Found 32 blog entries tagged as Ross PAVL.

By Rebecca Wissink

Selling your home can be stressful for sure, but there are certain steps you can take to minimize your stress by creating the conditions that lead to a faster sale. If you implement the seven best practices listed here, you will be giving yourself the gift of having the best chance for a quick sale at top dollar! The key here is to get through this checklist before you list your home, not after your home has been on the market for a month. In order to work through this list, you likely need a few months to prepare your home for sale, depending on your personal schedule and how much labour you are willing to pay others to do. In no order, we recommend you follow as many of these seven practices as possible: 

Have Your Home…

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By Rebecca Wissink

As outlined in the article 7 Reasons You Should Stage Your Home Before Selling, staging works and it is worth your time and effort. The data is clear: staged homes sell more quickly and for more money. Yet only “28% of home seller’s agents say that they stage all homes before listing,” so staging will give you an advantage in the marketplace. If you don’t know how to change your home from homey and cluttered to neutral and polished, and can’t afford to hire a professional, this article will walk you through how to stage your home, and what spaces to stage. It’s best to conserve your budget and energy by focusing on areas that will provide the best return on your investment.  

Buyers are generally attracted to…

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By Rebecca Wissink

Home staging is about showcasing your property in its best possible light in order to increase the perceived value. When a property is deemed valuable, it sells more quickly and fetches more money. You might be surprised at some of the statistics associated with staging, but the numbers are clear: preparing your property for sale in a specific way reaps multiple benefits. I've sourced recent real estate statistics from several industry sources to demonstrate the importance of staging your home in order to maximize its sale. Here are seven significant reasons to seriously consider staging your home before listing it: 

  1. Your Home Will Sell for More Money: Depending on the market and the effectiveness of the staging,…

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By Rebecca Wissink

You’ve probably heard the age-old adage – buyer beware. At no time is this advice more prevalent than in scorching hot housing markets. Buyers might be going up against multiple offers, or the threat of multiple offers, and feeling pressured not to put any conditions on their bid, such as a home inspection. Data from industry insiders reveals that in some of the hotter markets in BC this past year, “more than 70 per cent of offers” were presented without conditions. It is very risky to skip a home inspection when one is considering buying an older home in the price range of half a million dollars plus. Would you consider investing $500,000 into a stock without researching the company first? Buying a home is the biggest purchase…

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By Rebecca Wissink

When you’re selling your home, preparation is everything if you want to get top dollar for the property, and your Realtor® can help with much of this. Preparation can include, at minimum: decluttering; giving the home a deep cleaning; attending to the aesthetics of the home (repairing paint scratches); working with a professional stager; having the photos digitally staged if necessary; and, having fabulous photos that showcase the best of the property. But have you considered obtaining a home inspection as part and parcel of putting the best version of your home to market?  

Home inspections have become commonplace in recent years and serve an important purpose: they inform a potential buyer of any major repairs the…

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By Rebecca Wissink

One job of a Realtor® is to provide real-time and local advice to their clients, but this advice must be based on the market conditions at that moment, for that type of home, in that neighbourhood, of that city. While this may seem like common-sense, this can come as a shock to someone who has faithfully followed the media stories about the national housing market and expects the same results in their local market. There is no national real estate market, which should have been made very clear by the different trajectories the Calgary real estate market took over the last two years when compared to the housing markets of Atlantic Canada, cottage country in Ontario, or the Fraser Valley of BC. Each market is unique, with its own…

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By Rebecca Wissink

In markets with scarce inventory and a glut of buyers it is almost inevitable that at least some properties are going to attract multiple offers. The more appealing that home is to you, the more likely the chance it appeals to someone else as well. If you are a buyer in this situation, say in Calgary right now, you might feel overwhelmed by the speed at which decisions must be made, unsure of how to proceed to buy a home, and maybe even feel a bit defeated if you have already lost out on other homes. This article is meant to help you put your best offer forward by suggesting some tips for increasing your chances of successfully buying a home. 

The Seller:  

First, let’s quickly take stock of your “opponent” in this…

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By Rebecca Wissink

If you click on the Globe and Mail’s real estate page what you primarily see are articles detailing a housing market gone mad. Multiple headlines from various communities state this home has sold over list, attracted multiple bids, sold with no conditions, or sold on the first day. Perhaps the most ludicrous headline reads “This midtown Toronto home sold for $505,192 over asking despite busy street” (March 17, 2022). But wait, I can beat that with a Facebook status from a Kingston, Ontario Realtor® on March 21, 2022: “A house in Kingston sold today for $550,000 over the asking price of $800,000.” In Calgary, a home sold in February 2022 after four days on the market for two hundred thousand dollars over list. Ross Pavl reports one…

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By Rebecca Wissink

The Calgary Herald reported recently what Realtors® specializing in luxury real estate already knew first-hand – the luxury market has exploded over the last year, particularly between the price points of 1 million - 1.4 million dollars. Luxury real estate expert Ross Pavl reports “the luxury market in Calgary is doing really well, and mindful buyers who are not forced to panic buy to avoid increasing interest rates are snapping up homes that tick the right boxes, like those with a good location, or that back onto a green space.”

There is no denying that Calgary’s market is hot and breaking records. The Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB) has reported an astonishing 222 percent growth in sales, year-over-year, for homes listed over 1…

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By Rebecca Wissink

When I read anything that links Calgary’s current real estate market to the conditions of the market in 2006-07, alarm bells go off in my head. Rumours of bidding wars and offers over list price have come to Calgary. Inventory is tight and sales are up between 66-109% depending on the home type. The Calgary Real Estate Board (CREA) reported on March 1, 2022 “the benchmark price reached $596,400, which is nearly $50,000 higher than prices seen at the end of 2021 [a few months ago!] and over $90,000 higher than February 2021 prices.” I’ve written elsewhere for Ross Pavl that Calgary’s boom came later than most markets in Canada, not really taking flight until the winter of 2021. I remember what happened to real estate in Alberta in…

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