Home Buyers Relocation’s Weblog

This morning, Friday, April 18, 2008, the local area felt a significant earthquake…the first in many years.   About 4 in the morning, most of us were awakened with shaking from a genuine earthquake…5.3 on the Richter Scale.  It was centered in a small town near the Indiana border, about 125 miles away, but it was clearly felt for several seconds.  Residents as far away as Chicago felt the tremors.   Then just about 20 minutes ago (like 10:30 central) an aftershock was felt that measured 4.3 or so.  Unusual circumstances all for the midwest, and we have heard of no damage anywhere, just a jiggling or shaking.  The last earthquake most remember was in 1968, when a 5.4 earthquake occurred, centered in about the same area.

 With no connection whatsoever, that comes on the heels of an unusually wet (so far) springtime.   March saw a record rainfall of over 10 inches, (where we have perhaps an average of 38 inches per year.)   The ground is the most saturated it’s been for many years…so that’s good for crops and lawns.  But the wet fields are still impossible to “farm”, and obviously, that’s not good.   Some rivers in Missouri flooded, but flood levels quickly subsided.  Here, high on the bluffs, we were not threatened at all.

A year ago, we had a record-late freeze that ruined most of the local peach crop and many apples.  We appear to have missed that event this year…..so far.

We’re getting ready to post a group of weather “records” on the Trivia site…watch for them.  We think they’re interesting, including the great New Madrid Quake of 1812…the most powerful the midwest ever felt in recorded history….and the big rain of 1957, where 13 to 15 inches fell overnight on most of the St. Louis area…an astonishing amount.  

Home Buyers Relocation Services Wins Three “Best in Client Satisfaction” awards. 

(This article appeared in most local newspapers!  We believe it to be a significant honor.  We also believe it’s easier to provide “outstanding client satisfactions” with “Exclusive Buyer Representation” where market objectivity is absolute and conflicts of interest largely eliminated.  As some proof of that, two “Exclusive” agencies in St. Louis, with whom we work, garnered unusual numbers: Finding Homes for You had 2 out of 2 active agents, and William French Buyers Service had an astonishing 8 agents named.)

Three agents with Home Buyers Relocation Services have been named winners of “Best in Client Satisfaction” in 2007 by St. Louis Magazine, as announced in their April 2008 issue. They are Paul Ottwein, Nancy Jo Mitchell and Denise Carter in the picture.  Nancy Jo and Denise work from the firm’s O’Fallon office.  Paul is broker of the Edwardsville office.   

 The measures were: “knowledge of the market, representation of the clients’ interests and operating with an emphasis upon integrity and service.”  While most of the opinions came from actual relocating buyers, title companies also contributed.  The surveys are conducted by an independent research firm. Home Buyers Relocation Services is set apart as an “Exclusive Buyers Agency”.  The firm serves only the buyers side of the transaction and never sellers.  In its 17 years in business, it has served more than 2600 buyer families, but not a single seller.    The company also specializes in relocations, so has growing visibility within the