Following a four-month process set by the Super Real Estate Agents™ program, Jim Moe, WESTconsin Realty LLC, has recently been selected as a 2011 Super Real Estate Agent.

More than 120,000 members of the Twin Cities community, including previous year’s honorees, homebuyers, mortgage and title companies, and Twin Cities Business and Mpls. St. Paul Magazine subscribers were invited to submit nominations. Those nominated for the honorable recognition represent less than 4 percent of all licensed real estate agents from the greater Twin Cities marketplace. Unlike many other distinctions, the Super Real Estate Agents™ program is not based on sales volume, but rather on exceptional client service.

A lifetime resident of the New Richmond area, Jim has been working in real estate for over 25 years. When asked about the honor, Jim considers it an honor to be nominated as a Super Real Estate Agent by his peers and past clients. He can be reached at (715) 781-0387, or jimmoe@westconsinrealty.com.

The 2011 Super Real Estate Agent article was published in the November and December Mpls. St. Paul Magazine and is available online at http://www.mspmag.com.

WESTconsin Realty, an affiliate of WESTconsin Credit Union, offers a 4.8 percent seller’s commission rate on qualifying properties, cash back at closing to buyers, and no administrative fees. Full-time, full-service real estate agents are located in each WESTconsin office area throughout Western Wisconsin.

The automated message requests the call recipient to “Press 1” to reach our security department where they are to enter their 16 digit card number into their telephone key pad. Once this is entered, the scammers are then requesting the cards Personal Identification Number (PIN). The scam artists are attempting to obtain customer card numbers and PIN’s in order to gain access to customer accounts via ATM’s or Point of Sale Purchases. Again, please do not provide this information to anyone requesting this information via the telephone or by email.

If you received this phishing telephone call and did provide your credit/debit card account number and/or PIN to the caller or any other personal account information, please call your local WESTconsin office or (800) 924-0022.

The site functions as a fully operational WESTconsin office that is run by two student tellers and a staff supervisor. Students and staff gain immediate access to financial resources, products and services, and other information from the office. Operational hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during specified lunch periods.

This is the fourth year that WESTconsin Credit Union and the Menomonie Area School District have partnered on the district’s youth financial literacy and cooperative education programs. Menomonie is one of four high school offices that WESTconsin operates, the others located in Hudson, New Richmond and River Falls. For more information about these programs, visit ‘Student $avers’ at westconsincu.org.   

Pictured: WESTconsin Credit Union student tellers, Katelyn Lokrantz and Mitchell Sinz, pose outside the MHS office where they work.

Sutherland and wife reside in Menomonie along with their two children. “I first became acquainted with Menomonie 19 years ago when I came to UW-Stout,” Sutherland states. “After meeting my wife here, we briefly lived in the Twin Cities before deciding to move back to Menomonie to make it our home.” He is most passionate about being a REALTOR® in the local area because he believes in the community and wants to do his part to make it a great place to live and raise a family.

In his free time, Sutherland enjoys being involved with his wife, children and other family members. He can be reached at (715) 308-9463, or esutherland@westconsinrealty.com.

Sandy likes to recall one of the ways WESTconsin Credit Union became integral to Refuge Farms’ mission in the person of office manager Jamie McCulloch. “Jamie is the sort of person who gets to know the members who come to WESTconsin,” Sandy recalls. “One freezing winter day she came out of her office and asked, as she often does, ‘How are the horses doing in the cold? How are things on the farm?’

“I had something horrible weighing on my shoulders, so we went into her office and I said, ‘Jamie, there are three abandoned horses out there, an hour and a half away. If I don’t get to them in the next 24, maybe 48 hours, they’re going to freeze to death, and that is not a nice way to die. But I don’t have the resources. I’m fit to be tied—I don’t know what to do.”

Jamie told Sandy about a feature WESTconsin could add to her checking account that would allow Sandy to write herself a loan for emergencies just like the one she was currently facing.

“We set up that feature that very moment, and I drove an hour and a half to rescue those three horses.” Sandy feels certain that Jamie’s personal approach saved lives.

“WESTconsin Credit Union is more than just where we do business,” Sandy says. “They are a partner.”

“I have a plumbing business—we do residential, light commercial, septic tanks, soil testing; we do it all,” he explains. “Without WESTconsin Credit Union backing me, we wouldn’t have been able to start our business. WESTconsin has financed trucks and tools and equipment. We’ve always worked with Mark Falteisek. He’s a great guy—you need people on your side. Mark is on our side, and I trust him.”

Lewis and his wife, Heidi, have personal checking and savings, mortgage, business checking, and business loans with WESTconsin. And they opened a savings account for their son, Braxton, before he was born.

Since their television commercial was filmed, the Bjork’s have welcomed new baby Oliver to the family—and he has a WESTconsin account, too.

“My family didn’t have a lot of money, but my father taught me that saving is important,” she says, and many years of following that advice has now allowed Carol and her husband, John, to create their dream retirement home and indulge their love of travel and gardening.

“John and I have had some money in one of the ‘big box banks,’” she says. “We’re moving all our accounts to WESTconsin Credit Union. It’s more local; the people are personable; they know who you are. There’s a personal touch.”

“We just feel that WESTconsin is a better place to put our money.”

Lois’ father had a simple philosophy when it comes to finances: “Spend a little, but save a lot.” This is a credo she has passed along to her children and grandchildren, all WESTconsin members.

For many years Lois ran a daycare service from her home, and occasionally a few of the children in her care would accompany her to the Credit Union when she ran errands. She remembers fondly that there was a small set of steps available that the children could stand on so they could see over the teller counter.

“Everyone is so warm and pleasant,” she enthuses. “That’s the best part—the personal relationships.”

Joe had some entrepreneurial ideas for businesses he could start in order to bolster their income, but he needed to finance some equipment like a truck, skid steer and trailer in order to get underway.

“Banks won’t even talk to you unless you have pay stubs,” Pam says. “But they know us as people at WESTconsin Credit Union, and Jim, the branch manager in Hudson, sat down with Joe and worked out a way to finance everything.”

And, due to some hard work by the Deutschs and good advice and guidance from WESTconsin, Pam and Joe are once again on good financial footing with their solid credit rating intact.

“The biggest advantage of having all of our accounts at WESTconsin Credit Union—like a one-stop shop—is that they can look at where we’re at, at any given time and tell us if there’s something we could be doing differently,” Pam says. “We’ve learned new ways to adjust and rebudget and to live within our means, and it gives us a brighter outlook for the future.”

Greg has been to more than 36 WESTconsin Credit Union Annual Membership Meetings over the years, and has watched a number of things change in that period of time. WESTconsin has grown in membership, opened more offices, and offered more services since he started working here, but he’s probably most proud of what hasn’t changed.

“We’ve stayed true to our core philosophy,” Greg says. “No matter what else changes, our focus does not. The members and quality service to our members always come first.”