Vern McClelland

Price Reduced on 218 - 1st Avenue West Maidstone, SK in Maidstone

Lori Foley — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:13:00 GMT

Maidstone, Rural NW Saskatchewan - Announcing a price reduction on 218 - 1st Avenue West Maidstone, SK, a 1,360 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm manufactured home "1992 Triple E Model 113". Now MLS® $119,900 - .

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Price Reduced on 405 - 5th Street N Marwayne, AB in Marwayne

Lori Foley — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:08:00 GMT

Marwayne, Lloydminster (Part) - Announcing a price reduction on 405 - 5th Street N Marwayne, AB, a 1,216 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm manufactured home "1997 Winalta Mobile Home". Now MLS® $112,500 - .

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McClelland Minute - March 14, 2010

Vern McClelland — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:53:00 GMT

Spring Madness

On our recent vacation in Florida, we had a day to kill in the Tampa Bay area, so for the first time we attended a race meet at a major thoroughbred track. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon, even if we really had no clue about the individual qualities of the horses, their jockeys, or the competition. So we did what most first timers do, we just kind of went with the flow, generally picking what visually appealed to us, rather than trying to decipher the rather complicated racing form that came with admission. We won some, but lost more. By the end of the day, we came away with an appreciation for the excitement horse racing offers but also knowing without someone knowledgeable to guide us that the odds clearly weren’t in our favor.

It’s often the same with first time home buyers. They are so excited with the thrill of shopping for their own house, that they literally gamble on getting results, sometimes ignoring the advice of an experienced Realtor. Last week one of my partners lost a client simply for telling them what they needed to hear; not what they wanted to hear. Now we don’t like losing business for any reason, but I have made it a policy in our team that we always reserve the right to give clients our perspective, buying or selling. Not that we are rude or nasty about it, but our advice is laid out there clearly, supported by facts.

In this case, the buyers had viewed every property within their target area and budget, some even twice. They reviewed sales of comparable properties. They acknowledged the asking price as reasonable. Even so, the offer they wanted us to present could only be characterized as a “low ball”. We went through all the information with them again, and warned them that an illogical offer often offends the seller, and makes any further negotiation difficult. In fact, they may lose an opportunity to bargain in good faith and it will likely end up costing them more for the property than was necessary had they chosen a different approach. I have even seen sellers reject any further communication with a buyer that appears to disrespect them.

However, this buyer felt we were not going to represent their interests fully and subsequently sought the services of another brokerage. That is indeed unfortunate. First of all, Realtors are professionals and have a fiduciary duty to be “loyal, obedient, and work in the best interest of their client”. But being in the business of working with real estate trades every day, we know that the odds of an offer being accepted that is significantly below what is already a reasonable asking price is very, very low. However, you will hear stories in every barroom and coffee shop about someone’s third cousin’s half-brother having been successful; therefore some customers feel it must be tried.

Personally, I think lowball offers are a waste of everyone’s time. I have represented well over a thousand properties in my career to date, and enjoy negotiating on behalf of my clients, but always strive to leave an impression in the minds of those across the table that we respect their position, just don’t always agree with it! Common ground can always be found if there is good will on both sides.

Vern McClelland is an associate broker with RE/MAX of Lloydminster. For more helpful hints on buying or selling real estate visit www.vernmcclelland.com or call him directly at 306.821.0611

Manufactured Home For Sale in Maidstone

Vern McClelland — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:52:00 GMT

Affordable Living

• 896 sq. ft., 1 bath, 2 bdrm manufactured home - MLS® $62,900

Maidstone, Rural NW Saskatchewan - 1977 Two bedroom mobile home with attached porch, approximately 896 sq ft on fenced 66'x 150' lot in Maidstone, Sask. Extensive list of improvements including floor coverings, kitchen countertop, paint, light fixtures and vinyl siding. Comes complete with all appliances. Just move right in and enjoy! Maidstone is full service community just 35 miles east of Lloydminster on the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway. Excellent K-12 schools, health centre and recreational facilities. 1977 Crestwood Mobile Home S/N #FM4440.

