Posidrive

Does anyone have experience of these Calgary Builders? They are the approved builders for a new development that we are looking at, but they all seem a little slow in coming up with ballpark figures for construction of our house. Is slow the Canadian way?

Hawkcraft
Talisman
Timberrock

Glaswegian

Talisman I've heard of, not the other two.

They can be very slow - but they should be able to give you a base model price.

Where is the development?

Posidrive

Monterra, North of Cochrane.

Glaswegian

That's not Calgary ... I don't know how they do things way out in the boonies

You should be able to get a base model price, unless they're custom home builders ... if they are, get your check book ready ...

Posidrive

Two of them are custom builders. We saw several of their show homes which are NICE rather than nice. As you say, their prices tend towards the eyewatering but then I think back to what you get here for the same.

Glaswegian

Don't smack me for this ... just because it looks cheaper in Canada, doesn't mean it is.

I'm in IT ... my experience of Calgary has been that jobs are difficult to find and that employers really take you for a ride if you're an immigrant ... 3 years down the line I'm still not making what the agents I spoke to in 2001 virtually guaranteed me.

Right now if I turned everything back into cash, my 3 year expedition to Calgary will have cost me 15K sterling ... most of that was burnt through in year 1.

Be very wary of sinking your cash into property ... buy or rent something cheaper now, buy the big nice house if you still have the urge and the cash in a year or two's time ... house prices here aren't racing up in the same way as they are in the UK ... that's only my unqualified opinion, go ahead and do what you think best.

Posidrive

House prices may not be rising as fast as in the UK, but fast enough to make the cost in a couple of years time increase by far more than the proceeds of selling my house would increase by in a bank.

I had thought about renting out the house in the UK whilst initially renting in Canada, but because we have 3 large dogs it will not be easy to find a rental property that is not a dump. I also think that the UK housing market is almost ready for another mid nineties style dip so its tme to take the money and run.

Got the first estimate from one of the custom builders this morning. Still picking myself up off the floor.