One of the biggest challenges for real estate agents, especially in a down market, is getting home sellers to price their property to accurately reflect market value.

That’s why a recent article in the Hartford Courant about underpricing homes caught my attention. The article highlights a home seller and agent who priced a property slightly below market value to generate interest and spark a bidding war.  The home ended up getting four offers in a little more than a week and ended up selling for more than the asking price.

It’s a risky strategy and most homeowners aren’t eager to follow such advice. But in a market where there is a lot of competition and homes are taking longer to sell, it may be a seller’s only hope – especially if he has to sell quickly.

In Connecticut, home sales picked up three out of the last four months, according to The Warren Group. But some fear that the sales gains could be temporary once the homebuyer tax credit disappears in the spring.

In the meantime, agents who are assisting home sellers who have to move may be more seriously considering tactics like underpricing.  Is it worth risk?

As if home sellers didn’t have enough to worry about, now they have to beware of one more thing: scam artists who post their home as a rental on Craigslist.

A couple  who was trying to sell their Massachusetts home had a few would-be tenants show up at their front door saying they saw their home listed for rent on Craigslist.

Someone had taken the for-sale listing from the couple’s Realtor’s Web site and pasted it into a Craigslist ad requesting that interested tenants send $950 to rent the house and that the keys would be mailed to them.

The homeowners were interviewed on the evening news this week and when asked what should be done to fraudster, the husband said, “His typing fingers should be cut off.”

Unfortunately, this isn’t a new scam. The National Association of Realtors warned its members about such scams back in March. The trade association said listing information and photos were being copied from Realtor.com and used to trick prospective renters.

Connecticut’s condominium market has been in a major slump for at least three years.

There hasn’t been an increase in monthly condo sales year-over-year statewide in over three years.

That changed in October.

The Warren Group will release a report tomorrow morning showing that sales of condos climbed in October compared to the same month in 2008, the first year-over-year increase since October 2005.

Communities like Middletown, Southington, Vernon and Stamford all had solid gains in condo sale transactions in October.

Reduced prices and the first-time homebuyer tax credit probably stimulated sales in the condo market.

Condos are generally less expensive than single-family homes in many markets and therefore tend to attract buyers who are purchasing for the first time.

But the median price for a single-family home in the Nutmeg State is now only about $64,000 higher than the median condo price.

Four years ago the difference between the median home price and median condo price was closer to $100,000.

Since the price difference between single-family homes and condos has shrunk, some would-be condo buyers who would have considered a single-family home unaffordable will re-consider.

The Obama administration is putting the pressure on lenders to provide permanent loan modifications for homeowners in danger of foreclosure.

So far, the federal government’s efforts to prevent foreclosures by getting mortgage companies and banks to rewrite loans have fallen short.

More than 650,000 trial loan modifications have been issued but that’s only helped about 20 percent of eligible borrowers and the new loan terms are temporary.

In Connecticut alone, over 30,000 owners of single-family homes and condos have faced foreclosure since the beginning of last year, according to The Warren Group. 

Officials want to make sure that the temporary loan modifications are converted to permanent ones, so they’re saying they’re going to crack down lenders who aren’t doing enough by possibly fining them and withholding any financial incentives until trial modifications are made permanent.

They’re also requiring lenders to provide a status report on modifications and submit a schedule of their plans to reach a decision on each loan.

Banks have been complaining that it’s tough to get borrowers to send in properly completed paperwork in time to make the loan modifications. It’s too confusing for the average borrower, they say.

Lawyers and advocates who represent struggling homeowners say it’s the banks that are losing paperwork that’s submitted multiple times and shuffling their clients from one department to the next.

I’m sure both complaints are valid.