Park Company Realtors Blog

Have You Checked Your Sump Pump?

With the rapid melt this week, it's a good time to remind you that you need to check on your sump pump and your hoses. You want to make sure your sump is keeping up and also that your drainage hose is intact and draining the water away from your foundation.  It is not a bad idea to have a back up sump pump on hand as those pumps are running overtime right now. Typically the life of a sump pump is five years, however, with the amount of use with our high water table right now means they may not make it five years. 

Also, have you made sure you have sump pump failure/sewer backup/overflow coverage on your homeowners insurance policy?  A little extra insurance coverage and attention to the details are the simplest ways to protect the value of your home.

Spend Valentine's Day Saving the Cities You Love!

 
Sandbag Central will be opening on Valentine's Day. The City of Fargo estimates we will be needing 3 MILLION sandbags, and they are hoping we can fill 100,000-150,000 per day...that's alot of work!

Park Co. will be at Sandbag Central on Monday afternoon for hopefully our first of many shifts filling bags.  If you can't join us on Monday, coordinate a group from your own business or take a few hours after work or on a weekend! 

If you go to Sandbag Central - dress in layers - jackets, sweatshirts, gloves, boots or tennis shoes.  The building is heated, but with doors opening to let dump trucks in with loads of sand, it can cool off quickly.

Our shift starts at 2 PM on Monday and transportation will be provided from our office at 1:30 PM. TO SIGN UP: Leave a message on our Facebook Event Wall or call 701-237-5031.

Ring Big, RED!

 

It's almost here!  The time of year, Park Co. Realtors get a little crazy on 10th Street in Fargo, dressed as Santas wildly waving bells in front of our giant red kettle to collect donations for the Salvation Army.

This Friday, December 10th, we will be at it again!  However this year, we have help, A LOT OF HELP!  All across North Dakota and into neighboring Minnesota, Realtors will be manning the red kettles in addition to our big red kettle on 10th Street!  Our goal is $25,000 in one day!

The Salvation Army provides a daily hot meal program serves breakfast and a noon meal five days a week, lunch on Saturday, and an evening meal on Sunday all year. They provide Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets for the needy. They also visit local nursing home residents and bring them gifts and their most visible gift to our community is their year round emergency assistance provided to anyone in need.  If you happened to be around the Fargo-Moorhead area this past spring during flood preparations, you'll remember seeing Salvation Army vehicles all over, providing food and water to weary sandbagging volunteers.  If you remember the Galleria Apartment fire early this fall, that displaced 150 families, the Salvation Army was there to help!

 This one day our Realtor Association has committed to this worthy cause is the least we can do for an organization to provides so much to our communities! 

 If you see the dancing Santas on 10th Street, drive on up and donate from the warmth of your car - it's forecasted to be a high of 16 degrees!  We'll need alot of dancing and donations to keep warm!

After the flood waters recede….

Cass County, ND announced today that on May 27th, 2010 they will be auctioning off the flood buyout houses, standalone garages, shops and storage buildings. Bidding will start at 1 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, Fargo, ND.

If you are interested to see what homes are available, the company performing the auctions, Steffes Auctioneers Inc., has information on their website www.steffesauctioneers.com.

If you are thinking about purchasing one of these structures, you need to remember that they all will be sold for removal or salvage in “as is” condition. You will also be required to sign a purchase agreement and pay in full on the day of the sale. All homes are required to be moved from the property on later than September 15, 2010.

If you want to see any of these homes the auction company is holding inspection dates on Saturday, May 15 & 22, 10am - 4pm.

If you need some land to place one of these homes or would like some advice from a knowledgeable Realtor, give us a call and we can help you out!

Have You Checked Your Sump Pump?

With the rapid melt this week, we have had a few homeowners learn the hard way that you need to check on your sump pump and your hoses. You want to make sure your sump is keeping up and also that your drainage hose is intact and draining the water away from your foundation.  It is not a bad idea to have a back up sump pump on hand as those pumps are running overtime right now. Typically the life of a sump pump is five years, however, with the amount of use with our high water table right now means they may not make it five years.  We have also heard reports that, with the possibility of flooding further south of us in the Mississippi River Valley, supplies are not going to be as easy to come by as they were in 2009.

