Lake & City Homes SOLD sign riderAre you trying to sell your home? While it may still be a buyer’s market, it certainly doesn’t mean your home has to remain on the market for several months. In fact, by implementing a few simple seller tips, you will be far more likely to get your home sold quickly and at a reasonable price. Here is a look at 5 basic tips that all home sellers should keep in mind.

Tip #1: Curb Appeal is Key

Curb appeal, or the way your home looks when a potential buyer drives past it, is essential to getting your home sold. Not only do many buyers keep an eye out for homes as they cruise the streets, but the way your home looks from the street will give the buyer his or her first impression. First impressions are long lasting, so you want to be sure yours is a good…

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madison golf course homesGreat news for anyone searching for Madison area golf course homes and condos! In addition to the four new search criteria recently added to our advanced search screens (Basement, New Construction, REO/Foreclosure and Short Sale), you can now search for homes and condos for sale that are located directly on Madison area golf courses. Whether you prefer to search by City, Subdivision, School, Waterfront, or Zip Code, our new golf course search option works with each of these advanced search tools.

To get started, simply choose one of the advanced search options from the Listings menu located on the home page (or click the large graphic marked Advanced Search). Select the city, subdivision, etc that you're interested in, type of property (home or condo),…

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Advanced search tools for Madison home buyersGreat news for anyone searching for Madison area homes and condos online! Due to popular demand we've just added four new search criteria to our advanced search screens. The new search options, which apply to any type of search be it City, Subdivision, School Waterfront, or Zip Code are...drumroll, please...Basement, New Construction, REO/Foreclosure, and Short Sale. Now you can set up searches that will narrow down your results even further by utilizing these additional criteria.

To get started, simplly choose one of the advanced search options from the Listings menu located on the home page (or click the big button marked Advanced Search). Select the city, subdivision, etc that you're interested in, type of property (home or condo), number of…

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What sellers want from today's RealtorToday’s housing market is a buyer’s market. Although home values are rising, it is a very slow ascent and experts predict it will take years for the housing market to fully recover. Therefore sellers face a very challenging market when it comes to listing their home. It is crucial for a seller to have a capable Realtor who can weather a difficult and volatile market. What are sellers looking for in today’s Realtor? It turns out that the fundamentals of service are still the most important traits, combined with a healthy knowledge of their local market and the latest technology.
    
With technology changing so rapidly and new avenues of media becoming a powerful presence, a seller must hire a Realtor who can effectively market their home. Within just a few…

2669 Views, 4 Comments

Happy Valentine's Day! Not to be a Debbie Downer on this fun and fanciful occasion but recently a home inspector told me that work-related stress is now so bad that you have a better chance of living a long life with heart problems or diabetes than you have with job-related stress. Is this really true?? According to an article last fall in the Montreal Gazette, stress is literally depressing all types of workers. Here's an excerpt from the article:
 
“In the next 10 years, depression will rank second only to heart disease as the leading cause of disability globally. In Canada, the majority of absenteeism in the workplace is stress-related. Twenty percent of Canadian workers experience stress-related illness each year. High stress levels in the workplace can…

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Madison Market Snaphot reportsIn case you missed it, this week we announced on Lake & City Homes Facebook Fan Page our new Market Snapshot reports. What's a market snapshot? It's a personalized report that charts current up-to-the-minute market activity about homes in your neighborhood (or any area you specify within a 3-5 mile radius of a given property address). The report includes data such as sold homes and condos, homes and condos currently for sale, inventory counts and even days-on-market. These reports are a fantastic resource if you've been asking yourself any of these burning questions:

  • How do my neighborhood's home values stack up?
  • What are homes worth in my target area?
  • What's my current home worth?
  • Is now a good time to sell?
  • Has the market stabilized?

To get…

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First it was smoke alarms, now it's carbon monoxide alarms. All single-family and two-family homes in Wisconsin are required to have carbon monoxide detectors by today, Feb. 1st, according to a recent news release from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce.

This comes on the heels of Madison's smoke alarm ordinance that went into effect in 2010 requiring hard-wired or 10-year battery-powered smoke alarms in bedrooms, as well as on all floors of any type of residence.

Carbon monoxide, also known as CO, is a byproduct of combustion that is colorless, odorless and tasteless and considered the leading cause of accidental poisoning in the United States, according to the American Medical Association.

"CO alarms have shown their effectiveness in alerting occupants…

4038 Views, 7 Comments

foreclosure signFacing Foreclosure?

A house purchase is a long-term financial commitment. If you are unable to keep that commitment, you can end up facing foreclosure. This is not a good position to be in, but there are several ways to deal with the situation.

Start Paying

If you have missed a few months of payments, you probably aren't in foreclosure yet. Start paying now and contact your lender to arrange a schedule for making up all your missed payments. Do whatever is necessary to get money. Take on a second job, cut back on discretionary spending, and even ask your relatives for help if needed.

The advantages of starting to pay are that you can probably avoid foreclosure, which means you'll keep your house. The drawbacks are that it may be painful to rearrange…

2988 Views, 8 Comments

According to a recent article in U.S. News & World Report, a grand total of 17 chief executive officers of Fortune 500 companies hold degrees from University of Wisconsin-Madison, making the U.W. Badgers one of the largest producers of business leaders today in the U.S.

Only three other schools awarded more degrees to Fortune 500 CEOs than did the UW-Madison: Harvard University (58), Columbia University (21) and the University of Pennsylvania (20).

Of the 17 UW-Madison degrees held by the Fortune 500 CEOs, 11 are undergraduate degrees, three are M.B.A.s (Masters in Business Administration) and three are other types of graduate degree.

To search for Madison homes for sale located close to the University of Wisconsin - Madison campus, try our Search by Map…

2803 Views, 1 Comments

In order of popularity, here are the top 10 most viewed blog posts here at Lake & City Views for the year 2010:

  1. Parade of Homes 2010: Madison homes show
  2. Avoiding aggregators to get the freshest real estate listings
  3. Madison ranks 2nd healthiest U.S city for men in 2010
  4. When is it okay to walk away from your mortgage?
  5. Madison WI ranks most secure place to live
  6. How Much Home Can You Afford?
  7. Wisconsin Still Faring Better Than the Rest of the Country in Terms of Foreclosure Rates
  8. How to Choose Your Madison WI Realtor
  9. Madison Ranks 3rd Best City For Families
  10. New "walkable" homes quicksearch added

Noteworthy is the number of awards that Madison continues to rack up year in and year out. Overall, this list seems to be a…

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