Madison Wisconsin Real Estate Video Blog with Jo Ferraro

Finding Your Dream Home in Madison

2015-08-12T13:14:00.002-07:00

Buying a Madison home? Get a full home search here

Selling your Madison home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Today, I wanted to give you a quick market update. Our listing inventory is very low, and the market is so competitive right now that we are running into buyers who cannot find their dream home for a price they can pay for.

It's become very important for buyers to know about home remodeling and what your return on investment would be before you make a purchase.

Before I was in real estate, I was an investor. I flipped homes and did complete remodel projects, so I'm very well-versed in what it takes to turn a less-than ideal situation in to your dream home. I can help you look at what you're going to spend, assess what the ROI would be, and determine whether a home is a good or bad investment.

I recently had a client hire me for that exact reason. Their dream home simply wasn't available, and they needed to look at alternatives. Ultimately, it's all about our clients, their goals, and what's best for them.

If you know anyone looking for their dream home, or if you have any questions about real estate, give me a call or send me an email.

Madison Real Estate Is on Fire this Summer

2015-07-30T04:39:00.002-07:00

Buying a Madison home? Get a full home search here

Selling your Madison home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Today we are going to share some great news about the Wisconsin real estate market that we think you will be really excited to hear.

You all have probably heard that our listing inventory is extremely low and buyers are out there competing for homes. We are seeing multiple offer situations everywhere, and our sales are already up 15% from this time last year. Our median sales price is up from last year too, by 10%!

If you know anybody or if you yourself are even considering selling your home, you may be surprised at the kind of advantages this market offers you. Working with a team like ours that knows the market and all the latest trends is extremely important in getting a good deal.

The sooner sellers get their homes on the market this summer, the better they will fare. Mortgage interest rates are expected to rise soon, so buyers are out looking to lock in a rate right now.

If you have any questions for us, or are looking to buy or sell a home, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Staging Doesn't Have to be Expensive and Complex

2015-07-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

Buying a Madison home? Get a full home search here

Selling your Madison home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

If you are looking to sell your home, your goal is to get the most money possible in the shortest amount of time. One of the best ways to add value and appeal to your home is through home staging. You have a lot of options for how you want to go about it. You could hire a professional staging company, but that comes with a hefty price tag. Most of the time, a few simple fixes is all it takes to transform a living room.

Today we are going to go through some of our most favorite, inexpensive home staging tips or you. We hope these will help you save both time and money when it comes time to sell your home.

A fresh coat of paint is always a good idea. Neutral, warm colors work best for highlighting the natural light in your home. This will make it easier to punch up the room with some colorful accessories and pull everything together.

A common design problem facing many homeowners is that they have no real entry way, as their front door opens up to the living room. To fix this, you can add a table, some lighting, and a rug to "fake a foyer" and make it feel like the living room and entryway are two different spaces.

A patterned rug, some pillows, or bright curtains add a ton of texture and an eclectic layer to the space, which is essential to a well-designed room.

In some cases, a "make-under" is just what you need. In the case of most fireplaces, taking some accessories and clutter away enhances the look and feel of the room greatly.

You could spend well over a few thousand dollars with a staging company, or you could do these fixes yourself for around $500. That's a small investment considering the value that you add to your home by adding those pieces.

If you have any questions for us about staging your home or anything else real estate related, give us a call or send over a quick email. We are always here to help, and would love to hear from you!

The Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran Has Endorsed Our Team!

2015-07-06T10:20:00.004-07:00

Buying a Madison home? Get a full home search here

Selling your Madison home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for all of the support and all of the business and referrals that you have provided to us.

Barbara Corcoran from the TV show, "The Shark Tank" recently endorsed our team, and we could not be more honored!

I also got the chance to meet another star of "Shark Tank." Kevin O'Leary (Mr. Wonderful) was at a Mastermind event in San Diego, where I spoke with some of the brightest minds in real estate.

Kevin shared with me that a successful business must provide value, a good service, and incredible results.

So, we want to thank you for your help throughout all these years, and we promise to keep providing you with better and better service as time goes on.

If you're looking to buy or sell in Madison, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Why Is Now a Great Time to Be a Madison Homeowner?

2015-06-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

Buying a Madison home? Get a full home search here

Selling your Madison home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Other than the fact that it's a beautiful day here in Southern Wisconsin, we have some great news for you today. Our real estate market has shifted, making now a wonderful time to consider selling.

If you're curious about your home's value or if you want to get a market analysis for your area, we would love to help. Right now, our clients are getting 100% of their asking prices and are receiving multiple offers! Buyer activity continues to improve in the Madison area, so now might be the time to get top dollar for your home!

