Precision Pricing. Getting the price right is money and time in the bank.

Every real estate broker has a graph or chart that shows prices go down as time goes up. Those visuals are based on data from somewhere. We've showed those images to owners at least as long as I've been a Realtor, back to 1989. While they may have made some impression at one time, in the run-up of prices, all those fear invoking images lost their power. Time on the market was negligible for even the people who tested the market to its max. Today time is once again money and the evidence is local.

The new economy home buyer is smart. The tools available to them to discect markets are sharp. Negotiating strategies give the buyer control, even in would-be Seller Markets. A simple tool is to offer the owner their price, with no right to cure defects, and an appraisal contingency. This approach locks out the competition, locks in the owner. Throw in a relatively quick closing and quickly the buyer has flipped a Seller's Market to THE Buyer's Market. The power of leverage is immense and price will be reduced to where the buyer wants it more likely than not.

Leverage for the Owner is in precision pricing. The ingredients of precision pricing is a market analysis which includes appraiser used adjustments to account for real differences between the most recent sale relevant houses in the neighborhood, and a realistic understanding of deficiencies in the home. A pre pricing inspection by a home inspector will reveal the nickle and dime items buyers may use to adjust price by half-dollars and thousand dollars. Fix those items and you pay fair price. Leave them for the buyer and you will pay dearly.

A price established by adjusting for differences in a home will place the house perfectly in the appraisal window. Leaving no risk of an under appraised price, there is no chance that a buyer will have a late in the game lever to force the price down when the seller is most vulnerable.

I looked at 15 sales in the near west Madison market including University Heights, Vilas, and Shorewood Hills. Homes that sold without a price reduction sold in an average of 38 days. Those that sold with at leastt one price reduction were on the market for 80% longer. The prices those owners accepted were 2% lower than the seven who sold without a price change. For what it's worth, the people who sold without a price change grossed 96% of their asking price. Those that reduced price settled for about 87% of their initial asking price! One person who expressed great confidence to me at the start gave in after a year and ended up about 28% below the price he/she was so sure of.

Almost no one is in a hurry or wants to give away their house when they start. But after some time of dissapointing results, it seems owners are giving away what they would not have had to had they pricision priced in the beginning. Pricing is essential in this economy. Accepting the reality is the difference in time and money. The view of reality is clear with precision pricing.

University Heights, Madison's Higher Ground for Real Estate

We watched with confidence as the price of real estate rose along with the Madison skyline until a few years ago.  Confidence in our university, government, health care, and private sector professional driven economy contributed to dismissal of the warning signs of a bubble about to burst. Neighborhoods where the leaders of these industries live might just be the higher ground to stay above water.

Just before the Great Depression the area where University Heights sits was prime location for the people who built the foundation of the Madison economy. University, government, health care, and private sector professionals built the homes that make the neighborhood at a time of economic and American pride expansion. The location was a bit out of the city but it had modern access to Madison. Dependable roads were key to draw people to build in the Heights. Horse power was the primary source of transporation with few automobiles bought or sold in Madison in the first years of the '20's. In the midst of the "Great Recession" the Heights is again the destination of choice by the similarly employed. Now the area is absolutely urban, and perfectly served by the modern mode of transportation---bikers, hoofers, and commuters in autos the size of a buggy. The super highway of high speed internet, googles of electronic devices and wifi everywhere make it easy to stay connected from home or nearby shops and nearby restaurants.

In the last 12 months 20 homes have sold in University Heights, three more have offers pending, and eight are on the market today. I don't believe any neighborhood outside of the Beltline can boast the same demand today.  If there is evidence of a trend toward living simply, University Heights may be an indicator. With typical homes ranging in price from the $400,000's to the upper $600,000's, this is not the average Madison home owner's neighborhood. (It's not the most expensive either.) University Heights is a neighborhood of people who make commitments in real estate and those commitments move our market. When these homes sell, owners typically buy somewhere, and someone who sold something somewhereis a most likely buyer. I'm going to assume the average educated people moving in, out, and around University Heights could be described as "well". What a well educated person may be likely to have in addition to diplomas is a good grasp of reality.   I think it's acceptance, and a plan; acceptance of what is and a plan for what to do regardless of the economic unknowns.

University Heights was the higher ground in 1920 and it's the high ground for Madison today. Regardless of where we live, there are lessons to be learned from University Heights...location always matters, and accepting reality is the way to see what is probable.

Home featured above is 177 N Prospect Ave. offered for sale by Tom Meyer, Restaino & Associates as of May 20, 2012.

Middleton is Destination of Choice

Middleton, Wisconsin is a hot destination for relocating home buyers today. Part of the drive is pent up demand of persons who moved to the area 12 or more months ago and rented before buying. Their time was well spent discovering and researching the market, schools, neighborhoods, housing stock, and commuter routes. These well prepared people are making offers from a place of knowledge and their offers are getting accepted. Times they are a changing.

