Calgary buyers and sellers often ask me about Real Property Reports (RPRs) and title insurance, and I think a lot of buyers and even some agents treat RPR and title insurance as interchangeable. They are not. One tells you what you are actually buying. The other just pays you if something goes wrong.

A Real Property Report is a survey, done by an Alberta Land Surveyor, that shows exactly where the house, garage, deck, fence, and any other structures sit on the lot. Once the survey is complete, the municipality reviews it and stamps it compliant, or it points out where it is not. If a fence is over the property line, or a shed sits in a utility easement, or an addition was never permitted, an RPR is what brings that to light. You find out before you own it, not after.

Title insurance does none of that. It is a policy. If a boundary problem or a title defect ever costs you money down the road, the policy pays a claim. That is genuinely useful, and I am not against it. But it does not identify anything, and it does not fix anything. It compensates you for a risk you already agreed to take on.

That is the distinction I keep coming back to. An RPR eliminates the risk, or at least tells you clearly what the risk is so you can deal with it before closing. Title insurance just helps you pay for the risk after the fact. One is prevention. The other is compensation.

This matters at the negotiating table too. When a seller does not provide a current RPR, buyers are right to expect something in return, whether that is a reduced price or the seller covering the cost of a new survey. You are being asked to accept an unknown, insured or not, and that unknown has value. I have seen buyers accept title insurance without asking for anything back, and I think that is a mistake. If you are the one absorbing the risk, you should be the one who benefits from the discount.

My background is in construction, over 30 years of it, and it changes what I notice when I walk a property. A fence line that looks newer than the rest of the yard. Siding on an addition that does not quite match. A deck that sits close enough to the property line to raise a question. It does not replace a survey. It just tells me when it is worth insisting on one.

If you are buying or selling a home in Calgary and are not sure which way to go on this, I am happy to walk through it with you directly.

Shane Edlund
REALTOR®, CIR Realty
403-827-7809 | sedlund@cirrealty.ca

Here is the part of a Calgary property assessment most homeowners never check. If the City has your home assessed higher than it should be, you are paying more property tax than your fair share, and you can do something about it.

Start with what your assessment actually is, because it explains how this happens. Your assessment is the City of Calgary's estimate of what your home would have sold for on July 1 of the previous year. The notice you open in January of 2027 is built on the market as it stood back on July 1 of 2026. It is also produced by mass appraisal, which means the City groups similar homes together and values them with a model instead of looking at yours specifically. That keeps the system consistent across hundreds of thousands of properties, but it misses everything that makes your home different.

That is exactly where homes get assessed too high. The model does not know that a renovation was lower quality than it looks on paper, that there are foundation or moisture issues, that an addition was never permitted, or that the roof and mechanical systems are near the end of their life. With over 30 years in residential construction behind me before I moved into real estate, these are the details I look for, and they are the details a model cannot see. When they get missed, your number ends up higher than your home warrants.

Here is why that costs you. Property tax works by dividing the City's total bill across every property, so what you pay comes down to your assessment compared to everyone else's. If your home is assessed higher than genuinely comparable homes around you, you are carrying more of the load than you should. Bring that number back in line and your tax bill comes down with it.

The good news is that checking costs nothing and the process is more approachable than most people expect. Every assessment notice opens what the City calls a Customer Review Period, which runs for roughly 67 days after the notices go out in January. The deadline is printed right on the front of your notice, so look for it first. Then call Assessment directly at 403.268.2888 and ask about your property. If there is a plain error, say the City has your square footage wrong or credits you with an amenity you do not have, they can often correct it on the spot. If you cannot resolve it that way and you still believe the number is too high, you can file a formal complaint with the Calgary Assessment Review Board, an independent body that hears these disputes. There is a filing fee, shown on your notice.

What wins these cases is evidence, not the feeling that your number looks high. That means comparable sales from around that July 1 date and the assessments of similar homes near you. It is also worth knowing the Board can leave your assessment where it is or even raise it, so the smart move is to look at the evidence before you file, not after. If the comparables show your assessment is out of line, you have a real case. If they show it is fair, you have saved yourself the trouble.

This is where I can help. What I can do is pull the comparable sales from around the valuation date and the comparable assessments in your area, so you can see quickly whether your number is too high or about right. If it is too high, that same information is the backbone of your case, and if construction quality or condition is part of the story, that is the part I know best.

While I am in there, I will also give you a current home evaluation showing what your Calgary property could sell for today, which is a different number for a different purpose. Knowing both puts you in a stronger position whether you are planning to sell, thinking about your equity, or simply making sure you are not overpaying the City.

If you want me to check whether your assessment is costing you more than it should, reach out any time.

Shane Edlund
REALTOR®, CIR Realty
403-827-7809 | sedlund@cirrealty.ca

Most buyers searching Calgary MLS listings start on Realtor.ca, and it is a fine place to browse. Here is the part nobody tells you though. By the time a listing shows up there, it has already been live on the Calgary MLS, and other buyers have already seen it. In a market where the right home can sell in days, finding it a day or two late is the difference between writing an offer and hearing that it is already gone.

That is why I set my clients up on GoAgent. It runs on the same Calgary MLS feed I use every day, it is free to you, and it puts new homes in your hands the moment they list rather than after the public feed catches up.

Realtor.ca is a step behind, and that step matters

Timing is the whole game. On GoAgent, a new listing reaches you as soon as it hits the MLS. On Realtor.ca, you see it once the public feed catches up, which is slower and less predictable.

