Need to Sell Your Madison House Fast? Play Up Your Home’s Classic, Mad City Charm

The city of Madison, Wisconsin, is more than the 9,500 dairy farms, 1.28 million cows, and 23,552 pounds of milk America’s Dairyland is known for. Here, state government, award-winning healthcare, renowned universities, and technology industries converge to attract a variety of students and professionals.

No slouch on leisure and entertainment, Madison’s five lakes serve outdoor enthusiasts while downtown’s State Street calls to the cosmopolitan. All of these factors contribute to a thriving economy, making Madison the fastest-growing municipality in Wisconsin with a reputation for being a real estate hotbed.

According to the state’s second largest circulating newspaper, The Wisconsin State Journal, Madison’s property assessments show a 7.4% rise in real estate values and a consecutive fifth-year straight increase in the average value of single family homes, which comes to $284,868.

Earlier this year, Dane County, home to Madison, reported the second lowest inventory of homes for sale in the country. In a city of opportunity, you can’t blame transplants for wanting to call Madison home.

If you’re thinking of selling your home, the market’s in your favor. We’ve researched the trends that make buyers swoon and spoke with Amber Huemmer, who ranks in the top 1% of real estate agents in the area. She has seen firsthand how quickly homes move, especially when they’re priced in the $225,000-$250,000 range.

While sellers have the advantage of multiple offers on the table, you still need to make an effort to guarantee the home shows well and gets noticed. Madison buyers are competing for their dream home and will pay a higher price to lock in what they want. Take a look at these local real estate tips to get your home sold fast in Madison.

Mad City curb appeal: Keep it easy and inexpensive

First impressions are everything, and for your home, this phrase applies to curb appeal. Like a well-edited movie trailer attracts movie-goers to watch a full-length film, curb appeal sets buyers’ expectations as to what they’ll experience inside the home.

Madison homeowners looking to sell often make the pricey mistake of giving their yard a total makeover hoping to recoup a 100% return on their investment, rather than make small but impactful curb appeal upgrades that don’t break the bank but still impress.

According to a report by the National Association of Realtors’ 2018 Remodeling Impact Report, the percent of value recovered from an overall landscape upgrade costing $6,000 was only 83%. Huemmer recommends sellers invest time and money on the home directly rather than the outside property. Here are some of her other pro tips on how to add curb appeal without wasting time and money:

Use potted plants for visual curb appeal variety

Potted plants provide a pop of color to plain exteriors and they are easier to install and maintain than flower beds. Select plants based on Madison’s four seasons. Klein’s Greenhouses and Nursery, an established garden center in Madison since 1913, recommends the following seasonal potted plants:

• Spring:
  Pansies are tolerant to cooler springtime temperatures.
• Summer:
  Try an herb planter for both beauty and functionality. Herbs such as lavender and chives bloom all summer long. Some other options to consider are rosemary, creeping thyme, basil, and oregano.
• Fall:
  Asters and mums provide jewel-toned pops of purples, pinks, reds, yellows, and oranges as they start to bloom in late summer and continue to bloom during the autumn season.
• Winter:
  Create a holiday themed planter using evergreen boughs, red dogwood, birch branches, and winterberry. The winterberry and red dogwood add a pop of red to accompany the green.

Make sure the windows of the house stand out and sparkle

Remove or replace dated or deteriorated window awnings on older homes. For homes with stone or brick facades, shutters add character and a decorative touch. On newer homes, Huemmer sees the trend of using shutters to highlight one or two windows.

Repaint the wear and tear evident on the home’s exterior

Go around your home’s exterior and touch up chipped door and window trim with fresh paint. The colder, wetter months can cause paint to chip and peel which can be noticeable to prospective buyers.

The front door is one spot buyers will examine with a microscope as they enter the house. Check out this step by step tutorial on painting your front door from the fourth best-selling magazine in the U.S., Better Homes and Gardens. When it comes to choosing paint colors, the door of your home is the one place where you can get away with a brighter color to contrast your home’s neutral exterior.

