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 Scottsdale, AZ

Latitude: 33.590709 -- Longitude: -111.895985

Other Area Cities: Carefree Scottsdale Phoenix Mesa Paradise Valley Tempe Fountain Hills

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Scottsdale is a satellite city of Phoenix in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA. Named by the New York Times as "The Beverly Hills of the Desert,"[1] Scottsdale has become internationally recognized as a premiere (and posh) tourist destination, while maintaining its own identity and culture as "The West's Most Western Town." However, despite this motto, in the 1970's, most horse corral new construction was prohibited. It seems that repairs are permitted on old corrals. What had, in the twentieth century, been vacant desert, is vastly converted to either urban &/or suburban environment. As of the 2000 census, the city is the 82nd largest city in the United States, with a population of 202,705. The most recent census estimate (2005) is 234,752, an increase of 15.8%.[2] -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Arizona 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Scottsdale	Arizona	United States
Population	202,705	5,130,632	281,421,906
Median age	41	34.2	35.3
Median age for Male	39.5	32.9	34
Median age for Female	42.4	35.5	36.5
Households	90,669	1,901,327	105,480,101
Household population	201,028	5,020,782	273,643,273
Average household size	2.22	2.64	2.59
Families	54,458	1,287,367	71,787,347
Average family size	2.79	3.18	3.14
Housing units	104,974	2,189,189	115,904,641
Occupied units	90,669	1,901,327	105,480,101
Vacant units	14,305	287,862	10,424,540

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