A few days ago, we had a training class in our office on adjusting to a down market. As you probably have heard things are still pretty good in the Oklahoma City market area but no place is immune to tighter credit qualification and higher interest rates.

One subject that always seems to rear it's head in a discussion like this is how to deal with sellers who won't lower their price. Somebody mentioned the phrase "stop the bleeding." What they meant by that was this:

(For this example we will say that Mr. Seller bought his house 2 yrs ago with little or no down pmt. He will be lucky to sell it for enough to break even. Mr. Seller's wife lost her job a few months ago and they are really strapped for cash and, although so far they are still current on their mortgage but they know that won't be the case in a few months unless Mrs Seller gets a new job whis isn't likely since she worked at an automobile factory).

1. While the house is still on the market, the seller is still responsible for the mortgage, insurance, taxes, utilities,

    upkeep etc.

2. Let's say for this example that the above items total $2,000 per month.

3. Now lets say Mr. seller gets an offer for $2,000 less than he owes. That doesn't make him very happy but

    that's only one month's outlay, right?

4. Mr. Seller can't see the forest for the trees and refuses the offer.

5. 3 months later the house is still on the market and Mr. Seller has spent another $6,000 that he couldn't afford.

6. Mr. Seller would have been far better off to to cut his losses and accept the offer that was $2,000 less than what he owed. By using an example like this the seller can see the logic in accepting the offer. Don't you think this is a good way to help a seller look at the big picture?

        Remember--people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.