Category Archives: Boise Real Estate News

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boise multi-family housing

Buying Multi-Family Housing In Boise Idaho

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Is now a good time to buy multi-family in Boise?

Many investors are rushing to multi-family housing in the Boise area and for good reason. The reasons are as unique as the investors but the fact that prices are low and rapidly increasing are pivotal trends in the market. Prices are off peak prices by nearly 30% so bargains are still out there and one significant strategy in investing in purchasing at the right price at the right time. Waiting to purchase after the price has peaked will cause an investor to miss out on a lot of appreciation they would otherwise have capitalized on.

Another major factor in buying multi-family in Boise is the fact that there are a very high number of renters in this market. The majority of people in the Boise area will be renters, and possibly long term renters at that. Having a plentiful supply of renters the multi-family is key to investor success.

What is the long term prognosis of multi-family in Boise?

The major factor in buying a house or investing hard earned cash has always been and will always be loan rates. Most investors are aware that they will need at least 20% down to get into a loan and the low rates maximize profits. The low interest rates of today will make the long term multi-family market attractive to any observant investor.

Another factor which indicates the health of the Boise multi-family market is the fact that rent rates are actually increasing. Many people expect rent rates to go down since the real estate market is recovering, but there is one significant factor, which we will discuss at the end of the article, which will keep rent rates going up.

What is a good way to rate potential investment properties in Boise?

The most reliable way to predict the direction of a market is to consider local market trends, such as localized development trends. If the property you are thinking of purchasing has a great capitalization rate, that is always a plus, but is not indicative of the overall trend of the area. As new development occurs in certain areas, it can cause and even increase valuable traits such as cap rate and appreciation. Knowing where this development is occurring most frequently and investing in a proactive and predictive manner is key. Capitalization rate is and has always been a very reliable way to evaluate a property for its investment potential but utilizing the local development trends is a must for the long term.

For more information on investing in multi-family housing in Boise, email me at gavin@realtyinidaho.com.

 

Idaho cabins for sale

Remote Cabins For Sale In Idaho

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Remote Cabins For Sale In Idaho

Are you looking for a remote cabin in Idaho? This private listing is a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath real log cabin. This wonderful home sits on 2.5 acres and is powered by a unique off grid system which utilizes solar power, a battery bank, wind power and a generator to run the entirely propane appliances. Featuring a propane refrigerator, stove and on demand water heating system by Takagi, this home is perfect for anyone who wants a private and off the grid cabin in Idaho. 

Click here to watch a video about the cabin lot

This home also features a cistern which can be filled from the creek below or using the gutter system along the roof. Downhill is landscaped with several fruit trees and berry bushes which are watered from a barrel cistern that is filled by the roof gutter system. The downhill side of the lot is terraced with a landscaping trail which winds it's way through the native bushes to the landscaped plants intermingled to make for easy maintenance and a natural feel to the landscaping. Located at the end of a private road the cabin is extremely quiet and features lots of Idaho wildlife. 

Click here to see a video on the floorplan

To heat the home you simply throw some of the plentiful firewood from the surrounding woods in and let it burn. The woodstove also heats the water and directs it back toward a water tank for hot water use, making the hot water heater run on firewood. With three source of heat for hot water, you can use wood, solar or propane to get your hot water. Even with all of these off the grid features, this cabin can be connected to the grid if you so choose. There are stove and dryer outlets already installed to handle the demands of modern electrical systems, and to ease your home sickness for modern comfort. The lighting in the cabin is set up for low wattage bulbs but can use any light bulbs in the normal range of use. 

Click here to see a video of the fun things you can do at the cabin

This beautiful Idaho cabin features a covered porch in the front and the back, with a Romeo and Juliet balcony which overlooks the entire valley. This balcony is accessible from the upstairs bedroom and is located at the same height as the pine canopy of the surrounding forest maximizing interaction with hummingbirds, squirrels and other native neighbors. 

