If I told you I wanted $1 for something but you knew there was no way I was going to let you have it for less than $1.50, you might start to wonder why I had only asked for $1 in the first place.

Now imagine that situation playing out multiple times a day, for hundreds of potential buyers, on nearly every kind of low-rise real estate in the GTA….

Speaking with Richard Silver of Sotheby’s International Realty Canada last week about one of his listings on Sackville Street in Toronto’s Cabbagetown neighbourhood, I asked the experienced realtor what he thought the property — listed at $1,999,000 — would sell for.

For many, the Canadian dream involves raising a family and settling down in a home on a tree-lined street where you can watch your children grow. And it just so happens that a charming, Georgian-style home in North York has just hit the market, making that dream closer to becoming a reality.

Located north of the city on a quiet, tree-lined street at 90 Burnsdale Avenue, you’ll find this historic piece of Toronto property that dates back to 1835 on a large south-facing lot (though the house itself faces east, as all houses did at that time before the neighbourhood was subdivided in the 1940s). And it will surely remind you of a rustic yet modern farmhouse.