We would love to help you take advantage of this wonderful market. Give us a call or shoot us a quick email if you have any questions - we would love to hear from you!

Have You Considered a Career In Madison Real Estate?

2015-04-14T08:58:00.002-07:00

There are many great Madison, WI area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 608-205-1321 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Hi, Jo Ferraro here with Century 21. I have a few opportunities that I wanted you to know about today. We have a ton of leads and are looking to hire some new talent. Before we get to that, however, we want to give you a quick market update, so you know what's been going on in Madison.

We have had an early spring rush this year, and are expecting it to continue through the early summer. Interest rates are extremely low, listing inventory is down, and if you or somebody you know has been considering selling their home, we have buyers waiting in line for the chance to scoop up a great property.

What does it take to be successful as an agent in today's market? For one, it's a lot of work. But beyond that, you need to align yourself professionally with like-minded individuals who are committed to succeeding in business. Our team loves helping people, and we are a group of tremendous, high producing real estate agents.

If you or somebody you know is interested at all in real estate or taking a pre-license course to get your real estate license, I'd be happy to talk to you. Give me a call or send me an email, and we can see if you are a fit!

Have You Heard About Homes for Heroes?

2015-04-07T08:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, we've got some exciting news for you today! My team and I have recently partnered with the "Homes for Heroes" program, an awesome program designed to give back to our local and national heroes, including veterans, police officers, firefighters, teachers, health care workers and more.

This program offers great savings to our heroes, whether they are buying, selling, or refinancing. In addition, we are offering up 25% of our gross commission directly back to the hero that hires us. So if you are one of these heroes or know one yourself, we will take off 25% of our commission at closing and give that back to you to do whatever you'd like with it.

To learn more about the program, visit our site www.soldinmadison.com, or www.homesforheroes.com/jo-ferarro. If you have any questions for us in the meantime, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

How Can We Help Fix Your Mortgage Issues?

2015-01-08T08:28:00.000-08:00

Today I'd like to talk to you about some challenges we are seeing in the mortgage industry from a buyer's perspective. Today we are here with trusted mortgage professional Bill Quigley of Network Funding. He has a few tips and insights about the mortgage lending world that he would like to share with us today. First, we want to talk to you about how remarkably fast Bill and his team are at repairing credit.

Recently, he had a Madison buyer couple come to him who were already turned down by 2 lenders due to credit issues from past marriages. Bill was able to take them to his proprietary credit repair partner, who guarantees to repair credit in 30 days. Instead of not being able to qualify for a home, they are actually closing in 2 weeks. A lot of times, it takes people months to repair their credit, so the fact that they were able to do it in 30 days is absolutely incredible. If you've had credit issues in the past, don't give up. We are solution-oriented business people who just want to help.

Now, let's talk about interest rates in Wisconsin real estate. They are still hovering right around 4%, near all-time lows. The Fed has been keeping rates low for some time now, but change is coming. They are easing up on their purchasing, which will cause rates to eventually rise. The good news is that you can lock in an incredibly low rate now. If you are thinking of buying a home in the next year, locking in a rate now may save you thousands of dollars in the future. Figure out your budgets and what you can afford, then come to us and we will help you lock in that low interest rate. There’s no telling what the future holds for interest rates in Madison, but the present says that now is the time to lock them in.

If you have any questions for us, please feel free to reach out. We would love to help you out!

Bill Quigley NMLS# 288189 | Mortgage Lender | Network Funding, LP NMLS# 2297 | 2417 Parmenter Drive, Middleton, WI. 53562 | 608.831.4663 | 608.836.1527 | * Bill@MadTownMortgage.com | www.MadTownMortgage.com |

How to get the Upper Hand on your Home Purchase

2014-10-02T07:27:00.000-07:00

Today we want to give you 3 tips for buying a home. These tips will help you gain a competitive advantage over others who may want the same property. Many areas in our market, even in the Fall, have very low inventory to go along with their low interest rates. This has buyers competing for the homes they want, and we want to share with you some strategies to help you out.

1. Be prepared in advance

Know your buying power as well as how much you can and want to spend. Make a budget and stick to it so you don't overpay.

2. Love it or lose it

Sometimes you have to make a decision on whether you love a home enough to make an offer, or move on to the next home. We have a love it or lose it program on our team where if you have to relocate for whatever reason, we will sell your house for free.

3. Know how to navigate in a multiple offer situation

When you are competing against multiple buyers for the same property, you need all the help you can get. Our team has an escalation clause, exclusively for our clients, that will pretty much guarantee that our buyers win. Even in the last week, this clause has allowed 3 of our buyer clients competing against multiple offers to win because of it.