The flooring is made for the high demand of mountain living, with tile throughout the downstairs level, and laminate in the bedroom. The upstairs bedrooms feature carpet to retain that comfortable feeling when walking around in your bare feet. 

Click here to see an amazing rain storm

That garage is 1 1/2 car garage made of post and beam construction and cord wood infill. On the back side of the garage is a firewood lean to which can store up to 7 cords of firewood and keep it dry. This Idaho cabin abuts public land directly and there are several hundred miles of backcountry trails and roads for horseback riding, motorcycling, atv'ing, hiking and camping. Kirkham hotsprings is about 1 mile away and several trailheads are minutes away.

 

If you would like more information on this off grid cabin in Idaho, including pictures and video footage email me at Gavin@RealtyInIdaho.com.

Boise real estate agents

Is Your Listing Agent Helping Or Hurting Your Home Sale?

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Business%20Card Is Your Listing Agent Helping Or Hurting Your Home Sale?Hiring a listing agent to help you sell your home is important in the Boise real estate market, and choosing that listing agent is key to getting your home sold. Far too many real estate agents in Boise list homes with the express purpose of "double ending", or representing both the seller and the buyer to earn both commissions, the transaction. As a result, many serious buyers are turned away, along with their agents, which may prevent your home from selling altogether. In order to help you avoid choosing an agent in Boise that will do this, I have assembled a brief list of questions to ask your listing agent prior to listing, to make sure they know you are aware of the afore mentioned strategies.

 

  • Expressly state to them your opposition to both dual representation and dual representation with assigned agents
    • In Idaho both of these forms of representation allow a real estate agent to earn commission from both buyer and seller. A listing agent who is willing to sign a statement like this, or indicate this option on their representation agreement is an honest one.
  • Request a written copy of their marketing plan
    • By putting their marketing plan in writing you can keep them accountable for the amount of time and money they are going to spend marketing your home
  • Call the Idaho Real Estate Commission
    • Check with the local MLS, Realtor associations and IREC to see if this agent has had any claims against them. If they have, keep interviewing agents.
  • Ask them for a resume which includes all real estate offices they have worked with
    • Gathering a comprehensive list of brokerages that your possible listing agent has worked with will let you know how often they have switched brokerages. If they have bounced around a lot, you may want to choose someone else.
  • Proof read your own MLS listing
    • checking the information on your home listing for errors may prevent agents showing up with buyers at odd times or similar misunderstandings.

Keeping this simple list of tactics you can employ to make sure you get a good listing agent will not only work here in Boise, but in just about any other part of the nation that they apply. Make sure to plan for some added market time as inventory in Boise is still backed up, and may be for quite a while.

To learn more about Boise real estate agents click this link!

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Building Permits On Their Way Up, But Does That Mean The Boise Housing Market Is OK?

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After reading the latest article posted in the Statesman about permits increasing in most local markets, the news paints a very confused picture. The market that should be the fastest pace, the one where lot and building prices are lowest, posted the largest drop in permit applications. Kuna should have been the highest paced market due to the price differential between the surrounding towns, but it posted the biggest slide? That doesn't make a lot of sense unless there is some unforeseen force in the market dictating this.

Projections from major national sources indicate that without the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit prices will drop somewhere between 10-15% in the Boise area, depending on what rates do. If they go up then you can expect a higher percentage of reduction in the price of homes. To the head of the Nampa Department of Building Safety indicates that permits have increased in the second quarter, and that that shows the bottom has been reached. If only.

Steve Hasson from Kuna City Planning and Zoning is convinced that developers are going to step in and assume major projects that have been taken back from other developers by banks. This seems to me to be an ill-conceived notion since the developers and builders would have to provide a product that can be financed with compatible appraisals and can out compete the tremendous values in the REO market right now. This is an extremely difficult task and people that have a lot of money are known for making smart decisions, not foolish ones.

The bottom line is, until Idahoans can find steady employment that yields enough money to justify buying a home, or land, then what can a half way observant person expect? A continuation of a depressed market pace and years of stagnation if the current problems are not addressed, that is what.

