Real Estate

Very recently I helped some good friends of mine sell their house, which is what I do for a living. As many sellers in this market, they believed that they were letting their house go for a lot less than what it was worth. In reality it is a tough market for sellers and for realtors, as it is very difficult to really estimate what the real value of the houses are in a market like this, with high unemployment, and few buyers. It is a buyer’s market in every single aspect.
On the other hand buyers right now are being totally unrealistic in their expectations. They think they can choose the least expensive house in a town, which in many instances is a short sale, or a house that is bank owned, and then come and lowball it.
What buyers don’t seem to understand is that by taking this position they will lose on the greatest opportunities that have existed in a generation, with low home values AND low interests, and, on top of everything, Uncle Sam is giving them a tax credit to purchase a house of $8000. This market will not last forever, and by the time that people wake up to reality they will be paying either higher values and/or higher interest rates.
We, many times in the industry, talk about the concept of educating customers. But unfortunately either because there are lots of realtors out there who are not making any money, and they don’t want to antagonize potential buyers, and therefore potential pay checks, or because buyers think they know it all, and they think that this will last forever, and that they can wait a little bit longer until it hits rock bottom. That, unfortunately never happens, as we find out when it is already on the rebound.
A good friend of mine says that realtors should not say anything that would upset buyers and just represent their interest with no say in it. I find that absolutely ridiculous, and the reason of this is because realtors are there to help that buyer reach the right price on the offer that he wants to make. If not one is doing a disservice to that buyer. Many times buyers will come back after they lost a house on which they made an offer because their offer was too low and try to blame the realtor for not having them guide them in a successful bid of the house. As always, people want to have it both ways.