This year is shaping up to be a great year for people who wish to sell their starter home and buy a larger, more expensive property. The reason is the market for starter homes is very hot and very favorable for sellers right now, while the market for higher priced properties is more balanced and a little easier on buyers. 

How the Madison real estate market varies by price range

Take a look at this market data for Madison single family homes. Right now, 60% of all listings priced under $300,000 are under contract with an accepted offer. Above $300,000, only 30% of the listings are under contract. The market clearly favors sellers under the $300,000 price point. Above $300,000, there's less competition for listings, and buyers are having a much

The Madison area real estate market is super competitive right now, especially for buyers seeking an affordable property in a popular location. For example, we were recently involved with one local sale which received over 20 offers to purchase. Below we share a few highlights from this sale which show just how competitive the market can be during the spring real estate season. 

Signs of a competitive real estate market

Here are a few more highlights from this ultra-competitive listing:

• Every offer (except one) was for at or above the full list price. 
• One buyer submitted their earnest money with their offer. 
• Over half of the buyers who wrote an offer also wrote a personal letter to the seller. 
• One-third of the buyers specified

What are the hottest price points for Madison area real estate listings? We've taken a close look at the latest MLS statistics and there are 2 clear trends standing out in this year's market.

Madison single family home listings priced under $300,000 are super hot

Take a look at our snapshot below of the Madison single family home market. It shows properties priced under $300,000 have a very high percentage of listings with an accepted offer. Listings priced under $250,000 are especially hot, with over 60% of these properties currently under contract and scheduled to close soon.

What does this data mean for sellers and buyers in 2019? If you're selling a home for under $300,000 in the city of Madison, you have a great opportunity to leverage

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

Late last year we predicted the Dane County real estate market would be more balanced in 2019, based on the belief that interest rates would rise above 5%. In December, the market did cool as cautious buyers waited out a rocky stock market. The month of January was a different story, however. The stock market stabilized last month and mortgage rates moved lower rather than higher. Local home and condo buyers responded very favorably in January and are very active in the market right now.

Single family home buyers were very active in January

Single family home accepted offers increased in the month of January after decreasing by 19% the month before. As the graph below shows, accepted offers reached the 4th highest total ever for the month of

We’re excited to announce we’ve launched a new platform for our website, which makes the new Mad City Dream Homes easier to use and navigate. Here are a few of the new search features that are now available at MadCityDreamHomes.com.

Property search from any page

Now you can launch your Madison area property search from any page on our website. This search bar allows you to quickly launch a search based on the city, neighborhood, address, street, zip code, and MLS number.

The “more options” features gives you full access to all of our MLS search criteria.

Content search on a desktop computer

Our new “content search” feature makes it easy to locate the real estate guides, articles and blog posts that you’re looking for. If

Unfortunately, some sellers do misrepresent or "under-represent" property defects on their real estate condition report. And it happens more often than we'd like to see. Based on our experience, failures to disclose are most likely to happen with For Sale By Owner and Limited Service listings. 

One fairly common omission is a seller's failure to disclose previous water intrusions. We know this because some water problems can be easy to detect. Mildew, water stains, soft wood, and elevated moisture readings are all signs of previous problems. When a seller does fail to disclose a water issue, that's a tip-off to be on the look out for other issues, too. 

How to protect yourself from sellers who under-represent

One way you can protect yourself

Here's a quick look back at the December Dane County real estate market, for both single family homes and condos. Let's jump right into it...

Dane County Single Family Home Update - Dec 2018

New Dane County single family home listings were the lowest ever for the month of December. A total of 211 new listings entered the market, a decrease of 12% from the year before. 

A low influx of new listings is keeping the inventory of active listings low, too. As of January 11th, only 1.5 months of supply were available for sale on the open market. 

Last month, a total of 265 accepted offers were recorded in the MLS - a decrease of 17% from the 321 accepted offers recorded in December of 2017. 

This historical view of accepted offers

Over the years it's been our observation that the most successful real estate agents assume a strong sense of ownership over their career. These agents know it's not the market that determines their path. It's what they bring to the market. So, how much ownership are you assuming for your real estate career?

One way to think of this is in terms of the foundation upon which your career is built. Are you continually building and reinforcing your foundation in real estate? Here are 5 ways you can build your own solid foundation and take control of your career.   

5 ways to own your real estate career 

1) Cultivate a positive mental attitude. Many successful agents work constantly on their positive mental attitude which sustains them

You may have heard BMO Harris Bank recently eliminated all of its brick and mortar loan officers. BMO lenders, who once worked out of individual branches, now work out of a call center. Now all customer interactions with a loan officer take place online or over the phone. The face-to-face meeting has been eliminated at BMO.

BMO adopted this new customer service model because it costs less than the old model. It's also a response to evolving consumer preferences, which place a premium on speed and efficiency. Will BMO have a thriving mortgage business 5 years from now? We'll be watching to see how their new approach to service plays out. 

Our thoughts on face-to-face meetings

We understand why companies like BMO are eliminating the