The same lag shows up after a home is listed. Price drops, pending sales, and sold prices update faster on GoAgent, right on the map, so you always know what is actually available. On Realtor.ca a home can sit looking active when it is already spoken for, and a pending status is easy to miss.

You also see more. GoAgent shows the full picture on every home, including price history, how many days it has been on the market, and the complete set of listing details. Realtor.ca shows a trimmed public version. When you can see that a house has been sitting for forty days or quietly dropped its price twice, you negotiate from a much stronger position.

Tools built for a real search, not just a scroll

Whether you’re looking for SW Calgary homes for sale or exploring another part of the city, a good search is about spending your time only on homes worth seeing. GoAgent lets you filter by the finer details that actually matter, like lot size, so the listings that reach you are the ones that truly fit. The public filters on Realtor.ca are far more basic.

My favourite feature is the one you use with your feet. When you are driving a neighbourhood you love, you can point your phone camera or your GPS at a house and GoAgent opens that listing for you. No jotting down addresses to look up later. You see it, you tap, you know.

You never miss the one

Set up a saved search once and GoAgent sends you an instant alert the moment a matching home lists. You are not checking a website three times a day and hoping you did not miss something. The app watches the market for you, so the home finds you.

Where over 30 years on job sites comes in

Early access is only half the value. Knowing what you are looking at is the other half.

I spent over 30 years in residential construction before I sold real estate, and it changed the way I walk through a house. The full data on GoAgent tells you the story of a listing, and years on job sites tell me what to check before you fall in love with it. Poly B plumbing, aluminum wiring, grading that pushes water back toward a foundation, a roof near the end of its life, these are the things that never show up in a bright photo but absolutely show up in your future repair bills. So when a home lands in your search, you get more than a fast alert. You get a direct line to me for a showing and an honest take on what that house is really going to cost you to own. On Realtor.ca, you sort all of that out on your own.

Getting set up is simple, and it is free

GoAgent is a free download from Prospects Software. The one thing you need is an access code, and that comes from me. Once you are in, you are searching the same feed I do.

To get your code, request free GoAgent access through my website, or send me a quick text. I will send your access code and get you searching the same day.

Seeing homes first, with someone in your corner who knows how they are built, is exactly the kind of edge a good agent should give you. That is what expert guidance you can count on looks like in practice.

Shane Edlund
REALTOR®, CIR Realty
403-827-7809 | sedlund@cirrealty.ca

If you’re buying a home in Calgary, you’ll hear plenty of advice. People repeat it because it’s easy to say, not necessarily because it’s true. “Renting is throwing money away.” “Real estate is a fast way to build wealth.” “Wait until the headlines say it’s safe.” We hear these lines all the time, and most of them don’t hold up once you look at the actual numbers.

Here’s what the data says, and what I’d tell you if you were sitting across from me.

Myth 1: Renting is throwing money away

Rent isn’t money disappearing. It’s the cost of shelter, and it comes with flexibility and zero repair risk. Ownership comes with mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, maintenance, and sometimes condo fees on top of that. The real comparison isn’t rent versus mortgage payment. It’s rent versus the full cost of owning, including the upfront costs of buying a home. Even the federal government’s mortgage guidance factors in property tax and heating costs alongside the payment itself, not just the payment on its own.

In Calgary right now, the average rent for a row or apartment unit sits around $1,775 a month with vacancy near 5%. That’s not nothing, but it’s also not the trap people make it out to be. If renting is buying you time to save, keeping your options open, or just making more sense for where you’re at, it’s not a mistake. It’s a financial decision like any other.

Myth 2: Real estate is a fast path to wealth

Real estate can build wealth. It’s not fast, and it’s not automatic.

People remember the gain on a sale and forget the carrying costs, the interest, the maintenance, and the years it took to get there. CMHC actually studied this question directly and found no clear evidence that owning a home, on its own, builds more wealth once you account for everything else about a household. People who own tend to have more wealth, but that doesn’t mean the house did it.

I spent over 3 decades in construction, and I can tell you a renovation that looks great can still be a financial loser if you overpaid for it or did it for the wrong reasons. A house is a long-term tool, not a shortcut. It works if you buy sensibly and hold it. It doesn’t work if you’re counting on the market to bail out a bad decision.

Myth 3: Wait for the headlines to say it’s a good time

People wait for rates to drop or the news to sound more reassuring before they act. That feels smart, but a lot of the time it’s just hesitation wearing a strategy’s clothes.

Calgary’s market in 2025 didn’t move as one thing. Detached and semi-detached prices rose. Apartment and row prices fell. The overall benchmark price actually came down about 2% on the year. If you’re waiting for one headline to tell you the whole market is ready, you’re going to be waiting on the wrong signal, because there isn’t one market here, there are several.

The better questions are about you. Are your finances stable? Do you understand what you’ll actually be carrying month to month? Is your timeline long enough to ride out a normal market? If yes, waiting for a headline to feel safe is just costing you time.

Bottom line

None of this is about following a slogan. It’s about knowing your real numbers, your real timeline, and being honest with yourself about both. If you want to talk through where you actually stand, whether that’s buying, selling, or just figuring out what’s realistic, give me a call.

Shane Edlund
REALTOR®, CIR Realty
403-827-7809 | sedlund@cirrealty.ca

Sources: CREB 2025 annual stats, CMHC 2025 Rental Market Survey, CMHC research on homeownership and wealth.