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 Urbandale, IA

Latitude: 41.636421 -- Longitude: -93.736121

Other Area Cities: Ankeny Des Moines West Des Moines Urbandale

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Urbandale incorporated as a city on April 16, 1917. In its early days Urbandale served as a streetcar suburb of Des Moines with four coal mines. Urbandale served as the end of the "Urbandale Line" after plans to build a railroad from Des Moines to Woodward were abandoned because of right-of-way issues. The coal mines had closed by the end of the 1940s while streetcar service ended in 1951. In 1920, shortly after the city incorporated, Urbandale had 298 people. Its population in 1950 was 1,777, but the city grew rapidly after that along with the rest of Des Moines' suburbs. By 1970 Urbandale had 14,434 people, and in 2000 it had 29,072.[2] Although most of the city's developed area is in Polk County, Urbandale has expanded westward into Dallas County in recent years. While Urbandale is primarily a residential city, commercial and industrial development has increased in recent years, particularly in industrial parks along I-35/80. Urbandale also features 850 acres of parks. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Iowa 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Urbandale	Iowa	United States
Population	29,072	2,926,324	281,421,906
Median age	37	36.6	35.3
Median age for Male	35.7	35.2	34
Median age for Female	38.2	38	36.5
Households	11,484	1,149,276	105,480,101
Household population	28,768	2,822,155	273,643,273
Average household size	2.51	2.46	2.59
Families	8,043	769,684	71,787,347
Average family size	3.02	3	3.14
Housing units	11,869	1,232,511	115,904,641
Occupied units	11,484	1,149,276	105,480,101
Vacant units	385	83,235	10,424,540

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