Even if you don't plan to sell until 2020, this summer is the perfect time to tackle the painting projects that will increase your home's value and improve its mass appeal. If painting projects are on your list, we highly recommend hiring a skilled contractor who specializes in preparing homes for sale. Integrity Painting and Warden & Sons are two family-owned companies that have helped many of our Madison area clients with interior and exterior painting projects. Over the years both companies have consistently delivered high-quality work that provides a great return on investment. 

10 ways to improve your home's value with paint

Here are 10 ways a reputable painting contractor can help you prepare for a successful sale and maximize your sales

We're excited for our new listing on Madison's west side, which will be made available for showings very soon. This listing has actually been in the works for a long, long time. It all started almost 4 years ago when we hired a photographer to capture exterior photos of the property. We knew we'd use the photos someday - we weren't sure when - so we collected some nice exterior pictures on a beautiful summer day. 

Working proactively for a successful listing

We're optimistic our clients will experience a successful sale due to all of the great work they've been putting into their listing. Here are a few of the things we've been working on together over the last few months and years. 

• First, we've been keeping our clients up-to-date on the

When deals need to be made, it all comes down to trusted relationships. You can buy and sell homes in Madison, but to do it well, you will need a Realtor who values relationships and brings solid negotiating skills to the table. This adds some strength to your real estate plan, and it helps remove some of the emotion that could otherwise cloud the negotiations. The Mad City Dream Homes Team can help you look at the big picture, and they have enough history in the business to creatively problem-solve, and get you the best deal.

"Our team places a high-value on quality communication, " says Maureen Moran. "We can gather so much more information about the sale for our clients, simply by picking up the phone and talking with the other agent." 

Thinking of selling your home in the coming year? Below are 10 low-cost home improvement projects that add real value to your home. Over the years we've helped many sellers completely transform the look of their home by implementing these and similar projects. In some cases clients have increased their home's market value by tens of thousands of dollars through their sweat equity and only a minimal financial investment.   

10 low-cost home improvement projects

1) Replace dated bathroom mirrors, towel bars, and towel rings with newer and inexpensive pieces. This one simple change can dramatically improve the appearance of a dated bathroom. Our amazing stager, Debbie Lea, can show you which products to buy and where to buy them. Remember, we offer

We've learned over the years that some folks can get a little confused about assessments, inspections, and appraisals - and the role each plays as part of the buying and selling process. If you're a little unclear yourself, this short overview will answer a lot of your questions.  

Assessments

An assessment refers to the "value" that the local taxing authority assigns to your property. Your local assessor assigns an assessed value to your property each year, that along with the mill rate, determines the amount of property tax you owe.

As a general rule of thumb you shouldn't use your property's assessed value to approximate how much it can sell for on the open market. That's because in most cases your local assessor has never been to your

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

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

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

One of the unique traits of our real estate team is our true commitment to helping our clients achieve their home-selling goals. Here are a few examples from the last few months which show how our listing agents routinely go above and beyond to serve our clients. 

Home selling success stories

Shelley Lazzareschi: Shelley recently assisted a new client who was undergoing challenging family circumstances and whose listing had expired with another real estate brokerage. When Shelley toured the property she identified several inexpensive cosmetic improvements that would greatly benefit the sale of the home. Our client had already moved out-of-state, so Shelley secured a reliable and affordable contractor for our client and oversaw the completion of

Many of our Madison area sellers are concerned about proper etiquette when they open their door for showings. Our sellers want to be respectful of the buyers who are visiting their home, and they wonder if they should allow each buyer the opportunity to view their home privately, without any other buyers in the house. We get this question a lot, especially during the hot spring market, when buyers are out in droves. 

Should you allow for double-booked showings?

Our short answer to this question is "yes", you should allow for overlapping showings, and for two main reasons. The first reason is you'll expose your home to more buyers when you allow each buyer to tour your home at their requested time. Although it would be nice to grant each buyer a