How $10,000 Sold a House That Sat for 18 Months

By David Pannell

David Pannell is the Managing Broker and founder of Cities Real Estate, a forward-thinking brokerage based in Fort Worth, Texas. A licensed Realtor since 2005 and a broker since 2010, David is known for his expertise in helping families sell homes quickly, especially those navigating the complexities of probate and inherited property.

When you sell a house, you’re really selling it three times. You sell it to the buyer, then to the inspector, and then to the appraiser the lender sends to value the property. All three have to say yes before you get to the closing table. In this market, the first one is by far the hardest.

Buyers are rare right now. In a one-mile loop around your house, there might be 25 or more properties for sale. A record number of sellers are competing for the same small pool of buyers, and interest rates are holding steady or climbing. Four years ago you had 25 buyers lined up on one house. Today it takes about 21 showings to get three people interested enough to write. Out of all that activity, you may get exactly one shot at a good offer.

Sellers are paying buyers now. It’s the biggest shift I’m seeing in Dallas-Fort Worth. I haven’t watched anything like it since 2006, 2007, and 2008. Builders had way too much inventory back then, and “builder in trouble” was the slogan we used to move their homes. Redfin reported that sellers paid some type of concession on more than 44% of home sales nationwide in August, up from about 42.6% a year earlier. Nearly half of sellers are handing something back at the closing table.

A concession covers the buyer’s costs. It’s money you contribute toward the buyer’s side of the deal. It can go toward a rate buydown, closing costs, repair credits, and these days it can even cover the buyer’s agent fee. The rules changed about a year and a half ago, so as a listing agent or a seller, you don’t have to advertise what you’re paying a buyer’s agent. You still want to negotiate it. Roughly 99% of your offers are coming from a buyer’s agent who generates business and brings you traffic.

A $10,000 concession sold it. I took over a listing that had sat on the market for nearly a year and a half with the same agent. In all that time, it had one showing. I sold it in 14 days. The only thing that changed is that we put $10,000 on the MLS as a concession to the buyer. On a sales price of $290,000, the seller contributed $10,000 toward the buyer’s costs, whether that ended up being closing costs, origination, or lender fees. Contributing is what gets a house closed right now.

Rate buydowns are worth asking about. Of everything a concession can pay for, the rate buydown is the one I recommend most, and I’d stay away from a temporary buydown. If you can put that money toward a rate lock instead, do it, and talk to your lender about how. I’m a broker, not a lender. When I’m working with a buyer, I ask a lot of questions about credit score, employment, and income. Those answers tell me whether a real buydown lock is possible with the money the seller is putting in.

Texas leads the country on concessions. Houston is running close to 60% of closings with a concession attached on the MLS. San Antonio is around 54% and Austin about 52%. Dallas usually gets counted with Fort Worth and Denton, since we’re all 30 minutes from each other, and that number is around 54% too. One of the biggest jumps in the country is happening right here. I applaud the sellers for doing it, because working with your buyer is what gets you to closing.

Sellers are giving twice right now. Nationally, almost 16% of the homes that sold in August came with both a price cut and a concession, the highest August share on record. Those sellers gave once on price and again at closing. If you’re selling a house in Dallas-Fort Worth, the sticker price on your listing is not what you’re walking away with. I’m sorry to be the one delivering that news.

List for traffic, not for ego. If you list high and plan to come down later, you’ll end up paying concessions anyway. You’ll be making price drops, doing repairs, and dealing with a needy buyer who asks for every little thing in the house. My approach is closer to an auction. Price it at 85% to 90% of market value so it pulls traffic. If there are ten similar homes around you and yours is the highest priced, you’ll sit for four or five months. You might become a birthday house, still listed a year later. List second or third on that list, be willing to pay a concession, and you’re under contract in less than 30 days, usually under 21.

My 21-day strategy has a floor. I work differently from most brokers. I give you a written offer upfront that you can depend on. It’s based on the house’s condition, the repairs I’d have to make, the holding cost, and the profit margin I need. That offer sets your floor before we go to market. Then we run the 21-day strategy to beat it on the open market. The goal is 21 showings in 21 days, three offers out of that activity, and one qualified buyer who actually closes. I advertise your house to every investor, every neighbor, and everybody who’s been hovering around your neighborhood for the last 18 months looking for a house.

Negotiate every cost the buyer carries. From there, we negotiate concessions, closing costs, the buydown, and the repairs the buyer needs. Whatever they’d be paying out of pocket, we work it into the deal so they’re not moving into a lemon they have to fix the first week. Get all of that right, and you’ve sold the house to the buyer, which is only the first of the three sales.

In 21 years, I’ve closed over 1,700 properties, including 280 probate estate properties, which are about the hardest kind of sale you can imagine. If you’re thinking about selling and you want to know what being reasonable looks like on your house, book a call with me, and we’ll go through your numbers. You can see more of how I work at blog.citiesrealestate.com. I’d much rather have that conversation before your listing sits than after.