There's a lot of desperation out there. Nobody wants to see the house they call a home being valued a lot lower than what they have built into it with all the emotional memories over time. Unfortunately, that's what has to be done...

There have always been agents who bought listings. I wonder if the sellers ever ask them the results of the listings they take...

I hear you on that January..

Gary, you said it perfectly, that is why I go into a listing presentation showing my successful SOLD stats and DOM (Days On Market) stats as well as price changes compared to the competition...

One more thing, I overheard someone the other day at lunch talking about how pricey our area was and the home they were talking about was grossly overpriced by about $500K...

Because of this experience, that potential buyer may back out of looking for a home all because of an agents grossly overpricing of his listings...  That benefits no one...

I have a feeling the resposnses on this are going to be all over the board.  I claim to be somewhere in between.  I will usually list any home I get my hands on because it is marketing.  I try to get the sellers to list at Market value or below because that is what is going to sell...abviously.  However, there are those clients that insist to list high....and that is where I potentially disagree with you, I would rather take this listing and get potential buyers and show them a better priced home.  This does not diminish my fudiciary duty because I still would love to have sold the overpriced listing.....its just business.  In turn, I inform my listing client the stats and maybe after several showings and no sale of their house, they just might lower the price.....and hopefully not fired me.

Cheers.

Is this even legal: Say you have a seller that wants to list for 15-20% more than market value. That's cool - that's their prerogative. But wouldn't it be nice to strike a deal that they would have to pay all advertising costs? If it it does sell, you could refund it to them. I know it wouldn't cover your time, but at least you're not out the bucks on a listing that's likely not to sell.

In my area, alot of the dreamers drop that much on flat fee companies, only to end up using a traditional firm and listing at a more reasonable price.

Jim, you are very correct. I love to see our FSBO's market themselves and 90% of the time still end up selling thru a Realtor...

Pricing a home these days presents several problems. Many sellers feel that twice the SEV is the rock bottom price of their home.  Obviously that doesn't work when the value of homes is down 15% compared to 2007.

In a market, as we have today, the price of the home is established by what someone is willing to pay for it.