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 Pukalani, HI

Latitude: 20.881756 -- Longitude: -156.467446

Other Area Cities: Kahului Kihei Wailuku

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Kahului is the largest town on the Hawaiian island of Maui and is located along the north shore of central Maui. Kahului hosts Maui's main airport, Kahului Airport, deep-draft harbor, light industrial areas, and commercial shopping centers. It is a census-designated place (CDP) within Maui County, Hawai?i with a total population (as of the 2000 Census) of 20,146 persons. Kahului is the retail center for Maui residents and there are several malls and major stores (including department stores in the Kaahumanu Center); other significant groupings of stores are in Lahaina and the Happy Valley area of Wailuku. Retailing changed greatly with the arrival of big-box retailers from the U.S. Mainland, including Wal-Mart and Home Depot. Kahului is not generally considered a tourist destination, but does feature the Alexander and Baldwin Sugar Museum, Kanaha Pond State Wildlife Sanctuary, Kanaha Beach County Park, and the Maui Arts and Cultural Center. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Hawaii 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Kahului	Hawaii	United States
Population	20,146	1,211,537	281,421,906
Median age	35.9	36.2	35.3
Median age for Male	34.1	35.1	34
Median age for Female	37.5	37.4	36.5
Households	5,880	403,240	105,480,101
Household population	19,346	1,175,755	273,643,273
Average household size	3.29	2.92	2.59
Families	4,424	287,068	71,787,347
Average family size	3.76	3.42	3.14
Housing units	6,079	460,542	115,904,641
Occupied units	5,880	403,240	105,480,101
Vacant units	199	57,302	10,424,540

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