From patching and painting to wallpapering and drywalling, Mike and Dianna McMaster have been busy updating the interior of their nearly 2,000-square-foot farm house at 501 Muller Road in the town of York over the last 15 years.

While they are ready to downsize, it will be tough for them (and their grown kids and younger grandchildren) to say goodbye.

"Being that we did most of it ourselves, it's a lot of blood, sweat and tears," Dianna said. "It's a house that we will definitely miss."

Built nearly a century ago in a nearby town, this 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house in northeastern Dane County just hit the market, featuring plenty of updates and stunning countryside views.

Main level

The biggest change came with the addition above

Competing offers are a seller's best friend. With multiple offers in hand, a seller has the psychological advantage and is in a great position to control the outcome of the negotiation and sale.   

In this article we cover why you should choose a listing plan that's designed to attract multiple offers. Here are the 4 main ways multiple offers will benefit your sale. 

4 advantages of multiple offers

#1: Competing offers give you leverage to negotiate the highest possible price. When buyers compete for your listing, you have the negotiation advantage. You'll get the highest market price when you negotiate with all parties and allow buyers to compete for your listing.  

#2: Multiple offers help you negotiate the best terms. Your odds of receiving

On a country road between Hwys. 73 and 89 in northeastern Dane County is a beautiful farm house looking for someone new to call it home.

Situated in a hill overlooking 17 acres of woods, fields, a creek, and multiple outbuildings, the property at 501 Muller Road in the town of York is sure to catch your eye -- especially with its gray exterior set off by a white wraparound porch and balcony.

But that's not what it looked like -- or where it was -- when it was built nearly a century ago.

Home sellers Dianna and Mike McMaster share their story of saving, relocating, and updating this special Sears kit house, which has "great bones" and tons of character.

Relocation

Up until 2001, the house had been located on Egre Road in the town of

As listing agents we're noticing some interesting shifts in practice as the world becomes more digitally dependent, in particular with how offers are being submitted and communicated to sellers. Specifically, we're noticing more communication being done through text and email, and less through telephone calls and conversation. 

A relatively common scenario is for a buyer agent to email the listing agent an offer and then follow that up with a text message asking the listing agent to confirm receipt. In other words offers are being submitted without the buyer agent initiating any conversation with the listing agent. These types of offers, in our experience, are the ones least likely to get accepted in a competitive situation. 

Which offers are the

Documenting features and upgrades is a great way to demonstrate your home's value and justify your list price to buyers and appraisers. This 30 second video offers 3 quick tips to help you get started with the process. 

How we help you sell your home's features and upgrades

Once we have your list of upgrades, we'll use this information to create professional marketing materials for your listing. If your list of upgrades is extensive, we can create an itemized list similar to this one from a recent listing. 

Example of a "features sheet"

Another great marketing piece is our "features sheet". Our features sheet displays your home's key selling points alongside your professional photos to create an eye-catching promotional piece. 

Pricing a listing can be one of the trickiest parts of the home-selling experience, and it's very easy to get your pricing wrong if you rush through this part of the process. Over the years we've noticed a few relatively common mistakes that cause sellers to either over-price or under-price their listing. Here are 8 common mistakes to avoid as you go about the process of pricing your home. 

#1: Not taking seasonality into account

Time of year can have a big impact on a home's value. For instance, competing offers and bidding wars are most common in the springtime when buyers are out in droves. In the springtime it's easy to under-price a listing if the momentum of the market isn't taken into account. On the flip side it's easy to over-price in the

September is a great month to buy a home. The reason is we typically see a brief lull in the market as families focus on their back-to-school routines. Our 2016 market data shows how buyer activity dipped in September and then jumped back up again in October. This is a pretty typical pattern for the fall real estate market. 

When buyer activity decreases, sellers become more flexible

We know from experience that competing offers will be less prevalent in September and throughout the fall season. With fewer buyers and fewer bidding wars in the fall, sellers will lose some of their advantage. Some will become more flexible and more willing to negotiate in the months ahead. 

Sometimes it pays to go against the norm

Popular opinion says to

Home and condo prices rose again in July as the seller's market continued in Madison. Here's a brief market summary for the month of July. 

Madison Single Family Home Market

The price per square foot rose from $146 in July of 2017 to $158 last month - a record high for the single family home market. July home prices rose 8% year-over-year and 11% year-to-date. 

The days on market statistic also set a new record in the month of July - reaching a new low of only 22 days. On a year-to-date basis, the days on market averaged only 32 days, which is also a record low. 

Months of supply continued to trend along historically low levels. This snapshot taken a few days ago shows there are only 1.8 months of inventory in the Madison single family

Bordered by a bike trail, golf course, Mineral Point Road and South Midvale Boulevard is a near westside Madison neighborhood filled with historic architecture.

Westmorland features an assortment of home styles dating from the 1860s to 1950s. Within a few block radius is a barn that has been converted into a house, a Frank Lloyd Wright prototype and other mid-century moderns, classic Cape Cods, Tudor revival and International styles, Sears catalog homes and a few made of steel.

The Westmorland Neighborhood Association -- the fourth oldest in Madison -- produced a video promoting its oral history book and described Westmorland as a "microcosm reflecting Midwestern America's progress throughout the 20th century."

That statement certainly

Realtor.com says Baby Boomers are a major cause of the housing shortage in the US. According to these recently released survey results, Boomers are generally satisfied with their current home and reluctant to move onto a new setting. This generational trend, according to the survey, is keeping listing inventory low and freezing would-be buyers out of the market. Among the survey findings:

• 72% of Boomers say their home meets their current needs.
• 85% of Boomers don't plan to sell in the next year.
• Up to 33 million properties are being withheld from the market due to this generational trend. 

There's much more to the story than this. 

The survey makes it clear Baby Boomers are generally content to stay put in their current home, but it