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Bungalow For Sale in Maidstone

Vern McClelland — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:09:00 GMT

• 1,636 sq. ft., 3 bath, 5 bdrm bungalow - MLS® $295,000

Maidstone, Rural NW Saskatchewan - Spacious 1,636 sq ft home with oversized double attached garage built in 1993 on two lots in Maidstone. Excellent corner location between health centre and schools. Two bedrooms up with ensuite (Jacuzzi tub) and main floor laundry. Fully finished basement with 3 additional bedrooms, den, 3 pc bath, family room with bar, and separate entrance to garage. Vaulted ceiling, sunken living room, hardwood floor in dining room, garden doors to back deck, new built in oven. Comes with all appliances.

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Open House in Lloydminster East on Saturday

Lori Foley — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:50:00 GMT

Lloydminster East, Lloydminster - We invite everyone to visit our open house at 3318-44a Avenue Lloydminster on March 13 from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM.

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Open House in Lloydminster West on Saturday

Lori Foley — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:49:00 GMT

Lloydminster West, Lloydminster - We invite everyone to visit our open house at 3106 - 57B Avenue Lloydminster, AB on March 13 from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM.

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McClelland Minute - March 07,2010

Vern McClelland — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:24:00 GMT

When is a Contract a Contract?

A contract is a legally binding agreement between two or more capable persons, for consideration or value, to do or not to do, some lawful and genuinely intended act. Certain essential elements must be present to make a contract enforceable. For example, the parties entering into the contract must be legally competent. The arrangement must be lawful. Each party must receive something. There must be an offer and acceptance. Both parties must consent to the terms of the contract and the agreement must be definite and clear.

Some persons are deemed by law as incapable of entering into a contract. I have had occasion to be called to list a home only to find an owner deep into the bottle. Intoxicated persons are incapable of understanding the nature of a contract so the discussion was set aside until they were sober. Sometimes an elderly person experiencing the onset of dementia will ask for our services. In these cases, I strive to actively involve family members, gently encouraging them to seek general power of attorney over their loved one’s affairs before we go any further.

There must be a lawful or legal object to the contract. If it involves criminal activity, stolen goods, or is designed to deliberately evade taxes, the contract would be totally void in a court of law. For the past few years the federal government has had the right to review every real estate trade in Canada in a nationwide effort to eliminate money laundering or the funding of terrorism. Even so, Realtors are sometimes asked to “look the other way”; for example, selling a revenue property without collecting GST, not taking proper identification from all parties, or accepting significant amounts of cash as partial payment against a sale. There are even occurrences of sellers and buyers attempting to perpetrate mortgage fraud by secretly collaborating with each other so that too, must be guarded against.

The substance of a valid, binding contract is that each party receives something from the other. In real estate, this usually is a promise from the seller to sell in return for an agreed upon sum of money from the buyer. If the consideration was so minimal as to make the contract one-sided, the courts may review the adequacy and act to bring it back into balance.

I had a client tell me of a private deal in which the seller had contacted him as the buyer offering to throw in the garden tractor if he would accelerate the purchase of a country home. They agreed between themselves that there was no need to amend the written contract that was already at the lawyers to show this chattel as part of the sale; the good ol’ handshake clause would apply. Imagine his disappointment when the bonus tractor was not forthcoming on the day of possession and the seller had already left for parts unknown. Not written; not done. If in doubt, always seek legal counsel.

