I have to be honest. I just don't understand why more home sellers are not willing to consider selling their current home and "moving up" to a larger home in this market. I suppose it's because I'm in real estate every day and I see so many incredible deals being made that I get so excited about these wonderful opportunities.
If you listen to the news media, they'd have you believe the sky is falling. I've spoken with so many home owners recently that think they couldn't possibly get their home sold in this market and that's simply not true.
Real estate is a local market and although it may be true that some areas of the country continue to have difficulty, for the most part the Kansas City area isn't effected like that.
Having said this, there are some great opportunities in Kansas City if you plan ahead, retain a great Realtor, and are realistic about the sale of your current home. Let me give you an example.
This last September, a good friend of mine told me he and his wife needed to sell their current home. They live in a two-story home and now that the kids are gone, they're tired to trekking up and down the stairs all the time. John said they wanted a nice home with the master bedroom on the main level.
After taking a look at their home, we took some extra time to tile the master bathroom floor, repaint some bedrooms, replace some light fixtures and then have it professionally staged and photographed (two services I personally provide to all my sellers). It was a beautiful home with large bedrooms, a finished basement, updated kitchen including granite counters, etc. 
We put this home on the market at $177,000 and received a full price offer in 3 weeks! The sellers were obviously very happy and realized that although they may have had to sell the home for about $5,000 less than they would have in a "normal" market, the quick sale time made it worth it
Now the best part. When looking for their next home, we stubbled upon a bank repo that was well underpriced at $320,000. This home was only 4 years old and had sold brand new for $390,209. We made an offer at $300,000 and with the sellers putting 50% down, the bank took it! If you question whether they got the deal of the century, just check out these photos. 
This home has over 4,000 square foot of finished area, 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bath, finished walkout basement with media room, surround sound installed both up and downstairs, gigantic granite island in the kitchen, a huge wall of windows in the living room that looks out onto their beautiful view of the woods behind their home. The list goes on and on.
I figure the buyers easily got a $100,000 discount on this home and they couldn't be happier! This is only one of the many great deals I've been able to get for my client in 2008. I'm looking forward to helping more people get great deals like this in 2009 too.
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