Don’t use ePerks!

There are a handful of real estate companies who will give you back money at closing. In the Twin Cities area, a company with a big green house logo and slick website have exploded onto the scene with TV ads, billboards, bus benches, etc. On a national level, ePerks offers similar rebates.

As a Realtor, ePerks is similar to many other lead generation websites in the way that they want your money and don’t give you much (if anything) in return. I get emails and phone calls several times a week with great “opportunities” for leads.

Well, to get to the point about ePerks, when they went online they hired bloggers to hype their services. Vlad Zablotskyy was one of them and he quickly realized ePerks was a company he didn’t want to promote. He started his own blog to discuss the situation and it became popular with agents who felt the same way - ePerks takes your money and doesn’t offer a good service.

I’m not a lawyer, but looking at the court papers it appears ePerks owner Ben Behrouzi (why did he have to ruin a perfectly good first name?) is suing Vlad for slander. This is due to a post on another blog where ePerks “allegedly” called Vlad a child molester and was “allegedly” caught red-handed. Vlad called them out on it and now ePerks is “allegedly” losing customers.

I watch enough People’s Court to see that Judge Milian typically yells at people when they ask for pain and suffering. “Hey, join the club buddy!” On the opposite side of the coin, Vlad will surely incur big legal expenses. So the good folks at Bloodhound Blog created the Support Vlad Zablotskyy Legal Defense Fund - click on the image below to see how you can help.

Support Vlad Zablotskyy’s Defense Fund
Defend your own right to free speech!

One last note - I emailed a local Realtor who I noticed was signed up with ePerks. He told me:

I signed up for the lowest level and in 2 months I never received a lead so I just canceled it.

Looks like another lead generation company trying to get their hands on my hard-earned money.

UPDATE:

I received emails from two more local real estate agents about their experience with ePerks:

I signed up with ePerks maybe 7-8 weeks ago and I purchased three zip codes exclusively. I put in my request to cancel yesterday. According to their “statistics”, I should have received somewhere around 15-20 leads by now and I have received exactly 1 - and I’m not convinced that the one wasn’t created by ePerks themselves. When I look up how many people have visited the site and how many contacts have been made - they listed two contacts. It was the same person twice.

Personally I wouldn’t recommend it. I own Eagan, Stillwater and a chunk of Woodbury and haven’t gotten squat out of it. If you can’t get leads in those areas, then nobody is looking at this web site.

So far it has been a bust, I have been with them for about 3 months and I got two exclusive zip codes. I have received 2 leads so far; one was a guy that swore up and down he didn’t sign up and didn’t know how I got his info and the other had bad contact info. The main reason I signed up was because the sales guy told me that they have a guarantee if within 6 months you don’t get an ROI you are free till you do. Later I found out they give you just the general membership for free which I think would be pretty worthless. So far I don’t think eperks is worth the money. Hope this helps.

I signed up for the exclusive membership, but I am finding that it may be kind
of a waste… I have only recieved 2 leads (neither of which called me back…
One said he wasn’t even in the market!), and have been in for over a month. I
may cancel…

On June 22nd, the best drum corps show in Minnesota will take place right here in Stillwater. Drum Beauty will host 4 of last year’s top 12 corps, along with 7 other performing corps.

If you are aren’t familiar with drum corps, it can be best described as professional marching band (but don’t call them a band). Members practice one show for over 2 months, rehearsing for up to 14 hours per day. They can easily travel over 12,000 miles performing in different cities each night. More stats can be found on the Drum Corps International website.

Do they stay in hotels? Do they get paid? No and no. They sleep on gym floors and have to pay for the privilege of marching with the corps. So why would anybody do it? Many different reasons - to gain experience, make lifelong friends, be part of a professional team, meet your significant other (yes it does happen). This short video shows the dedication it takes to be in drum corps:

Go to the Drum Beauty website and order tickets. I suggest the VIP seats - that’s where you’ll find me cheering loud for my corps, the Colts.

