Forever Home Real Estate is a Cottage Grove–based brokeragehelping buyers and sellers across Madison, Sun Prairie,Middleton, Verona, Waunakee, DeForest, Stoughton, andthe rest of Dane County. We rank in the top 5% of theSouth Central Wisconsin MLS by sales volume — and webring that local market knowledge to every offer, everylisting, and every valuation.
Forever Home Real Estate is a Cottage Grove–based brokerage serving buyers and sellersacross Dane County with the local marketknowledge to back every offer, listing,and valuation.
Whatever stage you're at, we're built for it.
Buying and selling in Dane County moves fast. Inventory turns over quickly in Madison's close-in neighborhoods, new construction is reshaping Verona and Sun Prairie, and pricing varies street to street across the outlying villages. Whichever side of the transaction you're on, you get an agent who works this market every week — not a call center and not a national portal.
Search live Dane County listings updated straight from the South Central Wisconsin MLS, then get matched with a local agent who knows these neighborhoods block by block — from Madison's near-west side to Cottage Grove, Middleton, and Waunakee. live Dane County listings and get matched with a local agent who knows the neighborhoods block by block.
Pricing strategy grounded in real, current Dane County sales data — what actually closed on your block this quarter, not a national estimate. We handle prep, photography, exposure, and negotiation start to finish.
Curious what your home is worth in today's Dane County market? Get a free, no-obligation comparative market analysis built from recent local sales, not an automated guess.
Home values across Madison and the surrounding communities have moved unevenly over the past few years — a Verona new build and a 1950s Monona ranch don't follow the same curve. We'd love to learn about your real estate goals and give you a straight answer on where your home sits today.
Dane County isn't one market — it's a couple dozen of them. Madison's isthmus, lake-access, and near-west neighborhoods each price differently. Middleton and Waunakee trade on schools and established character. Verona, Sun Prairie, and Windsor are absorbing most of the county's new construction. Cottage Grove, McFarland, and Oregon offer commuter access without Madison price points. Pick a community below to see current homes for sale, recent sales activity, and what it's actually like to live there.
Downtown condos, lake-access homes, and near-west classics
New construction and growing family neighborhoods
Established suburban character and top-rated schools
New builds, Epic-area commutes, and strong schools
Quiet neighborhoods, easy Madison commute — and our home base
Fast-growing village with newer inventory
Commuter-friendly value north of Madison
Parks, trails, and quick access to Madison's south side
Small-town feel, big-school district, minutes from Madison
Welcoming village with room to grow
Lake Waubesa living and a 15-minute Madison commute
Historic downtown charm and Norwegian community pride
Buying or selling touches a lot more than the sale itself. Financing, inspection, repairs, and coverage all have to line up — and in a market this fast, a slow lender or a booked-out inspector can cost you the house. Our vetted local network keeps the whole process moving.
Local Dane County lenders who know this market's pace and can turn around a pre-approval fast enough to keep your offer competitive.
Thorough, trusted inspectors across Madison and the surrounding communities, so there are no surprises after closing.
A vetted network of Dane County contractors for repairs, pre-listing updates, or move-in renovations.
Local insurance partners who understand Wisconsin homeowner coverage — including the wind, hail, and ice-dam claims this climate actually produces.
Why Forever Home Real Estate?
Forever Home Real Estate is owned and operated by Anne Baranski out of Cottage Grove. Every agent on the team lives and works in the Madison area — which means when we tell you what a neighborhood is like, it's because we've shown homes there, not because we read a data sheet. That local footprint is what puts us in the top 5% of the South Central Wisconsin MLS by sales volume.
Anne Baranski, Forever Home Real Estate Owner
Frequently Asked
We’re a Dane County real estate brokerage based in Cottage Grove, serving Madison, Sun Prairie, Middleton, Verona, Waunakee, DeForest, Windsor, Fitchburg, McFarland, Oregon, Stoughton, Cottage Grove, and the surrounding communities. We also work with buyers and sellers in the neighboring counties — Columbia, Rock, Sauk, Jefferson, Green, and Iowa — including Sun Prairie’s northern edge, Edgerton, Lodi, Sauk City, Mount Horeb, and Watertown.
Request a free, no-obligation home valuation and we’ll build a comparative market analysis from actual recent sales in your neighborhood — not an automated national estimate. Dane County values vary sharply between municipalities and even between blocks, so a local CMA will nearly always be closer to reality than an online algorithm.
Yes. First-time buyers are a large part of what we do. We walk you through financing connections, the Dane County offer process, inspection contingencies, and closing — and we’re candid about what your budget realistically buys in each community, which is usually the most useful conversation a first-time buyer can have.
Two things: we rank in the top 5% of the South Central Wisconsin MLS by sales volume, and we’re locally owned and locally staffed out of Cottage Grove. That’s paired with a vetted partner network of Dane County lenders, inspectors, contractors, and insurance agents, so the pieces around the transaction move as fast as the transaction does.
Residential real estate across Dane County is our focus. Commercial inquiries are handled by our partner brand, Bulldog Commercial Real Estate.
Dane County has run tighter than the state average for several years, driven by job growth in Madison, Verona, and Middleton and by limited inventory in established neighborhoods. Well-priced homes in the entry and mid tiers often see multiple offers, while higher price points and some outlying villages move more deliberately. We’ll give you the current numbers for your specific price band and community rather than a countywide generality.
Seller costs typically include the commission, transfer fee, title work, prorated property taxes, and any negotiated repairs or credits. Dane County property taxes are relatively high, so the proration timing can meaningfully affect your net. We’ll walk you through a line-item net sheet before you list, so there are no surprises at the closing table.
It depends on your equity position, your financing, and how tight your target community’s inventory is. In faster Dane County submarkets, selling first and negotiating a rent-back is often cleaner than carrying two mortgages. In slower price bands, buying first can be the safer play. This is exactly the kind of question worth a 20-minute conversation before you commit to a timeline.
Regularly. Madison draws people in for the university, the health systems, Epic, and state government, and most relocating buyers don’t yet know how different the county’s communities are from one another. We’ll do virtual tours, neighborhood walkthroughs, and honest commute-time math before you ever fly in.
Free consultations for buyers and sellers across Madison, Dane County, and the surrounding South Central Wisconsin communities. No pressure, no obligation — just a straight conversation about where you are and what makes sense next.