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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260 Main Street, Spencer MA

Local Information for Spencer, MA

Latitude: 42.243276 -- Longitude: -71.99437

Other Area Cities: Spencer Auburn Southbridge Sturbridge Worcester

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There were 4,583 households out of which 31.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.0% were married couples living together, 10.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.5% were non-families. 25.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.05. In the town the population was spread out with 24.6% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 29.9% from 25 to 44, 24.4% from 45 to 64, and 12.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 98.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.9 males. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Massachusetts 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Spencer	Massachusetts	United States
Population	6,032	6,349,097	281,421,906
Median age	35	36.5	35.3
Median age for Male	34	35.4	34
Median age for Female	35.9	37.7	36.5
Households	2,554	2,443,580	105,480,101
Household population	5,994	6,127,881	273,643,273
Average household size	2.35	2.51	2.59
Families	1,527	1,576,696	71,787,347
Average family size	2.98	3.11	3.14
Housing units	2,722	2,621,989	115,904,641
Occupied units	2,554	2,443,580	105,480,101
Vacant units	168	178,409	10,424,540

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