JOSEPH — Wallowa County has a new real estate broker, now that Deidra Ripsom has opened Homestead Company Realty in downtown Joseph.

She held her “grand opening” Monday, June 17, but has been open since Memorial Day weekend in her new office on Main Street.

The office may be new for Ripsom, but she’s an old hand in the real estate business. She’s been at it for 14 years, having relocated here from Southern Oregon three years ago.

She and husband, Nick, and their two kids — an 11-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son — joined her in the move.

“We used to visit here and dreamed about living here,” she said. “We wanted to raise our family here.”

Nick is a builder/developer, so Deidra’s work as a broker goes hand-in-hand with his work.

“We were super-active,” she said, adding that they wanted to ease off a bit.

“We moved to Wallowa County to slow down our pace … to enjoy our kids,” she said.

Now the Ripsoms are getting involved more with the community.

“Part of moving to a new county with our kids is getting involved in 4-H and sports” such as club wrestling, she said.

But she hasn’t stepped away from real estate in her time here. She spent the past three years working as a broker out of Ruby Peak Realty before deciding to go out on her own.

In Southern Oregon, she was a lead training agent, meaning she’d mentor other newer brokers. She hopes to do some of that here, to train agents “from the ground up.” For now, Homestead is just a one-broker show, but she’s hoping to welcome other brokers to the company.

Ripsom doesn’t do rentals, but handles most other types of real estate, such as residential, farms, ranches and new construction.

“I really have built my business on customer relationships,” she said. “I really take care of my clients.”

She wants to make those relationships more than about just a single sale.

“It’s not about the one transaction we might get together,” Ripsom said. “It’s about a lifetime and clients feeling like I’ll take care of them and refer them to friends and family.”