Home is where the heart is, but as many local residents have discovered over the past tumultuous year, home is often where the work is, too. That’s especially true for folks in the real estate business. While numerous industries have felt the pinch over the course of the pandemic, the housing market has boomed.
To make better sense of this trend and what to expect moving forward, we sat down with Jim Windmiller, real-estate agent extraordinaire and owner of the namesake Jim Windmiller Group here in Idaho Falls.
His takeaway observation about the market can be pared down to two words: demand and scarcity.
“We are always on the lookout for new listings,” Windmiller said. “Our buyer pool is huge right now for all realtors, so we really don’t have enough inventory for the amount of buyers that we have.”
In large part, the demand side of the equation is being driven by people moving into the region from out of state.
“They’re coming from all over the country, really,” he said. “It used to be we’d have homes in the $200,000 to $250,000 price range, but they don’t even exist anymore. About $300,000 is now our base anymore for new homes. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around where we’re at. Of course we’re always looking for people who are ready to list and sell, and those people are getting top dollar for their properties.”
The trend has been so strong in recent months that it has actually changed the nature of Windmiller’s profession, putting the agent in the role of a temporary housing manager.
“If I have out-of-state people coming in, we’re just trying to find rentals for them in the short term, and we’re watching the hot sheets every single day,” he said. “If we see something, we text them immediately. We have them do a drive-by, knowing we’ll probably be in a position of multiple offers on that same property and we’ll have to go over the list price to get it. We just have to be very aggressive for our buyers right now.”
Over the past few months, some of Windmiller’s buyers even had to “buy the house sight unseen.”
“They come out for a house-hunting trip, can’t find what they’re looking for, then go home to close out their own house, and I’ll call them to say ‘the house’ just came on the market,” Windmiller said. “I’ll just use my phone to do a quick video as we walk through the home — ‘Here’s the kitchen, here’s the dining room, here’s the living room. It’s a $700,000 house. What do you want to offer?’”
Pandemics and other factors aside, the trend has actually been steadily increasing for the past two years. CoreLogic—a think tank for property data—has released a homeowner equity report stating that from September 2019 to September 2020, U.S. homeowners accumulated a whopping $1 trillion in additional home equity. Exploding demand and the historically low housing inventory has created buyer bidding wars, sending home prices soaring.
Talk about a seller’s market.
“Right now in Bonneville County, I bet there are fewer than 40 houses available,” Windmiller said. “The houses we have listed right now will sell in 3 to 4 days, if they’re priced right. If they improve the property with a little bit of lipstick and love, and keep it clean, they get even more. It’s all about the presentation of the property, and location of course.”
For his own part, Windmiller sees little mystery in the deluge of newcomers to the Idaho Falls area, noting that there’s more to the equation than just economic factors.
“When I have out-of-state people come here, after a few months they’ll call back and say, ‘I can’t believe how nice Idaho Falls is. I’ll go into a store and people will say hi while just passing through a doorway, and where I’m from, that never happens,’” he said. “Hearing that makes me realize how super proud I am of our community, just because we are so welcoming.”
Windmiller, himself a native of Idaho Falls, has brought his three sons into the business. All of them are now licensed real estate agents.
“I love my family. It was just a natural thing to bring them on. I never really encouraged it, but it was just something on their own that they had been drawn to,” he said. “They each have their own niche in what they want to do. My older son loves property management. My middle son loves the listing side, which is what I enjoy.”
Windmiller’s youngest son has just recently embarked on a mission for his church, but he had already started to dabble in the profession before he left.
“For me it is all about people, that is my favorite part. I love matching people with houses, helping them get their homes sold and just make it a good experience for them,” Windmiller said. “I had one lady from Germany who had moved first to the East Coast, then moved to Idaho Falls for a job. Before we closed, I had knocked on a few doors just to say, ‘Here’s your new neighbor,’ and now they are best friends. It’s awesome. We’re very lucky here.”
Click here to read the May issue of Idaho Falls Magazine.