Searching for homes online

The internet is a vast space. These days, we can find almost anything we want online if we just search hard enough.

Almost anything.

If you are in the market to buy a home, you have probably discovered the wonderful array of options available to search for houses all by yourself from the comfort of your home. Surfing around almost any real estate site or any Realtor's site (ours included) will usually give buyers or sellers a link to search for homes in the extended area. On the home page of our website, we provide two links - Featured Listings and Search IDX MLS. Featured Listings take you to the pages for the homes we have listed ourselves. That second link is the topic of this blog entry.

The MLS is a concept most people are familiar with nowadays. Standing for Multiple Listing Service, it is a compilation of all member office listings. There are some misconceptions about what the MLS is, though. It only features the listings of member offices. Membership in the MLS is not required for real estate brokerages, so there are some homes that are not featured by default. Also, sellers have the option of opting out of featuring a property on the MLS, so the information on these properties can only be obtained from the listing real estate office.

In the new age of internet marketing, there are some further limitations of the MLS that are not understood by the general public. When you are searching a database of homes or properties online, you are not searching the full MLS. You are only searching the properties of sellers that have decided to allow their homes to be submitted to an Internet Data Exchange (IDX for short). Depending on marketing strategies, not all member agents or all sellers want their properties disbursed over the internet as a whole. These properties can then be found only on the sites where the Realtor has made the choice to feature them or by working with a Realtor yourself. Your Realtor can search the full MLS to find all of the featured properties that might fit your needs.

Sellers also have the option of allowing IDX for their property, but refusing to give address or location information. This is why some homes that come up in your IDX MLS searches have photos, pricing and descriptions, not nothing about the address.

IDX MLS is a wonderful option for buyers who are starting the home buying process or sellers who want to know about the competition, but please be aware of what you are actually searching when you search an IDX MLS database. The only way for the public to fully search the MLS is to work with a qualified Realtor.

Things to Do around Monroe, WI

Winter activities are starting in full force, and with them come the annual holiday events. There is a lot to do in and around Monroe in the upcoming weeks!

~ The annual Christkindlemarkt is happening this weekend, November 28 and 29, at Turner Hall in Monroe. The Christkindlmarkt is a German tradition dating back to the 14th century. Ours features unique items from hand-selected quality vendors for your holiday gift-giving. A European cafe and Swiss baked goods round out this special shopping experience.

~ Rainbow Fleece Farm in New Glarus is having their annual holiday Open House on November 29 and 30. Call for directions or more information. 608-527-5311

~ A new art exhibit is opening in Frehner Gallery at the Monroe Arts Center. "Watercolors...to Delight the Eye and Stir the Senses" by J. Eric Anderson is an exhibit of watercolor landscapes from rural Wisconsin and Illinois. The opening reception with the artist is on December 4 from 5 until 7 pm. The exhibit will run until December 27.

~ The annual Holiday Lighted Parade in Monroe is slated for Friday, December 5 at 6 pm. Watch the floats and other parade entrants circle Monroe's Downtown Square, pop in to some of the Downtown merchants to get a good start on your holiday shopping, take the kids to visit Santa at Wisconsin Community Bank, visit one of the cafes for a hot drink and finish off your evening at Turner Hall for their Alpine Carol Sing and Tree Lighting event.

~ Monroe Theatre Guild is presenting their annual production of A Christmas Carol. Last year's show was a stunning success, and this year is shaping up to be just as good. The show is playing at the Monroe Arts Center on December 5, 6, 12 and 13 at 7:30 pm and on December 7, 13 and 14th at 2 pm. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children under twelve. MAC and MTG member save $3 on each adult ticket. Tickets are available now at MAC. Purchase in person, order via phone at (608) 325-5700 or visit their website.

~ The annual Festival of Trees is back this year! The fund raising event helps out area non-profits like Green Haven Family Advocates, Green County Humane Society and more. It starts at 6 pm on December 6 at Ludlow Mansion. A silent and live auction will be running through the evening, and the decorated trees will be auctioned near the end. Re/Max Towne Square Realty is donating a tree to benefit Green Haven Family Advocates. Pamela Lakowske, the broker/owner of Re/Max Towne Square, did a fantastic job decorating the tree with a crimson and gold theme. It is on display now in the front window of our office on Monroe's Downtown Square. Tickets are available through the Chamber of Commerce.

Holiday Decorating for Home Sellers

The winter holidays are coming quickly. A quick glance in the window displays downtown and at the yards in town are enough to let us know even without a calendar.

