Mistakes Sellers Make: Buyers Need Access to Your Home in Order to Buy   This is one of the most frequent and common mistakes made by sellers that I've encountered in my years as a real estate broker.  If buyers can't get in to see your home, there's no chance they will be buying it. This sounds like such a simple concept, but you might be surprised how many sellers make it difficult, sometimes even impossible, for a buyer to arrange a showing of the seller's property. My first case in point was a lovely Madeline Island home on Lake Superior which I was attempting to show my client a few years ago.  The prospect flew up to the Island for the weekend with his family and they wanted to see every four-season waterfront home in inventory.  At the time, his list amounted to five homes and ... 01/15/2014

  Do You Want to Sell or Do You Need to Sell?  And Why Does it Matter?   We get phone calls on occasion from property owners who confide that they "need to sell" their home.  Some of these calls are triggered by the owner receiving their property tax statement in the mail.  Others may be the result of a life-changing event, such as retirement, a death in the family or a long-distance move. The "need to sell" category of sellers is self-explanatory.  And when pricing a home, we tell our "need to sell" clients that urgency is the strongest motivation.  The more urgently you need to sell, the more careful you should be not to overprice your home. The second category of sellers, an owner who says "I want to sell my second home but it's not urgent" is a different client altogether.  If there... 01/12/2014

  More Ethics Issues - Misleading the Owner About Market Value   The National Association of Realtors Code of Ethics, Article One, is clear in discussing the conduct of an agent who misleads a property owner about the value of their home in order to get the listing.  Standard of Practice 1-3 states: "Realtors, in attempting to secure a listing, shall not deliberately mislead the owner as to market value."   When listing inventories are down and agents are scrapping over listings like dogs fighting over a bone, you may notice even more pressure on agents to avoid any discussion on overpricing.  In turn, some agents will tell a homeowner whatever they want to hear, in order to induce that owner to list their property.  This misleading behavior is probably the most common cause of overpric... 01/12/2014

  Why do Some Agents Take a Listing Where They Don't Know the Area?   You can tell the local real estate market is picking up when out-of-area agents foray into taking property listings on Madeline Island.  The problem is, these agents have almost no chance of selling your home. To the agent who has no familiarity with our area (other than visiting as a tourist) and no sales history there, a new listing is little more than a prize.  I can understand why an agent lusts after bragging rights to a new listing in a well-known, upscale vacation home community.  However it's arguably questionable and self-serving behavior for a Realtor to take a listing, or claim expertise, in an area where that Realtor has neither local knowledge of that particular community nor a track record of success on ... 01/12/2014

  Sellers, Why Gamble When Choosing an Agent?  Can You Beat the Odds?   When you select an agent to sell your home, are you calculating your chances of success before you sign a listing contract?  Or are you trying to beat the odds? Listing your property with an agent who has made few if any sales in the past year is a good example of risky behavior.  By taking that risk, you wind up betting that an agent who hasn't done much selling in the recent past will somehow miraculously have a great year in 2014.  Similarly, if you're selling a home priced at over half a million dollars and the agent who's pitching their services to you has rarely made a sale over $200,000 in the past year or two, what are your chances that the agent will suddenly acquire the specialized skills required to succe... 01/12/2014

 Add Accessibility Features to a Summer Home & Corner the Rental Market Vacation and second home markets often lack accessible rental lodging for short-term summer renters who need it.For example, week-to-week and short term summer home/condo rentals are a high-demand item on Madeline Island in the Apostle Islands of northwest Wisconsin.  But if you needed to find a short term summer rental that's wheelchair accessible or has interior features tailored to the needs of someone with limited mobility, you might find that more of a challenge than you'd expect.The need for accessible lodging, as well as housing, is poised to expand hugely in the coming decades.  If you're competing with other rental property owners for bookings, why not make your rental a stand-out by adding accessibility fe... 01/06/2014

  Why I Write This Real Estate Blog - And Why You Should Be Reading It   Consumers are thirsty for accurate, up-to-date real estate market information, particularly market information for their unique neighborhood.  Homeowners want information on what their dwelling is worth.  Buyers seek price and recent sales information as part of the process of searching for a home.   Unfortunately, consumers don't get great local market information from listing aggregators.  What they get is glitzy pie charts and graphs, often inaccurate "estimates" of a home's value.  Much of the market information is city-wide or county-wide, rather than truly local. The reliability of the market information these sources broadcast to consumers depends hugely upon where their information comes from. A real estate... 01/05/2014

