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 Stamford, CT

Latitude: 41.074448 -- Longitude: -73.541316

Other Area Cities: Stamford Greenwich Darien Westport Old Greenwich Fairfield

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Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, one of the most affluent counties in the country. According to 2006 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 126,745.[citation needed] Its population is rapidly growing due to an influx of jobs and its close proximity to New York City. Stamford is one of the top 4 largest cities in the state of Connecticut. [1] Stamford is part of the New York metropolitan area. Stamford was the ninth-safest city in the United States in 2006 and for the past six years has ranked in the top 11 safest cities with populations of 100,000 or more, according to the FBI.[2] In 2005, Stamford was voted "The Best City to Reside In" by the magazine United States Living -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Connecticut 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Stamford	Connecticut	United States
Population	117,083	3,405,565	281,421,906
Median age	36.4	37.4	35.3
Median age for Male	35	36.1	34
Median age for Female	37.9	38.6	36.5
Households	45,399	1,301,670	105,480,101
Household population	115,330	3,297,626	273,643,273
Average household size	2.54	2.53	2.59
Families	28,951	881,170	71,787,347
Average family size	3.13	3.08	3.14
Housing units	47,317	1,385,975	115,904,641
Occupied units	45,399	1,301,670	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,918	84,305	10,424,540

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