Episode 53 – How Strong Schools Impact Real Estate Values
Hosted by John Gscheidmeier with guest Dr. Ron Russ
Did you know that great schools can directly increase property values? Homebuyers and parents prioritize access to top-performing school districts, often paying a premium for homes in those areas. But what exactly makes a school district stand out, and how does it affect the housing market?
In this episode, John Gscheidmeier sits down with Dr. Ron Russ, Superintendent of the Merton Community School District, to discuss the powerful connection between education quality, community development, and real estate values.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Academic Excellence & Rankings – How Merton Community Schools compare to 400+ districts across Wisconsin ✅ Fiscal Responsibility – How the district outperforms expectations despite lower per-student spending than the state and county average ✅ Real Estate Impact – Why homebuyers seek out great schools and how this drives up property values ✅ Community Growth – How thriving schools contribute to stronger, more desirable neighborhoods
Whether you're a homebuyer, seller, or real estate professional, understanding how schools influence home values can give you an edge in the market. Don't miss this insightful discussion!
Episode 53 – How Strong Schools Impact Real Estate Values
Hosted by John Gscheidmeier with guest Dr. Ron Russ
Did you know that great schools can directly increase property values? Homebuyers and parents prioritize access to top-performing school districts, often paying a premium for homes in those areas. But what exactly makes a school district stand out, and how does it affect the housing market?
In this episode, John Gscheidmeier sits down with Dr. Ron Russ, Superintendent of the Merton Community School District, to discuss the powerful connection between education quality, community development, and real estate values.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Academic Excellence & Rankings – How Merton Community Schools compare to 400+ districts across Wisconsin ✅ Fiscal Responsibility – How the district outperforms expectations despite lower per-student spending than the state and county average ✅ Real Estate Impact – Why homebuyers seek out great schools and how this drives up property values ✅ Community Growth – How thriving schools contribute to stronger, more desirable neighborhoods
Whether you're a homebuyer, seller, or real estate professional, understanding how schools influence home values can give you an edge in the market. Don't miss this insightful discussion!
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John Gscheidmeier:
This is John Gscheidmeier of Wisconsin Real Estate Today, your real estate expert. This podcast is designed to equipping people with the teaching and tools they need to succeed in real estate. I hope you enjoy this episode and subscribe for more real estate content. Hi, everybody. John Hill with another episode of Wisconsin Real Estate Today.
John Gscheidmeier:
Thanks for joining us. As we near the end of 2024, you know, last podcast last week, we talked about really what the year in review, what had happened in 2024. And then coming in a week or so, we'll have an outlook to 2025. But today, and I mentioned this as well, I think, in a previous podcast, I'm joined by Doctor Ron Russ with the, Martin Community School District, a district that's near and dear to my heart because my kids go here. But some great news, that came out recently from the schools and from doctor Russ kind of, prompted this idea to talk today about real estate and schools and how they work hand in hand.
John Gscheidmeier:
So Doctor Russ, thank you for joining me today.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Thanks John. Thanks for having me. So excited to be here.
John Gscheidmeier:
Yeah. And, so let's start with your role. How long you've been here? Maybe a little bio of the school, a little demographics of where we are. We do have listeners from across the state, but also, the country.
John Gscheidmeier:
We're in Waukesha County, just West and Northwest of Milwaukee by about thirty minutes or so. Kind of more of a rural community, I would say, of Martin. Not much of a downtown there. We would do a post office. Yep.
John Gscheidmeier:
A couple bars that have gone back and forth in names actually. So talk about you and, the district.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Sure. So, again, I've been with the district for fourteen years now, and I've been our superintendent, and also a community member. I've lived in our Merton community for the last twenty one years. So, all three of my children have come through the school district, and, we are really blessed out here in the Lake Country area to continue to, not only educate at a very high level, but really ultimately welcome families in. And we're a growing community that, is continuing to build and continuing to be very welcoming.
Dr. Ron Russ:
It's a great place to raise a family. So for the Merton Community School District, we have about 900 students and about a 20 employees. We're a k through eight built or a k through eight district with two buildings, Merton Primary School and Merton Intermediate. So what we do is is again, we build the foundation and then we hand them off to Arrowhead High School. Again, another very high quality, high performing school district, over there in Heartland, Wisconsin, where they handle the nine through 12 aspect of it too as well.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So, what we do is, again, ultimately really try to build that strong foundation for literacy and mathematics, but ultimately also giving them a huge well rounded academic and career planning program so that they can really decide what it is that they want to pursue, what they wanna do ahead of high school, and even post high school is the things that we talk about our kids. Here at the Merton Community School District, we are home to, basically a very large, what we would call, vocational education program. At our Merton Intermediate School, we've got a full fledged wood shop. We've got a family consumer ed. We do baking, home economics, textiles, huge art and music programs.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So what we're really excited about is is our academic achievement continues to grow, but the opportunities for our kids here are really endless as they think about that post secondary option.