Learn more about buying Boise bank owned property by clicking the link!

Buying Bank Owned Properties In Boise

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Why should more investors consider Boise bank owned property?

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Far too many homeowners have lost their homes, and even more are in the process. This difficult state of affairs for so many local homeowners seems like it is the worst case scenario in so many people’s minds, but there is a silver lining to this dark cloud.

The quick skinny on Boise bank owned homes

Many buyers are looking at Boise bank owned homes to find what they are looking for and are getting some great deals in doing so. The dynamic behind this is that when a bank forecloses on a home, the amount of the primary loan is erased and the home is sold for as close to market value as is possible, or for an agreed up on liquidated value. This increases opportunity for many buyers to purchase at decent discounts and get properties that are bank owned, and wouldn’t otherwise be on the market.

What if the bank owned properties in Boise are in a state of disrepair?

Many people are not aware of this, but getting a special kind of loan that allows you to do repairs on the bank owned properties and rolls those costs into the loan is once again available. It is called a “203b” loan, or a rehabilitation loan, and many homeowners are finding them necessary to purchase Boise real estate right now. When you understand that many of the bank owned homes are left vacant for several months while in the process of being taken back from the initial homeowner, processed through the banks REO department and then finally assigned to an REO agent for sale or liquidation, you can understand why this is the case.

Using a rehab loan to bring your recent purchases in your real estate portfolio is not the only way to bring the home up to par, but a great way to use the banks money to do it so you can spend your cash, 401k or Roth IRA money somewhere else.

Is buying Boise bank owned homes a good investment strategy?

When it comes to buying in today’s market, there are essentially 3 types of sales. There are conventional sales in which the homeowner is not underwater and can sell the home without coming out of pocket or shorting the bank. There are short sales which can take an extreme amount of time and may not even yield a purchase for sure. And, there are bank owned, or REO properties, which have the least amount of red tape of the latter two.

When you compare buying short sales to the other two, you have a poor comparison just because a short sale is the worst case scenario for investment or buying real estate in general. Given that there are so few homes that fall into the conventional sale category, you are basically left with buying bank owned homes in Boise. When you consider that, at regular intervals, bank owned homes will actually be cheaper than conventional sales, you have to include it as a great procurement strategy.

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How Does The Availability Of PMI Affect Boise Real Estate?

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mortgage1 231x300 How Does The Availability Of PMI Affect Boise Real Estate?

Many homeowners are not fully aware of exactly what PMI is, let alone how it can affect a real estate market. The contraction PMI stands for Primary Mortgage Insurance and it actually ensures the bank, not you, in case you do not pay for your home loan. Yes, you pay for it, and it does nothing for you personally besides make it possible for the bank to actually loan you the money to buy your home.

Have banks developed resolution about Boise real estate?

Banks are somewhat smart in that they will not fund Boise real estate loans which may be risky, so to buffer them from loss, they require a homeowner to purchase PMI as part of the loan contract. Most people are not quite aware that if you get an 80/20 loan, or another ratio, then you can avoid having PMI altogether because the smaller note is the one taking the biggest risk of loss.

When the Boise real estate market was listed as a depreciating market, acquiring PMI was extremely difficult because insurance companies were not so willing to insure real estate in a market with values that were headed downward. The reason for this is that homeowners tend to walk away from their homes at much higher rates when the values are underwater. With this tendency in mind, insurance companies either simply remove any policy for homes in that market altogether, or they price them so expensively that nobody will be able to afford them, which makes granting the policies much more profitable anyway.

PMI is vital to Boise real estate

If banks cannot get insurance to protect them if you do not pay your mortgage, why would they loan any money? This is where the federal governments first time home buyer tax credit, that just expired, comes into the equation.

The first time home buyer tax credit actually did stimulate the housing market because it artificially dropped values. The government decided that instead of waiting until prices adjusted naturally to where the market wanted them to be, they would make it by issuing buyers a tax credit. This artificial aid to the market caused such sensationalism that many raced out to wrap up their home and cash in on the credit.

