Westsideshacks

Slow summer in Calgary – optimistic autumn.

Westsideshacks — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:44:56 +0000

Home sales in Calgary are down again, both from this time last year, as well as last month. For a full look at the housing stats from the Calgary Real Estate Board, click here.

Despite the decline in sales, there is some optimism for the fall; Many lenders have actually decreased rates to all time lows, encouraging first time buyers and those in need of a renewal or refinance to pull the trigger. Most people still are under the impression rates have gone way up since the bank of Canada was making noises about doing so in June. It is surprising how many people are also under the assumption that a minimum percentage of money down is required when purchasing a home. As a matter of fact, it is still possible to do 0% down mortgages in Alberta. Of course 0% down is not advisable, but for those that are struggling to get that 5%, it is a ‘nice to know.’

June real estate activity in Calgary. – Luxury homes moving quickly

Westsideshacks — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:21:00 +0000

Calgary Real Estate Board has released the stats for June 2010, and there has been a obvious decline in starter/ move-up property activity. Luxury (million dollar plus) homes have actually increased the number of transactions. Read the full post from CREB right here: June 2010 Summary

Realtor.ca has new features making it more user friendly.

Westsideshacks — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:28:07 +0000

Chances are, if you are activley buying or selling real estate then you frequent Realtor.ca (or MLS.ca). This week the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has launched the latest and greatest version, 5.3 . The main points to note are the 2 functions that make the site much more user friendly:

1. Compare properties – enabling Realtor.ca users to select up to 5 properties to compare side by side.
2. My favorites – gone are the days of writing down MLS #’s, and then imputting them into the system afterwards. You can simply select your favorites, and view your clipboard at any point in your search. The favorites feature allows users to flag up to 100 properties, and they are stored via cookies on your computer to allow for later viewing. Hopefully this will cut down the time it takes to scribble down the #’s to send to your agent.

Having played with the new features for only a few minutes, I have nothing negative to say. I think CREA did a good job tweaking MLS.ca to make it more efficient.

Check out the new features here:

Calgary – a buyer’s market again?

Westsideshacks — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 17:14:24 +0000

Being active in Calgary Real Estate, it is amazing to see how quickly things can change from being a well balanced market, to a sellers market, and back to a buyers market. As you know, a buyers market is the term used to describe the industry when there is a much higher supply of homes, than there are buyers. Obviously, this results in buyers having the ability to be more selective, and potentially having stronger negotiating ability. Despite what many might think about a buyers market, the reality is that the good properties that are priced properly are still selling quickly. On the other hand, the owners of property that are priced too high, may be under a false impression of true value. In this case, a buyer is not really benefiting from such a market. This is where it is up to your agent to truly demonstrate to the seller’s agent why the value is less. Often all it takes is a few hours of gathering statistics, recent sold data etc. and presenting it in a confident, professional manner- to potentially save our clients thousands of dollars. This, amongst other tactics, is how you really maximize taking advantage of a buyers market. As for our sellers, we like to think we have this one figured out too. Stay tuned…

Calgary is Canada’s top place to invest in residential real estate…

Westsideshacks — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:37:35 +0000

According to a Calgary Herald news release today, Alberta is home to 4 of the top 10 places to invest in residential real estate in Canada. Our REIN, and other investor clients will appreciate this article. To top the list of the “Top 10 Places to Invest” is our beautiful town, Calgary. Click the following to view the full story:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Calgary+tops+Canada+real+estate+investment/3115780/story.html

Also in Alberta is: Edmonton, St. Albert, and Red Deer.

May Brings Marked Decline in Home Sales

Westsideshacks — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 06:02:30 +0000

Most of Calgary’s Top Realtors would agree that the last few months has been very interesting, and dynamic market. Click the link to view some detailed statistics, and interesting thoughts on Calgary’s forecast going into the summer months.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2010/01/c9026.html

Welcome!

Westsideshacks — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 19:08:05 +0000

Welcome to the launch of our new website! You will find our new site to be much more user friendly and interactive as well. We invite you to peruse our featured properties across Calgary, or send us an email with any questions or comments. Click on ‘our company’ to get to know us better. If you have any questions you would like answered, feel free to use this blog as a public forum, and either Joshua or Jonathan will update it frequently. We look forward to better serving our clients, and hearing from you.