Unless you were on another planet this week, you heard an awful lot of bad news about existing home sales.  If you're a seller, or about to be, I'm here to talk you back in off the ledge!

It is certainly true that the documented evidence is now in to support what we've been seeing and feeling locally now for some time.  It is a full-fledged buyers market.  The numbers locally are worse than the national numbers.  But keep in mind that our appreciation was also higher than the national average for the last several years!

So, what should you do if you're home is already on the market?  First of all, reevaluate why you're selling.  There are people who don't need to sell in this market and who should not sell right now.  If you have a choice, I think there's a case to be made for waiting.  Now I'm not talking about waiting a month.  If you have to sell in less than six months you might as well sell now.  I don't think we're going to see a significant improvement in the market for sellers in the near term.

If you're on the market now and no one's looking at your house, it's overpriced.  It doesn't matter what the neighbor's house that wasn't as nice sold for last year.  Prices are falling and they're going to keep falling. You can drop your price now and actually get a buyer and get it sold.  Or you can hold on and eventually take a much steeper discount because prices have fallen further.  It's always your choice on how you price your home. But it's the buyer's choice on whether they bother looking at it and whether or not they put in an offer on it.  If you're overpriced in this market, neither is likely to happen!

If you know you're going to have to put your home on the market in the near future, consider the pricing very carefully.  I would suggest undercutting the price of the most recently sold comparable home by 5%. That's assuming your home is in similar condition.  Discount further if that's not the case.

You should also plan on doing a lot more to get your house ready to show.  It should be free of clutter.  It shouldn't smell like your dogs, cats or birds!  If you have animals you may not notice the smells.  Ask your REALTOR to do a smell test!  Think about hiring a staging professional. Statistics show that homes that are staged sell faster and for more money!

The bottom line is don't panic.  There are still buyers out there.  You just have to compete aggressively to get them.  Go prepare for battle and get in touch if you need reinforcements!