All Blog Entries by Call Centre

Any time a landlord rents out an apartment, he is taking a risk. If he gets the wrong type of tenant, his asset could be virtually destroyed. When you are asked to provide a security deposit it will cover any damages that you may make to the apartment when you are living there.

The Protections For Your Security Deposit in Albertan Rental Properties

Just as a landlord has recourse against tenants who damage rental property, tenants enjoy reasonable expectation that their security deposits will be held in trust and returned promptly. By law, a landlord may require no more than one month's rent as a security deposit, and it must be retained in a designated trust account. The deposit cannot be retained without justifiable cause, and final

It has been difficult to find rental properties across the city of Calgary during the last year. With so many people looking for a unit and so little available, it can become quite a desperate situation if you're looking for a place to rent. Unfortunately, some underhanded people are taking advantage of this desperation and are running a rental scam on Kijiji.

Rental Scams Are On the Rise in Calgary

The RCMP is warning consumers to watch out for a scam that will encourage you to pay for a damage deposit for a rental property that's completely fictitious. Scammers are placing pictures of houses on the Red Deer and Calgary Kijiji classified ads websites and advertising them as rental units.

If you respond to the ad, the people at the other

All jokes aside, a dual-master is about bedrooms and bathrooms. Not about who's in charge at home. Dual-masters are becoming more popular and satisfy a particular niche in Calgary's housing market.

There is a cross-section of the population for which a traditional three-bedroom home doesn't quite work. Dual masters can be a great alternative, with bedroom/bathroom configurations that work well in smaller homes such as townhomes and condominiums.

What is a Dual Master Home?

A dual master home is a home with two master bedrooms, each with their own ensuite and frequently their own walk-in closets. They often take that extra square footage that would have been a third bedroom and instead make a second master bedroom so people can be accommodated

Baby boomers are getting older and greatly influence the housing trends here in Calgary and across Canada. The largest increase in birth numbers since 1921 took place in 1945 and 1946, which was the beginning of the baby-boom. It ended in 1964 and 1965. This means that there were approximately 20 years of increased birth amounts and these babies are now in their late 40s - 60s.

There were more than 8.2 million babies born during this time period. If you average that out it's about 412,000 births yearly. During the same time women were averaging 3.7 children each while in recent years the number has decreased to 1.7. The 2011 Census figures showed that approximately 3/10 Canadians were baby boomers.

How Baby Boomers Affect Real Estate Trends

Calgary land is becoming more and more popular as house prices continue to rise and the dream of owning a home becomes more and more difficult for young people. One of the alternatives to buying a home is to purchase a piece of land as an investment opportunity.

Just like a home, Calgary land will rise in price over the years. It is at the bottom of the chain in real estate, but it is still an excellent option if you just need to get started.

Building On The Land

Some people just don't have enough disposable income coming in to set aside enough savings to make a big purchase all at once. If you decide to build a home on the land, you can do it in stages per your budget. You can do a lot of the work yourself if you're handy to keep the costs

Something that a lot of people don't take into account when they are selling their homes is their children's safety. You are going to be having a lot of strangers walking through your home in the next few weeks or months and your children's safety should always be a top concern.

Here are some tips that you should follow to keep your children safe when you are selling your home.

Make Sure Buyers Have a Real Estate Agent

If somebody walks up to your home and knocks on your door for a viewing, let them know that you want to talk to their real estate agent first. You can ask for their agent's number while they wait and you can give them a call. This will let you know whether they are really a person in the market for a new home. If you still feel

While a lot of young buyers are looking for new modern homes, there are still many that are looking for the unique characteristics that can only be found in an older home. In order to make your home more appealing to the younger crowd, here are some great suggestions that can certainly help you out.

Get A Home Inspection

One of the things that the younger buyers are going to fear most is the amount of repairs and maintenance that will be required for the home. You can put their fears to rest by getting a home inspection done on your own and then handing out a copy of it to prospective buyers. As a seller, you'll also find out ahead of time whether there is anything pressing that should be done on your home before it's put on the market.

Offer

If you're in the market for a new condo you have most likely seen ads stating that you must be of a certain age to live there. For example, you might have seen a condo building that only accepts residents that are 50 years of age or older. If you are 49 years old and know that your birthday is coming up in 6 months, you may think that you might be accepted even though you haven't officially reached the bi-centennial mark yet. Unfortunately, you'll have to prove that you have reached the required age in order to be accepted as a resident in that condo.

Age Restrictions in Condos

Condominium corporations are legally allowed to set age restrictions. When you run into these age restrictions, they have been set up as a bylaw for a particular reason,

There are home decorators and there are interior designers. While anyone can call themselves a decorator, an interior design title is earned through a degree. A designer can get down into the nitty-gritty of planning extensive changes in your home while a decorator can work with the existing space on a more superficial level. This is why an interior decorator generally charges a lot more.

The Role of a Home Designer

When you have a large project that you're working with there is a process behind the designer's job. Plans can include a schematic design, the design development, documents for construction, bidding for the building project and administering the construction. All or only some of these design stages may be necessary depending on the

October is often a busy month, and people can easily find Halloween fast approaching without a clue of what to do. It can be hard to start decorating without some inspiration, but the following ideas can help get the process started. Consider a few easy and affordable ideas to make a home ready for trick-or-treaters.

Select a Theme

There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Many themes used for Halloween parties can be used throughout the interior and exterior of a home. Traditional Halloween ideas can include references to a scary movie or book, vampires, witches, werewolves and more.

Those with young children may want to dial down the gruesome factor for a more wholesome celebration. The look of a spooky abandoned house can be achieved with