John Gscheidmeier:
So a couple years ago when my oldest went here, I bugged you even before they started in summer. For listeners know I was in I I was in law enforcement for many years but I was also a school resource officer so school security and just the school operations were really important to me. You were very gracious by the way in taking me on a tour of not only the primary school but the intermediate school and I love the workshop personally. Yeah. You know I frame, I do some stuff.
John Gscheidmeier:
Used to do woodworking back in my younger 20s. But, you guys have a really good reputation and I'll ask you some questions along the way but talk about the DPI, the Department of Public Instruction process because from a real estate standpoint, especially with people that are moving here from, let's say, another state, another area of the state, I know I have got, three or four buyers coming in from as far away as Las Vegas and Arizona. And, you know, I always ask about children. How old are your children? Are schools, of of primary concern?
John Gscheidmeier:
Some people will send them to private schools. Some people, most people don't. So we always talk about areas. And then we ask about, are there any particular needs of your children school wise? Because different districts have kind of a reputation for maybe special needs, and special resources available.
John Gscheidmeier:
But from a general perspective, DPI every two years goes through this process and you guys get grades and you can brag about this one. So brag away, how what's the experience like? What all goes into it? I know before we went on onto the podcast here, we were talking a little bit about what goes into it. You said there's a lot.
John Gscheidmeier:
Yeah. But a quick summary on that and then reveal your score and your ranking.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Sure. Sure. So I think the first question though, John, is really important about when when people call us for information or for a tour, the first thing that they say is, hey. I have your school or your school district narrowed down based on what I see on our website. Either it's our district website or they go and do their research on how is the school performing.
Dr. Ron Russ:
And before, because when you take a look at our report card, you won't see our wood shop, our face room, our our art, our all of the opportunities. They see the academic component of it. So it's super important and particularly here out out in the Lake Country area where we have wonderful schools. You're you're surrounded by great great school districts that if you can have a little bit of an edge on that report card, it certainly does help. So one of the pieces that we do and actually, John, it's DPI does give us our grades yearly.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So we get this Oh,
John Gscheidmeier:
they do. Yep. Every year we get one.
Dr. Ron Russ:
And, you know, three years ago, again, there's there's a ranking that comes out. There's significantly exceeds and they give you a percentage out of a hundred just like a school grade would. Right? Teacher looks at your math grade and says, oh, you got a 90 out of a hundred. So this past year, DPI gave us a 93 and a 93.5 out of a hundred.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Our highest score ever that we've received and, we were fortunate enough this past year to be ranked fourth out of four twenty two school districts. So we're super proud. We've been pushing that out. But what we're most proud about, John, is is every year we continue to improve. And that's part of the report card is is, you know, academically, we do really, really well.
Dr. Ron Russ:
We get a really high score there. But what we're most proud about is that growth those growth indicators that are on the report card that signify how are we doing with each and every student academically in the area of literacy and mathematics. So that's truly where we feel that we do, you know, have really spent significant investment with our teachers and our curriculums and, our resources, really working with family families. And, I gotta give kudos to Maria Kucharski, who's our curriculum director who oversees this this aspect of it. But when we start to look at that report card, there's the academic grade.
Dr. Ron Russ:
How do your kids do on the state test? Right? We do very, very well. And that's one aspect of it. But then they really take a look at, are you growing kids?
Dr. Ron Russ:
And that's really the difference between what we would see as a school that is very distinguished and a school that just exceeds expectations. So that's what we're really excited about in at the Merton Community School District. And how do we know that? Well, our report card grades continue to go up. But when we take a look at our state rankings, three years ago, we were tenth.
Dr. Ron Russ:
A year ago, we were eighth. And now this year, we were fourth.
John Gscheidmeier:
Oh, wow.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So we just continue to really try to that incremental growth as we move forward.
John Gscheidmeier:
Well and that's amazing. I mean, kudos to you guys. And from what I know and what I've seen just as a parent, your culture here is great, you know, and and the kids love it. I mean, some days they don't love it. Do I have to go to school today?
