Vital Home Realty Blog - April, 2016

3 Reasons to Pay Condo Fees

1. You Will Be Responsible For Home Maintenance, Snow Clearing & Yard Work

Perhaps the main reason that potential home buyers balk at condo fees is that they don’t really understand what they are paying for. What does your fee buy? Apart from putting some money into a slush fund for longer term maintenance or unforeseen circumstances, condo fees pay for essential home owner services including: insurance, snow clearing, gardening and in many cases onsite management. And the most attractive part is that as a condo owner, you are sharing these costs with other owners, so your risk and expense is usually lower than if you were paying for all of the costs by yourself.

2. No Need to Save Extra

If you are not paying condo fees, you had better be a…

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3 Reasons Not To Make Low Ball Offers

In the past weeks we have seen potential home buyers commit what is perhaps the most fundamental mistake. They make low ball offers. The media has been buzzing about the economy here in Edmonton and it must have convinced some home buyers that they have much more leverage to negotiate than they actually do. Fact is, home values here in Edmonton are climbing. They are 11% UP on January 2016.

Here are 3 potential outcomes you risk creating when you low ball:

1. It destroys seller goodwill

Getting the seller to like your offer is part of the battle. If you are buying a home rather than an investment, chances are that it is, or was recently the seller’s home too. They might secretly still want to live there, or have many fond memories of the…

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Buyer Agents Feedback – Is It Important?

We make a point of asking REALTORS® that showed our listings for feedback. Some of our clients value this service, whilst others don’t really care.

Many of our more experienced home sellers we work with ask about feedback as perhaps in the past, it proved helpful.

In years gone by when BOTH REALTORS® were legal representatives of the home seller, the REALTOR® that accompanied the buyer prospect had an obligation to share all that he or she knew about the buyer, together with their thoughts, motivations and circumstances.

That obligation is redundant.

These days the buyer Realtor® works ONLY for the home buyer!

Why should they share what their clients think? It could hurt their ability to negotiate effectively if the sellers knew that…

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8 Ways to Find Your Dream Home

1. Pick a Realtor®

Before you start looking at any homes meet with your Realtor®. Be open. Talk through your hopes, dreams and narrow down where specifically we are going to look etc. In Edmonton the law requires that your Realtor® explains the benefits of working exclusively with one specific Realtor®. Make sure you sign an Exclusive Buyer Agency Brokerage Agreement. (This agreement binds your Realtor® to work with you for a specific period of time. It also deals with how your Realtor® will be compensated. The agreement also provides your Realtor with the authority to assist you in purchasing ‘For Sale by Owners’. They may also go out and find you a non-listed home.

2. Decide where not what

First you must decide where you want to live not…

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Case Study - Sandi & Don Pitcher

Situation

Sandi and Don had previously tried a REMAX REALTOR® who was well known in the Haddow area of Edmonton where they lived. After around 6 months on the market, this proved to be unsuccessful.

Sandi and Don started to look around for alternatives to traditional REALTORS®.  They also wanted to save some money on real estate commissions as they needed to keep their money to buy a new home in Airdrie and be near their daughter and young family.

Result

Sandi and Don contacted Vital Home Realty. They chose our Superior Saver home selling program.

In total, we generated 3 offers, negotiated a sales price 96.3% of list price & saved our clients over $2300 when compared to traditional REALTOR® commissions.

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Edmonton Home Prices Continue to Climb

Summary:

The big story is that when compared to January 2016, Edmonton home sellers have enjoyed an 11% UPLIFT in values. The Edmonton housing market performed well in March, when measured against our 3 key metrics ie: sales prices, days on the market and sales volumes.

Sales Values

Edmonton home sellers enjoyed a 1% uplift in values over March 2015 for an average of $379,610 dollars. Readers should note that this figure is an impressive 11% UP over January. See this link for details: January Home Sales Report

Numbers Sold:

The market witnessed 99 fewer sales in March 2016 compared to March 2015. However volumes held up well. Approx. 1070 Edmonton home sellers witnessed success.

Days on Market

Edmonton home buyers…

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