Calgary, Alberta Residential Real Estate Appraisals

Benchmark Residential Real Estate Appraisals Alberta service area encompasses more than 34,000 square kilometers! This region includes the Calgary metropolitan area and nine rural municipalities immediately surrounding the City of Calgary. These municipalities include Rocky View County, MD of Bighorn, Foothills County, Mountain View County, Kneehill County, Wheatland County, Vulcan County, MD of Willow Creek, and the Kananaskis Improvement District.

Calgary Residential Real Estate Appraisals

Residential real estate property in the context of appraisal practice includes property types such as detached residences, residential acreages, semi-detached residences, condominium apartments and townhomes, single-family dwellings containing secondary suites, duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes.

Reasons for Requesting a Residential Real Estate Appraisal

Residential Ownership Types

Often the ownership type determines which residential real estate appraisal method is applicable.

Fee Simple

Typically, fee simple property ownership enables the residential appraiser to undertake both the sales comparison approach and the cost approach.

Condominiums

In the case of conventional condominium ownership, the sales comparison approach is often used exclusively. In Alberta, there are three types of condominium property ownership types:

Conventional Condominiums

In a Conventional condominium project, the building is divided into units and the outside of the units is designated as common property. Usually, the unit boundary definition is as set forth in Section 9 (1) of the Condominium Property Act which is the unit consists of the finishing material and inwards in the unit. Unless the plan states otherwise, all doors and windows of a unit that are located on the exterior walls of the unit are part of the common property.

Bare Land Condominiums

In a Bare Land condominium project, units are created from the land. There may or may not be buildings on the units. An owner of a Bare Land unit owns everything that is built upon such a unit including all parts of the building, decks, patios, driveways, etc.

Barely Blended Condominiums

These types of plans are a combination of Bare Land and Conventional. Initially, a Bare Land condominium plan is registered which creates larger building envelopes. The Developer then builds a building on such envelope and re-divides the Bare Land unit into Conventional condominium units. Usually, this type of project is used for an Apartment project in which there are several buildings and the Developer only wishes to build one building at a time. This type of project allows the Developer informally to phase the project.

Bare land condominiums can often be appraised utilizing both the cost approach and the sales comparison approach. It is an appraiser’s responsibility to determine the condominium type and properly employ appropriate methodologies.

Residential Real Estate Appraisal Methodologies Brochure | Free Download

Learn more about the approaches to value in the context of residential real estate appraisals. Download the Residential Teal Estate Appraisal Methodologies brochure PDF.

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Acreage Real Estate Appraisals

Rural residential properties often referred to as acreages have parcel areas greater than typical urban lots. Generally, parcel size ranges from 1 to 10 acres with some hobby farms ranging up to 40 acres.

Rural living offers more room to roam, privacy, views and opportunity to pursue hobbies. Outbuildings such as shops or barns can add to the pursuit of favorite pass times. However, acreage living can present some challenges as well. Water wells, septic systems, and access, especially during the winter, can add challenges to the seemingly ideal setting.

For the real estate appraiser, acreages present challenges in the real estate appraisal too. There are many different factors to consider when determining the property value of an acreage, such as land features, landscaping, land size, location, services, access, size of the acreage, and more. Shops, barns, hay sheds and other outbuildings add to the complexity of acreage real estate appraisals. Further, the unique characteristics of each property make the comparable selection more difficult, especially in combination with scarce data.

Experience and substantial research are required to successfully complete an acreage real estate appraisal. Our real estate appraisers are diligent in that research, thorough in the analysis of data, very skilled, and experienced in the production of high-quality acreage appraisals. Tools available to our real estate appraisers including cost estimators developed for the rural market which aid in the valuation of outbuildings. Our rural land database has been developed and maintained to provide the real estate appraiser with land data not available through sources such as MLS. You can expect our acreage real estate appraisal to be thorough, informative and detailed, and most importantly, accurate in context with current market conditions.

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Other Appraisal Services

Benchmark Appraisals service region includes the cities of Calgary and Airdrie and several counties, towns, villages, and hamlets including, but not limited to: