I was at a gathering this weekend and there was some serious concern about how terrible the housing market is.

I tried to explain it this way...

In my opinion, there seems to be two markets out there.  One is torn up foreclosures and overprice unprepared personal homes for sale.  The other is correctly priced cleaned up ready to move into houses with home owners who understand what it takes to sell a house.

There have been many times that I have shown buyers the houses in the second category and the house is sold before we can make an offer on it.

The mentality of start high then drop your price just does not work.  These days, start high and you don't get showings.  Most buyers use a Realtor because we can analyze the area around a house to determine a fair price.  If it is not priced right, the buyers just go down the street to the next house.  Please understand I am not saying you need to price a house unrealistically low, I am saying price at the right price for the area and people will look.

The next issue is how the house looks.  If you have looked at houses to purchase before, you probably ran across one with the funky paint or smell.  We usually spend at least a month or more ahead of listing a property advising our sellers on what needs to be done to their house before it goes on the market.  Often it involves painting, cleaning and a storage unit somewhere.  The good news is the people willing to work with us usually don't have to put up with showing for long because their house sells.

Okay, off my soapbox....  The point is... do not panic about what the media is saying about the market.  If you want to sell your house and are willing to do what it takes, it will sell.  It is really not that bad out there for what I call the "normal" market.