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 Los Angeles, CA

Latitude: 34.086159 -- Longitude: -118.375984

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Los Angeles, known as "L.A." or the "City of Angels", is the most populous city in the state of California and the second-most in the United States. One of the world's major global cities, it is located in Southern California and has a population of more than 4 million people, spanning 498 square miles. It is the core cultural and economic center of the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, a region home to over 18 million people. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850—five months before California achieved statehood—and is the county seat of Los Angeles County. Los Angeles is one of the world's most important centers of culture, science, technology, international trade, and higher education, and is home to numerous world-renowned institutions in a broad range of professional and cultural fields. In addition, the city is a leading producer of popular entertainment—such as motion pictures, television, and recorded music. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

California 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Los Angeles	California	United States
Population	3,694,820	33,871,648	281,421,906
Median age	31.6	33.3	35.3
Median age for Male	30.8	32.2	34
Median age for Female	32.6	34.4	36.5
Households	1,275,412	11,502,870	105,480,101
Household population	3,612,223	33,051,894	273,643,273
Average household size	2.83	2.87	2.59
Families	798,719	7,920,049	71,787,347
Average family size	3.56	3.43	3.14
Housing units	1,337,706	12,214,549	115,904,641
Occupied units	1,275,412	11,502,870	105,480,101
Vacant units	62,294	711,679	10,424,540

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