Vern McClelland is associate broker with RE/MAX of Lloydminster. If you have questions or comments on this article or other real estate matters, he can be reached at 780.808.2700 or through the McClelland Group website www.mcclelland.ca

McClelland Minute - February 28, 2010

Vern McClelland — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:21:00 GMT

Thankful To Live Here

My wife and I caught a seat sale to Florida in February, hoping to get out of the cold for a while and explore an area of North America we hadn’t seen before. As a winter vacation, it was a good news / bad news scenario. We traveled much of the central and southern part of state, including a run down to Key West, but the temperatures were the coldest experienced there in 33 years, hovering in the 50s’ most of the time making our time on the beach quite limited.

I thought I would share with you some observations on real estate activity in this part of the United States. Florida is one of four states considered to be worst hit with the housing crisis of the past two years; the others being California, Arizona, and Nevada. Obviously all are in the “sun belt” and areas considered to be prime locations for recreation or retirement.

Tourists have been coming to the coastal regions of Florida for well over a hundred years. Prominent American families have had second homes there starting as far back as the 1880s including Edison, Goodyear, and Ford. Today, it is one continuous urban development that sprawls along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline for approximately 120 miles and reaching inland at least 20 miles, from north of Tampa Bay right down to the Naples and the edge of the Everglades. It is a similar situation on the Atlantic side from Cape Canaveral to Homestead.

Up here, when we talk planned communities, we usually are referring to a subdivision with one or two schools, a park, and a modest mixture of housing from single family to apartments. Down there, planned communities are the size of Lloydminster and larger, with post-secondary campuses, business zones, and wide spread residential areas; all rising out of the limestone base of what is a relatively flat state. Today most of the newer subdivisions have an extensive amount of unoccupied housing, and it is a rare community that doesn’t have at least a quarter of the homes in a distress situation.

In the Tampa Bay area, home prices have plummeted more than 40 percent from the peak in 2006. A two bedroom, two bath, 1254 sq ft town home that sold new three years ago for $191,800, is now listed at $70,000. Similarly, a three bedroom, two bath, 1301 sq ft single family ranch style home with double attached garage originally sold for $222,800 in 2005 is now available for $97,000. I was talking to the manager of a Tractor Supply House, a store similar to our Peavey Mart. He said his acreage had devalued from $650,000 to just over $300,000 in just 30 months!

Inland central Florida is where you find Disneyworld, citrus trees, and the large reservoirs that supply fresh water to meet the incessant demands of the cities of Orlando, Miami, and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. The government appears to be quite concerned that the demand for water is outstripping supply. All I noticed is that if you climb the 30’ high levee on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee the actual shoreline is at least a quarter mile away. Not a good sign one would think.

There also appeared to be lot of farmland actively being marketed for potential development. I guess if your oranges are freezing, and there is intense competition from cheaper South American imports, it would be tempting to cash out and be done with the struggle.

All in all, I still like our humble home in the Midwest. Yes, our weather can be cold in winter, and hot in summer, but we still have lots of open country to enjoy, a relatively stable economy, no alligators in the creek, and our communities don’t have to rebuild every 40 or 50 years following a hurricane.

Price Reduced on 208 - 6th Avenue Paradise Hill, SK in Paradise Hill

Lori Foley — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:12:00 GMT

Paradise Hill, Lloydminster (Part) - Announcing a price reduction on 208 - 6th Avenue Paradise Hill, SK, a 1,404 sq. ft., 2 bath, 4 bdrm 1 1/2 story. Now MLS® $144,900 - .

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Bungalow For Sale in Maidstone

Vern McClelland — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:36:00 GMT

• 1,352 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm bungalow - MLS® $182,500

Maidstone, Rural NW Saskatchewan - Excellent value on this newly renovated 1352 sq ft 3 level split with single attached garage on a 78'x198' lot in a great location in Maidstone, SK. Large entry off the front door leading to an open island kitchen/dining area that overlooks a well maintained back yard and patio. Good size living room, 3 bedrooms upstairs with 4 pce. bathroom. Basement has large family room plus a 2 pce. bathroom with laundry. Newer countertops and tile backsplash. Annualized power of $62.00, gas $162.00. No survey, compliance or PCDS available, tenants rights apply.