This may sound great, but as physics teaches us, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, this increase in action will have to be countered by a reduction in activity. This may lead to a decrease in prices causing an increase in PMI all over again and putting us right back in the same position we were in before.

I know this may seem like a grim report given all of the talk about an economic recovery, but real estate is still an excellent investment, given you acquire it correctly. Buying more house than you can afford and not being able to account for future changes is never a great strategy, and may end up costing you your credit score and much more, if you do not plan your path well.

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Boise Real Estate Sales Jump 6.8%, But Is That Temporary?

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Does the report that Boise real estate sales jumped in March mean that the market is improving quickly? 

Anyone who stays aware of the Boise real estate market and hopes for it’s improvement has heard about the jump in sales in March of 6.8%. This should not be a surprise to anyone because of several factors that are pushed to the back page in an attempt to report an optimistic slant.

With the First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit or FTHBTC looking like it is not going to be extended by the federal government, many homebuyers have been pushed to rush out and contract a home before the deadline. The rules on the FTHBTC say that a buyer must have the home they are planning on claiming in the credit in contract before the 30th of April, and the closing finalized before the end of June. With these deadlines in place the latent rush in the market is predictable.

The real question to me is what is the solution for July? How will the real estate market behave once homeowners do not have the FTHBTC to “help” them purchase their home, or at least encourage them. Many industry insiders cite some optimism for the Boise real estate market, and the national one as well, in that rates and financing costs are presently low. But, what will happen when those rates and costs go back up? The Federal Reserve, which sets the interest rates for banks, has already hinted at raising the rates this summer to control inflation. If rates rise and the tax credit disappears, what, other than price, will stimulate buyers to purchase homes?

Many Boise real estate agents are sanguine about the future of the housing market in the short term, with the passing of two important market factors. When you add in that unemployment is one of the most chilling factors in the real estate market today, you can see why.

With many homeowners simply trying to hang on to their homes, unemployment distorts the rates of defaults if they cannot. When the employment numbers were lower more homeowners could afford to keep their homes, even if they owed more than the homes were worth. As long as they could make their payments, and couldn’t really rent for what they were a dramatic difference then what they were making their payments for, most were perfectly content to keep paying. Once rent rates dropped a bit and home values declined as well, the numbers came out in favor of paying reduced rent, and releasing the albatross around their neck that home has become.

The recovery of the Boise real estate market is really dependent one on very substantial factor; jobs. If area residents cannot find gainful employment, they simply cannot keep their homes, regardless of how many programs the federal government creates. Likewise, if they cannot pay for a mortgage payment and prove they have the income to do so, no bank on earth will loan them money to buy. A comprehensive solution to the jobs crisis has to be presented before any foreseeable resolution to the real estate crisis emerges.

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REO Homes Map In Hidden Springs, Boise, Idaho

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Are REO Homes In Hidden Springs Hurting Values?

Even though Hidden Springs is a fairly isolated community, it has still had it's share of REO properties that have pulled real estate values down. This may sound like a bad thing to many Boise real estate observers, but it is really a great time to pick up a property that otherwise has nothing wrong with it. Not to mention, neighbors of the REO homes in Hidden Springs do not want to see them fall into delapidation or disrepair. 

Think of it this way, if your neighbor has his home go back to the back, and the listed it as an REO home in Hidden Springs, would you expect them to take care of the landscaping? You may, but they wouldn't do it. The banks do not seem to operate on the same principles as many other entities. The foreclosed homes in Hidden Springs, and many other nice subdivisions in Boise Idaho, are being absorbed into the market despite that though. 

 

 

If you are looking for REO home listings in Hidden Springs click on the map below!

REO Homes Map In Hidden Springs, Boise, Idaho

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Why hire a Boise buyer’s agent?

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flash img 03 Why hire a Boise buyers agent?

