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 Belton, MO

Latitude: 38.818232 -- Longitude: -94.529838

Other Area Cities: Blue Springs Belton Lees Summit Grandview Overland Park Prairie Village

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As of the census of 2000, there were 21,730 people, 7,945 households, and 5,807 families residing in the city. The population density was 626.1/km² (1,622.2/mi²). There were 8,411 housing units at an average density of 242.4/km² (627.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 92.98% White, 2.86% African American, 0.59% Native American, 0.59% Asian, 0.08% Pacific Islander, 1.07% from other races, and 1.84% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.68% of the population. There are 7,945 households, out of which 40.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.0% were married couples living together, 12.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.9% were non-families. 22.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.15. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Missouri 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Belton	Missouri	United States
Population	21,730	5,595,211	281,421,906
Median age	32.6	36.1	35.3
Median age for Male	31.2	34.8	34
Median age for Female	33.7	37.4	36.5
Households	7,945	2,194,594	105,480,101
Household population	21,412	5,433,153	273,643,273
Average household size	2.7	2.48	2.59
Families	5,807	1,476,516	71,787,347
Average family size	3.15	3.02	3.14
Housing units	8,411	2,442,017	115,904,641
Occupied units	7,945	2,194,594	105,480,101
Vacant units	466	247,423	10,424,540

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