Real Estate Blog

If you want to sell your home more easily, there are some tips you can follow to do so. They all help you show your home in its best light, and that can mean a buyer who will appreciate everything the house has to offer. Showing a home isn't difficult, but sellers want to be sure they do it right. Sellers who do that could end up making more money from the sale, and also sell their home faster than expected. Here are six of the most important things to consider when selling a home, so that it shows as well as possible.

Importance of Curb Appeal

Curb appeal matters. Buyers have been known to skip out on even seeing the inside of a home if the curb appeal just isn't there. They may feel the home has been neglected or not maintained well, and

Home ownership is seen as a positive step toward financial security. For many young adults, owning a home is a sign of having achieved a great goal. However, there can be nearly as many cons as pros in home ownership, and anyone who is used to renting must be aware of the differences before deciding whether or not homeownership is right for them. 

Budget For Home Ownership

The great advantage of renting is the lack of financial responsibility for the property. Need something fixed? Call the landlord! This is not so with home ownership. As a general rule, homeowners are recommended to set aside at least 1 percent of the cost of the house for home maintenance every year.

Home maintenance may vary from one year to the next, depending on the age

A home’s septic system should be in good repair before trying to sell a home. Watching for signs of a failing system, getting the system inspected, performing repairs and passing along that information to potential home buyers can help to save time and quickly sell a home.

Know the Signs of a Failing System

A failing septic system can devalue your home and can even enable a potential home buyer to back out of a property purchase. Recognizing the signs of a failing septic system can help you decide whether or not repairs are necessary before your home goes on the market. Some of the common warning signs to look for include:

• Bright green spots on the lawn over the tank or leech field.
• Standing water or saturated soil in the lawn over the

When preparing to sell your home, there are many improvements that might increase the price or buyer interest. Finishing out the basement may seem like an obvious choice, but it is not always so clear. With these tips, you sellers decide if finishing your basement is the right option for their unique needs.

Find Out if the Basement Counts as Living Space

One of the reasons that home owners want to put a finished basement on a listing is that it can offer extra living space to buyers. The problem is that a finished basement may or may not qualify as living space. The goal of increasing the living space is being able to note that on the listing legally, but, standards are often based on region and may be more stringent in some areas. This means

Baseball often takes a backseat to other sports in Southern Alberta, except for one place.  Okotoks, where the home team brings in the crowds every year.

Seaman Stadium is a remarkable decade-old facility on the south side of the town built by Byron and Doc Seaman.  The local collegiate ball team competing in the Western Major Baseball League, had been playing in Calgary at the Burns Stadium until the 1,600-seat park in Okotoks was built.  The team honoured the town by winning the championship the first two years it settled into the park, drawing crowds of 2,700 with overflow accommodated on the adjacent grass berm.

Despite unpredictable spring weather, the friendly confines of Seaman Stadium have provided the atmosphere and hospitality for fans

Annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, vegetables and more.  The busy gardening season is about to begin.  Okotoks garden centres and nurseries have been abuzz with activity for some months now.  Bedding plants are blooming, seed packets are flying off the shelves and landscaping is beginning in earnest.

Here are just a few of the garden centres you can visit to get your Okotoks garden ready for planting.

Beaver Dam Nursery

A long-time family-run business, Beaver Dam is open Monday to Friday from 8 am to 8 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 6 pm.  The banner on the website declares them as the Best Kept Secret in Okotoks.   They have a full selection of annuals (petunias are in bloom), perennials, trees and shrubs with a lovely selection of

As the province considers annexation plans proposed by the Town of Okotoks in a bid to accommodate new growth, the developers of a residential area just outside current town limits unveiled growth plans of their own.

Wind Walk was first announced nine years ago.  It was supposed to be a cutting edge, highly sustainably community conceived by Mike Holmes, contractor/builder/turned TV star often seen on Home and Garden cable channels.  It was planned for south of Hwy 7 near 783 in Foothills County.

Earlier in April, the current developers hosted an open house in Okotoks and revealed their new area structure plan for the 145-acre land, and if the province approves the town’s annexation proposal, Wind Walk will be a new neighbourhood within town

It’s an easy 4 km hike through one of the prettiest towns in Southern Alberta and it’s all for a good cause – the Foothills Country Hospice, the only rural-based end of life care facility of it’s kind in Alberta.

The hike will take place on pathways through the Town of Okotoks, giving participants an opportunity to walk for a good cause while exploring the community in which they live or explore a community in which they might like to purchase a new home.

This fundraiser is the first annual event for the Hospice which must fundraise almost all of it’s annual operating budget.  The event runs on May 7, 2017 and starts off at the Okotoks Recreation Centre at 2:00 pm, with registration opening an hour prior at 1:00 pm.

While the Hike is a new event

Residents in Okotoks love their downtown.  It’s intimate, interesting and intriguing because once upon a time, town administration placed a huge emphasis on creating and maintaining its character.  Although some business leaders say its been too long since the town did anything to move the downtown area forward.

So with today’s emphasis on walkable streets and vibrant downtown areas and the desire from local shop owners to reignite the downtown culture, it’s no wonder that a site in downtown Okotoks has become a hot topic.

It’s called the Landmark site, an empty plot of land at the intersection of McRae and Clark, on the opposite side of the street from the beloved Monkey Mountain Toys and Games in Okotoks.  According to an article in the Okotoks

Congrats, you got an offer and have successfully negotiated a deal.  If that deal involves a myriad of conditions, such as a home inspection and financing, no doubt you’ll have to suffer through the visit of a bank appraiser.   You may feel that you have no control over the results but actually, you can do a few things to help the appraiser out to ensure your home is seen in a positive light and therefore, is appraised at maximum value.

Provide Good Information

When a bank appraiser comes to your Okotoks home chances are it’s not their first stop in that particular day.  So, often an appraiser will not spend a lot of time in your home.  In fact, they can often get the job done in half an hour or less.  An experienced appraiser knows when to look for