27 Crystal Shores Pt

First time for sale! Properties such as this seldom become available. Access the beach from your back yard, it’s just a short 30 yard walk through the park. Enjoy sprawling lake and mountain views from this walk-out home with south exposure. Perfect for a family that wants some space for everybody, there’s over 3300 sq.ft. of developed area available, plus room to develop more if you want. The fourth bedroom upstairs has 10″ vaulted ceilings (essentially a bonus room with a door on it). The “kids” bathroom has dual sinks that are separated by a door from the shower and commode, so everybody can have some privacy. The main floor boats a den and a dining room, plus a large laundry/mud room and a butler’s pantry. This really is the perfect floor-plan (visit my web page to see the floor-plan). The home has 2 furnaces for the upper levels, plus in-floor heat in the basement. The rec room downstairs is wired for home theatre sound. The roof and main deck are new. Book your showing today.

To view more photos, floor plan, virtual tour and full listing details visit my web page.

27 Westbluff Court

Welcome to 27 Westbluff Court. Outstanding, unrestricted mountain and valley views from this 2.12 acre property. The home is a fully developed walkout bungalow with 5,674 Sq. Ft. of custom quality. Specially equipped with a state of the art air filtration system. The gas fired boiler for the hot water in-floor heating system is located in a separate building so there are no fumes what so ever in the house. The garage, although attached to the house, has a separate breeze way system to enter the home. The yard is fully landscaped including a private, tree lined curved road from the front gates to the circular drive; there is ample paved parking for your guests. The rear yard of the home is a like a sanctuary. Multiple retreats include a large patio, a hot tub deck from the walkout, and two-more decks off the main floor. Oh, and there’s a full tennis court on the property too.

To view more photos, floor plan, virtual tour and full listing details visit my webpage.

Not at all unsurprisingly, according to the Calgary Real Estate Board’s most recent statistics the tide is starting to turn with regard to supply and demand in the city’s market. More specifically, June 2014 saw nearly 30 percent more new listings added than one year earlier. As homeowners see their neighbours’ properties selling in days for above asking price, it’s only natural that they’d think about listing themselves.

Interestingly, however, Calgary’s surrounding towns are also seeing a boom. Cochrane and Okotoks are becoming prime locations for commuters looking to stretch their home buying dollar by a few percent; sales in Airdrie are up a whopping 40 percent year-over-year.

Add these communities’ properties to our own market, and there are more and more homes for buyers to choose from, which will inevitably cause prices to plateau at some point. I highly doubt we’ll see any significant downward pressure on prices – with Calgary’s population growing by more than 4 percent every year, we’ll have plenty of people looking to buy for the foreseeable future – but if the growth dials down a bit, it might be a little easier for those looking to sell and move up to calculate what they’ll be able to afford.

# 1207 1818 Simcoe Bv Sw

Dana Village at 1818 Simcoe Blvd SW. This is a 50 plus age restricted building built with seniors in mind. Great location with LRT and bus transportation at your door. Activities galore should you want to be involved or not. Large deck 4.2×3.6 meters (11’9″ X 13’8″)for you to enjoy your morning tea or coffee. One bedroom home with all appliances included. In suite laundry room and storage plus secure underground parking with additional storage space. The common areas feature meeting rooms, party rooms, games area, exercise area plus so much more. The smaller one bedroom units seldom become available so take advantage now.

To view more photos, floorplan and full listing details visit my webpage.

As bidding wars continue to be common in the red hot Calgary real estate landscape, buyers need to be prepared to make multiple offers on attractive properties. While there is no way to guarantee you’ll win a bidding war, there are a few strategies you can employ to improve your chances:

• Write a personal letter to the homeowner. Talking about how important it is for your child to walk to school, how the floorplan reminds you of your childhood home, or any other personal spin you can put on your offer can pull at a seller’s heartstrings and give you a leg up.
• Have your mortgage pre-approved. You should take this step regardless of market conditions, but especially in a seller’s market.
• Offer as large a down payment as possible.
• This is not an option for most people, but the ability to pay cash is certainly an advantage.
• Pare down your conditions. Insist on an inspection, of course, but maybe make the window in which to get it done a little smaller. Skip the appraisal if you can, and make your possession date as convenient for the seller as possible.

Bidding wars can sometimes stoke the competitive fires within buyers and make them want to win at all costs; it’s important to trust your Realtor’s advice and judgement on what a property is really worth, and when it may be time to let it go. But if you’re embroiled in a bidding war, the tips above can help your chances of being successful.

As part of the efforts to commemorate 2013’s epic flood, and the epic outpouring of community spirit and fellowship that followed, Mayor Nenshi has dubbed June 21 as Neighbour Day, named, according to the city’s official website,”in honour of the overwhelming community spirit that rose against the waters,” which is a pretty good line.

Some in my community, and many others I’d imagine, are planning a block party, and the city is waiving the $25 permit fees for such events on this special day. There are tools and templates, and other information available at the city’s site. If you plan on hosting a party, you’d better get cracking.

To keep up-to-date on Neighbour Day events, follow the official Facebook event page and the hashtag #yycNeighbourDay on Instagram and Twitter.

