The end of December quickly approaches and that means that winter will be here in a matter of days!

Many people in Calgary and area view the spring and summer as great times to buy and sell a home, however in Calgary, our busiest times for real estate sales are actually in March, April and May which, officially, are a late winter and early spring market. There are a number of very good reasons to consider selling your home right after the new year. Here are three great reasons:

Your property listing will have less competition — Motivated buyers have less to choose from in January and February, so it’s really safe to say that they’re going to pay attention to every single listing that comes onto the Calgary area MLS® System. Unlike durung the spring market wherein there are literally dozens of new property listings hitting the active market every single day, buyers actually pay more attention to each and every property listing in this slower time period....

At this time every year I receive emails and calls from consumers and past clients asking for an updated Comparative Market Analyis (CMA) to help determine if the City of Calgary's Tax Assessment is accurate or if it should be appealed. Well, the first answer is that real estate agents cannot do market evalations for anything but determining the value of a home in the current market for the purpose of buying or selling. We cannot provide CMAs for the purpose of appealing your taxes. The reason for this is that most real estate agents and brokers are not certified or licensed to provide appraisals. And, the methods we use to calculate market values are not appropriate for calculating either an appraised value nor an assessed value for tax purposes. Real estate agents and brokers consider current and future market demand for a CMA, while the other methods cannot.

While the values may or may not be similar, they are actually quite different.

First, let me explain what is a property tax...

Here are some helpful (and colourful!) stats, guidelines and cost-saving ideas for making your home more eco-friendly.