Archives 2012

Airdrie, Alberta - - According to statistics released by the Calgary Real Estate Board, April slowed down a touch compared to last month with 98 MLS® sales in Airdrie compared to 128 sales in March.

"With the provincial election taking place last month, often people will hold off making major decisions until they know who’s in power.  This may have caused some of the slow down last month.” stated RE/MAX REALTOR® Matt Carre.  “However, with the Alberta economy remaining strong and with interest rates still very low there are many positive signs going ahead. 

In Calgary the average overall residential ...

Hi Everyone,

Last week I received this great email from Sherry Jenkins who is a mortgage broker.  While some buyer's might be aware that you can dip into your RRSP's for your downpament they may not be aware of the "rules" or how it all works.  This article is excellent beacuase it explaines how works in an understandable way.  

First-time homebuyers can tap their RRSPs to help with a home purchase

Thinking about buying your first home? Wish you had saved up a good down payment?  Maybe you have, but
didn’t know it. Designed to help first-time ...

Four out of my five last deals closed in 30 days or less.  That means that we signed the deal and then 30 days later is was moving day!  That's quick and it can be very overwhelming.  Packing your entire home in 30 days is a big job and the best way to tackle it is to break it down into smaller jobs.  

I suggest one of two methods - pack by room or pack by category.  Packing by room is great if you are planning to keep most things and put them in a similar room in your new ...

Every month Matt compiles Airdrie's Home Sale Statistics and compares them with the previous month's numbers and the Calgary market.  Below is the press release for the March Statistics.  

Airdrie, Alberta - - According to statistics released by the Calgary Real Estate Board, March was another strong month with 128 MLS® sales in Airdrie compared to 80 sales in March of 2011.

"March is usually the start of the busy season for residential Real Estate so it’s great to see such a strong month to kick things off” stated RE/MAX REALTOR® Matt Carre. “It’s also really nice ...

I recently had some Clients come in from out of town on a buying trip and before they came they sent me an email asking if I had any tips on how to make this trip as successful as possible.  When looking at homes it's really important to clarify your needs, wants and deal breakers before you start looking.  We of course spent time discussing what those were so that I could narrow down the list of properties for them to see.  This is important whether your are buying in the same city or a different one.  You don ...

At this time of year there is a lot of talk about spring cleaning.  We want to get outside plant flowers and set out the patio furniture.  However when you live in Alberta you know that a week of beautiful weather could very easily be followed by a blizzard (and not the kind with cookie dough chunks).  After seeing your crocus' covered with snow and die before the beginning of May you quickly learn that one must wait until after the May long weekend to beautify the outside of their home, but do you really have to wait?

I say ...

Instead of writting about furnace filters I thought it would be more fun to do a video....

Earlier this year I was approached by Sherry Shaw-Froggatt, Publisher for airdrielife magazine.  She asked if I would write an article for the magazine.  I know how much Sherry loves her magazine so I was honored to be asked to contribute to it.  I think it's a great publication and I'm always inspired by it.  You can read the aritcle online or find it on page 68 of the magazine.

P.S. Keep an eye out for our updated advertisment and tell us what you think.

Whether it’s your spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend, you children or parents, extended family or great friends we hope you have the opportunity to express your love and appreciation for those special people in your life.

 I understand that you and I (or us, The Carre Group) may not be at the “I Love You” stage of our relationship but I hope we are at the I “Like” You stage....

 For every “Like” on our Facebook Group Page today we will donate $2 to the Heart & Stroke Foundation.  So if you don’t already “Like” us, do it today.  Our ...

Last week the City of Airdrie mailed out the property assessments and this week we usually get a lot of phone calls.  It's important to understand that your property assessment value is not necessarily the current market value of your home.  

The City of Airdrie includes a pamphlet that describes how they determine your assessment value.  It clearly states that they use "mass appraisal techniques".  When we do a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) we have a more focused set of criteria because we are not trying to determine the value of hundreds of properties we are just looking at ...

Here is a Video Blog for making an inviting entrance to your home!

I often hear people say that they were told to take down all of their personal photos when staging their home.  I don’t agree!  If I took down all of my personal photos there would be next to nothing left.  You may need to pare down the number of photos you have displayed or edit out some that are “distracting”.  Buyers will look at your photos so you don’t want to have ones that they will spend too much time staring at and not enough time looking at the actual house.

I strongly believe that you still need ...

There are many different staging tips and tricks out there but there are three things one should never, ever forget to do!

1.) Hide your personal information.  If you have a home office you will want to keep it neat and tidy so that it looks good for showings but you should also be tucking things away so you don’t have personal information lying out in the open for everyone to see.  Things like bank statements are an obvious thing to have put away but you don’t want to leave your computer open with an email from your ...

At the end of the day both the deposit and the down payment go towards paying for your home but knowing when you pay them is important so you aren’t caught off guard.

The deposit is paid when your offer on a house is accepted.  Generally you write a cheque to the Listing Brokerage (ex. RE/MAX Rocky View) and then when the paperwork is exchanged between REALTORS the cheque is included.  If the offer isn’t accepted and the deal “dies” the cheque is returned to you or destroyed.  If the offer is accepted the Listing Brokerage will ...