Sonia's Real Estate Blog

What an amazing weekend at The Great Canadian Trade Fair & Sale in Sherwood Park! Every year I look forward to participating in this joyful event. This was my 6th year in a row as an exhibitor! It’s an absolute pleasure to support local businesses at the trade fair and since I love community involvement, it’s always extra fun to meet old and new friends!

I especially love seeing my clients visit me year after year. We have a good chat, a few laughs of course, and they always walk away with a “Sonia Surprise”. This year I was giving away some pretty cool magic mugs and tiger teddies for the kids. Everyone loved them!

One of the highlights of this trade show’s event was being interviewed by Shine 105.9 FM. It was great to be able to talk about the Sherwood Park community, Sherwood Park real estate, and of course, my love for the Stollery Hospital.

Thanks to all of my clients and new friends for their support and a very special thank you to our local chamber of commerce for organizing this awesome event. It’s never been more fun working and playing in Sherwood Park!

Warmest regards,

Sonia

Quiet, established and full of parks, Heritage Hills is one of the best communities within Sherwood Park for growing families and I’ve had the pleasure of helping many clients buy and sell homes in this community.

On the eastern edge of Sherwood Park, the subdivision benefits from three big parks and a massive wetland area that will make you feel miles away from urban life. Its two main central parks and the wetlands are all linked by multi-use trails for walking and cycling. The paths are great for an evening stroll and offer a perfect gateway for kids to get to nearby FR Haythorne and Bev Facey schools. In winter, the Heritage Hills outdoor rink becomes a gathering place for pickup hockey and leisure skating.

Although Heritage Hills is a short drive from the the busy areas of Sherwood Park, it benefits from great transportation access. Highway 21 and Wye Road are easily accessed and give residents a quick link to the Yellowhead, Whitemud and Anthony Henday Drive.

Heritage Hills is an established neighbourhood, with most of the homes being built in 1990s or early 2000s and ranging from bungalows, four level splits and two stories. Heritage Hills was designed with many private cul-de-sacs and crescents, which means the streets are quiet and there are many large, pie shaped lots.

If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in Heritage Hills or any other neighbourhood in Sherwood Park, I would love to hear from you. Sherwood Park is my specialty!

Warmest regards,

Sonia

Wow! What an incredibly fun week it has been! I started a fabulous contest on Facebook asking people to share what they love most about Sherwood Park, and the responses have been outstanding! Here are some of the comments about what people love most about Sherwood Park:

“Kindness from the people who live here.”

“Great community with fabulous people.”

“Small town feel with big city amenities”

“Green spaces and awesome parks”

“I enjoy the Farmer’s Market”

“We have great schools and tons of community events”

“Festival Place and the wonderful performances they attract”

‘I love the recreational facilities.”

“I love Sherwood Park and the shop local loyalty that comes with the territory!”

“Sense of community you feel whether it’s at the grocery store, Millennium Place or hockey arena.”

“There is a strong commitment to supporting local businesses.”

“We are very blessed to raise our kids in Sherwood Park.”

“Sherwood Park is a safe place to live and raise our children.”

“There is drive in Sherwood Park to preserve and discover our natural ecology.”

“My favourite place to go with my dog and partner is for hikes to Strathcona Science Park.”

“Bumping into the same families on the walking trails.”

“Sherwood Park is my bubbles, and I never have to leave!”

“Love all of the amenities and programs that the county offers.”

“Thank God for Sherwood Park.”

Our fabulous contest is still ongoing! For all contest details please visit my Facebook page, Sonia Tarabay Real Estate. I would love to hear what YOU love most about Sherwood Park!

Thanks everyone!

Love,

Sonia

Are you ready to save time, stress and money? I sure hope so! Because when you work with me, you get a top Sherwood Park REALTOR® and an expert Mortgage Broker all in one!

Since the beginning of my career, I have always been motivated to provide an even more complete and improved real estate buying experience for my clients. This is why I chose to be both a licensed REALTOR® with Remax Elite and a licensed Mortgage Broker with Verico iMortgage Solutions. This expertise combo is definitely a rarity within the industry and it’s also a very powerful one. I believe in assisting my clients through the entire process of buying and selling a home, and my deep understanding of the mortgage industry over the past 7 years has allowed me to become a stronger, more knowledgeable REALTOR® who can offer expert advice in all areas of real estate.

Not only am I finding my buyers and investors great deals on Sherwood Park homes, but I am also helping them find great deals on mortgage rates, terms and options available in the market place today.

So whether you are buying your first home or your tenth home, put my expertise to work for you! I am available to serve my clients 7 days a week and welcome your phone calls. Along with my awesome mortgage team, we can help you get pre-approved for financing almost immediately. Then it’s time for us to have a lot of fun house-hunting together! So let’s get started today! Ultimately, my goal is lifelong happy clients.

Warmest regards,

Sonia

As a longtime resident of Sherwood Park, I consider it a privilege to work, live and play in this awesome community!

Sherwood Park has been our home for over a decade now and I can still remember the excitement I felt the very first time I visited this place. I fell totally in love with it! It was as though something wonderful was about to happen. Well, it did! I met some of my most valued friends and clients right here at home, and for that I am eternally grateful.

My husband Eddy and I have three children; Alexa, Lennox and Eva. We feel blessed that they are growing up in a safe and happy community, attending good schools and have made some wonderful friends. Naturally, every parent wants to provide the best for their children and we certainly have found the best of family life living in Sherwood Park.

