Funny you should mention this, we are currently looking a buying a house in a small country town, the type where you blink and you will miss it, the type with one shop and bugger all amenities.
I cannot believe what some of these people expect to get for these properties. They think they can get Perth prices or have obviously paid way to much for them in the first place and think that there is a sucker on every tree.
One house wanted 380,000, the average sale price for that town was 160,000, the property had been on the market before and then taken off and then put back on some months later.
In another town, 3 hours from Perth, same type of deal, the houses had been on the market for quite some time, with no offers. They are wanting quite a lot above what the average sale price is. I put in a cash offer for 70,000 below their asking price and haven't heard back. I would have been prepared to move a little on the price, but they didn't even want to negotiate.
The biggest thing for me is resale value, I need to know that I will be able to resell the house in a timely manner if something happened. In these types of towns, buyers don't drop out of the sky, biting at the bit to put in an offer.
At least we have the luxury of being able to bide our time, maybe in 12 months they might be a little more accommodating.