Some sellers today are being stubborn, and it’s really backfiring. Not only are sellers tending to overprice, but they’re also not in sync with buyers getting more concessions. Buyers are routinely getting credits for closing costs, repairs, and rate buydowns. In short, it’s time for sellers to listen and pony up to get deals done. In today’s post, I have some fresh perspective about concessions, and I have a huge market update too.
Scroll quickly by topic or digest slowly.
UPCOMING SPEAKING GIGS:
9/10/25 Windermere Sacramento
9/16/25 Culbertson & Gray (private)
9/18/25 Realty One Group (ROG Talks) register here
9/24/25 Keller Williams Roseville
9/25/25 Further Together (register here)
9/26/25 PCAR
9/30/25 Elk Grove Regional MLS Meeting
10/15/25 EDH Coldwell Banker (private)
10/21/25 Orangevale MLS Meeting
10/23/25 CREB Meeting (TBA)
10/24/25 Fusion Rally in Denver, CO
11/4/25 SAR Main Meeting
11/5/25 KW Elk Grove
12/9/25 Downtown Regional MLS Meeting
12/10/25 SAFE Credit Union (TBA)
1/14/26 Windermere EDH / Placerville
2/11/26 San Joaquin County presentation (TBA)
1) WELCOME BACK CONCESSIONS AMOUNT FIELD
When the NAR lawsuit happened, the MLS field for the commission amount to the buyer side was removed, but there was also a separate concessions field that was taken away. It was collateral damage from the lawsuit even though the concessions field had nothing to do with compensation. Well, this concessions amount field is thankfully back as of a few weeks ago (thank you Metrolist). Agent friends, PLEASE fill this out because it makes pulling comps helpful for everyone. Knowing what the seller gave the buyer is so important when choosing comps. This field has nothing to do with compensation either. It’s all about stuff like closing costs, credit for repairs, buying down the rate, etc… Here’s what the new field looks like:
2) SELLERS PLAYING HARDBALL OVER $9,000
Some sellers are really stubborn right now, and they’re not negotiating with buyers. These sellers are stuck in 2021 thinking they hold all the cards, and they’re not realizing that buyers have more power today. Over the past month, the average concession amount listed in MLS has been $9,168 (or 1.6%). There are obviously much larger concessions in some instances, but on average it’s been pretty minor. In short, some sellers are playing hardball and causing buyers to walk over a minor amount. It’s important to note that we’re in a market where many properties only get one offer (and so many listings have zero offers).
Kudos to the sellers above for listening to the market and getting it done. In today’s world, buyers might want a lower price and concessions. Meanwhile, some sellers are dreaming of a higher price only. Don’t be this seller below.
3) MORE CONCESSIONS AT LOWER PRICES
Counties with lower prices have tended to have more concessions (not a shocker). These numbers are based on MLS data, and if anything, I think these stats are conservative since not every agent checked “yes” or “no” in MLS for whether concessions were present or not. By the way, I don’t include “Call Listing Agent” as a “yes” in my stats (it probably is a yes though).
One more thing. Concessions don’t happen in every transaction (key point).
4) EXPECT MORE CONCESSIONS IN THE SECOND HALF OF 2025
The percentage of sales with concessions is currently higher than we’ve seen in recent years in our largest county – Sacramento. This isn’t a shocker since the market is softer today. The interesting part about this graph is it shows concessions increase during the second half of the year as a normal seasonal trend, so I would expect for sellers to have to give more to buyers for the rest of 2025 unless something unexpected happens with the market. Sellers, did you hear this? Historically, sellers give more to buyers during the second half of the year (see white space and ignore 2020).
NOTE: Some might interpret this stat as agents inputting compensation as a concession, but I don’t think that explains it. It seems like the seller is paying for the buyer’s agent commission most of the time (based on conversations I’m having), so if agents were inputting the commission as a concession, this number should be so much higher than it has been since the NAR lawsuit.
