It seems these days that some Realtors are their own worst enemies, calling buyers bottom feeders or lowballers when they present low offers and sellers with over-priced homes as greedy and unrealistic, it does not set a good stage for proper negotiations. There is often a lot of ego involved in a home sale, when someone makes a low offer, it is often taken too personally, like the seller thinks that you are not worth it. In this market, it is wise to see every offer, even the low ones as an opportunity, and make a thoughtful counter offer, even if you are $50,000 apart on a $300,000 house, you are still closer to a deal than not having an offer at all.
How quickly you need to sell the property will obviously affect the amount you’re willing to accept, but no matter what your situation, you should make a counteroffer. If a buyer really wants the house, he will buy it at a fair price.

This Weeks Real Estate Insight:

If your house has been on the market and is getting nothing but low offers, check recent comps before you reject or counter the offer, it may be time to put on your negotiating hat.

There was a good Wall Street Journal opinion article titled “The Housing Crisis Is Over“which makes some interesting conclusions based on historical and current market data that April 2008 marked the bottom of the U.S. housing market.  And at a   Legislative Meeting last Thursday, NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun announced  home sales should begin to grow later this year, but  real improvement in the housing market won’t happen until 2009, when sales should climb to 5.71 million units.
Prices also are expected to begin a turnaround later this year, but of course will vary by market. A brighter credit picture is a major contributor to this improvement, if you look at where home prices fell the most, it’s the markets were subprime loans were prevalent,  Detroit; Las Vegas; Miami; Orlando, and Phoenix were among the cities where the markets suffered the most. These markets should get a boost from a more stable mortgage market. FHA lending doubled to 6 percent of all loans 2007 and should grow to 10 percent in 2008. It should reach near-historic norms of 15 percent in 2009.

This Week’s Real Estate Insight:

The problem with looking for the Bottom is you don’t realize you have reached the bottom until prices start to climb again, and the beauty of being at the bottom is there is nowhere to go but up!