Friday nights as a Real Estate Agent is not as available as some agents would like.  We had to show homes to a couple from Montana for several hours.  We didn’t finish showing the last home until 8PM and they still wanted to see more the following 2 days.  They had two kids that came along, so they were looking for a large backyard and a 4-bedroom house.  They liked every home that we showed them, which made things much harder for them.  They actually started fighting with each other.  That’s when Megan and I walk to the other room and pretend we’re not hearing it. 

Megan has shown 47 homes in one day to the same person and they weren’t even considering buying one of them.  Sometime she has shown 1 home and they bought.  It all depends on how much research the homeowner does on their own because the resources are there for them to search and narrow things down.  Megan’s website has not only helped her advertise, but has been very easy for home seekers to narrow their search. 

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Downtown Boise is beautiful.  The whole surrounding area is pretty nice too.  Boise State University is close to downtown as well.  If you didn’t know BSU is ranked #10 in the country for football and it’s huge.  I will get a chance to go to the game against Utah State on Saturday and see how intense the fans are here. 

Megan and I sold a home today.  They were a young couple with 2 kids that just bought their first home.  The husband was living in Moscow, ID and the wife was living in Scottsdale, AZ while they were waiting for all the paperwork to go through.  They thought they were going to get their house keys immediately, but that didn’t happen because the Idaho housing grants took longer than expecting.  I felt bad for the new homeowners because they were waiting on their doorstep for 2 days. 

Megan taught me that you have to be extremely flexible in the Real Estate business.  There are no set work hours.  You could work 0 hours one day and 24 the next.  It all depends on how much effort you want to put into your business.  Agents are basically self-employed, but like Megan, have the name RE/MAX behind her.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Megan had many ideas for me to experience something “Idaho.”  She brought her monster truck, which you need a ladder to get in your seat.  She let me drive it and it just feels like you want to run over everything.  Real Estate Agents don’t typically drive those types of truck when they show people homes, but I wouldn’t be surprised in Idaho. 

She took me to a Japanese restaurant for lunch that played country music; weird.  Speaking of country music; when I started my journey 10 weeks ago, I remember driving through Nevada and shutting of the radio once I heard country music.  By the time I reached Minnesota, I liked country music in the background.  Now that I’m in Idaho, I blast it.  It’s funny how that worked.

The Real Estate industry has obviously plummeted around the country and Boise was no exception.  Over 1,000 agents had left the business in the last 1.5 years, but that’s better for the agents that remained in the business.  Megan had designed a great website and has attracted customers from around the country.  As we were driving to check up on her current listings, she was receiving calls from Alaska, Montana, Arizona, and California.  Most of the customers since Boise’s boom were from California.  Many of the homes were investment properties, but are now listed under short sales.  Short sale properties are executed to avoid home foreclosure.  The bank or mortgage lender agrees to discount the loan balance for the owner to have a chance to prevent foreclosure. 

Monday, November 3, 2008

My friends that I stayed with cooked me breakfast with potatoes.  I looked at the bag to see if they were from Idaho, but they weren’t.  They were from Oregon.  Then at lunch time, I had a bag of potato chips and thought they were from Idaho, but they weren’t.  They were from Washington.  I found out that most of the potatoes grown in Idaho are exported.  Oh well.

My new co-worked was going to make sure that I would have something “Idaho” during my week here.  I arrived to work at RE/MAX Elite Properties in Boise for the week.  Being a Real Estate Agent in the Treasure Valley is big time.  Over the last seven years, Boise has been growing more than any other city in the country.  Megan Schomer was the Real Estate Agent that I chose to work with.  Right off the bat, she didn’t fit the stereotype of an agent.   She was young, had long hair, and this was her full time job.  Most assume that Real Estate Agents work part time, but not Megan and I this week. 

She took me around the Valley to prove how much it has grown since she was a youngster.  It has developed so much that people still fish in the river that is now inside the city.  It looked really weird to see hundreds of people fishing along city roads and construction of new homes. 

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Doing inventory yesterday took long than expected.  We even had volunteers from the town help count all the items.  After counting several isles of wine, chips, candy, and hardware supplies, my week was completed.  I learned how difficult it is to run a store like the General Store.  Katie, the owner, was working countless hours on her feet 7 days a week.  She would cover shifts of employees that called in sick too.  Most General Store owners work at their store rather than hiring a manager to run the place.  It’s fun, but not easy.

I woke up at 4AM to drive to Boise, Idaho.  For some reason, I thought the drive would be 5 hours, but then I checked the map and it said 9.  I left my cabin in the dark and said goodbye to the employees at the store that work at 4AM before I left.  I think driving in traffic in Los Angeles in much better than driving in the dark in Montana.  I felt like I was driving in a parade with deer spectators.  A line of deer would be on the shoulder of the road and you never know if they are going to jump into your parade.  By the time the sun came up, I was in Bozeman, Montana which is where Montana State University is located.  Like I mentioned before, Montana should be called Mountaina.  The school looked like a large high school that was surrounded by enormous mountains.  I realized that I was close to Yellowstone, so I decided to drive that route to Idaho.  I sort of wished I didn’t because I ended up driving 4 extra hours. 

I hit horrible weather on the way to Boise that I heard later on that I was close to a funnel cloud.  By the way, I thought Idaho would be covered with potato fields, but that wasn’t the case.  I actually had to search for them.