Mercury Retrograde's Effect on Real Estate

What the heck is Mercury retrograde and what could it possibly have to do with real estate? A lot!

Mercury Retrograde is when the planet Mercury starts to go in a backward motion. This happens approximately three times a year for a 3 to 4 week period. We are currently in one of these periods and the havoc wreaked is real -- even if you don't believe in astrology. This retrograde started on October 12 and ends November 1. The planet Mercury rules communication and transportation. Therefore, it is not a good time to start anything new, such as a contract, job, etc. It is also a bad time for travel and buying anything expensive, especially electronics.

During this time, real estate transactions will fall out of escrow, communications will break down, and people will have disagreements. If you happen to have homes in contract, be especially diligent about communication with all parties and expect delays.

Despite Mercury Retrograde's negative aspects, there are some positive ones too. This period is a great time to "re" do anything. Reconnect with old friends, redo your closet, restart your workout routine, etc.

For more information on this subject, visit Susan Miller's Astrology Zone website:
http://www.astrologyzone.com/forecasts/mercury.html

Pricing a Home to Sell

In this current market of craziness, the proper pricing of a home has become an insurmountable challenge with Sellers. Our boom market gave home owners a mentality of what their home was worth at the height of the market in 2005 and Sellers just can't get whatever that price was out of their heads. The price of what a home would sell for is easy when looking at the facts, but convincing a Seller of that price is quite difficult.

An article in Inman news by Bernice Ross, which is directed at agents, but is also great advice for home Sellers outlines pricing strategies. See http://www.inman.com/content/story.aspx?ID=64177. The four points the article makes include the following:
1) Price a home below what recent comparable homes sold for to be competitive; no buyer wants to pay more for a home than is necessary
2) Don't try to test the market; test the market and you're just looking at wasted time and a price reduction in the near future
3) When reducing your home price, make a serious price reduction that will make a difference in the potential pool of buyers looking for a home; buyers search for homes based on price ranges, so if your home is listed for $475K and you reduce it to $470K, you haven't added a single new buyer to see your home -- however, if you lower your price to $450K, you just increased your pool of buyers for all those whose price maximum is $450K
4) What's your motivation to sell your home; do you "need" to sell or do you "want" to sell -- the longer your home sits on the market when priced improperly the more money you lose as homes values decline