January 2nd - Two Madeline Island Home Buyer Inquiries This Morning   The real estate market for Madeline Island homes has changed.  You might even say this real estate market has legs. The New Year is in its second day.  And this morning, we've received two serious home buyer inquiries about Madeline Island homes. At our Twin Cities office, things are hopping as well.  I'm in the process of drafting a condominium offer for a client in Edina, Minnesota. And I received a phone call on New Year's Eve from a fellow who wants to purchase a buildable lot where he can construct his new home. Last December and January wasn't like this.  The phone didn't ring this much or this often a year ago.  In fact, it's been several years since we've experienced home buying interest like what we're seeing... 01/02/2014

Recent Madeline Island Home Sales at Over 95 Per Cent of List Price   When a home or property sells for over ninety-five per cent of the list price, it's a good sign that the listing agent knows the market. It's also a good sign when a prospective buyer who sees value at the list price is confident enough to write an offer within a few percentage points of full price. Here are a few statistics from 2013 which Madeline Island buyers and current owners should carefully consider:   2013 Madeline Island Homes Sold at over 95% (ratio of sold price to list):  Four 2013 Closed Home Sales in excess of 96%:  Three 2013 Closed Home Sales in excess of 98%:  Two   Average Sold Price (Based on Five Closings Since September 19, 2013):  $519,986 [All of the above sales were properties listed by Madeli... 01/02/2014

Multiple Offers Return to the Madeline Island Real Estate Market   In another blog post, entitled "What to Watch For in the 2014 Madeline Island Real Estate Market", I recently shared a list of signs which point to continued growth in real estate market activity on Madeline Island. Another market indicator which has appeared in late 2013 has been multiple offers on Madeline Island homes, something we haven't witnessed in years. A multiple offer situation validates the fact that the property is priced at market. It also clearly points to the depth and breadth of prospective buyer interest. Beneath the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, is the reality that there are more interested potential buyers out there than the closed sale statistics indicate. Multiple offers are widely considered to ... 12/31/2013

Sellers, Resolve to Make Your Home or Cottage Ready to Sell in 2014   At the year's end, we deal with the inevitable task of summing up which listings sold, and why.  We also find ourselves struggling to explain why a particular listing did not succeed in attracting a buyer. Most sellers who are still looking for a buyer understand that doing nothing is not an option. Making no changes to your listing strategy and expecting diferent results next year is not a winning strategy. For sellers whose property did not sell, I can think of no better "New Year's Resolution" than to take inventory of strategies and alterations that can make 2014 a success. Those success strategies usually involve one of two basic remedies.  One is price and the other is condition.  We can't change the location of... 12/30/2013

Why do Most Buyers Wait Until the End of the Year to Make an Offer?   We appreciate our buyer clients and we finish each year grateful that we have buyers with the vision and the desire to own a second home/vacation home on Lake Superior. At the same time, buyer behavior sometimes leaves agents scratching their heads.  Buyers can be quirky.  Maybe they don't mean to be, but they are. For example, the majority of our buyers finally make a buying decision at the end of summer, often even well into autumn.  They often spend months browsing listings on the Web, lurking and dreaming and checking out what's offered for sale online.  When spring and early summer arrives, they visit our Madeline Island (and Bayfield, Wisconsin) area once, twice, maybe three times or more, driving around and occ... 12/29/2013

Appraisers Look to NorthstarMLS for Madeline Island & Bayfield Comps   A well-known area appraiser contacted us last summer to learn more about recent home sales by Madeline Island Realty in LaPointe, Wisconsin.  The purpose of his contact email was to gather comparable sales for an appraisal in the Bayfield, Wisconsin area.  He'd been searching on the SAAR (Superior Area Association of Realtors) MLS for sales in the immediate area and couldn't find enough suitable comparable sales there in order to support an appraisal. I informed him that we upload our listings to NorthstarMLS in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, rather than using the Northwest Wisconsin MLS or SAAR.  He asked why, and I told him that we found it made more sense to market and syndicate listings where our buyers come fr... 12/28/2013

How Long Has This Home Been on the Market? Does it Really Matter?   Every once in awhile, a prospective buyer visiting our Madeline Island office asks me "how long has this home been on the market?  In a primary home community, I'd consider that a valid question and one that agents expect to receive.  I typically reply by pointing out that a primary home (the place where we hang our hat, so to speak) is a necessity.  A vacation home/second home is a discretionary purchase. It's not uncommon for second homes to sit on the market for awhile.  Market times are typically longer for vacation homes and the buyer audience for these homes, especially those in the top price brackets, is a relatively small segment of all potential buyers. I've always believed that second home buyers take more tim... 12/28/2013

