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 Ann Arbor, MI

Latitude: 42.274488 -- Longitude: -83.739261

Other Area Cities: Ann Arbor Brighton Dexter Saline Ypsilanti Chelsea Hamburg Plymouth

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Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 114,024. Supposedly named for the spouses of the city's founders and for the stands of trees in the area, Ann Arbor is best known as the location of the main campus of the University of Michigan, which moved there from Detroit in 1837. The city's economy, which was once noted for production of agricultural implements, carriages, furniture, pianos and organs, pottery, and flour, is now dominated by education, high-tech, and biotechnology. Average home prices and property taxes are well above the state and national medians. The city is also well known locally as a destination for dining out and entertainment, as it contains a wide and eclectic variety of restaurants and performance venues. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Michigan 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Ann Arbor	Michigan	United States
Population	114,024	9,938,444	281,421,906
Median age	28.1	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	27.4	34.3	34
Median age for Female	29	36.6	36.5
Households	45,693	3,785,661	105,480,101
Household population	101,635	9,688,555	273,643,273
Average household size	2.22	2.56	2.59
Families	21,708	2,575,699	71,787,347
Average family size	2.9	3.1	3.14
Housing units	47,218	4,234,279	115,904,641
Occupied units	45,693	3,785,661	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,525	448,618	10,424,540

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