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 Johnson City, TN

Latitude: 36.335399 -- Longitude: -82.37276

Other Area Cities: Kingsport Johnson City Elizabethton

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Johnson City is a city in Washington County, Tennessee; however a small part of the city is located within Sullivan County, Tennessee, to the northeast and Carter County, Tennessee, to the southeast. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 55,469.Johnson City is the home of East Tennessee State University, a public school with an enrollment of over 12,000 students. The university features the James H. Quillen College of Medicine, which is nationally known as a top-quality medical school for primary care physicians. Given the medical college's importance in the area, Johnson City is also known for its large medical community. In 2005, a new College of Pharmacy was approved at ETSU by the State of Tennessee, with classes scheduled to begin in January 2007.Milligan College, a Christian Liberal Arts School, is also located near Johnson City, TN.The city is also considered the hometown of football coaching legend Steve Spurrier. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Tennessee 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Johnson City	Tennessee	United States
Population	55,469	5,689,283	281,421,906
Median age	36.9	35.9	35.3
Median age for Male	35.3	34.5	34
Median age for Female	38.5	37.2	36.5
Households	23,720	2,232,905	105,480,101
Household population	52,096	5,541,337	273,643,273
Average household size	2.2	2.48	2.59
Families	14,013	1,547,835	71,787,347
Average family size	2.82	2.99	3.14
Housing units	25,730	2,439,443	115,904,641
Occupied units	23,720	2,232,905	105,480,101
Vacant units	2,010	206,538	10,424,540

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