When the novel coronavirus arrived in Alberta, residents and managers of tightly packed multi-family housing developments quickly realized special precautions were necessary to keep people safe and healthy.

Unless your haggling skills are rusty, you would never try to talk sellers up on their price. Yet, when it comes to condo fees on new-build units, going low could come at a high cost down the road.

Special assessments, condo fees, reserve funds – the finances involved with buying and maintaining a condo can be overwhelming.

Judy Feng, staff lawyer with the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta (CPLEA), says inquiries about finances account for the largest portion of questions her organization receives. CPLEA developed the plain-language Condo Law for Albertans website to help Albertans demystify the legal intricacies of condo purchasing and ownership.

We've probably all heard someone say they'd love to buy a condominium, but they don't like the idea of paying condo fees.

"We see that $500 condo fee and ask, 'what do I get?' " said Bernice Winter, CEO of Condo Check, a Calgary company that provides condominium services, including document reviews.

You asked, we answered

The people have spoken! We asked you for your most pressing real estate questions, then threw them to our expert panel of experienced REALTORS®: John Hripko (Royal LePage Benchmark), Laura O'Connell (RE/MAX House of Real Estate), Sam Crick (RE/MAX Realty Professionals) and David P. Brown (The Real Estate Company Ltd.).

Development standard finds its way back into the Calgary region

When is a detached home still a condo? When it's a bare land condo, an under-utilized development standard that is once again sprouting up in the Calgary region.

Developers in new areas such as Watermark in Bearspaw and Shawnee Park are designating some or all of their respective developments as bare land condos as part of a more collective approach to building and maintaining communities.

Bare land condos have previously popped up in other area communities such as Tanglewood Estates, The Lake at Heritage Pointe, Okotoks Air Ranch, Elmont Green and Lott Creek Grove.