IF YOU WANT RELIABLE INFORMATION ON THE LOCAL REAL ESTATE MARKET, CALL A REALTOR

A Madeline Island property owner came into our LaPointe, Wisconsin office today, asking what the chances would be that he’d be able to sell his Island home if he listed his property for sale at this time.

After sharing with him the way that we price and market our listings and discussing the state of the current real estate marketplace here, he informed us that a local fellow (who is also a member of our business community) had discouraged him on the idea of listing his property, saying “nothing has been selling here in the past year”.

The remark was disturbing.  Telling property owners (or for that matter, people visiting the Island) that “nothing” has been selling is completely false.

In our own office during the past twelve months, we have closed sales totaling well over a million dollars, including multiple waterfront sales.  One of those sales was the subject of a January 9, 2011 Wall Street Journal Article, entitled “Market for Vacation Homes is on the Rise”. 

My question to real estate consumers is this.  Where are you getting your market information?  And why would you ask someone who knows absolutely nothing about recent sold statistics in our community?

Requesting information on local real estate market statistics from someone who does not have a real estate license is a major mistake.

Much of this information is available on the Web.  In our area, you can also contact the Ashland County Treasurer’s office for recent sold information.  Title companies will also be glad to help.  And any real estate office with a computer can easily provide sold market data. 

I don’t understand what anyone here would gain by offering completely false information about our Madeline Island real estate market. 

I’m going to sound like one of those television ads from the National Association of Realtors® here.  But if you want reliable information on the local real estate market here on Madeline Island, call a Realtor® today.