Ramses II got his real estate license today and realized that things don’t happen just because he says so anymore, especially when it comes to real estate. In an effort to sell the Valley of Kings, he has some real issues to figure out such as ownership, dower, hidden defects, and GST, among other things. The old days of telling people what he wanted, and then getting that to happen don’t exist.
Seriously though, real estate contracts are constantly changing, and I mean constantly. Sometimes they change several times a year, and this year is no exception. This is definitely something real estate lawyers are aware of, but the layperson may not be. Keeping up with these changes and the impact of these contracts on their clients can almost be a full time occupation for REALTORS.
Where do these contracts come from?
In Alberta the Real Estate Act guides RECA (Real Estate Council of Alberta), and under its rules RECA has mandated certain content be in real estate contracts.
The Alberta Real Estate Association (AREA, I think it is just a coincidence that "area" also equates to the size of a property) works with various parties (lawyers, Realtors and so on) to provide its members with the appropriate forms, containing the mandated content.
FYI – Not all real estate practitioners are REALTORS or members of AREA. AREA is made up of 11 real estate boards and their members across Alberta.
The contracts are constantly updated
One thing is for certain: the more people that review the contracts, the more opinions on how the contracts should be made. Another thing that has been true in the past is that just when you get familiar with a certain form it changes. I wish I was kidding.
The point is: these contracts have been carefully drafted, verbiage and semantics have been hashed, rehashed, and rehashed again. It’s worth it to go over these contracts with your REALTOR, even if you’ve bought or sold real estate in Alberta in the past. In a future article, I’ll review what I think are the important items to consider.
I would like to say the many people who serve primarily as volunteers on AREA’s forms committee do an exceptional job of keeping the contracts as current as possible. Keeping the contracts current, means the contracts change frequently.
Just curious to know if Comfree is a member of AREA.
Comfree is not a member of the Alberta Real Estate Association, nor are they regulated under the real estate act.
Really? That’s interesting. So they are not regulated at all? If ever there is a dispute then under what rules would the case be heard? Civil law? That is an interesting piece of info if true.
cheers
Fencesitter
Civil court is where a transaction with a dispute would go with comfree or a realtor.
No Comfree is not regulated, but really what good does that do? don’t have a false idea about what your realtor provides.
With or without a realtor, your best protection is the lawyer who handles the sale.
After that it is the legal system that would be used.
A home inspection and a lawyer, all you need.
Just going back to Comfree… if they aren’t regulated, how do we know their statistics aren’t a bunch of crap? Is there a third-party that verifies what they post? What about EREB, who verifies that their statistics are true?
***response***For the most part IMHO the Comfree stats are crap. No one verifies them. At least when I’ve reviewed them. As for the REALTORs Association of Edmonton (formelry known as EREB). Too many people have access these stats for them to be fudged. Third party appraisers, CMHC, and brokerages who monitor them. What many people have questioned is their interpretation or their “press release”. Every property is accounted for via an MLS number and if all of a sudden their was a surge in sales, there would have to be a corresponding decline in listings once you have taken new listings, cancellations and terminations out of the equations. The fact that so many institutions rely on their numbers would mean they would have to be completely irresponsible to risk the type of fall out lawsuits that would be attributed to falseifying stats. It would put the whole MLS brand at risk. The simple fact is too many people can verify the MLS stats. I hope this answers your question…Sheldon
A lawyer and a home inspection is all you need…….but you can add a property survey to the list as well.
In my days as a banker I saw quite a few places that were not where they should be.
Literally.
You do not need a realtor for anything whatsoever in any way shape or form.
It is the biggest purchase of most people lives……..and it is incumbent upon them to look out for themselves. A realtor will not do that…..all they do is add to the price and the complication of the transction. Oh yeah…..they also delete unfavorable comments as well in regards to the reality of the marketplace.
***response***”There is more to it than you say including the various types of properties that one can be involved in. Not everything is residintial and straight forward as you think. You should add a title to your list among other things but then for you its really about bashing people and markets isn’t it. if someone takes advice from an annonymous source like you, who touts credentials that are more than likely forged in a third country, and has more time to spare posting their agenda than actually being productive for their employer than they get what they deserve. You did have one think right though, for most people it is their most important investment and it is up to them on how they deal with it. In fact you don’t need bankers. You just need ABM’s and adjucaters to score the risk of a mortgage.
btw…We only delete nasty comments any buddy who reads this blog can figure that out. If you don’t like this blog or our opinions you are welcome to post somewhere else . Anyone can post their opinion here in a respectful way and if they don’t their comment will be deleted. If they do it again they will be blocked from posting again.” Sheldon
Bloom is off the boom in Alberta’s formerly red hot economy.
