Lights, Camera, Action: Our new Office Space and Sign! The Apple will be lighting up the intersection of 149st and 87ave avenue with its lime green hues and bright cheery disposition. Surely THE shiniest APPLE on the block 🙂

We are busy renovating the inside…it will be a killer design – complete with all LED pot lighting, windows in and out of every office, barn style rolling glass doors for the board room, fab conference/networking stations: including our funky coffee bar and ‘bunker’ ….all wrapped in a shagoliscious “Austin Powers” inspired decor (k – minus the shag carpet though 🙂 ) Here is a sneak peek:

Additional “AGENT 101” Articles…

Additional “Edmonton Realtor: KENNEDY Real Estate” Articles…

Jennifer Kennedy
Broker | Owner

KENNEDY Real Estate
Your Edmonton REALTOR® | Edmonton Home Stager

Call us today…780-485-3010 and GET SOLD!
Area Specialists | Lifestyle Marketing

REALTORS® : Looking for a great Team environment to grow your business…see our Brokerage Model for info on how to make that happen!

Additional “AGENT 101” Articles…

Additional “Edmonton Realtor: KENNEDY Real Estate” Articles…

Jennifer Kennedy
Broker | Owner

KENNEDY Real Estate
Your Edmonton REALTOR® | Edmonton Home Stager

Call us today…780-485-3010 and GET SOLD!
Area Specialists | Lifestyle Marketing

REALTORS® : Looking for a great Team environment to grow your business…see our Brokerage Model for info on how to make that happen!

St. Albert Spa Sink

Has it been a long day at work, have the tasks of the day wipped you out?  There is no other  cure than this awesome Luxury Spa in St.  Albert.  They treat you absolutely phenominal there.  I have been going  to have my nails done with Bonnie for some time now, and she  is the best.  Recently I  had a pedicure that was  equally awesome.   When you need to treat yourself, this is the place to go.  Gelous Nails is conveniently located downtown St. Albert, (#102, 5 Perron Street) and they have their own PARKING in the parkade.   Your husband has come home,   the little ones are fed and settled and  you need some time for yourself.  For your next R & R this is the place to go in St. Albert.   There is no better time than now for you to relax.  Book your appointment at Gelous Nails and  jump in the car  and off you go to this awesome spa in downtown St. Albert. If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit  Gelous Nails yet, put it on your bucket list.

As soon as I open the door to Gelous Nails I know that I will  be treated like never before.  Gelous Nails Estehetics Studio provides the highest standards of service, whether it is a nail treatment, pedicure, waxing or hair services.  St. Albert is a community that offers many awesome services, restaurants, walking trails, schools, and real estate.

www.liveinstalbert.com

Additional “Anna’s Advice” Articles…

Here are the pro’s and con’s of using an increased deposit from both the buyers and sellers point of view.

Seller: From a Seller’s point of view an increased deposit reflects the seriousness and sincerity of the buyers efforts in securing the deal. His good faith in proceeding with the deal.

Buyer:  From a buyer’s point of view, it may give them an edge over a competing buyer’s offer in a multiple offer situation.

Negative: only to a Buyer – if they remove all of their conditions – and then decide to back out of the deal – in which case their deposit would be forfeited.

Generally speaking the sellers want to be assured that the buyer is serious and sincere about the offer and seeing it through to possession. The size of the deposit is a litmus test for a buyers sincerity to see the offer through to completion. In addition the seller will be taking their home off the market – whilst the property is waiting for possession. If the buyer is not able to fulfill the terms of the contract (after all conditions have been met) then the deposit is often times the only recourse a seller will receive.

Additional “AGENT 101” Articles…

Additional “Edmonton Realtor: KENNEDY Real Estate” Articles…

Jennifer Kennedy
Broker | Owner

KENNEDY Real Estate
Your Edmonton REALTOR® | Edmonton Home Stager

Call us today…780-485-3010 and GET SOLD!
Area Specialists | Lifestyle Marketing

REALTORS® : Looking for a great Team environment to grow your business…see our Brokerage Model for info on how to make that happen!

I have told this story a number of times but I think it bares repeating because it encompasses the essence of any successful business relationship.

My Father has over the years given me some pretty useful advice. He ran a successful Law practice in his day, that thrived on repeat business: referrals. However, alot of these referrals he had never met before. As you can imagine a Lawyer – not unlike a Realtor – client relationship involves a two way trust understanding.

