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 Atlanta, GA

Latitude: 33.759506 -- Longitude: -84.403176

Other Area Cities: Jonesboro Atlanta Decatur Riverdale Stone Mountain Tucker Belvedere Park Brookhaven Chamblee College Park Doraville Druid Hills East Point Gresham Park Roswell Sandy Springs Scottdale Mableton North Decatur Smyrna North Atlanta Lithonia Marietta Conyers

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Atlanta is the capital and most populous city of the state of Georgia, and the central city of ninth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. One of seven American cities classified as Gamma world cities, Atlanta ranks third in the in number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in its metropolitan area. Its airport – Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – is the world's busiest, both in terms of passenger traffic and landings and takeoffs. The city's northern section, Buckhead, is consistently ranked by the Robb Report as one of the most affluent communities in the United States, comparable to Los Angeles' Bel-Air and Manhattan's Upper East Side. Atlanta features the world's largest aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium. The aquarium features over 100,000 specimens in tanks holding approximately eight million gallons of water. One unique museum is the World of Coca-Cola featuring the history of the world famous soft drink brand and its well-known advertising. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Georgia 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Atlanta	Georgia	United States
Population	416,474	8,186,453	281,421,906
Median age	31.9	33.4	35.3
Median age for Male	31.2	32.1	34
Median age for Female	32.9	34.6	36.5
Households	168,147	3,006,369	105,480,101
Household population	387,527	7,952,631	273,643,273
Average household size	2.3	2.65	2.59
Families	83,182	2,111,647	71,787,347
Average family size	3.16	3.14	3.14
Housing units	186,925	3,281,737	115,904,641
Occupied units	168,147	3,006,369	105,480,101
Vacant units	18,778	275,368	10,424,540

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