We are all about going above and beyond for our clients and introducing outside-the-box thinking and strategies that really make a difference. If you have any questions about our team, or about real estate in general, give us a call. We'd be glad to help!

Madison Real Estate Market Update for Fall 2014

2014-09-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

As the fall looms closer, we have been getting a lot of questions about the real estate market. With vacations coming to a close and the kids heading back to school, you would think that the market would stay pretty dormant. However, that has not been the case and currently, the market is extremely busy. We started off a little slow this year due to the long winter and are about 6-8 weeks behind our normal numbers, but sales have not suffered. Sales in Wisconsin have increased 15.6% since this time last year, which is very encouraging going forward because of our slow start this year.

The entire landscape of the market is just beginning to shape up and get stable. The median sales price has stayed near the same and interest rates remain at all time lows. Our expiration rate, which is the percentage of homes that were put on the market but did not sell, is right around 26%. With this in mind, it's important to get your home priced properly so that you can sell it quickly and not just wait for it to sit there on the market. We just took over a listing that had expired on the market and by putting a few of our spins on it, we were able to receive 2 offers in 2 days without even having to reduce the price.

If you have any questions about the real estate market in South Central Wisconsin or any other questions at all, please give us a call or send us an email. We'd love to hear from you!

How You Can Get the Most Out of Your Mortgage

2014-08-13T14:08:00.001-07:00

There are many great Madison, WI area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 608-205-1321 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today we have a special guest that will help answer some questions we hear all the time about mortgage financing. Dave Van Beckum is a Senior Loan Mortgage Originator with Providence Home Lending and has worked with many of our clients..

Dave says to keep an eye out for low interest rates - which are currently hovering around 4%. In addition, he suggests you get pre-approved before beginning your home search because it will improve your confidence and let you know exactly what you can afford.

It's probably not a good idea to wait until you have more money for a down payment before entering the market. According to Dave, the rates and terms of available loans are good right now and we are also seeing attractive home prices. Waiting to buy could be risky - we are not expecting these ideal conditions to continue indefinitely. Interest rates are expected rise within the next year and small fluctuations in rates can make a big difference in whether you're eligible for a loan.

Current market conditions here in Madison are great for upgrading your home. If you want to get an extra $5,000-$10,000 on your current home, now is your chance. You can apply for a loan at www.HomeLoanMadison.com or, if you want to discuss your mortgage options with a professional, you can call Dave directly at (608) 227-2003.

As always, if you are wondering whether or not now is the right time to make an upgrade or are wondering whether you should rent or sell, we are always available to help. We can provide you with a "move up" or "rent vs buy" analysis so you can feel confident in your final decision. Knowing your options will make your real estate experience much easier, so give us a call or shoot us email for all the help you need.

How we helped Stacy sold her home quickly by giving them the information they needed

2014-06-30T14:58:00.002-07:00

"We had pretty good results with Jo and she actually answered the questions we needed. Our house sold pretty quickly and it was an overall pleasant experience. They took care of everything, even when the inspector tripped a breaker and everything in our freezer thawed out."

The Importance of Pricing Your Home Correctly

2014-06-17T15:12:00.002-07:00

There are many great Madison, WI area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 608-205-1321 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today I am going to talk about one of the most important steps in selling your Madison home: Pricing. Pricing your home correctly could be the difference between your home selling quickly or going stale on the market.

While marketing and exposure are very important for selling your home, pricing is probably the #1 factor on whether or not you're going to be successful when you sell your home.

The first step in finding the right price for your home is determining its market value. Your home's value is calculated by many things including location, interest rates, and what other homes are selling for in your area. It's constantly changing because the housing market, just like the stock market, fluctuates.

One strategy home sellers try to use is pricing their home high to start off with, then lowering the asking price a little at a time. While you are more than welcome to use that strategy, my professional opinion is that it is not such a great idea. Statistics show that home sellers who initially price their home too high sell their home anywhere from 2-10% less than they would if they priced their home correctly in the first place.

Another problem that overpricing can lead to is giving your property a bad reputation. Agents and buyers will look at a home if it has been sitting on the market for a long time and will immediately question it. They will think that something's wrong with the property, or the seller is reluctant to give up the house and this will clearly turn them off. By overpricing, you are also giving an advantage to the other similar homes in your area that are priced correctly. They will sell faster and likely for more money.