Interesting article from the Herald recently on the growing number of first-time home buyers. You’d think the record prices would deter first-timers from jumping into this red-hot market, but increasingly low interest rates combined with a healthy amount of confidence have led to the majority of properties changing hands in 2013 going to newbies.

I expect this trend will carry forward through 2014, as mortgages can now be had for less than two percent.

It’s nice to see the ‘housing bubble’ talk die down in the media lately: for close to a decade it’s been all the rage to predict how we’re on the verge of a US-style meltdown thanks to high personal debt loads and unsustainably low interest rates. Just wait till the good times get a little less good, they said, and it’ll be foreclosure sales left and right. Well, that kind of talk might sell magazines and get people to tune in at 6:00, but it’s just not the reality, especially in Calgary.

The steady population growth, solid employment situation, and smart city planning all lead to ours being a very livable city. I mean, in Toronto or Vancouver if you work downtown but live in the ‘burbs, you’re in for a multi-hour commute each day, but here, thanks in large part to a well designed c-train system, few are en-route for more than 45 minutes. Heck, our largest community (Tuscany) buts right up against the city limits, and when the new station opens this fall transit riders will be in the core in about 25 minutes.

So bravo for Calgary residents realizing the great value our city holds and jumping into the housing market. Obviously, making up 55 percent of the sales means first-timers are essential to the healthy and sustainable that we enjoy, and so it’s vital for everyone’s property values that we see real estate in Calgary for what it is, and not through an alarmist, sensationalist filter.

So our lame spring this year had another side effect besides delaying our kids’ soccer season by a couple weeks: the unusually lengthy period Calgary lawns were snow-covered this year created an ideal habitat for vole infestation. Voles – which look like little round, fat mice – love to chew on the roots of grass and trees in Calgary suburbs under the cover of snow, and some residents have been finding their lawns destroyed by telltale s-shaped tracks. Every year some suburban yards and parks fall victim to hungry voles, but this has been a banner season for the little suckers.

According to pest control experts, periodic chinooks usually melt the snow and disrupt the habitat, keeping populations under control, but since the snow stuck around for months at a time this past winter, the voles partied like it was 1999. Or, you know, however voles party.

The options for dealing with a vole infestation are varied: put out traps, use poison in the holes, get some cats. Nothing’s without consequences, though, especially when you have other pets or children using the yard, so your best bet is to consult with a pest control professional. Whatever you do, don’t start seeding your lawn before taking care of the vole problem: apparently voles really like grass seed.

To prevent the little critters from visiting your yard next winter, put commercially-available tree guards around the base of your trees, extending beneath the soll, and pick up any unharvested food sources from your garden. Use only rodent-proof bird seed feeders, and if you plan on putting mulch over strawberry plants or other annuals, wait until after the ground freezes.  Then keep your fingers crossed for a winter with more chinooks and less snow.

Have you or your neighbours had vole problems this year or in the past? Comment below.

Rural Mountain View County

Picturesque setting on rolling terrain with a mix of grazing land with poplar and spruce tree shelter. Two creeks, one open year round. Two filled year round dugouts and a natural pond NW of house. Fenced & cross fenced. Property has a well house/tack room, hay barn with stalls and storage with electrical power, round pen with corrals. Two working wells, one for the house and one for stock. This property currently generates $20,257 annually from Trans Canada Pipelines and a road access contract. There is also a grazing lease for the pastures which runs from June to October which generates $3,000 M/L. There is a shared access (with private option) gravel road off Twp. Rd. 342 plus private access off Range Rd. 5.5 The home features original hardwood floors, partial rewiring with a new electrical box, bathrooms renos, wood burning stove in the living room addition and satellite internet service. Enjoy relaxing on the open South facing deck in this peaceful setting. Property has subdivision potential.

To view more photos and full listing details visit my webpage.

Ordinarily I can get a little annoyed by people posting on Facebook about the weather: yes we all have windows, we’re aware that it’s unseasonable in some way, this is not brand new information to anybody. Sure, it’s a Canadian tradition to be obsessed about forecasts – things can change drastically day-to-day around here, unlike, say, Mexico, where it’s pretty much always sunny and beautiful and where I’d like to be right now – but it just seems unnecessary to broadcast one’s limited opinion on the weather to friends and family. Still, I can hardly blame anyone for expressing their frustration with our latest batch of snow in any way they can. I mean, seriously: it was 20 degrees last Wednesday, and looked like mid-December by Saturday? Not cool.

What’re you gonna do, though, besides put off removing the winter tires for a couple extra weeks? One thing you can do with this extra indoor time is to make a list of maintenance projects your home needs, and get cracking. Paint door jambs, change your furnace filter, check the hot water tank, and so on. Maybe you’re due for some new appliances, and now’s a great time to research and shop. Doing these little jobs as they come up doesn’t take a whole lot of time, but staying on top of minor maintenance keeps you from having an indomitable to-do list a couple years from now.

As for the snow, be careful with the shovelling – it’s wet and heavy, after all – and keep an eye out in your basement for signs of water leaking in. Then close your curtains and pretend you’re in Mexico.