Real Estate Information

I have written blog posts in the past about great day trips when living in East Idaho.  This past weekend was my anniversary.  My wife and I had decided to take a day trip to Jackson Hole Wyoming.  From Rexburg Jackson Hole is approx 1.5 hour drive. It doesn't seem to matter what time of year it is that you take the drive, the scenery is always beautiful.

There are several different roads that you can take to get to Jackson.  We chose to take Hwy 33 through Driggs and Victor. The Tetons looked beautiful as we crossed the rolling farms. We had a great time in Jackson as we hit some of the local shops, went ice skating and ate at the famous Cadillac Grille.

The quickest way to get to and from Jackson from Idaho is over the Teton Pass, it is a 10% grade, which is a fairly steep grade to drive over.  They do a good job keeping the roads clear but it is a good idea to check on the road report if traveling in the winter.  When coming home we chose to take the turnoff in Victor and come back across the Pine Creek Pass road.  This is a particularly beautiful drive in the summer.  All in all the trip was beautiful and another great day trip through some of the most beautiful country.

It is no secret that when you own a home you need to have home owners insurance.  Home owners insurance is in most cases very affordable...especially when compared to health insurance.  Usually you will receive discounts on your auto insurance when you bundle your home owners and auto insurance together.

There are some things the you need to know when you are getting your home owners insurance for your home in East Idaho.  Of course you should discuss all aspects of your insurance with an insurance agent that you feel comfortable with and trust.   First of all, most people don't know that there is usually a clause in most policies that require you to change your policy of you are moving out of the home and it will be vacant for more than 30 days.  The reason for this is a vacant home is more susceptible to problems since nobody is monitoring it daily.  I have seen several instances where the home was vacant, the heat was not set at the right temperature and the pipes froze.  If this happens you will have a unwanted water feature in the home with will not be covered by insurance and can cause some major financial problems down the road.  If you are leaving your home vacant, make sure to contact your insurance agent to make sure you  have the right coverage.

Another thing to discuss with your insurance agent is whether you have the proper coverage if you were to have a septic or sewer backup in the home.  A lot of standard policies do not cover this problem.  The additional coverage is not that expensive and will be well worth it if you have some unexpected floaters come into your home.

All in all it is a good idea to quiz your insurance agent often to make sure you have the proper coverage.  If you are new to East Idaho and don't have an agent that you trust, contact me and I would be happy to refer you to an agent that can help you.

"I contacted Tony Stallings through the Century 21 High Desert about a week before arriving in Rexburg for a job interview from out of state.  Tony quickly communicated with me by email and cell phone prior to my visit and sent me a list of homes that fit my criteria.  He further narrowed the list after learning more about my needs, as I had a very short time frame to look at properties.  Tony was very accommodating, he not only showed me the homes I wanted to view, he took me back a few hours later so that my daughter could also look at them.

After I left Rexburg, he really went the extra mile in taking care of all the details in my new home purchase.  Tony has been absolutely wonderful to work with!  He arranged the appraisal and closing, recommended an insurance agent and sent me utility information, so that everything went perfectly in my move to Idaho.  I highly recommend him to anyone interested in purchasing a home in the Rexburg area.  If I ever have need of a Realtor in the future, he will be the first person I call!"

-Lynne Anderson

In an effort to continue to provide you with the most up to date information I have added and upgraded facebook business page.  Please take a second to check it out and don't forget to "Like" the page. 

I would also appreciate an feedback on how I could make the site better.  I want you to be able to use the site with ease and provide the information that is pertinent and useful.  Click here to send any suggestions.

There will be some more exiting updates to be announced within the next week!

As promised, I have put together some numbers on how the East Idaho real estate market turned out in 2011.   The numbers from the first part of 2011 were down when compared to the same period in 2010 but that was expected since 2010 had the federal tax credit for 1st time homeowners.  I was pleasantly surprised with the numbers from last year, especially in the Rexburg area, where the 2nd half of the year really took off.

Overall, the East Idaho real estate market was down approximately 3% when comparing units sold in 2010.  In my opinion the market seems to be leveling off to a new normal... is there such thing as normal?  Most market ended the year slightly lower than the previous year with the exception of Madison County (Rexburg) which ended the year 19% higher than the previous year when comparing units sold.  The demand in Rexburg seems to be in the lower price range homes $150,000-$200,000.  

The number of bank owned and short sale homes sold were significantly higher in 2011 and seemed to have spiked mid year.    During 2011 there were some periods of time when the bank owned properties made up nearly 40% of our sales.  When the year finished out, bank owned properties made up 31% of all sales.  From our current inventory of homes for sale, bank owned properties make up 7% of the market. To view all statistical data from 2011 click here.

I am optimistic that we have reached the bottom of our market, the demand seems to be picking up and with that will eventually come higher prices.  Don't wait for prices to rise, take advantage of low prices and awesome interest rates now.

Happy New Year!  I hope that your holiday season was filled with much joy and happiness and I wish you all the best in the new year ahead of us. 

In looking forward to the new year ahead, I want to talk briefly about the real estate market.  We are now over 4 years into the downturn that has been way too long and way to deep for anybody's comfort level.  I have not finalized the numbers from 2011, I will be posting those numbers on the blog in 2 weeks.  If you read my blog post on the 3rd quarter of 2011, you would have seen an increase in units sold in a couple of counties while others were slightly down.