John Gscheidmeier:
Yes, you do. I have a four and a seven year old, so, you know, they just and and now having both here, which is pretty cool. But I think what I I think what you're talking about, because I have your scores up in front. And by the way, all of these are available for those of you who are, who are listening. If you just Google the Department of Public Instruction in Wisconsin, and and I would imagine almost every state has this.
John Gscheidmeier:
But, at least here in Wisconsin, you get a you get a report card. And to your point, it shows an overview, grades five to eight, enrollment three sixty two, which, you know, may fluctuate. Percentage of open enrollment, 16%. That seems high to me by the way.
Dr. Ron Russ:
It's that's pretty typical. Well, it and again we because usually we're around
John Gscheidmeier:
like 20% I thought.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Again each school district is a little bit different and, again it's something that is a variable every year for us.
John Gscheidmeier:
Yep. The growth numbers, though, maybe this is what you're referring to, like in English language arts, 81.2 compared to 66% for the rest of the state. And then mathematics, one of my daughter's favorite subjects, 88.8 compared to 66.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Yeah.
John Gscheidmeier:
That those are that's
Dr. Ron Russ:
Yeah. We're that's It's a good something that we've really put an emphasis on and it's great to see as any organization, that if you do put an emphasis on it, you you dig into the data, you do a ton of work, professional development, resources. We're actually seeing a lot of lot of results out of that.
John Gscheidmeier:
So you've been here a while, like you said, and unique to Merton is you get them in fifth grade. In eighth grade, they move to the next level, right, which is a different school altogether. Mhmm. So you don't you have you got them for, you know, a fair amount of I should say
Dr. Ron Russ:
we we get them when they're four. We get them when they're
John Gscheidmeier:
four.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So, and then we send them off, because you're looking at Merton Intermediate.
John Gscheidmeier:
I am, now that you say that.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So, but no, we get them when they're four.
John Gscheidmeier:
Go back to the right one.
Dr. Ron Russ:
And, we get, and we send them off when they're 14. So we've got them here for about ten years.
John Gscheidmeier:
So, you're right. Okay. So ninety three point five, and then I, the numbers are a little bit different, but pretty much the same.
Dr. Ron Russ:
I would just
John Gscheidmeier:
call them, call them equal. Do you brag among other superintendents, you know, when you, when you achieve these scores? We we do. We have superintendent get togethers all the time and you do this right now.
Dr. Ron Russ:
We do. And and ultimately, again, obviously, like, our our the Arrowhead feeder schools are very, very competitive. They really, really are. And, because we're all fighting for the same kids. Right?
Dr. Ron Russ:
Because if someone narrows in on, I wanna send my child to Arrowhead, right? Because of either their reputation for the the arts, athletics, academics, then they'd have to choose which feeder school they want to go to. So, that's where we do most of our benchmarking. So when we take a look at our benchmarks, against the other seven feeder schools, because there's seven K through eight school districts that feed into Arrowhead High School. So that'd be Richmond, Swallow, Stonebank, Heartland Lakeside, Lake Country and North Lake.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So we all compete pretty much for the same kids. I mean, even from an open enrollment standpoint, there's open enrollment amongst what we call our Arrowhead Feeder Schools. So this report card does matter. It really, really does. When people decide where do I want to learn and live and grow, they take a look at the report card and that's what gets them into the school district.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So that's when, like, even last night, I I took a young family around that had an incoming or a fifth grader and they were like, hey, where do I wanna send my child to school here? Showed them the place and they're like, where do we sign up? So it it was just it was just great. But again, you need to have a strong report card to even say, hey, which feeder school do I really want to go to from that aspect? So when we think about that, because then Arrowhead, when you take a look at it, like for instance, when you compare us to other K-twelve feeder schools, for mathematics, we were the top or I'm sorry, K-twelve schools, non Arrowhead, the Cedarburgs, the Brookfields, the Pewaukee, the Oconomowalks, the Kettamarans.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Our math scores on our forward, which is grades three through eight, were the highest of any K 12 school district in our area. And we were second in literacy. Cedarburg got us. So but we're we're gonna be after them. So, Merton Community School District outperforms the other K 12 school districts.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So, when we think about real estate, when people come in and say, Ron, tell me a little bit about your school because they have a lot of choices out here, right? Homes are for sale, all different areas. We sit down and we show them, we show our community to say, Hey, this is how we compare. We feel that we're doing some things really, really well here. And then when we take a look at against the other feeder schools, you know, we rank second mathematics, third in ELA, that it matters.
