Few, if any, people at that time were thinking that the party would soon come to an end. In December 2006, I wrote a column in which I said that the booming housing market had finally slowed down as I had previously predicted, and I said that there would probably be little, if any, home price appreciation in 2007 because the number of homes on the market would increase and turn a seller’s market into a buyer’s market.

* Full story: Available on HeraldNet

With the holiday housing slowdown hovering and homes snoozing on the market for an average of 95 days, it’s desperation time, indeed. The housing pot is growing larger, and picky buyers are discovering their inner divas. The free flat-screen TV is no longer impressing anyone; the wine-and-cheese open house is a bore. So, frenzied sellers are concocting wacky, wily stunts to show off their homes and eke out a little attention.

“It is ugly out there right now,” says Brad Sather, who is offering Cardinals season tickets with his 2,351-square-foot Goodyear luxury townhouse. “Any edge that we can have to sell the house is great.

“We’re not gonna be living in Phoenix anyway, so what do I need those tickets for?”

* Full story: Available on azcentral.com

Interview at least three local agents who sell homes in your community. Grill them about the following:

• The worth of your home. The agents should inspect the home and prepare a written comparative market analysis.

• Marketing plans. These are a must. Make sure they include regular newspaper ads, the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) - which gives your home maximum exposure to all local agents - and Internet marketing through the agent’s Web site.

• Length of the listing agreement. A 90-day listing is reasonable for marketing your home. Experts advise against signing a listing for more than 90 days unless it contains an unconditional cancellation clause. If you like, you can always extend the contract later.

• Number of listings. Find out how many listings the agent now has and how many she normally sells. Too many listings - more than a dozen - with a low sales rate, may not be a good sign.

• Get references. Ask for the names and phone numbers of recent home sellers. Call them and ask if they were satisfied with the level of service delivered by the agent.

Today home sellers who want to move their properties in the existing market conditions face a number of challenges. Selling a home in today’s market requires part ingenuity, part creativity and in some case just part luck. Despite the existing market conditions; however, there are some techniques home sellers can use to improve how their property fares in the current market.

When attempting to sell your home in the existing market conditions it is important to understand the challenges you are facing. Not only must you compete with other home sellers but you often must compete with buildings as well. Unfortunately for most home sellers, builders can take advantage of the fact that they have partnerships with lenders. These affiliations can make financial incentives available that the average home seller is not aware of. In reality, there is really nothing that a builder can offer that you as an individual seller cannot match; provided you take the time to do your research.

Most home sellers reduce their prices as a first step when trying to make their properties more attractive to buyers. Unfortunately, that technique usually does not work because quite simply in most cases it is not the price that is preventing the property from selling. If a prospective home buyer is constrained by their income or do not have the cash for a down payment and closing costs then reducing the price will not help the situation. In this situation it actually makes better sense for the home seller to offer to cover at least a portion of the home buyer’s closing costs, if not all of the home closing costs. In such situations, the seller could actually come out far better financially by offering to pay $5,000 in closing costs than dropping the price of their home by $10,000.

In the event the buyer is facing income restrictions, there are also possible solutions which can assist both the buyer and the seller. In this type of situation the buyer is likely facing restrictions which are imposed by lenders restricting maximum ratios regarding income to expenses.

Once again, reducing the sales price by $10,000 will not help such a buyer. Instead, the savvy seller might consider paying points for the buyer. This will help to reduce the interest rate for the buyer while at the same time retaining the same sales price as well as the loan amount. The result would be a reduce monthly mortgage payment for the home buyer which could be enough to assist them in being approved for the loan. Yet once again, a home seller may be able to purchase points for a buyer for less money than they would pay by reducing the sales price.

Another option for motivated home sellers is to purchase a temporary buy down for the buyers. Purchasing points is known as a permanent buy down because the lowered payment and rate will endure for the duration of the loan. Sellers could; however, offer to buy down the payment during the first years of the mortgage.

This is known as a temporary buy down. For example, the seller might offer what is known as a 3-2-1 buy down. In this scenario, the first year of the mortgage would be calculated at 3% below the prevailing interest rate while the second year would be calculated at 2% below the prevailing rate and the third year of the mortgage would be calculated at 1% below the prevailing interest rate. Sellers might also consider what is known as a 2-1 buy down where only the first two years are reduced. Another option would be a 1-0 buy down. In that scenario only the first year of the loan would be calculated at below the prevailing interest rate.

The total cost to the home seller for a temporary buy down depends on the type of buy down they purchase; however, you can generally expect it to be about half the price of a permanent buy down. For home buyers who are constrained by current income requirements; however, the purchase of a temporary buy down can provide a strong incentive and could even help buyers attain approval for a loan that would not otherwise be possible.

By investigating lower cost alternatives, home sellers who have faced challenges in the current housing market may find it is not as difficult as they first imagine to sell their house. Taking the time to research your market and work closely with your agent to pinpoint your target market can help to bring positive results despite the softening market.

With literally thousands of homes on the market, selling your home fast and for profit isn’t always an option. But there is one group out there that wants to give that idea a shot. Home auction houses are gaining in popularity.

The hope is to sell your home in half the time a realtor does for about the same amount of money.

* Full story: Available on abc15.com

There are plenty of houses for sale, and they are not moving nearly as quickly as they did during the dot-com boom of 1995-2001. So if you want your house to sell and not sit, here are some tips to consider:

1. Think like buyers
2. Offer a complete package
3. Price is critical
4. Go for emotional appeal
5. Incentives
6. Curb appeal
7. Improvements should make financial sense
8. Look for marketing prowess
9. Watch home improvement videos
….plus more

* Fully story: Available on Burlington Free Press

Bay Area home sales last month fell to their lowest level of any August in 15 years, reflecting consumers’ wariness of the housing and mortgage markets. And so far, there are few signs that more buyers will leap into the market soon.

In many of Santa Clara County’s more affordable neighborhoods, home values fell compared to last summer, while in many affluent areas, values rose even as sales continued to slow. The median price of the resale houses sold in Santa Clara County was $805,000, flat from July and up 11 percent from August 2006, DataQuick Information Systems reported Thursday.

* Fully story: Available on San Jose Mercury News

You’re angry with yourself because fall is just around the corner and you failed to take advantage of the traditional spring-summer home-selling season. Don’t despair. You could still get a good deal for your house before the end of the year. Real estate specialists say that although housing cycles are always changing, there is no one right time of year to sell your property. They say that no matter when you put your place on the market, you’ll maximize the opportunity if you price smartly from the outset and make sure your home has cosmetic appeal to visitors.

“Even in the middle of the winter holiday season, you’re going to have buyers out there. And most people who buy during the holidays are highly motivated. They’re quality buyers, not just lookers,” says Gregory Hodges, first vice president of the Council of Residential Specialists, an organization of real estate professionals.

* Fully story: Available on Contra Costa Times

Elizabeth Shaw and Jim Gayes may not know it but they are property pioneers. Not for them the old-fashioned route of instructing an estate agent and paying 2 per cent commission for the sale of their homes. They aren’t even using low-cost internet estate agency sites. Instead, they are doing it all themselves, using the eBay auction site and the “social networking” site, YouTube.

* Fully story: Available on Telegraph UK

With almost 16,000 existing houses for sale in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties, it takes all the mojo you can muster to make your house stand out in the crowd.

If yours has sat on the market for a while or had an escrow fall through, it might be more than supply and demand. A pair of Lake Tahoe authors say you might have a feng shui problem.

* Fully story: Available on Sacbee.com