The #1 point of misunderstanding by home sellers today is – no one living today has ever seen a real estate market like the current one.

Don’t blame the Realtor, blame the human mind. Our mind likes to associate what is happening today with the past. When we hear “down market,” foreclosures, and short sales – we tend to think back to the last down market cycle to try and understand what is happening today.

BUT – this ain’t your blast from the past down market. This is a whole different animal and sellers wanting to maximize their net need to understand this.

What’s different?

We have a real estate industry, a lending industry and a national economy being hammered from all sides simultaneously while most homeowners are looking at the whole situation through a lens distorted by past down markets that did not include as many issues of volatility.

More and more we, and our industry peers, are encountering home sellers that think they can apply the old rules to a real estate market never seen before.

The Internet is a huge factor that few are factoring into the equation properly.

90% of today’s home buyers begin their search for real estate on the Internet. Too many are confusing information with knowledge.

Link this up with the current need in our society for instant gratification and you get this very interesting dynamic that is now running amok through the real estate industry – too many sellers are moving too slow.

This market is continuing to slip away from sellers – and this is not just a pricing issue. It’s about available financing, buyer’s not being willing to negotiate and inexperienced real estate agents not being able to hammer home the current situation to their clients.

Time is the Sellers Enemy

In past down markets, before the Internet, sellers had time. It took time to get a property advertised and the marketing in place. It took time for the word to get around in the Realtor network. It took time to get properties on the MLS – and the MLS was not available via the Internet – it was paper!

What’s the Impact of this on sellers?

The seller’s window of opportunity has drastically shrunk. It now takes about two weeks maximum to go through the entire pool of available buyers in an area. We are seeing the effects of this time and again in this market – sellers turning down offers thinking that more buyers will show up.

After two weeks on the market, the only buyers that are going to show up are:

• buyers just entering the market
• buyers coming back because of a significant price reduction

Sellers – please get this point!!! – with the MLS available via the Internet, with Craigslist and other online ad sites, and with instantaneous agent communication via email, text messaging, cell phone connectivity and instant messaging, almost everyone knows about a listing within days. Sellers don’t have the luxury of a six-week steady stream of interest. Sellers have days or a couple of weeks at most to get their home sold for top dollar in this market.

Top dollar in this market is about selling it today, not tomorrow.