Buyers and Sellers worst enemy...themselves

One challenge facing prospective homebuyers is the difficulty of finding a house in a good neighborhood in good condition.  Prices continue to decline, but so does the number of homes for sale.
 New research gives us one reason why: Buyers may think it's a good time to buy, but sellers don't think it's a good time to sell.  A recent study I was just reading about found that nearly 80% of Americans think it's a good time to buy, but only 7.6% think it's a good time to sell.  The feelings of homebuyers are the same as in previous recessions, but the sentiments of sellers are different this time.
      Nearly two-thirds of those who expressed negative selling sentiment listed "difficulty of finding a buyer" as the reason. What this mean is the difficulty of finding a buyer at the price they want.

• Buyers' and sellers' worst enemy? Themselves
   
  Real-estate agents have to educate sellers on what price their home is really likely to fetch now. If sellers really want to sell, they adjust their expectations to the changed realities.

• See what's for sale in your neighborhood

If the sellers won't face reality, the agents sometimes decline the listing rather than waste time marketing a home that won't sell at the desired price.

Some agents are writing price-reduction clauses into contracts with sellers, which authorize automatic price reductions if no action occurs in the first few weeks.

Are sellers refusing to face reality? Or are they smart to keep their homes off the market now?

Marketing & Negotiating the Yin & Yang of Home Sales

Both marketing and negotiating will be uber-important to have in the broker or agent you choose to list your home and get it sold.

Marketing

Some might see marketing as the most important because, to put it plainly, if your home is not exposed widely and aggressively to prospective buyers, you'll never have the buyer viewings and offer(s) that must come in for you to even be faced with the high-class problem of negotiating the price and terms of a sale.
However, I don't see marketing skills as the requirement so much as your listing agent having a clear, comprehensive marketing plan that he/she is able to present to you with case studies of marketing that they've done for recent properties somewhat similar to yours. It's critical that an agent's marketing plan for your home include details such as:

• how they would help you prepare or stage your property for sale;
• what their plans are for listing the property on the local multiple listing service(s) and publicizing it to other brokers;
• what on-site marketing they would recommend (i.e., yard signage and/or open houses); and
• how and where they would place your home's listing online, down to which sites they'd list it on and how many pictures they would include.

Negotiationg

But negotiating is essential too -- especially if you're very concerned about being bullied or taken advantage of.  Ultimately, though, when it comes to negotiations, you're going to be faced with making the ultimate decisions about what your bottom-line price and other terms are, including whether you're able to offer incentives like closing-cost credits or whether you can afford to contribute to any repairs the buyer's inspectors require. What I suspect you want is to feel like you're protected, which will come from having an agent you trust who's "got your back," but also has the experience and knowledge of local standard negotiating practices and buyer psychology that comes only with experience -- and I mean recent experience getting homes sold in today's market climate. I cannot emphasize enough that one efficient method of finding such a listing agent is to get referrals! Look to any family members, friends, work colleagues and neighbors whose homes are on the market now and ask them if they would strongly recommend their agent, and why.
If it's tough to get referrals, go into the various online real estate websites and their local discussion boards, and see which local agents are giving sensible, knowledgeable answers to consumers' questions in those forums. During your interview process, ask for references -- and call them! Speak to their recent past seller clients, to see how happy they were with the agents' service.