This time of year is both harder and easier to sell a house. Traditionally, fewer people are looking to move in the next five to six weeks, so there are likely to be fewer showings. However, the buyers coming through your home between now and January are not tire kickers. These people are usually serious about buying a home. When sellers get a showing request during this time, they need to be sure that their home is in tip-top shape.

This is the time where a little extra effort can pay off big. Do something to set yourself ahead of the competition.

Many people like to do a little holiday decorating, and this is an area where some sellers slip up. Remember that you are hoping to move. This is not the year to set up a lights display that rivals the local landing strip. Start transitioning to your new home already.

Maybe you always have a yard full of decorations and your house draped in garland. Break that tradition this year in preparation for your move. Begin the mental process of moving.

As a general rule, less is more with holiday decorating and home selling. Take a minimalist approach. One arrangement on the dining room table. One holiday tree. A tasteful wreath on the door. Buyers do expect to see some holiday decorating. Do not forgo decorating completely, but do not over do it. A simple set of holiday towels can add a nice accent to a bathroom. The towels, a mini tree, scented pinecones and a holiday bathmat is overdone.

Ask your Realtor for frank and honest feedback on your holiday decorating plans, and follow his or her suggestions. You are paying for the Realtor's expertise, so use it.

Keep it neutral. Avoid highly personalized decorations like the handmade stockings with all the children's names embroidered on them. The point it to help the buyers see themselves living in your home. Also, ours is a multi-cultural society. While many do celebrate winter holidays, it may not be the same holiday as you. Bring out the creche or menorah for your celebrations, but not during showings.

Buyers can be sensitive to scents and noises, so choose yours with care. During the holidays, sellers may have strongly scented potpourris or spice scented air freshners out that are competing with the tree, the cookies they baked the day before and more. Keep scents soft and neutral. The same goes for music. Holiday music can be easily overdone and many get their fill from stores, elevators and more. Go neutral and non-holiday with your musical selection.

Once the holidays are finished, remove the decorations promptly. Those decorations can seem stale to buyers looking in January, so be sure to pack them away instead of putting it off.

May all of our home sellers receive the best holiday gift of all - an accepted offer.

Realtors who work

As a seller or a buyer, most people want to be sure they are getting the best service possible.

Experienced, hard working, motivated, knowledgeable. Those are the attributes many use to describe the realtor they want working on their side during the home buying or selling process.

During the real estate boom years, many people obtained their real estate sales licenses. The business was there to support people who did not have the knowledge or will to go out and find it for themselves. Times are leaner now, and the ranks of realtors are starting to thin out a little.

Perusing the recent statistics for the South Central Wisconsin MLS board (the board the covers our geographic area) recently was an eye opening experience. In the SCWMLS, 71% of realtors have successfully closed zero transactions to date in 2008. Zero.

A little further probing revealed that Luis is in the top 6.7% of realtors in the local MLS board for transaction closed in 2008, and Brenda is in the top 15.5%.

Which type of realtor do you want working for you as you start the process of selling or buying a home?

Putting the 3 Rs into practice

Reading, Writing and 'Rithmatic? No. I mean the 3 new Rs.

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.

The Monroe Clinic has an expansion project underway, and they are doing a stellar job implementing the new 3 Rs into their construction plans.

A few existing homes were acquired by the Clinic and had to be removed in order to accommodate the expansion project. Before razing the homes, all of the cabinetry, appliances, light fixtures, radiators, windows and other reusable parts were removed. The Clinic donated them to Habitat for Humanity of Green County. The donations will help the new Habitat homeowners have better quality fixtures than they might normally be able to afford while reducing the mortgage cost at the same time.

Other parts of the homes will find interesting lives after recycling. Bricks and foundation materials were saved to be used for things such as the garden border in a Habitat home. They will also live on as the base for the new parking lot for the Clinic and a fire pit that a local Boy Scout troop is constructing.

During the construction process, the Monroe Clinic is also working to reduce waste. As anyone who has worked in the trades knows, construction sites can be very wasteful places. The Clinic is utilizing practices to divert at least 50% of construction waste to other uses in order to prevent them from ending up in landfills. In the work done to date, they have been surpassed their goals and have been able to divert 65% of the construction waste to other uses.

The Monroe Clinic is also showing forward thinking in the new addition itself. The project was developed using LEED principles. It will include such things as green space, limited use of asphalt, heat reducing roofing and more.

Kudos to the Clinic for setting an example for the community and showing how easily green building concepts can be incorporated into local building projects!