For a little insight, check out our graph below, which shows the number of accepted offers during the first 11 months of 2018. As the numbers below show, buyer activity is strongest in March, April, and May. Year in and year out the best time to sell is late winter and early spring. If you're planning to sell in 2019, this means the time to start preparing for your sale is right now. 

How to prepare for your 2019 listing

Here are 4 steps you can take right now for a successful listing in 2019. 

1) Contact your favorite Mad City Dream Homes agent. Your agent will help you select the right price point, customize your marketing plan, and identify low-cost cosmetic updates that will improve your home’s value.

2) Schedule your professional

The holiday weekend is here, and if you're still finishing your shopping, several Madison area businesses have great options to please everyone on your list!

For the foodie:

REAP Food Group is offering their annual "Taste of Wisconsin" store through today.  Visit their office on 306 East Wilson Street, and take advantage of all kinds of locally grown treats. Create your own gift basket, and take pride, knowing that you're supporting sustainable, local agriculture. The gift recipient will love the delicious assortment of foods like granola, pickles, beets, sunflower oil, popcorn and more! Pair it all with a Love Wisconsin coffee table book, and your gift is sure to please. 

REAP Food Group is a non-profit in Madison, dedicated to growing good

Thinking of buying a home or condo in the Madison area? We've got three online tools that will help you reach your goals. Learn how to research building permits, research schools, and discover local neighborhoods with these 3 handy tools. 

3 helpful tools for Madison area home buyers

City of Madison building permit database

Have you ever found yourself wondering whether or not a home improvement project was completed properly and up-to-code? The city of Madison has a database that allows you to view the permits pulled for any residential property in the city. When you have questions about an individual property, you can research its permit history by visiting this website:

https://elam.cityofmadison.com/CitizenAccess/

State of Wisconsin

The Dane County real estate market had cooled noticeably for 3 straight months but rebounded nicely in November with a 7% increase in single family home accepted offers. According to our MLS data below, accepted offers increased from 326 in November of 2017 to 349 in November of 2018. Last month's increase followed 3 straight months of year-over-year declines, where offers had decreased by 10%, 16%, and 8% in August, September, and October, respectively. 

In the City of Madison, November accepted offers increased by 14% after decreasing by 15%, 27% and 11% in the three previous months. There's no doubt the slow-down earlier this fall was due in part by the heavy rains and flooding that hit the city of Madison very hard. 

What will the market

Looking back on 2018, we're grateful for another year of growth at Mad City Dream Homes. Thank you to all of you who have referred us to your friends and family in the last year. Our families thank you! We genuinely appreciate the trust you place in us, and we promise we'll keep working to earn your trust in the years ahead.

Looking ahead to 2019, we're excited to share our team is growing in a number of positive ways. Here are a few of the exciting changes we're working on right now at Mad City Dream Homes. 

Positive changes at Mad City Dream Homes

1) We're growing with great people

We're very fortunate to have Maureen Moran, and Tracy Kapela join our team in 2018. Both, in their own way, are making us a better and more complete team.