For Bigger Discounts, Homebuyers Should Look for These Key Phrases

Homebuyers looking to save this fall can benefit from more than just lower mortgage rates. According to housing market platform Realtor.com, certain keywords in property listings, such as “priced to sell” and “bargain,” are linked to homes that are priced 8.5% lower than similar properties in the same neighborhood.

These discounts, however, vary largely by region, with Southern and Midwestern markets offering the biggest discounts. In Little Rock, Ark., St. Louis, and Charleston, S.C., homes with these terms in their listing descriptions come with discounts of up to 23%, 18.7%, and 15.9%, translating to savings of $57,494, $49,476, and $79,558, respectively. In contrast, in markets such as Orlando, Fla., and Seattle, the discounts are much smaller (around 3%).

In addition to the regional differences we find above, we also find a strong correlation between the share of listings in a market and the size of the discount offered by sellers of properties that are “priced to sell.” Why would fewer listings that are “priced to sell” be correlated with larger discounts? We can’t say definitively why there’s a correlation, but it likely has to do with what buyers are used to in a particular market.

Read more