My Father would always start off the conversation with something like this:
“You don’t know me from Adam, and I don’t know you from Adam. You have to trust me because you have no other choice and I have to trust you because I have no other choice. As long as we understand that – we can move mountains together. If we don’t , we can’t put one foot in front of another.”

Trust is  fundamental in any relationship. Once you can establish that with your clients – and for your clients to understand that you require that of them too- there begins a successful journey.

I have often shared this story with my clients – yup – and they were referrals I had not met before…thanks Dad.

Additional “AGENT 101” Articles…

Additional “Edmonton Realtor: KENNEDY Real Estate” Articles…

Jennifer Kennedy
Broker | Owner

KENNEDY Real Estate
Your Edmonton REALTOR® | Edmonton Home Stager

Call us today…780-485-3010 and GET SOLD!
Area Specialists | Lifestyle Marketing

REALTORS® : Looking for a great Team environment to grow your business…see our Brokerage Model for info on how to make that happen!

Anthony Henday Drive - photo curtesy of www.top100projects.ca

WOW! Once you have driven on the extension of the Anthony Henday Drive, you will be impressed. Having the privilege of driving from St. Albert to Clareview in less than 15 minutes I thought about how many more minutes I will gain on my day by NOT sitting in my car.

This is one impressive stretch of highway.  Smooth sailing all the way.  This ring road is one of Edmonton to St. Albert’s quickest routes.  From Edmonton to St. Albert you have 3 exits that will take you right into St. Albert, from the West, Central and East.  What more could a person ask for?  Direct access to St. Albert’s wonderful community  and all that it has to offer:  homes, schools, recreation, restaurants, shopping and much more.

www.liveinstalbert.com

Additional “Anna’s Advice” Articles…

Additional “Edmonton Realtor: KENNEDY Real Estate” Articles…

You may be faced with a number of challenges when selling a home on your own. Granted some homes actually do sell on their own (for sale by owner). The problem is – the stats are against you…
1. When you are selling on your own – you are basically waiting for a buyer to call you directly. This would be the same chances that a Realtor has of ‘double ending’ a sale – which amounts to the same thing – he or she gets a call directly from a buyer. The stats for this happening on MLS listed properties is less than 5%. Meaning that 95% of all sales comes through another buyer agent. SO – basically you are waiting for the same thing – a buyer to call you directly…..
2. When it comes right down to it – there are some homes that are just destined to sell on the MLS system. This could simply be that the demographic attracted to this type of home – prefers to work with a REALTOR®, or they are just not comfortable dealing with the owner directly. Or for more expensive homes – buyers are alittle more resistant or hesitant dealing either without representation or the owner directly.
3. The other resounding reason is really quite obvious: there are around ~3000 hungry Edmonton area REALTOR®’s all motivated to bring buyers through the door. This is quite a herd of sales people working on your behalf. Once a REALTOR® posts a property on line – it gets put into the general MLS mix and is open to all 3000 REALTOR®’S to help sell it. When you are selling on your own – you do not have this force working on your behalf. And keep in mind even with that force behind you – sometimes it still takes a while to sell. I can’t imagine how much longer it would take to sell that same property privately.

KENNEDY Real Estate understands that everybody has different needs for selling and a variety of methods to sell their property. The above is by no means a comprehensive list – but probably the most compelling.

** Please Note: At KENNEDY Real Estate, we offer a competitive (full) Buyer’s agent commission. After all – if 95% of all sales are brought in by the Buyers Agent -we certainly like to thank them with competitive compensation.

Jennifer Kennedy

Broker/Owner

KENNEDY Real Estate

Need to get YOUR home sold…click here.

Did you  know about our Staging Services?

These are before and after pictures of a unit that needed a total overhaul after the tenants moved out…well some of their stuff anyway…

Yikes! Its hard to believe that some people live this way…hoarding their lives away. This unit was rented out to seemingly nice folks. But they had a secret problem: they liked to collect things…lots and lots of things. Sadly, none of which included a garbage bag or a hanger or a plate to help with the ‘management’ of the ‘collection’.

How do you prevent such destruction from spiraling out of control as a Landlord? Well among other things: regular or ‘seasonal’ inspections of the property – to check on the furnace, water leaks or to complete any seasonal maintenance work. These ‘check ups’ will help keep your renters in check and ‘collections’ at bay.

