Have the winter blues hit you yet? Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our love of the warm summer months that we forget how many great things there are to do in Edmonton during the winter. So far this winter has been very mild, making outdoor activities all the more attractive for Edmonton residents and visitors alike.

If you’ve recently moved to Edmonton and this is your first Alberta winter experience, here are just some of the things to get you out of the house if you’re going cold-weather stir crazy.

Pavillion at Metropolis Festival at City Hall
Photo by Mastermaq

Snow Sculptures at the Silver Skate Festival
Photo by Bill Burris

Metropolis Winter Festival

Running until February 20 in Sir Winston Churchill Square downtown, Metropolis is a celebration of winter inspired by modern cold-weather construction techniques. Massive pavilions lit with bright lights have been erected in the Square, and every weekend you can enjoy live music, entertainment, a selection of food from Edmonton-owned restaurants, and kids activities.

Silver Skate Festival

February 17th – 20th, Hawrelak Park
Now in its 22nd year, the Silver Skate Festival at Hawrelak Park is Edmonton’s longest running winter festival, and is a great place to bring the whole family to enjoy some cold climate fun. There’s an ice slide, snow sculpture competitions, skating, horse-drawn sleigh rides, and dozens of live performances to take in.

Oilers & Oil King Hockey

Hockey is one of the highlights of the long, cold Alberta winters, and in Edmonton hockey fans have plenty of ways to keep up with their favourite teams. Go to a live NHL Oilers game, check out and support the local WHL team the Oil Kings, or meet up with friends at one of the local sports bars to watch the game and share a pint of brew.

Concerts & Live Theatre

The theatre season is in full swing for every local theatre company, including The Citadel, the Walterdale Playhouse, and the Edmonton Opera among many, many others. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra has a full schedule with something for everyone from classical to modern music, and venues small and large in the city are booked solid with some great performers and bands. Check out Ticketmaster, Tix On The Square, and YEGlive.ca to stay up on the arts and culture scene in Edmonton this winter.

Improv & Comedy

Did you know Edmonton has a wildly active improv and comedy community? Rapid Fire Theatre has a wide roster of shows, including one of the best Improv Theatresports teams in Canada, and the 16 day 2012 Wildfire Student Improv Festival is coming up in February. The live plays every Monday night at the Varscona, or catch a live recording of CBC’s The Irrelevant Show. Stand up comedy fans can check out the schedule at The Comic Strip or Yuk Yuk’s.

Farmers’ Markets

Did you know both the Old Strathcona and City Centre Markets run all year round every Saturday morning? You can find the Strathcona Market just north of Whyte Avenue, while the City Centre Market has taken up residence in City Hall while the snow flies. Support local vendors, farms and artisans.

Skiing & Skating

Take advantage of the unusually mild weather by hitting the slops at local ski hills Snow Valley and Rabbit Hill, or if cross country skiing and snowshoeing is more your style, explore the many trails along Edmonton’s winding River Valley. Skate in the heart of the city at City Hall, or get a view of Downtown from the Victoria Park Oval.

Today, the Edmonton Journal has a feature article on which Edmonton communities have had the largest increase in value over the last decade based on the recently mailed out property assessments. Winners include the Mactaggart community, Rossdale and Beverly Heights.

Homes on Mactaggart Drive

Below is an excerpt from the article. You can read the entire article on the Edmonton Journal website.

But if you had sunk your cash into a place in Rossdale, or farther downstream in Beverly Heights, you’d have made out like a bandit — average values in those areas jumped 55 per cent, blowing stocks and oil out of the water.

These are some of the findings from the latest assessments mailed out for 326,500 Edmonton properties at the beginning of January, based on estimates made last July 1.

Although one-year values for single-family houses (the Journal figures don’t include other types of homes) are down 1.7 per cent,results vary between a 10-per-cent rise in Secord and a similar-sized drop in Canora.

The spread is even larger over five years.

While the average neighbourhood value rose 41 per cent in that time, the biggest growth came in the northeast, where eight of the 12 districts that had increases of more than 50 per cent are located.

City assessors annually determine values at which each property might have sold as of July 1, which is used to determine that location’s share of Edmonton’s total property taxes for the following year.

Assessors look at various factors, including location, sale prices for similar homes in similar areas, lot and house size, building condition and age, size and style of garage, if the basement’s finished and any special features.

But the property assessments mailed out in January can vary from a home’s actual selling price.

For one thing, they are based on conditions six months earlier, and the market may have changed.

As well, assessors don’t reinspect every house every year, so conditions at individual properties can change without the city’s knowledge.

Edmonton Home Sellers who don’t take the time to properly prepare their home for sale are throwing money down the drain. Appearances do matter, and it’s often the small things that make the biggest difference.

Before you even put your home on the Edmonton MLS system, you should give it a good spring cleaning. Clean everything, make small repairs, and get rid of all clutter. You’re moving anyway — pack the things you don’t use very often and put them in storage.

