You could share this Richmond house with a stranger for $750,000

The owner of a Richmond home is offering up half ownership for three-quarters of a million dollars in one of the strangest Metro Vancouver real estate listings in recent memory.

Listing agent Craig Cook appears to caution potential buyers about proceeding, warning them of how unusual the arrangement would be.

“You should think of whom would I be sharing ownership with. You may ask does the other half want to sell,” the listing says. “We do not know these answers. Please call your realtor and ask for the explanation with documents posted.”

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The current owner is offering undivided half interest in the nearly 3,000-square-foot home. Undivided interest means two or more people own property under the title and have equal rights to the whole property — it’s not separated into parts or shares, and no one has exclusive use of any part of the property.

Unsurprisingly, the bizarre listing is not a hot-ticket item on the real estate market. It’s been listed for nearly six months.

“Best to talk to your realtor first. Everything is approximate,” the listing says. “Yes, it is unusual.”

Some houses are elaborately staged before hitting the market, but not this one. The listing photos include a coffee table stacked with a Fiji water bottle and a pair of glasses, a kitchen with a takeout coffee and bag of chips on the counter, the circuit breaker, and the hot water heater.

Realtor.ca

Realtor.ca

Realtor.ca

In terms of value-for-money, the listing is actually not too bad. The entire property’s assessed value is $2.1 million, so the potential buyer would essentially be owning $1 million in property value for three-quarters of that.

It generated a fair amount of attention on Reddit over the weekend, with users commenting on how strange the description was.

“Sounds like someone stuck with a shitty listing that’s never going to sell (undivided 1/2 interest with a stranger/roommate),” one person said.

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“The listing isn’t even all that bad, it’s telling you right from the listing to not even bother unless you know what you’re getting into. Rather have somebody be honest upfront than try to hide these things,” another said.

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Others suspected it could be a court-ordered foreclosure or some type of divorce proceeding. We’ve reached out to the listing agent to ask for more details.