Back in July I attended a property tax sale. It was my second time attending one, but this time I didn’t leave empty handed. I purchased a piece of land with a building that I’d only quickly looked at from the outside. Here’s what it looked like then…

I picked it up for $9,500 plus $249 in land transfer tax. It was a former schoolhouse that had been converted at some point into a residence. It had sat vacant for about 15 years.

A few days later, I went back for a closer look at what I’d gotten myself into. It wasn’t pretty…

Determined not to lose my shirt on the deal, I set to work to see what I could do with the place. I decided despite the crazy renovation and house flipping projects I’ve taken on in the past, this one was beyond my scope, not just because of the condition of the building, but also because of its location. It’s along Highway 10 in Young’s Cove, which puts it about an hour and a half from my house. That’s a lengthy commute given that I’m working full-time, it’s not near my work either, and it’s far from being in a condition that I would have considered just living there part-time while renovating. So, it had to go! My only hope was to clean it up and put it back on the market.

I started by working on the yard…

After one very humid day of lopping down 15 years of overgrowth, I’d made just a little bit of progress. The next day, I had some additional help, including use of a beat up old lawnmower, and it was starting to look like a yard again…

A third day at the property was focused mainly on burning what had been cut so far.

Day 4 saw a lot more tidying up of the yard, as well as clearing out inside the building…

And then Day 5 was one final day just to finish burning the last of the debris from the yard and some wooden trim and other boards pulled from inside the building.

The next step was to try to sell it! The margins would be tight, so I wanted to avoid listing with a Realtor if possible. I put it up on Facebook Marketplace and put together a little webpage to promote it. I was brutally honest about its condition:

One-level schoolhouse converted into a now-dilapidated one-bedroom home with kitchen, washroom and living area and additional living space add-on.

Building requires extensive work, including new roof, electrical, plumbing repairs and reconstructed floors. Well and septic location and condition unknown.

Despite my description, the responses started flooding in. I fielded responses from about 500 interested parties, most of whom got scared off as soon as I told them how rough the building was. About 50 potential buyers went out to see the property, and most walked away at that point. I had a couple of formal offers which fell through, include a couple rent-to-own arrangements, and one buyer who actually paid a deposit and lost it when he walked.

After about 4 months of trying to connect with a serious buyer, I had pretty much given up, and resolved to list it with a Realtor to get it on the MLS. I gave it one more push on social media, and this time it went viral. In 24 hours, the webpage got over 30,000 hits. Suddenly I had three offers on the table.

One buyer seemed particularly interested, and serious, so after a day of negotiation, we settled on a price, and we closed on the deal just three days later! I sold it through private sale.

I certainly didn’t get rich off the deal, but my costs were extremely low, (3 tanks of gas, a couple pairs of gloves and a box of garbage bags). In the end, it paid for the camper I bought back in August, I had a lot of fun doing it, and it was a great learning experience. I’ll definitely hop off the highway at the Young’s Cove exit when I’m driving through between Fredericton and Moncton, to see what becomes of it the little old schoolhouse I once owned.

Now, on to my next crazy idea!

(If you know anything more about the history of the property, the schoolhouse, or the previous owners, I’d certainly love to hear about it. Feel free to leave a comment.)