What to Watch For in the 2014 Madeline Island Real Estate Market   As I wrote in a recent blog post, making forecasts about real estate market trends and future activity can be a risky business.  But after all, risk-taking is what real estate brokerage is all about. And the end of 2013 is a perfect time to review the past year and to make a few predictions about what 2014 may be like. Below are a few encouraging signs which point to the likelihood of continued market growth in Madeline Island real estate sales activity in 2014: Property showing traffic remained strong up to the close of 2013.  We had property showings on Madeline Island on December 18th and submitted a full-price offer for an Island property on December 20th.  We have not witnessed consistent and ongoing buyer activity ... 12/28/2013

  Madeline Island Real Estate Market Predictions That Came True in 2013   Market forecasting is a risky business, especially when trying to call market upswings (or downturns) in real estate.  After all, market forecasts are often little more than educated guesses.  But when a prediction or two (or three) turns out to be accurate, the author can't resist pointing it out to readers. In late 2011 and early 2012, the author of this blog predicted that we would see a market upturn for Madeline Island property sales, beginning in 2013.  Twelve months ago, we predicted in a blog post that vacant land sales would be sluggish in 2013.  And 2013 turned out to be a very slow year indeed for vacant parcels and building lots. In an April, 2013 blog post, we forecasted that 2013 "could turn out to b... 12/26/2013

Mortgage Lending on Madeline Island Properties Makes a Comeback It's been awhile, but mortgage lenders are again taking a fresh look at financing Madeline Island home purchases and they're finding ways to make buying a reality. Among area lenders, Northern State Bank in Ashland, Wisconsin seems to be taking the most constructive approach toward making mortgage products available to Madeline Island home buyers.  If you're contemplating a Madeline Island or Bayfield, Wisconsin area home purchase, contact Mike Simon at 715-682-2772. Our Minneapolis & St Paul area buyers have reported success in obtaining financing at a growing number of lending sources in the Twin Cities, including Bell State Bank & Trust (Minneapolis, Minnesota).  Contact Gary Loeffler, Loan Officer - Bell State Bank & Tr... 12/24/2013

Market Report - What Sold in 2013 on Madeline Island (and What Didn't)   Our Year end Market Report for 2013 real estate sales on Madeline Island is good news for almost anyone planning to sell a home in the 54850 zip code area.  Here are some of the highlights: Buyers had plenty to choose from in 2013, with burgeoning property inventories available.  If buyers couldn't find something on the market that suited their needs, they probably weren't looking all that closely. Sales were up in all price ranges, with sold properties ranging from the mid-$100,000 bracket to nearly $800,000.  Probably the most telling statistic is the fact that the market for mid-priced homes rebounded strongly. Cash sales accounted for a majority of closed transactions, but financed transactions also staged a co... 12/23/2013

  LaPointe, Wisconsin (December 20, 2013) – Wisconsin Realtor® Eric Kodner will serve as Guest Editor for the January/February 2014 issue of REALTOR® Magazine.   Realtor Magazine began selecting and inviting guest editors to collaborate with the magazine’s editorial staff in early 2013.  Serving as a guest editor for Realtor Magazine involves reviewing articles in advance and visiting the magazine’s office in Chicago to confer with editorial staff and designers about the issue, as well as writing the Editor’s column.     Realtor Magazine Editor-in-Chief, Stacey Moncrieff, wrote about Kodner in the August 2010 issue, “Eric Kodner’s Madeline Island Real Estate blog on ActiveRain is a lively mix of business and human interest stories.” Kodner was later interviewed by Erica Christoffer for ... 12/20/2013

  New Sign, Same Trusted Service to Madeline Island Real Estate Clients   We're receiving a lot of compliments from clients and customers about our new "Property for Sale" signs.  The new sailboat logo and white lettering reversed out of a midnight blue background is distinctive and we're told it stands apart from competitors' signs. Our "old" sign, with a stylized sailboat graphic and teal blue background, served us well for over twelve years.  We made the change for a number of reasons, but one was a desire to improve sign visibility on our listings. We regularly see "step-in" sign frames that get obscured by tall grass and weeds, and we believe the taller "yard arm" sign post gives our listings an enhanced presence. The Madeline Island Real Estate marketplace has seen quite a few cha... 07/23/2013