We've talked about a buyer's guarantee. Beginning today I'm going to offer a seller's guarantee as well.

First, you should know that this is not a product that will appeal to every seller! This is only designed for someone who really, truly, must sell their home.

The basic guarantee is that if I can not sell your home in 120 days, I will then waive my commission for the next 120 days to get your home sold.

As with any offer, there are details!

• The home must be listed at a price I believe is competitive in our current market.
• The seller must agree to consultation with a home staging professional and make whatever changes/upgrades are necessary to make the home ready to sell!
• Listing agreement must be for a minimum of 240 days.
• Seller must agree to 5% price reductions every 20 days until home is under contract.
• Home must be available to show 7 days a week, between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
• The compensation to the buyer's agent will not be waived and will be a minimum of 3%.
• Home will be listed in MLS with sign in yard and lockbox for agent access.
• Failure to keep home in same condition as in virtual tour photos voids this agreement.

I believe this offer is the most aggressive offer available from any listing agent in our market today!

If you know someone who really does need to sell their home, please pass along this information! Whether the situation is truly desperate or simply urgent, I believe this will be helpful to a great many sellers.

I'm anxious to hear your feedback!

Late last week a national builder who has quite a few developments in this area took out a full page ad in a local paper. They were advertising no mortgage payments for the remainder of 2007 if you put a contract on existing inventory now.

There are several things we know from reading this ad. First of all, the builder has no confidence in a quick rebound for the local housing market. Like all of us, a homebuilder does not easily give up profit potential. Unlike your average homeowner, however, a builder is not at all emotionally involved. He sees the unsold homes simply as a product, as inventory. He'll do what it takes to get rid of them.

Secondly, the builder undoubtedly believes prices will continue to drop or at the very least stay very, very soft for the peak selling season.

And, given this offer, the builder is right. If you're selling a resale home in the same price range, you've got a very tough job competing with this. That's especially true if you're unlucky enough to be selling a home in one of these very developments! But even if you're home is elsewhere and is a comparable home in terms of size and features, you had better be prepared to lower your prices considerably. If you're the buyer comparing a brand new home and no mortgage payments for 7 months or looking at your home, nice but already lived in and mortgage payments beginning immediately, what would you choose?! There aren't many of us that would choose the lived in house.

So, sellers should be prepared for another round of price cuts. If they can find a way to swing it they might think about a marketing campaign offering to make the new owner's house payments for the rest of 2007 in order to compete with the builder.

And, in some cases, sellers should be prepared to take their homes off the market and wait it out. Inventory is still very high and clearly the builders don't think it's getting better any time soon! Recovery in our local housing market is probably now not on the agenda until at least 2008. Of course, the Fed could elect to drop interest rates and surprise me! A girl can dream!