What I've Seen

In order to keep abreast of the West Seattle market, I preview an average of 8-10 new listings a day, 2-3 days a week. This means I personally tour between 15-25 new homes each week as they come on the market. It's a great way to keep current on available inventory and see how sellers and agents are pricing homes.

Judging from the homes I previewed yesterday, it seems as if many new listings are still coming on the market overpriced from the get-go. It's hard to say whether this is the fault of the agents or the sellers. A good agent will do their homework and present the prospective seller with a well-researched Comparable Sales Analysis (aka a CMA), showing what similar homes are selling for. Even so, many sellers choose to ignore the evidence and insist on listing at a higher price. Until as recently as June of this year, seller's were sometimes getting away with that strategy. Now, however, inventory is high and buyer's are scarce, so overpricing is a foolish choice unless the seller doesn't mind having their home sit on the market for several months.