A change of tactics for real estate agents and marketing approaches

Robert DeNiro’s character in the movie Wag the Dog observed “well, I saw it on TV, it must be true.” With that sentiment, the Today Show this morning announced that the real estate market has officially slowed down. The link to their segment is here:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=643E60B5-6092-45BA-AF29-3A2C601BD4F4&f=00&fg=copy
During their program this morning, Matt Lauer had a representative from NAR and a New York broker to address questions about what home sellers and buyers need to do to prepare for the shift in the market. However, the message of the piece was very clear; it is no longer a sellers market.

What does this mean for the average real estate agent and their marketing tactics? Well, it is time to shift gears and re-balance the number of listings and prospective buyers that they have. In addition, it is time to take steps to explicitly manage client expectations. Listing presentations should include expected timeline versus pricing charts so that the client can understand how long they will hold the property for a given pricing premium.
Manage client expectations up front and continually through the process in this changing market as the number of expired listings is growing daily… Expired listings, now there is a growing opportunity for new business.