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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife's Coldwell Banker office is outshining other branches worldwide - and they have the awards to prove it.

John Geha, president of Coldwell Banker, left, Ken Pearman, Rod Stirling and Teresa Camara, national director of operations, stand with the two awards handed out to the Yellowknife branch last week. - Sara Wilson/ NNSL photo

Coldwell Banker's president and national real estate guru, John Geha, made his first trip North to personally deliver the awards last week.

The staff at the Yellowknife branch can add "top Coldwell office (one to 10 employees) worldwide for real estate sales in 2011," and "highest earnings for a Coldwell office (one to 10 employees) worldwide for 2011," to their list of achievements.

So what's their secret?

"We're long-term Yellowknifers," said Rod Stirling, broker/owner and sales associate for Coldwell Banker. "Good service level and we're well connected and well-known and understand the market and understand the dynamics and the logistics in the North."

The turnover rate is minimal with just eight realtors leaving the branch in 30 years and a combined 160 years experience in the business. It has all helped the branch win the awards year after year for the past six years.

With Canada's economy on the rebound after the recession in 2008, the real estate market in the North is expected to show steady increases - mimicking the national trend.

"We see all over Canada being very stable, the Government of Canada does a great job with mortgage regulations and the markets are strong," Geha said. "We'll see modest growth (in 2012). There's certain markets in Canada that are hot spots (right now) such as Yellowknife, Fort McMurray, Vancouver and parts of Toronto."

Yellowknife's profile on the national scale is growing with its high wages and relative stability on the job front.

"We've always been a strong market, we're insulated from the economic downturns in the south," Stirling said. "We're a fairly diversified economy, we've got mining and government so there's a lot happening ... We're not bullet proof, but we've got a high wages and a lot of turn over and a lot of people don't stay in the community as long as they do in the south."

The international company has increased its profile by adding interactive and web-based features to increase business and the results speak for themselves.

"You can have a 'do-it-yourself' sign, but the reality is, Canada is a global country," Geha said. "The whole real estate market is global. We have applications for the iPad, iPhone and our own channel on YouTube. - 3.5 million people have viewed our listings (worldwide) since we've started the YouTube channel."

From a local perspective, that instant access is transferring into high views for Yellowknife properties.

"I posted a listing for a house here last week and in less than 24 hours we had 1,021 views (on the website) for the house," Stirling said.

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