5) APPRAISERS HELPED BRING THIS CHANGE TO MLS
Props to a group of appraisers from REAA Sacramento for opening up conversation with MLS about the missing concessions amount field and pitching the idea for how this field could work in a post-NAR lawsuit world. MLS liked the idea with the drop-down menu and adopted it. I was part of the initial conversation to help make this happen, but Joe Lynch and Amy Parker did the heavy lifting here by joining the MLS board (thanks guys).
—————— big market update for anyone interested ——————
BIG MARKET UPDATE
If your self-esteem is based on sales volume, you’re in a world of hurt. Closed sales volume was lackluster in the entire region in August. While we’ve seen an increase in the number of purchase applications nationally, it just has not yet translated to an increase in pendings or closed sales. The reality is the pile of buyers today has continued to flirt with historic lows. Traditional price metrics have been hovering around last year, give or take 1% or so. In short, prices have been pretty flat with some brewing downward pressure. When pulling comps, I’m noticing the same thing with flat prices or down a little from one year ago. Yet, condos can be down much more.
ACTIVES AREN’T GROWING ANY LONGER
In the background, we’ve seen the pile of active listings decrease lately in light of sellers backing off the market a few months ago. I’ve been talking about how increased uncertainty has led to buyers backing off the market since April, but this has been a vibe for sellers also. And this means the gap between sales and listings is closer today, which can affect market temperature. I don’t think the housing doom narrative has caught up to this trend yet because it’s all about explosive growth for listings. Okay, I get it, but that growth has tapered in recent months due to seller uncertainty (and now seasonality).
MOST PROPERTIES ARE GOING BELOW
The bulk of sales are selling below the original list price, and this is great news for buyers!!! This speaks to sellers overpricing and prices softening too. 
SOME NEW COOL STATS (SPREADSHEET COMING SOON)
Here are some new stats I’ve been tinkering with lately. I built a spreadsheet that can instantly create these visuals. I’ll introduce the spreadsheet hopefully next month, and I’d like to do some training ahead on how to use it. I’ve put out free spreadsheets before, but this one is the best one I’ve done since it’s basically automated. My goal is to help people understand the market. It’s actually really amazing when using the spreadsheet in neighborhoods and zip codes. You can really see what the market is doing and how different it is by location and price point. Imagine having someone ask you a question about the market and being able to instantly push out stats like this. Anyway, stay tuned for more information. I am going to be selling the spreadsheet and my time for training. The fee will be modest, and the result can be career-changing. Oh, I’ll have more visuals too. I’m not done with the spreadsheet yet.
YEAR OVER YEAR STATS
Take some smaller counties with a grain of salt since the numbers can bounce around from month to month depending on what has sold (El Dorado especially).
JULY TO AUGUST STATS
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Hello Mr. Stats. hope all is well with you and the family.
Same issue down south, sellers are still reading the same dogeared newspaper from 4 years ago.
I have multiple pocket areas now showing declines in pricing. Not 2008, but more like 2018, when interest rates shifted around.
Lastly watch out folks the 10 year treasury just did a dance down in the last few days and I bet we see some change in the 30 year mortgage. If that softens wonder what will happen, refi?, new home builders?, a few more buyers in the market? time will tell. Enjoy my friend.
Brad, I always appreciate your take. Thank you sincerely. Yeah, rates are down some. I think it’s going to take a much bigger drop in rates for the math to work for many buyers.
Ryan,
It was a team effort to get concessions dollar amounts back into Metrolist. What we ended up with was your idea, so thanks. I think we have a better system going forward with some useful categories plus numeric fields instead of an unwieldy text field.
However, we have a hole in reporting of the amount of concessions in Metrolist over the past 12 months. Metrolist confirmed that it is lost data-agents will not be able to backfill concessions for sales that occured during the period when Metrolist did not collect concessions amounts.
