MW Buyers finally have leverage in the housing market. Here are 3 smart ways to use it.
By Genna Contino
If a seller won't budge on a listing price, try asking for these concessions instead
House hunters still face challenges from rising mortgage rates and climbing home prices, but the balance of power is now in their favor. Here's how they can use it effectively when they make an offer on a home.
Real-estate agent Tyler Williams has four active listings in the Charlotte, N.C., area - and two of them included incentives for buyers before they even hit the market.
One of the sellers he's working with is offering to cover $5,000 in closing costs for their $355,000 home, which might entice a buyer looking to cut down on the hefty upfront costs required to close the deal.
This is becoming more common as the Charlotte housing market has balanced out in recent months, Williams said. He doesn't describe it as a buyer's market, per se, but he noted that buyers are getting some power back after it was in the hands of sellers for years.
"We were in a seller's market back in COVID - it was like we were going 100 miles over the speed limit. And now, we've slowed that down," Williams said. "But sellers have to tailor their expectations and do a little bit more to sell their house."
While real-estate trends tend to be hyperlocal, the power balance has shifted nationally. House hunters face challenges from rising mortgage rates and climbing home prices, but the balance of power is now in their favor. With roughly 44% more sellers than buyers active in the marketplace, Redfin $(RKT)$ declared a buyer's market in February.
And a recent survey from the National Association of Homebuilders found that 37% of builders cut prices on newly built homes and 64% offered incentives to buyers, many of whom have been sidelined by affordability challenges that have pushed the median first-time home buyer's age up to 40.
Read more: Mortgage rates rise for the fifth week in a row. Here's how much more homebuyers are paying since the Iran war started.
It's still tough for buyers to convince a seller to slash a listing price outright, but Zillow (Z) $(ZG)$ data show they have a better chance at securing concessions to cut down on the auxiliary home-buying costs that can really add up.
Here are three smart ways buyers can take advantage of this newfound leverage.
Look for homes that have been on the market for 30 days or more
Sellers reach a "psychological breaking point" once a home is on the market for more than 30 days, according to Nathan Richardson, the founder of real-estate platform CashForHome.com. He said he's seen sellers "go from confident to quietly anxious right around that mark."
It's a good time to find listings over a month old: The typical home sat on the market for 66 days in February, according to Redfin economics research head Chen Zhao, which was "the slowest pace for this time of year in a decade." Buyers have a better chance of success when asking for concessions that lower their upfront costs or monthly payments on homes listed for 30 days or longer, she noted.
"Seller fatigue is what you're really negotiating against," Richardson said.
Ask the seller to cover your closing costs
So which concessions should buyers try to negotiate?
The most common incentive sellers offer to attract buyers is assistance with closing costs. This bundle of fees includes mortgage-application charges, title insurance and legal fees that typically add up to 2% to 5% of the home's purchase price. That means buying a $398,000 home - the median price, according to the National Association of Realtors - could require up to $19,900 in additional cash at the closing table, creating a steep financial hurdle for buyers already stretched thin by their down payment.
Zillow data show 67% of sellers reported paying some or all of the buyer's closing costs in the final offer they accepted in 2025. That was 1 percentage point higher than in 2024. Zillow home-trends expert Amanda Pendleton said she's seeing "sellers in this environment increasingly willing to offer concessions."
"A savvy buyer will ... pair a realistic offer with requests for closing-cost credits, a rate buydown or targeted repairs that lower their monthly payment and out-of-pocket costs, while still giving the seller a headline price they can live with," Pendleton said.
Have them fix the roof while they're at it
Beyond assistance with closing costs, the next most common incentive sellers offered to attract buyers last year was covering a home-warranty policy, according to the National Association of Realtors, followed by credit toward remodeling or repairs.
A buyer could ask a seller to repair the home's roof before they move in, for example. If they install impact-resistant roofing, some insurance companies will offer homeowners discounted premiums as a reward for disaster-proofing their home. This will not only provide extra protection during a storm, but the price relief could make a big difference in the ongoing costs of homeownership. With damage from hail, wind and hurricanes on the rise, homeowners-insurance premiums skyrocketed 12% last year and are expected to rise 4% in 2026 to an average annual cost of $3,057, according to insurance-comparison website Insurify.
Read more: You could be paying an extra $2,000 for home insurance every year because of this financial baggage. Here's how to fix it.
Williams said the sellers he's representing in the Carolinas are making more of an effort to modernize and paint their homes neutral colors before listing, because buyers are increasingly expecting homes to be "turnkey," or move-in ready.
It's a trend that Jessica Lautz, the deputy chief economist and vice president of research at the National Association of Realtors, has noticed in the 2026 spring housing market, too.
"When we look at that really intense seller's market that we had when rates were very low and homes were moving very quickly, sellers didn't have to necessarily do those types of things," Lautz said. Now, "they do have to go back to the bread and butter. They have to stage the home to attract the buyer."
Read next: HOA fees are becoming more common for single-family homes - and top $500 a month in these hot spots
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-Genna Contino
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April 03, 2026 15:34 ET (19:34 GMT)
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