What do you see in your housing market this weekend? Any graphs? How about marketing? "Elisabeth Mills, VP in The Corcoran Group's East Hampton office, is not sitting back and waiting for buyers in this slow market. Last summer, as the market continued to chill, she took advantage of the potential buyers that flood the Hamptons during July and August by featuring four of her East End listings in television ads that ran on local cable TV, a bold (and expensive) move most agents don't make."

"You really have to put more time and effort into marketing homes, as well as promoting yourself these days, Mills says."

A financing trend? "Home-buyers in a stagnating real-estate market are starting to hear a term not bandied about since the days of high interest rates: seller financing. Walter Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, said that seller financing was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when mortgage rates were in the high teens."

"'Conventional financing was basically unaffordable, so seller financing was the only thing keeping the industry alive,' Molony said. Although interest rates remain low, home prices are high enough that some buyers still struggle to save enough money for a down payment. 'And you've got sellers that are more motivated to negotiate terms that might help the buyer,' Molony said."

Any statistics? "Eighteen months ago, the market - which includes Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson, had only 1,100 homes for sale, or roughly four units per buyer. Today, there are 2,504 homes listed for sale in the Charlottesville market, or an estimated 10 homes per buyer."

"'The sellers thought they could get the same price as their neighbors who sold in 2005, so they weren’t willing to come down very much,' broker Michael Guthrie said. 'But now they’re starting to come to the decision to drop their prices to a certain extent.'"

"Real estate agent Denise Ramey said she too has noticed an 'attitude adjustment' on the part of sellers, leading to recent corrective reductions in price. 'The negative news we’ve all been hearing has helped sellers understand that they need to start being realistic,' Ramey said."

Any bidding strategies? "Sarah wants to buy a house. She has submitted a purchase offer on five different houses. Her actions are cutting a wide swath, leaving behind a trail of disappointed and irritated sellers. Sellers are anxious, and houses always are priced much higher than sellers expect to get for them. So she is submitting purchase offers of $250,000, insultingly below asking prices, convinced sellers will welcome them gladly."