Thanks Joe. I appreciate your words, and I’m really appreciative of you joining the MLS board. That was huge for all of us. I asked Metrolist if they could fill the concessions amount back in from the past, but they said NO. However, I’ve been noticing that sometimes the data is there though, so I’m not sure if there is a glitch in the matrix or what. I won’t complain, and I don’t plan on pointing this out either.
On a related note, some who work in real estate are now convinced the buyer’s compensation is a concession, and I’m not sure that can ever be undone. I think the communication from NAR alluding to this as a concession has been unfortunate (and inconsistent with the way our MLS is set up to report traditional concessions and compensation (pre-NAR lawsuit). Traditional concessions have nothing to do with compensation, and my sense is we can’t muddy this field due to the NAR lawsuit.
I’ve heard the same, with confusion over the issue at Metrolist compliance. That’s been addressed and language about buyer broker compensation vs. concessions was included in the announcement. If anyone runs into a listing that reports buyer broker compensation as a concession, report it to Metrolist compliance to get it fixed.
Exactly. I really don’t think most of the real estate community is reporting the commission as a concession though. The numbers just didn’t change that much from the NAR lawsuit through today. They are higher now, but we’d expect to see that in light of the market being so different from one year ago. Yet, there is so much confusion now.
Add to the seller’s aversion to concessions an obvious lack of damage and maintenance correction. Inspections are killing deals [when sellers disagree with buyers].
Thank you, Jay. Are you seeing that with home inspections or pest reports mostly? Or just anything? I wonder about appraisals too if anyone wants to speak to that.
I give some of the responsibility of this to agents. Many are afraid of asking for a price reduction and just blame the market for no showings or offers. Many current agents have not been through a declining market and are not sure how to handle it.
When doing price evaluations for listings in a declining market, only sold and pending comps should be used. These properties have already attracted a buyer, active listings are a wish price. Some agents are afraid of not getting the listing if they value a property below the seller expectations. But it benefits no one to overprice a listing and let it sit and sit.
Yes, it is difficult at times to properly value a property, and we have all overpriced listings. But the key is to react quickly if the market is telling you the home is overpriced.
Of course, there are sellers who won’t budge, but if you tell them in advance that they may need to reduce multiple times to get a buyer, it helps with the conversation later. Be bold, don’t be afraid to have the conversation or walk away from an unrealistic seller.
Thanks Brad. Good stuff. I think that’s a very fair point. This isn’t just a seller issue. There are properties that are clearly overpriced due to advice from agents. It’s a mixture for sure. And learning to say NO is a great skill in today’s market. Sometimes it’s not worth taking the listing if the seller is going to overprice. Much better to be the second or third agent in line…
I use active listings with long DOM as well so sellers understand what prices homes in an area won’t sell for vs what pricing attracts buyers (pendings.)
So smart. There is always a difference too. When we see that closed sales took 43 days or so to close, that doesn’t really reflect what is happening with listings that might have a days on market of 60+ easily.
Great information as always. It’s sure nice you have the concession field in your MLS and it got turned back on. We never have had this field and it’s frustrating for appraisers.
Oh man, that’s a bummer. Seems like such a missed opportunity. I find this field helps agents tremendously also.
Wow, $9,100 avg concessions. Not all that long ago, nothings. What is crazy, the seller pays a commission for those concessions. As an example; I have a client that was involved in a multiple offers situation recently. ( They lost.) The winning bid matched asking with an upfront repair credit of $10,000. Why not submit offer $10,000 less without a repair credit. Seller would save $400-500 in commission and the buyer would save at least $100 a year less in property taxes. Hopefully, before closing this will be corrected. Why would a buyer’s agent submit such an offer? Agents that I have trained are made aware the importance of their client’s monies. There is a tipping point when redoing loan docs are worth it to the principles.