Dr. Ron Russ:
And they just say, hey, I wanna see your school. And once we get them in here, then we start to show them the wood shop, the face room, the art room, our physical education weight room, which not many middle schools have, and just our our overall facilities. They're like, wow. And yet we're still achieving at a very high level too. So from a real estate aspect, we showcase all of this to attract families because we're a business driven by number of students.
Dr. Ron Russ:
More students we have, the more our our revenue formulas, you know, go up and, we're able to continue to do great things for kids.
John Gscheidmeier:
Well, and that's obvious that you are, we, we could, I mean, there's so many topics that we could do with real estate related to this, but it does matter to your point that if I am someone who is in real estate and showing people homes in different areas, I have to be cognizant of the fact that they might have needs, not just special needs, you know, a student with special needs. I I I just meant just assessing people in general. What's important to you? What's important in a school district? And the fact that you guys because I don't know if I grew up if people ever did this.
John Gscheidmeier:
Did they ever go and interview schools back kind of in the day?
Dr. Ron Russ:
I I think they did. I mean, when I before I moved out here, my wife and I, we bought a home in Waukesha. And, we both were educators. We were teaching at Pewaukee at the time. And, we were like, where do we wanna do our work?
Dr. Ron Russ:
Right? Where do we wanna live? What do we wanna do? At the time I had administrative aspirations, so I was like, okay, we need to be somewhere centrally located. And, we loved our Waukesha time, but we really loved the Lake Country area from our teaching days out in Pewaukee.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So, we did the tour of schools. So we toured. Mike Budish, I remember. Our primary school principal here who retired a few years ago, dear friend of mine, he took us around And we went to Richmond. We went to Swallow.
Dr. Ron Russ:
I went to Pewaukee. You know, we did the tour, and we just wanted to hear the great things that were happening. What do you do for kids? How do you support families? And, ultimately, what's the end result?
Dr. Ron Russ:
Because like you said before, John, I'm gonna give I'm gonna give you my four year old. What is the future outlook to my 14 year old? Because we wanted to make one move and that was important to us just to say, hey. This is where we're gonna build our family. And, so yes.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So touring is still alive. I think it was happening, you know, twenty five years ago when we did our tour too. So, and, you know, it's interesting because you ask if as a superintendent, do we, you know, as do we do we brag about this and things like that. We're collaborative, but ultimately, we're all in the same business, which is we want to attract families. We want to have great great real estate to be able to attract families.
Dr. Ron Russ:
And, each community is a little bit different with who they can attract to based on, you know, real estate prices and things.
John Gscheidmeier:
And I do wanna go back and I wanna use Waukesha as a as a speaking example about just the complexities of school districts even within one community. And of course, Waukesha is the biggest the biggest, city in Waukesha County, the county seat as well. But before we go to that, I just wanted to clarify, there you're in competition with the other districts, but there are also standards that you guys have established because everybody does feed into Arrowhead High School. So you're not doing you're not on an island. You guys are all working together as far as standards and what's expected.
John Gscheidmeier:
Like you said, from four to 14, when they hit 14 and now they're going to Arrowhead, there's gotta be some type of standards there that when Arrowhead gets them, they've you guys have met the expectations.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Right. Yeah. Well, the the state of Wisconsin outlines all of the academic standards. So, and that's what we're assessed on ultimately. So, the state of Wisconsin says mathematically in each one of your grades, you should be teaching this.
Dr. Ron Russ:
And this is how you should they don't tell you how to teach it. They just say this is what you should teach. Fractions are taught beginning in third grade, you know, but but mastered by fifth grade, for instance. That's gonna be consistent where wherever you go, or it should be on on behalf of children. So that way there is a consistency.
Dr. Ron Russ:
And again, ultimately here in the Arrowhead School District, again, underneath the Arrow umbrella, it does get difficult because if you've got seven different kingdoms, plus some private schools, and plus all the other open enrollment that happens, there should be a common standard. And our goal is to perform and to give Arrowhead High School the very best product that can possibly be had. And, when you take a look at the entire Arrowhead feeder system, we are giving them the best product. When I say the best product, state scores, report card, forward scores, we give them a heck of a product that, we're really, really proud of out here in the Arrowhead community.
John Gscheidmeier:
Well, and you have to have a wait room here because Arrowhead is known for their We do
Dr. Ron Russ:
we've got a great wait room and we've got a lot of Phy Ed electives. That's for sure.
