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 Fresno, CA

Latitude: 36.781549 -- Longitude: -119.792113

Other Area Cities: Fowler Clovis Madera Fresno

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Fresno is the sixth-largest city in California and the county seat of Fresno County. With a 2005 California Department of Finance estimated population of 464,727 and estimated metropolitan area population of 1,002,284, it is the largest city and second largest metropolitan area in California's expansive Central Valley. Fresno is located at 36°47' North, 119°48' West. Its ZIP Code is 937xx. Fresno serves as the economic hub of Fresno County and California’s Central Valley. While the unincorporated area and rural cities surrounding the City of Fresno remain predominantly tied to large-scale agricultural production, the City has been undergoing significant economic transformation. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

California 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Fresno	California	United States
Population	427,652	33,871,648	281,421,906
Median age	28.5	33.3	35.3
Median age for Male	27.4	32.2	34
Median age for Female	29.6	34.4	36.5
Households	140,079	11,502,870	105,480,101
Household population	419,465	33,051,894	273,643,273
Average household size	2.99	2.87	2.59
Families	97,923	7,920,049	71,787,347
Average family size	3.57	3.43	3.14
Housing units	149,025	12,214,549	115,904,641
Occupied units	140,079	11,502,870	105,480,101
Vacant units	8,946	711,679	10,424,540

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