Without a doubt — PRICE.

Price is Key. No matter how much advertising is done by a home seller and their agent, a home that's priced too much over current market value is just not going to sell. If it's priced too high you may get viewings by buyers and their agents, but you're attracting buyers that are looking in a particular price range and your home won't compare favourably with the current (and recently sold) competition in that price range. Buyers and their REALTORS® are looking at a number of homes and it becomes very obvious very quickly which homes are overpriced.

If the home is priced right, it will receive consideration from all prospective buyers and their REALTORS®. A good REALTOR® will help their prospective buyer understand the value in your home and likewise try to diswade a client from overpaying for an overpriced home (they actually have a legal obligation to do this).

A home that is underpriced will possibly end up in competing offers and...

Technically, no. But, I have yet to see an opportunity that couldn't have been made better by using a buyer's representative. Terms, conditions and price.

Often, first-time buyers don't know differently and embark on their home hunt by looking at random homes by calling every agent that has a listing on a particular street. And they call all the private sellers too. This would be like them contacting the coach of the opposing football team for advice -- you wouldn't do that would you?

A better use of their time is to find an agent that they get to know and trust and then use them to set up convenient appointments all at one time. That single agent can also compare and contrast the homes (which had they called all the listings agents, they would likely skew all the comments in favour of their own listing or more likely omitted the ones that weren't favourable. Obviously, if they called seller then they couldn't get any factual information on the other homes available).

Occasionally repeat...

As a result of the Alberta Progressive Conservative loss in the provincial election of May 5, 2015, the Alberta budget that had been announced on March 26, 2015 is not expected to be passed by the legislature when the new governing party takes office.

As a result, the modest fee increases proposed by the Alberta Government are NOT being implemented as of July 1, 2015.

In the coming months we may expect to see Land Transfer Fees/Taxes in line with what is currently in effect in other provinces.

Neighbourhood of HAWKWOOD Stats as of end of April 2015:

Attached homes:

1 Active

0 Conditionally Sold

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1 Inventory

0 Sold April 1 - 30

Benchmark Price: UP 8.0%

Apartments:

1 Active

1 Conditionally Sold

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2 Inventory

0 Sold April 1 - 30

Benchmark Price: UP 3.1%

Detached homes:

21 Active

2 Conditionally Sold

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23 Inventory

9 Sold April 1 - 30

2.56 months of supply - Balanced Market

Benchmark Price: UP 4.2%

But then we break down the detached homes further:

Detached homes priced UNDER $600,000:

13 Active

2 Conditionally Sold

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15 Inventory

7 Sold April 1 - 30

2.14 months of supply - SELLERS' Market

Detached homes priced OVER $600,000:

8 Active

0 Conditionally Sold

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8 Inventory

2 Sold April 1 - 30

4.00 months of supply - BUYERS' Market

Market Statistics Source: CREB [Calgary Real Estate Board Co-operative]

City of Calgary Stats as of end of April 2015:

Attached homes:

1223 Active

80 Conditionally Sold

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1303 Inventory

465 Sold April 1 - 30

2.80 months of supply - Balanced Market

Average Selling Price: Up 2.2%

Benchmark Price: Up 3.4%

Apartments:

1346 Active

53 Conditionally Sold

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1399 Inventory

351 Sold April 1 - 30

3.99 months of supply - Balanced Market

Average Selling Price: Down 5.5%

Benchmark Price: Down 0.2%

Detached homes:

3016 Active

205 Conditionally Sold

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3221 Inventory

1153 Sold April 1 - 30

2.79 months of supply - Balanced Market

Average Selling Price: Down 0.8%

Benchmark Price: Up 1.9%

But then we break down the detached homes further:

Detached homes priced UNDER $600,000:

1599 Active

169 Conditionally Sold

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1768 Inventory

892 Sold April 1 - 30

1.98 months of supply - SELLERS' Market

Detached homes priced OVER $600,000:

1422 Active

36 Conditionally Sold

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1458 Inventory

268 Sold April 1 - 30

5.44 months of supply - BUYERS' Market

Market...