Boise Real Estate Report

Boise Idaho - Mike Carr helps Brad Buy house in Boise.

Another one bites the dust. Well meridian actually! This is as good as we could find for around $200,000. Rv parking, 3 car garage, big back yard! If you are looking for a good deal and a knowledgeable buyers agent, you have come to the right place. Give me a call to get the hunt started for what it is you are looking for.

Here is what the Boise Idaho mls had to say about it. It is also the Meridian Idaho mls.

Beautiful and well cared for home! If extras are what you're looking for don't miss out on this one. RV parking, double gate side yard access with concrete driveway leading to shed in backyard, Huge backyard with full sprinklers in front and back. Large kitchen and split bedroom floor plan.

Labels: Meridian mls - rv parking and more

posted by Mike Carr at 8:15 AM

Boise Id real estate for sale - Pending

This is a home I sold last week. Lots of good quality throughout. This home was built buy Tutt , there are several other builders building in this price range and competing with CBH Homes. Namely Prestige , and Blackstead. They typically offer slightly better finish work, but less footage. This home also had full sprinklers and sod. 3 bedroom, 3 bath with detached office or mother in law quarters. If you are looking for an experience buyer's agent to help you find your next home, give me a call at 888-722-6453 or 284-9905.

Labels: Boise Idaho new construction - Pending

posted by Mike Carr at 7:53 AM

Boise Idaho Real Estate- House for sale

Labels: Home for sale in Boise

posted by Mike Carr at 6:04 AM

Boise Idaho Real Estate- Home for sale

posted by Mike Carr at 5:57 AM

Boise Auto Mechanic

Shoe's and cars. I wear them out about twice as fast as the normal person. I am not sure if it is good gene's or if I learned it some place along the way. Probably a little of both. Over the years I have switched boot brands almost as much as mechanic's. Erica and I , being Boise real estate agents , put a lot of miles on both our feet and our cars.
I started out my Boise real estate career in a 1972 BMW Bavaria that had been rebuilt by a fellow realtor's father. His wife did not like the 4 speed, so I got a good deal. And he carried paper to boot. It ran great for a few days at a time. One of the problems was that the points were worn and if it was not adjusted perfectly, it would miss and backfire like mad. Another was the air conditioner leaked the coolant in about a months time. I had several clients that I am sure did not show up for day two of their house hunting trip because of it. Anyway, at that time I used Hurless Brother's who were and are great mechanics, but not inexpensive mechanic's. They are good but for me the best mechanic should be good and inexpensive. The would be my number 3 boise mechanic.
I will add a rating for the number two mechanic in the valley, honest. These guys may not be the very best mechanics, nor are they as expensive as Hurless Brothers, but they are honest and have provided me with great service. I know, an honest mechanic my foot. Well check this out, I committed the cardinal sin of telling the mechanic what was wrong with my truck. I set myself up for a six hundred dollar bill as follows. And please do not tell the Car Talk guys about this.
My friend and I had nearly identical Chevrolet trucks, about 4 years old. His developed a leaky head gasket which he took to said mechanic and they fixed it for about $600.00. A couple of days later my truck developed an oil leak that was hitting the ground in roughly the same spot. Viola, I had the problem solved by the time I arrived at the mechanics front door. I informed him that the problem obviously had to be a leaky head gasket. They were quite polite and informed me they would check it out. About two hours later they called with the bad news, Leaky gasket on my oil pan drain plug, total cost 14.00. They could have told me leaky head gasket and charged me $600.00 and I would not have blinked an eye. Least expensive, no. Very best, No. Honest, dependable, reliable, hard working yes. Tune Tech on Fairview 208-377-4220 is my number 2 auto mechanic in Boise.
What could top that you ask?? Well, I recently burned up another engine. After ruining my transmission at 90,000 miles, rebuilding my front end at 115,000 miles, I burned up my engine at about 125,000. After spending the money on the front end and transmission I had all ready decided to either put in a rebuilt or used engine. After exploring the costs it was looking like about $5,000.00 for a rebuilt. At the last second I decide to price a used engine and the guy at Barger-Madsen roared with laughter when I told him how much I had been quoted to swap out the engine. He gave me the name and number of a guy down the street. He quoted me $500 plus some misc costs for swapping out flywheels etc. I determined I could put 3.27 used engines in for the cost of a rebuilt one. Problem solved. I purchased the used engine. Set up a date with the guy down the street and waited in eager anticipation for the date to arrive. I dropped it off. I was expecting the come and get it call at 4 or 5 o'clock. I got the oh crap call at about 1 o'clock. Apparently the guys at the wrecking yard did not see a small but substantial crack in the pan on top of the heads that holds the oil. Oh crap is right, After talking with Tune tech I call the swapper to see if I could go to the machine shop with him and see what the guy had to say, before I could get that out he told me to get my butt down there and take a look at it and see what I thought. Upon entering the shop and pondering the situation I looked up and into the eyes of Dave Ooley who went to West Junior High and Borah high school with me. We were on the 9th grade boys "B" Basketball team together. I still remember making a pass to him from half court, he was under the basket, he got fouled and canned both free throws. We had been promoted as a 5 man squad up to the "A" team to play against South for one game. It was our Olympics. Chris Langrill was also on that team with us, he is a hot shot reporter at the Idaho Statesman now. Dave had always struck me as an honest guy, and if you cannot trust someone you have known since junior high who can you trust. Anyway the guy's at Dom's Repair, took my new baby to the machine shop for a quick weld which took the rest of the day. He cancelled all of his appointments for the next day to put my engine in and installed a new fan clutch to boot. It cost him a half of day in production yet they did not charge me a penny more than he had quoted. Dom could have hurried a weld on that engine and proceeded post haste, but instead he took the high road and did it right. Is there some chance that they are wrong and the weld goes deeper or wont hold, yes. But I know about it. I could have become a real thorn in his side and tried to find a different engine etc. delayed everything by days. Any way my new number one mechanic in Boise is Dom's repair on state by the maverick. They are inexpensive, honest, hard working and the little guy. I love giving my money to the small business that has to struggle to keep it all floating. By the way they will work on about anything gas powered, boats, lawn mowers, cars, Tractors, wave runners.
If you need something fixed do not hesitate to call Boise's best mechanic Dominick Dilecce at Dom's repair and Service.
Let's put it this way, I do not want to think about what a head gasket would cost at Hurless' Brother's, although it will be done right. I know what it cost my buddy at Tune Tech $600.00. I am not sure what it would cost at Dom's Repair, but he took an engine out, swapped out 8-10 different attachments, took motor to machine shop, reinstalled the whole shebang with a new fan clutch and replaced a couple missing bolts from my transmission, for less than $900.00. Doms Repair 208-853-9585 or after hours at 208-861-5402.
You cannot go wrong with any of these guys if you are looking for a good Mechanic in Boise Idaho. I do not know if they have been added to the Car Talk list of studly wrench monkey's, but they should be.
As for Boots, La sportiva, but that is another blog.
Mike Carr strives to be the best realtor he can to help you Buy or Sell Boise real estate.

