The Berra's Lake of the Ozarks Real Estate Blog

I would like to offer a few suggestions to the sellers of real estate at the Lake of the Ozarks in 2010. After showing many different properties this year to many different customers, it seems that that the biggest obstacle in selling a home in today's market is the seller's reluctance to realize or accept the fact that property values have declined in the past few years.

For example...If you paid $200,000 for a home in 2006 and all the similar homes in your area now selling for $170,000, guess what your home is worth. The same goes for you buying a home in 2006 for $140,000 and all your competition is selling for $170,000...you may have gotten an excellent deal in 2006.

It does not matter what you paid. It does not matter what you owe. It does not matter what you need. It does not matter what you want. What matters is what a property is worth.

You may want to test the market and see what happens. You may want to find that uninformed buyer from out of the area. You may want to find that cash buyer. Or maybe the buyer who just inherited a ton of money and doesn't care about value. 

Unfortunately for you as the seller, most buyers are well informed, analytical and more cautious than ever when purchasing a home in today's market.

The buyer, the buyer's agent, the listing agent, the bank and the appraiser all look at the same sales data as you. If the value is not there you are going have your home on the market for a very, very long time.

So you get frustrated, take the home off the market and wait until the "market rebounds". When will that be? Please let me know.

You may think you have the nicest property in the world with the greatest view in the world with the biggest boat dock in the world with the nicest furniture in the world, but I hate to tell you that you don't. There are over 1,000 condos and 2,000 homes available for sale at the Lake of the Ozarks, and if an informed and qualified buyer comes your way, you may want try to negotiate a deal. It may be a while before you get that chance again.

Happy selling!