1. Big Discount - Home buyers want a big discount from list price. If the market value of a home is $400,000 and you price it at $375,000 to sell it quickly, buyers still want a large discount from list price.

2. Sellers Pain - If the home seller does not appear to be in pain many buyers won’t feel like they are getting a good enough deal. Even, if they are getting a heck of a price for the home.

3. Foreclosures - Buyers tend to think that all foreclosures are a sweet deal. That is not always the case. 

4. Short Sales - Many banks still stink at getting a short sale approved quickly. A friend of mine recently had a short sale close and said the bank had 17 different people touch the file. No wonder the banks are in trouble.

5. Bad News - Sellers are quick to ignore the bad real estate news but very quick to latch on to the good news.

6. Good News - Buyers are quick to ignore the good real estate news but very quick to latch on to the bad news.

7. Time to spare - Many home buyers feel like they have all of the time in the world.

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Michael Gwynn is a student of real estate. Although he holds a California Real Estate License and multiple investment properties, Michael is currently immersed in the world of online marketing solutions that connect real estate agents and brokers with home buyers and sellers as the Sales Director at www.HomeGain.com.

In today’s world there are many financial casualties associated with the failing real estate market. There are many homeowners who purchased properties and had little knowledge, experience, or insights into the real estate market. But, there were also a number of real estate investors that could have and should have known better. These good investors had experienced bad outcomes with their property purchases because of the lures, pitfalls, and hazards associated with the world of real estate. These lessons are important to learn because there are many new and experienced investors jumping back into real estate in 2009.

Those who do not learn history are destined to repeat it.

There were several factors and causes for these bad outcomes for these good investors. Some were lured by the gains reported in many publications. Others succumbed to the attractive sirens of the real estate Guru’s.

There were those who did not understand the order of purchasing investment property because they purchase equity growth properties before income properties.  Many purchased at the peak of the price points. Other wanted only to stay in their local markets. Miscalculations were made on the costs for holding properties.

The potential issues of holding property were never realistically expected or prepared for by the property purchasers. Methods to truly analyze a real estate market and economy were not effective.  Technology and available information was not used to its best potential. Real estate professionals were seen as the enemy and not used appropriately in the transactions. Many did not understand the cycles involved in real estate.

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If you go back to your high school or college economics class you may remember that the price of anything is determined by supply and demand. The law of demand states that when a market demands a high quantity of a good or service, the price of the good or service will be high. When the market demands a low quantity the prices will be low.

This model holds true in the real estate market as well. So to set a bottom in the market we need more demand or lower supplies. Realtors do their best to increase demand but one thing that we can do for sure is to get rid of our overpriced listings.

Get rid of your overpriced listings.

We won’t see the real estate market bottom out until the number of properties currently for sale is reduced. The biggest thing that we can do as Realtors is to not renew our overpriced listings and don’t take any more.

One of the biggest challenges when working with a buyer is not only finding them a property they like but finding one that they like with a realistic seller. After all of the horrible news about the real estate market and the recession there are still so many overpriced properties out there.

I haven’t done any formal analysis but I would bet that in any particular neighborhood you will find 25% to 50% of the homes for sale have no chance of selling because of their asking price. If we could get rid of a good portion of these overpriced listings we will be that much closer to finding a bottom.

Why do Realtors take overpriced listings? Continue reading this post

Market update provided by Mario Greco of the Mario Greco Group, Rubloff Residential Properties, in Chicago, Illinois.

It’s no surprise that the last four tumultuous weeks on Wall Street have changed the entire landscape of the residential real estate market. Unfortunately, the hysteria surrounding the plummeting stock market has spread to and infected the Chicago housing market.

Simply put, it’s been a whole new (mental) ball game since Sept. 15.

I think it’s important for home sellers to understand how the turmoil on Wall Street has affected the Chicago real estate market. In a word, the uncertainty has caused a paralysis in our local market. The traditional three – or, depending on how you look at it, four – groups of buyers still exist today, as they always have.

The first group is made up of those home buyers who have the cash or credit to buy, but are scared to make a move. The members of this group are sitting on their hands, much like the banks are. The second group is made up of buyers who were on the fence either in desire or ability and are not buying now. They, instead, are waiting to see what happens before they make any move. The third group includes those buyers who couldn’t or didn’t want to buy. Well, they’re still on the sidelines, either by force or by choice. Even the fourth group, the vultures, can’t buy because banks aren’t lending money for most deals, let alone those that are risky.

As a result, deals are slow to materialize and those that already have been struck are being renegotiated or

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Certainly there is a lot of grim news out there - but things are not that bad.  Actually, I have not noticed any difference in my daily life or that of most people that I have come in contact with since this “financial crisis” has begun.  Sometimes I think that the news people like to jump on the bandwagon and are going out of their way to find and report bad news.  After you report on it enough, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Strangely enough, year to date, this has been my best year of my 23 years in real estate.  There are still  a lot of people out there who want to buy homes.  I am finding numerous new home buyers every week.  
 
Let’s look at the home buying situation a bit closer. 

Interest rates are excellent right now, in the low 6% range, and even in the upper 5% range.  These rates are much lower than they have been during most of my career. 

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Market update provided by Claudia Armbrister of RE/MAX Savannah in Savannah, Georgia.

With more than 8,131 active home listings (not including more than 5,000 new homes for sale under construction & spec homes) as of 1 October 2008 – the trend has been towards a “BUYER’s market” – with a definite increase in sales overall!

We averaged approx. 1,000 new listings per month in 2007 and thus far in 2008 the same applies, plus some. More supply than demand – great for home buyers, not so great for sellers. Higher end homes are languishing in this “SOFT” market. Homes priced to sell (not overly priced) and in great condition are usually under contract in 1-3 weeks, while others linger or incur increasingly lower offers, due to time on the market and the rising costs for seller(s) to “hang on” for that offer they “want”, and ultimately negatively affecting the bottom line.

If sellers want top dollar and to get their home sold in under 60-120 days, they need to price according to THIS more cautious market and have it Model Home perfect and seriously entertain ALL offers – even if it might be lower than they had desired.

Listings are more in demand for homebuyers of homes under

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