Aerial View of Phase One at the resort

Budget facelifts that add value to your home | The Chronicle Herald

Budget facelifts that add value to your home | The Chronicle Herald

Plans for Christmas?

As an owner at Lake McGregor Country Estates, did you know that you could book part of the clubhouse for a Christmas party? Have friends and/or family out, got for a swim, play some pool, and maybe do some dancing, enjoying the facilities. Call management to check for available dates and times.

It's beginning to look alot like.....

Old man winter rolled into Lake McGregor Country Estates this past week and welcomed us all to the season! We all knew the storm was coming and, yes, the weather guy got it right - we got a dump of snow! Talking with a local RCMP member, the snow plows were out at 2am, clearing the highways, laying down whatever they lay down to make it not so icy. The morning of the snowfall was a little quiet. The residents that were still at the resort slowly started the whole shoveling show thing. Management had their snow removal equipment in high gear. I was out a day or so after the storm and saw a few good sized drifts up against the sides of some RVs. Yes, winter has arrived! Then again, the forecast is for plus 6 degrees and higher starting Monday or so. Thank you chinook winds! As far as sales go at the resort, we are in to the slower time of the year. We have had one or two people asking about the resort this past week. I also am working on listing a foreclosure property, a cottage, and hope to have that on the market by this time next week. Not exactly the best time to be marketing a property at the lake, but a couple of years ago, I sold two properties on what I am guessing was the coldest day of the year! Thus, we keep moving forward.

Winterizing

The sun has had a busy summer and does not get up as early as it did what seems like only weeks ago. The leaves are falling... The weather guy has started talking PLUS degrees and MINUS degrees. I guess this means that winter is coming. We have had a really nice summer. We were not drenched in rain. We did not really have many windy days, but when we did get the wind, we REALLY got the wind! Anyhow, it's time to get units winterized. For those owners who live at the lake full time, it's just classified as a fall clean-up. But for those other RV and cottage owners, it's time to get ready for the freeze! A good start is to make arrangements with management to get the water shut off at the curb. RV antifreeze is a must. And make sure you have your "stuff" cleaned up and stored away in your unit or shed, such as lawn chairs, awnings, toys, and more. We all know that the wind CAN come up and make a mess so best to plan ahead. One more thing that I suggest is to let your neighbors and management know your plans for the winter season, and leave them your contact information in case they need to get in touch with you. And remember, the resort is open year round so if you get a chance to come out this winter, you can still go for a swim in the clubhouse pool, and enjoy the other facilities inside. Enjoy!

Go figure!

So much for my theory about the weather and the recreational real estate market. We had a mild winter so I figured that we would be having a busy spring at Lake McGregor Country Estates. Nope. We did sell a few places, but not as many as we would have liked. Then August rolled around. Last month of the summer season. Who is going to buy anything now? Well, with one or two properties selling per week, I would say that there are quite a few people who were looking at buying themselves some recreational property. We had a prime lake view cottage lot that we almost had multiple offers on. We also sold a couple of the larger lots we had for sale, and two interior lots. Those lots were picked as they were close to the playground and clubhouse. We even had an RV with lot sell. Most of the sales were bargains. That is why they sold now compared to one year ago. Sellers were holding out for more one year ago, but now some just wanted to cut their loses and get the sale done. It worked for them, and it worked out good for the new owners. There are still more places to sell though. Still more sellers anxious to see me with an offer to purchase in my hands to show them. With a warmer than average fall predicted, do I see the market staying strong? If my spring prediction is any indication of my theories, I think I should just keep my mouth shut! Zip!

Whether we are reading a newspaper, listening to the radio, or watching the news on television, we are thrown all sorts of information to filter through, some good, some bad, some we just have to decide on our own where to classify it. We see stuff on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, blogs and more and it is up to each and everyone of us to decide what we are going to believe as true, and what we think is a "bunch of balogne". This past week the news has been reporting that the Canadian housing market is going to take a down turn. "There is going to be a 10% drop in housing prices over the next few years." "There is going to be a market correction, as prices have doubled in the last 10 years or so." I wonder if everyone caught the fine print in the story that this is the forecast for Toronto and Vancouver. In particular, this is going to reflect their condo market. The question then is, what about the rest of the country? Canada is the second largest country in the world. We have several different time zones, different weather climates, oceans on three sides, with prairies, mountains, rocks, trees, and more in between. It seems to me that it would be a bit of a challenge to paint the real estate market of Canada with just one brush. Here is my two cents. You can take it or leave it. I have no money back guarantee with my predictions. These are just my thoughts on my local real estate market: During the last housing boom, the smaller towns and villages lagged behind the bigger centers such as Calgary and Edmonton. We did get a boom too (on a much smaller scale of course), but it was a year or so after the cities took off. When the cities started to cool down, we cooled down too, but after the cities had already started their cool down. I will compare this to the big brother little brother scenario. Little brother wants to grow up to be like big brother, but he is still little brother and it will take time to catch up to his older sibling. The older sibling already has life experience, and other resources to move him along. The little brother will need some time to build up his resources, get his name out there, for him to catch up. The cities already have a large population base to work with, unlike the smaller towns and villages, with established businesses and room to grow. Meanwhile, small towns and villages have to fight to get businesses to come to town. I could go on and on with that predicament, but I will stop there for now. I hope you got my point. The little guys and just a couple of steps behind the big guys. That's life. That is the challenge that smaller communities face compared to the larger ones. As Lake McGregor Country Estates is recreational property market, let's check it out for a minute. There are lots of properties for sale and have been for a while. Same goes for Little Bow Resort, and other recreational properties in Alberta. Recreational properties are not high on people's priority list in a slower economy. This market usually lags behind the residential market, just like the small town are behind the cities. As those markets pick up, the recreational property market will be picking up shortly afterwards. It is a challenge. It has always been a challenge, and it will be a challenge in the future. Small town living has it's ups and downs. So does living in the city. So does recreational property. And now back to the point of this little rant of mine. When you hear a story on the news, or read it somewhere, do your homework before you decide to turn on the panic button. Get the facts. Make up your own mind...and take it from there.