Also, have you made sure you have sump pump failure/sewer backup/overflow coverage on your homeowners insurance policy?  I had a friendly call from my insurance agent today to remind me that I didn't have the coverage. (I don't have a basement, but I'm not taking any chances as I just refinished the whole first floor of my house this past year.) Needless to say, I added the coverage, some may see it as a waste, however, I like to sleep at night and the small investment is worth it to me.

A little extra insurance coverage and attention to the details are the simplest ways to protect the value of your home.

You’ve Got to Fight, For Your Right….

Yes, it is raining today in Fargo-Moorhead. For all of us who experienced last year’s flood, memories of one year ago start to creep back into our minds.

We are now halfway through our 2^nd week of flood preparation here in Fargo-Moorhead. Our city officials are calling for 1 million sandbags for Fargo and 300,000 for Moorhead. Currently we are only about 1/3 of the way to meeting our goals in both cities.

If you are willing and able to help out, here are a couple of helpful links for volunteer information:

http://www.inforum.com/pages/volunteer

http://www.myfirstlink.org/

Fargo-Moorhead is an amazing community…it is worth the fight!

FirstLink Starts Flood Volunteer Networks

During 2009's flood, FirstLink played a vital role in directing volunteers where they were most needed.  This year they expect to play as large of a role.  They are encouraging residents to use the following channels to receive official volunteer and flood related information directly from FirstLink:

Volunteer Hotline: 701-476-4000

Facebook: www.facebook.com/myfirstlink

Twitter: www.twitter.com/myfirstlink

Text Messages: Simply text 'myfirstlink' to 84074 to subscribe (standard messaging rates may apply)

Be sure to add these important to your social networks and sign up for the text messages.  Thanks to FirstLink for providing such a valuable service!

Moorhead's Interactive Flood Map

After our post on Fargo's interactive flood map, Willy Jacobson directed us to Moorhead's Interactive Flood Map.

Go to http://www.maps.co.clay.mn.us/map/moorhead/disclaimer.htm

Click on "Go to Interactive Map".  If you click on the search button, you'll be able to type in your address (be careful how you enter it, as it follows USPS rules), then click on go to map and it will pull up your parcel and then you can use the tools on the right to view different flood stages and how they will affect your property and home.

More great tools to assist us in our flood preparations and awareness!

Fargo Launches Interactive Flood Stage Map

With the potential of another flood in the corner of our minds, here is a new tool launched by the City of Fargo that may help gain some perspective on how different flood stages affect your home.  Thanks to Jeff Botnen for sharing this information with us!

Go to http://gis.ci.fargo.nd.us/FargoFloodStages/FargoFloodApp.html

Type in your address (it should auto-populate) and click on Find.  The interactive tool will then tell you at what flood stage your property may be impacted and also another reading of what stage your structure (your home, business, etc.) will be affected.  There is also a slider that lets you move the flood stage up or down and shows where the water would be at that level if there were no dikes in place (red areas).  The green/blue areas show where the natural floodway is.

To try this out, I typed in our office address (28 10 St N).  Since we are downtown, our elevation is higher than other parts of Fargo and it shows we won't be impacted.  There are many disclaimers on this site (for good reason), for instance it doesn't take into consideration ice or debris jams, etc.

Give it a try with your own home or neighborhood. It's good information to have and kudos to the City of Fargo for helping to educate us!

 
Kristi Hardy
Director, Marketing Services
Park Co. Realtors, Fargo, ND
701.237.5031
www.ParkCompany.com
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Flood Protection On the Way!

Flood protection that the Fargo-Moorhead area has been waiting for is "hopefully" on the way.  The Army Corps of Engineers announced yesterday that the communities need to choose a flood protection option by December 1, 2009.  Local offficials will be working fast and hard to meet the deadline to come up with the best option for both sides of the Red River.

Don't miss your chance this week to view the options at public meetings. Tuesday, October 20 - 6 PM at the Howard Johnson Inn in Fargo and Wednesday, October 21 - 6 PM at Hagen Hall at MSU-Moorhead.