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 Enid, OK

Latitude: 36.400583 -- Longitude: -97.880784

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Enid was founded during the opening of the Cherokee Outlet by land run in 1893. Today, the history of this era is preserved at the Museum of the Cherokee Strip, located in Enid. Vance Air Force Base was founded in 1941 on land leased by the city of Enid to the United States Army Air Forces, now the United States Air Force. Enid was once home to Champlin Petroleum; the H. H. Champlin mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places. The town's early history was captured in The Cherokee Strip by Pulitzer-winning author Marquis James, who recounts his boyhood in Enid. Other well-known natives include astronaut Owen K. Garriott, movie actress Glenda Farrell, photojournalist David S. Holloway, opera singer Leona Mitchell, and her brother Hulon W. Mitchell (also known as Yahweh ben Yahweh), contemporary messianic figure and leader of the Nation of Yahweh. Hall of Fame basketball coach Don Haskins was born and raised in Enid. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oklahoma 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Enid	Oklahoma	United States
Population	47,045	3,450,654	281,421,906
Median age	37.2	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	35.2	33.9	34
Median age for Female	39	36.9	36.5
Households	18,955	1,342,293	105,480,101
Household population	45,320	3,338,279	273,643,273
Average household size	2.39	2.49	2.59
Families	12,565	921,750	71,787,347
Average family size	2.94	3.02	3.14
Housing units	21,255	1,514,400	115,904,641
Occupied units	18,955	1,342,293	105,480,101
Vacant units	2,300	172,107	10,424,540

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