In addition, the 24hr required notice to enter will not give enough time for cigarette smoke smell to dissipate. This is potentially even worse than hoarding because cigarette smoke attaches to everything and goes into the attic – causing lots and lots of work for you to repair.

Landlord and Tenant mantra: ” I’ll be good to you – you (renter) be good to me and together we will live happily ever after.”

Watch for the next article in the series : How to Find and Interview for Good Tenants

Jennifer Kennedy

Broker/Owner

KENNEDY Real Estate

Want to learn more about investment properties or properties with hidden potential contact us today!

See more Before and Afters here

St. Albert’s well known Red Willow Trail is 70 KM of strolling encounter. The trails take you along the Sturgeon River where you are able to revel in the excellence of the four seasons. Red Willow Park runs the full length of the river valley and connects to the man neighborhoods throughout the 70KM of trails. Find our excellent outside! St. Albert is one of the prettiest little metropolises in Canada with the abundance of green space, strolling trails, and parks. For more information on St. Albert call your Area Specialist .. Anna Bayne and she will find you some hidden gems in St. Albert.

www.liveinstalbert.com

Additional “Anna’s Advice” Articles…

Okay – SO this blog post may offend some folks – well perhaps alot of folks. I guess that all depends on YOUR voicemail and the recipients of your message. I will not take total credit for this rant – for it was a summer read of Jeffrey Gitomer’s ” Little Red Book of Selling” that gave me the encouragement to change things up alittle, think outside the box when it came to among other things – voicemail.

Does this sound familiar:

“Hi – You’ve reach Joe Kalupchuck, from ABC Realty. I’m either on the phone, with clients or driving right now. Please leave a message and I will return your call just as soon as I am able. Or for immediate assistance please call 780-trunk-number and have me paged. Thank you and have a nice day”.

Or same as above – but it starts with “Hi – You’ve reached Joe Kalupchuk, from ABC Realty. Your call is important to me….” blah blah blah same as above ending.

First off – the person who is calling you – really does not have the time nor the interest in ALL the things your are doing besides answering your phone. This is irrelevant to the caller – and takes waaaay too much time to listen to.

Second of all – you said you would return their call – but then you say ‘for immediate assistance call…’  Why? Why should your  caller call your trunk/pager number when it goes straight back to your phone that you (just) did not answer. Are we going in circles or what? Or are you saying that only if a person PAGES you, that you will return their call? Otherwise they take their chances on you taking your time returning your cell phone calls? Why should they get IMMEDIATE assistance if they have to hang up and call again and leave another message. Gosh wouldn’t it be MUCH faster if you told them to just leave you a message on your cell phone and you’ll return it asap. We all know that trunk/pager numbers go to your cell phone as well. It just seems so redundant to tell someone to hang up and call again for immediate assistance. When in fact that it is NOT immediate and in reality it would be much faster just to leave a message on your cell phone or text you? No?

Thirdly – ‘have a nice day’, ‘your call is important to me’ ‘I’m either on the phone, with clients, buying shoes, out to dinner,walking the dog…’ whatever – this is all useless info to your caller. Your caller is trying to get a hold of  YOU or leave YOU a message. Don’t assume your caller has all the time in the world to listen to all that useless information. Sorry – but its true. And especially if you have 10 bookings to make and all the Realtors have the same loooong voicemail….oooiiiigh. Not fun.

Lastly – as in the words of Jeffrey Gitomer – your voicemail is your voice to the world. Leave an imprint on all who call you. This is your chance to leave an impression that goes waaay beyond the sound of the beep (oh yah – that’s another useless tidbit – leave a message at the sound of the beep – really – really NO!). Give someone a reason to smile and  say “that was a really cool message – that is someone I could work with” or give them a reason to spread the love…’hey Susie , I called this Realtor, Joe Kalupchuck , and he had this really cool voicemail message…’ Get it? Got it. Good.

Happy Voice Mailing!

p.s. “Hi – You’ve reached Jennifer Kennedy. I’m out selling homes right now. With four teenagers to feed and two in braces, rest assured I’ll get back to you shortly. thank you!”

Additional “AGENT 101” Articles…

Jennifer Kennedy
Broker | Owner

KENNEDY Real Estate
Your Edmonton REALTOR® | Edmonton Home Stager

Call us today…780-485-3010 and GET SOLD!
Area Specialists | Lifestyle Marketing

REALTORS® : Looking for a great Team environment to grow your business…see our Brokerage Model for info on how to make that happen!