REALTORS® in Rural Aberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba Share Their Experiences
Dianne Lavoie knows more than a little something about what it’s like to be in the real estate business in a small western Canadian town.
After all, the REALTOR® and broker with Royal LePage Valley Realty in Peace River, Alberta, has been in the real estate business since the early 1980s – making her one of the longest tenured REALTORS® in Peace River, a town with a population of around 7,000 people and approximately 20 REALTORS®.
Peace River is in the northern part of Alberta and about 200 kilometres from the nearest city of Grande Prairie. People who live in Peace River are there to get away from the hustle and bustle of larger cities and to soak in a laid-back vibe, Lavoie says. There are generations of families who have lived there.
REALTORS® there understand that reputation is everything when operating in a small town. “It's important to maintain a good, working, respectful, professional relationship with the other REALTORS®,” she says. “Some of the challenges are also blessings. There’s a good chance you are going to be dealing with a REALTOR® today on something, then the next week that same person is going to be showing one of your listings, and the next week you’ll be selling one of their listings.”
“You are going to have a relationship with these REALTORS® and you are dealing with them constantly.”
Another factor that comes into play when working in the real estate industry in a small town is that REALTORS® know the vast majority of their clients on a personal level – whether that’s through the neighbourhood, children’s schools, church or local grocery store.
“You know them, but your competition also knows them,” she says. “So, your circle of influence overlaps way more than in a larger sector. You must up your game. Everybody knows everybody and everybody knows everybody’s business. As I’ve always said, when I go to bed at night, I can shut my light off and sleep.”
Nicole Lovell, a REALTOR® and salesperson with Century 21 in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, has been working in real estate for 12 years and says doing business in a smaller town means having to train yourself, learning how to prospect for leads and listings on your own. No one handed her anything in those early days. That initial challenge has evolved into a strength, she adds.
Lovell covers west central Saskatchewan, including the small communities of her hometown of Macklin, Unity, Wilkie, Cut Knife, Maidstone, Marshall, Neilburg, Luseland, Kerrobert and many surrounding areas.
While the real estate market varies from community to community, Lovell says each area sees activity at different times. “This year in the spring, I found Luseland and Wilkie were top choices and two of the big factors were the affordability of cheaper houses and lower annual property taxes,” she says. “Each community varies on sales and activities from month to month. For example, there could be four sales in Wilkie one month and nothing in Cut Knife or Macklin, and then the next month, nothing in Wilkie and four or five in another town.”
“The smaller communities tend to take about three to six months to have what I call the trickle effect to start to feel close to what the housing market in cities close to us are feeling in regard to buyers, sellers or balanced markets as well as price increases or decreases.”
“Your mind is your only challenge,” she says. “Get out there, make the connections, don't be afraid to make the calls, ask the questions. The worst thing that'll happen is they'll say no. Build your reputation and honesty and be true to yourself.”
One of the challenges of operating in a small town for Ryan Tomyn is a lack of available listings for buyers. When it comes to commercial real estate in small towns, the REALTOR® and salesperson with RE/MAX North Country in Warman, Saskatchewan, with a population of around 12,400 people, says the challenge lies in the lack of good comparable properties when establishing the listing price. As a REALTOR®, you must do a lot of digging to establish proper market value for certain unique properties, he says.
“Opportunities for REALTORS® to consider would be that competition isn’t as competitive in many small, rural communities,” says Tomyn, who has been a REALTOR® for more than 12 years and does a good portion of his business in Saskatoon and rural surrounding areas. “If you’re willing to cater to a specific town and you don’t mind the commute, there’s business to be had. Warman and Martensville aren’t so small anymore, but there are many other communities farther out.”
Tomyn says that, while interest rates are still high, the market where he works is quite active. The demand still outweighs the supply as there’s record low inventory of active real estate listings in Warman.
“This is the trend in most communities right now,” he says. “Fortunately for sellers, properties are holding value quite well and moving relatively fast. We are also seeing lots of new development. Buyers have to move quick to have success in finding a property as the good ones (fully finished and well kept) are selling fast if they’re priced properly.”
Laurence Humniski is a broker with Interlake Real Estate in Selkirk, Manitoba, which has a population of roughly 10,500, who has been a REALTOR® since 2008 and does most of his work near his home in Sandy Hook on Lake Winnipeg. He says he does travel north – to Grindstone, Hecla, Little Deer, for example – and he has had listings in Winnipeg and Selkirk.
“We currently have a home in Selkirk listed at $515,000,” Humniski says. “We have a unique property on Lake Winnipeg with three homes, four cottages and 2,600 feet of lakefront. It is listed for $2 million.”
Those who operate in his area, Humniski says, must be able to sell condos, cottages, farms, vacant land, and commercial properties, as well as homes.
“It is different in the fact that water and septic systems can change drastically between properties in the same area,” he says. “You have to be able to put some miles on your vehicle in our situation. We also have some higher priced farms, which are still on the market. This year, some of our higher-priced properties have had a tougher time selling due to the market conditions. Hopefully, if the interest rates drop further, some of these properties will sell.”
Richard Greaves, a REALTOR® and broker with RE/MAX Alpine Realty in Canmore, Alberta – a resort town with a population of just under 16,000 that’s located west of Calgary in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains – says his advantage in selling real estate is having provincial parks and nature in his backyard while having an international airport just an hour drive away.
“The biggest obstacle for us has been inventory,” Greaves says. “Since 2008 we haven’t had anything of substance being built, nothing of great volume. The pandemic wiped us out and we haven’t been able to recover. That limited supply has kept our prices strong.”
In Canmore, the municipality is looking at an additional tax for second homeowners, whose second home is not their primary residence, to get more rental units onto the market.
“For me, this is an easy market to build work-life balance, and for me that’s key,” Greaves says. “It’s easy to stand out, above the crowd, as opposed to having to compete with agencies in big cities, which have years of search engine optimization (SEO) investment and advertising behind them.”
As Greaves says, it would be “extremely difficult” for a new agent in a big city, if you’re not joining a team, to get ahead and do well.
Work-life balance is also key for Auch. She mentored as a REALTOR® in Calgary before moving to Manitoba, a market she says doesn’t fluctuate in any extreme way.
“In Manitoba, real estate seems to hum along all the time,” she says.
Joining The Property Exchange Group Inc. has allowed her to just focus on what she loves doing most: selling real estate while living on a horse property in the country.
"The properties are fewer and farther between so clearly fuel is a challenge, but I love driving on the country roads and seeing the properties behind the trees close up,” Auch says.
Do you operate in rural Canada? Let us know your experience in the comments below, or reach out to crea-comms@CREA.ca to submit a story idea.
