What would be the first thing you tried to save (besides people and pets)?
This guy asked the firefighters to save his Ferrari. Not sure I’d disagree with the decision; I’ve got an unreasonable attachment to a car myself. Seriously though, I’d grab my laptop, but besides that, I’m not sure what else I would need. Everything else would be replaceable.
So, yeah, what would you grab?
Photo Credit: Kansas City Star
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In case you don’t want to take the 4 minutes to watch the video, I will list the myths for you here:
There you have it. Now go search for a home or sell yours.
The market is tough right now for many Boise area sellers. Most of them need to sell at any cost, leading to short sales and foreclosures all over the valley. However, a lot of sellers have the option to rent their home in hopes of waiting for the market to recover in order to sell again. But many of these homeowners have never played the role of landlord before. Since CityBurb has specialized in working with first-time home buyers and sellers, it made sense that we put together a program for first-time landlords as well.
CityBurb now offers Property Management services for Boise, Meridian and Eagle property owners (we’ll look at other areas on a case by case basis). The CityBurb advantage is that as licensed real estate agents and members of the Intermountain MLS, we can advertise our rental listings to all of the other real estate agents in the valley and make use of all the web services that draw listings from the MLS. And in the CityBurb spirit, we’ll be sharing our fees with other brokers and agents as an incentive for them to bring renters to our clients’ properties.
This concept is nothing new in the commercial leasing world, but in Idaho property managers are not required to be licensed and so very few are. By being licensed we can offer the following advantages:
We’ll also be able to help renters by showing them more than just the properties we have for rent since we’ll be cooperating with other management and real estate companies. And we’ll be able to identify renters that could be potential homeowners and assist them with purchase options.
Our website will be updated soon with available rental properties and details about our new service. In the meantime, if you know someone who is struggling to sell their home or are tired of dealing with tenants, send them our way and we’ll take care of them.
Once again I will be venturing into a bowling alley, by choice, to show off my incredible ability to knock down 10 pins with one little eight pound ball (I’ve been working out a lot so I might move up to a nine or ten pound ball this year). Last year, as you may recall, I signed up a CityBurb Bowling Team for the Big Brothers Big Sisters Bowl for Kids’ Sake bowling fundraiser. Our team raised $540.00 for the event. Not bad, but I think we can do better. I’d like to raise $1,000 this year as that is the amount it costs the organization to support one match.
I know there are a lot of causes out there and I know there are a lot of other things you need to spend your money on right now, but I really think this is worth taking a look at. Big Brothers Big Sisters has a huge impact on our community. From their site:
According to Parents
- 88% of the youth improved in self-confidence
- 75% of the youth improved in the ability to express themselves
- 73% of the youth improved in their sense of the future
- 71% of the youth improved in making decisions
According to the Youth
- 68% of the youth reported improvement in wanting to learn new things
- 68% of the youth reported improvement in friendships
According to the Volunteers
- 69% of the youth improved relationships with other adults
- 68% of the youth improved in trust
So what can you do? Get your wallet out and click here. Or, you can sign up to be on our team and help us raise money and go bowling on February 21st at 4:00pm. We’ve got room for 10 9 team members, so act quick. Either way, you’re making a difference.
The Idaho Business Review had an uplifting article yesterday. They reported on the Idaho Housing and Finance Association executive director Gerald Hunter’s talk at the 2008 Economic Outlook Forum here in Boise. Overall, Hunter believes that if we look at the long term picture of our housing market, we are still in good shape. Comparing recent sales statistics with those over the past 10 years, we are still among the national average for valuation increase. Yes, increase. Over the last ten years we have still averaged a 5%+ annual increase in home prices. If we forget about those two fluke years (05/06), we’re doing great. Say you bought before the boom, left the country for two years and came back, the market would seem just as normal as ever.
The unfortunate part is that many people bought during those two years so none of this 10 year average nonsense matters to them. Well, the good news is that worst may be over. According to Hunter:
“If you use that benchmark [referring to the annual growth increase], you may have to conclude that Boise has made its way through the housing bubble.”
This is not to say that we’ve reached “the bottom,” but it is a good sign that we are close. Close enough, in fact, that any attempts at timing “the bottom” may be fruitless. Over the next year as we approach the bottom (right now), reach the bottom (soon), and start to see price increases again, it may all blur together. There won’t be a specific day that we can call the last day prices dropped. And again, we won’t be sure we’ve hit the bottom until it has passed.
Remember, many of the issues we are facing today were caused by people planning to sell shortly after purchasing their home (history tells us you need to wait 4 years to break even on a home) or people trying to use their future equity today. A home purchase is a long-term commitment and if you’ve considered and accepted this fact, you’re probably ready to buy. And right now, your timing couldn’t be better.
Photo Credit: Christine ™ via Flickr
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