New Listing – 1500 Auburn Court, Eagan MN 55122
February 4, 2010
Just listed – This move in ready split entry home in Eagan. The house is on a quiet cul-de-sac and backs right up to Thomas Lake Elementary in School District 196. In addition it has this long list of features:
- 3 bedrooms on one level, 4th in lower level
- Brand new landscaping surrounding the entire house
- Attractive large cedar deck with built-in flower boxes – Under porch outside storage
- Large cement patio outside garage 2 car garage with 3rd stall going through to outside back yard, perfect for boat storage
- Fenced in back yard
- Newly painted exterior and interior
- New carpet in all 4 bedrooms
- New hardwood floors throughout upstairs 2004
- New Timberline Roof – Driveway professionally sealed
- Beautiful4 season sunroom with brand new windows and gas fireplace with carpet
- Main bathroom has Jacuzzi bathtub with shower
- Mudroom has large walk-in closet as well as cabinets in the entry way for shoe and winter clothing storage
- Family room has plenty of room for exercise equipment, pool table and seating, and has a gas fireplace along with walkout to backyard
- New water heater 2004 New furnace/air conditioner 2004
You can find more details about this listing, including 19 pictures here – Realtor.com Showcase Listing – 1500 Auburn Court
For more information texted to your cell phone including pictures call 866-831-8621 and use property code “32046″
or
Text “32046″ to 21691
Choosing Pilot Knob Elementary – Interview with Principal Tom Benson
November 21, 2009
On Thursday November 19th I had a chance to spend an hour with Pilot Knob Elementary principal, Tom Benson, to discuss his school and why parents would want to choose them as a great place to educate their children. He had called me because a listing of mine (1632 Ashbury – Eagan) included a marketing line that suggested that even though the listing was in School District 197 that you could open enroll into District 196 and he wanted to get the chance to tell me about all of the great things going on at his school. It sounded like a wonderful learning opportunity for me.
Pilot Knob Elementary, located at 1436 Lone Oak Road in Eagan, is one of 5 elementary schools located in District 197 (West St. Paul, Mendota Heights, Eagan). The school has approximately 300 students in grades K-4 along with 20 teachers and support staff. Some of the interesting things about the school that parents should consider include -
- They have a great relationship with local employer, Lockheed Martin, who supplies engineers for math enrichment programs. In fact, the school has around 100 volunteers each week across different academic areas and highly encourages volunteer & parental involvement. Of the 300 students 70 of them were Academic All-stars last year participating in enrichment programs.
- The school has a number of remedial programs for kids at the other end of the achievement spectrum and has extra help and assistance programs for students that need to catch up.
- They view themselves as a place that needs to be open to the community after normal school hours and sponsors drama club, chess club, community education, book clubs and boy scouts.
- Pilot Knob and District 197 have worked hard to stay current on technology by providing laptops to all teachers, multiple mobile laptop carts for all students to use in classrooms and new interactive blackboards that tie into new media opportunities.
- Low class sizes are always a great thing for student learning and with class sizes as low as 12 in Kindergarten and 23 in 4th grade each child gets lots of individualized attention.
- One of the school’s teachers (Jennifer Parker) was among 11 finalists for Teacher of the Year in Minnesota in 2008
Test Scores
While certainly many schools offer similar programs one of the best ways to judge a school’s success is to look at test scores. The 2009 MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) test results for 3rd & 4th grade math and reading have just been released and Pilot Knob took a pretty big step upward. These compare very well with other nearby schools in District 196 -
| State Avg | Pilot Knob | |
| 3rd Grade – Math | 82.1 | 85.9 |
| 3rd Grade – Reading | 74.8 | 85.7 |
| 4th Grade – Math | 78.4 | 82.7 |
| 4th Grade – Reading | 74.5 | 83.3 |
Additional Resources
There are a number of additional links and tools that a parent might want to use in helping them pick the best school for their children including -
- The Minnesota Department of Education website which has all kinds of data including school overviews of Pilot Knob Elementary and similar close schools like Deerwood Elementary in District 196
- The Great Schools website compares all K-12 schools in the state with test scores, comparisons and parent ratings
- School Matters does similar comparisons for parents to evaluate the different options available for their students
- Finally, go check out the Pilot Knob Elementary website for photo’s, e-news, community calendar and Principal Benson’s Web Page
My thanks to Tom Benson (along with all the enthusiastic students I met) for the information and tour of one of Dakota County’s fine educational institutions!
Lessons From A Fast Sale – Eagan Listing Sells in 2 Days & Above List
November 14, 2009
On Wednesday this week I listed a house at 1632 Ashbury Place in Eagan (Ashbury Place Blog Entry). On Thursday we had 3 showings. Last night I presented 3 very nice offers to my client and they accepted a very solid offer above the asking price! Needless to say, they are thrilled with the offer and how fast it happened.
Lessons Learned -
- Staging Matters – Our team hires a staging consultant at our expense to come in and advise our clients on how to stage their home for the quickest sale.
- Professional Photography Matters – The photographer did a fantastic job of showing off the special characteristics of the home. One of the biggest draws for this house is the pond in back. As you can see in the pictures below, not only did the pictures capture each room but did a great job of showing the pond through the windows.
- A Pre-Inspection Can Help – The seller hired an inspector to review their home prior to listing to identify problems ahead of time that they should deal with. This allowed them to proactively address issues ahead of any showings so that the house looked its very best. A number of the issues were small cosmetic changes that were easily done by the homeowner at little expense but could easily have been noticed at a showing.
