We have a new listing coming up at 6577 Matz Rd in Dane, Wisconsin. It's a beautiful 3-bedroom home that sits on an acre of land just 15 minutes from Madison's West Side. The house is beautiful, but the views are truly breathtaking. That's why we've called on talented photographer, Zac Albrecht, to take pictures of the landscape surrounding the property. This home offers million dollar views, and Zac has done a wonderful job capturing them. Below are a few photos which will be appearing soon in our upcoming listing.

Professional Landscape Photos - 6577 Matz Rd, Dane, WI

This first photo is taken from the back yard of the home - overlooking Baraboo Bluffs - with views that extend for miles and miles. Imagine the scenery this vista offers during the

Our most successful listings are those with a great spirit of teamwork. Our upcoming listing at Nichols Station Condominiums is a great example. Yesterday our real estate team met with Mr Seller's family and Debbie Lea from Showcase Home Stagers to prepare the condo for sale. We started at 9:00 AM and before we hit 11:00 AM the condo was 80% staged. Today, Mr Seller will purchase a few accessories, remove a few furniture pieces, and do a little touch-up cleaning before we arrange for our professional photographer to shoot the listing photos and video. 

"Hands On Staging" by Debbie Lea

Yesterday's 2-hour session was extremely productive as we worked together to implement Debbie's recommendations. During our time together I documented all of the

Modesty is a likable trait, but when it comes to real estate it won't help buyers like your home. If you want your home to sell high and sell quickly, a little vanity can go a long way. Below we offer a few ways you can show the world why your home is the best buy in the neighborhood. 

See all of our home-selling tips here.

4 Ways to Brag about Your Real Estate Listing

1. Focus on looks by consulting with a professional home stager, hiring a professional photographer, and hiring a professional videographer. 
2. Write a compelling listing description that motivates buyers to call their agent and schedule a showing for your home. 
3. Advertise your home's improvements and upgrades. 
4. Document your home's features room-by-room.

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For most home owners the definition of a successful sale is a real estate listing that sells quickly and for a high market price. The catch is a successful sale usually doesn't happen overnight. Rather, it's usually the result of a lot of advanced planning and preparation by both the listing agent and the client. 

So how can you plan for a successful sale of your own? You're bound to do well if you keep the "5 P's" of selling a home in mind. 

Preparing for a Successful Listing: The "5 P's" of Selling a Home

1. Price your home correctly from the start. 
2. Work with a professional home stager to ensure a great and lasting first impression.  
3. Enlist the services of a professional photographer for the very best listing photos. 
4. Use a

When is the best time to buy a home in Madison? Contrary to conventional wisdom, right now is actually an excellent time to buy a home in our market. To be a little more specific, November, December and the first half of January offer a nice window of opportunity for local home buyers. The graph below, which shows the number of Madison accepted offers by month, shows why. 

The Best Times to Buy a Home in Madison

November, December and January are the 3 slowest months in the Madison real estate market. During these 3 months fewer showings are scheduled, fewer offers are written, and fewer offers are accepted compared to any other month in the calendar year. Buyers have much less competition from other buyers during the cold weather months, which

We recently wrote about 4 key steps you should take right now in order to prepare for a successful listing in the Spring. Step #1 is get your staging plan in order. A few of our own clients are taking this advice to heart and working proactively on their staging right now. I have no doubt each of these sellers will be rewarded for their efforts. They'll knock it out of the park when their homes hit the market in early 2016.

Home Staging by Debbie Lea

Recently one of these sellers participated in a "group staging" session run by Debbie Lea from Showcase Home Stagers. The consultation was attended by Mr. Seller, Mrs. Seller, and myself. The four of us spent 3 hours together as we toured the home room-by-room. 

This was a collaborative and "hands

A professional, full-motion listing video offers the best way to show off your home on the world wide web. Done in the right manner, a full-motion virtual tour benefits your listing by providing better visual marketing, better exposure on Google, and syndication to more websites. Below, we share a few examples of some great listing videos. Later, we offer a few tips for creating an effective virtual tour.

3 Examples of Great Virtual Tours

This first video provides an excellent visual introduction to this upscale listing in Fitchburg. Note how the narrated script also does a great job of calling attention to the many high-end features offered by this home.

This second video provides a very polished presentation for our recent listing in Sunset

Planning and preparation are critical to any successful endeavor. The same goes with selling a home. If you're like most successful sellers, your preparation will begin several months before your home is listed on the open market. It can be a lot of work, but it all becomes very manageable when you have a knowledgeable real estate agent, a professional home stager, and a professional photographer helping you execute your home selling plan.

Below we offer 4 key steps you can take right now to prepare for your successful sale. Even if your plan is to sell in 2016, now is the perfect time to start laying the foundation for a killer listing.

Step 1: Consult with a Professional Home Stager

Your most fundamental step is to consult with a

In our last post we covered how the MLS limits the listing description to 512 characters of text. The MLS has a similar limitation in place for photos: all listings are limited to a max of 25 pictures.

For many properties, 25 photos is more than sufficient to show the entire home. But for some properties, 25 is not enough. For example, consider the home that sits on a wonderfully-landscaped lot with a variety of perennials in bloom throughout the seasons. One great way to market this home is to show buyers the beauty of the yard in the Spring, Summer and Fall. A proactive listing agent will hire a photographer to produce dozens of high-quality exterior photos, so when the home is ready to list all of the exterior photos are ready for publication.

There is an old joke in the real estate business about the "three P's of selling a home". The first P is put a sign in the yard. The second P is place the listing on the MLS. The third P is pray another agent sells it.

Praying can't hurt, but a yard sign and the MLS are proven tools for marketing a home. A yard sign lets all passersby know your home is for sale. The MLS syndicates your listing to thousands of websites across the globe. However, a solid home-selling plan does much more than rely on a yard sign and MLS syndication. A solid marketing plan takes a much more comprehensive approach by selling the many benefits of your home.

One Big Drawback of the MLS

One big drawback of MLS syndication is the limit placed on descriptive text. The MLS