PRICE CHANGE?... NOT INTERESTED... I don't HAVE to sell my house!!

This messy real estate market is complicated enough with foreclosures and short sales and the lengthy and frustrating processes involved with distressed property sales that all Real Estate agents are learning to cope with and maneuver through.

But the sellers that are REALLY a challenge to an agent's patience, negotiating skills, and a test of our good sense as it relates to the ANCIENT REALTOR ADVICE: NEVER TAKE AN OVER PRICED LISTING!! ... are the home sellers that insist on "testing the market" and over-pricing their own listing.

These sellers ignore pages and pages of market analysis that their agent has painstakingly taken time to research and present, ignore the huge inventory of distressed properties that will ultimately be their market competitors & used as comps to appraise their home (if it EVER gets shown or... granted a MIRACLE... a CONTRACT! These sellers, with their heads in the sand, respond to their agent's attempts to jog them to their good senses with educated, experienced, professional advice by saying.... I'M NOT MOVING ON MY PRICE... I DON'T REALLY HAVE TO SELL!

Now, I know.... it's our own fault, as agents, for taking the listing in the first place, right? But we've all been there... agreeing to take the listing at a higher price and being certain that the seller will relent when they see that our seasoned advice was right on the money (so to speak!) AND do they? What DO they do? I'll tell you what they do... they continue to let us market their home, spend time and money trying to sell their over-priced listing, AND when the listing (surprise!) doesn't sell within the listing period.... they move on to another agent....but THIS time.. they reduce their price to the price we originally had suggested (or lower!) having lost precious time on the market as prices continued to plunge... and THEN... AND ONLY THEN... THEY GET A CONTRACT ON IT AND IT SELLS!

Some kind and reasonable advice to the sellers out there that are thinking of engaging this strategy... in THIS market.... IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO SELL.... THEN DON'T PUT YOUR HOME ON THE MARKET AND TRY TO SELL IT! It will only be an exercise in futility and frustration for ALL of us!