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 Beverly, MA

Latitude: 42.560995 -- Longitude: -70.875702

Other Area Cities: Beverly Danvers Rowley Boxford Gloucester Lynn Lynnfield Peabody Reading Salem

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Originally part of Salem and the Naumkeag Territory, the area was first settled in 1626 by Roger Conant. But because of religious differences with Governor John Endicott, Beverly would be set off and officially incorporated in 1668, when it was named after an English bishop. Surviving from the settlement's early history is the Balch House, built about 1636, one of the two oldest wood-frame houses in the United States. The first ship commissioned by the United States military (actually the US Army, as the US Navy did not yet exist), was the armed schooner Hannah. It was outfitted at Glover's Wharf, and first sailed from Beverly Harbor on September 2, 1775. For this reason Beverly describes itself as the "Birthplace of America's Navy" -- a claim disputed by other towns, including nearby Marblehead. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Massachusetts 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Beverly	Massachusetts	United States
Population	39,862	6,349,097	281,421,906
Median age	38.3	36.5	35.3
Median age for Male	37	35.4	34
Median age for Female	39.5	37.7	36.5
Households	15,750	2,443,580	105,480,101
Household population	37,692	6,127,881	273,643,273
Average household size	2.39	2.51	2.59
Families	9,907	1,576,696	71,787,347
Average family size	3.02	3.11	3.14
Housing units	16,275	2,621,989	115,904,641
Occupied units	15,750	2,443,580	105,480,101
Vacant units	525	178,409	10,424,540

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