We’re at that time of the year where only the serious buyers and sellers are investing time, energy and money into finding or selling a home. If you look at what is happening with the MLS figures, you see Active Listings dropping and Pending Sales dropping or flat.

These drops are normal this time of the year. Many buyers and sellers are focused more on the holidays and family than the real estate market. Maybe the media will take a break, too!

I overheard an interesting conversation a few days ago at Domenicos. Two women were discussing real estate and one mentioned waiting until April to list a house. According to her, April represents the top of the market and her thinking is to put her house on the market when things are the most active.

The only thing wrong with this thinking is that April is not necessarily the top of the market. If you look at the sales figures for 2007, April is probably the most active month for closed transactions, but what are the implications of that?

It means that those deals were signed in mid-February or March which means that if you wanted to catch the top of the market in 2007, you needed your house listed by late January.

Picking the top of the market is similar to the science used to determine the bottom of the market.

The time to buy or sell property is unique to each individual and family. Currently, interest rates remain at historic lows, financing is available, their is a wide choice of property on the market and there are too few buyers.

For sellers this means it’s price more than ever. For buyers it means more negotiating power.

Home sellers are falling into the money pit trap left and right and it’s costing them more than money. I’m not talking about remodeling, renovation or upgrades. I’m talking about pricing it right from the “get go” when deciding to sell.

Once again, I find myself in a situation where good advice and experience have been sacrificed to hope and fantasy. The casualty in this affair will be my reputation as it is often difficult for the seller to own their part in the whole affair.

Which affair, you may ask? Let me give you the quick outline.

• Seller wants to sell and move up
• We tell them what is happening in the local real estate market and suggest a price in line with current market conditions.
• Seller believes their house is worth more based on the past market and the fact that they want more regardless of what is happening in the local real estate market.
• 6 weeks go by as traffic and interest dwindle, the local housing market continues to move downward and the whole loan industry goes into meltdown.
• The seller, having resisted numerous suggestions to reprice the house, agrees to lower the price.
• Instead of pricing the house at the price we suggest that is in line with current conditions, the seller prices it at the price we originally suggested 2 months ago.

You see where this is going?

The seller is following the market down despite our best attempts to get them in front of the market. The seller is losing money and unfortunately and worse for us is they think it is a lack of marketing, advertising or effort on our part.

They think this in spite of the fact that there were several “very interested” parties who thought the property was appealing, but was over priced and needed more upgrading.

More could be said to outline the whole affair, but the bottom line is – the biggest challenge in real estate is getting a property priced right.

AND the biggest hurdle to this is getting the seller to look at their house not through their eyes, but through the eyes of the buyer.

We had a similar situation about nine months ago, it didn’t work out for us (except in the reputation hit mentioned in the second paragraph above). The house eventually sold after we fought the pricing battle and lost the listing war. The agent that followed in our footsteps was able to lower the price significantly (to where we were trying to get it from the “get go”). He also lowered his already discounted commission to get the listing.

Now I’m not trying to be “Woe is me” and tell you a sad real estate agent tale. On the contrary, this is part of the business and despite our best efforts, we seem to get into this situation once or twice a year as we do our best to work with people. What I’m trying to accomplish here is to create some space for the seller to entertain the thought that “market trends and conditions” have a significant impact on what a house will sell for today – not yesterday, last week, last month, or last year.

If you are selling or planning to sell your house, grill your agent on real estate trends in your area. If they can’t pull out the data to show you what’s happening in your market – move on. If they can – listen up, they are probably trying to help you get the best deal possible in a changing world. This will save you money, time and lots of aggravation.

The timing is perfect for move up buyers in Danville, San Ramon, Dublin & Pleasanton, CA.

Some homeowners are missing the boat on taking advantage of current market trends and conditions that have created favorable circumstances for move up buyers.

Home prices in the San Ramon and TriValley areas are fairly stable, though many homeowners are still having to come to grips with their house price needing to reflect current market value and not the HOT market value of two years ago. It is this hurdle that is stopping many homeowners from making that move up. They are waiting for the market to improve so they can get what they feel they need for their house before making the move.

Here is the missed point – almost all properties on the market are facing the same situation. 

Example: An owner has a house that they are trying to sell for $800K and it’s just sitting there because it needs to be priced at $750K to be at market value. The owners want to hang on to get the most they can so they can buy that new dream house for $1.1 million. But the dream house also needs to come down. Let’s say 10% or $110K.

If the buyer is able to sell their house after the $50K reduction and buy the new dream home for $1 million, they have saved $50K not lost $50K. They can also probably come out ahead even more with greater improvements or repairs than they will have to give on their exisitng home.

Then, there is also the matter of financing and interest rates where additional savings may be possible.

The thing to remember is current market conditions are leaning toward buyers with money and equity. NOW is the time to move up while conditions favor you as a buyer and you can leverage that side of the transaction.

Don’t wait for a more active market to sell if you are thinking of moving up. You may get more for your existing house, but you’ll lose more on the buy side.

It always pays you more to work with a skilled negotiator.