Thursday, July 2, 2015

Real estate moguls of Rundleridge Drive

I remember back in the day, I had a couple of buddies from Guelph who bought a house on Rundleridge Drive out in Calgary.

Terry and Barry. Two brothers who went west to make their fortune.

They're still out there, and they're still working on that fortune.

That place on Rundleridge was a crash pad for many visitors from Guelph. That's back when Neil Young had a album out about going to Alberta.

Seemed like everybody in Guelph was heading to Alberta.

They bought that place for 60 and turned it over a couple years later for 80. After all, that would have to be pretty much the upper limit for a raised bungalow in Rundle.

Back in Guelph, I remember my pal Doug Johnson selling his little place near the university. He and Vicki had bought it for 28 thou. Turned it over a year or two later for 40. I remember him saying he couldn't see anybody ever paying more for the place.

He got out while the gettin' was good.

Two thousand miles west, so did Terry and Barry.

My few months lodging at Rundleridge were an up and down kind of time. I envied how Barry and Terry had scored such a great property deal. They were well on their way to getting rich if they could do that a couple more times!

I was out there to snag a welding gig at the Fruehauf plant, because those were the days when Fruehauf still had a plant there, and they paid good.

Alas, I was forced to mosey on, as was Fruehauf.

I've actually outlasted them!

I went back to Calgary for a visit twenty years later. Drove down my old street in the Rundle subdivision. When I lived there it was all white trash punks like us fixing cars on the front lawn.

Twenty years later it was all young Paki punks fixing cars on the front lawn.

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

But one thing that didn't stay the same was real estate prices.

The house Barry and Terry sold for 80 thousands because the market had topped out can be had for
 400 thousands today.

Same with the place Doug and Vicki sold in Guelph.

I guess if there's a lesson in that, it's don't ever call the top of the real estate market.

It'll just leave you bitter...

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