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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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. 

Thanks for your wonderful service you provided to our family. If we move in the future, you know who we will call.

         Over the past year the BYU Honor Code has been in the spot light quite a bit through the BYU basketball player that violated the code and was ineligible to play in the NCAA tournament this past March.  All of the LDS church schools require students to sign and live by an honor code, this code addresses issues from dress and grooming standards to academic honesty to housing requirements and the code is taken very seriously.   Today I would like to discuss how the BYU-Idaho honor code affects the housing situation in Rexburg and the surrounding communities.

         I often have calls from parents who have a child that will be attending BYU-Idaho and would like to buy a condo for their student to live in.  Because of the requirement by the school for single students to live in approved housing this is not possible, the only option would be for the parents to buy and already approved housing complex and then allow their student to live in that property.  The Honor code states, "All single students, unless over 30 years of age, must live in approved housing unless they live at home with their parents. Students who wish to live with a relative or local family friend must receive approval from the Housing and Student Living Office. Exceptions are granted on a case-by-case basis and do not constitute an approval of the house, but rather a temporary approval of the situation for a particular individual. The university may withdraw the approval at any time."

       Some investors who are not familiar with the universities requirement are turned off by the requirements which have owners assisting the university in upholding the honor code. I would argue that this is a plus for apartment owners, the rules within the honor code drastically cut down abuse that apartments go through in other towns that cater to students.  There are rules regarding drugs and alcohol, pets, and cleanliness standards that students must live by.

      There are properties available that are already school approved, and there is process that an owner must go through to continue to be school approved.  I can assist you in that process, with personal experience in the student housing as well as community housing in Rexburg I can help you with the questions that you may have.  Take advantage of the real estate possibilities that abound in Rexburg, the school continues to grow and students continue to move to Rexburg.  For the entire Honor Code requirements click here to visit the BYU-Idaho website.

Take a look at this table to see how the activity of Q3 2010 compares to Q3 2011

The first thing that you will want to check is the furnace, it is always a good idea to have your furnace survived by a professional heating company each year.  Make sure that the furnace filters are new and clean, also make sure you have extras...it is a good idea to change those once a month during the winter months.  It is also wise to have your fuel tank topped off if you are using propane or oil for heat.  If you don't have carbon monoxide detectors it may be a good idea to get one, don't put your family at risk.

If you have a wood burning stove, make sure you have the chimney cleaned and inspected.

It is recommended to have your Air Conditioning unit covered for the winter, you should have all debris cleaned out prior to covering it.

Most homes in East Idaho have sprinkler systems that need to be winterized to prevent freezing.  You can call most lawn care companies to have the lines blown out or you can get an air compressor and do it yourself.  Make sure that you also turn off your timer as it can damage the solenoids if it tries turning off with the water off.  It is also a good idea to unscrew your garden hoses to prevent the faucet from freezing, you can also buy insulators to put over the outdoor faucets through the winter.  If you have pipes that are prone to freezing, now is the time to install heat tape...make sure to follow installation instructions for safety.

While the weather is still nice is is also a good idea to check the weather seal around your doors and make sure they seal tight to prevent any cold air from entering.  It is also a good time to caulk around windows and doors if the old caulk is cracking.

Clean out your rain gutters from debris and leaves, you may need to wait until the trees are done shedding to do this.  You may also want to install heat cable on your roof and in your rain gutters if you have an area that does not see a lot of sunshine in the winter, this will help to stop any type of ice dam.

If you have had high heating bills in the past you may want to have your insulation levels checked, there may even be some tax incentives to improve the energy efficiency of your home.

The fall 2011 semester at BYU-Idaho has nearly 1000 more students than the fall semester of 2010 with total enrollment of 15,102 students.  This is a new record for BYU-Idaho which has continued to grow quite rapidly over the past 10 years.  The school is rapidly expanding its on-line learning to be able to better serve students around the world.

According to the University Communications 25% (3766) of the students enrolled in the university are married students.  BYU-Idaho serves students from across the globe, there are approx 433 international students that represent 59 countries.

There seems to still be plenty of expansion around Rexburg, several new apartment complexes have been added and there are still some under construction.  The apartments seem to be getting filled up as fast as they are built.  The investment opportunities are still around and there is still money to be made in Real Estate around Rexburg.  If you are interested in investing in Rexburg whether you are a big or small investor I can help, please contact me.

Brady Ellis

Last week we were able to take a day trip to Yellowstone National Park, my wife's Grandparents were in town from Tennessee and had never visited the Park.  From Rexburg, Yellowstone National Park is a little over an hour drive making it a great day trip.   While driving up there we passed through the Island Park area, a great place to go relax and enjoy the quiet up there.  Yellowstone National Park has been breaking records the last couple of years, more people have been visiting the Park and in 2010 there were 3,640,184 visitors that passed through the Park which was 10.5% higher than 2009 which was a record year.

We were able to visit Old Faithful Geyser and make the loop along Yellowstone Lake.  We were able to see the upper and lower falls which are some of most spectacular views you will see in a lifetime.  It was a great day, we were able to be back in Rexburg by 6pm.  There are so many other sites that a person can visit within a short drive from Rexburg and other East Idaho cities.

A short sale is simply when a property is being sold short of what is still owed on the property.  There are 3 parties to the transaction, the buyer, the seller and the lender. 

The seller still is the person who signs and negotiates the offer which is subject to the 3rd party lender approval.  The approval times greatly are affected by which bank has the loan and the competence of the real estate agent working on the transaction.  Buyers can typically buy a short sale property 10-20 below market value.  It has been my experience that the process can take anywhere between 24 hours to 3-4 months. 

With the market changing and prices adjusting it is necessary for sellers who are in a bind to sell the property as a short sale vs letting it go through the foreclosure process.  Sellers can click here to read more about the process and what is required.

If you have additional questions,  please contact me

Jon & Bryanna Johnson