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 Stratford, CT

Latitude: 41.201596 -- Longitude: -73.134226

Other Area Cities: Fairfield Milford Stratford Bridgeport Trumbull Westport Easton Monroe

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Stratford is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located on Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Housatonic River. It was founded by Puritans in 1639. The population was 49,976 at the 2000 census. It has a historical legacy in aviation, the military, the arts, and environmentalism. In 1942, Igor Sikorsky with his Sikorsky Aircraft company in Stratford, developed and produced the first successful single-rotor helicopter; every Marine One (the helicopter of the President of the United States) has been manufactured in Stratford from 1957, and projected to at least 2008. The town was also the home of the Stratford Army Engine Plant for the United States military from 1939 to 1998. In 1955, Stratford, having the same name as Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare's hometown in England, became home to the nationally renowned American Shakespeare Festival, which was housed, until its closure, at its 1,100 seat Stratford Festival Theatre on the Housatonic River. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Connecticut 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Stratford	Connecticut	United States
Population	49,976	3,405,565	281,421,906
Median age	40.3	37.4	35.3
Median age for Male	38.7	36.1	34
Median age for Female	41.9	38.6	36.5
Households	19,898	1,301,670	105,480,101
Household population	49,610	3,297,626	273,643,273
Average household size	2.49	2.53	2.59
Families	13,637	881,170	71,787,347
Average family size	3.04	3.08	3.14
Housing units	20,596	1,385,975	115,904,641
Occupied units	19,898	1,301,670	105,480,101
Vacant units	698	84,305	10,424,540

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