At the heart of any real estate transaction lies a fundamental question: can you trust the professional guiding your most significant investment?

When it's time to hire a realtor, you want to know that your realtor is reliable, dependable, and skilled in their craft. You want to feel that they care, that they are personally invested in helping you reach your goals. In your heart of hearts, you want to know that you can trust your realtor, without any reservations.

At Mad City Dream Homes, we're always striving to serve you with personalized and professional care. In the end, we want you to feel that you not only got your money's worth, but that you received far more than you paid for. We want you to be able to look back on your experience and feel

At Mad City Dream Homes, we love the creative process that goes into marketing a luxury home. One example of this is a customized home book, which we create to share the many wonderful aspects of the home, the setting, and the larger neighborhood. We place bound copies of the book at the home, and make PDF copies available to all buyers online. Click here for our most recent example. 

What's special about your home, your lot, and your surrounding neighborhood? Reach out to us, and let's get creative with your marketing. We would love to collaborate with you and create a marketing presentation that makes you proud of your listing. 

Buying and selling a home is a big deal. If your realtor isn't fully present with your needs, your plan, your negotiation, and their responsibilities you could miss out on your dream home. You could pay much more than you need to pay. You could end up buying a lemon. Or you could sell for much less than what the market is willing to offer. 

Remember, when you're interviewing realtors to represent you during your purchase or your sale, each candidate will show you through their words and their actions how present they are with you and your goals. Pay attention to these clues that you pick up on during the interview process. These clues and your instincts will help you hire the right person. 

The Wisconsin Focus on Energy (FOE) has a free and easy to use online tool that you can use to identify energy savings opportunities within your home. I recently completed the online assessment myself and learned that our family can save over $500 annually by completing a few relatively simple insulation and air sealing projects.  

FOE provides a list of recommended contractors who are qualified to do the work, as well as information on incentive programs that offer substantial rebates. 

Rising costs are a concern for must of us. By taking this online assessment, we can take positive steps right now to lower our monthly budget, conserve energy, and reduce our carbon footprint. I encourage you to check it out. 

You don't need an open house to sell your home, but holding an open house can be beneficial to your sale in three important ways. For starters, advertising an open house can bring more attention and momentum to your listing when your home first hits the market. Holding an open house also makes viewing your home easier for buyers who might struggle to schedule a private showing during the work week. 

And one surprising benefit? Scheduling an open house can create a real sense of urgency for some buyers. Some buyers will notice the scheduled open house and be motivated to submit a quick and strong offer, in hopes that their offer will be accepted before the weekend open takes place. 

We're always happy to hold open houses as part of your marketing

We've just updated our 2024 home and condo selling statistics using objective data from the South Central Wisconsin MLS. Here's a quick look at how Mad City Dream Homes compares to the rest of the Dane County realtor community. 

Sold price vs original list price

• Mad City Dream Homes: 103.1% 
• Dane County average: 99.6% 

Percent of listings receiving competing offers

• Mad City Dream Homes: 60% 
• Dane County average: 34% 

Days on market

• Mad City Dream Homes: 9 days 
• Dane County average: 26 days 

There's no doubt, our clients reap the benefits of professional marketing and expert negotiation. We'll have more to share about these two topics real soon. 

A slew of development projects are in the works for the city of Madison, including a number of proposals that will add thousands of new apartments to the downtown area. The Department of Planning, Community & Economic Development publishes all of the current proposals on its website and this interactive map. 

No doubt, Madison's population will continue to grow, and we'll continue to see more large-scale projects and urban infill in the years ahead. The vast majority of these projects will be for apartments, not condos, leading to condo values continuing to appreciate.  

(click for interactive map)

More new construction homes are coming to Madison, with two large subdivisions in the works for the far west side. Both neighborhoods will be developed by Veridian Homes: 

• Midpoint Meadows will include 148 lots for single family homes, and 96 lots for two-family, side-by-side duplexes.
• Hill Valley will be much larger in scale, with approximately 1,500 housing units planned for a walkable neighborhood with an extensive network of parks and green space. 

We'll have more info to share as both of these neighborhoods take shape. In the meantime, check out our guide to 60 emerging neighborhoods in Dane County, and reach out anytime you have questions about buying or building a new home. We'd love to assist you. 

Hill Valley Subdivision from

If you’ve enjoyed an afternoon on Willy Street, you’ve likely passed by Luke House. Their mission is simple: to feed the hungry no questions asked. If you haven’t heard of Luke House, it is because they go about their mission work quietly, serving free meals nine times a week, year-round, rain or shine. At each meal Luke House serves between 60 and 120 guests. All guests and volunteers are treated with dignity and respect, a major value of the Luke House. This organization has been feeding Madison’s hungry since 1986. Guests show up and are fed, no questions asked. The facility is set up like a restaurant with volunteers serving a healthy meal and beverages to guests.

The atmosphere is very pleasant, and the guests have a chance to socialize.