Thanks, Vick. That’s definitely a solid point. I suspect some buyers simply need the $10K for closing costs or something else, so it’s a big advantage. You’re spot on about property taxes. Each $10,000 in assessed value is about $100 or slightly more out of pocket in property taxes (true locally and likely in most portions of California).
With closing credits or buy downs I get, but repair costs?
As an appraiser in San Diego (San Diego County) there is a crush of refinance activity (had 9 offers today of which I only took 1).
Although a small sample size, the last 40 refinances I have completed all were originally purchased in the past +/- 18 months with 21 of the 40 coming in at a value less then what they were purchased for. This of course triggers anger toward the appraiser and reconsideration of value (ROV) requests that of course the appraiser must complete at no cost. Of note, with 25 years of experience, and over 10 billion in valuations combined with an extensive checks and balance review before signing a report I have never changed a value by way of a ROV request (thousands of man hours wasted).
To those that question a value, read the report for the first time and or reread with your eyes open. Read the provided boundaries of the neighborhood, read the search characteristics used by the appraiser, understand the GLA range, look at the chart and or description that shows monthly time adjustments and apply them, etc. Also, understand that although individual properties do contribute in assisting to establish overall market trends, singular properties by themselves will be compared to the greater collection of data for the subjects given market area. Singular properties will be weighted accordingly, and will thus often have limited to no impact in moving the subjects overall final market value.
Moving forward, to reduce potential liability (unpaid ROV research, potential for bias lawsuits when a value is not hit, etc.) I will only be doing appraisals where the numbers work and my business risks are typical and not expanded (without pay).
Seek the truth.
Related to my comments above, on average is there about a 20% success rate in disclosing the dollar amount for concessions? SDMLS (San Diego) has always had a section for concessions and an actual dollar amount does not get put in 80% of the time. This comes as no surprise as how often do agents not list 1 in the fireplace box when the interior photos show one? How often is there no view indicated in the view box, but rather the comment section says there is a view? How often is a property listed for months but its unknown (N/K) to the agent if the property has AC.
To those that do not know the importance of disclosing the characteristic in the first place and or putting them in their correct category within the listing is to not understand how appraisers analyze the market to separate the have and have nots to pull value.
I leave with questions, can an appraiser just leave that project name blank, not report the view in the correct section, not identify that easement, guess at the # of units in the project, put in the wrong entry floor for the subject, have no patio info, have incomplete parking data, etc., of course not, so why can agents leave anything they want blank (including concessions) without any repercussions?
What would happen to the accuracy in each listing if agents were held to the same standard as the appraiser? Do agents understand that appraisals get filtered through the governments databank to check for competency? Meaning, they have a record of every subject and comp you have ever used and you better dam sure not have any variances when you are using them a 2nd time. Additionally, when you use a comp for the first time your description should fall in line with what a panel of your peers have already indicated. Do agents understand that the government keeps track of individual adjustments applied to each category (not known to the appraiser) where again there looking to see if you are within their range. Lastly, do agents understand that the government can pull your license if your numbers do not fall within there scale?
Without a punishment, agents will continue to be just salesman and little effort will be put out to make the listing as accurate as possible. Where is the public trust in that?
Seek the truth.
Preach. We need a commitment to accuracy from everyone. There are some optional fields and required fields. I’m not entirely sure what makes some fields optional. I will say this. Some fields are more trustworthy than others. For instance, I don’t trust the existing financing field at all or the occupancy field. But I do actually trust the concessions field because because this field changes as the market does to show a seasonal and market trend.
Thanks for sharing, Bill. I have to think your experience highlights what’s happening in the background with an increase in mortgage applications for refinance. I follow this source, and we are seeing an uptick, and I have to think that’s going to show up in mortgage work. Of course, there has been an uptick in purchase applications too, but that hasn’t really shown up to date. Anyway, I appreciate your tips here. Consumers need to expect a lower value in many cases.
Forgot to post the link I mentioned. Here it is. https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/data/mortgage-applications#chart-apps-purchase-vs-refinance