New realtor talking point: Lower the price or it ain't gonna sell

Looking through realty times today in Arizona, every realtor is now talking about the "buyer's market", "never a better time to buy" and "sellers need to lower their prices and be realistic"

Big change from just a couple of months ago, when all the commentary was "great market, housing is a great investment, prices never go down, blah blah blah"

Why the change? They were becoming the baghdad bobs of business, laughable in their deception and dishonesty, and they were looking like the town fool.

More importantly, sales totally dried up as the last sucker jumped in, and realtors were no longer gettin' paid.

New strategy: Fear and Opportunity. Get homeowners to fear the market, get desperate, and rapidly lower their prices. Get buyers to think it's a great time to buy at the new lower prices.

Only problem with that is that if you buy today, you're still buying near the top, and on the downward slope. What seems like a great deal today won't a year from now.

Here's a typical realtor report from Tucson:

Tucson Home Sellers Price Your Tucson Home to Sell or there is a good chance it will still be on the market come next year.

Last year, specifically last spring and summer we saw a run up in residential real estate sales that was frantic to say the least. Many people saw their neighbor's homes going for more than $100,000 over what they paid for their Tucson home just a few years before. As a result, a lot of people decided to put their home on the market and "cash in" on the run up in Tucson home values.

However, as is often the case, once the wave is gone it is a little late to get in the water and now we have more than double a normal inventory of residential real estate in the Tucson home market.

There are a lot of choices for buyers right now and many sellers wondering why their home isn't selling, or even getting people through them. In many cases the home is over priced for today's market.

There were a lot of would be real estate investors in the market last summer as well. Some bought two or more properties with the expectation they would fix them up and sell them again in a couple of months. This is called "flipping" and can be profitable in the right market place, however, Tucson isn't that kind of market right now for people that already bought at inflated prices and put money into those properties expecting to sell them for a profit.

Some of those homes are already on the market and as those "investors" get closer to not making the payments on these homes they will be forces to lower their asking price not wanting to risk foreclosure or damage to their credit rating.