“I was worried that I had missed the boat”
SELLING A TUNNEY’S PASTURE CONDO
IN 2013, ANDREA MUGNY tried to sell her Holland Cross condo for $245,000 — just $9,000 more than she had paid for it four years earlier. Frustratingly, it didn’t attract a single offer in the weak market at the time. She was heading to South Korea, so she rented out the one-bedroom-plus-den condo instead. It was never hard to find good tenants, as the well-maintained 1980s building is conveniently located across the street from the Tunney’s
Pasture LRT station.
When Mugny returned to Ottawa and got married, she and her husband, Fabian, kept the condo as an investment — until a chance conversation in September 2020 changed their plans.
“I was talking to a friend of mine who was telling me about the crazy values of real estate during the pandemic,” recalls Mugny, a federal-government employee. “I hadn’t been paying attention at all to housing values, due to my previous experience and the disappointment that came along with it.” She contacted her realtor, who said the condo would likely sell quickly this time, at a good price. “Fabian and I were very hesitant — burned once, twice shy — but we decided to go for it anyway. We had nothing to lose.”
Almost simultaneously, their tenants informed them that the building managers were repairing the condo walls because of a burst pipe. That work delayed the listing plans by two weeks. By the time the condo went on the market, the market seemed to be slowing down.
“I was worried that I had missed the boat to be part of the hot sellers’ market. We lowered the listing price accordingly, and it sold within a week — below asking, but still for $305,000,” says Mugny.
However, there was still one last hurdle to overcome. In the 10-day period during which the buyer could waive their conditions, the condo managers announced a special assessment to bolster the building’s emergency fund — the first such charge in the 11 years Mugny had owned the unit. The buyer didn’t want to pay the unanticipated cost, so Mugny agreed to absorb it. “I’m still happy with what I’m walking away with,” she says.
The deal closed in December 2020.
While she is confident the sale made financial sense, “I feel bittersweet about selling my condo,” Mugny says. “It was the first place I had bought by myself.”