[photopress:BubbleBurst.jpg,thumb,alignright]Yes, you can prevent the bubble from bursting. Yes, you can prevent home prices from tumbling. The market takes a hit when sellers refuse to see the handwriting on the wall, and are too arrogant and complacent to compensate for market weaknesses.

The Seattle area is almost entirely unigue in its ability to sustain home values. But gone are the days when you can ignore the homes’ weaknesses. Gone are the days when you can put anything on market, in any crappy condition, and have people pouncing on it, regardless of look and smell and overall condition.

You can still get a better price than the comps. But you have to pay very close attention to showing your “product” in its best possible light. You can’t waste your Grand Opening by saying, I’ll lower the price IF it doesn’t sell. You can’t say “I’ll make it look better IF someone doesn’t buy it”. “You never get a second chance to make a first impression, was never truer than it is right now.”

Do not let anyone in your house until it is absolutely READY! Do not hit that button that sends you LIVE into the MLS, while you are still getting the house ready for market. Don’t push your price over the comps, unless you know you are at least as good or better than those comps.

The market tumbles when people are lazy and greedy. When they want to price it higher than any property that has ever sold before, and want to do nothing to make it look its best.

This is one of those “Forewarned is Forearmed” messages, because I am seeing things sitting on market because sellers are digging in their heels and saying I want more money and I want to do nothing to get that more money. Nothing will send the market tumbling faster that a lot of signs out there on stale listing.

If you have had your property on market for more than 45 days and it is not sold…wake up and smell the coffee and make some changes, before the volume of properties not selling sends the market into a tumble. Be reasonable, and make changes as needed. If the market tells you “We’re not buying it” in 30 to 45 days…do something about it. Don’t say “I’m not in a hurry to sell”. You don’t have to be “in a hurry” to notice that no one is making an offer, because your house is not in tip top shape, and so won’t sell at this price.

Don’t just lower the price until it sells. Take it off market, get it looking its best, and then bring it back. When you don’t make your house look its best, you drive down prices, and that hurts your neighbors. Be a good neighbor and sell your house at top dollar by doing anything and everything you can to make it show in its best light.

[photopress:man_in_the_bushes.jpg,thumb,alignright]This article is in response to a reader’s request yesterday, that I describe what a “man in the bushes” listing means.

Over the years, I have used the term “man in the bushes” most often in response to the question, “Can I sell my home myself as a For Sale by Owner”. If they are ready, willing and able to do that, I tell them to try it for up to 30 days, even two weeks, to see if they have a “man in the bushes”. I once sold a home with 23 men in the bushes.

A “Man in the Bushes” property is usually a unique home that has something that no other house has, and is also one people have suspected may at some time be sold. In this case a stand out corner property in Mount Baker built at or before the turn of the last century in the late 1800’s with some Lake view. It also has an owner who for some reason, actually many reasons, never got around to moving into it. So it has been vacant on and off for some forty years.

There’s usually someone, or several someones, who drive by it on a regular basis (in this case visiting his brother who lives nearby) who has said to himself a skazillion times, “If that house ever goes up for sale, I’d like to have it”. Of course they don’t know for sure until it does go on market and they go in it. But they are already 70% sure they want it. That’s a “man in the bushes”. Not just someone who is the first one to view it when it is listed, but someone who has been waiting for that opportunity to arise for a long time.

A seller can either try a FSBO on that, or get a deeply discounted rate if the “man in the bushes” comes forward very quickly. Another option is to list it in the mls and “exclude” the man in the bushes from the listing with a timeframe. “If Mr. X arrives and makes an offer on the property within 7 days, the listing is null and void”. To do it that way, you need to know who Mr. X is in advance and put him in the contract by name.

Sometimes the Man in the Bushes is a relative who has indicated an interest in buying it over the years, but may be “all talk” and “no ability to do so”. You give them 7 days to “put up or shut up”. This way the family doesn’t have to hear for the rest of their lives that this guy would have bought it, but no one gave him the opportunity to do so. There should never be a fee connected, other than maybe a handling fee, for people to sell their home to a relative. So if you think you have a “Man in the Bushes” in your family, give them 7 – 10 days to at least put that interest on paper, with no or little fee paid if a family member buys the property in the early part of the listing.