Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Ayanna Eckblad

Potential homebuyers and people thinking about remodeling or building their home are invited on Wednesday to the Home EXPO event hosted by Arcadian Bank. Many local businesses are partnering for the event, such as realtors, insurance companies, construction companies and others, with the goal of teaching people about the process of buying or building a home and what the market looks like right now.

Susie Miller, vice president and senior mortgage lender at Arcadian Bank, said this event will be similar to an event the bank held last winter, “Homebuying 101.” However, the Home EXPO event will be larger in scale, with more partnerships from community businesses and more information being presented. She hopes to make the Home EXPO an annual event.

“Our hope is that we can educate everybody on their options when they’re looking for a new home or thinking about buying,” Miller said.

“In a way it’s almost like a pre-kick-off to a spring market,” said Robert Hoffman of Robert Hoffman Realty Inc. “[It’s ] nice to prime the pump early.”
Hoffman Realty is one of the partners of the event.

The timing of this event is strategic, too, as the holiday season is coming up, and the homebuying market typically slows down at that time. This makes it a good time, Hoffman said, to plan out construction or remodeling projects so that builders can be hired and ready to get started in spring when the ground is soft.

A common theme among all the partners for this event is the amount of change that has happened to all elements of the home buying process over the last several years. Whether it is in real estate, insurance or contracting, industries have changed rapidly.

Hoffman described first buying a home like trying to drink out of a fire hydrant, with more information being presented than people are prepared to absorb. He hopes this event can make the first steps of buying a home a little easier.

Although parts of this event are geared toward first-time home buyers, the people at Arcadian Bank and the event’s partners emphasized that this event is for everyone thinking about buying, selling, remodeling or constructing a home.

“There’s always something you can learn,” said Drew Sorenson, an insurance producer at Americana Insurance Group, another event partner. “It’s a good time to meet everybody who’s in different industries and get their opinions or thoughts.”

Everyone presenting at the event, Miller said, is community focused.

“It’s not just about getting the deal; it’s not just about financing. It’s about educating that consumer to make sure they’re getting the best opportunity possible,” she said.

Hoffman added the event will have a small-town feel that home expos in more populated areas may not have.

“Half of our show is going to be just everybody saying “hi” to one another because we all know each other. If you do this in a big community, half of your time is spent introducing yourself to one another — we won’t have to do that,” Hoffman said.

He said he also hopes to see industry affiliates, such as home inspectors or roofers, at the Home EXPO who want to learn more about what home-buying clients want and how the market is shaping up. These businesses may even become presenters at Home EXPO events in the future.

“We all learn something from each other, too, when we come together,” Miller said. “It’s our opportunity to check in and see what’s going on in everybody else’s world, too, and where the market’s trending and things like that.”

The Home EXPO event will begin at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Arcadian Bank. After guests register, they are invited to visit various booths set up by the event’s partners to ask questions and learn about various services. At 5:30 p.m., guests will gather for a panel of community experts in the homebuying process. Following the panel, guests can again go to different booths and talk to individuals.

Light refreshments will also be served.

Community partners for this event include Robert Hoffman Realty, Inc., Americana Insurance, real estate agent Shannon Bordeaux , Red Door Construction, LLC, Leland Realty, State Farm Insurance agent Dave Klatt, Megan R. Sorensen of Heartman Insurance, Helping Hands Junk Removal and Near North Title Group.

More information about the Home EXPO event can be found on the Arcadian Bank website or the event’s Facebook post.