Seven offers. 100+ open house visitors. 15 private showings. Three days on market. A case study in what happens when preparation, positioning and marketing work together.
7711 139 ST. Set on a 12,922 sq. ft. lot in East Laurier Heights, the 1963 home had the kind of architecture Edmonton simply doesn't build very often anymore: dramatic wood ceilings, exposed structural beams, natural stone, expansive windows, three fireplaces, more than 3,450 sq. ft. of finished living space, four bedrooms together upstairs and a three-season sunroom overlooking a mature landscape.
It had also been owned and cared for by the same family for 40 years.
There was never a question that the property was special.
After three days on the Market, after 15 private tours, over 100 visitors to the open house, we received 7 offers.
Sale Price: $1,462,500
$213,500 over asking.
That result didn't happen because we simply put a rare property on MLS and waited.
It started much earlier.
First, We Had to Understand What We Were Actually Selling
At nearly 13,000 sq. ft., the lot itself had significant value.
This is East Laurier Heights, an established central Edmonton neighbourhood where large parcels of land are finite and redevelopment continues to transform the housing stock. The obvious marketing strategy would have been easy:
Big lot. Great location. Redevelopment opportunity.
And developers absolutely needed to be part of our buyer pool. But focusing too heavily on redevelopment would have reduced a remarkable home to the dirt underneath it. We saw another buyer entirely. A family who would walk through the front door and look up. Someone who would notice the wood ceilings and exposed beams. Someone who would appreciate the enormous natural-stone fireplace rather than immediately imagine removing it. Someone who would understand how unusual it is to find four substantial bedrooms together upstairs in a mature central Edmonton home. Someone who would see the walls of windows, mature trees, sunroom, oversized rooms and enormous yard and think:
I want to live here.
Those two buyers—the developer and the family—could assign value to the same property for completely different reasons. Our job was to reach both. Because the more qualified buyers who can see value in a property, the stronger its position becomes when it reaches the market.
The House Needed to Look Like a Home Worth Keeping
This was especially important. A 1963 home can be presented in very different ways. Empty it completely, photograph the rooms and emphasize the lot dimensions, and buyers may begin looking at it primarily as land. Instead, we staged the property. Not to make it look like a new build.
We wanted the architecture to make sense to buyers in 2026.
Furniture helped establish the scale of the principal rooms. Thoughtful placement drew attention toward the fireplace, windows and architectural lines. The presentation helped buyers understand how the spaces could function today without taking away the elements that made the house distinctive in the first place.
The goal was never to make 1963 look like 2026.
The goal was to show buyers why the best parts of 1963 were worth keeping.
Then We Built Marketing Around What Made It Different
MLS is incredibly important. But MLS is a database. It gives buyers bedrooms, bathrooms, measurements, photographs, property details and remarks. For 7711, that wasn't enough. We wanted buyers to understand the property before they ever walked through the door. So we built an entire campaign around it.
Professional Photography
The photography wasn't simply documenting rooms. We wanted to capture the architecture. The height of the ceilings. The warmth of the wood. The scale of the natural stone. The relationship between the windows and mature landscape outside. The size of the rooms. And the way natural light moves through the house.
Drone Photography
With a 12,922 sq. ft. lot, understanding the land from ground level alone is difficult. Drone photography gave buyers another perspective. They could see the shape and scale of the parcel, mature tree canopy, backyard, relationship between the house and land, and the property's position within East Laurier Heights. For redevelopment-minded buyers, that information was valuable. For families, it showed just how extraordinary the setting was.
Virtual Tour
We also created a virtual tour so buyers could move through the property online rather than relying exclusively on still photographs. For a house this large and architecturally unusual, understanding how the rooms connect matters.
Floor Plans
Measurements become much more useful when buyers can actually see the layout. The floor plans showed how 2,434 sq. ft. above grade, another 1,018 sq. ft. of developed basement, and the additional three-season sunroom worked together. They also made one of the home's most important practical features immediately obvious: Four bedrooms together upstairs.
A Dedicated Property Landing Page
Then we went considerably further than MLS. We built 7711 its own property website. Instead of presenting buyers with one long block of listing remarks, we broke the story apart.
We provided photography, floor plans, virtual-tour access and detailed information about East Laurier Heights and the surrounding river valley. The purpose wasn't to add more marketing for the sake of having more marketing. It was to answer the questions that couldn't be answered properly in an MLS description. And throughout the campaign, one line brought everything together:
Know what is irreplaceable when you see it.
That became the positioning for the property.
