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 Memphis, TN

Latitude: 35.117365 -- Longitude: -89.971068

Other Area Cities: Olive Branch Atoka Millington Memphis Bartlett Germantown

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Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, of which it is the county seat. As of 2006, the city of Memphis had an estimated population of 680,768, making it the largest city in the state of Tennessee and the 17th largest in the United States. Even though Memphis is the state's largest city, it is the youngest of all of Tennessee's four major cities. One of the largest celebrations in Memphis is Memphis in May. The month-long series of events promotes Memphis' heritage and outreach of its people far beyond the city's borders. Each year, Memphis in May honors a different country, highlighting various aspects of the honored nation's history and culture. Other signature events of Memphis in May include the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, the FedEx St. Jude Classic a PGA Tour golf tournament, and the closing event of the month — a performance of the Sunset Symphony.In the last decade, the art scene in Memphis has exploded. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Tennessee 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Memphis	Tennessee	United States
Population	650,100	5,689,283	281,421,906
Median age	31.9	35.9	35.3
Median age for Male	30.1	34.5	34
Median age for Female	33.8	37.2	36.5
Households	250,721	2,232,905	105,480,101
Household population	632,874	5,541,337	273,643,273
Average household size	2.52	2.48	2.59
Families	158,458	1,547,835	71,787,347
Average family size	3.18	2.99	3.14
Housing units	271,552	2,439,443	115,904,641
Occupied units	250,721	2,232,905	105,480,101
Vacant units	20,831	206,538	10,424,540

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