The divide right now -- at what should be the apex of the real estate sales year -- between how sellers and buyers perceive home values is cavernous. Most sellers feel their individual homes are not subject to the realities of the day; many insist on adding 5 or 10 percent (or, lamentably, much more) to the asking price -- to pay for recent upgrades, to build in the Realtor commission AND to prove that their house is good enough to trump market uncertainties.
Sellers may promise to reduce in a few weeks, but many just stand fast while waiting for that ONE buyer from Mars who will pay the asking price nobody else will. Some get mad and threaten to take the listing off the market; many reduce too late, and then end up chasing the market downward.
Meanwhile, today's buyer mantra is: "This house is overpriced." They just walk in and make the pronouncement, even when the seller has just knocked $30,000 off the price. It's never enough. When a Realtor suggests trying to compromise, nobody's interested except the really desperate seller who has to sell and, even some of these people would rather go down with their ship/home than accept and work through current market realities.
Case in point, albeit one that eneded "happily": Recently, a homeseller who hadn't adjusted his price quickly enough, found himself reducing a pristine home near one of the best primary schools in the area, by tens of thousands. He was building a house elsewhere and needed to off-load this one as quickly as possible when previous deal fell through. He also needed to catch up with the downspiraling market. Buyers entered the picture just after he reduced by another $40,000. They came in $20,000 under the new price and were annoyed that he wasn't willing to "negotiate." We pointed out that his recent reduction had been, in a sense, a form of negotiation. They did not see it as such. The deal was miraculously consummated with lots of appliances thrown in.
We are in new territory, the way ahead uncharted. We want to believe what some economists are saying, that the bottom of the US economy will announce itself later this year. But we're also being told that the job market will lag behind and, if that's the case, our buyer pool will continue to hang back, fearful of making a mistake, paying too much, losing a job, and the list of issues goes on. The now-constant rejiggering of bank guidelines for mortgages is proving an additional, unexpected obstacle course, even for those willing and able to purchase. Right now, nobody's good enough for these banks that have taken federal funds but failed to reapportion them in the right direction, toward worthy homebuyers.
Those who can and will buy even now are our main focus as Realtors, along with sellers who are fit to be tied that they've been pushed in a morass and need a daily interpretation of how things really are. Collectively, how can we climb out of this Grand Canyon and make our way to solid real estate ground? Answers being sought!
