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Okotoks, AB Real Estate News

By Ryan & Sheri MacDonald, Calgary Home Team
(Re/Max First)
Calgary Home Team would like to congratulate their buyers on the purchase of 103 Crystal Shores Grove in Okotoks!   With more than 25 years of combined experience, Calgary Home Team are your agents of choice! You can rely on us to find the perfect home you are looking for in Calgary and surrounding areas! We put our "clients first", and this means that we are always striving to improve our skills and implement the latest technologies in order to do our business more quickly and efficiently. Be sure to use our quick and easy search feature. We're the experts, and we're here to help you! For more information on how we can help you achieve your real estate goals please contact Calgary Home Team via email or directly @ 403-519-9102.         
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
June 14, 2012 It’s raining hard and arghhh … you have a water in your basement !!!  You think to yourself “What would Mike Holmes do?”  Well, you could try to find and seal cracks in the basement walls by digging around your basement or by removing drywall and insulation.  The worst part about doing this is not the cost or hassle but the realization that, in most cases, it will not solve the real problem.  The real problem with most basement leaks is that exterior water is allowed to flow towards your basement.  Think of it this way – if exterior water flows away from your basement then it can’t leak through foundation cracks.  The fact is that exterior water that is allowed to flow towards your basement can leak into your basement whether you have a crack or not. So what’s the solution...
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
May 10, 2012 Thinking of moving to Okotoks or moving to another home within Okotoks? On Saturday May 12, 2012 from 1-4pm, over 30 local agents will be hosting  open houses in Okotoks. Whether you are looking for a townhouse in the 200K price range or happen to have a 900K to spend in Air Ranch, there is sure to be a home that appeals to you! Here's the list so far, we hope to see you this weekend.
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
Having just represented a buyer in a "FSBO" situation, I wondered why my buyers had to go through so many hoops... Thanks to Avi Parmar from TD Canada Trust for providing the following. Financing Issues from the Lender Perspective When Trying to sell you Home “Sale by Owner” / Buying a Home not listed by a Licensed Realtor: Extra due diligence in the Mortgage approval process by the lender. Deal is never auto approved on the system like other MLS deals.  Full appraisal: To confirm Condition of the house from inside and Market Value. Underwriter Reviews all documents manually to confirm buyer’s employment. More supporting documents have to be provided in every transaction. Down payment: Lender always try to make sure that the Seller is not helping the buyer with the down payment. They ma...
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
You've listed your house, you're anxious to sell, you've painted and cleaned and staged the home. The pictures look amazing, the home is inviting, the buyer walks through the door and thinks "Well it looks clean but is it?" What are the telltale signs that the clean is only on the surface. Here are 5 things that must be cleaned and kept clean while your house is on the market. 1. Under the sink. Nope, I'm not kidding. And if the cleaning supplies are all sorted, well that's another good sign. 2. The fridge. Yep, buyers open the fridge since it's probably part of the deal and they want to know how big it is inside. Stinky odors linger long after the door is closed. 3. The oven. If the oven is clean the owner is either really good at cleaning or eats out a lot. 4. The furnace filter. If t...
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
I love taking photos and I have always enjoyed taking them with a "real" camera. My first real camera was a Canon AE-1 and I used it for probably 15 years before purchasing a Canon G2. I currently have a Canon Rebel and I love it. However, I will not be taking photos of your home when I put it on the market. My job is to find the best ways to present your home for online viewing. The first step is staging. Yes just like the TV shows, I bring in someone to "decorate your home for selling". It will be uncomfortable, you will find it intrusive but the end result is amazing. Then I bring in a professional photographer who not only has the fancy camera but all the fancy lenses! He will take up to 100 photos then I filter them down to the best 20. These photos (which also included panoramic p...
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
Wondering what's been happening in the Okotoks homes market over the last year? Click Here and you will find the most accurate up to date sales information for single family homes in Okotoks for 2011. Prices have been more or less flat and total listings are currently at an annual low. When you click through, you will see average price, median price and number of listings. Clicking on any given month will give you the addresses and prices of listings that have sold in that month. If you're looking for condo or acreage numbers, please contact me!
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
Here's the latest on our 12 Days of Giving. I found it much easier to donate through CanadaHelps  Jan 3, Day 10 ARF  's mission is to rescue stray and unwanted dogs and cats from First Nations and rural areas and place them in loving, permanent homes while providing programs to reduce pet over-population. Unfortunately too many people dump their pets in rural areas. We once rescued a very tame domestic rabbit from the ditch by our home. Jan 2, Day 9 Ann and Sandy Cross Conservation Area 4800 acres of donated land on the door step of Calgary.  There's a fascinating story as to how this area came about. Dec 31, Day 7 Terry Fox Foundation This was my youngest's request. The boys school participates in the Terry Fox Run every year. I think Terry Fox should have had the "Greatest Canadian" ...
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
The new site has been launched and is live. This is a site dedicated to all things awesome about Okotoks, Alberta. I invite you to scroll through the lists and send me suggestions of lists you'd like me to create. Part of the fun of this site is to capture those crazy pictures that reflect the personality of Okotoks. And we all know that means the people and their crazy adventures. Be sure to check it out. OkotoksIsAwesome.com
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
I'm sure many of you will agree. As a society we have too much stuff.  The pressure to shop around Christmas is just ridiculous. I have made several changes over the years to shop less and not give as many gifts. As a result my gift list is very short.  This year, I made the suggestion to my family that we give to charities instead of giving to each other. So we sat down and  made a list of charities we could give to, one for each day of Christmas. So starting on the December 25, the first day of Christmas we will make a donation to one of 12 charities. Some of these will be hearing from us for the first time, others we're regular supporters. As much as possible we chose charities that impacted us personally or were in our local area (Okotoks and Calgary). It just feels right.      
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
I'm in the final stages of putting together a new website called OkotoksIsAwesome.com . This site will highlight all things awesome about Okotoks, Alberta, a small town of about 23 000 just south of Calgary. I had  loads of fun today taking picture of Okotokians and everything that makes Okotoks Awesome. Cupcakes, frozen lakes, slurpees heck I even convinced a sales lady in the clothing store to wear a turtleneck and scarf and pose in the front window of the store with the reindeer. It's definitely the people of Okotoks that make it awesome!!
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By Karen Salmon, Okotoks Real Estate Agent
(Royal LePage Benchmark)
Well I could manually manipulate all the stats but Prospects does it for me! Check it out here Average/median price always drops a bit in December making December appear to be a nice time to buy. On the other hand, if you need to sell, there's always less competition in December. Don't you love statistics?
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By Robert Havana, Alberta Real Estate License Parking
(Park and Protect- Alberta Real Estate License Parking)
Okotoks Mortgage Broker I made a couple of videos for a website I am building for our Okotoks mortgage broker office.  For those who do not know, my mortgage brokerage, Verico Canada First Mortgage is headquartered and based in Calgary, but we have associates all across the Province and serving all areas of Alberta.  Of course, if you are looking for a Lethbridge mortgage broker you can contact me, but if you are looking for help in Okotoks, you might want to check out our new Okotoks Mortgage website which is just being launched.   Here is a short video I made for the new site:    
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Okotoks, AB Real Estate Professionals