5410 Tonyawatha Trl, Monona Wisconsin w/ Lake Monona View

This is the view from your new home. No kidding. That really would be your view!
Now, I normally don’t promote listings in my blog posts on The Gardyn, but we have discovered a new marketing platform that we are really excited about and thought we would test it out on ourselves first.
We start by creating a [...]

Madison, Wisconsin Foreclosures

TCT reports,

Dane County had 127 foreclosure filings in January, 45.9 percent more than the 87 in December, 122.8 percent more than the 57 last January, and 746.6 percent more than the 15 in January 2006.
Wisconsin had 2,102 foreclosure filings in January, 20.5 percent more than the 1,744 in December, 58.4 percent more than the 1,327 [...]

Waunakee Single Family Real Estate Market: Home Prices and Data from 2004-2007

I got an email from some one requesting the data on the Waunakee Real Estate market.
Actually they asked a simple question,

Has the value of homes in Waunakee, WI gone down since 2005?

The simple answer to that is NO. Home prices in Waunakee have not gone down. Home prices have actually gone up. By almost 10% [...]

Building A Greener House

If you have not wasted enough time playing Mansion Impossible, I got a new one for you.

My Sustainable House is a game, but super educational about the building a greener home process. Have a little fun, learn a little bit and if you are up to it, come back and post your score. I got a [...]

Good Time To Buy A Home In Madison

Want to know if you should buy a home or condo in this Madison Real Estate market 
We are inspired by NBC going green last week, so The Gardyn will go green this week. We might recycle some posts and all our font will be green.
Recycled Post from Is now a good time to buy real estate?
That depends. That question [...]

FSBO Madison Tips on Marketing and Exposure

We are inspired by NBC going green last week, so The Gardyn will go green this week. We might recycle some posts and all our font will be green.
From FSBO Madison Needs One More Photo, Atleast
NRT Inc., the largest residential real estate brokerage company in the nation conducted a study which found that the average [...]

Real Estate Open Houses In Madison

Today being Sunday, Realtor’s in Madison will be holding Open Houses.
Every where in the Dane County Real Estate world, you will see open house signs. Edyn Real Estate will not be doing an open house though. We pick our open houses carefully and it’s a place that our Seller’s can save some commission, since we do [...]

Madison Blogger Wonders If She Should Have Bought Her Kids A Condo

Ann Althouse, law professor wonders, “Should you buy your college kid a condo?”
A lot of people do these days, and it might make financial sense. Obviously, there are problems with the housing market that affect the decision these days, but generally, I wish I’d thought of doing this when my sons were in college. A [...]

FSBO Madison Needs One More Photo, atleast

Local For Sale By Owner Real Estate site, FSBOMadison.com does a high volume of business.
From their own website they promote,
“777 homes listed in 1999, 1100 in 2000… and on up, to over 2000 in each of the past 2 years.”
That’s pretty impressive!!! It was a hot seller’s market in Madison and a great time to make [...]

Why Can’t A Home Buyer Search For Pet Friendly Properties?

When searching for a property, why are home buyer’s not given an option for pet friendly property search criteria?
I asked Pearl, my French Bulldog that question, here was her response-

I know it doesn’t matter so much when a buyer is searching for a single family home. A buyer searching for a single family home can do a [...]

Bassett Area Home Buyer Program Announced By City Of Madison

In a press release from the Madison Mayor’s office,
Oct. 30th 2007/MADISON – Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Ald. Mike Verveer announced today a new acquisition and rehabilitation loan program to help homebuyers interested in living downtown. The new program called the Bassett Small Cap TIF Loan Program can assist potential borrowers in the Bassett area.
Highlights of [...]

The Growth Of Madison Through Time

You need to check out this cool site. It is called Trulia Hindsight. Trulia is a real estate search site that puts together cool gadgets and tools that I sometimes spend my spare time playing with. Am I nerd? I think geek. But if you have someone helping you buy or sell a house, don’t [...]

East Side Of Madison Home Prices. Going Up or Down?

Taking a look at the Madison East single family and condo home prices.

 I love graphs. Graphs make things simple. You can quickly look at a graph and it tells you something. Look at the graph for Madison east single family and condo prices. The graph quickly tells you, that Madison east single family home prices [...]

Madison East vs. Madison West Real Estate

Comparing housing days on market for Madison East vs. Madison West.
We looked at single family and condos in both the Madison East and Madison West market areas.

The Madison East and Madison West single family markets are almost even with each other for days on market. What makes the Madison East real estate market a bit [...]