The consumer of real estate services is a much sharper and cautious  consumer in 2012. Home owners who know the reality of their situation (All markets are not buyer markets and home prices are not all down and out) are able to negotiate reasonable prices for their homes and purchase another home at a fair price and an unfair interest rate...if financing is even necessary. The relocating buyer comes to town well schooled in price points, but without the sharper eye of someone on the ground to guide them.  We see over and over where well qualified buyers are losing out on their first choice home because they believe they have no competition; not a correct assumption in Middleton. People who are not otherwise motivated to move off the fence stack up until somebody gives them a reason to jump in. All it takes is one person to try to acquire a property at below fair market value and other ready, willing, and able folks will make offers in line with recent sales.

In the first 10 weeks of this year 61 homes in Middleton are showing on the SCWMLS as sold or pending. Forty one of those are over $250,000. It looks like the high demand is between $275,000 and $565,000.

To get a good look at homes selling in your neighborhood and homes offered for sale, use one of these sites:
Zillow, Trulia, Homes, or even Tom Meyer.  Once you get the big picture, you are free to look to me to sharpen your view. It doesn't matter to me if you are staying, selling, or just looking to evaluate your current assessment. I'm a resource for anyone who wants to make a smart real estate related commitment.

Powerful Real Estate Owning or Renting Tools

Powerful tools are at your fingertips, and I don't mean the yellow pages. The revolution in empowering the American consumer of real estate and related service is picking up steam. Here are a few links to know about for getting the most value out of the building you call home:

Pillar to Post has a beautiful home tips page. Take a Saturday morning to view the room by room, item by item walk around to identify the little problems which you can fix on Saturday before they become big defects.

Use their Cost or Repair Guide to begin planning a home improvement strategy. Starting here will empower you to know the approximate costs so you won't be boondoggled by contractors who might charm  an inflated bid past you.

Using regional data is the better way to know a return on your investment (ROI) for repairs. Making improvements to better enjoy your home is good enough reason to spend a little time and money this year. But, before you commit to a project that you think is a big payoff in ROI, check your thoughts against the 2011-12 National averages at Remodeling.

I'm an ally for people who live with roofs over their heads. Go forward. Live in your home free of stress.

Do Right By the Customer

I am in this business to give a real estate safety edge to people. Informed people make safe commitments to do what is evidently wise for them. Infused with certainty, real estate choices are easy, financially probable, and emotionally healthy. No person should ever be manipulated into making a commitment to own, sell, or rent real estate, pay property taxes, or be denied refinancing based on unverifiable data. I'm a rigorous ally for peole who live with roofs over their heads. 


Bubble? What bubble? Best time to buy. Best time to sell. Affordability index. Absorption rate. American Dream. Homeowners are more involved in community than renters. Appreciation. Investment. Cliches. The manipulation to move people to buy, sell, don't rent, is constant and dangerous to the well being of Americans; it's stressful. Consequences of real estate decisions made under stress include lack of commitment, resentment, bitterness, and fear to name a few emotional stressors. Loss of money, bankruptcy, and foreclosure are likely when unprepared people are stressed into commitments they can't keep. Divorce, failing health, and even death spawn from high stress related to loss of control. Prisoners and hostages have much in commone with people who are hostage to commitments they can't keep. They hurt from the consequences of loss of freedom. 


Freedom is the gift of knowledge and insight. The tools available to the public to rise above the barage of assertions based in opinions are incredible. Multiple dozens of practicle aps and web sites are easy to use and relatively reliable for people to know what appraisers and assessors know. Access to homes for sale right next to data on homes recently sold are at your finger tips. There is no reason the widow or widower should be assessed 120% of their verifiable fair market value while the new owner next door is assessed at 100% or less of their homes value. Never again should a person who wants to refinance be denied because an appraisal showed their home is worth slightly less than what's required for approval. Every decision that works against a property owner can be disputed...having the evidence is your power to appeal.

No renter should ever be stung into owning because they have been pushed to do what they know isn't best for them. The financial part of the equation is simple in the hands of experts. The personal part of the formula can be resolved with patience and reflection on values.

There are reasonable prices to pay or accept for home buyers and owners. Reasonably accurate data exists to determine what is probable. Freedom from clinging to what's possible, but not probable, will allow people to move forward with health, wealth, and peace of mind.

 I'm committed and free to do right by the customer.

Sentiment Trumps Interest Rates

 University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Report

The experts do the reporting and I'm sharing their work. The data supports the evidence---regardless of the interest rates or home prices, how people feel about the present and the future have a lot to do with committing to spending commitments.

HouseHunt.com For 53562

The Middleton Zip code sales data provided by HouseHunt.com shows the average price dropping last summer as consumer sentiment declined. It takes more buyers to move the average price up above the median. As buyers moved to the sideline, regardless of cheap money and glut of houses to choose from, the average price dipped. Then as the confidence improved, people came back and the averages went up.

Part of The Solution.

Peter Zarov, attorney with Homestead Title, presents  an excellent Distressed Sale seminar in three hours. Saw it today. His manual is valuable. Peter is part of of the solution. Education reduces uncertainty and paves the way for consumers to get offers accepted and closed.
The high rate accepted offers failing to close is related a lack of understanding. Educating the service provider and the service receiver is part of the economic recovery solution.