Thoughts on the Edmonton Real Estate Market

This morning started with a frantic call from a man who wanted to see a home urgently.  It’s been a long time since I’ve been inclined to pop tart out my chair to head at breakneck speeds across the city to meet such an unprepared buyer.  His information was quickly sent to my partner who has a knack and the patience to handle people who feel I am waiting for their call. 

Today is a bad day to compare to others though – the 30th  and 1st of the month are possession day for many a successful home purchasers in the Edmonton area. Most of my day is spent dealing with lawyers and clients getting loose ends tied up.  There seems to be a trend among many of the banks – maybe due to staff shortages or maybe it’s the excuse de jour – as they are having trouble getting the money to the lawyers on time.  I had one deal close two weeks late because the buyer’s mortgage broker made numerous gaffes.  This cost the buyer almost $200 a day in late payments to my seller who was not particularly pleased, although he was getting compensated for these delays. 

Another buyer agent I called to check on a transaction that’s supposed to close tomorrow unloaded a number of issues his buyer was having with his bank.  All the while he’s talking I’m thinking this is going to set us back at least a week. 

I had a speacial thought for all those do it yourselfers thumbing your way through the process; not all of you have a difficult time, but many, ney the majority have a tough time figuring even the simplest things out.

This brings me to the prevailing thought.  This rocket ride we are on is hitting the atmosphere and things are getting bumpy with the support and infrastructure surrounding the purchase and sale of real estate. 

Back to pricing… I just listed a condo that was actually my first home, that I had bought for a hefty 62k, and could barely give away almost 6 years later at 67500.  This beautiful west end condo (albeit renovated from its original Sheldon and roommates state) will be brought on the market at $269,800  www.edmonton-condo.com. When I started to laugh at this my dad who has been in the real estate industry for almost 45 years gave me a reminder that they paid $17,000 for their first home in the beautiful west end area of Elmwood.

What I have to stress here is to forget the bally-who in the media – there are excellent  opportunities out there and if you are working with the right Realtor you will be well served in this crazy market. There are plenty of properties out there that are selling under list price (none of ours but that’s because of our sell your home for more program).

Damm its 11:30 and time to figure out how to be in 11 places at once tomorrow (fortunately I have awesome support).  Maybe I’ll only have to be in 5 or 6 places.  Houdini would be proud.