St-Lazare family selling modified home as is after province suspends home adaptation program

CTV News

5 hours ago

Quebec's aging population and the growing demand for adapted houses have created a new opportunity for some real estate agents.
Quebec's aging population and the growing demand for adapted houses have created a new opportunity for some real estate agents who now try to sell houses already modified for a clientele with special needs.
After their kids moved out of their St-Lazare home, empty nesters Ann Gagnon and Brian Wraight find themselves in a house that's too big for their needs.
'I actually I have no problems letting go,' explains Gagnon from the living room of her family's single-story house, which sits on half an acre of semi-wooded land.
'It was a beautiful home. It gave us beautiful memories. But it's first and foremost way too big for both of us. There's four bathrooms to wash. No, thank you.'
The couple's children, Kiern and Bradley, grew up with physical limitations. Everything in the home was adapted for their needs, from access ramps to special lifts to move them in and out of their beds, as well as widened doors and adapted bathrooms. The two are now adults, living at the Philou specialized group home in Ahuntsic.
In the real estate world, sellers are normally encouraged to remove these adapted features to increase their appeal on the market. The couple's real estate broker and agent, Peter Thompson, had a better idea.
'I felt differently about it, only because I thought, well, if something is unique, then it's, to me, it's more valuable,' said Thompson, who recently listed the home for $785,000.
Quebec has a program that provides up to $50,000 to help families with special needs adapt their homes. But in an email to CTV News, the Quebec housing corporation, known in French as the Société d'habitation du Québec (SHQ), admitted there was a major backlog from people demanding assistance for the time being. Thompson says that the backlog opened up a market for modified homes -- an opinion shared by the parents.
'I do believe that more families that have adapted homes are going to be advertising them as is. Instead of taking away the equipment and hoping they're going to just sell it,' Gagnon said.
The couple now hopes that whoever buys their house will benefit from the changes they made, all to care for their children.
'We're hoping because I'm very involved in the special needs community and I realize and see the numbers that are growing every year, whether it's a child or a grandparent or even the person themselves who need the home,' Gagnon said.
It's an investment, they say, that made life easier for everyone living under their roof.