In following my passion for real estate, I decided to launch my business in 2009 and focused primarily on helping Sherwood Park residents. There was no question in my mind that it was the best decision I ever made. Having grown up in an entrepreneurial family, I had a strong business background and a proven track record in sales. My education was also in business and marketing. In addition, my branding with the use of animal prints was very unique to the real estate industry and my marketing plan for selling homes was very aggressive, which ultimately benefited my clients. Undoubtedly, clients knew when hiring me they would receive my “5 star service”. They knew that I cared about them and that I would work hard on their behalf to help them achieve the best results, whether they were buying or selling a home. Soon I became known as “Sherwood Park’s Real Estate Tiger”.

Today, I am fortunate to have worked with hundreds of clients selling hundreds of homes and helping peoples’ dreams of home ownership come true. Knowing that I have helped make that kind of contribution in someone’s life is incredibly rewarding for me on a very personal level. Having cultivated these client relationships is what keeps me focused and driven  every day to continue to help more and more people in the world of real estate.

I am extremely grateful and appreciative for the ongoing trust and support I receive from the Sherwood Park community. I must admit that it’s a lot of fun to drive around town in my animal wrapped “Sonia-mobile” and see people on the road wave and smile back at me. Sometimes I even get a thumbs up! It’s also pretty cool to be recognized by the kids when I’m shopping around town! I often laugh about it as I am just like every other mom out there.

Should you be looking to buy or sell a home in Sherwood Park, please feel free to drop me a line. I would love to hear from you! Many thanks and I wish you and your family a wonderful year ahead!

Warmest regards,

Curb appeal is tremendously important to keeping up the value of your home, as well as your neighbourhood. There are so many awesome ideas out there, but here are a few of my favourites:

1) Professionally landscape your yard. Depending on your budget, a lot of this you can easily do yourself. To start, the removal of dead wood, broken branches and pruning of your hedges restores the health and aesthetic appeal of your yard. If you want to stand out from your neighbours, replace a portion of your lawn with flowers. Plant perennials, use landscape stone for a lush landscape that sets your house apart. Planting flowers in raised flower beds or planter boxes, even added pots of flowers, provides a giant boost to your curb appeal.

2) Add big, bold house numbers. It’s so easy to swap out house numbers, and this one thing can make a huge impact. Echo your house style in the numbers you choose — a clean sans serif font for a modern house, aged copper for a Prairie-style home, contrast is to match your trim, etc.

3) Paint the front door. A front door that pops can be very cheering. Paint your front door a tasteful color you like and make it work. It’s all a matter of coordinating the door color with your home’s architecture and the other colors and materials on the house.

4) Add fresh porch furniture and symmetry to decor. Whether it is a set of Adirondack chairs or a cozy glider, is a must when you have a front porch that is visible from the street. Symmetry is not only pleasing to the eye, it’s also the simplest to arrange. Symmetrical compositions of light fixtures and front-door accents create welcoming entryways and boost curb appeal.

5) Repair the driveway and paths. Cement, stone and pavement all can split and crack over time. Repairing or replacing damaged areas can do wonders to freshen up your home’s street view.
Edging the driveway, installing a border adds a crisp, elegant look. Edging materials such as brick, pavers, stones or a combination to bring a boring paving driveway to life.

6) Change the hardware. Add a shiny new door knocker. Gorgeous hardware can make even the plainest door look very classy. Your Mailbox even makes a statement! If your mailbox is rusty and falling apart – consider sprucing it up or getting a new one. Other inexpensive hardware idea is to add brackets to your garage door that turn the most basic garage into an elegant one!

7) Change your lighting. The lighting on your porch may be old, outdated or even broken. A great way to update your curb appeal is to replace the porch lighting with something more modern, or unique to the architecture of your home. At this time you may even consider installing a motion detector which increases the safety to your home. Also installing lighting along your pathway leading up to your home not only increases the safety, but adds a warm and inviting welcome to your front door.

8) Wash your House and Refresh the Paint. Before you scrape any paint or plant more azaleas, wash the dirt, mildew, and general grunge off the outside of your house. You would be surprised as to washing a house can add tremendous value to your home. The most commonly offered curb appeal advice from real estate pros and appraisers is to give the exterior of your home a good paint job. Buyers will instantly notice it, and appraisers will value it.
Consider hiring a professional- getting quotes if it’s a large job. Even refreshing the trims make a huge difference!

9) Regard your roof. The condition of your roof is one of the first things buyers notice and appraisers assess. Missing, curled, or faded shingles add nothing to the look or value of your house. If your neighbors have maintained or replaced their roofs, yours will look especially shabby. You can pay for roof repairs now, or pay for them later in a lower appraisal; appraisers will mark down the value by the cost of the repair. While you are looking at your roof check out the condition of your gutters and eavestroughs, cleaning and checking for any damages.

10) Windows speak volume. If your windows have seen better days, replacing them with up-to-date energy efficient, double pane windows can significantly reduce your heating and cooling bills while adding value and curb appeal to your home.

Some of these things may be more costly than you imagined, but they can have a huge impact on your sales price. Some are simple inexpensive yet can make an impact! If you are wondering which items should be updated, ask a friend to drive to the house and tell you the first thing they think of when they pull up. This will give you an honest assessment and a starting point for your work. If you would like to know how much your home is worth, feel free to call me for a complimentary Market Evaluation. Thank you!