Carol Rondinelli, Broker Associate, CDPE

Real estate agents interview you to determine if they want to spend their time working with you, so it's o.k. for you to interview them as well. Some buyers and sellers find interview questions on the Internet - - this is fine, but many times the questions are irrelevant and will be mostly answered when the agent gives their listing presentation to the sellers or goes through their buyers booklet when sitting down with buyers.

This process can be simplified greatly if you will just listen to the agent's presentation and then finish up with the following questions if they haven't been addressed:

1. Are you an experienced full-time agent that keeps current with new information and how many years have you worked as a Realtor?

2. Do you understand and take seriously your fiduciary responsibility to your clients and can you explain to me how that works?

3. Do you practice risk reduction when working with your clients and how do you do that?

4. Do you have negotiating strategies that create a win-win situation for your clients and what are they?

5. Do you expect me to be loyal to you and how does it work if we have a personality conflict and can't work together after we've signed an agreement.

This sums up the really important issues involved. Some of the other questions on the Internet really have no bearing at all on the Realtor doing an excellent job for you by being knowledgeable and organized and meticulously watching over your interests and safety. An agents job is to help people make smart decisions at the most critical moments in their lives!

The current market is very sluggish as everyone knows. It can easily take 6 months or longer to sell your home even when the agent is marketing, marketing, marketing!

Knowing this, you must have patience and be willing to lower the price at certain intervals, if necessary, in order to move to your next level of life. If you have a good agent that is showing you they are working hard at this, it's not their fault, but the market's fault that it is taking so long. So, changing agents at the end of a 6 month listing is not going to help you. You must listen to your agent and be willing to overcome the objections with a price reduction if you want to move.

You'll have even more working against you if your home isn't updated and can't compete with the new styles, or if your home is totally cluttered and looks bad or if the location (backing to a busy busy street etc.) is not desirable. Price overcomes all objections.

This type of market gives you the choice to lower your price, sell the house and move on with your life, or be adamant about the price you want and sit there for months, maybe paying a house payment, rent at another location and double utilities. This also allows your home to become "stale on the market." When your home is stale on the market the offers that finally come in are much lower, hurting you again. When you hire a professional realtor to help you with this endeavor, listen to their advice. This is a very ugly different market right now and the agents work in it everyday and try to pass on their insights and expertise to you.

The bright side to this is, after selling, when you go out to buy you'll most likely get a good deal from the next seller that has to price his home below tax appraised value to move it. So, you lose some on one end and gain it on the other.

You deserve a break, turn off that t.v. and take a rest from the mud slinging in the political race.....it's been going on for 1.5 years it seems and it's getting very old.

By now, I'm sure you know who you're going to vote for, and if you don't, sit down and figure out which candidate is the most honest, trustworthy and putting our country first and not going to burden us with more and more taxes.

As Americans, we deserve to have people in office that will stop the rampant spending for no reason and act responsible.

We are living in times of economic uncertainty and it takes a physical and emotional toil on everyone. Steer away from the feelings of fear and panic so we won't make the situation worse than it really is. The sky is not falling and we will survive a downturn and recover once again!! You can survive this situation, it will be o.k.! Happiness does not lie in the abundance of wealth.

For some odd reason I have been glued to the t.v. this year, watching the political arena every evening. I've made my decision and feel I know who is the most honorable team and I'm ready to vote. That's all I can do, so I'm turning off the t.v. until election night when I tune in to see if the American people rallied and chose the person to best represent and protect them.

The current real estate market requires a lot of patience on the seller's side, the agent's side and the buyer's side. The sellers have to present their home in the very best light they can and patiently await the right buyer. The agents have to work twice as hard to sell the houses because it takes 4-6 months worth of work instead of 1-3 months of work, for the same pay. The buyers have to be patient in the fact that there's so much out there to see; to be sure they're getting the home they want.

Real Estate Agents are market testers. We compile our comps and study them with the sellers and we all arrive at a listing price and present it to the market. The past few years the great appreciation in homes has diminished somewhat and this year some sellers are getting tax reappraisals that are showing the value of their homes going down. Many people are having to price their homes and sell their homes very close to the tax appraisal amount or below.

After several showings, if we haven't received an offer it is time to sit down and discuss lowering the price and testing the market with a new price which will present it to a different group of people. ( There's no exact price for the home on the market, it all bears upon what the buyer's are willing to pay). At this point, the sellers have to be willing to do their part and lower the price, if they want to move to the next level of their lives.

In this kind of market the sellers may feel like they take a hit on their home price, but they should make up for it when they buy their new house at a bargain price too. Homes that are older, even though updated, still, many times, do not have the amenities of the new homes. Also, homes that have a poor location or back to busy streets have a stumbling block. In these cases price overcomes all objections.

Time changes all things, and this too will pass on and the market will speed up in the future.....have hope!