So you wake up and turn on the morning news program or read your local paper and read about the economy being in the toilet and news story #2 is about how the housing market is tanking.  What is a buyer to think?  Well, apparently the morning's events translates into the following story that has happened to me 3 times in the past 2 weeks. 

Mr. and Mrs. Buyer meet with Realtor Bob.  Mr. and Mrs. Buyer tell Realtor Bob that they read in the paper that now was a great time to buy a house because they could get a great deal.  Realtor Bob thinks to himself, "since I haven't sold a house in over a year, I will agree with you because that is what I read too"  Realtor Bob meets with Mr. and Mrs. Buyer and they discuss how much the buyers can afford and then he talks a little bit about sellers paying all of the buyer's closing costs these days and the asking prices are just starting points etc.  The buyers say they only want to spend up to $275,000 and Realtor Bob pulls listings up to $325,000.  He explains to them that perhaps there are some sellers in that upper price range that they could negotiate a better price with.  Now Mr. and Mrs. Buyer are looking and falling in love with homes they cannot afford.  They also have been given what i feel is terrible advice that a seller might be willing to come off of $50,000 just because of the market we are in.  So, Mr. and Mrs. Buyer write an offer on a property that is listed for $325,000 and they offer what the max they can afford, $275,000.  So Mr. and Mrs. Seller now are angry that they got such a low offer and they are not aware that the buyer really can't afford to come up from their offer price and meet anywhere in the middle.  WHAT A WASTE OF TIME!!!!!   So, I ask, who is at fault?  The media for trying to tell America that the housing market is in the toilet everywhere?  Realtor Bob for not properly advising his clients about market value and for not selecting properties his clients could afford?  The buyers for not being smart enough to do their own homework on market conditions and for writing an offer on a home they couldn't afford?  The bottom line, is that even though we are in a buyer's market in Beaufort, sellers should not feel as though they have to give their house away.  Offers $40,000 below asking price when the house is priced very fairly and cometitively to begin with is rediculous.  I feel most sorry for the buyers who are wasting their, their agent's, mine, and my client's time writing offers on properties and sending people on an emotional roller coaster all for nothing.  The funniest part of this story is that Realtor Bob lives in this neighborhood where Mr. and Mrs. Buyer wrote an offer and had the seller accepted his buyer's offer his own property value would have been affected.  Doesn't sound too smart to me....