Not long ago, I was chatting with my sales team. We often do this, hoping to gain insight into the market and what’s happening on the buyer’s end of things.
Lately we’ve noticed a couple of interesting things happening. When in a slow housing market, real estate agents tend to offer bad advice that sounds good to buyers.
Today, I want to go over some of the concerning things I’ve been hearing from outside real estate agents, and the games some of them are playing that might not be in your best interest while dealing with a slow housing market.
The Waiting Game
I get this all the time. Somebody says that they want to wait for the market to go up to sell their house, or that they want to wait for the market to go down so they can buy a house.
This is one of the games that owners and real estate agents perpetually get wrong, even in slow housing markets. Granted there are times where this strategy works, but they only apply in rare circumstances. Let’s dive in and see when that actually is good advice when navigating a slow housing market:
Waiting for Prices to Go Down
Waiting for the price to go down in a slow housing market only works when you are a first-time homeowner and you think the market is in a bubble and we’re about to head into a recession. The problem with this is you might be waiting a lot longer than you expect. Timing the market for a first-time home purchase is very difficult and involves a measure of fortune telling.
Often, a slow housing market will keep going up, then pull back only a little, and you might still miss out on it, especially if you’re expecting a larger pullback. I’d say that 2007 was really the biggest pullback in the market many of us have seen in our lifetimes. Getting another market crash like that is not something many of us look forward to again.
Waiting for Price to Go Up
Right now, going into Fall of 2026, we are in a slow housing market. Home prices have fallen and this is a great time to buy. However, many current homeowners are hesitating. They don’t want to sell their existing homes because they think that if they hold out for a few more months, that home prices will go back up, and they’ll get more out of their house.
This is likely true, but it’s also a trap. Because if they wait until the prices of their houses go back up, the price of the house they want to move into will also go back up. If they’re moving from an old house into a new house, it’s also possible that the new house will go up faster than the old house appreciates.
The Moral of This Tale
Don’t time the market, especially if you already own a home. The only time selling your house later works is if you are planning on moving into assisted living right after, and don’t need to buy a new house ever again.
The prices you get on your old house versus your new house will generally be a wash as long as you buy and sell at the same time.
I’ve seen people get burned by this. They sell their house when they think the market is up, then wait for the market to go down to buy their new house,
They’ll opt to live in an apartment during the interim. But, the price of new houses goes up so far that it prices them out of buying a home entirely. So, as long as you own your own home now, and you want to move, just do it, but sell and buy at the same time, and you’ll be insulated from whatever the market is doing.
Realtor Wars
In slow housing markets, realtors can get a little tricky. Often, we have an idea of what our homes are worth, but when the market is down like it is now, realtors feel the squeeze. They want to get more sales, but nothing is selling like it used to.
So they pray on frustrated homeowners who can’t sell their houses. Here’s what happens:
A homeowner gets told what their home will sell for by an honest real estate agent. They don’t like that, because they think their home is worth more. Another real estate agent, wanting to pad their portfolio says nice soothing things to the homeowner, like, “yes, your home is worth more.” or “Sure I can sell it for that.”
They go with the agent who is promising the world, and their house gets very few showings and no buyers. Eventually, they are forced to lower their home prices to what the market is willing to bear, after wasting a month or two getting nowhere.
If the homeowner needs to move faster, they’ve now lost valuable time, and they are even willing at this point to sell for under market prices, just to move their home. In the end, their home sells in 3-6 months, rather than the 2-3 months that it usually takes in a slow housing market.
If they would’ve listened to the first real estate agent who told them what their house was really worth, they wouldn’t have had to waste so much time, and might not have had to sell at a further discount either.
Don’t Stall in a Slow Housing Market
It’s always hard to sell your home for less than you think its worth. This is made worse if you still owe a lot on your house, or if you’re trying to move into a nicer or newer home that is worth more than your current place.
But timing the market, or gaming it to get a price the market doesn’t want to support, is generally not as productive as some people might have you thinking.
That’s why at Leisure Villas, we don’t play games. We tell you how we see it, and hope that you can make the best decision for you and your family, regardless of whether we’re in a hot or slow housing market.