Camille O'Donnell

Perhaps, real estate brokers may want to take a look at auctions as a sideline service. I was reading how auctions are misunderstood and are beneficial in creating a competitive frenzy.

Now, I might not know what the heck I am talking about, but someone is making some money. My take is, if we are supposed to be offering solutions to our clients, why not open up the possibility of auctions? According to the National Association of Auctioneers-The auction is a power tool to open doors -you have something that your competitor doesn't have. Since we
are responsible for offering our sellers the best tools available...we should at least be telling them about all of the options. They deserve it. That means we could invite FSBO's, expired's, and
withdrawn's! Read more here: The Broker Auction Advantage or the Gavel is Powerful.

It seems we have come to a crossroad of two kinds of home sellers--- the ones that are facing the housing market straight up and pricing their homes to sell and the others who are simply ignoring the facts and digging in their heals.

Now, we can talk about this subject til the cows come home, but I'd rather cut to the chase and make things happen. The problem is everyone in the media is an expert in real estate and whatever position you take, it is human nature to tune into people who say what you want to hear.

Although, if you are like me, we need to become better informed on how to tell people that their house is not worth alot more than what the market is calling for.

We need to take a lesson from Walmart, "Low prices are one of the surest ways to beat the competition". Called ``drama pricing" or ``energy pricing," it is a drastic measure for difficult times. Although, your clients will be disappointed, we must share the information of other competitive listings and sold inventory that are seen by consumers as a perception of value. That is human nature.

The experts tell us to lay out the facts on how tough it would be to sell at the suggested owner's listing price. However, we must adhere to the rules and ethics as Realtors and understand the bottom line is the owner's decision.

All, we can and must do is educate them. And I must admit, I need to brush up on my skills.
The point is if you start too high, buyers forget about your property -- it doesn't matter how beautiful it is. As a home seller, you may prefer to wait out the market, if you don't really need or want to sell. Now, some agents won't agree with me, but I just think the more inventory we have of homes, the harder it is for everybody. Especially, the sellers who need to sell.

Today, we must focus on what is not selling and persuade our sellers to look at the prices of active listings that are indeed selling.

You need to be an informed seller or buyer, it is imperative to know what is happening in the current Queen Anne's County market- www.qachousingmarket.com. There are many factors to determining the proper price when listing a home for sale. There are just as many factors to help you decide whether you are getting good value for your dollar when you purchase a home. (click on graphic to enlarge).

It appears that the bottom dropped out for 2008 according to the stats below for the last couple of years. The million dollar question is when is this market going to turn around?

Here is the breakdown, so far, for 2008 and for the month of Feb.: