Go ahead and use this post!  Re-blog it to your heart's content!  E-mail it to your clients (after you offer the same type of service discussed). 

You need all the help you can get in order to help your clients price their properties correctly.  Sometimes when they read it in a magazine or the Internet they believe it more.... 

Tanya: It's free to create on Real Bird and you can buy a domanin name on GoDaddy and attach it to the website.   Ex:

www.PalmettoHarbor.com

Doug:  That should become a punishable act.  The sellers hire that BS agent who tells them what they want to hear.  Six months later the Sellers come to me asking me to take over because the agent did not get the home sold, only now, I can no longer get the market price of 6 months ago...  

Tough, but true.  The market is what it is.  I don't make the market.  What makes me good is the fact that I can read it correctly and that typically means that I tell the Seller what he doesn't want to hear... 

Price Vigilance is imperative right now!!!  Every month the home stays on the market, means less and less money in the Seller's pocket.   The market is going DOWN, NOT UP!!!  This is very important to keep in mind!  That $100,000 home is no longer a $100,000 home six months later.  Depending on the market, that $100,000 home may be a $90,000 home, an $85,000, even a $60,000 home....  Now, more than ever, it's imperative to pay attention to the time quotient of this equation....

After giving him the market estimate for his property, a Seller said to me:  "I need a drink!"  I told him to go ahead and get one.  He listened to me and listed for the recommended price.  I marketed it correctly and actually managed to garner him almost $10K more than the original price (we still have multiple bids, even in this market, when the properties are priced correctly and marketed properly).  We closed on it and my client was relieved and ecstatic.  His neighbor, who owned an identical property improperly priced, still has his condo on the market, only now he is asking about $70K less than what I garnered my seller last year....

Michael: Good! ...And thank you!

...But did you flag it?

Randy:  That's really the ORIGINATION point...  Glad you agree!

Joseph: Thank you very much!

Mott: I like the way you put it:

Pricing is the key element ing getting the right exposure to the property.

Jim: Yes, it is timely.   And yes, you are right:

Nothing is as important as the right price.

Randall:  That's well put and oh, so true:

I think 09 is going to be a lot of truth telling for us agents...and telling people what they do not want to hear.

Camille:  Yes, Myrtle Beach is charming indeed!  I landed here on the way to somewhere else and have never found my way back...

I like your statement about the sellers who prefer to stay in La-La Land when pricing their property: "well my house is nicer than so & so's, that sold 6, 12, 18 months ago, and should sell for XXX amount of $$$'s more." 

Dream on!  I wish I could be more peruasive with my sellers.  I have sellers who have just finished re-doing their condo, only to put it on the market again for about $50K less than the offer I brought them last year, which they refused.  

Debbie:  That's a great idea!  I just started doing that this month as a matter of fact.  Great minds think alike.

Scott:  Yes, marketing is the other half of the equation.

Lourdes:  Yes, overpricing a listing will only prolong the process and cost (the Seller) money. 

We don't know how much further down the market will go...  We were overly optimistic this time last year...  With the plethora of REO's now flooding most markets, a nervous buyer, an unstable economy, it's hard to tell...

Many sellers are now putting their homes on rental programs.  Because of the plentitude of rental properties, it is diffucult to garner last year's rents also. 

The Sellers just have to play the worst case scenario and ask themselves this question:  "For how long can I afford to CARRY this property?"  If they don't like the answer to that question they need to be the cheapest home in the neighborhood and hire the agent who will produce the best marketing possible.

Bo, I am not as persuasive as I should be, but I have a fairly good ratio.   When my Sellers take my advice, we go to closing.  When they don't, they typically end up selling for less... 

If other agents did not do the overpriced sales talk, I could actually get the job done better.  If I tell the Seller the truth and another agent tells them what the Seller wants to hear, many times the BS agent will get the job.  I typically hear back from that seller 6 months later, but if the seller did not like my estimate of value the first time, they sure won't like it six months later...

Or worse:  I had a seller who wanted a fantasy price on his lot.  I brought him a $140K offer a few months ago.  He did not accept it.  The listing expired and he tried selling it himself.  He finally transacted:  ...for $60K.  I'm still scratching my head.  OK, so he saved commission.  The $140K price would have put $131,600 in his pocket.  He saved money by not paying commission...  OOPS...  NOT!!!  He is now $71,600 poorer.   Greed is a terrible thing...

Alexsandra:  If you are talking about the stats for the viewings and clicks on your AR blogs, just go to "My Home".  On the bottom left side, right underneath all your groups you will see a tab that says "Statistics".   Click on that to see how many clicks, viewings and comments each one of your blogs has had. 

I hope that's what you asked.  If it's not, please let me know.  Your subscribers are also there, right underneath the first tab for your statistics.  Go ahead ask me any stat questions!  You know I like those!

Perhaps we could all comment here with our views.  I will probably go over and collect the best ones and use them for an upcoming blog that we can all use as testimonials for our Sellers perusal... 

Keep commenting please!  Let's articulate our points!

Sheldon:  I think we could all help each other by disseminating this kind of "REALITY CHECK" information.   Your testimonials will help me put together a communal testimonial from various agents.  If the Sellers are exposed to it enough times, maybe it might sink in. 

Sellers do have choices.  They can:

1.Price it right or take it off the market (or not put it on the market in the first place, thus not partaking in propagating the problem).

2.Rent it.  With more and more of these vacant properties vying for the same renters, we have found that rental amounts have decreased greatly in the past 6 months. 

The Sellers have to realize that either way they are going to LOSE money.  It's just a question of just how much they can afford to lose.  I've had Sellers bring as much as $40K to closing, but at least they stopped the bleeding.

Thank you for flagging it.  Several people have indicated that they have flagged it, but the AR Gods must not find this information RELEVANT.   With over 30 comments, apparently the rest of us do...