Is The Madison Real Estate Market Glass Of Water Half Empty or Half Full?

Madison real estate market.
Good? Bad?
How do you look at it? Half full? Half empty?

Maybe the press is right and the real estate market glass of water is half empty. There is high inventory. Days on market is 73. Home prices are not increasing, as much as they once did.  You have to get creative and [...]

Dane County Real Estate Market Trends (Including Madison and surrounding area)

Info on Dane County Real Estate Market and Housing trends for the past 8 years.
This is looking at the first 3 quarters of the year for the last 8 years of the Dane County real estate market.
Keep this in mind when you are looking at the numbers. I hear from home sellers and even Realtor’s [...]

View Of Downtown Madison (The City On An Isthmus)

The downtown Madison area is located between two lakes.
Lake Monona and Lake Mendota.
This is a photo I took today from the Lake Monona side. Over looking Lake Monona, you can see the downtown Madison area, including the Monona Terrace and the Wisconsin State Capital building.

The Monona Terrace is the building front and center in the [...]

Days On Market For Dane County Real Estate

Looking at Dane County Real Estate Days On Market from June  ‘06 – September ‘07

Since June, Days on Market has been creeping back up for single family homes in Dane County. Dane County condo sales days on market is all over the place and is really throwing a wrench in to real estate sales in [...]

Things That A Home Seller Can Do In The Madison Real Estate Market

Home Sellers, the real estate market got you down? Does this shift to a buyer’s market make your home selling process frustrating and confusing?
18 months ago, a home for sale in Madison was flying off the market and selling for more than the asking price. Now, it kinda feels like pulling teeth just to get buyers into your home [...]

Your Home Helping Other Homes Sell

Last week we did a quiz,
Your Home For Sale Could Be Helping Other Homes Sell Instead
We then gave you the results.
How could your home actually be helping other homes sell? Glad you asked.
In order to understand this possibility, you are going to have to forget that your home is…well, your home. It is a product. [...]

Dane County Adding More Park Space

From the Wisconsin State Journal

Dane County making largest-ever purchase of park land
Dane County’s largest-ever park purchase — 172 acres in the North Mendota Natural Resource Area in the town of Westport — was announced today by County Executive Kathleen Falk.
The county will seek out partnerships to offset some of the $5.5 million cost for the [...]

Your Home For Sale Could Be Helping Other Homes Sell Instead

Did you take our quiz yesterday?
If you answered TRUE to 8 or more questions, your home for sale has definitely helped another home sell.
If you answered  TRUE to 5-7 questions, you might want to re-examine your marketing, price, staging and other things. You can read here, about our 10/20 Rule and how many showing you [...]

Your Home For Sale Could Be Helping Other Homes Sell Instead

Take this quiz to see if your home for sale is helping other homes sell, while you still sit waiting for a buyer.
You might not only be hurting your chances of selling your home but actually helping the competition get theirs sold. Take this 10 question true/false to find out.
true       false
1. My home for sale has been [...]

The Three Important Things In Real Estate TV Ads:Boring, Boring, Boring

Yesterday I wondered why do real estate company TV ads suck so bad?
I started skating around the blogosphere ( I figure if you surf the web, you skate the blogos) looking for answers. Over at FoREM, Joel Burlsem wrote,
Real estate ads have become so generic they’re forgettable. Same boring messages. Same boring situations. So who’s going to [...]

Why Are Real Estate Company TV Ad’s So Bad???

Quick.
Name a memorable real estate TV ad. Got it.
Was it clever? Was it funny? Did it convey emotion?
Oh. You can’t even remember one. That’s because real estate TV ad’s suck almost as much as real estate logos. I don’t know if executives at the top just refuse to hire good firms to help with promotion [...]

Revisiting “Priced To Sell”

I think Realtor cliche’s are funny. I have been as guilty as anyone in using them, but I am going to strive to eliminate them from my marketing.
What is a Realtor cliche? I wrote a post awhile back and had some great comments added to some Realtor cliches, but in general, it’s a line that [...]

High End Luxury Homes In Madison

The Capital Times, a local Madison newspaper, wrote a story yesterday about high end luxury homes in the Dane County area.
“While two decades ago even the most expensive homes barely topped $300,000, in Dane County today there are well over 400 single-family homes that are assessed at more than $1 million, and more than 1,000 [...]

