… It’s going to be a long cold winter. I’ll be back in the spring.

That’s what I’m reading too, 60646renter. But here’s the thing: Consider that – even though somewhat of a remote thought – home prices in 60646 may rise next spring.

I also read your post. I wish more buyers and realtors would to your theory because it makes total sense. Price right, and it will sell. Why can’t the sellers in 60646 figure this out?

It’s going to be a long cold winter. I’ll be back in the spring.

Thanks for stopping by to discuss, 60646 renter.

In career choice there are all these older guys who confuse ‘being busy’ with ‘making money’. Sure, they’re busy all the time and have a lot going on, but at the end of the day, ‘being busy’ is not selling properties. Sure, you have lots of listings, and there are showings, and new clients, but unless there are sales, it’s a waste of time…but these old timers, they don’t see that. I’m not saying you’re an old timer, but there are plenty of star realtors out there who sell, and sell well, even in this down market, and they tell sellers right off the bat “I will sell your house but you need to follow my plan and price realistically” and homes sell. Letting sellers decide how they’re going to do it is like giving doctors giving patients tell them how to practice medicine. Don’t let sellers tell you how to sell homes because guess what – they won’t sell. 9 sales in Q2 shows that.
Thanks for these informal chats. Hopefully some 60646 sellers see this little chat and get a better sense of what’s really going on out there and why potential buyers won’t buy their homes.

Your job as a realtor is to encourage #4, you know, if you want to sell more than 9 properties in edgebrook a quarter.

When we represent sellers, one of our jobs is to negotiate the highest possible price (that the market bears) for our clients. When we represent buyers, one of our jobs is to negotiate the lowest possible price for our clients.

I don’t disagree with you that buyers essentially determine what the market value of a particular piece of property is. And I also agree with you that sellers ought to know about what is going on in their marketplace. But that’s basically as far as we go. From there, it’s up to the sellers to decide. Your fourth option is not really an option. It’s a statement like “The sun comes up in the East every morning”. Just because cheaper homes sell, doesn’t mean that expensive homes have to sell for cheap! However, do expensive homes occasionally sell for cheap? You bet they do! But for that, you have to get up before the sun rises in the East!

Sellers have four choices: 1) take the house off the market; 2) hold firm forever; 3) hold firm until it becomes a distressed property; or 4) recognize the new market reality that cheaper homes sell. Your job as a realtor is to encourage #4, you know, if you want to sell more than 9 properties in edgebrook a quarter. You and I both know that the market is not ‘coming back’ and the longer a seller waits the less they’ll eventually sell for. This is a declining market and who knows where the bottom even is at this point.

There is obviously a war between sellers & buyers in the area.

I think we all know who is going to win this standoff.

There may be a fundamental misunderstanding on your part about how markets in general, and real estate markets in particular work.

Please allow me to explain: Generally speaking, in a market where there is more supply than demand, prices will decrease to a point where supply and demand are eventually going to be in synch. In a real estate market with an abundance of supply, the above axiom is not necessarily true. The owners of a $700K home are not going to lower their asking price for their home to $350K – let alone accept an offer for $350K – just to sell it. Mostly because they have a mortgage that may be higher than $350K. They would have to short-sell their property which they may not be inclined to do, unless they have no other choice. Elsewhere on this blog, I have often alluded to the fact that Edgebrook/Wildwood are not neighborhoods that are heavily populated by distressed properties. To the best of my knowledge that is still true today. Banks on the other hand, look at their portfolio of non-producing assets differently: If there is no offer within a short period of time, they drastically cut their asking price. They have no emotional ties to their assets whatsoever. Homeowners in Edgebrook and Wildwood are not banks. They are real people!

$190,000
$299,000
$385,000
$445,000
$594,000

I count 7 under contract in Edgebrook & 7 under contract in Wildwood.

I count 25 for sale in Edgebrook & I count about 24 for sale in Wildwood.

I count less than a dozen minor price drops in the last 30 days!

There is obviously a war between sellers & buyers in the area.

I think we all know who is going to win this standoff. Realtors so far have been taking the side of the losing party – sellers. Realtors need to do their part to encourage sellers to drop prices significantly and drastically. Buyers are not coming back. Large numbers of $400k+ buyers are not going to all the sudden magically appear out of nowhere and snap up all the listed property.

I understand that seller won’t ‘just give their homes away’ but they’re not selling their homes either.

So the standoff continues…the renters continue to rent, the sellers continue to list and the realtors go hungry.

I think a lot of that ‘trouble’ is a result of delusional seller pricing, which has resulted in an abysmal 9 sales in Q2 this year. That’s roughly half the ’08 Q2 sales figures which was the worst 2nd quarter to date.

I’m glad to see your stats correlate nicely to mind, I don’t have access to the MLS, so I take the information from a variety of other sources.

Buyers really like the sub-$500,000 homes. This is the new paradigm, which is change from the past, because even as recently as last year, there were a lot $500,000 homes sold.

Maybe those buyers will come back and buy the $500,000 homes en mass; maybe buyers will shun $500,000 homes in the area for the next generation. Who knows, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. But I do know that as soon as one seller capitulates and sells a $600k tutor for $450k the rest will have to follow and I surmise that’s what many of these 60646 renters are waiting for.