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 Alexandria, MN

Latitude: 45.884092 -- Longitude: -95.3704

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Alexandria is a city in and the county seat of Douglas County, Minnesota, United States. First settled in 1858, it was named after Alexander and William Kinkead. The 2007 estimated population of Alexandria was 11,187. The city has a museum housing the controversial Kensington Runestone, which is thought by some to indicate that Vikings had visited the area in the 14th century. Outside the museum stands Big Ole, a 25-foot-tall statue of a Viking originally built for the World's Fair in 1964. The city hosts the annual Vikingland Band Festival parade marching championship. Alexandria is located near Interstate 94 (concurrent with U.S. Route 52 in this part of the state), along Minnesota State Highways 27 and 29. Lake Carlos State Park is ten miles north of Alexandria. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Minnesota 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Alexandria	Minnesota	United States
Population	8,820	4,919,479	281,421,906
Median age	36.8	35.4	35.3
Median age for Male	32	34.4	34
Median age for Female	41.3	36.3	36.5
Households	4,047	1,895,127	105,480,101
Household population	8,345	4,783,596	273,643,273
Average household size	2.06	2.52	2.59
Families	2,011	1,255,141	71,787,347
Average family size	2.81	3.09	3.14
Housing units	4,311	2,065,946	115,904,641
Occupied units	4,047	1,895,127	105,480,101
Vacant units	264	170,819	10,424,540

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