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 Bozeman, MT

Latitude: 45.67789 -- Longitude: -111.047274

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William Clark visited the area in July 1806 as he traveled east from Three Forks along the Gallatin River. The journal entries from Clark's party briefly describes the future city's location in a place the local natives called the "Valley of the Flowers" [2]. In 1863, John Bozeman, along with a partner named John Jacobs, opened the Bozeman Trail, an offshoot from the Oregon Trail leading to the mining town of Virginia City through the Gallatin Valley and the future location of the city of Bozeman. John Bozeman, with Daniel Rouse and William Bealle platted the town in 1864 stating "standing right in the gate of the mountains ready to swallow up all tenderfeet that would reach the territory from the east, with their golden fleeces to be taken care of...". The Indian Wars closed the Bozeman Trail in 1868, but the town's fertile land attracted permanent settlers. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Montana 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Bozeman	Montana	United States
Population	27,509	902,195	281,421,906
Median age	25.4	37.5	35.3
Median age for Male	24.9	36.6	34
Median age for Female	26.2	38.5	36.5
Households	10,877	358,667	105,480,101
Household population	24,608	877,433	273,643,273
Average household size	2.26	2.45	2.59
Families	5,019	237,407	71,787,347
Average family size	2.85	2.99	3.14
Housing units	11,577	412,633	115,904,641
Occupied units	10,877	358,667	105,480,101
Vacant units	700	53,966	10,424,540

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