Eight members of the Mad City Dream Homes and RE/MAX Preferred teams volunteered with Habitat for Humanity of Dane County for a build day in Fitchburg this spring.

They joined Habitat construction site supervisors Greg Kazda, Allissa Tway, and Chad Moen and regular volunteer Greg Louden by installing siding and flooring in two Habitat homes along Unity Lane in the Renaissance On The Park neighborhood.

One of the future homeowners, Tara Rai, was working right alongside the group as he often does -- well exceeding the minimum amount of sweat equity hours required by Habitat. Tara said his wife likes to garden and plans to plant tomatoes and potatoes in their backyard, and his daughter and son are looking forward to having their own bedrooms.

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You are ready to sell, and you want to get the best price possible. This means showing your home at its best. We suggest a few simple updates that can be done both quickly and affordably. Take a look at our list of 5 simple ways to increase your home's market value without breaking the bank. All five of these recommendations are low cost items that provide a high return on investment. 

Step 1: Hire a Professional Home Stager

In real estate, first impressions mean everything. A professional will help you stage your home so buyers fall in love with it when they first view it online. Depending on your needs, your stager will also recommend new paint colors, new flooring, and new light fixtures which dramatically improve your home's mass appeal. If

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Wondering what's going on with the Madison area real estate market? Check out our brief snapshot below, which shows the latest trends for both homes and condos. 

Accepted offers

Buyer activity was below expectations during the first quarter of the year, but picked up significantly in April and May. Dane County single family home accepted offers increased by 1% in May, and were lower by 8% year-to-date. 

Condo accepted offers were lower by 5% in the month of May and by 10% year-to-date. 

Closings

Single family home sales (closings) increased by 8% in May and were lower by 3% year-to-date. 

Condo sales were up 4% for the month and down 5% year-to-date. 

Expired listings

Expired listings are increasing in 2019, as we

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At Mad City Dream Homes we're producing some amazing results for our home-selling clients in 2019. Here are more recent success stories which demonstrate how we routinely go above and beyond to help our clients achieve their goals. 

More Home Seller Success Stories in 2019

Chris Venden: Chris recently listed a luxury condo for sale in Madison. For this listing, Chris carried out an ultra-aggressive marketing plan which demonstrated the creativity our team brings to the table. Chris's marketing plan included extensive staging support from Debbie Lea (the best stager in the business), eye-popping professional photos, a 360 degree virtual tour, Google AdWords, a magazine quality book, and marketing that thoroughly documented this condo's many fine

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Here's the latest scoop on the Dane County Condo market - hot off the presses. 

Inventory

As of May 20th, there are only 1.4 months of condo supply across all price categories, with 47% of all Dane County condo listings under contract. The under $250,000 market is extremely hot. 

New listings

New MLS listings continued to enter the market at a slow pace in April. Listings decreased by 11% from April of 2018 and 14% year-to-date. 

 

Accepted offers

Accepted offers were down 2% from April of 2018 and 12% year-to-date. 

 

Sold listings

Dane County condo sales decreased by 14% in April and 8% year-to-date. 

 

Condo price per square foot

The price per square foot increased by 9% in April and 1% year-to-date. 

 

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If Madison is considered the heart of Dane County, then its veins are the network of highways circulating people and goods throughout surrounding communities. Among them are I-94 and Hwy. 12/18, which branch out to another pulsing artery east of I-39/90: the village of Cottage Grove.

Having experienced a 500% growth rate since 1990, the village of Cottage Grove now has a population of nearly 7,000. Surrounded by open rolling prairies and farm fields, there is enough room for continued residential and business growth.

“Dane County is one of the fastest growing in the state,” said village Trustee Melissa Ratcliff, “And our communities all get stronger because of it.” In the five years her family has lived here, Ratcliff said she’s enjoyed

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The Dane County real estate market got off to a sluggish start during the first 3 months of the year, as single family home accepted offers decreased by 15% from the year before. However, buyer activity picked up significantly in the month of April. Here's our update on the latest real estate trends in Dane County.

Accepted offers

Buyer activity in April was more in line with what we expect to see in a spring market. A total of 680 single family home listings received accepted offers in April, down just 4% from the year before. 

New listings

New single family home listings continued to enter the market at a slow pace, which is great news for sellers. New listings decreased by 9% in the month of April and 10% year-to-date. 

 

Months

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If you've researched listing agents in the Madison area, you've probably come across a few realtors who heavily promote their own coming soon website. These websites can be great marketing tools for listing agents. By bypassing MLS syndication and restricting the marketing to their own website, some of these agents are able to increase their client base by funneling "buyer leads" to their teams. Unfortunately, this type of marketing is less helpful to the seller, because it exposes their listing to only a very small percentage of the market.  

There is a better approach for coming soon marketing

There is a better approach for sellers and that is to use coming soon marketing which exposes their listing to the entire market. This approach serves

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If you're buying in 2019, your offer to purchase will likely be up against offers from other motivated buyers. Below are 22 ways you can make your offer stand out from the competition and be the one that gets accepted. Of course the strategies you use will depend a lot on the type and condition of the property, your level of motivation, and how much competition you have from other parties. 

22 Ways to Write a Winning Offer

#1: Submit your mortgage pre-approval from a reputable, local lender. A pre-approval from an out-of-town or big box lender can create doubt in the mind of a seller. For example, we've seen sellers disregard offers from buyers who are pre-approved by an internet lender. Give your seller every reason to believe your pre-approval is

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Do you feel like you’re always running behind - like there’s never enough time in the day? You know you need to take care of yourself and find ways to relax and stay sane, but with everything on your to-do list, there’s never time. We may even look enviously at others thinking, “they have it so much easier than I do. Look at how much time they have to spare in the day!”  Sara Ifert, owner of Go Simple Wellness, says there is hope! "The reality is that we all have the same 24 hours in a day. It’s up to us how we spend that time, for the most part." Lack of time is one of the biggest challenges Ifert's clients have when it comes to creating a healthier lifestyle or finding better balance. There’s no time to cook a meal, work out, read that book, get sleep,…