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We are about to make our third trip to Boise in a couple of weeks and are ready to start looking at neighborhoods to see which ones would be a good fit for our family.
If you have a recommendation for a Realtor that would be willing to show us around and give us some insight into the different neighborhoods in Boise and Meridian, it would be greatly appreciated.
I know it's difficult to find a realtor willing to spend time with out-of-town prospects as the market is so hot. If you do a search on this forum though this question has been asked before and there are some responses. Perhaps you can research these and find a realtor that fits.
Tour guide? Maybe a local college student would like to have that job and probably wouldn't charge much.
Real estate agents are busy so the good ones don't have time to show people the area if the people aren't at the point that they are ready to buy.
What I did was to drive myself around, locate the shopping, locate the recreation and restaurants, and then open up zillow and take myself on a tour of the neighborhoods looking at the houses that were for sale. Driving around the neighborhoods, seeing what the area was like, timing commute times, seeing how prices varied by neighborhood. When we were ready to buy I already knew if I wanted the area where the house was located.
When I was looking for a home in the area, I used Google Earth and Street View to check the area's out. I spent a year looking on Zillow, google earth-ing and street-viewing every interesting home in Meridian, Nampa, Caldwell, Middleton, Star, and Kuna until I found the perfect retirement home.
I was able to see what kind of traffic there was in an area, where shopping was, where the parks were, and what the neighborhoods looked like. Too clean a neighborhood meant a militant HOA. Boats and RV's out front means like minded people. Finding an interesting small 3 bed 2 bath home from a listing only hours old, and having no photos other than the street shot, I jumped.
I emailed realtors till one finally called me back, then I sent my kids over to do the walk through. My realtor texted me videos in 1 minute narrated blocks as he walked through at the same time as my kids were texting me pictures and details.
I liked it good enough, and offered full price pending inspection. Hired an inspection co., report came out good with one exception, seller agreed to repair, deal closed in 30 days. I asked the realtor about property management companies to rent it out for several years till I am ready to retire, and he replied he and his wife manage properties, so 2 months later the rent checks started flowing in.
Things went well so far, so I purchased another home this spring for my Daughter's family, using my same realtor, and all went well. Even got the seller to reduce the price 4.5%. My kids are overjoyed, with a stocked creek across the street, Lake Lowell's southern most boat ramp 3 miles away, and the Snake 15 miles away, they are close to all their favorite activities now, and they have made friends with several of the neighbors already.
We only went up here to find a Realtor and narrow it down to which neighborhoods we wanted to be in, but we found a house that we just couldn't pass up, so we jumped on it.
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