We Were Selling Laurier Heights Too
At this price point, buyers aren't simply choosing a house. They're choosing where they want to live. So East Laurier Heights needed to be part of the story. The mature trees. Laurier Heights School. Buena Vista Park. Sir Wilfrid Laurier Park. The Edmonton Valley Zoo. River valley trails. Central access. Large established lots. And a residential landscape where decades of architecture exist alongside thoughtful new development. The property made more sense once buyers understood its surroundings. That neighbourhood content also gave buyers who weren't intimately familiar with Laurier Heights an opportunity to understand why the location commands attention.
The house, the land and the neighbourhood were all part of the same value proposition.
Then We Let Buyers Experience It
Digital marketing can create interest. At some point, buyers still need to walk through the door.
And they did.
Within only three days on market, 15 private showings were scheduled. Then came the open house.
More than 100 people walked through 7711 in two hours.
That's not simply a nice attendance statistic.
It matters strategically.
An active open house allows buyers to physically see that other people are interested in the same property. They aren't viewing the home in isolation and wondering whether anyone else sees what they see. They're seeing other buyers arrive. They're seeing people spend time in the rooms. They're hearing activity around them. The market becomes visible.
And when genuine demand exists, that matters.
Seven Buyers Decided They Wanted It
By offer time, our sellers had received seven offers. That is where all of the work leading up to launch became important. The objective of marketing isn't simply exposure. Thousands of social-media views mean very little if they don't translate into qualified buyers. The real objective is to create the largest possible pool of people who:
understand the property,
see its value,
have the ability to purchase it,
and ultimately,
want it enough to compete for it.
The property had been listed for $1,249,000.
The successful offer was:
$1,462,500
The Market Determines Value. Our Job Is to Build the Best Possible Market
A Realtor cannot manufacture the underlying value of a property. We didn't create the 12,922 sq. ft. lot. We didn't plant the mature trees decades ago. We didn't create East Laurier Heights.
And marketing cannot make buyers pay an unlimited amount for something the market doesn't value.
What good real estate marketing can do is make sure the property reaches the people most likely to value it—and give them enough information to understand why it deserves their attention. Then those buyers determine what they're willing to pay.
For 7711, our strategy was deliberately broad. Developers could see the land. Architecture-minded buyers could see the design. Families could see themselves living there. Location-driven buyers could understand East Laurier Heights. Buyers unfamiliar with the property could experience it online before booking a showing.
Instead of deciding in advance who the buyer would be, we gave the market multiple reasons to care.r.
A Special House Still Deserves Exceptional Marketing
It would be easy to look at the result and say:
"Of course it sold. Look at the house."
And yes.
The house mattered enormously. That's exactly why the marketing mattered too.
When a seller owns something distinctive, the goal shouldn't be to assume buyers will figure it out. The goal should be to identify every meaningful source of value and make it impossible to overlook.
Sometimes that's a renovation. Sometimes it's the floor plan. Sometimes it's architecture. Sometimes it's income potential. Sometimes it's the neighbourhood. Sometimes it's the land.
We didn't need to invent a story for this property.
We needed to tell the one that was already there.
After 40 Years, the Result Mattered
There was another reason we took the preparation so seriously.
Our sellers had owned this home for 40 years. This wasn't a property they purchased a few years ago and decided to flip when the market changed.
It was their home for four decades.
When someone entrusts us with a property like that, our responsibility is both financial and personal. They only get to sell it once. We wanted to know that when it was finally exposed to the market, we had done everything reasonably possible to let that market respond.
A remarkable conclusion to one family's 40 years at 7711, and the beginning of the home's next chapter.
Thinking About Selling an Edmonton Home?
You don't need to own a mid-century architectural home on nearly 13,000 sq. ft. of land for strategy to matter.
In fact, identifying what separates your property from everything else buyers are considering can be even more important when the differences are subtle. Before I recommend a price or marketing plan, I want to understand the property.
Who is most likely to buy it?
What will they value?
Who else could we appeal to?
How should the home be prepared?
What does the photography need to communicate?
What information will buyers need beyond MLS?
And how do we position the property so the market has the best possible opportunity to respond?
Because selling a home isn't simply about putting it on the market.
It's about making sure the market understands what it's being offered.
If you're considering selling in Laurier Heights, Edmonton's mature neighbourhoods, or anywhere in Central Edmonton area, I'd be happy to talk through what that strategy could look like for your property.
Caitlin Heine, REALTOR®
Iconic YEG Real Estate Team | RE/MAX Real Estate
587-336-3176
