Did you know many of our clients this year are attracting multiple offers to their sale without any buyers setting foot in their property? Are you wondering how to accomplish this for your own sale? Here are a few helpful tips based on our work in this year's COVID-19 market.

First, get to know your market and determine the best price for your home. 

We'll start off by discussing current market conditions and a smart pricing strategy for your listing. Depending on your price point and location, listings may be scarce. If you choose your list price wisely, you'll be able to leverage that scarcity and attract competing offers from a group of highly motivated buyers. 

Next, start working on your staging. 

We'll connect you with our home

We're two months into the COVID-19 pandemic now, and we have some important trends we'd like to share with anyone who's thinking of buying or selling in the Madison area. Buyers and sellers who understand these trends will be in a position to make smart decisions and make the most of this year's unique market. 

Dane County single family home trends for April and early May, 2020

Here are the latest trends in the single family home market, with fresh data from the months of April and May. 

Fewer owners are listing their home for sale. 

Single family home listings were in short supply before the pandemic began, and we expect this to be the trend for the foreseeable future. As you can see from the graph below, many home owners postponed their

If you're like most prospective sellers, you don't know where to begin with the home-selling process during the COVID-19 market. It's a confusing time for sure, but you can eliminate a lot of confusion by consulting with a professional and asking the right questions early on in the planning process. When you address the right questions, your next steps will become clear, and your overall plan for selling your home will begin to take shape. 

We recommend answering these 2 key questions as you plan for your sale:

Question #1: Will you be moving out of your home before your showings begin?

Depending on your situation, you may have the opportunity to move into your next setting before any showings begin. Most sellers prefer this approach (if it

Virtual tours have quickly become an indispensable marketing tool for sellers in our new era of social distancing. As we adjust to a new market, we're learning many buyers are comfortable using virtual tours as a substitute for the traditional walk-through. They're using virtual tours to learn about the features, flow, and condition of a property. And in many cases buyers are writing an offer without ever setting foot in the home.

4 types of virtual tours

There are several types of virtual tours, each with its own advantages. Here are 4 different technologies which we're making available to all of our home and condo selling clients right now. 

Full-motion video tours

Starting at the front door, a full-motion video tour takes buyers through

When you think of closing on your home, you might envision yourself signing paperwork around a big conference table, followed by getting the keys to your new home. Just like most parts of the real estate buying and selling process, the closing process has been adjusted to keep you safe. Read below for the many options Homestead Title is giving our clients for closings. They also have shared tips for buyers and sellers who will be closing soon.

A new venue for closing - your car!

Some title companies have made minor adjustments to the closing process by offering clean pens, scrubbed tables, more distance between parties, and limiting the number of people attending closings. Homestead Title has gone a step further to protect clients, offering

Many parts of the real estate process can be done virtually, including staging. Staging is an important part of the home selling process. A staged home tends to have better listing photos, which attracts more buyers and helps it sell faster. For a while now, a home's first showing has been on the internet. But in this unique time of social distancing, listing photos and a virtual tour may be the only ways a buyer can see your home before writing an offer. It's more important than ever to showcase your home through great staging, photos, and a virtual tour.

Debbie Lea of Showcase Home Stagers has been helping clients virtually for years, so staging a home without ever stepping inside isn’t a new challenge for her. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic,

Real estate practices and consumer expectations have shifted dramatically over the last few weeks, and we're learning almost every aspect of the buying and selling process can be done virtually. The real estate market is changing for sure, but buyers are still buying, and sellers are still selling. Many of our clients are still achieving all of their dreams and goals; they're just going about the process in a whole new way. 

Do you have questions about buying or selling during these turbulent times?

Whether you need to buy or sell right now, or you just want to start planning for the future, we can help you move forward with your goals as we practice social distancing. You're likely to have a lot of questions, so please reach out to us and

These are challenging times, and our hearts go out to everyone who has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. To all of our past clients, please know we're here for you. We'll be checking in with you to see how you're doing, and we encourage you to reach out to us whenever you need someone to talk to. We'd love to hear from you. 

We also want you to know we're working very hard right now to assist all of our clients who need to sell their home, as we incorporate social distancing into the home-selling process. Here are a few examples from the last week that show how we're working creatively and getting our listings under contract in our new era of social distancing.  

Seller success stories during coronavirus/COVID-19

Our sellers on the

In early 2019 our real estate team made one of the smartest decisions we've ever made: We hired Tracy Kapela as a photographer and visual media specialist for our team. Then we set her loose and let her go to work. Her work over the last year has exceeded all of our expectations. Among her many contributions, she's taken our marketing materials for our home-sellers to the next level, in a way that makes our sellers feel proud of their listing. 

In early 2020, Tracy has upped her game by re-designing our listing photo process. First, by helping us select and invest in the latest, state-of-the-art equipment. And then by implementing a whole new photography and photo editing system. The results have been amazing. Here are just a few examples of Tracy's

Real estate practices are evolving quickly as we all adjust to a world with coronavirus/COVID-19. One new practice that is coming soon is the digital closing. In a digital closing, the parties to a transaction sign their paperwork via e-signature from the comfort and safety of home. To learn more about how a digital closing works for buyers and sellers, please check out this article from the Homestead Title real estate blog. Thank you Peter Zarov for being a leader in the real estate field and for helping to spread the word about this important development.