Sold In Varsity, NW Calgary
#203, 3727 42 Street NW
They had never met us. They lived in another province. They hired us from a photograph of a lawn sign they had taken two years earlier, to sell their father’s investment property. Forty two days, and a gorgeous result they could see from a long way away.
The Part We’ll Say Out Loud
They Hired Us From A Photograph Of A Sign.
In 2020 we listed a one bedroom condo on this street. Somebody walked past it, looked at how the listing was being handled, and took a photograph of our lawn sign. They were not selling anything. They lived in another province. There was no conversation, no enquiry, and no reason for us to ever hear from them.
Two years later they called. Their father owned an investment property a few doors along at 3727, and it was time to sell it. They had kept that photograph the whole time.
That is a lot of trust to hand to someone you have never met, sight unseen, from a thousand kilometres away, over a property that is not even your own home. It also means every part of this sale had to be run remotely, for owners who could not drop in to check on any of it.
Forty two days is not fast, and we are not going to dress it up. What matters here is that it started with a photograph nobody asked anyone to take.
Selling A Family Owned Rental
A Parent’s Investment Property Is Two Decisions, Not One.
There is the property decision, which is ordinary: what it is worth, how it shows, when to list. Then there is the family decision underneath it, which is rarely ordinary, because the person who bought the property and the people now selling it are not the same people, and they do not always want the same thing from it.
Add distance and it gets harder again. Owners in another province cannot walk the unit, cannot meet the trades, and cannot form their own view of how it is showing. Everything they know about their own property arrives through their agent, which puts a weight on the reporting that a local seller never quite feels.
So the job is to be the eyes: what the feedback actually said, what the competing units are doing, what we would change and what we would leave alone. Not a weekly summary that says everything is fine. The real picture, on time, whether or not it is the picture anybody wanted.
2020 To 2022
The Listing That Earned This One.
The condo they were watching was #401, 3717 42 Street NW. It was a 662 square foot investment unit, listed in 2020, and it did not sell the first time. We took it off, relisted it, and it went firm in twenty days.
What the neighbours saw was not the outcome. They could not have known the outcome. What they saw was how a small condo was being treated: professional photography, a full video tour, a proper sign, the same effort a house would get.
Every listing is an advertisement for how you would handle somebody else’s. Do a thin job on a small condo and that is on display for the whole street, for as long as the sign is up.
The Home
What Buyers Walked Into.
- 1,121 sq ft RMS, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, in Varsity, northwest Calgary
- Held as an investment property, sold on behalf of owners living out of province
- Considerably larger than the one bedroom units in the same pocket, which changes the buyer entirely
- Minutes to Market Mall, the University of Calgary, Foothills Hospital and the Alberta Children’s Hospital
- Established northwest Calgary, with Crowchild Trail and the Dalhousie CTrain close by
Varsity Calgary Real Estate
Two Buildings, One Street, Different Markets.
These two sales are a few doors apart on the same street, and they were not the same job at all. A 662 square foot one bedroom sells to an investor or a first time buyer. A 1,121 square foot two bedroom sells to somebody who intends to live there properly, often a downsizer or a couple who want Varsity without a house.
Same postal code, same year built era, same walk to Market Mall. Completely different buyer, completely different pace. That is the thing worth knowing before anybody quotes you a community average.
Selling A Property From Another Province?
Whether it is a rental, a family property or a home you have moved away from, you will get the real picture on a schedule you can rely on, including the parts that are not going to plan. Distance should cost you nothing but the flight you do not have to take.
Tara Molina Real Estate Group · Royal LePage Benchmark · 403.809.4639