Our home is going on the market next week. It’s an older home, and our basement at times has had small puddles following heavy rains, but it hasn’t happened in more than ten years. Do we need to disclose that to potential buyers?The short answer is that under Wisconsin law, you don’t have to tell people who are considering making an offer to buy your home, but you must tell people once they do submit an offer to purchase.Our approach is always err on the side of disclosure. If you have someone ser... read more

If you’ve ever applied for a mortgage or closed on a house, you know it takes a lot of paperwork — sometimes even inches of it! Thankfully, your agent can handle most of that for you. But there are certain documents you’ll want to assemble before ever sticking a for sale sign in your yard.Our Coldwell Banker colleague, Sally Isom, from Memphis, Tennessee, put together a handy list of those items that will help better position your home for sale. Here are our top five.1. Compile receipts from home ... read more

People looking to buy and sell homes right now are looking at a different marketplace than they were a year or two ago. More dust has settled from the boom and bust of the 2008-2009 housing bubble, and the result is making home ownership more reasonable and more accessible for millions of people.Here are some of the top trends affecting today’s home market, according to Amanda Kelly of LearnVest.1.  Lenders are more willing to accept smaller down payments. It used to be that buyers needed a 20 percent do... read more

When you consider the average family of four does eight loads of laundry per week,* it’s no wonder laundry rooms now are commanding a space of their own. In fact, a recent National Association of Home Builders study found that dedicated laundry rooms are now the most-wanted feature in new homes.If you’d like to bring your laundry room up from the dark of your basement or are simply looking to give it a home of its own, here are four tips to get you started.1.  Bring it to the main floor. Bringing y... read more