PRODUCT	COMMODITY
Seller establishes price. Has a direct relationship to advertising and marketing of product.	Buyer establishes value. No relationship to advertising.
Example: Gardenburger spent 2/3 of it’s advertising budget on a SuperBowl ad and created an overnight success	Example: Have you ever seen an ad for sale of gold or IBM stock?

There are arguments that real estate acts like both at times but after 20 years in this industry and two real estate market corrections my experience has been it definitely acts more like a commodity. If the price of the property is not correct all the advertising in the world is not going to sell the property. If it was that simple you could sell a trailer home that is worth 40K for a million dollars just by taking an ad out on the front page of a major newspaper. The value of Real estate reacts to supply and demand just like a commodity.
There has never been a time on record when real estate values were increasing when inventory was growing faster then the buyers where buying. Sellers have to understand that the market (buyers) doesn’t care what you bought the property for or what it was worth last year. They are going to evaluate the market and only give you market price.