I listed a lovely home earlier this year for about three months.  While the market analysis confirmed the price could remain at $299,000 my gut kept telling me it needed to be reduced – which I suggested to the seller.  The listing expired without one single showing and the seller thought he’d let me relist.  After a month of waiting for unreturned phone calls, I removed my lockbox and the sign from the yard.  I didn’t want to violate any MLS codes of ethics by having the sign without the listing … I should’ve taken it down at least two the three weeks earlier.

I think I made him angry when I moved the sign.  I heard this weekend that he’s asking another agent to list the property at the reduced price I suggested.  This is actually pretty typical in the real estate market and I should know better.  It’s not uncommon for a listing to stagnate on the market at a higher price and then be listed by another agent at the price recommended by the first agent.  It will sell now, I’m certain.

In this market, I have people beating my door down to list their homes but it’s rare that a seller will acknowledge that their home is worth a lot less now than it was just two years ago.  To be an agent today, you have to grow some thicker skin and stand by the price range you recommend.  If you don’t, you’ll be left holding a lot of listings getting no traffic.

Or if you’re a seller you’ll sit around with your home on the market for months and months – making the mortgage payment that could be going to another home.