The Truth About The Dane County Real Estate Market

This post includes real estate market stats and info for  Madison West, Madison East, Cottage Grove, Monona, Middleton, Waunakee, Sun Prairie, Fitchburg, Verona, Stoughton, McFarland and general Dane County.
     “I Want The Truth”
 “You Can’t Handle The Truth!”
 I already shared the stats about the overall Dane County Real Estate market.
Madison East Real Estate (Single Family)
Absorption Rate: [...]

Monona Trash Pick Up Is Not Playing Around

Follow Instructions On Trash Pick Up

The City of Madison recently got new trash bins refuse carts. Madison Guy from Letter from Here explains:
It wasn’t any old bin. Mayor Dave explained that it was our “new tan refuse cart” (to go with the new trucks with the robot arms). To make sure I knew the message [...]

Bernake & the Fed Slash both Fed Funds Rate and Discount Rate by 1/2 point

Big News! Good News! Surprising News!
A rate cut was expected today, but the aggressive .50% rate in both the Federal Funds Rate and the Discount Rate surprised many, including myself.
The Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate by a half point to 4.75 percent, this is the first Fed rate cut in four years!
In a [...]

Madison Real Estate Market (and surrounding communities)

I mentioned in a blog post early this week that I would be sharing what Madison area communities are in a Seller’s market, Buyer’s market or Balanced market.
On the air on Wednesday I gave the run down of most of those markets. We still have some numbers to pull and will be posting them soon [...]

I Will Be On WIBA Talk Radio Discussing The Real Estate Market

I recieved this email in my inbox this morning,
Darin -
My name is Rick Berg and I got your name from a reporter at The Capital
Times (Mike Ivey) who is doing a story today on the sluggish Dane County
real estate market.
I’m filling in for Mitch Henck (WIBA, 1310 AM) on Wednesday morning and
wanted to spend an [...]

Dane County Real Estate Days On Market Thru August

I said earlier,
“Days on Market has nothing to do with a Buyer’s Market or Seller’s Market.”
It doesn’t? Not really.
What you can see in the Dane County Days On Market chart below is that single family days on market are fairly reasonable, a little over two months. But there are always two markets going on in a [...]

Buyer’s Market, Seller’s Market, or Balanced Market

What’s going on in the real estate market?
 
Is it a seller’s market, a buyers market, or a transitional/balance market?
 
We hear the news media saying it’s a buyer’s market, but what does that really mean?
 
I got a phone call on Friday from an “investor”, telling me, “It’s a buyer’s market so your sellers are going to [...]

Weekend Weed Out Postponed

The Madison Real Estate News Week In Review…
…will return after the UW Badger football season.
I will be posting Madison real estate news and reviews during the week though. I just don’t want to have to compete against Badger football on saturdays.
Until the Weekend Weedout returns, catch up on some past happenings that may or may [...]

Feedback From Buyers On Home Showing

On More Listings | More Sales I have written about Feedback for real estate agents,
Your business could be giving you feedback but you may not know what it is or how to interpret it. This feedback could come from such  forms as; no closings for a month, two months, or three months. Not having any current [...]

In A Buyer’s Market You Still Can’t Wait To Buy

It’s a Buyer’s Market. Anyone notice?
In a buyer’s market, home lookers tend to think because they have lots of choices that they also have lots of time.
There are actually two different markets going on during a Buyer’s Market. 

The market for good properties

The good properties are priced right, offer great terms, in excellent condition and staged well. These [...]

Real Estate Market Data Snapshot For Madison East (Zone E12)

What’s (Zone E12)?It’s an area that the MLS made up to give things boundaries and lines. If I can find a virtual MLS Zone map, I’ll post it on the blog or link to it. E12 is a section of the East Side of Madison though.
The reason for this Market Snapshot is I was doing [...]

Retiring Cliches

A little while back I wrote about retiring the marketing line Priced To Sell.
Seth Godin, master marketer, author and blogger put up on his Squidoo site a list of overused business cliches.
On the other hand, the vast majority of buzzwords exist for one reason: to hide. By obfuscating, lying, confusing or just plain avoiding the issue, [...]

Madison Roots Festival

No Weekend Weed Out For Madison real estate today, instead some info on the Madison Wisconsin Roots Festival.
The show is taking place today at the Capital Brewery.

The line up is:

Acoustic-2:30-3:00pm (Mike Droho)
Blues-3:30-4:15pm (Cash Box King)
Rock-4:45-5:30pm (Mighty Short Bus)
Reggae- 6:00-6:45pm (Natty Nation)
7:15pm- 8:30pm (Willy Porter)