4420 River Rd., Renfrew, Ont.
Asking price: $1,495,000
Selling price: $2,610,000
Previous selling price: $250,000 (2000)
Days on market: 14
Taxes: $8,820 (2021)
Listing agent: Craig Smith, Engel & Völkers
The action
The historic farmhouse – built in the 1850s – boasts five bedrooms and four bathrooms with panoramic views of the Ottawa River.
The home was on the market for two weeks. Craig Smith, a 25-year real estate veteran in the Ottawa area, said that timeline was given in order for people to come and view the property and conduct the proper inspections on the home and septic system.
“As opposed to trying to rush to a judgment, potential buyers would have all the facts and information and it turned out giving a couple weeks was the best way to do it,” Mr. Smith said. “We knew we had a very nice property … we knew that waterfront was very desirable. So by giving it extra time we allowed for more showings than we maybe would have had and gave it a little more exposure.”
Mr. Smith said COVID-19 has pushed lots of buyers out of Ottawa and that helped push the price up – Renfrew, Ont., is about an hour’s drive from Parliament Hill – and in other years it may not have fetched the kind of price it eventually got.
“You may not have seen that [in other years] where there was a big push for waterfront. Now people can work from home and they’re not as afraid to live 40 minutes or an hour from their office,” Mr. Smith said.
What they got
The home boasts historical details such as an antique stove.Engel & Völkers Ottawa Central
The historic farmhouse – built in the 1850s – boasts five bedrooms and four bathrooms with panoramic views of the Ottawa River. There are plenty of historical farmhouse details throughout, including an antique stove and multiple wood-burning fireplaces. Mr. Smith said the wraparound porch is a particularly excellent design feature, which essentially adds a whole other room the property.
“When they did restorations, they didn’t go and buy an IKEA kitchen, they got a custom kitchen that looks more period to that property; the bathrooms look more period to the property vs throwing in ultra-modern look. They kept the feel, but it was still modernized,” Mr. Smith said.
There’s also a guest bunkie, an indoor swim spa and inground swimming pool, a large garage and a barn on the 20-acre property.
“It’s rare,” Mr. Smith said. “I’ve had a lot of beautiful properties over the 25 years, but this was one of my favourites.”
The agent’s take
The farmhouse sits on a 20-acre property.
Mr. Smith has never had a property sell for this much over its asking price. The $1.15-million bump can be credited to a myriad of factors, Mr. Smith said, including COVID-19 pushing people to want more space (and waterfront), and the marketing effort from his team, which put the property in front of less-than-traditional potential buyers – like people who own horse barns.
The eventual buyer was actually from the Renfrew area, where the property is located. This, despite multiple offers coming from Toronto, Vancouver and throughout Ottawa.
The biggest driver, Mr. Smith said, was that this 20-acre property (with 1,500 feet of waterfront) was a “once in a lifetime property.”
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