Wait… Houston Sellers Are Paying for WHAT?!
If you’ve been waiting for someone to tell you that Houston buyers finally have some room to negotiate, here it is.
According to Redfin, 58.5% of Houston home sales included a seller concession in August.
More than half.
And while everyone is busy talking about interest rates, home prices, and whether they should wait another six months to buy, there’s a pretty important part of the current Houston real estate market that isn’t getting nearly enough attention:
The list price is only one part of the deal.
Right now, buyers may have opportunities to negotiate things that can make a much bigger difference in what it actually costs to purchase a home.
First, WTF Is a Seller Concession?
A seller concession is money or value that a seller agrees to contribute as part of the transaction.
Depending on the buyer’s loan program, the property, and how the contract is structured, seller concessions can potentially help with things like closing costs, prepaid expenses, mortgage rate buydowns, or other allowable buyer costs.
Repairs can also be negotiated during a transaction, although they aren’t necessarily treated the same way as a financial seller concession for lending purposes.
The important part?
There is more to negotiate than the sales price.
And in this Houston market, knowing what to ask for can matter just as much as knowing how much to offer.
Houston Buyers Have Something They Haven’t Had Much of Lately: Leverage
Remember when buyers were competing against multiple offers, waiving things they probably didn’t want to waive, and practically begging sellers to pick them?
Yeah. This isn’t that market.
Houston has more inventory available, which means buyers generally have more choices and sellers have more competition.
That doesn’t mean every seller is desperate.
It doesn’t mean every house is overpriced.
And it definitely does not mean we’re lowballing every house because TikTok told us it’s a buyer’s market.
Please don’t.
It means we look at the actual house and the actual situation.
How long has it been on the market? Has the price already been reduced? What have comparable homes sold for? What condition is it in? Are there other offers? What other homes are competing with it?
Then we figure out where your leverage actually is.
Sometimes $10K Off the Price Isn’t the Best Ask-
This is where buyers can get so focused on getting the price down that they miss the bigger picture.
Let’s say you want to ask for $10,000 off the sales price.
Sounds great.
But depending on your financing, what if keeping the purchase price where it is and negotiating that money toward allowable closing costs or a mortgage rate buydown does more for you financially?
Maybe your biggest concern is the amount of cash you need to bring to closing.
Maybe it’s your monthly payment.
Maybe the inspection uncovered something that needs to be addressed.
Those are three different problems, and they may need three completely different negotiation strategies.
This is exactly why we work with our buyers and their lender to actually run the numbers before deciding what to ask for.
We don’t just want to say, “Look! We got $10K off!”
Cool.
What did it actually do for you?
That’s the part we care about.
So Should You Just Ask the Seller to Pay for Everything?
No.
We still have to make an offer a seller is willing to accept.
Seller concessions aren’t automatic, and the amount a seller can contribute can also be limited by your loan program and the specifics of your transaction.
But when more than half of Houston sales in Redfin’s data are involving concessions, it tells us something important:
Negotiation is happening.
And if there’s an opportunity to structure your offer in a way that makes purchasing the home work better for you, we’re going to look at it.
Stop Trying to Perfectly Time the Housing Market
We hear it constantly.
“What if rates come down?”
“What if prices drop?”
“What if I wait until next year?”
Fair questions.
But you can’t buy a house today in next year’s hypothetical market.
You can only make a decision based on the market that actually exists.
And right now, one of the opportunities Houston buyers have is that many sellers are willing to negotiate.
If rates eventually decline significantly, buyer demand could change. Inventory could change. Prices could change. Seller flexibility could change.
Nobody knows exactly what that combination will look like.
So instead of building your entire home-buying strategy around trying to predict the perfect moment, we’d rather look at what this market is giving you right now.
For some buyers, the numbers still won’t make sense yet.
For others?
They may look a whole lot better than you assumed.
The House Is One Part.
The Deal Is the Other.
Finding a house you love matters.
But so does how we structure the offer.
Purchase price. Seller contributions. Financing. Inspections. Repairs. Option period. Closing timeline. Cash to close. Monthly payment.
It all works together.
And in a market where 58.5% of Houston sales in Redfin’s August data included seller concessions, we’re absolutely going to look at every reasonable opportunity available to our buyers.
Not because every seller is going to say yes.
But because if there’s room to negotiate, we’re going to find it.
Want to Know What Buying Could Actually Look Like for You?
You don’t have to be ready to make an offer tomorrow.
If you’re considering buying in Houston, Magnolia, Tomball, Conroe, Spring, Montgomery or the surrounding North Houston areas, let’s look at your actual numbers before you decide whether now is or isn’t the right time.
We’ll talk through the market, connect you with a trusted lender if needed, look at what you could realistically afford, and figure out what opportunities might make sense for your purchase.
No generic “it’s always a great time to buy” speech.
Just the numbers, the strategy, and a plan that makes sense for you.
Click below to set up a chat with The Closing Collective Team.
Comments