Little League World Series Boise One Game Away

Price Change In Nampa, Idaho

NICE!! Custom home near Idaho Center and Freeway access.Granite counter tops,raised panel cabinetry,high quality carpet,light fixtures w/Trim package. Master bath includes raised dual vanities,jetted soaker tub w/ seperate shower.Upstairs is extremely well laid out bonus area feels like seperate living quarters..3 car garage has a bathroom! RV pad is poured with all hookup.Stamp concrete,well appointed landscape surrounds this eye catching corner lot home. This home has it all asking $174,836 For your private showing contact Josh 208-353-7131 or josh@homeswithjosh.com

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Money Saving Tips In Your Idaho Home

Whether it is your primary residence or your second home in Idaho you can always save a few bucks. These tips are just a few ways to save some money in all four seasons for your home here in Idaho. Living and working here in the Treasure Valley we all know in this crazy economy that your bank account can change much like the weather. When a storm is a brewing you wouldn’t leave your home without a jacket so compare that to the economic future (chance of rain) why wouldn’t you start saving some money. Joshua Groesbeck 208-353-7131 or josh@homeswithjosh.com and www.homeswithjosh.com

1. Install a programmable thermostat: Installing one of these little guys can
really help your utility bills and the earlier you get it installed, the more it saves!
Estimates are that for every degree you lower the thermostat, that’s 5% off your bill
(in the winter). I like to think of it this way – why spend money to heat or cool
something that I’m not even going to be there (or awake) and enjoy? The power
company has enough of my money!
2. Lower the temperature on the thermostat: HVAC systems have two settings
- off and on. By lowering the temperature of the thermostat, you leave it in the off
state for longer periods and thus use less energy. Less energy, lower bill!
3. Wash your clothes in cold water: Detergent technology has gotten so good
that washing in hot water is no longer necessary, you can save lots of energy by
washing with cold water rather than hot water.
4. Line dry your clothes: Get a rack or clothesline and dry your clothes on that,
instead of in your dryer. If that idea isn’t entirely appealing, consider drying larger
items (towels, sheets) on the line and your regular clothes in the dryer to cut down
on the time.
5. Lower the temperature of your water heater: You can turn the temperature
of your water heater down to conserve some extra energy, there’s no sense in
making it really hot only to add cold water to it during showers. (the only caveat is
that you should check your dishwasher for a booster, it’ll need the temps that high
for cleaning purposes)
6. Wrap your water heater with a water heater blanket: One of your biggest
energy sucks in the house is your water heater, that tank that keeps your water nice
and hot for your showers. Wrapping a blanket reduces the amount of heat it loses
into the area around it.
7. Clean out your refrigerator coils: Dust off the coils on the refrigerator and
you can improve its efficiency, thus lowering the electricity bill of the one thing in
your house that’s always on.
8. Find and plug drafts: You don’t need the cold air from the outside to infiltrate
your home (or your warm air blowing out), so try to find all the drafty windows and
doors in your home and seal them up. Your energy bill will thank you.
9. Change your air filter: The more you run your HVAC system, the more that air
filter will catch. The more it catches, the more it clogs. Yep, you guessed it, the
dirtier it gets, the harder your HVAC needs to work to push air. Swap that baby out
and improve your system’s operating efficiency.
10. Get your furnace tuned: I had no idea but you’re supposed to get your furnaced
“tuned” every few years, it could increase your efficiency considerably.
11. Swap out regular light bulbs with CFLs: The technology in CFLs now is so
good that most people can’t even tell the difference (other than by looking at them).
Swapping them out reduces your energy use and are best used in areas where the
lights are on most often. They’re more expensive but they last longer and use less
power.
12. Institute a one light, one person rule: Leaving the lights on in your house is a
great way to spend money, so try reducing your electricity usage by instituting a
one light, one person rule. Each person in the house can only have one light on at a
time.
13. Reduce phantom electricity use: Phantom electricity is the electricity your
appliances use when they’re “off.” This happens because we love our instant on
appliances! To help reduce this, you can plug them all into a surge protector and
turn that off to ensure you aren’t losing power to something you’re not even using.
14. When buying appliances, reliability trumps price: When you’re buying new
appliances, be sure to read reliability reports because you don’t want to spend less
only to find out you bought an inferior product that won’t last.
15. Shop around for homeowner’s or renter’s insurance: Renter’s insurance is
already pretty cheap so you might not get much savings there but homeowner’s can
vary greatly.
16. Consider a home energy audit: These aren’t cheap but they can identify things
you can do to make your home more efficient and thus save you more money.
17. Remember to return those cans and bottles for deposits: If you live in a
state that collects a deposit on cans and bottles, remember to redeem them!
Unfortunately in Maryland we don’t do that (but that also means we don’t pay it),
but I’d love to see it instituted here so that we could entice more recycling.

By following some of these steps you just never know you could be on your way to an early retirement……..

Joshua Groesbeck or josh@homeswithjosh.com and  www.homeswithjosh.com

Foreclosures Down And Short Sales Up

Here is an insightful video from  CNBC  and what to expect from the housing market in the months ahead. If you have questions or would like assistance with your home please don’t hesitate to call or email, Josh.

