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 Eugene, OR

Latitude: 44.057663 -- Longitude: -123.110345

Other Area Cities: Eugene Creswell Santa Clara Springfield Junction City Cottage Grove

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The city of Eugene is the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about 60 miles (100 km) east of the Oregon Coast. Eugene is the third largest city [1] (estimated population 146,160 as of 2005) and has the third largest metropolitan population [2] in the state of Oregon. (Eugene has long been the state's second largest city after Portland, but was overtaken by Salem in terms of population around 2004.) Eugene is home to the University of Oregon. The city is also noted for its natural beauty, activist political leanings, alternative lifestyles, recreation opportunities (especially bicycling, rafting, and kayaking), and arts focus. Eugene's motto is "The World's Greatest City for the Arts and Outdoors." -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oregon 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Eugene	Oregon	United States
Population	137,893	3,421,399	281,421,906
Median age	33	36.3	35.3
Median age for Male	31.2	35.1	34
Median age for Female	34.9	37.5	36.5
Households	58,110	1,333,723	105,480,101
Household population	131,807	3,343,908	273,643,273
Average household size	2.27	2.51	2.59
Families	31,297	877,671	71,787,347
Average family size	2.87	3.02	3.14
Housing units	61,444	1,452,709	115,904,641
Occupied units	58,110	1,333,723	105,480,101
Vacant units	3,334	118,986	10,424,540

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