Price Reductions - Unhappy Sellers (incentive, agents, sale, housing)

[palmcoasting]

You have to fly against the conventional wisdom that buyers are good in down markets. Buyers take longer to make decisions, they “nibble” more, and they will actually eradicate your net profit if you continue to work buyers as a major part of your income flow.
The only way to make money in a down market is to increase your listings at a much greater rate than your board’s inventory increase. For example, in the sizzling California market of 1990, I had to have an inventory of at least ten listings at all times to net two million dollars a year. In the absolutely horrible California market of 1995, it took me 120 listings to maintain the same net income. The reason is simple -- the only sellers who will sell in a down market are those who are motivated so I had to increase my sample size to obtain the correct number of motivated sellers. The more listings that I was able to obtain, the more buyer contacts who came into my office. If I aggressively pursued the most motivated buyers, I could keep my income up.

From this article..Realty Times - Agent News and Advice
Makes sense to me and I'm going to start working on it again...the more listings, regardless of how they are priced, the more buyers calling you about them, the more your name is out there, the more business you attract. Take 'em on.

[PotterGeek]

IMO there is just way too many houses on the market, and you have buyers with cold feet because of all the media. Who'd want to buy in this market? Not me...if I sold my house today, I would not venture to buy any house right now, I don't care how competively priced it was.

[capecodcathy]

I'm finding that Buyers are sitting on the fence waiting it out. Sellers are being adamant about their prices because they either paid too much, borrowed too much, or refi'd at the top of the market, and have little to no equity. "I can't take less than $XXX. I won't be able to buy anything else."
A rock and a hard place.

[PotterGeek]

I'm finding that Buyers are sitting on the fence waiting it out. Sellers are being adamant about their prices because they either paid too much, borrowed too much, or refi'd at the top of the market, and have little to no equity. "I can't take less than $XXX. I won't be able to buy anything else."
A rock and a hard place

Yes, very true. And buyers may fear repeating the same cycle....If I pay X amount for this house, even though it's a steal, what if the bottom drops out?
I can understand their hesitation in this market.
However, sellers are still remaining pretty solid on pricing. Will that change? I don't know. I know they're not likely to give away the farm, no matter how much inventory is out there.

[GregTraub]

I'm having similar frustration with my listings as well.

I think being "priced well" isn't even enough now. The few buyers that are actually at least looking at homes have it in the back of their minds that prices are going to continue to fall, so why buy now, what's the rush? And I can't blame them for that attitude.
The key is to get the buyer excited about the house, and unless the house is 100% their dream home, a price lower than "good" is the only way to do that. It's all about value, the more value a person see's in the house vs. price, the more likely they are to buy.

I agree with, and am practicing what alot of brokers are doing now, I'm refusing listings left and right as I just don't think they'll sell. I also don't believe in taking a listing for the exposure it will give me, I think that is doing a disservice to the seller. If they can't wrap their heads around todays market sometimes an outright refusal will knock something loose, afterall when was the last time an agent would refuse listings??

[yellowsnow]

Originally Posted by Move2Jax

What City/State is this Broker in or does it really matter? I'm beginning to think I should dust off the ABR designation and work with Buyers only. How in the world will I advertise without listings? Have we entered into a new genre of real estate sales & marketing? Thanks. Jacksonville, FL

Minnesota, twin cities area. He is well respected and a money maker. He says 3 years to sell current listings, failed listings, and foreclosures/short sales, and then a year to catch up.

It's grim here. Starter homes with rock bottom prices do sell. Everything else is just sitting.

[PotterGeek]

Question:
Have been wondering...do you think realtors in general are still looking at the days on market like they used to? Since alot of inventory is still sitting, do you think the DOM still affects homes being shown?

[VillageLife]

I did an analysis yesterday at the MLS in my area,an 80% price chage for the active listings,80% arrows pointing down.

[LVGAZ]

Originally Posted by leavingbyron

Question:
Have been wondering...do you think realtors in general are still looking at the days on market like they used to? Since alot of inventory is still sitting, do you think the DOM still affects homes being shown?

This is a great questions for realtors - are they looking at the DOM? are they conveying this information to the buyer? the DOM could be longer for some homes that started on the downside but have changed their pricing as the market went down?
why is the DOM on the listing - is it just for realtors?

[capecodcathy]

DOM is not on the Client version of the listing in our MLS. I don't really pay much attention to it anymore. Things have been sitting for so long, it's pretty irrelevant. Buyers to tend to ask but I tell them it's irrelevant. Plus have to have a signed Buyer Agreement in order to give out that info.