ith 2008 shaping up to be a buyers market, property owners may find selling homes to be a challenge— a challenge that can be overcome by following one simple rule— always price your home at market-value. If you don’t, chances are that you will become a seller with a horror story of a listing gone awry.

“Last Fall I met with some potential clients looking to sell their home. Based on a thorough competitive market analysis of their Kailua neighborhood, I recommend pricing their home at $725,000,” says Prudential Locations Realtor and Partner, Corinda Wong. “The sellers were looking to price their home more aggressively at $795,000 so they decided to list it with another company.”

Little interest from buyers led to numerous price reductions and more time sitting on the market. Often this is a clear signal to buyers and real estate agents that the property is either overpriced or something is wrong with it. “The longer a property is on the market, the greater chance it has of becoming stigmatized, making it more difficult to sell,” Wong adds.

After several months on the market, at a time when sales in the area were leveling off, the property finally sold for $699,000. “Overpricing a property is a very risky strategy, one I have only seen work in a market where prices are rapidly increasing. This unfortunately, was not that type of market. Instead of pricing their home at market value initially, they ended up chasing the market and likely resulted in them getting less for their home than they would have had they priced their home properly from the start.”