I have an old neighbor who listed his house 2 weeks after I listed mine this year. I listed at a reasonable price (NOT more than previous comps!), I monitored the comps/inventory/neighborhood like a hawk, had a great realtor and a discount plan with him wherby I ended up only paying 2% since I found the buyer and the buyer didn’t have a realtor. This allowed me to except a slightly lower price and still pocket more than someone with a full service realtor who has to pay the full %. My ability to go a little lower is what sold the house, along with my desire to not follow the market down. On the other hand…my neighbor did NONE of these things, went with an out of town realtor friend, and listed at 10k above previous comps. 3 weeks later he reduced his price 5k, again 10k a month after that, and just last week another 5k. Had he listed it for 30k less to begin with it would have likely sold right away! Now there are 10 homes for sale on his street wheras when I sold there were none, and all of them are asking 10-15 ABOVE comps and are just sitting!
My point here is that there are still a whole lot of sellers who have yet to wake up and realize that we aint in 2004 anymore! Whether they ‘have to sell’ or just ‘want to sell’ or are testing the waters, I believe that things are just getting started. Most sellers STILL think that the previous comp is what their home is worth, and they believe that if they wait long enough they will get that price. Just wait until November, December…reality will have sunk in by then and prices will really strat to drop. The psychology of it alone will be a driving force. Homeowners who have no intention of selling right now will take notice and more of them will decide to get out while they still can. Most of those homeowners are still sold on the soft landing scenario….for now!
