Sally English Atlanta Real Estate: Pricing a Home in this Uncertain Market is like batting against a KNUCKLEBALL Pitcher

Lately I feel like a rookie batter up against a veteran knuckle ball pitcher when it comes to pricing houses.  I am confident in my "hitting" ability but the ball is ducking and diving when it gets to the plate.  Heck, even the catcher can't figure out where the ball is going.

Pricing a home for the market has become a really tough undertaking.  Owners are hopeful the market is starting to come back to life and they have become reluctant to put their best price forward at the time of listing.  Buyer's have been brain washed by the media into believing the list price of any home is at least 50% more than the price they need to offer in a purchase contract.  So once again the Realtor is left to hammer on both sides until some agreement can be reached.

But the new problem is what list price to start out with.  In the old days we had tons of data to help us in pricing a home.  I do my homework and study my local neighborhoods so I had a huge data bank of knowledge from which to draw on when presenting pricing opinions to sellers.  It is much less scientific nowadays.  No, let me retract that statement.  Pricing a home has become more like laying down cards in a poker tournament.  We turn cards over one at a time until we see what the competition is showing.  When we start to feel confident we have a winning hand, then we place the big bets.  (As a side note: taking an overpriced listing is no way to run a successful brokerage business,,,and I have 25 years of experience to back up that statement).

Knuckle ball hitters have to swing where they they think the ball is going to be based on intuition.  Good fastball hitters can watch a pitcher's release and know, based on the trajectory, where the ball is going to be when it crosses the plate.  If the ball is released at a certain point it will be low and away....so they swing at that space on the plate.  With knuckle balls, no one, and I am talking no one; be it pitcher, catcher umpire, or hitter; has a clue where the ball is going to end up when it gets to the batter and home plate.  Batters almost have to close their eyes and swing with hopes that they are going to connect.  This crazy real estate market has me closing my eyes and swinging away when I price homes.  I can't use the "trajectory" of where home prices have been.  I have to be prepared for the "ducks and swerves" of home prices based on the latest media announcements,