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 Tempe, AZ

Latitude: 33.388696 -- Longitude: -111.928783

Other Area Cities: Chandler Scottsdale Tempe Gilbert Mesa Paradise Valley Phoenix

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Tempe (pronounced /t?m.pi?'/) is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, with a 2005 population estimate of 165,796 according to the mid-decade Census survey. Darrell Duppa is usually credited with suggesting the name, adopted in 1879, after comparing the Salt River valley near a 300-foot-tall butte, to the Vale of Tempe near Mount Olympus in Greece. Duppa also had the honor of giving name to Phoenix, 11 years earlier. Tempe is a major suburb of Phoenix and is located immediately southeast. The upscale suburb of Scottsdale is immediately to the north of Tempe. Tempe is the location of the head offices of US Airways (formerly America West Airlines) and the main campus of Arizona State University. It was the longtime host of the Fiesta Bowl, although the BCS game will move to Glendale in 2007. On New Year's Eve, the city hosts the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl Block Party, one of the nation's largest New Year's Eve parties. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Arizona 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Tempe	Arizona	United States
Population	158,625	5,130,632	281,421,906
Median age	28.8	34.2	35.3
Median age for Male	28.3	32.9	34
Median age for Female	29.6	35.5	36.5
Households	63,602	1,901,327	105,480,101
Household population	153,383	5,020,782	273,643,273
Average household size	2.41	2.64	2.59
Families	33,654	1,287,367	71,787,347
Average family size	3.05	3.18	3.14
Housing units	67,068	2,189,189	115,904,641
Occupied units	63,602	1,901,327	105,480,101
Vacant units	3,466	287,862	10,424,540

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