Caleb Adams: Welcome to Real Estate Insights, where I sit down with top real estate pros across Utah and Idaho. I'm Caleb Adams. My guest today is Tammy Fairchild, owner and realtor at Heartland Real Estate in Blackfoot, Idaho. Tammy's been selling real estate in Southeast Idaho for over twenty years and she does a little of everything residential, commercial, new construction. Tammy, welcome. Did I miss anything?
Tami Fairchild: Nope. But I have been over thirty years. But yeah, that just shows my age.
Caleb Adams: Over thirty years. That's awesome. well I'm super excited to have you here today. to kick things off, would you mind telling us a little bit about how you got into real estate and got to where you are now?
Tami Fairchild: Well, as you know, we have a construction company and we were building homes and we noticed some of our realtors were looking at our houses and we were confused on exactly what we could do with real estate on the homes and they wanted to sell them and whatnot and we decided to look into real estate ourselves and we decided to do our own real estate company 'cause it goes hand in hand with construction.
Caleb Adams: So was it at that time that you started Heartland and it's been that way ever since?
Tami Fairchild: Well, probably a year or two after that We were still do the construction and then we started our real estate company and we've had that ever since.
Caleb Adams: Wow. That's awesome. So thirty years into this, what's kept you in real estate?
Tami Fairchild: Well, I think it's fun, I love people and I love our community and I think it's a great opportunity to get to know people we love housing and everything about it.
Caleb Adams: And John he handles the construction side of things, right? And you handle all the real estate.
Tami Fairchild: yep, pretty much. He is our broker it's great to have him there 'cause he stays up on everything and he serves on a multiple listing board and so then he knows what things are going on and he helps with all the realtors in our office and he does his construction company we work hand in hand in building houses and also selling it's been a great opportunity to work together in real estate
Caleb Adams: Yeah, that's fun to get to work together. and I know you and John are both heavily involved in the association of realtors in Blackfoot. Remind me, did you guys help start that or how did you come to be so involved
Tami Fairchild: Thank
Caleb Adams: with that?
Tami Fairchild: Well, we didn't help start it. there were other realtors that were involved in it before us and it'd been around for maybe five or ten years before we got involved, but it's been a long time that we've been together on the board and staying involved in it and taking turns being in different positions to help our community and work with the national as well as a state. And local, of course.
Caleb Adams: awesome. Yeah, Well let's talk a little bit about the market. what what kind of clients do you find yourself working with?
Tami Fairchild: a good mix. I like the first-time home buyers. I like to help people realize that they can buy a home and I like to work from the beginning to the end I find that really satisfying they're excited and eager to purchase homes and be a homeowner And of course we've dabbled in the developing and farming community and commercial. So we've kind of done parts of everything and we've enjoyed it a lot.
Caleb Adams: and over the years do you feel like your type of clientele has stayed pretty consistent or has it changed
Tami Fairchild: I think it's been pretty consistent. just this year I've helped somebody purchase ground for future developing as well as we've had first time home buyers brand new homes, new construction somebody that purchased their fourth home from me.
Caleb Adams: That's great. Yeah, it sounds like the variety always keeps things interesting 'cause every project or deal is different.
Tami Fairchild: And people are different and unique and I think that's what I like about it. nothing's the same ever, and there's challenges but there's always great opportunities to make friends forever.
Caleb Adams: Do you feel like in southeast Idaho or maybe even Bingham County, is it more of a buyers or sellers market right now?
Tami Fairchild: Well it's interesting right now we've had more opportunity to have different types of first time home buying loans as well as apartment townhome type opportunities for them to purchase There's all different kinds of loans and opportunities that are in our area. I think Bingham County is a targeted county so that we have a good variety of loans.
Caleb Adams: so it sounds like it's a pretty good balanced market, I guess, would you say, like
Tami Fairchild: Yeah. I would say it's balanced both selling and buying because of the sellers if they have a home that they've put the time in to get ready and prep it, there are buyers for those homes, there's not as many homes that are in the lower price range but then that gives them an opportunity to buy the town homes and there's a there's a bunch of those being built.
Caleb Adams: Yeah, and in Southeast Idaho do you feel like there's a type of home that's selling faster than others?
Tami Fairchild: I think the three bedroom, two bath, two car garage in town is pretty popular, staying around the four hundred or less price range. I think there's a lot of those there's a bunch of people that want the five bedrooms, you know, with the basement and three car garage on an acre and Some want shops with it too. So there's all there's a big variety.
Caleb Adams: it seems like that five, six years since COVID, there's a lot of people that are in those two or three bedroom houses that are now ready to upgrade to the five bedroom house, but with rates being a little bit higher, the price point might be restrictive.
