulations, you have just purchased a home."
Only I didn't. Instead, I purchased a raspberry crumb pie (they mentioned it was a favorite) and drove back to the Plateau to give them the good news face to face.
There was hugging, dancing and jumping up and down. We had pie and milk, as I urged them to contact the building inspector ASAP and to double down on their bank to get the financing squared away. By 9 p.m., I was headed home. It was a full day, and like the raspberry pie, a pretty good one, no matter how you slice it.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Habitat in St. Henri
Habitat for Humanity is gearing up to build two more houses for low-income families in St. Henri this summer. They are looking for volunteers to help on the various committees leading up to the build as well as others to do the more usual hammering, sawing and toting of construction materials.
Sound like something you might like to do? There's an information session Saturday, May 30 at 10 am. The location is the Delta Hotel, 777 University St. (kitty corner to Place Bonaventure at St. Antoine)
If you have questions, you can email the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity at: construction@habitatmontreal.qc.ca or info@habitatmontreal.qc.ca
You can visit the local Habitat for Humanity web site here.
The picture above was cribbed from HH's web site. It's from a home-raising in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve last summer.
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