Home buyers react to what they see, hear, feel and smell, and small things like broken doorknobs make them uneasy: if these simple repairs haven’t been completed, what larger issues might be lurking? Have your Edmonton Realtor point out the quick fixes that can make a big difference, and consider putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Scrub, scour, declare war on dust, repair squeaks, replace light switches that don’t work.

Also be aware of any odors you may have gotten used to: it’s helpful to bring in a friend or Realtor for a “smell check”. Odd smells like traces of food, pet doors, or cigarette smoke can kill a deal quickly.

Remember: you’re not just competing with other resale homes, but with brand new ones as well!

Smart Edmonton Home Sellers are proactive and will disclose everything, including any and all known defects to potential buyers, especially if these problems are big. Almost every buyer will make their offer conditional on a home inspection, and professional home inspectors are trained to look for things you try to hide.

The best plan of attack if your home has a major flaw is to try and repair it before you sell, or to lower the price of your home to reflect the problem. Buyers appreciate the honesty, and you’re much more likely to negotiate a fair price for both parties if you are up front about the status of your home from the beginning.

A proper home inspection, performed by a qualified Edmonton Home Inspector, will provide you with important information you will need to make decisions about the home you are considering purchasing. When you walk away from the inspection, you should understand what if any major issues the home has and what repairs might be required. This information should be shared with your Edmonton Realtor, who can advise you on whether or not to renegotiate the price to accommodate major repairs.

3 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Home Inspection

1. Prepare Questions
   Before you meet with the inspector for the inspection appointment, make a list of any questions or concerns you have about the house, based on your initial viewing. Add questions about any particular appliance or system that are new to you, and ask about any renovation or remodelling plans you might be considering. A qualified home inspector should be able to answer most, if not all, of these questions. The purpose of the inspection isn’t just to ascertain whether or not the home is in good working order, but also to give you a chance to ask questions about the operation and maintenance of the house.
2. Take Notes
   Bring a pad of paper and a pen with you to your inspection appointment, and take as many notes as you need. You will likely be learning quite a lot of new information about your home, and it’s a good idea to jot this down to make sure you remember it, especially when it comes to maintenance, how things operate, and renovation insights. The home inspection is also a good opportunity for you to measure the size of rooms.
3. Attend the Inspection
   If at all possible, the best option is always to attend the inspection and walk through the house with your inspector. This will give you the very best opportunity to ask questions that may make or break your decision to buy the home, so even though it seems like a pain to set aside the time, we always recommend it. If you can’t attend, think about sending a trusted friend or relative, your Edmonton Realtor, or contact your inspector by phone after the inspection to review the details of the report.

Remember that no home is perfect, not even newly built ones. Every home will have flaws uncovered during the inspection processes. Be prepared to review these issues with your seller and negotiate, but also be prepared to walk away if the inspection uncovers major issues you’re not willing to take on.

Everyone starts their search for a new home on the Internet today, and the very first impression your home makes online is important. It’s said a picture is worth a thousand words, and it’s a good idea to provide lots of photos rather than not enough. Get photos of all the major rooms, including kitchens and bathrooms, and for large rooms or combined open-concept spaces, get a few different angles. Provide photos of both the front and back yards, as well as a good front exterior shot of your house. Don’t skimp on the size, either: the Edmonton MLS system can handle HD photos, and most people have large monitors, so provide your Realtor with the largest, highest quality photographs you can get.

It’s not just the quantity of photos that can make a difference, but also the quality. If the only camera you have is the one on your phone, then it’s time to buy or borrow a real camera. High quality, crisp images can make a huge difference: nobody wants to look at blurry, pixilated pictures.

This is your home’s first impression to potential buyers, and you want to leave them itching to book a viewing. That means before you get behind the camera, you should make sure your home is clean and tidy. If you’re planning on having your home staged, wait to take your photos until after your staging has been completed.

Talk to the Terry Paranych Team to discuss our home marketing techniques, including professional quality photographs.

The reality of selling a home includes negotiation, and like any negotiation, the final result is usually somewhere between the ideal of the seller and the ideal of the buyer.

The best price to list your home at is one that will attract buyers, but also leave you some breathing room for negotiating later on. This will let you get the best possible price, and leave the buyer feel like they are getting good value for the home.

There are a lot of factors that impact the price you’ll ultimately get for your Edmonton Home. For example, home inspections can reveal major problems that may require you to lower your price: it’s always a good idea to have a home inspection done on your home prior to putting it on the market so there are no unexpected surprises later on.

Some markets are kinder to sellers (a “seller’s market”, where many buyers are looking at fewer properties), while other times there could be an overabundance of real estate available for sale that will make it more of a buyer’s market. The current supply and demand will also impact the final sale price of your home.

Last week, RE/MAX released a report on the current state of the Canadian Housing Market and the major changes it has undergone in the last 20 years, which was featured in an Edmonton Journal news article. The report contained information on several major Canadian real estate markets, including Edmonton.

You can read the section on the Edmonton market in the report excerpt below, or check out the full press release and downloadable report on the RE/MAX website.

Alberta, Edmonton

A red-hot economy fuelled unprecedented price appreciation in Edmonton over the past decade, but rising values have had as much to do with new home construction as they have supply and demand. Canada’s second strongest performing market – up 165% since 2000 – has seen close to $19 billion in residential building permits issued during the same period, virtually tripling values reported in the previous decade.