I like to think of myself as an optimistic person but also a realist.  From what I have seen in the past year I think that we hit the bottom and are working our way out of the pit we have been in for so long.  Are the prices where we would like them to be?  If you are a seller, probably not.  If you are a buyer, you bet!!  Right now is such a good time to buy, there are still great rates and there is an inventory of homes that are priced really well.  I have seen some deals on homes in the past year where flipping is possible again, yes I said flipping.  If you are an investor and looking for a long term investment now is a great time to buy.  I built a 4-plex in 2006 and sure wished I would have held my money and waited to buy until now, the return on investment is so much better.

Watch for my blog post in a couple weeks with the complete numbers from 2011, I am excited to see them myself.  If you are thinking of becoming a homeowner in 2012, please give me a call and lets see if we can find something that works for you!  If your plans are taking you somewhere outside of East Idaho in 2012, please call me for a free market analysis.

For me, the best part of any holiday are the traditions.  I have dubbed myself as a very traditional person, which sometimes bothers my wife...I think.  Of all the holidays throughout the year, Christmas probably has the most traditions.  Most of the traditions that make Christmas time special are the traditions centered around family.   For me some of the traditions take me back to my childhood when I didn't have a care in the world.  It is fun to pass some of those traditions down to my own children.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to Island Park with my family.  Usually, there is a lot of snow and the snowmobiling is fantastic.  Mother nature has not been cooperating this year and we barely have a skiff on the ground in Rexburg while Island Park has only half of what is common for this time of year.  Island Park Idaho has some of the best snowmobiling in the country and it is a beautiful time of year to go up there.  We hope to still make our trek up there this year and take advantage of quite, winterous wonderland. 

I would love to hear about anybody's Holiday traditions.  Happy Holidays to you all and best wishes for a Happy New Year!!

The question is often asked, "Do I really need to find a realtor to buy or sell Real Estate in East Idaho?" The answer to the question is obviously, yes, you need a Realtor, but it is also important to find the RIGHT Realtor for you.

When I was just a young lad I was really excited to buy my first home, I was looking for a cheap investment property that I could buy, fix up and sell, basically, I was looking for a flip.  I called several local real estate companies and asked for a list of homes that fit my criteria.  I was a little confused when each of the lists I received was basically the same homes.  As I investigated further I found that Realtors belong to an MLS (Multiple Listing Service) which allows each of them to cooperate with other each other in selling their listings.  I needed to find an agent that fit my needs, and I did.

Now that I am now a Realtor I have the chance to help clients find Real Estate that fits their needs.  It is my suggestion for Buyers to find a Realtor, not only a Realtor, but find the RIGHT Realtor.  What I mean by that is for you to find a Realtor that you are comfortable with.  You may want to interview a couple different Realtors or even do some research and see if you can find one that will best match with your personality.  Finding the RIGHT Realtor will benefit you as you search for the right home.  Finding an experienced Realtor will bring insight not only about the real estate market but also about East Idaho.  Some Realtors may ask you to sign an Exclusive Buyers Representation Agreement, this should not scare you, but make sure you are comfortable with the Realtor and that you have reviewed the form prior to entering into the agreement.  I have a full bound packet that I provide to buyers that will go through the entire process.

I hope that in your search for the RIGHT Realtor you would consider me.  Let me be your RIGHT Realtor and help make the process of buying or selling real estate in East Idaho as easy as possible, like I have done for hundreds of other clients over the past 8 years.

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to Anaheim California to the National Association of Realtors Convention.  It was a good time to get away and go network with other agents around the world and see the newest technology available at the Realtor Trade Show and Expo.  I was also able to attend some training sessions.

My wife says the only reason I went to convention was for a "Mancation"...okay that may be partly true.  I went with 2 other agents from our Idaho Falls office.  We did play hooky on one of the days to attend the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, it was a lot of fun and cool to see how a show like that is produced.  The rest of  my time in California was spent at the convention.  I was able to take some classes on photography, marketing and some glasses on how to integrate a lot of the Google tools into my real estate business. 

The Realtor Trade Show and Expo was almost overwhelming.  There is so much new technology and information available. I am excited to be able to integrate some of the new tools into what I have going at this time.  In the future you can watch for a mobile web page as well as a new Facebook page for real estate.  Century 21 sponsored a tailgate party at convention and had Terrell Davis come.  They raffled off some autographed jerseys and I was lucky enough to win one of them.

I am often asked if now is still a good time to buy a house.  People often ask if I feel we have hit the bottom.  How do we know when we have hit the bottom?  The only way to know we have hit bottom is when everything is on its way up, then we can look back and say "Yep, there was the bottom...I should have bought then"

The real estate market in East Idaho is doing just fine.  Are we selling as much as we did in 2006 and 2007, of course not but we are hanging in there.  Rexburg's real estate market is up 13% when comparing the number of homes sold during the same time frame last year.  Our buyers are looking in lower, more affordable price ranges, but that is where it must start to trickle up to the upper end homes.  In my opinion we are at the bottom now, we will still fluctuate some as we come off bottom but the increase in sales tells me that people are sick of waiting for a home and are ready to buy now. 

Interest rates are still phenomenal, the lowest I have ever seen.  2 weeks ago I helped a young couple close on their first home in St Anthony, they got a new loan with an interest rate of 3.875 on a 30 year fixed loan. 

Our distressed homes market still accounts for nearly 38% of all sales, this would include Short Sales and Bank Owned property.  These types of properties typically sell for 10-15% below market value.  To view the bank owned properties currently for sale in our market, click here.

With the record low interest rates and the low prices on homes now is a great time to buy.