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 Oklahoma City, OK

Latitude: 35.482309 -- Longitude: -97.534994

Other Area Cities: Oklahoma City Norman Choctaw Bethany Del City Edmond Midwest City Moore The Village Warr Acres

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Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is also the county seat of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Oklahoma City was founded during the Land Run of 1889, first of five land runs in what became Oklahoma.By the time Oklahoma was admitted to the Union in 1907, Oklahoma City had already supplanted Guthrie, the territorial capital, as the population center and commercial hub of the new state. Soon after, the capital was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City.Oklahoma City Public Schools is the state's largest district and is one of the few urban districts in the nation with a growing enrollment, due largely to the so-called 'MAPS for KIDs' city-wide improvement plan. The Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics in Oklahoma City is home to the state's most gifted math and science pupils.Besides the skyscrapers that cluster in the city's central business district, one of the more prominent landmarks downtown is the Crystal Bridge. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oklahoma 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Oklahoma City	Oklahoma	United States
Population	506,132	3,450,654	281,421,906
Median age	34	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	32.7	33.9	34
Median age for Female	35.3	36.9	36.5
Households	204,434	1,342,293	105,480,101
Household population	492,999	3,338,279	273,643,273
Average household size	2.41	2.49	2.59
Families	129,360	921,750	71,787,347
Average family size	3.04	3.02	3.14
Housing units	228,149	1,514,400	115,904,641
Occupied units	204,434	1,342,293	105,480,101
Vacant units	23,715	172,107	10,424,540

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