We've officially entered the best time of the year for selling a home in the greater Madison area. Year in and year out, the months of March, April and May have more accepted offers than any other months throughout the year. Check out the graph below, which shows the number of accepted by month for the 2016 calendar year. 

Benefits of a Spring Listing

As a general rule the Spring market is the best market for selling a home in the Madison area. Your property will get more views on the web, more showings, and more competing offers when you list your home in the late Winter or early Spring. This is the time of year when your odds for a bidding war are the greatest. 

Of course the market can vary a lot by location and price point. Reach out to

A well-conceived Facebook ad can drive a ton of traffic to your listing. For example, we recently placed a Facebook ad for our newest listing in Parkwood Hills. The ad produced these results:

• 4,276 Facebook feed impressions
• 591 photo clicks
• 174 clicks to view the listing and open house ad on our website

We used the ad as part of our "coming soon" marketing to drive buyers to our upcoming open house. Over 50 parties attended the open, and less than 2 days later three great offers were on the table.

This Facebook ad drove some great traffic to our listing. Here are a few tips for creating your own Facebook ad for your upcoming sale. 

5 Tips for Using Facebook to Attract Buyers to your Listing

1) Use the ad as part of a coming soon

Properly executed a "coming soon" listing offers several big advantages over a traditional real estate listing. Below are three reasons why you and your agent should consider a coming soon listing as you prepare for your upcoming sale. Your listing will get more exposure, more showings, and more offers when you add a coming soon listing to your marketing plan. 

3 Advantages of a Coming Soon Listing

1) A coming soon listing maximizes your home's exposure to the market by advertising your property well before it's ready for showings. Your listing can be placed on the MLS, Zillow, and classified ad websites. Visually-appealing ads on Instagram and Facebook can be very effective. A yard sign and post cards can also be used to promote your listing during

Looking for a simple formula for a successful sale? Our clients who follow these 6 steps have tremendous success getting their properties sold quickly and for top-dollar. Preparation, planning, and teamwork make the home-selling process go smoothly. Your home stager, photographer and listing agent are 3 key partners in your sale.  

Six Steps for a Successful Sale

1) Meet proactively with a professional home stager and begin working on your staging plan several months before you need to sell. We recommend Debbie Lea from Showcase Home Stagers. She's the best in the business.  

2) Implement low-cost, high-impact cosmetic improvements that dramatically improve your home's mass appeal. Your stager and your real estate agent can offer guidance on

We just updated our home and condo selling statistics for the 2016 sales year and compared our results to the MLS average in Dane County.

On average our listings sell for the full list price within 15 days of being on the market. 

The results validate a few of our key philosophies:

• Focus on communication. The home-selling process goes smoothly with regular and open communication. 
• Focus on improvements. We identify low-cost, high-impact projects that help you sell quickly and for top dollar. Then we refer you to reliable contractors who complete your projects at a fair price. 
• Focus on preparation by connecting you with the best stager in Madison, Debbie Lea. We pay for all of your staging costs and give you all the time you need with

Madison area home buyers are experiencing a competitive market right now. It will become even more competitive in the months of April, May and June. Take a look at the graph below from the 2016 calendar year. It shows the percent of Madison single family home listings that received competing offers month-by-month. 

As the numbers above show, April, May and June are the most competitive months for home buyers in the Madison market. These are the months when buyers are most likely to experience bidding wars, escalation clauses, and missed opportunities. 

"Go Against the Grain and Avoid the Pain"

Conventional wisdom says you should buy your home in the spring or summer when listings are most plentiful. The numbers suggest going against the grain

We track a lot of stats each month to stay in touch with the latest real estate trends in Madison. If we were to choose the most meaningful statistic it would be the percent of listings with accepted offers. Knowing this number provides some great insight into the momentum and direction of the market. 

Right now an amazing 51% of all Madison single family home listings have an accepted offer. This is a high percentage for any time of year, especially the month of February. It tells us the Spring market has already arrived in Madison.  

This Year's Market is Hotter

Last year at this time only 35% of all Madison single family home listings had an accepted offer. This year more than half of all listings are under contract and scheduled to close

In this competitive market the lender you choose can actually impact whether or not your offer gets accepted. How is this possible? Well, let's suppose you've found the perfect home, and as your buyer agent is getting ready to draft your offer she learns one competing offer is in and 4 more offers are expected to arrive soon. You want to do everything you can to get your offer accepted, so your agent calls your local lender and asks her a favor. 

Next, your lender immediately emails the listing agent to explain that you're a rock solid buyer with verified income, assets, and credit. Then your lender calls the listing agent to relay the same message.

In the end, your offer is the one that gets accepted. The listing agent confides it was the

These days finding the right property is about much more than putting a search in place on the MLS. In this low inventory environment, it pays to have a hard-working team of buyer agents in your corner. Here are 10 different ways your buyer agent team can go the extra mile to help you find and buy your dream home. 

10 Creative Property Search Strategies

1. Contact households of previously expired MLS listings in your target location. 
2. Identify "coming soon" listings that are in withheld/delayed status on the MLS. 
3. Monitor listings on Zillow, FSBO websites, and craigslist. 
4. Contact real estate agents who are active in your preferred location. 
5. Call property owners in select neighborhoods and condo communities in order to find the right 

There are two basic ways real estate teams assign credit for closings. One way is to give each agent credit for their closings on Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, and on the MLS. The other way is to assign the credit for each closing to the team leader. We believe the first approach is a great way to ensure the long-term success and stability of the team. Here are 5 reasons why.

5 Reasons Agents on Teams Should Receive Credit for their Closings

1. When agents receive credit for their closings, it gives them reward and recognition for their work. 
2. It shows each agent what they've accomplished and helps them set goals for the future.
3. It creates transparency and a sense of friendly competition. Sharing the credit means everyone on the team knows the