Waukee, IA

If you plug in ‘Waukee Schools’ on the Dallas County Assessor website, 33 property/land tracts come up representing more than 320 acres of some of the most prime real estate in the county. A recently purchased 76-acre track is at the intersection of LA Grant Parkway and Ashworth Road. The district announced last week an 18-acre parcel purchase at 95th and Stagecoach in West Des Moines for a future elementary school for the growing district. These land acquisitions, coupled with reports of bursting enrollment, point to continued growth and development well into the future for Waukee Public Schools.

Whether you have children in the district or not, these are positive indicators for the people of Waukee. Where there are people, there are schools. Where there are schools there is business and housing. Where there is business and housing, there is a thriving economy.

The Waukee School District announced this week that they are taking steps to add a seventh elementary school to the district. The new school would be built at 95^th Street and Stagecoach Drive in West Des Moines, southwest of Jordan Creek Town Center in the Michael’s Landing development, The Des Moines Business Record reports. Tuesday night, the school board approved the purchase of 18.23 acres for the school for $760,000. The new building is expected to open for the 2013-2014 school year.

Enrollment has boomed for Waukee in the past decade. The district reported a total enrollment of 2,409 students in 2000, which has grown to 6,577 in 2010. The district is projecting that it will have 8,2014 students by 2013.

We spend a lot of time here on Active Rain, and in social media seminars, talking about how to use Facebook as professionals to be found by new clients. This week, the shoe was on the other foot for me!

On Monday I hired a Realtor to sell one of my investment properties in Waukee, IA. My husbandand I reached out to this particular Realtor (I can't remember if it was thru voice mail or email), and the first time I spoke to him, he said "yeah, I saw on Facebook it looks like your husband and I have a mutual friend and what do you do at Zillow".

Here is what the Realtor knew about me before even placing the first call:

• I am an actual person.
• I have a job and knew where I worked.
• I am married and he knows where my husband works.
• We are out of town sellers.
• We are into the Internet and use Facebook a lot, based on our Friend count.
• What I look like, so he can guess my approximate age.
• He knows a little about my interests because you can see which Fan pages I follow.
• He knew who, if any, mutual friends we had. How good of conversation starter is that?

As you can imagine, the first call we had together was no cold call. We were instantly able to have a more personal conversation and he was hired minutes later. I really appreciated the fact that he took a few minutes to do a little research about me before picking up the phone and it made for a much warmer first conversation.

So yes, Facebook is a great prospecting tool and can potentially get your deals. But it is also a great tool to help work with the leads you get through other sources!

(Oh, and I bet you all are wondering where I found him? He was the only Realtor in Waukee, IA to have a completely filled out profile here on Active Rain and Zillow. Did I really have a choice who to use? Haha!)