- Cooperative Sellers Matter – I believe that this is the #1 reason they got a fantastic offer. The sellers took the advice of their Realtor, staging consultant & inspector to get their house into amazing showing condition. They worked hard, even taking a week off before going on the market to clean and touch up. This resulted directly in successfully showing an incredible move in ready home and more money in their pockets.
- The Market Lacks Quality Homes – Finally, the Twin Cities market actually has a lack of high quality, move-in ready homes in the lower price points. The inventory of homes has been steadily declining to a point that there’s actually an opportunity to sell for people that have homes that show well. In talking to the buyer’s Realtors (and a few others that didn’t offer) there are lots of multi-bid situations for the few nice homes going on the market.
Yes, the Twin Cities market is down from its peak, but for those sellers that want to sell it may actually be a good time to get out there and get a feel for the market.
1632 Ashbury Place, Eagan, MN 55122 – New Listing
November 12, 2009
Yesterday my newest listing at 1632 Ashland Place in Eagan, MN 55122 was listed. It’s a 2 story home in northwestern Eagan with easy access to Minneapolis & St. Paul. It’s also very close to the Town Center area for abundant shopping options.
The home is in fantastic condition and is located on a really beautiful pond lot on a very quiet street. Here’s the view out back -
We will having open houses at this home on Saturday November 14th from Noon – 2pm and Saturday November 21st from 1pm – 3pm.
For more details -
My RE/MAX site with details from MLS – 1632 Ashbury Place details & pictures
Our Postlets marketing site – 1632 Ashbury Place Marketing Piece
Lebanon Hills Regional Park – Dakota County’s Largest
September 14, 2009
The largest park in Dakota County is Lebanon Hills Regional Park which is located on 2,000 acres stretching across southern Eagan and Northeastern Apple Valley.
The park is popular in both the summer and winter seasons with outdoor enthusiasts, swimmers, skiers, bikers, canoe/kayakers, hikers, campers and horseback riders. According to the main Dakota County Park site -
the park offers miles of trails and many lakes for year-round outdoor sports, recreation and environmental education. The Lebanon Hills Visitor Center, located in the eastern section of the park, offers park information, interactive nature displays, courses and programs, and access to all the beauty the park has to offer.
Some of the resources that might help you enjoy this amazing park -
- You can find a trail map showing the miles of hiking, biking and horseback trails here – Lebanon Hills Park Summer Trail Map
- The Sierra Club has a nice web page on the park that describes the park and activities as well as discussing possible ecological threats – Sierra Club – Lebanon Hills Park
- The Minnesota Off Road Cyclists has a very detailed website on the parks mountain bike trail options. The call Lebanon Hills a “must ride trail in Minnesota”. The go into full descriptions of the different difficulty levels along with maps and pictures – MORC – Biking in Lebanon Hills
- Finally, for those interested in environmental issues, the Metropolitan Council highlighted the efforts of Dakota County’s Lebanon Hills Visitor Center and their “green” roof and rainwater collection system – Dakota County to Become “greener”
- Get outside and take advantage of this great outdoor play area.
Lake Conference Changes Coming
August 29, 2009
The primary high school athletic conference serving Dakota County schools is about to go through some big changes for the 2010-2011 season. There are currently 12 teams in the Lake Conference but the Minnesota High School League is forcing the Lake to take 4 large high schools (Wayzata, Minnetonka, Hopkins & Edina) and integrate them into current Conference. While Chaska & Chanhassen were already leaving the Conference, forcing the Lake to have 14 teams and forcing the Dakota County schools to compete with the much larger west metro schools is probably going to get them to create their own conference and blow the whole thing up.
John Millea at the Star Tribune has been following this story closely – Four Teams Shift to Lake Conference
Lake Conference officials did not want all four Classic Lake schools placed in their league and there has been speculation that the Lake would splinter if that happened. After Tuesday’s decision, that became more of a possibility.
The most likely outcome will be that the 4 District 196 schools (Eagan, Rosemount, Eastview & Apple Valley), the 2 District 194 schools (Lakeville North & Lakeville South), District 191’s Burnsville High and possibly the 2 Bloomington schools will defect to create a new conference. This would basically have the effect of booting Eden Prairie out of the current configuration to go join the other 4 new schools. The schools have until October 1st to create a new conference so we’ll know something soon.
Many homeowners buy their homes with their children’s high school sports in mind so the changes happening in Minnesota’s premier high school athletic conference do matter.
District 196 – School District of Choice for Homebuyers
August 23, 2009
Minnesota School District #196 is the 4th largest district in Minnesota with over 150,000 residents and 27,000 students. The district covers Rosemount, Apple Valley, Eagan and parts of Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville and Burnsville. It has long been recognized as one of the premier school districts in Minnesota for student achievement along with excellent extra curricular programs. As a resident of #196 for the past 22 years I can personally attest to their quality.
As the district gears up for the 2009-10 school year they just published their Spotlight Newsletter for Fall 2009 (#196 Fall 2009 Spotlight) and as usual I turned to the Superintendent’s Message. This fall the district has a new Superintendent, Jane Berenz, so this was her first “Spotlight” message.
As a real estate agent I found it both interesting and insightful that she ended her 2nd to last paragraph this way -
I am confident we will remain a district of choice among people looking for a place to buy a home and raise a family
Let me know how I can help you find that perfect home in District #196!
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