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

Looking for a simple formula for a successful sale? Our clients who follow these 6 steps have tremendous success getting their properties sold quickly and for top-dollar. Preparation, planning, and teamwork make the home-selling process go smoothly. Your home stager, photographer and listing agent are 3 key partners in your sale.  

Six Steps for a Successful Sale

1) Meet proactively with a professional home stager and begin working on your staging plan several months before you need to sell. We recommend Debbie Lea from Showcase Home Stagers. She's the best in the business.  

2) Implement low-cost, high-impact cosmetic improvements that dramatically improve your home's mass appeal. Your stager and your real estate agent can offer guidance on

We just updated our home and condo selling statistics for the 2016 sales year and compared our results to the MLS average in Dane County.

On average our listings sell for the full list price within 15 days of being on the market. 

The results validate a few of our key philosophies:

• Focus on communication. The home-selling process goes smoothly with regular and open communication. 
• Focus on improvements. We identify low-cost, high-impact projects that help you sell quickly and for top dollar. Then we refer you to reliable contractors who complete your projects at a fair price. 
• Focus on preparation by connecting you with the best stager in Madison, Debbie Lea. We pay for all of your staging costs and give you all the time you need with

Our vacant home listing at 8127 Broadmoor St is selling today, thanks in large part to the staging professionals at The Cozy Home. The Cozy Home offers turnkey staging services which transform the "bland" empty home into a "grand" MLS listing that motivates buyers to act quickly. Below are a few "before" and "after" shots which demonstrate the positive impact of staging provided by a professional. 

Living Room Before Staging

Living Room After Staging

Dinette Before Staging

Dinette After Staging

Bathroom Before Staging

Bathroom After Staging

Looking for a full-service, customized marketing plan that goes the extra mile? Contact us for a complimentary consultation. We'll work with you to develop an

Madison home prices started the year off strong in 2017. The price per square foot reached a record high of $139, up 8% from $129 in January of 2016. 

Measuring prices in another way (the average price), home prices increased by 10%. The average price of $271,485 was a record high for the month of January. 

Get Used to Rising Prices in 2017

We expect prices to rise by at least 5 to 6 percent this year due to persistently low levels of inventory.  If you're buying, you'll need to adjust your tactics in order to compete in this year's seller's market. Check out our blog for our 2017 home-buying tips. 

If you're selling, your home may be worth a lot more than you think, especially during this year's Spring selling season. Contact us for

Madison area home buyers are experiencing a competitive market right now. It will become even more competitive in the months of April, May and June. Take a look at the graph below from the 2016 calendar year. It shows the percent of Madison single family home listings that received competing offers month-by-month. 

As the numbers above show, April, May and June are the most competitive months for home buyers in the Madison market. These are the months when buyers are most likely to experience bidding wars, escalation clauses, and missed opportunities. 

"Go Against the Grain and Avoid the Pain"

Conventional wisdom says you should buy your home in the spring or summer when listings are most plentiful. The numbers suggest going against the grain

We track a lot of stats each month to stay in touch with the latest real estate trends in Madison. If we were to choose the most meaningful statistic it would be the percent of listings with accepted offers. Knowing this number provides some great insight into the momentum and direction of the market. 

Right now an amazing 51% of all Madison single family home listings have an accepted offer. This is a high percentage for any time of year, especially the month of February. It tells us the Spring market has already arrived in Madison.  

This Year's Market is Hotter

Last year at this time only 35% of all Madison single family home listings had an accepted offer. This year more than half of all listings are under contract and scheduled to close

Don't let the unusually warm weather fool you- it's still winter in Wisconsin. This weekend the Madison Winter Festival will celebrate all things winter at its new location in Elver Park. Festival planners say the new location offers many perks for the festival, which was previously held downtown. 

"Not only does Elver Park entertain great resources for outdoor activities, the venue also accommodates participants and spectators with indoor facilities equipped with bathrooms, concessions and a warm shelter. Elver Park also maintains the easiest access to artificial snow in Madison to ensure that the events listed in the program can be held despite lack of natural snow coverage," says Irina Komarova, festival director.

Events include a "Fat Bike" race