I made a prediction after the election that the real estate market would pick up the day after the Obama was inaugurated.

After the election and before the inauguration I thought the press was very negative on the economy.

My thinking would be that as soon as Obama was elected, they would want the economy to turn around so they would start reporting good news rather than bad news.  Obviously, I was wrong. 

All you have to do is look at the headlines over the last several days where it talks about the economy to worsen, unemployment going up, real estate prices dropping and large inventory of homes available – one bad thing after the other.

I really do not understand this because I really felt like it would turn around.  Maybe it will soon; there is a lot of confusion as to how much stimulus is in the stimulus package – it seems to be more “pork” than stimulus in my personal opinion. 

I think there are some great ways to stimulate housing.

The real estate market will turn around, but in the meantime there are some great buys out there for people who are willing to purchase at this time.

Jane was talking to me about the half price sale at Outdoor Hilton Head.  Even with the slow economy there was a line around out the door and she had to wait to get in the door.  She said it was like a $1 sale at Walmart – people were grabbing things off the shelves.

I think this shows how people are looking for a value in today’s market – this applies to real estate as well.  People will buy if they feel like they are getting a deal.  If they do not feel like they are getting a deal, they will wait for the market to bottom out.

All you have to do is look at the local newspaper; yesterday the headline read “Economic Forecast to Worsen”.  Obviously, anyone understands that if the press is saying that the economy is going to get worse, people are not going to buy today unless they are getting a deal.

I do not expect us to sell our property at 50%, but there are a number of motivated sellers that for whatever reason, have said they would sell at whatever price it would take to sell in today’s market.  I had one of those this weekend in Port Royal Plantation and the seller said he wanted it sold and adjusted the price.  Even in this slow market, there were some buyers and we had some people look at the house.

What does all this mean – my wife got a great deal on a coat at Outdoor Hilton Head and you can get a great deal on real estate on Hilton Head if you are ready to act today.

I recently had a seller call me who said they were thinking about dabbling in real estate.  I asked what he meant and he replied that he might want to sell his house if he could get what he was looking for.

I informed him that this was not the time to just throw it out there and see what happens because the market is extremely slow and only the people who are “real sellers” will be able to get top dollar in today’s market. 

His thinking was that he would just throw it out there and if I found someone who was willing to pay his price he would sell. 

Then I asked him the hard questions; how does your house compare to the one three doors down from you that is priced $1 million less than yours, is three years newer and is 200 square feet larger and is on a similar lot.  His answered that he was not interested in competing with them, but if we found someone who liked his house he would sell it at my price.  I told him that he did not understand – nobody is going to pay him $1 million more when they can buy a house for $1 million less that is a newer, larger house on a similar lot.  I do not think he really understood that because he kept reiterating that if I found someone he was willing to sell.

I told him he had two options; he could price the property at the price it would sell in today’s market or he could wait until the market turns around.  I think these are the only options a person has in a slow market.  “Dabbling in a slow market” is a total waste of time.