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!

As of 11/22/09 the Janet Naisbitt-Bagley RePage is ranked at 4,886 with 50 points.
The monthly top RePage owner will receive a cash prize. Help this agent by bookmarking this site and posting it to blogs and other Web pages and encourage others to visit.

Local Information for Cedar City, UT

Latitude: 37.682606 -- Longitude: -113.074402

Enter our Photo Sweepstakes and Win $200 for your Cedar City photos!

Click on Photos to Enlarge. To see all Cedar City area photos Click Here.

Submit your photos of Cedar City and become eligible to win $200. Click Here for details.

Cedar City is a city located in Iron County, Utah, 250 miles South of Salt Lake City on Interstate 15. It is the home of Southern Utah University and the Utah Shakespearean Festival, among other festivals. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 20,527, and by 2004 was estimated at 22,224. The city has shared in the rapid growth of much of Southwestern Utah since the late 1980s. Brigham Young is said to have helped design the layout of the town. The median income for a household in the city is $32,403, and the median income for a family is $37,509. Males have a median income of $31,192 versus $19,601 for females. The per capita income for the city is $14,057. 22.1% of the population and 14.5% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 20.2% of those under the age of 18 and 4.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Utah 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Cedar City	Utah	United States
Population	20,527	2,233,169	281,421,906
Median age	23.3	27.1	35.3
Median age for Male	23.7	26.7	34
Median age for Female	22.7	27.7	36.5
Households	6,486	701,281	105,480,101
Household population	19,911	2,192,689	273,643,273
Average household size	3.07	3.13	2.59
Families	4,683	535,294	71,787,347
Average family size	3.37	3.57	3.14
Housing units	7,109	768,594	115,904,641
Occupied units	6,486	701,281	105,480,101
Vacant units	623	67,313	10,424,540

Visit US Census