Pockets of trouble starting to appear all over once you look past the oilsands.
Gary Lamphier, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 1:35 am
EDMONTON – As Albertans prepare to bid adieu to 2007, it’s clear that the province’s once-torrid economy is already in slowdown mode, with the cyclical peak of 2006 fading fast in the rear-view mirror.
There’s no denying it: Alberta’s most recent economic boom is history. Although the economy shows no signs of falling off a cliff in 2008, the once-isolated pockets of economic pain have become too numerous to ignore.
Housing markets in Calgary and
Edmonton have softened and the once-mighty stampede of migrants from other provinces has slowed. In fact, more Albertans are now moving to Saskatchewan or British Columbia than the reverse.
The natural gas sector is struggling in the face of low prices and a strong loonie. Many drilling firms are in deep trouble. Roughly half of Western Canada’s rig fleet sits idle and thousands of workers have been laid off. Alberta’s forest products industry is also awash in bad news. With the U.S. housing market in the ditch, the mountain pine beetle chewing its way eastward and rising shipping costs hurting pulp producers, there’s little relief in sight.
Alberta’s manufacturing sector also has been sideswiped by the high loonie, as has the province’s tourism sector. Beef exports, a mainstay of Alberta’s agricultural sector, are hurting also.
In fact, if not for the red-hot pace of development in the oilsands, one has to wonder what kind of shape Alberta’s economy would be in.
On the bright side, unemployment remains low, well-paying jobs remain plentiful, oil prices are high and are likely to remain high in 2008, and the inventory of unsold homes is starting to moderate.
Still, the headline numbers can be misleading. Often, if one takes the time to scratch below the surface, the top-line figures mask even more troubling signs of looming economic weakness.
Consider Alberta’s migration numbers. As almost everyone knows, Alberta’s population continues to grow at the fastest rate of any province in Canada.
According to Alberta Finance, the province’s population grew by nearly 3.1 per cent during the year ended July 1. By comparison, the population of B.C. — Canada’s second-fastest growing province — grew by just 1.4 per cent, and Saskatchewan’s grew by less than one per cent.
But here’s what the top-line figures don’t show. The number of temporary workers who are moving to Alberta is skyrocketing. And few temporary workers are likely to buy new homes, condos, cars or appliances. Many live in work camps or in overcrowded rental units.
During the first two quarters of 2007, temp workers accounted for almost 9,000 of the nearly 32,000 net newcomers who moved to Alberta. That was up more than 150 per cent from the prior-year period.
Overall, temp workers comprised 28 per cent of all new net workers who relocated to Alberta in the first half of 2007. For all of 2006, the total was just 8.5 per cent.
The trend is clear. Alberta’s economy, long based on oil and gas extraction, now depends on extracting workers as well.
That may be the quickest way to staff an oilsands project in a province with chronic labour shortages. But it’s no way to build a strong, diversified economy where there’s healthy, sustainable demand for housing and a multitude of consumer products. The gains are short-term only.
Now let’s take a look at Alberta’s retail sector. At first blush, it looks rather robust.
Year-over-year sales are still running in the seven-per-cent range, notes Todd Hirsch, senior economist at ATB Financial.
Although that’s well above the national rate, it’s some 10 percentage points below the sky-high growth rates of a year ago, when ex-premier Ralph Klein issued his infamous $400 “Ralph Bucks” cheques to provincial residents. But even the current seven-per-cent growth rate is a tad misleading. First of all, it doesn’t take into account Alberta’s inflation rate, which is currently north of five per cent. Nor does it factor in population growth. Excluding temp workers, that’s running at about two per cent.
In other words, Alberta’s retail sales are now basically flat, on a per-capita, inflation-adjusted basis. “In some cases it might even be negative. And now we have the high dollar, which is inducing a lot of cross-border shopping too,” says Hirsch.
Alberta’s auto dealers, appliance stores and high-end clothing outlets are likely feeling the most pain, he figures.
“Judging by what we’re seeing, particularly among the auto dealers, they’re really trying to offer whatever discounts they can, or they’re lowering their financing costs or whatever,” he adds.
“So I would think it’s the higher ticket items that are getting hit the most, the types of things you’d buy maybe once every five years. I don’t think it’s the Wal-Marts of the world that are getting hit.”
To paraphrase that Alberta bumper sticker from the ’70s, I hope you had the good sense during the latest oil boom not to piss it all away.