Tami Fairchild: Yeah, they held off for a while, I think, but now there are more people looking and they're in a better, stronger position even though the interest rate's higher. At least that's what I'm seeing.
Caleb Adams: yeah, that makes sense. are there any areas or developments happening locally that you're excited about?
Tami Fairchild: I think there's two areas in particular in Blackfoot that are doing town homes again and trying to make it an easier opportunity for the first time home buyers. So I think there there's quite a bit of growth coming happening in Blackfoot right now.
Caleb Adams: I'm curious where where are all these people coming from? Do you feel like they're out of state buyers or people maybe from the from the city that are now wanting to move to Blackfoot? what have you seen?
Tami Fairchild: Right now we have move up buyers and that have lived here in Blackfoot all their lives and they're building their forever home that they've been waiting to build. there's actually quite a few coming from different states that are looking and they want what we have here. We have beautiful sunsets, we have great air, water, I mean it's really a an ideal place to live. Close to recreation and everything. So
Caleb Adams: Yeah, that's so exciting. I mean, growing up in Blackfoot, you feel like it's a really small farming community and now here we are years later and people are moving from out of state to come here, it's kind of exciting.
Tami Fairchild: It is exciting and I think it's funny 'cause you know, we've been in construction for forty plus years and we always wanted it to get bigger and grow and everything and that's exciting to finally see it happening.
Caleb Adams: it's coming full circle. what type of experience do you hope each client you work with walks away with?
Tami Fairchild: Well I would hope If they come to our company, Heartland, the experience that they'll have is that we get a one on one, our service is great. we get them hooked up with whoever they need. we work with different banking and inspectors and title companies we can be a full service for them. If they can't find it we can build it. we've been in business long enough in this area that we know the area well enough that we know which area that they're looking for when they give us a description of what they're wanting to try to find. And we have a full service here that we can help them in and we have a lot of people that, we've been really fortunate to have returned to us and work with us and help them with their second and third and even their fourth home. And I think that's exciting.
Caleb Adams: Yeah, If they come back for another go at selling their house or buying a house, that's a good sign that they had a good experience.
Tami Fairchild: Yeah. yeah, it is, it's fun because, we know really well and we consider them our friends and we've had great experiences with people. So we're appreciative of all of our past clients and our clients we have now future.
Caleb Adams: And on the real estate agent side, you mentioned you have a team of eight, individual agents, but you all kinda work collaboratively as a team. do you guys hope to grow Heartland to have more real estate agents
Tami Fairchild: if anyone wants to come and join us and work with us, we're always open we work together here, like if somebody has to go on vacation or they have other things that they have to do, we all fill in and help each other, and we're not worrying about, getting paid or anything 'cause we just help each other That's what our goal is.
Caleb Adams: that's cool. with buyers or sellers, is there a common mistake that you see them make?
Tami Fairchild: Well we've had people come to us after the fact that they've tried to sell their home without success And it's unfortunate because I think that there are people out there that pretend to know what they need to do to help these people to sell. But you know your home is your most expensive thing that you'll probably spend on in your whole life. And so we hope that they would want to have professionals to help them to go through this process step by step so that they won't have mistakes. and won't regret and there have been quite a few people just this year that have ran into problems and needed our help and so we're grateful that we can help them in getting them back on the right track.
Caleb Adams: Yeah, so it sounds like they try to go at it solo or manage legalities without the experience and run into some trouble. I think it is sad, especially if you haven't sold a home in ten, fifteen, twenty years, things have changed so much. what may have worked twenty years ago doesn't work now and can be easy to get led astray. I've heard it said too, like on paper real estate agents just sell real estate, but you're the connector. You help connect with inspectors and legal teams and sometimes the pseudotherapist or counselor listening to what's what's happened in their life. So I'm glad that there's great agents like you that can save the day.
Tami Fairchild: that's the main thing I think that we're here for. there's a lot of great agents out there and I think that all of us want people to have great positive experiences so that, they get the most for their dollar and they're able to have home ownership. That's the whole thing right there.
Caleb Adams: So a client maybe evaluating Blackfoot or Bingham County as a place to buy or build, how do they get started working with you? if if they want to build, do they can they reach out to you as well? And do you guys do custom homes or how does that work for them?
Tami Fairchild: Yeah, we probably build mostly custom homes and people can contact us. we have our phone numbers everywhere all we have to do is, set up a time and we're local here and fortunately or unfortunately I have my phone on twenty four seven. we've been doing this for a lot of years and and we don't mind. Sometimes people have to call us on their time because work is crazy for them or the world is crazy and so they have to, get people to help when they can and so, we just have to make ourselves available.
