Market conditions on the west and near west side of Madison are optimal for sellers right now. In fact several neighborhoods stand out as very hot seller's markets due to historically low levels of supply. For example, all 6 of these west-side neighborhoods have less than a month of housing inventory. 

Crestwood - Featuring Unique Properties and Unique Parks

Faircrest - Walk to Parks, Schools and the Neighborhood Pool

Hill Farms - Next Door to Hilldale Mall

Midvale Heights - Home of the Buffalo and Bike Path

Westmorland - Mid-Century Homes in a Convenient Setting

Wexford Village - Home to a Library, Restaurants, Parks and Pool

More Hot Neighborhoods on the West Side

Not far behind are Parkwood Hills, Sauk

In the spirit of the spring market, we're dedicating the next few weeks to feature key Madison area neighborhoods. Our first feature, Walnut Grove, is situated west of Gammon Road and south of Old Sauk Road.  Built in the late 1970s, the community offers a nice variety of two-story, single family homes.

Stroll through the neighborhood, and you'll notice right away that while the community is close to main Madison streets, it feels removed from the busy life. Paths and walkways link cul-de-sacs together, and connect neighbors to each other. Mature trees line the streets, and give you a sense of both history and community.

John Pinto, president of the Walnut Grove Homes Association, is proud to call the area home. "It is a desirable place to live with

There are some in the real estate industry who don't believe in holding an open house. However, our experiences with open houses have been very positive. In fact, they're an important part of our home-selling plan. Here are 3 reasons why holding an open house is a no-brainer in today's real estate market. 

Three Great Reasons to Hold an Open House

1) The mere act of scheduling an open house can cause some buyers to submit an immediate offer. A buyer's worst fear is losing out on their dream home to some other buyer who attends the upcoming open house. This "fear of loss" can motivate some buyers to write a very strong and immediate offer before the open house has a chance to take place. Pre-announcing an open house as part of a "coming soon listing"

Here's an example that demonstrates how competitive the Madison area real estate market has become for home and condo buyers...We recently listed a home for sale in a neighborhood with less than a month of supply. Seventy-five percent of the listings in this neighborhood were under contract and scheduled to close soon. This home was also positioned in a very popular price point. Everything we knew about this listing suggested the response to this home would be very strong. 

As it turned out this property had 30 private showings in 4 days as well as another 30 parties who attended the Sunday open house. By the end of the fourth day six offers were on the table.

Every offer was strong

• Six of six offers were for above the full list price. The

Last year was an eventful year for our team and clients. It was our first full year at our new brokerage, RE/MAX Preferred, where we couldn’t be happier. Thank you Pam and Dan for making RE/MAX a great place to practice real estate! You've gone out of your way to support us through a year of change. 

2016 was a year of improvement, including these 3 big changes:

• Joe Molloy joined our team as our resident MacGyver. For the past year he’s been providing awesome support for our team and clients. Thank you Joe for all you do!
• Shelley Lazzareschi joined us as our newest agent. If you’ve had the pleasure of working with Shelley, you know first-hand she’s a real pro.
• We launched our mobile app, so you can customize your property searches and

We've covered how strong coming soon marketing can create pent up demand for your listing and have buyers lined up at your door when you're ready for showings to begin. So how do you leverage all of this interest to generate the best possible offer? 

When buyer interest is high, many of our clients choose to allow several days to a week of showings before responding to any offers. This strategy offers sellers a few key advantages. 

First, it creates the expectation that multiple offers are likely, and that the winning offer will need to be a very strong one. Therefore, buyers will need to write a nice a clean offer and for a very high price if they hope to have their offer accepted. 

Second, it allows time for all interested parties to schedule

Have you heard the news? Expedia.com released a list of the nation's "Super Cool" cities. In their final list of 21, Madison made #2. But if you look at their point structure, Madison tied Austin, TX, for #1. It's not clear how they made their final decision on the list. We know we're the "coolest." 

That said, Expedia noticed what locals already know: Madison has the best assortment of restaurants, farmer's markets, social events and quality of life. The rating looked at the number of restaurants per 10,000 residents. Madison easily passed this standard, with a broad assortment of unique options and fabulous chefs. Graze, on the Capitol Square, is even named in Expedia's review as a favorite. Of course, the Dane County Farmer's Market, along with the

We've officially entered the best time of the year for selling a home in the greater Madison area. Year in and year out, the months of March, April and May have more accepted offers than any other months throughout the year. Check out the graph below, which shows the number of accepted by month for the 2016 calendar year. 

Benefits of a Spring Listing

As a general rule the Spring market is the best market for selling a home in the Madison area. Your property will get more views on the web, more showings, and more competing offers when you list your home in the late Winter or early Spring. This is the time of year when your odds for a bidding war are the greatest. 

Of course the market can vary a lot by location and price point. Reach out to

A well-conceived Facebook ad can drive a ton of traffic to your listing. For example, we recently placed a Facebook ad for our newest listing in Parkwood Hills. The ad produced these results:

• 4,276 Facebook feed impressions
• 591 photo clicks
• 174 clicks to view the listing and open house ad on our website

We used the ad as part of our "coming soon" marketing to drive buyers to our upcoming open house. Over 50 parties attended the open, and less than 2 days later three great offers were on the table.

This Facebook ad drove some great traffic to our listing. Here are a few tips for creating your own Facebook ad for your upcoming sale. 

5 Tips for Using Facebook to Attract Buyers to your Listing

1) Use the ad as part of a coming soon

Properly executed a "coming soon" listing offers several big advantages over a traditional real estate listing. Below are three reasons why you and your agent should consider a coming soon listing as you prepare for your upcoming sale. Your listing will get more exposure, more showings, and more offers when you add a coming soon listing to your marketing plan. 

3 Advantages of a Coming Soon Listing

1) A coming soon listing maximizes your home's exposure to the market by advertising your property well before it's ready for showings. Your listing can be placed on the MLS, Zillow, and classified ad websites. Visually-appealing ads on Instagram and Facebook can be very effective. A yard sign and post cards can also be used to promote your listing during