To navigate these pitfalls and price your Madison home correctly, you need somebody on your side that knows the market in your area and can get you the most amount of money in the least amount of time. Give me or my team a call any time and we will be happy to give you an estimate on what we think your home could sell for. We do our research, look out for our clients, and sell over 100 homes a year, so we know what we are doing and can help you the best. Give us a call today or visit our website SoldInMadison.com

Watch Out for Inaccurate Information on Real Estate Websites

2014-06-02T13:29:00.001-07:00

Trust Your Local Realtor for the Most Accurate Home Listings

Many of my clients here in Madison have been asking me about Zillow and Trulia, and they are wondering whether they are good resources for them to use. The short answer is NO, but let me explain why.

There is nothing wrong with beginning a home search online, but you shouldn't expect to find your dream home off of Trulia or Zillow. The listing on these sites are notoriously inaccurate and outdated. Clients will occasionally ask to see a home, and when I search the MLS I have to tell them that the property they found on Zillow is actually not for sale anymore. In today's fast-moving real estate market it is very important to get accurate information.

These websites also offer home value estimators, but these are also very inaccurate. Some experts claim that these values can be as much as 90% off. When these websites spit out home values, they are only taking your local area and giving you an average home price. They are not relating it to relevant market conditions, and this often leads to a very bad home pricing.

Your best bet is to simply rely on your local Realtor here in Madison. I have access to updated home listings through the MLS and I can give a very accurate price on your home. Instead of wasting your time online, contact me and jump start your home search today.

How We Used Negotiation to Help David Sell His Home After Having it on the Market for 5 years

2014-05-13T13:48:00.000-07:00

"Jo delivered on everything she said she was going to do. She markets aggressively, keeps you informed, and doesn’t over-promise. You won’t be disappointed when you work with Jo."
- David Doll, Home Seller

3 Reasons Why You Can Get Top Dollar This Spring

2014-04-30T12:24:00.001-07:00

There are many great Madison, WI area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at 608-205-1321 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

3 Key Factors to Selling Your Home this Spring and Summer

I have had a lot customers asking me whether or not it is a good time to sell here in South Central Wisconsin. Many of my clients are wondering whether they should sell their homes now or wait until the summer, and there are 3 factors that might aid you in making this decision.

Listing inventory is extremely low: This is creating multiple offers for sellers and causing their final home prices to increase. Also, home prices have increased by 5% from last year, especially in Dane County.
Interest Rates: Interest rates are still historically low, with the average being 4.3% depending on your credit score. However, this is expected to increase by at least 1% to around 5.5%.

What this means is that if you wait to buy, it's going to cost you. Let's say that you got a $400,000 dollar loan on a home. If the current interest rate went up by 1%, you would be paying an extra $200 per month on your mortgage, and you would also be spending an extra $87,000 over the life of the loan! That is huge.

Timing Your Listing Well: Putting your home on the market when there is not a lot of other competition will give you more leverage and allow you to get a better selling price for your home. It's also important to put your home on the market when buyer activity is high, and buyer activity here in the Madison area is very high right now. Low interest rates are spurring buyers that were formerly undecided to search for homes because they are more affordable than ever.

What it really comes down to is what works for you, and how we can get your home sold in the least amount of time with the least amount of stress, but also for the most amount of money. If you're unsure about selling your home, please contact me for a free market assessment. I would love to sit down and talk about what we can do to sell your home in our local market here in the Madison area.

Madison Wisconsin Real Estate Video Blog with Jo Ferraro

Finding Your Dream Home in Madison

Madison Real Estate Is on Fire this Summer

Staging Doesn't Have to be Expensive and Complex

The Shark Tank's Barbara Corcoran Has Endorsed Our Team!

Why Is Now a Great Time to Be a Madison Homeowner?

Have You Considered a Career In Madison Real Estate?

Have You Heard About Homes for Heroes?

How Can We Help Fix Your Mortgage Issues?

How to get the Upper Hand on your Home Purchase

Madison Real Estate Market Update for Fall 2014

How You Can Get the Most Out of Your Mortgage

How we helped Stacy sold her home quickly by giving them the information they needed

The Importance of Pricing Your Home Correctly

Watch Out for Inaccurate Information on Real Estate Websites

Trust Your Local Realtor for the Most Accurate Home Listings

How We Used Negotiation to Help David Sell His Home After Having it on the Market for 5 years

"Jo delivered on everything she said she was going to do. She markets aggressively, keeps you informed, and doesn’t over-promise. You won’t be disappointed when you work with Jo."- David Doll, Home Seller

3 Reasons Why You Can Get Top Dollar This Spring

3 Key Factors to Selling Your Home this Spring and Summer

"Jo delivered on everything she said she was going to do. She markets aggressively, keeps you informed, and doesn’t over-promise. You won’t be disappointed when you work with Jo."
- David Doll, Home Seller