Hello devoted blog followers,
We are pleased to announce that our blog will be migrating back to our original platform, which for you really only means our URL will be changing. Since our new blog will be housed within our site it will show the newest functionality and make accessing archived blogs that much easier. With this increased exposure we hope to continue offering quality blog posts that inspire our users to share their comments and repost our posts on their social media outlets. As always we welcome your feedback and value your opinion, please let us know what you think!
(319) 366-6427
Skogman Realty agents have definitely been in the giving spirit this season – helping those less fortunate and unable to purchase gifts for their families this Christmas Season. For the fourth consecutive year, we had a Four Oaks Giving Tree in the Downtown Office which was decorated with 50 ornaments – one per child. Each ornament had an item on it from the children’s Christmas wish list. Agents selected an ornament from the tree and purchased the gift for kids so they would have something to open this Christmas. Thank you to all of the Skogman Realty agents and employees who participated.
Delivering our presents to Four Oaks
At the same time, Agents in our Hiawatha office had decided that they wanted to touch as many people as they could, as many times as possible throughout the year. With that in mind, they adopted 76 kids from the Head Start program through HACAP at their Circle Facility. This is HACAP’s largest facility located at 5560 6th Street, SW. Each of the 76 kids received a Christmas stocking filled with: a hat, mittens, socks, granola bar, crackers, cereal, bubbles, coloring book, colors, a small toy and a stuffed animal. All were served mini muffins and juice while they visited with Santa.
They were also told that several kids sleep on the floor and probably would not be receiving gifts from Santa this year. One little boy was wearing his mom’s coat, because he didn’t have one. Therefore he could not go outside on colder days – this story really touched our agents and they decided to adopt three families, a total of 7 children – ages 2-5. Each child received a hat, coat, snow pants, boots, mittens, jeans, shirt, sweat shirt, and two toys. They also included a sleeping bag, blanket and pillow (with pillowcase). These gifts were not given out with the rest of the stuff, but rather left them for their Santa parents to put under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning.
We are truly inspired by the good deeds our agents do on a daily basis and these are just the two most recent instances. On any given day in our company you are sure to fine an agent or office doing good for the community – whether it be Food Pantry Palooza – collecting food for local food pantry’s, or raising money for a local family whose young child needed a heart transplant. We couldn’t be more proud of our employees and agents!
Items ready to be packaged for the kids at HACAP
Santa distributing his gifts
Pumpkin carving, train rides and a haunted maze are just a few of the activities that more than 500 people enjoyed last Sunday at the 2nd Annual Skogman Hiawatha Pumpkin Fest. The event was hosted by Skogman Realty agents in our Hiawatha Branch and took place in the parking lot of the office– located at 1110 Dina Ct. Agents invited their clients, friends, family and other members of the community to attend the event and all were encouraged to dress up in their Halloween costumes for a chance to win prizes.
Pumpkins were also given away and there were carving and painting stations available to those who wanted to show off their more creative side. Other games, prizes and a special appearance from Cinderella also helped make it a great afternoon!
The Pumpkin Fest is a ‘Thank You’ to clients, friends, family and the community for their support. It is a fun fall event where both children and adults can have fun and enjoy the festivities.
Congratulations to our Hiawatha Agents for another successful event!
On May 3rd Linn County residents will be voting to extend the local option sales tax. These funds would be used to help pay for flood protection, street repair and property tax relief. Currently the Corp of Engineers has recommended a plan that will only protect the East side of the river, but both sides need it and this vote would ensure all are protected.
The Skogman Companies strongly support the vote for the flood protection plan and believe it is vital to the growth and future of this community. The city is in line for $65 Million in Federal money and its community members need to show support by voting for the 1% sales tax. We need to show that our community can provide its share of the funding before the state and federal money will be available.
Without flood protection for both sides of the river, residential neighborhoods and commercial businesses are at high risk of suffering another devastating flood and would significantly hurt those who in these areas. A second flood would cripple our community for more than a generation
Please vote on May 3rd to extend the local option sales tax. This is the only way we can protect the East and West side of the River from another devastating flood.
Our very own Jeff Edberg, Manager of Commercial Sales for Skogman Commercial Group in Iowa City, was recently featured in Heart & Soul, an Iowa City-Press Citizen publication. Heart & Soul interviews and profiles 48 people in the Iowa City area who give their heart and soul to the community.
