Big Fat Deal: $4 million for Haus Heidi in Whistler

Each week, BCBusiness takes you inside one of the most outrageously upmarket real estate offerings in the province

Address: 7115 Nester’s Road , Whistler

Price: $4,200,000

Listing: R2309320

The skinny: Eight-bedroom, eight-bathroom Bavarian-style B&B on nearly an acre of land in Whistler

The bling: Have you always longed to be a slumlord? No, wait, that’s not what the write-up says—it says “Have you dreamt of being an innkeeper?”

Whatever. Either way, this cozy Whistler property could be for you. Known as Haus Heidi, it pre-dates the Whistler town centre and is currently being used as a B&B or group rental place.

But these days Whistler has a serious problem finding reasonably priced accommodation for its work staff. Maybe you could help. There are eight rooms here. Let’s say you rent them out for $800 per month, which is pretty high rent for a service-wage employee, but hey, everybody knows Whistler is expensive. You could probably stuff them in three to a room. And if all eight rooms are booked solid all year, you could pay off the purchase price in just under 55 years. That’s not including taxes, et cetera.

Or, you know, you could keep doing the B&B thing. You could ask $500 per room per night, especially once word gets around about the big, freaky-looking white fireplace. It offers hours of stoned fun, speculating whether it’s meant to resemble an iceberg, a polar bear or a three-eyed robot monster from a Lost in Space episode. It’s huge. Maybe you could rent it out—renovate, put a bed in the upper level by the chimney. Plenty of space. In a couple of years when things really get desperate in Whistler, people will be begging for snug fireplace lofts like this. You can let that one go for $300. With full occupancy you’ll have your money back in three years, barring any class action lawsuits or a socialist revolution.

The hidden extras: The basement is described as a “crawl space.” Hello, Japanese-style capsule hotel!