Royal LePage agent Dagmara Lulek charging $50 to view Toronto Beach home

The listing says it all: it's an exceptionally rare and highly-coveted Toronto Beach-area home with direct waterfront access on an acre of land. There’s a two-floor guest house and a wrap-around porch and much, much more.

Just as rare is the section that reads, "$50 Charitable Donation Required/Accepted Prior To Showing Payable To SickKids Foundation. Receipt Will Be Provided."

The idea is to keep the gawkers away, Royal LePage listing agent Dagmara Lulek told the Toronto Star in a report on Tuesday.

The owner prefers a non-traditional viewing of the house and agents and their interested clients have been asked to make donations to browse the property known as Edgemont or, as the sign on the front gate says, 1 Fallingbrook Rd, according to the report. The money will go to SickKids, a not-for-profit children's charity.

The unusual move has drawn some protests from realtors, says Lulek, but potential buyers have applauded the move: they can understand why an owner wants to keep people from unnecessarily traipsing through their home.

“This is a marketing technique that benefits everyone,” the Star quoted Lulek as saying, noting the realtor has asked for donations a few times on high-end properties. “When you list a home of this calibre for sale, all the neighbours are curious. We’d have a lineup 24/7.”

Lulek was not available immediately for comment.

According to the Star, the house dates back to the early 1900s and can only be renovated because it has been designated a heritage property. The top selling feature of the estate is its "cottage-in-the-city appeal: It’s one of just a dozen or so homes across all of Toronto where you can swim right from your front yard." The taxes alone are as much as $25,000 a year.

There are no pictures of the interior on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), and according to the newspaper the owner claimed she was pulling the house off the market when the Star requested a tour.

"A few grace a glossy marketing brochure and show a main house that looks less grand than a lot like Grandma’s. The kitchen may lack a Wolf range or a Sub Zero Fridge, but it does boast two dishwashers," the paper notes.

"The wow factor is in the spacious living and dining room with French doors and oversized windows looking out over the lake."