Replace old doormats for a warm welcome

Nothing is more inviting to someone stepping into your home for the first time than a new welcome mat.

Here are three examples of neutral budget-friendly mats that appeal to the masses:

• Welcome Estate Rubber Coir Doormat
• Wayfair Basics Welcome Doormat
• GRIP MASTER Durable, Tough All-Natural Rubber Indoor Outdoor Door Mat

Showcase the old character in a Madison historical home

Madison has a desirable market for historical homes. Take a tour-worthy stroll through Mansion Hill and you will find grandiose Victorian mansions to romanticize about living in. The city is also home to the architectural splendor of a few Frank Lloyd Wright homes.

For those looking to sell a historic home, pay attention to the staging. With over a decade of expertise in this area, Huemmer explains that there’s a different approach to staging a historic home in Madison in comparison to staging a modern one.

While it’s important to show the uniqueness and old character of the home, sellers should limit the amount of vintage and antique items they showcase because the primary objective is to sell the home, not the antiques.

At the same time, preserve the character and charm of the house with a hands-off approach: don’t paint the century-old doors a different color or update any woodwork if it still remains in good condition. Avoid using oils and use wax instead to polish antique wood. Oils exposed to natural wood grain will oxidize and turn wood black. Beeswax products such as paste wax, butcher’s wax, and French polish provide a protective surface. Liquid waxes, though, are not recommended because they can contain oils damaging to wood.

According to Huemmer, capturing the heart of that old character is what will capture the wallet of prospective buyers.

If you’re going to do any upgrades or remodeling work on your historic home, be sure that your selections improve its selling condition. Buyers in this market are weary of dilapidated homes, so proper maintenance is paramount.

Here are some maintenance tasks and upgrades that improve the selling condition of the historic Madison home without compromising the character:

• Boost temperature control by upgrading wall insulation with options like expanding foam. Also, maintain fireplaces and have chimneys cleaned and inspected annually.
• Think about having original wooden windows restored instead of replaced to preserve the home’s character.
• Check for cracks and monitor them in the masonry and foundation. If they appear to get larger over time they could require professional attention.
• Monitor any damage to wood siding and protect it with sealant or paint.
• Pay attention to any roof damage, replacing wood and slate shingles if needed.

Sell Your Madison home fast with these timeless, classic looks

The historic home influence in Madison translates into what’s popular inside newer homes as well. Huemmer is seeing timeless, classic looks, and they’re delighting buyers.

“We’re still seeing a lot of the white subway tile, people are loving that backsplash in the kitchen,” she explains.

According to the website of cable’s widely watched home and garden channel, HGTV.com, the backsplash is here to stay with its “sleek and easy-to-clean design.”

Styles like the MSI Blanco Subway Tile from Home Depot and the Elida Ceramica Harmony White Subway Tiles from Lowes are two examples of what to look for.

The neutral color theme works in other parts of the kitchen as well. Add white cabinets and countertops and Better Homes and Gardens describes the look as “timeless.”

Another noticeable trend is the mixing of different metals when it comes to lighting fixtures and cabinet hardware. Giving tips for this trend, Invaluable, the world’s leading online marketplace for fine art, antiques and collectibles, states that there’s nothing taboo about this metal mixture because of its cleanliness and elegance it gives a room.

“The different metals work together to add depth, guiding the eye from the dominant color features to the accent colors.”

Adding to classical decor, homeowners of newer properties are taking cues from the historical homes in the area. They’re adding character with antique and vintage looks such as:

• Using paint colors popular in earlier time period, like robin’s egg blue
• Adding crown molding
• Embracing natural materials like hardwood or ceramic tile flooring

For Huemmer, this classic look is very popular with millennials. “You see [millennial] buyers walk in and their eyes just light up,” she explains.

Help the basement of your Madison home look and smell its best

Unfinished basements in Madison are common and can be one of the biggest and yet most neglected spaces in the house. It can go sight unseen until you’re ready to sell the home.