Caleb Adams: Gosh, such a good perspective. that's the glass half full. people do have busy lives, Do you have any advice for someone who's thinking about developing, buying some land and putting some homes on it?
Tami Fairchild: Well, sure. I mean, you have to, get in and find the right piece of ground and check the zoning and see if you have to change it and get with a good engineer if they're interested, they can give us a call and I can tell what we've done and step by step and so that they can start their own developing and whatnot if it's housing or if they're looking for commercial.
Caleb Adams: Has there been anything that's surprised you over the years when it comes to developing?
Tami Fairchild: sometimes when you go into planning and zoning you're not the most popular person because change is hard. Change is hard especially I think in conservative areas and Bingham County is probably more conservative and in all respect for farmers and everybody that lives here to make it a great and wonderful community. I think you you have to be careful but at the same time sometimes when you're going to make change, sometimes you pack in a planning and zoning. It's interesting to see. And sometimes
Caleb Adams: Ha.
Tami Fairchild: it's hard to go through and you feel like you're not very popular and you're picked on. And and I'm sure that developers that have developed, they understand exactly what I'm saying. But yet, you just you have to stick with it and it's worth it. And after things are done, I have people that were totally against it come to us and they're like really happy that we did it and it looks great and it was a good addition to our county. And so there you go.
Caleb Adams: Change is always hard. but like you said, if you do it right, then they're grateful for the change and the growth.
Tami Fairchild: Growth is gonna happen, in good areas and people know what we have here and and they like it and everybody wants, a piece of it and I think that it's it's a great place to live and great opportunities here
Caleb Adams: do you have any advice for someone who's just getting into real estate? Maybe they just got their real estate license. Any tips for them on their journey?
Tami Fairchild: I would say think that they need to just get involved. they should come and join join us in in our association too, and I think it's a great experience because then you get to know who you're trying to sell to and who you're trying to get buyers with It's probably the best thing that I could think of.
Caleb Adams: Well, this has been really great. I've enjoyed learning from you and appreciate you sharing your expertise.
Tami Fairchild: You're awesome. You're great to work with and I'm appreciative that you thought of me.
Caleb: That's a wrap on this episode of Real Estate Insights. A huge thank you to my guest for sharing their time and playbook. If you're a top agent in Utah or Idaho and you'd like to be featured on the show, I'd love to have you. Reach out anytime. I'm Caleb Adams, mortgage broker here in Utah and Idaho, who loves connecting great agents with great people who need them. We'll see you next time.
Tami Fairchild: Nope. But I have been over thirty years. But yeah, that just shows my age.
Caleb Adams: Over thirty years. That's awesome. well I'm super excited to have you here today. to kick things off, would you mind telling us a little bit about how you got into real estate and got to where you are now?
Tami Fairchild: Well, as you know, we have a construction company and we were building homes and we noticed some of our realtors were looking at our houses and we were confused on exactly what we could do with real estate on the homes and they wanted to sell them and whatnot and we decided to look into real estate ourselves and we decided to do our own real estate company 'cause it goes hand in hand with construction.
Caleb Adams: So was it at that time that you started Heartland and it's been that way ever since?
Tami Fairchild: Well, probably a year or two after that We were still do the construction and then we started our real estate company and we've had that ever since.
Caleb Adams: Wow. That's awesome. So thirty years into this, what's kept you in real estate?
Tami Fairchild: Well, I think it's fun, I love people and I love our community and I think it's a great opportunity to get to know people we love housing and everything about it.
Caleb Adams: And John he handles the construction side of things, right? And you handle all the real estate.
Tami Fairchild: yep, pretty much. He is our broker it's great to have him there 'cause he stays up on everything and he serves on a multiple listing board and so then he knows what things are going on and he helps with all the realtors in our office and he does his construction company we work hand in hand in building houses and also selling it's been a great opportunity to work together in real estate
Caleb Adams: Yeah, that's fun to get to work together. and I know you and John are both heavily involved in the association of realtors in Blackfoot. Remind me, did you guys help start that or how did you come to be so involved
Tami Fairchild: Thank
Caleb Adams: with that?
Tami Fairchild: Well, we didn't help start it. there were other realtors that were involved in it before us and it'd been around for maybe five or ten years before we got involved, but it's been a long time that we've been together on the board and staying involved in it and taking turns being in different positions to help our community and work with the national as well as a state. And local, of course.
Caleb Adams: awesome. Yeah, Well let's talk a little bit about the market. what what kind of clients do you find yourself working with?
