Additionally, existing home sales are steady, with a slight drop of only 38 homes from 2007 to 2006.  Year-end reports of 2006 indicated 1,732 existing homes were sold, while 2007 shows 1,694 purchases.

“If you’re in the market to buy a home, you need to grab a Realtor now,” Carol Van Gorp, chief executive officer of the Columbia Board of Realtors, said. “Home prices are still rising at the same time the inventory is declining.”

One weakness in the local housing market, new home sales, will likely continue to correct itself.  New, never-lived-in single-family homes sales declined from 617 in 2005 to 580 last year to 416 in 2007.  This trend is expected to continue as inventories of new homes are also declining.  For example, there was a 35% decline in inventory of new homes on the market from December 2007 to January 2006.

With the active purchasing season just around the corner, it may make sense to hasten the buying or selling process.

  “When more buyers come to the market in the spring, there will be less inventory and higher prices,” Van Gorp said.  “If you’re looking to buy or sell a home, don’t delay,” she said.  “We anticipate a strong and healthy real estate market in 2008.” For more information about the Columbia Board of REALTORS visit http://cbormls.com.

"All you can do in a falling market, if you have to sell, is have the best possible product out there at the price it should be," says Diane Saatchi, an agent with Corcoran Group on Long Island, N.Y. "Not what you wish you could get, not what the neighbor got two years ago, but at the price you should get now. That's the reality."

It takes discipline to face that reality. Humility, too. For many sellers, "the only disappointment is that their friend, six months or a year ago, got more than they're getting," says Bill Christiano, a loan officer with MortgageIT in Westchester, N.Y. "Ego gets in the way when they're trying to sell. Or stubbornness, I should say."

2. Scope out other houses for sale.
Break through your ego and stubbornness by looking at the good deals that your neighbors are offering. "The most important thing is to really shop the competition on the market right now," says Elizabeth Razzi, author of "The Fearless Home Buyer," published in 2006, and of "The Fearless Home Seller," to be published in February.

Put on your shopping shoes and look at everything from a buyer's viewpoint. "Get out in the car and spend a weekend looking at everything you can," Razzi says. "Visit some weekend open houses. Just get a feel for what your buyers are looking at."

Visit newly built houses and find out which amenities and incentives builders are offering. Eavesdrop on other visitors to open houses to find out if there's something in particular they're looking for -- something you should do to make your house more presentable.

3. Make it a turnkey, not a turkey.
The word "turnkey" is used in commercial real estate. It means a property is ready for immediate use. Your house has to be that way when buyers have a cornucopia of houses to choose from. "You have to make it a 100 percent turnkey situation," Razzi says. "Everything has to be ready to roll, because buyers never want to buy a house that needs a lot of work unless it's an absolute bargain. You have to take away all their opportunities to say no."

Saatchi says that when buyers outnumber sellers, you can get away with selling a house with ratty carpet, smelly furniture and walls that need painting. The market was like that last year, but not now. Saatchi suggests hiring a house inspector before putting the house on the market. "Know now, and fix it," she says.

4. Offer incentives.
After you have put your head on straight, spied on the competition and fixed up your house, it's time to figure out what goodies you will dangle before buyers and their agents.

Besides a low price, incentives for buyers include paying discount points to lower the mortgage rate, paying closing costs or providing flexibility about the move-in date.

Consider offering a premium to the buyer's agent. Add a half-point or a point to the commission, or give the agent a cruise or a big-screen TV. "It may not cause the deal to happen, but it can just attract a little more attention and make your deal stand out," Razzi says.

Don't mix up incentives to buyers and their agents. Buyers focus on price and the house's amenities, so buyers' incentives should address those issues. A Caribbean cruise is a distracting gimmick to a buyer but might be an attractive incentive to a broker, Razzi says.

5. Price realistically.
Finally, "Don't get greedy," says Pam O'Connor, president and CEO of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a national network of 650 regional and independent firms. "Just because it went up to some astronomical value and it went down from there, you have to be realistic that there has been moderation in the market."

It takes research, often conducted by a real estate agent, to come up with a realistic asking price, and discipline to abide by it.

It's important that you, as the seller, understand the dynamics of pricing enough to build a defensible argument. It's not enough just to throw out a figure," says Mario Villena, vice president of HomeKeys, a Miami-based online real estate brokerage.

Using tools on sites such as HomeKeys, Zillow and Redfin, buyers can get an accurate idea of your house's market value. You and your agent can't bamboozle buyers because they have so much information about comparable house values.

In a seller's market, sellers typically ask for 10 percent to 20 percent more than they expect to get, Villena says. You don't have that luxury in a buyer's market, and Villena suggests asking for just 3 percent to 5 percent more than you realistically expect to get. Setting an aggressive asking price attracts more prospective buyers to your door, discourages lowball offers and saves negotiating time. "You'll know fairly quickly whether they're willing to meet you or not," Villena says.

In a market where prices are falling, asking prices must fall, too, "which is a whole new concept for sellers right now," Saatchi says. For example, if the Smiths sold their house early this year for $700,000, you might have to ask just $695,000.

An agent has to have tact to break the news, Saatchi says: "When we tell our clients this, they think we are the devil."