THE BURNING QUESTION: At an open house recently, I was asked “how much has the market come back?” A topical question on many peoples lips at present. I thought about it and, instead of offering a simple % market decline rate, I thought about it bit more. The answer I gave was “it depends on the real estate agent handling the sale”. This was by no means intended as a flippant remark. I went on to explain that there are significant variations between agents, and their willingness and ability to achieve a really good result, particularly in a less buoyant market. Picking the right agent or the wrong one could see at least a 10% difference in the sale price and leads to unnecessary and often damaging speculation about market conditions.