Dec
18
The 11 Dollar House.com
Filed Under Giving Back, Real Estate General | Leave a Comment
I came across a very interesting idea and wanted to share it with all of you… A man by the name of David, and his family, are taking in entries for $11 and a story of why you should win a renovated home in Edmonton, Alberta. I encourage you to take a look at this, and for you to enter.
I inquired to David of why he and his family is doing this and what they are looking to get out of it… Here is his responce.
As for the contest itself, the number of entries are around 220.
As for the idea, it’s a combination of things, I guess. A bit over a year ago, our daughter (6 at the time) asked if we were selling the house, how much would we sell it for. I asked her how much did she think. She suggested $5, or something like that. I laughed, but for whatever reason, I started to think that while $5 wouldn’t be good, a bunch of people paying $5 might mean somebody could get the house. The actual $11 was the result of working out the mechanics of the contest, more math than anything else, although we did like the sound of The 11 Dollar House.
Since around January of this year, I was fiddling with a website when I had time, but I didn’t want to run anything until I’d finished an addition slated to add a third storey (or a half storey, technically). I wanted the house to mainly have it’s final form before putting it out there. By the end of August, this was mostly finished, so off we went, with a little hiccup in September that put our timelines out by a month (which may or may not make a difference, we’ll see).
The date to have all entries in is currently slated for December 31, 2008.
So, what do you think about this social experiment? It’s called a contest, but really it’s a question as to whether or not thousands of people will pay $11 so that one person, a complete stranger to all of them, can get a house mortgage free. Of course, every person paying also hopes that they will be that one person, that complete stranger, who wins. Do you think there are enough people out there with the necessary mix of altruism and selfish (not in a bad way) hope?
What are your thoughts? Below is the website that you can check out for more info.
Dec
17
Weekly Market Update - Week 50
Filed Under Weekly Market Update | 1 Comment
As we head into the Christmas season, and the focus changes to family time, and holidays, we will see a further reduction in listings, and sales. Over one month, we are down 80 sales per week from 253 during the week of November 17, 2008 to this week at 173. Even further back we are down 143 sales per week from the week of October 14, 2008 at 316 sales.
We will most likely see the number of listings drop a bit further, but will pick up again middle to end of January. There still will be sales happening, but in most cases you will feel the slow down, which is typical this time of the year.
The properties that are selling right now are the ones that are priced well, show well and are willing to negotiate when the offer comes in. If you are fortunate to have an offer in this market, it is worth a serious look at, and consideration.
Dec
16
November 2008 Market Update
Filed Under Monthly Stats | Leave a Comment
An educated consumer, watchful of current market trends, still drives Calgary’s real estate market.
While November typical seasonal slowdown was magnified by the prevailing lack of overall consumer spending compared to one year ago, the changes in the listings-to-sales ratio demonstrates strategic thinking on the part of buyers and sellers alike.
Calgary single-family unit sales for the month of November totalled 670, 18.3% fewer sales than the month before while new listings added for this market segment dropped by 32.5% compared to the previous month’s report. The larger drop in new listings added results in fewer properties offered overall and indicates thoughtful intention on the part of sellers. The median price of a single-family unit held steady at $387,300, a decrease of only 0.7% compared to the month before. The average price of a Calgary single-family unit in November recorded at $435,471, 5% off the average recorded last November.
Change in the condo market indicators revealed more consistent month-over-month buyer/seller intention. Condominium sales recorded a decline of 29% from October this year, while new listings in November dropped 30.8% below new listings added one month ago. The average price of a condominium unit dropped 1.2% below the average price the month before and recorded at $312,710 this November.
Dec
15
The Season of Giving
Filed Under Giving Back | 1 Comment
As we are rapidly approaching the Christmas season, where giving is better than receiving… We want to recruit you to our lending team, Team Chamberlain Group, on Kiva, a non-profit website that allows you to lend as little as $25 to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world. You choose who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq - and as they repay the loan, you get your money back.
If you join our lending team, we can work together to alleviate poverty. Once you’re a part of the team, you can choose to have a future loan on Kiva “count” towards our team’s impact. The loan is still yours, and repayments still come to you - but you can also choose to have the loan show up in our team’s collective portfolio, so our team’s overall impact will grow!
