What a market. I’ve never written so many offers and closed so few homes in my entire real estate career. I’ve been at this now for over 20 years and have seen many ups and downs in the Seattle real estate market, but this has been the most challenging time of all.

I’ve been showing homes regularly for the last several weeks to a couple of different well qualified buyers. They have expressed their concerns in concert; “What if I buy a house today and it’s worth 10% less six months from now?

Their approach has been, therefore, to make offers at least 10% below the asking price. This is obviously a tough pill to swallow for the seller; and thereby the stand-off. What on earth is going to break this trend?

Will lower interest rates be the answer? Good grief, they are already in the 5% range. These are great rates. But buyers think they’ll come down lower still; and long as they believe this they’ll continue to sit tight.

Will it be “when they find just the right house”? There is so much inventory out there that there’s at least 20 “right houses” for every buyer. They feel no pressure to act quickly when they find a house they like.

What will it be then? I believe it will be when buyers feel peaceful about their future. They don’t want to step into the same pain that their fellow citizens are experiencing right now. They don’t want to lose hard earned equity and they don’t want to find out that they’ve been laid off after closing on their new home. As long as the national financial news is disastrous, and as long as we see instability, corruption and reckless spending there simply won’t be confidence in the financial stability of our beloved Nation.

Home sellers are more frequently using a professional to stage their home. What is home staging? Typically a professional will bring in furnishings and decor to present a seller’s home in the best possible manner. Does it work? I’m not sure.

This is purely anecdotal; but recently I was showing homes and one of my buyers remarked that they preferred it when the houses were vacant because it was easier for them to picture their own things there.

Sometimes we agents talk sellers into a lot of additional expense to market their homes when just a simple scrubbing would be most effective. I’m certain that when a seller goes to the expense of staging their home that they’re expecting top dollar. Buyers aren’t in the mood to pay top dollar right now. They want to find a flexible seller, and a staged home doesn’t send that message.

What is a short sale? It’s a situation when you’re trying sell your house and you owe more than what your buyer has agreed to pay.

Recently I asked an attorney, “When a bank agrees to a short sale, does the seller still owe the difference to the lender? He told me that it depends. You won’t know until the complete short sale package is submitted and the lender has a chance to review it. Sometimes the lender will ask the borrower to sign a note for the deficiency, especially when the lender is looking at a substantial loss. When they don’t say one way or another in response to your submitted package, you must assume that they have not agreed to give up the difference.

Most sellers that I talk to assume that, when a short sale is completed, they won’t owe anything afterwards. That is not necessarily the case. Please be careful! It would be wise for you to consult a real estate attorney before completing the transaction. There are those out there who are trying to take advantage of you.

What are your experiences?