Becka Sells Boise, The Bird, April 2022 Newsletter

For more information and specifics on the current market, please check out Boise Regional REALTORS® Market Report HERE.

Check out our event calendar HERE for the latest local happenings. Some events may change, so please make sure to check the website links for the most up to date information.

LEAP Housing Brings More Affordable Housing to the Treasure Valley

A Boise man found his life upended when the pandemic hit. “COVID really was a hard reset for me,” Peter Manning said. Like it did for many people, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic left Manning unemployed. Since then he’s also found himself separated from a long-term relationship and in need of somewhere new to live. While trying to get out of the rental market and back into homeownership, Manning found LEAP Housing and Caritas Commons. This is LEAP Housing’s new affordable housing community. It’s actually so new, Leap Ave. doesn’t show up on Google Maps. Peter was the first to move into his new home at Caritas Commons, but with LEAP Housing’s plans to expand the current community and add other similar communities, he won’t be the last.

Affordable Housing Tools
“Our organization is rallying around creating 1000 housing opportunities by 2026,” Bart Cochran, the Executive Director and Founder of LEAP Housing, said. “We’re thinking about funding, we’re thinking about land access, and we’re thinking about how do we build and develop housing as rapidly as possible to be able to deliver to this target audience of households all the way up to 80% of area median income.”

Area Median Income is a metric used to determine eligibility for many affordable housing programs. In Ada County, 80% of Area Median Income translates to about $4,200 per year in housing cost for a one-person household. Leap housing started focusing on creating affordable housing in 2016. Now, they have six different affordable housing programs. “We provide everything from what we call the next step which is short-term immediate, transitional housing all the way up to long-term permanent homeownership and then we have a few programs in between,” Cochran said. These programs include rental housing and homes for sale that are part of the LEAP Housing Trust. This is a community land trust where residents own their homes, but LEAP owns the land, allowing the organization to ensure affordability if the current owner sells their home. LEAP says they’re trying to fill a need not met by other housing resources, something Manning says he’s extremely grateful for. “Being in a rental situation just creates a degree of uncertainty that being a homeowner–it doesn’t create the security that being a homeowner can bring” he said.

Watch THIS VIDEO with more information and images of Caritas Commons homes. Or, if you are in need of affordable housing, fill out the "Waitlist Questionnaire" HERE to be contacted about future affordable housing opportunities!

"Becka is an exceptional realtor. She worked with us for over a year to find a beautiful home that met our needs. She helped us pursue rental properties as well as homes for us to live in. She was never pushy and always patient. We changed our minds from being investors to downsizing our home. Becka was never annoyed by our decisions. Instead she gave us all her wisdom and support. Offered us options and guidance in a very difficult market. She represented us as sellers and buyers. She was thorough. Smart. Kind. Quick to respond, full of knowledge and integrity. We would never have made it through without her. We cannot recommend her enough. We are honored to call her our realtor and, now, our friend."

Daniel & Amy Monighetti (March 2022)

See more of my client testimonials HERE!

Recommended Service Providers

Looking to do a remodel or necessary home maintenance or repairs? If so, check out our Homeowners Resources page HERE, where we've listed several different service providers we've used personally or who have been recommended to us. We are always updating this list, so if you have contractors to recommend, please email me!

Untold Stories of a Boise Realtor

I have had many awkward and funny moments while doing video tours for my clients. You'd think I would learn by now that it's a good idea to walk through the whole house before getting on video because you just never know what... or who you will encounter.

Last month, I went to show a house in Eagle via FaceTime to a client. As per usual, I started our video right when I got inside the front door. My client was on the other end of the call, so we were talking our way through the entryway when I heard a funny noise from another room in the house. I thought I must be hearing things, or maybe it came from outside, so I continued on. I got into one of the bedrooms and heard it again. It sounded like someone was laughing at me. What in the world? I kept going, feeling a little nervous about what was waiting for me in the other room. I told my client that she would be a witness to whatever was going to happen and asked her to tell my family I love them. I went through another room. OK, now it sounds like someone is mocking me by repeating me and then laughing at me. I slowly started to make my way to the back of the house not sure of what I would encounter once I got there. I kept talking to my client and I kept getting laughed at (now I was being laughed at by my client as well).

Sure enough, once I reached the back of the house, there in ALL of its glory, was a GIANT bird staring right back at me waiting for its next chance to laugh at me. I was equally relieved and freaked out by the site and wondered why the listing agent didn't think it was important to let agents know that this creature would be hiding in the back of the house.

With a few years less left on my life, I finished the video tour (all the while being harassed by the bird) and it was decided that the bird house was not the house for my client.