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 Orlando, FL

Latitude: 28.533513 -- Longitude: -81.375789

Other Area Cities: Winter Garden Orlando Altamonte Springs Pine Castle Azalea Park Casselberry Fern Park Lockhart Longwood Maitland Ocoee Winter Springs Winter Park Apopka Pine Hills Sky Lake Union Park Wekiva Springs Edgewood Windermere Clermont

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The city of Orlando is the county seat of Orange County, Florida. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 185,951 (metropolitan area 1,644,561). A 2005 U.S. Census Estimates population count gave the city population was 213,233 (metropolitan area over 1.8 million). It is the sixth-largest city in Florida, and its largest inland city. It is also at the head of the Orlando-Kissimmee, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Orlando-Kissimmee MSA is Florida's third-largest metropolitan area, behind Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. Additionally, Orlando is home to the second largest university in Florida, the University of Central Florida. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Florida 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Orlando	Florida	United States
Population	185,951	15,982,378	281,421,906
Median age	32.9	38.7	35.3
Median age for Male	32.2	37.3	34
Median age for Female	33.8	40.1	36.5
Households	80,883	6,337,929	105,480,101
Household population	181,910	15,593,433	273,643,273
Average household size	2.25	2.46	2.59
Families	42,357	4,210,760	71,787,347
Average family size	2.97	2.98	3.14
Housing units	88,486	7,302,947	115,904,641
Occupied units	80,883	6,337,929	105,480,101
Vacant units	7,603	965,018	10,424,540

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