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 Clarksville, TN

Latitude: 36.559383 -- Longitude: -87.358261

Other Area Cities: Pleasant View Dover Clarksville Hopkinsville

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Clarksville is a city in Montgomery County, Tennessee, USA. As of the 2005 census estimates, the city had a total population of 123,395. Today, Clarksville, is the county seat of Montgomery County and is Tennessee's fifth largest city, and the fastest growing city in Tennessee. Clarksville is the home of Austin Peay State University, and is approximately 10 miles from Fort Campbell, Kentucky Army post. The U.S. Census says that Clarksville is the fastest-growing large city in Tennessee and the 17th in the nation. It was the only city in Tennessee to make the top 25. Pat Summittwas born in Clarksville, Tennessee and she is the winningest Division I college basketball coach of all time. Clarksville is part of the Clarksville-Hopkinsville metropolitan statistical area (MSA). Clarksville has the distinction of being home to the oldest bank in the state, the Northern Bank established in 1854, now AmSouth Bank; the state's oldest newspaper, The Leaf-Chronicle. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Tennessee 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Clarksville	Tennessee	United States
Population	103,455	5,689,283	281,421,906
Median age	28.8	35.9	35.3
Median age for Male	27.8	34.5	34
Median age for Female	29.8	37.2	36.5
Households	36,969	2,232,905	105,480,101
Household population	99,375	5,541,337	273,643,273
Average household size	2.69	2.48	2.59
Families	26,965	1,547,835	71,787,347
Average family size	3.12	2.99	3.14
Housing units	40,041	2,439,443	115,904,641
Occupied units	36,969	2,232,905	105,480,101
Vacant units	3,072	206,538	10,424,540

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