Tami Fairchild: a good mix. I like the first-time home buyers. I like to help people realize that they can buy a home and I like to work from the beginning to the end I find that really satisfying they're excited and eager to purchase homes and be a homeowner And of course we've dabbled in the developing and farming community and commercial. So we've kind of done parts of everything and we've enjoyed it a lot.
Caleb Adams: and over the years do you feel like your type of clientele has stayed pretty consistent or has it changed
Tami Fairchild: I think it's been pretty consistent. just this year I've helped somebody purchase ground for future developing as well as we've had first time home buyers brand new homes, new construction somebody that purchased their fourth home from me.
Caleb Adams: That's great. Yeah, it sounds like the variety always keeps things interesting 'cause every project or deal is different.
Tami Fairchild: And people are different and unique and I think that's what I like about it. nothing's the same ever, and there's challenges but there's always great opportunities to make friends forever.
Caleb Adams: Do you feel like in southeast Idaho or maybe even Bingham County, is it more of a buyers or sellers market right now?
Tami Fairchild: Well it's interesting right now we've had more opportunity to have different types of first time home buying loans as well as apartment townhome type opportunities for them to purchase There's all different kinds of loans and opportunities that are in our area. I think Bingham County is a targeted county so that we have a good variety of loans.
Caleb Adams: so it sounds like it's a pretty good balanced market, I guess, would you say, like
Tami Fairchild: Yeah. I would say it's balanced both selling and buying because of the sellers if they have a home that they've put the time in to get ready and prep it, there are buyers for those homes, there's not as many homes that are in the lower price range but then that gives them an opportunity to buy the town homes and there's a there's a bunch of those being built.
Caleb Adams: Yeah, and in Southeast Idaho do you feel like there's a type of home that's selling faster than others?
Tami Fairchild: I think the three bedroom, two bath, two car garage in town is pretty popular, staying around the four hundred or less price range. I think there's a lot of those there's a bunch of people that want the five bedrooms, you know, with the basement and three car garage on an acre and Some want shops with it too. So there's all there's a big variety.
Caleb Adams: it seems like that five, six years since COVID, there's a lot of people that are in those two or three bedroom houses that are now ready to upgrade to the five bedroom house, but with rates being a little bit higher, the price point might be restrictive.
Tami Fairchild: Yeah, they held off for a while, I think, but now there are more people looking and they're in a better, stronger position even though the interest rate's higher. At least that's what I'm seeing.
Caleb Adams: yeah, that makes sense. are there any areas or developments happening locally that you're excited about?
Tami Fairchild: I think there's two areas in particular in Blackfoot that are doing town homes again and trying to make it an easier opportunity for the first time home buyers. So I think there there's quite a bit of growth coming happening in Blackfoot right now.
Caleb Adams: I'm curious where where are all these people coming from? Do you feel like they're out of state buyers or people maybe from the from the city that are now wanting to move to Blackfoot? what have you seen?
Tami Fairchild: Right now we have move up buyers and that have lived here in Blackfoot all their lives and they're building their forever home that they've been waiting to build. there's actually quite a few coming from different states that are looking and they want what we have here. We have beautiful sunsets, we have great air, water, I mean it's really a an ideal place to live. Close to recreation and everything. So
Caleb Adams: Yeah, that's so exciting. I mean, growing up in Blackfoot, you feel like it's a really small farming community and now here we are years later and people are moving from out of state to come here, it's kind of exciting.
Tami Fairchild: It is exciting and I think it's funny 'cause you know, we've been in construction for forty plus years and we always wanted it to get bigger and grow and everything and that's exciting to finally see it happening.
Caleb Adams: it's coming full circle. what type of experience do you hope each client you work with walks away with?
Tami Fairchild: Well I would hope If they come to our company, Heartland, the experience that they'll have is that we get a one on one, our service is great. we get them hooked up with whoever they need. we work with different banking and inspectors and title companies we can be a full service for them. If they can't find it we can build it. we've been in business long enough in this area that we know the area well enough that we know which area that they're looking for when they give us a description of what they're wanting to try to find. And we have a full service here that we can help them in and we have a lot of people that, we've been really fortunate to have returned to us and work with us and help them with their second and third and even their fourth home. And I think that's exciting.
Caleb Adams: Yeah, If they come back for another go at selling their house or buying a house, that's a good sign that they had a good experience.
Tami Fairchild: Yeah. yeah, it is, it's fun because, we know really well and we consider them our friends and we've had great experiences with people. So we're appreciative of all of our past clients and our clients we have now future.