Edmonton housing starts fall dramatically — down 42.1%
Builders reacting to size of inventories, its impact on prices: analyst
The Edmonton Journal; With files from CanWest News Service
Published: 1:35 am
EDMONTON – Edmonton-area housing starts fell to 1,091 units in November 2007 — down 42.1 per cent from November 2006.
For the year to date, total starts are up 0.1 per cent in the area and down 7.9 per cent within the city.
Single-detached starts are down 13.6 per cent in the area.
Housing starts in Edmonton were down in November, reflecting concerns about soft prices and slow sales.
Candace Elliott, The Journal
“Builders have been reacting to concerns about the size of new and resale inventories and their impact on prices,” said Richard Goatcher, senior market analyst at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., which released the figures, on Monday.
“This will discourage new construction in the coming months,” he predicted.
Multiple-unit starts, however, are up 20.3 per cent in the area and “will exceed 7,000 units this year for the first time since 1982,” Goatcher said.
Total housing starts for the first 11 months of 2007 are up 60.4 per cent in Lethbridge, 28.8 per cent in Wood Buffalo, 15.2 per cent in Red Deer, 8.2 per cent in Medicine Hat, 3.9 per cent in Grande Prairie — and down 18 per cent in Calgary.
Nationally, housing starts edged up a marginal 0.1 per cent to 227,900 in November
“Despite earlier concerns about the potential impact of the financial market storm on Canadian housing demand, home building remains a pillar of strength in the Canadian economy,” said BMO Capital Markets economist Robert Hogue. “With strong job creation and favourable interest rates still providing support, residential construction is carrying good momentum into 2008.”
The strength in housing construction is attributable to the good performance of single-detached homes, which hit their highest level since March 2006, said CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan.
Construction starts increased in two of the five regions, rising 12.7 per cent in Ontario and 16.9 per cent in British Columbia, CMHC reported. They fell in the other regions — by 20.6 per cent in Quebec, 11.6 per cent in the Prairie provinces, and by eight per cent in Atlantic Canada.
Starts so far this year were up 2.7 per cent from a year earlier, it noted.
“Overall, the Canadian housing sector continues to outperform expectations, and is in stark contrast to its U.S counterpart where the recession in the housing sector continues unabated,” said TD Securities strategist Millan Mulraine. “We continue to expect the Canadian housing market to remain reasonably strong, though some moderation in the first half of next year should be expected.”
However, the signs of economic strength and optimism were released as Bank of Canada governor David Dodge was warning that the credit crunch, resulting from the financial turmoil that erupted this summer, has intensified, adding to the risk posed by the weakening in the U.S. economy, of an economic downturn.
“These tighter credit conditions have come as financial market difficulties have intensified over the past few weeks and as bank-funding costs have increased globally,” Dodge said in a speech in Toronto.
“At the same time, there is an increased risk attached to the prospects for demand for Canadian exports because the outlook for the U.S. economy — particularly the U.S. housing sector — has weakened.”
HOUSING STARTS Single Multiple Total
November 2007: 466 625 1,091
November 2006: 670 1,213 1,883
Per cent change: -30.4 % -48.5 % -42.1 %
Year-to-date 2007: 7,337 6,973 14,310
Year-to-date 2006: 8,495 5,794 14,289
Per cent change: -13.6 20.3 0.1
Jeff said
“Just going back to Comfree… if they aren’t regulated, how do we know their statistics aren’t a bunch of crap?”
Have you had a look at their stats page for Edmonton? It is a bunch of crap! I also noticed they have removed stats from their collection as well. RIP the “sale success” and “Sold to List ratio” from various previous months reports. Not that these numbers were anywhere remotely correct though.
The EREB at least puts a bit of effort into the stats but I still find them lacking.
Why are people spamming a discussion about real estate contracts with news articles about the direction of the economy? Post on the stats report down the page.
Fence to answer your question Comfree is not regulated under the Real Estate Act of Alberta. Which requires verifiable advertising.
It’s interesting how an article I wrote about changing contracts could go in so many different directions. I guess the lack of “sales success” required a removal of those stats.
This article is not intended to get you to use a REALTOR. It was meant to be an insight, nothing else. However either by ignorance or agenda people have decided to say some things that I feel compelled to respond to. You as a consumer have the ultimate choice in how you buy or sell a property and the ultimate consequences rest with you if you do it on your own. Many people don’t have the time to do this or feel their abilities are better served by having someone like myself who handles the sale of properties daily. The following is just a few thoughts I have on some comments.
• If a seller and buyer that have reached an agreement, and then it falls apart its the courts who will make any determinations. However I suppose mediation is always an option if the agreement leaves room for it. It is an option under the contracts that REALTORS use.
