Eye On Vancouver’s Wilmar Estate
Posted February 17th, 2012 in Real Estate, Sharing the Experience | 
Side Bars
Volumes of mainstream media about the Wilmar Estate in Vancouver’s famous Southland neighbourhood has created pleasant, interesting and unexpected side bars.
Asides
Within seconds of airing, the phone rang with friends calling. Some I hadn’t spoken with in a while. They called excited to tell me they ‘saw me on Tony Parson’s CBC’s News Hour with reporter Kirk Williams‘ or, heard me speak on the CBC Radio One program on the “On The Coast with Stephen Quinn” or, read Macleans Magazine’s missive by Erica Alini who asked if ‘you should wait to buy in a cooling real estate market’? The calls soon were outstripped with emails, text messages and notations on Facebook and Twitter.
It is refreshing to know that someone is actually listening or watching who care enough to take the time to re-acquaint and offer a ‘high-five’. On the other side, it is also a bit frightening to know that so many eyes are watching you. Being in the public eye means that there is no where to hide.
Eyeballs
The good wishes are a fun part of the media exposure. However, as an active Vancouver Realtor®, the responsibility to expose a client’s property to as many people as possible is a purposed goal.
Reflecting, this objective brings to mind an old saying in my business which is that it takes more than a sign on the lawn to sell a home. In today’s real estate marketing world this has never been more true. Unquestioned in their ability to reach out, social and main stream media remain the most powerful tools to achieve this goal.
To this end, amongst the mix of calls are those made by buyers expressing their interest in acquiring the Walmar Estate. The media exposure is doing its job. It has made those important eyeballs focus their attention on this property.
Goal Post
While I may enjoy waxing endlessly about the beauty of the 1925 Heritage Walmar Estate with its 2 acres of land overlooking the Fraser River or, the sadness in knowing that potentially – this grand Vancouver home may soon disappear, the reality is that my purpose is to secure a sale of this magnificent Vancouver home with the highest bidder.
Regardless of my personal views, they bear little influence on the task I was hired to perform – keeping eyes focused on the Wilmar Estate ball.
I sure hope you are having another showing of 2050 S.W Marine Dr. I saw it last week end and want to see it again with more of my family. I will watch your website for information on this. It would be real sad to see house demolished before more people miss this opportunity .
I enjoyed meeting you Sunday last.
@frank
glad you enjoyed it. Just a note of clarity – it would be up to the new owner to determine if they go down demolition road. The city of Vancouver provides many great incentives to a new owner to retain the structure. Basically, this translates into subdivision, density or a combination of both. For those who want their own style of Wilmar the incentives are of little interest.
Hi Larry,
I unfortunately had to work this past weekend and was unable to make it to your open house. Is it possible to find out if you are doing another open house this weekend? I would love the chance to see the property before it is sold.
Many Thanks,
Sarah
@Sarah,
Sat 2-4 Come say Hi
Hi Larry,
I noticed you posted new numbers today? Are these for 2 days ago or are these todays?
Cheers
@tellme
numbers are time and date stamped
Not much better than Jan eh Larry?
Coffee talk updates?
Went to the Wilmar Manor today Sun Feb 26th after being told there would be an open house. There were 6 of us and while we were there another eight people showed up. We were disappointed in not being able to see the interior but enjoyed strolling the grounds and imagining our lives if ??? will we have an opportunity of being able to see the interior of the home? Are you planning any more open houses for this property?
@Penny et al
My apologies to all history buffs who planned to go to an open house.
The plan changed early in the week due to some damage to the home by open house visitors the weekend prior.
Due to that circumstance it was decided to curtail general viewing open houses indefinitely.
At this time, viewing of Wilmar is by appointment only and limited to pre-qualified purchasers.
Sorry folks!
Larry, long time since your last post!! anything new and exciting happening? whats the talk out there?
@trashy
yah I haven’t been hiding but have been making some changes to the blog. Hopefully this will speed things up for home searches ( see Latest Listings) under home search. Small change but awesome results (I think)
Also reconfigured the data base and interface. Everyone should find the blog a lot faster.
Next is a change to Dailies to include automatic update of inventory. This one is a bit tricky as it is IDX data.
As for writing something – it’s in the works. Maybe some pithy stats to crank up the bears
Larry,
I know Feb sales are better than Jan. but total listings are still going up. Van east is still doing ok but all other areas are pretty much flooded, especially HAM areas. This looks like the year where condos will be affected because resale units have not been selling well . And developers are still going buck wild. Prices are stable throughout with some individual sales that show some panic. I’ve been following the Tri cities and thus one is interesting. 3174 Mariner way. Larry, look at the history on this home. That’s a big loss because the renos done. Could be a loss of 200k.
@bubbles
-interesting property
-The stainless, granite and cherry cabinets in the kitchen are grand for sure. $60k (noted in the listing) on landscaping is a lot of dirt to spend on a 64 x 108 lot. It must be very nice but, I’m thinking at the beginning someone went overboard in their reno/market potential excitement. It has been for sale since April 10. It’s a guess but it looks like it got rented to the wrong crowd back then in 2010 as the next listing tells me it was a grow-op as well as a court ordered sale. As a grow-op they now have a stigmatized property which doesn’t make lenders including the current one happy even though the remediation has satisfied the city.
-@ $559K get your financing approved if you can and get your buyer grind on but do remember – you will always have to declare that it was once a grow-op. That sir is a defect that doesn’t go away until the house is knocked down.
i live near that property and it turns over quite often-very busy road, steep part of hill and far from school, shops etc
It was once a home daycare too and they did some kooky things like pave the front yard-not exactly indicative of the market in Coq or tri-cities.
Well priced stuff is selling but overpriced listings stagnating
Hello Larry,
I was driving down Marine today, had a glimpse of the castle you are selling, definately a handymans dream! Also was surprised at the assortment of For Sale signs on Marine, seems like a mass exodus! Surely this must be a drag on selling your listing? Good time to sell a condo? Or wait till the flowers bloom?
Best of Luck with your sale!
bbcoq,
This home was originally purchased in 08 for $679,000. And then the owner put in easily over a $100k in renos. Likely more unless it was a DIY job. So it hit the market and sat for months. Now at $559,000. Unless they made big money from the grow show, this is a monster loss.
@bubbles
that it is a former grow-op would account for a large proportion of that loss. Pays to visit your tenant once a month.
Hi, Larry. I enjoyed the open house and took many pictures. I’m almost done reducing them. Yesterday, March 3rd, I did some research at the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch and I found the following. Willard Millar was born in Fredericton, NB, October 15th, 1860 and died May 11th, 1937, aged 76 years 6 months 26 days. Funeral services were held at Ryerson United Church, 2195 West 45th Avenue. He was later cremated. For whatever reason, there was no obituary in The Vancouver Sun or The Province only a small article about Willard’s Funeral. There is no mention of burial.
His death certificate lists his father’s name as George Kitchen and his mother was Agnes Kelly, both of New Brunswick. His job was a Railway Contractor, last worked at this occupation 13 years ago. The Undertaker was Center and Hanna Ltd., Vancouver. His length of stay in Vancouver was 23 years.
I also found Ellen Hagle Fleming Kitchen’s birth certificate from the New Brunswick archives. Here are some links:
http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/GovRecs/VISSE/141A1b.aspx?culture=en-CA&guid=6BCD58F4-EDF2-4EFA-8FDC-2786B87EB2FD
http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/GovRecs/VISSE/Search.aspx?culture=en-CA&guid=d098394d-aeb3-4b50-99bf-f3b1346af738
I will send you my photos as soon as I can. Thank you for your time.