It goes against convention, but the month of December is an excellent time to buy a home. Why? There are far fewer buyers to compete with in the wintertime, and sellers tend to be more motivated during the holiday season. This means the deals are better in December and January. If you're looking to get a fair deal on a nice home or condo, the winter season is an excellent time to buy. Of course every situation is different. Feel free to contact us to discuss your individual situation. 

Here are more specifics on why right now is an excellent time to buy in Madison and the surrounding Dane County area. 

Buyers Have Less Competition in December

It's much easier to get an offer accepted in December because there are fewer competing buyers. The MLS

It's a common misconception that you have to show your home to generate interest from buyers.  We're finding that there are ways to attract buyers in the early stages of preparing a listing, even before your home is ready to show. Take, for example, a listing we have at 2 Thornhill Circle, in Wexford Village. Before the home was even officially ready to show, the sellers had eight showing appointments lined up.

How did this happen? We used an effective selling strategy:
1. Have a Professional Staging Consultation
2. Finish Staging the First Floor
3. Professionally Photograph the First Floor
4. Make the Listing Available on the MLS and Online
5. Continue Staging the Rest of the House
6. Have the Rest of the Home Photographed and Filmed
7. Open the Home for

You've heard the saying, "location, location, location" when it comes to real estate. Where your home is located matters, and highlighting the neighboring perks can go a long way when you're ready to sell.

When we work with sellers, we help them prepare their home for listing. This includes staging it, photographing it professionally, and highlighting the home's best features. But marketing the home doesn't end there. We also focus on the neighborhood. What parks or trails are nearby? Are there key restaurants, shopping or a library within walking distance? These features are important to buyers. They often won't even visit a home unless they are sold on the location.

 We recently listed a home in the Midvale Heights neighborhood. The home is

Have you ever watched those HGTV programs and wished your home could be updated? Do you look around your home and wonder how to transform it for greater appeal? If you know that your current home is temporary, you could benefit from services to improve your current property- and prepare it for a future sale. All the while, you can enjoy the decor and staging that was prepared for the future listing.

One of our clients chose to approach their home this way. Two years ago they had us in to walk through their property in Midvale Heights. We offered suggestions for improvements and helped them stage it to show its best features. They completed the updates, and we captured photographs of this home, well in advance of it ever listing. Now, two years later,

When you list your home, you want to generate as much interest as possible. We're finding that featuring your home's strongest photo, inside or out, is an effective way to grab buyers' attention. The traditional curbside photo is fine, but it doesn't always tell the strongest story for your home. You might have a stunning kitchen - like our listing in Westmorland. We had photos taken of both the kitchen and the exterior. As you can see, the home is lovely inside and out. In this case, we've featured the kitchen as the first photo in the listing, because buyers will be more excited about this feature.

A home we recently sold in Faircrest is in a similar situation. The home has a gorgeous, modern kitchen. The exterior is very nice and well kept - but

Listing your home doesn't require an overwhelming amount of work up front. You can plan and prepare, with enough time to complete needed projects well. If you prepare well, you should be able to sell it quickly in the current market, and for a great price. In order to make a listing successful, our team puts this marketing plan together in bite-size pieces:

1. Work with a Professional Home Stager. Your listing agent may offer to pay for this service. We do this as part of our marketing plan for all of our clients. The home stager can go through your property, rearrange furniture, relocate decor and offer you good tips for maximizing the beauty and functionality of your home. The stager can also recommend paint colors, flooring changes or new light

The Madison real estate market has changed from the fever pitch that characterized the months of March, April, May and June. The graph below shows how the market is changing. Each bar represents a snapshot of the single family home market taken mid-month. Each number reflects the percent of all Madison single family home listings that had an accepted offer at the time of the snapshot. 

What Does the Data Say about the Spring Market?

If you were searching for a home in March, April, May or June, over 50% of the listings you viewed online were already under contract and scheduled for closing. These were wild and crazy times. Many new listings sold in a matter of days or even hours - after receiving multiple competing offers. Some buyers put their

Let's face it. Winter in Wisconsin is long, cold, and, while often it is pretty, it's also messy. Trees are bare, landscaping is rarely visible, and your home can't have the same curb appeal that it has in warmer weather. Take this listing, for example. The home is in excellent condition and offers fabulous views. But the drab gray of winter keeps you from appreciating the rolling hills and beautiful views behind it.

In this case, we didn't have access to a previous season's photo. We posted interior photos first. The listing sold successfully, but it could have shown even better, with seasonal photos. That's why we recommend that you start a collection of exterior photos now. When you list your home, you'll be able to show it at its best, and create

In a hot real estate market having the right focus can make all the difference between buying or missing out on your dream home. One good way to focus your search is to target properties which don't yet have an accepted offer. At Mad City Dream Homes our search tools make it easy to exclude listings with accepted offers from your search results. 

Download our free property search app to see which listings have accepted offers and which ones are still available for sale. 

Excluding Accepted Offers from Search Results

As an example, let's suppose you'd like to search for all Monona condos which don't yet have an accepted offer. Here are the settings for your search:

• Enter "Monona" in the location field.
• Select "Condo" as the property

Download our free mobile search app to view which listings have accepted offers and which ones are scheduled to close soon. 

Have you ever come across a listing online and wondered if it already has an accepted offer? This is one of the most commonly asked questions we receive from buyers who have been searching for homes on the internet. At Mad City Dream Homes, we make it easy to identify which listings have an accepted offer.

Identifying Listings with Accepted Offers

When you search for properties on Mad City Dream Homes, you'll see one of three different statuses that appear by each listing.

Some listings will display a status of "active". 

Other listings will display a status of "offer-show". 

Still others will display a