Active Rain is a real estate website with a member’s only portion. There is a conversation over there about NAR not posting a Realtor’s comment in disagreement with NAR which in a nutshell boils down to a classic quote: “(NAR) pumping sunshine up the skirts of the consumer will lead to distrust, so when there are clear signs the market is turning, no one will believe it.”

Unfortunately there are too many agents pumping sunshine up the skirts of their clients right now. We visited a listing today that is owned by a relocation company. Black and white flier outside with totally inaccurate information. Once the occupant (owners become occupants when they transfer interest to the relo company) moved out they took the spa, entertainment system and other items that were still listed on the flier. That was months ago. The relo company called us saying they had an expired listing. True, they also have an active listing and a withdrawn one. The agent would be toast in front of any governing body.

If a listing agent shows up at your home and can give a suggested listing price on their first visit, they are full of it or at best doing you a disservice. We’re previewing homes and spending more time than ever discussing/arguing about pricing (neither one of us consistently higher or lower). We interviewed for a listing where we recommended a price of $675,000 and that it would sell for $650k-ish. It is listed for $749k. We’ll see when and how much it sells for. We pay to list homes; of any Realtor’s hobbies, collecting listings should not be one of them, selling listings should be. Overstating price doesn’t do either the Realtor or client any good in the short term but may generate a sale eventually for the Realtor at a lower price than it would have sold for on day one if it had been priced appropriately.

If it sounds too good to be true it may well be. There is a caveat here; sometimes we’re just plain wrong. The market ultimately determines price.