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McClelland Minute - February 21, 2010

Vern McClelland — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:35:00 GMT

Conditional Offers

Most offers on real estate contain conditions that provide support to the buyer’s decision making process and due diligence on the property.

Subject to achieving financing by a certain date. Fairly straightforward with two aspects – the buyer’s ability to service the debt, and the value of the property as determined by independent appraisal needs to be equal to or greater than the sale price.

Subject to a current Real Property Report and Letter of Municipal Compliance. The RPR is a survey showing the boundaries of the parcel and the location of improvements within it. The compliance letter is a statement from the municipal government saying that the current use of the property and how it is been developed is appropriate to the zoning bylaw. For example, if the bylaw requires a house to be set back 25’ from the street to allow room for a boulevard, sidewalk, and vehicle parking, the RPR will provide the actual distance.

The property sells without liens and encumbrances other than those easements, covenants, or agreements that are acceptable to the buyer. Utility company corridors as an example. If you want electricity, you need a power line, and so on. Possibly the neighbour’s driveway cuts across the corner of your lot, as it has for past 40 years, so you see no harm. However, you are buying an acreage and the sewer discharges on someone else’s land. Changing that could be expensive; is it worth the risk without a proper encroachment agreement?

Subject to a Property Condition Disclosure Statement. This forms part of the contract and can be used in a court of law. Many times it prompts sellers to tell the buyer about aspects of the house they may not been able to have observed for themselves, like there is seepage every spring on to the basement floor or the water softener does not work.

Subject to a professional home inspection, with results acceptable to buyer. I bet you didn’t climb on the roof before making the offer did you? If you don’t have the skill to do this yourself, spend the money and accompany the inspector while he takes a close look at the property. Don’t sweat the small stuff; look for big ticket items that would prove costly to repair or may be a hazard.

With acreages, subject to a water quality and quantity report acceptable to buyer. Wells can change quickly. Have an independent professional test for flow and check the pumping equipment. Send a water sample to the lab. Coliforms can make you and your family sick; don’t take this area for granted.

Designate which appliances, window treatments, and other unattached goods are to stay. They are to be in working order at date of possession. Want to know what gives Realtors the most grief in a house sale? Used appliances, swapped out light fixtures, and dirty homes.

Vern McClelland is associate broker with RE/MAX of Lloydminster. If you have questions or comments on this article or other real estate matters, he can be reached at 780.808.2700 or through the McClelland Group website www.mcclelland.ca

Price Reduced on 5222 - 49th Avenue Lloydminster, SK in Lloydminster East

Lori Foley — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:11:00 GMT

Lloydminster East, Lloydminster - Announcing a price reduction on 5222 - 49th Avenue Lloydminster, SK, a 676 sq. ft., 2 bath, 2 bdrm single story. Now MLS® $137,500 - New Price!.

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McClelland Minute - February 14, 2010

Vern McClelland — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:27:00 GMT

When You Don’t Need a Realtor

Most people outside the profession of Realtor think we earn our living selling real estate. I believe successful Realtors are facilitators and problem solvers; we assist sellers and buyers, landlords and tenants, to connect in a business like way with each other.

As a buyer or seller, you don’t need a Realtor if you have a logical way of determining current market value of property. With houses, this usually means an accurate description of the subject property – condition (effective age as opposed to real age), size, construction, features, location, etc. You then compare this list to similar properties that have sold within the past 180 days, adding and subtracting attributes to develop a fair analysis. You will also have to factor in for market incline or decline.

As a seller, you don’t need a Realtor if you enjoy showing strangers through at a time convenient to them and are prepared to answer questions about your property. It helps to have a bit of thick skin because buyers are often quick to criticize anything that doesn’t meet their personal standards. For example, you may be very proud of the paint colour in the living room, but they say that will be the first thing they will change upon assuming ownership. And that paving stone patio you spent several weekends building last summer? Well they want to take it out and replace it with a wood deck and hot tub.

