Some projects lend themselves to a DIY approach, but others, like open heart surgery and selling your house, are better left to the pros.

Most sellers in this day and age recognize the value of staging a home's interior, but what about the backyard?

Especially in the summer months, when outdoor spaces often look their best, a well-staged backyard can be a major selling point and might just help you seal the deal with a buyer.

During the pandemic, real estate and social media have become inseparable bedfellows, with many REALTORS^® taking to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to promote their listings. However, another platform with a young and diverse base of users, TikTok, is creating value for its adopters in the real estate industry.

After more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions and public health guidelines that discouraged gathering indoors, Alberta's recent reopening has restored some sense of normalcy. When it comes to the process of buying and selling homes, it has also meant the return of a real estate staple: the open house.

You only get one chance to make a great first impression, so why waste an opportunity to get a leg up on other sellers?

Whether it's for better listing photos or to impress during showings, improving your home's curb appeal doesn't have to be expensive. Here are five cheap ways to boost your home's curb appeal:

With 2,989 sales, housing market activity hit a new May record.

Despite strong levels of sales, they did trend down relative to last month. Additionally, there were 4,562 new listings, causing seasonally adjusted inventory levels to increase over last month.

There were 3,209 sales in April, a new record high for the month, as Calgary's housing market continues to bounce back from the pandemic lows recorded in 2020.

Whatever "new normal" is coming, the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped many aspects of the real estate industry in Calgary and across Canada. From changes to the way homes are built, bought and sold, to shifts in buyer priorities and the economic forces at play, it's been a wild ride for REALTORS^®, builders, homebuyers and everyone in between.

Right now, there's no way to describe Canmore's housing market other than "hot."

"I'm always hesitant to use that word because you can't paint everything with the same brush, but the statistics don't lie," said Rob Stevens of RE/MAX Alpine Realty.

Enticing discount mortgage rates have helped put Calgary's detached home market in rare form.