John Gscheidmeier:
So I by the way, I noticed on the DPI site a few years ago, it seems like they added private schools or at least there's some substance to it now. Right? So with private schools, I know, like, I went to Catholic Memorial and now there's a report card in there. Is there a major difference though as far as the reporting standards? Because some of these scores are really different.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Yeah. I'm not I'm not really sure. I can't speak to that, John, because if you do get a report card though, you should be held similar to the, the accountability of the, public schools that are near you. I can't really speak to that. But, again, if they're gonna go through the process, you know, if Memorial has a a a score a high school score.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Right? Because they just would be focusing on nine twelve, something that we wouldn't compare ourselves to. But again, that means they would take the state assessments, you know, the the ACTs and things like that, that would kind of wind everything together and give them those growth scores and those achievement scores too as well.
John Gscheidmeier:
So let's talk about Waukesha just as an example because I think it's a great one in that, And I shared with you before we started recording this that I, many years ago sold the Waukesha, the outgoing Waukesha, school board president's, home. And and when we talk about Waukesha, it's a great example of how complex this can be. Because if you live in the city of Waukesha as an example, you don't have one school district. You don't have two. You don't have three.
John Gscheidmeier:
Just like Pewaukee, Pewaukee has numerous school districts. We can do another episode on levy and taxes and, you know, how that all gets into, which I would love to do, by the way. But it can be complicated because, like, in Waukesha, you have so many different schools with different demographics, with different socioeconomic, you know, components to it. But like in Pewaukee as an example or Waukesha, you've got different school districts. Kids in Waukesha can go to Pewaukee.
John Gscheidmeier:
Kids in Waukesha can go to wherever like Pewaukee has Kettle Moraine, Sussex, Waukesha. I I know I'm missing one or two. Mhmm. Probably. But as a parent, what advice would you have for people that are looking at a school district?
John Gscheidmeier:
And we mentioned tours already. We we we talked about DPI sites, especially for somebody that might be listening to this, ready to move to a different school district for whatever reason, maybe moving out of one county to the other, whatever it may be. Or, you know, we're a young couple now living on the East Side in a condo. We've lived that life, but now we're ready to start a family. When you're assessing schools, give us some tips, give some parents some tips.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Sure. The first thing I would say is tours are super important. Again, once you kind of hone in on where it is that you want to live, what you can afford to live, and then kind of draw a circle around that or pick out those areas and then really start to ask the questions that I would ask if I was a new family right now, having again, having been in education for over twenty five years and given multiple tours. The first thing that I would ask is is I can I see your achievement, but what else do you do for children? Questions around about what is how do you grow children?
Dr. Ron Russ:
What is your multilevel system of support system, which is the MLSS system, to make sure that each and every child is their needs are being met. And again, that's kind of again, MLSS. And I also would talk about again, through that process process is where you start talking about those special needs. Okay? Is my child gifted?
Dr. Ron Russ:
Okay. How do you identify gifted learners? What is your process? Is it an equitable process? When I say about equitable, is is is it is is there a formal process that you look to identify children?
Dr. Ron Russ:
Or does it get do you wait until, you know, parent x or staff member y says something to you? So here in the Merton Community School District, we do a COGAT at the end of grade two. So every child we assess for academic giftedness. So again, I would talk about the giftedness, but the other piece too is is if what happens if one of your children have special needs? What is their special education program?
Dr. Ron Russ:
What does it look like? What is your philosophy? Because some families want a ton of inclusion to say, hey, I just want my child to be included. Some families are like, no, I want my child to be ready for the workforce. If in fact, that might be their career path given the gifts that they have, as a child and going through the special education progress.
Dr. Ron Russ:
So what I would I'd recommend to say, hey, achievement's easy. You can find that on the paper. What else do you do for children? And that's really where, it's the special education programming. It's the MLSS.
Dr. Ron Russ:
What is your intervention? What happens if my child has reading struggle? Mathematics struggles? And on the same end, what happens if they're accelerating? What does that look like?
Dr. Ron Russ:
And then ultimately it's like, Hey, what do you do for kids? What are your electives? You know, like, and that's why I kind of highlighted before in Merton, we've got a full fledged wood shop. Walked into a class, we're soldering circuits. We've got full fledged computer programming going on.
Dr. Ron Russ:
We've got robotics. Shoot, I was in there and it was, there was a competition around baking. Who, who had, who made the best cake, I think for the day? You know, we we've got throwing, we're throwing pottery. We've got ceramics.
Dr. Ron Russ:
We've got jewelry making. What else do you have? What's the arts program? What does that look like for band? If you have a band program, what are the lesson structures?
