HOW TO SELL YOUR HOUSE IN THE 2007 MARKET
You must price your house aggressively in today's market! Conventional pricing no longer applies. (While the following applies in all price ranges, it is less evident in the entry level housing market)
In any market there are two types of sellers: compulsory and discretionary. We find sellers who must move and those who are in the market to entertain the option. In a balanced market you can hardly notice the difference. In an extremely unbalanced market (a Buyer's market) the compulsory sellers become hyper-motivated and skew the market significantly. They reduce their price to sell in the next showing or two thus providing what every buyer dreams about... the proverbial "DEAL".
Discretionary sellers continue to pull out of the market not willing to compete and take a loss. This serves to further concentrate the market with highly motivated compulsory sellers.
Among the compulsory sellers there is a continuum of motivation and tolerance of pain. From the highly motivated seller trying to avoid foreclosure to someone who is merely dipping into his or her equity line every other month to stay afloat. Eventually when the latter get in enough pain they join the former. So the concentration of highly motivated compulsory sellers grows even more such that normal pricing conventions no longer apply. In other words: Only the deals will sell because there are enough of them to serve the low buyer demand.
Sellers have but one choice to sell their house in this kind of market. Come to terms with the market and price aggressively or "wait on your buyer". By that I mean wait for the chance buyer who sees your house the way you do. If you have a strong niche feature (handicap access, two kitchens, two master bedroom suites, etc...) you have a better chance. If you have no niche features you might be waiting a long time. Even the presence of niche features is no guarantee if there are negating factors (the stigma of pressboard or stucco siding, a steep driveway, indoor polybutelene plumbing, etc...).
Final considerations: 1) consider what a loss actually is and 2) purchasing in this market offsets the loss you experience on your sale. This is the only reason a discretionary seller should stay in this market.
Consider the tax advantages of homeownership, what you paid (plus improvements) and find out what your bottom line really is. Balance that against your holding cost and your opportunity cost of missing a purchase in this market. All the while... remember there are those sellers in every price range who are willing to accept a loss because they have no other choice.
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