The performing corps will be staying and practicing at the following locations:

Blue Knights - St. Croix Lutheran High School, West St. Paul (map)

Blue Stars - Blaine High School, Blaine (map)

Carolina Crown - Totino Grace High School, Fridley (map)

Colts - Hill Murray High School, Maplewood (map)

Colt Cadets - Lakeville South High School, Lakeville (map)

Madison Scouts - Champlin Park High School, Champlin (map)

Phantom Regiment - Blackhawk Middle School, Eagan (map)

Many home sellers don’t like the idea of having strangers in their home when they aren’t there. However, this is the way showings are typically done in Minnesota: the buyer’s agent takes their buyers into your home, and you are usually gone. Is this safe?

It depends.

The best way to make it safer is by having your Stillwater Realtor use the new ibox from GE. This new digital lockbox requires an electronic key, which uses an update code that expires daily. The ibox also logs all Realtors (or appraisers, home inspectors, etc.). The major problem with the push button or dial lockboxes is that once a person knows the code, they can come back and get into your home any time.

So when talking to a Stillwater Realtor about selling your home, make sure they use the latest technology available.

Real estate prices are occasionally measured by the price per square foot. This allows for a better comparison between differently priced homes as well as homes of different sizes. In this pricing measurement method, the sale price of a home is divided by its area. For example, a home that sold for $300,000 and has 2,000 square feet would have a price per square foot of $150.

Researching the price per square foot for Stillwater homes over the past year shows the following information:

Over the course of 1 year, this averages to $163.09. The same search resulted in 287 active listings asking an average of $177.90 per square foot. Of those listings, 148 are below and 139 are above the average. Going back to the example home of 2,000 sq ft, the difference of $14.81 ($177.90 - $163.09) results in $29,620.

Note: A few listings were discarded because they report having only 1 square foot or really distort the results because of their high listing price.

The absorption rate is a calculation of how long it will take for all homes currently on the market to be sold (absorbed). Here are the numbers for Stillwater, sorted by property type:

Single Family - 11.3 months
Townhome - 11.6 months
Condominium - 33.2 months

A six month supply is considered balanced, when the number of listings is about equal to the number of buyers. Over 6 months represent a buyers market and below are a sellers market.

Its pretty clear that you need to price your home right if you want a quick sale, especially condo owners who don’t want to wait nearly 3 years.

For more specific absorption rates on your home, email us or call 651-356-8877.

After 38 years of family ownership, the Stillwater Dairy Queen closed its doors on April 2nd. A recent article in the St. Croix Valley Press noted the owner, Paul Williquett, is looking to move to a new location.

Agenda notes from the upcoming Stillwater Planning Commission cite a special use permit request from architects representing Dairy Queen. The proposed location - 317 S. Main Street (view map) - the same building as the St. Croix Crab House.

Its apparent that ice cream shops do the majority of their business in summer. Dairy Queen is obviously looking to capitalize on the tourism the downtown area has during this time. Now we’ll just have to see if local residents will make the trek to Main Street for their favorite Blizzard.

UPDATE:

35 days after I wrote this article, KSTP (a local ABC affiliate) finally covered the story.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released new Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for all of Washington County, including Stillwater. These maps are preliminary but are more accurate than the current 1980’s maps and include a number of changes throughout Stillwater.

Most of Stillwater will remain unaffected by these changes as they are currently in a Zone X (outside the 0.2% annual chance floodplain).

The new maps identify several areas that are potentially subject to flooding during a major storm event. According to the revised maps, approximately 117 more property owners in Stillwater have some part of their property included in a floodplain.

A number of current floodplain boundaries are proposed to be moved. The changes will result in approximately 58 property owners having additional floodplain on their property due to boundary changes.

Flood Insurance
Federal flood insurance is available in our entire community due to participation in the National Flood Insurance Program. If you are a homeowner in Stillwater, you can purchase flood insurance regardless of the flood zone you are in. If you wish to purchase flood insurance contact your homeowner’s insurance agent for more details.

You can go to http://www.floodsmart.gov/floodsmart/ and type in your address in the red box on the left side of the page. This will help determine your property’s flood risk, estimated premium cost and show a list of agents serving the area.

Click here to see the preliminary Stillwater flood map