There is a market for buying or selling homes in the Battlefords. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Julia Lovett-Squires

Real Estate

Buying or selling a house? Do your homework first

Apr 23, 2024 | 12:42 PM

Realtor Susan Kramm described a recent broker call she had with other realty executives around the province.

They had been discussing several industry-related items and then they moved on to what their community markets were doing.

“North Battleford is just a direct contrast to everywhere else in the province,” she said, noting there had been a change.

As someone who has been a lifelong resident of the Battlefords, Kramm, who runs Battlefords Real Estate had a theory.

“I think people just aren’t proud to live here anymore,” she said, though added there’s more to the Battlefords than people think.

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“North Battleford has some pretty cool things coming out of here.”

While she pointed out the communities have plenty of groups and organizations people can join, including art clubs, sailing clubs, quilting clubs and more available for those willing to delve in, she said part of the problem was the reputation.

She places the responsibility on the city to clean up its image.

“They could hire some techy person to full time just to promote North Battleford Real-estate does it all the time, that’s all we do.”

Perception problem

Randy Patrick, City Manager for North Battleford agreed.

“We’ve created ourselves some ideas of what we are and they’re not always accurate,” he said.

“We’ve got to get out there and promote ourselves and talk about some of the things we do well and there’s a lot of things we do well.”

He said that there have been some positive signs lately, however, as they have seen a surge in people asking about properties for sale by the city.

“Now, it doesn’t always carry into anything, but we’ve seen a noticeable increase,” he said.

He explained much of its commercial and it’s jumped up in the last four months.

“There’s a lot of hope.”

According to a report from the Saskatchewan Realtors Association (SRA), from March, the total residential benchmark price is $209,000. In Battleford, the benchmark is higher at $252,800.

“What happens is that we flex on real estate, it means that people don’t want to move here because they google it and they think ‘Oh my god, what am I getting into,’” she said.

Wally Lorenz, owner and broker at Re-max of the Battlefords, agreed to a point and acknowledged the perception issue. He also referred to certain recent media reports about community safety though said they are still getting sales.

“This hasn’t turned a tap off,” he said.

“There’s people still wanting to buy property and sell property as well,” he said, noting they had over 70 sales in the previous month and most ranging between $2 to 300,000.

Lorenz explained in fact, February was higher in sales than last year and overall is much higher than in 2022.

“That particular fear factor, mainly it’s for people coming in. Anybody living in the community, they have adjusted to this, they know that these issues are around, they don’t necessarily approve or like what’s going on, obviously,” he said.

Referencing the Crime Severity Index report, Lorenz said it’s “too bad” the numbers are always high because he sees it as a problem in every community – not just the Battlefords.

More than what it seems

“I don’t know if it’s got something to do with the reporting of the type of crime and it just gets bulked into a number and then you know, that is very glaring,” he said.

“It’s not saying that there isn’t some serious stuff going on in this community, which there is, we know there is…but…that seems to be the emphasis on media that that’s sells stories and that…all of a sudden, becomes the picture of the community.”

One of the mandates Patrick was given this year by city council was economic development as it was one of their top priorities.

“One of the things that we’ve been doing is we’ve been out just talking to the community,” he said, noting they’ve already met with the chamber.

“Cities don’t really go and get the business; they try to create an environment where business is coming in.”

He explained as they set the stage for future development, they’ve added things like traffic counts at intersections, so businesses know the footprint for various areas.

“We can now tell a new business coming in exactly how many new cars go by that place every day. Haven’t been able to do that for a while.”

On the residential side, the biggest thing Lorenz said they must do when they’re working with a client is to list the price according to what the market will bear. One of the ways to do that is to use history to show comparison.

“Everyone wants a little more, which you got to be a little careful because you’ll find a house that all of a sudden it’s sitting there for a month and they’re not getting any showing so they’re getting a bunch of showings and no offers and it’s always price point,” he said.

“That creates a stigma because people think there’s something wrong with that house.”

Another thing to keep in mind is interest rates. Lorenz said that anything that is sold now is appraised, and people need to be prepared to do their homework.

“If you’re a prospective seller – because it’s a willing buyer, willing seller is what determines the market,” he said.

“It’s not a particular number.”

Affordable

According to Patrick, it doesn’t cost much more to have a larger city as the infrastructure would support it. To help attract bigger businesses such as agriculture companies to the area, they’re talking to the provincial government to make sure the community’s name is getting out.

“We have some pretty good facilities, we’ve got a small airport, we’ve got excellent railway right in the middle on the road, we’re in a really good environment for that,” he said, noting they’d also like to work with the oil and gas sector.

The first foray was to court the retail sector and he said the business community is taking on the challenge.

“They really want to see this city grow,” he said.

“It helps them, it helps everyone when the city grows…economically…it does help with that tax issue.”

The city manager noted that it wasn’t only business that brought people into the area as a big component of the workforce is healthcare.

“As we bring those people in and get them into the community, that helps,” he said, adding that the new RCMP training centre will also help the market.

Changing the perception would be a start.

“That’s a collective, that’s not just the city, that is everyone in the city participating and really try and create a better community.”

Kramm said that while there are positives to look for in the community, the pricing market is tough.

“If you bought a house in 2014 and almost in any price range, we’re going to be fighting to get your money back,” she said, noting a decade ago, interest rates were lower too.

“It got a lot of people into a lot nicer houses than they could afford to be in and so now with interest rates on the rise, I think it’s a shock for a lot of people.”

Patrick said once the business starts rolling in and local businesses investing in the community.

“All of those things have to work together,” he said.

“Once you get that going then the real estate end itself will take care of itself.”

Meanwhile, for those looking to get into the real estate market, living in Saskatchewan is affordable.

“You can buy a house for $100,000 here that you can move into,” she said of the Battlefords market.

“That if you had nice furniture, you could be even happy there…you’ve got a fenced yard, you’ve got like one or two bedrooms, sometimes you have a garage, little deck on the back, you know, a little smaller kitchen, a little smaller living room but for under $100,000.”

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julia.lovettsquires@pattisonmedia.com

On X: jls194864