Check out the Team Chamberlain Group lending team, and learn more about lending teams on Kiva in general, by clicking here: JOIN THE KIVA CHAMBERLAIN TEAM
Thanks for your serious consideration,
Jared & Rebecca Chamberlain
Dec
8
You probably guessed it…
FEAR
Judith Briles did a study/ survey on why people don’t succeed, and what the biggest fears are for men and women… Here is the list of the greatest fears that we as humans experience.
- Being Poor
- Loosing Money
- Making Mistakes / Failing
- Borrowing Money
- Not Trusting Yourself / Keeping Wrong Advisers
- Looking Stupid
- Talking About Money
- Creating and Sticking to A Plan
- Investing
- Being Too Stressful
And the biggest fear for women is…
Becoming a Bag Lady
Dec
5
Nothing like pain of early 1990’s, economist says
“As it happens, growth in Canadian domestic demand has only ever crumbled amid monetary tightening by the Bank of Canada, regardless of the duration and severity of the recession in the United States,” Mr. Desnoyers said. “Moreover, history teaches us that real GDP growth in Canada has never sunk into a painful recession without domestic demand growth collapsing.
“Consequently, though we are not ruling out the possibility of Canada recording a technical recession, given the severity of the U.S. downturn, brandishing the spectre of a serious recession in Canada akin to those of 1990 or 1982 does not seem warranted,” Mr. Desnoyers said.
Dec
5
Canadians ‘Scared !
Filed Under Canadian Politics | 1 Comment
This is the front page of today’s Calgary Herald.
The article says that 90% of Albertans are scared that we in Canada could have a majority government. Personally I don’t want to see this happen. If there was an election to be held right now, I do think that the Tories could still be on top.
What are your thoughts on this government… What do you want to see happen?
Dec
4
Canadian Coalition
Filed Under Canadian Politics | 5 Comments
What are your thoughts on the Canadian Coalition… What do you want to see happen???
Dec
3
The Flippers are Now Flopping…
Filed Under Real Estate General | 4 Comments
There is a great article in the Financial Post that was talking how quick turnover, flipping, isn’t as easy as it appears.
Did you know that between 2002 and 2007, Canadian home prices soared 78% from $177,100 to $315,800. If you are planning on flipping in this market, YOU WILL LOOK LIKE A HERO… But not so much anymore… As the market is softening and correcting itself, flipping is one of the hardest, if not THE hardest way to make money in Real Estate.
There are so many factors that come into play here… Right location, property, market you purchased in, renovations (and not over building for area). Plus then you have to ask the right price and get it on the market at the right time, in order to get the maximum profit out of it… To me… that’s too many variables in order to make money. This is why I believe in purchase, hold, rent and sell in 5+ years. You have cash flow, and potential equity growth.
I think that we are going to start to see the HGTV channels (and others like it) start to look at different shows than Flipping for Profit type shows, but rather we may start seeing shows that will target cheap reno’s and loving the home that you’re in, instead. The market can’t handle mom and pop flippers, and it most likely will not be the ‘in’ thing too much longer…
Dec
2
Over the last week, the number of listings on the market has dramatically fallen off. We believe this to be a combination of a couple things.
1) Listings that were set to expire at the end of November did so, and have not been relisted yet
2) Listings have been taken off the market because we are heading into the December months and Christmas.
Although the number of sales dropped over all, the number of condos sold actually increased by 5 units vs. last week. The number of showings over the past week, we have noticed to slow down, and most showings are happening on the weekends, as the evenings get shorter.
Again, heading into Spring of 2009 we could expect more listings to come back on the market that have been or will be taken off, with more buyers coming out of the woodwork. Will this change the average and median prices? Probably not, because there are many sellers who are waiting until the spring to put their property back on the market. If you are considering this, your home may have more showings and potentially get offers, but the price most likely will not be increasing. Why? There could be more listings, but there could be more buyers as well, and the supply will stay high, and in the big scheme of things, the demand still lower.
The Chamberlain Group