Dr. Ron Russ:
Or is it expected for a family to go out and pay for their own lessons? So, just a lot of things again that the report card will get you in the door, but then starting to ask, what are you gonna do for my child? Or what are you gonna do for a child who is on a range of abilities? Because that's really where you wanna make your your your decision around what's best for your family. Because again, some families may not think that Merton is the best for them.
Dr. Ron Russ:
That's fine. Then we just hope that they find a school district that really fits their needs.
John Gscheidmeier:
Well, and I say the same thing when I'm talking to agents who are either brand new or maybe looking at different companies. Every company and just as any school has different offerings and you've got to find the best fit for you. And the only reason, or the only way that you do that is by doing the legwork, right? Doing your research. I love the fact.
John Gscheidmeier:
And, and while you were talking, I just thought, boy, he's got a tougher job than I thought because you have three sixty some kids roughly. We're
Dr. Ron Russ:
about 900. Oh, three sixty some at Merton.
John Gscheidmeier:
Oh, you're right. I'm sorry. We got 900. There is nine zero nine. It's about 900.
John Gscheidmeier:
So but you have but you're exposing these kids to so many different things. Yeah. And so many different potential avenues. Obviously, everyone's brought up differently. Everybody's different as human beings and their thought process and their abilities and their skills.
John Gscheidmeier:
But the fact that they get to to to see it all I mean, mean, I remember in middle school, you know, we had a we had a we had a workshop. We had a we had a woodshop, back in I went to Horning Middle School in Waukesha, and I love those things. I love building stuff with metal. I didn't do it. I went into law enforcement and then teaching and firefighter for a while.
John Gscheidmeier:
Now I'm in real estate. But I think everything that they're exposed to at least gets them to understand these are some potential avenues in life that I can go down. Right. And then they almost always naturally gravitate toward those. But, I I love it.
John Gscheidmeier:
I think you guys are doing an awesome job here. I'm so happy that you took the time to, to to spend a couple minutes and and brag about your about your school. Our school, I have to say our. Any last words when it comes to real estate related to schools or anything that you could think of or anything you wanted to pass on before we close?
Dr. Ron Russ:
No. I just appreciate the opportunity to, you know, talk a little bit more about our school district. But I think it's just when when peep the most important question I think you asked, John, was the last one. What should families consider when looking to relocate for whatever reason? It's hard work.
Dr. Ron Russ:
And don't take it for granted. It is the biggest decision that you will make as a family is where you send your children to school. And, we're blessed out here in Southeast Wisconsin. You know, wherever you go in Southeast Wisconsin, we're blessed. And, but again, that that decision and that's what we really pound home when we tour and people are like, hey.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Where do I wanna build? Or where do I wanna move? You need to make that decision what's best for your family because every family is unique, and, intricate. And it's but but again, it's the best investment that you are gonna make in your children is where they have that strong foundation previously before heading out to to whatever it is after their post secondary option.
John Gscheidmeier:
Well, and that's great advice. On my end, you need to also have a real estate agent that understands, who stands, who has experience. And I, you, I'm sure there's multiple real estate agents you've met or know over the years from our area. A lot of, I think in our, in our area, we have a very strong real estate presence of experience. Top producers, by top producers, I mean people who sell a lot.
John Gscheidmeier:
We were joking around in the office yesterday that it's come down to about 10% of us doing 90% of the sales. We stick to our areas that we know but we also know how to ask the right questions and get in touch with people like you to be able to say, let me introduce you to Doctor Ron Russ over there at Merton. Check that out. I've, I think it's a great fit for you guys but you'll have to go down that path with them or whoever else. Congrats.
John Gscheidmeier:
Four out of 422. I messed up some of the school numbers there. You corrected them. That's good. We always wanna make sure we get that right.
John Gscheidmeier:
But what an amazing job you've done. And and I've told you this before when I first met you, I was very impressed. And I love what you do for not only my kids, but everybody else. And I appreciate your time today.
Dr. Ron Russ:
Thanks, John. I appreciate it.
John Gscheidmeier:
Alright. That's all we have for now. Thanks for joining us. We've got a lot of really cool episodes coming up, so stay tuned. And as always, if you like what you hear, please pass the word along, along.
John Gscheidmeier:
Like what you do, give us a review. And as always, if there's things you wanna hear or topics we want us to cover, don't be afraid to let us know. Take care, everybody. This episode of Wisconsin Real Estate Today has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and let others know if you found this content useful.