Average price has climbed from $124,203 in 2000 to $328,803 in 2010, peaking in 2007 at $338,636. Prices have since stabilized and regained some of the ground lost during the recession and subsequent fall out. More balanced market conditions have emerged, with buyers gaining a slight advantage.

New condominium construction has led the way in recent years, with an abundance of newer units coming on stream. Condominium now represent close to 28% of total residential housing sales in Edmonton, with an entry-level price point of $234,982 (YTD September 2011). Rental conversions have also occurred at a steady pace, given that affordability is top of mind with many purchasers. Yet, single-family dwellings remain most popular, with year-to-date (January to September) average price hovering at $325,252.

The city’s newer housing stock tends to be found in the peripheral areas, surrounding Edmonton proper. With more than 8,000 properties currently listed for sale, little movement is expected in average price in the months ahead. Although inventory levels are down somewhat from one year ago, supply remains considerably higher than the 5,500 to 6,000 units traditionally on the market at this time of year.

Renovation is on-going in the city, representing approximately just over 5% of building permits issued so far this year. Infill is a relatively uncommon phenomenon. Upscale communities such as Glenora have seen some properties priced at $400,000 to $500,000 torn down to make way for larger, custom-built homes, but, to date, the trend has yet to gain traction.

Edmonton remains one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country, with a 10% increase in population in the last census, bringing the number of residents to 1,034,945 in 2006. Job opportunities remain plentiful in the area, thanks to an unemployment rate that is well under the national average. As economic performances improves, so too will the residential housing outlook.

An offer has been made on your Edmonton home for sale by a prospective buyer, and now it’s time for the home inspection. You want this process to go as smoothly as possible, and there are some things you can do to help the Home Inspector and buyer perform their inspection efficiently. Leaving your home ready for an inspection will help show your confidence in your home, and leave a positive impression with the buyer. A professional home inspection is part of the Edmonton Real Estate selling process: if you’re ready for it, and already know what the home inspector will find, then there’s no reason to sweat the inspection.

Before Your Home Inspection

Clean Your Home
A simple yet extremely effective way of preparing for your home inspection. Home Inspectors are people too, and everyone assumes that a clean home is also a well taken care of home, so make sure you take the extra time to clean and tidy prior to the inspector’s arrival.

Leave All Utilities Connected
If the home you are selling is vacant, it’s important to leave all the utilities on and functioning, including water, power and gas. Make sure your pilot light is left on so that a proper and full inspection can be done on your furnace, water heater and gas stove.

Remove Clutter From Workspaces
The Home Inspector will need to be able to access circuit boxes, air conditioning units, water heaters and furnaces. Since these are often in storage areas, take the time to remove any boxes or clutter from around them and leave the Home Inspector four or five feet of working space.

Attic, Garage & Shed Access
Make sure the inspector can access your attic, and leave keys or auto-openers for your garage and shed. Make sure your garage and shed spaces are tidy. If there are any other outboxes or electrical boxes that require keyed access, leave those as well. Condo sellers should leave both interior and exterior door keys for their building.

Clear Access for Exterior Inspection Points
In Edmonton especially, the winter snow can pile up around the house, so before your inspection make sure you’ve kept a path cleared around the perimeter of your home. Pull trash cans and barbecues away from the house.

Provide Repair Documentation
If you’ve recently remodelled, renovated or recently done major repairs, leave these receipts and documents. The same goes for any newly purchased appliances, electrical boxes or landscaping. Your buyer will be extra confident in the quality of these repairs if they have documentation and an inspection.

Leave For a While
Prepare to be away from your home for at least three hours. The prospective buyer will likely accompany the home inspector, and will want to ask them questions as they go through your home, but many buyers will feel uncomfortable doing so if you are hovering. It’s best to be out of the house and allow the inspector to do his work and the buyer to feel confident. If you have pets, it is best to take them with you or crate them so they are not in the way or underfoot.

The single biggest fact that will affect the sale of your home is the price you set, so determining what that price will be is no small decision.

By setting your price too high, you run the risk of not being taken seriously by prospective Edmonton Home Buyers, and your home will waste away on the market: every week your home is listed, it becomes less and less attractive. You will ultimately need to go through price reductions to bring in buyers, and may end up selling for less than if you’d set the right, lower price in the first place.

If you set the price too low, you risk selling your home for much, much less than it’s really worth. Undervaluing your home could send a message that you think it’s inferior, or that you’re in a hurry to sell, which puts you at a serious disadvantage. Though if your primary concern is selling your home fast, a price under the market value of the home can accelerate a sale.

There are lots of factors that contribute to setting the correct price for your Edmonton home for sale. From current market trends to the specific market value of homes in your specific neighbourhood, these external factors must be weighed along with any renovations or improvements you’ve done that increase the value of your home in particular.

It takes a trained, experienced Edmonton real estate agent to sort through all the data and pinpoint the best selling price for your home during an Edmonton Home Evaluation process.