Labels: Boise mechanics

posted by Mike Carr at 3:17 PM

Pricing property in Boise real estate market of today.

I recently was approach by an agent from Salt Lake who had a potential buyer down there, if only she could get her home sold here in Boise. He wanted me to go and look at it and let them know what I thought the problem was and what would it take to get it sold. The house had been listed for a year and the listing had expired about a month ago. After procuring a key and viewing it was obvious that the house was over priced by more than a hundred thousand dollars.

The home had functional problems, needs kitchen updating, had a 20 year old wood roof and no shower in the master. Needless to say it needs to be priced less expensively than a slightly nicer home across the street. Below is what I emailed to her to try and explain what it takes to get it sold in the boise market of today. Yes great marketing and superior negotiating can make a small difference but the house has to be the best deal or dream on.


Your options are to lower the price to the point that it will sell, Improve the product to the point it will be the best deal. Or you could rent it out and wait for the market to come back up.


I can tell you this, the buyers will need to perceive your home as the best value in order to generate interest and/or offers. Price overcomes all objections. If you are the 4th, 5th or 6th best deal in nw Boise, by the time 3 sell and you move into the top three and have a shot at an offer, 3 more will list and you are in 6th place and out of the running. You need to be the most competitively priced or you just do not have a chance. I do not know for sure how low you need to go but surely less than the one across the street that is bigger and updated. Or when the buyer that wants to be on the golf course is going to come along, because frankly that is the person who will be willing to pay top dollar for it.

What I do know for sure is that a buyer will go and buy the one down the street if they perceive it to be a better value to them. It does not matter what you paid, what you want, or what you think it is worth. The only opinion that matters is the buyer's who is standing at your front door. Your house will need to stand on its own two feet against the competition. There are so few buyers that they can be ultra picky. They are not going to pick an overpriced home and offer $20,000 less as it is unrealistic that more than 1 in 100 sellers would consider it.

If you are intrested in finding out what your home is worth, visit my " Boise homes value " page. I will get back to you right away. Or better yet give me a buzz at 284-9905.

Labels: Sold not listed. Pricing Boise real estate in a down market.

posted by Mike Carr at 3:47 PM

Dealing with CBH homes a Breath of fresh air.

I wanted to give kudos to one of Boise's anchor builder's. In an era were the big guy always seems to come out on top Corey Barton took the high road when he probably would have been within his rights to take no action.
I meet this morning with representatives of CBH Homes and a past client whose daughter I help to purchase her first home. After pondering the choices, she decided on a brand new CBH Home. She loves everything about it. Except the front yard. When it came time to close the grass was "stressed" as Brett with CBH Homes put it. Mostly it looked dead. The pressurized irrigation was 3 weeks late coming on. We worked out an agreement with CBH that if it had not recovered within 30 days we would need to let them know in writing and they would remedy the situation. At the 30 day mark the buyer decided that it had improved a little and she would give it a little more time to recover. In the last 30 days the weeds have taken over and it looks a little over watered. So to the letter of the contract there was no question that CBH had every right to pass on replacing the sod. As a matter of fact the yard looked a lot better than I expected it to. It was mostly alive but in poor shape from lack of nutrition, weed maintenance and over watering. My client laid out his case that they had tried to do the best that they could and gave the sod every opportunity to come back. Without a second thought Corey said that they would replace the sod so that everyone was happy.
That's right Corey took the time out of his day to come and meet with us over a $300.00 dollar sod issue, 2 and a half months after the sale closed. There are a lot of the big name upper end builders who will not send out a tech to fix a damn thing let alone come out themselves to help solve a problem big or small.
So again thank you Corey for standing up for your product and providing the kind of customer service that people should receive. Some of you high quality upper end mucky type builders ought to take note. While CBH does not build in all quality ranges, the product he produces is very competitive and it is hard to beat. I ought to know it is my job to find those of you who are buying Boise real estate, the best deal possible. At times it puts me at odds with the local builders. But I would like to say that while I have not liked most of the counters that I received back from CBH Homes over the years, I have always been treated in an up front and honest manner, which is more than I can say for some other local builders.

If you are considering a move within or too the Boise area and would like to take advantage of my experienced service( yes I do remember which builders have been unsavory in their dealings) in helping you find that next perfect home give me a buzz or shoot me an email. We offer Buyers agency at no cost to you the buyer! 888-722-6453

Labels: CBH Homes provides exceptional customer service

posted by Mike Carr at 7:04 PM