There’s no substitute for preparation if you are planning to buy a home in the current market. If another buyer's offer gets accepted over yours, it can be easy to view them as “lucky.” In reality, they may have just been better prepared and more ready to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them. So, how can your Mad City Dream Homes agent help you be prepared?

• Having a conversation in-person or by phone about the current market, offer strategies, and home values

• Connecting you with a lender to review creative loan and downpayment options, including down payment assistance

• Educating you about “coming soon” properties that are available on the MLS

• Reviewing blank offer paperwork with you ahead of making an offer

Our team loves to help buyer clients find homes closer to family - even multigenerational housing opportunities. These buyers not only desire an affordable home, but a home that allows them to navigate life's many seasons with their loved ones near. In this spirit, it's our pleasure to highlight Hope and a Future, a nonprofit organization pioneering a new intentional form of community.

Hope and a Future currently operates within a beautiful farmhouse off High Point Road in Madison. Multiple generations live together in this Adult Family Home with a unique "Family of Friends" staffing model: the on-site nurse, other care workers, and sometimes their children live in the home in exchange for their help. Even Karin Krause, the Executive Director, lives

Did you know your interest rate can vary based on a variety of factors, including:

• Your down payment amount
• Your credit score
• Who is on the loan
• If you're buying an investment property or second home
• Your ideal cash-to-close amount

If you're looking to understand what your interest rate would be for your next purchase, reach out. We're happy to get you connected with a transparent & trusted lender that fits your needs.

If you regularly attend a workout class, you may notice there are some people who stay for the stretching cool-down, and others who start putting their equipment away, most likely already thinking ahead to their next appointment or task in the day. As it relates to our work in real estate, we promise to always “stay for the stretch.” Even after your transaction has closed, we will stay for the cool-down as you settle into your new home by:

• Finding reliable contractors for those inspection items you want to tackle
• Assuring you’re confident in how to make your mortgage payment
• Sending you a seasonal maintenance reminder tip sheet
• Helping coordinate mail that got delivered to the wrong address
• Being available as a resource for all your home

Your heart is an astounding organ. It pumps blood to nearlyevery one of the trillions and trillions of cells in your body, delivering enough new blood every single day to fill 50 average-sized rain barrels. Go ahead - take a moment to be in awe of your heart.  While we rush through our days, our heart dependably keeps us going beat by beat. And, indeed, many of us don’t pay much mind to our hearts until an emergency gives us cause to.

One of our brokerage colleagues, Holly Hassenzahl, reminded us of some sobering facts about women’s heart health during a recent meeting. Did you know that one in three women will face a life-threatening cardiac event in their life? And more sobering yet, women are less likely than men to receive CPR from a

Both an open house and a private showing allow a buyer to tour a home on the market. During the tour, a buyer can look at anything that would be included in the sale, like inside the garage, cabinets, and closets. However, an open house and a private showing do have some differences. 

A private showing is a tour scheduled by a licensed real estate agent (often the buyer agent you're working with) who has secure access to the home. You may be the only buyer in the home, and have a wider selection of showing time choices. You will also have the one-on-one guidance of the agent with you.

An open house is a designated time (often two hours, on a weekend) for the public to tour the home with a licensed real estate agent hosting. Open houses allow for a

Does your email inbox feel overwhelming and impersonal at times? With promotions and AI-generated emails, it can be hard to know how to connect with the people and services you’re hoping to reach.

At Mad City Dream Homes, we don’t use any marketing software to send you check-in emails or “drip campaigns.” And when you respond to us at marketing@madcitydeamhomes.com or through our contact page, it ends up right in a team member's inbox, all of whom are licensed real estate agents. If you email us, you’ll connect with one of the nine of us, not a third-party service or bot. And we can’t wait to hear from you!

Your home is likely your largest financial investment, and we know it can be challenging to make decisions about selling or buying without concrete numbers. How much will you make from your home sale after fees? How much will you need to put down on a new home? What will the interest rate be? How will all these numbers work together?

While we can’t offer exact certainty, we can offer very educated estimates of what these numbers will look like. And we’re happy to run these calculations - often with the help of a lender, the title company, or your financial advisor - anytime. In fact, it’s a great idea to get familiar with these numbers well ahead of making a move. If you’re looking to start gathering this information, give us a call –

The Sewing Machine Project is our first nonprofit spotlight of 2026. Having just celebrated its 20th anniversary, this organization was founded - and continues to operate - with a vigor that captures the spirit of the new year.

In the spring of 2005, Margaret Jankowski read a BBC news article that particularly touched her. It was about a woman in Southeast Asia who had just endured the devastating tsunami and lost her sewing machine in the tragedy. However, this sewing machine was her essential tool for making a living that she had saved up for years to purchase, so the impact was profound and pervasive. Margaret was sure she could help. She quickly connected with the American Hindu Association to send 25 sewing machines to Sri Lanka and

When a large goal looms, it can be hard to know how to begin - or when. If you have a dream of owning a home, but don’t know when or how you will turn that dream into concrete steps, reach out. We’d be happy to reverse engineer a timeline based on your lease, savings goals, or other milestones in your life. Once you see the path to homeownership more clearly, you can confidently take the first step.