Many home buyers are concerned with the trends in the market. Is it going to go down? Will the recovery finally star to kick in? Nobody seems to have any solid answer, except Boise buyers agents. Too many times buyers and investors get sidled with agents who do not know what is going on in the market because they settle for the first real estate agent they speak with. Here is a simple guide, and answers to a few important questions,  to show you what to do when considering hiring a Boise buyers agent. 

What will a Boise buyers agent cost me?

Any real estate professional worth his or her salt, will actually make you more money than their commission  on your transaction. These are not just numbers I am pulling out of thin air, this is a statistical fact according to the NAR.  You will not be charged any out of pockets fees in a typical real estate transaction, because the listing agent has already negotiated a fee for a buyers agent payable by the seller. 

Why would I need a Boise buyers agent?

Purchasing real estate is a complicated process, as it should be. It should not be as easy as placing a bet in a casino in Las Vegas. Hopefully,  you will have put much time and planning into buying your home. Agents will be up to date on any changes in the closing procedures, financing industry that may be applicable as well as any change in law and statute that may have an impact on the process. 

What are some important questions to ask a Boise buyers agent?

1. Ask your agent to help you clarify your vision for your home purchase. They should be willing and able to help you decide what size of home you need, what fits your budget as well as any implications from those issues. 

2. Ask you agent if he or she is wiling to listen to what you want and need. They should be willing to listen to you in regard to the area you want to live in as well as any other important feature your home needs to have. If they show you homes above your price range or that don't match your criteria, they may not be representing your best interests at all.

3. Ask the agent if they can vow to represent you to the best of their abilities. This would include answering any questions you have on properties, dutifully fulfilling their legal representation responsibilities and acting in your best interests. 

4. Ask the agent if they are wiling to communicate with you on a level that you need to help you understand an information that you are given about the transaction. 

5. Ask your agent if you could be protect by completing a buyer representation agreement. Make sure to read it carefully and even have a lawyer check it out if you have any issues with it. An honest agent will not pull any tricks in the language, so you have a good way to gauge the ethics behind the agents behavior this way. 

This format of inquiry in interviewing a real estate agent allows you to assess their motives, personality all the while establishing a level of expectation from them that you have to come first in the transaction. This way you know that your interests will be represented and not just what will get them paid. 

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Boise Real Estate Experiencing Rush Of Permanently Modified Home

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loan modification Boise Real Estate Experiencing Rush Of Permanently Modified Home

Can Boise real estate owners count on home loan modifications?

Even though the Boise real estate market has posted many successive months of record setting foreclosure numbers, there is a new number that is at record highs as well, and it has a much more positive tone to it. Permanent loan modifications have started to bail out many homeowners in the area and have the pace that these modifications are being completed at will help lift the market. 

As a measure of caution, there is a set number of these loan modifications set apart for Boise real estate owners who may be facing trouble and in risk of falling behind on their home payments, or even losing their homes altogether. As these modifications are set to become permanent, the rate of acceptance of them is steadily increasing and has reached about 15% currently. 

The program started when the federal government launched the Home Affordable Modification Program last year, with an initial seed deposit of $75 billion. It is designed to help homeowners who are more than 60 days behind on their home payments. The ambitious goal for the program has been set at modifying 3-4 million home loans before 2012. This affect Boise real estate owners by granting them another tool in their arsenal of dealing with the quagmire of upside down mortgages and falling home values.


With the banks initially approaching this program with some scepticism, the pace of modifications being converted from temporary to permanent was very slow. With the insistance of the Obama administration to pick up these conversion rates, many banks are beginning to grant them permanent status at much higher rates now. 


This means that Boise real estate sellers will be able to get their temporary home loan modification transfered from temporary status into permanent status if it means that they will have a higher likelihood of keeping their homes.


Many Boise real estate owners at risk of losing their homes may be tepid about the realistic possibility of having their home loan reduced. To help sway them into at least trying, pointing out that the average payment reduction a regular home owner has is around 36%. That is a median rate of savings around $500 per month. If that does not encourage you to try to get a loan modification, there may not anything that will.

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