ComFree cruising along despite slowdown in housing market

水管工

Five-year-old Edmonton franchise eyes expansion across Alberta
0 Z0 P5 d$ b2 p. `" |, Y, {5 H8 |Bill Mah, The Edmonton Journal
Published: 1:32 am
4 }% Q8 ]  E# W6 X: J( gEDMONTON - Don't Erin and Travis Holowach know that Edmonton's housing market is in a cool-down?
4 C" u# ~/ c; l
Five years after bringing ComFree Commission Free Realty to Edmonton, the founders and co-presidents are throwing a party today, including cheerleaders, pro lacrosse players and grilled hot dogs to officially open their new headquarters.

4 D- F; _' t" Z  SThey bought the building and moved into the Argyll Road office last spring. At 9,000 square feet, it's roughly double the size of their old office.
" i3 z! ]0 d  T0 \! H5 T
5 t1 s) G' O) b( d1 JThey opened up a sub-office in Fort McMurray last year and plan to be in Grande Prairie by September.

Co-president Erin Holowach also hints about moving into southern Alberta sometime, but shhhh, that's still secret.

) ]6 s& B6 r; Z. }With all the growth, you wouldn't think ComFree is feeling the pinch of a real estate market that has turned completely upside down from the super-heated sellers' market that switched suddenly into a buyers' show last summer.
, t* k- ?% _- {; @6 m
1 w7 F* s5 R# {0 m7 T"Selling a house now, no matter how you sell it, is harder in this market than it was three years ago," Erin Holowach says.

( |% C% }, s: ~"When you look to 12 months ago, there were, between ComFree and MLS, a little over 3,000 houses on the market.

" ~' [1 g; }2 S9 U! @5 D"Now at the end of May, we're sitting with about 3,500 houses on the market. Between the two (ComFree and MLS), we're sitting at about 15,000 houses on the market."

0 _. \, Q( Z# J5 k- k) {+ M* g' iThe company is getting fewer new listings now from owners choosing to sell their homes privately without realtor commissions.
0 k9 I( I2 j* A+ N" Z; b1 I9 @
Last year, ComFree hit a high in June of 1,270 listings, and this June, Holowach says they're expecting to do about three-quarters of that.

"The market has to start moving some inventory before many more people can list."

The company's staff is down to 58 employees from 72 last year, but many of those who left were seasonal workers, Holowach says.

5 A3 e' V( c2 f- SComFree charges a flat fee of $699 for a package that includes in-home consultation, legal advice, signs and full-colour ads on a website and magazine.
- j: m' E  {6 t- @" I$ |
ComFree enjoys an advantage over traditional realtor-assisted sales because the ComFree seller doesn't have a commission to worry about and can price to sell quickly, she says.
0 W1 I) _1 A( f0 l: X
- O. E8 R" E5 `$ UBut not even that competitive advantage can help if the asking price is unrealistic.
1 A2 i7 Y( z( m3 |
$ Y& Z# Z( H+ m) K"People are asking 2007 prices in 2008," she says. "The prices you could get away with when there's 3,000 homes on the market are very different from the prices you can ask when there's 15,000 homes on the market."

2 i7 H1 J9 |$ c  YSince buying the Edmonton franchise of ComFree, which started in Winnipeg in 1996, Holowach has never seen a more tumultuous market.
: G$ J  j( g" [3 a+ A3 y  ^
2 H0 r" ], q# t" ?' v5 d' z3 F& ]"For the most part, the Edmonton real estate market is kind of slow and steady. You don't see massive swings like we've seen over the past two years, so to say that ComFree is still growing and expanding into new business, it bodes well, because these are probably the most difficult years the Edmonton real estate market has seen over the last 25."

bmah@thejournal.canwest.com