On “Ellen,” a piece of Mérida real estate found itself in the daytime television spotlight.
Ellen DeGeneris apparently has a segment that mocks funny real estate listings. One from Mérida (she didn’t say where it was from) was a groaner.
“This sounds promising. It says right here, ‘Cute home in the historic center.’ Let’s see this cute home.”
Cut to an image of yucky, rundown rooms. The audience groans with horror. “Oh honey, I love it,” Ellen jokes. “This black mold is adorable!”
A cheap shot? Yes. But it illustrates the learning curve most of us north of the border have had to go through. Even if you’ve cultivated an eye for Centro ruins, your spouse might never get over the way an uncared-for historic home looks. It certainly took us a long time to learn what to look for, and what to overlook, when touring around with a real estate agent.
And guess what. I Googled the listing, and quickly found it. And what did I find?
Not everyone thought it was so horrifying, because it’s been sold. It was only $26,000 US, and when you look at all the other pictures, it was indeed a very cute home. I don’t even think you could find a fixer like that in that price range these days. I wish I had been ready for Mérida when ruins were under $30,000. Some educated buyer no doubt has done very well by this purchase. So much for the wisdom of Ellen and her audience — and most everyone else. The “Ellen” clip is over two years old, so it was unlikely to still be available.
I’m glad she didn’t mention that it was in Mérida.
(Thanks to friends on Mexico Amigos for bringing this to my attention!)
That was really funny! – except I thought that place was cute for reals-
and like other s have posted, it was a good deal, and probably looks great
after getting some love.
I have bought a home in Centro my partner and I are currently renovating , and we looked
at ones much odder than that before finding our home-
It is true that while I was searching online, I was fascinated by the way some listings would
show things like broken dolls, yellowed girlie posters, collapsing exercise equipment, you name it, like how
hard would it have been to push them aside to take the photo? The total warts and allness of it was kind of great.
I’m convinced that one day soon, Lee will become the ‘conduit extraordinaire’ for a clutch of Prada-clad creativists in Mérida.
Take it back! Take it back! Nooooooooo!
At this rate, I’ll be the hermit extraordinaire hiding out at home. I will be wearing Prada, however, now that I know they’re at Altabrisa. (I actually do have one Prada shirt, bought on clearance at Mitchell’s in Westport, the closest-to-fabulous moment I had before the crash of 2008.)
I’m convinced that you have “Merida” radar! I think you probably know more about what’s happening there than anyone else NOB.
Me??? No way. I can’t even pretend to understand it all. There’s only so much I can learn by visiting occasionally and doing Google searches. You flatter me!
I would gladly give $26,000 for that, now that I know what that means!!! It may be better that other people do not find out about Merida!!!
The listing that’s still online doesn’t have a map. Unless it’s six blocks west of Parque Santiago (near the zoo) or next to a machine shop (very possible) it was a very good deal circa 2009. I like to think it’s on 70, 72 or thereabouts. I wonder what it looks like now. It’s possibly renovated and perfectly lovely. It’s not so wide but it has decent depth, so you could do something with it.