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 Ankeny, IA

Latitude: 41.726788 -- Longitude: -93.604283

Other Area Cities: Des Moines Urbandale Ankeny

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Ankeny was founded by John Fletcher Ankeny in 1874 and was incorporated on February 27, 1903. During World War II Ankeny was home to a federal ordnance plant that manufactured ammunition. After the war, Deere & Company purchased the plant for its Des Moines Works, while Iowa State University used the remainder of the land for its research farm. In June of 2005 ISU sold the land to the city of Ankeny, which plans to develop it into a mixed-use development known as "Prairie Trail."[2] In 1940 Ankeny had a population of 779, but its population began to grow with the rest of the Des Moines suburbs after World War II. Ankeny's population jumped from 2,964 to 9,151 between 1960 and 1970. By 1990 it had 18,482 people, and in 2000 the population was at 27,117. [3] The 2005 special census count of 36,161 makes Ankeny the third-largest city in Polk County, behind Des Moines and West Des Moines. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Iowa 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Ankeny	Iowa	United States
Population	27,117	2,926,324	281,421,906
Median age	31.9	36.6	35.3
Median age for Male	31.3	35.2	34
Median age for Female	32.5	38	36.5
Households	10,339	1,149,276	105,480,101
Household population	26,559	2,822,155	273,643,273
Average household size	2.57	2.46	2.59
Families	7,275	769,684	71,787,347
Average family size	3.05	3	3.14
Housing units	10,882	1,232,511	115,904,641
Occupied units	10,339	1,149,276	105,480,101
Vacant units	543	83,235	10,424,540

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