Priced To Sell

November 20, 2008

In today’s volatile market, buyers expect to get a great deal when then purchase a home. It’s almost as if they want to be rewarded for being brave and credit worthy. So how do you price your home so that it’s competitive enough to get buyers looking at it, but high enough to allow the negotiating room buyers need so they can assure themselves they purchased the home at a discount?

A while back I showed a home that had been reduced for a quick sale. It was a great deal. The buyer I was working with loved the house and made an offer (90% of list price) on the home. The offer was rejected. When I asked if the buyer would have been happy with the purchase price if the home had originally been listed higher and he’d offered the current list price. The buyer admitted that buying the home at a discount was more important than finding the right house at the right price. He absolutely could not pay full list price for the home, even though the list price was below comparable homes.

It’s difficult for sellers to understand that some of the appreciation they’ve experienced over the last few years has been wiped out. But if a seller has owned for more than about 8 years, he still should have built up enough equity to be able to price well, leave a little room for negotiation and walk away from the table with some profit. Compare profits to what your stock portfolio or retirement is worth, and sellers in most parts of the country are still OK. Yes, there are areas in the country where sellers are upside down in their mortgages, but how many of these sellers have owned for more than 8 years?

So if you’re a seller with enough equity to negotiate, do so with grace and gratitude. Hopefully, you’ll get just a good a deal when you go to buy your next home!

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Local Information for West Linn, OR

Latitude: 45.365201 -- Longitude: -122.641024

Other Area Cities: West Linn Canby Central Point Gladstone Lake Oswego Oregon City Tualatin Wilsonville Clackamas

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Major Robert Moore arrived in 1839 having been the senior member of the first attempt to create an American colony in Oregon, the Peoria Party. His title stems from his military service in the War of 1812, where he served in the Pennsylvania militia, possibly as a battlefield surgeon. Sometime after journeying around the Willamette Valley and Columbia Basin, Moore bought title to approx. 1,000 acres (4 km²) on the west side of Willamette Falls, across the Willamette River from Oregon City, from a local Native American chief named Wanax-ha, on which he platted a town known as the "Robbin's Nest" in early 1843. He also filed a provisional claim with the then government of the Oregon Country, not knowing if his unique transaction would be honored by the eventual governing laws. The later Territorial Legislature of Oregon voted to rename it "Linn City" on December 22, 1845 as a memorial to Senator Dr. Lewis Fields Linn for whom Linn County is also named. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oregon 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	West Linn	Oregon	United States
Population	22,261	3,421,399	281,421,906
Median age	38.1	36.3	35.3
Median age for Male	37.4	35.1	34
Median age for Female	38.8	37.5	36.5
Households	8,161	1,333,723	105,480,101
Household population	22,169	3,343,908	273,643,273
Average household size	2.72	2.51	2.59
Families	6,273	877,671	71,787,347
Average family size	3.11	3.02	3.14
Housing units	8,697	1,452,709	115,904,641
Occupied units	8,161	1,333,723	105,480,101
Vacant units	536	118,986	10,424,540

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