John Bendall owner of Re/Max Classic Group offers advice on coping with the current Real Estate market.

I have been in the Real Estate Business for many years now. My career has seen all types of markets. What I have learned in both up and down markets is that there are ways to thrive in both.

There are certainly factors at play in today’s’ market that can make things difficult for agents. Prices are leveling off, average time on the market is increasing, and it’s harder for buyers to borrow the money they need. Even buyers who can secure a loan are hesitant to make a move. There are plenty of homes to choose from so if they miss out on one it’s not hard to find another. They are also concerned about buying now and having the value of their home immediately go down. You have options on how to deal with these factors. One way is to sit back and complain. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of agents who’ll chime in about how hard things are. But if you would like to differentiate yourself from the other agents out there here are a couple of other ways to deal with the market.

Price listings well. A well priced home is just as likely to produce multiple offers in a buyers market as it is in a sellers. To be well priced a home may need to be priced more aggressively in a buyers market. Make sure to present accurately the competition your sellers will be facing and what they will need to do to make their property stand out. In order to generate excitement they may want to price their home below the comparables.

Don’t hesitate to make adjustments to a list price that is not producing results. In today’s market there are often so many comparable homes making price adjustments that a price that seemed aggressive last week may seem much less so this week. Keep track of what the comparables are doing and when it’s time to make a move, do it. This is not the type of market that sellers should try to “test out”. New listings that are priced too high become stale very quickly and end up spending a lot of time on the market.

Work with motivated sellers. In this type of market it is important that your sellers are really motivated to sell. In our area people come and go in all types of markets. People relocate in and out as a result of their jobs, and divorce is unfortunately fairly common. These types of sellers want to sell regardless of whether the market is “up” or “down”. Sellers who are just thinking about moving up or possibly leaving the area may want to hold off. If they are not motivated to sell right away, listing in this market may waste both their time and yours. Keep in touch with them; let them know what the market is doing. If you build a strong relationship they will turn to you to sell when the time is right.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.