Jeff has been selling real estate in the Iowa City area for 18 years but has been working in the industry for more than 33. When Jeff isn’t selling real estate he is an active member in the Iowa City community, serving on a number of boards such as The Arc of Southeast Iowa, which he currently chairs.
Read Jeff’s entire article in Heart & Soul.
Skogman Realty recently received a Website Quality Certification from the Leading Real Estate Companies of the World. This certification recognizes companies who are members of Leading RE and who are using ‘best practices’ in website design and internet communications.
Websites are evaluated on six different categories and were scored on a scale of 10. The categories were:
Usability: How easy the site is to navigate? Can it be used in multiple browsers and are properties easy to find.
Design and Website Content: Are the styles and color consistent throughout the site and is there company branding throughout? Is the content on the site concise and explanatory for the consumer? Does it have community information? Is the site visually appealing?
Interactivity: Does the site engage consumers? Such as interactive maps, blogs, social media links.
Customer Service and Client Respect: Is it easy for the customers to contact the company? How soon did the company reply?
Leading RE Branding: Is there a link to RELOHomeSearch.com on the homepage?
SEO: How does the company rank in Google using key search terms? Does the site use titles and meta tags effectively? Is the site indexed by Google? Is the company in Google places?
Skogman’s overall score was 54 out 60.
Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® is the largest network of top independent real estate companies. There are 600 firms affiliated with Leading RE and have associates in more than 30 countries worldwide.
We are pleased to announce that Skogman Realty and the University of Iowa Community Credit Union have come together to create a joint venture – UICCU Mortgage. We are very excited about this partnership and are confident that we will be able to offer our clients the best products, pricing and service in town.
UICCU may be relatively new to the Cedar Rapids market but have enjoyed much success in the Iowa City/Coralville area with more than 40% of the mortgage market. A big reason for their success is that they have their own staff doing processing, underwriting and closing – resulting in faster, more efficient service for their clients.
UICCU Mortgage offers many great products without the 1% origination fee! With a number of in house products, and other flexible programs with low closing costs, they are sure to find something that fits your financial needs.
UICCU Mortgage currently has 3 loan officers that are located in Skogman Realty’s Downtown, Marion and Hiawatha offices.
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Patrick St. John Downtown Office 411 1st Avenue SE, Suite 100 Cedar Rapids, IA 52401 Phone: (319) 551-1180 Email: pstjohn@uiccumortgage.com |
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Nathan Seyfer Hiawatha Office 1110 Dina Court Hiawatha, IA 52233 Phone: (319) 331-6770 Email:nseyfer@uiccumortgage.com |
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Brad Maras Marion Office 341 8th Ave. Suite A Marion, IA 52302 Phone: (319) 533-2138 Email: bmaras@uiccumortgage.com |
Visit the UICCU Mortgage website today to learn more about financing your new home.
We are very excited to announce that we have added “OpenID – One Click Login” to our Property Alerts Account page. One Click Login allows the customers to sign in to their Property Alerts Account using their Facebook or Google information. This eliminates the need for yet another username and password to remember and also streamlines the process of logging in or creating a new account. If you do not currently have a Facebook or Gmail account, logging in remains the same.
The first time you login using your Facebook or Google account you will be directed to a Permission Request page. Click ‘Allow’ to complete the process.
The addition of One Click Login increases the usability for our customers by eliminating the barriers for creating an account and therefore enhancing the overall customer experience.
We recently finished our annual United Way Campaign here at the Skogman Companies, where our goal was to raise $30,000. This was higher than years past, but in a time when donations are down we felt we could push ourselves to try and give just a little more than the year before. The higher goal was no problem for Skogman Realtors and employees. This year we raised $35,500!
One of the many great things about United Way is that most of the money raised stays here in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area, helping our local communities and non-profits. As professionals in the real estate business we benefit from a strong and healthy community. United Way helps to make this happen.
Thank you to all of the Skogman Realtors and employees who contributed to making this year’s campaign a success.
This week we kick off our United Way campaign at Skogman. As a company we have the opportunity to make a difference in the live of thousands of people in our community through an employee workplace campaign.
Together, United Way and Skogman Companies are strengthening our communities and changing lives, right here in east central Iowa.
Contributions to United Way support 40 health and human service agencies. By supporting United Way we ensure that…children and youth are prepared to succeed…people are connected with critical resources…families get the support they need…individuals have increased job skills to develop self-sufficiency…elderly adults remain in their homes.
Our goal this year is to raise $30,000 in an effort to help strengthen the communities in which we live and work.
