Shelman Realty announces Madden as associate broker

Shelman Realty welcomes a new associate broker to the company, local girl Kirsten Madden.

Born and raised  in Boundary County Madden began her career 10 years ago as a senior escrow officer for First American Title. She decided to become a real estate agent two years ago and has been with Shelman Realty ever since.

Madden thought with the market being slower now was a good time to take the courses and begin the venture to becoming an associate broker.

Becoming a broker is something Madden planned on doing from the start. 

The brokers course is advance real estate training focusing on Real Estate Law, Management, and Real Estate Financing.

 This training has provided her a higher level of education and training.  This training  allowing her to better  also allows Madden to the opportunity to own and/or manage hewn office.

Madden said the best part of her job is that she feels like she is part of a very special time in the lives of people who are buying a home. Her slogan is “The Key To Your Dream Home.”

“I like the idea of helping make peoples dreams a reality and helping them come true,” said Madden.

“I have made snow angels in the yard with their clients children, and blow  up air mattresses for their first night in the new home, and these are the moments I enjoy the most.”

Building relationships with clients is Madden’s favorite part of her job, she said they aren’t just clients they become friends.

Steve Carey is the designated broker at Shelman Realty and is happy to have Madden as his associate.

“Kirsten is very professional and very intelligent,” Carey said. “She has a real grasp on everything and has learned the business in just a short amount of time and she is willing to keep learning. People fall in love with the service she gives them; she goes above and beyond  trying to make life easier.”

Madden said the market shows signs of stabilization and it is d buyers market.

There are offers out there according to Madden, such as the FHA rehabilitation program where a person can buy an older home with a low down and receive fixed finance loan to fix the house up.  

She also said there are a lot of good finance options available for single family properties with down payments as low as 3 1/2 percent of purchase price.  Madden said for investors there are great deals available on foreclosure homes.

Madden said in 2009 the number of total houses sold was 44. It increased this year with so far the number of total houses sold being 61.  

According to Madden total number of home sales have increased by 27.8 percent. The average price has decreased by 11.5 percent; however this decrease is greatly influenced by the increase of bank owned/foreclosed homes.

 In 2009, the total bank owned/foreclosed homes sold was two. This year seven bank owned/foreclosed homes have sold.

“If you remove all bank owned/foreclosed sales from both 2009 and 2010 market stats, the average sales price has actually remained the same with a very slight increase this year,” Madden said.

 “The market is still a little slow, but right now prices are great and it is better now than in the last two years,” Madden said. “There are awesome deals to be had out there and interest rates are at an all time low.”

Shelman Realty is located at 6737 Cody St. in Bonners Ferry.

Kirsten Madden can be reached at 267-5515 or on the Web at Bonnersferryrealestate4sale.com, and email, Kirsten@shelmanrealty.com.