As a buyer, you don’t need a Realtor if you have sharp observational skills. It may help to carry a check list. What is the approximate age of the shingles, were the windows wood casement or PVC, was the tub surround in good condition, how old was the furnace and hot water tank, and so on. Are you sure that the square footage or age of the home is accurate? Did the owner offer you a written disclosure statement on the condition of the property? Are there any easements on the title that may effect your ability to enjoy the property?

As a buyer or seller, you don’t need a Realtor if you enjoy the push and pull of negotiation. Some buyers start to bargain with you from the time they first enter the door. After all bullies and bluffers need houses too. Maybe you feel compelled to tell the buyer that you really need to sell or that the asking price is negotiable or try the tried and true approach “make me an offer and I will let you know if you are anywhere close” – all sure tactics to get a quick sale at your price right?

As a buyer you don’t need a Realtor because you believe that sellers always tell you the truth. Theirs was the only house on the block not to flood in last year’s 5 inch rain storm or the wiring leading to that 70 amp panel is up to date or the 20 something year old furnace has never given them a lick of trouble or it is okay to have the garage built over a gas line, no harm done.

As a seller you don’t need a Realtor because buyers always can afford your property, just ask them. Of course it helps if you drop your expectations to what they can afford; after all, they really need the property. And by the way if there is a delay in financing, it is always the bank’s fault. There should be more sellers willing to rent to own anyway or prices are way too high here compared to where they are coming from.

Yep, you don’t need a Realtor, anybody can do this job.

McClelland Minute - February 7, 2010

Vern McClelland — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:22:00 GMT

Demographic Trends That Will Influence Real Estate

A college professor once said at a conference I attended that if you want to predict the future, seek to acknowledge the past and understand the present. This particularly applies to changes in population within our region and the country as a whole.

Immigrants will continue to shape Canada as it has been the practice for the past three hundred years. Our country needs more labour than it can presently raise on its own, so we invite hardworking peoples from offshore. Many will stay to raise their families and further create multi-cultural societies in our communities. Personally, as a grandson of immigrants, I believe this will only make us all stronger. Many of these families live together in multi-generation households and prefer to cluster with others of similar nationality. I am always impressed by their willingness to sacrifice in order to get that first home, even if sometimes they don’t have the means to furnish properly at the outset.

Baby boomers, age 55 +, are still making an impact by downsizing from their large suburban homes into one or even two smaller condos. They don’t seem afraid to pick up and move either, sometimes to be closer to family, or warmer climates. Friends of mine retired from their jobs in Saskatoon, bought a new ranch style home on a golf course in Phoenix, and kept their modest cabin at the lake. They think they have the best of both worlds and maybe they do.

Some in this age bracket however feel trapped by the market downturn, the need to continue working, or health issues. Too many look at their spouse, see nothing in common, and decide to call it quits. This often creates deep divisions within families and lifelong friends, making for an unhappy entry into the “golden age”. As single income individuals the attainment of suitable housing becomes quite difficult adding further stress into their life.

The age 35 + group is probably the most difficult to pin down in my mind. They are either aggressively using real estate to build wealth or have settled into a comfortable setting with no plans for changing their home in the future. The traders see each house simply as a step to the next bigger / newer one with the goal of increased equity each time. Their counterparts are more likely to steadily pay down the mortgage on the family home, like their parents did before them, and become committed to a neighbourhood or community.

This, of course leaves the twenty somethings. What a dynamic crew. They have a pretty clear idea about how to get what they want. They have been raised to be self-sufficient; after all if you need information, just google it or ask your network of friends. When they are searching for that first home, technology and people behind it must respond quickly or they will move on. This age group is setting the pace in real estate in a very real way, the others are watching and learning.

As Realtors we serve them all. Each demographic brings something to the table – enthusiasm, wisdom, experience, values. I wouldn’t have it any other way.