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 Clemson, SC

Latitude: 34.68493 -- Longitude: -82.814777

Other Area Cities: Clemson Seneca Anderson

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The city of Clemson's character is largely defined by Clemson University, a large public university that dates to 1889. The university is the cultural center of the city even through a small 2-block downtown is located directly to the north of the campus.The built environment is predominately rural and post WWII. Although the university provides housing for students, many students live off-campus in a wide variety of apartment complexes. Save for the downtown, sidewalks are largely absent, but some streets have bike paths. Highway 123, a state route on the north of the city, exhibits typical suburban-style shopping center developments.The city recently added recreational facilities and paths along Lake Hartwell like a new boardwalk, although some access points are not well marked.Clemson is home to Clemson University, the South Carolina Botanical Garden, and is along the shores of Lake Hartwell. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

South Carolina 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Clemson	South Carolina	United States
Population	11,939	4,012,012	281,421,906
Median age	24.6	35.4	35.3
Median age for Male	24.2	34	34
Median age for Female	25.8	36.7	36.5
Households	5,061	1,533,854	105,480,101
Household population	11,660	3,876,975	273,643,273
Average household size	2.3	2.53	2.59
Families	2,197	1,072,822	71,787,347
Average family size	2.84	3.02	3.14
Housing units	5,679	1,753,670	115,904,641
Occupied units	5,061	1,533,854	105,480,101
Vacant units	618	219,816	10,424,540

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