Some of the biggest barriers that might block people from buying or selling homes are misconceptions, a residential real estate expert told a group of Wilmington agents Tuesday.

Steve Harney, who used to lead a 500-agent real estate firm and founded a New York-based company that tracks and analyzes real estate trends, said educating potential buyers and sellers to correct those misconceptions is a key responsibility of real estate professionals. Harney spoke Tuesday morning to about 150 Intracoastal Realty agents at Cape Fear Community College’s Union Station in downtown Wilmington.

Harney said three of the biggest challenges potential buyers are concerned about are: they don’t think they have good enough credit; they believe lending requirements will be too strict for them to meet; and they think they're stuck in their current mortgage, according to a survey his company, Keeping Current Matters, has analyzed.

Many current homeowners also underestimate the amount of equity they've built up, Harney said. While only 9 percent of homeowners in the U.S. are living in homes with negative equity, according Fannie Mae, more than that -- 23 percent -- think they are. Additionally, Fannie Mae data shows that 37 percent of homeowners think they have less than 20 percent equity in their homes while 69 percent actually have more than 20 percent.

“They don’t know how much money they’ve got in their houses, and they think they need a lot of money to make the move,” Harney said. 

Harney said part of a residential real estate agent’s job is to help individuals and families build wealth. “When you convert a person from a renter into a homeowner, when you take a homeowner from a smaller house and move them into a bigger house, you allow them to increase their net worth dramatically,” he said.

According to a survey by Edelman Berland for HSF Affiliates, 94 percent of potential sellers in the U.S. believe the number of listings isn’t any lower than it has been in the past.

“More than half of your neighbors don’t realize that you need inventory. And who’s fault is that?” Harney asked during the Intracoastal Realty session. “Theirs? No. It’s yours; it’s mine. We have to get that word out.”

About 23 percent of homeowners are considering selling their homes, but of that number, 55 percent say that they would be more apt to sell right now if they got more information about the process, Harney said, citing the Edelman Berland survey.

While the market has been strong so far in 2015, Harney said he expects 2016 to be even stronger.