As usual for Tuesday we went on our broker's open tour yesterday, we saw several homes and had added to this having been out on Sunday as well since we have sold all our listings. Yes, the market is strong in our area, but prices have become more realistic or so I thought till yesterday.

We saw only one house we thought was well priced. Many were priced too strongly and in some instances we wondered what they were thinking. however, there has been a lot of sales in our area and there was a shortage of homes on the market, but it does not help the seller to have an overpriced home sit and sit. Now, I don't believe it is the agents who are pricing these homes strongly, I think it is the home owners and with Spring getting established, or so we thought although the tempretures have dropped a little this week some price ranges are seeing a lot of houses come on the market. The $500-600,000 range and the $700,000 - 750,000 have seen a lot of homes come on in the last two weeks. Because there has been a shortage I think homeowners think they can ask any price.

But buyers are not fools, they want value for their investment, especially if it is three quarters of a million dollars. They want bathrooms and kitchens to be updated, they want the house to be clean and freshly painted and the landscaping needs to be attractive as well.

So before you put your home on the market get a good agent to give you advice on what needs to be done to sell your home. They are not trying to just spend your money they are trying to help you sell your home in the quickest amount of time for the highest price. And if you cannot afford the time to get the home ready then price accordingly. You have to make sure your home is the best value in the price range in which you fall.