BUYERS BEWARE BIDDING WARS ARE HERE

People in general think that houses are selling at 80% of asking price. Trust me this could be no further from the truth. If a home has offers at 80% it is priced wrong. The buyer probably won't come up and the seller won't come down. The fact is homes might be selling at 80% of the marketing value in 2006 or 2007....but homes are selling usually higher than 95% of asking. This is because sellers are recognizing we are not in a 2007 market and have begun to price there homes correctly. In fact, I have been in 6 bidding wars this year alone. All went for above asking. If a home is competitively priced it will pull buyers in. My advice to sellers is look at your competition in your market and what went under contract quickly. Price your home at this level to generate significant interest instead of a slow grinding battle of price reduction after price reduction. My advice to buyers is to trust your realtor in the local area when placing bids. Don't look at house that are not priced right...chances are the seller won't move on price and chances are you will not offer the price they want so you will just be spinning your wheels. If you like a home don't try to be too cute in your offer either, you could lose if there is a bidding war. Trust me it only takes a buyer one time to lose a home until they realize that.... After all 10k on a 500k home is 2%. Happy buying and selling.