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 Gilbert, AZ

Latitude: 33.344439 -- Longitude: -111.762411

Other Area Cities: Chandler Gilbert Mesa Tempe Queen Creek Higley Sun Lakes

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Gilbert is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA. Gilbert was the fastest-growing incorporated place of over 100,000 people in the United States from 1990 to 2000, as well as in the 2002, 2003, and 2004 Census estimates. As of the 2000 census, the town had a total population of 109,697, but as of July, 2004, a Census estimate put the fast-growing suburb's population at just over 156,000, a growth of more than 46,000 people or 42% over the four-year period. The 2005 mid-decade Census survey placed the estimated population for the town at 173,072. Although it is large and growing rapidly, Gilbert is still incorporated as a town rather than as a city; it has the highest population of any area incorporated as a town in the United States (and the second largest in North America, after Markham, Ontario, Canada), and as of the 2000 census was the only town with more than 100,000 people. Gilbert was also the fastest-growing place among all cities and towns in Arizona. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Arizona 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Gilbert	Arizona	United States
Population	109,697	5,130,632	281,421,906
Median age	30.1	34.2	35.3
Median age for Male	30	32.9	34
Median age for Female	30.3	35.5	36.5
Households	35,405	1,901,327	105,480,101
Household population	109,631	5,020,782	273,643,273
Average household size	3.1	2.64	2.59
Families	28,915	1,287,367	71,787,347
Average family size	3.42	3.18	3.14
Housing units	37,007	2,189,189	115,904,641
Occupied units	35,405	1,901,327	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,602	287,862	10,424,540

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