Caleb Adams: And on the real estate agent side, you mentioned you have a team of eight, individual agents, but you all kinda work collaboratively as a team. do you guys hope to grow Heartland to have more real estate agents
Tami Fairchild: if anyone wants to come and join us and work with us, we're always open we work together here, like if somebody has to go on vacation or they have other things that they have to do, we all fill in and help each other, and we're not worrying about, getting paid or anything 'cause we just help each other That's what our goal is.
Caleb Adams: that's cool. with buyers or sellers, is there a common mistake that you see them make?
Tami Fairchild: Well we've had people come to us after the fact that they've tried to sell their home without success And it's unfortunate because I think that there are people out there that pretend to know what they need to do to help these people to sell. But you know your home is your most expensive thing that you'll probably spend on in your whole life. And so we hope that they would want to have professionals to help them to go through this process step by step so that they won't have mistakes. and won't regret and there have been quite a few people just this year that have ran into problems and needed our help and so we're grateful that we can help them in getting them back on the right track.
Caleb Adams: Yeah, so it sounds like they try to go at it solo or manage legalities without the experience and run into some trouble. I think it is sad, especially if you haven't sold a home in ten, fifteen, twenty years, things have changed so much. what may have worked twenty years ago doesn't work now and can be easy to get led astray. I've heard it said too, like on paper real estate agents just sell real estate, but you're the connector. You help connect with inspectors and legal teams and sometimes the pseudotherapist or counselor listening to what's what's happened in their life. So I'm glad that there's great agents like you that can save the day.
Tami Fairchild: that's the main thing I think that we're here for. there's a lot of great agents out there and I think that all of us want people to have great positive experiences so that, they get the most for their dollar and they're able to have home ownership. That's the whole thing right there.
Caleb Adams: So a client maybe evaluating Blackfoot or Bingham County as a place to buy or build, how do they get started working with you? if if they want to build, do they can they reach out to you as well? And do you guys do custom homes or how does that work for them?
Tami Fairchild: Yeah, we probably build mostly custom homes and people can contact us. we have our phone numbers everywhere all we have to do is, set up a time and we're local here and fortunately or unfortunately I have my phone on twenty four seven. we've been doing this for a lot of years and and we don't mind. Sometimes people have to call us on their time because work is crazy for them or the world is crazy and so they have to, get people to help when they can and so, we just have to make ourselves available.
Caleb Adams: Gosh, such a good perspective. that's the glass half full. people do have busy lives, Do you have any advice for someone who's thinking about developing, buying some land and putting some homes on it?
Tami Fairchild: Well, sure. I mean, you have to, get in and find the right piece of ground and check the zoning and see if you have to change it and get with a good engineer if they're interested, they can give us a call and I can tell what we've done and step by step and so that they can start their own developing and whatnot if it's housing or if they're looking for commercial.
Caleb Adams: Has there been anything that's surprised you over the years when it comes to developing?
Tami Fairchild: sometimes when you go into planning and zoning you're not the most popular person because change is hard. Change is hard especially I think in conservative areas and Bingham County is probably more conservative and in all respect for farmers and everybody that lives here to make it a great and wonderful community. I think you you have to be careful but at the same time sometimes when you're going to make change, sometimes you pack in a planning and zoning. It's interesting to see. And sometimes
Caleb Adams: Ha.
Tami Fairchild: it's hard to go through and you feel like you're not very popular and you're picked on. And and I'm sure that developers that have developed, they understand exactly what I'm saying. But yet, you just you have to stick with it and it's worth it. And after things are done, I have people that were totally against it come to us and they're like really happy that we did it and it looks great and it was a good addition to our county. And so there you go.
Caleb Adams: Change is always hard. but like you said, if you do it right, then they're grateful for the change and the growth.
Tami Fairchild: Growth is gonna happen, in good areas and people know what we have here and and they like it and everybody wants, a piece of it and I think that it's it's a great place to live and great opportunities here
Caleb Adams: do you have any advice for someone who's just getting into real estate? Maybe they just got their real estate license. Any tips for them on their journey?
Tami Fairchild: I would say think that they need to just get involved. they should come and join join us in in our association too, and I think it's a great experience because then you get to know who you're trying to sell to and who you're trying to get buyers with It's probably the best thing that I could think of.
Caleb Adams: Well, this has been really great. I've enjoyed learning from you and appreciate you sharing your expertise.
Tami Fairchild: You're awesome. You're great to work with and I'm appreciative that you thought of me.
Caleb: That's a wrap on this episode of Real Estate Insights. A huge thank you to my guest for sharing their time and playbook. If you're a top agent in Utah or Idaho and you'd like to be featured on the show, I'd love to have you. Reach out anytime. I'm Caleb Adams, mortgage broker here in Utah and Idaho, who loves connecting great agents with great people who need them. We'll see you next time.
