The Economy in Alberta has changed drastically, maybe the way we choose our real estate professionals should change as well. For decades we chose Realtors based on ads in the newspaper, for sale signs in the neighbourhood, door knocking, flyers in the mailbox or maybe you had a cousin who sold real estate on the side. Today I want to talk about a few thoughts/strategies around choosing a realtor and maybe debunk a couple myths. 

1. My friend, family member, etc is a Realtor/My parents have a Realtor. There are 100,000+ licensed realtors in Canada...everyone knows someone who knows someone who is a Realtor but every Realtor isn't a good fit for every client (that was a mouthful, I know). With a constantly changing market who you choose to work with can

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This is part 3 of our three part series on Responsible home ownership (read part 1 here and part 2 here). We are living in a new economy in Calgary and because of this new economy we need to think a bit differently about the home buying process. As always- don't hesitate reach out if you have questions or concerns about buying a home.

A great Realtor can make a huge difference in the buying process and educating you about what you are buying. On the other hand, a Realtor who isn't aware of their limitations can be a huge detriment to a real estate transaction. For example: I don't sell/lease commercial real estate. I can, I am licensed to trade on the commercial side but it's not something I am knowledgeable in and it would not be in my client’s

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This is part 2 of our three part series on Responsible home ownership (read part 1 here). We are living in a new economy in Calgary and because of this new economy we need to think a bit differently about the home buying process. Check back form part three in the next week or so and-as always- don't hesitate reach out if you have questions or concerns about buying a home.

Buy a home like you give a damn

Buying Real Estate is a process and no two purchases are the same. Whether it's your first home purchase or your fiftieth investment take it seriously and follow the proper steps. Below is a very basic outline of the home buying process, ask us (or your Realtor) what may be different for your situation. 

• Pre-approval (ensure paperwork is in to

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We negotiated 4 offers last week. Two were accepted (one buyer, one listing) and two weren’t (both buyers). Not coincidentally the accepted offers were both negotiated in good faith in less then five hours while the non-accepted offers didn’t even receive a response from the seller’s/seller’s Realtor for 20+ hours. Buying real estate is emotional.

If a buyer writes an offer on your home they want to buy it in that moment. As a seller, no mater how low you may think the offer is: respond, counter back, counter back full price if you want (I don’t recommend it), at least participate in the conversation. If you wait too long to respond to an offer the buyer either thinks you aren’t interested in selling or you are using their offer to get others. Either

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As of writing this there are 337 homes for sale in Cochrane. Today (Sunday February 17th) there are six open houses in all of Cochrane and I am hosting two of them. That means only 1.8% of the homes listed for sale are open today...that’s crazy! Yes, I know it’s snowing a bit today and it’s -17 but it’s February in Alberta, what did you expect!? 

  Open Houses work. Are they my favorite thing to do on a weekend afternoon? Probably not but over the past six years we have averaged $1-$1.5 million in sales/year just from open houses.    We have a saying in our house/office for 2019: BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. We will do whatever we can (within the bounds of the law) to sell your home. If that means putting out a half dozen open house signs in -17,…