Exiting Home Sales Down

Joshua Groesbeck

208-353-7131 or josh@homeswithjosh.com

www.homeswithjosh.com or www.idshortsale.com

Boise Idaho Best Place For Mom

Born and raised here in Idaho it is no surprise that Boise ranks #1 for mothers,  below is  a good read on the top ten places for mothers as ranked by the Daily Best.

Joshua Groesbeck

208-353-7131 or josh@homeswithjosh.com

www.homeswithjosh.com or www.idshortsale.com

BS Top – Mother Cities For Mother’s Day, The Daily Beast takes America’s 200 largest cities and crunches the numbers—from child care to maternal health to pampering—to determine where moms have it best.

On Mother’s Day, everything revolves around Mom. But what about the other 364 days? The Daily Beast tried to determine which cities celebrate that holiday every day. And which might induce fits worthy of Mommy Dearest.

Like motherhood itself, the conditions needed to make moms across the country happy are complicated. So we tried to find factors that are universal, whether working or stay-at-home, big city or small city, North or South, and then combed the data of the country’s 200 largest cities to find out which offer the best quality of life for mothers. (Almost all the factors apply to parents generally. It’s just not dad’s turn this month.)

“Isolation is the biggest problem for moms,” says Dr. Amy Tiemann, creator of MojoMom.com and author of MojoMom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family. While we measured the relative number of other mothers in each city, Dr. Tiemann stressed that moms—especially new moms—should, “find their tribe. Find other mothers you fit in with… that’s going to make all the difference.”

Quality health care is also essential. “If you look across the country, there is a lot of variation in terms of the quality of care at different hospitals,” says Dr. Richard May, co-author of HealthGrades’ recent study on Women’s Health in American Hospitals. Access to good care for mother and child, May says, greatly reduces anxiety, and boosts happiness.

To compile the rankings, we started with the list of the 200 largest cities according to 2008 data from the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey. They included all cities with an estimated population over 121,000. To rank the cities, we looked at several facets affecting the quality of life for resident mothers:

• Mothers-per-capita: the percentage of mothers in each city with one or more children under 18 years old, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

• Educational quality: the overall caliber of public schools in each city based on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best. Scores were culled from GreatSchools.org, which ranks schools based on standardized tests. (The three cities that weren’t measured by GreatSchools were assigned the national median.)

• Child care: the number of child-care workers per child 5 years old and under in each city according to its Metropolitan Statistical Area, based on 2008 data from Bureau of Labor Statistics 2008 and U.S. Census population data.

• Maternity health specialists: the availability of maternity specialists (in obstetrics and gynecology or maternal and fetal medicine) based on the number of recognized practitioners, per resident mom, in each city, according to HealthGrades.com, an independent health-care ratings company. HealthGrades doctors must be affiliated with a high-quality hospital, free of state sanctions, disciplinary actions, malpractice judgments, and monetary settlements in the last five years, and be board certified in his/her practice specialty.

• Mother’s Day pampering: in honor of the Mother’s Day holiday on Sunday, Citysearch.com ranked per-capita searches for “Mother’s Day Brunch,” as well as the evergreen mom-pampering category “Hair Salon” in each city to provide insight into which city’s residents are looking to take care of the mothers in their lives.

The first—and the worst—are both state capitals sitting near the country’s northern border. Where are moms celebrating? See below.

#1, Boise, ID
Moms-per-capita: 61 out of 200
Child care: 20 out of 200
Schools: 7 out of 10
Maternity care: 63 of out 200
Pampering: 86 out of 200

#2, Lexington, KY
Moms-per-capita: 60
Child care: 11
Schools: 7 out of 10
Maternity care: 64
Pampering: 37

Best Mother’s Day Brunch: Greentree Tea Room

#3, Lincoln, NE
Moms-per-capita: 80
Child care: 3
Schools: 5 out of 10
Maternity care: 145
Pampering: 24

#4, Coral Springs, FL
Moms-per-capita: 18
Child care: 40
Schools: 8 out of 10
Maternity care: 97
Pampering: 161

#5, Mobile, AL
Moms-per-capita: 62
Child care: 33
Schools: 6 out of 10
Maternity care: 45
Pampering: 9

Best Mother’s Day Brunch: Ruth’s Chris Steak House

#6, Elk Grove, CA
Moms-per-capita: 3
Child care: 54
Schools: 8 out of 10
Maternity care: 176
Pampering: 160

#7, Bellevue, WA
Moms-per-capita: 135
Child care: 31
Schools: 9 out of 10
Maternity care: 40
Pampering: 120

Best Mother’s Day Brunch: Daniel’s Broiler

#8, Overland Park, KS
Moms-per-capita: 46
Child care: 46
Schools: 8 out of 10
Maternity care: 51
Pampering: 59

#9, Augusta, GA
Moms-per-capita: 53
Child care: 67
Schools: 3 out of 10
Maternity care: 33
Pampering: 30

#10, Columbus, OH
Moms-per-capita: 1
Child care: 82
Schools: 5 out of 10
Maternity care: 142
Pampering: 94 

