Inside Idaho Business: Real estate market effects folks differently

Washington may soon commit hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out banks, mortgage companies, insurance companies and other businesses that never should have sought to profit from people who bought homes they couldn't afford.

But no one is going to bail out Gaile Hensley. She'll just have to wait and hope that the big bailout bolsters the economy enough that some work trickles down to her.

Hensley profits from home sales, too, but in a more down-to-earth way. She and her husband, Todd Calhoun, own and operate TC Post & Signs (377-2136) from their home on North Five Mile Road in Boise. They saw a newspaper ad in 1995 for a real estate signpost-installation business and bought it, receiving "a few accounts and a little pile of wood posts," Hensley says.

They charge $25 to install a sign in a frontyard and to remove it. They set no limit on how long a sign can stay up at that price. Until two years ago, a typical sign would stay up six to eight months. Then the home would sell, and Hensley and her husband could reuse the sign to earn another $25. They depended on turnover to keep money coming in. Now a typical signs stays up a year or longer.

The couple and their son, Michael, who works part time for the business, branched out a few years ago into building mailbox stands for subdivisions and homeowners. But that business has slowed, too, because subdivision development in the Treasure Valley has all but stopped. They used to spend $2,000 a month to buy the metal to build the mailbox stands, which they make at a rented shop in Eagle. Last month, they spent $175.

The slowdown intensified this year. Hensley declined to say how much the business takes in, but said revenues through Sept. 10 were half what they were a year ago.

The couple have raised rates a little, but there are other people, including real estate agents, who sell similar services, so competition limits what they can charge. Meanwhile, electric bills are rising, and so are other costs. A mailbox that cost $9 last year now costs $12.50, Hensley says.

"We're looking at selling two of our trucks," she says. "We are completely having to readjust our lifestyle. We're cutting down on personal expenses."

She's making a little extra money doing bookkeeping and offering $1-a-minute psychic-intuitive readings at weekend fairs like the Hyde Park Street Fair. She's checking Craigslist for supplemental jobs.

And she hopes the economy turns around soon and homes start selling again: "We'd like to get back to where we were."

HOW A BOISE REAL ESTATE AGENT GOT HOMES AND FAMILIES ON A TV SHOW

Marta Paulson was on a ski lift in Sun Valley last winter when the call came from Home and Garden Television: We loved your application. Would you send us a demonstration tape?

So when she returned home to Boise, Paulson invited a few of her neighbors over and pretended she was their real estate agent.

Paulson is an agent for A.V. West, a brokerage at 1674 Hill Road owned by her mother. HGTV was seeking agents around the country for its show, "My House Is Worth What?" The show's staff selected three Boise homes from a list Paulson submitted. She then had to do extensive research and writing on each.

That preparatory work made it easy for Paulson to talk about the houses on camera when the video crew came to Boise in April for three days - one for each house.

The result is a segment for each of three episodes of the show. The first aired earlier this month. It featured a new unit at CitySide Lofts at 13th and Myrtle streets in Downtown Boise owned by a young couple, Brad and Laura Hunt. Paulson valued the loft at $240,000.

The second is a French Provincial home with a cottage on the rim overlooking Kathryn Albertson Park owned by Michael and Michelle Tullis, Paulson valued it at $840,000.

The third is a century-old home designed by Tourtellotte and Hummel that Jim and Monica Walker bought for $1 from the Cathedral of the Rockies, moved a block to a new foundation at 14th and Hays streets, and restored it. The Walkers have been honored by Preservation Idaho for their work. Paulson valued their house at $580,000.

"The tough thing was telling people that their homes had not appreciated," Paulson said. "I had to be realistic about what's happening in the market. I knew clients would be disappointed, but I also felt I had the responsibility not to sugar-coat it either."

The Tullis home episode is scheduled to air Sept. 23 and the Walker house Nov. 16, she said. Check HGTV's Web site for times.

Paulson, a Boise native who was Miss Idaho USA in 1980, says she and the families enjoyed doing the show. And she sees silver lining the cloudy Treasure Valley housing market.

"People still move, and people still buy homes," she said. "It's not all doom and gloom. We have to keep the faith."

Local News Editor David Staats edits the Statesman's Idaho business coverage. This column is based on his blog at Voices.IdahoStatesman.com/Staats. E-mail business@idahostatesman.com.