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Friday, May 30. 2008Seven reasons to own a home... in Wisconsin or anywhere.Read this great list at the link above. We realize reading multiple bolgs can be time consuming - so First Weber will try to help by linking to interesting and useful articles found at other blogs - you only have to visit blog.firstweber.com to keep up to date on Wisconsin real estate news. Soon we will have an "ask a question" button. So start thinking about what you want to know and ask us! Friday, May 30. 2008Thursday, May 29. 2008Madison, Wisconsin named one of the friendliest cities in the country!
Madison is one of the fifth friendliest towns in America. Quite the honor! Read the whole article at Today Article excerpt: Did you know?
Thursday, May 29. 2008Tuesday, May 27. 2008Foreign investors see US real estate bargains.Foreign investors see the value in US real estate. Let's hope local buyers do as well. From the Real Trends email update May 2008, and Wall Street Journal... Americans' love affair with real estate may be cooling, but -- thanks to falling home prices and the weak dollar -- attention is heating up from another group of suitors: foreign investors. Tuesday, May 27. 2008Thursday, May 22. 2008Gas and Wisconsin real estateNo one likes the way gas prices are going. But in a strangely positive way, this could become a selling point for homes that are well located near shops, schools, public transportation, major cities etc. Saving $300 or more a month on gas costs by buying closer to work and other conveniences may make the affordability of certain homes more doable for some buyers. While a postive for some, we realize it can be a negative for others. Just an observation sparked by The New York Times and Jim Duncan at Agent Genius Thursday, May 22. 2008Moderne project and luxury condo market still strong in MilwaukeeAn article in the May 16 Small Business Times magazine highlights 2 new condo projects that are selling very successfully. One of these is The Moderne, listed by First Weber Group. See the project page for these condos here.
The Moderne will be located at Juneau and Old World Third Street. On the market since December 1, the fact that eleven of the 81 units have been reserved, for a value of 8.5 million is impressive. Four of the reserved untis are priced at $1 million plus. The developer First Weber is working with, Rick Barrett of The Moderne LLC, said he recently increased prices of the units between $10,000 and $15,000 dollars. That is great to see! Construction could start as early as October if reservations continue at this pace. The other project is called The Residences at Hotel Palomar. Both projects are within walking distance to entertainment venues like the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. Friday, May 16. 2008How up to date are real estate listings?Just looking at the blogs statistics and April was a really great month for traffic! Over 3500 unique visitors. Some people type in blog.firstweber.com to reach us and some find us when they are conducting a web search on say, google. A few people found our blog when they searched for "how up to date are realty listings?" Well, we can't speak for every sitebut I can tell you about firstweber.com. Our listings and participating co-broke listings are downloaded from 5 Multiple Listing Services at least once daily. Our offices work throughout the day to update our own considerable amount of listings and First Weber listings are updated in real time. We rely on the Multiple Listing Services for the data that populates our site for cooperating broker listings. The MLS has rules that agents need to follow and fines if they don't. So, the answer is a nutshell is listings at firstweber.com are updated daily, based on MLS information. Information on other sites, especially ones based on print advertising, can become outdated very quickly. In these situations, information is entered into an ad publishing system which creates the magazine/ad and the same information is put on a website for 30 days or so. That means the info is 30 days old. When possible, go to a local real estate source for the most accurate information. Friday, May 16. 2008How hard would it be the sell this one?And now for something completely different! (any Monty Python fans out there?) Check out this toilet house. What do you think? It is funny at first, but when you read what the architect is trying to do/say, it makes it actually interesting. And apparent that we take so much for granted here in the states, where many homes have a bathroom for each bedroom. I always wondered how kids who grew up with their very own bathroom managed to get by when they had to gasp! share. I did not have that luxury, and I am glad. Maybe the real reason is not because I learned to share, but I did not have to clean it! Happy weekend everyone. We're always here and work on weekends - real estate doesn't stop. Friday, May 16. 2008How'd Wisconsin do in the 1st quarter of 2008?First quarter statistics from the Wisconsin Realtors Association are in. And as much as everyone hopes, the numbers are still disapointing. The number of home sales is down 24%. (and home prices are still 25.3 above quarter one in 2001, more than keeping pace with inflation) But there are three important things to point out about statistics: 1. These statistics are for the past 3 months. The statistics for the next 3 months will reflect the market we are sitting in right NOW. Looking forward, 68% of Wisconsin brokers surveyed by the WRA feel that the second quarter will be better or the same than the first quarter in terms of buyer activity. 52% feel second quarter home sales will surpass second quarter sales a year ago. 2. The first Quarter is typically a little slower. We do live in Wisconsin and it snows. "It is important to remember that bad weather always dampens home sales and given the record snowfall this winter, we were expecting weak numbers for this quarter" said WRA Chairman and First Weber Vice President Michael Spranger 3. Always be thankful the Wisconsin market is in a far better position than Flroida, Californai and Nevada, to name a few of the states suffering the most. FOR BUYERS, your opportunity awaits. And search the easy way. Sign up for automatic emails on properties that suit your criteria. No sales agent will call - you get the info you want, on properties all across the state and initiate contact when you are ready. Friday, May 16. 2008FAN First Weber on FacebookAre you on Facebook? We are! First Weber Group has recognized the exploding growth of social networkng and has started a group for our agents to interact with each other. We are also encouraging agents to set up their own profiles and interact with their circle of friends. It really has been a lot of fun, for me at least, and is an eye opening whole new world of communication. AND, we have also set up a corporate page here. This is for customers and clients to tell us how we are doing. Write a review and become a fan! We do have numerous clients and customers who have "fanned" us and our Frist Weber Group page is quite new. (Please note you do have to sign up for a facebook account and become a fan before you can write a review. One other note, you can select your own privacy settings. This is important, in my opinion) If First Weber did right by you, if you love your agent and you are a fan, make it offiical on facebook. Hope to see you there! Friday, May 16. 2008Friday, May 9. 2008Wednesday, May 7. 2008Thursday, May 1. 2008Where do I find a Home Stager?
Finding a home stager is just one more thing to do! You can click the links below or just contact us and we can get you set up. First Weber Group's Concierge desk has several stagers available to help get homes staged for sale. You can contact them through clicking into a region of our Concierge desk here and visit their websites. |
By now, everyone has probably HEARD of Home staging. It certainly helps to sell vacant homes, as well as spruce up homes for sale that are maybe just too cluttered, need a fresh look etc. Staging, although an expense, is much less expensive than a price reduction in your home if your home does not sell right away. Why not present your home professioanlly staged to attract the most buyers right off the bat?