Idaho Short Sale Help

Strategic Walk Away!!  Is your home worth less than what is owed? Making less money? Divorce? Hospital Bills?   Hardship is everywhere in today’s economy but think towards the future–  If you are in trouble of losing your home to foreclosure or have already tried to modify your loan with no success and are now in need of help– Call Josh 208-353-7131 or josh@homeswithjosh.com We can solve your problem today and let you start preparing for the future, the next home you buy will be at the right price not some super inflated unrealistic price. You have heard it all before and it will always be true Real Estate is the best investment if you buy right!

www.idshortsale.com or www.homeswithjosh.com

Read this below and it will explain what Fannie Mae is doing to crack down on the Walk Away

If you choose to walk away  from your mortgage rather than work something out with your servicer, Fannie Mae will block you from getting another mortgage for seven years from the date of the final foreclosure on the house. That’s according to new rules that go into effect immediately.

But, if you do work with your servicer to come to some agreement — whether a loan modification, deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, pre-foreclosure sale or short sale — your wait time to buy a new house will be much shorter. In fact to encourage people to work with their lenders rather than just walking away, Fannie Mae is shortening the time you’ll be eligible for another Fannie Mae mortgage.

“Walking away from a mortgage is bad for borrowers and bad for communities and our approach is meant to deter the disturbing trend toward strategic defaulting,” Terence Edwards, Fannie Mae’s executive vice president for credit portfolio management, said in making the announcement.

“On the flip side, borrowers facing hardship who make a good faith effort to resolve their situation with their servicer, will preserve the option to be considered for a future Fannie Mae loan in a shorter period of time.”

Here’s the breakdown for eligibility depending on how you got out of your last mortgage:

* Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure> — reduced from four years to two years if you can put down 20 percent on your house, four years if you can only put down 10 percent.
* Preforeclosure Sale — remains at two years if you can put down 20 percent, four years if you can only put down 10%.
* Short Sale — will be the same as pre-foreclosure sale. Currently there are no set rules for short sale.
* Strategic Default (Walk Away) — seven years.

All these waiting periods start on the day after the completion of a preforeclosure event or foreclosure event. If you can prove there were extenuating circumstances, such as the loss of a job, the waiting period for deed-in-lieu, a preforeclosure sale or short sale will be reduced to two years with a 10 percent down.

In all cases eligibility will be dependent on other factors, such as credit history and credit score. The eligibility matrix is complex and varies greatly depending on your economic situation. Take a close look at the matrix to figure out what you need to put down based on your credit score.

Fannie Mae is taking action now because statistics show that more and more people are willing to walk away from their home because there doesn’t appear to be any negative effect. In a study from the University of Chicago the researchers found that 31 percent of foreclosures were strategic defaults. The researchers defined strategic defaulters as “homeowners willing to default when the value of a mortgage exceeds the value of their house, even if they can afford to pay their mortgage.”

In addition to increasing the wait time until one can buy another home, Fannie Mae also will encourage servicers in states that permit them to go after a short fall, to begin chasing strategic defaulters for the money. This shortfall happens when the bank sells the foreclosed home for less than the mortgage. The bank can then go to court in many states and ask for a deficiency judgment. Not all states allow lenders to chase borrowers for the money. If you are planning to walk away from your home that is underwater, be sure to talk with an attorney to find out whether your lender can chase you for any shortfall.

You can avoid a deficiency judgment if you come to some agreement with your lender, but be sure you have a good attorney checking the agreement to be sure the lender can’t chase you. In most walk-away cases you can protect yourself from a deficiency judgment with a deed-in-lieu of foreclosure or a preforeclosure or short sale.

Clearly the banks are taking note that if they don’t act aggressively to collect any shortfall more people will strategically default. Now the game becomes much more serious, especially if you live in a state that allows the lender to go after you for any shortfall.

Source: Lita Epstein

Idaho Living

A statewide magazine of the highest quality, Explore Idaho encompasses everything exceptional about the state of Idaho: history and legend, hardworking people, dramatic vistas, recreational opportunities and enduring values.

The magazine is designed to appeal to a broad audience of outdoor, recreation and lifestyle enthusiasts. It speaks to everyone – from those who reside and work here to those who simply come for a visit.

Explore Idaho is more than just a list of outdoor activities, it’s about the people themselves who live here, many being descendents of those who settled here over the years in search of a better life – and found it.

The magazine reflects all the values that have long put the Gem State on a path of enduring grace and beauty. The pages personify an ever-growing number of people who regard Idaho as not merely a geographic locale, but also a state of mind and a way of life.

Explore Idaho is a hike in the Sawtooths, a wine tasting in Sunnyslope, a skiing or snowmobiling excursion to resort areas such as Sun Valley, Bogus or Brundage Mountain, or a rafting trip down the breathtaking Payette or Snake rivers.

Along the way, you’ll find out where to dine and where to stay, discover the state’s diverse arts, dining and culture scenes, and – most importantly – meet the people who shape Idaho’s identity.

source:IBR — Explore Idaho