Declutter the basement as you clear out the rest of the house (don’t let it be a junk hub):

Depending on the amount of items to clear out, check with your agent on alternative locations of storage. While some can easily be stored in the garage, look into temperature-control storage units or PODS for what cannot be stored on the property.

Based on reviews and ratings, here’s a list of highly rated storage unit facilities in Madison:

• Applewood Self Storage
• Beltline Self Storage
• Security Self Storage
• West Towne Climate Controlled Storage
• A+ Storage

Go from dark and damp to light and bright

Painting the walls as opposed to leaving dark, gray concrete refreshes a basement’s appearance. Houzz, the media platform and online community about architecture, interior design and decorating, landscape design and home improvement, recommends painting walls white to provide the illusion of light and higher ceilings.

Pay attention to odors

To a prospective buyer, that odor might raise the concern of seepage or a leaky basement. Get a dehumidifier to eliminate the moisture that causes that musty smell and follow these additional tips to address damp odors by attacking the root of the cause.

Maintain furnaces and sump pumps

Over the course of homeownership you should take good care of HVAC and plumbing to avoid issues that will come up during a home inspection. Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable resource program, suggests replacing a furnace over 15 years old in addition to regularly replacing those furnace filters.

For sump pump maintenance, see these helpful tips from Today’s Homeowner, the home improvement media platform that includes the highest-rated, Emmy-nominated home improvement TV show syndicated in the U.S.

Sell a vacant house in Madison faster with virtual home staging

Sellers in a rush to sell a home may have already moved out all their furniture and belongings. Just as first impressions impact buyers as they enter a home, photos are equally important because they draw people to a home for sale in the first place. While bare, empty rooms don’t always stand out, agents like Huemmer are turning to virtual staging to help prospective buyers better envision the home.

Virtual staging is the process of creating fully furnished rooms from photos and scans of those rooms that are empty in real time. First, professional photos are taken inside the vacant home. For the bigger rooms that need more visualization, computer-generated furniture, wall art, greenery and other decor is added.

According to the Wisconsin Realtors Association, one of the largest state trade organizations headquartered in Madison, professional staging services are costly and time consuming, yet staged properties sell for 17% more and 87% faster than non-staged ones.

As temperatures rise in Madison, the housing market heats up

Like the city’s temperatures that range from 11 degrees to 82 degrees, the real estate market in Madison ebbs and flows with the seasons. And as the weather warms up, local trends show that Madison home buyers put their house search on overdrive.

According to real estate transaction data HomeLight has collected for Madison, August is the best month to close on a home. Homes that sell during this period do so for 4.06% more than the yearly Madison average. It takes about three months to close, meaning ideally you want to hit the Madison market in June.

If you decide to sell during this opportune summer moment, follow these warm weather home maintenance and house showing tips:

• Wash the windows: Buyers want to take in views of their potential neighborhood, not the dirt and grime build-up from last winter.
• Clean up the driveway and patio: Remove all debris the past two seasons left behind from walkways, corners or from any other space the buyer might see.
• Inspect all doors and wipe down if needed: Check for signs of wear and tear and address any items such as dirt, grime, squeaks or sticking.
• Make sure sprinkler systems are in working order: This tip will not only help you during a home inspection, but it will make sure your landscaping is getting the proper water it needs.

When in doubt, consult a local Madison real estate professional

In a city where the market is in the seller’s favor, homeowners might ask, why should I hire an agent?

While it’s true there’s nothing stopping you from listing for sale by owner, there’s no guarantee you’ll have the information and resources to sell it fast. A real estate agent can answer questions and give advice on what needs to happen to make your home look like a showcase months before you list to help you spend as little time on the market as possible.

In addition to professional opinions, an agent can find ways for your home to stand out above the rest while offering you special services. For example, Huemmer provides staging to her clients free of charge.

The better the agent, the faster you sell your home. In Madison, a top listing agent can sell your home 50.77 days faster than the average agent. Picking a top agent can also make sellers 5.9% more on the sales, and move 1.8 times more properties.

Choose a top Madison real estate agent that’s right for you and add some much-needed inventory to the Mad City.

Header Image Source: (Good Free Photos)