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, LA

Latitude: 31.292782 -- Longitude: -92.459153

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Alexandria is a city in Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of both Grant and Rapides Parishes and Alexandria. The population was 46,342 at the 2000 census. It is the largest municipality of Greater Alexandria (population 123,211) along with Pineville, Ball, Boyce, Woodworth, & Lecompte. In addition, it is the tenth largest city in the state. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Louisiana 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Alexandria	Louisiana	United States
Population	46,342	4,468,976	281,421,906
Median age	35.6	34	35.3
Median age for Male	33.1	32.6	34
Median age for Female	37.6	35.3	36.5
Households	17,816	1,656,053	105,480,101
Household population	44,560	4,333,011	273,643,273
Average household size	2.5	2.62	2.59
Families	11,727	1,156,438	71,787,347
Average family size	3.13	3.16	3.14
Housing units	19,806	1,847,181	115,904,641
Occupied units	17,816	1,656,053	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,990	191,128	10,424,540

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