The Difference Is? Calgary VS Edmonton

I always like to tease my Calgary counterparts. When I was on the Real Estate Council of Alberta as a council member, the pre-meeting banter would always include some sort of comment welcoming the Calgary members from their carbon monoxide filled commute. They would counter with a humourous comment about Edmonton and on and on it went. My favorite joke was about a friend who left a pair of Flames tickets on his dashboard, and after a few minutes parked at 7-11 found his window was smashed. Their faces would give that expression of understanding and empathy, and then I would fire away with: “and he found two more Flames tickets on his dash."

Seriously though, it has often amazed me that even though Edmonton and Calgary brokerages are governed and regulated under the same Act, the way business is transacted in each city differs in a number of ways. Now I’m not trashing one city over another (besides Edmonton is clearly better) I'm just pointing out a difference in practice. The Calgary Real Estate Board recently decided that members no longer have to report pending sales, whereas in Edmonton we haven't had to report pending sales for quite some time.  (When a conditional offer has been accepted by all parties it is considered pending). Once the conditions are removed then it's unconditional.

So whats the big deal?

Well, like many things it depends on perspective. If you are trying to sell your property and it's reported as pending, then it will not show up when agents search for properties unless they search for active and pending listings. In many cases a buyer might not be interested in viewing a property where the seller has the leverage of another deal, or they might not want to get emotionally invested in a property that already has a potential deal in place. So there would be a good chance your property would receive reduced activity. I say good chance because I can’t prove it definitively, but our experience shows it will not receive the full attention of the market place.

From the buyer's perspective you may want to know about all the homes on the market, whether they are pending or not. You could actually be looking at a pending listings and not even know it. If the seller is cautious that it is not a done deal, possibly because of the terms, or the buyer, or buyer's agent's credibility, or just a hunch, the seller may instruct their agent not to disclose other offers.

Whatever the case may be, this is one of those areas where Calgary and Edmonton have operated differently until now. Some other differences between practices in the two cities include:

• In Calgary it is quite common for buyers to have a walkthrough prior to closing on resale properties. This is unheard of in Edmonton. In fact, when I have had lawyers from Calgary handling the conveyancing they have questioned the lack of a walkthrough on the contract. My simple response is that you would have a hard time getting an offer accepted with a walkthrough (unless you are dealing with a private seller).
• In Calgary they regularly use the CBS codes on their keyboxes. This is an additional code that the buyer's agent must obtain from the sellers agent in order to open the keybox for a specific property. When I have used the CBS code here, not only have I had to teach every agent how to use the code, I get a fair bit of negative blowback on that extra step and in some cases miss out on showings.

These are just a couple of minor examples. I can’t even say one association is more proactive than the other; at times Edmonton has blazed the trail adopting new technologies and practices, and at other times Calgary has led the way. No matter what, it's still fun to tease my Calgary counterparts.