Red Deer Real Estate Blog

What is a “Shredathon”?

I’m not sure, I actually made up the word to convey an event where you can bring your old files from home and shred them safe and secure. 

The event is this Saturday at 9 am and runs until 3:00 pm at Parkland Mall.  Look for the Merlin Shredding Truck in the west parking lot in front of Staples and Safeway.

Spring clean your home office with safety, security, and peace of mind at our:

Spring Shredathon
May 2nd, 9 a.m. – 3 pm
Parkland Mall West Parking Lot

Century 21 Advantage wants to protect your identity, and clean up your home office.

Everyone has information that needs to be disposed of in a safe, secure manner. Saturday May 2nd Century 21 Advantage and Merlin Shredding Inc. will destroy the documents that could destroy you or your reputation if they were to fall into the wrong hands.

Do you store any of the following?

* Contracts
* Sensitive Personal Data
* Telephone Numbers
* Tax Reports
* Classified Documents
* Estimates
* Bank Statements
* Legal Documents
* Invoices
* Medical Records

This shredding event is no charge to you, and is only open to personal documents not for business use. Stop by the Century 21 Advantage and Merlin Shredding “Shredathon” May 2nd and Spring clean your home office.

Donations will proudly be accepted for the Red Deer and District Food bank.

For more information call your Century 21 Advantage Associate at: (403) 346-0021 or 346-6655

Your Friend in Real Estate,

Patrick Galesloot

We were invited to attend the Chairman’s Circle for Century 21 Canada this year.  This invitation only conference is for the top 30 offices in Canada.  Century 21 Advantage was number 12 for sales production in the Century 21 Canada ranks.

Luckily for us it was held in beautiful Fort Lauderdale Florida at The Atlantic Hotel.

The agenda consisted of marketing in today’s online world and our guest speaker was David Meerman Scott.  Having read his book. The New Rules of Marketing and PR I was excited to hear more and learn about his latest book World Wide Rave.  David is a very good presenter of his material, and the small audience was an added bonus.

Next on the agenda was Steve Murray from Real Trends.  This was the first time I was able to listen to Steve and his area of expertise.  I had heard of him and that he really knows his stuff.  Steve certainly does.  He knows his numbers and is in tune with many thing real estate wise and the trends that follow the numbers.  Readers of this Blog know I also like to talk about the numbers, so it was quite enjoyable.  With an American background the concern is that Canada will echo the US real estate market trends more so.  Luckily for us Steve noted that we have a banking system that is top notch and better insulates us from the woes our friends south of the border are experiencing.

We had a recap of our success with this great web platform that the team from Wheretolive.com have put together.  It seems that users of our web site really like the features such as 21 photos and the full screen display of property photos.  Something no one else is doing making us a leader in real estate online.  Recently Century21.ca became the number one franchise brand for real estate traffic and searches.  Thank You to Roald Marth and Ed Kohler for leading us into the world of web 2.0.

Last but not least was the company of Century 21 elite.  Only the top 30 office attend this event so the ideas and feedback shared is great for bringing back and adding value to our clients and associates. 

We met some great new friends from coast to coast.

Your Friend in Real Estate,

Patrick Galesloot

Follow me on Twitter:  @pgalesloot

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April Continues to improve upon February and March numbers.

The warm spring weather combined with low interest rates are certainly bring out the buyers.  Reports from our associates hosting open houses is that the open houses are busy.  All that extra traffic has turned into sales for sellers.  The number of sales so far for the month of April is at 162 sales in Red Deer, compared to 123 last month.  The average sale price seems to be climbing as well as more people are trading up form their starter homes to the bigger second home.  Sales price in March was all listings was an average of $285,407 while in April so far it is up to $293,756.

As we can see below the pending sales are quite strong.  The pending sales are an indicator fo deals written, and the trend is rising.

Positive signs for all selling homes to today and also for buyers know that their investment is secure not just for the long term but short term as well.

I think we are just about out of the weeds as far as snowing weather is concerned.  Look for more positive growth as we plunge into May.

Your Friend in Real Estate,

Patrick Galesloot

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Spring clean your home office with safety, security, and peace of mind at our:

Spring Shredathon
May 2nd, 9 a.m. – 3 pm
Parkland Mall West Parking Lot

Patrick and De Galesloot together with Century 21 Advantage want to protect your identity, and clean up your home office.

Everyone has information that needs to be disposed of in a safe, secure manner. Saturday May 2nd Century 21 Advantage and Merlin Shredding Inc. will destroy the documents that could destroy you or your reputation if they were to fall into the wrong hands.

Do you store any of the following?

• Contracts
• Sensitive Personal Data
• Telephone Numbers
• Tax Reports
• Classified Documents
• Estimates
• Bank Statements
• Legal Documents
• Invoices
• Medical Records

This shredding event is no charge to you, and is only open to personal documents not for business use. Stop by the Century 21 Advantage and Merlin Shredding “Shredathon” May 2nd and Spring clean your home office.

Donations will proudly be accepted for the Red Deer and District Food bank.

For more information call your Patrick or De Galesloot at: (403) 346-0021

Your Friend in Real Estate,

Patrick Galesloot

The rush to sell is slowing down in Red Deer Alberta, and the real estate activity remains strong however the real story is the impact of supply and demand.  The demand for housing is closer to 2004 levels today, and a mere 52% of the record demand of 2007.

Presently Red Deer has 650 homes on the MLS market for sale, compared to the 123 that sold last month.  What that means is 1 in 5 homes sells each month.  When compared to new listings the ratio of sales to new listings is 43.46%.  What that means is that if we do not account for the homes presently for sale 43% of the new listings are selling while the other 57% would remain “un-sold” on the market.:

From Stats

You can see that March 2006 the gap between new listings and sales was the smallest.  This was our “heated” seller’s market place.  Since 2006 that gap has swelled to today’s level. 

The importance of pricing and condition is as strong as ever.  For those looking to test the waters and see if a buyer would be willing to pay “their” asking price, are wasting efforts.  Detailed knowledge of what homes have sold for and what your competition is doing (similar homes for sale) is your best tool today.  Make certain the REALTOR® you choose is a Local Expert and full time one at that.

You can make the “sold” list.  While it may seem grim or bleak, but the truth of the matter is that homes are selling.  March 2009 sales were the 6th highest on record.

From Stats

What price ranges are sales occurring?

Sales are occuring in all price ranges, and what is most interesting is the contrast in March sales to January and February.  January and Februray sales were more tightly grouped with peaks in the $300,000 price range, and March as you will note below has larger sales volume in more prices ranges.

From Stats

Sales in more price ranges is a strong indicator that peopel are moving up.  This is a positive sign for those looking to move from their starter home to a larger or newer home.  It can be done.  With the right team working for you and armed with the skills to apply market knowledge you can take advantge of today’s low interest rates and market conditions.

Your Friend in Real Estate,
Patrick Galesloot.

All market stats from Central Alberta REALTORS® Association MLS® stats

Earlier our office participated in the Red Deer YVC Bowl for Kids. 

From Bowl 4 Kids

From Bowl 4 Kids

Our Century 21 Advantage office was out in full force with a total of 5 teams bowling.  I challenged my Realtors to participate and raise a minimum of $2,100.  They enthusiastically responded when I volunteered my hair as the prize for achieving our goal.  The team that raised $2,100 got to do the honors or schedule the event.  I’m pleased to say that we exceeded the $2,100 challenge, and the wrap up for the event was Tuesday March 31, 2009.

The transformation:

Your Friend in Real Estate,

Patrick Galesloot