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lanivanderbeek
Lani VanderBeek
Agent

Direct: 208-403-5800

Office: 208-529-8888



Company Info

Win Star Realty
1655 Elk Creek Drive
Idaho Falls, ID
208-529-8888


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Housing Market

How to Find your New Home for First time Home buyers and Seasoned Buyers too.

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

Here we go!

OK, you have your lender, you know what you can spend and have a price range.  Now what??

What we are not going to do is go look at houses.  WHAT!!!  Not look at houses??  No.  That is the very best way to be sure you end up unhappy.

First we are going to visit.  Meet at my office and visit about you, your needs, your wants, your expectations.  This visit is all about you.  This is where I find out who you are and what is important to you and what you want to avoid.  This is maybe the most important part of the entire process.

There are 2 main reasons we do this.  The first is to help you sort out what is really important to you.  I bring up a lot of things that you would not have even considered.  This information helps keep us all on track.  The second reason is so I can help you avoid the things you said you wanted to avoid.  Believe it or not, when you get into the emotion of home shopping, you forget a lot of what was really important!  You would not believe how many people will tell you that after they bought a home, they realized they got the wrong home!  It is usually because they forgot something that really was important to them.  I don’t let that happen.

One couple that I helped sell their home actually had purchased that  home when it was already way too small for their family.  They had 6 children and the home they bought was huge!  It had huge living areas, kitchen, living room, family rooms, office.  But it had only 3 bedrooms.  But they got so caught up with the large living spaces that they forgot what they really needed.  It was a very expensive mistake.  It is one they would not have made if I had been their Realtor.  But the agent they used to buy that home was more interested in getting a commission check than in what was right for their family.

From this point on, we work as a team and find your perfect new home.

Next entry will be on listing your home and the current market in Bonneville County, Jefferson County and Shelley, Idaho.

Choose a Lender

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

Buying a home can be daunting!  But not if you have good help.  The right Realtor (me), Lender (you will know how to chose in a minute) and inspector.

There are many ways to categorize lenders and many ways to chose.  What follows is my opinion and I will give you the reasons for that opinion.  It is NOT the only way.

For the purpose of this blog, and for the current market, I will have only two categories,  direct underwriters and non direct underwriters.

A direct underwriter is a lender that is someone that can do all the required processing of your loan and paperwork right there in the same office you go into to apply for the loan.  Not just the same company, but the very same building.  They have jumped through all the hoops to qualify to do that and they are not one of the huge companies that you send all your information to some giant processing center.

The reason this is important is because when your file gets sent to a processing center, you become one of thousands instead of a real person.  Also, that nice person that took your information has no control at all as to how fast things get done.  They get to it when they get to it.  Depending on the company, you may also be in the mix with all the foreclosures and short sales that the company is processing.

In the last year I have been personally involved or someone in my company has been personally involved with multiple loans that have closed weeks late because of this process of closing.  Most of those company’s are simply very backed up.

When you deal with a direct underwriting company, they have a lot less files to deal with and a lot more control.  The person you talk with knows exactly what is going on and you close when they tell you they will close.  (Closing is when all the paperwork gets signed, the money gets issued and you bought the house).

Currently in the Idaho Falls area I am aware of the following lenders that are direct underwriters:

  1. Interwest Mortgage (Call Joni)
  2. Citizens Community Bank (Call Jason)
  3. Bank of Commerce
  4. Bank of Idaho
  5. Westmark Credit Union

There may be others, I am just not aware of them and have not done business with them.  All of the above company’s I have done business with and they do a very good job.

Next time, looking for your home!

Market Recap

  • Avg. Sales Price: 379,000

  • Avg. Days on Market: 69

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