• My clients include judges and lawyers. So these people must not have known that all they need was an inspector. Actually they are generally looking for assistance in an area they don’t spend their time immersed in. They recognize that one of the greatest threats is assuming they understand everything they need to understand. They have looked to me for information about the intangible aspects of the transaction including aspects of the resalability, the property history, sale values, negotiating, real experiences in handling numerous transactions, and other nuances that they are not immersed in on a daily basis. You as a consumer may or may want that type of assistance.
• They probably never considered the fact that I have errors and ommissions insurance that protect them should I make a mistake. Maybe they know if they did it on their own, then they are on their own. They probably gave no thought to the network of other agents that belong to the same MLS that I do that work with buyers on a more regular basis then they do. Buyers who rely on their REALTOR to assist them as I have for my clients.
• If you as an idividual do the transaction on your own, do you think a lawyer is going to take responsibility for an unmade or incorrect disclosure or representation made by you?. Do you think that just because you are not aware of what to do or say that absolves you from any ramifications? My experience is that most people assume that the buyer is going to be of equal skill and understanding than they are? Do you think the buyer is going to wait for you to get your lawyers advice all the time? Not if the buyer knows what’s good for them? Do you think if you handle it on your own and there is a problem the buyer/seller is going to have sympathy for you if you do cause them damages.
Anyways to make a long story short there is a danger in oversimplification of what can be a complicated process. A blanket statement may not suit every situation. I have sold over 1000 properties and I am continually surprised by the different factors and events that shape the outcome of the transaction. In the end though you have to assess your situation and do your research to make a determination on how you want to proceed. You should know the consequences and at least familiarize yourself with some of the more common issues and pitfalls before you casually accept that this is an easy process.
In some cases ignorance is bliss, but in court’s eyes it not an excuse.
p.s.
Months ago I received an email from a gentleman who was furious with REALTOR’s because of a serious mistake when he purchased. He ended up successfully suing them for $50,000. Which was his case in point that REALTORS aren’t perfect. After we went back and forth on the issue. He agreed honestly he would have made the same mistake because he wasn’t trained to know what his representative should have known. In that case he agreed that if he had represented himself he would not have been entitled to any compensation. So in the end he was upset about the aggravation he had to go through to have things made right but also acknowledged that if he had represented himself things could have been much worse.
I sold both my SFH’s “For Sale By Owner” by putting one add in the Journal for each house, had an open house for each and they were sold.
It was pre frenzy time.
^ That means you didn’t know the market and probably undersold by tens of thousands of dollars. Good for you.
Let me elaborate. I’m not doubting you sold by yourself, as I have sold my previous home on Welist. It just wasn’t as easy as ‘place an ad’ and ‘have an open house’
I had a lot of investors trying to low-ball me. I had a lot of realtors pestering me for the listing. I had a lot of nosy neighbors that just wanted a peek around the house.
If it was ‘pre-frenzy’ time, and it sold with an ad, and 1 open house – then you were well below the market at the time.
That Gary Lamphier guy at Edmonton Journal must be a very poor observer as I happened to read his article about the Alberta housing and economy just a
couple of month ago and he was all upbeat about everything here and about RE prices here to stay and everything will be just fine for years to come
and that folks in Vancouver has a lot more to worry about their housing bubble to burst.
( he moved here from Vancouver a few years ago )
Immediately, as he said that, our RE prices started to go down and ( you guessed it right )Vancouver RE prices started to go higher up, so exactly the opposite happened.
Now, he is saying, that us Albertans have reasons to worry on just about every front in our life.
How can you believe this guy?
I got more then I would have using a realtor. I had one low ball offer from a real estate guru friend but I ignored him like the plague. My second house was a rental and the people that bought it even used my lawyer. It was 4 years pre frenzy this happened. I don’t even remember there being a Com Free, if there was then, I didn’t know of them. I sold two houses and bought one big. You know how that mistake of marriage goes. LOL
Over all the selling of the two houses was quick and fast actually. A lot different today I suppose, I don’t know.
I should say I pocketed more then I would have using a realtor. lol
These contracts are written with the interests of the agent protected before your own. Once signed, you cannot get out of it if they do a bad job. You are locked in and to put the icing on the cake, you are still locked in 90 days once its over even if you sell your house on your own. Now who is being protected??? Agents often try to con private sellers into a contract by saying they have a buyer and all you have to do is sign the contract and they will sell your house. Sign it, and you are locked in for the commision to that agent for 6 months if you sell it to anyone on your own. Again, who is this contract for. TO BE FAIR, a contract needs to be written with both parties protected and until this happens, companies like Com Free will flourish and grow.