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 Norman, OK

Latitude: 35.221617 -- Longitude: -97.418236

Other Area Cities: Norman Oklahoma City Moore

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Norman is the largest city in Cleveland County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and is part of the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Statistical Area.Norman is best known as the location of the University of Oklahoma, making it a center of culture, technology, and scientific research. Norman is one of the world's most prominent centers of meteorology.Norman is the birthplace of Doppler radar. Norman's picture-book Main Street is a great source of pride for Normanites, as are the many shady, tree-lined housing areas that surround the OU campus. The west side of town has seen the most development in recent years, including affluent areas like Brookhaven, a sprawling neighborhood of townhomes, apartments, large estates and upscale retail and dining. The east side is older and includes the areas around the OU campus and downtown.Both areas retain their historic appearance. In 2006, Money Magazine ranked Norman as the 40th best place to live in the United States. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oklahoma 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Norman	Oklahoma	United States
Population	95,694	3,450,654	281,421,906
Median age	29.3	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	28	33.9	34
Median age for Female	30.9	36.9	36.5
Households	38,834	1,342,293	105,480,101
Household population	89,623	3,338,279	273,643,273
Average household size	2.31	2.49	2.59
Families	22,560	921,750	71,787,347
Average family size	2.93	3.02	3.14
Housing units	41,547	1,514,400	115,904,641
Occupied units	38,834	1,342,293	105,480,101
Vacant units	2,713	172,107	10,424,540

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