Greetings all to a fine fall day!  (you mean it's not October?)  

My last few listing appointments I have run across some pretty unreal expectations about home owner assessment of how much they think their home is worth.  So now, I start every listing appointment with a short education about what the "local, current" market values.  My thought is that by starting with the sales statistics of the last 2 months, maybe even the just last 30 days, it gives the home owner something to think about during the rest of my listing presentation.

Part of the problem we have is being close to King County, but we are not King Co.  On the west side of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, most people read one of the two Seattle papers at least once during the week.  The problem with reading about King Co. real estate market is that it's effect does not spill over to our areas, and this includes north Pierce Co..  King Co. real estate is still near a boil.  The rate of price increase has slowed, but home are still selling in less than 60 days, most times if priced right, in less than 21 days.

In Gig Harbor and the Kitsap Peninsula we are a very short distance to King Co., but in reality, we are a completely different  real estate market.  The time to sell a home is nearing 120 days in these areas, mainly because the homes for sale are over priced.  This is where we come in as real estate professionals.  We must educate our potential clients to price their homes right, or the home will sit.  There are agents out there that will list any home at any price just to get the listing.  The problem with this, is it keeps the market artificially elevated and home do not move.  There needs to be a market adjustment downward in these geographic areas to lure new buyers to the area. 

Starting about 2 years ago, there were quite a few people willing to take the ferry to Seattle to get to work.  This was when there was a significant price difference between Seattle and the Kitsap Peninsula.  Now with housing prices less than $80,000 between the 2 markets, there is no incentive for people to move west and use the ferries.  The number of people I talk to about living on the Kitsap peninsula near a ferry terminal has decreased to zero over the last year. This only leaves the 2 Navy bases as a source of new residents to the area, and there are not that many transfers happening at this time.   

Therefore, we as real estate professionals need to re-educate each and every potential home owner willing to sell.  We need to show only the last 2 months of home sales for comparisons at absolutely most.  To show home sales from a longer period of time is to do your potential client a disservice.  And it helps to keep the market artificially high, and therefore, homes are sitting way too long.  Come on, let's educate our our clients.

Enough for today.

Lu